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DUKE   UNIVERSITY 

DIVINITY  SCHOOL 
LIBRARY 


GIFT  OF 

Duke  Divinity  School 
Alumni  Association 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

Bishop  Paul  Neff  Garber 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2010  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo02harm 


T 

NCYCL 


DIA 


T 


DI! 


Sponsored  by  The  World  Methodist  Council 

and  The  Commission  on  Archives  and 

History  of  The  United  Methodist  Church 


Bishop  of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  General  Editor 

ALBEA  GODBOLD 
LOUISE  L.  QUEEN  ' 

Assistants  to  the  General  Editor 

VOLUME  II 


Prepared  and  edited  under  the  supervision 

of  The  World  Methodist  Council  and  The 

Commission  on  Archives  and  History 


Published  by 
The  United  Methodist  Publishing  House 


Copyright  ©  1974  by  The  United  Methodist  Publishing  House 


All  rights  in  this  book  are  reserved. 
No  part  of  the  book  may  be  reproduced  in  any  manner  whatsoever 
vvdthout  written  permission  of  the  publishers  except  brief  quotations 
embodied  in  critical  articles  or  reviews.  For  information  address 
The  United  Methodist  Pubhshing  House,  201  Eighth  Avenue  South, 
Nashville,  Tennessee  37202. 


ISBN   0-687-11784-4 


SET    UP, 

PRi: 

<TED,    AND    BOUND    BY    TI 

IE    PARTHENON 

PRESS    AT 

NASHVIL 

LE, 

TENNESSEE,         UNITED 

STATES        OF 

AMERICA 

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THE  ENCYCIOPEDIA 


The  names  of  persons,  places,  and  most  institutions 
treated  in  this  volume  will  be  found  listed  alphabetically 
through  these  pages.  However,  institutions  such  as  local 
churches,  hospitals,  chapels,  and  the  like  will  usually  be 
found  under  the  name  of  the  city  or  town  where  they  are 
located.  Exceptions  are  those  unusual  institutions  whose 
names  are  perhaps  even  better  known  than  the  cities  in 
which  they  are  located. 

Bibliographical  references  in  most  cases  have  been 
placed  below  each  article,  pointing  the  reader  to  further 
information.  The  more  important  of  these  works  appear 
in  abbreviated  form  with  the  article,  but  are  gathered 
together  in  the  appendix,  where  the  alphabetical  Bibliog- 
raphy should  be  consulted  for  fuller  publishing  data. 
Where  there  is  no  such  entiy  in  the  general  bibliography. 


these  details  are  given  in  the  reference  at  the  end  of  the 
individual  article,  except  in  a  few  instances  where  full 
information  was  not  available. 

In  addition  to  the  main  alphabetical  bibliography,  we 
have  included  in  the  appendix  a  subject  bibliography 
listing  standard  works  in  many  areas  of  study.  In  this 
subject  bibliography,  as  usually  in  the  articles  in  the  main 
encyclopedia,  works  are  listed  only  by  their  short  titles. 

A  feature  of  presentation  in  the  Encyclopedia  is  the 
use  of  capital  letters  to  indicate  that  the  name  so  treated 
is  to  be  found  elsewhere  in  the  work  as  a  separate  item  of 
its  own.  This  obviates  the  prohfic  use  of  q.v.  ("which 
see").  Exceptions  in  such  capitalization  appear  when  a 
name  reoccurs  in  any  one  item. 


Ala. — Alabama 

AME — African    Methodist    Episcopal 

AMEZ — African  Methodist  Episcopal 

Zion 
Ariz. — Arizona 
Ark. — Arkansas 
Aug. — August 

B.A. — Bachelor  of  Arts 

B.C.E. — Bachelor  of  Civil  Engineer- 
ing 

B.D. — Bachelor  of  Divinity 

B.Mus. — Bachelor  of  Music 

B.R.E. — Bachelor  of  Religious  Educa- 
tion 

B.S. — Bachelor  of  Science 

B.W.I.— British  West  Indies 

Calif. — California 

C.B.E. — Commander   of    (the   Order 

of)  the  British  Empire 
CME — Christian  Methodist  Episcopal 
Co. — County 
Colo. — Colorado 
Conn. — Connecticut 

D.C. — District  of  Columbia 
D.D. — Doctor  of  Divinity 
Dec. — December 
Del. — Delaware 

Dip. Ed. — Diploma  in  Education 
D.R.E. — Doctor  of  Religious  Educa- 
tion 
D.S. — District  Superintendent 

E. — East;  Eastern 

E.G. — Evangelical  Church 


ABBREVIATIONS 

Ed.D. — Doctor  of  Education 

E.E. — Electrical  Engineer 

EUB — Evangelical  United  Brethren 

F.B.A. — Fellow  of  the  British  Acad- 
emy 
Feb . — February 
Fla. — Florida 
FMC — Free  Methodist  Church 

Ga. — Georgia 

Ida. — Idaho 
111.— Illinois 
Ind. — Indiana 

Jan. — January 

Kan. — Kansas 
Ky. — Kentucky 

La. — Louisiana 

L.H.D. — Doctor   of   Humane   Letters 

Lit.D. — Doctor  of  Literature 

Litt.D. — Doctor  of  Letters 

LL.D. — Doctor  of  Laws 

M.A. — Master  of  Arts 

Mass. — Massachusetts 

MC— The  Methodist  Church  (United 
Kingdom);  see  TMC  for  The 
Methodist   Church    (U.S.A.) 

M.D. — Doctor  of  Medicine 

Md. — Maryland 

ME — Methodist  Episcopal 

Me. — Maine 

MES — Methodist  Episcopal,  South 


M.H.A. — Master  of  Hospital  Admin- 
istration 
Mich. — Michigan 
Minn. — Minnesota 
Miss. — Mississippi 
Miss.  Soc. — Missionary  Society 
M.L.S — Master  of  Library  Science 
Mo. — Missouri 
Mont. — Montana 
MP — Methodist  Protestant 
M.Th. — Master  of  Theology 
MYF — Methodist  Youth   Fellowship 

N. — North;  northern 
N.C. — North  Carolina 
N.D.— North  Dakota 
N.E. — Northeast 
Neb. — Nebraska 
Nev. — Nevada 
N.H. — New  Hampshire 
N.J. — New  Jersey 
N.M. — New  Mexico 
Nov. — November 
N.S. — Nova  Scotia 
N.S.W.— New  South  Wales 
N.W.— Northwest 
N.Y.— New  York 
N.Y.C.— New  York  City 
N.Z. — New  Zealand 

Oct. — October 
Okla. — Oklahoma 
Ont. — Ontario 
Ore. — Oregon 

p. — page 

Pa. — Pennsylvania 


ABBREVIATIONS 


P.E. — Presiding  Elder 

Ph.D.— Doctor  of  Philosophy 

P. I.— Philippine  Islands 

PMC — Primitive  Methodist  Church  in 

Great  Britain 
P.R.— Puerto  Rico 
Prov. — Provisional 

ret. — Retired 
R.I.— Rhode  Island 

S. — South;  southern 

Sask. — Saskatchewan 

S.C. — South  Carohna 

Scand. — Scandinavia 

S.D.— South  Dakota 

S.E. — Southeast 

Sept. — September 

S.T.B.— Bachelor  of  Sacred  Theology 

S.T.D.— Doctor  of  Sacred  Theology 

supt. — Superintendent 

S.W. — Southwest 

Switz. — Switzerland 

S.W. A. — Southwest  Africa 


Tenn. — Tennessee 

Th.B. — Bachelor  of  Theology 

Th.D. — Doctor  of  Theology 

Th.M — Master  of  Theology 

Theo. — Theological 

TMC— The  Methodist  Church 
(U.S.A.);  see  MC  for  The  Method- 
ist Church    (United  Kingdom) 

U. — University 

U.B. — United  Brethren  in  Christ 

U.E. — United    Evangelical   Church 

U.K. — United  Kingdom 

UMC — United  Methodist  Church 
(U.S.A.) 

UMC  (UK)— United  Methodist 

Church  (Great  Britain) 

UMFC— United  Methodist  Free 
Churches  (Great  Britain) 

U.S.A. — United  States  of  America 

USSR — Union  of  Soviet  Socialist  Re- 
publics 


Va. — Virginia 
Ver. — Vermont 
V.I — Virgin  Islands 

W. — West;  western 

Wash. — Washington 

W.I. — West  Indies 

Wise. — Wisconsin 

WFMS — Women's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society 

WHMS — Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society 

WMC — Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
(Great  Britain) 

WMMS — Wesleyan  Methodist  Mis- 
sionary Society 

WMS — Women's    Missionary    Society 

WSCS — Women's  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Service 

WSWS — Women's  Society  of  World 
Service 

W.Va. — West  Virginia 

Wyo. — Wyoming 


lACE,  JOHN  JAMES  (1861-1947),  was  born  in  Glen 
Auldin,  Ramsey,  Isle  of  Man,  May  17,  1861,  son  of  Wil- 
liam and  Anna  Lace,  Wesleyan  Methodists.  Licensed  to 
preach  in  1880,  he  was  educated  in  the  schools  of  the 
Isle  of  Man,  graduated  from  the  Conference  Course  of 
Study  in  1889,  having  been  ordained  deacon  in  1888,  and 
elder  in  1891.  He  received  his  A.B.  degree  from  the  old 
Chaddock  College  in  Quincy,  111.,  U.S.A.,  in  1896,  later 
attending  Northwestern  University  and  Garrett 
Biblical  Institute  at  Evanston,  111. 

He  served  pastorates  in  Missouri  and  Iowa  until  1902 
when,  for  health  reasons,  he  transferred  to  the  Colorado 
Conference  where  he  served  as  pastor  and  district  super- 
intendent until  1916,  when  he  was  appointed  superinten- 
dent of  the  Utah  Mission  where  he  served  until  1925. 
Then,  returning  to  the  Colorado  Conference,  he  was 
again  a  district  superintendent  for  two  terms,  and  in  1932 
took  the  retired  relation,  making  his  home  in  Denver, 
Colo.,  where  he  passed  away  April  12,  1947,  survived  by 
his  wife  and  four  children.  His  body  rests  in  the  cemetery 
at  Fort  Collins,  Colorado. 

John  J.  Lace  was  a  cultured  and  fervent  preacher,  a 
wise  and  successful  administrator,  and  a  leader  of  keen 
insight  and  ability. 

Journals  of  the  Utah  Mission  and  the  Colorado  Conference. 
H.   M.   Merkel,   Utah.   1938.  Warren   S.   Bainbbidge 

LACKINGTON,  JAMES  (1746-1815),  was  an  eccentric 
bookseller,  who  was  bom  at  Wellington,  Somersetshire, 
and  became  a  Methodist  about  1760.  Self-educated  but 
penniless,  he  was  befriended  by  the  London  Methodists, 
and  was  given  £5  from  a  benevolent  fund  to  set  himself 
up  in  business.  His  business  prospered  and  became  the 
largest  of  its  kind  in  London.  With  prosperity  he  turned 
from  the  Christian  faith  altogether,  and  wrote  books  which 
were  regarded  as  being  of  a  light  nature,  in  which  he 
poured  scorn  on  Methodism.  He  returned  to  the  faith 
some  years  later  and,  in  1804,  renounced  his  infidel  views 
in  his  Confessions.  In  reparation  for  his  infidelity  he  built 
chapels  at  Taunton  and  Budleigh  Salterton.  He  had  an 
erratic  and  unpleasing  personality. 

Confessions  of  ].  Lackington.  London,  1804. 
J.  G.  Hayman,  Methodism  in  North  Devon.  London,   1871. 
Memoirs  of  the  First  Forty-Five  Years  .  .  .  of  James  Lacking- 
ton.  London,  1791.  Thomas  Shaw 

LACY,  GEORGE  CARLETON  (1888-1951),  bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  was  bom  in  Foochow.  Fukien,  China, 
on  Dec.  28,  1888,  and  was  educated  in  Foochow  and 
Shanghai  mission  schools.  His  father,  William  H.  Lacy, 
directed  the  Foochow  Mission  Press  and,  after  1903,  the 
Methodist  Publishing  House  in  Shanghai.  His  grand- 
mother, Mary  Clarke  Nind,  helped  to  organize  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary   Society    (MEC)    in  the 


George  C.  Lacy 

North  Central  states,  and  in  the  1890's  embarked  on  an 
unprecedented  world  tour  of  Methodist  mission  stations. 

Carleton  Lacy  was  graduated  from  Ohio  Wesleyan 
University  in  1911  and  entered  Garrett  Biblical  Insti- 
tute, to  receive  his  bachelor  of  divinity  degree  in  1913, 
and  master  of  arts  from  Northwestern  University  the 
following  year.  During  student  days  he  filled  pastorates 
in  Detroit,  Mich.,  U.S.A.,  in  Bloomington,  III,  U.S.A.,  and 
Somers,  Wise,  U.S.A.  He  was  received  on  trial  in  the 
Wisconsin  Annual  Conference  in  September  1912,  was 
transferred  two  years  later  to  North  China  Annual  Con- 
ference, then  in  rapid  succession  to  Foochow  and  Kiangsi 
Conferences. 

After  studying  at  Nanking  Language  School,  he  served 
as  an  itinerant  missionary  and  district  superintendent  in 
Kiangsi  Province,  later  as  principal  of  William  Nast 
Academy  in  Kiukiang. 

In  1918,  he  married  Harriet  Lang  Boutelle,  who  had 
gone  to  Canton,  China,  as  a  Y.W.C.A.  secretary.  They 
had  two  children,  Creighton  Boutelle  and  Eleanor  Maie. 
From  1921  until  1941,  Lacy  was  lent  by  the  Methodist 
Board  of  Missions  to  the  American  Bible  Society,  as 
secretary  of  its  China  agency,  and  then  to  the  China 
Bible  House  formed  with  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society.  For  many  years  he  wrote  as  China  correspondent 
for  Zion's  Herald,  The  Christian  Century  and  other  church 
periodicals.  In  1928-29  he  studied  at  Union  Theological 
Seminary  and  Columbia  University,  receiving  a  second 
master's  degree.  He  was  also  awarded  honorary  doctorates 
of  divinity  by  Ohio  Wesleyan  and  Garrett.  He  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  General  Conference  of  1932. 

He  was  appointed  in  1935  as  a  member  of  the  Joint 

1365 


LACY.    HENRY   ANKENNY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Commission  on  Unity  of  the  M.  E.  Church  and  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  in  China.  He  was  elected  bishop  by  the 
China  Central  Conference  of  1941  and  assigned  to  the 
Foochow  Area. 

During  the  Second  World  War,  when  part  of  his  Epis- 
copal Area  was  occupied  by  Japanese  troups.  Bishop  Lacy 
travelled  extensively  through  remote  regions,  several  times 
from  West  China  to  Indi.\  and  thence  to  America  and 
back.  During  the  earlier  years  of  Japanese  occupation  he 
wrote  two  monographs  on  The  Creaf  Migration  and  the 
Church  in  West  Cliitia  and  Tlie  Great  Migration  and  the 
Church  Behind  the  Lines.  He  also  published  in  Chinese  a 
series  of  Bible  studies.  The  Book  of  Revelation  and  the 
Messages  of  the  Old  Testament  Prophets. 

Under  "term  episcopacy"  in  China,  Bishop  Lacy's  tenure 
was  to  end  in  1949,  but  the  advent  of  Communist  Govern- 
ment made  it  impossible  to  hold  a  Central  Conference 
with  new  elections.  With  tightening  pressures  on  the 
Church  and  on  American  personnel  after  the  Korean  War 
began,  he  officially  resigned  and  turned  his  authority  over 
to  Bishop  W.  Y.  Chen.  Communist  police,  however,  re- 
fused to  grant  an  exit  peimit  when  other  missionaries  left, 
and  kept  him  under  increasing  surveillance,  restriction, 
and  eventual  house  arrest  until  his  death  of  a  heart  attack 
in  December  1951.  His  body  was  buried  in  the  city  of 
his  birth,  in  the  little  mission  cemetery  beside  his  parents, 
attended — and  this  was  at  Communist  orders — only  by 
his  faithful  cook. 

W.  N.  Lacy,  China.  1948. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  1950-51.  Cbeighton  B.  Lacy 

LACY,  HENRY  ANKENY  ( 1917-  ),  is  Executive  Secre- 

tar\'  for  India  and  Nepal,  Board  of  Missions  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church.  He  was  born  in  Foochow,  Chin.\, 
where  his  parents,  grandparents  and  great-grandmother, 
and  a  number  of  uncles  and  aunts  were  Methodist  mis- 
sionaries. He  was  graduated  from  Whittier  College  in 
1940  and  married  his  classmate,  Elizabeth  Day  Pickett. 
After  training  in  social  work  at  George  Williams  College 
in  Chicago,  111.,  U.S.A.,  he  went  to  I.ndia  in  1941,  arriving 
just  before  the  Japanese  attack  on  Honolulu.  He  served  as 
manager  of  the  Parker  High  School  and  the  Nathaniel 
Jordan  Hostel  in  Moradabad.  His  first  term  was  inter- 
rupted by  a  call  to  serve  in  the  Office  of  Strategic  Ser- 
vices in  China,  and  he  spent  a  year  there. 

Returning  to  America  eager  to  take  more  additional 
training  than  a  furlough  would  allow,  he  accepted  an 
appointment  with  the  Methodist  Children's  Home  Society 
of  Detroit  and  studied  at  Wayne  University,  earning  his 
Master's  Degree  in  social  work.  When  he  went  back  to 
India,  he  was  appointed  principal  of  the  Ingraham  Insti- 
tute, Ghaziabad. 

In  1961,  the  Division  of  World  Missions  asked  him  to 
become  the  first  lay  missionary  chosen  to  serve  as  one  of 
its  executive  secretaries.  His  field  was  India,  Nepal,  and 
Pakistan.  When  the  board  was  reorganized  in  1964,  and 
unified  administration  of  the  work  of  the  Woman's  Divi- 
sion and  the  World  Division  was  accomplished,  he  and 
Chanda  Christdas  of  India  were  appointed  executive 
secretaries  for  India  and  Nepal  with  coordinate  responsi- 
bility. 

He  represented  the  laymen  of  the  Delhi  Annual  Con- 
ference in  the  General  Conference  of  1956. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 


LACY,  WILLIAM  H.  (1858-1925),  an  American  mission- 
ary who  spent  thirty-seven  years  as  such  in  Foochow 
and  Shanghai,  China,  most  of  that  period  in  the  publish- 
ing of  Christian  literature  in  various  Chinese  dialects.  He 
was  born  in  Milwaukee,  Wise,  on  Jan.  8,  1858,  graduated 
from  Northwestern  University  in  1881;  and  later  re- 
ceived the  A.M.  and  D.D.  degrees  from  that  University, 
and  the  B.D.  from  Garrett.  He  joined  the  Wisconsin 
Conference  in  1882,  and  the  following  year  married 
Emma  Nind.  In  1887  they  sailed  for  China  as  missionaries. 
He  was  manager  of  the  Methodist  Press  in  Foochow  until 
1903,  when  he  moved  to  Shanghai  and  together  with 
Young  J.  Allen  organized  the  Methodist  Publishing 
House,  probably  the  first  official  collaboration  of  the  two 
branches  of  the  .Methodist  Church  which  had  been  sepa- 
rated since  1844.  For  a  period  he  was  secretary  of  the 
All-China  Finance  Committee. 

Lacy's  wife,  affectionately  known  as  "Mother  Lacy," 
died  in  Ruling  a  month  before  her  husband's  death  in 
Shanghai,  Sept.  3,  1925.  All  five  of  the  Lacy  children  be- 
came missionaries:  Walter  (author  of  A  Hundred  Years  of 
China  Methodism)  in  Foochow,  1908-27;  Henry,  in  Foo- 
chow and  Singapore,  1912-52;  Carleton;  Irving  for  one 
teiTn  in  Yenping;  and  Alice,  1917-21,  in  Foochow,  where 
she  died.  And  a  grandson,  Henry,  Jr.  is  a  Mission  Board 
executive  secretary  for  India  and  Nepal. 

Francis  P.  Jones 
W.  W.  REm 

LADE,  FRANK  M.  A.  (1868-1948),  Australian  minister 
and  educator,  was  the  foundation  principal  of  Wesley 
Theological  College  in  the  South  Australian  Conference. 
After  training  at  Queen's  College,  Melbourne,  and  eigh- 
teen years  circuit  experience  in  the  Victoria  and  Tasmania 
Conference  he  was  transferred  to  South  Australia  in  1911. 
He  was  a  circuit  minister  for  eleven  years,  then  in  charge 
of  the  Brighton  College  for  training  ministers  from  1922 
until  its  reconstitution  and  relocation  in  1927  as  Wesley 
College.  He  was  Principal  of  this  institution  until  his 
retirement  in  1937. 

Lade  became  a  well-known  public  figure  through  his 
relentless  opposition  to  the  gambling  and  liquor  interests. 
For  two  years  he  led  a  campaign  on  behalf  of  the  Prohibi- 
tion League  and  for  a  time  edited  the  temperance  paper, 
The  Patriot. 

He  was  widely  recognized  as  an  expository  preacher 
of  exceptional  quality  and  a  much-respected  teacher  by 
successive  generations  of  theological  students.  Lade  was 
twice  President  of  the  South  Australian  Conference  (1916 
and  1936),  and  was  Secretary-General  from  1920-1929 
and  President-General  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Aus- 
tralasia from  1929-1932. 

Australian  Editorial  Committee 

LADIES'  AID  SOCIETIES.  Activities  and  organizations 
which  might  have  been  called  Ladies'  Aid  .Societies  existed 
from  the  begimiing  in  American  Methodist  local  churches. 
In  John  Street  Chitrch  (built  in  1768),  New  York  City, 
"the  women  provided  a  house  for  the  preacher  and 
furnished  it." 

However,  the  women's  organizations  which  furnished 
parsonages  and  promoted  social  activities  were  slow  to 
gain  official  recognition.  Ladies'  Aid  Societies  are  not 
mentioned  in  the  Discipline  of  the  M.  E.  Church  until 
1904.  The  M.  E.  Church,  South  and  the  Methodist  Prot- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LAFAYETTE,    INDIANA 


estant  Church  never  oflRcially  recognized  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Society  as  such,  though  in  1890  the  former  provided  for 
a  "Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home  Mission  Society,"  the 
purpose  of  which  was  to  "procure  homes  for  itinerant 
preachers  and  otherwise  aid  the  cause  of  Christ."  Four 
years  later  the  name  was  changed  to  "Woman's  Home 
Mission  Society"  while  its  pui-pose  remained  the  same. 
In  1910  the  Southern  Church  voted  that  its  General  Board 
of  Missions  should  include  a  Woman's  Missionary  Council 
with  Home  and  Foreign  Departments.  But  regardless  of 
the  nomenclature  used,  there  were  in  effect  Ladies'  Aid 
Societies  in  the  Methodist  denominations. 

In  1911  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  published  The 
Ladies'  Aid  Manual  which  gave  pointed  suggestions  on 
how  to  organize  and  conduct  a  Ladies'  Aid  Society.  Op- 
posing questionable  means  of  raising  money,  the  book  sug- 
gested plans  and  activities  which  it  said  would  "contribute 
to  the  social,  intellectual,  and  financial  de\elopment  of 
the  church  without  incurring  any  just  criticism." 

Pastors  and  others  believed  that  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society 
and  similar  organizations  were  helpful  to  the  churches. 
Dan  B.  Brummitt,  editor  of  one  of  the  editions  of  the 
M.  E.  Church  Christian  Advocate,  praised  the  Ladies'  Aid 
Society  as  "an  organization  that  never  suspends,  dies,  nor 
takes  a  leave  of  absence.  It  is  many  things  in  one:  a  pas- 
toral reinforcement,  a  financial  treasure  chest,  a  woman's 
exchange,  a  recreation  center,  a  cookery  school,  a  needle- 
work guild,  a  relief  society,  a  school  of  salesmanship,  a 
clearing  house  for  domestic  and  church  problems,  a  prayer 
meeting — each  in  turn  plays  many  parts." 

In  1939  The  Methodist  Church  effectively  combined  the 
work  of  the  women  in  the  Woman's  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Service.  Since  that  time  there  has  been  no  real 
dichotomy  in  the  work  of  the  women  in  Methodism, 
though  a  few  small  churches  may  maintain  Ladies'  Aid 
Societies  in  name  or  in  fact  while  some  women's  circles 
in  larger  churches  may  emphasize  local  church  and  social 
activities  more  than  the  total  program  of  the  Women's 
Society  of  Christian  Service. 

Discipline,  ME,  MES,  and  MP. 

R.  E.  Smith,  The  Ladies'  Aid  Manual.  New  York:  Methodist 
Book  Concern,  1911.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 


Ladies  Repository 

LADIES  REPOSITORY,  THE.  A  journal  established  by  the 
General  Conference   of   the   M.    E.   Church  in    1841, 


designed  especially  for  women.  The  Ohio  Conference 
in  1840  memorialized  the  General  Conference  to  establish 
such  a  publication,  and  that  Conference  directed  the  Book 
Agents  at  Cincinnati  to  issue  such  as  soon  as  proper 
arrangements  could  be  made.  In  January  1841,  the  first 
number  of  The  Ladies  Repository  came  from  the  press 
as  a  monthly  magazine  under  the  editorial  care  of  L.  L. 
Hamline  (later  bishop),  who  had  been  elected  assistant 
editor  of  The  Western  Christian  Advocate.  What  were 
described  as  "sprightly  and  classical  editorials"  gave  char- 
acter to  the  publication,  and  its  circulation  rapidly  in- 
creased. On  the  election  of  Hamline  to  the  bishopric 
in  1844,  he  was  succeeded  by  Edward  Thomson,  who 
had  been  principal  of  Norwalk  Seminary,  and  under  whose 
editorship  the  Repository  continued  to  prosper.  Thomson, 
however,  became  president  of  Ohio  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity in  1848,  to  be  succeeded  as  editor  by  Benjamin  F. 
Tefft,  then  professor  of  the  Greek  Language  and  Litera- 
ture in  the  Indiana  Asbury  University.  Under  his  care,  the 
Repository  obtained  a  still  wider  circulation.  When  Tefft 
in  turn  accepted  the  position  of  president  of  the  Genesee 
College,  then  at  Lima,  N.  Y.,  William  C.  Larrabee, 
who  had  been  in  the  chair  of  Mathematics  in  the  Indiana 
Asbury  University,  was  elected  his  successor.  Succeeding 
him,  when  he  became  state  Superintendent  of  Education 
in  Indiana,  the  Book  Committee  of  the  M.  E.  Church 
elected  Davis  W.  Clark  in  his  place,  who  was  re-elected 
editor  by  the  General  Conferences  of  1856  and  1860. 
Clark,  however,  was  also  elected  bishop  in  1864  and  was 
succeeded  by  Isaac  W.  Wiley,  who  sei"ved  two  quad- 
rennia  but  likewise  was  elected  bishop  in  1868.  Erastus 
Wentworth  became  editor  then  in  1872.  Four  years  later 
the  General  Conference  of  1876  elected  Daniel  Curry 
as  editor  and  authorized  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
who  should  have  power  to  change  the  name  and  style 
of  publication  of  the  journal.  The  committee  on  consulta- 
tion resolved  that  the  title  should  be  changed  to  that  of 
National  Repository,  and  under  that  name  it  continued  to 
be  issued  after  January  1877.  The  National  Repository 
was  a  monthly  magazine  devoted  to  general  and  religious 
literature.  In  time  it  changed  its  scope  from  the  pattern 
which  had  been  followed  by  the  old  Ladies  Repository 
to  a  more  general  type  of  issue.  The  journal  was  illustrated 
and  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  general  reader.  Daniel 
Curry  continued  to  be  editor  for  some  time  until  the 
General  Conference  of  1880  discontinued  the  publication 
of  the  magazine. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1881.  N.  B.  H. 

LAFAYETTE,  INDIANA,  U.S.A.  Trinity  Church  began 
about  1824  in  what  was  then  a  small  log  cabin  settlement 
known  as  Star  City  on  the  banks  of  the  Wabash  River.  An 
itinerant  Methodist  preacher  named  Hackalieh  Vreeden- 
burg  came  to  the  settlement,  and  John  Huntsinger,  whose 
cabin  was  then  in  what  is  "downtown  Lafayette,"  wel- 
comed the  preacher,  told  him  several  Methodists  lived  in 
the  settlement,  called  them  together  and  that  night  a 
Methodist  service — the  first  church  service  of  any  kind 
held  in  Lafayette — was  held  in  the  John  Huntsinger  home. 
Hackalieh  Vreedenburg  is  recorded  in  1825  as  being  the 
preacher  of  a  circuit  in  which  Lafayette  was  one  appoint- 
ment on  the  Crawfordsville  work.  Services  continued  to 
be  held  in  the  Huntsinger  home. 

After   a   time  Henry   Buell,   the   second   pastor   to   be 
assigned  to  the  circuit,  came  to  Lafayette,  but  he  was 


LAFETRA,   ADELAIDE   WHITEFIELD 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


disturbed  by  firing  of  guns  and  yelling  outside  the  court- 
house and  seems  to  have  left  the  ministry  after  that.  He 
was  followed  by  Eli  Pearce  Farmer  who  organized  the 
first  church  in  Lafayette  at  the  courthouse  there,  and  in 
1828  Stephen  R.  Boggs  was  sent  from  the  Illinois  Con- 
ference to  the  Crawfordsville  Circuit.  The  ne.xt  year 
came  James  Armstrong  who  held  the  first  Methodist  Quar- 
terly Conference  in  the  town  in  the  Eli  Huntsinger  wheel- 
wright shop. 

The  first  house  of  worship  in  the  city  was  erected  by 
Boyd  Phelps  in  1831.  It  was  a  30  x  40  foot  frame  struc- 
ture located  on  Sixth  Street  on  the  second  lot  south  of 
Main  Street  facing  the  east.  The  building  cost  $1,500. 
In  1836,  the  lot  on  the  northwest  corner  of  Fifth  and 
Perry  Streets  was  purchased  for  $400  and  the  building 
moved  there.  This  building  was  dedicated  in  1845  and 
was  rented  weekdays  as  a  schoolhouse  at  $5  per  month. 
Thus  early,  the  Methodist  Church  was  linked  with  edu- 
cational possibilities  and  forces  of  the  day. 

In  1850  the  congregation  was  divided  in  order  to 
start  a  new  congregation  at  Ninth  and  Brown  Streets.  The 
cemetery  for  the  church  was  where  St.  Boniface  Church 
now  stands.  It  is  believed  that  the  body  of  John  Hunt- 
singer  still  rests  beneath  St.  Boniface. 

In  1868,  the  lot  now  occupied  by  Trinity  Methodist 
Church  was  purchased  by  Henry  Taylor  and  John  W. 
Heath  at  a  cost  of  $7,000,  and  presented  to  Trinity  Church 
as  a  suitable  place  of  worship.  The  present  Trinity  Church 
building  was  constructed  in  1869  on  the  lot  at  a  cost  of 
$90,000.  The  building  is  yet  looked  after  and  kept  in 
repair,  and  was  the  scene  of  a  centennial  celebration  in 
1969.  The  old  parsonage  one  day  gave  way  to  a  new 
modern  education  building.  This  is  astir  seven  days  a 
week  with  church  activity.  A  new  $42,000  parsonage  was 
built  in  Vinton  Woods,  one  of  Lafayette's  exclusive  resi- 
dential areas. 

Trinity  Methodist  Church  early  attained  great  stature 
and  prestige  in  the  Northwest  Indl^na  Conference, 
indeed  throughout  the  entire  state,  especially  during  the 
unprecedented  twenty-nine  year  pastorate  of  Thomas 
Frederick  Williams  (1919-1948).  It  has  always  been  a 
downtown  church — a  church  at  the  heart  of  the  city. 

Trinity  is  the  mother  Church  of  all  Methodism  in  the 
entire  area.  Its  people  believe  that  the  history  of  its  in- 
fluence for  good  in  countless  ways  through  more  than  a 
hundred  years  can  never  be  adequately  told. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.         Bernice  Harness  Ezra 

LAFETRA,  ADELAIDE  WHITEFIELD,  founder  of  Santiago 
College,  Santiago,  Chile,  was  bom  and  educated  in  New 
York  State.  She  was  preceptress  of  Mount  Allison  Semi- 
nary, Sackville,  New  Brunswick,  when  in  1878  William 
Taylor  invited  her  to  go  to  Santiago  to  develop  a  school. 
There  she  met  and  in  1882  married  Ira  Haynes  LaFetra, 
and  they  worked  together  in  a  school  with  sections  for 
boys  and  girls.  The  school  later  developed  into  Santiago 
College,  now  an  outstanding  school  for  young  women. 
She  worked  in  Chile  for  twenty-five  years. 

G.  F.  Arms,  Missions  in  South  America.  1921. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Metlwdist  Missions.  1957. 

Edwin  H.  Maynard 

LAFETRA,  IRA  HAYNES  (1851-1917),  missionary  to  South 
America,  was  known  as  "builder  of  the  Chile  Mission." 
On  completion  of  studies  at  Boston  University  School 


OF  Theology  he  was  invited  to  go  to  Chile  by  William 
Taylor  (later  bishop),  arriving  at  Valparaiso  in  1878  and 
ministering  first  to  seamen  in  that  port  city.  The  next  year 
LaFetra  moved  to  Santiago,  where  he  reorganized  the 
English-language  Union  Church  and  founded  a  school. 
There  he  met  and  married  Adelaide  Whitefield  (L.a- 
Fetra),  and  their  labors,  with  those  of  others,  resulted  in 
Santiago  College,  one  of  the  leading  educational  in- 
stitutions of  Chile.  In  1880  he  was  elected  as  the  first 
president  of  the  conference  of  missionaries  set  up  to  ad- 
minister the  self-supporting  missions  that  had  been  estab- 
lished by  Taylor  on  the  West  Coast  of  South  America.  Ill 
health  forced  his  retirement  in  1906. 

G.  F.  Arms.  Missions  in  South  America.  1921. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Methodist  Missions.  1957. 

Edwin  H.  Maynard 

LAFFERTY,  JOHN  JAMES  (1837-1909),  colorful  American 
editor  and  the  fifth  editor  of  what  is  now  the  Virginia 
Methodist  Advocate,  was  the  only  child  of  George  and 
Elizabeth  Lightfoot  Lafferty.  His  father  was  educated  in 
Ireland,  and  later  served  with  an  engineer  who  surveyed 
a  railroad  connecting  Virginia  and  North  Carolina. 
His  mother  was  of  the  historic  Virginia  family  of  the 
Lightfoots.  When  the  son  was  eleven  months  of  age,  his 
father  was  drowned  at  a  James  River  ferry  during  a  wind- 
stoim. 

Young  Lafferty  made  an  excellent  record  at  Emory 
and  Henry  College  in  Virginia.  He  was  graduated  next 
to  the  head  of  his  class. 

He  served  as  chaplain  of  a  cavalry  regiment  in  the 
War  Between  the  States.  After  a  year  he  was  stricken 
with  a  "severe  malady,"  but  recuperated  sufficiently  to 
accept  the  post  of  major  of  cavaliy  offered  him  by  the 
Confederate  States  War  Department.  He  served  in  this 
capacity  until  the  war  was  over. 

Immediately  following  the  war,  pastoral  appointments 
were  scarce,  so  Lafferty  took  his  family  to  Lexington,  Va., 
and  engaged  in  several  business  enterprises.  These  proved 
quite  successful  financially. 

In  1874  he  was  offered  a  connection  with  the  Rich- 
mond Christian  Advocate,  predecessor  of  the  Virginia 
Methodist  Advocate.  The  financial  plight  of  the  Advocate 
was  not  encouraging  from  the  standpoint  of  support.  The 
successful  businessman  took  the  matter  to  God  in  earnest 
prayer.  The  outcome  was  his  decision  to  cast  his  lot  with 
the  church  paper.  Due  to  his  business  ability,  the  Advo- 
cate prospered  financially.  He  served  as  its  editor  for 
twenty-seven  years. 

Editor  Lafferty  quickly  became  known  as  the  best 
editor  in  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  This  deeply  spiritual 
man  was  "a  master  of  sarcasm"  when  the  occasion  de- 
manded it.  He  was  widely  known  throughout  the  South- 
land not  only  as  editor,  but  as  a  college  and  chautauqua 
lecturer.  He  died  on  July  23,  1909. 

J.  J.  Lafferty,  Sketches  of  Virginia  Conference.  1890-1901. 
Minutes  of  the  Virginia  Conference,  1909. 

Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  May  26,  1932,  and  various  other 
numbers.  George  S.  Reamey 

LA  GRANGE,   ILLINOIS,   U.S.A.   First   Church  is  one  of 

the  larger  suburban  churches  west  of  Chicago.  This 
church  had  its  beginning  in  1872  in  the  home  of  Isaac  P. 
Poinier,  one  block  from  the  site  of  the  present  church. 
Later  in  the  same  year  a  "Methodist  Society"  was  orga- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LAHORE,    PAKISTAN 


nized.  Upon  completion  of  a  two-story  school  building  on 
the  site  of  the  present  church,  services  were  held  in  the 
school  building.  Poinier,  whose  home  was  only  one  block 
away,  served  as  Sunday  school  superintendent,  organist 
and  janitor.  He  often  carried  coal  from  his  own  home  to 
heat  the  building.  The  first  resident  pastor  was  William 
H.  Holmes,  who  served  from  1875  to  1877.  The  Society 
grew  in  zeal  and  numbers,  due  largely  to  the  consecrated 
efforts  and  diligent  work  of  the  Ladies  Aid  Society. 

After  a  time  land  was  donated  for  a  new  church  build- 
ing, stone  was  purchased  and  a  contractor  engaged,  but  as 
work  was  about  to  begin,  the  project  was  discontinued  be- 
cause Poinier  and  several  other  influential  members  moved 
away.  For  a  time,  members  of  the  Methodist  Society 
joined  persons  of  other  denominations  in  services  held  in 
the  railroad  station,  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Metcalf,  the  station 
agent  and  a  Baptist  preacher,  in  charge. 

By  1884,  the  Methodists  had  become  stronger,  and  in 
October  1884,  the  First  M.  E.  Church  of  La  Grange  was 
organized  by  Luke  Hitchcock,  presiding  elder  of  the 
Chicago  District.  A  pastor  was  appointed  and  services 
were  held  in  the  Masonic  Hall.  The  year  ended  with  nine 
members.  Financial  expenditures  for  the  year  were:  $216 
for  the  pastor;  $52  for  the  rent  of  the  hall;  and  $10 
given  to  missions. 

In  1885  and  1886,  services  were  continued  in  the 
Masonic  Hall  and  later  were  held  in  a  skating  rink.  Addi- 
tional families  were  added  to  the  membership  of  the 
church.  A  Board  of  Trustees  was  elected  and  incorpora- 
tion papers  were  completed  on  July  21,  1886.  The  frame 
school  building  which  had  been  used  by  the  church  in  its 
beginning  was  purchased  by  the  trustees  at  a  cost  of 
$2,000.  The  building  was  remodeled  to  make  it  an  ac- 
ceptable place  of  worship  and  was  dedicated  on  Nov. 
28,  1886.  Electric  lights  were  installed  in  1892  at  a  cost 
of  $75. 

Plans  for  a  new  church  building  began  to  develop  in 
1890.  In  May  1893,  construction  was  started  and  by  Nov. 
5,  1893,  one  section  of  the  new  building  was  completed. 
In  1894  a  parsonage  was  built.  Work  on  the  main  part  of 
the  church  building  was  continued  and  the  sanctuary  was 
dedicated  on  Jan.  6,  1895.  A  pipe  organ  was  installed  in 
1907,  and  in  1908  the  building  was  enlarged.  As  the 
church  continued  to  grow  in  membership,  need  was  seen 
for  more  adequate  church  school  facilities,  and  a  two- 
story  educational  building  was  added  and  dedicated  in 
1917. 

By  1947,  the  church  had  1,179  resident  members.  The 
building  which  had  served  the  congregation  well  for  fifty- 
two  years  was  becoming  inadequate.  So  in  1951,  a  new 
sanctuary  and  fellowship  hall  were  completed  and  in  1962 
there  had  been  added  a  new  educational  building,  chapel 
and  offices,  bringing  the  total  value  of  the  church  build- 
ing to  $1,250,000. 

This  church  has  been  served  by  a  succession  of  twenty- 
nine  ministers.  The  parish  boundaries  now  encompass  an 
area  ten  miles  long  and  two  miles  wide.  Within  this  parish 
are  the  villages  of  La  Grange  and  La  Grange  Park,  having 
a  total  population  of  more  than  30,000.  With  a  member- 
ship now  of  2,100,  the  First  United  Methodist  Church  of 
La  Grange  will  celebrate  its  centennial  in  1972. 

Eugene  E.  Stauffeh 

LAGRANGE  COLLEGE,  LaGrange,  Georgia,  U.S.A.,  was 
chartered  as   LaGrange  Female   Academy   in    1831   and 


has  had  the  longest  history  among  non-tax-supported  in- 
stitutions of  higher  education  in  Georgia.  It  was  pur- 
chased by  the  North  Georgia  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South  in  1856,  and  on  Jan.  29,  1857,  began 
operation  as  a  Methodist  institution.  In  1934  its  name 
was  changed  to  LaGrange  College,  and  in  1953  it  be- 
came a  coeducational  college.  It  offers  the  B.A.  degree. 
The  governing  board  is  made  up  of  thirty-four  members 
nominated  by  the  board  and  confirmed  by  the  North 
Georgia  Conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

LAHORE  (population  1,297,000)  is  the  capital  of  West 
Pakistan.  Pakistan's  federal  capital  is  200  miles  to  the 
northwest,  near  the  city  of  Rawalpindi.  Lahore  is  eighteen 
miles  west  of  the  Indo-Pakistan  border.  It  is  headquarters 
for  the  West  Pakistan  Railways  and  for  Punjab  University, 
which  includes  many  colleges  and  high  schools  in  Lahore, 
and  other  colleges  and  high  schools  throughout  the 
Punjab.  Many  factories  and  business  and  government 
offices  make  Lahore  an  important  business  center. 

Lucie  Harrison  Girl's  High  School  was  the  first  Meth- 
odist Primary  School  organized  in  the  beginning  of  Meth- 
odist work  in  the  Punjab.  It  became  a  high  school  in  1953. 
The  school  includes  all  classes,  kindergarten  through  high 
school.  The  present  principal,  Mrs.  Priscilla  P.  Peters  is  a 
well  qualified  and  capable  Pakistani,  with  an  efficient 
teaching  staff. 

United  Christian  Hospital,  an  institution  in  which 
Methodists  cooperate,  was  organized  in  1947  when  the 
throes  of  partition,  including  an  influx  of  Moslem  refugees 
from  India,  and  departing  Hindu  and  Sikh  fugitives  bound 
for  India,  created  great  medical,  health  and  sanitation 
problems.  The  various  denominations  combined,  rented 
an  empty  Forman  College  Hostel  for  a  temporary  hospital 
center,  and  later  moved  into  a  fine  permanent  new  hospital 
set-up  in  a  Lahore  outskirt,  Gulberg  (sometimes  spelled 
Gulbarg),  in  1965.  The  United  Christian  Hospital  has 
established  a  fine  reputation  with  its  skilled  Pakistani 
and  missionary  doctors,  nurses,  supervisors  and  tech- 
nicians. Its  managing  committee  represents  all  major  de- 
nominations and  those  provide  missionary  doctors  and 
nurses,  pay  their  salaries,  and  finance  the  budget  so  as  to 
add  to  the  income  from  hospital  fees,  and  thus  provide 
adequate  salaries  for  Pakistani  members  of  the  staff. 

Kinnaird  College  for  Women  is  an  Anglican  Institu- 
tion. Methodists  and  Presbyterians  cooperate  by  provid- 
ing missionary  members  of  the  staff  and  supply  additional 
funds  to  help  in  providing  for  expenses  of  Pakistani  staff 
members  and  other  college  expenses.  The  enrollment  is 
limited  to  300  girls.  Christian  girls  who  wish  to  go  to  col- 
lege seek  admission  to  Kinnaird.  Miss  P.  Mangat  Rai,  a 
competent  and  well  known  Pakistani,  is  principal. 

Kinnaird  Teacher  Training  Center  trains  Christian 
women  to  become  teachers  in  primary  schools,  or  in  pri- 
mary and  junior  high  classes  in  recognized  high  schools. 
Candidates  for  such  training  must  have  a  government 
certificate,  as  high  school  passed.  Many  who  have  com- 
pleted two  years  of  college  work  also  come  here  for  train- 
ing. 

Forman  Christian  College  is  an  old  institution  of  far- 
reaching  fame.  It  is  staffed  and  supported  jointly  by  the 
Presbyterians  and  the  Methodists.  Forman  celebrated  its 
centenary  anniversary  in  1965.  The  present  principal  is 
E.  J.  Sinclair,  a  weD  qualified  senior  Pakistani  staff  mem- 


LAITY,    GENERAL   BOARD   OF 


ENCYCLOPEDIA    OF 


Chafel,  Fobman  CnHiSTiAN  College,  Lahore,  Pakistan 


ber,  well  trained,  with  a  fine  reputation  and  recognized 
administrative  ability.  The  enrollment  of  Forman  before 
Partition  was  almost  one  thousand;  in  late  1947,  only  150 
students  remained.  Enrollment  however  is  again  near  the 
one  thousand  mark.  The  College  enjoys  an  admirable 
standing  and  reputation,  and  many  Pakistani  leaders  in 
government  are  graduates  of  the  college. 

Clement  Rockev 

LAITY,  GENERAL  BOARD  OF.  (See  Lay  Movement  in 
American  Methodism.  ) 

LAKE  BLUFF,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A.  Lake  Bluff  Children's 
Home,  founded  in  1894  by  Methodist  deaconesses,  is  a 
church-related  child  care  agency  imder  the  control  of  a 
regularly  constituted  Board  of  Trustees.  Chartered  and 
licensed  by  the  State  of  Illinois  to  serve  as  an  Illinois 
Corporation,  not  for  profit,  it  is  a  member  agency  of  the 
Child  Welfare  League  of  America  and  the  Welfare  Coun- 
cil of  Metropolitan  Chicago.  It  is  afiiliated  with  the  Rock 
RrvER  Conference  of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  and 
with  the  National  Association,  as  well  as  the  Board  of 
Health  and  Welfare  Ministries  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church.  The  home  is  also  approved  and  endorsed 
by  the  Chicago  Association  of  Commerce  and  Industry, 
the  Subscription  Investigating  Committee,  and  by  the 
Community  Fund  of  Chicago. 

Care  is  provided  for  children  whose  own  homes  have 
been  disrupted  by  illness,  death,  divorce,  and  other  social 
and  emotional  problems;  who  are  within  the  normal  range 
of  physical  and  mental  health;  who  have  Protestant  back- 
grounds; whose  residence  is  within  the  area  served  by  the 
Rock  River  Conference. 

Services  to  children  from  their  infancy  for  as  long  a 
time  as  care  is  needed  include  group  living  at  the  Home 
for  boys  and  girls  of  grade  school  age;  adoption  of  infants 
and  older  children;  care  in  Group  Homes  in  nearby 
communities  for  high  school  boys  and  girls;  foster  Board- 
ing Homes  within  the  area  for  boys  and  girls  of  all  ages; 


casework  services  to  all  children  under  care  and  to  their 
families;  counseling  services  to  minor  imwed  mothers; 
and  remedial  "school"  care  for  some  types  of  emotionally 
disturbed  children. 

Erskine  M.  Jeffords 

LAKE  FARM.  The  home  of  James  Thorne,  the  Bible 
Christian  leader.  (See  Bible  Christians.) 

LAKE  JUNALUSKA  ASSEMBLY,  INC.,  an  American  Meth- 
odist assembly  ground,  owned  and  operated  by  the  South- 
eastern Jurisdiction  of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  is 
located  at  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C,  U.S.A.,  on  Highway 
19,  twenty-six  miles  west  of  Asheville,  and  three  miles 
north  of  Waynesville.  Its  doors  were  first  opened  on 
June  25,  1913.  About  thirteen  years  prior  to  this  occasion 
the  idea  had  been  expressed  that  there  was  a  need  of  a 
"Chautauqua  type"  of  Southern  Assembly.  James  Atkins 
(later  bishop),  visited  Chautauqua,  N.  Y.,  and  conversed 
with  Bishop  VrNCENT,  then  Sunday  School  Editor  of  the 
M.  E.  Church.  Later  Atkins  became  Sunday  School  Editor 
of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  and  invited  members  of  the 
Sunday  School  Board  to  be  his  guests  in  Waynesville  for 
their  meeting.  There  he  proposed  the  idea  of  a  "Southern 
Assembly." 

In  1908  during  the  Second  Laymen's  Missionary  Con- 
ference, the  statement  was  made  that  "we  need  a  place 
where  ministers  and  laymen,  together  with  their  families, 
can  meet  on  the  common  level  of  Worship,  Inspiration, 
Instruction  and  Wholesome  Recreation."  The  response  was 
gratifying  and  a  committee  was  appointed.  Headed  by 
Atkins,  the  committee  members,  some  of  whom  had  visited 
Waynesville,  settled  upon  Tuscola  in  Haywood  County, 
N.  C,  now  Junaluska — a  location  universally  described  as 
"beautiful  for  situation."  TTie  Blue  Ridge  and  the 
Great  Smoky  Mountains  surrounding  the  lovely  Rich- 
land Valley,  are  rich  in  beauty  and  majesty.  Among  the 
men  most  responsible  for  the  establishment  of  this  noted 
religious  center,  which  soon  became  known  as  the  "Sum- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LAKE   JUNALUSKA   ASSEMBLY,    INC. 


Lake  Junaluska,  North  Carolina 


mer  Capital  of  Southern  Methodism,"  were:  John  R. 
Pepper,  John  P.  Pettijohn,  General  Julian  S.  Cabr,  B.  M. 
olds,  S.  C.  Satterthwaite,  B.  J.  Sloan,  Hugh  Sloan,  Riley 
Burgher,  R.  B.  Schoolfield,  L.  B.  Davenport,  A.  D.  Reyn- 
M.  Ferguson,  George  R.  Stuart,  Alden  Howell  and  S.  C. 
Welch. 

James  Cannon  (later  bishop),  was  elected  first  Super- 
intendent; W.  F.  Tillett  became  Superintendent  of  Gen- 
eral Program  and  Evangelistic  Work.  The  first  permanent 
officers,  with  Atkins  as  Chairman  and  leader,  were  elected 
in  1910.  From  1911  to  1913  a  dam  was  built,  to  form  the 
250-acre  lake;  the  auditorium  was  erected,  a  few  streets 
were  opened  and  thirteen  private  cottages  were  built. 
On  June  25,  1913,  W.  F.  Quillian,  Sr.  turned  the  light 
switch  and  a  great  conference  of  laymen  opened  with 
singing,  under  the  leadership  of  J.  Dale  Stentz.  The  Mis- 
sionary address  was  by  Robert  E.  Speer.  Four  thousand 
people  attended,  $152,000  was  raised  for  Missionary  work, 
and  seven  young  people  were  consecrated  for  Missionary 
work  in  Africa  with  Bishop  Walter  Lambuth. 

Four  years  after  the  opening  of  the  Southern  Assembly, 
the  Sunday  School  Board  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  held 
a  demonstration  Leadership  School  for  the  training  of 
volunteer  teachers  at  Junaluska.  This  was  a  fore-runner 
of  a  new  type  of  Leadership  training.  In  1922  the  Sunday 
School  Board  built  an  Education  Building  (now  known  as 
Shackford  Hall),  as  well  as  lodges  and  a  cafeteria  on  the 
southwest  shores  of  the  Lake.  The  system  of  Leadership 
Training  Schools  conducted  by  the  International  Council 
of  Religious  Education  had  its  beginning  at  Lake  Juna- 
luska. 

The  Board  of  Missions  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  in 
time  purchased  the  "Junaluska  Inn"  and  used  it  for  Mis- 
sionary training  Conferences.  Following  a  disastrous  fire, 
a  new  Mission  Building  was  erected,  later  to  be  known 
as  Lambuth  Inn.  This  popular  center  is  used  regularly 
by  the  Missionary  Groups  and  the  Women's  Society  of 
Christian  Service.  Junaluska  is  the  site  for  Candler  Camp 
Meeting  and  the  Annual  Schools  of  Evangelism  for  the 
Southeastern   Jurisdiction.   It  was   at   Junaluska  that  the 


Board  of  La\'  Activities  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  was 
organized,  with  George  L.  Morelock  as  its  first 
Secretary. 

During  the  late  twenties  and  early  thirties  the  owner- 
ship of  the  Assembly  was  still  vested  in  a  Board  of  Com- 
missioners. The  war,  the  panic  and  the  depression  made 
its  operation  very  difficult  financially,  and  it  was  forced 
into  receivership.  Under  the  leadership  of  the  bishops 
and  of  W.  A.  Lambeth,  funds  were  raised  and  all  assets 
were  purchased  by  the  Methodist  Church,  South.  A  new 
Board  of  Trustees  was  elected  and  a  new  charter  and 
certificate  of  incorporation  were  secured.  The  name  was 
changed  from  The  Southern  Assembly  to  The  Lake  Juna- 
luska Methodist  Assembly. 

Following  World  War  II,  Edwin  L.  Jones  of  Charlotte, 
N.  C,  was  elected  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
which  was  then  composed  of  the  bishops  and  one  lay  and 
one  clerical  member  from  each  annual  conference  in  the 
Jurisdiction.  In  1948  the  General  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church,  in  session  at  Boston,  Mass.,  accepted 
ownership  of  the  Assembly,  and  then  transferred  it  to 
the  Southeastern  Jurisdiction,  where  it  was  accepted  at  the 
session  in  Columbia,  S.  C,  the  same  year. 

The  Southeastern  Jurisdictional  Conference  elects  trus- 
tees, who  in  turn  set  up  the  administration  and  super- 
vise the  management  of  the  Assembly's  business  and  op- 
eration. The  properties,  formerly  owned  by  the  Board  of 
Missions,  the  Sunday  School  Board  and  the  Commission- 
ers, have  all  been  transferred  to  the  Lake  Junaluska 
Assembly,  Inc. 

In  the  course  of  a  summer's  season,  thousands  of  people 
come  to  attend  the  conferences,  workshops,  training 
schools,  platform  hours,  and  engage  in  wholesome  recrea- 
tional activities.  The  George  R.  Stuart  Auditorium,  with 
a  seating  capacity  of  three  thousand,  has  provided  the 
platform  for  world  renowned  leaders  in  religion,  govern- 
ment, education  and  science.  The  iMemorial  Chapel,  with 
its  Room  of  Memory,  is  the  spiritual  center  of  the  Assem- 
bly. Bounded  by  the  mountains,  lake  and  landscape,  fami- 
lies have  here  established  homes;  hotels  and  lodges  have 


LAKELAND,    FLORIDA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


been  erected,  and  all  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of 
modem  civilization  have  been  installed. 

The  World  Methodist  Council  built  its  headquarters 
for  the  American  Section  at  Junaluska.  A  handsome  build- 
ing of  native  stone  was  erected  on  the  site  formerly 
occupied  by  the  Cherokee  Hotel.  Elmer  T.  Clark,  Exec- 
utive Secretary,  gave  his  collection  of  Wesleyana  to  the 
Council,  and  this  notable  collection,  with  supplements,  is 
housed  in  the  museum  there.  The  offices  and  library  of 
the  Association  of  Methodist  Historical  Societies  (now 
Commission  on  Archives  &  History)  are  in  the  building, 
also.  Thousands  of  visitors  annually  come  to  this  building, 
including  many  scholars  and  students  of  Methodist  history. 

The  Western  North  Carolina  Annual  Conference 
and  the  quadrennial  sessions  of  the  Southeastern  Jurisdic- 
tional Conference  usually  meet  at  Junaluska.  In  1956  the 
World  Methodist  Conference  was  held  there. 

Speakers  of  national  and  international  prominence  who 
have  appeared  on  the  platform  throughout  the  years  in- 
clude Mrs.  Eleanor  Roosevelt,  Vice  President  (then)  Rich- 
ard Nixon,  commentator  Lowell  Thomas,  United  Nations 
Representative  Dr.  Frank  Graham,  World  Evangelist  Dr. 
Billy  Graham,  and  Lord  Caradon,  Representative  of  The 
United  Kingdom  to  the  United  Nations. 

Mason   Crum,    The   Story  of  Junaluska.   Greensboro,    N.    C: 

Piedmont  Press,  1950. 

Elmer  T.   Clark,  Junaluska  Jubilee.    Nashville:   the  Assemblv, 

196.3. 

Maud    M.    Turpin,    The    Junaluska    Story.    Published    by    the 

Greater  Junaluska  Development  Campaign,  1946. 

James  W.  Fowler,  Jr. 


was  built.  With  the  first  regular  "season"  in  1890,  Lake- 
side began  its  tradition  of  combining  in  its  program, 
religion,  education,  culture,  and  recreation. 

Almost  all  of  the  great  Chautauqua  lecturers  and  per- 
formers came  to  Lakeside.  In  those  early  summers  the 
throngs  arrived  at  "the  Summer  City  on  the  Lake"  by 
excursion  boats,  special  trains,  private  buggies,  and  even- 
tually cars. 

The  Lakeside  Methodist  Church  was  dedicated  in  1900, 
and  a  pavilion  was  built  in  1909.  Hugh  Hoover  Audito- 
rium was  consecrated  in  1929  "to  the  highest  uses  of 
worship  and  the  noblest  interests  of  mankind." 

A  Lakeside  Crusade  was  launched  by  Ohio  Methodists 
in  1959.  By  1964  over  $750,000  had  been  raised  and 
Lakeside  given  an  entirely  new  look. 

Wesley  Lodge,  a  winterized  multipurpose  building  of 
natural  stone,  became  the  focal  point  of  the  Youth  Center. 
The  administration  building  and  Auditorium  Hotel  were 
modernized  and  winterized  and  became  the  Fountain  Inn. 
With  these  fine  facilities,  groups  now  come  to  Lakeside 
throughout  the  year. 

The  new  pavilion,  with  spacious  sun  decks;  the  Schunk 
Memorial  Carillon  Tower  and  aluminum  cross  are  new 
landmarks  on  the  Lake  Erie  Shore.  A  trailer  park  offers 
completely  modem  facilities  for  trailers  and  for  camping. 

Over  the  years  countless  thousands  of  men,  women, 
children,  and  youth,  have  been  strengthened  in  faith  and 
purpose  because  of  the  guidance  and  inspiration  they 
found  at  Lakeside.  This  is  the  Lakeside  which  truly  has 
its  place  in  history,  and  which  will  continue  to  serve 
through  the  years  as  "the  vacation  place  with  a  purpose." 


LAKELAND,  FLORIDA,  U.S.A.  First  Church  is  the  largest 
church  in  the  headquarters  city  of  Florida  Methodism, 
where  the  Episcopal  Residence,  Florida  Southern  Col- 
lege, and  the  conference  offices  are  located.  First  Church 
Lakeland  is  noted  for  its  large  church  school  and  for  its 
commitment  to  missions.  It  stands  high  among  the  de- 
nomination's larger  churches  in  the  proportion  of  its  total 
income  devoted  to  benevolences.  It  is  located  on  an 
exceptionally  beautiful  site,  with  spacious  lawns  sloping 
down  to  Lake  Morton.  Membership  in  1970  was  2,768. 

Robert  Caxton  Doggett 

LAKESIDE,  OHIO,  U.S.A.,  is  a  reUgious  center  and  en- 
campment on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie.  The  old-time 
CAMP  meeting  that  flourished  over  a  century  ago  and 
was  a  mark  of  early  Methodism  is  said  to  have  been  the 
genesis  of  the  Lakeside  of  today. 

As  early  as  1842,  camp  meetings  and  "Sunday  out- 
ings" were  being  held  on  the  rocky  shores  of  Lake  Erie 
near  Port  Clinton.  Many  famihes  were  influenced  at  these 
meetings  and  converted  under  the  powerful  preaching  of 
the  pioneer  ministers.  Following  the  suggestion  of  Richard 
P.  Duvall,  a  movement  began  to  establish  Lakeside  as  a 
Christian  meeting  and  vacation  center. 

A  few  houses,  gingerbread  in  style,  rose  on  the  cleared 
lots  overlooking  Lake  Erie.  But  for  many  years  wooden 
tents  were  the  prevalent  stmctures.  In  reality  simply 
shanties,  these  tents  were  used  only  for  sleeping — with 
piles  of  straw  covered  with  quilts  serving  for  beds.  Cook- 
ing was  done  outdoors,  with  the  earhest  risers  responsible 
for  starting  the  morning  coffee. 

As  more  and  more  people  visited  Lakeside,  the  need 
for  a  hotel  grew.  In  1875  the  first  unit  of  Hotel  Lakeside 


LAKEVIEW  METHODIST  ASSEMBLY,  Palestine,  Texas, 
LT.S.A.  This  assembly,  owned  and  operated  by  the  Texas 
Conference  (UMC),  is  located  twelve  miles  southwest  of 
Palestine  on  state  route  294.  The  board  of  tmstees, 
elected  by  the  conference,  is  composed  of  ministers  and 
laymen.  Established  in  1947  on  452  acres  of  land  donated 
by  Anderson  County  and  Palestine,  it  has  since  grown  to 
1,400  acres.  There  are  two  lakes  and  two  olympic-sized 
swimming  pools  on  the  grounds.  With  two  cafeterias, 
twelve  brick  cabins,  and  twenty-four  air-conditioned  camp 
units,  the  Assembly  can  accommodate  1,400  people  at 
one  time.  Four  buildings  provide  space  for  offices,  assem- 
bly rooms,  class  rooms,  a  book  store,  a  gift  shop,  as  well 
as  quarters  for  the  Texas  Conference  Historical  Center 
with  its  valuable  archives.  A  beautiful  stone  chapel  was 
given  by  the  J.  R.  Peace  family,  East  Bernard,  Texas.  A 
big  tabernacle  is  used  for  large  assemblies.  There  are 
homes  on  the  grounds  for  the  permanent  staff  of  four, 
as  well  as  housing  for  a  number  of  summer  staff  workers. 
The  assembly  is  open  the  year  round  for  use  by  confer- 
ence and  church  agencies.  Youth  assemblies  for  each  of 
the  eleven  districts  of  the  conference  are  held  at  Lakeview 
each  summer.  The  assembly  registers  some  30,000  persons 
per  year  for  meetings  and  activities.  The  property  is 
valued  at  $2,250,000.  The  Texas  Conference  contributes 
about  $100,000  per  year  for  its  operation  and  main- 
tenance. 

Nace  B.  Crawford 

LAKEWOOD,  COLORADO,  U.S.A.  Lakewood  Church  is 

the  third  largest  Methodist  church  in  metropolitan  Den- 
ver. The  church  began  in  1881,  when  a  small  group  of 
Christian  men  and  women  met  for  worship,  first  in  private 


WORLD  METHODISM 


LAMAR,   ANDREW   JACKSON 


liomes  and  then  in  a  school  house,  in  the  sparsely  settled 
fanning  community  of  Lakewood.  To  reach  the  little 
school  house,  worshipers  had  to  cross  fields  and  open  a 
wire  gate  which  crossed  a  road  that  is  now  a  six-lane 
highway. 

In  1902,  Miss  Hannah  Robb  of  Lakewood  gave  one-half 
acre  of  ground  with  the  stipulation  that  a  Methodist 
church  be  built  on  it  within  five  years  or  the  property 
would  revert  to  the  owner.  Accordingly,  in  1904,  the  men 
of  the  church  built  a  one-room  frame  chapel.  Its  simple 
furnishings  consisted  of  pulpit,  thirty  wooden  chairs,  an 
organ  and  a  kitchen  range. 

The  presiding  elder's  report  of  September  1904  states, 
"Last  Spring  a  new  church  was  built  in  Lakewood  and 
Sunday,  August  28th,  Brother  Wood  and  I  dedicated  it 
free  of  debt,  with  enough  money  to  buy  a  new  organ  and 
$97.00  to  spare." 

The  church  became  known  as  the  Lakewood  M.  E. 
Church,  and  was  the  only  place  of  worship  in  the  com- 
munity until  1930.  In  March  1921,  the  women  organized 
the  "Willing  Workers."  In  those  early  years,  they  literally 
held  the  church  together  through  their  efforts.  They 
helped  pay  the  pastor's  salary,  assisted  a  hospital  and 
sponsored  a  nurse's  training  there,  and  met  conference  de- 
mands by  holding  bazaars  and  suppers.  This  was  no  easy 
task  as  food  was  prepared  by  kerosene  lamplight  and 
water  had  to  be  carried  from  across  the  street. 

During  the  early  years,  student  ministers  from  the 
Iliff  School  of  Theology  served  the  church.  Then  in 
1941  H.  Preston  Childress  became  the  first  full-time  min- 
ister. At  that  time  the  membership  was  165,  but  babies 
and  children  must  have  been  counted;  for  on  that  first 
Sunday  he  preached,  there  were  only  thirty-five  present, 
four  of  whom  were  men.  H.  P.  Childress  served  the 
church  for  eleven  years;  he  saw  it  through  the  depression, 
the  glowing  pains  of  the  war  years,  and  the  throes  of  a 
building  campaign,  when  the  need  for  a  larger  church 
became  evident. 

The  new  Lakewood  Methodist  Church,  of  early  Ameri- 
can design,  opened  its  doors  for  worship  March  1950,  at 
1390  Brentwood  Ave.  Much  of  the  interior  furnishing  was 
done  by  the  men  of  the  church:  pews  to  seat  250,  chancel 
furniture,  paneling  and  kitchen  cabinets. 

In  1953,  church  membership  jumped  to  917,  with  596 
enrolled  in  Sunday  School.  A  full-time  secretary  was  hired, 
and  a  newspaper,  "The  Church  Visitor,"  was  started.  The 
church  again  experienced  an  almost  phenomenal  growth 
and  construction  was  started  September  1955  on  the 
present  sanctuary  which  seats  approximately  500.  Septem- 
ber 1961  the  new  educational  wing  was  consecrated  to 
serve  the  ever  increasing  enrollment  of  the  Sunday  school. 
A  Moller  pipe  organ  was  installed  in  1964.  A  church  staff 
of  eleven,  of  whom  three  are  full-time  ministers,  now 
serves  the  membership  of  over  2,000. 

Avery  Whtte  Gibbs 

LAKEWOOD,  OHIO,  U.S.A.  Lakewood  Church  of  1968 
is  the  third  structure  erected  on  its  site  at  the  comer  of 
Detroit  and  Summit  Avenues.  The  first  church,  a  small 
one-room  building,  was  built  in  1876,  near  the  center  of 
the  church  lot  at  a  cost  of  $5,005,  including  the  lot.  Its 
membership  was  twenty.  The  eighteen  charter  members 
mortgaged  their  homes  as  security  to  cover  the  cost  of 
the  first  church. 

The   initial  subscription   for  the  second  building  was 


made  in  January  1902.  The  cornerstone  was  laid  in  June 
1904.  The  new  Lakewood  M.  E.  Church  was  dedicated  on 
March  26,  1905;  185  names  were  then  on  the  rolls.  Its 
cost  was  $13,000.  The  new  church  stood  as  a  monument 
to  the  faithful  and  harmonious  effort  of  the  entire  mem- 
bership. 

Today  the  church  worships  in  a  third  structure,  a  beau- 
tiful stone  church  of  Gothic  design.  The  original  part  of 
the  present  edifice  was  constructed  in  1913,  at  a  cost  of 
$50,000.  A  week  of  special  dedicatory  services  was  ar- 
ranged and  a  bishop  from  Washington,  D.  C.  came  to 
deliver  the  sermon  for  the  dedication  services  on  Sunday, 
Sept.  21,  1913. 

1914  saw  the  opening  of  the  east  wing,  used  then  for 
the  Sunday  school.  1951  was  the  year  of  a  ground-break- 
ing ceremony  for  the  new  education  building  which  was 
added  to  the  north  of  the  main  part  of  the  church,  at  a 
cost  of  approximately  $500,000. 

While  Methodist  heritage  is  the  glass  through  which 
is  seen  not  only  the  various  deeds  of  past  years  but  the 
history  of  the  church's  spiritual  nature,  there  is  one  tan- 
gible, material  hnk  to  the  past — the  church  bell.  During 
the  construction  of  the  first  church  (in  1876),  a  member 
contracted  for  a  bell  to  be  cast  and  shipped  from  the 
Fulton  Company  of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.  The  bell  has  been 
used  in  all  three  churches  and  yet  summons  people  to 
church  Sunday  morning.  Its  heartwarming  peal  is  caused 
by  the  bell  itself  swinging  and  allowing  the  clapper,  hang- 
ing inside,  to  strike  against  its  sides. 

1968  started  another  phase  in  the  life  of  the  church, 
with  the  sanctuary  refurbished  and  refurnished.  Lake- 
wood  United  Methodist  Church  has  grown  to  a  present 
membership  of  approximately  4,000.  It  continues  to  be  a 
church  dedicated  to  the  Glory  of  God. 

Mrs.  Walter  M.  Lutsch 


A.  J.  Lamar 

LAMAR,  ANDREW  JACKSON  (1847-1933),  an  American 
minister,  long-time  secretary  of  the  Alabama  Confer- 
ence (1909-1929),  and  Publishing  Agent  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  in  its  closing  years,  and  a  man  of  great 
influence  in  his  cormection,  was  bom  in  Walton  County, 


LAMAR,    LUCIUS   OUINTUS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Ca.,  on  May  29,  1847.  He  was  the  son  of  Andrew  Jackson 
and  Mary  Athena  (Jackson)  Lamar.  His  grandfather  was 
an  officer  in  the  Continental  Army  and  a  governor  of 
Ceorci.\.  He  was  educated  at  the  high  school  in  Athens, 
Ga.,  and  was  a  sophomore  at  the  University  of  Georgia 
until  the  Fall  of  1863  when  he,  with  his  fellow  students, 
went  into  the  Confederate  States  Army.  He  served  through 
the  war  in  Virginia  in  Cabell's  battery  of  Artillery.  "I  was 
a  powder  monkey,"  he  told  B.  A.  Whitmore,  his  fellow 
Publishing  Agent,  years  later.  At  the  end  of  the  war  he 
went  to  Alabama  where  he  had  an  opportunity  to  attend 
again  the  University  of  Georgia,  where  he  graduated  in 
law  in  1873. 

He  was  converted  in  1874  under  the  preaching  of  the 
unique  and  colorful  Simon  Peter  Richardson,  his  presiding 
elder,  and  joined  the  Alabama  Conference.  Thereafter  he 
served  Alabama  pastorates  "from  some  of  the  least  to  some 
of  the  highest" — Union  Springs;  Greenville;  Auburn; 
Mobile;  Montgomery;  Salina  were  among  them,  and  he 
was  made  the  presiding  elder  of  the  Mobile  and  then  the 
Montgomery  districts  later  on  in  life.  He  was  elected  Pub- 
lishing Agent  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in  1903,  and 
moving  to  Nashville  where  the  Publishing  House  was 
located,  served  in  this  position  for  thirty  years. 

A  small  man  in  size  but  with  keen  gray  eyes,  Lamar 
brought  to  his  work  great  sagacity  and  understanding, 
both  of  business  and  of  the  church  which  he  served  and 
loved.  His  Conference  elected  him  to  all  the  General 
Conferences  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  from  1890  to 
and  including  that  of  1930.  He  became  a  man  of  marked 
influence  at  all  sessions  of  this  great  body,  and  exerted 
enormous  influence  over  his  church.  Together  with  B.  A. 
Whitmore,  the  Publishing  Agent,  he  helped  the  Publishing 
House  of  the  Church  develop  into  a  great  and  successful 
institution  as  the  years  went  by. 

He  married  Martha  Elsworth  of  Mobile  on  Jan.  8,  1878; 
and  after  her  death  married  Mary  U.  Urquhart  of  Selma, 
Ala.,  on  June  9,  1897.  A  daughter,  Mrs.  Wilham  M. 
Teague,  survived  her  parents. 

Lamar  was  a  decided  opponent  of  Unification  that  final- 
ly came  about  in  1939  and  spoke  accordingly.  He  con- 
tinued active  in  the  management  of  the  Publishing  House 
until  1932  when  he  formally  retired.  He  died  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  March  27,  1933,  and  was  buried  in  Montgomery, 
Ala.  Bishop  Warren  A.  Candler  wrote  his  memoir  for 
the  Alabama  Conference  and  said  of  him,  "He  was  an 
intimate  and  beloved  friend.  I  do  not  recall  that  I  ever 
heard  words  fall  from  his  lips  that  were  amiss,  or  deeds 
done  by  his  hands  that  were  unworthy." 

Journal  of  the  Alabama  Conference,  MES,  1933. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

N.  B.  H. 


LAMAR,  LUCIUS  QUINTUS  CINCINNATUS  (1825-1893), 
American  senator.  Supreme  Court  Justice,  and  strong 
Methodist  layman,  was  bom  in  Eatonton,  Putnam  County, 
Ga.,  on  Sept.  1,  1825.  He  graduated  from  Emory  College 
(Oxford,  Ga.)  in  1845  with  the  highest  honors.  He  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  A.  B.  Longstreet,  the  president  of 
Emory,  and  to  them  were  bom  one  son,  L.  Q.  C.  Jr., 
and  three  daughters.  Having  studied  law  at  Macon,  Ga., 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1847,  moved  in  1849 
to  Oxford,  Miss.,  and  continued  further  studies  as  well 
as  teaching  mathematics  at  the  University  of  Mississippi. 
The    distinguished   Albert   T.    Bledsoe,    then    teaching 


philosophy  at  the  University,  later  said,  "1  taught  Lucius 
to  think."  Justice  Lamar  long  afterward  commented  that 
there  was  "something  in"  what  his  old  teacher  said. 

Lamar  was  elected  to  Congress  in  1856  from  Missi.ssippi 
and  was  a  member  of  that  body  at  the  time  the  Civil 
War  broke,  resigning  his  seat  after  Mississippi  passed  her 
ordinance  of  secession.  During  the  War  he  served  as  a 
Lieutenant-Colonel  in  the  Confederate  States  Army  for  a 
time  and  was  sent  by  the  Confederate  states  on  a  European 
mission.  In  1872  he  was  again  elected  to  Congress  from 
Mississippi  and  in  1876  to  the  Senate.  His  speech  in  the 
Senate  on  the  death  of  Charles  Sumner  was  acclaimed 
over  the  nation,  as  it  proved  one  of  the  first  moves  toward 
establishing  again  the  brotherhood  which  had  been  broken 
by  the  terrible  years  of  war.  For  if  ever  there  was  a 
northern  champion  it  was  Charles  Sumner  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  if  ever  there  was  a  southerner  it  was  L.  Q.  C. 
Lamar  of  Mississippi.  Seconding  the  motion  to  adjourn 
when  the  death  of  Sumner  was  announced  in  the  Senate, 
Lamar  delivered  a  deeply  moving  address  which  he  closed 
by  saying,  "If  we  knew  each  other  better,  we  would  love 
each  other  more."  For  this  President  John  F.  Kennedy 
gave  Lamar  a  chapter  in  his  book  Profiles  in  Courage. 

He  was  put  in  the  Cabinet  in  1885  by  President  Cleve- 
land, and  then  appointed  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  1888. 
A  constant  churchman  he  was  ever  loyal  to  Methodism. 
He  was  one  southern  layman  of  prominence  whom  Bishop 
Simpson  put  in  his  Cyclopaedia. 

The  Justice  died  Jan.  23,  1893  and  was  buried  in 
Macon,  Ga. 

Wirt  A.  Gate,  Lucius  Q.  C.  Lamar,  Secession  and  Reunion. 

Chapel  Hill,  N.  C,  1935. 

Dictiorwry  of  American  Biography. 

John  F.  Kennedy,  Profiles  in  Courage.  New  York:   Harper  & 

Row,  1964. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

LAMB,  ELKANAH  J.  (1832-1915),  American  United 
Brethren  missionary  to  Colorado  and  colorful  Western 
preacher,  was  born  Jan.  1,  1832,  in  Wayne  County,  Ind., 
son  of  Esau  and  Elizabeth  Moon  Lamb.  He  received  a 
common  schooling,  was  a  cooper  by  trade.  Lamb  became 
acquainted  with  Chief  Black  Hawk  and  leaders  and  war- 
riors of  other  Indian  tribes  and  was  wounded  in  border 
warfare  in  Kansas  in  1864.  He  was  noted  as  a  mountain 
climber  and  supervised  various  Rocky  Mountain  rescue 
operations.  E.  J.  Lamb  was  licensed  by  Kansas  Confer- 
ence, Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  in  1864 
and  ordained  by  the  same  Conference  in  1870.  He  mar- 
ried Mrs.  J.  J.  Morger  and  was  father  to  seven  children. 
Lamb  was  appointed  by  the  mission  board  to  Colorado 
in  1871,  where  he  helped  build  the  first  United  Brethren 
Church  in  Colorado,  along  the  Platte  River  about  twelve 
miles  from  Denver.  In  1872  he  surveyed  Nebraska  in 
preparation  for  organizing  a  Nebraska  Conference.  He 
served  as  presiding  elder  in  Colorado  Conference  several 
years.  Lamb  died  at  Estes  Park,  Apr.  7,  1915.  A  daughter 
had  been  murdered  in  a  log  cabin  several  years  previously. 

Religious  Telescope,  April  21,  1915.     Robert  R.  MacCanon 

LAMBERT,  JEREMIAH  (  ?-1786),  was  the  first  Ameri- 
can Methodist  itinerant  appointed  to  serve  beyond  the 
Alleghenies,  and  the  first  Methodist  preacher  to  be  sta- 
tioned  in    Tennessee.    Sixty   members    were   already   in 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LAMBUTH,   WALTER   RUSSELL 


Tennessee  at  the  time  of  Lambert's  appointment  in  1783, 
but  nothing  is  known  of  their  origin.  One  theory  is  that 
John  King,  John  Dickins  and  Lee  Roy  Cole,  who  had 
labored  in  North  Carolina  in  1777,  may  have  also 
preached  in  Tennessee.  This  has  not  been  proved,  al- 
though if  it  were,  it  would  not  alter  the  fact  that  Lam- 
bert was  the  first  man  officially  appointed  to  serve  beyond 
the  Alleghenies.  His  circuit  was  enormous,  comprising  all 
the  settlements  on  the  Watauga,  Nolichuckey  and  Holston 
Rivers.  Living  conditions  were  exceedingly  primitive  and 
the  danger  from  the  Indians  was  very  real.  Lambert's 
work  was  fruitful  although  not  astounding,  and  at  the  next 
Annual  Conference  he  reported  seventy-six  members,  a 
gain  of  sixteen. 

He  served  various  appointments  including  Old  St. 
George's  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  1785  Asbury  appointed 
him  to  serve  as  a  missionary  to  Antigua.  It  is  not  known 
whether  he  actually  reached  Antigua  in  the  West  Indies, 
since  his  health  broke  shortly  after  his  appointment,  and 
he  died  the  following  year,  1786. 

Lambert  was  a  native  of  New  Jersey  although  the  date 
of  his  birth  is  not  known.  That  he  was  an  outstanding 
preacher  is  attested  by  Thomas  Ware,  another  early 
Methodist  itinerant,  who  writes,  "He  had  in  four  years 
.  .  .  without  the  parade  of  classical  learning,  or  any 
theological  training,  actually  attained  to  an  eminence  in 
the  pulpit  which  no  ordinary  man  could  reach  by  the  aid 
of  any  human  means  whatsoever  .  .  .  The  graces  with 
which  he  was  eminently  adorned  were  intelligence,  in- 
nocence and  love.  .  .  ." 

In  the  Conference  Minutes  he  is  spoken  of  as  "an 
Elder;  six  years  in  the  work;  a  man  of  sound  judgment, 
clear  understanding,  good  gifts,  genuine  piety,  and  very 
useful,  humble  and  holy;  diligent  in  life,  and  resigned 
in  death." 

A.  W.  Cliffe,  Our  Methodist  Heritage.  1957. 
A.  Stevens,  History  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  1867. 

Frederick  E.  Maseb 

LAMBETH,  WILLIAM  ARNOLD  (1879-1952),  American 
clergyman,  was  born  at  Thomasville,  N.  C,  on  Oct.  5, 
1879.  He  received  degrees  from  Dltce,  Yale,  and  Harvard 
Universities,  did  graduate  work  at  Vanderbilt  Univer- 
sity, and  honorary  degrees  were  conferred  on  him  by 
three  institutions. 

He  entered  the  ministry  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 
in  1905  and  was  pastor  in  Salisbury,  Greensboro,  Walk- 
ertown,  Winston-Salem,  Reidsville,  High  Point,  and 
Gastonia,  all  in  the  Western  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence. From  1924  to  1930  he  was  pastor  of  Mount  Vernon 
Place  Church  in  Washington,  D.  C.  He  then  returned 
to  his  native  state  and  served  churches  in  Durham,  Ashe- 
ville,  and  High  Point,  and  was  superintendent  of  the 
Winston-Salem  District. 

Lambeth  was  a  member  of  the  Uniting  Conference 
at  Kansas  City  in  1939,  and  of  all  the  General  and 
Jurisdictional  Conferences  between  1938  and  1948. 
In  1936  the  College  of  Bishops  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  asked  him  to  conduct  a  campaign  to  pay  the  in- 
debtedness of  $100,000  on  the  Lake  Junaluska  Assem- 
bly. This  he  did,  and  the  Assembly  was  accepted  by 
the  General  Conference  in  1938  as  an  institution  of  the 
church.  Lambeth  then  became  its  president,  superinten- 
dent, and  treasurer  (without  salary),  a  position  which  he 
held  until  1944.  He  then  became  superintendent  of  the 


Greensboro  District,  where  he  served  until  he  retired  in 
1949.  He  died  at  Morehead  City,  N.  C,  on  Nov.  20,  1952. 

Mason  Crum,  The  Story  of  Junaluska.  Greensboro:   Piedmont 

Press,  1950. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Elmer  T.  Clark 

LAMBUTH,  JAMES  WILLIAM  (1830-1892),  American  mis- 
sionary and  father  of  the  more  famous  Bishop  Walter 
R.  Lambuth,  was  bom  in  Louisiana  on  March  2,  1830, 
but  was  reared  in  Madison  County,  Miss.  His  grandfather, 
William  Lambuth,  was  born  in  Hanover  County,  Va.,  and 
was  sent  by  Bishop  Asbury  in  1800  as  a  missionary  to 
the  Indians  in  Tennessee;  he  died  at  Fountain  Head  in 
that  state  in  1837.  His  son,  John  Russell  Lambuth,  was 
bom  at  Fountain  Head  in  1800  and  volunteered  as  a 
missionaiy  to  the  Indians  in  Louisiana. 

The  family  moved  early  to  Louisiana.  James  graduated 
from  the  University  of  Mississippi  in  1851  and  began 
to  preach  among  the  Negroes.  In  1854  he  was  sent  to 
China  to  aid  in  establishing  the  mission  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  in  Shanghai.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War,  he  returned  to  Mississippi  but  went  back  to  China 
in  1864.  In  1886  he  and  his  son,  Walter,  went  to  Japan 
and  formed  the  Southern  Methodist  mission  there.  He 
died  at  Kobe,  Japan,  on  April  28,  1892. 

J.  Cannon,  Southern  Methodist  Missions.  1926. 

Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

William  Washington  Pinson,  Walter  Russell  Lambuth,  Prophet 

and  Pioneer.  Nashville;  Cokesbury  Press,  1924. 

Elmer  T.  Clark 


Walter  R.  Lambuth 

LAMBUTH,  WALTER  RUSSELL  (1854-1921),  American 
missionary  and  bishop  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  was 
born  in  Shanghai,  China,  on  Nov.  10,  1854,  the  son  of 
missionary  parents,  James  William  and  Mary  Isabella 
(McClellan)  Lambuth.  In  1859  he  was  sent  to  his  rela- 
tives in  Tennessee  and  Mississippi  for  his  early  education. 
His  parents  returned  during  the  Civil  War,  and  the  son 
went  back  to  China  with  them  in  1864  and  remained 
five  years. 

He  graduated  from  Emory  and  Henry  College  in 


UMBUTH    COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


1875,  studied  theology  and  medicine  at  Vanderbilt 
University  and  received  a  medical  degree.  In  1877  he 
was  ordained  an  elder  in  the  Tennessee  Conference  and 
was  sent  to  China,  where  he  worked  in  Shanghai  and 
adjacent  areas.  He  returned  on  furlough  in  1881  and 
studied  at  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College  in  New 
York  and  received  a  second  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine. 

He  returned  to  China  in  1882  and  organized  medical 
and  hospital  service  at  Soochow  and  Peking.  In  1885  with 
his  father  he  founded  the  Japan  Mission  of  his  Church 
and  established  the  notable  Kwansei  Gakuin  and  the 
Hiroshima  Girls'  School. 

In  1891  he  was  assigned  to  field  service  in  the  United 
States  and  editor  of  the  Methodist  Review  of  Missions, 
and  in  1894  he  was  elected  General  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Missions  with  headquarters  at  Nashville,  Tenn.  In  this 
capacity  he  helped  in  uniting  Methodism  in  Canada  and 
forming  the  autonomous  Japan  Methodist  Church,  a  union 
of  all  Methodist  bodies  working  in  that  field. 

Lambuth  was  elected  bishop  by  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  in  1910  and  was  assigned  to  Brazil.  In  the  same 
year  the  Board  of  Missions  projected  a  mission  in  Africa 
and  in  1911  Lambuth,  accompanied  by  John  W.  Gilbert 
of  Paine  College  and  a  leader  in  the  C.M.E.  Church, 
went  to  that  continent;  they  travelled  2,600  miles  by  boat 
and  rail  and  1,500  miles  on  foot  through  the  jungles  to 
the  village  of  Wembo  Nyama  in  the  Belgian  Congo, 
where  their  cordial  reception  by  Chief  Wembo  Nyama 
convinced  Lambuth  that  he  had  been  providentially  led 
to  the  Batetela  tribe,  and  he  proceeded  to  arrange  for  a 
mission.  He  was  away  from  home  a  year  or  more  and 
on  his  return  he  recruited  a  group  of  missionaries  which 
he  took  to  the  Congo  in  1913.  For  his  travels  through 
Africa  he  was  made  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Geographic 
Society  at  London. 

During  World  War  I  he  went  to  Europe  and  visited 
the  front  and  made  arrangements  for  establishing  Southern 
Methodism  in  Belgium,  Poland,  and  Czechoslovakla. 
In  1921  he  took  a  party  of  missionaries  to  Siberia  and 
founded  a  mission  there,  but  it  met  opposition  and  was 
of  short  duration.  He  served  briefly  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
and  for  a  period  resided  at  Oakdale,  Calif. 

Bishop  Lambuth  participated  in  the  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conferences,  the  World  Missionary  Con 
febence,  and  other  movements  involving  the  cooperatior 
of  the  churches.  He  was  the  author  of  three  books  on 
medical  missions,  the  Orient,  and  the  missionary  move- 
ment. He  died  at  Yokohama,  Japan,  on  Sept.  26,  1921, 
and  his  ashes  were  buried  by  the  side  of  his  mother  in 
Shanghai.  He  is  rightly  considered  to  be  one  of  the  great 
missionary  leaders  of  Methodism. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

J.  Cannon,  Southern  Methodist  Missions.  1926. 

General  Conference  Journal,  1922.  MES. 

William   W.   Pinson,   Walter   Russell   Lambuth:   Prophet  and 

Pioneer.  Nashville:  Cokesbury  Press,  1925. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Elmer  T.  Clark 

LAMBUTH  COLLEGE,  Jackson,  Tennessee,  is  a  continuation 
and  expansion  of  Memphis  Conference  Female  Institute 
which  was  estabhshed  in  1843.  It  became  a  coeducational 
school  in  1923,  when  its  name  was  changed  to  Lambuth 
College  honoring  Bishop  Walter  Russell  Lambuth, 
whose  death  had  occurred  two  years  before. 

In  1939,  at  the  time  of  Union,  it  lacked  accreditation 


and  its  total  properties  were  valued  at  $225,100.  Today 
the  buildings  and  grounds  are  valued  at  almost  $7,000,- 
000.  The  college  is  in  a  period  of  academic  growth  and 
enrichment.  It  offers  the  B.A.  and  B.S.  degrees.  The 
governing  board  has  twenty-eight  members  elected  by  the 
.Memphis  Annual  Conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

LA  MESA,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.  First  Church  was  orga- 
nized in  1895  at  a  small  resort  called  La  Mesa  Springs. 
This  is  Spanish  for  "the  table,"  inasmuch  as  it  was  upon 
the  tableland  of  the  little  town  of  San  Diego.  The  church 
gives  witness  of  having  the  greatest  mission  outreach  of 
the  entire  Southern  California-Arizona  Conference. 
In  the  current  budget  of  the  church,  over  forty  percent 
of  all  funds  received  are  designated  for  various  mission 
concerns. 

The  church  grew  slowly,  but  since  the  influx  of  the 
huge  population  movement  to  the  southwest  part  of  the 
nation,  the  whole  community  has  increased  remarkably. 
The  church  grew  toward  1,000  members  during  World 
War  II,  with  the  tremendous  number  of  service  personnel, 
particularly  from  the  United  States  Navy,  living  in  the 
area.  By  1950  its  membership  had  passed  the  thousand 
mark,  and  eight  years  later  had  doubled.  It  reached  2,500 
in  1962.  The  growth  toward  a  truly  significant  church  was 
accelerated  in  1956,  when  a  Spanish  styled  sanctuary  was 
built,  of  the  classic  style  appropriate  to  the  history  and 
culture  of  the  region.  This  sanctuary  greatly  appealed  to 
the  community,  and  the  church  rapidly  enlarged  all  areas 
of  its  life. 

The  mission  emphasis  for  which  the  church  is  noted, 
had  its  origin  in  the  needs  of  the  Mexican  people  in  the 
town  of  Tijuana,  some  thirty-five  miles  distant  across  the 
border  to  the  south.  Responding  to  the  recognition  of  the 
need,  there  was  organized  in  the  '50's  a  Settlement  House 
called  Casa  de  Todas  (House  for  All),  with  First  Church 
the  motivating  factor.  By  1961,  Casa  de  Todas  had  grown 
into  a  group  of  buildings:  chapel,  hospital,  clinic,  a  social 
welfare  center  and  school.  A  "person  to  person"  type  of 
Christian  fellowship  has  developed,  with  over  120  fam- 
ilies "adopting"  families  south  of  the  border,  and  sharing 
friendship  and  concern  with  them. 

This  international  mission  concern  has  expressed  itself 
in  other  Tijuana  projects:  Casa  de  Esperanza  (House  of 
Hope),  an  orphanage  for  double  orphans  which  has  found 
its  chief  support  from  the  La  Mesa  Church;  Project 
Amigos  (Friends),  a  social  welfare  center  of  which  the 
Church  is  a  major  supporter,  including  the  support  of  the 
Laubach  Literacy  Director  for  Baja  California  (State  of 
Lower  California);  and  Bethel  Methodist  Church  in 
Tijuana,  La  Mesa  again  being  a  major  supporter.  The 
Mission  outreach  is  not  limited  to  "south  of  the  border." 
The  Church  is  supporting  missionaries  in  Peru,  where  it 
also  built  a  high  school  building,  in  Argentina  and 
Africa,  with  a  deep  involvement  in  Ludhiana  Medical 
School  in  India,  where  a  building  was  given. 

In  1952  La  Mesa  Methodist  Church,  mindful  of  its  own 
community  needs,  commissioned  nearly  ten  percent  of  its 
active  worshiping  members  to  become  charter  members 
of  the  new  adjacent  San  Carlos  Methodist  Church,  and 
gave  a  $71,000  gift  of  land  to  the  new  congregation. 
The  church  currently  has  a  staff  of  three  full-time  minis- 
ters and  a  membership  of  2,308. 

Herschel  H.  Hedgpeth 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LAMPTON,    EDWARD   WILKINSON 


Lazarus  Lamh.ami 

LAMILAMI,  LAZARUS,  the  first  ordained  Australian  Ab- 
original minister.  He  was  one  of  the  earlier  Aboriginal 
converts  after  the  establishment  of  a  mission  in  Arnhem 
Land  by  the  Methodist  Church  of  Australasia.  With  head- 
quarters in  Darwin,  the  North  Australia  district  included 
five  mission  stations,  at  Milingimbi,  Yirrkala,  Elcho  Island, 
Croker  Island  and  Goulburn  Island. 

It  was  at  Goulburn  Island's  small  but  picturesque 
church  in  November  1966,  that  Lazarus  Lamilami  was 
ordained  as  the  first  Australian  Aboriginal  minister.  He 
thus  serves  his  own  people  who  have  known  only  Euro- 
pean, Fijian,  Tongan,  Chinese  and  Rotuman  missionaries 
as  their  spiritual  leaders  in  the  past. 

For  the  past  twenty  years  Lazarus  has  worked  and 
preached  among  his  fellows  and  has  travelled  widely 
throughout  Australia  on  missionary  deputation,  making  a 
great  impact  on  his  audiences.  He  became  the  first  Ab- 
original Christian  pastor  and  submitted  himself  to  special 
study  and  intense  preparation  to  ready  himself  for  the 
unique  and  historic  day  of  his  ordination. 

Australian  EDrroRiAL  Committee 

LAMPARD,  JOHN  (1859-1935),  a  one-time  associate  of 
General  William  Booth  in  the  Salvation  Army,  founded 
an  independent  mission  among  the  Gonds  in  a  village  in 
the  Satpura  Hills  of  Balaghat,  Central  Provinces,  India. 
He  began  his  work  as  a  bachelor.  He  wore  the  simplest  of 
village-style  clothes  and  lived  for  four  years  in  a  two-room 
mud  hut  with  a  grass  roof. 

In  a  famine  in  1897,  many  orphans  came  to  the  mis- 
sion. Seven  other  European  missionaries  joined  him  and 
his  wife.  In  1906,  the  missionaries  decided  that  the  inter- 
ests of  the  work  required  integration  in  a  church.  They 
asked  the  Methodist  Chuich  to  take  over  from  them.  The 


Rev.  and  Mrs.  John  Lampard  and  the  Rev.  and  Mrs. 
Thomas  Williams  joined  the  Methodist  Church  and  be- 
came missionaries  of  the  Board  of  Missions.  The  small 
school  of  the  independent  mission  has  developed  into  a 
coeducational  middle  school  and  has  produced  many  lead- 
ers of  the  church  and  ser\'ants  of  the  people. 

Lampard  later  rendered  distinguished  service  in  Baroda 
State,  where  he  became  a  friend  of  the  Gaekwar  (Ruler) 
and  influenced  state  policy  on  questions  related  to  the 
civil  rights  of  Christians  and  the  responsibilities  of  the 
state  to  promote  the  welfare  of  its  citizens. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

LAMPE,  JOHN  FREDERICK  (1703-1751),  was  a  musician 
and  a  friend  of  Handel.  Lampe  was  born  in  Saxony, 
Germany,  but  settled  in  England  in  1726  and  was  as- 
sociated with  Handel  at  Covent  Garden,  London,  as  a 
bassoonist  and  composer.  Lampe  came  under  the  influence 
of  the  Wesleys  on  Nov.  29,  1745,  and  was  converted 
from  Deism.  In  1746  his  tunes  for  Charles  Wesley's 
hymns  were  published  in  Hymns  on  the  Great  Festivals 
and  Other  Occasions.  From  1748-51  he  was  in  Dublin, 
and  there  produced  A  Collection  of  Hymns  and  Sacred 
Poems  (1749).  He  died  in  Edinburgh,  Scotland.  The 
Wesleys  thought  highly  of  his  music,  and  Charles  Wesley 
wrote  an  ode  in  memory  of  him.  Two  of  Lampe's  tunes 
are  still  in  the  British  Methodist  hymnbook. 

J.  T.  Lightwood,  Music  of  the  Methodist  Hymn-hook.  1935. 
Wesley  Historical  Soc.  Proceedings.  H.  Morley  Rattenbury 

LAMPLOUGH,  EDMUND  SYKES  (1860-1940),  a  British 
Methodist  layman,  was  an  underwriter  at  Lloyd's.  He 
was  born  on  April  6,  1860,  at  Islington,  London,  and 
made  his  career  at  Lloyd's,  of  which  he  became  deputy 
chairman.  For  thirty-three  years  he  was  a  member  of  the 
committee  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionary  So- 
ciety, and  became  its  treasurer  and  then  president  of 
the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement.  With  John  H.  Ritson 
he  was  treasurer  of  the  Theological  Institution.  President 
of  the  Wesley  Historical  Society  from  1937-40,  Lamp- 
lough  discovered  162  original  letters  of  John  Wesley, 
preserved  many  Wesley  relics  and  buildings,  and  estab- 
lished Wesleyan  memorials.  A  keen  musician,  he  sei^ved 
on  the  committee  for  the  Methodist  hymnbook.  He  was 
vice-president  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
and  vice-president  of  the  Methodist  Conference  in  1935. 
He  died  on  Oct.  20,  1940. 

J.  T.  Lightwood,  Music  of  the  Methodist  Hymn-book.  1935. 
Wesley  Historical  Soc.  Proceedings.  H.  Morley  Rattenbury 

LAMPTON,  EDWARD  WILKINSON  (1857-1910),  an 
American  bishop  of  the  A.M.E.  Church,  was  bom  in 
Hopkinsville,  Ky.,  on  Oct.  21,  1857.  His  education  was 
self-acquired.  He  was  admitted  to  the  North  Mississippi 
Annual  Conference  in  1886,  ordained  deacon  in  1886 
and  elder  in  1888.  He  held  pastorates  in  Kentucky  and 
Mississippi.  He  was  presiding  elder  in  Mississippi.  He 
served  as  a  General  Officer  (Financial  Secretary)  from 
1902-1908,  and  was  elected  bishop  in  1908  and  died  in 
1910.  He  was  the  author  of  two  books:  Analysis  of  Bap- 
tism and  Digest  of  Decisions  of  the  Bishops  of  the  A.M.E. 
Church. 


R.  R.  Wright,  The  Bishops.  1963. 


Grant  S.  Shockley 
1377 


LAMSON,    BYRON    S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


LAMSON,    BYRON    S.    (1901-  ),   an   American   Free 

Melhodist  minister  and  ordained  elder  of  the  Central 
Illinois  Conference  and  editor  of  The  Free  Methodist, 
was  born  at  Boone,  Iowa.  His  degrees  are:  A.B.,  Green- 
ville College,  111.;  M.A.,  University  of  Southern  Calif.; 
graduate  studies.  University  of  Rochester;  Northwestern 
University;  Garrett  Biblic.'VL  Institute,  D.D., 
Seattle  Pacific;  Litt.D.,  Los  Angeles  Pacific.  He  served 
as  pastor  of  churches  in  California  and  Illinois,  and  was 
Dean,  1927-30,  and  President,  1930-39,  of  Los  Angeles 
Pacific  College.  He  was  General  Missionary  Secretary, 
1944-64,  and  became  editor  of  The  Free  Methodist  in 
1964. 

While  pastor  of  the  college  church,  Greenville,  111., 
Lamson  was  elected  General  Missionary  Secretary.  He 
served  in  this  capacity  for  twenty  years,  has  visited  the 
overseas  churches  in  Asia,  Africa,  and  Latin  America. 
The  mission  church  membership  increased  from  less  than 
9,000  to  over  50,000  during  this  time,  and  many  mission 
fields  became  regular  conferences.  General  Conferences 
were  established  in  Egypt  and  Japan.  The  Free  Method- 
ist World  Fellowship  was  organized  under  Dr.  Lamson's 
leadership. 

After  serving  as  editor  of  The  Free  Methodist  since 
1964  and  becoming  eligible  for  retirement  in  June  1969, 
the  denomination's  Board  of  Administration  requested  him 
to  continue  as  editor  until  June  30,  1970,  with  the  title 
of  "Acting  Editor."  Under  his  editorship.  The  Free  Meth- 
odist (circulation  100,000)  celebrated  in  1967  its  one 
hundred  years  of  service  with  a  special  anniversary  issue. 
Included  were  special  greetings  from  the  President,  the 
Prime  Minister  of  Canada,  editors  of  church  publications 
and  many  denominational  leaders. 

Dr.  Lamson  has  written  Holiness  Teachings  of  Jesus; 
Modern  Prayer  Miracles;  Venture;  To  Catch  the  Tide. 
He  serves  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Research  for 
Church  Growth.  He  is  the  editor  of  the  Free  Methodist 
Church  material  in  this  Encyclopedia  of  World  Method- 
ism. Dr.  and  Mrs.  Lamson  reside  at  Winona  Lake,  Ind. 

N.  B.  H. 

LANAHAN,  JOHN  (1815-1903),  an  American  minister 
and  Book  Agent  of  the  Book  Concern  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  was  bom  at  Harrisonburg,  Va.,  in  1815.  His 
parents  were  Roman  Cathohc,  but  of  liberal  tendencies, 
and  they  allowed  their  children  to  attend  Protestant 
churches.  He  was  converted  at  eighteen  years  of  age  and 
received  on  trial  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  1838. 
He  served  prominent  appointments,  including  the  district 
superintendency  and  proved  popular  as  a  man  and  as  a 
preacher.  He  is  said  to  have  been  of  commanding  presence 
and  always  enlisted  the  undivided  attention  of  his  Con- 
ference when  he  rose  to  speak. 

When  the  Civil  War  came,  Lanahan  continued  to  ad- 
here to  the  section  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  which 
remained  with  the  M.  E.  Church,  although  most  of  his 
brethren  adhered  to  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  they  even- 
tually becoming  the  "Old  Baltimore."  Lanahan  supported 
Bishop  Simpson  in  his  bringing  pressure  on  President 
Lincoln  to  appoint  more  Methodists  into  the  offices  of 
government.  He  was  elected  in  1860  to  the  General 
Conference  of  that  year  as  an  alternate,  but  took  the 
place  of  Thomas  Sewell  who  was  not  present.  At  the 
General  Conference  of  1868,  he  was  elected  as  one  of 
the  Agents  of  the  New  York  Book  Concern  and  acted  in 


that  capacity  for  four  years.  He  continued  to  be  elected 
by  his  Annual  Conference  to  the  General  Conference  of 
his  Church,  serving  in  every  one  from  1868  to  1900.  He 
died  on  Dec.  8,  1903,  in  Baltimore,  Md. 

J.  E.  Armstrong,  Old  Baltimore  Conference.  1907. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.   1878.  N.  B.  H. 

LANCASTER,  JAMES  PRESTON  (1877-1963),  missionary 
to  Cuba  and  Mexico,  was  born  on  March  1,  1877,  in 
Troup  County,  Ga.,  U.S.A.  He  attended  Lafayette  Col- 
lege, in  Lafayette,  Ala.,  and  later  enrolled  in  Roanoke 
Normal  College  in  Roanoke,  Ala. 

In  May  1900,  he  received  his  first  license  to  preach 
from  the  North  Alabama  Conference.  In  November 
1901  he  joined  the  North  Alabama  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South,  and  was  assigned  to  the  Miller- 
ville  Circuit  which  included  seven  churches. 

In  1904  he  was  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Missions 
(MEGS)  to  La  Gloria,  Cuba,  where  he  was  to  take  charge 
of  the  English  work.  In  1908  he  was  appointed  by  Bishop 
Candler  as  Director  of  the  school  Colegio  Ingles  in 
Camaguey,  Cuba.  He  married  Elsie  Whipple  in  1908  in 
Camaguey  and  five  children  were  born  of  this  union. 

In  1910  his  health  broke  in  Cuba  and  he  and  his 
family  returned  to  the  United  States  and  went  to  Colo- 
rado. At  the  Denver  Conference  (1910),  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  Trinidad,  Colo.  In  1912,  Bishop  Hendrk 
appointed  him  to  the  English  work  at  Torreon,  Mexico 
and  he  became  a  member  of  the  Mexican  Conference. 

In  1914,  due  to  political  unrest  in  Mexico,  Bishop 
Candler  again  appointed  him  to  the  church  in  La  Gloria, 
Cuba.  In  1918  he  was  allocated  by  the  Mission  Board  to 
the  Women's  Council  to  work  as  Director  of  Palmore  Col- 
lege, Chihuahua,  Mexico. 

In  1921  he  accepted  the  leadership  of  the  Mexican 
work  in  Texas  and  New  Mexico  and  in  1927  he  left 
the  Spanish  work  and  became  a  member  of  the  New 
Mexico  Conference,  where  his  membership  remained 
until  his  retirement  in  1949. 

In  1952  he  became  pastor  of  the  Chadboum  Spanish 
Gospel  Mission  in  Colorado  Springs,  Colo.,  a  pastorate 
he  held  until  his  death  in  October  1963.  His  name  was 
included  in  the  memorial  service  of  the  New  Mexico  Con- 
ference Annual  Meeting  in  1964. 

Minutes  of  the  New  Mexico  Conference,  1964. 

Mary  Jo  Bennett 

LANCASTER,  OHIO,  U.S.A.  Firsf  Church  owes  its  origin 
to  a  group  of  Methodists  who  met  in  a  log  cabin,  the 
home  of  Edward  Teal,  to  hear  James  Quinn  preach  in 
1799.  Bishop  Francis  Asbury  is  said  to  have  been  a  per- 
sonal friend  of  Edward  Teal,  and  visited  there  many  times 
previous  to  the  forming  of  the  permanent  organization 
which  took  place  in  1812.  The  Methodist  Society  (not 
yet  an  organized  church)  was  one  of  the  first  religious 
groups  to  hold  meetings  in  this  area,  and  had  been  meet- 
ing for  nearly  three  years  before  the  town  of  Lancaster 
came  into  being  in  1801.  However,  the  records  indicate 
that  the  group  had  met  in  various  cabins,  and  in  the 
open,  until  1812,  when  they  organized  themselves  into  a 
Methodist  church,  and  built  the  first  log  cabin  church. 

The  present  church  building  is  the  third  constructed  by 
this  congregation.  It  is  located  about  two  city  blocks  from 
the  original  first  church  location.  It  was  built  in  1905-07, 
and  extensively  remodeled   and   expanded   into   a   much 


WORLD   METHODISM 

larger  structure  in  1950-51.  The  church  membership  had 
grown  to  3,000  members  by  the  year  of  its  Sesquicenten- 
nial  Celebration  in  1962.  The  present  buildings,  grounds 
and  parking  areas  cover  about  one-fourth  of  a  city  block 
and  are  located  just  one  block  from  the  center  of  the 
city.  The  congregation  numbered  3,111  in  1970. 

George  W.  Herd 


LANCASTER,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.  First  Church  is  one 

of  the  leading  churches  of  the  Philadelphia  Confer- 
ence, and,  through  the  years,  has  been  one  of  the  most 
influential  Methodist  churches  in  and  about  Lancaster.  Its 
early  preachers  extended  Methodism  as  far  as  Pottsville 
in  the  anthracite  area. 

The  first  Methodist  sermon  was  probably  preached  in 
Lancaster  by  Joseph  Pilmore  in  the  Old  Court  House  in 
Center  Square  on  June  2,  1772.  Later  a  class  was  formed, 
but  it  eventually  died  out  and  for  some  years  there  was 
no  Methodist  preaching  in  Lancaster.  Matthew  Simpson 
says  that  Henry  Boehm  conducted  a  Methodist  service 
in  Lancaster  in  1803,  preaching  in  the  market-house  from 
a  butcher's  block. 

In  1807,  William  Hunter  and  Henry  Boehm  were 
assigned  as  missionaries  to  that  part  of  Pennsylvania 
lying  between  the  Delaware  and  Schuylkill  Rivers,  and 
Francis  Asbury  requested  Boehm  to  translate  the  Dis- 
cipline into  German  for  the  large  German  population  in 
this  area.  On  one  occasion  when  Boehm  was  proof-reading 
the  German  Discipline,  he  was  forced  to  remain  in  Lan- 
caster overnight  because  of  a  heavy  rain.  He  called  upon 
a  Philip  Benedict  whom  he  had  heard  about  from  a 
Methodist  woman  in  Lancaster  who  felt  Benedict  was 
desirous  of  becoming  a  Methodist.  Boehm  had  a  satisfac- 
tory interview  with  Benedict  and  his  wife,  and  on  Oct. 
14,  1807,  when  Boehm  next  came  to  the  city,  he  formed  a 
class  of  six  members  consisting  of  Benedict,  his  wife  and 
four  others.  The  home  of  the  Benedicts  on  125  or  129 
Duke  Street  then  became  a  regular  Methodist  preaching 
place. 

The  class  grew,  larger  quarters  were  needed,  and  a 
property  was  secured  and  a  building  erected  on  Walnut 
and  Christian  Streets.  It  was  dedicated  Dec.  17,  1809. 
Growth  for  a  time  was  slow.  Originally  on  the  Lancaster 
Circuit,  the  church  was  made  a  single  station  in  1811 
with  Thomas  Ware  as  pastor;  but  it  was  again  placed  on 
a  circuit  the  following  year,  not  becoming  a  separate  sta- 
tion permanently  until  1828. 

In  1842  a  new  building  was  erected  on  Duke  Street 
below  Walnut,  and  it  was  dedicated  Sept.  4  of  that  year. 
Although  now  heavily  in  debt,  the  church  assisted  in  the 
building  of  another  Methodist  Church  in  Lancaster,  St. 
Paul's  on  Queen  Street.  By  1855  First  Church  had  grown 
to  such  proportions  that  a  session  of  the  Philadelphia  An- 
nual Conference  was  held  there  with  Bishop  Beverly 
Waugh  presiding. 

The  church  gave  increased  impetus  to  the  expansion  of 
Methodism  in  Lancaster,  building  a  mission  which  later 
became  Western  Church.  In  a  real  sense  First  Church  be- 
came the  mother  church  of  Lancaster  city,  and  the  Lan- 
caster area,  either  directly  or  indirectly  assisting  in  the 
founding  and  growth  of  many  of  the  Methodist  churches. 
As  the  church  continued  to  grow,  larger  quarters  became 
increasingly  necessary,  and  in  1889  the  present  Church 
edifice  was  begun.  It  was  completed  at  a  cost  of  $87,000 
and  was  dedicated  by  Bishop  Chables  H.  Fowxer  June 


LANDER,   JOHN   MCPHERSON 

12,  1892.  In  subsequent  years  renovating  and  expansion 
programs  added  to  the  practicality  and  beauty  of  this 
mother  church  of  Lancaster. 

In  1970  First  Church  reported  1,307  members,  prop- 
erty valued  at  $1,550,715,  and  $132,834  raised  for  all 
purposes. 

Centennial  Jubilee  Souvenir  Program,  First  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  Lancaster,  Pennstjlvania,  edited  by  a  Committee.  Lan- 
caster, 1907. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Frederick  E.  Maser 

LANCE,  JOSEPH  R.  (1925-  ),  pastor,  chaplain,  Indian 

bishop,  was  born  on  Oct.  15,  1925,  at  Meerut,  U.P.,  India. 
His  father,  Rockwell  Lance  of  Rajasthan  India,  served 
in  the  former  Delhi  Conference  and  retired  as  district 
superintendent  of  the  Roorkee.  Educated  at  the  Ingraham 
Institute  in  Ghaziabad  and  at  Parker  High  School, 
Moradabad,  Joseph  Lance  studied  at  Lucknow  Christian 
College,  India,  (A.B.,  1948);  Garrett  Theological 
Seminary  (Crusade  Scholar),  A.M.,  B.D.,  1956.  Or- 
dained deacon  in  1944,  he  began  his  ministry  as  chaplain 
of  the  Madar  Union  Sanatorium  near  Ajmer,  India.  While 
here  he  married  Sushila  Sentu,  a  post-graduate  nurse,  the 
daughter  of  a  United  Presbyterian  minister.  After  studying 
in  America,  1953-56,  he  returned  to  Madar  in "1956.  Then 
he  moved  to  Delhi  as  pastor  of  Christ  Methodist  Church 
(1,200  members),  1957-66.  In  1966  he  was  appointed 
executive  secretary  of  the  Council  of  Christian  Social  Con- 
cerns covering  the  whole  of  The  Methodist  Church  in 
India.  An  effective  preacher  in  English  and  Hindustani, 
he  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference  (TMC)  in 
1964;  attended  the  Asia  Consultation  at  Port  Dickson, 
Malaya;  and  the  Assembly  of  the  East  Asia  Conference 
at  Singapore.  He  went  to  the  United  States  as  a  member 
of  the  Mission  to  America  team  in  1966,  and  toured  widely 
for  five  months,  speaking  in  various  churches.  In  Septem- 
ber 1968,  Lance  and  the  Council  on  Social  Concerns 
sponsored  a  major  conference  of  ministers  and  laymen 
in  New  Delhi  dealing  with  the  place  of  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary in  India.  From  the  conference  came  a  recommen- 
dation that  there  be  more  "Indianization"  of  church 
personnel,  and  that  invitations  to  new  foreign  mission- 
aries be  based  "on  local  needs  for  specialists  and  experts." 
At  forty-four  years  of  age,  Joseph  R.  Lance  was  elected 
bishop  on  the  second  ballot  on  Jan.  2,  1969,  at  the  South- 
ern Asia  Central  Conference,  Bangalore,  India.  He  was 
assigned  to  the  Lucknow  Area. 

Daily  Indian  Witness,  Bangalore,  India,  January  2,  1969,  Vol. 

XIV,  No.  4,  p.  58. 

Garrett  Alumni  News,  February,  1969.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

LANDER,  JOHN  McPHERSON  (1858-1924),  an  American 
preacher,  educator,  and  missionary  to  Brazil,  was  bom 
in  Lincolnton,  N.  C,  on  Dec.  17,  1858.  He  was  the  son 
and  grandson  of  Methodist  preachers.  He  graduated  from 
WoFFORD  College  in  1879.  Desirous  of  becoming  a  mis- 
sionary to  China  (as  China  was  in  those  early  days  the 
"dramatic"  and  desirable  mission  field),  he  went  to  Van- 
DERBiLT  where  he  spent  two  years  studying  in  the  medical 
and  theological  departments.  On  Jan.  14,  1886,  he  married 
Thompson  Hall. 

He  taught  two  years  at  Williamston  Female  College  in 
South  Carolina,  and  while  there  was  approached  by 
Bishop  J.  C.  Granbery,  who  was  trying  to  find  an  educa- 
tor to  start  a  school  for  boys  in  Juiz  de  Fora,   Brazil. 


LANDER,    SAMUEL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Lander  accepted  the  call,  and  with  his  wife  and  first 
child,  Laura,  sailed  for  Brazil  in  June  1889.  The  voyage 
was  dangerous  because  of  a  fire  on  board  and  consumed 
thirty-three  days.  They  arrived,  however,  in  time  for 
Lander  to  be  received  into  the  annual  conference  on 
July  7,  1889.  He  was  appointed  at  once  to  found  the 
school;  and  since  he  did  not  know  the  language,  J.  VV. 
VVolling  was  sent  as  his  associate.  Total  equipment  seems 
to  have  been  a  blackboard  and  bo.\  of  chalk.  Lander  re- 
mained some  twelve  years  at  Granbery  (now  called  In- 
STiTUTO  Granbery)  and  established  it  on  a  sound  basis. 
He  also  served  as  pastor  of  several  churches,  presiding 
elder,  editor  of  the  official  church  paper  Expositor  Cristao 
and  agent  of  the  publishing  house.  In  all  his  work,  expe- 
cially  at  Granbery,  Mrs.  Lander  was  a  devoted  helper, 
teaching  most  of  the  time.  In  1903,  Lander  received  a 
D.D.  degree  from  Wofford  College. 

Ilhiess  beset  the  last  years  of  his  life,  and  he  died  in 
the  Palmyra  Sanatorium,  Minas  Gerais,  on  March  20, 
1924. 

World  Outlook,  January  1940.  Eula  K.  Long 

LANDER,  SAMUEL  (1833-1904),  American  clergyman- 
educator,  was  bom  in  Lincolnton,  N.  C.,  on  Jan.  30,  1833. 
A  graduate  of  Randolph-Macon  College,  Va.,  he  taught 
in  various  schools,  sei"ved  as  president  of  Davenport 
Female  College  in  North  Carolina,  and  in  1861  was 
licensed  to  preach.  In  1864  he  was  admitted  on  trial  into 
the  South  Carolina  Conference,  M.  E.  Church,  South. 

As  pastor  of  the  Williamston,  S.  C,  circuit,  1872,  he 
was  led  to  establish  the  Williamston  Female  College,  and 
remained  the  head  of  the  institution  until  his  death,  July 
14,  1904.  Previously  that  year  the  college  had  moved  to 
Greenwood,  S.  C.  It  was  renamed  for  its  founder.  Lander 
College,  and  from  1906  to  1948  was  owned  and  operated 
by  the  Methodist  Conference  (MES  and  subsequently  The 
Methodist  Church,  SEJ).  Lander  College  now,  through 
offer  of  the  Conference  in  1948,  is  owned  and  operated 
by  the  community  of  Greenwood. 

Lander  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conferences 
of  1890  and  1894. 

Samuel  Lander  was  married  to  Laura  A.  McPherson  on 
Dec.  20,  1853.  They  were  the  parents  of  eleven  children, 
nine  of  whom  lived  to  useful  adulthood,  namely:  Martha 
(Mrs.  George  E.  Prince),  Jolm,  William  Tertius,  Angus, 
Neil,  Kathleen  (Mrs.  John  O.  Willson),  Malcolm,  Frank, 
and  Ernest.  Tertius  and  Frank  became  physicians  in  Wil- 
liamston; Kathleen  became  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  John  O. 
Willson,  D.D.,  who  succeeded  Lander  as  president  of 
Lander  College.  John  became  a  missionary  to  Brazil  and 
founder  of  Granbery  College  there. 

J.  Marvin  Rast 

LANDER  COLLEGE,  Greenwood,  South  Carolina,  for  more 
than  seventy-five  .years  a  Methodist  college,  was  founded 
by  Samuel  Lander  (1833-1904)  at  Williamston,  S.  C, 
on  Feb.  12,  1872,  as  Williamston  Female  College.  In  1904 
it  was  moved  to  Greenwood  and  named  Lander,  honoring 
its  founder. 

The  college  was  offered  to  the  South  Carolina  Con- 
ference of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in  1898  as  a  part 
of  its  educational  system,  and  in  1906  it  came  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  conference.  It  continued  this  relation- 
ship until  1948,  when  the  South  Carolina  Conference 
voted    to   deed    the   college   to    the   Greenwood    County 


Education  Commission  in  order  to  concentrate  support 
on  Columbia  and  Wofford  Colleges. 

Serving  as  president  of  the  college  during  its  church- 
related  period  were:  Samuel  Lander  (1872-1904);  John 
O.  Willson  (1904-23);  Robert  O.  Lawton,  acting  presi- 
dent (1923);  B.  Rhett  Turnipseed  (1923-27);  R.  H. 
Bennett  (1927-32);  John  W.  Speake  (1932-41);  John 
Marvin  Ra.st  (1941-48). 

John  O.  Gross 

LANDON,  ALFRED  MOSSMAN    (1887-  ),  American 

layman,  governor,  and  presidential  candidate,  was  bom 
at  West  Middlesex,  Pa.,  on  Sept.  9,  1887.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Marietta  Academy  in  Ohio,  and  graduated  in 
law  from  the  University  of  Kansas  in  1908.  He  received 
the  honorary  LL.D.  degree  from  Washburn  and  Marietta 
Colleges  and  Boston  University  and  the  L.H.D.  from 
Kansas  State  University. 

Removing  to  Kans.as  in  young  manhood,  he  was  em- 
ployed in  a  bank  at  Independence  until  1912,  after  which 
he  was  an  oil  producer  and  operator  of  radio  broadcasting 
stations.  He  was  an  officer  in  the  Chemical  Warfare  Ser- 
vice of  the  U.S.  Army  during  World  War  I. 

Mr.  Landon  was  chairman  of  the  Republican  State 
Central  Committee  in  Kansas  and  in  1932  he  was  elected 
governor  of  the  state  and  served  two  terms.  In  1936  he 
was  the  Republican  nominee  for  President  of  the  United 
States,  losing  to  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt. 

Long  active  in  Methodist  affairs,  he  was  a  member  of 
the  Kansas  Conference  delegation  of  the  M.  E.  Church 
at  the  Uniting  Conference  of  1939.  He  was  elected  chair- 
man of  the  important  committee  on  Publishing  Interests  of 
that  Conference  and  helped  fomiulate  the  legislation 
which  correlated  the  publishing  work  of  the  three  Method- 
ist Churches  then  merging  into  The  Methodist  Church.  He 
resides  in  Topeka,  Kansas. 


Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 


Elmer  T.  Clark 


LANDSDALE,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.  Bethel  Hill 
Church,  located  on  Skippack  Pike  and  Bethel  Road,  is  the 
successor  church  to  and  is  erected  very  near  the  site  of  the 
first  chapel  used  by  the  Methodists  in  Pennsylvania  out- 
side of  Philadelphia.  Joseph  Pilmore  in  various  places 
in  his  Journal  wrote  of  preaching  at  Metchin  (now  Bethel 
Hill).  On  Oct.  13,  1770  he  wrote,  "Mr.  Edward  Evans 
and  I  set  out  in  the  morning  for  Metchin — a  place  about 
20  miles  from  the  city,  to  open  a  new  Chapel  which  had 
been  built  by  a  few  persons  who  loved  the  Redeemer,  and 
wished  to  advance  His  Kingdom  in  the  World."  The 
ground  on  which  the  chapel  was  built  was  the  gift  of 
Hance  Supplee  who  donated  also  an  adjoining  lot  for  a 
cemetery. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War  Washington's  Army  was 
twice  encamped  in  the  general  region  of  the  church,  and 
in  October  1777,  several  of  Washington's  officers  were 
quartered  with  Abraham  Supplee,  a  local  preacher  and 
son  of  Hance  Supplee.  Following  the  Battle  of  German- 
town  the  chapel  was  used  as  a  temporary  hospital  for  the 
wounded,  and  about  thirty  Revolutionary  War  Veterans 
are  buried  in  the  cemetery. 

The  chapel  at  first  was  not  under  the  care  of  any 
particular  denomination.  In  the  year  1782,  however,  it 
was  regularly  organized  under  the  Methodists.  In  January 
of  that  year  the  ground  and  buildings  upon  it  were  deeded 


WORLD   METHODISM 

by  David  Wagener  and  his  wife  to  John  Tyson,  Andrew 
Supplee,  Samuel  Castner,  Christopher  Zimmerman,  Abra- 
ham Supplee  and  Benjamin  Tyson  for  the  sum  of  five  shill- 
ings. The  deed  further  states  it  was  for  them  or  their 
heirs  ".  .  .  or  any  that  shall  hereafter  become  members 
of  that  Society  forever  for  the  Special  use  of  that  Society 
called  the  Methodist  for  a  worship  house  and  Burying 
place  for  the  only  use  of  that  Society  or  such  whom  they 
of  that  Society  (sic)  or  belonging  to  that  meeting  or 
that  may  at  any  time  become  members  of  that  Society 
shall  tolerate  to  preach  or  allow  to  hold  worship  in  .  .  .  ." 

The  church  was  used  until  1845  when  the  present 
building  of  stone  and  brick  was  erected  on  ground  given 
by  Samuel  Supplee  adjacent  to  the  original  church.  A  new 
front  was  added  to  the  church  in  1904  and  two  years  later 
the  original  building  was  torn  down. 

For  many  years  the  size  of  the  church  and  congrega- 
tion remained  static,  but  recently,  with  the  movement  of 
many  persons  to  the  suburbs,  the  church  has  been  slowly 
growing.  The  church  building  has  been  renovated,  and  an 
educational  unit  and  a  new  parsonage  have  been  added. 
The  present  Bethel  Hill  Church  is  in  possession  of  the 
original  deed  quoted  above. 

J.  Lednum,  Rise  of  Methodism.  1859. 

Maser  and  Maag,  Journal  of  Joseph  Pilmore.  1969. 

Fredebick  E.  Maser 

LANE,  GEORGE  (1842-1904),  Australian  minister  and 
conference  president,  was  born  at  Hitchin,  England,  on 
July  31,  1842.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Baptist  minister  and 
with  his  parents  came  to  New  South  Wales,  Australia 
when  twelve  years  of  age.  While  still  young  he  was  led, 
under  the  ministry  of  John  Watsford,  to  dedicate  his 
life  to  Christ.  He  offered  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Methodist  ministry  in  1864,  and  was  accepted. 

His  gifts  as  preacher  and  administrator  soon  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  Conference,  and  in  1883  he  was  ap- 
pointed Secretary  of  the  Home  Mission  Society — a  posi- 
tion he  held  for  six  years.  He  subsequently  administered 
the  property  affairs  of  the  Church  for  several  years,  and 
his  business  acumen  and  abundant  energy  won  for  him 
the  confidence  of  all  who  were  associated  with  him.  He 
was  twice  elected  President  of  the  General  Conference 
and  throughout  the  whole  of  his  career  he  was  held  in 
the  highest  esteem  by  the  Methodist  people  in  general. 

He  took  a  prominent  part  in  uniting  the  Wesleyan,  the 
Primitive  Methodist  and  the  United  Free  Methodist 
Churches  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and  in  all  he 
did  he  exhibited  a  fraternal  and  humble  spirit.  Every  gift 
he  possessed  he  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Master  whom 
he  served  with  unflagging  zeal,  and  great  efficiency  to  the 
end. 

Toward  the  close  of  his  life  the  University  of  Victoria 
in  Canada  conferred  on  him  the  D.D.  degree. 

Australian  Editorial  Committee 

LANE,  ISAAC  (1834-1937),  American  bishop  of  the 
C.M.E.  Church,  was  bom  a  slave  on  March  3,  1834,  five 
miles  north  of  Jackson,  Tenn.  He  joined  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  on  Oct.  21,  1854.  Licensed  to  exhort  in  November 
of  1856,  he  received  a  license  to  preach  shortly  thereafter. 
In  1866,  he  was  ordained  deacon  and  elder  by  the  newly 
formed  Tennessee,  North  Alabama,  and  North  Mississippi 
Annual  Conference.  At  the  same  meeting  of  the  Confer- 
ence, he  was  appointed  presiding  elder  of  the  Jackson 


lANGDALE,   JOHN   WILLIAM 


Isaac  Lane 

District  and  served  in  that  capacity  until  1870.  Then,  he 
was  appointed  minister  of  Liberty  Church  in  Jackson, 
Tenn.,  the  "Mother  Church"  of  his  denomination,  and 
elected  as  a  delegate  to  the  first  General  Conference  of 
the  C.M.E.  Church.  At  the  General  Conference  of  1873, 
he  was  elected  to  the  office  of  bishop. 

Deprived  of  a  formal  education  himself,  he  received 
what  he  had  by  his  own  hard  work.  He  had  a  great  in- 
terest in  the  education  of  his  race  and  founded  Lane 
College  in  Jackson,  Tenn.,  which  bears  his  name.  As  a 
bishop,  he  was  a  leader  in  church  expansion  and  pro- 
moted the  taking  of  the  church  to  his  people  as  they 
moved  into  the  north  and  west. 

Bishop  Lane  served  until  1914  when  he  was  granted 
release  from  administrative  duties  upon  his  request.  He 
died  on  Dec.  5,  1937. 


Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965. 
I.   Lane,  Autobiography.   1916. 


Ralph   G.   Gay 


LANE  COLLEGE,  Jackson,  Tennessee,  an  institution  of 
the  C.M.E.  Church,  was  founded  in  1882  by  Bishop 
Isaac  Lane.  The  name  Lane  Institute  was  adopted  in 
1883,  but  the  present  name  of  Lane  College  was  adopted 
in  1895,  when  the  institution  offered  its  first  instructional 
program  at  the  college  level.  The  college  has  a  four-year 
undergraduate  program  in  the  liberal  arts,  and  offers  B.A. 
and  B.S.  degrees. 

The  governing  board  is  made  up  of  eighteen  members 
elected  by  the  board  upon  nomination  by  sponsoring  con- 
ferences of  the  C.M.E.  Church.  Each  member  senes  a 
three-year  term. 

Lane  College  statistics  are  as  follows:  library,  40,989 
volumes;  total  enrollment,  1,034;  number  of  foreign  stu- 
dents, nine;  total  faculty,  forty-nine;  campus  acreage, 
forty-two;  number  of  buildings,  seventeen;  value  of  physi- 
cal plant,  $2,985,242;  endowment,  book  value,  $378,487; 
market  value,  $3,600,000;  current  income,  $2,004,314; 
current  expenditures,  $1,880,958. 

LANGDALE,  JOHN  WILLIAM  (1874-1940),  American 
minister  and  Book  Editor  of  the   M.   E.   Church,   was 

1381 


LANIUS,    JACOB 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


bom  in  Newcastle,  England,  on  Aug.  14,  1874,  of  Amer- 
ican and  English  parentage.  He  was  naturalized  by  his 
father's  citizen.ship,  being  the  son  of  John  Wilkenson  and 
Annie  (Walton)  Langdale,  and  was  brought  to  the  United 
States  in  his  infancy.  He  received  the  B.A.  degree  from 
Wesleyan  University,  Conn.  190.3,  its  D.D.  in  1914, 
and  also  studied  at  the  Boston  University  School  of 
Theology  and  at  Harvard.  His  wife  was  Alice  Belle 
Bamatt  of  Crafton,  Pa.,  whom  he  married  on  Jan.  10, 
1905. 

In  1905,  he  entered  the  Methodist  ministry  and  became 
pastor  of  Meyersdale.  Pa.,  1905-08;  Beaver,  Pa.,  1908-12; 
Avondale  Church,  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  1912-16;  New  York 
Avenue  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1916-25;  at  which  time 
he  became  the  superintendent  of  the  Brooklyn  South  Dis- 
trict. He  served  as  district  superintendent  1925-28,  when 
he  was  elected  Book  Editor  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  and  in 
this  office  exercised  great  influence  and  gave  decided  gen- 
eral leadership  to  his  Church  in  many  ways.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions,  a  director  of  the  Brooklyn  Federation 
of  Churches,  and  chairman  of  the  committee  on  policy  of 
the  Feder.al  Council  of  Churches,  the  chairman  of  the 
Commission  on  the  Revision  of  the  Ritual,  which  revision 
he  presented  to  the  General  Conference  of  1932.  He 
served  on  the  Joint  Hymnal  Commission  of  1930-34,  as 
its  secretary,  and  took  a  place  of  acknowledged  leader- 
ship in  the  revision  of  the  Hymnal,  as  well  as  in  that  of 
the  Responsive  Readings  in  the  Hymnal  which  were  re- 
worked at  that  time. 

A  large  genial  man  with  a  passion  for  details  and  with 
an  avid  interest  in  all  Church-wide  moves  and  affairs, 
Langdale  enjoyed  great  popularity  and  the  abiding  affec- 
tion of  his  brethren.  He  was  the  founder  and  first  editor 
of  Religion  in  Life.  This  Journal  was  begun  by  him  with 
an  interdenominational  outreach  designed  to  take  the 
place  of  the  old  Quarterly  Review  which  had  gone  out  of 
existence.  It  has  since  been  continued  as  an  official  pub- 
lication of  the  Church. 

His  health  became  greatly  impaired  after  a  time  and 
shortly  after  the  reorganization  of  the  Methodist  Pub- 
lishing interests  at  Church  union,  he  died  in  the  Brook- 
lyn Methodist  Hospital  on  Dec.  10,  1940.  His  funeral 
was  conducted  by  Bishop  Francis  J.  McConnell  in  the 
New  York  Avenue  Church  in  Brooklyn,  and  a  large  repre- 
sentation of  ministers  from  the  entire  New  York  area  was 
present  to  do  him  honor. 

Journal  of  the  New  York  East  Conference,  1941.         N.  B.  H. 

LANIUS,  JACOB  (1814-1851),  American  minister  and 
leader  in  Missouri  Methodism,  was  born  at  Fincastle, 
Va.,  Jan.  9,  1814.  His  parents  moved  to  Potosi,  Washing- 
ton County,  Mo.,  when  he  was  a  child.  The  elder  Lanius 
was  a  saddlemaker  and  the  boy  learned  the  trade.  At 
fourteen  Jacob  joined  the  Methodist  Church  in  Potosi, 
and  soon  felt  called  to  preach.  He  was  Hcensed  to  preach 
Aug.  20,  1831,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Missouri  Con- 
ference on  trial  that  fall  at  Jackson.  He  was  ordained 
deacon  by  Bishop  Joshua  Soitle  in  1833,  and  elder  by 
Bishop  Robert  R.  Roberts  in  1835.  His  appointments 
were  as  follows:  1831,  Bowling  Green  Circuit,  junior 
preacher;  1832,  St.  Charles  Circuit,  junior  preacher;  1833, 
Paris  Circuit;  1834,  Richmond  Circuit;  1835,  Meramec 
Circuit;  1836-1837,  Belleview  Circuit;  1838,  Springfield 
District;  1839-1840,  Cape  Girardeau  District;  1841-1842, 


Jacob  Lanius 

Palmyra  Station;  1843,  Hannibal  Station;  1844-1845, 
Bowling  Green  Station;  1846-1849,  Hannibal  District; 
1850-1851,  Columbia  District. 

In  1833,  Lanius  started  keeping  a  journal  on  loose 
sheets  of  paper,  and  apparently  continued  it  the  rest  of 
his  life.  The  journal  shows  that  as  a  young  preacher  Lanius 
was  dedicated,  devout,  popular,  humble,  studious,  and 
successful.  There  are  constant  references  to  books  which 
he  was  reading.  At  twenty  he  wrote,  "I  am  convinced  .  .  . 
that  .  .  .  education  is  too  much  neglected  by  the  ministry." 
He  refers  frequently  to  "flattery"  and  prays  that  his  head 
will  not  be  turned  by  the  words  of  commendation  which 
he  hears.  He  was  a  good  revival  preacher,  and  rejoiced 
when  the  saints  shouted  and  the  sinners  came  to  the 
mourners'  bench.  He  expected  the  church  to  be  built  up 
under  his  ministiy,  and  if  there  were  no  conversions  and 
no  additions  to  the  church,  he  felt  that  he  had  failed.  Be- 
cause he  did  not  win  a  convert  or  a  new  member  during 
his  first  year  at  Palmyra,  he  insisted  in  all  seriousness  that 
he  ought  to  move.  But  the  people  asked  for  his  return  and 
the  bishop  reappointed  him  for  a  second  year. 

Lanius'  health  became  impaired  when  he  was  about 
twenty-five,  and  on  occasion  he  was  incapacitated  for 
weeks  at  a  time.  Notwithstanding  physical  weakness,  he 
persevered  with  diligence  and  zeal,  and  his  reputation  as 
a  preacher  and  a  leader  in  the  conference  grew.  He  was 
a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference  (MES)  of  1850. 

In  the  1830's  Lanius  sensed  the  growing  tension  in 
Methodism  over  slavery.  In  1837  he  noted  in  his  journal 
that  the  Methodist  preachers  of  the  north  and  the  south 
had  apparendy  come  to  think  of  themselves  as  members 
of  different  ecclesiastical  bodies.  He  deplored  the  situation 
and  said  he  favored  sending  southern  preachers  north 
and  northern  preachers  south;  he  beheved  "this  would 
prevent  local  interest  and  selfish  feelings  from  entering 
the  ministry."  He  felt  that  the  preservation  of  "ministerial 
peace  and  harmony"  was  essential  for  the  cause  of  Christ. 
As  early  as  1834  Lanius  resolved  "to  pay  more  attention 
to  the  slave  population  than  I  have  hitherto  done,"  though 
he  said  he  knew  that  would  not  be  popular  with  the  white 
people.  When  the  division  of  the  church  came  in  1844, 
Lanius  adhered  to  the  south. 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Lanius  died  in  1851  at  thirty-seven  years  of  age,  leaving 
a  wife  and  several  children.  For  decades  afterward  his 
memory  was  green  in  Missouri  Methodism.  D.  R.  Mc- 
Anally,  Editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate,  said 
in  1881  that  Lanius  'Tjecame  eminent  among  the  eminent 
in  the  Missouri  work."  W.  S.  Woodard  in  Annals  of  Mis- 
souri Methodism  said  in  1893,  "Missouri  has  produced 
many  faithful  heralds  of  the  cross,  but  probably  no  one 
who  was  more  deeply  consecrated  to  his  work  nor  success- 
ful in  it  than  Jacob  Lanius.  ...  He  was  one  of  the  most 
successful  preachers  that  ever  traveled  in  Missouri." 

Jacob  Lanius,  Journal,  original  manuscript  in  Historical  De- 
pository of  Missouri  East  Conference,  Centenary  Church,  St. 
Louis. 

Andrew  Monroe,  Recollections,  manuscript  in  Commission  on 
Archives  and  History,  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C.   Albea  Godbold    . 

L'ANSE,  MICHIGAN,  U.S.A.,  is  situated  on  the  south 
shore  of  Keweenaw  Ray,  which  is  formed  by  the  Kewee- 
naw Peninsula,  a  strip  of  land  jutting  sixty-five  to  seventy 
miles  in  a  northeasterly  direction  into  Lake  Superior.  This 
area  receives  its  name  from  the  Indian  word  "Ke-wa-we- 
non"  which  means  "carrying  place  or  portage." 

Into  this  area  in  the  year  1834  came  the  young  Daniel 
M.  Chandler  from  New  York  State,  who  had  received 
and  responded  to  a  call  to  minister  to  the  Chippewa  In- 
dians of  the  Upper  Peninsula  of  the  Michigan  Territory. 
The  way  had  been  prepared  for  him  by  Elder  John  Sun- 
day, a  Chippewa  evangelist  who  had  come  into  this  region 
two  years  before  from  the  missions  of  upper  Can.\da.  A 
log  cabin  was  purchased  from  a  trader  of  the  American 
Fur  Company  and  it  served  D.  M.  Chandler  as  a  dwelling 
house,  school  and  church.  Soon  the  young  missionary  was 
teaching  thirteen  or  more  Indian  children  in  the  kitchen. 

Thus  begins  the  history  of  the  Methodist  Church  at 
L'Anse.  Chandler  was  a  beloved  missionary  who  found  an 
early  grave  due  to  overexertion  and  exposure.  Others 
followed  his  pattern  of  devotion.  The  experiences  of  John 
PiTEZEL,  who  came  to  this  mission  in  1844,  are  written 
very  interestingly  in  his  book.  Lights  and  Shades  of  Mis- 
sionary Life.  Peter  Marksman,  one  of  the  early  preachers, 
a  Chippewa  convert,  is  among  the  names  to  be  remem- 
bered. He  is  buried  in  the  local  cemetery.  Kewawenon 
was  a  flourishing  Indian  mission  for  many  years;  in  1844 
it  reported  sixty-five  members. 

In  1873  a  Methodist  church  was  built  at  L'Anse.  This 
building  is  still  standing  but  is  no  longer  being  used  for 
worship.  In  1879  a  Methodist  Society  was  founded  at 
Pequaming,  ten  miles  away,  the  same  year  that  the  village 
was  organized.  The  Ke-vva-we-non  mission  was  coupled 
with  this  congregation.  This  became  the  site  of  the  Indian 
camp  meetings  where  services  were  held  for  two  weeks 
each  year  for  many  years.  Later  the  camp  meetings  were 
transferred  to  grounds  closer  to  L'Anse.  A  church  was 
built  at  Pequaming  which  was  later  to  become  the  build- 
ing for  worship  at  L'Anse. 

Soon  after  the  Ford  Motor  Company  moved  out  of 
Pequaming  the  town  was  abandoned  and  is  now  a  ghost 
town.  The  church  building  was  moved  to  L'Anse,  it  was 
covered  with  native  stone  and  an  addition  was  built  on. 
This  is  the  building  where  the  L'Anse  congregation  now 
worships.  In  1964  a  small  educational  wing  was  added. 
After  the  Pequaming  congregation  merged  with  the 
L'Anse  congregation,  the  Haraga  Methodist  Church, 
located  on  the  west  side  of  Keweenaw  Ray,  was  added 


LA    PAZ,    BOLIVIA 

to  the  charge.  The  present  charge  includes  L'Anse  and 
Raraga  Methodist  Churches  and  the  Zeba  (Ke-wa-we- 
non)  Mission. 

Konstantin  W'lpp 

LANSING,  MICHIGAN,  U.S.A.,  was  named  by  settlers 
from  Lansing,  New  York,  who  built  the  first  house  in 
Lansing,  Mich.,  in  1843.  The  settlement  was  located  at 
the  confluence  of  Grand  and  Red  Cedar  Rivers,  and  was 
chartered  as  a  city  in  1859.  It  is  now  the  capital  of 
Michigan. 

Lewis  Coburn  preached  the  first  Methodist  sermon 
there  in  the  log  house  of  Joab  Page,  a  Justice  of  the 
Peace  who  lived  in  "Lower  Town,"  now  North  Lansing. 
Page  became  the  first  leader.  The  first  meeting  was  held 
in  1845,  and  the  first  society  was  organized  in  1846. 
F.  A.  Rlade  was  pastor  from  1847  to  1848,  and  preached 
on  April  7,  1847  to  sixty  people  when  Lansing  had  less 
than  thirty  in  population.  Lansing  first  appeared  in  the 
M.  E.  Church  records  in  1848,  with  R.  R.  Richards  as 
pastor  for  six  months,  and  seventy  members  were  then 
reported.  That  year  a  horse  barn  was  purchased  and  used 
by  the  Methodists  until  1865. 

A  class  was  organized  in  the  winter  of  1849-50  in 
"Middle  Town,"  meeting  principally  in  the  State  Capitol 
legislative  halls.  This  was  the  beginning  of  Central 
Church.  Resin  Sapp,  pastor  1849-50,  also  acted  as  chaplain 
of  the  Michigan  Legislature.  In  1850  a  lot  was  deeded  to 
First  Church  by  the  State  of  Michigan.  Subsequently  this 
lot  was  deeded  to  Central  Church,  which  in  1859  started 
a  subscription  fist  to  erect  a  new  building.  A  brick  struc- 
ture was  begun  in  1862,  at  a  cost  of  $10,000,  and  was 
dedicated  by  Rishop  Simpson  on  Aug.  4,  1863. 

The  present  Ionia  sandstone  building  was  dedicated  on 
April  20,  1890  by  Rishop  Joyce.  A  revolving  lighted 
cross,  the  gift  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Joseph  Rurton,  was  dedi- 
cated Dec.  31,  1922.  D.  Stanley  Coobs,  a  native  of  Mich- 
igan, was  appointed  pastor  of  Central  Church  in  1938, 
remaining  until  1952,  when  he  was  elected  bishop. 

With  the  help  of  Central  Church,  three  other  Method- 
ist churches  were  organized  in  Lansing:  Asbury  Church, 
Mt.  Hope  Avenue,  and  Potter  Park.  In  1868  First  Church 
bought  a  site  and  erected  a  wooden  structure  in  North 
Lansing  in  1870.  Methodism  prospered,  and  in  1876  Lan- 
sing had  three  Methodist  churches:  Central  with  313 
members;  First  with  138  members,  and  the  German 
Church,  with  133  members. 

In  1970  Lansing,  including  East  Lansing,  had  8,046 
members.  Central  Church  had  2,129  members  and  prop- 
erty valued  at  $2,150,844;  Mt.  Hope  Avenue  had  969 
members;  and  First  Church  had  722  members.  The  city 
itself  lists  twelve  United  Methodist  churches,  one  A.M.E. 
church,  one  Wesleyan,  and  one  Free  Methodist. 

General  Mirtutes. 

E.  O.  Izant,  History  of  Central  Methodist  Church.  1950. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

LA  PAZ,  Rolivia,  is  the  largest  city  in  that  land  with 
347,394  people.  Recause  of  its  accessibility,  it  is  the  seat 
of  government  in  Rolivia,  though  Sucre  is  the  legal  capi- 
tal. La  Paz  lies  in  the  heart  of  a  gigantic  canyon  about 
three  miles  wide,  ten  miles  long,  and  1,500  feet  deep,  at 
an  altitude  of  about  11,800  feet,  and  is  framed  with  high 
Andean  peaks.  The  city  is  served  by  several  airlines  and 


LA   PORTE,    INDIANA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


has  the  Pacific  terminus  of  the  only  railroad  that  crosses 
the  continent. 

In  La  Paz  there  is  the  Church  of  the  Reformation;  the 
Central  Church,  with  a  fine  modern  building  at  a  strategic 
intersection  in  the  downtown  city;  the  Church  of  the  Re- 
deemer, the  principal  Aymara  Indian  church,  with  the 
largest  Methodist  congregation  in  Bolivia.  Its  program 
includes  social  service  in  the  poorer  section  of  the  town, 
the  section  in  which  it  is  located.  The  Church  of  the 
Resurrection  is  in  Obrajes,  adjoining  the  American  Clinic, 
and  is  a  church  which  ministers  to  that  community  as 
well  as  the  hospital  community;  the  Church  of  the  Messiah 
is  a  new  church  in  Tembladerani,  organized  in  1958,  and 
at  last  reporting  was  the  church  most  rapidly  growing  in 
La  Paz.  This  church,  as  well  as  the  Church  of  the  Resur- 
rection, has  Bolivians  as  pastors.  Other  institutions  in  La 
Paz  are  the  American  Clinic,  the  Colegio  Evangelico 
Metodista,  and  the  Methodist  School  of  Nursing. 


Chapel,  American  iNsrnurE,  La  i^AZ,  Bolivia 

American  Clinic  (PfeifiFer  Memorial  Hospital)  is  a 
Methodist  hospital  in  La  Paz.  In  1920  plans  were  made  to 
begin  a  hospital  on  land  adjoining  the  American  Institute, 
as  Colegio  Evangelico  Metodista  was  then  called,  in 
La  Paz.  A  retired  American  army  doctor.  Dr.  Warren, 
and  a  Methodist  missionary  nurse.  La  Rose  Driver,  came 
to  La  Paz  to  open  this  hospital,  but  Warren  was  unable 
to  secure  a  general  license  to  practice  medicine  in  Bolivia, 
so  this  medical  work  was  postponed. 

By  1930  Frank  S.  Beck  had  returned  to  Bolivia,  and 
he  opened  the  American  Clinic  in  the  location  where  it 
was  originally  planned.  Although  the  Methodist  Board 
OF  Missions  did  not  have  funds  to  maintain  medical  work 
in  Bolivia,  it  aflBrmed  the  project  with  the  hope  that  pay- 
ing patients  could  help  support  the  work  with  the  poor. 
The  clinic  was  started  with  three  beds,  a  pressure  cooker 
for  a  sterilizer,  and  a  kit  of  instruments  bought  as  war 
surplus  from  the  First  World  War.  The  first  patient  treated 
was  a  woman  in  labor  suffering  from  eclampsia,  and  Beck 
saved  both  mother  and  child.  As  more  income  became 
available,  better  equipment  was  obtained,  and  a  new  wing 
was  added  for  an  operating  room  and  patient  rooms. 

The  clinic  had  grown  to  fifteen  beds  by  1935,  but  this 
was  insufficient.  While  home  on  furlough  Beck  told  the 
needs  to  Mrs.  Henry  Pfeiffer  of  New  York.  She  offered 
$30,000  toward  a  new  building  and  equipment.  Land  was 
purchased  in  Obrajes,  a  suburb  of  La  Paz  about  a  thou- 
sand feet  lower  than  the  main  city,  an  altitude  in  which 
it  was  felt  patients  would  recover  more  quickly.  As  con- 
struction began  on  the  large  clinic  and  the  nurses'  home. 


contributions  came  in  from  individuals  and  business  firms 
in  Bolivia  and  the  United  States.  Mrs.  Pfeiffer  donated 
another  $25,000  and  left  $50,000  more  in  an  endowment 
fund.  The  building  was  finished  in  1940.  Other  groups 
and  persons  from  the  LInited  States  and  from  the  Ameri- 
can and  British  communities  in  La  Paz  donated  equip- 
ment. The  clinic  was  named  Pfeiffer  Memorial  Hospital 
in  gratitude  to  the  Pfeiffers,  but  locally  continues  to  be 
known  as  the  American  Clinic. 

Bill  Jack  Marshall,  who  came  to  Bolivia  in  1955,  suc- 
ceeded Beck  as  director.  Pablo  Monti,  a  missionary  from 
Argentina,  and  Enrique  Cicchetti,  an  Argentine  church 
worker  and  pastor,  both  worked  at  the  clinic.  Louis 
Tatom  III,  a  missionary  surgeon,  had  been  there  for 
almost  two  years  when  he  and  Murray  Dickson  were 
both  killed  in  an  automobile  accident.  Director  since 
1966  is  Thoburn  Thompson. 

The  American  Clinic  continues  to  serve  all  levels  of 
Bolivian  society — from  the  country's  Aymara  Indian  to 
the  foreign  community.  In  1965  there  were  3,050  out- 
patients, 1,780  bed  patients,  545  operations  performed, 
and  514  babies  delivered.  Plans  for  the  near  future  call 
for  adding  a  service  wing,  and  later  a  pediatrics  and 
preferential  unit. 

Methodist  School  of  Nursing,  the  first  nursing  school  in 
Bolivia,  is  related  to  the  American  Clinic.  The  school 
has  had  a  great  influence  on  changing  the  status  of  nursing 
in  Bolivia  from  a  menial  job  into  a  respected  profession. 
Although  the  school  was  started  unofficially  earlier,  it 
was  organized  formally  in  1939  by  Miriam  Beck,  daughter 
of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Frank  S.  Beck,  and  was  recognized  by 
the  government  a  year  later.  Miss  Beck  was  director  for 
many  years,  then  returned  to  work  after  her  marriage  to 
Robert  Knowles  in  1946. 

High  school  graduation  is  required  for  admission. 
Nurses  who  have  been  trained  at  the  school  have  made 
a  great  contribution  to  the  welfare  of  the  Bolivian  people 
through  their  work  as  instructors  and  supervisors  of 
nursing  at  the  clinic  and  in  other  hospitals  or  clinics,  in 
the  mines,  and  in  public  health  work.  Students  receive 
practice  at  the  American  Clinic  and  other  hospitals  and 
clinics  of  La  Paz. 

The  school  has  graduated  170  nurses  from  its  beginning 
to  1966.  In  1962  the  program  was  changed  from  three 
years  to  four,  placing  more  emphasis  upon  subjects  such 
as  public  health  and  anthropology. 

The  enrollment  in  1966  was  fifty  girls.  There  are  five 
Bolivian  instructors,  plus  the  Bolivian  director,  Senorita 
Eunice  Zambrana,  daughter  of  one  of  the  first  Methodist 
pastors.  Several  doctors  from  the  clinic  and  city  teach  at 
the  school,  some  without  remuneration. 

In  1963  a  section  was  built  onto  the  original  building 
for  offices,  classrooms,  laboratories,  and  dormitories,  and 
the  unit  named  "Residencia  Bessie  de  Beck"  in  honor  of 
Mrs.  Frank  S.  Beck. 

Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions,  Gazetteer  and 
Statistics.  New  York:  Board  of  Missions,  1960. 

Natalie  Barber 

LA  PORTE,  INDIANA,  U.S.A.  Historically  the  First  Meth- 
odist Church  in  La  Porte  was  one  of  the  first  Protestant 
churches  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state.  It  was  the 
first  Protestant  organization  in  La  Porte  County. 

In  1832  the  La  Porte  Mission  was  organized.  In  1836 
the  first  church  building  was  built  in  what  is  now  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LARGE   MINUTES 


city  of  La  Porte.  In  1919  the  First  Methodist  Church  and 
the  German  M.  E.  Church  united.  This  united  congrega- 
tion has  grown  to  be  one  of  the  two  largest  Methodist 
Churches  in  the  Northwest  Indiana  Conference. 

The  La  Porte  Church  has  a  history  of  unique  program- 
ming- to  meet  the  needs  of  its  community.  As  early  as 
1896  a  church  school  and  worship  service  was  organized 
to  minister  to  mute  and  deaf  people  in  northern  Indiana. 
Today  it  continues  to  lead  in  creative  church  programming 
under  its  four  ministers:  a  senior  pastor,  minister  of  evan- 
gelism, minister  of  education,  minister  to  senior  adults. 
Each  minister  is  responsible  for  his  particular  area  of  the 
church  program. 

In  1970  First  Church  reported  a  membership  of  1,926, 
property  valued  at  $1,165,725,  and  $67,743  raised  for  all 
purposes. 

LARGE,  RICHARD  WHITFIELD  (1873-1920),  Canadian 
medical  missionary,  was  born  Feb.  8,  1873,  at  Kincardine, 
Ontario,  where  his  father  Richard  was  the  Methodist 
minister.  Educated  in  various  primary  and  secondar>' 
schools,  he  studied  medicine  at  Trinity  Medical  College, 
Toronto,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1897. 

Large  came  to  British  Columbia  in  1898  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Methodist  Church,  and  for  a  period  was 
superintendent  of  a  hospital  built  by  the  Japanese  in 
Steveston,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Eraser,  to  serve  a  fishing 
community  of  between  five  and  six  thousand  people. 
After  special  ordination  by  the  Methodist  Conference,  he 
moved  to  the  Indian  village  of  Bella  Bella  where  his  skill 
as  physician  and  surgeon  quickly  became  known.  He  soon 
saw  that  without  a  hospital  his  work  could  not  succeed. 
With  the  help  of  the  church,  government  and  the  vil- 
lagers, a  twelve-bed  unit  was  opened  in  October  1902. 
He  also  rebuilt  the  hospital  at  Rivers  Inlet,  some  seventy 
miles  distant. 

He  then  undertook  to  train  the  Indians  in  preventive 
medicine.  With  the  extensive  use  of  charts  and  lantern 
slides,  he  initiated  a  campaign  of  education  on  such  sub- 
jects as  ventilation,  sanitation,  cleanliness,  and  nutrition, 
as  well  as  on  the  effects  of  alcohol.  "No  Spitting"  signs 
throughout  the  village  gave  warning  of  a  fine  to  those 
who  might  be  guilty  of  this  method  of  spreading  tuber- 
culosis. 

In  1910,  Large  was  asked  to  take  over  the  medical 
work  at  Port  Simpson,  a  large  Indian  village  thirty  miles 
north  of  Prince  Rupert.  Adjoining  it  was  a  white  com- 
munity which  offered  educational  opportunities  for  his 
three  sons,  all  of  whom  became  physicians.  Here  at  Port 
Simpson,  as  at  Bella  Bella,  Large  was  not  only  medical 
superintendent  but  also  health  officer,  coroner,  and  justice 
of  the  peace.  His  hobby  was  music.  Gifted  with  an  out- 
standing baritone  voice,  he  was  much  in  demand  on  the 
concert  platform  as  well  as  at  church  gatherings. 

As  with  many  pioneer  ministers,  he  was  a  victim  of 
the  hardships  and  overwork  of  frontier  communities. 
Doubtless  these  contributed  to  his  death  on  Aug.  25, 
1920,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-seven.  The  hospital  at 
Bella  Bella,  now  known  as  the  "R.  W.  Large  Memorial 
Hospital,"  stands  as  a  tribute  to  the  dedicated  life  of  this 
man  of  God. 

R.  G.  Large,  The  Skeena:  River  of  Destiny.  Vancouver:  Mitch- 
ell, 1958. 

Mrs.  F.  C.  Stephenson,  Canadian  Methodist  Missions.  1925. 

W.  P.  Bunt 


LARGE  MINUTES  are  summaries  of  several  conferences 
held  with  his  preachers  by  John  Wesley,  beginning  in 
1744.  Their  origin  lies  in  a  pamphlet,  entitled  Minutes  of 
Some  Late  Conversation.^  between  the  Revd.  Mr.  Wesley 
and  Others,  published  by  Wesley  in  1749.  This  pamphlet 
was  concerned  with  the  organization  and  polity  of  the 
Methodist  movement,  and  it  came  to  be  known  as  the 
"Disciplinary  Minutes,"  to  contrast  it  with  a  second  such 
pamphlet  which  dealt  with  the  doctrinal  position  of  the 
Methodists.  The  Disciplinary  Minutes  were  revised  and 
edited  by  Wesley  in  1753  to  form  a  code  of  regulations 
to  which  the  preachers  were  asked  to  subscribe  if  they 
wished  to  remain  in  connection  with  Wesley.  This  code 
of  regulations  of  1753,  entitled  simply  Minutes  of  Several 
Conversations,  came  to  be  called  the  Large  Minutes.  The 
adjective  "large"  referred  to  the  fact  that  these  minutes 
were  a  distillation  of  Wesley's  several  conferences  with  his 
preachers,  and  not  to  the  actual  bulk  of  the  document 
itself,  which  was  not  great. 

The  edition  of  1753  underwent  revisions  and  additions 
in  editions  which  appeared  in  1763,  1770,  1772,  1780, 
and  1789.  Preachers  in  the  Methodist  connection  were 
asked  to  signify  their  loyalty  to  the  Large  Minutes  by 
signing  their  names  to  them.  When  they  had  done  so,  they 
were  presented  with  copies  bearing  an  inscription  of  the 
fly-leaf  signed  by  Wesley:  "As  long  as  you  freely  consent 
to  and  earnestly  endeavor  to  walk  by  these  rules  we  shall 
rejoice  to  acknowledge  you  as  a  fellow  laborer." 

In  the  light  of  problems  which  developed  after  Wesley's 
death  in  1791,  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  conference  of 
1797  decided  to  accept  a  revision  and  rearrangement  of 
the  Large  Minutes  which  had  been  drawn  up  by  John 
Pawson.  This  edition  of  1797  became  the  basic  ecclesias- 
tical document  of  nineteenth  century  British  Methodism, 
having  the  same  role  in  Britain  as  the  Discipline  in 
America.  (Original  copies  of  the  document  bear  the  in- 
correct date  1779  on  the  title  page,  due  to  a  printer's 
error.)  After  reading  and  subscribing  to  the  Large  Min- 
utes, each  British  ordinand  was  presented  with  a  copy 
bearing  Wesley's  inscription  on  the  fly-leaf,  signed  by  the 
President  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Conference. 

The  edition  of  1797  does  reflect  the  Amiinian  and 
evangelical  quality  of  early  Methodist  theology,  but  its 
main  concern  is  with  the  practical  on-going  life  of  the 
Methodist  Church.  There  is  an  abundance  of  advice  on 
pastoral  visitation,  the  religious  instruction  of  children, 
a  preacher's  use  of  his  time,  and  other  such  matters.  The 
Large  Minutes  also  deal  with  such  questions  of  polity  as 
property  deeds,  the  means  of  removing  men  remiss  in 
their  duties  from  pastoral  office,  tlie  administration  of  the 
Preachers'  Fund,  and  the  support  of  the  Kingswood 
School  for  the  children  of  preachers.  In  1831  David 
Thomson,  the  Secretary  of  the  conference,  published  a 
definitive  edition  of  the  edition  of  1797  to  assure  its  being 
standard  throughout  British  Metliodism. 

The  Large  Minutes  exercised  a  crucial  influence  on 
American  Methodism.  The  1773  conference  at  St. 
George's  Church,  Philadelphia,  affirmed  its  loyalty  to 
"the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Methodists,  as  con- 
tained in  the  Large  Minutes"  and  declared  that  "if  any 
preachers  deviate  from  the  Minutes,  we  can  have  no 
fellowship  with  them  till  they  change  their  conduct." 
American  conferences  after  1773  continued  to  accept  the 
Large  Minutes  as  their  guide,  though  they  came  in- 
creasingly to  amend  and  adapt  them  to  American  condi- 
tions. 


LARRABEE,    WILLIAM   CLARKE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


The  Discipline  adopted  by  the  Christmas  Confebence 
at  Baltimore  in  1784  was  based  upon  the  1780  edition  of 
tlic  Large  Minutes.  Since  the  1784  Discipline  became 
the  basis  for  all  further  editions  of  the  American  Disci- 
pline, the  Large  Minutes  thus  exerted  an  important 
influence  upon  American  as  well  as  British  Methodism 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  This  was  true  in  the  Canadian 
and  other  Methodist  churches  which  developed  in  this 
period  as  well. 

R.  Emory,  History  of  the  Discipline.  1856. 

M.  Simpson,  Cycloimedia.   1878.  Thomas  Tredway 

LARRABEE,  WILLIAM  CLARKE  (1802-1859),  American 
pioneer  educator  and  minister,  was  born  at  Cape  Eliza- 
beth, Maine,  Dec.  23,  1802.  His  father,  a  sea  captain, 
died  soon  after  he  was  bom.  From  his  seventh  year  he 
lived  with  his  grandparents  and  uncle,  working  on  the 
fann  and  attending  school.  At  sixteen  William  went  to 
work  in  the  house  of  John  L.  Blake,  to  whom  he  was 
bound  for  five  years. 

Converted  in  a  Methodist  meeting,  he  was  licensed 
to  preach  in  June  1821.  He  joined  the  Oneida  Confer- 
ence in  1832  but  never  took  a  pastoral  appointment. 
Larrabee  was  graduated  at  Bowdoin,  Brunswick,  Maine, 
A.B.,  1828.  He  married  Harriet  Dunn  on  Sept.  28,  1828, 
and  was  the  father  of  four  children.  He  named  his  home 
"Rosabower"  in  memory  of  his  daughter  Emma,  who  died 
in  infancy  and  who  is  buried  on  the  campus  of  DePauw 
University. 

Larrabee  taught  in  and  later  was  principal  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  Seminary  at  Kent's  Hill,  Maine;  principal  of  the 
Academy  at  Alfred,  Maine;  tutor  in  the  preparatory  school 
at  Middleton,  Conn.,  which  was  the  forerunner  of  Wes- 
leyan  University;  and  was  principal  of  Oneida  Con- 
ference Seminary,  Cazenovia,  N.  Y.,  1831-35.  In  1840 
he  was  sent  as  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference. 

Bishop  Matthew  Simpson  persuaded  Larrabee  to  go  to 
DePauw,  where  he  was  professor  of  mathematics  and 
natural  science,  1840-52,  acting  as  president  for  one  year 
during  that  time. 

He  was  the  first  state  superintendent  of  public  in- 
struction in  Indiana,  1852-54,  and  in  a  sense  was  the 
founder  of  the  public  school  system  of  that  state.  From 
1854  to  1856  he  was  superintendent  of  the  Indiana  In- 
stitute for  the  Bhnd  at  Indianapolis. 

In  1856  he  was  made  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion again  and  kept  that  office  until  the  year  of  his  death. 
He  wrote  Lectures  on  tlic  Scientific  Evidences  of  Natural 
and  Revealed  Religion;  Wesley  and  His  Coadjutors  (2 
vols.);  Ashunj  and  His  Coadjutors  (2  vols.);  and  Essays, 
Rosabower . 

Larrabee  gained  in  a  rare  degree  the  confidence  and 
affection  of  his  students.  Retiring  in  January  1859,  he 
died  May  4  of  that  year  at  Creencastle,  Ind. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

National  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

LARSEN,  CARL  J.  (1849-1934),  American  minister  and 
Scandinavian  Conference  organizer,  was  born  in  America, 
settling  at  Chicago,  where  the  family  became  Methodists. 
Upon  his  marriage  in  1878,  he  and  his  bride  moved  to 
Oakland,  Calif.  There,  as  a  wood  carver  by  trade,  he 
became  foreman  in  one  of  the  largest  carving  and  de- 
signing factories  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

He  accepted  a  call  to  the  ministry  and  began  to  preach 


to  the  Scandinavian  people  in  Oakland.  In  1880  he  led 
in  the  erection  of  the  first  Scandinavian  church  on  the 
Coast  and  entered  the  California  Conference  on  trial. 
His  missionary  zeal  in  1881  led  him  to  visit  Oregon  and 
Washington  where  lie  found  many  persons  from  the 
Scandinavian  countries  who  welcomed  the  Christian 
gospel.  In  1882  he  was  transferred  to  the  Oregon  Con- 
ference and  organized  a  Norwegian-Danish  congregation 
in  Portland. 

In  1884  he  became  a  charter  member  of  the  Puget 
Sound  Annual  Conference  and  was  appointed  to  Tacoma. 
There  he  organized  a  congregation  of  his  fellow-country- 
men in  1885.  Later  he  organized  churches  in  Seattle; 
Spokane;  Moscow,  Idaho;  Montana,  and  did  pioneer 
mission  work  in  Alaska. 

When  the  Nonvegian-Danish  work  in  the  Northwest 
was  organized  into  a  Missionary  Conference  in  1888, 
Larsen  became  superintendent.  His  field  covered  Idaho, 
Oregon,  and  Washington. 

C.  J.  Larsen  is  credited  with  organizing  churches  in 
San  Francisco,  Calif.;  Tacoma,  Seattle,  and  Spokane, 
Wash.;  Portland,  Ore.;  and  Blaine,  Idaho.  He  presided 
over  the  first  Quarterly  Conference  at  Fair  Haven,  Belling- 
ham.  Wash.,  in  1890,  and  delivered  the  sermon  at  the 
opening  of  the  church  at  Butte,  Mont.,  in  1895.  He  died 
at  Portland,  Ore.  in  1934  and  was  buried  there. 

Martin  Larson,  ed.,  Memorial  Journal  of  Western  Norwegian- 
Danish  Methodism.  (A  brief  history  of  Western  Norwegian- 
Danish  Methodism. )  Privately  printed  in  1944  by  Melvin  L. 
Olson,  M.  K.  Skarbo,  David  C.  Hassel,  and  Martin  T.  Larson. 

Erle  Howell 

LARSON,  HILDA  (1864-1901),  was  the  first  foreign  mis- 
sionary of  the  Swedish  Methodist  Church  (U.S.A.),  bom 
in  Nettraby,  a  suburb  of  Karlskrona,  Sweden,  on  Dec.  24, 
1864.  She  was  brought  to  the  United  States  as  a  small 
child  and  she  and  her  parents  were  charter  members  of 
the  Swedish  Methodist  Church  in  Evanston,  111.  She 
was  converted  at  the  Des  Plaines  Camp  Meeting  and  at 
once  wished  to  go  into  Christian  sei-vice.  She  was  trained 
as  a  Deaconess  at  the  Lexington  Avenue  Methodist 
Church  in  New  York  until  she  sailed  for  Africa  with  John 
Oman  and  his  wife  and  daughter,  on  Aug.  24,  1895.  She 
was  stationed  at  Vivi,  Congo,  until  after  John  Oman's 
untimely  death.  Bishop  Hartzell  then  in  charge  of  work 
there  appointed  her  to  Quessua,  Angola,  which  she 
reached  on  Sept.  13,  1897,  after  two  months  of  travehng. 
At  the  Conference  at  Quhongua  which  opened  on  June 
1,  1899,  she  was  appointed  Teacher-in-Charge  of  the 
school  at  Quessua.  She  was  very  ill  the  last  few  months  in 
Africa  but  became  a  great  deal  better  on  a  long  voyage 
home  and  arrived  in  New  York  on  Aug.  30,  1900.  She 
spoke  in  many  of  the  Swedish  Methodist  Churches  and 
influenced  many  for  Christian  service.  She  died  on  Nov. 
21,  1901,  and  is  buried  in  the  family  plot  at  Rosehill 
Cemetery,  Chicago,  111. 

Central  Northwest  Conference  Minutes,  1942. 

Siindebudet,  Dec.  4,  1901. 

Vinter-Rosor,   1903.   A   series  of  Christmas   annuals  published 

by  the  Swedish  M.  E.  Book  Concern,  Chicago. 

Beulah  Swan  Blomberc 

LARTEY,  S.  DORME  (1900-1969),  the  first  native  African 
bishop  to  be  elected  in  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church,  was 


WORLD   METHODISM 

bom  and  educated  in  Ghana,  later  moving  to  Liberia. 
In  1933  he  entered  the  ministry  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  and  in  1939  joined  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  under 
the  late  Bishop  J.  W.  Brown.  The  following  year  he  was 
appointed  a  presiding  elder  by  Bishop  Brown.  Under 
Bishop  Cameron  C.  Alleyne  he  was  again  appointed  to 
this  position  as  well  as  to  the  superintendency  of  the 
Mount  Coffee  Mission. 

Under  the  late  Bishops  Edgar  B.  Watson  and  Hampton 
T.  Medford  (1946-1952)  he  served  as  Bishops'  Deputy. 
He  was  married  to  the  former  Alicia  Smith,  daughter  of 
the  late  Vice  President  James  S.  Smith  of  Liberia. 

S.  Dorme  Lartey  was  elevated  to  the  episcopacy  of 
the  Church  in  May  1960.  At  the  time  he  listed  his  birth 
date  as  Sept.  10,  1900.  He  died  suddenly  Aug.  2,  1969. 

David  H.  Bradley 

LARWOOD,  SAMUEL  (  ?  -1755),  a  British  Methodist, 
was  a  traveling  preacher.  He  was  at  Conference  in  Bris- 
tol in  1745,  London  in  1748,  Leeds  in  1753,  and  at  the 
Irish  Conference  at  Limerick  in  1752.  He  became  an 
Assistant  in  1747  and  was  in  Ireland  during  1748-52. 

He  had  a  dispute  with  Joseph  Cownley  in  Dublin  in 
1748,  because  Cownley  considered  Larwood  autocratic 
in  admitting  and  expelling  members.  In  August  1749  the 
Grand  Jury  "presented"  Charles  Wesley,  John  (sic) 
Larwood,  and  seven  others  to  be  of  ill  fame,  vagabonds 
and  disturbers  of  the  peace,  and  fit  to  be  deported. 
Larwood  became  involved  in  the  breach  of  1754,  and  took 
and  repaired  tlie  Presbyterian  Meeting  House  in  Zoar 
Street,  Southwark,  and  settled  there  as  an  Independent 
minister.  He  died  of  fever  in  November,  1755,  and  Wesley 
buried  him,  commenting  that  he  was  "deeply  convinced 
of  unfaithfulness  and  yet  hoping  to  find  mercy." 

V.  E.  Vine 

LAS  CRUCES,  NEW  MEXICO,  USA  .  St.  Paul's  United 
Methodist  Church.  The  city  of  Las  Cruces  was  founded 
in  1840  on  the  lower  Rio  Grande  River,  near  El  Paso, 
Texas,  but  Methodism  here,  according  to  a  local  historian, 
dates  back  to  1873  "when  itinerant  preachers  rode  into  the 
dusty  little  town  and  preached  to  the  few  Anglo  inhabi- 
tants." Thomas  Harwood,  superintendent  of  the  New 
Mexico  Mission,  recorded  the  date  as  "in  October,  about 
the  20th." 

Hendrix  M.  E.  Church,  South,  was  built  about  1880 
by  a  twenty-family  congregation  under  leadership  of  a 
layman.  Judge  R.  L.  Young.  This  building  at  times  also 
served  Presbyterians,  Christians,  Disciples,  Baptists,  and 
Episcopalians,  some  of  whom  joined  the  Methodists  for 
Sunday  school,  with  an  average  attendance  of  thirty-five. 

In  the  early  days  the  irrigated  valley  lands  brought 
in  settlers  to  produce  cotton,  fruits,  and  livestock  with 
consequent  prosperity  for  the  church.  Old  Hendrix  was 
razed  in  1912  and  replaced  by  St.  Paul's,  which  served 
till  1965,  when  offices,  chuich  school  rooms,  fellowship 
hall,  and  kitchen  were  added  as  well  as  a  new  sanctuary 
which,  with  supplementary  facilities,  can  seat  more  than 
1,000.  A  great  narthex  window,  thirty-five  feet  high  and 
sixteen  feet  wide,  depicts  sword  and  Bible  witli  the  in- 
scription, Spiritus  Gladius.  Other  art  windows  illustrate 
the  lives  of  St.  Paul  and  John  Wesley,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  Methodism. 

In  1950  St.  Paul's  donated  land  and  supplied  a  mem- 


LASKEY,   VIRGINIA   DAVIS 

bership  nucleus  for  the  University  Church.  Its  parish  is 
associated  with  the  New  Mexico  State  University  of 
Agriculture,  Engineering,  and  Science. 

St.  Paul's  has  been  served  by  thirty-three  pastors  since 
1888  (James  W.  Weems),  to  the  present  (Robert  M. 
Templeton,  Jr.,  1967).  Membership  reported  in  1970 
was  1,688. 

Leland  D.  Case 


LAS  VEGAS,  NEVADA,  U.S.A.  Methodism  is  strongly  es- 
tablished in  the  internationally  publicized  city  of  Las 
Vegas,  whose  population  exceeded  124,000  in  1970.  Re- 
nowned for  its  desert  climate,  legalized  gaming  resorts, 
and  nearby  atomic  experiments.  Las  Vegas  is  also  an  im- 
portant center  for  air  travel,  national  defense,  conventions, 
education  (Southern  Nevada  University),  and  natural 
wonders,  being  a  gateway  to  Grand  Canyon,  Bryce  Can- 
yon, Zion  Park,  Hoover  Dam,  Lake  Mead,  Colorado  River, 
Death  Valley  and  ghost  towns  of  a  bygone  mining  era. 

When  the  railroad  came  through  in  1905,  the  first 
organization  completed  in  the  fledgling  community  was 
the  Methodist  Church,  begun  in  a  tent  before  the  town 
was  chartered.  Official  minutes  of  the  Nevada  Mission  of 
the  M.  E.  Church,  Sept.  3,  1905,  said,  "This  is  a  great 
country'.  We  have  entered  it.  We  will  stay."  The  first 
appointed  pastor  was  J.  W.  Bain.  Later  Las  Vegas  and 
Clark  County  were  assigned  to  the  Southern  Cali- 
fornia-Arizona Conference  with  headquarters  in  Los 
Angeles. 

Las  Vegas  Methodism  celebrated  its  fiftieth  anniversary 
with  unusual  community  response  in  1955,  the  historical 
statement  being  prepared  by  Fred  J.  Wilson.  At  that  time 
a  church  sanctuary  was  erected  for  the  newly  formed 
Griffith  Church,  a  memorial  to  E.  W.  Griffith,  pioneer 
merchant  and  the  first  Las  Vegas  Sunday  school  superin- 
tendent. Ten  years  later,  his  son  Robert  Griffith  was  cited 
by  Bishop  Gerald  Kenn-edy  as  Conference  Layman  of 
1965  and  presented  the  Distinguished  Layman's  Award. 
As  part  of  the  sixtieth  anniversary  celebration,  the  Meth- 
odist Foundation  of  Southern  Nevada  was  begun  to  aid 
in  church  extension.  In  1970  there  were  five  United 
Methodist  churches  in  Las  Vegas  with  a  combined  mem- 
bership of  3,505. 

Donald  R.  O'Connor 

LASKEY,  VIRGINIA  MARIE   DAVIS    (1900-  ),  Amer- 

ican missionary  executive  and  president  of  the  Woman's 
Division  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church,  was  born  in  Columbia  County  near  Mag- 
nolia, Ark.,  on  Jan.  12,  1900.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Virgil  Montrey  and  Marie  (Ansley)  Davis.  She  studied 
at  Newcomb  College,  New  Orleans,  La.,  1917-21,  re- 
ceived a  B.A.  degree  from  Southern  Methodist  Uni- 
versity in  1922,  and  took  post-graduate  at  Columbia 
University,  1922-23.  On  March  19,  1925,  she  married 
Glenn  Eugene  Laskey,  a  petroleum  geologist,  and  their 
daughter  is  Ann  Marie  (Mrs.  Howard  Cecil  Kilpatrick, 
Jr.).  For  a  time  Mrs.  Laskey  taught  in  the  Ruston  (Louisi- 
ana) High  School.  She  joined  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 
in  1915  and  became  president  of  the  Wom.\n's  Society 
OF  Christian  Service  of  the  Louisiana  Conference, 
1945-53;  and  was  the  recording  secretary  of  the  South 
Central  Jurisdiction  of  W.S.C.S.,  1953-56.  She  has  been 
a  member  of  the   Board   of  Missions  of  The   Methodist 


LATCH,    EDWARD   GARDINER 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


C;hurch  since  1956,  and  in  1964  became  president  of  the 
Woman's  Division  of  the  Board  of  Missions.  Mrs.  Laskey 
has  also  served  as  a  member  of  the  e.\ecutive  committee  of 
the  American  Section  of  the  World  Methodist  Council, 
1965.  She  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference 
of  1948  and  '52,  and  to  the  World  Methodist  Con- 
ference, Oslo,  Norway,  1961.  She  served  upon  the  Board 
of  Directors  of  the  Lincoln  Parish,  Louisiana  Foundation, 
1950-60;  is  a  trustee  of  Sue  Bennett  College;  Cente- 
N.ARY  College,  where  she  was  awarded  the  degree  of 
L.H.D.  in  1967;  the  St.  Paul  School  of  Theology, 
ScARRiTT  College;  and  Pfeiffer  College.  Her  home 
is  in  Huston,  La.  In  May  1968  the  library  at  Scarritt  Col- 
lege was  named  in  her  honor,  the  Virginia  Davis  Laskey 
Library. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.H. 

LATCH,  EDWARD  GARDINER  (1901-  ),  American 
pastor  and  chaplain  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
was  bom  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Jan.  14,  1901,  the  son  of 
William  J.  and  Caroline  (Lockhart)  Latch.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Dickinson  College  (A.B.,  1921;  A.M.,  1925; 
D.D.,  1944);  Drew  Unix-ebsitv,  (B.D.,  1924);  Amer- 
ican University  ( L.H.D. ). 

On  March  1,  1926,  he  married  Maria  Vandervies,  and 
they  had  one  daughter  and  one  son. 

Joining  the  Baltimore  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  in  1922,  his  appointments  were:  Vienna,  Oakton, 
Va.,  1925-28;  Arlington,  Va.,  1928-32;  Chevy  Chase,  Md., 
1932-41;  Metropolitan  Memorial,  Washington,  D.  C, 
1941-67.  He  was  appointed  Chaplain  of  the  U.  S.  House 
of  Representatives  in  1966,  and  was  elected  Chaplain  in 
1967. 

Dr.  Latch  was  a  delegate  to  the  World  Methodist 
Conference  in  1951,  1956,  and  1961.  He  has  been  a 
trustee  of  Dickinson  College,  American  University,  Wes- 
ley Theological  Seminary,  Sibley  Memorial  Hospital, 
and  Ocean  Grove  Camp  Meeting  Association. 

Under  his  guidance  the  Metropolitan  Church  grew  from 
624  members  to  more  than  3,100,  making  it  today  the 
largest  Methodist  church  in  Washington,  D.  C. 

In  retirement  Dr.  Latch  continues  to  live  in  Washington. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.     Jesse  A.  Earl 

LATHAM,  FREER  HELEN  ROBERTSON    (1907-  ),  in- 

ternational woman  leader  of  Australia,  was  bom  in 
Mullumbimby,  New  South  Wales,  on  July  4,  1907,  the 
daughter  of  John  Francis  and  Florence  (Norris)  Robert- 
son. She  was  educated  at  Sydney  Teachers  Training  Col- 
lege, Sydney,  Australia.  She  was  married  to  Raymond 
John  Latham  on  March  24,  1932,  and  their  children  are 
John  Granville  and  Helen  (Mrs.  Fenton  George  Sharpe). 
Mrs.  Latham  was  President  of  the  World  Federation 
OF  Methodist  Women,  1961-66;  President  Emeritus  and 
member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  World  Fed- 
eration of  Methodist  Women,  1966-71;  Area  Vice-Presi- 
dent for  Australasia  of  the  World  Federation  of  Methodist 
Women,  1956-1961;  and  Vice-President  of  the  World 
Methodist  Council,  1961-1966.  She  is  on  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Australasian  Federation  of  Methodist 
Women;  Vice-President  and  secretary  of  New  South  Wales 
Federation  of  Methodist  Women;  Vice-President  of  New 
South  Wales   Executive  of  Women's  Auxiliary   to   Over- 

1388 


seas  Missions;  Secretary  of  Five  Dock  Branch  of  Women's 
Auxiliary  to  Overseas  Missions.  She  has  been  a  representa- 
tive to  the  National  Council  of  Women;  Pan-Pacific  and 
South-East  Asian  Association;  and  the  United  Nations 
Organization. 

Lee  F.  Tuttle 

LATHBURY,  MARY  ARTHEMISIA  (1841-1913),  American 
hymn  writer,  whose  hymn  "Day  is  Dying  in  the  West" 
was  rated  by  W.  Garrett  Horder,  the  English  hymnologist, 
as  "one  of  the  finest  and  most  distinctive  hymns  of  modem 
times.  It  deserves  to  rank  with  'Lead,  kindly  Light,'  of 
Cardinal  Newman,  for  its  picturesqueness  and  allusion- 
ness,  and  above  all  else  for  this,  that  devout  souls,  no 
matter  what  their  distinctive  beliefs,  can  through  it  voice 
their  deepest  feelings  and  aspirations." 

Miss  Lathbury  was  born  at  Manchester,  N.  Y.,  on 
Aug.  10,  1841.  She  was  the  daughter  of  a  local  Methodist 
preacher  and  had  two  brothers  who  were  ministers  of  that 
church.  She  contributed  to  periodicals  for  children  and 
young  people,  and  was  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Methodist 
Sunday  School  Union  of  which  John  H.  Vincent  (later 
bishop)  was  the  secretary.  Through  him  she  became  asso- 
ciated with  the  Chautauqua  movement — which  Bishop 
Vincent  founded — and  she  became  known  as  the  "Laure- 
ate of  Chautauqua."  She  founded  what  she  called  the 
"Look  Up  Legion,"  based  on  Edward  Everett  Hale's  four 
rules  of  good  conduct:  "Look  up,  not  down;  Look  forward, 
not  back;  Look  out,  and  not  in;  And  lend  a  hand."  The 
music  for  her  famous  hymn — named  "Chautauqua" — was 
written  by  W.  F.  Sherwin  in  1877  especially  for  Miss 
Lathbury's  verses.  The  h\Tnn  has  not  been  especially 
popular  in  England,  but  the  tune  is  deeply  fixed  in  Amer- 
ican church  life  so  that,  as  Robert  G.  McCutchan  put  it, 
"  "Day  is  dying  in  the  west'  and  the  tune  Chautauqua 
have  become  synonymous  in  the  American  mind." 

Since  this  hymn  contains  only  two  stanzas,  or  divisons, 
other  writers  have  attempted  to  lengthen  it  by  adding 
other  verses.  However,  one  of  the  brothers  of  Miss  Lath- 
bury,  who  held  the  copyright  after  his  sister's  death,  re- 
fused to  allow  the  hymn  to  be  used  in  the  Methodist 
Hymnal  of  1930-34  unless  the  exact  words  Miss  Lathbury 
wrote  and  them  only  should  be  printed.  Miss  Lathbury, 
who  never  married,  died  in  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  on  Oct. 
20,  1913. 

R.  G.  McCutchan,  Our  Hymnody.  1937.  N.  B.  H. 

LATHERN,  JOHN  (1831-1905),  Canadian  minister,  was 
bom  at  New  Shield  House,  Cumberland,  England,  July 
13,  1831.  Educated  at  Alston  Grammar  School  and  as  a 
mining  engineer,  he  volunteered  in  1855  to  become  a 
Wesleyan  missionary.  He  was  received  on  probation  by 
the  Conference  of  Eastern  British  America  and  stationed 
in  Fredericton.  Ordained  in  1859,  he  served  on  various 
circuits  for  twenty-seven  years. 

In  1886  he  was  appointed  editor  of  The  Wesleyan, 
and  in  1895  he  returned  to  circuit  work  in  Dartmouth. 
In  1899  he  became  a  supernumerary  and  lived  in  Halifax 
until  his  death. 

Honored  with  a  D.D.  by  Mount  Allison  University 
in  1884,  he  held  many  eminent  positions  in  the  church. 
He  was  elected  president  of  the  Nova  Scotia  Conference 
in  1881;  and  was  a  delegate  to  many  General  Con- 
ferences. He  was  a  regent  of  Mount  Allison  University 
from  1891  until  his  death. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LATIN   AMERICA,   COMMITTEE   .    .   . 


He  published  a  number  of  books  and  pamphlets,  among 
which  are  A  Macedonian  Cry;  Bapfisma,  Exegetical  and 
Controversial;  and  the  Institute  Lectures — Cromwell, 
Havelock,  Cobden,  and  English  Reformers. 

D.  W.  Johnson  says  of  him:  "As  a  preacher  he  stood 
in  the  front  rank.  His  intellectual  powers  were  of  an  high 
order,  and  whilst  a  devoted  Methodist,  he  belonged  to  all 
the  churches  and  was  a  most  ardent  advocate  of  Christian 
unity." 

D.  W.  Johnson,  Eastern  British  America.  1924. 

T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1890.         E.  A.  Betts 

LATIN  AMERICA  CENTRAL  CONFERENCE  was  a  Central 
Conference  of  The  United  Methodist  Church  composed  of 
the  annual  conferences  of  that  church  in  Central  and 
South  America.  It  met  quadrennially  to  govern  its  affairs 
and  elect  bishops.  The  conference  was  proposed  in  a 
memorial  from  Chile  to  the  General  Conference  of 
the  M.  E.  Church  of  1920  and  was  authorized  by  that 
General  Conference  in  1924.  This  Central  Conference 
was  a  development  from  the  old  South  America  Annual 
Conference. 

The  Latin  America  Central  Conference  was  organized 
at  a  session  in  Panama  City,  April  3-13,  1924.  It  included 
work  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  Argentin.\,  Bolivia,  Chile, 
Costa  Rica,  Panama,  Peru,  Uruguay,  and  at  that  time 
Mexico.  Twenty-two  ministers,  seven  laymen,  and  four 
laywomen  were  members.  The  second  session,  also  held 
in  Panama,  took  place  April  9-14,  1928.  This  session  asked 
the  General  Conference  for  power  to  elect  and  consecrate 
its  own  bishops  and  proposed  that  the  bishops  should  be 
national  ministers,  two  in  number  in  order  to  better  ad- 
minister its  vast  territory.  By  the  third  session,  held  in 
Santiago  de  Chile,  Feb.  6-14,  1932.  the  request  had 
been  granted.  The  conference,  however,  asked  for  the 
return  of  the  beloved  North  American  bishop,  George 
A.  Miller.  It  then  elected  as  the  first  national  bishop, 
Juan  E.  Gattinoni,  pastor  of  Central  Church,  Buenos 
Aires. 

The  tenure  of  national  bishops  was  established  as  a  term 
episcopacy  of  four  years.  A  bishop  could  be  re-elected, 
but  no  one  could  be  elected  bishop  if  more  than  sixty-five 
years  of  age.  Bishops  elected  in  1932  and  1936  were 
consecrated  at  M.  E.  General  Conferences  in  the  United 
States  the  same  years.  Since  1940  bishops  were  conse- 
crated at  the  sessions  of  the  Central   Conference   itself. 

After  the  second  session,  Mexico  withdrew  from  the 
Central  Conference  in  order  to  organize  in  1930  the 
autonomous  church  of  Mexico,  made  up  of  former  work 
of  the  M.  E.  Church  and  M.  E.  Church,  South.  The 
South  American  annual  and  provisional  annual  confer- 
ences thereupon  formed  two  areas.  The  River  Plate  Area 
consisted  of  Argentina,  Uruguay,  and  Bolivia;  the  Pacific 
Area  consisted  of  Chile,  Peru,  Panama,  and  Costa  Rica. 

The  Latin  America  Central  Conference  continued  to 
meet  every  four  years  in  the  principal  cities  of  both  areas: 
Buenos  Aires,  Montevideo,  Lima,  Cochabamb.\,  and 
Santiago  de  Chile.  In  1966  it  reported  a  membership  of 
thirty-five  ministers  and  thirty-five  laymen,  all  of  whom 
were,  of  course,  elected  by  their  respective  annual  con- 
ferences. 

The  Latin  America  Central  Conference  came  to  an 
end  as  it  held  its  last  meeting  in  Santiago,  Chile,  Jan. 
27 — Feb.  6,  1969.  Its  delegates  and  the  conference  itself 
had  decided  to  disband  as  a  Central  Conference  of  The 


United  Methodist  Church,  since  its  component  annual 
conferences  were  granted  permission  by  the  U.M.C.  to  go 
into,  and  become  autonomous  churches,  if  and  as  they 
could.  They  did  decide  to  do  this  at  the  1965  meeting, 
adopting  measures  permitting  the  separate  conferences 
in  the  different  countries  to  become  autonomous  churches; 
and  at  the  same  time,  organizing  themselves  together  with 
Mexico  and  Cuba  into  the  Council  of  Latin  American 
Evangelical  Methodist  Churches,  (Consejo  de  Iglesias 
Evangelicas  Metodistas  de  America  Latina)  commonly 
referred  to  as  CIEMAL.  This  Central  Conference  of 
1969  saw  the  retirement  of  Bishop  Sante  U.  Barbieri 
and  Bishop  Pedro  Zottele.  In  their  places  it  elected 
Fedehico  P.\gura  and  Raimondo  A.  Valenzuela,  each 
for  a  four-year  term. 

The  Chile  Conference,  being  ready  for  autonomy,  orga- 
nized itself  into  an  autonomous  Methodist  Church  in  the 
Santiago  meetings  and  elected  as  its  superintendent 
Bi.shop  Valenzuela.  The  Central  Conference  itself  assigned 
Bishop  Pagura  to  Panama  and  Costa  Rica,  and  requested 
that  the  bishops  of  The  United  Methodist  Church  provide 
episcopal  supervision  for  the  other  Latin  American  coun- 
tries involved  which  had  not  as  yet  been  able  to  organize 
as  autonomous  churches. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Adam  F.  Sosa 

LATIN  AMERICA,  COMMITTEE  ON  COOPERATION  IN, 

was  an  agency  for  coordination  of  mission  work  con- 
ducted in  Latin  America  by  boards  of  missions  based  in 
North  America.  It  lasted  from  1913  until  1965,  when  its 
work  was  assigned  to  the  Division  of  Overseas  Missions  of 
the  National  Council  of  Churches,  U.S.A. 

Latin  America  was  excluded  from  the  agenda  of  the 
Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference  of  1910  on  the  ground 
that  Latin  America,  at  least  nominally,  was  already  Chris- 
tian. However,  the  secretaries  of  boards  having  work  there 
held  two  meetings  during  the  Edinburgh  conference  and 
agreed  to  hold  a  conference  to  do  for  Latin  America  what 
Edinburgh  had  done  for  the  rest  of  the  world.  A  commit- 
tee was  appointed,  including  Samuel  Guy  Inman,  later 
to  become  secretary  of  the  Committee  on  Cooperation  in 
Latin  America;  and  H.  C.  Tucker,  Methodist  missionary 
to  Br.\zil. 

In  1913  a  committee  of  the  Foreign  Missions  Confer- 
ence of  North  America  convened  a  Conference  on  Latin 
America  in  New  York,  and  at  its  conclusion  a  continuation 
committee  was  set  up,  called  the  Committee  on  Coopera- 
tion in  Latin  America.  Members  were  from  five  United 
States  denominations,  including  the  M.  E.  Church  and 
M.  E.  Church,  South.  Later  the  committee  was  expanded, 
and  in  1914  it  was  decided  to  hold  the  Congress  on  Chris- 
tian Work  i.  f  atin  America.  This  took  place  in  Panama 
in  1916  and  is  commonly  known  as  the  Panama  Congress. 

The  congress  was  the  first  great  meeting  of  Evangelicals 
to  be  held  in  that  area,  and  it  gave  impetus  to  the  develop- 
ment of  Protestant  missions  in  Latin  America.  It  also 
served  to  arouse  interest  of  churches  in  the  United  States. 
At  the  close  of  the  congiess,  the  Committee  on  Coopera- 
tion in  Latin  America  was  made  peimanent,  and  head- 
quarters were  established  in  New  York. 

The  committee  dealt  with  some  of  the  major  issues 
raised  by  the  congress,  including  adequate  occupation  of 
territory,  comity  agreements.  Christian  literature,  and 
education. 


LATIN   AMERICAN   EVANGELICAL   . 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


In  1919  the  committee  established  a  Spanish  language 
magazine,  La  Nueva  Democracia,  which  continues  to  the 
present.  In  the  same  year  the  committee  stimulated  the 
broadening  of  Colegio  Ward  in  Buenos  Aires,  Argentina, 
from  a  Methodist  institution  into  a  joint  work  with  the 
Disciples  of  Christ.  The  Evangelical  Union  Seminary  of 
Puerto  Rico  (Seminario  Evangelico  de  Puerto  Rico)  was 
founded  in  1919  with  six  mission  boards  cooperating. 
The  committee  fostered  the  International  Faculty  of  The- 
ology and  Social  Sciences  in  Buenos  Aires,  which  later 
developed  into  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  (  Facul- 

TAD  EVANGELICA  DE  TeOLOGIA). 

Prior  to  formation  of  the  CCLA,  there  was  not  a  single 
union  paper,  school,  or  coordinating  agency  in  any  coun- 
try of  Latin  America.  The  CCLA  fostered  national  com- 
mittees on  cooperation,  many  of  which  later  developed 
into  National  Christian  Councils. 

Methodist  leadership  in  the  CCLA  during  its  early 
years  incuded  Tucker,  Frank  Mason  North,  Harry 
Farmer,  Ralph  E.  Diffendorfer,  and  Thomas  S.  Dono- 
HUCH.  Wade  Crawford  Barclay  led  a  project  to  create 
and  publish  a  church-school  curriculum  known  as  Curso 
Hispano- Americano,  and  under  Barclay  a  Conference  on 
Christian  Literature — the  first  of  its  kind — was  held  in 
Me-xico  City  in  1941.  Gonzalo  Baez-Camargo,  Meth- 
odist of  Mexico,  served  as  secretary  of  the  CCLA's  Com- 
mittee on  Christian  Literature  and  organized  a  curriculum 
conference  at  Montevideo  in  1949. 

Subsequent  to  the  Panama  Congress,  the  committee 
sponsored  missionary  conferences  at  Montevideo,  Uru- 
guay, in  1925,  and  at  Havana,  Cuba,  in  1929. 

Throughout  its  life  the  CCLA  conducted  many  surveys, 
of  which  two  are  noteworthy  here:  One  requested  in  1919 
in  the  West  Indies,  led  to  formation  of  the  Board  for 
Christian  Work  in  Santo  Domingo  by  the  Methodist, 
Presbyterian,  and  United  Brethren  Churches;  a  study  of 
Ecuador  in  1943  led  to  formation  in  1945  of  the  United 
Andean  Indian  Mission,  with  the  Evangelical  United 
Brethren  as  one  of  four  participants. 

In  its  later  years  the  committee  gave  up  many  of  its 
functions  to  the  churches  and  Evangelical  Councils  of 
Latin  America.  With  the  formation  of  the  National  Coun- 
cil of  Churches  of  Christ  in  the  U.S.A.  in  1950,  the  CCLA 
became  a  part  of  the  Council's  Division  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions. It  retained  its  identity  within  the  Council  until  re- 
structure in  1965,  when  the  CCLA  was  discontinued  and 
its  responsibilities  assigned  to  the  Division  of  Overseas 
Ministries. 

W.  Stanley  Rycroft,  "The  Committee  on  Cooperation  in  Latin 
America"  (unpublished  ms.,  translated  from  article  in  Spanish 
in  El  Predicador  Evangelico,  located  in  office  of  the  National 
Council  of  Churches,  New  York).  Edwin  H.  Maynaud 

LATIN  AMERICAN  EVANGELICAL  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS 

is  a  missionary-sending  board  organized  first  by  Meth- 
odists of  Central  and  South  America,  and  now  represent- 
ing both  Methodists  and  Waldensians. 

In  1960,  prior  to  the  General  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church,  several  delegates  from  the  Latin  Amer- 
ican countries  met  with  Bishop  Sante  Uberto  Barbiebi 
to  discuss  the  idea  of  forming  a  Latin  American  Board  of 
Missions.  The  idea  was  carried  back  to  their  home 
churches,  and  in  October  of  that  year,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  Latin  American  Central  Conference  (with  dele- 
gates   also    attending    from    the    autonomous    Methodist 


churches  of  Mexico  and  Brazil,  and  also  from  Cuba), 
the  board  was  officially  constituted. 

The  board  engaged  in  some  exploratory  investigation 
and  decided  to  begin  work  in  Ecuador.  It  was  felt  that 
the  witness  to  the  Gospel  was  weakest  in  this  nation.  It 
is  true  that  work  was  being  carried  on  by  several  denomi- 
nations or  independent  missionary  boards,  but  that  such 
work  was  limited  by  the  origin  and  nature  of  these  groups 
— mostly  representing  "nonhistorical"  or  "conservative 
evangelical"  groups — as  well  as  by  the  fact  that  the 
emphasis  was  primarily  on  work  among  the  Indians.  It 
was  felt  that  there  was  a  deep  need  for  a  strong  evangel- 
ical witness  among  other  sectors  of  the  society,  particularly 
those  who,  by  reason  of  their  relatively  advantaged  social 
position,  constituted  the  leadership  groups  with  influence 
and  authority  in  society. 

Further  exploration  and  consultation  were  carried  on 
by  the  board  in  Ecuador.  It  was  decided  not  to  start  a 
Methodist  Church  there,  but  rather  to  work  through  the 
denominations  already  present,  wherever  cooperation 
should  prove  to  be  possible.  A  relationship  was  established 
with  the  United  Evangelical  Church  of  Ecuador,  which 
was  emerging  as  the  result  of  consultations  between  the 
United  Andean  Indian  Mission,  the  mission  of  the  Church 
of  the  Brethren,  and  the  Evangelical  Covenant  Church 
(though  the  last-named  dropped  out  before  the  united 
church  was  formed) . 

In  1964  Bishop  Alejandro  Ruiz  of  Mexico  undertook 
responsibility  for  finding  a  couple  to  initiate  this  coopera- 
tive work,  and  in  1965  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Ulises  Hernandez 
arrived  in  Ecuador  to  represent  the  Latin  American  Board 
of  Missions.  This  couple,  joining  forces  with  the  United 
Evangelical  Church,  has  devoted  its  time  to  the  training 
of  the  ministry,  strengthening  the  Christian  education 
program,  and  evangelism.  The  board  in  1967  was  consid- 
ering sending  another  couple. 

In  1962  the  Waldensian  Church  showed  interest  in 
forming  a  part  of  the  Latin  American  Methodist  Board  of 
Missions.  Therefore  the  word  "Evangelical"  was  substi- 
tuted for  "Methodist"  in  the  name. 

Carlos  T.  Gattinoni 

LATIN  AMERICAN  EVANGELICAL  CHRISTIAN  EDUCA- 
TION COMMISSION  (CELADEC:  Comision  Evangelica 
Latino  Americana  de  Educacion  Cristiana)  is  an  inter- 
denominational body  that  serves  Methodist  churches  of 
Latin  America,  and  to  which  Methodists  have  contributed 
financial  support  and  leadership. 

The  commission  states  as  its  purpose  to  serve  Protestant 
churches  in  all  of  the  Americas  except  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  and  "to  help  the  churches  of  Latin 
America  in  the  fulfillment  of  their  mission  of  proclaiming 
the  Gospel  through  Christian  education." 

CELADEC  was  founded  in  October  1962,  by  the 
action  of  councils  of  federations  of  churches  and,  where 
they  do  not  exist,  by  individual  denominations.  Member- 
ship is  on  the  same  basis  for  all,  and  the  Methodist 
churches  of  all  Spanish-  and  Portuguese-speaking  countries 
of  Central  and  South  America  are  related  to  CELADEC. 

In  turn,  CELADEC  serves  as  a  regional  grouping  in 
aflSliation  with  the  World  Council  of  Christian  Education 
and  Sunday  School  Association,  which  gives  technical 
and  financial  aid  to  some  of  its  projects.  It  also  enjoys  the 
sponsorship  and  financial  assistance  of  the  Latin  America 
Department  of  the  Division  of  Overseas  Ministries  of  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LATIN   AMERICAN   METHODIST   WOMEN 


National  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  the 
U.S.A. 

A  triennial  Assembly,  made  up  of  delegates  from  mem- 
ber bodies,  governs  CELADEC.  An  executive  committee, 
elected  by  the  Assembly,  meets  once  a  year.  Gerson  A. 
Meyer  of  Brazil  has  been  general  secretary  since  the 
organization  of  CELADEC.  First  chairman  of  the  execu- 
tive committee  and  presiding  officer  was  Raimundo 
Valenzuela  of  Chile,  who  was  succeeded  in  January 
1967,  by  Federico  Paguba  of  Argentina.  The  territory 
that  CELADEC  ser\'es  is  divided  into  five  regions,  each 
with  a  secretary. 

Specific  tasks  undertaken  may  be  divided  roughly  into 
two  categories:  (1)  the  development  of  curriculum  and 
occasional  teaching  materials,  and  (2)  the  training  of 
leaders  for  Christian  education.  Reasoning  that  traditional 
materials,  which  presume  a  high  level  of  education,  can- 
not reach  some  eighty  percent  of  the  population,  CELA- 
DEC makes  extensive  use  of  audiovisuals  and  drama. 

CELADEC  sponsors  a  series  of  regional  study  seminars 
and  held  a  continental  curriculum  conference  in  1968. 

In  the  area  of  leadership  training,  CELADEC  spon- 
sored a  conference  in  Alajuela,  Costa  Ric.\,  in  1964  to 
celebrate  the  centennial  of  Christian  education  in  Latin 
America.  Seventeen  countries  were  represented. 

In  1966  ninety  percent  of  CELADEC's  budget  was 
contributed  by  churches  in  the  United  States  through  the 
National  Council  of  Churches,  with  The  Methodist  Church 
a  major  contributor.  The  churches  of  Latin  America  are 
expected  to  increase  their  portion  of  the  support  in  due 
time. 

Raymond  A.  Valenzuela 

LATIN  AMERICAN  EVANGELICAL  METHODIST 
CHURCHES,  COUNCIL  OF  (Consejo  de  Iglesias  Evan- 
gelicas  Metodistas  de  America  Latina),  known  briefly  as 
CIEMAL,  is  an  organization  formed  at  Santiago,  Chile, 
Jan.  27-Feb.  6,  1969.  The  formation  of  this  new  regional 
body  is  considered  an  epochal  step  in  South  American 
Methodism,  and  also  in  that  of  Mexico  and  Cuba  since 
the  autonomous  churches  of  these  lands  joined  with 
Chile,  Argentina,  Uruguay,  Bolivia,  Peru,  Panama, 
Costa  Rica,  and  Brazil  to  form  CIEMAL. 

This  organization  move  was  made  pursuant  to  the 
authorization  given  to  the  former  members  of  the  Latin 
America  Central  Conference  to  become  autonomous 
churches.  The  Chile  Conference  took  advantage  of  this 
to  organize  itself  into  the  Methodist  Church  of  Chile 
(Iglesia  Metodista  de  Chile)  during  this  series  of  meet- 
ings. 

This  was  the  first  of  seven  autonomous  churches 
scheduled  to  come  into  being  if  this  should  prove  possible 
and  expedient  during  the  1968-72  quadrennium.  Although 
the  churches  in  these  seven  countries  would  no  longer  be 
organically  related  to  The  United  Methodist  Church  in 
the  United  States,  they  will  have  a  close  relationship  with 
fraternal  and  other  ties  just  as  does  the  church  in  Brazil, 
Mexico  and  Cuba. 

This  organizational  meeting  in  Santiago  immediately 
followed  and  was  based  upon  the  last  meeting  of  the  Latin 
America  Central  Conference.  That  conference  among  its 
last  actions  recognized  the  formal  retirement  of  Bishop 
Sante  U.  Babbieri,  who  had  sers'ed  the  Buenos  Aires 
Area  for  twenty  years;  and  that  of  Bishop  Pedro  Zottele 
of  the  Santiago  Area  who  had  been  elected  in  1962. 
Taking  the  places  of  these  were  two  new  bishops  elected 


by  the  Latin  America  Central  Conference,  Federico 
Pagura,  45,  who  had  been  professor  of  pastoral  counseling 
and  chaplain  at  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  Buenos 
Aires  (who  was  assigned  to  head  the  Methodist  work  in 
Panama  and  Costa  Rica);  and  Raimondo  A.  Valenzuela, 
53,  a  Christian  education  executive  and  United  States 
missionary  to  Cuba,  who  following  his  election  was  as- 
signed to  head  the  new  Methodist  Church  of  Chile. 

CIEMAL  marks  a  positive  and  definite  linkage  of  the 
Methodists  in  these  ten  Latin  American  countries  in  a 
single  body.  In  setting  up  CIEMAL,  the  constituting 
assembly  specified  that  it  would  be  a  non-legislative,  non- 
executive body,  reserving  the  functions  of  legislation  and 
administration  to  the  several  Churches  comprising  it.  The 
purposes,  as  defined  by  the  organizing  leaders,  are  on  co- 
ordinated planning,  strategy,  and  programming;  mutual 
support,  and  depth  of  relationships.  As  one  delegate  put 
it,  "We  seek  to  preserve  the  autonomy  of  each  church,  but 
to  have  a  strong  nexus  for  interdependence  and  mutual 
support." 

The  pohcy  and  work  of  CIEMAL  will  be  determined  by 
its  General  Assembly,  which  will  meet  even.'  five  years. 
Between  Assemblies,  the  work  will  be  in  the  hands  of 
an  eleven-member  Directive  Committee,  comprising  one 
representative  from  each  country,  and  the  president  of 
the  Latin  American  College  of  General  Superintendents 
(all  bishops,  presidents,  and  other  heads  of  churches). 
The  president  of  the  College  in  1969  was  Bishop  Ale- 
jandro Ruiz  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Mexico. 

The  Directive  Committee  for  the  next  five  years,  elected 
by  the  constituting  assembly,  it  is  noted,  have  laymen  as 
all  three  of  its  officers.  The  chairman  is  Eduardo  Gat- 
TiNONi,  publisher  from  Buenos  Aires;  the  vice-chairman, 
Mrs.  Celia  Hernandez,  Women's  Societv'  leader  from 
Mexico;  and  the  secretary,  Gerson  Rodrigues,  educator 
from  Bauru,  Brazil. 

The  constituting  assembly  drafted  a  "Message  to  the 
Methodist  Churches  of  Latin  America"  which  emphasized 
hope,  the  need  for  change,  ecumenism  and  the  place  of 
youth. 

At  this  writing  it  appears  that  the  membership  of 
CIEMAL  will  be  e.xpanded  to  include  the  Methodist 
Church  in  the  Caribbean  and  the  Americas.  This 
comprises  British  Methodist-related  churches  in  Jamaica, 
Haiti,  and  other  Caribbean  islands.  Central  America  and 
Guiana.  The  constituting  assembly  invited  the  Church 
of  the  Caribbean  and  the  Americas  to  join  in  its  organiza- 
tion, and  that  Church's  president,  Hugh  Sherlock  of 
Antigua,  attending  the  assembly,  expressed  the  view  that 
the  invitation  would  be  accepted. 

CIEMAL  has  set  up  a  Jltjicial  Council  along  the 
lines  of  that  of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  and  laid 
out  broad  guidelines  for  common  planning  and  action  in 
education,  social  action,  mission,  evangelism  and  other 
program  areas.  The  nine-member  Judicial  Council  is 
representative  of  all  Latin  America  and  will  have  authority 
to  adjudicate  not  only  actions  of  CIEMAL  but  also  to 
handle  judicial  matters  of  the  churches  themselves  where 
this  is  desired  and  so  enacted.  The  Methodist  Church  of 
Chile  delegated  such  authority  to  the  Judicial  Council 
at  its  organizing  conference. 

N.  B.  H. 

LATIN  AMERICAN  METHODIST  WOMEN,  CONFEDERA- 
TION OF,  is  an  organization  representing  women  in  the 


UTIN   MISSION 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


countries  of  Latin  America.  The  confederation  was 
founded  in  1938  under  leadership  of  Lena  Knapp  (now 
Mrs.  John  Haynes)  and  Mrs.  Carlos  C.\ttinoni.  The 
puipose  is  to  unite  the  Latin  American  Methodist  women 
to  do  together  things  they  could  not  do  so  effectively  in 
each  country  alone.  This  has  included  the  support  of 
missionaries,  publication  of  study  books,  missionary  texts 
and  bulletins,  and  the  exchange  of  ideas. 

The  confederation  has  held  a  Congress  every  four 
years:  1942  in  Buenos  Aires,  Argentina;  1946  in 
Santiago,  Chile;  1950  in  Montevideo,  Uruguay;  1955 
in  Lima,  Peru;  1959  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil;  and 
1963  in  Mexico  City;  the  seventh  in  Cochabamba, 
Bolivia,  in  January,  1967. 

The  presidents  have  been  Maria  Aguirre  of  Chile,  Mrs. 
Juanita  R.  Balloch  (wife  of  Bishop  Balloch),  Mrs.  Bessie 
Archer  Smith  (Mrs.  Earl  M.  Smith)  of  Uruguay,  Mrs. 
Esther  Moore  Saenz  of  Argentina,  and  Mrs.  Teresa  P. 
Araneta  of  Peru. 

The  confederation  began  supporting  missionaries  in 
1942,  after  its  first  Congress,  when  Adelina  Gattinoni 
became  the  first  missionary.  The  number  was  increased  to 
two  and,  in  October  1955,  to  three.  They  were  serving  in 
1966  in  Chile,  Bolivia,  and  Peru.  Missionaries  who  have 
served  have  been  Margarita  Caminos,  an  Argentine  to 
Bolivia;  Dorcas  Courvoesier,  an  Argentine  to  Bolivia; 
Berta  Garcia,  a  Bolivian  to  Bolivia;  Rosa  Sherlian,  an 
Argentine  to  Bolivia;  Teresa  Silvera,  a  Uruguayan  to 
Bolivia;  Maria  Glicinia  Fernandez,  a  Brazilian  to  Peru; 
Francisca  Cariqueo,  a  Chilean  to  Chile. 

From  1951  to  1966  the  confederation  published  eight 
study  books.  The  group  has  also  published  mission  study 
texts  each  year  since  1953,  translating  the  books  pub- 
lished in  the  United  States  by  Friendship  Press  of  New 
York.  The  work  has  been  done  with  the  backing  of  the 
Committee  on  Cooper.\tion  in  Latin  America,  and 
is  used  in  eight  countries.  This  is  the  only  translation  of 
Friendship  Press  texts  into  other  languages. 

Since  1955  the  Confederation  Bulletin  has  served 
women's  work  in  all  the  Latin  American  countries  where 
there  is  Methodist  work,  functioning  as  a  channel  for 
interchange  of  ideas.  Editors  have  been  Mrs.  Evodia  C. 
Silva  of  Mexico,  Mrs.  Sylvia  P.  Huaroto  of  Peru,  and 
Mrs.  Rubi  Rodriguez  Etchagoyen  of  Argentina. 

Pamphlets  are  issued  on  subjects  such  as  prayer  and 
Family  Week.  Prayer  calendars  have  been  published  at 
times  by  the  Spiritual  Life  Department. 

The  confederation  has  enjoyed  the  support  and  coopera- 
tion of  the  Woman's  Division  of  the  Board  of  Missions 
of  The  Methodist  Church  in  the  U.S.A. 

Bessie  Archer  Smith 

LATIN  MISSION,  located  in  south  Florida,  was  orga- 
nized by  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  in  1930.  It  grew  out 
of  work  among  Cuban  refugees  and  Italian  immigrants 
who  resided  mostly  in  Key  West,  Miami,  and  Tampa. 
H.  B.  Someillan,  a  young  preacher  in  the  Florida  Con- 
ference, vowed  to  devote  his  life  to  a  ministry  among  the 
Cubans.  His  special  service  began  in  1894  in  Ybor  City, 
a  Latin  quarter  in  Tampa.  Someillan  had  some  help  from 
the  Woman's  Missionary  Council  of  the  denomination. 

In  time  some  seven  churches  were  organized  in  the 
three  cities  mentioned.  Someillan 's  work  laid  the  founda- 
tions for  a  Latin  District  which  the  Florida  Conference 
formed    in    1913.    In    1917,    the    district    reported    six 


churches,  481  church  members,  and  1,212  Sunday  .school 
pupils. 

In  1930,  the  Latin  District  was  elevated  to  the  status 
of  a  mission.  At  that  time  the  number  of  churches  still 
stood  at  six,  but  the  total  church  membership  had  fallen 
to  320.  Gradually  the  number  of  members  increased. 
When  the  Latin  Mission  was  absorbed  by  the  Florida 
Conference  in  1943,  there  were  five  churches  and  622 
members. 

General  Minutes,  MES,  TMC. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Albea  Godbold 

LA  TROBE,  BENJAMIN  (1725-1786),  British  Moravian, 
was  bom  in  Dublin  on  April  19,  1725.  A  Baptist  of 
Huguenot  stock,  he  was  influenced  by  John  Cennick 
when  a  student  in  Dublin.  La  Trobe  became  a  Moravian 
minister  and  did  much  to  make  Moravianism  understood 
by  members  of  other  churches.  Friendly  with  Ch.\rles 
Wesley,  he  took  part  in  the  abortive  negotiations  for 
union  of  Moravians  and  Methodists  in  1785-86.  He 
greatly  influenced  Samuel  Johnson  and  visited  him  on  his 
death  bed.  With  August  Spangenberg  he  compiled  an 
authoritative  survey  of  Moravian  doctrine.  La  Trobe  be- 
came president  of  the  Brethren's  Society  for  the  Further- 
ance of  the  Gospel,  and  warmly  supported  Count 
Zinzendorf's  ecumenical  ideas.  He  died  in  London  on 
November  29,  1786. 

W.  C.  Addison,  The  Renewed  Church  of  the  United  Brethren. 

London,  1932. 

E.  Langton,  History  of  the  Moravian  Church.  1956. 

C.  W.  Towlson,  Moravian  and  Methodist.  1957. 

C.  W.  ToWLSON 

LATVIA.  (See  Baltic  States.) 

LAVINGTON,  GEORGE  (1684-1762),  British  critic  of 
Methodism  and  Moravianism,  was  bom  at  Mildenhall, 
Wiltshire,  Jan.  8,  1684,  and  was  educated  at  Winchester 
and  Oxford.  He  was  appointed  chaplain  to  George  1  and, 
in  1746,  Bi.shop  of  E,\eter.  A  faked  pastoral  charge, 
representing  him  as  a  friend  of  Methodism,  provoked  his 
£nf/iu.sia«m  of  the  Methodists  and  Papists  Compar'd 
(Parts  I-III,  1749-51).  To  this  catalog  of  Methodist 
extravagance,  which  ignored  or  misunderstood  the  good 
results  of  the  revival,  replies  were  published  by  George 
Whitefield  and  Vincent  Perronet  (1749)  and  by 
John  Wesley  (Feb.  1,  1750;  Dec.  1751).  Lavington's 
most  interesting  argument  was  that  Methodist  conversion 
experiences  could  be  explained  in  physical  and  psychologi- 
cal terms;  he  rejected  Wesley's  claim  that  they  were  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Later  Wesley  records  a  visit  to 
Exeter  Cathedral  on  Aug.  29,  1762,  when  he  was  "pleased 
to  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper  with  my  old  opponent. 
Bishop  Lavington."  Lavington  died  soon  after,  on  Sept. 
13,  1762. 

R.  Polwhele,  ed..  The  Enthusiasm  of  Methodists  and  Papists 

Compared  (reprint,  including  life  of  Lavington;  London:  Whit- 

aker,  1820,  1833). 

J.  Wesley,  Letters,  iii,  259-71,  295-331. 

Frank  Baker,   "Bishop   Lavington   and   the   Methodists,"  Proc. 

Wes.  Hist.  Soc,  .x.xxiv,  37-42.  Henry  Rack 

LAW,  WILLIAM  (1686-1761),  British  Nonjuror  and  mystic, 
was   born   at   King's   Cliffe,    Northamptonshire,    and   was 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LAW   AND   GOSPEL 


educated  at  Cambridge.  He  refused  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  Hanoverian  King  George  I,  and  resigned  his  fellow- 
ship at  Emmanuel  (1716).  After  some  years  in  the  house- 
hold of  Edward  Gibbon  (grandfather  of  the  historian)  at 
Putney,  Law  retired  to  King's  Cliffe  (1740)  and  died 
there,  April  9,  1761. 

John  Wesley  read  Law's  Practical  Treatise  upon  Chris- 
tian Perfection  (1726)  and  A  Serious  Call  (1728)  at 
O.xford,  and  began  to  pursue  "inward  holiness"  by  self- 
discipline  as  Law  recommended.  By  1738  he  had  adopted 
the  Moravians'  views  of  salvation  by  faith,  and  attacked 
Law  for  failing  to  teach  this.  From  the  1740's  Law 
developed  a  mystical  theologv  based  on  the  writings  of 
Jakob  Bohme  (d.  1624).  Wesley  attacked  Law  (1756) 
for  departing  from  Scripture  by  teaching  unconditional 
salvation  for  all,  based  on  a  divine  spark  in  every  man; 
for  his  weak  doctrine  of  the  atonement;  and  for  his 
disparagement  of  the  means  of  grace.  Although  Law 
opposed  eighteenth-centur\'  rationalism,  Wesley  believed 
that  his  system,  by  contradicting  the  "Scriptural"  scheme 
of  salvation,  destroyed  the  Christian  case  against  Deism. 

E.  W.  Baker,  A  Herald  of  the  Evangelical  Revival.  1948. 

J.  B.  Green,  John  Wesley  and  William  Law.   1948. 

Law,    Collected    Works.   9   vols.;    ed.,    Richardson,    1792;    G. 

Moreton,  1893. 

J.    H.    Overton,    William    Law:    Non-Juror   and    Mystic.    1881. 

C.  Walton,  Notes  and  Materials  for  an  Adequate  Biography  of 

William   Law.   1854.  Henry  Rack 

LAW,  METHODIST  (U.S.A.).  The  ruling  law  of  The  Unit- 
ed Methodist  Church  is  found  in  the  Booh  of  Discipline  of 
that  and  the  other  respective  Methodist  Churches.  The 
Discipline  contains  and  sets  forth  first  the  constitutional 
law  of  the  church.  Also  certain  Judicial  Council  deci- 
sions interpreting  the  Constitution  may  be  referred  to  in 
the  published  decisions  of  that  body. 

Constitutional  law  may  only  be  changed  by  constitu- 
tional processes.  This  calls  for  the  joint  action  of  the 
General  Conference  and  of  the  members  of  all  the 
annual  conferences  who  must  agree  to  any  constitutional 
change  by  a  two-thirds  majority  of  those  "present  and 
voting"  both  in  the  General  Conference  and  in  the  several 
annual  conferences.  In  the  event  an  Article  of  Religion 
or  a  standard  of  belief  is  to  be  changed,  it  requires  a 
three-fourths  vote  of  the  electorate  in  the  annual  con- 
ferences following  a  two-thirds  General  Conference  vote 
recommending  the  change. 

Constitutional  law  is  interpreted  by  the  Judicial  Coun- 
cil according  to  processes  outlined  in  the  Constitution, 
and  by  the  rules  of  procedure  developed  by  the  Judicial 
Council  itself. 

The  larger  part  of  the  Book  of  Discipline  is  in  the 
fomi  of  statutory  law  which  may  be  written,  revised, 
amended  or  changed  at  the  instance  of  any  General 
Conference  acting  within  its  normal  powers.  A  majority 
vote  in  most  instances  suffices  to  alter  or  write  statutory 
law  for  The  United  Methodist  Church. 

Statutory  law  itself  may  be  divided  into  adrninistrative 
law  dealing  with  the  processes  and  procedures  of  the 
organizational  work  of  the  church  in  all  its  departments; 
and  trial  law  or  the  procedures  which  are  to  be  followed 
when  a  church  member — whether  a  bishop,  elder,  local 
preacher,  supply  preacher,  deaconess  or  regular  church 
member — is  to  be  tried  for  a  violation  of  some  phase  of 
Methodist  disciphne.  Offenses  against  the  moral  law  are, 
of  course,  the  most  heinous,  and  when  a  person  is  found 


guilty,  such  person  may  be  e.xpelled  from  the  member- 
ship of  the  church.  Disciplinary  infractions  for  mal- 
administration on  the  part  of  certain  church  officers  may 
be  tried  according  to  the  processes  outlined  in  the  Book 
of  Discipline,  if  these  offenses  are  such  as  to  warrant 
a  trial.  All  matters  relating  to  trial  law  are  carefully 
prescribed  and  when  followed  out  according  to  the  law 
of  the  church,  there  is  no  recourse  in  the  civil  law  by  the 
person  found  guilty.  Civil  authorities  in  the  United  States 
have  long  taken  the  position  that  a  church  member  is 
bound  by  the  law  of  his  own  church,  which  law  he 
subscribed  to  upon  his  admission  to  that  church;  if 
therefore  the  church  follows  its  own  announced  proce- 
dures in  dealing  with  those  who  offend  against  its  laws, 
the  civil  power  refuses  to  take  jurisdiction  over  the  result 
of  such  ecclesiastical  proceedings. 

The  Book  of  Discipline  containing  Methodist  law  is 
often  held  up  before  judicatory  bodies  as  the  "book  of 
law"  of  The  United  Methodist  Church  and  referred  to 
in  all  matters  which  have  to  do  with  its  life,  teachings, 
and  processes.  When  any  matter  touching  Methodist  rules, 
regulations,  or  law  is  brought  before  a  civil  court  and  the 
court  does  take  jurisdiction  over  such  matter,  the  Book 
of  Discipline  is  usually  formally  presented  to  the  court 
as  authoritative  Methodist  law. 

Parliamentary  law  also  governs  Methodist  bodies  when 
they  meet  in  session,  in  order  that  proceedings  may  move 
smoothly  but  formally  in  line  with  accustomed  processes 
which  prevail  in  such  bodies.  The  General  Conference 
has  a  Committee  on  Rules  which  prescribes  all  such  mat- 
ters, and  many  annual  conferences  likewise  formally  adopt 
rules  for  their  own  procediu^es.  Quite  often  the  rules  of 
the  General  Conference  in  so  far  as  they  apply  are 
adopted  for  the  governing  of  annual  conferences  and  of 
other  formal  church  gatherings.  The  authoritative  Roberts' 
Rules  of  Order  which  has  established  itself  as  the  arbiter 
in  this  entire  field  in  America,  is  usually  the  basic  guide 
and  director  in  all  matters  of  rule  and  parliamentary 
governance  in  American  Methodist  bodies. 


LAW  AND  GOSPEL.  The  relation  of  the  religion  of  the 
Law  to  the  gospel  of  God's  grace  is  a  matter  which  is 
important  for  the  understanding  of  the  gospel,  and  for  its 
spiritually  balanced  and  healthful  proclamation.  This  was 
a  subject  of  constant  controversy  in  Wesley's  time,  and 
there  are  numerous  references  in  Wesley's  work  to  teach- 
ers whom  he  felt  were  in  error,  and  replies  to  attacks 
made  upon  his  understanding  of  the  gospel.  This  con- 
troversy still  goes  on  today,  though  stated  in  somewhat 
different  terms.  A  note  on  this  matter  is  therefore  neces- 
sary for  the  understanding  of  Wesley's  doctrine,  and  for 
its  application  today. 

Historical  background.  The  preparation  for  the  Chris- 
tian gospel  and  the  Christian  Church  was  the  religion 
of  the  Old  Covenant,  the  religion  of  the  Law  of  Moses. 
The  foundation  of  this  Covenant  was  in  the  grace  of  God, 
in  that  He  had  freely  set  His  love  upon  the  Hebrew  peo- 
ple, the  descendents  of  Abraham,  and  chosen  them  to  be 
His  Covenant  people  (Genesis  .\ii  1-3,  xvii  1-8,  etc., 
Deuteronomy  iv  32-9,  vii  7-9).  However,  the  basis  on 
man's  side  for  the  continuance  of  this  Covenant  was 
obedience  to  God's  revealed  Law  (Exodus  xxiv,  3-8,  etc). 
Nevertheless,  the  idea  of  faith,  and  of  loving  trust  in  God, 
was  always   there  as  well    (Genesis  xv  6,   Deuteronomy 


LAW   AND   GOSPEL 

vi  3-7,  Habhakuk  ii  4).  Thus  the  normal  pious  Jew  loved 
the  Law,  regarded  the  possession  of  it  as  the  privilege  of 
his  nation,  and  obeyed  it  gladly  (Psalm  cxix,  etc).  In  this 
no  formal  difference  was  made  between  liturgical  and 
ceremonial  commandments,  such  as  the  law  of  the  Temple, 
worship,  and  of  unclean  meats,  and  the  moral  and  social 
commandments,  such  as  justice,  truthfulness,  humanity, 
and  charity.  All  these  things  were  the  Law  of  God 
alike.  Thus  in  the  Decalogue  some  commandments,  like 
those  forbidding  idolatry  and  enjoining  the  Sabbath,  are 
ceremonial;  others,  like  the  prohibition  of  theft  and 
adultery,  are  moral;  whereas  the  commandment  regarding 
the  taking  of  the  name  of  God  in  vain  is  both.  It  is  not 
possible  to  draw  a  sharp  distinction  between  inward  and 
outward  commandments,  because  a  sincere  worshipper 
sees  an  inward  meaning  symbolized  in  a  religious  cere- 
mony. Nevertheless,  the  more  thoughtful  and  spiritually 
minded  among  the  Hebrews  always  contrived  to  emphasize 
that  God  is  more  concerned  with  the  inward  spirit  of  moral 
obedience  than  with  the  mere  performance  of  customary 
ritual,  no  matter  how  venerable  and  significant  (Psalm 
xl  6-8,  Amos  v  21-4,  Micah  vi  6-8). 

Our  Lord  came  as  the  fitting  climax  of  this  tradition. 
He  reverenced  and  confirmed  the  religious  institutions  of 
Israel  as  an  expression  of  the  will  of  God  (Matthew  v 
17-19,  .x.xii  2-3,  Luke  iv  16,  John  ii  17).  He  sternly  de- 
nounced extemalism  and  hypocrisy  (Mark  vii  5-16,  Luke 
xi  37-42 ) ,  and  He  taught  that  a  stricter  standard  of  inward 
obedience  was  required  in  the  new  age  (Matthew  v  27-8, 
Mark  x  2-12).  The  rest  of  the  New  Testament  substantially 
answers  to  this  principle.  Thus  in  particular,  though  St. 
Paul  under  controversial  pressure  to  vindicate  the  proposi- 
tion that  the  Gentile  Christians  do  not  need  to  be  cir- 
cumcised, and  to  adopt  the  whole  religion  of  the  Mosaic 
Law,  can  on  occasion  make  rather  extreme  statements  of 
the  antithesis  between  Law  and  Gospel  (Galatians  v  1-4), 
yet  he  does  assent  to  the  master-proposition  that  the  Law 
is  of  divine  origin,  and  good  (Romans  iii  1-2,  vii  12), 
and  it  is  the  due  preparation  for  the  Gospel  (Galatians  iii 
23-4).  The  great  essay  upon  this  theme  is  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews.  Here  the  institutions  of  Judaism  are  dis- 
played as  a  divinely  given  foreshadowing  of  the  higher 
institutions  and  permanently  valid  spiritual  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion. 

The  church  followed  upon  this  track,  though  she  was 
forced  to  embark  upon  the  traditional  distinction  between 
the  moral  law  of  the  Old  Covenant,  which  is  of  permanent 
validity,  and  the  ceremonial  law,  which  was  abolished  in 
Christ.  This  clearly  answers  to  the  practical  situation  as 
it  has  existed  in  the  Church.  The  Church  has  always 
reverenced  the  Jewish  Scriptures  as  Christian  Scriptures, 
not  as  an  account  merely  of  the  historical  origins  of  the 
Christian  faith,  but  as  a  book  authoritative  for  Christian 
doctrine,  and  for  the  guidance  of  the  devotional  and  moral 
life.  Nevertheless,  the  Church  did  not  in  point  of  fact 
literally  obey  the  Scriptural  commandments  regarding  the 
sacrifices,  the  festivals,  the  law  of  ceremonial  cleanness, 
and  the  like.  The  desire  of  Christian  theology  to  illustrate 
so  far  as  possible  the  parallel  between  the  lower  and  legal 
institutions  of  the  Jewish  religion,  and  the  higher  and 
spiritual  institutions  of  the  Christian  religion,  led  many  of 
the  traditional  theologians  of  the  Church  to  describe  the 
Christian  faith  as  "the  new  Law."  Just  as,  in  particular, 
the  Jewish  Sabbath  was  a  foretype  of  the  Christian  day 
of  worship,  so  in  general  the  whole  institution  of  Judaism 
(the  Law),  was  a  foretype  of  the  whole  Christian  institu- 

1394 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

tion.  DiflRculty  which  has  been  felt  by  some  about  this 
phrase  illustrates  a  point  of  controversy  which  arose  at 
the  Reformation  period. 

In  his  effort  completely  to  outlaw  the  "merit-earning" 
theology  prevalent  in  many  quarters  in  the  mediaeval 
church,  and  to  emphasize  the  principles  of  salvation  "by 
grace  alone"  and  "through  faith  alone."  Luther  fell  back 
upon  Paul's  rugged  antithesis,  mentioned  above  as  voiced 
in  some  passages,  between  "Law"  and  "Grace."  It  is  there- 
fore a  characteristic  theme  of  Luther,  and  of  Protestant 
theology  following  him,  that  admission  into  the  Christian 
Gospel  of  the  religion  of  law  (that  is  to  say,  the  hope  of 
a  man  that  he  may  fit  himself  for  God,  and  win  divine 
favor,  by  self-imposed  effort  in  obedience  to  the  Law  of 
God),  is  a  radical  corruption  and  a  denial  of  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  salvation  by  grace  alone.  Thus  "legal- 
ity" is  the  opposite  quantity  to  the  Gospel.  However,  this 
evangelical  principle,  like  other  principles,  can  be  per- 
verted by  partial  and  superficial  minds  into  an  error.  The 
error  in  question  is  that  of  antinomianism  (anti:  "against"; 
nomas:  "law"),  which  is  the  affirmation  that  the  Christian 
who  is  saved  by  grace,  and  who  walks  by  faith  is  on  thtit 
account  released  from  the  duty  of  obedience  to  the  moral 
law  of  God.  This  clearly  is  the  evangelical  principle  falling 
into  dangerous  unbalance,  and  into  an  error  of  excess. 

A  fair  and  balanced  reading  of  Luther  makes  it  plain 
that  he  himself  was  not  an  antinomian.  Yet  in  some  pas- 
sages in  his  works  there  are  strong  and  paradoxical  ex- 
pressions of  the  antithesis  between  "law"  and  "grace" 
which  speak  of  "the  Law"  almost  as  an  enemy  of  "the 
Gospel."  If  such  passages  are  isolated  from  the  context 
they  may  be  interpreted  as  a  substantiation  for  antinomian 
doctrine.  And  some  less  wise  evangelical  teachers  have 
at  times  fallen  into  this  trap  of  misunderstanding.  It  may 
perhaps  be  said  that  antinomianism  can  exist  in  three 
degrees.  There  can  be  a  very  mild  degree  of  antinomi- 
anism, in  theoretical  principle  only.  The  believer  may 
profess  himself  to  have  escaped  altogether  from  the  sphere 
of  duty  to  obey  the  moral  law  of  God  into  the  Chris- 
tian "liberty"  of  freely  following  the  impulse  of  love.  And 
on  the  basis  of  this  he  may  live  a  strict  moral  life.  Then 
there  may  be  a  moderate  practical  antinomianism,  in 
which  the  believer  deludes  himself  that  the  deep  spiritual 
experience  which  he  can  profess,  and  the  many  devotional 
exercises  which  he  enjoys,  in  some  way  compound  for 
minor  moral  failings  in  matters  of  truthfulness,  honesty, 
self-control,  or  human  kindness.  Finally  there  is  the  out- 
right antinomianism  of  the  "lunatic  fringe"  of  those  who 
affirm  that  because  they  are  accepted  by  God  through 
the  sole  merits  of  Christ  they  are  in  principle  free  to 
indulge  their  vices  if  they  wish.  By  contrast,  it  is  surely 
the  sound  and  long-established  Christian  position  that  the 
high  purpose  of  the  evangelical  experience  of  salvation 
by  grace  is  to  enable  man  effectually  and  from  the  heart 
to  carry  out  his  unsparing  duty  of  obedience  to  the  moral 
law  of  God,  sovereign  over  him,  as  over  all  men.  The 
sure  guide  is  that  Christ  came  not  to  destroy  the  law,  but 
to  fulfill  it  (Matthew  v,  17). 

Wesley  on  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  It  is  plain  from 
everything  which  he  did  and  wrote  that  the  fully  evangeli- 
cal Wesley,  after  the  Aldersgate  Street  experience, 
continued  to  be  every  inch  the  exponent  of  strict  moral 
discipline.  Anything  which  savored  of  antinomianism,  or 
which  by  implication  could  be  used  as  a  religious  excuse 
for  moral  compromise,  was  to  him  anathema.  Antinomi- 


WORLD   METHODISM 

anism  and  quietism  were  to  him  "Satan's  masterpieces," 
the  using  of  the  principles  of  rehgion  to  overthrow 
rehgion. 

From  an  early  date  in  1739  Wesley  was  troubled  in 
the  Fetter-lane  Society  by  antinomian  and  quietist 
teaching,  and  it  was  this  issue  which  caused  him  to 
separate  from  Fetter-lane,  and  so  from  the  Moravians, 
on  July  20,  1740  (see  Journal  Nov.  1,  1739— July  23, 
1740).  Characteristic  of  the  controversy  are  the  notes 
for  June  5,  1740,  "I  came  to  London;  where  finding  a 
general  temptation  prevail,  of  leaving  off  good  works, 
in  order  to  an  increase  of  faith,  1  began,  on  Friday  the 
sixth,  to  expound  the  Epistle  of  St.  James;  the  great 
antidote  against  this  poison:"  and  for  June  23,  "I  con- 
sidered the  second  assertion,  that  there  is  but  one  com- 
mandment in  the  New  Testament,  viz.  'To  believe;'  that 
no  other  duty  lies  upon  us;  and  that  a  believer  is  not 
obliged  to  do  anything  as  commanded.  How  gross, 
palpable  a  contradiction  is  this  to  the  whole  tenor  of  the 
New  Testament!  Every  part  of  which  is  full  of  command- 
ments, from  St.  Matthew  to  the  Revelation!"  It  was  be- 
cause Wesley  had  had  fragments  of  Luther  thrown  at  him 
in  this  controversy  that  he  later  reacted  against  Luther's 
Commentary  on  Galatians  in  a  not  altogether  judicious 
manner  (Journal,  June  15,  1741).  (See  Faith.) 

Wesley's  systematic  teaching  on  the  relation  of  the  Law 
to  the  Gospel  is  largely  contained  in  his  Standard  Sermons, 
XXIX,  "The  Original  of  the  Law";  XXX,  "The  Law 
Established  Through  Faith,  i";  XXXI,  "The  Law  Estab- 
lished Through  Faith,  ii";  and  also  sermon  XLIX,  "The 
Lord  our  Righteousness,"  and  his  first  and  second  "Dia- 
logue Between  an  Antinomian  and  his  Friend."  (Works, 
vol.  x).  A  summary  of  his  authoritative  teaching  may  be 
given  from  sermons  XXIX  and  XXX.  Christ  set  aside 
the  Jewish  ceremonial  law,  and  established  the  moral  law 
on  a  better  foundation  (XXIX  2,3).  The  moral  law  was 
declared  to  man  at  the  creation,  and  is  the  glorious 
representation  of  the  nature  of  God  ( XXIX  ii ) .  The  law 
of  God  is  pure  (iii  2,3).  It  is  certainly  not  of  the  nature  of 
sin,  but  is  the  detector  of  sin  (4).  The  keeping  of  it 
works  the  blessing  of  man  (12).  The  first  great  use  of  the 
law  is  to  trouble  the  conscience  of  man,  and  to  convict 
him  that  he  is  a  sinner  (iv  1).  The  second  is  as  a  stem 
schoolmaster  of  divine  punishment,  to  bring  him  to 
penitence  (2).  The  diird  ofEce  of  the  law,  forgotten  or 
denied  by  many,  is  to  keep  the  evangelical  believer  alert 
in  his  spiritual  discipline  (3).  It  reminds  him  of  the  sin 
yet  remaining  in  his  heart,  and  of  the  need  for  keeping 
close  to  Christ  (4-7).  The  antinomian  is  sternly  warned 
for  his  careless  language:  "Who  art  thou  then,  O  man, 
that  'judgest  the  law,  and  speakest  evil  of  the  law?' — that 
rankest  it  with  sin,  Satan,  and  death,  and  sendest  them 
all  to  hell  together?"  (8). 

In  sermon  XXX,  those  who  would  abolish  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  moral  as  well  as  of  the  Jewish  ceremonial 
law  over  the  believer  have  a  zeal  but  not  according  to 
knowledge  (3-6).  The  most  usual  way  to  make  void  the 
law  through  faith  is  not  to  preach  it  at  all,  as  is  the  case 
with  those  deeply  mistaken  teachers  who  use  the  phrase 
"a  preacher  of  the  law"  as  though  it  were  "a  term  of 
reproach,  as  though  it  meant  little  less  than  an  enemy  to 
the  gospel"  (i  1,2).  Free  forgiveness  through  "the  suf- 
ferings and  merits  of  Christ"  is  not  to  be  offered  to  careless 
and  impenitent  men,  but  only  to  those  who  through  the 
preaching  of  the  moral  law  of  God  know  themselves  to  be 


LAWRENCE,   JOHN 

in  need  of  forgiveness  (3).  This  approach  is  the  Scriptural 
and  apostolic  method  (4-11).  If  the  comfort  of  free  for- 
giveness through  the  Cross  is  the  only  thing  which  is 
declared  to  the  congregation,  without  the  constant  re- 
minder of  the  unsparing  demands  of  the  moral  law  of 
God,  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  will  gradually  lose  its 
force  ( 12) .  "A  second  way  of  making  void  the  law  through 
faith  is,  the  teaching  that  faith  supersedes  the  necessity  of 
holiness"  (ii  1).  Any  teaching  is  most  dangerous  which 
can  be  understood  as  implying  that  inward  and  outward 
righteousness  of  life  is  in  some  way  less  imperatively 
necessary  for  the  "converted"  Christian  who  lives  by  evan- 
gelical grace  than  it  is  for  other  men  (2-4).  This  error, 
which  is  a  mistaken  reaction  against  Christian  phariseeism, 
is  entirely  contrary  to  Scripture  (5-7).  Yet  the  most 
common  way  of  making  void  the  law  is  not  to  teach  it, 
but  simply  to  do  it  by  a  careless  and  easy-going  hfe  (iii 
1 ) .  The  evangelical  principles  ought  to  make  the  believer 
more  zealous  for  right  than  he  was  before  ( 2-4 ) . 

VV^esley  then  seriously  challenges  his  hearers  to  compare 
in  detail  the  manner  of  their  lives  previously,  when  they 
were  struggling  outside  the  evangelical  experience,  with 
what  it  is  now  after  evangelical  conversion.  Are  they  as 
abstemious,  contemptuous  of  show,  luxury,  fashion,  and 
the  praise  of  this  world,  as  economical  of  money  and 
time,  as  austere  and  plain-spoken,  and  as  careful  to  avoid 
gossip  and  flattery,  as  they  were  then?  Are  they  as  regular 
at  Church  service  and  private  prayer  now  as  they  were 
then,  or  do  they  find  themselves  kept  away  by  "a  little 
business,  a  visitor,  a  slight  indisposition,  a  soft  bed,  a  dark 
or  cold  morning?"  Are  they  as  earnest  in  speaking  to 
others  of  Christ?  If  any  believer  finds  that  he  has  in- 
sensibly "let  up"  on  any  of  these  duties  since  he  came  to 
the  evangelical  experience,  he  is  on  spiritually  perilous 
ground  (5-8).  Clearly  for  Wesley  sanctification  and  holi- 
ness were  not  emotional  experiences,  as  an  alternative  to 
zealous  churchmanship  and  strict  morality.  They  were 
a  life  of  imsparing  devotional  and  moral  discipline,  but 
empowered  by  the  evangelical  experience  and  the  indwell- 
ing Spirit.  Christian  liberty  is  not  escape  from  the  law, 
but  power  to  obey  it. 

P.  Allhaus,  The  Divine  Command.  Philadelphia,  1966. 

W.  Andersen,  Law  and  Gospel.  London  and  New  York,  1961. 

C.  H.  Dodd,  Gospel  and  Law.  New  York,  1951. 

W.  Elert,  Law  and  Gospel.  Philadelphia,  1967. 

John  Fletcher,  Checks  to  Antinomianism.  New  York:  Soule  and 

Mason,  1819. 

G.  A.  F.  Knight,  Law  and  Grace.  London,  1962. 

W.  B.  Pope,  Compendium  of  Christian  Theology.  1880. 

A.  R.  Vidler,  Christ's  Strange  Work.  London,  1963. 

R.  Watson,  Theological  Institutes.  1823-26. 

J.  Wesley,  Standard  Sermons.  1921.  John  Lawson 

LAWRENCE,  JOHN  (1824-1889),  American  United 
Brethren  clergyman,  soldier,  jurist,  was  bom  in  Wayne 
County,  Ind.,  Dec.  3,  1824.  Although  educated  in  public 
schools  with  limited  academic  training,  he  was  considered 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  ministers  in  the  Church.  For  a 
time  he  taught  public  school  in  northwestern  Ohio.  Mar- 
ried twice,  his  first  wife  died  early  in  his  ministry.  In  1843 
he  joined  the  Sandusky  Conference,  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ,  and  became  a  charter  member  of  the 
Michigan  Conference.  He  served  first  as  a  circuit  preacher 
and  later  as  presiding  elder. 

Lawrence  became  assistant  editor  of  the  Religious  Tele- 


LAWRENCE,   KANSAS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


scope  in  1850,  and  two  years  later  the  sole  editor.  He 
continued  in  this  editorial  office  until  1864,  when  he 
entered  the  Union  Army  as  chaplain  of  the  15th  U.S. 
Colored  Troops,  and  later  was  made  a  captain  of  his 
regiment. 

Following  the  Civil  War  he  was  appointed  judge  of  a 
Freedman's  Court,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  and  afterwards  prac- 
ticed law  in  that  city.  He  did  not  return  to  the  active 
ministerial  service. 

A.  W.  Drury  wrote,  "He  [Lawrence]  was  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  most  successful  editors  the  Religious 
Telescope  has  had."  Following  Lawrence's  death  the 
Nashville  Daily  American  paid  him  a  glowing  tribute 
recounting  his  many  virtues  as  an  attorney  and  honorable, 
liberal,  patriotic  citizen.  He  was  a  great  writer.  Some  of 
his  contributions  were:  Manual  of  Rules  of  Order;  His- 
tory of  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ 
(2  vol.);  Slavery  Question;  and  Plain  Thoughts  on  Secret 
Societies.  He  died  in  Nashville,  Aug.  7,  1889. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  UB.  1924. 

Religious  Telescope,  Aug.  14,  1889.  John  H.  Ness,  Sn. 

LAWRENCE,  KANSAS,  U.S.A.  First  Church  has  a  history 
which  parallels  the  history  of  the  state.  The  stand  of 
Methodist  citizens  on  the  question  of  slavery  in  the 
1840's  caused  the  name  "Methodist"  to  be  practically 
synonymous  with  "Free  State,"  and  many  of  the  immi- 
grants sent  out  by  the  North  were  Methodists.  The  first 
such  groups  arrived  in  August  and  September  of  1854, 
and  in  November  of  that  year  the  first  Methodist  service 
was  held  in  the  "Hay  Tent,"  so-called  because  it  was 
made  of  hay.  The  first  sermon  was  preached  by  a  Meth- 
odist minister  from  Missouri.  Early  in  1855,  the  Meth- 
odist Church  was  organized  as  a  local  society  and  plans 
were  made  for  building  a  stone  church  but  these  plans 
failed  to  materialize.  Meetings  were  held  regularly,  how- 
ever, in  homes  and  other  available  buildings. 

In  1856,  a  primitive  church  was  erected  of  rough  board 
sides,  canvas  roof,  dirt  floor,  and  black  walnut  seats. 
This  building  was  called  "The  Tent."  It  was  destroyed  by 
a  storm  in  less  than  a  year.  In  1857  a  frame  building 
was  erected  which  the  Methodists  shared  with  other  de- 
nominations. It  was  also  used  by  the  city  school  during 
the  winter.  Plans  were  started  in  1862  for  a  larger  church 
building,  but  on  Aug.  21,  1863,  Quantrell  and  his  band 
of  guerillas  raided  Lawrence,  killing  and  wounding  men 
and  ruining  buildings.  The  seats  of  the  little  Methodist 
church  were  removed  and  it  was  used  as  a  morgue.  One 
hundred  fifty  men  were  killed,  many  of  them  leading 
Methodists.  In  spite  of  this  disaster,  plans  for  a  new  church 
continued.  This  red  brick  building  was  much  larger  than 
its  predecessor  and  it  served  Lawrence  Methodists  for 
twenty-five  years.  At  the  laying  of  the  comer-stone  in 
1864,  the  Kansas  State  Journal  reported,  "this  ceremony 
has  eclipsed  any  other  occasion  in  our  history  as  a  state." 

By  1872  plans  were  made  for  a  much  larger  church 
building  which  would  be  the  largest  and  finest  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River  outside  of  St.  Louis.  Work  progressed 
rapidly  until  the  financial  panic  of  1873,  when  all  con- 
struction stopped  for  fifteen  years.  But  by  1891  the  con- 
gregation was  able  to  move  into  the  beautiful  stone 
church  which  with  very  few  exterior  changes  is  still  in 
use.  In  1959  the  sanctuary  was  enlarged  and  a  new  heat- 
ing and  air-conditioning  system  was  installed.  An  addition 
to   the   north   side   for   religious   education    was   built   in 

1396 


1962.  Thus  the  church  has  tried  to  keep  pace  with  the 
growth  of  the  times  and  of  the  town.  Membership  in 
1970  was  2,193. 

Bessie  Daum 

LAWRENCE,  MASSACHUSETTS,  U.S.A.,  is  situated  on 
the  .Merrimac  River  and  is  a  great  manufacturing  center 
on  the  Boston  and  Maine  Railroad,  twenty-eight  miles 
from  the  city  of  Boston.  That  part  of  the  city  north  of  the 
Merrimac  River  is  in  the  New  Hampshire  Conference. 

Methodist  work  in  Lawrence  began  in  answer  to  a 
request  made  of  the  presiding  elder,  Elihu  Scott,  at  the 
Methuen,  Mass.,  Quarterly  Conference,  May  1846,  asking 
that  a  preacher  be  sent  to  Lawrence.  At  the  ensuing  an- 
nual conference,  James  L.  Slason  was  sent  with  a  mis- 
sionary appropriation  of  $125.  There  being  no  place  to 
meet,  Charles  Barnes  on  5  Broadway  opened  his  own 
home  for  public  worship.  A  concert  hall  was  later  secured. 
In  1845,  L.  D.  Barrows  became  pastor  with  a  $200 
missionary  appropriation  and  twenty-three  members  re- 
ported. Bridgeman's  Hall  on  Oak  Street  was  then  us^d 
until  a  building  was  erected  on  the  comer  of  Haverhill 
and  Hampshire  Streets,  and  the  basement  was  finished 
for  dedication  March  26,  1848,  with  Barrows  preaching 
on  the  theme,  "Worship  God!" 

A  second  church  appearing  in  1853  on  Garden  Street 
showed  a  good  growth  of  spiritual  interest  and  the  en- 
thusiastic support  of  the  people.  The  work  was  continued 
faithfully  and  this  church  had  a  good  deal  of  evangelistic 
interest  and  missionary  spirit.  A  Sunday  school  was  early 
started  on  Bodwell  Street,  and  Seth  Dawson  was  super- 
intendent for  many  years.  In  1880  the  church  known  as 
St.  Mark's  was  organized,  and  continues  to  serve  today. 

Oaklands,  in  neighboring  Methuen,  was  also  a  mis- 
sionary product  of  the  Garden  Street  Church,  where  at 
Cook's  Comer,  Miss  Mary  E.  Cook  had  an  important 
part.  It  later  became  the  scene  of  growing  Italian  work 
with  a  church  building,  a  pastor,  and  fifty-four  members. 

With  the  influx  of  French  Canadians  around  Garden 
Street,  a  merger  of  this  church  was  effected  with  the 
Haverhill  Street  Church  in  1910.  Both  David  B.  Dow 
and  George  W.  Farmer  were  appointed  to  the  new  Central 
Church  Society.  Preliminary  plans  were  then  made  for  a 
new  church  edifice.  This  was  built  on  Haverhill  Street 
opposite  from  the  "Common,"  under  the  pastorate  of 
Edwin  S.  Tasker,  beginning  in  1912.  This  church  con- 
tinues its  great  ministry  in  the  heart  of  Lawrence. 

For  several  years  in  the  early  1880's  a  mission  Sunday 
school  was  conducted  by  different  denominations  in  a 
chapel  belonging  to  the  Y.M.C.A.  of  Lawrence,  situated 
on  Lake  Street  in  the  Arlington  section  of  the  city.  With 
most  having  Methodist  leanings,  in  April  30,  1891  at  a 
meeting  called  to  consider  the  matter,  the  presiding  elder, 
George  W.  Norris  of  the  Dover  District,  was  asked  to 
organize  the  society  into  a  M.  E.  Church.  This  was  done 
and  is  now  St.  Paul's.  The  Vine  Street  Church  came  into 
the  New  Hampshire  Conference  by  transfer  from  the 
German  Conference  which  had  work  there  then. 

Cole  and  Baketel,  New  Hampshire  Conference.  1929. 
Journal  of  the  New  Hampshire  Conference. 

William  J.  Davis 

LAWRENCE  UNIVERSITY,  Appleton,  Wisconsin,  was 
founded   in    1847,   one   year  before   Wisconsin    achieved 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Lawrence  Memorial  Chapel 

statehood,  as  a  joint  effort  of  the  Rock  River  Confer- 
ence and  Amos  Adams  Lawrence,  a  Boston  merchant 
with  wide  philanthropic,  educational,  and  political  in- 
terests. The  present  charter  makes  the  institution's  forty- 
two  member  board  of  trustees  a  self-perpetuating  body. 
Its  ties  with  The  United  Methodist  Church  are  through 
a  board  of  twelve  visitors,  six  elected  by  the  East  Wis- 
consin Annual  Conference  and  six  elected  by  the  West 
Wisconsin  Conference.  At  least  nine  are  alumni  mem- 
bers nominated  by  alumni. 

In  1964  Lawrence  College  and  Milwaukee-Downer  Col- 
lege merged  to  form  Lawrence  University.  It  is  made  up 
of  Lawrence  College  for  Men,  Downer  College  for  Wom- 
en, the  Conservatory  of  Music,  and  the  affiliated  Institute 
of  Paper  Chemistry.  A  Phi  Beta  Kappa  society  was  in- 
stalled in  1914.  Degrees  offered  are  the  B.A.  and  B.M. 
( Music ) . 

John  O.  Gross 

LAWRY,  HENRY  HASSALL  (1821-1906),  New  Zealand 
minister,  was  bom  in  New  South  Wales  and  was  educated 
at  KiNGSwooD  School,  England,  where  he  was  converted. 
He  became  a  local  preacher  and  entered  business  in 
London.  Prompted  by  filial  duty,  he  came  to  New  Zea- 
land with  his  father,  Walter  Lawry,  arriving  in  1844. 
In  the  same  year,  Henry  was  received  on  probation 
and  studied  Maori  under  James  Duller  at  Tangiteroria. 

After  teaching  at  the  Wesleyan  Native  Training  Insti- 
tution in  Auckland,  he  became  the  first  missionary  at 
the  Pehiakura  Station,  and  for  five  years  covered  a  wide 
area  of  country  around  the  Manukau  Harbor.  A  second 
scattered  circuit  (Waima)  undermined  his  health.  He 
was  brought  back  to  Wesley  Three  Kings  College,  and 
in  1874  superannuated. 

Subsequently,  he  served  with  the  Auckland  Auxiliary 
of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  He  revised 


LAWS,   CHARLES   HENRY 

and  re-edited  a  Maori  book  of  services.  He  acted  as 
interpreter  in  the  Maori  land  court.  He  was  a  man  of  rich 
and  varied  experience,  wide  reading,  and  deep  spirituality. 

W.    Morley,   New   Zealand.    1900.        William   T.    Blight 

LAWRY,  SAMUEL  (1854-1933),  New  Zealand  Methodist 
minister,  was  bom  in  St.  Mabyn,  Cornwall,  England,  in 
1854  and  came  to  New  Zealand  at  the  age  of  eight. 
For  thirty-four  years  he  was  a  circuit  minister,  and  then 
in  1911,  he  became  connexional  secretary.  This  position 
he  held  for  sixteen  years.  He  was  secretary  of  Conference 
for  seven  years,  and  then  president  in  1904,  and  again  in 
1913,  on  the  occasion  of  Methodist  Union. 

Steeped  in  Methodist  tradition,  thoroughly  versed  in 
Methodist  polity  and  procedure,  prominent  in  the  philan- 
thropic and  social  movements  of  his  time,  he  gave  fifty 
years  of  devoted  service  to  his  church.  He  died  at  Christ- 
church  on  July  26,  1933. 

Minutes  of  the  Netc  Zealand  Methodist  Conference,  1934. 

William  T.  Blight 


LAWRY,  WALTER  (1793-1859),  early  missionary  to  Aus- 
tralia, Tonga  and  New  Zealand,  was  born  at  Rutheren, 
Cornwall,  England,  on  Aug.  3,  1793.  Converted  in  early 
age,  he  soon  began  to  preach.  He  was  accepted  in  1817 
as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  by  the  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference in  England  and  was  appointed  as  assistant  mis- 
sionary in  New  South  Wales.  He  arrived  in  Sydney  in 
May  i818,  and  became  the  colleague  of  Samuel  Leigh. 

The  situation  which  confronted  them  was  such  that 
they  "agreed  to  live  on  two  meals  a  day  if  they  could 
have  another  missionary  and  a  printing  press."  Lawry 
was  stationed  at  Parramatta,  and  served  there  with  con- 
spicuous success  for  four  years.  He  then  went  to  Tonga 
to  commence  the  Friendly  Islands  Mission.  In  1822  the 
Tongan  Islands  had  been  abandoned  by  the  London 
Missionary  Society  because  of  the  ferocity  of  the  natives. 
Lawry  worked  amongst  them  until  his  health  compelled 
him  to  retire  in  1825,  when  he  went  back  to  England. 

For  nineteen  years  he  remained  in  English  circuit  work. 
He  returned  to  the  Southern  Hemisphere  in  1843,  having 
been  appointed  General  Superintendent  of  the  Wesleyan 
Missions  in  New  Zealand,  and  Visitor  of  those  in  Polynesia, 
an  office  he  held  for  eleven  years.  He  established  the  Wes- 
leyan Native  Training  Institution  in  Auckland  and  founded 
Wesley  College  and  Seminary. 

In  1854  he  retired  from  the  duties  of  the  ministry 
because  of  failing  health  and  settled  in  Parramatta,  New 
South  Wales,  where  he  died  on  March  30,  1859.  His 
diary  (as  yet  unpublished)  is  a  classic  description  of  life 
in  early  Australian  history. 

J.  Colwell,  Century  in  the  Pacific.  1914. 

W.  Morley,  New  Zealand.  1900. 

E.  W.  Hames,  Walter  Lawry  and  the  Wesleyan  Mission  in  the 

South  Seas.  Wesley  Historical  Societ>',  New  Zealand,  1967. 

William  T.  Blight 

LAWS,  CHARLES  HENRY  (1867-1958),  New  Zealand 
minister,  was  bom  at  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  England,  in 
1867,  and  was  brought  to  New  Zealand  at  the  age  of 
seven.  He  heard  the  call  to  the  ministry  at  an  early  age, 
and  became  the  leading  preacher  of  the  Methodist  Church 
in  New  Zealand.  Mainly  through  his  advocacy,  the  New 

1397 


LAWSON,   ANNA   ELIZABETH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Zealand  Coiifereiicc  gained  its  independence  from  Aus- 
tralia. 

He  insisted  on  better  training  for  ministers  and  was 
the  driving  force  behind  the  building  of  Trinity  Theolog- 
ical College  and  hostel  in  Auckland  (1929).  For  a  period 
of  eleven  years  ( 1920-31 )  he  held  the  position  of  principal 
of  the  theological  college,  first  at  Dunholme  and  then  at 
Trinity  College.  Earlier,  he  was  secretary  of  Conference 
six  times,  and  president  twice — in  1910,  and  again  in 
1922.  As  a  leader  and  administrator  he  was  without  peer 
and  as  a  preacher  he  belonged  to  the  very  front  rank.  He 
died  in  Auckland  on  Feb.  8,  1958. 

Wesley  Parker,  Rev.  C.  H.  Laws,  B.A.,  D.D.,  Memoir  and 
Addresses.  A.  H.  &  A.  W.  Reed,  1957.        L.  R.  M.  Gilmore 

LAWSON,  ANNA  ELIZABETH  (1860-1951),  was  a  life- 
long missionary  to  India  representing  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  She 
was  bom  in  Clio,  Iowa,  U.S.A.,  Feb.  2,  1860.  At  the  age 
of  fourteen,  she  joined  the  M.  E.  Church  and  decided  to 
prepare  for  service  in  the  church  at  home  or  abroad.  In 
1881,  she  graduated  from  Iowa  Wesleyan  University 
and  became  a  teacher  in  country  schools.  She  was  active 
in  church  work,  including  teaching  Sunday  school  classes. 

In  1885,  she  went  to  India  as  the  first  missionary  from 
the  Des  Moines  Branch  of  the  Society.  She  was  appointed 
to  the  girls'  orphanage  in  Bareilly.  After  furlough,  she  was 
appointed  principal  of  the  Methodist  Girls'  School  at 
Meerut  and  remained  there  throughout  her  second  term, 
establishing  a  reputation  as  a  skillful  administrator  and  a 
beloved  servant  of  the  church. 

In  the  terrible  famine  that  came  late  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  continued  into  the  twentieth,  she  was 
sent  to  Phulera,  Rajputana,  as  manager  of  a  home  in 
which  hundreds  of  orphaned  children  were  gathered.  Re- 
turning from  a  second  furlough,  she  was  again  appointed 
to  Rajputana  and  served  as  principal  of  the  girls'  school 
in  Ajmer.  Many  girls  whose  lives  were  saved  by  her  ef- 
forts during  the  famine  were  then  her  students. 

Miss  Lawson  had  a  flair  for  business.  She  early  became 
treasurer  of  the  funds  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  within  her  annual  conference.  From  her  parents' 
estate  che  received  a  legacy  which,  through  her  steward- 
ship, became  a  great  asset  of  the  Kingdom.  She  purchased 
property  in  the  summer  resort  of  Mussoorie,  and  made 
it  available  for  missionary  recruits  studying  Indian  lan- 
guages. She  engaged  competent  instructors  to  help  the 
missionaries,  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Landour 
Language  School.  She  also  purchased  a  cottage  in  Sat  Tal 
for  use  by  women  teachers  in  Methodist  schools,  so  that 
they  might  have  the  advantage  of  a  rest  away  from  the 
summer  heat  of  the  Indian  plains,  and  share  in  privileges 
provided  by  the  Ashrams  of  E.  Stanley  Jones. 

In  1951  Iowa  Wesleyan  University  bestowed  upon  her 
the  honorary  L.H.D.  degree.  A  short  time  later  that  year 
she  passed  away,  in  her  ninety-second  year. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

LAWSON,   JOHN    (1909-  ),   the  editor  of  the   doc- 

trinal articles  in  the  Encyclopaedia  of  World  Methodism, 
is  a  minister  of  the  British  Methodist  Church.  He  was 
bom  in  Leeds,  Yorkshire,  in  which  city  his  family  have 
been  Methodists  ever  since  his  great-great-grandfather, 
John   Lawson,    was   converted   there   in    1802.    While    a 


student  of  agriculture  he  received  a  call  to  preach,  and 
later  entered  the  separated  ministry  in  1932,  receiving 
his  theological  education  at  Wesley  House,  Cambridge. 
For  twenty  years  he  was  employed  in  the  pastoral  min- 
istry, chiefly  in  mral  circuits  in  the  eastern  counties  of 
England.  During  this  time  he  wrote  his  dissertation.  The 
Biblical  Theology  of  S.  Irenacm,  and  a  number  of  other 
books,  chiefly  on  Wesley  doctrine  and  general  theology. 
Since  1955  he  has  taught  church  history,  historical  the- 
ology, Wesley  history,  and  Wesley  theology,  at  the 
Candler  School  of  Theology,  Emory  University,  Atlanta, 
Georgia,  U.S.A.  Among  his  more  recent  publications  is 
A  Comprehensive  Handbook  of  Christian  Doctrine.  He  is 
a  firm  upholder  of  the  Wesley  heritage  of  doctrine  and 
devotion,  and  keenly  interested  in  the  movement  for 
Christian  unity. 

N.  B.  H. 


LAWSON,  MARTIN  E.  (See  Judicial  Council.) 

LAWTON,  OKLAHOMA,  USA.,  Centenary  Method'st 
Church.  Less  than  two  weeks  after  the  official  opening 
of  Lawton,  on  Aug.  18,  1901,  B.  F.  Gassaway,  missionary 
to  the  Kiowa,  Comanche,  and  Apache  Indians,  organized 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  with  funds  provided  by  the 
Board  of  Missions  of  that  Church.  The  lot  where  the 
congregation  met  was  on  the  comer  of  9th  and  D,  and 
a  canvas  tent  housed  the  twenty-four  original  members. 
In  November,  the  charge  was  made  a  station  and  the 
new  minister,  W.  F.  Dunkle,  Sr.,  arrived,  only  to  have 
the  tent  blown  down  that  very  night.  Members  built  a 
box  structure  to  house  the  church  within  the  week  and, 
shortly,  the  new  church  had  an  organ,  active  commissions, 
an  Epworth  League,  Women's  Societies,  a  full  slate  of 
officers,  and  a  modest  parsonage. 

During  the  pastorate  of  A.  J.  Worley  (1903-04),  a  new 
frame  structure  was  built  and  the  canvas  windows  and 
homemade  seats  were  replaced  by  oak  pews  and  stained 
glass  windows.  R.  S.  Satterfield  (1905-06)  and  the  rapid- 
ly growing  church  were  host  to  the  Oklahoma  Conference 
in  1906,  an  ambitious  project  considering  the  fact  that  the 
church  had  no  electricity  nor  plumbing.  Business  meet- 
ings for  the  gathering  were  held  in  the  Ramsey  Opera 
House.  From  this  conference,  Lawton  sent  forth  her  first 
ordained  minister,  R.  E.  L.  Morgan. 

On  Jan.  21,  1907,  during  the  pastorate  of  A.  L.  Scales, 
the  present  church  site  at  the  corner  of  7th  and  D  was 
purchased.  The  church  built  a  recreational  building  during 
the  years  of  World  War  I  in  order  to  better  serve  the 
personnel  at  Fort  Sill.  With  Wilmore  Kendall  (1918-21) 
plans  were  made  and  funds  procured  for  the  new  Cen- 
tenary M.  E.  Church,  South,  so-named  because  of  funds 
used  from  the  Centenary  Fund  of  the  Board  of  Church 
Extension  (MES)  and  the  War  Work  Commission  of  the 
same  Church.  Wilmore  Kendall  worked  actively  but, 
because  of  his  blindness,  requested  a  new  pastor  for  the 
supervision  of  the  actual  building,  J.  D.  Salter  (1922-24). 
The  cornerstone  was  laid  in  1922,  and  in  1924  the  ladies 
of  the  church  contributed  a  pipe  organ,  kitchen  and 
parlor  fumishings,  stained  glass  windows,  and  church 
pews. 

In  1939,  the  Northern  and  Southern  Methodist  churches 
of  the  city  united  and  Centenary  members  took  an  active 
part  in  the  united  annual  conferences.  By  1943,  under  the 
pastorate  of  Forrest  A.    Fields    (1941-48),   all   loans   on 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LAY   DELEGATION 


church  properties  were  paid  off.  The  Second  World  War 
gave  an  added  incentive  to  the  youth  program,  and  it 
expanded  to  include  junior  and  senior  high  groups  and  a 
flourishing  college  and  career. 

During  the  pastorate  of  J.  W.  Browers,  Jr.,  beginning 
in  1952,  the  remodeled  sanctuary  was  dedicated,  and  the 
old  First  Presbyterian  Church  at  8th  and  D  was  purchased 
to  be  used  as  the  youth  building.  Under  the  leadership  of 
Argus  Hamilton,  Jr.  (1960-64),  a  modem  education-oflRce 
building  was  completed. 

The  1970  membership  of  2,874  continues  to  reflect 
the  pioneer  spirit  and  Christian  concern  of  the  original 
twenty-four  men  and  women  who  met  in  August  of  1901 
with  a  dream  and  a  commitment  to  the  future. 

Clegg  and  Oden,  Oklahoma.  1968. 

Chronicles  of  Comanche  County,  Vol.  IV,  No.  1,  Spring  1968. 

Elwyn  O.  Thurston 

LAY  DELEGATION  (U.S.A.).  In  the  early  days  of  Amer- 
ican Methodism,  indeed  from  1784  until  1872  in  the 
M.  E.  Church,  and  until  1866  in  the  M.  E.  Church,  South, 
the  Annual  and  General  Conferences  consisted  wholly 
of  ministers.  There  was  no  representation  from  the  laity 
of  the  church,  and  the  great  call  and  demand  for  "laity 
rights"  and  lay  representation  was  a  major  one  in  bring- 
ing about  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church.  James  R.  Joy,  who  was  familiar  with  early  Meth- 
odist procedures,  stated  once  that  in  early  Methodism 
no  one  was  allowed  in  a  conference  when  it  was  in  ses- 
sion, save  its  own  members.  All  members  were,  of  course, 
preachers,  and  there  was  no  "gallery"  for  visitors,  nor 
indeed  were  any  visitors  allowed.  The  secrecy  of  con- 
ference proceedings  as  carried  on  by  ministers  alone 
helped  to  intensify  the  call  for  lay  rights. 

This  was,  of  course,  the  Conference  plan  which  the 
Wesleyans  in  England  had  been  carrying  on  for  many 
years  before  American  Methodism  originated.  And  it 
should  be  admitted  that  the  business  of  the  armual  con- 
ferences was  almost  altogether  ministerial,  as  few  financial 
matters  came  under  review.  But  as  the  Church  grew  in 
strength  and  in  numbers,  and  as  property  in  churches, 
in  educational  institutions,  in  publishing  houses,  and  the 
like,  was  accumulated,  the  desire  became  more  manifest 
that  the  laity  of  the  church  should  have  some  voice  in 
arranging  its  general  plans. 

Local  preachers  began  the  first  agitation  towards  this 
end,  as  they  felt  that  in  the  delegated  General  Con- 
ference— meeting  first  in  1812 — they  had  been  left  with- 
out any  representation,  and  of  course  without  authority. 
As  discussion  spread  in  the  Church  a  period  of  great 
turmoil  ensued,  and  the  laity  rights  movement  finally 
brought  about  the  organization  of  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church. 

During  subsequent  anti-slavery  discussions  in  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  (after  the  Methodist  Protestants  had 
withdrawn),  various  matters  regarding  laity  rights  also 
came  up.  In  1842  a  number  of  persons  seceded  to  form 
the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  which,  like  the  Meth- 
odist Protestants,  introduced  lay  representation  into  their 
legislative  bodies  and  rejected  episcopacy  and  the  pre- 
siding eldership. 

When  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  was  formed  under 
the  Plan  of  Separation,  there  was  no  difference  between 
the  episcopal  Methodisms  in  the  matter  of  lay  representa- 
tion. But  when  the  Southern  Church  reorganized  follow- 


ing the  Civil  War  in  1866,  there  was  up  for  adoption  a 
plan  for  lay  representation  to  be  acted  on  in  the  General 
Conference.  That  Conference  created  a  special  committee 
to  report  at  the  next  General  Conference  (1870)  upon 
the  whole  matter  of  lay  representation. 

The  Committee  duly  recommended  this  in  1870  with 
a  provision  that  would  admit  laymen  to  the  General 
Conference  in  equal  numbers  with  ministers;  and  also 
recommended  that  four  lay  representatives  should  be 
elected  to  each  Annual  Conference  from  each  presiding 
elders 's  district;  and  that  these  four  should  be  elected  by 
the  newly  established  District  Conference — the  District 
Conference  being  a  strictly  southern  creation  as  of  that 
date.  It  was  specifically  provided  that  the  lay  members 
were  not  to  vote  upon  ministerial  qualifications  or  char- 
acter— and  it  may  be  said  that  lay  members  never  have 
been  allowed  to  vote  upon  such  up  to  the  present  day. 
In  spite  of  opposition  by  John  C.  Keener,  Norval 
Wilson,  and  Leonidas  Rosser,  Holland  N.  McT^xibe — 
to  be  elected  bishop  by  that  conference — managed  to  get 
the  report  for  lay  representation  adopted  by  a  good 
majority. 

Later  on  in  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  the  ratio  of  lay 
representation  in  the  annual  conferences  was  changed  so 
that  in  1914  eight  delegates  were  allowed  to  be  elected 
from  each  presiding  elder's  district;  then  in  1926  it  be- 
came one  lay  delegate  for  every  800  church  members. 
When  the  Plan  of  Union  was  finally  adopted,  this  be- 
came one  lay  delegate  from  every  pastor's  charge,  no 
matter  how  large  that  charge  should  be,  or  how  small. 

In  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1860,  the  General  Conference 
adopted  a  resolution  expressive  of  a  willingness  to  intro- 
duce lay  delegation  into  the  General  Conference  "when- 
ever the  Church  desired  it,"  and  agreeing  to  submit  the 
question  to  a  vote  of  the  lay  members  of  the  church,  and 
also  to  a  vote  of  the  ministry.  The  vote  was  taken  in  1861- 
62,  in  the  midst  of  the  excitement  of  the  Civil  War,  and 
resulted  in  28,000  members  in  favor  and  47,000  against; 
1,338  ministers  for  and  3,969  against.  Thus  it  failed. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  the  subject  was  again  dis- 
cussed and  the  General  Conference  of  1868  submitted 
another  plan  for  lay  delegation  to  the  consideration  of 
the  people.  In  spite  of  a  great  many  technical  matters 
which  were  involved  in  voting  upon  the  proposed  amend- 
ments, the  result  of  the  vote  was  a  two  to  one  majority  for 
lay  representation.  The  General  Conference  of  the  church 
in  1876 — still  not  quite  convinced — ordered  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  who  should  consider,  in  the  interim 
of  the  conferences,  the  question  of  the  expediency  of  lay 
delegation.  It  reported  favorably  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1880. 

The  plan  of  lay  representation  as  proposed  by  the 
General  Conference  of  1872  and  ultimately  adopted  pro- 
vided for  two  lay  delegates  from  each  annual  conference, 
except  where  a  conference  had  only  one  clerical  delegate, 
and  in  such  cases  only  one  lay  delegate  was  allowed.  Lay 
and  clerical  members  were  to  deliberate  in  one  body  but 
to  vote  separately  (vote  by  orders),  if  such  separate  vote 
should  be  called  for  by  one-third  of  either  order.  In  such 
cases  both  orders  had  to  concur. 

General  Conference  lay  delegates  were  to  be  elected 
by  an  electoral  conference  of  laymen  which  was  to 
assemble  on  the  third  day  of  the  session  of  each  annual 
conference  held  previous  to  a  General  Conference.  The 
electoral  conference  was  to  be  made  up  of  one  layman 
from  each  circuit  or  station,  and  there  were  certain  speci- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


fications  as  to  age  and  church  membership  for  them  before 
they  could  be  recognized. 

The  above  provisions  continued  with  slight  modifica- 
tions until  1900,  when  the  M.  E.  Church  adopted  a 
written  constitution.  This  put  the  election  of  lay  dele- 
gates in  the  hands  of  a  regular  lay  conference  which  was 
then  established.  This  lay  conference,  as  called  for  in 
1900,  was  something  more  than  the  old  lay  electoral 
conference  which  had  only  met  once  every  four  years. 
It  was  in  effect,  a  parallel  conference  to  that  of  the  min- 
isters, and  was  established  for  the  purpose  of  voting  on 
constitutional  amendments — and  also  of  considering  and 
acting  upon  matters  relating  to  lay  activities  and  such 
other  matters  as  the  General  Conference  might  direct. 
One  lay  member  from  each  pastoral  charge  was  to  be 
elected  to  the  lay  conference.  Clerical  and  lay  members 
were  to  meet  in  united  sessions  for  certain  parts  of  the 
joint  program. 

When  church  union  came  about  between  the  three 
Methodist  Churches  of  the  United  States  in  1939,  it  was 
evident  that  lay  representation  would  be  continued  in 
much  the  same  pattern  as  had  been  the  case  in  the  two 
Methodist  Episcopal  Churches.  However,  the  Methodist 
Protestant  plan  of  electing  one  layman  from  each  charge 
was  put  into  the  Plan  of  Union,  and  followed  out  hence- 
forth. The  old  electoral  lay  conference,  and  the  confer- 
ence of  la\Tnen  which  sat  in  parallel  with  the  conference 
of  ministers  in  the  M.  E.  Church,  was  done  away  in  favor 
of  the  plan  which  the  Southern  Church  had  always  pur- 
sued— that  of  having  laymen  actual  integrated  members 
of  the  annual  conference  itself.  At  present,  therefore,  each 
annual  conference  is  organized  with  its  ministerial  mem- 
bership and  its  lay  membership  all  sitting  in  a  body  and 
acting  together  upon  all  matters  in  general  parliamentary 
proceedings. 

The  adoption  of  Amendment  X  in  The  Methodist 
Church  allowed  those  churches  which  had  more  than  one 
minister  to  send  a  lay  delegate  for  each  effective  full-time 
minister  in  full  connection  appointed  to  their  charge.  This 
provision  was  continued  in  the  Constitution  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church.  "Each  charge  served  by  more  than  one 
minister  shall  be  entitled  to  as  many  lay  members  as  there 
are  ministerial  members"  {Discipline,  1968,  P.  36.) 

When  ministerial  character  is  involved,  as  admission 
to  Conference  or  voting  to  grant  ordination  to  a  minister, 
the  lay  members  are  not  constitutionally  allowed  to  vote. 

Several  Judicial  Council  decisions  came  about  since 
1940  defining  matters  of  lay  participation  in  the  annual 
conference.  One  of  them  holds  that  laymen  have  no  right 
to  call  a  conference  of  their  own  lay  delegate  member- 
ship apart  from  the  annual  conference  itself  unless  this  is 
to  elect  delegates  to  the  Jurisdictional  or  General 
Conference  (decision  74  J.C.);  also  that  the  ministerial 
members  of  the  annual  conference  may  exclude  from  their 
meeting  place  (if  they  choose  to  do  so)  the  lay  members 
when  a  matter  of  ministerial  character  is  involved  (deci- 
sion 42  J.C.).  These  decisions  were  made  prior  to  1968. 

Present  regulations.  The  Constitution  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church  provides  that  whatever  be  the  number 
of  ministerial  delegates  to  the  General  and  Jurisdictional 
Conferences  an  Annual  Conference  is  allowed  to  elect, 
there  shall  be  "an  equal  number  of  laymen."  It  also  pro- 
vides that  in  electing  laymen  to  the  General  Conference, 
the  laymen  of  the  annual  conference  shall  sit  and  vote  as 
a  body  in  electing  their  delegates;  while  the  ministerial 
members  sit  as  a  body  electing  their  delegates.   Recent 


General  Conferences  provided  that  if  a  minister  is  se- 
lected to  act  as  spokesman  and  leader  of  a  delegation  in 
one  quadrennium,  at  the  next  quadrennium  the  lay  leader 
of  the  delegation  shall  be  the  leader,  and  so  on  alternative- 
ly. In  the  General  Conference  the  laymen  and  ministers 
sit  together  with  each  delegation  assigned  its  own  seats, 
and  laymen  and  ministers  are  equally  assigned  to  commit- 
tees in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence itself.  Voting  can  be  called  for  by  "orders" — that  is 
the  lay  members  must  be  polled  as  lay  members,  and  the 
clerical  members  as  ministers.  Such  a  vote  can  be  ordered 
by  one-third  of  either  order  when  one  of  that  order  makes 
such  an  appeal.  The  vote  by  orders  is,  however,  a  block- 
ing move,  designed  to  defeat  a  pending  measure.  It  is 
never  made  to  further  a  measure  since  it  is  much  more 
difficult  in  a  close  decision  to  carry  each  order  by  a 
majority  than  to  carry  the  whole  house. 

Women  delegates.  Women  have  been  given  full  laity 
rights  in  the  Methodist  Churches  since  early  in  the  present 
century.  Their  admission  to  the  conferences  as  lay  per- 
sons followed  the  victory  of  lay  representation  in  both 
Episcopal  Methodisms.  The  struggle  for  full  laity  rights 
for  women  in  the  M.  E.  Church  was  concluded  victorious- 
ly for  them  when  the  constitution  of  1900  of  that  church 
was  adopted.  However,  not  until  1914  did  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South  allow  women  to  become  stewards  and 
enjoy  all  other  lay  rights  except  admission  to  the  con- 
ference and  ordination.  Both  these  rights  were  subse- 
quently given.  Not  until  after  union  and  in  1956  did 
the  General  Conference  pass  legislation  declaring  that 
"women  are  included  in  all  provisions  of  the  Discipline 
referring  to  the  ministry"  (Discipline,  1960,  P.  303).  This 
allowed  women  to  become  members  of  the  annual  con- 
ference and  the  traveling  ministry  if  and  when  an  annual 
conference  shall  elect  such  to  membership.  These  rights 
were  carried  over  into  the  United  Methodist  Church  in 
1968. 

E.U.B.  Church.  The  struggle  for  laity  rights  in  the 
E.U.B.  Church  and  its  antecedent  bodies  followed  much 
the  same  lines  as  it  did  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Churches.  For  the  successive  steps  which  led  to  full  laity 
representation,  see  the  synopses  of  the  General  Confer- 
ences of  these  Churches  listed  under  General  Conference. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Discipline,  UMC. 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Organization.  1948,  1953,  1962.         N.  B.  H. 

LAY  LEADER  is  the  name  of  an  officer  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church.  He  is,  of  course,  a  layman  who  may 
be  an  Annual  Conference  Lay  Leader  in  which  case  he 
is  elected  by  the  Annual  Conference;  or  a  Charge  Lay 
Leader  elected  by  the  Charge  Conference  and  serving  in 
his  own  local  church. 

The  office  of  Lay  Leader  grew  out  of  a  need  felt  by 
the  Board  of  Lay  Activities  and  kindred  agencies  in  The 
Methodist  Church — and  its  antecedent  Churches — before 
the  Union  of  1939.  The  Constitution  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church  makes  the  Conference  Lay  Leader  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Annual  Conference  by  virtue  of  his  office.  He 
is  chairman  of  the  Conference  Board  of  the  Laity  also  by 
virtue  of  his  ofiBce.  Annual  Conference  Boards  of  the 
Laity,  as  they  are  now,  have  specified  membership,  and 
a  definite  assignment  of  work  and  program  upon  which 
they  report  at  each  session  of  the  Annual  Conference. 

In  the  local  charge  the  Lay  Leader,  who  is  elected  by 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LAY   MOVEMENT   IN   AMERICAN 


the  Charge  Conference,  has  the  following  privileges 
and  responsibilities:  membership  in  the  Charge  Confer- 
ence; in  the  Board  of  Administration;  and  in  the  Council 
on  Ministries.  In  general,  he  represents  the  work  of  the 
laity  in  the  local  church  in  all  manner  of  ways.  In  instances 
where  more  than  one  church  is  on  a  charge,  the  Charge 
Conference  must  elect  additional  Lay  Leaders  so  that 
there  will  be  one  Lay  Leader  for  each  church.  The  Lay 
Leaders,  both  in  the  Local  Charge  and  in  the  annual 
Conference,  each  have  certain  representative  responsibili- 
ties which  they  are  called  upon  to  assume  at  the  sessions 
of  these  respective  bodies.  Present  duties  and  responsibili- 
ties are  outlined  in  the  Book  of  Discipline.  (See  also  Lay 
Movement  in  American  Methodism.  ) 

Discipline,  UMC,   1968.  N.  B.  H. 

LAY  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICAN  METHODISM,  THE,  of- 
ficially recognized  at  the  organization  of  The  Methodist 
Church  in  1939  with  the  creation  of  a  General  Board  of 
Lay  Activities,  is  in  reality  as  old  as  Methodism  it.self. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  Methodism  in  England, 
John  Wesley  made  use  of  laymen  as  preachers  and  lead- 
ers. John  Cennick,  Thomas  Maxfield,  John  Nelson 
and  others  were  among  the  earliest  and  best  known  of 
these  laymen.  Furthermore,  all  the  preachers  Wesley  sent 
to  the  new  world,  including  Francis  Asbuby,  were  lay- 
men. It  was  not  until  the  organizing  Conference  (the 
Christmas  Conference)  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1784 
that  the  preachers  of  American  Methodism  received  ordi- 
nation. 

The  first  three  Methodist  Societies  organized  in  Amer- 
ica on  the  Wesley  plan  were  founded  by  laymen.  Philip 
Embury,  a  carpenter  and  teacher,  organized  the  John 
Street  Society  in  New  York.  Captain  Thomas  Webb 
of  the  British  Army  formed  the  Society  later  called  St. 
George's  in  Philadelphia;  and  Robert  Strawbridge, 
a  farmer,  began  Methodist  Societies  in  Maryland.  Nor 
did  the  laymen  cease  their  activities  following  the  ordina- 
tion of  the  preachers  at  the  conference  of  1784.  Abel 
Stevens,  the  nineteenth  century  historian  of  American 
Methodism,  comments  on  their  value  by  writing,  "Scores 
of  other  preachers  and  laymen  of  these  times,  faithful 
and  invincible  pioneers  of  Methodism  .  .  .  men  who  not 
only  labored  before  the  itinerants  arrived,  and  afterward 
with  them,  but  provided  them  food  and  homes  and 
'preaching  houses,'  should  be  commemorated  forever  by 
the  Church." 

Unfortunately,  no  official  recognition  was  taken  of  these 
laymen.  They  were  not  members  of  the  annual  confer- 
ences and  they  had  no  place  in  the  General  Confer- 
ences of  the  Church.  They  had  no  organization  other 
than  a  makeshift  "District  Conference" — which  in  the 
pioneer  period  did  not  last  long — through  which  they 
might  exert  an  influence  on  the  growing  church. 

Agitation  for  lay  representation  in  the  annual  and  Gen- 
eral Conferences,  however,  was  stirring  the  church.  In 
1821  a  layman,  William  S.  Stockton,  founded  a  paper 
called  the  Wesleyan  Repository  and  Religious  Intelli- 
gencer. It  was  later  succeeded  by  a  magazine  entitled. 
The  Mutual  Rights  of  Ministers  and  Members  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Stockton,  a  man  of  progres- 
sive views,  fearlessly  set  forth  in  fiis  magazine  his  ideas 
in  favor  of  lay  representation  and  lay  activities.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  the  first  person  publicly  to  have  advocated 
lay  representation,  and  in  this  sense  is  the  father  of  the 


movement.  Ezekiel  Cooper,  second  Book  Editor  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  contributed  to  the  Repository  two  articles 
favoring  lay  representation — one  on  the  "Question  of  Lay- 
delegation"  and  the  other  on  "The  Outlines  of  a  Pro- 
posed Plan  for  a  Lay-delegation." 

The  General  Conference  of  tlie  M.  E.  Church  meeting 
in  1828  rejected  all  memorials  on  the  subject,  and  shortly 
thereafter  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  was  orga- 
nized. That  church  provided  for  lay  representation  in 
each  of  the  annual  conferences  and  for  an  equal  number 
of  laymen  and  ministers  in  the  General  Conference. 

In  1852,  following  the  bisection  of  the  Church  in 
1844,  tlie  M.  E.  Church  was  again  agitated  by  laymen 
and  ministers  desiring  lay  representation.  In  that  year  a 
group  of  laymen  met  in  Philadelphia  to  discuss  the  situ- 
ation. The  Philadelphia  Chrisiian  Advocate  was  launched, 
and  the  question  was  debated  in  its  pages.  In  1860  the 
General  Conference  was  swayed  by  appeals  for  lay  repre- 
sentation to  the  extent  that  it  passed  a  resolution  stating 
approval  of  the  general  idea  "when  it  shall  be  ascertained 
that  the  church  desires  it."  Pastors  were  requested  to  take 
a  vote  among  their  male  members  over  twenty-one  years 
of  age  "for"  or  "against "  lay  representation.  The  measure 
was  voted  down  by  a  ratio  of  almost  two  to  one.  Agitation, 
however,  continued.  In  1868  the  General  Conference  ap- 
proved a  plan  whereby  each  annual  conference  was  to  be 
represented  at  the  General  Conference  by  two  laymen, 
and  sent  the  plan  to  the  annual  conferences  for  possible 
approval.  This  plan  became  the  law  of  the  church,  and 
in  1872  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  laymen  sat  in  the  General  Conference  (see  Lay 
Delegation  ) . 

Two  years  previously  in  1870  the  Southern  Church 
had  granted  equal  representation  to  ministers  and  laymen 
in  the  General  Conference,  and  had  passed  a  law  provid- 
ing for  four  lay  delegates  from  each  district  to  sit  with  the 
ministers  in  the  annual  conferences  and  be  an  integral 
part  of  it. 

The  new  law  in  the  Northern  Church,  however,  did  not 
abate  the  clamor  for  greater  lay  representation;  and  agita- 
tion for  equal  representation  in  the  General  Conference 
as  well  as  representation  in  the  annual  conferences  reached 
hurricane  proportions. 

Laymen's  Associations.  In  the  meantime  on  Feb.  19, 
1889  a  group  of  Methodist  laymen  in  Philadelphia  met  at 
the  Arch  Street  Church  in  Philadelphia  and  organized 
"Philadelphia  Laymen's  Association  of  the  M.  E.  Church." 
Membership  was  limited  to  residents  of  Philadelphia,  and 
they  dealt  with  the  questions  of  "new  church  buildings," 
"equal  lay  representation,"  "the  admission  of  women  to 
the  General  Conference,"  and  other  kindred  subjects.  The 
Association,  furthermore,  corresponded  with  laymen 
throughout  the  country  proposing  a  convention  of  laymen 
to  take  place  in  Omaha  prior  to  the  General  Conference 
of  1872.  The  meeting  was  held,  memorials  were  sent  to 
the  General  Conference  for  equal  lay  representation,  and 
to  this  end  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  was  pro- 
posed. The  General  Conference  approved  the  measure, 
but  it  failed  to  pass  the  annual  conferences. 

Another  step,  however,  was  now  taken  by  the  Phila- 
delphia Conference.  A  convention  of  laymen  met  in 
Norristown  on  March  9,  1893,  where  the  annual  confer- 
ence was  meeting,  and  formed  the  Laymen's  Association 
of  the  Philadelphia  Annual  Conference,  the  former  Asso- 
ciation being  formally  dissolved.  According  to  Charles 
F.    Eggleston,    writing   in   Pioneering    in    Penn's   Woods, 


UY   MOVEMENT   IN   AMERICAN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


it  was  the  "first  Methodist  Laymen's  Association  of  any 
Annual  Conference  in  the  United  States." 

The  Association  actively  promoted  similar  organizations 
in  other  conferences.  These  Associations  continued  to 
agitate  for  equal  representation  of  laymen  and  ministers 
in  the  General  Conference,  and  by  1900  this  goal  was 
achie\ed. 

The  next  step  was  to  secure  equal  lay  representation 
in  the  annual  conference.s — a  measure  that  was  voted 
down  by  the  annual  conferences  in  1920  and  1924,  but 
became  the  law  of  the  Church  in  1932. 

Southern  Church.  Ten  years  previous  to  this  action  of 
the  Northern  Church,  the  Southern  Church,  with  a  more 
progressive  outlook,  had  organized  a  General  Board  of 
Lay  Activities  on  Aug.  23  at  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C.  J.  H. 
Reynolds  was  elected  General  Secretary  but  immediately 
resigned  in  order  to  continue  his  work  as  president  of 
Hendrix  College.  George  R.  Morelock  was  elected 
to  succeed  him,  and  Morelock  continued  in  this  position 
until  Methodist  union  in  1939,  and  then  was  elected  the 
first  executive  secretary  of  the  General  Board  of  Lay 
Activities  of  The  Methodist  Church.  He  continued  in  this 
position  until  his  retirement  in  1948. 

Northern  Church.  The  Northern  Church  had  not  been 
totally  lax  in  challenging  its  laymen,  but  had  at  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1908  also  formed  the  Methodist 
Brotherhood.  The  first  E.xecutive  Secretary  was  Fayette 
L.  Thompson,  1908-1912.  He  was  succeeded  by  William 
S.  BovARD.  The  General  Conference  of  1916  placed  the 
responsibility  for  this  work  on  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Adult  Department  of  the  Board  of  Sunday  Schools  and 
named  Bovard  as  Director.  He  served  until  1920,  when 
he  was  elected  Executive  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Sun- 
day Schools,  and  Bert  E.  Smith  was  elected  his  successor. 
In  1924  the  General  Conference  formed  four  boards  into 
the  Board  of  Education  and  Bovard  was  then  elected 
as  Executive  Secretary  of  this  board.  Smith  was  elected 
as  Superintendent  of  Adult  Work  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion and  served  in  that  capacity  from  1924-1934.  He 
was  also  Director  of  Men's  Work,  an  adjunct  of  the  Board 
of  Education.  Edgar  T.  Welch  was  the  first  president 
of  this  commission.  He  was  succeeded  by  Judge  H.  R. 
Suavely  who  served  up  to  the  time  of  unification  in  1939. 

Steps  in  Cooperation.  On  Feb.  28-29,  1928,  in  Louis- 
ville, Ky.,  an  "All  Methodist  Conference  on  Men's  Work" 
was  held  involving  representatives  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  and  M.  E.  Church.  Out  of  this  conference  came 
the  Joint  Commission  of  Men's  Work.  This  commission 
held  its  first  meeting  in  Louisville  on  Dec.  27,  1928.  John 
R.  Pepper  was  elected  president,  Edgar  T.  Welch,  vice 
president,  and  H.  R.  Suavely,  secretary.  This  commission 
formed  a  Joint  Men's  Council  which  later  became  the 
Inter-Methodist  Men's  Council.  The  Inter-Methodist  Men's 
Council  held  its  first  meeting  in  Louisville  Dec.  5-6,  1929. 

Toward  Unification  of  Lay  Work.  When  it  became  ap- 
parent that  the  M.  E.  Church,  M.  E.  Church,  South,  and 
the  M.  P.  Church  would  unite,  a  meeting  of  responsible 
persons  in  Lay  Activities  and  Men's  Work  of  the  three 
denominations  was  called  on  April  6,  1938  in  St.  Louis, 
Mo.  At  this  meeting  the  group  unanimously  approved  the 
idea  of  a  General  Board  of  Lay  Activities  as  an  auton- 
omous administrative  arm  of  the  united  church.  Approval 
was  also  given  to  organize  Boards  of  Lay  Activities  in 
annual  conferences  and  districts.  The  Official  Board  was 
to  be  the  arm  of  lay  activities  in  the  local  church. 

A   Steering  Committee   on    Lay  Activities    and    Men's 


Work  was  set  up  to  direct  further  procedures  toward 
union.  The  Steering  Committee  drafted  a  communication 
to  the  Commission  on  Union  dealing  with  the  matter  of 
Lay  Activities  and  Men's  Work.  On  April  26,  1939  in 
Kansas  City,  Mo.,  the  Uniting  Conference  approved  the 
organization  of  a  General  Board  of  Lay  Activities  as  an 
official  agency  of  The  Methodist  Church,  U.S.A. 

The  General  Conference  of  1940  fixed  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  General  Board  in  Chicago,  111.  In  1962  head- 
quarters were  moved  to  Evanston,  111.  George  L.  More- 
lock  was  elected  the  first  executive  secretary,  a  position 
he  held  until  his  retirement  in  1948.  Chilton  G.  Bennett 
was  elected  his  successor,  serving  from  1948  until  1951. 
E.  Lament  Geissinger  served  as  acting  executive  secre- 
tary during  1951-52.  Robert  G.  Mayfield  was  elected 
General  Secretary  in  1952,  and  served  until  1968. 

The  General  Board  of  the  Laity.  At  the  1968  Uniting 
Conference,  the  General  Board  of  Lay  Activities  (as  it 
had  been)  of  The  Methodist  Church  and  the  Department 
of  Christian  Stewardship  and  the  general  organization 
of  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Men  of  the  former  E.U.B. 
Church  were  united  under  the  name  General  Board  of  the 
Laity.  (Paragraph  1183,  Discipline.  1968.)  This  was  man- 
dated to  operate  under  the  charter  of  its  own  incorporation 
and  the  Discipline  of  The  United  Methodist  Church  "to 
hold  and  administer  trust  funds  and  assets  of  every  kind 
and  character  .  .  .  and  to  develop  and  promote  a  program 
in  keeping  with  its  objective  and  functions."  These  func- 
tions are  stated  to  be  "that  all  persons  be  aware  of  and 
grow  in  their  understanding  of  God,  especially  of  his  re- 
deeming love  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  they 
respond  in  faith  and  love — to  the  end  that  they  may  know 
who  they  are  and  what  their  human  situation  means,  in- 
creasingly identify  themselves  as  sons  of  God  and  members 
of  the  Christian  community,  live  in  the  spirit  of  God  in 
every  relationship,  fulfill  their  common  discipleship  in 
the  world,  and  abide  in  the  Christian  hope."  (Paragraph 
1186,  ibid.) 

The  organization  of  the  new  Board  was  provided  for 
by  the  Discipline  of  1968  and  it  was  greatly  enlarged  over 
what  the  old  Board  had  been.  It  was  empowered  to  func- 
tion through  two  divisions — the  Division  of  Lay  Life  and 
Work  and  the  Division  of  Stewardship  and  Finance.  Lay 
Life  and  Work  is  directed  to  function  through  two  sec- 
tions: the  Section  of  Lay  Ministries,  and  the  Section  on 
United  Methodist  Men.  Detailed  directions  for  the  proper 
administration  of  these  and  other  divisions  of  the  General 
Board  of  the  Laity  will  be  found  in  the  current  Discipline. 
Stewardship  and  Finance  is  heavily  stressed. 

In  each  jurisdiction  there  may  be  a  Jurisdictional  Board 
of  the  Laity  auxiliary  to  the  general  board,  as  the  Juris- 
dictional Conference  may  determine. 

Annual  Conferences  are  each  directed  to  create  a  Con- 
ference Board  of  the  Laity  auxiliary  to  the  general  and 
jurisdictional  board,  and  to  follow  through  the  general 
program  of  the  whole  Church  in  this  field. 

A  Conference  lay  leader  shall  be  elected  annually  by 
the  Annual  Conference  on  nomination  of  its  particular 
Board  of  the  Laity.  The  duties  of  this  office  are  carefully 
outlined  in  the  Discipline  as  are  the  duties  of  the  Charge 
Lay  Leader. 

It  is  also  directed  that  there  shall  be  a  Conference  orga- 
nization of  United  Methodist  Men  which  is  auxiliary  to 
the  general,  jurisdictional,  and  conference  Boards  of  the 
Laity.  This  organization  is  designed  to  supplant  and  en- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LEADERS,   LEADERS'    MEETING 


large  the  work  of  the  old  former  Methodist  Men  as  this 
organization  was  known  in  The  Methodist  Church. 

District  Boards  of  the  Laity  are  called  for  in  regarding 
the  general  plan  of  work  for  these.  As  with  other  boards  of 
the  Church,  general  regulations  governing  this  board  may 
be  changed  by  succeeding  General  Conferences  in  minor 
particulars  from  time  to  time. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 
Discipline,  UMC,  1968. 

Pioneering  in  Penn's  Woods,  the  Philadelphia  Conference  Tract 
Society,  1937.  Robert  G.  Mayfield 

LAY  PASTORS.  In  the  late  nineteenth  century  some 
British  local  preachers  were  paid  to  assist  circuit  min- 
isters, though  without  securing  the  training,  status,  al- 
lowances, and  security  of  the  ministers  themselves.  They 
were  known  variously  as  "hired  local  preachers,"  "lay 
agents,"  and  "lay  pastors,"  the  latter  becoming  their  of- 
ficial designation.  Their  employment  was  considered  a 
necessary  expedient  in  the  Methodist  Church  after  Meth- 
odist Union  in  1932,  though  it  was  viewed  with  increas- 
ing misgivings.  They  were  accepted  and  appointed  by  the 
Home  Mission  Department,  usually  from  the  ranks  of 
accredited  local  preachers,  and  served  four  years  on  proba- 
tion, pursuing  a  directed  course  of  studies,  before  being 
accepted  on  an  approved  list.  The  lay  pastor  was  expected 
to  wear  civilian  attire,  and  was  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Local  Preachers'  Meeting  of  the  circuit  to  which 
he  was  appointed.  After  earlier  attempts  had  been  made 
to  eliminate  this  "second  class  ministry,"  or  at  least  to 
reduce  its  numbers,  the  Conference  of  1947  urged  circuits 
no  longer  to  employ  them,  and  this  exhortation  was  re- 
emphasized  by  the  Conference  of  1963.  Many  of  the 
former  lay  pastors  were  able  through  special  training  to 
gain  acceptance  to  the  regular  ministry,  and  the  Minutes 
of  Conference  no  longer  officially  recognizes  the  standing 
of  any  except  those  who  have  retired  in  that  work,  whose 
names  are  listed.  ( See  Ministry.  ) 

Frank  Baker 


LAYMEN'S  ASSOCIATION,  FIRST.   (See  Lay  Movement 

IN  Methodism.  ) 

LAYTON,  (MISS)  M.  E.  (1841-1892),  was  the  first  mis- 
sionary of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
sent  to  an  appointment  in  Indla  outside  of  the  original 
India  Mission  field  in  Oudh  and  Rohilkhaud.  She  started 
the  Calcutta  Girls'  School  on  its  great  career  of  service. 
Originally  its  students  were  mainly  Europeans  and  Anglo- 
Indians.  Now  they  represent  many  racial  and  creedal 
communities,  and  the  school  contributes  powerfully  to 
both  the  national  strength  and  to  church  growth.  She  was 
bom  in  Delaware,  U.S.A.,  February  1841,  and  died  at 
Cawnpore,  India,  April  28,  1892. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

LAZENBY,  MARION  ELIAS  (1885-1957),  American  min- 
ister, missionary,  editor,  and  church  historian,  was  born 
at  Forest  Home,  Butler  Co.,  Ala.  Feb.  8,  1885.  He  was 
licensed  to  preach  in  1906;  was  admitted  into  the  Ala- 
bama Conference  in  1907,  and  was  appointed  at  that 
Conference  to  Cuba,  where  he  served  as  pastor  of  the 
Trinity  Church,  Havana.  Returning  to  his  home  confer- 


ence, he  sened  as  pastor  of  several  churches.  In  1922  he 
became  editor  of  the  Alabama  Christian  Advocate,  and 
in  1928  he  transferred  to  the  North  Alabama  Confer- 
ence and  continued  as  editor  until  1935.  After  serving 
as  district  superintendent  and  as  pastor,  he  went  to 
Chicago  in  1943  to  become  assistant  editor  of  the  Chris- 
tian Advocate.  Returning  to  Alabama  in  1949,  he  was 
for  one  year  superintendent  of  the  Huntsville  District 
before  being  recalled  to  the  editorship  of  the  Alabama 
Christian  Advocate.  In  1953  he  retired  and  was  asked 
to  write  the  Hisiortj  of  Methodism  in  Alabama  and  West 
Florida.  This  last — a  monumental  task — was  accepted  by 
the  conference  shortly  before  Lazenby's  death  on  Sept. 
12,  1957,  at  Montevallo,  Ala. 

Clark  and  Stafford,  Who's  Who  in  Methodism.  1952. 
C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 

LEADERS,  LEADERS'  MEETING.  The  Class  Meeting 
arose  in  Bristol  in  1742  as  financially  expedient,  and 
rapidly  developed  into  a  valuable  pastoral  instrument, 
with  the  leader  of  each  class  not  only  collecting  small 
weekly  contributions  for  society  expenses,  but  admonish- 
ing and  encouraging  his  (or  her)  members.  Otherwise 
their  title  might  well  have  become  "collectors"  rather  than 
"leaders."  By  about  1744  the  Class  Leaders  were  exer- 
cising this  pastoral  oversight,  not  chiefly  by  visits  to  the 
homes  of  those  members  on  their  class  list,  but  by  con- 
ducting a  weekly  fellowship  meeting  for  them.  Many 
who  thus  began  as  class  leaders  developed  sufficient  the- 
ological acumen  and  eloquence  to  become  Local  Preach- 
ers. The  office  of  class  leader  was  one  which  offered 
large  scope  for  women  as  well  as  men. 

The  leaders  brought  the  money  which  they  had  col- 
lected to  the  Stewards  of  their  society,  and  in  early 
years  this  took  place  weekly.  Gradually  this  led  to  a 
regular  meeting  of  stewards  and  leaders  with  the  minister 
or  his  preaching  helpers  in  order  to  discuss  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  society,  and  this  became  known  as  the 
Leaders'  Meeting,  comprising  the  preacher  in  charge  (in 
the  chair),  the  stewards  (the  executive  officers),  and  the 
class  leaders.  Throughout  Wesley's  lifetime  the  leaders' 
meeting  possessed  only  advisory  powers,  and  Wesley  him- 
self, or  his  preaching  helpers,  made  the  real  decisions. 
The  conference  of  1797  for  the  first  time  gave  the  leaders' 
meeting  the  right  of  veto  in  the  admission  of  members 
and  in  the  appointment  of  the  leaders  themselves,  thus 
sfightly  reducing  the  prerogatives  of  the  preachers.  The 
spiritual  influence  of  the  class  leaders  was  very  high  in- 
deed, but  their  administrative  power  remained  very  lim- 
ited. The  undercurrent  of  dissatisfaction  about  this  was 
one  of  the  factors  in  the  rise  of  most  of  the  major  disputes 
within  Wesleyan  Methodism.  Most  of  the  daughter  bodies 
reduced  ministerial  prerogative  and  increased  the  power 
of  the  lay  leaders,  and  gradually  this  liberalizing  tendency 
affected  the  parent  body  also.  At  Methodist  Union  in 
1932  this  was  unequivocally  written  into  the  constitution 
of  the  new  Methodist  Church.  The  local  Leaders'  Meeting 
now  possesses  much  greater  authority,  having  complete 
oversight  of  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  society,  including 
the  appointment  of  leaders  and  stewards,  and  the  admis- 
sion and  discipline  of  members. 

Davies  and  Rupp,  Methodist  Church  in  Great  Britain.  1965. 
W.  Peirce,  Ecclesiastical  Principles.  1854. 
Spencer  and  Finch,  Constitutional  Practice.  1951. 

Frank  Baker 


LEBANON    VALLEY   COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


LEBANON  VALLEY  COLLEGE,  Annville,  Pennsylvania. 
U.S.A.,  is  a  college  of  The  United  Methodist  Church, 
formerly  of  the  E.U.B.  Five  citizens  of  Annville  attended 
the  East  Pennsylvania  Conference,  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ,  in  1866,  and  offered  an  Academy 
building  there  valued  at  $5,500,  for  an  institution  of  learn- 
ing. It  was  accepted,  but  no  one  could  be  found  to  operate 
the  new  school.  There  was  no  college  graduate  in  the  en- 
tire conference.  G.  W.  Miles  Rigor,  who  had  attended 
college  for  three  years,  enlisted  his  neighbor,  Thomas  R. 
Vickroy,  a  Methodist  minister  and  graduate  of  Dickin- 
son College,  to  join  him  in  a  joint  partnership  and  take 
over  the  lease.  Thus  on  May  7,  1866,  the  school  opened 
as  scheduled  with  Vickroy  running  the  school,  Rigor  as 
agent,  and  fifty-nine  coeducational  students. 

Vickroy 's  term  saw  eleven  acres  added  to  the  "lot  and 
a  half  of  ground"  conveyed  by  the  original  deed.  A 
spacious  four-story  building  was  erected.  A  charter  was 
granted  by  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania.  A  com- 
plete college  curriculum  was  established,  based  on  the 
classics  but  including  music  and  art,  and  two  classes  were 
graduated  before  Vickroy  gave  up  his  lease  and  moved 
west  in  1871.  At  that  point,  it  was  decided  that  the  Col- 
lege would  not  be  leased  again  but  would  be  operated 
henceforth  by  a  board  of  trustees. 

The  five  presidents  during  the  next  twenty-five  years 
had  great  difficulty  in  keeping  the  College  afloat,  due  to 
lack  of  support  ranging  from  open  opposition  to  disinter- 
ested apathy.  A  library  was  established  in  1874,  and  a 
college  newspaper  appeared  in  1888.  However  in  the  fall 
of  1896,  the  school  was  debt-ridden,  with  an  enrollment 
of  only  eighty. 

The  administration  of  President  Hervin  U.  Roop, 
starting  in  1897,  marked  the  first  real  period  of  expan- 
sion. Under  his  leadership  five  new  buildings  were 
erected,  including  a  library  donated  by  Andrew  Carnegie, 
and  the  administration  building  was  re-built  after  the 
disastrous  fire  of  Christmas  Eve,  1904.  By  1905,  enroll- 
ment had  soared  to  470,  with  a  faculty  of  twenty-three. 

Loss  of  public  confidence  and  financial  support 
prompted  Roop's  resignation  in  1905  and  the  College 
faced  its  darkest  days.  Bankruptcy  was  averted  by  the 
keen  business  sense  and  generosity  of  President  Laurence 
Keister,  who  served  from  1907  to  1912. 

President  George  D.  Gossard  finally  gave  the  College 
stability  when  he  achieved  for  it  accreditation  and  a 
million  dollar  endowment  fund.  By  the  end  of  his  twenty- 
year  term  in  1932,  there  were  653  students  and  thirt>'-two 
members  of  the  faculty. 

Clyde  A.  Lynch,  who  came  in  1932,  faced  a  series  of 
external  crises  during  his  eighteen  years  as  president.  The 
stock  market  crash  shrank  the  handsome  endowment 
raised  by  his  predecessor;  the  Depression  of  the  1930's 
shrank  the  enrollment,  followed  by  World  War  II;  the 
post-war  influx  of  returned  war  veterans  then  stretched  it 
to  more  than  capacity.  Lynch 's  administration  started  the 
policy  of  buying  property  adjacent  to  the  campus  to  allow 
for  future  expansion,  and  also  raised  over  a  half  million 
dollars,  part  of  which  was  to  be  used  for  a  new  physical 
education  building.  This  building  was  named  in  Lynch 's 
honor  upon  completion. 

The  twelfth  and  latest  president  of  the  College,  Fred- 
eric K.  Miller,  served  for  almost  seventeen  years.  During 
his  term,  inflation  caused  mushrooming  costs,  but  the  so- 
called  "Tidal  Wave  of  Students"  made  possible  selective 
admissions.  The  greatest  physical  expansion   in  the  his- 


tory of  the  C^ollege  then  occurred,  with  seven  new  build- 
ings erected  and  several  renovated.  Two  major  fund- 
raising  drives  were  successfully  concluded.  Enrollment 
increased  by  eighty  percent,  with  a  corresponding  increase 
in  faculty  and  administrative  staff.  The  centennial  of  the 
founding  of  the  College  was  observed  by  a  year-long 
series  of  events.  Miller  became  the  first  Commissioner  for 
Higher  Education  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 

At  the  start  of  its  second  century,  as  a  fully-accredited, 
church-related,  coeducational  college  of  the  liberal  arts 
and  sciences,  Lebanon  Valley  occupies  a  thirty-five  acre 
campus  and  twenty-eight  buildings,  and  has  a  full-time 
enrollment  of  838  students  and  a  faculty  of  seventy-two 
members.  A  Master  Plan  for  its  development  has  been 
adopted  by  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

Paul  Wallace,  History  of  Lebanon  Valley  College.  1966. 

Edna  J.  Cabmean 


W.  Earl  Ledden 

LEDDEN,  WALTER  EARL  (1888-  ),  American  bishop, 

was  born  in  Glassboro,  N.  J.,  March  27,  1888,  the  son  of 
Joseph  Jackson  and  Miriam  Risden  (Higgins)  Ledden. 
He  graduated  from  Pennington,  N.  J.,  Seminary,  Music 
Department  (organ)  in  1907.  In  1910  he  received  the 
Ph.B.  degree  and  in  1913  the  A.M.  from  Dickinson 
College.  He  was  awarded  the  B.D.  by  Drew  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  in  1913  and  in  1913-14  did  graduate  work 
at  Drew  University.  From  Syracuse  University,  in  1927, 
he  received  the  D.D.  degree  and,  in  1944  was  given  the 
LL.D.  degree  by  Dickinson  College.  In  addition  to  these 
degrees  and  honorary  doctorates,  he  is  widely  recognized 
as  an  accomplished  organist  and  an  authority  on  church 
music. 

Ledden  was  married  to  Lida  Iszard  July  2,  1913  (de- 
ceased October  1957).  They  had  two  sons  and  a  daughter. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Bishop  Ledden  was  on  trial  as  deacon.  New  Jersey 
Conference,  1912,  and  received  in  full  connection  as 
ELDER  in  1914.  He  served  as  pastor  of  the  Goodwill 
Church,  Rumson,  N.  J.,  1910-14;  the  First  Church, 
Belmar,  N.  J.,  1914-19;  State  Street  Church,  Camden, 
N.  J.,  1919-20;  Broadway  Church,  Camden,  N.  J.,  1920- 
26;  Richmond  Avenue  Church,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  1926-30; 
Mathewson  Street  Church,  Providence,  R.  I.,  1930-38; 
and  Trinity  Church,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1938-44. 

He  was  elected  bishop  and  assigned  to  the  Syracuse 
Area  in  1944  and  served  as  bishop  of  this  area  until  his 
retirement  in  1960.  He  was  president  of  the  Council  of 
Bishops,  1956-57,  and  has  served  in  many  other  important 
capacities,  including  chairman  of  the  Interboard  Commit- 
tee on  Missionary  Personnel;  chairman,  Interboard  Com- 
mittee on  Materials  for  Training  in  Church  Membership; 
vice-president.  Board  of  Evangelism;  vice-president. 
Commission  on  Worship;  member,  Board  of  World 
Peace  and  Board  of  Missions;  member  of  the  executive 
committee  of  the  Commission  on  Family  Life. 

He  was  on  the  Division  of  Christian  Life  and  Work, 
National  Council  of  Churches;  and  from  1945  until 
1949  he  was  president  of  the  New  York  State  Council 
of  Churches. 

He  has  been  trustee  of  Drew  University,  Syracuse 
University,  Folts  Home  for  the  Aged,  Williamsville  Home 
for  Children,  and  Clifton  Springs  Sanitarium. 

He  represented  the  Council  of  Bishops  in  visitation  in 
Central  and  South  Africa  in  1948,  and  in  South  America 
in  1954. 

On  Jan.  25,  1964,  Bishop  Ledden  was  married  to 
Henrietta  Gibson  in  the  chapel  of  Christ  Church,  Meth- 
odist, New  York.  An  unusual  feature  of  the  ceremony 
was  that  the  marriage  rites  were  performed  by  Bishop 
Herbert  Welch,  one  hundred  and  one  years  of  age, 
believed  to  be  the  world's  oldest  bishop,  who  was  assisted 
by  Harold  A.  Bosley,  minister  of  Christ  Church. 

After  his  retirement  Bishop  Ledden  joined  the  faculty 
of  Wesley  Theological  Seminary  where  he  taught  in 
the  field  of  Ritual  and  Church  Music.  He  has  continued 
to  work  closely  with  the  National  Fellowship  of  Meth- 
odist Musicians.  He  and  his  wife  presently  reside  in 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church.  1966. 

Mary  French  Caldwell 

LEDNUM,  JOHN  (1797-1863),  American  minister,  his- 
torian and  member  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference, 
was  bom  in  Sussex  County,  Del.,  Nov.  15,  1797.  He  died 
in  Philadelphia,  Nov.  18,  1863.  He  was  converted  at  nine- 
teen years  of  age  and  became  an  itinerant  in  the  spring  of 
1823.  Considered  by  his  colleagues  as  a  "profitable  preach- 
er" and  as  a  "theologian  of  the  first  class,"  he  is,  neverthe- 
less, chiefly  remembered  for  his  book,  A  History  of  the 
Rise  of  Methodism  in  America  .  .  .  from  1736  to  1785. 
The  book  contains  some  errors,  but,  for  the  most  part,  it 
is  accurate.  Making  no  attempt  at  a  literary  style,  Lednum 
presented  his  material  in  terse,  factual  statements.  It  is  one 
of  the  recognized  sources  on  early  Methodism  in  America. 

Frederick  E.  Maser 

LEE,  ADA  HILDEGAROE  JONES.  (See  Calcutta,  India, 
Lee  Memorial  Mission.) 


LEE,  ANNA  MARIA  (1803-1838),  American  missionary 
pioneer,  was  born  in  New  York  City,  Sept.  24,  1803,  the 
daughter  of  George  Washington  and  Mary  (Spies)  Pitt- 
man.  With  a  group  of  missionaries  she  sailed  from  Boston, 
July  29,  1836,  by  way  of  Cape  Horn  to  Honolulu,  arriving 
the  day  before  Christmas.  In  April  she  continued  her 
vovage  to  Oregon,  and  arrived  at  Fort  Vancouver,  May 
17',  1837. 

She  wrote  many  poems.  When  Jason  Lee,  founder  of 
the  first  mission  in  Oregon,  asked  her  to  be  his  wife, 
she  gave  her  answer  in  a  poem,  'Tes,  where  thou  goest 
I  will  go." 

Their  wedding  Sunday,  July  26,  1837,  was  the  first 
marriage  of  a  white  man  and  white  woman  in  the  Oregon 
Country. 

In  the  spring  of  1838  Jason  Lee  was  urged  to  return  to 
the  United  States  to  report  on  the  work,  and  try  to  secure 
more  support.  Before  he  left,  she  gave  him  another  poem, 
"Must  my  dear  Companion  leave  me, /Sad  and  lonely  here 
to  dwell?" 

Her  son  died  soon  after  birth,  and  she  died  the  next 
day,  June  26,  1838.  She  was  buried  in  the  beautiful  fir 
grove  where  she  had  taken  her  marriage  vow.  Her  body 
has  since  been  moved  to  the  Lee  Mission  Cemetery  at 
Salem,  Ore. 

Theressa  Gay,  Life  and  Letters  of  Mrs.  Jason  Lee,  First  Wife 
of  Rev.  Jason  Lee  of  the  Oregon  Mission.  Portland:  Metropoli- 
tan Press,  1936. 

John  Parsons,  Beside  the  Beautiful  Willamette.  Portland:  Met- 
ropolitan  Press,   1924.  Ormal   B.   Trick 

LEE,  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  (1841-1926),  American  bish- 
op of  the  A.M.E.  Church,  was  born  in  Gouldtown,  N.  J., 
on  Sept.  18,  1841.  He  graduated  from  Wilberforce 
University  in  1872  with  the  B.D.  degree.  He  was  or- 
dained deacon  in  1870  and  elder  in  1872.  He  was  a  the- 
ological professor  at  Wilberforce  University  (1873-1875), 
and  later  was  President  of  Wilberforce  (1875-1884).  He 
was  also  an  editor  of  The  Christian  Recorder  (1884-1892). 
He  was  elected  bishop  in  1892,  and  retired  voluntarily 
in  1924.  He  was  a  delegate  and  member  of  the  Permanent 
Committee  of  Arrangements  of  the  Ecumenical  Meth- 
odist Council  in  1881. 

His  voluntary  retirement  in  1924  was  noted  as  remark- 
able since  he  was  the  only  bishop  of  his  Church  ever  to 
do  so.  He  was  austere  in  appearance  but  had  a  keen 
sense  of  humor;  was  a  man  of  deep  learning,  impatient  of 
petty  ambitions  and  jealousies.  Bishop  Wright  said  of  him, 
"He  seldom  sought  honors.  'They  are  too  empty,'  he 
said,  'but  I  do  seek  service.' "  He  answered  in  the  same 
manner  when  someone  asked,  "Dr.  Lee  are  you  running 
for  the  Bishopric?"  His  answer  was,  "No,  but  I  am  stand- 
ing for  it."  He  has  churches  named  for  him  at  Jacksonville, 
Fla.;  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  Nashville,  Tenn.;  Little  Rock,  Ark.; 
Morgan  City  and  Oak  Grove,  La.  and  Brownswood,  Texas. 


R.  R.  Wright,  The  Bishops.  1963. 


Grant  S.  Shockley 


LEE,  DANIEL  (1807-1896),  was  an  American  missionary 
to  the  Indians  of  Oregon,  1834  to  1843.  No  account  is 
given  of  his  early  life  but  in  1833,  as  a  member  of  the 
New  Hampshire  Conference,  he  was  commissioned  by 
the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church  as 
a  missionary  to  the  Indians  of  Oregon.  The  commission 
came  from  the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  because   the 


lEE,   DAVID   HIRAM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


U.  S.  Claim  to  the  Oregon  country  was  not  established 
until  1846.  He  was  to  work  under  the  superintendency  of 
his  uncle,  Jaso.v  Lee. 

In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1833  the  mission  party 
of  five  men  made  the  arduous  si.\-month  journey  across 
the  plains  and  mountains  to  Oregon,  travelling  in  company 
with  Nathatn'el  Wyeth's  fur  traders. 

In  Oregon  the  main  mission  station  was  established 
in  the  Willamette  valley  about  ten  miles  north  from  where 
S.\LEM,  the  capital  city  of  Oregon,  is  now  located.  Here 
Daniel  Lee  carried  his  full  share  of  the  hard  labor  needed 
to  build  log  houses  for  the  mission,  and  prepare  wild 
land  for  fanning.  The  missionaries  were  largely  dependent 
on  their  own  efforts  to  feed  themselves  and  the  Indian 
children  in  their  school. 

In  1838  Jason  Lee  gave  Daniel  the  difficult  job  of 
opening  a  second  mission  station  at  the  Dalles  of  the 
Columbia  River.  Under  his  direction  this  station  was  the 
most  successful  of  the  missions  in  the  Indian  work.  He 
continued  his  work  there  until  1843,  when  his  own  ill- 
health  and  that  of  his  wife  (in  June  1840  he  had  married 
Marie  Ware,  a  newly  arrived  mission  teacher),  forced  him 
to  return  to  New  England.  There  he  published,  in  col- 
laboration with  another  returned  missionary,  J.  H.  Frost, 
a  history  of  the  Oregon  mission.  Ten  Years  in  Oregon 
(N.  Y.:  1844),  a  book  which  did  much  to  inform  the 
church  about  the  Oregon  mission. 

After  some  years  of  labor  in  the  churches  of  the  New 
Hampshire  Conference,  ill-health  caused  him  to  relocate. 
Shortly  after  he  followed  his  sons  westward  where  in 
Ohio,  Kans.\s  and  Illinois  he  served  small  churches  as  his 
strength  pemiitted.  He  died  in  Illinois,  and  he  and  his 
wife,  who  died  some  vears  before  him,  are  buried  near 
Butler,  111. 

C.  J.  Brosnan,  Jason  Lee.  1932. 

Erie  Howell,  Northwest.  1966.  Robert  Moulton  Catke 

LEE,  DAVID  HIRAM.  (See  Calcutta,  India,  Lee  Memorial 

Mission.) 

LEE,  EDWIN  FERDINAND  (1884-1948),  American  mis- 
sionary bishop,  was  born  in  Eldorado,  Iowa,  July  10, 
1884,  son  of  Andrew  and  Carrie  (Anderson)  Lee.  He 
received  his  education  at  Northwestern  University 
(B.S.,  1909)  and  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  (B.D., 
1924).  He  was  awarded  five  honorary  doctorates.  He 
married  Edna  Dorman  on  June  8,  1909. 

Lee  joined  the  Upper  Iowa  Conference  in  1908,  and 
his  appointments  were:  New  Hampton,  Iowa,  1908-10; 
missionary  to  Batavia,  Java,  and  pastor  of  Wesley  Church, 
Kuala  Lumpur,  Malaya,  1910-12;  Central  Church, 
Manila,  Philippines,  1912-15;  Rockford,  Iowa,  1915-17; 
and  chaplain  in  the  U.  S.  Army  in  France,  1917-19.  He 
was  decorated  by  the  French  Government  for  his  war 
service  and  by  the  government  of  Serbia  for  his  relief 
work  after  the  Armistice,  and  was  given  the  King  George 
V  Jubilee  Medal  in  1935. 

Lee  was  Associate  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  in  New  York,  1919-24,  and  pastor  of  Wesley 
Church,  Singapore,  Straits  Settlement,  and  superintendent 
of  the  Singapore  District,  1924-28.  Elected  missionary 
bishop  of  Malaya  and  the  Philippines  in  1928,  he  served 
as  such  until  he  retired. 

Bishop  Lee  was  a  delegate  to  the  International 
Missionary  Conference,  Madras,  India,  1938;  a  Fellow 


Ein\  IN  F.  Lee 

of  the  Royal  Geographic  Society,  London;  member  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  New 
York. 

Caught  in  Singapore  when  the  Japanese  attacked  the 
city  in  December  1941,  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Lee  and  fifty 
missionaries  held  out  as  long  as  possible  against  leaving 
the  country.  Just  before  the  city's  fall,  Lee  broadcast  a 
message  of  hope  assuring  the  people  of  America's  ultimate 
victory.  The  Lees  were  evacuated  on  Jan.  30,  1942,  with 
the  Japanese  only  seventeen  miles  from  the  city. 

He  served  as  director  of  the  General  Commission  on 
Army  and  Navy  Chaplains  in  1944.  He  returned  to 
Malaysia  and  the  Philippines  after  the  war  and  re-estab- 
lished Methodist  churches  and  schools.  He  expressed  great 
hope  for  the  future  of  Christianity  in  that  area. 

Retiring  in  June  1948,  after  forty  years  of  unusual 
service  around  the  world.  Bishop  Lee  died  Sept.  14, 
1948. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

World  Outlook,  November  1948.  Jesse  A.  Eabl 

LEE,  HANDEL  (Li  Han-to,  1886-1961),  preacher  and 
seminary  president,  was  born  in  Kiangningchen,  Kiangsu 
province,  China,  and  received  his  education  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Nanking,  Nanking  Theological  Seminary,  Bos- 
ton University  School  of  Theology,  and  Drew  The- 
ological Seminary,  receiving  the  Ph.D.  at  Drew  in  1933. 
After  pastorates  in  Wuhu  and  Nanking  he  was  appointed 
district  superintendent  in  the  Central  China  Conference 
(later  called  the  Mid-China  Conference)  in  1927,  and 
was  elected  president  of  the  union  (Methodist,  Presby- 
terian, Disciples,  and  Baptist)  Nanking  Theological  Semi- 
nary in  1931.  He  held  this  position  until  his  retirement  in 
1949. 

Under  his  administration  the  seminary  greatly  enlarged 
its  activities.  During  the  Japanese  War  the  seminary 
moved  its  main  center  to  Shanghai,  where  it  continued 


WORLD   METHODISM 


even  after  the  attack  on  Pearl  Harbor.  Another  branch  of 
the  seminary  was  opened  in  Chengtu,  the  educational 
center  of  Free  China,  and  continued  until  the  end  of  the 
war,  when  both  branches  were  reunited  on  the  Nanking 
campus. 

Lee's  wise  leadership,  both  in  his  own  church  and  in 
interdenominational  activities,  strengthened  the  church  in 
central  China  to  meet  the  difficulties  of  the  Communist 
period,  and  the  seminary  which  he  headed  for  eighteen 
years  is  presently  the  only  theological  seminary  still  con- 
tinuing in  mainland  China. 


China  Christian  Yearbook,  1936-37. 


Francis  P.  Jones 


LEE,  JAMES  WILDERMAN  (1849-1919),  American  clergy- 
man and  author,  was  bom  in  Rockbridge,  Ga.,  Nov.  28, 
1849.  A  graduate  of  Emory  College,  he  joined  the  North 
Georgia  Annual  Conference,  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in 
1874.  He  married  Eufaula  Ledbetter  in  1875.  He  served 
churches  in  this  conference  intermittently  a  total  of  nine- 
teen years,  among  them.  Trinity  Church,  Atlanta. 

Lee  transferred  to  the  St.  Louis  Conference  in  1893, 
and  was  appointed  to  St.  John's  Church,  St.  Louis,  where 
he  sei^ved  with  distinction  three  separate  appointments, 
1893-97,  1901-05,  1911-15.  He  was  presiding  elder  of  the 
St.  Louis  District  1897-1901,  and  Chaplain  of  Barnes 
Hospital,  1916-19. 

Lee  joined  with  Dr.  Wagner  of  the  M.  E.  Church  to 
edit  and  publish  the  short-lived  Illustrated  Methodist 
Magazine  (1902-03),  in  expectation  of  promoting  frater- 
nity and  the  ultimate  union  of  the  two  Episcopal  Method- 
isms.  Under  his  leadership  the  present  magnificent  St. 
John's  Church  was  built  (1902-03),  which  the  city  listed 
as  something  visitors  to  the  St.  Louis  World's  Fair  should 
by  all  means  see.  It  is  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  classic 
Roman  Temple  architecture  in  the  United  States. 

His  journeys  to  Palestine  for  study,  begun  in  1894, 
resulted  in  Lee's  writing  The  Romance  of  Palestine,  Foot- 
prints of  the  Man  of  Galilee,  and  A  History  of  Jerusalem. 
Three  of  his  books  received  warm  praise  and  wide  circula- 
tion— Robert  Burns,  The  Geography  of  Genius,  The  Mak- 
ing of  a  Man,  which  was  translated  into  several  languages, 
and  The  Religion  of  Science,  the  theme  of  which  was  the 
oneness  of  truth  in  science  and  religion.  It  placed  Lee 
among  the  foremost  "harmonizers"  in  the  period  of 
"science"  versus  "religion"  controversy. 

The  catholicity  of  his  spirit  and  his  instinctive  humani- 
tarianism  gave  support  to  the  many  missionary,  educa- 
tional and  charitable  enterprises  with  which  he  was 
associated  in  the  cities  of  St.  Louis  and  Atlanta,  and  in 
the  annual  conferences  of  the  Church.  Lee  died  in  St. 
Louis,  Oct.  4,  1919,  as  the  result  of  a  fall  at  the  home 
of  his  son,  Ivy  Ledbetter  Lee,  in  Rye,  N.  Y.  He  was 
buried  in  Bellefontaine  Cemetery. 

Minutes  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference,  MES,  1920. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  1914.  Frank  C.  Tucker 

LEE,  JASON  (1803-1845),  American  pioneer  of  Protes- 
tant Christianity  and  United  States  territorial  aspirations 
in  the  area  of  the  present  states  of  Oregon  and  Washing- 
ton. He  was  bom  near  Stanstead,  Lower  Canada  (thought 
at  that  time  to  be  south  of  the  boundary  and  part  of  the 
U.  S. ),  June  28,  1803,  the  son  of  one  of  the  Minutemen 
who  fought  at  Concord  and  Lexington.  His  ancestral 
roots  reached  back  200  years  in  Massachusetts. 


Jason  Lee 

At  the  age  of  twenty-three  he  was  converted  in  a 
Wesleyan  Methodist  revival,  and  in  1829,  in  preparation 
for  the  ministry,  he  entered  Wilbraham  Academy,  Wilbra- 
ham,  Mass. 

In  response  to  a  request  from  four  northwest  Indians 
who  in  1831  travelled  to  St.  Louis  asking  about  the  white 
man's  religion,  a  plea  publicized  through  the  church  press, 
Wilbur  Fisk,  President  of  Wesleyan  Uni\'ersity,  rec- 
ommended Jason  Lee  to  lead  a  missionary  journey  to  that 
area.  Lee  accepted  an  appointment  from  the  Missionary 
Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church  and  gathered  a  party  includ- 
ing his  nephew,  Daniel  Lee,  Cyrus  Shepard,  a  teacher 
of  Lynn,  Mass.,  and  two  other  laymen,  P.  L.  Edwards 
and  Courtney  M.  Walker,  both  of  Independence,  Mo. 
The  expedition's  goods  were  shipped  around  Cape  Horn 
to  the  Columbia  River,  and  the  party,  consisting  of  seventy 
men  in  all,  plus  250  horses,  mules,  and  cattle,  was  led 
overland  by  Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth,  a  fur  trader  of  the 
Rockies. 

At  Fort  Hall,  near  the  present  city  of  Pocatello,  Idaho, 
Jason  Lee  preached  the  first  Protestant  sermon  heard  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  July  27,  1834.  After  a  kindly 
reception  by  P.  C.  Pambrun,  Hudson's  Bay  official  at 
Fort  Walla  Walla  (now  Washington),  on  September  1, 
the  party  traveled  by  barge  down  the  Columbia  River, 
arriving  at  Fort  Vancouver,  100  miles  from  the  Pacific, 
September  15.  Upon  advice  of  John  McLoughlin,  Chief 
Factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  Lee  established  his  mission  on  the  east  side  of 
the  Willamette  River  about  sixty  miles  above  its  conflu- 
ence with  the  Columbia. 

Their  desire  to  convert  the  Indians  of  the  area  was 
frustrated  by  difficulties  of  communication  and,  before 
long,  by  catastrophic  illnesses  which  heavily  decimated 
the  tribal  population.  The  Indian  Manual  Labor  Train- 
ing School  for  the  natives  was  established,  and  on  its 
discontinuance  in  1844  the  building  was  sold  to  another 
institution  also  founded  by  Lee — the  Oregon  Institute, 
which  later  became  Willamette  University,  the  first 
school  of  college  rank  west  of  the  Rockies. 

Lee  opened  Christian  work  at  various  places,  including 
a  mission  at  The  Dalles,  on  the  Columbia  River,  in  1837. 
He  encouraged  the  emigration  of  Christian  famihes  to 
the  Oregon  country  as  a  means  of  bringing  civilized  and 
Christian  influences  to  that  raw  society. 

Jason  Lee  early  became  involved  in  the  political  devel- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


opment  of  the  nortliwest,  urging  measures  which  would 
settle  in  favor  of  the  United  States  the  long-standing 
dispute  with  England  over  the  boundary.  He  was  instru- 
mental in  drawing  up  a  petition,  signed  by  American 
citizens  and  Canadians  who  desired  to  become  American 
citizens,  asking  that  the  laws  of  the  U.  S.  be  extended  over 
Oregon.  In  the  course  of  his  journey  east  with  this  peti- 
tion he  learned  that  his  wife,  Anna  Marie  Lee,  had  died 
in  childbirth,  the  child  also  perishing.  After  two  years' 
absence  from  Oregon,  time  spent  in  persuading  govern- 
mental and  church  leaders  of  the  urgency  of  development 
of  the  Oregon  territory,  Lee  returned  west  by  ship,  with 
thirty-one  new  missionaries,  including  his  new  wife,  the 
fdimer  Lucy  Thompson,  of  Barre,  Vt. 

As  the  Oregon  mission  grew,  it  became  increasingly 
occupied  with  white  settlers,  the  Indian  population  having 
substantially  diminished.  Lee  was  deeply  involved  in  the 
political  controversy  over  British  or  American  possession 
of  the  territory.  The  dispute  also  divided  the  missionaries, 
and  John  P.  Richmond,  a  critic  of  Lee's  political  inter- 
vention, persuaded  the  Mission  Board  to  replace  Lee  as 
superintendent  of  the  mission.  Lee  learned  of  this  action 
in  November  1843,  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  to  which  he 
and  his  daughter  (his  second  wife  had  died  in  1842) 
had  travelled  in  hopes  of  securing  a  ship  to  New  York. 

Lee  continued  his  dual  role  as  political  pioneer  and 
Christian  missionary  by  going  to  Washington  in  an  at- 
tempt to  persuade  officials  of  die  need  for  urgent  action 
to  establish  American  sovereignty  in  the  Oregon  territory, 
and  by  appearing  before  the  Mission  Board  and  success- 
fully defending  the  administration  of  the  mission.  In  fail- 
ing health,  he  returned  to  his  boyhood  home  in  Stanstead, 
Canada,  where  he  died  March  12,  1845. 

Jason  Lee  must  be  counted  as  a  strong  influence  in  the 
spread  of  Protestant  Christianity  to  the  Pacific  Northwest, 
and  in  the  securing  for  the  United  States  the  area  south 
of  the  49th  parallel — the  Puget  Sound  Country,  Cascade 
Mountains,  and  the  great  watershed  of  the  Columbia 
River.  Cornelius  J.  Brosnan  has  summarized  these 
achievements: 

Consider  Lee's  visit  in  1838  to  the  East,  with  his  lectures  in 
88  cities  and  towns,  including  the  capital  of  tlie  nation;  his 
meetings  and  lectures  promoted  by  a  great  and  influential  de- 
nomination .  .  .  ;  consider  Slacum's  widely  quoted  report;  con- 
sider the  Second  Petition  or  Memorial  of  the  Oregonians, 
framed  at  Lee's  Mission  House;  the  introduction  of  the  Linn 
Bill;  of  Cushing's  elaborate  report,  embodying  two  Lee  docu- 
ments, with  a  publication  and  distribution  of  10,000  copies; 
consider  the  fact  that  Lee's  widely  attended  and  published 
lectures  dwelt  upon  the  desirability  of  the  Pacific  Coast  as  a 
place  of  settlement  and  thus  assisted  in  awakening  an  interest 
that  sent  the  Peoria  Party  to  Oregon  in  the  spring  of  1839,  and 
was  a  factor  in  bringing  between  eight  hundred  and  a  thou- 
sand settlers  .  .  .  ;  consider  die  Provisional  Government  of 
Oregon  and  the  important  part  Lee's  Mission  had  in  its  in- 
ception and  promotion;  consider  that  experienced  politicians 
saw  in  the  movement  for  an  American  Oregon  vitality  enough 
to  make  it  an  issue  in  a  presidential  campaign  on  the  basis 
of  our  claims  to  that  territory.  When  all  these  contributions 
are  appreciated  one  cannot  doubt  that,  though  incidental  and 
not  primary,  the  Lee  Mission  was  a  significant  factor  in  the 
settlement  of  the  Oregon  boundar>'  controversy. 

A.  Atwood,  Conquerors.  1907. 
C.  J.  Brosnan,  Jason  Lee.  1932. 

John  Martin  Canse,  Pilgrim  and  Pioneer:  Dawn  in  the  North- 
west. New  York:  Abingdon  Press,  1930. 
H.  K.  Hines,  Pacific  Northwest.  1899. 

1408 


,  Jason  Lee,  Pioneer  of  Methodism.  San  Francisco: 

Hammond  Press,  1896. 

E.  Howell,  Northwest.  1966. 

John  M.   Parsons,  Beside  the  Beautiful  Willamette.   Portland: 

Metropolitan  Press,   1924.  John  C.  Soltman 


LEE,  JESSE  (1758-1816),  early  American  preacher,  father 
of  Methodism  in  New  England  and  commonly  regarded 
as  next  to  Asbuby  in  influence,  was  born  on  March  12, 
1758,  in  Prince  George  County,  Va.,  si.xteen  miles  from 
Petersburg.  His  father  was  converted  under  Devereux 
Jarratt,  an  evangelical  Anglican  who  in  the  beginning 
days  cooperated  with  Asbury  and  the  Methodist  move- 
ment. This  led  to  the  conversion  of  Jesse  Lee.  His  educa- 
tion was  limited  but  he  attended  a  singing  school  and 
became  a  good  singer. 

He  joined  the  Society  in  1774  under  Robert  Williams, 
who  was  then  serving  the  Brunswick  circuit,  which  in- 
cluded Halifax  and  Bute  Counties  in  North  Carolina 
as  well  as  fourteen  counties  in  Virginl\.  Three  years 
later  Lee  went  to  North  Carolina  to  take  temporary 
charge  of  the  farm  of  a  widowed  relative,  and  there  he 
became  a  class  leader,  exhorter,  and  local  preacher.  He 
preached  his  first  sermon  at  a  place  called  "the  Old  Bam" 
on  Sept.  17,  1779. 

John  Dickins  was  on  the  Roanoke  Circuit  and  in  order 
to  devote  time  to  literary  work  he  asked  young  Lee  to 
take  his  place  for  a  few  weeks,  and  thus  began  Lee's 
career  as  a  traveling  preacher. 

In  July  1780,  Lee  was  drafted  into  he  army.  He  had 
scruples  against  war  and  refused  to  take  the  rifle  that  was 
offered  him.  Placed  under  guard,  he  prayed  with  his 
captors  and  was  soon  singing  and  preaching  to  tliem.  He 
was  willing  to  perfoiTn  any  unarmed  duty  and  so  he  was 
made  a  wagon  driver  and  became  a  sergeant  of  pioneers 
and  unofficial  chaplain.  He  was  honorably  discharged 
after  serving  three  months. 

In  1782  he  rode  a  circuit  in  North  Carohna  and  Virginia 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Conference  on  trial  the  following 
year.  He  did  not  receive  word  of  the  Christmas  Con- 
ference, which  he  always  regretted  and  attributed  to  the 
fact  that  Freeborn  Garbettson,  the  courier  sent  to  sum- 
mon the  preachers,  had  preached  too  much  along  the  way. 

His  first  appointment,  in  1783,  was  to  the  Caswell 
Circuit,  after  which  he  served  five  years  in  North  Carolina, 
Virginia,  and  Maryland.  In  1785  he  went  from  Salisbury, 
N.  C,  to  meet  Asbury  at  the  home  of  Colonel  Joseph 
Hemdon  in  Wilkes  County.  Asbury  had  been  a  Super- 
intendent (later  called  bishop)  for  only  a  month,  and  he 
appeared  in  "black  gown,  cassock,  and  band,"  whereupon 
Lee  objected  to  the  attire  as  unbecoming  to  Methodist 
simplicity.  The  rebuke  caused  Asbury  to  lay  aside  the 
regalia. 

Asbury  took  Lee  with  him  on  his  southern  tour.  At 
Cheraw,  S.  C,  a  young  man  from  Massachu.setts  de- 
scribed the  low  state  of  religion  in  New  England  and 
Lee  determined  to  go  there.  In  1790  he  preached  under 
"the  Old  Elm"  on  Boston  Common  and  gave  the  next  ten 
years  of  his  fife  to  New  England,  where  he  became  the 
virtual  founder  of  Methodism. 

Jesse  Lee  weighed  250  pounds  and  on  at  least  one 
occasion  he  used  two  horses,  leading  one  and  changing 
from  time  to  time.  He  was  elected  to  deacon's  orders 
in  1786  but  declined  ordination;  however,  at  the  con- 
ference of  1790  in  New  York  he  was  privately  ordained 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LEE,    LEROY   MADISON 


DEACON  by  Asbury,  and  publicly  ordained  elder  the  fol- 
lowing day. 

In  1797  Asbury  called  Lee  to  assist  him  in  the  work  of 
the  episcopacy  and  at  the  General  Conference  of  1800 
he  expected  to  be  elected  a  bishop  and  had  some  reason 
to  think  that  Asbury  encouraged  the  hope.  But  he  was 
defeated  by  Richard  Whatcoat.  This  he  attributed  to 
Asbury,  to  whom  he  later  wrote  a  scathing  letter  of 
denunciation.  He  had  previously  made  attempts  to  reduce 
Asbury 's  power  and  on  one  occasion  Thomas  Coke  ob- 
jected to  the  passage  of  Lee's  character.  But  when  on  May 
10,  1816,  the  funeral  procession  of  Asbury,  including  the 
whole  General  Conference  and  an  immense  throng  of 
citizens,  moved  through  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  among 
the  leading  marchers  and  mourners  was  Jesse  Lee. 

In  1801  Lee  returned  to  the  South  as  presiding  elder 
in  Virginia,  and  e.xcept  for  a  roving  commission  as  far 
southward  as  Savannah,  he  spent  the  next  fourteen  years 
in  his  native  state,  where  he  bought  a  small  farm  near 
his  father. 

In  1809  Lee  was  elected  chaplain  of  the  U.  S.  House 
of  Representatives  and  was  reelected  four  times.  In  1814 
he  was  elected  chaplain  of  the  Senate.  The  next  year 
he  was  transferred  to  the  Baltimore  Conference  and 
sent  to  Fredericksburg,  a  move  which  he  considered  to 
be  a  political  maneuver  to  prevent  his  election  to  the 
General  Conference.  He  refused  to  go  to  the  appointment 
because  it  was  not  then  in  his  conference. 

Jesse  Lee  in  1810  published  A  Short  History  of  the 
Methodists  in  the  United  States  of  America,  the  first  ever 
written.  The  Conference  would  not  sponsor  it  and  the 
author  secured  subscriptions  for  its  publication.  It  seems 
that  Asbury  was  not  favorably  inclined,  but  when  he  had 
seen  the  book  he  wrote,  "It  is  better  than  I  expected. 
He  has  not  always  presented  me  under  the  most  favorable 
aspect;  we  are  all  liable  to  mistakes,  and  I  am  unmoved 
by  his." 

Lee  also  wrote  a  life  of  John  Lee,  his  brother,  and  he 
published  two  sermons.  He  kept  a  voluminous  Journal, 
which  was  destroyed  when  the  Publishing  House  in  New 
York  was  bunied  in  1836;  Asbury's  Journal  was  lost  in 
the  same  fire.  Fortunately,  much  of  Lee's  work  was  pre- 
served in  the  biography  written  by  his  kinsman,  Leroy 
Lee. 

Jesse  Lee  died  on  Sept.  12,  1816,  while  attending  a 
camp  meeting  near  Hillsborough  in  Maryland.  He  was 
laid  to  rest  in  the  old  Methodist  burying  ground  in 
Baltimore,  but  in  1873  his  body  was  moved  with  others 
to  Mount  Olivet  Cemetery  where  it  rests  today  by  that 
of  Asbury,  Bishops  George,  Emory,  and  Waugh,  Robert 
Strawbridge  and  other  stalwarts  of  early  Methodism. 

F.  Asbury,  journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

W.  W.  Bennett,  Virginia.  1871. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

William   Larkin   Duren,    The  Top   Sergeant  of  the  Pioneers: 

The  Story  of  a  Lifelong  Battle  for  an  Ideal.  Emory  University, 

Ga.:  Banner  Press,  1930. 

L.  M.  Lee,  Jesse  Lee.  1848. 

William  Henry  Meredith,  Jesse  Lee,  A  Methodist  Apostle.  New 

York:  Eaton  &  Mains,  1909. 

M.  H.  Moore,  North  Carolina  and  Virginia.  1884. 

W.  B.  Sprague,  Annab  of  the  Pulpit.  1861. 

M.   Thrift,  Jesse  Lee.  1823.  Louise  L.   Queen 

LEE,  LAWSON  (1918-  ),  missionary  to  Uruguay,  was 

born  in  Homestead,  Okla.  He  studied  at  Oklahoma  North- 


western College  at  Alva,  Southern  Methodist  Uni- 
versity, and  the  University  of  Southern  California.  He 
held  pastorates  at  Alva,  Amett,  Terral,  Mutual,  and  Enid, 
all  in  Oklahoma. 

Lawson  and  Sylvia  Lee  came  to  Montevideo  in  March, 
1948.  They  worked  one  year  as  assistants  in  Central 
Church  while  learning  Spanish.  In  1949  they  went  to 
Paysandu,  Uruguay,  where  they  took  a  dying  church  and 
made  it  into  a  going  concern.  They  built  a  church  and 
parsonage  from  Lawson's  own  plans.  In  an  outlying 
district,  St.  Luke's  Church  was  founded. 

In  1962  the  Lees  were  transferred  to  Montevideo,  and 
he  became  executive  secretary  of  The  Methodist  Church 
in  Uruguay  and  later  mission  treasurer  for  Uruguay,  as 
well  as  interim  minister  of  Emmanuel  Church.  In  1966 
he  was  appointed  one  of  the  two  ministers  of  Central 
Church,  keeping  his  two  executive  positions  as  well. 

Lee's  interests  range  from  painting  pictures  to  making 
plans  for  churches  or  assembling  electronic  organs. 

Earl  M.  SMrrn 


Leroy  M.  Lee 

LEE,  LEROY  MADISON  (1808-1882),  American  minister, 
editor  and  leader  of  Southern  Methodism,  was  bom  at 
Petersburg,  Va.,  on  April  30,  1808.  He  was  the  son  of 
Abraham  and  Elizabeth  Lee  and  was  related  to  Jesse 
Lee,  whose  biography  he  was  later  to  write.  He  was 
converted  in  Petersburg  on  April  1,  1827,  under  the 
preaching  of  W.  A.  Smith  and  admitted  to  the  Virginia 
Conference  in  1828,  then  in  session  at  Raleigh,  N.  C, 
under  Bishop  Soule.  As  eastern  North  Carolina  was 
then  a  part  of  the  Virginia  Conference,  Lee  sei-ved  several 
appointments  in  that  state,  including  New  Bern,  later 
being  moved  to  Trinity,  Richmond,  where  his  parsonage 
was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1835.  Never  robust,  he  was 
recuperating  from  a  spell  of  illness  shortly  after  this  in 
Florida,  and  while  there  was  elected  editor  of  the  Chris- 
tian Sentinel,  a  paper  which  had  just  been  purchased  by 
the  Virginia  Conference.  For  reasons  of  health  he  dropped 
out  of  the  editorship  for  several  months,  but  eventually 
came  back  and  resumed  the  editorship  of  the  publication 
which  was  now  named  the  Richmond  Christian  Advocate 
— a  paper  destined  to  last  under  that  name  until  1940 
when  it  became  the  present  Virginia  Christian  Advocate. 


LEE,    LIM   POON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


LeRoy  Lee  kept  his  name  "at  the  masthead  of  this  for 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century."  He  became  a  stalwart 
champion  of  the  Southern  point  of  view,  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  which  divided 
the  Church;  of  the  Louisville  Convention  the  next  year; 
and  of  the  first  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  in  Petersburg  in  1846.  He  declined  reelection  to 
the  editorship  in  1858  and  was  made  presiding  elder  of  the 
Norfolk  District,  but  the  Federal  fleet  taking  possession 
of  Norfolk  on  May  10,  1862,  ended  his  work  there  for 
a  time. 

Later  Lee  sen'ed  Centenary  Church,  Lynchburg; 
Granby  Street  in  Norfolk;  Union  Station,  Richmond;  and 
served  as  presiding  elder  two  terms,  and  then  spent  one 
year  at  Ashland,  in  part  acting  as  a  chaplain  of  Randolph- 
Macon  College  there  until  he  retired  in  1881.  Lee, 
besides  his  voluminous  editorial  writings,  published  in 
1847,  Life  and  Times  of  Jesse  Lee,  his  distinguished 
kinsman. 

Lee — who  was  given  die  degree  of  D.D.  by  Transyl- 
\ania  College  in  1848 — married  first  Nancy  Mosely  Butler 
of  Elizabeth  City,  N.  C,  who  died  the  following  Novem- 
ber. Afterward  he  married  Virginia  Addington  in  18.36 
and  to  them  were  born  nine  children. 

The  action  for  which  Lee  became  most  famous  was 
his  move  in  the  1870  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  to  so  arrange  it  that  the  power  of  the  Southern 
bishops  to  "check"  an  action  of  the  General  Conference 
was  made  a  properly  constitutional  provision,  and  not  (as 
it  had  been  since  its  adoption  in  1854)  a  merely  statutory 
one.  Lee's  old  pastor  and  mentor,  W.  A.  Smith,  had 
written  and  sponsored  the  adoption  of  the  statutory  resolu- 
tion in  1854,  but  Smith  himself  realized  the  legislation 
was  not  constitutional  and  should  have  personally  made 
a  move  to  see  that  it  was  made  constitutional  had  he  not 
died.  LeRoy  M.  Lee  was  chaiiman  of  the  Committee  on 
Episcopacy  of  General  Conference  of  1870,  and  brought 
in  a  statesmanlike  report  of  which  Bishop  DuBose  says, 
"The  report  of  Dr.  Lee  on  this  provision  has  become  one 
of  the  great  State  papers  of  Methodism.  It  is,  in  fact, 
a  priceless  dissertation  on  the  constitution  and  particularly 
stresses  the  rights  of  the  body  of  the  elders,  from  whom 
the  constitution  was  derived  (or  rather  their  successors, 
the  clerical  and  lay  members  of  the  present-day  Annual 
Conferences)  to  determine  the  processes  by  which  un- 
constitutional acts  of  the  General  Conference  may  be 
arrested."  (DuBose,  p.  113-4.).  The  upshot  was  that  this 
whole  matter  was  passed  by  the  General  Confenice  and 
referred  for  approval  to  the  Annual  Conferences.  They 
adopted  it  and  thus  this  constitutional  provision  as  drawn 
up  by  Lee  was  firmly  written  into  the  organic  life  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South,  to  remain  there  until  union  with 
the  M.  E.  and  M.  P.  Churches  in  1939.  Lee  acted  as 
chairman  of  the  powerful  Committee  on  Episcopacy  both 
in  1870  and  in  1874.  He  died  in  Ashland,  Va.,  on  April 
20,  1882,  and  was  buried  in  Virginia's  famed  Hollywood 
Cemetery  overlooking  the  James  River  in  Richmond. 

H.  M.  DuBose,  History  of  Methodism.  1916. 

Minutes  of  the  Virginia  Annual  Conference,  1882.       N.  B.  H. 

LEE,    LIM     POON     (1910-  ),    American   lay    leader 

among  California  Oriental  United  Methodists,  was  born 
in  Hong  Kong,  Dec.  19,  1910.  At  the  age  of  eight  months 
he  and  his  parents  came  to  the  United  States  to  make  their 
home.   He  was  educated   in  the   San   Francisco   public 


schools,  graduated  from  the  University  of  the  Pacific 
in  1934  with  an  A.B.  degree,  did  graduate  work  at  the 
University  of  Southern  California  from  1934  to  1936,  and 
received  a  LL.B.  degree  from  Lincobi  University  School 
of  Law,  San  Francisco,  in  1954.  He  was  in  the  U.  S. 
Amiy,  1943-46;  and  served  with  the  Counter  Intelligence 
Corps  in  the  Philippine  Islands  and  Hokkaido,  Japan. 
From  1939  to  1963  he  was  in  public  welfare  and  juvenile 
court  work  in  San  Francisco.  He  was  field  representative 
for  Congressman  Phillip  Burton,  San  Francisco,  from  1963 
to  1966.  In  1966  he  became  acting  postmaster  of  San 
Francisco  and  in  1967  was  made  postmaster,  in  which 
position  he  directs  the  work  of  over  10,000  postal  workers. 
He  has  been  a  member  and  chairman  of  the  board  for  the 
Department  of  Veteran  Affairs  in  California;  as  chairman 
he  presided  over  the  board  that  determined  policies  for 
1,021  civil  service  personnel,  and  administered  an  annual 
budget  of  $15  million.  He  has  been  very  active  in  the 
Veterans  of  Foreign  Wars,  and  has  served  as  vice  chair- 
man of  the  National  Legislative  Committee.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Chinese  United  Methodist  Church  in  San 
Francisco,  and  has  been  lay  leader  of  the  California- 
Oriental  Provisional  Annual  Conference.  He  teaches  a 
church  school  class  each  Sunday,  and  is  the  church's  lay 
leader.  He  serves  as  board  member  for  the  Chinese  Branch 
of  the  YMCA;  Telegraph  Hill  Neighborhood  Center; 
Columbia  Park  Boys'  Club;  the  Greater  Chinatown  Com- 
munity Service  Association;  the  Multi-Culture  Institute, 
and  is  a  member  of  the  Chinese  Cultural  Foundation 
which  is  building  the  Chinese  Culture  and  Trade  Center 
in  San  Francisco;  he  is  the  co-chairman  of  the  Mayor's 
Committee  on  Survey  and  Fact-Finding  in  Chinatown. 
He  and  his  wife  Catherine  were  married  in  1941,  and  have 
four  children. 

Walter  N.  Vernon 

LEE,  LUTHER  (1800-1889),  American  preacher,  was  bom 
of  illiterate  parents  in  Schoharia,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  30,  1800. 
He  joined  the  Methodist  Church  at  the  age  of  nineteen, 
and  could  barely  read  the  Bible  or  hymn  book,  even  after 
becoming  a  local  preacher.  On  July  31,  1825,  he  married 
a  school  teacher,  Mary  Miller,  and  they  had  five  sons  and 
two  daughters.  She  gave  him  all  the  education  he  ever 
received. 

Joining  the  Genesee  Conference  in  1827,  when  it 
extended  into  Canada  and  the  roads  and  trails  could  be 
traveled  only  on  horseback,  he  was  assigned  to  Malone 
Circuit.  Ordained  deacon  and  elder  a  few  years  later, 
Lee  served  charges  in  Henvel,  Lowville,  Martinsburg, 
Watertown,  and  Fulton,  N.  Y.,  1831-36.  Transferring  to 
the  Black  River  Conference  in  1836,  he  rose  rapidly 
to  a  place  of  leadership.  A  fighting  reformer,  a  powerful 
debater,  the  growing  anti-slavery  agitation  captured  his 
interest.  After  the  assassination  of  Luther  Lovejoy  at 
Alton,  111.,  in  1837,  he  declared  himself  an  abohtionist. 
In  1838  he  located  and  became  an  agent  in  New  York 
for  the  Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  Society.  In  1840  he 
took  part  in  organizing  the  Liberty  Party. 

At  the  organization  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Con- 
nection in  1843,  he  entered  their  traveling  ministry  and 
was  president  of  their  first  General  Conference  in  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  in  1844.  He  was  editor  of  the  True  Wesleyan 
for  eight  years,  and  served  as  pastor  of  Wesleyan  churches 
in  Syracuse,  and  Fulton,  N.  Y.,  and  Fehcity  and  Chagrin 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LEE,   WHAN   SHIN 


Falls,  Ohio.  His  last  Wesleyan  position  was  professor  in 
Adrian  College,  1864-67. 

With  many  others  he  returned  to  the  M.  E.  Church  in 
1867,  and  for  ten  years  served  the  Court  Street  Church, 
Flint;  Ypsilanti;  Northville,  and  Petersburg  charges  in 
Michigan. 

Luther  Lee  was  the  author  of  several  valuable  books 
which  had  a  large  sale.  Among  these  were,  Universalism 
Examined,  Systematic  Theology,  Immortality  of  the  Soul, 
and  Autobiography  of  Luther  Lee,  D.D. 

Superannuated  in  1877,  Lee  died  in  Flint,  Mich.,  Dec. 
13,  1889. 

Dictionary  of  Atnerican  Biography. 

National  Cyclopediaiof  American  Biography. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Jesse  A.  Eabl 

LEE,  THOMAS  (1727-1786),  British  Methodist,  was  born 
at  Keighley,  Yorkshire,  in  1727.  As  a  young  man,  while 
working  only  half-time  as  an  evangelist,  he  was  able  to 
establish  societies  where  no  itinerant  had  yet  been.  Even- 
tually he  became  one  of  William  Grimshaw's  preachers 
in  the  Haworth  round,  and  then  a  regular  itinerant  from 
1755  until  his  death  in  1786,  traveling  around  the  huge 
northern  circuits.  He  was  one  of  the  most  heroic  of  the 
early  preachers,  and  often  he  and  his  wife  suffered  terrible 
persecution  and  hardship. 

T.  Jackson,  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers.  1837-38. 

N.  P.  GOLDHAWK 


U.MPHREY  Lee 

LEE,  UMPHREY  (1893-1958),  American  preacher,  edu- 
cator and  author,  was  bom  in  Oakland  City,  Ind.,  March 
23,  1893.  He  went  to  Texas  when  his  father,  Josephus 
Lee,  transferred  there  in  1910.  He  was  educated  at  Trinity 
College  (A.B.,  1914),  Southern  Methodist  LTniversity 
(M.A.,  1916),  and  Columbia  University  (Ph.D.,  1931). 
He  seived  several  pastorates  before  going  to  the  Univer- 
sity of  Texas  to  establish  the  Wesley  Bible  Chair  in  1919. 
In  1923  he  became  pastor  of  Highland  Park  Methodist 
Church,  Dallas,  Texas,  on  the  campus  of  Southern  Meth- 
odist University;  it  became  one  of  The  Christian  Century's 
"Great  Churches  of  America,"  and  by  1960  was  the  largest 
in  the  denomination.  During  this  time  he  also  served  as 
professor  of  homiletics  of  S.M.U.'s  School  of  Theology  and 
from  1937  until  1939  he  was  dean  of  the  Vanderbilt 
University  School  of  Religion. 


In  1939  he  became  president  of  Southern  Methodist 
University  and  by  1954,  when  he  left  the  presidency  to 
become  chancellor  (because  of  health  problems),  the  uni- 
versity's endowment  had  increased  by  $20,500,000  and 
eighteen  new  buildings  had  been  erected.  He  was 
credited,  more  than  any  other  individual,  with  molding 
the  university  into  the  great  institution  it  had  become  at 
the  time  of  his  death  June  23,  1958. 

Above  and  beyond  his  official  posts,  he  was  a  member 
of  the  General  Conferences  of  1934,  1940,  1944,  1948, 
the  Uniting  Conference  of  1939,  and  the  Ecumenical 
Conferences  of  1946  and  1951.  He  was  the  Cole  Lec- 
turer at  Vanderbilt  University  (1946);  Quillian  Lecturer 
at  Emory  University  (1947);  Fondren  Lecturer  at 
Southern  Methodist  University  (1957).  Also  he  was  Presi- 
dent of  the  Civic  Federation  of  Dallas,  President  of  the 
Dallas  Rotai-y  Club,  and  President  of  the  Philosophical 
Society  of  Texas. 

Umphrey  Lee  was  author  of  the  following  books:  Jesus 
the  Pioneer  (1926);  A  Short  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Christ 
(1927);  The  Lord's  Horseman:  John  Wesley  (1928), 
which  was  revised  in  1954;  The  Bible  and  Business 
(1930);  Historical  Backgrounds  of  Early  Methodist  En- 
thu.iiasm  (1931);  John  Wesley  and  Modern  Religion 
(1936);  The  Historic  Church  and  Modern  Pacificism 
( 1943) ;  Our  Fathers  and  Us  ( 1958) . 

During  the  years  that  Umphrey  Lee  was  pastor  of  the 
Highland  Park  Church  he  was  engaged  in  research  proj- 
ects in  Europe  toward  his  volumes  pertaining  to  John 
Wesley.  At  home  and  abroad  he  was  recognized  as  one 
of  the  interpreters  of  the  Arminian  tradition  and  the  Wes- 
leyan movement. 

He  held  membership  in  the  Medieval  Academy  of 
America,  the  American  Historical  Society,  the  American 
Society  of  Church  History,  and  the  Philosophical  Society 
of  Texas.  Excelling  as  scholar,  author,  preacher,  speaker, 
lecturer,  and  columnist,  he  was  universally  acclaimed  by 
his  colleagues  for  his  pre-eminence  among  the  ministers 
of  Texas  in  his  generation. 

Clark  and  Stafford,  Who's  Who  in  Methodism.  1952. 

Journal  of  the  North  Texas  Conference,  1959. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Walter  N.  Vernon 

LEE,  WHAN  SHIN   (1902-  ),  a  bishop  of  the  Korean 

Methodist  Church,  was  born  in  Kang-Dong,  near  Pyeng- 
yang,  in  what  is  now  North  Korea,  Jan.  8,  1902.  After 
study  in  the  local  Methodist  Mission  schools,  he  grad- 
uated from  the  Union  Methodist  Seminary  in  Seoul 
(high  school  level  at  that  time)  in  1927,  and  from  Chosun 
Christian  College,  Seoul,  in  1931.  He  received  the  B.D. 
degree  from  Vanderbilt  Unu'Ersity  in  1933,  M.A.  from 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in  1935,  and  D.D.,  Yonsei 
University,  Seoul,  1963. 

From  1935  to  1938  he  seived  as  Director  of  Youth 
Work  of  the  Korean  Methodist  Church.  Ordained  in  1938, 
he  became  President  of  the  John  Bible  Institute  in  Pyeng- 
yang  and  served  until  the  purge  of  all  American-trained 
men  in  1943. 

He  served  as  Professor  of  Chosun  Christian  University, 
1945-1951,  as  General  Secretary  of  the  National  Associa- 
tion of  the  Y.M.C.A.,  1951-1954;  and  Professor,  Meth- 
odist Theological  Seminary,  Seoul,  1955-1962. 

He  was  elected  bishop  of  the  Korean  Methodist  Church 
in  1962  and  served  one  four-year  term.  He  was  a  dele- 
gate  to   the   East   Asia   Christian   Conference,    Bangkok, 


LEE,    WILLIAM    BOWMAN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Whan  Shin  Lee 

1964,  and  to  the  E.A.C.C.  Working  Committee,  Ceylon 
and  Manila,  1965,  and  Y.M.C.A.  World  Committee,  Ge- 
neva, 1953. 

He  is  the  author  of  Frinciples  of  Youth  Ciiicianre 
(1931);  Visiting  Europe  and  America  after  World  War  II 
(1947). 

He  lives  in  Seoul. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

Charles  A.  Sauer 

LEE,  WILLIAM  BOWMAN  (1864-1955),  American  preach- 
er and  missionary  to  Brazil,  was  bom  in  Newbury  Coun- 
ty, S.  C,  on  July  16,  1864,  son  of  a  Methodist  preacher. 
Having  lost  both  parents  in  childhood,  William  Lee  was 
forced  to  work  for  a  living  early  in  life.  He  united  with 
the  Methodist  Church  at  sixteen;  studied  at  Painesville, 
S.  C,  then  moved  to  Durham,  N.  C,  where  he  continued 
his  studies  while  working  with  the  Duke  industries.  He 
was  esteemed  by  the  Duke  family  and  married  a  niece 
of  the  family,  Mamie  Fonville,  on  May  28,  1891.  Deciding 
to  become  a  preacher,  he  earned  his  B.D.  degiee  in  the- 
ology from  Trinity  College,  and  was  ordained  a  deacon 
at  the  North  Carolina  Conference  in  1893. 

Accepted  by  the  Board  of  Missions  (MES),  the  Lees 
sailed  for  Brazil  in  1895.  Through  long  years  in  Brazil, 
Lee  sei-ved  as  pastor,  presiding  elder,  professor  of  math- 
ematics at  Instituto  Granbery,  and  later  as  Reitor 
(principal)  of  the  same  school;  and  he  was  for  a  time 
editor  of  the  official  weekly,  Expositor  Cristao.  He  also 
translated  articles,  hymns,  and  the  Methodist  Discipline 
of  1910,  and  the  History  of  the  Church,  by  Williston 
Walker.  He  was  author  of  a  book  of  sermons  and  a  volume 
on  The  Teachings  of  the  Prophets.  He  served  on  several 
church-wide  committees,  including  the  one  on  autonomy 
of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Brazil.  At  first  he  had  difficulty 
mastering  Portuguese,  but  he  later  became  the  most  fluent 
and  eloquent  of  all  missionaries,  and  was  especially  loved 
for  his  close  identification  with  the  Brazilians. 

Mamie  F.  Lee,  his  wife,  taught  for  some  years  at 
Instituto  Cranbery,  and  was  a  director  of  Colegio  Mineiro. 
She  is  best  remembered  as  the  founder  in  June  1900,  of 
the  Joias  de  Cristo  (Christ's  Jewels),  the  first  missionary 
society  for  children  in  Brazil.  Under  her  inspiration  and 
leadership,   these   children's   societies    helped   raise    funds 


to  support  Hipolito  de  Campos,  Brazil's  first  missionary 
to  Portugal. 

Four  children  were  born  to  the  Lees — Wesley,  xMary, 
Lucy,  and  William.  After  his  wife's  death  in  July,  1944, 
Lee  married  the  widow  of  Michael  Dickie— Julia  Coach- 
man, also  an  effective  worker  in  the  church.  Before  her 
death  in  1956,  she  edited  Aleluias,  a  new  hymnal  which 
the  Methodist  press  published.  Lee  retired  in  Brazil,  died 
in  Sao  Paulo  in  his  daughter  Lucy's  home,  and  was  buried 
in  the  Santo  Amaro  Cemetery. 

Expositor  Cristao,  Aug.  9,  1944.  Joao  Goncalves  Salvador 

LEE,  WILSON  (1764-1804),  pioneer  American  preach- 
er, was  born  in  Sussex  County  near  Lewes,  Del.,  in 
November  1764.  He  was  converted  at  the  age  of  seventeen 
and  entered  the  traveling  ministry  in  1784.  He  was  prob- 
ably a  member  of  the  Christmas  Conference,  and  was 
Bishop  Whatcoat's  assistant  for  one  year.  On  the  Alle- 
gheny circuit  in  1784,  situated  among  the  mountains  of 
West  VmciNiA  with  no  defined  limits,  he  crossed  the  lofty 
ranges  many  times. 

Bedford  wrote  of  him:  "Reared  in  the  midst  of  refine- 
ment and  surrounded  with  the  luxuries  of  life,  his  manners 
polished  and  possessing  talents  of  a  high  order,  Lee  might 
have  achieved  eminence  in  any  profession."  His  neatness 
of  attire  and  habits,  his  love,  his  consuming  zeal  and  excel- 
lent \oice  commanded  respect.  With  an  ardent  spirit  but 
with  slender  physical  resources,  Wilson  Lee  hazarded  his 
frail  body  for  nine  years  in  the  roughest  frontier  circuits 
of  West  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  Kentucky  and  Tennes- 
see. 

His  early  charges  were  Allegheny  circuit,  1784;  Red- 
stone circuit,  1785;  and  Talbot,  1786.  Spending  six  years 
in  Kentucky  and  middle  Tennessee,  Lee's  frontier  circuits 
were  from  the  Monongahela  to  the  banks  of  the  Ohio — 
Kentucky,  Slat  River,  Green  River,  Great  Barrens,  and 
Cumberland  River — in  which  stations  there  was  great 
savage  cruelty  and  frequent  deaths.  Wilson  Lee  apparently 
had  great  success  in  the  vicinity  of  Nashville,  Tenn. 
The  first  church  building  was  erected  of  stone  in  1789  or 
1790 — now  McKendree  Church,  Nashville.  Two  of  Lee's 
converts  were  General  James  Robertson,  the  founder  of 
Nashville,  and  his  wife. 

In  1793  Lee  came  east,  and  in  1794  went  to  New  En- 
gland. He  was  pastor  of  John  Street  Church,  New 
York.  1795;  St.  George's,  Philadelphia,  1796-99,  and 
presiding  elder  of  the  Baltimore  District,  1801-03.  A 
fei-vent  spirit,  he  lost  his  health  in  1804  and  was  super- 
annuated, dying  October  11  of  that  year.  He  was  buried 
in  Anne  Arundel  County,  Md. 

Henry  Boehm  wrote,  "I  heard  Lee  preach  in  1797  at 
St.  George's  when  he  was  stationed  there.  He  was  a  tall, 
slender  man,  had  a  musical  voice  and  his  delivery  was 
very  agreeable.  He  was  one  of  the  great  men  of  Method- 
ism and  a  great  favorite  of  Mr.  Asbury." 

H.  Boehm,  Remirtiscences.  1875. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

J.  F.  Hurst,  History  of  Metlwdism.  1901-04. 

A.  H.  Bedford,  Kentucky.  1868-70.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

LEE,  JESSE,  PRIZE  was  established  by  the  Association  of 
Methodist  Historical  Societies  to  encourage  research  and 
publication  in  the  field  of  American  Methodism.  It  is  part 
of  the  program  of  awards,  which  includes  grants-in-aid, 
administered  bv  the  Awards  Committee  of  the  Commis- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LEESBURG,   VIRGINIA 


siON  ON  Archives  and  History.  In  response  to  annual 
announcement  of  competition  for  the  prize,  numerous 
manuscripts  of  book  length  have  been  submitted.  Awards 
were  made  as  follows;  in  1967  to  Lewis  M.  Purifoy, 
"Negro  Slavery,  the  Moral  Ordeal  of  Southern  Method- 
ism"; in  1968  to  Lester  Scherer,  "Ezekiel  Cooper,  an  Early 
American  Methodist  Leader,"  and  in  1970  to  William  B. 
Gravely,  "Gilbert  Haven,  Racial  Equalitarian."  The  prize 
was  made  a  biennial  affair  in  1970. 

Frederick  A.  Norwood 

LEE  MEMORIAL  MISSION.  (See  Calcutta.  India,  Lee 
Memorial  Mission.) 

LEEDS,  England.  In  1740  John  Nelson  heard  John  Wes- 
ley preach  in  Moorfields,  London,  and  returned  to 
Birstall,  near  Leeds,  to  share  his  experience.  By  1742  his 
evangelism  had  spread  to  Armley;  and  here  William 
Shent  heard  him,  brought  by  his  wife,  Mary,  who  had 
been  converted  at  John  Nelson's  door.  Shent  invited  Nel- 
son to  Leeds,  and  there  he  preached  outside  Shent's  bar- 
ber's shop  in  spite  of  threats  to  kill  him.  This  shop,  at  the 
bottom  of  what  is  now  Briggate,  became  the  headquarters 
of  a  society  that  numbered  fifty  when  John  Wesley  first 
visited  it  on  April  8,  1743.  The  house  was  licensed  for 
Methodist  worship  on  April  7,  1746,  and  remained  the 
center  of  Methodism  until  the  first  chapel  was  built  in 
1751.  This  chapel  was  built  around  the  house  of  a  basket- 
maker,  Mathew  Chippendale;  and  when  it  was  roofed 
over,  the  old  house  was  pulled  down  and  the  debris 
thrown  through  the  chapel  window.  It  got  the  name  of 
the  "old  Boggart  House"  because  it  was  supposed  to  be 
built  in  a  haunted  area.  Shent  continued  his  barber  trade; 
his  preaching  and  accounts  exist  today  (in  the  handwriting 
of  the  steward,  Thomas  Hey,  the  eminent  surgeon),  not- 
ing payment  to  Shent  of  7/6  a  quarter  for  shaving  the 
preachers,  and  a  similar  sum  was  spent  on  kneecaps  for 
John  Wesley.  John  Nelson  died  in  1774. 

After  his  wife's  death  Shent  "fell  into  sin"  and  was 
turned  out  of  the  society.  An  eloquent  letter  to  the 
Keighley  society  restored  him,  but  in  1787  he  died  a 
drunkard.  Methodism  had  taken  firm  root  in  Leeds,  how- 
ever; one  hundred  years  later  the  vicar  of  Leeds  wrote 
"the  de  facto  estabhshed  religion  is  Methodism."  The 
Boggart  House  was  the  only  chapel  until  Albion  Street 
(1802);  then  Isle  Lane  (1815),  Wesley  Meadow  Lane 
(1816),  Brunswick  (1825),  St.  Peter's  (1834),  and  Ox- 
ford Pace  (1834)  were  built.  Of  these  only  Brunswick 
remains  as  it  was.  For  about  a  hundred  years  these  chapels 
remained  fairly  full,  and  revivals  kept  them  so.  In  1794  a 
thousand  members  were  added,  and  another  thousand  in 
1838,  under  the  preaching  of  John  Rattenbury.  Numbers 
rose  between  1797  and  1840  from  2,460  to  8,079. 

There  were  also  reversals.  Leeds  took  part  in  the  con- 
troversies which  followed  Wesley's  death,  and  added  a 
few  of  its  own.  Most  Leeds  Methodists  were  originally 
"Church  Methodists"  and  held  their  services  at  7  a.m. 
and  5:30  p.m.  to  avoid  the  hours  of  sei'vice  of  the  parish 
church.  It  was  freedom  from  establishment  which  led  the 
builders  of  Albion  Street  out  of  the  Wesleyan  connection 
in  1802.  Alexander  Kilham's  reforming  party  sent 
seventy  of  its  members  to  the  Wesleyan  Conference  which 
met  in  Leeds  in  1797.  Not  being  able  to  agree,  they 
withdrew  to  Ebenezer  Chapel  (bought  from  the  Baptists) 


and  began  an  independent  e.xistence  as  the  Methodist 
New  Connexion. 

A  more  severe  reversal  began  with  the  proposal  in  1826 
to  build  an  organ  in  the  new  Brunswick  Chapel.  This 
was  the  start  of  the  Leeds  Organ  Case.  When  the  Con- 
ference of  1827  overruled  an  adverse  vote  of  the  District 
Meeting,  seventy  of  the  Leeds  local  preachers  and  leaders 
went  on  strike  against  the  plan,  and  in  the  end  more  than 
a  thousand  members  left  the  Leeds  circuits  and  set  up 
the  Protestant  Methodists.  When  controversy  broke  out 
again  in  1849  as  a  result  of  the  Fly  Sheets  agitation, 
the  Wesleyan  Reformers  began  in  Leeds  with  a  huge 
tea  meeting,  in  which  "a  thousand  persons  partook  of  the 
beverage."  Two  thousand  members  left  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  societies  in  the  course  of  this  controversy.  In 
1857  these  joined  with  the  Protestant  Methodists  and 
others  to  form  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches. 
At  about  the  same  time  the  Church  of  England,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  famous  Vicar  of  Leeds,  Walter  Far- 
guhar  Hook,  reorganized  and  reanimated  itself.  Hook  re- 
built the  parish  church,  and  with  it  twenty-one  other 
churches,  twenty-seven  schools,  and  twenty-three  vicar- 
ages. He  won  many  back  to  the  Established  Church. 

Primitive  Methodism  first  entered  Leeds  on  Nov.  29, 
1819,  when  William  Clowes  opened  a  mission.  In  a 
single  year  the  membership  of  the  Primitives  was  984, 
but  it  was  three  years  before  the  first  chapel  was  built 
at  Quarry  Hill.  By  1830  forty  preaching  places  were  on 
the  plan,  and  by  1932  there  were  nine  circuits,  though 
some  of  these  were  single-minister  stations.  As  a  conse- 
quence of  the  Forward  Movement,  Oxford  Place  Chapel 
became  the  head  of  a  new  circuit  in  1891,  and  three 
years  later  Samuel  Chadwick  was  sent  to  be  superinten- 
dent of  the  "new  mission."  Thirty  thousand  pounds  was 
spent  on  remodeling  the  premises,  and  in  his  twelve-year 
ministry  the  membership  rose  from  294  to  957.  Aggressive 
evangelism  and  social  work  went  hand  in  hand,  and  tracts 
were  distributed  every  week  to  2,500  houses.  Chadwick 
went  to  Cliff'  College  in  1907,  and  in  1910  George  Allen 
began  another  great  ministry  of  ten  years. 

Brunswick  Chapel  had  an  Indian  summer  dating  from 
the  ministry  of  A.  E.  Whitham,  who  began  to  preach 
there  in  1918.  He  had  musical  and  poetic  gifts  which 
enriched  his  sermons.  Brunswick  began  to  grow,  and  in 
1925  Leslie  D.  Weatherhead  began  there  a  ministry  of 
eleven  years,  in  which  it  was  necessary  to  be  at  the  church 
door  an  hour  before  time  if  one  wanted  a  seat.  He  re- 
moved to  the  London  City  Temple  in  1936  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Willl-vm  E.  Sangster.  On  the  day  that  war 
started  in  1939,  Sangster  began  his  term  in  London.  None 
of  the  large  Leeds  city  congregations  survived  the  war 
intact,  and  Brunswick  was  no  exception.  In  an  effort  at 
reorganization,  Brunswick  and  Oxford  Place  Chapels  were 
placed  together  in  a  new  central  circuit.  A  team  ministry, 
committed  to  serve  the  city,  hopes  in  the  redevelopment 
of  the  city  center  to  build  premises  fit  for  mission  to  the 
twentieth  century.  But  Leeds  has  been  no  exception  to 
the  rule  that  the  Methodist  churches  in  the  inner  belt  of 
the  industrial  cities  have  declined  sharply  since  1932,  and 
this  decline  has  been  only  partly  compensated  by  growth 
among  the  suburban  societies. 

John  Banks 

LEESBURG,  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.,  thirty-eight  miles  north- 
west of  Alexandria,  is  the  county  seat  of  Loudon  County. 


LEETE,    FREDERICK   DELANO 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Settled  in  1749  and  incorporated  in  1758,  it  was  probably 
named  for  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee  and  Philip  Ludwell  Lee, 
local  landholders  who  were  among  the  town's  first  trust- 
ees. The  town  still  has  some  old  houses  of  stone  and  brick 
with  i\y-clad  walls  shaded  by  elms  and  oaks,  and  door- 
ways with  massive  knockers. 

Prior  to  1769  Methodism  flourished  in  four  places  in 
America — New  York;  Philadelphia;  Sam's  Creek,  Mary- 
land; and  Leesburg,  Virginia.  The  Methodist  Society  in 
Leesburg  is  regarded  as  the  oldest  in  the  state,  and  pre- 
sumably it  began  under  the  leadership  of  Robert  Straw- 
bridge  or  some  of  his  local  preachers.  In  the  early  days 
Leesburg  was  one  of  the  towns  nearest  to  Sam's  Creek 
where  Strawbridge,  according  to  Asbury's  Journal  (April 
30,  1801),  built  the  first  Methodist  chapel  in  America. 


Site  of  Old  SroNE  Ciiuucii,  Lee.sbuhg, 
FIRST  Methodist  Church  property  in  America 

The  Old  Sfone  Church.  On  May  11,  1766,  the  Methodist 
Societ\'  purchased  a  half-acre  lot  in  Leesburg  for  "no 
other  use  but  for  a  church  and  meetinghouse  and  grave- 
yard." The  Old  Stone  Church,  as  it  came  to  be  known, 
was  begun  in  1766,  completed  in  1770,  and  dedicated  free 
of  debt,  June  24,  1790.  The  earliest  dated  tombstone  in 
the  Old  Stone  Church  cemetery  is  1777.  It  stands  at  the 
grave  of  Captain  Wright  Brickell  who  was  converted  at 
Norfolk  under  Joseph  Pilmore.  Brickell  was  one  of  the 
original  Book  Stewards  of  the  Methodist  Societies  in 
America.  Richard  Owings,  the  first  native-born  Methodist 
local  preacher  in  America,  died  at  Leesburg  in  1786,  and 
he  and  a  number  of  other  prominent  Methodist  preachers 
are  buried  in  the  cemetery. 

When  the  1796  General  Conference  designated  six 
annual  conferences  with  geographical  boundaries,  the 
"northern  neck  of  Virginia,"  including  Leesburg,  became 
a  part  of  the  Baltimore  Conference.  When  the  M.  E. 
Church  divided  over  slavery  in  1844,  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference adhered  North.  However,  in  1848  more  than  half 
the  members  of  the  Old  Stone  Church  in  Leesburg  de- 
cided to  affiliate  as  a  congregation  with  the  Virginia 
Conference  (MES).  For  a  few  years  the  two  groups 
worshiped  alternately  in  the  Old  Stone  Church,  but  in 
1850  a  lawsuit  ensued  and  the  court  ruled  that  the 
church  belonged  to  the  M.  E.  Church  because  that  body 
had  held  title  to  it  since  1766.  In  1853  the  members  who 
adhered  South  built  their  own  church. 

As  time  passed  the  Northern  membership  in  Leesburg 
dwindled,  and  in  1894  the  Old  Stone  Church  was  aban- 
doned. In  1897  the  Negro  congregation  of  the  Wash- 
ington Conference    (ME)    in  Leesburg  instituted   and 


lost  a  lawsuit  for  possession  of  the  Old  Stone  Church.  In 
1900  the  parsonge  adjoining  the  church  was  sold  for 
$416.05,  and  in  1902  the  Old  Stone  Church  was  torn 
down.  The  communion  table  was  then  given  to  the  Lees- 
burg Southern  church  as  the  descendant  congregation  of 
the  Old  Stone  Church  group  which  adhered  South  in 
1848. 

Today  the  Old  Stone  Church  Site  and  Cemetery,  des- 
ignated as  one  of  the  historic  shrines  of  American  Meth- 
odism by  the  1964  General  Conference,  is  the  property 
of  the  Virginia  Methodist  Historical  Society. 

Recent  History.  The  Leesburg  Southern  Church  con- 
tinued as  an  appointment  in  the  Virginia  Conference  until 
1861  when  the  Baltimore  Conference  (ME)  divided  into 
northern  and  southern  branches.  The  Leesburg  church 
then  adhered  to  the  Old  Baltimore  (southern)  part  of  the 
conference.  As  is  well  known,  that  wing  of  the  Baltimore 
Conference  was  officially  received  into  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  at  the  1866  General  Conference  and  it  continued 
as  the  Baltimore  Conference  of  that  denomination  until 
unification  in  1939. 

As  a  strategic  town  in  northern  Virginia,  Leesburg  was 
involved  in  the  Civil  War,  and  the  church  suffered,  but 
in  after  years  it  grew,  had  distinguished  pastors,  and  was 
regarded  as  a  strong,  cultured,  conservative  appointment 
in  the  Baltimore  Conference  (MES).  One  feature  of  the 
church  program  in  comparatively  recent  years  has  been 
a  summer  union  Sunday  evening  service  in  front  of  the 
Loudon  County  Courthouse  with  the  square  largely  filled 
with  worshipers,  some  of  them  passersby  who  stop  for 
the  service  at  the  county  crossroads. 

At  unification,  Leesburg  and  all  of  the  Virginia  terri- 
tory of  the  Baltimore  Conference  (MES)  became  a  part 
of  the  Virginia  Conference  (MC),  and  when  the  Arlington 
District  was  formed  in  1962,  Leesburg,  which  had  been 
in  the  Alexandria  District  for  many  years,  fell  within  the 
new  district. 

In  1969  the  Leesburg  Church  reported  725  members, 
property  valued  at  $274,500,  and  $32,836  raised  for  all 
purposes. 

Columbia  Lippincott  Gazateer,  1952.  Columbia  Univ.  Press. 
General  Minutes,  MEG,  MEGS,  MC,  and  UMC. 
Frederick  E.   Maser,   The  Dramatic  Story  of  Early  American 
Methodism.  Nashville:  Abingdon  Press,  1965. 
Melvin  L.  Steadman,  Jr.,  Leesburg's  Old  Stone  Church  (pam- 
phlet, 1964). 

W.  W.  Sweet,  Virginia  Methodism.  1955. 

Virginia,  A  Guide  to  the  Old  Dominion,  1940.  Virginia  Writers' 
Project,  1947,  Fourth  Printing.  Albea  Godbold 

LEETE,  FREDERICK  DELAND  (1866-1958),  American  bish- 
op, was  born  at  Avon,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  1,  1866,  of  English 
Puritan  and  French  Huguenot  ancestry.  He  was  the  son 
of  Menzo  Smith  Leete,  under  whom  he  was  converted 
in  a  revival  at  thirteen.  A  grandson  of  Alexander  Leete, 
the  bishop  was  the  eighth  descendant  from  William  Leete, 
Colonial  governor  of  Connecticut.  Frederick  Leete  was 
educated  at  Syracuse  Unu'ersity  (A.B.,  1889;  A.M., 
1891),  and  held  the  honorary  D.D.,  L.H.D.,  and  LL.D. 
degrees.  He  married  Jeanette  Fuller  on  July  28,  1891, 
and  they  had  three  children. 

Leete  united  with  the  Northern  New  York  Confer- 
ence in  1888  and  was  appointed  to  Dryer  Memorial 
Church,  Utica,  1888-91.  He  served  as  Y.M.C.A.  Secretary, 
Utica,  1891-94;  First  Church,  Little  Falls,  1894-98;  Mon- 
roe  Avenue,    Rochester,    1898-1903;    University   Church, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LEEWARD   ISLANDS 


Frederick  D.  Leete 

Syracuse,  1903-06;  Central  Church,  Detroit,  Mich., 
1906-12.  He  was  elected  bishop  in  1912  and  assigned  to 
the  Atlanta  Area,  1912-20;  the  Indianapolis  Area,  1920- 
28;  and  the  Omaha  Area,  1928-36,  when  he  retired. 

Bishop  Leete  was  a  member  of  three  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conferences,  1911,  1921,  1931,  and  was 
president  of  the  Ecumenical  Council  of  the  Americas  and 
Orient,  1931-44.  He  was  a  life  member  of  the  American 
Historical  Association;  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Arts,  London. 

Bishop  Leete  served  on  every  commission  that  dealt 
with  church  union  prior  to  1939,  and  was  said  to  be 
one  of  the  most  creative  minds  of  the  Northern  commis- 
sion. Bishop  Moore  wrote,  "Bishop  Frederick  D.  Leete 
was  one  of  the  most  valuable  members  of  the  Commission. 
He  spoke  always  with  directness  and  understanding,  and 
his  suggestions,  motions  and  decisions  contributed  greatly 
to  working  out  the  plan  of  Union.  By  his  long  ministry  in 
prominent  pastorates  in  the  Northland,  his  discerning 
episcopal  service  in  the  Atlanta  area,  he  had  acquainted 
himself  not  only  with  the  mind  of  his  own  church  but 
with  the  necessary  position  and  requirements  of  the 
Church,  South.  .  .  .  He  met  the  issues  with  deep  insight, 
clear  vision,  broad  churchmanship,  calm  courage  and 
genuine  statesmanship."  (Long  Road  to  Methodist  Union, 
p.  128.) 

Leete's  Methodist  Bishops,  published  in  1948,  contains 
interesting  facts  about  250  Methodist  bishops.  Though 
the  accounts  are  not  always  accurate  in  minor  matters,  it 
is  a  valuable  collection  of  biographies. 

Bishop  Leete's  personal  "Methodist  Bishops'  Collection," 
containing  nearly  all  the  books  and  pamphlets  written 
about  the  250  bishops  covered  in  his  book  and  including 
some  4,000  letters  from  bishops,  has  been  housed  at 
Southern  Methodist  University,  along  with  his  rare 
library  of  Methodist  historical  material. 

Bishop  Leete  died  on  Feb.  16,  1958. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

J.  M.  Moore,  Long  Road  to  Union.  1943.  Jesse  A.  Earl 


LEEWARD  ISLANDS  (district  of  the  Methodist  Church 
IN  THE  Caribbean  .\nd  the  Americas),  formerly  referred 
to  a  group  of  British  islands  in  the  Eastern  Caribbean, 
including  St.  Kitts  (properly  called  St.  Christopher), 
Nevis  and  Anguilla,  Antigua  and  Montserrat.  St.  Kitts, 
Nevis  and  Anguilla  form  a  self-governing  associated  state 
within  the  British  Commonwealth,  though  Anguilla  in 
1968  refused  to  recognize  the  connection  with  St.  Kitts 
and  Nevis.  Antigua  is  also  an  associated  state.  The  teiTn 
"the  Leeward  Islands"  also  includes  Guadeloupe  which 
is  an  overseas  department  of  France. 

The  Methodist  district  includes  the  above  mentioned, 
though  there  is  no  work  on  the  i.sland  of  Cuadeloupe,  and 
also  St.  Eustatius,  which  forms  part  of  the  Netherlands 
Antilles,  and  St.  Martin  (St.  Maarten),  which  is  partly  a 
French  possession,  and  partly  within  the  Netherlands 
Antilles.  In  addition,  the  district  includes  the  British  as- 
sociated state  of  Dominica,  geographically  the  most  north- 
erly of  the  Windward  Islands;  the  American  and  British 
Virgin  Islands  and  Aruba  and  Cura9ao,  in  the  Netherlands 
Antilles,  500  miles  to  the  southwest  off  the  coast  of 
Venezuela.  Its  work  is  carried  on  in  English. 

Antigua,  the  headquarters  of  the  district  and  of  the 
MCCA,  is  the  subject  of  a  separate  article. 

The  broad  lines  of  development  throughout  the  district 
are  similar,  though  there  are  variations  from  one  island 
to  another.  In  most  places,  lay  Methodist  initiative  pre- 
ceded the  visits  of  Thomas  Coke  and  the  stationing  of 
the  first  British  ministers.  A  period  of  rapid  expansion 
despite  opposition,  was  followed  in  the  1820's  by  a  decline 
in  membership.  The  liberation  of  the  slaves  in  British 
colonies  in  1834,  occasioned  some  political  disturbance 
from  which  the  church  suffered,  and  in  the  mid-nineteenth 
century,  economic  depression  in  the  West  Indies  led  to 
emigration  from  the  smaller  islands,  while  the  internal 
struggle  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in  Britain  led 
to  the  withdrawal  of  some  missionary  staff.  Nevertheless, 
the  church  gradually  expanded  during  the  late  nineteenth 
and  twentieth  centuries,  and  in  some  islands,  such  as 
Tortola  in  the  British  Virgin  Islands,  Methodism  came  to 
form  the  largest  Christian  community.  The  Leeward 
Islands  District  (then  known  as  the  Antigua  District)  was 
incorporated  into  the  autonomous  West  Indian  Conference 
in  1884,  despite  the  opposition  of  its  chairman  and  a 
majority  of  members  of  the  synod. 

Methodism  entered  Curasao  about  1930,  when  a  local 
preacher  named  Obed  Anthony  began  preaching  in  a 
hired  hall,  and  in  the  open  air.  He  and  his  followers  later 
entered  the  Dutch  Protestant  Church,  but  a  Methodist 
minister  was  stationed  in  Curasao  from  1945.  Meanwhile, 
in  Aruba,  Methodist  services  and  prayer  meetings  had 
been  begun  by  Thomas  Markham,  a  local  preacher  from 
Montserrat,  and  others.  The  first  minister,  W.  J.  Barrett, 
was  appointed  in  1939,  and  was  transferred  to  Curasao 
in  1945.  The  first  Methodist  minister  in  St.  Croix,  Ameri- 
can Virgin  Islands,  was  appointed  in  1967. 

In  1967  the  district  became  a  founder  member  of  the 
Methodist  Church  in  the  Caribbean  .\nd  the 
Americas.  It  has  maintained  throughout  its  history  con- 
nections with  other  parts  of  the  Caribbean  area  and  of 
world  Methodism. 

Methodism  was  introduced  into  St.  Kitts  by  Lydia 
Seaton,  a  servant  who  had  lived  in  the  house  of  Frances 
Turner,  one  of  Nathaniel  Gilbert's  converts  in  Antigua. 
The  first  Methodist  community,  which  Thomas  Coke 
visited  in  1787,  1789  and  1805,  included  the  editor  of  the 


LEEWARD   ISLANDS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


local  newspaper,  named  Cable,  and  a  jeweller  named 
Bertie.  William  Hammet  was  stationed  in  St.  Kitts  by 
Coke,  and  followed  by  Thomas  Owens  and  others.  A 
schism,  led  by  an  Anabaptist  local  preacher  and  a  former 
missionary,  divided  the  church  in  1806,  but  a  revival 
took  place  about  1815.  The  church  contained  at  this  time 
an  unusually  high  proportion  of  white  members.  Relations 
with  Anglicans  in  the  1820's  were  tense,  but  the  Methodist 
community  was  by  far  the  largest  denomination  on  the 
island.  Education  made  slow  progress,  and  support  by 
missionaries  from  Britain  diminished.  A  second  revival 
took  place  in  1870,  after  a  long  period  of  decline,  but 
lives  and  property  were  lost  from  time  to  time  through 
fire  (1867),  hurricane  (1871)  and  flood  (1880).  The 
first  Kittitian  minister,  Alban  E.  Belboda,  began  work  in 
1913.  During  the  period  of  the  West  Indian  Conference 
(1884-1904),  the  St.  Kitts  District  became  distinct  from 
the  Antigua  District.  From  1904,  when  the  Leeward 
Islands  District  was  created,  to  1950,  the  chairman  of  the 
district  resided  in  St.  Kitts. 

Coke's  first  visit  to  Nevis  in  1787  was  unsuccessful, 
but  the  island  was  visited  soon  after  by  William  Hammet, 
and  Thomas  Owens  was  stationed  there  after  Coke's 
second  visit  in  1789.  On  this  occasion.  Coke  held  in  Nevis 
a  conference  of  West  Indian  staff.  A  chapel  was  built  in 
Charlestown,  the  main  town,  in  1790,  with  the  support 
of  prominent  planters  such  as  the  cousins  Richard  and 
Walter  Nisbett  and  William  Brazier.  By  the  time  of  Coke's 
third  visit,  in  1793,  the  church  had  400  members  in 
Charlestown  alone.  In  1797,  controversy  on  moral  issues 
between  the  minister  and  some  planters  led  to  an  attempt 
to  burn  down  the  church,  and  there  were  further  attacks 
on  the  church  in  1816.  Local  leadership  was  difficult  to 
maintain,  and  membership  ebbed  and  flowed  in  Nevis  as 
elsewhere.  Wesleyan  Methodist  discipline  aroused  some 
opposition.  The  abolition  of  slavery  caused  less  disturb- 
ance in  Nevis  than  in  St.  Kitts,  and  churches  were 
crowded  by  the  mid-1830's.  A  further  period  of  decline 
in  mid-century  was  followed  in  1861  by  a  revival  of  the 
Obeah  cult.  Lender  a  succession  of  capable  ministers,  the 
Church  was  steadily  built  up  until  the  period  of  the 
autonomous  West  Indian  Conference  (1884-1904).  It  was 
from  Nevis  that  William  Claxton  and  William  Powell 
emigrated  to  Guyana  in  1802,  to  establish  Methodism 
there. 

Metliodism  was  brought  to  Anguilla  by  one  of  its  own 
citizens,  John  Hodge,  who  returned  home  in  1813,  to  find 
no  minister  of  any  denomination  on  the  island.  Two  years 
later,  a  missionary  from  St.  Barts  (St.  Bartholomew) 
visited  Anguilla,  to  find  that  Hodge  had  gathered  around 
him  a  Methodist  community  of  250  members.  The  deputy 
governor  of  the  island  paid  public  tribute  to  his  work  in 
1817,  and  he  was  ordained  in  1822.  During  the  years  of 
economic  depression,  most  Methodists  remained  faithful 
to  the  church,  and  the  island  has  made  a  disproportion- 
ately large  contribution  to  the  ministry  and  deaconess 
order. 

Before  Coke's  first  visit  to  the  Dutch  Island  of  Sf. 
Eustatius  (Statia)  in  1787,  a  class  of  twenty  Methodist 
members  had  been  gathered  by  a  Negro  slave,  converted 
in  North  America,  and  known  as  "Black  Harry."  At  first 
he  was  allowed  to  preach  freely,  and  the  Dutch  governor 
went  to  hear  him,  but  later  his  influence  over  his  fellow- 
slaves  aroused  the  apprehension  of  the  white  planters, 
and  public  preaching  was  forbidden.  Coke  preached 
privately  to  the  authorities,  and  organised  six  classes  dur- 


ing a  two  weeks'  visit.  On  his  return  at  the  end  of  1788, 
Coke  found  that  Black  Harry  had  been  banished,  and  an 
edict  prohibiting  public  prayer  was  in  force.  Nevertheless, 
Coke  baptised  140  people.  WiUiam  Brazier  of  St.  Kitts 
was  sent  to  lead  the  Methodist  community,  but  he  was 
soon  driven  from  the  island.  Within  a  year  Coke  returned, 
to  receive  a  personal  rebuff  from  a  new  Dutch  governor, 
though  Methodists  were  allowed  to  meet  privately.  No 
minister  w;is  appointed  to  the  island  until  Myles  Coupland 
Dixon  arrived  in  1811,  but  under  his  successor,  Jonathan 
Raynar,  (1815-1818),  St.  Eustatius  became  a  separate 
circuit,  and  relations  with  the  Dutch  authorities  greatly 
improved.  The  church  was  destroyed  by  earthquake  in 
1842,  but  the  church's  work  was  helped  by  government 
grants. 

St.  Martin  is  an  island  of  thirty-nine  square  miles, 
divided  between  Dutch  and  French  administration.  John 
Hodge  of  Anguilla  visited  both  parts  of  the  island  in 
1847.  He  was  driven  from  the  French  sector  after  one 
successful  meeting,  but  found  a  more  friendly  reception 
in  the  Dutch  colony.  At  first,  the  island  was  visited  by  the 
missionary  stationed  in  St.  Bartholomew,  but  in  1819  a 
new  circuit  of  St.  Martin's  and  AnguiUa  was  constituted. 
The  attitude  of  the  French  authorities  changed,  and  they 
gave  an  annual  grant  to  the  mission.  Emancipation  of  the 
slaves  came  in  1849  to  the  French  part  of  the  island,  and 
in  1863  to  the  Dutch  part,  as  to  St.  Eustatius  and  other 
Dutch  possessions.  The  French  government  later  pressed 
for  the  appointment  of  French-speaking  ministers,  and 
few  local  preachers  were  to  be  found,  so  that  although 
the  church  enjoyed  a  good  reputation,  its  pulpits  were 
sometimes  unfilled. 

When  Coke  visited  Tortola,  the  largest  of  the  British 
Virgin  Islands,  with  William  Hammet  in  1789,  he  found 
no  church  there,  though  he  was  well  received  by  the 
authorities,  and  the  Moravians  had  been  at  work  in  the 
neighboring  island  of  St.  Thomas  for  over  fifty  years.  The 
church  grew  rapidly,  until  in  1796,  it  included  among 
its  members  almost  half  the  slave  population.  The  Wesley- 
an missionary  John  Brownell  was  assaulted  in  1806  by  one 
of  a  group  of  white  men  whose  conduct  Brownell  had 
attacked  in  print,  and  in  1814,  a  schismatic  movement 
was  led  by  an  ex-missionary  named  Stewart.  Nevertheless, 
there  was  no  official  opposition  to  the  church.  In  the  early 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  islands  had  been 
served  by  a  staff  of  three  ministers,  but  by  1884  these 
had  been  reduced  to  one.  Nevertheless,  by  the  beginning 
of  the  twentieth  century,  the  Methodist  community  in- 
cluded more  than  eighty  percent  of  the  inhabitants.  The 
proportion  has  since  declined,  but  a  majority  of  the  people 
are  still  Methodists.  Methodism  has  played  a  prominent 
role  in  education,  and  women's  and  youth  organizations 
are  active. 

Methodism  was  a  relatively  late  arrival  to  the  United 
States  Virgin  Islands.  St.  Thomas,  then  a  Danish  posses- 
sion, became  a  center  of  Moravian  work  in  1732,  and, 
with  St.  Croix,  was  brought  within  the  Anglican  diocese 
of  Antigua  in  1848,  but  it  was  not  until  1891,  during  the 
period  of  the  autonomous  West  Indian  Conference,  that 
the  first  Methodist  minister,  J.  B.  Foster,  was  stationed 
there.  Work  is  expanding  in  St.  Thomas  and  in  St.  Croix, 
and  a  Methodist  minister  was  stationed  in  St.  Croix  for 
the  first  time  in  1967. 

A  Methodist  society  with  a  dozen  members  existed  in 
Montserrat  as  early  as  1793,  and  Coke  already  planned  to 
establish  a  circuit  there,  but  it  was  not  until   1820  that 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LEIFFER,    MURRAY   HOWARD 


the  first  missionary,  John  Maddock,  arrived.  He  died 
within  a  year,  and  although  he  was  immediately  replaced, 
the  growth  of  the  church  was  steady  rather  than  spectac- 
ular. Many  of  the  settlers  were  Irish  Roman  Catholics, 
and  among  the  indigenous  inhabitants,  there  were  periodic 
revivals  of  the  Obeah  cult.  There  has  been  close  coopera- 
tion with  government,  particularly  in  educational  work. 
Dominica  was  visited  by  Coke  in  1787  and  1788.  The 
small  Methodist  community,  led  by  a  Mrs.  Webley,  re- 
ceived its  first  minister,  an  Irishman  named  William  Mc- 
Cornock,  in  1788.  Within  six  months,  he  had  died.  The 
early  history  of  Dominican  Methodism,  until  1817,  is 
marked  by  a  high  rate  of  mortality  and  sickness  among 
missionaries,  and  consequently  by  periods  during  which 
the  station  was  left  vacant.  Controversy  about  church 
property  in  1810  severely  reduced  the  membership,  but 
by  1833  it  had  risen  to  almost  1,000.  Roman  Catholicism 
was  well  established  in  Dominica  before  the  beginning 
of  Methodist  work,  and  its  influence  has  continued  to 
predominate.  (See  also  West  Indies.) 

Kindling  of  the  Flame,  British  Guiana  District,  1960. 

C.  E.  LawTence,  The  Wesley  of  tlie  West  Indies,  Montserrat, 

1938.  Paul    Ellincwobth 


in  the  state  senate,  built  a  magnificent  mansion  near  the 
town  later  named  for  him — Creenwood,  in  Leflore  County. 
The  Civil  War  brought  him  great  financial  loss  as  he 
remained  loyal  to  the  Union  until  his  death  on  Aug.  31, 
1865.  Other  members  of  the  Leflore  family  moved  to  In- 
dian territory.  A  half-brother,  Forbis  Leflore,  served  as 
an  assistant  Methodist  preacher  and  interpreter  for  preach- 
ers. For  a  time  there  was  a  Methodist  appointment  called 
Leflore,  and  a  county  in  Oklahoma  named  for  the  family. 

Babcock  and  Bryce,  Oklahoma.  1937. 

Angie  Debo,  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Choctaw  Republic.  Norman: 

University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  1934,  1961. 

Dictionartj  of  American  Biography,  Dumas  Malone,  ed.  Vol.  XI, 

pp.    143-44.   Charles   Scribner's   Sons.    1933. 

Publications  of  the  Mississippi  Historical  Society,  Vol.  VII,  pp. 

141-51.  Walter  N.  Vernon 

LEGAL  HUNDRED.  The  name  used  in  the  Wesleyan  Metli- 
odist  Church  for  the  select  hundred  preachers  and  their 
successors  to  whom  Wesley  assigned  the  legal  conduct 
of  Conference  business  bv  his  Deed  of  Declar.\tion, 
1784. 

Frank  Baker 


LEFFINGWELL,  CLARA  (1862-1905).  American  Free 
Methodist  missionary',  was  born  at  Napoli,  N.  Y.,  Dec. 
2,  1862.  In  1886  she  was  licensed  to  preach,  and  sers'ed 
churches  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  In  1896  she 
went  to  China  under  the  China  Inland  Mission.  She  was 
there  during  the  Boxer  riots.  Her  concern  was  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  Chinese  and  in  having  her  own  denomi- 
nation share  in  it.  After  a  term  she  returned  home  to 
crusade  for  the  establishment  of  Free  Methodist  missions 
in  China.  The  General  Conference  and  Missionary  Board 
were  persuaded.  She  was  appointed  superintendent  for 
China  with  the  authority  to  raise  the  needed  funds,  and 
secure  recruits  for  the  field.  In  less  than  two  years  she 
had  done  both — breaking  her  health  through  overwork. 
However,  she  went  to  the  field  with  several  new  mis- 
sionaries. Within  a  few  weeks,  she  had  located  a  field 
for  the  Free  Methodists  in  Honan  Province.  Stations  were 
opened  at  Chengchow  and  Kaifeng.  She  lived  only  a  few 
months  afterward  and  died  in  China,  July  16,  1905. 

B.  S.  Lamson,  Venture!  1960. 

Sellevv,   Clara   Leffingwell,   A   Missionary.    N.d. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

LEFLORE,  GREENWOOD  (1800-1865),  American  Indian 
chief  and  strong  supporter  of  Methodist  mission  work 
among  Indians,  was  bom  on  June  3,  1800  near  what  is 
now  Jackson,  iMiss.  He  was  the  son  of  a  French-Canadian 
trader  and  merchant,  and  of  a  French-Indian  mother. 
When  twelve  years  old  he  went  to  Nashville,  Tenn., 
where  he  was  educated,  living  in  the  home  of  Major 
John  Donly  whose  daughter,  Rosa,  he  married.  Returning 
to  Mississippi  he  became  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Choc- 
taws  and  was  soon  verj'  influential  among  them.  He 
opened  his  home  as  headquarters  for  Alexander  Talley 
in  his  preaching  tours,  and  also  served  as  inteipreter.  He 
was  one  of  the  chief  leaders  in  the  signing  of  the  treat)' 
of  Dancing  Rabbit  Creek,  which  caused  much  bitterness 
among  the  Choctaws  who  opposed  leaving  their  old  home 
for  the  lands  of  Oklahoma.  Leflore  decided  to  stay  in 
Mississippi  rather  than  to  migrate  west,  and  became  a 
prosperous  land  and  slave  owner.  He  served  four  years 


LEGION  OF  SERVICE  was  a  Youth  movement  started  by 
the  United  Methodist  Church  in  Britain  in  1922,  and 
intended  as  an  advance  on  both  the  Christian  Endeav- 
our and  the  Scouting  movement.  Some  idea  of  its  mood 
may  be  gathered  from  the  Aspiration  of  its  highest  grade 
of  membership,  the  Cuides: 

As  the  shepherd  counted  the  flock 

And  tlirough  the  night  sought  high  and  low 

The  missing  sheep,  so  let  me  seek 

The  lost  until  I  find; 

Nor  the  lost  man  alone, 

But  Heaven's  ideal  of  all  he  may  become, 

The  mother-tliought  of  God  for  every  life, 

Gi\ing  myself  with  joy  to  win  his  best. 

Believing  still,  though  failures  oft  recur. 

Drinking  the  cup  Christ  drank, 

'For  their  sakes,'  saving  with  Him, 

'I  sanctify  myself.' 

A  Fellowship  of  Service  was  also  created,  to  sene  the 
leaders  of  the  Legion,  and  those  who  did  other  types  of 
Youth  work.  At  the  time  of  Methodist  Union,  the  Legion 
of  Service  reported  twenty-two  Senior  branches  with  687 
members,  and  fourteen  Junior  branches  with  363  mem- 
bers. The  United  Methodist  Church  had  about  139.000 
members  at  the  time. 

John  Kent 

LEIFFER,    MURRAY    HOWARD    (1902-  ),    American 

clergyman,  educator.  Judicial  Council  member,  was  bom 
at  Albany,  N.  Y.  He  was  educated  at  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York  and  the  University  of  Southern  Cali- 
fomia,  receiving  also  the  B.D.  degree  from  Garrett 
Theological  Seminary,  M.A.  from  the  University  of 
Chicago  and  Ph.D.  from  Nortitwestern  University.  He 
was  ordained  and  joined  the  Southern  Californla.- 
Arizona  Conference,  1927.  but  has  since  served  as  an 
educator. 

As  a  teacher  he  has  been  instructor  in  sociology  at 
Chicago  Training  School,  1929-32;  associate  professor  of 
sociology  and  social  ethics  at  Garrett,  1929-32;  associate 


LEIGH,   SAMUEL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


professor,  1932-35;  and  professor  since  1936.  He  orga- 
nized and  directed  the  Bureau  of  Social  and  Religious 
Research,  making  surveys  that  were  of  great  value  to 
church  bodies,  general  and  local.  Among  these  was  a  study 
of  the  Methodist  episcopacy,  carried  on  with  the  aid  of  the 
Council  of  Bishops. 

His  membership  on  church  board  and  committees  has 
included  the  Board  of  Temperance,  the  Board  of  Chris- 
tian Social  Concerns,  and  the  General  Conference  Com- 
mittee on  correlation  and  editorial  revision,  which  last 
helped  in  editing  the  Discipline  (TMC)  in  1952,  56,  60 
and  64.  He  was  elected  to  the  Judicial  Council  of  the 
church  in  1964  and  in  1968  became  its  president. 

Dr.  Leiffer  has  written:  Manual  for  the  Study  of  the 
City  Church,  City  and  Church  i7i  Transition  and  The 
Effective  City  Church.  He  edited  The  Urban  Fact  Book 
and  Crowded  Ways.  Two  of  his  books  centered  about 
laymen — The  Layman  Looks  at  the  Minister  and  In  That 
Case.  His  involvement  with  the  ministry  and  training  min- 
isters spurred  his  authorship  of  The  Methodist  Ministry; 
Retirement  and  Recruitment  in  the  Methodist  Ministry, 
The  Role  of  the  District  Superintendent;  and  The  Epis- 
copacy in  the  Present  Day.  After  and  while  teaching  at 
Singapore  and  Manila  in  1961  and  1965  he  wrote  The 
Methodist  Church  in  Singapore,  and  Methodist  and  Other 
Protestant  Churches  in  Manila. 

He  is  a  member  of  a  number  of  learned  and  profes- 
sional societies. 

In  1924  he  married  Dorothy  Corinne  Linn  and  they 
had  one  son,  Donald  John,  a  teacher  of  sociology. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.     T.  Otto  Nall 


Samuel  Leigh 

LEIGH,  SAMUEL  (1785-1852),  first  Australian  Methodist 
minister,  was  bom  on  Sept.  1,  1785,  at  Milton,  Stafford- 
shire, England.  Associated  with  the  Independent  Church 
at  Hanley,  he  enrolled  in  a  Theological  School  conducted 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bogue,  a  strict  Calvinist.  Leigh  favored 
Arminiani.sm  and  quietly  withdrew.  He  then  joined  the 
Wesleyan  Society  at  Portsmouth,  England  and  assisted 
Joseph  Sutcliffe.  Appointed  to  the  Shaftesbury  Circuit, 
he  interested  himself  for  two  years  in  Christian  Education. 
He  was  deeply  influenced  by  an  interview  he  had  with 
Thomas  Coke,  who  was  then  setting  out  for  missionary 
fields  in  CE'ixON. 


On  Oct.  3,  1814,  he  was  ordained  and  his  authority 
"to  feed  the  flock  of  Christ  and  to  administer  the  holy 
sacraments"  was  signed  by  Adam  Clarke,  Samuel 
Bradburn,  Thomas  Vasey  and  John  Gaultier. 

Leigh  left  Portsmouth  on  Feb.  28,  1815,  enroute  to 
New  South  Wales,  Australia.  He  arrived  in  Sydney  in 
the  "Hebe"  on  August  10,  and  the  following  day  presented 
his  credentials  to  Governor  Macquarie  who,  suspicious  of 
"sectaries,"  gave  Leigh  the  opportunity  to  become  a 
servant  of  the  Government.  To  the  credit  of  Macquarie, 
Leigh's  sincerity  and  forthrightness  won  his  admiration 
and  practical  support. 

Leigh  held  services  in  the  Rocks  area,  Sydney,  and 
pioneered  work  at  Castlereagh,  Parramatta,  Windsor, 
Lower  Portland  and  Liverpool.  By  1819  he  had  estab- 
lished the  first  Methodist  circuit  with  fourteen  preaching 
places.  This  involved  riding  horseback  over  150  miles  each 
week.  He  visited  and  preached  in  Newcastle  on  several 
occasions.  He  befriended  and  was  supported  by  Samuel 
Marsden,  who  held  the  position  of  Senior  Chaplain  (C 
of  E),  and  became  an  active  member  in  the  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  and  Benevolence. 

Leigh  helped  establish  the  Colonial  Auxiliary  Bible 
Society  in  1817.  On  Marsden's  suggestion  and  with  his 
support,  he  was  able  to  visit  New  Zealand.  He  returned 
for  health  reasons  to  England  in  1820  and  married 
Catherine  Clewes. 

In  1821  he  established  a  mission  in  Hobart,  leaving 
William  Horton  in  charge.  In  February  1822,  he  founded 
the  first  Wesleyan  mission  at  Whangaroa.  Returning  to 
New  South  Wales  he  became  acting  superintendent  of 
Sydney  Circuit  and  later  was  stationed  at  Parramatta.  It 
was  there  his  wife  died  on  May  15,  1831,  and  was  buried 
in  St.  John's  cemetery.  Because  of  indifferent  health  he 
again  returned  to  England.  He  died  May  2,  1852. 

He  has  an  honored  place  in  Australasian  history  and 
his  work  is  perpetuated  in  New  South  Wales  by  the 
Leigh  Theological  College,  Enfield,  and  the  Leigh  Me- 
morial Centenary  Church,  Parramatta. 

Australian  Dictionary  of  Biography.  Vol.  II,  1967. 

J.  Colwell,  Illustrated  History.  1904. 

C.  H.  Laws,  Toil  and  Adversity  at  Whangaroa.  New  Zealand, 

Wesley  Historical  Society,  1945. 

Rita   F.  Snowden,   The  Ladies  of   Wesley  dale.   London:    Ep- 

worth  Press,  1957. 

Alexander  Strachan,  Remarkable  Incidents  in  the  Life  of  the 

Rev.  Samuel  Leigh.  London:  James  NichoUs,  1855. 

Stanley  G.  Clauchton 

LELIEVRE,  MATTHIEU  (1840-1930),  French  pastor  and 
historian,  was  the  son  of  Jean  Lelievie  (1793-1861),  who 
was  bom  in  Normandy  of  Roman  Catholic  parents.  On 
his  return  from  fighting  in  Napoleon's  armies,  Jean 
Lelievre  was  converted  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight  and 
became  a  Methodist  minister.  Three  of  his  sons  entered 
the  Methodist  ministry.  Matthieu,  born  circa  1840,  though 
he  entered  the  ministry  quite  young,  quickly  became  one 
of  the  leading  men.  Succeeding  one  of  Charles  Cook's 
sons,  he  became  secretary  of  the  French  Sunday  School 
Union.  He  started  a  teacher's  paper,  which  was  an  im- 
mediate success,  and  continues  to  this  day. 

He  was  known,  not  only  as  a  preacher,  but  also  as  an 
author.  He  wrote  lives  of  several  of  the  early  French 
Methodist  ministers,  of  John  Hunt  of  Fiji  fame  and  of 
William  Taylor  of  California.  His  volume  on  the  pioneer 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LEONARD,   ADNA   WRIGHT 


preachers  of  the  West  in  the  United  States  does  them 
justice.  His  Hfe  of  John  Wesley  ran  through  five  editions, 
carefully  revised  and  improved.  It  was  translated  into  five 
languages:  English,  German,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Tamil. 
He  also  edited,  with  D.  Benoit,  Crespin's  Livre  des 
Martyrs,  the  French  equivalent  of  Foxe's  Book  of  Martyrs, 
his  share  being  two  large  quarto  volumes.  Several  volumes 
on  French  Huguenot  history  show  the  breadth  of  his  in- 
terests. His  last  book  was  on  Wesley's  theology,  written 
only  a  couple  of  years  before  he  died,  well  over  eighty 
years  old,  a  labor  of  love. 

With  others  he  started  a  Home  Missionary  Society, 
after  the  1870  war  with  Prussia,  in  order  to  revive  the 
churches  of  all  denominations. 

For  years,  he  was  editor  of  the  French  Methodist 
paper,  I'Evangeliste.  Though  Methodism  was  a  small 
minority  compared  to  the  Reformed  and  Lutheran 
Churches,  Lelievre  made  this  journal  one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential religious  papers. 

He  was  several  times  President  of  the  French  Confer- 
ence and  was  awarded  the  D.D.  {honoris  causa)  by  the 
University  of  Ohio. 

Theophile  Rou.\,  Matthieu  Lelievre.  1932.     H.  E.  Whelpton 

LENHART,  JOHN  L.  (1805-1862),  American  clergyman 
and  Navy  chaplain,  was  born  Oct.  29,  1805,  to  a  well- 
known  Pennsylvania  family.  In  1830  he  entered  the 
Philadelphia  Conference,  though  his  membership  sub- 
sequently was  in  the  New  Jersey  and  Newark  Confer- 
ences. Illness  came  while  at  Cross  Street,  Paterson,  N.  J. 
His  physician  recommended  a  seashore  appointment, 
whereupon  he  became  a  chaplain  in  the  U.  S.  Navy.  Re- 
taining membership  in  the  Newark  Conference  when  it 
was  set  off  from  the  New  Jersey  Conference,  he  was  the 
first  chairman  of  the  conference  board  of  stewards. 

The  Civil  War  found  Lenhart  serving  aboard  the 
Cumberland.  Eligible  for  retirement,  he  chose  to  sewe 
further.  He  was  the  first  Navy  Chaplain  to  die  as  the 
result  of  enemy  action,  when  the  Cumberland  was  rammed 
and  sunk  by  the  Confederate  ship  Virginia  (formerly  the 
Merrimack)  at  Hampton  Roads,  Va.,  March  8,  1862. 
"When  it  was  seen  that  the  Cumberland  must  go  down 
all  the  officers  in  charge  of  the  wounded  were  ordered  on 
deck  and  to  bring  with  them  such  of  the  wounded  as 
there  might  be  some  hope  of  saving,  which  order  was 
obeyed  by  the  surgeons  and  others.  The  Chaplain,  instead 
of  coming  on  deck,  went  into  his  room  and  shut  the  door 
when  in  a  few  minutes  he  met  his  fate,  the  ship  going 
speedily  down."  It  was  thought  the  door  swung  shut  after 
the  chaplain  entered  the  room  and  that  he  was  unable  to 
open  it  due  to  damage  to  the  vessel.  Writing  to  a  friend 
before  the  fatal  attack  he  said:  "It  is  just  as  near  my 
heavenly  home  from  the  Cumberland  as  from  any  other 
place." 

V.  B.  Hampton,  Newark  Conference.  1957. 
History  of  the  Chaplain  Corps,  U.  S.  Navy. 
Minutes  of  the  Newark  Conference,  1862. 

Edgar  R.  Rohrbach 

LEONARD,  ADNA  BRADWAY  (1837-1916),  American 
pastor,  presiding  elder,  missionary  secretary,  was  born  at 
Berhn,  Ohio,  on  Aug.  2,  1837,  the  son  of  John  and  Nancy 
(Davis)  Leonard.  Educated  at  Union  College  in  Alliance, 
Ohio    (A.M.,    1881;    Hon.D.D.,   LL.D.),   he   entered   the 


Pittsburgh  M.  E.  Conference  in  March,  1860.  From 
then  until  1886  he  served  churches  in  Ohio  and  the 
Leavenworth  District  in  the  Kansas  Conference.  He 
was  elected  corresponding  secretary  of  the  Missionary 
Society  and  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  in  1888,  serving 
as  such  until  1912. 

Leonard's  pastorates  were  characterized  by  revivals. 
During  his  three  years  at  Central,  Springfield,  Ohio,  the 
membership  rose  from  590  to  805.  As  presiding  elder  in 
Kansas  at  the  first  and  fourth  rounds  he  would  preach 
and  hold  Quarterly  Conference  on  Saturday,  then  preach 
twice  on  Sunday,  administer  Communion,  and  hold  a  love 
feast.  On  the  second  and  third  rounds  he  would  preach 
and  hold  Quarterly  Conference.  As  far  as  was  possible, 
he  aided  pastors  in  revivals  during  the  fall  and  winter. 
In  1885  Adna  Leonard  was  a  candidate  for  Governor  of 
Ohio  on  the  Prohibition  ticket.  He  was  elected  a  delegate 
to  the  General  Conference  eight  times,  and  was  sent 
to  three  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conferences,  1891, 
1901,  and  1911. 

On  Feb.  19,  1861,  he  married  Caroline  Amelia  Kaiser 
and  they  had  seven  children,  one  son,  Adna  Wright 
Leonard,  in  time  becoming  a  bishop. 

A.  B.  Leonard  was  elected  corresponding  secretary  of 
the  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church  and  sei-ved 
longer  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  or  from  1888  to  1912. 
He  visited  twenty-five  foreign  countries  one  or  more  times 
on  five  missionary  tours,  1893,  1901.  1904,  1906.  and 
1907.  On  the  1907  trip,  lasting  eight  months  and  eighteen 
days,  he  preached  forty  times  and  transacted  the  business 
of  the  Missionary  Society.  Financial  expenditure  for  for- 
eign missions  in  1888  amounted  to  $244,000.  By  1912  it 
increased  to  $822,000,  having  reached  its  highest  peak 
in  1906,  which  was  $831,000.  The  1912  General  Confer- 
ence unanimously  adopted  a  resolution  stating  that 
Leonard  had  set  an  example  of  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
missions  and  that  he  be  made  Secretary-emeritus  for  life, 
empowering  the  Board  to  make  him  a  grant  annualh'  as 
it  should  judge  advisable.  After  writing  his  autobiography. 
The  Stone  of  Help,  in  1915,  he  died  April  22,  1916. 

A  strong  figure  in  the  Church,  Dr.  A.  B.  Leonard  was 
an  outstanding  preacher  and  great  Missionary  Secretary. 

A.    B.   Leonard,   The   Stone  of   Help,   Autobiography.   Cincin- 
nati, Ohio  and  N.  Y. :  Methodist  Book  Concern,  1915. 
C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Jesse  A.  Eaul 

LEONARD,  ADNA  WRIGHT  (1874-1943),  American  bish- 
op, was  bom  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  on  Nov.  2,  1874.  He 
was  educated  at  New  York  Univ.-rsity,  Drew  Theolog- 
ical Seminary,  and  The  American  School  of  Archeology, 
Rome,  Italy.  He  was  received  on  trial  in  the  Cincinnati 
Conference  in  1899  and  ordained  deacon  the  same  year. 
He  was  united  in  marriage  to  Marv  Luella  Dav,  Oct.  9, 
1901. 

Churches  served  by  A.  W.  Leonard  include  Green 
Village,  New  Jersey;  First  Church,  San  Juan,  Puerto  Rico; 
American  Methodist  Church,  Rome,  Italy.  He  returned  to 
America  in  1903  and  afterwards  ser\'ed  Grace  Church, 
Piqua,  Ohio;  Central  Church,  Springfield;  Walnut  Hills 
Church,  Cincinnati;  and  First  Church,  Seattle.  He  was 
elected  bishop  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1916.  As  bishop 
he  served  the  following  areas:  San  Francisco,  1916-1924; 
Buffalo,  1924-1932;  Pittsburgh,  1932-1940;  and  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  1940-1943. 

The  following  colleges  and  universities  conferred  honor- 


LESLIE,    DAVID 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Adna  W.   Leonard 

ary  degrees  upon  him:  Ohio  Northern  University, 
College  of  Puget  Sound,  University  of  Southern  California, 
Syracuse  University,  Allegheny  College,  West  Vib- 
GixiA  Wesleyan  College,  The  American  University, 
and  Western  Maryland  College. 

Bishop  Leonard  died  in  an  aiiplane  accident  over  Ice- 
land in  1943,  while  on  an  inspection  tour  of  the  American 
forces  in  Europe  and  Africa,  at  the  request  of  President 
Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  and  in  the  interest  of  the  Commis- 
sion on  Chaplains  of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches 
of  Christ  in  America.  He  was  buried  in  Iceland.  His  chil- 
dren were  Adna  Wright  Leonard,  Jr.,  and  Mrs.  Henrv  G. 
Budd,  Jr. 

Bishop  Leonard  was  an  impressive  soldierly  looking 
man  of  great  force  of  character.  He  was  a  stickler  for 
parliamentary  order  and  saw  that  his  conferences  followed 
out  exactly  the  procedures  outlined  in  the  Discipline,  and 
drove  ahead  with  the  programs  of  the  church.  His  tragic 
death  in  the  line  of  duty  for  both  his  church  and  nation 
was  deeply  felt  by  his  brethren. 

Journals  of  Puget  Sound  Conference,   1910-16;  Pacific  North- 
west Conference,  1943. 
C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.   1916. 

Erle  Howell 

LESLIE,  DAVID  (I797-I869),  an  American  missionary,  cir- 
cuit rider,  and  leader  in  Christian  education  in  the  Pacific 
Northwest. 

A  member  of  the  New  England  Conference,  he 
volunteered  for  service  in  the  Oregon  mission  to  the  In- 
dians in  1836.  He  and  his  family  reached  Oregon  in 
September  1837,  completing  an  eight-month  voyage  from 
Boston  around  the  Horn.  For  two  years,  when  the  super- 
intendent, Jason  Lee,  was  seeking  reinforcements  from  the 
east  coast,  Leslie  was  acting-superintendent. 

Before  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  settled  the 
Oregon  boundary  in  1846,  there  was  no  legal  government 
in  Oregon  established  by  a  sovereign  state.  In  1838  the 
settlers  near  the  mission  appointed  Leslie  a  justice  of  the 


peace.  In  this  capacity  he  conducted  the  first  trial  by  jury 
held  in  Oregon,  a  trial  in  which  one  of  the  settlers  was 
acquitted  from  the  charge  of  murder.  He  prepared  a 
memorial  for  the  American  settlers,  petitioning  the  U.S. 
Congress  to  extend  protection  to  the  settlers  in  Oregon. 
He  joined  with  the  settlers  to  establish  a  temporary  gov- 
ernment, which  served  the  pioneers  as  their  only  govern- 
ment until  the  U.S.  established  the  territorial  government 
of  Oregon  in  1848. 

After  the  close  of  the  Indian  mission  in  1846,  Leslie 
remained  in  Oregon  to  work  among  the  white  settlers. 
Never  a  man  of  robust  physical  strength,  the  work  of  the 
circuit  rider  left  him  broken  in  health  and,  at  the  early 
age  of  fifty-two,  he  took  the  supernumerary  relation.  But 
his  labors  for  the  church  never  ceased  until  death  closed 
his  work  in  March  1869. 

Living  on  his  land  claim  near  Salem,  he  served  the 
church  in  many  ways,  but  the  service  which  gave  him  a 
large  place  in  the  history  of  Methodism  in  Oregon  was  his 
long  service  to  Willamette  University,  the  Methodist 
school  which  is  the  oldest  university  in  the  Pacific  North- 
west. He  was  a  member  of  the  original  board  of  trustees 
in  1842  (known  as  Oregon  Institute  until  its  charter  in 
1853),  and  continued  a  member  until  his  death  in  1869. 
He  was  president  of  the  board,  succeeding  Jason  Lee, 
until  his  death,  a  period  of  twenty-five  years.  It  was  a 
period  when  the  work  to  maintain  the  struggling  pioneer 
university  required  his  full  devoted  efforts,  best  described 
as  a  full-time,  but  non-salaried  position.  The  Oregon  Con- 
ference committee  on  education  said  in  its  report  the 
year  of  Leslie's  death,  concerning  Willamette  University 
and  Leslie's  relation  to  it,  "much  of  the  honor  of  its  place 
in  the  history  of  the  church  in  Oregon  will  arise  from  the 
part  he  bore  in  laying  its  foundations,  and  carrying  it 
through  its  earliest  struggles  and  difficulties." 

R.  M.  Gatke,  Willamette  University.  1943. 

Robert  Moulton  Gatke 

LESLIE,  ELMER  ARCHIBALD  (1888-1965),  American  cler- 
gyman and  educator,  was  born  in  Tolono,  111.,  April  8, 
1888,  the  son  of  Robert  and  Mary  (Campbell)  Leslie.  He 
received  the  A.B.  degree  from  the  University  of  Illinois  in 
1910;  the  S.T.B.  degree  in  1913  and  the  Ph.D.  degree  in 
1916  from  Boston  University.  He  also  studied  at  Leipzig, 
Glasgow,  Halle,  Berlin,  O.xford  and  Jerusalem. 

Admitted  on  trial  to  the  Maine  Conference  in  1911, 
he  was  ordained  a  deacon  in  1912,  joined  the  New 
England  Conference  in  full  connection  in  1913,  and 
received  his  elder's  orders  in  1915.  He  served  Methodist 
churches  in  Urbana  and  Savoy,  111.;  Kittery,  Me.;  Arhng- 
ton,  Medford,  Cambridge  and  Brookline,  Mass.  He 
founded  and  directed  the  Wesley  Foundation  at  Har- 
vard University  in  Cambridge  from  1918  to  1921.  From 
1921  until  1957  he  was  professor  of  Hebrew  and  Old 
Testament  literature  at  Boston  University.  He  was  widely 
known  as  a  lecturer  and  writer. 

His  numerous  published  works  include  Old  Testament 
Religion  (1936),  The  Psahns  (1949),  Jeremiah  (1954) 
and  Isaiah  (1963).  He  was  a  contributor  to  Abingdon 
Bible  Commentary  and  The  Interpreter's  Bible. 

Beloved  bv  colleagues  and  students  alike,  he  was  not 
only  a  scholar  whose  work  was  marked  by  carefulness 
and  thoughtfulness,  he  was  also  one  who  never  lost  the 
pastoral  touch.  His  deep  faith  and  prayer  life  profoundly 
influenced  his  associates. 


WORLD   METHODISM 

On  June  26,  1913  he  married  Helen  Fay  Noon,  daugh- 
ter of  a  New  England  clergyman,  by  whom  he  had  four 
children:  Jean  Taylor  (Mrs.  A.  Donald  Hackler),  Robert 
Campbell,  James  S.  and  Donald  WOliam  (deceased). 

Elmer  A.  Leslie  died  at  his  winter  retirement  home  in 
Winter  Park,  Fla.,  Feb.  26,  1965. 

Minutes  New  England  .i^nnual  Conference,  1965. 
Nexus,  Alumni  Magazine,  Boston  University  School  of  Theol- 
ogy, May  1965. 
VVlio's  Who  in  Methodism,  1952.  Ernest  R.  Case 

LESSEY,  THEOPHILUS  (1787-1841),  British  Methodist  and 
one  of  the  most  noted  Wesleyan  preachers  of  his  time, 
was  bom  at  Penzance,  Cornwall,  and  was  baptized  by 
John  Wesley  himself.  He  was  educated  at  Kingswood 
School,  entered  the  ministry  in  1808,  and  became  presi- 
dent of  the  Conference  in  1839,  the  first  son  of  a  Method- 
ist minister  to  be  elected  to  that  office.  He  died  in  London 
on  June  10,  1841. 

G.  Smith,  Wesleyan  Methodism.  1857-61. 

G.  West,  Sketches  of  Wesleyan  Preachers.  London,  1849. 

G.  Ernest  Long 

LEVERT,  EUGENE  VERDOT  (1795-1875),  American  minis- 
ter and  colorful  character  who  was  one  of  the  "founders 
of  Methodism  in  Alabama,"  was  born  Oct.  20,  1795,  King 
William  County,  Va.,  the  son  of  Dr.  Claudius  Levert,  who 
was  surgeon  of  Count  Rochambeau's  French  fleet  when  it 
came  to  help  the  Americans  win  their  independence.  Dr. 
Levert  married  about  1785,  Ann  Lea  Metcalfe,  of  one 
of  the  old  families  of  Tidewater,  Va.  Eugene  Levert  came 
to  Alabam.\  first  in  1818,  and  joined  the  Methodist  church 
near  Huntsville  in  1819.  In  1821  he  joined  the  Mississippi 
Conference  which  then  e.xtended  over  the  western  part 
of  Alabama,  and  was  appointed  to  the  Tuscaloosa  Circuit, 
with  Samual  Patton  as  his  senior  minister. 

In  1822  he  was  sent  to  the  Alabama  Circuit  with  Joshua 
Boucher,  but  in  1823  was  located  by  the  Conference 
against  his  desire,  because  he  had  married  on  Jan.  23, 
1823,  Martha  Patton.  (She  subsequently  became  the 
mother  of  fifteen  children.)  The  feeling  in  that  day  against 
young  ministers  marrying  was  \'er\-  strong,  hence  the  un- 
willing location.  However,  in  1825  he  was  readmitted 
and  assigned  to  the  New  River  Circuit,  and  in  1826  to 
the  Cahaba  Valley  Circuit,  but  in  1827  he  was  forced 
to  locate  again,  this  time  voluntarily  due  to  his  own  health. 
In  1828  he  was  readmitted  a  second  time,  and  served  the 
Tuscaloosa  Circuit,  being  one  of  tlie  original  presiding 
elders  at  the  organization  in  1832  of  the  Alabama  Con- 
ference. Thereafter  he  served  several  appointments  in 
his  Conference  including  the  Selma  District  and  the 
Demopolis  District.  He  was  elected  delegate  to  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1840,  and  was  one  of  the  original 
trustees  of  Centenar\'  Institute  at  Summerfield,  in  Dallas 
County,  Ala.  A  zealous  Mason,  he  became  Grand  Master 
of  the  Grand  Council  of  the  Masonic  Lodge  for  Alabama 
in  1866-67.  It  is  said  that  more  children  were  named  for 
Eugene  V.  Levert  than  probably  for  any  minister  in  Ala- 
bama. The  History  of  Methodism  by  West  (page  613), 
gives  some  interesting  facts  in  connection  with  Eugene 
V.  Leveret's  connection  with  the  Tarrant  family. 

Levert  died  April  19,  1875,  and  was  buried  at  Marion, 
Ala. 

Greene  County  Democrat,  Eutaw,  Ala.,  March  3,  1955. 

F.  S.  MOSELEV 


LEWES,    DELAWARE 


Hyungki  J.  Lew 

LEW,  HYUNGKI  J.   (1897-  ),  Korean  bishop  and  au- 

thor, was  born  in  Hich\un,  North  Pyeng-An  Province, 
Korea,  Nov.  17,  1897.  He  attended  a  Methodist  Mission 
school,  graduated  from  .Aoyama  College  in  Tokyo,  Ohio 
Wesleyan  University,  Boston  University  School  of 
Theology,  and  then  received  his  NLA.  from  Hai-vard  in 
1927. 

Returning  to  Korea  that  year  he  began  work  in  reli- 
gious education  for  the  M.  E.  Church  Mission.  In  1932 
he  became  general  secretary  of  the  Department  of  Educa- 
tion of  the  newly  organized  Korean  Methodist  Church. 
During  these  years  he  produced  thirty  volumes,  including 
a  translation  of  the  Abingdon  one-volume  Bible  Commen- 
tary. 

Pressure  of  Japanese  military  authorities  forced  Lew 
and  other  American  trained  personnel  out  of  church  lead- 
ership in  1941,  and  he  endured  severe  persecution  until 
the  end  of  World  War  II.  In  1945,  the  American  Military 
Government  of  Korea  placed  him  in  charge  of  the  largest 
Japanese  printing  plant  in  Korea. 

In  1948  he  was  made  President  of  the  Theological 
Seminary,  where  he  continued  until  1953.  When  Bishop 
Yu-Soon  Kim  was  kidnapped  by  the  Communists  after 
the  in\asion  of  1950,  Lew  was  elected  to  succeed  him. 
His  two  tenns  involved  care  for  thousands  of  refugees  at 
Pusan,  and  rehabilitation  of  some  400  churches  under  the 
Bishop's  Appeal  Fund. 

In  1958,  due  to  constitutional  limit  of  two  tenns,  he 
returned  to  editorial  work.  A  large  Korean  Bible  Diction- 
ary came  off  the  press  in  1960.  A  Korean  Bible  Com- 
mentary in  four  volumes,  averaging  some  1,200  pages 
each,  covering  the  entire  Bible,  was  completed  in  1968. 
Work  has  begun  on  a  biography  of  church  leaders. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church.  1966. 

Charles  A.  Saueh 

LEWES,  DELAWARE,  U.S.A.,  the  site  of  the  first  Methodist 
Society  in  America,  formed  by  George  Whitefield. 
Whitefield  visited  the  place,  then  knowni  as  Lewiston  or 
Lewis  Town,  on  Oct.  30,   1739  and  remained  two  days. 


LEWIS,    EDWIN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


He  was  met  in  the  evening  by  two  or  three  leading  per- 
sons and  on  the  following  day  "preached  at  two  in  the 
afternoon  to  a  serious  and  attentive  congregation."  "Per- 
sons of  different  denominations  were  present,"  he  wrote, 
"and  the  congregation  was  larger  than  might  be  expected 
in  so  small  a  place,  and  at  so  short  a  notice.  After  sermon, 
the  High  Sheriff,  collector,  and  chief  men  of  the  place 
came  and  took  leave  of  me;  and  by  their  means  we  were 
provided  with  horses  and  a  guide  for  our  journey  at  a 
reasonable  expense. ' 

In  April  1741,  William  Becket.  Anglican  rector  at 
Lewes,  wrote:  "It  is  surprising  to  observe  how  the  vulgar 
everywhere  are  inclined  to  enthusiasm.  Mr.  Whitefield 
(the  early  minister  of  Methodism)  had  a  vast  crowd  of 
hearers  in  May  last  when  he  preached  four  or  five  times 
from  a  balcony.  They  continued,  unknown  to  me,  to  set 
up  a  religious  society." 

The  Society  had  seventeen  members  and  survived  only 
three  years.  It  was  revived  in  1779  by  Freeborn  Gar- 
BETTSON.  A  frame  church  building,  known  as  old  Ebene- 
zer,  was  erected  in  1788  and  Bethel  Church  was  built 
about  two  years  later.  In  1970  Bethel  reported  a  member- 
ship of  556. 

C.  Whitefield,  Journals.  1960.  Elmer  T.  Clahk 


LEWIS,  EDWIN  (1881-1959),  American  theologian,  lec- 
turer, author,  and  professor,  was  born  on  April  18,  1881, 
in  Newbury,  England.  He  was  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Sarah 
(Newman)  Lewis.  He  married  Louise  Newhook  Frost 
(deceased  1953)  on  Jan.  5,  1904,  and  their  children  are 
Olin  Lewis,  Velva  (Mrs.  Kenneth  B.  Grady),  and  Faulk- 
ner Lewis  (vice-president  of  the  MacMillan  Company). 
He  married  a  second  time  Josephine  Stults,  who  survives 
him.  When  Edwin  Lewis  was  nineteen  years  of  age,  he 
went  to  Labrador  with  Sir  Wilfred  Grenfell  and  joined 
the  Newfoundland  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  1900-03, 
and  then  went  into  the  North  Dakota  Conference  where 
he  served  from  1904-05.  He  was  educated  at  Sackville 
College,  Canada;  Middlebury  College;  United  Free 
Church  College,  Glasgow;  Drew  Seminary  (B.D.,  1908; 
Th.D.,  1918);  New  York  State  College  for  Teachers  (B.A., 
1915),  and  Dickinson  College  (D.D.,  1926).  He  trans- 
ferred to  the  Troy  Conference  in  1910  and  served  North 
Chatham,  1913-16;  First  Church  at  Rensselaer,  New  York; 
and  then  became  an  instructor  in  Greek  and  Theology  at 
the  Drew  Seminary,  1916-18.  He  became  adjunct  profes- 
sor of  Systematic  Theology  there  in  1918  and  in  1920  be- 
came a  professor,  which  position  he  occupied  until  he 
retired  in  the  early  1950's. 

Lewis  publicly  stated  that  his  theological  attitude 
changed  somewhat  as  he  progressed  in  his  work,  and  he 
challenged  certain  extremely  liberal  teachings  in  his  book, 
A  Christian  Manifesto,  published  in  1934.  He  also  wrote 
]csus  Christ  and  the  Human  Quest,  1924;  A  Manual  of 
Christian  Beliefs,  1927;  Cod  and  Ourselves,  1931;  Great 
Christian  Teachings,  1933;  The  Faith  We  Declare  (the 
Fondren  Lectures  for  1938);  A  Philosophy  of  the  Chris- 
tian Revelation,  1940;  A  New  Heaven  and  a  New  Earth 
(which  were  the  Quillian  Lectures  at  Emory  University, 
1941);  and  The  Creator  and  the  Adversary,  in  which  he 
opposed  the  rather  widely  held  idea  that  there  was  no 
positive  spirit  of  evil  in  the  universe  and  that  the  good- 
ness of  God  was  everything.  "We  have  gone  too  far  toward 
a  benevolent  monism,"  he  told  the  writer  of  these  lines. 
He   was  one   of   the  co-authors   of   the   Abingdon   Bible 


Commentary,  1929,  a  work  which  is  still  held  in  high 
repute. 

Upon  his  retirement  from  Drew,  he  taught  for  a  time 
in  Temple  University  in  Philadelphia,  though  he  con- 
tinued to  maintain  a  home  in  Madison,  N.  J.  He  died  in 
the  winter  of  1959. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 

Journal  of  the  Troy  Conference,   1960.  N.  B.  H. 

LEWIS,  FELIX  L.  (1888-1965),  twenty-third  bishop  of  the 
C.M.E.  Church,  was  born  on  Sept.  4,  1888,  at  Homer, 
La.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1901  and  was  admitted 
to  the  Louisiana  Conference  in  1906.  He  received  a  B.S. 
degree  from  Wiley  College  and  attended  Garrett 
Biblical  Institute.  He  served  churches  in  Tennessee 
and  Louisiana,  and  was  appointed  presiding  elder  for 
fifteen  years.  In  1934,  he  was  elected  general  secretary 
of  the  Kingdom  Extension  Department,  where  he  served 
until  1946  and  his  election  to  the  office  of  bishop.  He 
retired  from  service  in  January  1960,  and  died  in  August 
1965. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965. 

The  Christian  Index,  May   16,   1946.  Ralph  C.  Gay 

LEWIS,  THOMAS  HAMILTON  (1852-1929),  American 
Methodist  Protestant  president  and  church  statesman,  was 
born  in  Dover,  Del.,  on  Dec.  11,  1852.  His  father  died 
in  1853  and  the  family  moved  to  Maryland  where  he 
lived  until  he  moved  to  Washington,  D.C.  in  1920. 

He  entered  Western  Maryland  College  in  1871  and 
was  graduated  in  1875.  Entering  the  Maryland  Confer- 
ence of  the  M.  P.  Church  in  1875,  he  served  two  pastor- 
ates: the  first  at  Cumberland,  Md.,  1875-6;  the  other  at 
St.  John's  Church  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  1876-81. 

On  Dec.  11,  1877,  he  married  Mary  Ward,  daughter  of 
J.  T.  Ward,  president  of  Western  Maryland  College. 

In  1881  he  organized  the  Westminster  Theological 
Seminary  (now  Wesley  Seminary)  and  served  as  its 
first  president  from  1881  to  1885.  He  then  became  presi- 
dent of  Western  Maryland  College,  which  he  served  until 
1920,  a  period  of  thirty-four  years.  In  the  meanwhile  he 
was  elected  president  of  the  General  Conference  of  the 
M.  P.  Church,  serving  one  four-year  term.  In  1920  he  was 
again  elected  president  of  that  body,  serving  eight  years 
as  its  first  full-time  president. 

In  1928  he  was  elected  Contributing  Editor  of  the  com- 
bined denominational  papers.  The  Methodist  Protestant 
and  Tlie  Methodist  Recorder,  continuing  in  that  capacity 
until  his  death  in  1929.  To  the  last  he  was  in  full  posses- 
sion of  his  extraordinary  mental  and  spiritual  gifts.  He 
was  buried  in  the  Westminster  city  cemetery  after  a  ser- 
vice in  the  Baker  Chapel  of  the  College. 

"Such  in  brief  outline  is  the  life  story  of  the  most  re- 
markable man  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  has  pro- 
duced." (1930  Maryland  Conference  Journal,  p.  133).  He 
was  a  superb  preacher,  a  great  orator.  His  presidency  of 
the  College  gave  it  a  firm  educational  and  financial  foun- 
dation. His  three  terms  of  president  of  the  General  Con- 
ference were  conspicuous  in  administrative  grasp  of 
denominational  policies  and  programs,  giving  to  the 
Church  a  sense  of  unity  and  direction  it  greatly  needed. 
Much  of  this  focu.sed  in  the  great  centenary  celebration 
(Methodist  Protestant)  in  Baltimore  in  1928. 

Perhaps   his   greatest   achievement   was   in   relation   to 


WORLD  METHODISM 


LEWIS,   WILSON   SEELEY 


Methodist  unification.  In  1908  he  was  elected  president 
of  the  General  Conference  of  his  church.  The  General 
Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  in  session  in  Baltimore, 
sent  a  delegation,  consisting  of  Bishop  Warren,  John  F. 
GoucHER  and  Senator  J.  P.  Dolliver,  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  M.  P.  Church,  in  Pittsburgh,  with  a  proposal 
to  "renew  organic  fellowship  with  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church."  Their  coming  was  enthusiastically  received 
and  their  message  referred  to  the  committee  on  union. 
This  latter  committee  acted  in  reply:  "That  a  commission 
consisting  of  nine  members  be  appointed  by  this  Confer- 
ence for  the  purpose  of  meeting  with  a  like  commission 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  of  other  Methodist 
Churches  in  this  country  to  promote  as  far  as  possible  the 
reunification  of  Methodists  in  America." 

A  deputation  of  three — T.  H.  Lewis,  A.  L.  Reynolds, 
J.  W.  Hering — was  sent  to  Baltimore.  It  was  here  that 
he  made  his  remarkable  appeal  for  Methodist  union.  He 
was  at  his  best  in  voice  and  material.  At  the  close, 
referring  to  his  Church,  the  smallest  body — "Brethren,  if 
little  Benjamin  may  but  beat  a  drum  or  carry  a  flag  while 
Judah  and  Ephraim  once  more  march  on  to  the  same 
music  of  peace,  joyfully  we  will  say.  Amen,  God  wills  it." 

The  editor  of  the  Advocate  wrote  of  the  event:  "At 
the  appealing  climax,  they  (the  Conference)  were  on  their 
feet  again — laughing,  cheering,  saluting,  singing — dele- 
gates and  spectators  alike  swayed  by  the  fraternal 
impulse." 

It  happened,  however,  that  the  Conference  took  no  fur- 
ther action  for  union  and  no  meetings  were  ever  held. 

Undaunted,  T.  H.  Lewis  made  his  way  to  the  1910 
session  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  and  had  a  similar 
response  as  at  Baltimore.  That  Conference  also  reached 
no  conclusive  decision  with  reference  to  union. 

Fortunately,  both  of  the  other  Churches  had  appointed 
commissions  to  deal  with  the  problem  of  overlapping 
areas.  It  was  at  a  meeting  of  these  two  groups  that  he 
appeared,  whether  by  invitation  or  voluntarily,  for  he  was 
not  a  member  of  either  body.  But  out  of  it  all  developed 
a  tri-church  movement  for  organic  union.  Several  meetings 
of  the  three  commissions  were  held,  resulting  in  a  body 
of  "Suggestions"  for  union.  And  though  he  did  not  live  to 
see  it,  the  movement  for  Methodist  unification,  for  which 
Thomas  Hamilton  Lewis  labored,  continued  in  various 
phases,  culminating  at  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  in  1939. 

James  H.  Sthaughn 

LEWIS,  WILLIAM  BRYANT  (1891-1956),  American  mis- 
sionary medical  pioneer  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  in 
the  Belgian  Congo,  was  born  in  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  Oct. 
24,  1891.  Educated  at  Millsaps  College,  and  the  Medi- 
cal School  of  Vanderbu,t  University,  he  practiced  medi- 
cine in  Louisiana,  1913-16.  He  was  with  the  Louisiana 
National  Guard  on  the  Mexican  border,  1916-17,  and  then 
in  France  1917-19  as  a  medical  officer  of  the  A.E.F.  during 
World  War  I.  He  afterward  continued  medical  studies  at 
Tulane  University,  but  the  call  to  Christian  service  was 
overwhelming  and  he  was  appointed  a  medical  missionary 
to  the  Congo  in  1923. 

Lewis  received  permission  from  the  Belgian  government 
to  establish  a  leper  colony  in  association  with  the  hospital 
and  medical  service  he  directed  in  Tunda  Station.  He  also 
pioneered  in  the  opening  of  rural  dispensaries  in  outlying 
and  remote  villages  in  a  wide  area  surrounding  Tunda. 


These  were  served  by  trained  native  hospital  attendants. 
Mrs.  Lewis,  tlie  former  Zaidee  Hunter  Nelson  of  Jackson, 
Miss.,  assisted  her  husband  in  the  Tunda  Hospital  and  in 
the  organization  of  an  evangelistic  and  health  ministry  in 
the  mission  area.  On  retirement  they  returned  to  Missis- 
sippi. A  large  and  commodious  hospital,  the  Lewis  Me- 
morial Hospital,  has  been  built  at  Tunda  and  named  in 
honor  of  the  Lewises. 

Ann  L.  Ashmore,  The  Call  of  the  Congo.  Nashville,  1947. 

W.  W.  Reid 


Wilson  S.  Lewis 

LEWIS,  WILSON  SEELEY  (1857-1921),  American  educa- 
tor and  bishop,  was  bom  near  Russell,  N.  Y.,  June  17, 
1857.  Although  raised  in  poverty  and  with  little  formal 
education,  he  started  teaching  rural  school  at  age  si.xteen. 
He  worked  his  way  through  three  years  at  St.  Lawrence 
College  at  Canton,  N.  Y.,  and  went  to  Iowa  in  1880  to 
teach  in  the  public  schools.  He  felt  he  was  called  to  preach 
and  joined  the  Upper  Iowa  Conference  in  1885.  He 
was  appointed  pastor  at  Blairstown.  In  1888  he  became 
principal  of  Epworth  Seminary,  a  Methodist  preparatory 
school  at  Epworth,  Iowa.  After  notable  success  there  he 
was  elected  president  of  Morningside  College,  Sioux 
City,  Iowa,  in  1897  and  transferred  to  the  Northwest 
Iowa  Conference. 

He  travelled  a  year  in  Europe  before  assuming  his 
post.  The  conference  had  recently  taken  over  Morning- 
side  College  from  a  group  of  local  promoters.  It  had  one 
small  building,  a  large  debt,  no  assets  and  no  public 
goodwill.  Under  President  Lewis  its  academic  standards 
were  raised,  the  debt  and  the  main  building  which  now 
bears  his  name  was  erected.  He  secured  financial  support 
from  near  and  far,  including  gifts  from  Andrew  Carnegie 
and  the  General  Education  Board  which  formed  the  be- 
ginning of  an  endowment  fund. 

National  attention  was  attracted  to  his  ability  and  in 
1908  he  was  elected  bishop.  His  assignments  were  eight 
years  at  Foochow,  China,  and  four  years  at  Shanghai.  He 
and  Bishop  James  W.  B.\shford  superintended  the  work 
in  China  during  the  downfall  of  the  Manchu  dynasty 
and  through  the  First  World  War.  He  was  called  back 
to  the  LT.S.A.  in  1913  to  participate  in  a  nationwide  cam- 
paign for  finances  to  save  Goucher  College  in  Balti- 
more, Md.  He  came  home  again  to  give  leadership  in 
raising  the  Centenary  Fund  for  Missions  in  1919.  He 
strongly  supported  the  ill-fated  Interchurch  World  Move- 
ment for  missions  which  followed. 


LEXINGTON,   KENTUCKY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


A  self-devised  philosophy  of  missions  guided  his  work. 
He  made  himself  accessible  to  the  Chinese  pastors.  He 
strengthened  the  local  churches  by  increasing  their  self- 
dependency.  He  schemed  to  create  among  the  Methodists 
an  all-China  awareness  and  loyalty  in  contrast  to  the  local 
and  regional  fragmentations  typical  of  that  land.  He  in- 
sisted upon  the  steady  up-grading  of  the  church's  educa- 
tional institutions.  The  church  membership  grew  from 
22,000  in  1903  to  77,000  in  1920. 

His  son,  John,  served  as  a  missionary  in  China.  His 
daughter,  Ida  Belle,  eventually  became  President  of  Hwa 
Nan  College  at  Foochow  under  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society.  In  1920  he  was  assigned  to  the 
Peking  area.  His  health  broke  soon  afterward  and  he 
returned  to  Siou.x  City,  where  he  died  on  Aug.  24,  1921. 
He  is  buried  there  in  Graceland  Cemetery  under  an  im- 
pressive stone  monument  erected  by  the  citizens.  A  boule- 
vard and  a  city  park  also  bear  his  name. 

S.  N.  Fellows,  Upper  Iowa  Conference.  1907. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Ida  Belle  Lewis,  Bishop  Wilson  Seeley  Lewis.  Sioux  City,  la.: 

Morningside  College,  1929. 

Minutes  of  the  Northwest  Iowa  Conference,  1921. 

B.  Mitchell,  Northwest  Iowa  Conference.  1904. 

Frank  G.  Bean 

LEXINGTON,  KENTUCKY,  U.S.A.  (population  107,944) 
is  a  city  situated  in  the  heart  of  the  famous  blue  grass 
region  of  Kentucky,  and  Lexington  itself  is  sometimes 
called  the  "capital  of  the  blue  grass."  For  the  origin  and 
the  development  of  early  Methodism  in  Lexington  see  the 
history  of  the  First  Methodist  Church  there  in  the 
article  below. 

Centenary  Methodist,  now  located  in  north  Lexington, 
celebrated  its  100th  anniversary  in  1966.  It  dates  its  origin 
from  the  latter  part  of  December  1865,  when  133  mem- 
bers withdrew  from  the  Hill  Street  M.  E.  Church,  South 
— now  First  Church — and  met  and  organized  on  Jan,  3, 
1866,  a  new  church  which  adhered  to  the  M.  E.  Church. 
The  first  unit  of  this  church's  building  was  upon  the  comer 
of  Broadway  and  Church  Street  and  was  dedicated  on 
Oct.  14,  1866.  The  sanctuary  was  added  in  1870.  In  1955 
the  congregation  moved  to  the  present  location  and  re- 
mained there  until  it  combined  with  Trinity  Church  which 
had  been  established  under  the  district  superintendency  of 
A.  G.  Stone  in  1940-46.  Trinity  itself  was  established  as  a 
church  in  1945  when  a  pastor  was  appointed  there. 

Old  Centenary  in  its  downtown  location  had  by  that 
time  begun  to  face  problems  of  limited  space  and  inade- 
quate parking  facilities,  and  its  members  were  moving  out 
to  suburban  areas.  So  Trinity  and  Centenary  worked  out  a 
combination — "the  most  beautiful  church  wedding  that 
has  ever  been  held"  states  the  Centenary  brochure  cele- 
brating this  event.  The  new  Centenary  is  quite  commodi- 
ous and  has  a  new  educational  building  attached  to  the 
church.  Centenary  members  claim  that  it  "has  the  vitality 
of  a  young  church  and  the  stability  of  a  mature  church." 
Donald  \V.  Durham  was  the  pastor  of  the  church  on  the 
1966  centenary  occasion.  In  1970  the  membership  was 
1,984. 

Recent  statistics  indicate  that  total  membership  of  the 
Methodist  churches  in  the  Lexington  district  is  19,109  and 
property  values  are  of  $9,438,065  last  reporting. 
Centenary  Methodist  Church.  Published  by  the  Church  Direc- 
tory of  Publishers.  Louisville,  Ky.,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 


First  Church  is  the  historic  downtown  church  of  Lexing- 
ton. Here  the  first  Lexington  Society  was  organized  in 
1789  while  Lexington  was  still  a  frontier  village.  Five 
miles  from  Lexington  in  1790  Bishop  Asbury  held  the 
first  Annual  Conference  west  of  the  AJleghenies.  In  this 
conference  plans  were  made  for  the  starting  of  Bethel 
Academy,  the  first  Methodist  institute  of  learning  west  of 
the  Alleghenies.  In  1804  the  society  of  Lexington  became 
the  first  station  west  of  the  Alleghenies.  In  1815  Bishop 
Asbury  preached  his  last  sermon  in  Kentucky  in  this 
church  from  the  text  found  in  Zephaniah  3:12-13.  In  1819 
the  church  consisted  of  113  white  and  seventy  colored 
members. 

The  first  session  of  the  newly  formed  Kentucky  Con- 
ference was  held  here  in  1821.  All  three  of  the  Bishops 
— William  McKendree,  Enoch  George,  and  Robert  R. 
Roberts — were  present.  The  Conference  also  met  here  in 
1822.  The  second  location  of  the  church  was  on  Church 
Street  between  Upper  and  Limestone.  On  this  lot  a  sturdy 
brick  church  60x50  feet  was  built  with  a  gallery  above  for 
colored  people. 

Colored  people  continued  to  be  listed  as  members  of 
the  church  until  the  period  following  the  Civil  War,  when 
the  number  greatly  decreased.  Stephen  Chipley  should  be 
mentioned.  He  was  an  apprentice  to  Maddox  Fisher,  Lex- 
ington businessman  and  member  of  the  Methodist  Church. 
Fisher  taught  him  the  bricklayer's  trade  and  reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic.  Stephen  Chipley  served  on  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Methodist  Church  for  fifty  years. 

H.  H.  Kavanaugh  was  pastor  in  1833  and  1834.  In  the 
summer  of  1833  the  epidemic  of  Asiatic  cholera  caused 
nearly  500  deaths  in  less  than  three  months  time.  Every 
family  was  aff^ected  and  business  was  paralyzed.  Under 
Kavanaugh 's  ministry,  however,  a  revival  began  in  January 
1834  and  lasted  two  months,  and  200  people  were  added 
to  the  Methodist  Church.  He  was  elected  bishop  in  1854. 

The  increasing  membership  of  the  Lexington  congrega- 
tion made  it  necessary  to  select  a  new  location.  Property 
was  acquired  on  High,  or  Hill  Street,  from  the  German 
Lutheran  Community  and  here  was  built  a  church  long 
known  as  the  Hill  Street  M.  E.  Church,  South.  This  was 
in  1841.  In  1842  the  Annual  Conference  was  entertained 
here  and  H.  B.  Bascom  dedicated  the  new  church  in  that 
same  year.  H.  H.  Kavanaugh  was  pastor  again  in  1847- 
48.  In  1842  H.  B.  Bascom  became  president  of  Tran- 
sylvania University,  at  that  time  a  Methodist  institution. 

Through  the  efforts  of  Kavanaugh  and  Bascom  another 
great  revival  was  held  with  far  reaching  effects  that 
greatly  strengthened  the  local  church.  R.  K.  Hargrove, 
later  a  bishop,  was  pastor  in  1867.  In  1878  H.  P.  Walker 
was  pastor.  During  that  time  the  Hill  Street  Auxiliary  of 
the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society-,  authorized 
by  the  General  Conference  in  May  of  that  year,  was 
organized  in  the  Hill  Street  Church.  Their  first  annual 
session  was  held  in  the  Hill  Street  Church  in  March  1879. 
F.  W.  Nolan  was  pastor  from  1882-86.  Under  his  pastorate 
the  church  was  fully  remodeled,  and  he  was  assisted  in  a 
notable  revival  in  1884  by  Henry  Clay  Morrison.  Bishop 
R.  K.  Hargrove,  former  pastor,  presided  at  the  Annual 
Conference  session  at  HiU  Street  Church  in  1890. 

Under  the  pastorate  of  E.  G.  B.  Mann,  1907-11,  the 
present  First  Methodist  Church  was  built.  Mrs.  Scola 
Inskeep  Chenowith  left  by  will  $10,000  toward  the  build- 
ing of  the  new  stone  church.  She  made  three  provisions: 
"The  church  was  to  raise  $25,000.  The  new  building  was 


WORLD   METHODISM 


to  be  completed  in  two  years.  It  was  to  be  without  debt 
when  dedicated."  These  stipulations  were  carried  out 
and  the  new  church  was  dedicated  on  Jan.  10,  1909.  The 
old  name  Hill  Street  M.  E.  Church,  South  was  changed 
to  First  M.  E.  Church,  South,  Le.xington.  Following  uni- 
fication in  1939,  the  church  became  known  as  the  First 
Methodist  Church  of  Lexington. 

First  Church  in  its  long  history  has  always  assisted  in 
starting  other  Methodist  churches  in  Lexington.  E.  L. 
Southgate,  pastor  in  1894,  with  H.  P.  Walker,  presiding 
elder,  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the  Sunday  school 
in  the  north  section  of  the  city.  This  later  became  Epworth 
Church.  U.  G.  Foote,  pastor  in  1902-06,  assisted  in  the 
establishment  of  the  church  that  later  became  Park 
Church.  For  several  years  it  was  a  mission  under  the 
Quarterly  Conference  of  the  Hill  Street  Church. 

In  September  1907,  O.  B.  Crockett  was  appointed  as 
the  first  regular  pastor  of  the  Park  Church. 

Under  the  ministry  of  Gilbert  Combs  in  1922-28  the 
Wesley  Foundation  of  the  University  of  Kentucky  met 
in  First  Church.  The  Wesley  Foundation  continued  here 
until  it  moved  to  the  new  location  in  1964. 

On  Oct.  10,  1940  the  Woman's  Society  of  Christian 
Service  was  organized  here.  The  new  Educational  Plant 
was  dedicated  free  of  debt  on  Oct.  24,  1965.  Present 
membership  is  1,306,  constituting  a  cross  section  of  the 
city  of  Lexington. 

Russell  R.  Patton 

LEXINGTON  CONFERENCE  (ME),  was  organized  at  Har- 
rodsbuig,  Ky.,  March  2,  1869,  with  Bishop  Levi  Scott 
presiding.  A  Negro  conference,  it  was  foiTned  by  dividing 
the  Kentucky  Conference  (ME)  along  racial  lines.  Tlie 
conference  began  with  two  districts,  Lexington  and  Louis- 
ville, twenty-six  charges,  and  3,526  members.  The  1872 
General  Conference  added  Ohio  and  Indiana  to  the 
territory  of  the  Lexington  Conference,  and  in  1873  it 
reported  an  Ohio  District  with  twelve  charges.  In  1876  the 
conference  boundaries  were  extended  to  include  Illinois. 
That  year  the  conference  had  an  Indianapolis  District, 
and  it  reported  fifty-eight  charges  and  6,871  members. 
Later  Michigan,  Minnesota,  and  Wisconsin  were  added, 
while  southwest  Illinois  was  surrendered  to  the  Central 
Missouri  (later  Central  West)  Conference. 

The  Lexington  Conference  continued  with  two  districts 
in  Kentucky,  one  in  Ohio,  and  one  in  Indiana,  and  for 
some  years  there  was  little  growth  in  membership.  In  1900 
the  conference  reported  9,182  members.  In  1914  the 
Chicago-Indianapolis  District  was  formed,  and  the  confer- 
ence reported  12,506  members  that  year.  In  1917  the 
Chicago  District  was  organized  with  ten  charges.  During 
the  First  World  War  Negro  migration  to  the  north  in- 
creased, and  by  1920  the  conference  membership  had 
risen  to  nearly  17,000.  In  1938  the  conference  had  124 
charges,  and  nearly  25,000  members. 

The  Lexington  Conference's  St.  Mark  Church  in  Chi- 
cago was  known  widely  for  years  as  one  of  the  strongest 
congregations  in  Methodism.  From  600  members  in  1915, 
it  grew  to  nearly  3,500  by  1930.  From  1939  to  1964  the 
church  regularly  reported  4,000  to  4,700  members  every 
year.  In  more  recent  years  the  St.  Mark  membership  has 
greatly  decreased. 

At  unification  in  1939,  the  Lexington  Conference  be- 
came a  part  of  the  Central  Jurisdiction. 

Two    members    of    the    Lexington    Conference    were 


elected  bishops  in  The  Methodist  Church,  M.  W.  Clair, 
Jr.  (1952)  and  M.  Lafayette  Harris  (1960). 

The  Lexington  Conference  supported  Philander 
Smith  College  at  Little  Rock,  Ark.  In  1942  the 
churches  of  the  conference  raised  about  $1,100  for  the 
college.  Gammon  Theological  Seminary  was  com- 
mended as  the  one  institution  in  the  Central  Jurisdiction 
for  training  ministers. 

In  1964,  its  last  year,  the  Lexington  Conference  re- 
ported 124  charges,  130  ministers,  40,689  members,  prop- 
erty valued  at  $10,522,390,  At  that  time  the  Kentucky 
churches  of  the  conference  were  merged  with  the  Ten- 
nessee Conference  ( CJ )  to  form  the  Tennessee-Kentucky 
Conference,  and  the  remainder  of  the  conference  was 
absorbed  by  the  overlying  conferences  of  the  North  Cen- 
tral Jurisdiction. 

General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  Lexington  Conference. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia,  1882.  Albea  Godbold 

LEYLAND,  ARTHUR  STANLEY  (1901-  ),  British  minis- 

ter, was  born  Nov.  25,  1901,  in  St.  George's,  Shropshire, 
England.  Accepted  for  the  ministry  in  the  Primitive 
Methodist  Church  in  1922,  he  was  sent  for  theological 
training  to  Hartley  College,  Manchester,  and  served  in 
circuits  in  different  parts  of  the  kingdom  until  1945,  when 
he  came  to  the  London  area  for  the  first  of  four  terms 
there  in  Highgate,  Bamet,  Brixton  Hill,  and  Streatham. 
From  1940  onward  he  acted  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
British  Methodist  Conference,  and  for  many  years  con- 
ducted a  weekly  feature  in  the  Methodist  Recorder. 

Dr.  Leyland  pioneered  the  ministerial  exchange  pro- 
gram of  the  World  Methodist  Council  in  1946,  when 
he  exchanged  pulpits  with  Dr.  Theodore  C.  Mayer  of  The 
Methodist  Church,  U.S.A.  Since  that  time  he  has  served 
as  chairman  of  the  British  Committee  on  Ministerial  Ex- 
changes in  the  World  Methodist  Council.  He  is  also  a 
member  of  the  British  Council  of  Churches  Visiting 
Preachers  and  Exchange  Committee.  He  has  been  a 
delegate  from  British  Methodism  to  the  World  Confer- 
ence on  several  occasions. 

Frank  Baker 

LIBERIA  is  a  country  on  the  southern  "bulge"  of  West 
Africa.  Methodism  is  as  old  as  the  country.  Both  Meth- 
odists and  Baptists  share  honors  in  having  had  outstand- 
ing leaders  among  the  original  settlers.  When  the  colonists 
gained  foothold  in  present-day  Liberia  in  January  1822, 
the  Metliodist  leader,  Elijah  Johnson  held  the  little  group 
together  in  a  critical  hour.  During  a  revival  in  1824,  "up- 
wards of  twenty  persons,  all  professing  Christ  for  the  first 
time,"  were  added  to  the  Methodist  Society.  A  few  days 
later  they  were  given  a  lot  for  a  church,  which  was  built 
and  finished  in  1825. 

When  the  first  Methodist  missionary,  Melville  B. 
Cox,  arrived  in  Liberia  in  1833,  he  helped  stabilize  the 
Methodist  work  and  brought  it  under  episcopal  super- 
vision from  America.  Although  Cox  lived  only  four  and 
one-half  months  after  his  arrival,  he  had  carried  the  work 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  Monrovia.  An  Annual  Confer- 
ence was  organized  on  Jan.  10,  1834,  by  Rufus  Spaulding 
and  S.  O.  Wright;  however,  formal  authorization  had  to 
wait  until  the  General  Conference  of  1836.  There  were 
three  ministerial  members  at  that  conference:  Spaulding, 
Wright,  and  the  Liberian,  Anthony  D.  Williams.  Williams 


liad  been  ordained  in  1833  at  the  Oneida  Conference. 
Wright  is  buried  in  Monrovia.  Spaulding  had  to  return 
home  because  of  Iiealth.  Late  in  1834,  John  Seys  arrived 
to  assume  leadership  of  the  mission.  Born  in  the  West 
Indies,  he  was  able  to  stand  the  tropical  climate  better 
than  others.  The  Liberia  Conference  Seminary  was  opened 
in  1839,  with  Jabez  Huiton  as  principal.  On  March  19, 
1837,  a  new  Methodist  church  was  dedicated  in  Monrovia. 
Built  of  stone,  sixty-six  by  fifty  feet,  it  is  still  in  use  today. 

The  period  1833  to  1844  has  been  called  the  "Golden 
Age"  of  Methodist  Missions  in  Liberia.  Because  of  the 
toll  in  lives  and  broken  health  among  the  missionaries, 
the  local  leadership  gradually  shifted  over  to  the  Liberi- 
ans.  A  turning  point  in  the  life  of  the  church  came  in  1851, 
for  the  conference  had  to  decide  whether  to  disband  or  go 
on  under  their  own  leaders;  at  this  time  Francis  Burns 
was  acting  as  President  of  the  conference.  In  1853  Bishop 
Levi  Scott  visited  Liberia  for  the  Annual  Conference 
session  held  in  Cape  Palmas.  There,  for  the  first  time  in 
the  country,  an  ordination  service  was  held.  Eleven  men 
were  ordained  as  de.'VCOns  and  eight  as  elders.  For  the 
first  time  since  its  founding  the  conference  had  ministers 
set  apart  to  perform  the  ordinances  and  sacraments  of 
the  church.  In  1856  Francis  Bums  was  elected  the  first 
Liberian  missionary  bishop  by  the  General  Conference  of 
the  M.  E.  Church.  He  was  the  first  "missionary  bishop" 
ever  elected,  the  office  largely  being  created  to  take  care 
of  the  type  of  supervision  Burns  was  to  give.  He  gave 
leadership  until  his  death  in  April  1863.  He  was  followed 
in  the  episcopacy  by  another  well  qualified  Liberian,  John 
W.  Roberts,  brother  of  the  first  President  of  Liberia, 
Joseph  J.  Roberts.  By  1868  the  Liberia  Annual  Confer- 
ence was  given  full  status  in  the  M.  E.  Church  with  rep- 
resentation in  the  General  Conference.  Bishop  Roberts 
served  until  his  death  in  1875,  when  again  the  episcopal 
supervision  was  assigned  to  bishops  from  America.  In  1876 
the  conference  had  five  districts  and  twenty-one  appoint- 
ments. In  1877  the  membership  reached  2,488. 

In  1884  the  General  Conference  elected  the  veteran 
missionary,  William  Taylor,  as  bishop  for  Africa.  Tay- 
lor's plan  was  to  establish  self-supporting  mission  stations 
in  a  chain  across  Africa.  After  having  started  the  work  in 
the  Congo  he  brought  a  number  of  missionaries  to  Liberia. 
Soon  seven  stations  were  established  along  the  Cavalla 
River,  six  along  the  Kru  Coast,  and  ten  in  Sinoe  and  Grand 
Bassa  Counties  and  on  the  St.  Paul  River.  Over  fifty  mis- 
sionaries, the  majority  of  them  women,  were  taken  by 
Bishop  Taylor  to  Liberia.  During  the  period  the  Mission 
Board  sent  out  nineteen  men  to  do  district  and  educational 
work.  When  Bishop  Taylor  retired  in  1896  his  methods 
had  been  criticized  and  many  casualties  had  been  re- 
ported. But  though  a  number  of  stations  had  closed,  his 
work  has  in  several  places  brought  permanent  results.  It 
should  be  noted  that  the  great  membership  strength  of  the 
Methodist  Church  today  lies  in  the  areas  where  his  work 
was  estabhshed.  Most  of  the  men  entering  the  ministry 
today  come  from  this  Kru  Coast  area. 

After  having  been  witliout  a  resident  bishop  for  thirty 
years,  Liberia  received  Bishop  Isaiah  B.  Scott,  an  Ameri- 
can Negro  elected  by  the  General  Conference  of  1904.  A 
period  of  progress  followed.  The  membership  rose  from 
3,301  to  10,959  by  1916  when  Bishop  Scott  retired.  Dur- 
ing this  period  special  emphasis  was  given  to  self-help  and 
self-support,  education,  and  evangehsm  among  the  Grebo 
and  Kru  tribal  groups. 

A  visit  by  Thomas  S.  Donohugh,  secretary  of  the  M.E. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Methodist  Church,  Ganta,  Libeuia 

Mission  Board,  in  1923  brought  about  a  reorganization  of 
the  mission  work.  An  important  decision  was  to  begin  a 
new  station  at  Ganta  in  the  interior.  After  a  two  weelcs' 
trek  through  the  jungle,  George  W.  Harley  and  his  wife 
arrived  at  Ganta  in  1926.  The  Ganta  station  became  one 
of  the  largest  Methodist  stations  in  Africa;  it  includes  the 
hospital,  elementary  and  junior  high  schools,  girls'  and 
boys'  dormitories,  evangelism  department,  literacy  work, 
nursing  school,  and  industrial  work  with  a  fine  carpenter's 
shop,  where  mahogany  furniture  is  built.  The  Harleys 
retired  in  1960.  Thousands  of  treatments  are  given  in  the 
clinic  every  year;  two  new  hospital  wings  were  equipped 
for  modem  surgery  with  a  staff  of  three  doctors;  the 
leprosarium  with  700  patients  and  twelve  out-stations  was 
set  up;  and  evangelistic  work  in  over  seventy  villages  was 
started.  Another  important  project  following  this  1923  visit 
was  the  strengthening  of  the  College  of  West  Africa. 

The  assignment  of  Bishop  Willis  J.  King  (1944-56)  as 
resident  bishop  assured  the  work  in  Liberia  of  more  sta- 
bility and  expansion,  as  there  had  been  no  resident  bishop 
since  1928.  New  work  was  begun  at  Gbarnga,  located  120 
miles  inland  at  an  important  crossroad.  A  significant  step 
forward  was  taken  when  a  Conference  Board  of  Missions 
was  organized  to  assume  in  part  the  responsibility  for  the 
new  mission.  Cooperation  with  Cuttington  College  was 
started  with  the  providing  of  a  Methodist  professor  on 
the  staff.  The  Woman's  Division  (TMG)  opened  a  well- 
equipped  hostel  for  girls  attending  the  College  of  West 
Africa,  and  has  since  provided  a  home  economics  teacher 
for  the  school.  The  academic  standards  of  the  school  were 
raised  considerably  and  the  position  of  the  College  of 
West  Africa  as  the  leading  college  preparatory  school  in 
the  country  was  further  strengthened. 

Under  Bishop  Prince  A.  Taylor,  Jr.  (1956-64),  much 
was  done  to  strengthen  the  administration  of  the  Annual 
Conference  and  to  bring  the  Liberian  Church  to  the  point 
of  self-sustenance.  This  has  partly  been  brought  about 
due  to  the  foresight  and  vision  of  William  V.  S.  Tubman, 
President  of  Liberia,  and  a  dedicated  layman  in  the 
Methodist  Church. 

In  1964  the  General  Conference  (TMG)  voted  an  en- 
abling act  which  would  permit  Liberia  to  become  either 
an  autonomous  church  or  a  Central  Conference.  At 
the  Annual  Conference  session  in  February  1965,  the 
Liberia  Annual  Conference  voted  unanimously  to  estab- 
lish a  Central  Conference,  and  to  elect  a  Liberian  as 
bishop.    This    historic    conference    was    held    Dec.    8-12, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


UCENSES,    PREACHERS'   AND 


Mt.  Scott  Church,  Cape  Palmas,  site  of 
first  session  of  liberia  central  conference 

1965,  at  Mt.  Scott  Memorial  Methodist  Church  in  Cape 
Palmas,  the  same  place  where  the  first  Liberian  min- 
isters were  ordained  by  Bishop  Levi  Scott  in  1853.  Steph- 
en Trowen  Nagbe,  Sr.,  is  the  first  Liberian  to  be  elected 
bishop  and  consecrated  in  Liberia.  He  conducted  his  first 
Annual  Conference  and  service  of  ordination  at  Caldwell, 
near  Monrovia,  the  place  where  Melville  Cox  held  his 
first  camp  meeting  133  years  before. 

Among  important  developments  after  World  War  II 
was  cooperation  with  Cuttington  College  in  theological 
training,  and  a  mission  and  church  were  organized  in 
Gbamga — the  joint  theological  training  program  at  Cut- 
tington is  no  longer  in  effect. 

The  Church  in  Liberia  has  started  to  train  a  full-time 
indigenous  ministry.  Admission  to  Conference  member- 
ship has  been  raised  from  eight  to  twelve  years  of  school- 
ing. By  1962  three  congregations  had  full-time  pastors 
with  college  degrees.  A  Pastors'  School  has  been  estab- 
lished at  Gbamga  which  takes  men  who  have  completed 
tenth  grade  in  school  and  gives  them  two  or  three  years 
theological  training. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1949-57. 

Ivan  Lee  Holt,  Methodists  of  the  World.  1950. 

J.  F.  Hurst,  History  of  Methodism.  1901-04. 

W.  J.  King,  Liberia.  N.d.  Werner  J.  Wickstbom 

LIBERIA  ANNUAL  CONFERENCE  organized  in  that  land 
(see  Liberia)  was  given  authority  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1964  to  become  organized  into  a  Central  Con- 
ference during  the  quadrennium  ending  in  1968  provided 
that  it  should  have  a  minimum  of  twenty  ministerial 
members  on  the  basis  of  one  delegate  for  every  four 
ministerial  members  of  the  Annual  Conference.  Pursuant 
to  this  requirement  during  the  quadrennium,  Liberia  be- 
came a  Central  Conference  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church  through  the  actions  which  have  been  outlined 
above  in  the  general  account  of  Liberia. 

N.  B.  H. 

LIBERTY  CHURCH,  Greene  County,  Georgia,  U.S.A., 
cradle  of  Methodism  of  Central  Georgia  and  one  of  the 
oldest  Methodist  churches  in  continuous  operation.  Around 


1786,  John  Bush  erected  a  brush  arbor  as  a  community 
center  for  camp  meetings  in  what  was  then  called 
Crackers  Neck.  It  became  a  preaching  place  for  Method- 
ists and  from  this  grew  Liberty  Chapel.  In  1797,  James 
Jenkins,  a  pioneer  Methodist  itinerant,  served  the  Wash- 
ington Circuit  which  included  Greene,  Wilkes,  Taliaferro, 
Lincoln,  Elbert,  Hart,  Franklin,  Madison,  and  Oglethorpe 
Counties.  After  preaching  at  Liberty,  Jenkins  reported 
in  his  journal  that  following  a  fiery  exhortatjon,  a  man  in 
uniform  came  down  the  aisle  and  fell  at  his  feet  crying 
for  pardon.  Others  came  after  him,  and  according  to 
Jenkins,  this  occurrence  at  Liberty  Chapel  was  the  origin 
of  the  Methodist  custom  of  penitents  coming  to  the  altar. 
"The  meeting  became  so  noisy,"  he  continued,  "that  it  was 
a  wonder  the  horses  did  not  take  fright." 

Many  of  the  great  men  of  early  Methodist  history 
were  connected  with  Liberty.  Bishop  Asbuby  preached 
there  several  times.  "In  Liberty  there  is  life,"  he  wrote 
in  1801,  "and  many  souls  have  been  brought  to  God,  even 
children."  Again  he  preached  there  on  Christmas  Day, 
1806,  noting  that  the  new  chapel  measured  thirty  by 
fifty  feet. 

In  December  of  1808,  the  twenty-third  session  of  the 
South  Carolina  Conference,  which  also  served 
Georgia,  met  at  Liberty.  Bishops  Asbury  and  McKendree 
attended,  and  Asbury  estimated  that  between  2,000  and 
3,000  people  were  present,  for  one  of  the  first  winter 
camp  meetings  in  America  was  held  in  conjunction  with 
the  annual  conference.  Lovick  Pierce  was  ordained  an 
elder,  and  William  Capers  was  admitted  a  preacher 
on  trial.  Liberty  continued  to  serve  the  rural  area  in  which 
it  was  located,  and  in  1966  it  was  on  the  WTiite  Plains 
Circuit  in  the  Augusta  District  of  the  North  Georgia 
Conference. 


F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 
A.  M.  Pierce,  Georgia.  1956. 


Donald  J.  West 


LICENSES,    PREACHERS'    AND    PREACHING    HOUSES'. 

The  Act  of  UnifoiTuity  (1662)  was  followed  by  the  Con- 
venticle Acts  of  1664  and  1670,  whereby  anyone  attending 
"any  unlawful  assembly,  conventicle  or  meeting  under 
colour  or  pretence  of  any  exercise  of  religion"  would  be 
fined  or  imprisoned.  The  Toleration  Act  (1689)  gave 
relief  to  bona  fide  Dissenters,  but  did  not  provide  for 
Methodists,  who  were  recognized  by  neither  Anglicans 
nor  Dissenters.  The  only  way  out  of  the  dilemma  was 
for  Wesley  to  license  his  itinerants  as  "preachers  of  the 
Gospel,"  though  against  their  will  they  had  to  accept 
licenses  in  which  they  were  described  as  "Dissenting 
Preachers."  They  were  accused  of  "acting  under  a  lie" 
(see  Wesley's  letter  to  Thomas  Adam,  July  19,  1768), 
i.e.,  while  professing  themselves  members  of  the  Church 
of  England,  they  licensed  themselves  as  Dissenters.  To 
obtain  a  license  a  preacher  had  to  take  the  oaths,  make 
certain  declarations,  and  generally  comply  with  the  Act 
of  Toleration. 

As  persecution  set  in,  it  became  increasingly  necessary 
for  Methodist  buildings  to  ha\e  the  protection  of  being 
licensed.  They  were  registered  as  buildings  "for  the  wor- 
ship of  God  and  religious  exercises  as  Protestant  Dis- 
senters." The  New  Room,  Bristol,  was  the  first  to  be  thus 
registered  (October  17,  1748).  The  Large  Minutes 
{Minutes  i.  602)  of  1763  lays  down  the  proper  form  for 
such  a  license.   In    1812  the  Methodists  played  a  large 


LICHFIELD   PLAN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


part  in  the  events  which  led  up  to  the  repeal  of  the 
Conventicle  Act. 

F.  Baker,  Wesley  and  the  Church  of  England.  1970. 
Wesley  Historical  Soc.  Proceedings,  ,xi,  82,  103,  130. 

John  C.  Bowmer 

LICHFIELD  PLAN  was  drawn  up  in  1794,  three  years 
after  Wesley's  death.  April  1  and  2,  Thomas  Coke  con- 
sulted at  Lichfield  with  Alexander  Mather,  Thomas 
Taylor,  John  Pawson,  Samuel  Bhadburn,  James 
Rogers,  Henry  Moore,  and  Adam  Clarke  about  the 
future  organization  of  Methodism.  The  plan  recom- 
mended: (1)  preachers  be  received  into  Full  Connexion 
by  being  ordained  deacon;  (2)  preachers  approved  by  the 
Conference  be  ordained  elders;  (3)  an  order  of  super- 
intendents be  instituted. 

The  plan  went  on  to  suggest  geographical  "divisions," 
listed  the  personnel  to  be  appointed  superintendents 
(largely  the  same  as  the  authors  of  the  plan!),  and  out- 
lined the  extent  of  their  authority.  The  Conference  that 
year  "treated"  the  Lichfield  Plan  as  "tending  to  create 
invidious  distinctions  among  brethren  and  those  who  at- 
tended the  meeting  were  considered  as  aspirants  after 
honour."  Thus  it  was  rejected,  though  doubtless  its 
authors  argued  that  it  accorded  with  Wesley's  intentions 
when  he  "set  apart"  Coke  and  Mather  by  the  laying  on 
of  hands  to  be  superintendents. 

V.  E.  Vine 


His  main  Ufe  work  was  the  Bermondsey  Settlement, 
which  he  founded  in  1891  with  William  Fiddian 
MouLTON,  and  of  which  he  remained  warden  until  1949. 
Lidgett's  services  to  the  borough  were  acknowledged 
when  he  was  made  an  honorary  freeman,  but  his  influence 
extended  into  the  life  of  the  whole  of  London,  especially 
in  educational  matters.  He  became  an  alderman  on  the 
London  County  Council  in  1905,  and  was  a  member  of 
the  senate  of  London  University  from  1922-32.  In  1931- 
32  he  was  vice-chancellor  of  the  university. 

He  was  a  member  of  many  interdenominational  organi- 
zations, and  in  1913  served  on  a  royal  commission.  From 
1907-18  he  edited  The  Methodist  Times,  and  from  1911 
was  the  joint  editor  of  The  Contemporary  Review.  In 
addition  he  was  a  distinguished  theologian,  his  main  works 
being  a  Fernley  Lecture,  The  Spiritual  Principle  of  the 
Atonement  (1898);  The  Fatherhood  of  God  (1902); 
The  Christian  Religion  ( 1907).  He  died  at  Epsom,  Surrey, 
on  June  16,  1953. 

H.  E.  Davies,  John  Scott  Lidgett.  1957. 
Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Conference,  1953. 

H.  Morley  Rattenbury 

LIEBNER,  OTTO  (1879-1946),  missionary  and  statistician, 
was  born  Feb.  3,  1879,  to  Jewish  parents  in  Vienna, 
Austria.  After  graduation  from  high  school  he  attended 
the  LIniversit\'  in  Vienna.  Shortly  after  his  graduation  he 
came  to  New  York  City,  was  converted,  and  enrolled 
in  the  Biblical  Seminary  of  New  York.  He  graduated  in 
1914  and  was  accepted  by  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the 
M.  E.  Church  as  a  missionary'.  From  1919  to  1928  he 
served  in  South  America.  In  1929  he  was  put  in  charge  of 
the  work  of  the  Baltic  countries,  Bulgaria  and  Jugoslavia. 
In  1933  he  returned  to  America  and  served  as  a  pastor 
at  Evansville,  Ind.  From  1936  to  1939  he  served  as  a 
professor  of  Biblical  Interpretation  at  the  Biblical  Semi- 
nary in  New  York.  The  final  seven  years  of  his  life  were 
spent  doing  statistical  work  for  the  Chicago  office  of  the 
General  Board  of  Pensions  of  The   Methodist  Church. 

Robert  Chafee 


J.  ScoTT  Lidgett 


Eglise  Evan(;elique  Methouiste 
UE  LA  Redemption,  Liege,  Belgium 


LIDGETT,  JOHN  SCOTT  (1854-1953),  British  Methodist, 
once  called  "the  greatest  Methodist  since  John  Wesley," 
was  born  at  Lewisham,  Kent,  on  August  10,  1854,  and 
entered  the  Wesleyan  ministry  in  1876.  His  services  to 
the  church  were  recognized  by  his  election  to  the  Legal 
Hundred  in  1902,  and  he  became  President  of  the 
Wesleyan  Conference  in  1908  and  first  president  of  the 
reunited  Methodist  Church  in  1932. 


LIEGE,  Belgium,  The  Methodist  Church  (French)  began 
in  1925  as  an  annex  of  Herstal  Church.  In  1930  a 
beautiful  church  building  was  erected  by  H.  H.  Stanley, 
overlooking  the  Meuse  River  at  Pont  Maghin.  The  church 
was  twice  damaged  by  the  blowing  up  of  a  bridge  in 
1940  and  1944.  During  the  Nazi  occupation.  Pastor  Henri 
van  Oest  was  arrested  and  sent  to  a  death  camp  in 
Germany.  He  died  in  Siegburg  on  March  10,  1945.  Pastors 


WORLD   METHODISM 

have  been  F.  Cuenod,  1924-37;  H.  van  Oest,  1938-41; 
P.  Spranghers,  1944-46;  A.  Werners,  1947-58;  J.  Coviaux, 
1959-64;  and  L.  Berchier  since  1965. 

WiLLIANt    G.    ThONGER 


LIGHTWOOD,  JAMES  THOMAS  (1856-1944),  British 
pioneer  in  the  study  of  Methodist  music  and  hymnology, 
was  bom  in  Leeds,  the  son  of  a  Wesleyan  Methodist 
minister.  He  was  educated  at  Kingswood  School.  After 
some  experience  in  trade,  with  his  brother  Edward  in 
1879  he  opened  a  boarding  school  at  Lytham  St.  Annes, 
Lancashire.  He  was  one  of  the  founding  members  of  the 
Wesley  Historical  Society,  and  in  1910  began  the 
Methodist  musical  monthly.  The  Choir.  In  1892  he  pub- 
lished thirty-two  Tunes  tvith  Hymns  for  use  in  Day  and 
Sunday  Schools,  and  continued  to  write  hvTnn  tunes 
throughout  his  Lfe;  five  of  them  were  included  in  the 
Methodist  Hymn  Book  (1933).  Of  his  many  books  the 
following  are  probably  the  most  useful:  Methodist  Music 
in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (1927),  Stories  of  Methodist 
Music  (1928),  Samuel  Wesley,  Musician  (1936),  and 
especially  the  standard  reference  work.  The  Music  of  the 
Methodisi  Hymn  Book  ( 1935) . 

Frank  Bakeh 

LIM   SI   SIN    (1910-  ),  bishop   for  two   terms  of  the 

autonomous  Methodist  Church  of  Lower  Burma,  whose 
election  was  the  highhght  of  the  Conference  (Oct.  5-10, 
1965),  at  which  the  Burma  Annual  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church  became  the  Autonomous  Methodist 
Church  of  Lower  Burma.  Previous  to  his  election,  he 
had  been  the  pastor  for  sixteen  years  of  the  Christ  Meth- 
odist Church  in  Rangoon,  and  superintendent  of  the 
Chinese  District  of  the  Conference  for  almost  the  same 
period.  He  and  his  wife  are  the  parents  of  seven  children — 
— three  daughters  and  four  sons,  one  of  whom  is  Dr.  Lim 
Toh  Bin,  a  graduate  of  Northwestern  Medical  College 
(lUinois)  and  now  practicing  medicine  in  Canada.  Bishop 
Lim  was  born  in  China  in  1910  and  came  to  Burma 
from  Amoy  in  1949  as  pastor  of  the  Chinese-language 
Christ  Methodist  Church. 

The  consecration  of  Bishop  Lim  was  presided  over  by 
Bishop  HoBART  B.  Amstutz.  A  purple  stole  was  presented 
to  Bishop  Lim  by  Bishop  Amstutz.  At  the  same  moment 
Bishop  Amstutz  said,  "1  hereby  dissolve  the  Burma  An- 
nual Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  and  declare 
the  establishment  of  the  Autonomous  Methodist  Church 
of  the  Union  of  Burma." 

Among  the  distinguished  guests  who  attended  this  con- 
secration were  the  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop  Bazin; 
Anglican  Bishop  of  Rangoon,  H.  V.  Shearbum;  Rev.  John 
Thet  Gyi,  general  secretary  of  the  Burma  Christian  Coun- 
cil; representatives  of  the  Baptist  Church,  and  the  Rev. 
Vulchuka,  fraternal  delegate  from  the  Upper  Burma  Meth- 
odist Church  which  became  autonomous  in  1964.  Bishop 
Lim's  two  terms  as  bishop  ended  in  September  1969. 

N.  B.  H. 

LIMA,  Peru,  is  the  capital  of  that  nation  and  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  cities  in  the  world.  It  is  one  of  the  oldest 
cities  of  the  Americas  and  contains  within  it  both  Indian 
and  Spanish  colonial  tradition,  as  well  as  modern  buildings 


La  Victoria  Church,  Lima 
THE  oldest  Evangelical  church  building 

and  processes.  In  it  there  is  the  oldest  university  in  the 
Americas — the  University  of  San  Marcos,  founded  in 
1551.  The  city's  population  in  1970  is  given  as  2,415,700. 

There  are  today  about  ten  regular  Methodist  Sunday 
schools  and  preaching  places  in  Lima,  as  well  as  the 
several  institutions  whose  work  is  described  below.  Three 
congregations  are  near  self-supporting.  The  First  Meth- 
odist Church  is  perhaps  the  strongest  of  these. 

Colegio  Mario  Alvarado  is  a  school  for  girls  formerly 
known  as  Lima  High  School.  Founded  in  1906,  it  was 
one  of  the  first  girls'  schools  in  Peru  to  offer  secondary 
education.  At  the  present  time  it  has  both  elementary 
and  secondary  departments.  It  offers  college  preparatory, 
commercial  and  home  economics  courses.  Enrollment  in 
1968  was  645. 

The  school  is  located  near  downtown  Lima  in  a  build- 
ing provided  in  1932  by  the  Woman's  Division  of  Chris- 
tian Service  and  added  to  in  1954.  Funds  for  the  build- 
ing were  secured  and  administered  through  the  service 
of  Gertrude  Hanks,  who  was  principal  for  many  years. 
The  school  is  directed  by  Mrs.  Olga  Vanderghem,  a 
graduate  of  Maria  Alvarado  and  its  first  Peruvian  prin- 
cipal. 

Escuela  America  de  La  Victoria  is  an  elementary 
school  in  the  La  Victoria  section  of  Lima.  Begun  in  1916 
as  the  parochial  school  of  a  Methodist  church,  Escuela 
America  in  1966  enrolled  700  students.  The  director, 
Moises   Huaroto,   and   the  entire   faculty   were   Peruvian. 

La  Florida  Methodist  Center  is  a  social  center  in  Lima, 
founded  in  the  early  1950's  by  Martha  Vanderberg,  mis- 
sionary of  the  Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Service.  It 
was  the  first  project  of  its  type  undertaken  by  any  Protes- 
tant church  in  Peru  and  stimulated  similar  projects  in 
Chincha,  Miramar,  Pedregal,  and  other  places. 

By  the  year  1950,  villages  of  squatters  had  begun  to 
spring  up  on  the  hills  across  the  Rimac  River  from  Lima. 
Miss  Vanderberg  learned  of  the  needs  of  families  there, 
beyond  the  reach  of  churches,  schools,  and  social  services. 
She  was  a  teacher  at  Colegio  Maria  Alvarado  and  re- 
cruited a  student  to  help  her  conduct  a  small  vacation 
church  school. 

The  interest  continued,  with  students  donating  books 
for  a  reading  room.  Additional  vacation  schools  were 
held,  and  Sunday  classes  were  begun.  Church  services 
were  added.  Miss  Vanderberg  directed  the  work  while 
continuing  to  teach,  later  becoming  full-time  director.  A 
building  was  erected  with  the  aid  of  the  Board  of  Mis- 


LINCOLN,    ENGLAND 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


sioNs  in  New  York  and  was  occupied  in  1954.  By  1959 
more  than  1,300  persons  were  registered  for  various 
services  of  the  center. 

Activities  included  child  care,  a  kindergarten,  club 
work,  distribution  of  clothing  and  other  emergency  sup- 
plies, and  health  services. 

Panamericana  Normal  School  is  a  Methodist  teacher- 
training  school,  established  in  1961.  The  normal  school 
was  started  in  order  to  help  alleviate  a  chronic  shortage 
of  trained  teachers  in  Peru,  and  especially  to  increase  the 
number  of  Evangelicals  (Protestants)  qualified  to  teach 
in  the  day  schools  affiliated  with  Evangelical  churches. 
Many  Methodist  local  churches  maintain  day  schools, 
and  the  thirteen  Methodist  schools  in  Peru  enroll  more 
than  3,500  pupils.  The  school  hopes  to  train  future  teach- 
ers in  new  educational  methods,  stressing  participation 
by  the  child  in  the  learning  process  as  opposed  to  a  tradi- 
tional emphasis  upon  memorization. 

The  first  graduation  exercise  was  held  on  Dec.  12, 
1964 — just  one  week  after  long-delayed  official  recogni- 
tion was  given  by  the  government.  The  student  body  is 
coeducational,  and  the  course  of  study  is  for  four  years. 
Enrollment  runs  around  fifty. 

IJarhara  H.  Lewis,  ed.,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  New 
York;   Board  of  Missions,   I960.  Edwin  H.  M.aynard 

LINCOLN,  England.  Methodism  was  securely  rooted  in 
the  county  of  Lincolnshire  some  forty  years  before  the 
city  of  Lincoln  itself  heard  John  Wesley,  and  before 
Sarah  Parrott  and  Dorothy  Fisher  became  the  first  two 
members.  It  was  in  the  year  1787  that  Mrs.  Fisher  came 
from  Gonerby  to  live  in  Lincoln,  and  she  came  in  re- 
sponse to  a  pressing  invitation  from  the  small  society  at 
Sturton  by  Stow,  where  Sarah  Parrott  was  a  member. 
Two  years  later  the  first  chapel  was  built  in  the  city,  and 
from  that  time  the  cause  moved  forward  with  vigor.  By 
the  end  of  the  century  there  were  close  to  a  hundred  mem- 
bers. By  1815  the  little  Waterside  Chapel  became  too 
small,  and  the  Bank  Street  building  was  erected;  and  if 
the  first  generation  of  Wesleyans  was  growing  a  little 
old  by  1836,  they  were  sufficiently  enterprising  to  launch 
the  big  Wesley  Chapel,  and  over  500  members  joined 
a  cause  which  had  connectional  fame. 

This  chapel  stood  for  125  years  while  Methodism  ex- 
panded into  all  parts  of  the  city.  Before  "Big  Wesley" 
was  built,  a  society  had  started  in  the  north  in  Newport, 
and  two  chapels  preceded  the  present  Gothic-style  Bail- 
gate  Chapel,  erected  in  1880,  dominating  the  more  ancient 
Newport  Arch  of  Roman  fame.  In  the  south,  the  Wesley 
members  established  a  society  in  1864  which  resulted  in 
the  building  of  Lincoln's  famous  Hannah  Memorial 
Chapel,  and  still  later  St.  Catherine's  Chapel.  In  1859  they 
started  the  Rosemary  Lane  Day  School,  but  there  had 
already  been  twenty  years  of  educational  activity  on  the 
Big  Wesley  premises.  Bailgate  and  St.  Catherine's  in  turn 
pioneered  the  fringes  of  the  town  north  and  south,  and 
chapels  were  built  in  the  new  housing  estates.  Various 
Lincoln  business  firms  were  connected  with  Wesleyanism, 
such  as  Mawer  and  Collingham,  drapers;  Ruddocks,  print- 
ers; Bainbridge,  another  draper;  Stokes,  confectioner; 
besides  many  influential  men  in  industry,  and  a  large 
number  of  aldermen  and  councillors.  A  number  of  Lin- 
coln's mayors  were  men  from  Wesley  Chapel.  Richard 
Watson,  an  early  president,  was  brought  up  at  Wesley. 
John  Hannah  entered  the  ministrv  from  here,   and  be- 


came the  first  tutor  at  Hoxton,  the  start  of  Wesleyan 
Methodist  ministerial  training.  Frederick  J.  Jobson  was  a 
Lincoln  man;  he  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  the  Hannah 
Memorial  Chapel  and  himself  became  president.  John 
Homabrook  also  entered  the  ministry  from  Lincolnshire 
Methodism. 

The  Wesleyan  Conference  met  at  Big  Wesley  on  two 
occasions,  in  1909  and  1925;  and  the  large  premises 
housed  all  kinds  of  civic,  cultural,  and  social  functions. 
When  at  last  the  building  had  to  be  demolished,  a  brass 
tablet  telling  of  the  efforts  of  Sarah  Parrott  and  Dorothy 
Fisher  was  carefully  removed,  and  is  now  located  in  the 
new  chapel  at  Sturton,  where  Lincoln  Methodism  really 
began. 

Primitive  Methodism  began  in  Lincoln  about  the  year 
1818,  when  William  Clowes  visited  the  city  and  held 
a  meeting  in  Castle  Square.  In  1819  a  chapel  was  erected 
in  Mint  Lane,  and  twenty  years  later  the  first  of  the  Port- 
land Place  causes.  Primitive  Methodist  enterprise  in  Lin- 
coln, as  elsewhere,  reached  out  to  other  areas;  and  though 
it  was  centered  in  Portland  Place  for  a  long  period,  by 
the  middle  of  the  century  societies  were  established  at 
Rasen  Lane  in  the  north,  Carholme  Road  in  the  west,  and 
Newark  Road  in  the  south.  One  notable  feature  of  Lincoln 
Primitive  Methodism  was  the  appointment  of  Mary  Birks 
as  the  third  minister  in  1824;  and  in  1828  another  woman, 
Ann  Tinsley,  was  minister.  One  of  Ann  Tinsley's  converts 
was  Edward  Chapman,  who  served  the  cause  for  half 
a  century. 

To  Joseph  Broadberry,  another  lifelong  member,  be- 
longs the  distinction  of  having  been  a  working  man  who 
climbed  to  the  city  magisterial  bench.  In  later  years. 
Alderman  C.  T.  Parker,  who  gave  distinguished  service  to 
Lincoln  Primitive  Methodism,  was  mayor  of  the  city  three 
times.  Portland  Place,  now  named  Lincoln  Central  Meth- 
odist Church,  remains  alone  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 
churches,  combining  the  work  of  Hannah  Memorial  and 
other  once  flourishing  chapels  in  the  city  center. 

The  Reform  movement  of  the  early  1850's  affected  the 
Wesley  and  Newport  societies  to  the  extent  of  their  losing 
some  250  members;  yet  in  1863  both  these  societies  had 
fully  recovered  these  lo.sses.  The  Wesleyan  Reformers 
worshiped  in  the  Com  E.xchange  until  they  bought  Zion 
Chapel,  where  members  of  the  Countess  of  Hunting- 
don's connection  had  recently  ceased  to  meet.  By  1864 
the  Silver  Street  Free  Methodist  Chapel  replaced  the  old 
Zion,  and  for  almost  a  century  its  witness  was  as  strong 
as  any  in  the  city.  Elsewhere  the  Reformers,  now  known 
as  the  Free  Methodists,  built  chapels  in  the  city,  which 
in  their  prime  were  greatly  progressive.  The  United 
Methodist  Free  Churches  Annual  Assembly  met  in  the 
Silver  Street  Chapel  in  the  year  1898,  when  the  Rev.  J.  C. 
Brewitt,  a  Lincolnshire  man,  was  appointed  secretary. 
He  became  president  the  following  year.  Honored  names 
in  the  Free  Methodist  world  in  Lincoln  were  the  Allmans, 
Crosbys,  and  the  Meltons,  besides  the  still  more  honored 
name  of  William  C.  Jackson,  the  last  of  the  United 
Methodist  Church  presidents,  and  president  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church  in  1935. 

With  the  union  of  Methodism  in  1932,  the  task  of 
circuit  realignment  began,  and  the  fusion  of  societies. 
Not  until  1957,  however,  was  a  position  reached  in  circuit 
arrangement  which  satisfied  the  many  differing  traditions. 
The  three  circuits  into  which  the  city  and  villages  are 
divided  make  for  administrative  purposes  a  well-defined 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LINCOLN,    NEBRASKA 


ordering,   and    Methodism    in    Lincoln    today    is    worthily 
maintained. 

William  Leahy 


LINCOLN,  NEBRASKA,  U.S.A.,  the  capital  of  the  state, 
with  a  population  of  148,092  (1970),  is  a  city  surrounded 
by  fertile  farms.  Settled  in  1856  and  incorporated  as  a  city 
in  1877,  Lincoln  was  the  home  of  the  orator,  William 
Jennings  Bryan,  three  times  Democratic  candidate  for 
president  of  the  United  States.  Bryan  Memorial  Hospital, 
started  with  a  gift  of  Bryan's  home  to  the  Methodist 
Church  in  1922,  is  one  of  Lincoln's  outstanding  hospitals. 
The  original  Bryan  home,  "Fairview,"  a  museum  on  the 
hospital  grounds,  is  visited  by  thousands  each  year. 

Lincoln  is  the  seat  of  the  University  of  Nebraska, 
Nebrask.\  Wesleyan  University,  and  Union  College. 
The  Lincoln  statue,  replica  of  the  monumental  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  .statue  by  Daniel  Chester  French,  is  located 
here. 

Methodism's  mother  church  in  Nebraska  was  organized 
in  1854  by  William  Goode,  first  superintendent  in  Ne- 
braska. A  Reverend  Gage  was  the  first  pastor  in  Nebraska 
City  in  nearby  Otoe  County. 

Salt  Creek  Mission,  started  in  1857,  is  now  St.  Paul 
Church  in  Lincoln.  In  1866  the  M.  P.  Church  started  a 
school  for  children  here.  It  became  the  first  public  school 
in  Lincoln.  Nebraska  Wesleyan  University  moved  from 
York  to  Lincoln  in  1887.  The  episcopal  headquarters  of 
the  Nebraska  Area  are  in  Lincoln. 

Bishop  DwiGHT  LoDER,  a  native  Nebraskan,  was  born 
in  the  small  village  of  Waverly  near  Lincoln.  He  was 
elected  bishop  in  1964.  Bishop  Gerald  Kennedy  was 
pastor  of  St.  Paul  Church  in  Lincoln  at  the  time  he  was 
elected  to  the  episcopacy  in  1948. 

In  1970  Lincoln  had  nineteen  churches  with  a  member- 
ship of  17,157. 

First  Church  was  organized  Nov.  18,  1888,  in  Nebraska 
Wesleyan  University's  "Old  Main"  at  the  call  of  the 
chancellor.  Services  were  held  weekly  in  the  chapel  and 
the  chancellor  or  one  of  the  professors  provided  the  ser- 
mon. It  was  not  long  before  the  annual  conference  ap- 
pointed a  pastor  to  the  rapidly  growing  new  charge. 
The  congregation  met  in  Old  Main  for  several  years  and 
then  erected  a  parsonage.  Plans  to  build  a  church  were 
delayed  by  the  severe  droughts  and  national  panic  of  the 
nineties,  when  the  college  suffered  severely. 

By  1900  two  lots  were  purchased  at  the  corner  of  50th 
and  St.  Paul,  University  Place.  Two  years  later  men  of  the 
congregation  built  a  basement,  covered  with  a  flat  tin 
roof,  which  was  first  used  in  February  1903.  Leaks  and 
noise  made  it  unsatisfactory.  However,  increased  popula- 
tion and  college  enrollment  gave  the  college  priority  in 
building,  and  the  church  moved  back  to  the  new  audi- 
torium on  the  campus  in  1907. 

Construction  of  the  church  attracted  the  town's  atten- 
tion, the  problem  being  how  the  great  steel  framework 
and  large  pillars  could  be  raised.  The  financial  drives  and 
costs  were  greater  than  expected.  On  dedication  day, 
Dec.  12,  1909,  the  bishop  in  charge  took  three  dramatic 
collections,  from  three  capacity  congregations,  to  raise 
enough  money  for  the  dedication  service.  Although  St. 
Paul,  Trinity,  and  Grace  were  older,  the  new  church  took 
the  name  First  Church. 

From  the  beginning  the  congregation  had  been  evan- 
gelical in  spirit  and  behavior.   The  new  church  proved 


more  restrained  emotionally.  The  basement  of  First 
Church  was  used  by  the  Ladies  Aid  Society  to  feed  the 
Student  Army  Training  Corps  of  World  War  I. 

After  the  drouth-stricken  thirties  and  war-anxious  for- 
ties, a  new  educational  building  seemed  imperative  in  the 
early  fifties.  Several  financial  campaigns  resulted  in  a 
structure  for  the  church  school. 

Throughout  its  history  First  Church  has  been  a  focal 
point  in  the  community,  trying  to  meet  the  social  and 
spiritual  needs  of  all  its  members  and  constituents.  In 
1970  First  Church  had  2,237  members  and  church  prop- 
erty valued  at  $941,279. 


St.  Paul  Church,  Lincoln,  Nebraska 

St.  Paul  Church  was  started  in  1857  when  Zenos  B. 
Turman  was  appointed  to  the  Salt  Creek  Mission  and 
preached  probably  the  first  sermon  in  Lancaster  County, 
Neb.,  in  the  cabin  of  James  Eatherton  about  twelve  miles 
south  of  Lincoln.  It  was  one  of  sixteen  preaching  places 
embracing  seven  counties. 

In  1867  Lincoln  was  made  the  state  capital.  The  popu- 
lation increase  led  the  Methodists  to  build  a  church  under 
the  leadership  of  R.  S.  Hawks.  In  this  building  a  reception 
was  held  for  the  first  Governor  of  the  state,  David  Butler, 
Jan.  18,  1868. 

The  first  pastor  assigned  to  Lincoln  was  H.  T.  Davis  in 
the  spring  of  1868.  He  dedicated  the  church  in  June, 
when  the  population  was  about  200,  with  sixteen  Meth- 
odists. By  the  end  of  the  year  the  church  building  was 
outgrown  and  the  congregation  accepted  a  free  lot  from 
the  Capital  Commission  and  erected  another  church,  cost- 
ing $3,000.  This  was  located  on  the  present  church  site 
and  was  dedicated  Sept.  26,  1869. 

By  1871  the  membership  was  202.  The  next  year  it 
reached  300,  and  a  parsonage  was  built.  A  wing  was 
added  to  the  church  under  W.  B.  Slaughter  in  1874-77. 
Subsequently  what  became  known  as  the  Old  Stone 
Church  was  erected  and  completed  Aug.  23,  1885.  It 
burned  in  1899,  and  the  present  edifice  was  built  and 
finished  Nov.  17,  1901. 

During  the  twenty-two-year  pastorate  of  Walter  Aitken 
1920-42,  the  church  experienced  considerable  growth. 
The  next  pastor  was  Gerald  Kennedy,  1942-48.  His  pas- 
torate doubled  the  membership  and  more  than  doubled 
the  budget.  In  1945  the  Second  Methodist  (German) 
Church  and  St.  Paul  merged.  Kennedy  was  elected  bishop 
in  1948.  In  1954  a  needed  educational  building  was 
completed. 

From   the  beginning   St.   Paul  has   tried  to   serve   the 


LINCOLN   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


spiritual  needs  of  the  community.  While  other  churches 
have  moved  out  to  the  residential  sections,  it  has  remained 
a  down-town  church  within  walking  distance  of  hundreds 
of  University  students.  A  complete  renovation  of  the 
sanctuary  took  place  in  1968.  In  1970  the  church  property 
was  valued  at  $1,875,000,  and  the  membership  was  2,644. 

Trinity  Church  was  formed  in  1887  by  the  union  of 
Bethel  and  Second  M.  E.  Churches.  Its  edifice  depicts  its 
history  and  its  name,  for  it  is  three  buildings  in  one.  The 
first,  which  houses  Great  Hall,  Youth  Center,  the  offices 
and  some  of  the  classrooms,  was  completed  in  189.3.  The 
second,  which  contains  the  sanctuary,  more  classrooms, 
and  the  heating  plant,  was  dedicated  in  1911.  The  third, 
housing  most  of  the  classrooms,  the  church  parlor,  the 
fellowship  hall,  and  the  kitchen,  was  erected  in  1957. 

Two  of  Trinity's  ministers  were  chosen  to  head  Nebras- 
ka Wesleyan  University — D.  W.  C.  Huntington  in  1891. 
and  Vance  Rogers  in  1957.  The  church  provides  a  large 
share  of  the  support  of  a  missionary,  and  within  the  last 
six  years  has  given  seven  of  its  young  people  to  full-time 
Christian  service. 

With  a  membership  of  2,384  in  1970,  situated  near  the 
Nebraska  state  capitol  building  and  in  the  heart  of  the 
older  residential  section  of  the  city,  Trinity  ministers  to 
statesmen,  business  leaders,  and  people  from  all  walks  of 
life. 

Ethel  Booth,  First  Methodist  Church  of  Lincoln,  Nebraska. 
196.3. 

A  Brief  History  of  St.  Paul  Methodist  Church.  Published  b\' 
the  church,  1957. 
General  Minutes. 
E.  E.  Jackman,  Nebraska.  1954. 

Bartlett  L.  Paine,  Memorial  Parlor  Dedication  Program  and 
Booklet,  St.  Paul  Methodist  Church,  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  Dec. 
17,  1967.  Tom   McAnally 

Jesse  A.  Earl 
Paul  D.  Sisler 

LINCOLN  CONFERENCE.  (See  Central  West  and 
Southwest  Conferences.) 

LINDSEY  WILSON  COLLEGE,  Columbia,  Kentucky,  was 
founded  by  the  Louisville  Conference  in  1904  as  a 
secondary  and  normal  school.  Junior  college  work  was 
added  in  1923,  and  secondary  and  normal  offerings  were 
discontinued  in  1932. 

The  school  carries  tlie  name  of  Lindsey  Wilson,  the 
deceased  nephew  and  stepson  of  the  late  Mrs.  Catherine 
Wilson  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  who  contributed  $6,000 
toward  the  erection  of  the  administration  building,  the 
central  building  of  the  campus.  Through  the  years  the 
college  has  served  youth  from  the  Cumberland  plateau 
section  of  Kentucky.  The  governing  board  has  twenty- 
four  members  elected  by  the  Kentucky  and  Louisville 
Annual  Conferences. 

John  O.  Gross 

LINEBERRY,  FRANK  WATSON  (1883-1949),  American 
Methodist  Protestant  minister,  was  bom  at  Plymouth, 
Ind.  Aug.  7,  1883.  He  graduated  from  Adrian  College 
in  1908.  In  1910  he  married  Mable  Fordyce  and  the  same 
year  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Indiana  M.  P.  Con- 
ference. He  served  as  Conference  President  from  1929 
to  1939,  when  Methodist  Union  was  consummated.  He 


was  a  member  of  the  Commission  on  Union.  He  died  at 
Port  Angeles,  Wash.,  Jan.  9,  1949. 

Harold  Thrasher 

LINKS,  JACOB  (  ?  -1825),  first  South  African  Wesleyan 
minister  and  martyr,  was  a  Namaqua  Hottentot,  who  had 
some  schooling  at  Klamiesberg  mission  station.  He  learned 
from  both  Dutch  and  English  and  became  a  schoolteacher 
and  interpreter  for  the  missionaries.  In  1818  he  was  ac- 
cepted as  the  first  African  minister.  He  worked  with  an- 
other Namaqua,  Johannes  Jaager,  and  the  English  Wes- 
leyan missionary,  William  Thbelfall,  among  the  bush- 
men.  In  1825  all  three  crossed  the  Orange  River  to  pioneer 
among  the  bushmen;  but  during  that  autumn,  all  were 
murdered  at  the  instigation  of  their  guide. 


J.  Whiteside,  South  Africa.  1906. 


Cyril  J.  Davey 


LINTHICUM  HEIGHTS,  MARYLAND,  USA.  Holly  Run 
Chapel,  constructed  in  1828,  was  the  first  building  ever 
erected  by  members  of  the  nascent  Methodist  Proti^s- 
tant  Church.  These  included  the  Linthicums,  Shipleys 
and  Hammonds  who  had  left  Patapsco  M.  E.  Church 
during  the  Mutual  Rights  controversy.  The  27  x  33  foot 
structure  of  British  ship  ballast  brick  stood  until  1966  at 
Annapolis  and  Camp  Meade  Roads,  south  of  Baltimore. 
Then  it  was  painstakingly  reassembled  brick  by  brick 
adjacent  to  the  present  third  edifice  of  the  congregation 
now  called  the  Linthicum  Heights  United  Methodist 
Church.  By  the  time  of  its  rededication.  May  19,  1968, 
some  original  furnishings  of  the  long  disused  structure 
had  been  reacquired  and  installed. 

Edwin  Schell 

LINZELL,  LEWIS  EDWIN  (1868-1927),  was  a  M.E.  mis- 
sionary in  India  from  1899  to  the  time  of  his  death  in 
1927.  He  was  born  in  London,  England,  but  migrated  to 
Canada  in  his  teens  and  then  to  the  United  States.  He 
attended  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  and  in  1896  ob- 
tained a  bachelor's  degree.  He  married  a  fellow  student, 
Phila  Keen,  daughter  of  Methodist  minister  and  author, 
Samuel  A.  Keen.  Linzell  joined  the  Cincinnati  Con- 
ference, served  several  Ohio  churches,  and  then  in  1899 
went  to  India  as  a  missionary.  After  a  fruitful  pastorate 
at  Bowen  Church  in  Bombay,  and  a  term  as  superinten- 
dent of  the  Bombay  District,  he  became  a  charter  member 
of  the  Gujarat  Annual  Conference,  and  principal  of 
the  Florence  B.  Nicholson  School  of  Theology. 

In  1912,  and  again  in  1924,  Linzell  represented  Gujarat 
Conference  in  the  General  Conference.  As  a  speaker 
on  India  and  Methodist  missions,  he  proved  to  be  un- 
usually popular.  A  writer  of  the  day  described  him  as 
"a  vivacious,  virile,  vivid  and  veracious  reporter  and 
advocate  of  Missions."  He  died  in  Ohio. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

LIPPITT,  CHRISTOPHER  (1744-1824),  officer  in  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,  pioneer  manufacturer,  and  Methodist 
layman,  was  born  in  Cranston,  R.  I.,  the  son  of  Christopher 
and  Catherine  (Holden)  Lippitt  and  the  great-grandson 
of  John  Lippitt  of  England  who  settled  in  Rhode  Island 
in  1638. 

After  holding  several  public  positions  he  was  commis- 
sioned Lieutenant-Colonel  on  Jan.    18,    1776,  joined  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LITERATURE,    BRITISH 


continental  army  and  served  in  the  battles  of  White  Plains, 
Trenton  and  Princeton.  Brevetted  a  Brigadier  General  by 
Washington,  he  commanded  the  state  forces  in  the  Battle 
of  Rhode  Island,  Aug.  29,  1778.  During  the  Revolution 
his  brother  in  New  York  made  him  aware  of  the  spiritual- 
ity and  enthusiasm  of  the  Methodists.  Thereafter,  Chris- 
topher Lippitt's  home  in  Cranston  became,  as  frequent 
visitor  Francis  Asbury  said,  "an  open  house  for  Meth- 
odists." In  1791  Jesse  Lee  preached  there;  a  class  was 
formed  in  1794  with  the  General,  his  wife  and  daughter 
as  members.  Largely  at  his  own  expense  Lippitt  erected 
a  chapel  near  his  home  in  1800  in  which,  two  years  later, 
Asbury  and  Whatcoat  ordained  preachers.  The  General 
often  conducted  services,  frequently  reading  a  Wesley 
sermon.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Providence  Peace 
Society.  As  a  businessman  he  built  the  third  cotton  mill 
in  Rhode  Island. 

General  Lippitt  was  married  to  Waite  Harris  on  March 
23,  1777.  They  had  twelve  children.  On  June  17,  1824, 
he  died  in  Cranston,  where  his  house  still  stands. 


Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 


Ernest  R.  Case 


LIPSCOMB,  WILLIAM  CORRIE  (1792-1879),  American 
advocate  of  reform  and  modification  in  M.  E.  church 
government,  and  a  prominent  leader  in  the  establishment 
of  the  M.  P.  Church,  was  bom  Sept.  13,  1792,  in  King 
William  County,  Va.,  and  grew  up  in  Georgetown,  D.  C. 
He  joined  the  M.  E.  Church  and  took  an  active  role  in 
church  work.  He  attended  the  Convention  of  Methodist 
Reformers  from  Maryland  and  the  District  of  Columbia 
in  Baltimore  in  November  1826,  and  came  to  be  an 
outstanding  member  of  the  General  Convention  of  re- 
formers which  met  on  Nov.  12,  1828,  also  in  Baltimore. 
It  was  Lipscomb  who  offered  the  resolution  calling  for 
the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  prepare  a  "Constitution 
and  Discipline"  to  be  submitted  to  the  General  Convention 
in  Baltimore  in  November  1830.  Because  he  attended  the 
convention,  he  was  stripped  of  all  his  official  positions  in 
the  M.  E.  Church.  In  June  1829,  he  was  licensed  to 
exhort  in  the  M.  P.  Church;  he  was  licensed  to  preach  in 
October  1829,  and  was  ordained  a  deacon  in  1832.  He 
was  one  of  the  founders  in  1832  of  the  Ninth  Street  M.  P. 
Church  in  Washington,  then  a  station  in  the  Maryland 
Conference.  At  the  request  of  the  quarterly  conference, 
he  was  placed  "in  charge  of  the  society"  until  a  pastor  was 
appointed  in  1833.  He  was  secretary  of  the  Convention 
of  1830  and  of  the  General  Conference  of  1834,  and 
was  a  member  of  the  General  Conferences  of  1838,  1842, 
1850  and  served  as  President  of  the  General  Conference 
that  met  in  May  1858,  at  Lynchburg,  Va.  Despite  Presi- 
dent Lipscomb's  efforts  to  prevent  a  split  at  this  confer- 
ence, the  M.  P.  conferences  divided  bitterly  over  the  issue 
of  slavery.  He  was  a  member  and  served  as  temporary 
chairman  of  the  convention  which  met  in  Montgomery, 
Ala.,  on  May  7,  1867.  He  served  as  a  lay  delegate  to  the 
Maryland  Conference  in  1840,  1844,  1845,  1850,  1853. 
1859,  1861  and  1865  and  was  Chairman  of  the  Electoral 
College  which  met  in  Philadelphia  in  April  1858.  He  was 
often  a  contributor  to  The  Methodist  Protestant,  the  of- 
ficial church  periodical,  where  he  exhibited  "a  strong, 
logical  intellect  and  uncompromising  adherence  to  his 
convictions."  "As  a  preacher  he  was  clear,  forcible,  and 
tender,  though  his  close  attention  to  secular  pursuits  made 
his  ministrations  in  later  life  unfrequent."  One  of  his  sons, 
A.  A.   Lipscomb,  D.D.,   LL.D.    (1816-1890),  taught  for 


many  years  at  Vanderbilt  University  and  sei"ved  as  an 
unstationed  minister  to  the  M.  P.  Church  in  Montgomery, 
Ala. 

William  Corrie  Lipscomb  died  on  Dec.  6,  1879,  and 
was  buried  in  Oak  Hill  Cemetery  in  Washington,  D.  C. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1877. 

T.  H.  Colhouer,  Sketches  of  the  Founders.  1880. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

The  Methodist  Protestant,  May  16,  1928. 

Ralph  Habdee  Rives 

LITERATURE,  BRITISH  METHODISM  IN.  A  short  entry  on 
this  theme  cannot  attempt  to  be  exhaustive  nor  to  dis- 
tinguish finally  between  enduring  literature  and  mere 
mention  in  print.  Not  even  all  the  works  of  John  and 
Charles  Wesley  would  qualify  for  this  former  category, 
but  certainly  John  Wesley's  Journal  and  a  number  of  the 
hymns  by  John  and  Charles  and  a  few  of  their  followers 
should  be  included.  The  hymns  have  their  own  reference; 
the  Journal  is  an  unequaled  picture  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  of  the  birth  and  growth  of  a  movement  during 
fifty  years  of  heroic  missionary  travel.  With  these  should 
certainly  be  mentioned  Robert  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley 
(1820),  the  first  of  the  biographies  to  win  a  place  in 
literature,  though  some  of  the  Lives  of  Early  Methodist 
Preachers  (collected  edition,  1837-38)  have  their  own 
claims  to  remembrance. 

Apart  from  these,  Methodism  made  its  first  appearance 
in  English  literature  through  numerous  satirical  and  un- 
flattering references  in  the  works  of  novelists  and  drama- 
tists. George  Whitefield  was  much  more  target  of 
caricature  than  the  Wesleys  at  this  stage,  notably  in  Field- 
ing's Tom  Jones  (1749)  and  in  Samuel  Foote's  play, 
The  Minor  ( 1769 ) .  More  general  accounts  of  Methodist 
conversions  are  given  in  Richard  Graves'  Spiritual  Quixote 
(1773)  and  Smollett's  Humphrey  Clinker  (1771).  Horace 
Walpole's  Letters  contain  a  brief  description  of  Wesley 
as  a  preacher  ("wondrous  clean  ...  as  evidently  an  actor 
as  Garrick"),  and  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson  includes  the 
doctor's  famous  complaint  that  John  Wesley  could  talk 
well  on  many  subjects  but  was  never  at  leisure.  George 
Crabbe  in   The  Borough  describes   a  Methodist  sermon. 

In  the  novels  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  distinguish  whether  Methodism  is  referred  to  or 
some  other  evangelical  Dissenting  body.  Those  which 
cannot  be  identified  are  therefore  omitted.  The  Dissenting 
pastors  of  both  Dickens  and  Thackeray,  for  instance,  are 
caricatures  of  anonymous  denomination  who  have  had  a 
long  progeny  in  the  English  novel,  through  H.  G.  Wells 
and  J.  B.  Priestley  right  into  our  own  time.  But  among 
more  definite  references,  Jane  Austen  makes  Mary  Craw- 
ford in  Mansfield  Park  (1815)  assign  the  clergyman  hero 
slightingly  to  "some  great  company  of  Methodists,"  and 
Disraeli  mentions  Methodism  not  unsympathetically  in 
Sybil  (1845).  With  the  Brontes,  however,  we  are  on  firmer 
ground;  the  references  are  those  of  familiarity.  G.  Elsie 
Harrison  has  pointed  out  that  Emily's  picture  in  Wuther- 
ing  Heights  (1847)  of  the  Rev.  Jabes  Branderham  is 
certainly  inspired  by  the  celebrated  Jabez  Bunting;  and 
the  revival  at  Briarmains  Chapel  represents,  from  the 
outside,  something  that  was  well-known  or  remembered  in 
the  West  Riding.  Charlotte  Bronte  makes  unmistakable 
and  unflattering  comments  about  Methodism  in  both 
Shirley  (1849)  and  Villette  (1853),  and  the  former  novel 
has  the  unforgettable  saga  of  the  clash  between  the  church 


LITERATURE   OF   DEVOTION 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


and  chapel  Sunday  school  processions.  Mrs.  Gaskell,  as 
befits  the  wife  of  a  Dissenting  minister,  is  gentler,  both 
in  her  vivid  account  of  Wesley's  friend.  Parson  Grimshaw 
of  Haworth  (Life  of  Charlotte  Bronte,  1857),  and  in 
her  amusing  account  of  a  Methodist  proposal  of  marriage 
in  Ruth  (1853). 

But  the  most  important  presentation  of  Methodism  in 
nineteenth-century  literature  is  undoubtedly  that  of 
George  Eliot  in  Adam  Bedc  (1859).  Here  for  the  first 
time  in  fiction  Methodists  are  fully  and  sympathetically 
shown;  both  Seth  Rede  and  Dinah  Mohbis  are  drawn 
from  life,  and  Dinah's  preaching  on  the  green  and  mission 
to  the  condemned  girl  are  based  on  actual  happenings  in 
the  life  of  George  Eliot's  remarkable  Methodist  aunt, 
Elizabeth  T.  Evans. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  refer- 
ences in  novels  become  more  numerous,  including  many 
of  little  literary  value,  now  forgotten.  Among  the  more 
memorable  are  those  in  Arnold  Bennett's  novels  of  the 
Five  Towns  (e.g..  The  Old  Wives'  Tale,  1908);  these  are 
based  on  a  close  and  critical  acquaintance  with  respectable 
Victorian  chapel  going  in  the  industrial  towns.  After  this 
the  task  of  distinguishing  between  ephemeral  and  endur- 
ing literature  becomes  difficult,  and  only  a  few  pointers 
can  be  given.  Among  others,  references  of  varying  length 
and  interest  can  be  found  in  the  works  of  Quiller-Couch 
(Hetty  Wesley),  John  Buchan  (Midwinter) ,  Sheila  Kaye- 
Smith,  Howard  Spring  (Fame  is  the  Spur,  And  Another 
Thing),  Joyce  Gary,  Robert  Graves,  etc.  In  biography, 
the  unhappy  reminiscenses  of  Peter  Fletcher  (The  Long 
Sunday,  1958)  may  be  added  to  M.  K.  Ashby's  picture  of 
a  nearly  vanished  village  Methodism  in  Joseph  Ashby  of 
Tysoe  ( 1961 )  and  Herbert  Palmer's  account  of  a  manse 
childhood  in  The  Mistletoe  Child  (1935).  Early  Meth- 
odism's lack  of  educational  privilege  is  reflected  through- 
out this  summary,  in  the  dearth  of  specific  dramatic  or 
poetic  references,  if  we  exclude,  as  before,  the  possible 
evangelical  references  in  poems  by  Browning  and  Mase- 
field.  Perhaps  the  most  famous  certain  reference  in  drama 
is  W.  S.  Gilbert's  to  the  King  of  Barataria,  who  influenced 
the  whole  plot  of  The  Gondoliers  (1889)  by  becoming 
"a  Wesleyan  Methodist  of  the  most  bigoted  and  persecut- 
ing type." 

MORW^NNA  R.  BlELBY 

LITERATURE  OF  DEVOTION.   (See  Devotion,  The  Life 

AND  LlTER.\TURE  OF.  ) 

LITHUANIA.  (See  Baltic  States.) 

LI  T'lEN-LU    (1886-  ),  educator,  was  bom  in  Taian, 

Shantung  province,  China,  and  was  educated  at  Peking 
University  and  Vanderbilt  University,  where  he  re- 
ceived his  Ph.D.  in  1916.  He  was  successively  principal  of 
Peking  Academy,  and  dean,  vice-president  and  president 
of  Cheeloo  University.  From  1930  until  1950,  when  he 
retired,  he  was  dean  of  Nanking  Theological  Seminary. 
(See  Handel  Lee.) 

Dr.  Li  was  Secretary  of  the  Chinese  delegation  at  the 
Washington  Conference  of  1922,  and  was  awarded  the 
Fourth  Order  of  Chia-ho  in  recognition  of  his  services. 
He  was  the  author  of  Congressional  Policy  in  Relation  to 
Chinese  Immigration. 

He  is  retired  and  living  in  Shanghai,  but  continues  as 


a  member  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  Nanking  Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

China  Christian  Yearbook,  1936-37. 

Who's  Who  in  Modern  China,  1954.  Francis  P.  Jones 


LITTLE,  CHARLES  JOSEPH  (1840-1911),  American  clergy- 
man and  college  professor,  was  bom  at  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
Sept.  9,  1840.  The  University  of  Pennsylvania  awarded 
him  the  A.B.  in  1861  and  the  A.M.  in  1864.  After  be- 
ginning his  ministry  in  the  M.  E.  Church  as  a  member 
of  the  P^il.\delphia  Conference,  he  spent  the  academic 
year  1870-1871  in  study  at  the  University  of  Berlin.  Dur- 
ing this  period  of  study  he  met  Anna  Marina  Schultze, 
whom  he  married  Dec.  3,  1872.  To  this  union  four  chil- 
dren, a  son  and  three  daughters,  were  bom. 

After  continued  service  in  the  Methodist  ministry  fol- 
lowing his  study  abroad,  he  became  professor  of  mathe- 
matics in  Dickinson  Seminary.  After  two  years  of  teaching, 
he  returned  to  the  pastorate,  but  before  a  year  had  passed 
he  was  back  at  Dickinson  College  as  professor  of 
philosophy  and  history.  After  eleven  years  (1874-1885) 
in  this  position,  he  became  professor  of  logic  and  history  at 
Syracuse  University  and  continued  there  until  1891. 

With  this  somewhat  unusual  background,  Charles 
Joseph  Little  became  professor  of  historical  theology  at 
Garrett  Biblical  Institute  in  1891.  Four  years  later 
he  was  made  president  of  the  school  though  this  election, 
fortunately  for  several  generations  of  students,  did  not 
mean  that  he  ceased  to  teach.  He  continued  this  dual  role 
of  teacher  and  administrator  until  his  death  in   1911. 

Technically,  Little  was  not  a  trained  theologian  but  he 
was  in  a  very  real  way  a  comprehensive  scholar  and 
this  masterful  ability  served  him  in  good  stead  in  those 
turbulent  days  when  faculties  and  church  conferences 
were  often  involved  in  bitter  controversy  over  the  issues 
of  science,  especially  evolution  and  the  higher  criticism  in 
biblical  studies.  If  he  did  not  enjoy  a  good  fight,  he  did 
not  shrink  from  controversy.  He  once  said  to  the  writer, 
"I  do  not  know  much  Hebrew"  (as  a  linguist,  he  did 
know  Greek,  Latin,  Italian,  German  and  French),  but 
he  added  defiantly,  "I  do  know  enough  Hebrew  so  that 
these  experts  cannot  bamboozle  me."  An  intimate  col- 
league said  this  about  him:  "He  appeared  to  be  an  in- 
exhaustible fountain  of  information,  giving  the  impression 
of  encyclopedic  knowledge  available  at  a  moments 
notice." 

Delegates  to  the  several  M.  E.  General  Conferences 
to  which  he  was  elected  promptly  recognized  him  as  one 
who  could  state  the  reason  for  the  faith  that  was  in  him 
promptly  and  vigorously.  His  leadership  in  American  Meth- 
odism at  home  was  recognized  by  British  Methodism  in 
an  invitation  to  give  the  celebrated  Feknley  Lecture 
in  1900.  In  addition  to  the  published  Femley  Lecture,  we 
have  Christianity  and  the  Nineteenth  Century,  The  Angel 
and  the  Flame,  a  volume  of  sermons,  and  Biographical  and 
Literary  Studies.  The  contents  of  this  last  volume  rep- 
resent the  wide  range  of  his  scholarship.  There  are 
essays  entitled:  The  Apostle  Paul,  Hildebrand,  Dante, 
Savonarola,  Galileo,  Ibsen,  The  Place  of  Christ  in  Modem 
Thought,  etc.  Eight  of  his  addresses  are  printed  in  the 
memorial  volume  edited  by  his  successor,  Charles 
Macauley  Stuart.  His  address  on  Lincoln  at  the  cen- 
tennial of  that  man's  birth  deserves  perpetuation  as  a 
model  of  character  analysis  and  oratory  at  its  best. 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Little   served    the    church    in    the    Philadelphia    and 
Rock  River  Conferences.  He  died  March  11,  1911. 

Horace  Gbeeley  Smith 


LITTLE  ROCK,  ARKANSAS,  U.S.A.,  is  the  capital  of  and 
is  situated  in  the  center  of  the  state  on  the  Arkansas  River. 
In  1970  the  city  had  a  population  of  128,880.  The  city 
has  registered  a  rapid  growth  in  industry  and  new  business 
in  recent  years.  Although  predominately  agricultural,  the 
city  is  also  the  seat  of  a  large  number  of  home  offices  for 
insurance  companies  and  other  firms.  Its  cultural  and 
educational  growth  is  reflected  in  Little  Rock  University, 
the  Arkansas  Arts  Center,  and  various  historical  museums 
and  sites. 

There  are  17,939  members  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church  in  Little  Rock.  The  A.M.E.  Church  and  the 
C.M.E.  Church  also  have  representative  bodies. 

The  office  of  the  Bishop  of  the  Arkansas  Area  and 
Area  Headquarters  are  located  here.  The  Arkansas  Meth- 
odist Children's  Home  is  situated  in  the  western  part  of 
the  city.  Philander  Smith  College,  a  Methodist  institu- 
tion, is  near  the  heart  of  the  downtown  area.  Camp 
Aldersgate,  operated  by  the  Board  of  Missions  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church,  lies  just  outside  the  city. 

First  Church,  "The  Cathedral  of  Arkansas  Methodism," 
is  the  mid-city  church  of  Little  Rock  and  houses  the 
office  of  the  Bishop  of  the  Arkansas  Area.  The  church 
was  organized  in  1831,  five  years  before  Arkansas  was 
admitted  as  a  state  into  the  LTnion.  It  has  occupied  three 
buildings  in  its  135-year  history;  the  first  was  a  small 
brick  chapel  built  in  1836.  The  ground  on  which  the 
present  church  stands  was  purchased  in  1879  and  a 
stately  brick  structure  then  erected.  This  building  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  1895.  A  new  red  brick  building  (seat- 
ing 1,000)  was  erected  in  1899  and  is  still  in  use.  In 
1951  a  $500,000  educational  building  was  completed. 
Usually  general  sessions  of  the  Arkansas  Area  of  The 
Methodist  Church  are  held  in  First  Church.  During  the 
Civil  War  the  pastor,  Richard  Colbum  Butler,  was  de- 
posed by  Federal  authorities  and  a  minister  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  placed  in  charge  for  a  brief  period. 

In  1958  all  property  on  the  block  was  purchased  for 
future  expansion,  together  with  a  large  parking  lot  across 
the  street.  An  activities  building  contains  a  gymnasium, 
recreation  rooms.  Boy  Scout  room,  craft  department,  and 
other  facilities  for  serving  all  ages  in  a  weekday  down- 
town program. 

Three  former  pastors  of  First  Church  have  been  elected 
to  the  office  of  bishop:  H.  Bascom  Watts,  William  C. 
Martin,  and  Aubrey  G.  Walton,  the  latter  being  elected 
in  1960  when  serving  as  pastor.  With  a  staff  of  thirteen 
persons,  including  three  ordained  ministers,  and  a  mem- 
bership of  2,646,  First  Church  continues  as  a  vital  force 
in  the  city  of  Little  Rock,  and  in  its  laity  furnishes  some 
of  the  prominent  leaders  in  civic  and  business  affairs  in 
the  state  and  city.  Three  governors  of  the  state  have 
been  members  of  the  congregation.  The  church  also  serves 
parishioners  residing  in  every  section  of  Little  Rock, 
North  Little  Rock,  and  many  in  Pulaski  County. 

The  church  has  assisted  in  the  organization  of  a  large 
number  of  new  Methodist  congregations  in  the  city,  and 
has  supported  them  financially  and  by  supplying  members. 

Miles  Chapel  was  organized  under  the  leadership  of 
her  first  pastor,  John  Peyton,  before  the  C.  M.  E.  Church 
was  born  (1870). 


LITTLE   ROCK,   ARKANSAS 


Miles  Chapel  C.M.E.,  Little  Rock,  Arkansas 

In  the  church's  infancy  it  was  denominationally  in- 
dependent. Bishop  W.  H.  Miles  took  the  congregation 
into  the  C.  M.  E.  Church  in  July  1873,  and  named  it 
Miles  Chapel. 

Miles  Chapel  was  host  to  the  C.  M.  E.  General  Con- 
ference of  1890.  It  is  the  oldest  C.  M.  E.  Church  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  Miles  Chapel  has  always  housed  the  mem- 
bers in  a  brick  church.  It  has  had  three  locations:  3rd 
and  Ferry;  5th  and  Rector;  and  5th  and  Bender,  the 
present  site. 

Pulaski  Heights  Church  is  the  largest  Methodist  church 
in  membership  in  the  state  of  Arkansas.  Needing  a  church 
in  the  rolling  hills  section  of  western  Little  Rock,  Pulaski 
Heights  was  organized  in  1912.  The  church  grew  rapidly 
and  as  early  as  1923  it  became  apparent  that  additional 
facilities  would  be  needed.  The  depression  and  World  War 
II  prevented  the  congregation  from  carrying  out  plans  for 
a  new  building,  but  in  1948  plans  were  put  out  for  bids 
for  a  beautiful  Gothic  church.  The  bids  far  exceeded  all 
expectations  and  the  Board  gloomily  faced  the  prospect 
of  further  delay  in  achieving  the  dream  of  this  congrega- 
tion; then  the  voice  of  one  woman  stood  out  as  she  said, 
"A  church  is  not  built  with  dollars  and  cents,  a  church 
is  built  with  faith!  ...  I  move  we  begin  construction 
immediately."  Today  the  church  stands  just  three  blocks 
from  the  original  building,  ministering  to  the  children, 
youth  and  adults  in  this  section  of  the  city.  To  the 
sanctuary  have  been  added  an  educational  building  and  a 
youth  building.  Church  school  classes  meet  during  the 
week  as  well  as  on  Sunday.  Family  night  programs;  a 
Mothers'  Day  Out  each  week,  where  young  children  are 
cared  for  in  the  church  as  mother  has  a  day  out;  a  choir 
program  for  all  ages;  a  community  service  program  called 
"opportunities  for  action,"  and  many  other  weekday  as 
well  as  Sunday  programs  make  this  church  a  vital  part 
of  Methodism. 

Full  or  part  time  support  is  given  to  missionaries  serv- 
ing Hong  Kong  and  Okinawa.  The  T.  J.  and  Inez  Raney 
lectures  given  each  May  in  the  church  bring  distinguished 
ministers  to  the  city  of  Little  Rock  to  enrich  and  revitalize 
the  spiritual  and  cultural  life  of  the  community.  Many 
young  men  have  gone  from  this  church  to  serve  as  min- 
isters and  today  are  giving  outstanding  leadership  to  The 
United  Methodist  Church. 


LITTLE   ROCK    CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Pulaski  Heights  Church  has  had  a  great  past  and  looks 
to  the  future  with  an  effective  approach  to  programming 
related  to  our  world  today.  Its  1970  membership  was 
3,957. 


II.  Jewell,  Arkansas.  1892. 


Robert  E.  L.  Bearden 


LITTLE  ROCK  CONFERENCE  was  created  in  1866  by 
changing  the  name  of  the  Ouachita  Conference.  No 
mergers,  divisions,  or  rearrangement  of  conference  bound- 
aries were  involved.  The  Little  Rock  Conference  covers 
the  south  half  of  the  state  of  Arkansas.  (See  Arkansas 
for  history  of  early  Methodism  in  state. ) 

It  was  said  jokingly  that  the  name  of  the  Ouachita  Con- 
ference was  changed  because  the  preachers  did  not  know 
how  to  spell  it,  but  the  real  reason  was  the  decreasing 
influence  of  streams  in  the  lives  of  the  people  and  the 
rising  importance  of  cities.  The  first  three  conferences  in 
Arkansas — Arkansas,  Ouachita,  and  White  River — were 
named  for  rivers.  By  1914  all  of  the  river  names  had 
disappeared.  Little  Rock  was  not  only  the  capital  city, 
it  was  and  still  is  the  chief  metropolis  in  the  state.  Many 
conferences  were  and  still  are  named  for  the  largest  city 
within  their  boundaries,  and  most  of  the  episcopal  areas 
of  the  church  today  are  identified  by  the  names  of  the 
cities  in  which  the  bishops  reside. 

The  church  at  Washington,  ten  miles  west  of  Hope,  is 
historically  important.  The  Washington  Male  and  Female 
Academy  flourished  in  Washington  for  fifteen  years  before 
the  Civil  War,  and  the  town  itself  served  as  the  capital 
of  Arkansas  during  the  last  two  years  of  that  conflict. 
Methodism  was  established  in  the  vicinity  of  Washington 
in  1817  by  William  Stevenson,  a  local  preacher  from 
Missouri.  Washington  was  the  center  from  which  Meth- 
odism first  made  its  way  into  both  Texas  and  Oklahoma. 
The  Washington  Church  was  organized  in  1822,  and  its 
present  building,  a  large  well  preserved  colonial  style 
edifice,  was  erected  in  1860.  The  conference  historical 
society  has  published  a  pamphlet  on  the  church,  and  it 
has  assisted  the  congregation  with  the  renovation  of  the 
building  and  restoration  of  original  fixtures.  The  church 
has  been  recommended  for  designation  as  a  historical 
landmark  or  shrine  in  the  denomination. 

The  Methodist  Children's  home  in  Little  Rock  is  sup- 
ported by  both  Arkansas  Conferences.  The  Arkansas 
Methodist,  long  the  official  paper  for  Arkansas  Methodism, 
is  published  in  that  city. 

When  created  in  1866  the  Little  Rock  Conference  had 
about  fifty-one  appointments  and  approximately  7,000 
church  members.  In  1970,  the  conference  had  173  pastoral 
charges,  83,758  members,  and  its  churches,  parsonages, 
and  other  property  were  valued  at  more  than  $34,824,683. 

J.  A.  Anderson,  Arkansas  Methodism.  1936. 

S.  T.  Baugh  &  R.  B.  Moore,  Jr.,  Methodism's  Gateway  to  the 

Southwest  (Pamphlet).  Little  Rock:  Epworth  Press,  1966. 

Minutes  of  Little  Rock  Conference. 

W.  N.  Vernon,  William  Stevenson,  1964.        Albea  Godbold 

LITTLEJOHN,  JOHN  (1756-1836),  pioneer  American 
preacher,  was  bom  in  Penrith,  Cumberland  County,  En- 
gland, Dec.  7,  1756.  Emigrating  with  his  family  to 
America  about  1767,  he  was  awakened  under  the  ministry 
of  John  King  in  Maryland  in  1774. 

Entering  the  conference  in  1777,  he  traveled  two  years 
and  then  married,  returning  to  the  local  ranks.  After 
location  he  settled  in  Leesburg,  Va.,  and  remained  there 


until  1819,  when  he  moved  to  Louis\ille,  Ky.  Later 
Littlejohn  went  to  Warren  County  and  finally  to  Logan 
County,  Ky.  In  1831  he  was  readmitted  to  the  Baltimore 
Conference,  transferred  to  the  Kentucky  Conference, 
and  was  placed  on  the  superannuate  list,  where  he  re- 
mained until  his  death. 

As  early  as  1775  Littlejohn,  while  traveling  from  An- 
napolis to  Montgomery  County,  Md.,  was  taken  before 
a  magistrate  for  not  having  a  pass.  He  was  opposed  to  the 
oath  required  by  Virgini.\  and  Maryland  during  the 
Revolutionary  War,  The  Maryland  oath  was  obnoxious  to 
both  pro-British  and  pro-American  persons.  Later  he 
escaped  being  tarred  and  feathered  because  a  magistrate 
protected  him. 

Only  a  few  American  ministers  were  as  able  as  Little- 
john in  his  day.  During  his  brief  itinerancy  he  was  one  of 
the  most  efficient  and  useful  pastors.  Noted  for  his  in- 
tellectual ability,  piety,  and  devotion  to  the  church,  thou- 
sands were  converted  under  his  eloquent  preaching. 

He  earned  a  name  for  himself  in  the  national  annals 
when  in  the  War  of  1812,  President  James  Madison — 
who  had  to  flee  Washington — committed  to  Littlejohn 
the  original  Declaration  of  Independence  and  other  price- 
less documents  for  safekeeping. 

Littlejohn  died  on  May  13,  1836,  during  the  General 
Conference. 

W.  E.  Arnold,  Kentucky.  1935-36. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

G.  H.  Jones,  Guidebook.  1966. 

Journal  of  the  General  Conference,  1836.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

LITTLETON  FEMALE  COLLEGE,  Littleton,  N.  C,  opened  in 
January  1882,  as  Central  Institute  for  Young  Ladies.  In 
the  following  month  it  was  chartered  by  the  General 
Assembly  of  North  Carolina  when  Littleton  civic  leaders 
formed  a  corporation  to  operate  the  school  "for  the  in- 
tellectual, moral  and  religious  development  and  training 
of  young  ladies. "  A  number  of  substantial  three-story 
frame  buildings  were  erected  on  the  grounds  of  the  Col- 
lege. The  charter  was  amended  in  1888  to  change  the 
name  of  the  institution  to  Littleton  Female  College.  In 
1912  the  "Female"  was  dropped  from  the  name,  although 
only  women  continued  to  be  admitted. 

In  1889,  James  Manly  Rhodes,  who,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  two  years,  was  President  of  the  College  during  its 
entire  history,  purchased  Littleton  Female  College  from 
its  stockholders  and  immediately  began  an  extensive  pro- 
gram of  improvements.  In  the  administration  of  the  Col- 
lege, Rhodes  was  assisted  by  a  faculty  and  staff  note- 
worthy for  their  character,  ability  and  scholarship.  Little- 
ton College  offered  a  wide  variety  of  courses.  In  addition 
to  the  Preparatory  Department,  there  was  a  Training 
School  for  nurses,  a  Practice  and  Observation  School  for 
prospective  teachers,  and  a  Business  School. 

A  natural  result  of  Rhodes'  affiliation  with  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  was  a  strong  religious  influence  at  Little- 
ton College.  Special  emphasis  was  placed  on  religious 
training  and  on  the  formation  and  growth  of  character. 
Bible  was  a  required  course  for  every  student.  As  a  result 
of  the  religious  atmosphere  which  characterized  the 
academic  program  and  due  to  the  moderate  tuition  fees 
charged,  many  daughters  of  itinerant  Methodist  ministers 
attended  Littleton  College.  The  College  was  enthusiasti- 
cally endorsed  by  resolutions  passed  at  the  annual  con- 
ferences  of  the   M.   E.   Church,   South,   and  the  North 


WORLD   METHODfSM 


LIVERPOOL,    ENGLAND 


Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.  P.  Church.  News  of 
College  activities  frequently  appeared  in  The  Raleigh 
Christian  Advocate  and  The  North  Carolina  Christian 
Advocate.  The  Charter  provided  that  all  bequests  and 
donations  were  to  become  the  property  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South.  A  large  number  of  alumnae  became  teach- 
ers in  North  Carolina's  public  schools  and  in  various 
colleges.  Many  former  students  entered  the  foreign  mis- 
sion field.  The  editor  of  The  Raleigh  Christian  Advocate 
once  observed  that  from  Littleton  College  were  "going 
forth  positive  moral,  mental  and  social  influences  which 
must  play  an  important  part  in  developing  the  Christian 
womanhood  of  the  South." 

The  college  enrollment  was  impressive  with  more  than 
200  students  attending  each  session  for  many  years.  There 
were  274  students  enrolled  in  1907.  Covernor  Charles  B. 
Aycock,  North  Carolina's  famous  educational  governor, 
was  a  trustee  of  Littleton  Female  College;  it  was  the  only 
educational  institution  except  the  University  of  North 
Carolina  of  which  he  served  as  trustee. 

Fire  destroyed  the  Littleton  College  buildings  on  the 
night  of  Jan.  22,  1919,  with  a  loss  estimated  in  excess  of 
$50,000.  Due  to  his  advanced  age  and  poor  health,  and 
the  fact  tliat  the  College  was  not  endowed.  President 
Rhodes  decided  not  to  replace  the  buildings  and  Littleton 
College  closed. 

The  Littleton  College  Memorial  Association  was  or- 
ganized in  1927  by  alumnae  and  friends  of  the  former 
college  who  have  met  annually  since  then  to  keep  alive 
the  spirit  and  work  of  the  college.  At  the  annual  meeting 
in  July  1961,  held  at  Pullen  Park,  Raleigh,  N.  C,  President 
Thomas  A.  Collins  of  North  Carolina  Wesleyan  Col- 
lege, Rocky  Mount,  N.  C,  extended  an  invitation  to  the 
members  of  the  Association  to  meet  in  the  following  July 
on  the  grounds  of  the  new  Methodist  college  which  serves 
the  same  general  area  as  that  of  Littleton  College.  "North 
Carolina  Wesleyan  College  is  in  a  very  real  sense  a 
spiritual  outgrowth  of  Littleton  College,"  stated  President 
Collins,  and  noted  that  the  flame  lighted  by  the  earlier 
institution  was  still  very  much  alive.  He  invited  the 
alumnae  of  Littleton  College  to  consider  themselves  the 
first  "alumni  organization"  of  the  new  college.  Annual 
reunions  since  1961  have  been  held  at  North  Carolina 
Wesleyan  College. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives,  "Littleton  Female  College,"  The  North 
Carolina  Historical  Review,  XXXIX  (July,  1962),  363-377;  see, 
also.  The  Littleton  College  Memorial  Collection,  North  Carolina 
Wesleyan  College  and  in  The  Southern  Historical  Collection, 
University  of  North  Carolina,  and  North  Carolina  Wesleyan 
College  Bulletin,  1965-1966,  pp.  85-86. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

LITTLETON  COLLEGE  MEMORIAL  COLLECTION,  Rocky 
Mount,  N.  C,  U.S.A.,  is  an  extensive  collection  of  memo- 
rabilia of  the  former  Littleton  Female  College.  In  1960 
the  Littleton  College  Memorial  Association  (organized  in 
1927)  voted  to  establish  a  Littleton  College  Memorial 
Collection  of  books  to  be  presented  to  the  library  of  the 
new  North  Carolina  Wesleyan  College  at  Rocky 
Mount.  In  addition  to  these  resource  books,  material  con- 
sisting of  catalogues,  annuals,  literary  magazines,  literary 
society  pins,  diplomas,  numerous  photographs  and  clip- 
pings and  various  other  items  specifically  associated  with 
the  history  of  Littleton  Female  College  was  assembled. 
This  collection  was  presented  to  the  North  Carolina  Wes- 
leyan College  Library  and  duplicates  were  placed  in  the 


Southern  Historical  Collection  in  the  library  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  North  Carolina,  Chapel  Hill. 

Tlie  Association  has  also  established  the  Vara  L.  Her- 
ring Scholarship  at  Scarritt  College  and  the  Littleton 
College  Memorial  Loan  Fund  at  North  Carolina  Wesleyan 
College. 

The  Littleton  College  Memorial  Collection  is  a  valuable 
assemblage  of  information  for  the  researcher  interested  in 
the  history  and  development  of  education  in  the  late 
Victorian  era  and  the  early  twentieth  century. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives,  "Littleton  Female  College,"  The  North 
Carolina  Historical  Review,  XXXIX  (July,  1962),  363-377; 
see,  also.  The  Litdeton  College  Memorial  Collection,  North 
Carolina  Wesleyan  College  and  in  the  Southern  Historical  Col- 
lection, University  of  North  Carolina,  Chapel  Hill. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

LIVERMORE,  MELVA  A.  (1869-1941),  was  a  missionary 
in  India  appointed  by  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  She  was  born  in  Chanton 
County,  Mo.,  April  9,  1869,  and  was  educated  in  North- 
western University  (B.A.  )  and  Columbia  University 
(M.A.). 

Miss  Livermore  was  outstanding  as  an  educator,  an 
evangelist,  and  a  worker  for  the  public  welfare.  She  began 
her  career  as  an  educator  in  Kansas  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
by  teaching  in  a  country  school.  She  pursued  her  own 
education  zealously,  graduating  and  taking  teacher's  train- 
ing. Going  to  India  in  1916,  she  served  as  principal  of  a 
girls'  boarding  school  in  Meerut  and  of  Ingraham  Institute 
in  Ghaziabad.  She  contributed  much  to  the  developments 
that  have  placed  both  of  those  institutions  in  the  front 
ranks  of  church  and  mission  schools.  The  former  is  now 
an  intermediate  college  for  girls,  and  the  latter  is  one  of 
India's  best  known  and  most  successful  vocational  high 
schools  and  centers  for  extension  education. 

As  an  evangehst,  she  often  spent  weeks  touring  by  ox 
cart  in  the  villages  without  returning  to  her  home.  Her 
associations  were  with  the  poor,  the  oppressed,  and  the 
illiterate.  She  established  and  supervised  many  primary 
day  schools  and  woman's  societies,  wrote  a  life  of  Christ 
in  simple  Hindustani  for  newly  literate  villagers,  and  en- 
tered into  the  life  of  those  humble  people  as  one  who 
delighted  to  serve. 

She  won  the  admiration  of  all  classes  and  was  ap- 
pointed a  member  of  the  municipal  board  of  Ghaziabad. 
She  retired  in  1936,  but  was  in  demand  as  a  speaker 
about  missions  and  people  in  India  until  her  death  on 
July  31,  1941. 

Journals  of  the  Northwest  India  and  Delhi  Conferences. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

LIVERPOOL,  England.  Methodism  was  bound  up  with  the 
rapid  growth  of  southwest  Lancashire  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  when  the  area  changed  from  a  county  of  few 
parishes  and  scattered  population  into  one  of  the  great- 
est manufacturing  centers  in  the  world.  The  city  of  Liver- 
pool grew  from  almost  nothing  at  the  same  swift  rate, 
and  most  of  the  people  who  built  Methodism  there  came 
from  outside.  John  Wesley  often  used  the  port,  and  the 
old  Lancashire  North  Circuit  dated  from  1766;  a  Liver- 
pool Circuit  first  appears  in  1771.  The  Liverpool  North 
and  Liverpool  South  Circuits  were  formed  in  1826,  though 
by  that  time  Mount  Pleasant  Chapel  had  long  been  built 
(1789)    and  also   Brunswick,  the  most   famous   of  these 


LIVERPOOL   MINUTES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


early  chapels.  This  was  the  scene  of  the  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference of  1820,  at  which  the  Liverpool  Minutes  were 
drawn  up,  to  remain,  with  alterations  made  in  1885  and 
1944,  the  standard  description  of  the  ideal  Methodist 
minister. 

The  advance  of  Methodism  was  interrupted  by  the 
controversies  of  1834-37.  Samuel  Warren  was  warmly 
supported  in  the  Liverpool  South  Circuit.  It  was  in  Liver- 
pool that  David  Rowland,  a  class  leader,  was  charged 
before  his  leaders'  meeting  with  "assisting  with  the  forma- 
tion of  a  certain  Association,"  and  with  taking  part  in 
public  meetings  to  advocate  its  views.  He  and  some  others 
were  e.xpelled  from  Wesleyan  Methodism  for  their  part 
in  this  agitation,  and  it  was  actually  at  a  meeting  in  Liver- 
pool that  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Association  was 
formed  and  its  constitution  adopted.  When  the  United 
Methodist  Church  was  formed  in  1907,  there  were  four 
circuits  in  Liverpool;  these  were  united  into  a  single  cir- 
cuit in  1929,  shortly  before  Methodist  Union  in   1932. 

As  for  Primitue  Methodism  in  Liverpool,  William 
Clowes  preached  in  the  city  in  1813,  but  does  not  seem 
to  have  established  any  regular  work.  When  John  Ride, 
another  Primitive  Methodist  itinerant,  preached  there  in 
1821,  he  was  arrested  by  a  civil  officer  and  lodged  in  the 
prison;  it  is  said  that  Adam  Clarke,  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist preacher,  intervened  with  the  magistrates  to  obtain 
his  release.  The  Tunstall  Circuit  was  missioning  Liverpool 
at  this  time;  and  through  the  preaching  of  James  Bonser, 
who  arrived  in  Liverpool  in  January  1822,  enough  prog- 
ress was  made  for  the  establishment  of  a  separate  Liver- 
pool circuit  in  1823. 

For  some  years  vigorous  Welsh  Methodist  churches 
(see  Wales)  were  found  on  Merseyside,  and  a  circuit 
seems  to  have  existed  as  far  back  as  1803.  There  was  large 
nineteenth-century  immigration  from  Wales,  and  so  a 
strong  group  of  societies  emerged,  which  were  for  a  time 
grouped  in  the  Liverpool  District  but  later  transferred 
to  the  First  North  Wales  District.  A  number  of  men  en- 
tered the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry  from  these 
churches,  including  the  grandfather  of  Hugh  Price 
Hughes.  Little  of  this  work  now  remains,  however.  The 
children  and  grandchildren  of  the  early  immigrants  have 
lost  the  Welsh  language;  they  attended  Enghsh  schools, 
married  into  English  families,  and  have  gradually  been 
assimilated  for  the  most  part  into  the  English  rehgious 
world.  The  future  would  seem  to  hold  little  promise  for 
this  part  of  Methodist  work. 

TTie  most  striking  figure  in  later  Liverpool  Methodism 
was  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  minister  Charles  Garrett, 
a  famous  early  leader  of  the  Methodist  teetotal  movement. 
He  became  the  first  superintendent  of  the  new  Liverpool 
Central  Mission,  an  offshoot  of  the  Forward  Movement, 
in  1882,  the  year  in  which  he  was  also  elected  president 
of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference.  He  remained  at 
Liverpool  until  his  death  in  1900,  and  made  the  mission 
the  center  of  Methodist  evangelism  and  social  work  in  the 
city. 

Liverpool  Methodism  suffered  badly  during  the  air 
raids  made  on  Merseyside  during  the  Second  World  War. 
Churches  were  damaged  or  destroyed;  the  dispersal  of 
population  affected  the  older  churches,  for  many  people 
never  returned  to  their  old  homes  and  did  not  pick  up  the 
threads  of  their  old  religious  lives.  After  the  war  an  ex- 
tensive building  program  had  to  be  undertaken  to  restore 
damaged  churches  and  to  build  new  ones,  and  to  put 
new  churches  on  the  large  housing  estates  which  were  a 


feature  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  area.  All  the  same, 
it  may  be  said  that  Liverpool  has  suffered  less  than  many 
other  areas  of  the  industrial  North  from  the  general 
religious  decline  of  the  past  fifty  years.  Careful  planning 
of  the  work  and  tlie  redeployment  of  the  ministry  have 
helped  to  relate  the  church  afresh  to  the  town  and  sur- 
rounding country.  A  regular  .service  has  been  set  up  to 
meet  all  immigrants  entering  the  port.  In  1954  one  of 
the  first  Methodist  International  Houses  was  opened  for 
overseas  students;  this  has  been  enlarged  and  two  other 
hostels  have  been  added.  A  former  missionary  is  presently 
employed  among  the  large  West  Indian  population  in  the 
city.  Unlike  many  other  districts,  Liverpool  has  been  able 
to  report  some  increase  of  membership  in  the  years  since 
1945. 

Gilberthorpe  Harrison 

LIVERPOOL  MINUTES.  At  the  British  Wesleyan  Method- 
ist Liverpool  Conference  of  1820  a  decrease  in  the  mem- 
bership of  the  connection  was  reported  for  the  first  time 
since  annual  returns  of  membership  had  been  instituted. 
Moved  by  a  sense  of  responsibility,  the  preachers  passed 
a  series  of  resolutions,  pledging  themselves  to  renewed 
devotion  to  their  pastoral  and  preaching  duties.  These 
were  known  as  the  'Liverpool  Minutes,'  and  it  was  di- 
rected that  they  should  be  read  in  every  May  Synod  and 
once  a  year  in  a  meeting  of  the  ministers  in  every  circuit. 
In  1885  the  'Resolutions  on  Pastoral  Work'  were  sub- 
stituted, but  the  bulk  of  the  earlier  document  was  re- 
tained. 

W,  L.  Doughty 

LIVES  OF  EARLY  METHODIST  PREACHERS.  John  Wesley 
required  of  his  preachers  that  they  set  down  an  account 
of  their  "call  to  preach  and  present  religious  experience," 
a  practice  which  survives  in  the  public  testimony  of 
candidates  for  ordination.  Many  of  these  accounts  were 
printed  in  the  Arminian  Magazine.  As  connexional  editor, 
Tho.mas  Jackson  compiled  a  selection  of  thirty-seven  of 
them  under  the  title  The  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preach- 
ers (3  vols.,  1837-38).  In  the  third  edition  (6  vols., 
1865-66),  he  added  an  introductory  essay  and  four  addi- 
tional hves.  A  later  connexional  editor,  John  Telford, 
published  a  two-volume  annotated  selection  of  thirteen 
of  the  lives  under  the  title  Wesley's  Veterans  ( 1909 ) ,  to 
which  subsequently  (1912-14)  he  added  five  more  vol- 
umes containing  twenty-three  additional  lives.  A  table 
correlating  Telford's  seven-volume  arrangement  with 
Jackson's  six  is  given  in  Proceedings  of  the  Wesley  His- 
torical Society,  xxii,  102-5. 

J.  C.  BOWMEB 

LIVINGSTON,  G.  HERBERT  (1916-  ),  American  Free 

Methodist  and  ordained  elder  of  the  Kentucky-Tennessee 
Conference  of  his  church,  was  born  at  Russell,  Iowa,  and 
married  Maria  Saarloos,  in  1937.  He  was  educated  at 
Wessington  Springs  College,  South  Dakota  (B.A.), 
Kletzing  College,  Oskaloosa,  Iowa  (A.B.),  Asbury  Theo- 
logical Seminary  (B.D.),  and  Drew  University 
(Ph.D.).  He  served  as  a  pastor  for  fifteen  years  in  Wis- 
consin, Iowa,  New  York  and  South  Dakota,  was  dean  of 
Wessington  Springs  College  for  two  years  and  has  been 
professor  of  Old  Testament  at  Asbury  Theological  Semi- 
nary since   1953.   He  has  participated   in   archaeological 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LOCAL   PREACHERS 


excavations  in  Israel  and  Jordan.  Dr.  Livingston  holds 
membership  in  the  Academy  of  Rehgion;  Society  of  Bib- 
lical Literature;  National  Association  of  Professors  of  He- 
brew; Evangehcal  Theological  Society  and  Wesley  The- 
ological Society.  He  is  the  author  of  Genesis  and  Jeremiah, 
Aldersgate  Biblical  Series;  Psalms  73-150  in  Wesleyan 
Bible  Commentary;  Genesis,  in  Beacon  Bible  Commen- 
tary; and  Jonah  and  Obadiah  in  Wycliffe  Bible  Commen- 
tary. 

Byhon  S.  Lamson 

LIVING  EPISTLE,  THE,  a  holiness  magazine,  was  first  intro- 
duced to  Evangelicals  in  January  1869,  as  an  indepen- 
dent piece  of  journalism.  Reuben  Yeakel,  later  bishop, 
and  Elisha  Hoffman,  a  song  writer,  were  co-editors.  It 
was  a  twenty-four  page  monthly  during  its  first  year, 
which  was  increased  to  thirty-two  pages  in  the  second 
year.  Supported  by  a  group  of  ministers  and  laymen  as 
a  private  venture  to  teach  holiness  in  accordance  with 
the  Bible  and  the  Evangelical  Discipline,  it  was  offered 
to  and  accepted  by  the  Evangelical  Assocl\tion  Gen- 
eral Conference  in  1871.  Under  the  auspices  of  the 
Publishing  House  at  least  two-thirds  of  its  pages  were 
used  for  family  and  Sunday  school  purposes.  By  1875, 
it  had  lost  its  primary  purpose  and  was  serving  the  Sun- 
day schools  of  the  church.  By  the  end  of  1907  its  useful- 
ness had  disappeared,  even  as  a  Sunday  school  paper, 
and  it  was  discontinued. 

R.  W.  Albright,  Evangelical  Church,  1942. 

J.  H.  Ness,  History  of  Publishing.  1966.        John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

LIVINGSTONE  COLLEGE,  Salisbury,  North  Carolina.  (See 
Salisbury,  North  Carolina.  ) 

LLOYD,  JOHN  SELWYN  BROOKE  (1904-  ),  British 
statesman  and  Methodist  layman,  was  bom  on  July  28, 
1904.  His  father  and  grandfather  were  both  called  John 
Wesley  Lloyd,  and  his  great-grandfather  was  a  Methodist 
minister.  He  was  educated  at  Fettes  School  and  at  Magda- 
lene College,  Cambridge.  In  1927  he  was  president  of  the 
Cambridge  Union.  His  later  career  was  divided  between 
law,  politics,  and  the  army.  A  barrister  of  Gray's  Inn,  he 
joined  the  Northern  Circuit  in  1930,  and  in  1951  became 
a  Master  of  the  Bench,  Gray's  Inn.  He  served  throughout 
the  Second  World  War  in  the  army,  rising  from  second 
lieutenant  to  brigadier  in  1944.  He  was  also  staff  officer 
on  H.Q.  Second  Army  until  the  surrender  of  Germany. 
After  the  war  he  entered  the  House  of  Commons  as  M.P. 
for  the  Wirrall  Division  of  <]heshire;  he  was  minister 
of  state  at  the  Foreign  OflBce  from  1951  to  1954,  and  then 
within  a  period  of  fifteen  months  he  was  successively 
minister  of  supply,  minister  of  defence,  and  secretary  of 
state  for  foreign  affairs,  all  in  Conservative  cabinets.  He 
was  foreign  secretary,  1955-60,  a  period  including  the 
Suez  crisis,  which  led  to  the  resignation  of  Anthony  Eden 
as  prime  minister.  After  an  unusually  long  period  at  the 
Foreign  Office,  Lloyd  was  chancellor  of  the  exchequer, 
1960-62,  when  he  instituted  his  famous  "wage  pause" 
and  set  up  the  National  Economic  Development  Council. 
When  he  left  office  in  1962,  he  was  asked  to  prepare  a 
report  on  the  organization  of  the  Conservative  party.  He 
returned  to  office  in  1963  in  Sir  Alec  Douglas-Home's 
government,  as  lord  privy  seal  and  leader  of  the  House 


of  Commons.  He  was  made  a  privy  councillor  in  1951 
and  a  companion  of  honour  in  1962. 

Peter  Stephens 

LOCAL  PREACHERS  IN  AMERICA.  (See  Ministry  in 
American  Methodism,  The.) 

LOCAL  PREACHERS.  Early  Hisfory.  As  early  as  1738  John 
Wesley  recognized  the  value  of  a  layman  who  was 
prepared  to  witness  publicly  to  his  Christian  experience, 
and  to  exhort  others  to  a  similar  acceptance  of  saving 
faith.  Such  was  Joseph  Humphreys  when  Wesley  first 
sponsored  him,  though  later  he  turned  from  "exhorting" 
to  the  authoritative  exposition  of  scripture,  and  was  or- 
dained. Similarly  Wesley  accepted  the  services  at  Bristol 
in  1739  of  John  Cennick.  He  was  also  happy  to  use 
Thomas  Maxfield  as  an  exhorter  in  London,  but  was 
both  distressed  and  angry  when  Maxfield  stepped  over 
the  narrow  line  dividing  exhorting  from  expounding — 
the  latter  (in  Wesley's  view)  the  prerogative  of  a  deacon 
who  had  been  episcopally  ordained  to  the  ministry  of  the 
Word  of  God.  By  1741,  however,  Wesley  had  accepted 
Maxfield  as  his  first  "son  in  the  gospel,"  i.e.  a  layman 
commissioned  to  a  full  time  preaching  ministry.  Others 
speedily  followed,  and  the  term  "preacher"  was  soon 
applied  equally  to  exhorters  and  expounders,  the  subtle 
distinction  almost  forgotten.  The  expounders  or  preachers, 
however,  were  the  forerunners  of  the  Methodist  Ministry, 
and  the  exhorters  of  the  order  of  Methodist  Local  Preach- 
ers. 

Wesley  continued  to  emphasize  the  difference  in  the 
years  that  followed,  although  this  left  little  trace  in  the 
official  Minutes  of  the  Methodist  conferences.  Those  lay 
preachers  whom  he  recognized  as  possessing  suitable  gffts 
and  graces  he  usually  called  to  itinerate  among  the  Meth- 
odist societies  as  his  Helpers,  and  with  the  development 
of  defined  Circuits  one  of  these  helpers  in  each  was 
designated  to  oversee  the  others  as  Wesley's  Assistant. 
After  Wesley's  death  these  achieved  the  title  which  he 
had  resisted,  that  of  "minister."  Sometimes  the  itinerant 
or  travelling  preacher  was  prevented  from  fulfilling  a 
preaching  engagement,  and  on  such  occasions  his  place 
might  be  taken  by  a  substitute — possibly  a  Methodist  who 
had  already  gained  some  pastoral  experience  as  a  Class 
Leader,  possibly  a  recent  convert  who  was  urged  to  re- 
late his  Christian  experience  in  place  of  a  regular  sermon. 

In  1747  Wesley  carefully  examined  the  situation  in 
Cornwall,  an  area  of  rapidly  expanding  societies  and  in- 
sufficient itinerants.  He  found  that  of  eighteen  "exhorters" 
(this  term  was  used)  five  were  unfitted  or  unworthy,  three 
were  "much  blessed  in  the  work,"  and  the  remaining 
ten  "might  be  helpful  when  there  was  no  preacher  in  their 
own  or  the  neighboring  societies."  These  latter  were  the 
type  of  men  whom  he  came  to  recognize  as  "local  preach- 
ers," or  preachers  in  their  own  locality  as  opposed  to  the 
itinerant  preachers  who  travelled  around  wherever  they 
were  sent  by  Wesley.  The  1747  Conference  listed  twenty- 
three  travelling  preachers  and  thirty-eight  men  who  "as- 
sist us  only  in  one  place."  Of  these  thirty-eight  eleven  later 
served  for  at  least  an  interval  as  itinerants.  At  the  1753 
Conference  sixteen  local  preachers  were  present,  of  whom 
four  later  became  itinerants. 

Charles  Wesley  urged  his  brother  John  in  1751  to 
make  the  following  specific  regulations  about  the  admis- 
sion of  local  preachers  to  full  time  service: 


LOCAL   PREACHERS   OF   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


"With  regard  to  the  preachers,  we  agree: 

1.  That  none  shall  be  permitted  to  preach  in  any  of 
our  societies,  till  lie  be  examined  both  as  to  his  grace 
and  gifts,  at  least  by  the  assistant,  who  sending  word 
to  us  may  by  our  answer  admit  him  a  local  preacher. 

2.  That  such  preacher  be  not  immediately  taken  from 
his  trade,  but  be  exhorted  to  follow  it  with  all  diligence. 

3.  That  no  person  shall  be  received  as  a  travelling 
preacher  or  be  taken  from  his  trade  by  either  of  us 
alone,  but  by  both  of  us  conjointly,  giving  him  a  note 
under  both   our  hands. 

Something  of  this  kind  may  well  have  been  agreed  at 
the  1752  English  conference  (whose  minutes  have  not 
survived),  as  in  fact  it  was  at  the  first  Irish  conference, 
held  that  year  in  Limerick.  If  so,  these  regulations  were 
not  incorporated  into  the  "Large  Minutes,"  which  con- 
tain only  a  casual  reference  to  local  preachers.  In  the 
Deed  of  Declaration  of  1784  they  are  not  mentioned 
at  all. 

Although  (unlike  the  itinerant  lay  preachers)  the  local 
lay  preachers  were  the  subject  of  very  little  legislation 
during  Wesley's  lifetime,  they  nevertheless  remained  an 
important  part  of  the  Methodist  system.  As  early  as  the 
1760's  regular  preaching  plans  were  prepared  in  some 
circuits  to  organize  their  activities  the  most  usefully, 
and  the  larger  a  circuit  became  the  more  need  there  was 
for  local  preachers  to  supply  pulpits  on  Sundays.  With 
a  few  exceptions  the  local  preachers  were  regarded  as 
temporary  substitutes  who  must  carefully  be  prevented 
from  aggrandizing  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  travel- 
ling preachers,  and  Wesley  occasionally  advised  his  as- 
sistants to  "clip  their  wings."  At  the  same  time  the  "locals" 
were  seen  as  potential  itinerants,  whose  home  circuit  was 
both  their  training  ground  for  the  itinerancy  and  the 
more  limited  field  of  ministry  to  which  they  could  return 
if  for  one  reason  or  another  either  they  or  Wesley  felt  it 
necessary  for  them  to  leave  the  full  time  itinerancy,  as 
many  did:  of  two  hundred  itinerant  preachers,  accepted 
between  1741  and  1765,  only  eighty-one  actually  died  in 
the  full  time  work  or  as  "supernumeraries." 

In  1780  John  Crook,  the  founder  of  Methodism  in  the 
Isle  of  Man,  and  Wesley's  assistant  there,  met  forty-five 
local  preachers  serving  in  the  island,  and  the  "Local 
Preachers'  Minute  Book"  recording  their  deliberations  and 
decisions  at  Pell  on  that  occasion  remained  in  use  until 
1816.  Their  business  was  conducted  by  the  method  of 
question  and  answer,  as  in  Wesley's  annual  conference 
for  the  travelling  preachers.  Wesley's  Journal  for  Feb. 
6,  1789  speaks  about  "the  quarterly  day  for  meeting  the 
local  preachers"  as  if  it  were  a  normal  thing,  in  London 
at  least.  Not  until  1796,  however,  were  quarterly  local 
preachers'  meetings  formally  incorporated  into  the  printed 
legislation  as  a  universal  feature  of  Methodist  polity.  The 
systematic  training  and  organization  of  local  preachers 
came  much  later  still. 

The  Local  Preachers  in  Early  Methodism,  by  Duncan  Coomer, 
in   Proc.   of  the   W.H.S.,   xxv,   pp.   33-42    (Burnley,    1945). 
Rupp  and  Davies   ( eds. )   Methodist  Church  in  Great  Britain. 
Vol.  1.  pp.  236-38. 

Frank  Baker 

Later  History.  One  of  the  causes  of  Methodist  disunity 
in  the  early  nineteenth  century  was  the  tension  which 
developed  between  the  local  and  itinerant  preachers  as 
the  latter  settled  down  into  a  normal  ministry.  This  tension 
was  largely  resolved  when  laymen  were  admitted  to  the 
Wesleyan   Methodist   Conference   in    1877.    But   even   at 


Methodist  Union  in  1932  it  was  still  necessary  to  allow 
for  the  possibility  that  in  extraordinary  circumstances 
laymen — who  were  in  practice  local  preachers — should 
administer  Holy  Communion. 

From  an  early  date  women  also  were  allowed  to  preach. 
Even  John  Wesley  himself  occasionally  used  women 
preachers.  Primitive  Methodism  prided  itself — from 
1803 — in  having  "no  sex  limitation  in  church  work."  The 
Wesleyans  were  much  slower  in  recognizing  that  women 
lay  preachers  as  well  as  men  had  a  legitimate  call  and 
place  in  the  life  of  the  church,  and  did  not  officially 
acknowledge  this  until  1918.  Since  that  date  the  number 
of  women  preachers  in  Methodism  has  steadily  risen, 
and  particularly  since  Union — this  despite  the  shrinkage 
in  total  membership.  In  1963  one  out  of  every  five  local 
preachers  in  the  active  work  was  a  woman. 

The  systematic  training  of  local  preachers  has  only  be- 
come general  in  the  present  century.  The  first  written 
examinations  were  in  1927,  and  these  became  general 
and  obligatory  only  after  Union  (1936).  The  Local 
Preachers'  Department — which  is  answerable  to  the  Con- 
ference for  all  matters  relating  to  local  preachers,  par- 
ticularly their  training  and  standards — came  into  being 
only  in  1937,  and  the  first  ministerial  secretary  to  be 
specially  responsible  for  this  work  was  appointed  that 
year.  Since  then  the  department  has  steadily  grown  in 
size  and  scope,  in  its  activities  and  its  influence  through- 
out Methodism.  In  other  communions,  where  the  value 
and  distinctive  contribution  of  lay  preachers  is  becoming 
increasingly  recognized,  the  Methodist  organization  with 
its  Order  of  Local  Preachers  and  its  facilities  for  training 
them,  is  both  coveted  and  emulated. 

In  Methodism  in  Great  Britain  there  are  now  about 
22,000  fully  accredited  local  preachers,  and  about  4,000 
at  various  stages  of  their  preliminary  training.  Three  out 
of  every  four  Sunday  services  are  taken  by  local  preachers. 

Annua/  Reports  of  the  Local  Preachers'  Department. 
The  Preacher's  Handbook. 

R.  F.  Wearmouth,  Methodism  and  the  Working  Class  Move- 
ments.   1937.  David    N.    Francis 

LOCAL  PREACHERS  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH,  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  OF,  grew  out  of  an 
1858  New  York  City  convention  of  local  preachers.  There 
persons  from  twelve  annual  conferences  largely  in  the 
northeast  organized  the  "Local  Preachers'  Association  of 
the  M.  E.  Churches  of  the  U.  S.,"  with  provision  for 
auxiliary  conference  and  district  associations.  In  1859  at 
Baltimore  the  name  was  changed  to  "National,  etc." 
The  group  was  able  to  secure  listing  of  local  preachers  in 
the  annual  conference  minutes,  held  an  annual  convention, 
and  also  promoted  historical  observances  such  as  the  1866 
Centennial,  and  the  erection  of  the  Embury  monument  at 
Ashgrove,  N.  Y.  Following  incorporation  in  Baltimore, 
Md.,  Jan.  12,  1833  for  "fraternal  intercourse,  brotherly 
cooperation,  the  advancement  of  education,  etc.,"  the 
Association  in  1890  gained  control  of  Ft.  Wayne  College 
from  the  North  Indiana  Conference,  renamed  it  Taylor 
University  and  elected  its  trustees  until  the  Alumni  Asso- 
ciation of  the  school  took  control  in  1922. 

Despite  its  name,  the  organization  enhsted  few  sup- 
porters outside  the  northeast.  The  last  known  officers  were 
elected  for  1917-18. 


Methodist  Year  Book,  1919. 


Edwln  Schell 


WORLD   METHODtSM 


LOCAL   PREACHERS  MUTUAL  AID   ASSOCIATION   was 

started  in  Britain  as  the  General  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Local  Preachers  Mutual  Aid  Association  in  July,  1849.  In 
1839  Wesleyanism  celebrated  its  Centenary  by  raising 
£300,000  in  a  special  appeal.  At  this  time,  many  Wesleyan 
Methodist  local  preachers  were  receiving  Poor  Law 
Relief  while  others  were  living  in  workhouses  and  ending 
their  days  in  a  pauper's  grave.  The  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Conference  was  asked  to  allocate  a  small  portion  of  the 
Centenary  Fund  to  the  relief  of  these  local  preachers. 
The  Conference  not  only  refused  to  allocate  any  of  this 
money  but  also  refused  to  give  approval  to  the  launching 
of  a  special  appeal  for  this  particular  purpose.  Two  local 
preachers,  Francis  Pearson  and  Joseph  H.  Marsden,  met 
in  a  Matlock  village  and  decided  to  call  a  number  of  local 
preachers  together  for  fellowship  and  to  consider  forming 
a  society  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  and  sick  among  their 
number.  Many  difficulties  were  placed  in  their  way  by 
official  Wesleyanism;  but  a  group  of  them  met  in  Alders- 
gate  Street  in  July  1849,  and  decided  to  launch  the  asso- 
ciation at  a  meeting  in  Birmingham  later  that  year. 

Members  paid  an  entrance  fee  of  ten  shillings  and  a 
subscription  of  twopence  per  week.  At  the  end  of  twelve 
months  1,260  members  had  enrolled,  and  the  contribu- 
tions amounted  to  £1,276.  In  the  first  fifteen  years  the 
membership  doubled,  and  the  income  rose  to  £30,000, 
of  which  £22,000  was  distributed  to  the  sick  and  poor. 
Progiess  continued;  membership  grew;  the  scope  of  bene- 
fits was  widened;  and  in  the  117  years  of  its  existence 
the  association  has  distributed  almost  £2,000,000  in  re- 
lieving those  local  preachers,  widows,  and  dependents 
"in  necessitous  circumstances."  The  help  takes  various 
forms:  weekly  allowances,  sickness  benefits  to  those  very 
elderly  members  who  were  members  before  the  National 
Insurance  Act  came  into  operation,  lump-sum  grants,  and, 
during  the  last  twenty  years,  the  provision  of  five  Eventide 
Homes  at  Westcliff  on  Sea,  Woodhall  Spa,  Minehead, 
Grange  over  Sands,  and  Barleythorpe  (Oakham).  At  the 
last  named,  nursing  care  is  given  to  residents  in  need  of 
more  care  and  attention  than  can  be  provided  in  ordinary 
Eventide  Homes.  A  sixth  home  at  Rickmansworth  (Hert- 
fordshire) was  opened  at  the  end  of  1966,  and  here  again, 
nursing  care  is  provided. 

The  association  was  established  on  a  basis  of  mutual 
aid,  but  as  the  years  passed  many  Methodist  societies 
expressed  a  wish  to  make  grants  toward  the  association's 
work  as  a  tribute  to  the  services  of  local  preachers.  Today 
almost  every  Methodist  church  in  Britain  allocates  the 
whole  of  one  Sunday's  collections,  or  a  part  of  that  one 
Sunday's  collections,  to  the  association  as  a  thank-offering. 
As  times  and  circumstances  change,  the  association — 
honored  by  Royal  Patronage  since  1922 — has  adapted 
changes  in  its  methods  and  its  work.  When  Methodist 
Union  came  in  1932  the  doors  were  opened  to  all  Meth-- 
odist  local  preachers,  and  thousands  joined  from  the  non- 
Wesleyan  Methodist  bodies.  In  1962  the  association 
agreed  to  make  its  benefits  available  to  all  Methodist  local 
preachers  even  though  they  had  not  contributed  to  the 
association's  funds.  All  this  work — apart  from  a  small 
staff  at  the  head  office — has  been  voluntary.  Local  Preach- 
ers' Mutual  Aid  workers  never  ask  for  or  receive  ex- 
penses; they  give  freely  of  their  time,  money,  and  ability 
to  help  their  less  fortunate  brethren.  The  association  has 
never  taken  sides  in  church  or  national  controversies.  It  is 
a  charitable  organization,  registered  as  such  with  the 
Registrar  of  Friendly  Societies.  There  are  615  branches, 


divided  into  thirty-four  districts.  The  district  committee 
elects  delegates  to  the  annual  aggregate  meeting,  which 
any  member  may  attend,  but  the  350  delegates  are  given 
hospitality  and  take  preaching  appointments  in  the  district 
where  the  aggregate  is  held.  The  honorary  officers  consist 
of  a  president,  a  treasurer,  and  two  secretaries;  and  they, 
with  the  former  presidents,  the  ten  trustees,  and  seventy 
elected  members,  constitute  the  General  Committee  of 
the  association,  which  meets  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try nine  or  ten  times  a  year.  At  the  end  of  1965  the 
association  had  18,329  members:  it  was  making  weekly 
allowances  to  834  local  preachers,  widows,  and  depen- 
dents; and  more  than  120  elderly  local  preachers,  their 
wives,  and  widows  were  resident  in  the  five  Eventide 
Homes.  During  the  year  collections  from  Methodist 
churches  provided  £34,377.  The  total  expenditure  on 
charitable  gifts,  administration,  and  the  maintenance  of 
the  homes  was  £99,674.  Legacies  were  always  placed  in 
reserve,  and  from  these  the  association  received  £20,000 
in  interest  and  dividends  in  the  course  of  the  year.  The 
association  is  completely  autonomous,  administered  en- 
tirely by  local  preachers. 

Albert  E.  Shaw 

LOCATION  is  formal  cessation  from  the  traveling  min- 
istry of  the  Methodist  connection  by  one  who  thereby  is 
no  longer  under  the  appointment  of  a  bishop,  but  who 
does  not  lose  his  status  as  a  local  preacher.  Location 
may  be  granted  by  a  formal  vote  of  an  Annual  Confer- 
ence when  a  member  requests  it;  but  an  annual  conference 
has  a  right  to  locate  a  man  against  his  own  volition  if  it 
feels  it  proper  to  so  terminate  his  membership  in  its  body. 
This  sometimes  comes  about  when  a  man  proves  to  be 
unacceptable  in  the  traveling  ministry,  or  is  so  patently 
unfitted  for  it  that  a  suitable  appointment  can  no  longer 
be  found  for  him,  and  thus  he  is  requested  or  forced  to 
"locate." 

Many  otherwise  acceptable  and  useful  men  find  it 
necessary  to  locate  for  personal  reasons — for  instance, 
family  conditions,  such  as  the  invahdism  of  a  wife,  some- 
times by  reason  of  a  man's  own  health,  or  the  like,  and 
when  he  has  not  reached  an  age  when  he  may  ask  for 
formal  superannuation  or  retirement.  After  location,  one 
takes  his  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  local  preachers,  and  his 
membership  goes  into  the  local  church  where  he  con- 
tinues to  work  under  the  direction  of  his  pastor  or  the 
district  superintendent  in  such  ways  as  may  be  possible. 
When  an  ordained  minister  locates,  he  does  not  lose  his 
ordination  status  (except  as  explained  below). 

Each  annual  conference  looks  to  its  Committee  on 
Conference  Relations  to  pass  upon  a  request  for  location 
when  such  request  comes  from  one  of  its  members,  or 
when  a  name  is  referred  to  the  Committee  by  a  district 
superintendent  with  his  own  recommendation  that  a  man 
be  located.  The  annual  conference  is  sovereign  in  all 
matters  of  conference  relationship,  and  while  a  man 
located  against  his  will  formerly  had  the  right  in  the  M.  E. 
Church  to  appeal  to  a  Judicial  Conference  (Discipline, 
1908,  P.  160),  the  unchallenged  principle  that  every 
organized  body  shall  be  the  judge  of  the  qualifications  of 
its  own  members  holds  in  The  United  Methodist  Church 
with  reference  to  annual  conference  membership. 

"When  a  member  of  an  Annual  Conference  in  good 
standing,  shall  demand  a  located  relation,  the  Conference 
shall  be  obliged  to  grant  it  to  him."   (Journal,  General 


LOCKE,   CHARLES   EDWARD 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Conference,  1840,  ME.)  "This  is  the  only  relation  in  the 
church  which  can  be  changed  solely  by  the  will  of  the 
person  concerned,"  said  Bishop  McTyeibe. 

The  Discipline  (1968,  P.  368)  states  that  a  man  may  be 
located  when  found  "unacceptable,  inefficient,  or  indif- 
ferent in  the  work  of  the  ministry,"  and  the  conference 
may  by  count  vote  on  recommendation  of  the  Board  of 
the  Ministry  locate  such  a  man  without  his  consent.  In 
such  instances  "the  authority  to  exercise  the  ministerial 
office  shall  be  suspended"  (P.  368).  He  has  today  no 
right  of  appeal.  Disciplinary  regulations  outline  the  duties, 
obligations,  and  responsibilities  of  local  preachers  and 
indicate  to  what  body  they  are  amenable  for  character 
and  conduct. 

Discipline,  1968. 

H.  N.  McTyeire,  Manual  of  the  Discipline.  1920.        N.  B.  H. 

LOCKE,  CHARLES  EDWARD  (1858-1940),  American  bish- 
op, was  bom  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  Sept.  9,  1858.  The  son 
of  William  H.  Locke,  a  chaplain  in  the  Union  Army,  his 
ancestors  were  of  historical  colonial  stock.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Mount  Union  College  and  Allegheny  Col- 
lege. He  married  Mina  J.  Woods  on  Dec.  27,  1882,  and 
they  had  a  son  and  a  number  of  daughters.  He  joined  the 
E.\stOhio  Conference  in  1881. 

After  eight  years  in  small  town  pastorates,  Locke  was 
appointed  to  the  famous  Smithfield  Street  Church  in 
PrrrsBURGH,  Pa.,  and  thereupon  began  a  career  as  a 
pastor  of  notable  churches.  For  thirty  years  he  was  in 
the  most  famous  and  influential  pulpits  of  the  denomina- 
tion. Tliese  appointments  included  Smithfield  Street, 
Pittsburgh,  1888-92;  First  Church,  Portland,  Ore.,  1892- 
97;  Central,  San  Francisco,  1897-99;  Delaware  Avenue, 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  1899-1904;  Hanson  Place,  Brooklyn, 
1904-08,  and  First  Church,  Los  Angeles,  1908-20.  He 
conducted  the  funeral  services  of  President  William 
McKiNLEY  and  of  Ira  D.  Sankey,  a  Methodist  evangelistic 
singer  connected  with  Dwight  L.  Moody. 

Elected  bishop  in  1920,  he  served  in  the  Philippine 
Islands,  1920-24;  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  1924-32,  retiring  in 
May  1932.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  New  Zealand 
Methodist  Centennial  and  also  to  Australia  in  1922.  He 
was  elected  president  of  the  California  Anti-Saloon 
League  in  1933,  and  was  active  in  it  and  other  civic  and 
reform  movements. 

Bishop  Locke  was  the  author  of  thirteen  books,  which 
were  read  by  devout  preachers  with  appreciation. 

He  died  on  March  4,  1940,  in  Santa  Monica,  Calif, 
and  was  buried  in  Forest  Lawn,  Glendale,  Calif. 

Journal  of  the  Southern  California- Arizona  Conference,    1940. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Clergy.  Jesse  A.  Eabl 

LOCKHART,  RICHARD  ARTHUR  (1893-1963),  Irish  min- 
ister, was  bom  in  Belfast  and  educated  at  the  Methodist 
College  there.  He  was  ordained  in  1922,  appointed  to 
Mfantsipim  School,  Gold  Coast  (now  Ghana),  and  three 
years  later  became  Principal.  The  early  development  of 
that  school,  and  the  important  place  it  took  in  the  com- 
munity, is  due  more  to  him  than  to  any  other  person.  After 
fourteen  years  he  retumed  to  Ireland  for  a  short  period 
of  circuit  work,  but  in  1943  by  Government  invitation  he 
went  to  Kenya  as  Principal  of  Kagumo  College  for 
teacher-training.  He  spent  twelve  years  there,  living 
through  the  perils  of  the  Mau  Mau  period. 


His  influence  on  African  education  made  an  unrivaled 
contribution  to  the  development  of  Ghana  and  Kenya. 
With  his  wife  he  was  invited  by  the  Government  of  Ghana 
to  the  celebrations  of  independence,  and  he  was  again 
invited  when  autonomy  was  granted  to  Ghana  Methodism. 
His  last  ministerial  appointment  was  at  Centenary  Church, 
Dublin,  and  he  died  in  retirement  in  his  native  Belfast. 


Cole,  Methodism  in  Ireland.  1960. 
F.   Jeffery,  Irisli   Methodism.   1964. 


Frederick  Jefferv 


LOCKWOOD,  J.  H.  (1837-1916),  American  pioneer 
preacher  in  northwest  Kansas,  serves  as  an  example  of 
the  men  who  built  Methodism  in  his  time  and  area. 
Born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  on  March  10,  1837,  he  moved 
to  Illinois  as  a  youth  and  attended  McKendree  Col- 
lege. He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1858  and,  except  for 
three  years  as  chaplain  of  the  49th  Illinois  regiment, 
spent  the  first  fourteen  years  of  his  ministry  in  the  South- 
ern Illinois  Conference. 

In  1872  he  came  to  Kansas,  serving  first  in  the  Kansas 
Conference  and,  after  it  was  divided,  in  the  Northwest 
Kansas  Conference.  His  Kansas  years  were  spent 
largely  at  Salina  and  Beloit  where  he  was  presiding  elder 
(for  fifteen  years)  and  pastor.  He  served  as  a  presiding 
elder  at  the  origin  of  the  Northwest  Kansas  Conference 
and  was  its  first  delegate  to  the  General  Conference. 
There  is  a  heavy  listing  in  the  conference  journals  of 
committees  of  which  he  was  a  member.  In  1883  he  was 
appointed  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Baker  University 
at  the  same  time  that  he  became  one  of  five  ministers  on 
a  board  of  trustees  to  locate  and  charter  what  later  be- 
came Kansas  Wesleyan  University.  In  1884  he  was 
president  of  the  conference  board  of  church  extension, 
as  well  as  a  member  of  the  conference  camp-meeting 
committee  and  of  the  conference  boundaries  committee. 
The  conference  was  small  and  J.  H.  Lockwood  had  the 
pioneering  spirit.  For  six  years  he  served  as  district  super- 
intendent of  the  American  Bible  Society  for  Kansas, 
and  for  eight  years  was  a  member  of  the  general  mis- 
sionary committee.  He  became  supernumerary  in  1904, 
and  moved  to  California  where  he  died  on  Feb.  6,  1916. 

Minutes  of  the  Kansas  Conference,  1875-82. 

Minutes  of  the  Northwest  Kansas  Conference,  1883-1904,  1916. 

W.  H.  Sweet,  Northwest  Kansas.  1920.        Ina  Turner  Gray 

LODER,  DWIGHT  ELLSWORTH  (1914-  ),  American 
college  president  and  bishop,  was  bom  in  Waverly,  Neb., 
on  July  8,  1914,  the  son  of  William  and  Alice  C.  (Snyder) 
Loder.  He  graduated  from  the  University  of  Nebraska 
with  the  A.B.  degree  in  1936.  After  a  year  of  graduate 
work  there  in  the  College  of  Law,  in  which  he  obtained 
honors,  he  was  diverted  by  a  call  to  the  ministry  and 
transferred  to  Boston  University  School  of  Theology, 
where  he  received  the  S.T.B.  degree  in  1939.  He  was 
awarded  the  D.D.  degree  from  Hamline  University, 
1951,  from  Garrett  Theological  Seminary,  1955,  and  from 
Albion  College,  1968.  He  received  the  L.H.D.  from 
Willamette  University,  1966,  and  the  S.T.D.  from  Dickin- 
son College,  1966.  He  married  Mildred  Ethyl  Shay  on 
Sept.  17,  1939,  and  to  them  were  bom  Ruth  (Mrs.  James 
Burnecke) ,  William  and  David. 

Dwight  E.  Loder  served  as  associate  pastor  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church,  Stoneham,  Mass.,  1937-39. 
He  was  ordained  to  the  Methodist  ministry  in  the  Central 
New  York  Conference  in  1939,  and  served  two  pastor- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LOFTHOUSE,   WILLIAM   FREDERICK 


DwiCHT  E.   LODEB 

ates  in  Pennsylvania — North  Towanda,  1939-41;  and 
Blossburg,  1941-47;  and  then  joined  the  Hennepin  Avenue 
(Minneapolis)  Church  staff  in  1947.  There  he  served 
as  pastor  from  1950  until  1955  when  he  was  elected  to 
the  presidency  of  Garhett  Theological  Seminary 
where  he  served  until  1964,  becoming  a  member  of  the 
Rock  Ri\'er  Conference  in  1957.  He  was  elected  to  the 
episcopacy  by  the  North  Central  Jurisdictional  Conference 
in  1964,  and  put  in  charge  of  the  Michigan  Area. 

Bishop  Loder  was  a  delegate  to  the  North  American 
Faith  and  Order  Study  Conference  of  the  World  Council 
of  Churches  in  1957,  and  participated  in  the  World 
Methodist  Council  Ministerial  Exchange  in  1959.  His 
lectureships  include:  Eighth  annual  Ministers'  Convoca- 
tion of  Southern  California,  1956;  Glide  lecturer.  Glide 
School  of  Evangelism,  San  Francisco,  1960;  and  Fondren 
lecturer.  Southern  Methodist  Unviersity,  1965.  He  at- 
tended the  World  Methodist  Convocation  on  Theological 
Education,  1961;  and  was  a  delegate  to  the  General 
Conferences  of  The  Methodist  Church,  1960  and  1964; 
and  of  the  North  Central  Jurisdictional  Conferences,  1960 
and  1964.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Commis- 
sion on  Ecumenical  Consultation,  of  the  Commission  on 
Chaplaincy,  the  subcommittee  on  theological  education, 
proposed  E.U.B.-Methodist  merger;  a  member  of 
Unis'ersity  Senate  of  The  Methodist  Church,  1963-65; 
and  a  member  of  the  North  Central  Jurisdictional  Com- 
mission on  Higher  Education.  He  has  been  president  of 
the  Association  of  Methodist  Theological  Schools,  1960, 
and  of  the  Chicago  Theological  Faculties  Union,  1961. 
He  received  a  distinguished  Alumni  award  from  Boston 
University  School  of  Theology  in  1964.  He  has  been  a 
member  of  the  Michigan  Governor's  Ethical  and  Moral 
Panel,  since  1965;  and  a  former  member  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  Asbury  Hospital,  of  Hamline  University-, 
of  the  Minneapolis  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and 


since  1964  has  been  a  trustee  of  Albion  College  and 
of  Adrian  College. 

WIio's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

LOEPPERT,  HENRY  VERNE   (1893-  ),  American  busi- 

nessman and  lay  leader  of  the  Rock  Rfver  Conference, 
was  born  in  Sandwich,  111.,  on  Sept.  2,  1893,  the  son  of 
Henry  C.  and  Elizabeth  J.  (Dieterich)  Loeppert.  He  was 
educated  in  Chicago,  111.  and  Appleton,  Wis.,  and  did 
further  work  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  Northavestehn 
University,  and  in  the  graduate  school  at  Harvard.  On 
June  25,  1919,  he  married  Ellen  Sophia  Waterman,  and 
their  children  are  H.  Verne  and  Marilyn  Elizabeth  (Mrs. 
Bruce  A.  McLeod). 

Mr.  Loeppert  entered  business  in  1922,  and  thereafter 
became  prominent  in  various  business  interests  and  cor- 
porations in  and  about  the  Chicago  area.  For  fifty  years 
he  was  a  member  of  the  first  German  Methodist  Church 
of  Chicago  and  its  successor,  the  Armitage  Avenue  Meth- 
odist Church.  Since  1958,  he  has  been  a  member  of  the 
First  Methodist  Church,  Evanston,  111.  He  was  elected 
Rock  River  Conference  Lay  Leader,  1943-52. 

His  other  church  interests  have  been  the  Chicago  Wes- 
ley Memorial  Hospital,  the  Church  Federation  of  Greater 
Chicago,  the  Board  of  Publications  of  The  Methodist 
Church,  of  which  he  was  a  member  for  twelve  years; 
director  of  the  National  Mutual  Church  Insurance  Com- 
pany of  Chicago;  and  treasurer  of  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee of  the  Board  of  Lay  Activities  of  The  Methodist 
Church,  1944-52.  He  has  also  been  a  trustee  of  the  Meth- 
odist Ministers  Pension  Fund;  Kendall  College,  Evans- 
ton;  and  president  of  the  Conference  Board  of  Missions, 
1956-60.  "The  United  Churchmen  of  Chicago  honored  him 
as  Layman  of  the  Year  on  April  2,  1957,  and  a  resolution 
in  his  honor  was  passed  by  the  Board  of  Publication  of 
The  Methodist  Church  on  Oct.  30,  1963.  In  1961,  he 
resigned  from  his  business  as  president  of  the  Boyd 
Wagner  Company  to  accept,  at  the  urging  of  Bishop 
Brashares,  the  Executive  Directorship  of  the  Methodist 
Old  Peoples  Home  (Chicago,  111.)  of  the  Rock  River  Con- 
ference. He  has  been  a  member  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  The  Methodist  Church  in  all  of  its  sessions 
from  1940  to  1964,  with  the  exception  of  the  Conference 
of  1956,  when  he  accepted  status  as  a  delegate  to  the 
Jurisdictional  Conference  in  deference  to  his  wife  who 
had  been  elected  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference 
of  that  year,  since  she  was  president  of  the  Conference 
Woman's  Society  of  Christian  Service.  He  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  General  Conference  Entertainment  and 
Program  Committee,  1964-68.  He  is  presently  engaged 
in  promoting  the  Methodist  Community  of  Services,  an 
expansion  of  the  Methodist  Home  on  Foster  Avenue, 
Chicago,  and  the  planning  of  a  new  retirement  complex 
on  the  South  Side  of  Chicago  in  connection  with  prop- 
erty owned  by  St.  Mark's  Church.  In  1966  he  was 
nominated  by  the  Methodist  Old  Peoples  Home  board 
and  honored  by  the  mayor  of  the  City  of  Chicago  for 
his  contribution  to  Senior  Citizens  of  Chicago. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.     T.  Otto  Nall 

LOFTHOUSE,  WILLIAM  FREDERICK  (1871-1965),  British 
minister,  was  bom  in  South  Norwood,  London,  and  edu- 
cated at  the  Citv  of  London  School  and  Trinity  College, 


LOGAN,   JACOB   TAYLOR 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Oxford.  He  entered  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry  in 
1896,  training  at  Riclimond  College,  London,  where  he 
also  served  as  assistant  tutor,  1896-98.  He  was  appointed 
in  1899  assistant  tutor  at  Handsworth  College,  Birming- 
iL\M  (see  Theological  Colleges);  and  there,  apart 
from  three  years  in  circuit  (1901-04),  and  three  as  a 
chaplain  in  the  armed  forces  (1916-19),  he  spent  the 
whole  of  his  ministry  until  his  retirement  in  1940. 

An  Old  Testament  specialist,  but  widely  read  in  other 
branches  of  theological  study,  he  exercised  a  profound 
influence  on  his  students.  He  lectured  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment from  1904  to  1916,  and  again  from  1919  to  1925. 
From  1925  to  1940  he  was  principal  of  the  college  and 
tutor  in  systematic  theology  and  philosophy  of  religion. 
He  was  elected  president  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Con- 
ference in  1929,  and  in  1932  was  chosen  president  of  the 
Society  for  Old  Testament  Study. 

His  deep  concern  for  social  justice  was  seen  in  his 
work  for  the  Methodist  Union  for  Social  Service.  He 
was  present  at  the  COPEC  conference  on  social  Christian- 
ity in  1924,  when  he  proposed  the  report  on  The  Relation 
of  the  Sexes.  On  the  same  general  subject  he  published 
Ethics  and  the  Famihj  (1912),  Altar,  Cross  and  Com- 
munity (1921),  Puritij  and  Racial  Health  (1920),  etc. 
His  more  strictly  Old  Testament  writings  included  Jere- 
miah and  the  New  Covenant  (1926)  and  Israel  after  the 
Exile  (1928).  Keenly  ecumenical,  he  played  a  part  in  the 
Faith  and  Order  movement.  His  last  published  work  was 
an  essay  on  Charles  Wesley  in  A  History  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church  in  Great  Britain  (ed.  Rupp  and  Davies, 
1965) .  He  died  in  Croydon  on  July  5,  1965. 

John  Newton 


of  the  British  Commonwealth  of  Nations,  has  from  the 
beginning  been  at  the  center  of  the  Methodist  movement. 
John  Wesley  was  converted  in  London,  established  his 
headquarters  there,  and  is  buried  there,  as  are  his  brother 
Charles  and  his  mother  Susanna.  The  organized  work  of 
The  Methodist  Church  and  Conference  has  always  cen- 
tered in  London  and  most  of  its  general  offices  are  there 
now.  Various  historic  shrines  and  places  of  Methodist 
work  in  the  cit>'  are  as  follows: 

Aldersgate  Street  runs  north  from  St.  Martins  le  Grand 
as  far  as  Goswell  Road.  Number  28  on  the  east  side  is 
said  to  mark  the  probable  site  of  the  building  where 
John  Wesley  felt  his  "heart  strangely  warmed"  on  May 
24,  1738.  The  actual  room  may  have  been  in  the  Hall 
House  which  was  entered  from  Nettleton  Court  (now 
built  up).  It  is  doubtful  if  any  part  of  the  original  building 
remains. 

Bunhill  Fields,  City  Road.  The  Dissenters  Burial 
Ground  opened  in  1665.  Susanna  Wesley  was  buried 
there  on  Aug.  1,  1742.  Her  son  John  preached  the  funeral 
sermon  "to  an  immense  multitude."  Among  others  buried 
in  Bunhill  Fields  are  William  Blake  and  his  wife,  John 
Bunyan,  Daniel  Defoe,  and  Isaac  Watts.  A  memorial  to 
Su-sanna  Wesley  erected  in  1870  stands  in  Wesley's  Chapel 
opposite. 

Fetter  Lane.  Between  Ludgate  Circus  and  the  Law 
Courts,  Fetter  Lane  runs  north  from  Fleet  Street  to  Hol- 
born.  The  first  society  met  in  the  bookseller  James 
Hiittdn's  house  at  the  sign  of  the  Bible  and  Sun  in  Little 
Wild  Street.  About  September,  1738,  the  meeting  place 
was  changed  to  a  room  in  Fetter  Lane  where  the  society 
met  until  July  20,  1740. 


LOGAN,  JACOB  TAYLOR  (1854-1946),  American  min- 
ister and  ordained  elder  of  the  Pittsburgli  Conference 
of  the  Free  Methodist  Church,  was  pastor  and  super- 
intendent in  Pennsylvania  and  Editor  of  The  Free  Meth- 
odist, 1907-1923;  1927-1931.  He  was  an  evangelistic  pas- 
tor, an  eloquent  temperance  lecturer,  an  attractive  writer. 
He  had  tremendous  vitality  and  carried  on  a  heavy  speak- 
ing schedule  at  the  age  of  ninety.  He  died  at  Winona 
Lake,  Ind. 

Bybon  S.  Lamson 

LOMAS,  JOHN  (1798-1879),  British  minister,  was  born 
in  Hull  on  Dec.  13,  1798,  the  son  of  Robert  Lomas,  a 
Wesleyan  Methodist  minister.  He  was  educated  at  Kings- 
wood  School,  of  which  he  was  headmaster  from  1820 
to  1823.  In  1820  he  was  accepted  for  the  ministry;  and 
after  leaving  Kingswood  he  traveled  in  Bath,  Man- 
chester, Bristol,  Hull,  and  London.  In  1853  he  was 
elected  President  of  the  Conference  by  an  almost  un- 
animous vote.  He  delivered  the  third  Fernley  lecture, 
Jesus  Christ:  The  Propitiation  for  our  Sins.  From  1861  to 
1867  he  was  the  tutor  in  theology  at  Richmond  College 
(see  Theological  Colleges),  and  held  the  same  posi- 
tion at  Headingley  College  from  its  opening  in  1868  to 
1872.  He  never  married.  As  a  preacher  he  was  highly 
esteemed,  especially  bv  the  more  cultured  of  his  hearers. 
He  died  on  Aug.  20,  1879. 

G.  J.  Stevenson,  Methodist  Worthies.  1884-86. 

W.  L.  Doughty 

LONDON,  England,  the  metropolis  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  commanding  city  of  the  British  Empire  and  now  center 


The  Foundery 

The  Foundery  was  situated  near  the  northeast  comer 
of  Finsbury  Square.  A  dilapidated  iron  foundry,  Wesley 
leased  it  in  1739  and  made  it  into  the  headquarters  of 
the  Methodist  movement  until  1778.  Out  of  this  "vast 
uncouth  heap  of  ruins"  he  made  a  chapel  which  would 
accommodate  fifteen  hundred  people,  a  smaller  meeting 
room  for  about  three  hundred  people,  and  a  book  room. 
Here  were  the  first  free  dispensary  in  London  (since  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries),  a  free  school  (with  two 
masters  and  sixty  children),  an  almshouse  for  widows. 
Here  also  were  the  private  apartments  of  John  Wesley's 
preachers,  and  here  his  mother  died. 

Kennington  Common.  George  Whitefield  preached 
near  the  gallows  on  April  29,  1739,  to  a  congregation 
estimated  at  thirty  thousand.  John  and  Charles  Wesley 
also  preached  there  regularly  in  the  open  air  in  1739  and 
1740. 


WORLD   METHODfSM 


LONDON,    ENGLAND 


Little  Britain  is  to  the  west  of  Aldersgate  Street  (near 
where  it  is  joined  by  St.  Martins  le  Grand).  No.  12  is 
the  site  of  the  house  of  John  Bhay,  the  brazier.  It  was 
frequented  by  the  Wesley  brothers,  and  Charles  Wesley 
was  staying  there  at  the  time  of  his  evangelical  conversion. 

Marylebone,  Parish  Church  of.  Wesley's  parents  were 
married  in  the  old  church  on  Nov.  12,  1688.  The  church 
was  rebuilt  in  1741  and  demolished  in  1949.  Charles 
Wesley  is  buried  in  the  graveyard  near  the  site  of  the 
church  in  Marylebone  High  Street. 

Moorfields.  This  was  reclaimed  low-lying  marshland, 
laid  out  as  a  park  in  1605  and  later  built  upon.  In  the 
north  of  the  district  was  the  Foundery  and  nearby  was 
Whitefield's  first  tabernacle,  dating  from  1741,  giving  the 
name  to  the  present  Tabemacle  Street.  Regular  open- 
air  services  were  held  in  Moorfields  from  1739  to  1777. 
On  March  2,  1777,  John  Wesley  recorded:  "There  were 
thousands  upon  thousands;  and  all  were  still  as  night. 
Not  only  violence  and  rioting,  but  even  scoffing  at  field- 
preachers  is  now  over." 

Snowfields.  Here  stood  the  third  building  John  Wesley 
acquired  for  worship  in  London.  He  first  preached  there 
on  Aug.  8,  1743.  Thereafter  services  were  regularly  held 
for  over  twenty  years.  It  was  built  by  Madame  Ginn, 
a  lady  of  Unitarian  leanings,  in  1736. 

Spitalfields.  Originally  this  was  "hospital-fields,"  the 
open  space  around  St.  Mary's  Hospital  on  the  north  side 
of  what  is  now  Spital  Square.  Samuel  Annesley  lived  in 
a  house  in  Spital  Yard,  and  there  his  daughter  Susanna 
was  born  on  Jan.  20,  1669.  This  house  still  stands. 

West  Street  Chapel  dates  from  about  1680.  It  was 
built  by  French  Protestant  refugees,  and  first  called  La 
Tremblade.  John  Wesley  obtained  the  lease  of  it  in  1743. 
It  appears  on  the  London  Plans  of  1754  as  "The  Chapel" 
to  distinguish  it  from  the  Foundery.  The  original  building 
still  stands  and  is  at  present  used  as  a  warehouse. 


Wesley's  Chapel  (City  Road).  The  Mother  Church  of 
World  Methodism  is  in  City  Road,  London,  opposite 
Bunhill  Fields.  Built  to  replace  the  old  Foundery,  which 
stood  on  a  nearby  site,  it  was  known  as  Mr.  Wesley's 
Chapel,  or  the  "New  Chapel,"  or  more  often  the  City 
Road  Chapel.  The  foundation  stone  was  laid  on  April 
21,  1777,  and  the  chapel,  built  to  Wesley's  design,  was 
opened  by  him  on  Nov.  1,  1778. 

Architecturally  it  is,  in  Wesley's  words,  "perfectly  neat 
but  not  fine."  It  stands  foursquare,  east-west.  It  held 
"far  more  people  than  the  Foundery."  Within,  it  is  sur- 
rounded on  three  sides  by  a  large  gallery — the  front  of 
which  is  decorated  with  the  repeated  motif  of  Wesley's 
choice,  the  dove  surrounded  by  a  serpent.  The  gallery 
was  for  a  hundred  years  supported  by  wooden  pillars 
made  from  the  masts  of  King  George  Ill's  men-of-war. 
These  pillars  have  been  preserved  in  the  vestibule.  They 
have  been  replaced  by  pillars  of  French  jasper,  gifts  of 
representative  Methodist  churches  overseas.  In  1800  the 
west  end  of  the  gallery  was  made  oval  in  form.  The 
original  mahogany  pulpit  still  stands  in  the  central  posi- 
tion. Behind  it  is  the  communion  table  and  mahogany 
communion  rail.  The  Adam  ceiling — in  gold  and  white — 
was,  at  the  time,  the  largest  centrally  unsupported  ceiling 
in  any  building  in  England. 

The  original  windows  have  been  replaced  by  a  number 
of  commemorative  windows  in  stained  glass,  notably  (in 
1892)  in  the  apse  (above  the  reredos),  "The  Adoration  of 
the  Magi,"  presented  by  the  Wesleyan  Reform  Union; 
"The  Apostolic  Commission,"  presented  by  the  LInited 
Methodist  Free  Churches;  and  "Solomon's  Porch,"  pre- 
sented by  the  Primitive  Methodist  connection.  In  the 
gallery  on  the  north  side  is  "The  Wesleys'  Conversion" 
window.  On  the  reredos,  under  the  words  "Holy  Holy 
Holy,"  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  two  commandments 
of  the  Lord  Jesus   are  inscribed   on   a   gilt  background. 


Wesley's  Chapel,  City  Road,  London,  England 


LONDON,    ENGLAND 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


The  font  belonged  to  John  Fletcher's  church  at  Madeley, 
Shropshire,  and  was  placed  in  Wesley's  Chapel  in  1891. 
The  chapel  contains  memorial  tablets  to  many  notable 
servants  of  the  Church.  The  most  famous  are  in  the 
sanctuary,  to  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  John  Fletcher, 
Joseph  Benson,  Thomas  Coke,  and  Adam  Clarke.  In 
the  vestibule  is  the  bronze  memorial  to  all  the  Methodists 
who  gave  their  lives  in  the  two  world  wars. 

In  the  graveyard  behind  the  chapel,  John  Wesley  is 
buried.  The  funeral  took  place  at  5  a.m.  on  March  9, 
1791.  The  vault  was  subsequently  opened  for  eight  others; 
his  sister,  M.artha  Hall;  his  preachers,  Duncan  Wright, 
Thomas  Bradshaw,  John  Richakdson,  John  Mublin, 
Thomas  Olivers,  Walter  Griffith;  and  his  physician.  Dr. 
John  Whitehe.\d.  Also  buried  in  this  graveyard  are 
Peter  Jaco,  Jabez  Bunting,  Adam  Clarke,  and  George 
Whitefield,  and  many  other  well-known  early  Methodist 
preachers.  The  burial  register  for  the  graveyard  contains 
over  five  thousand  names. 

A  small  vestry  adjoining  the  chapel  has  been  set  aside 
as  a  prayer  room  to  commemorate  the  Foundery.  Here  is 
the  pipe  organ  which  belonged  to  Charles  Wesley,  also 
some  forms  from  the  original  "Foundery" — the  lectern 
from  the  band  room,  and  the  pewter  communion  plate 
which  John  Wesley  used.  In  the  forecourt  of  the  chapel 
stands  the  statue  (by  Adams-Acton)  of  John  Wesley, 
erected  at  the  centenary  of  his  death  by  the  subscriptions 
of  the  children  of  Methodism.  The  portico  in  front  of  the 
chapel  was  erected  in  1815. 

Wesley's  Chapel  was  severely  damaged  by  fire  on  Dec. 
6,  1879.  The  restoration  was  carried  out  in  keeping  with 
the  original  style  of  the  building.  Impressions  were  care- 
fully taken  of  what  remained  of  the  ceiling,  so  that  the 
present  is  a  careful  replica.  The  chapel  stands  in  one  of 
the  most  badly  war-damaged  areas  of  London.  On  the 
night  of  the  greatest  fire  raid  in  1940,  buildings  all  round 
were  gutted  and  the  chapel  was  saved  only  by  the  wind 
changing.  New  buildings  on  the  adjacent  sites  are  now 
complete,   and  the  surrounding  district  is  being  rebuilt. 

Although  the  local  membership  is  small,  the  chapel 
exercises  a  wide  ministry.  There  are  thousands  of  visitors 
annually  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Commemorative  and 
memorial  services  are  fittingly  held  here,  and  regular  wor- 
ship services  are  faithfully  maintained.  Recently,  sound 
and  television  broadcasts  have  given  a  contemporary 
significance  to  this  "Church  of  the  World  Parish." 

Wesley's  House,  47  City  Road,  stands  on  the  south  side 
of  the  forecourt  of  Wesley's  Chapel.  John  Wesley  took 
up  residence  there  on  Oct.  9,  1779,  and  it  was  his  London 
home  for  the  last  twelve  years  of  his  life.  He  died  in  this 
house  on  March  2,  1791.  The  house  was  opened  as  a 
museum  on  November  10,  1898.  It  has  been  extensively 
repaired,  the  most  recent  restoration  being  the  entire 
building  of  the  west  wall  in  1963. 

The  house  contains  a  large  and  valuable  collection  of 
John  Wesley's  personal  possessions  and  other  early  Meth- 
odist mementos.  In  the  study  on  the  first  floor  are  his 
writing  desk,  bookcase,  and  study  chair  (which  had  be- 
longed to  a  cock-fighting  bookmaker  who  was  converted 
through  Wesley's  preaching).  Also  his  long-case  clock 
(made  in  1693  by  Claudius  de  Chesne),  his  traveling 
robe  and  three-cornered  hat,  his  shoes  and  buckles.  A 
recent  addition  is  the  large  umbrella  which  he  left  behind 
at  Guisborough.  His  conference  chair  also  stands  in  this 
room.  The  portrait  of  Wesley  painted  by  Frank  O. 
Salisbury  hangs  in  the  study.  The  rear  room  on  the  first 


floor  was  Wesley's  bedroom,  which  contains  some  of  the 
original  furniture.  Leading  out  of  it  is  the  small  prayer 
room  where,  it  is  said,  he  spent  an  hour  between  4  A.M. 
and  5  A.M.  each  morning.  There  are  his  kneeling  stool 
and  his  Greek  New  Testament.  The  second  floor  is  largely 
set  out  as  a  museum  of  Wesleyana.  Here  can  be  seen  many 
of  his  personal  possessions.  Notable  among  them  are  his 
traveling  writing  desk  and  the  bronze  lantern  from  his 
carriage;  also  the  famous  teapot  given  to  him  by  Josiah 
Wedgwood.  The  most  remarkable  exhibit  is  his  electrical 
machine,  which  he  designed  and  found  so  effective  in  the 
treatment  of  "melancholia." 


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GtNERU  ASSEMBLY 

First  Day  Cover  of  United  Nations  stamp 
featuring  Central  Hall,  London 


Westminster  Central  Hall,  the  administrative  head- 
quarters of  British  Methodism,  housing,  as  well  as  a  vast 
worship  area,  the  offices  of  the  Secretary  of  Conference, 
the  Home  Mission  Department,  the  Christian  Citizen- 
ship Department,  the  Finance  Board,  the  Local 
Preachers  Department  and  the  Methodist  Homes  for 
the  Aged.  It  was  built  on  the  site  of  the  old  Aquarium, 
directly  opposite  Westminster  Abbey.  The  architect  was 
A.  B.  Richards,  and  the  building  is  said  to  have  consumed 
over  10,000  tons  of  Portland  stone,  5,000  tons  of  cement 
and  over  1,000  tons  of  steel.  The  poet  and  architectural 
critic,  John  Betjeman,  has  described  it  as  "by  far  the  best 
example  in  London  of  Viennese  baroque  conceived  by  an 
Edwardian  architect." 

The  idea  of  a  Methodist  equivalent  of  the  Anglican 
Church  House  (also  in  the  vicinity  of  Westminster 
Abbey),  was  the  dream  of  Sir  Robert  Perks  towards  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  though  it  is  true  that  he 
conceived  it  as  the  headquarters  of  Wesleyan  Methodism, 
rather  than  of  Methodism  as  a  whole.  He  was  able  to 
convert  his  dream  into  bricks  and  mortar  by  means  of  a 
grant  of  £250,000  from  the  "Million  Guineas  Fund,"  a 
project  launched  by  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  to 
mark  the  advent  of  the  twentieth  century,  and  a  scheme 
in  which  Robert  Perks  was  deeply  involved.  The  Sub- 
scribers' Roll  is  displayed  in  the  vestibule  of  the  Hall, 
and  eveiy  name  represents  a  "thank-offering  of  one  guinea, 
neither  more  nor  less."  The  Hall  was  officially  opened  on 
Oct.  3,  1912,  in  the  presence  of  representatives  of  world 
Methodism  and  civic  heads  of  many  London  and  pro- 
vincial boroughs.  A  service  of  dedication  was  conducted 
by  Marshall  Hartley,  Simpson  Johnson  and  John 
Hornabrook.  After  a  civic  luncheon,  the  President  of  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference,  Luke  Wiseman,  led 
divine  worship  and  preached.  At  a  great  evening  meeting, 
presided  over  by  Sir  Robert  Perks,  the  speakers  were 
Bishop  Nuelsen  of  American  Methodism  and  William 
L.  Watkinson,  one  of  the  most  famous  Wesleyan  preach- 
ers of  his  day.  As  a  place  of  worship,  Westminster  Central 


WORLD  METHODISM 


LONG,   EULA  LEE 


Hall  has  been  the  pastorate  of  a  distinguished  series  of 
ministers:  John  E.  Wakeley  (1911-1914),  Dinsdale  T. 
Young  (1914-1938),  F.  Luke  Wiseman  (1938-1939),  W. 
Edwin  Sangster  (1939-1955),  Derrick  Greaves  (1955- 
1964),  and  Maurice  Bamett  from  1964.  As  a  church,  it 
has  suffered  from  the  social  decay  of  central  London  and 
from  the  decline  in  popularity  of  preaching  as  such.  After 
the  Second  World  War,  in  1946,  the  Central  Hall  was 
chosen  to  be  the  venue  of  the  first  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  United  Nations  organization.  A  plaque 
was  fixed  to  the  south  wall  in  commemoration  of  this 
historic  occasion;  it  was  unveiled  by  the  Prime  Minister 
of  the  day,  Clement  Atlee,  later  Lord  Atlee.  The  Hall 
continues  to  serve  Methodism  both  as  preaching  center 
and  administrative  center:  a  new  department  is  a  Pastoral 
Care  and  Counselling  unit,  begun  under  the  direction  of 
the  Rev.  William  Kyle. 

F.  Baker,  Methodist  Pilgrim  in  England.  1951. 

F.  C.  Gill,  John  Wesleij.  1962. 

J.  H.  Martin,  Wesley's  London  Chapels.  1946. 

G.  J.  Stevenson,  City  Road  Chapel.  1872. 
E.  H.  Sugden,  Wesley's  London.  1932. 

J.  Telford,  Wesley's  Chapel  and  House,  1906. 

Max  Woodward 
John  C.  Bowmeb 

LONDON  QUARTERLY  REVIEW,  THE  (See  Magazines 
AND  Newspapers,  Br. ) . 

LONG,  ALBERT  LIMERICK  (1832-1901),  was  a  distin- 
guished American  scholar  and  missionary  representing 
Methodism  in  the  territory  of  the  Eastern  Orthodox 
Church.  He  was  born  at  Washington,  Pa.,  on  Dec.  4, 
1832,  the  son  of  Warner  Long  of  the  Pittsburgh  Con- 
ference. He  graduated  from  Allegheny  College  in 
1852,  and  that  institution  later  conferred  upon  him  the 
D.D.  degree.  In  1853  while  principal  of  Green  Academy, 
Carmichaels,  Pa.,  he  married  Mary  E.  Rice  of  Meadville, 
Pa.  His  bride  lived  only  a  few  weeks.  In  the  shadows  of 
his  bereavement  he  heard  and  heeded  the  call  to  the 
Christian  ministry  and  enrolled  in  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary at  Concord,  N.  H.  Upon  graduating  he  was  admitted 
to  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  in  1857,  and  at  that 
session  was  appointed  a  missionary  to  Bulgaria.  Before 
sailing  he  married  Mrs.  Persis  S.  Loveland  of  Concord, 
N.  H.,  who  became  the  mother  of  their  three  children. 

Methodist  work  was  just  beginning  in  Bulgaria  when 
Albert  Long  arrived  in  1857.  In  1863  he  was  appointed 
Superintendent  of  the  entire  Mission  to  the  Orthodox 
people  and  moved  to  Constantinople.  He  translated  the 
Bible  into  the  Bulgarian  language,  during  which  work  he 
returned  to  America  for  a  couple  of  years.  Returning  to 
Constantinople  he  established  and  edited  a  family  reh- 
gious  paper  in  Bulgarian,  and  translated  hymns  and  books, 
including  Pilgrim's  Progress,  into  that  language  in  his 
efforts  to  provide  a  Christian  literature  for  the  Bulgarian 
people. 

In  July,  1872,  he  was  invited  to  take  the  professorship 
of  Natural  Science  in  Robert's  College  in  Constantinople, 
and  after  the  step  was  approved  by  The  Missionary  So- 
ciety, he  accepted.  For  nearly  thirty  years  he  taught  and 
witnessed  for  his  Lord  in  that  influential  institution  in 
which  he  was  loved  and  his  scholarship  was  widely  re- 
spected. Being  in  failing  health,  in  1901,  he  was  granted 
a  year's  leave  of  absence  by  the  College  and  started  for 
America  on  July  8th.    Reaching  Liverpool,    England  on 


July  27th  he  was  too  weak  to  continue.  Taken  to  the 
Royal  Infirmary,  he  died  on  July  28,  1901  and  was  buried 
in  St.  James  cemetery.  Albert  Long's  name  was  on  the 
rolls  of  The  Pittsburgh  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church 
from  1857  to  1901  and  his  distinguished  labors  in  a 
difficult  mission  field  make  him  one  of  the  most  eminent 
contributions  of  that  great  Conference  to  world  Meth- 
odism. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzeb 

LONG,  CHARLES  ALEXANDER  (1881-  ),  American 
preacher  and  missionary  to  Brazil,  was  born  near  Alto, 
Te.xas  on  Aug.  22,  1881.  He  graduated  in  1905  from  the 
University  of  Oklahoma,  joined  the  Oklahoma  Confer- 
ence in  1906,  and  was  ordained  deacon  in  1908.  After 
some  years  in  Oklahoma,  he  graduated  from  Vanderbilt 
with  a  B.D.  degree.  While  there,  he  married,  on  July  8, 
1911,  Lucy  York,  then  a  student  at  Scabritt  College. 
They  sailed  for  Brazil,  arriving  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  on 
August  6.  He  was  ordained  elder  by  the  Brazil  Annual 
Conference  then  in  session  and  at  once  appointed  pastor 
and  superintendent  of  the  Instituto  Central  do  Povo,  then 
located  on  Rua  Acre. 

During  his  years  in  Brazil,  Long  served  as  pastor,  dis- 
trict superintendent,  professor  of  theology,  and  dean 
(reitor)  of  the  Instituto  Granberyense,  Director  of  the 
Seamen's  Mission  in  Rio,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Social 
Action  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Brazil;  representative 
of  the  Church  on  the  Commission  of  Cooperation  in 
Latin  America,  and  as  builder  of  churches  and  parson- 
ages. In  Juiz  DE  Fora,  he  built  one  of  the  handsomest 
Protestant  churches  in  Brazil. 

He  also  pioneered  in  the  far  interior  of  the  State  of 
Goias,  where  the  church  owned  one  small  lot.  Long  left 
five  houses  of  worship,  four  residences,  and  several  lots. 
In  all  his  work,  his  wife  was  a  consecrated,  efficient 
helper,  especially  in  connection  with  the  Ann.a  Gonzaga 
Home,  near  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

The  Longs  retired  to  the  United  States  after  forty  years 
of  service,  in  February  1952,  settling  in  Ardmore,  Okla. 
There  they  continued  active  service  in  church  work.  Mrs. 
Long  died  in  March  1970. 

J.  L.  Kennedy,  Metodismo  no  Brasil.  1928. 
Voz  Missionaria,  1960  (last  quarter). 


EuLA  K.  Long 


LONG,  EULA  LEE  KENNEDY    (1891-  ),  was  born  of 

pioneer  American  Methodist  missionaries,  in  Taubate, 
State  of  Sao  Paulo,  on  Sept.  25,  1891.  She  studied  at 
mission  .schools  in  Brazil  and  at  Mackenzie  College,  Sao 
Paulo,  after  which  she  graduated  from  Randolph-Macon 
Woman's  College  in  the  U.S.A.  Returning  to  Brazil, 
she  met  on  shipboard  Frank  M.  Long,  a  missionary  and 
Y.M.C.A.  secretary.  They  fell  in  love,  were  married  on 
Oct.  13,  1914,  and  of  this  union,  five  children  were  born. 

In  Brazil,  between  1913  and  1934,  Mrs.  Long  served 
actively,  becoming  secretary  and  president  of  the  Meth- 
odist Women's  Societies  in  the  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  Con- 
ference and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Methodist  women's 
official  magazine,  the  Voz  Missionaria.  She  was  a  charter 
member  and  organizer  of  the  Liga  Pro-Abstinencia  (Wom- 
an's Christian  Temperance  Union)  in  Porto  Alegre,  and 
taught  a  course  in  scientific  temperance  to  a  group  of 
city  teachers. 

For  helping  her  husband   introduce   Mothers'  Day  to 


LONG,   FRANK  MILLARD 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Brazil  in  1918,  she  received  special  honors  (1954)  from 
her  native  city,  Taubate,  at  which  time  the  City  Council 
named  a  street  "Kennedy,"  honoring  both  her  and  her 
father,  J.  L.  Kennedy.  Her  most  influential  work  was  in 
the  literary  field — writing  a  Sunday  column  for  a  state 
newspaper,  and  writing  also  a  number  of  influential  books 
including  her  father's  biography  and  Coracoes  Felizes 
(Happy  Hearts),  which  went  into  ten  editions  and  was 
also  translated  into  Spanish  in  Mexico.  In  recognition, 
Eula  Long  was  named  corresponding  member  of  three 
academies  of  letters  in  Brazil. 

Returning  to  the  United  States  with  her  family  in 
1934,  she  lectured  and  taught  courses  on  South  America, 
and  published  articles  in  nationally  known  magazines.  In 
1945,  she  received  a  second  national  award  in  poetry 
from  the  Edwin  Markham  Memorial  Association;  in  1959 
a  citation  from  Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College  for 
outstanding  religious  leadership;  an  honorary  life  member- 
ship in  the  Woman's  Society  of  Christian  Service;  and 
was  named  Virgini.\  Mother  of  the  Year.  She  is  editor 
for  Brazil  and  the  Brazilian  articles  and  personalities  in 
this  Encyclopedia  of  World  Methodism.  Mrs.  Long  lives 
in  Roanoke,  Va. 

Clark  and  Stafford,  Who's  Who  in  Methodism.  1952. 

Who's  Who  Among  American  Women.  James  A.  Long 

LONG,  FRANK  MILLARD  (1883-1958),  American  lay- 
man, secretary  of  the  International  Committee  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.  in  Brazil,  was  born  in  Comiskey,  Kan.,  on 
Nov.  18,  1883.  He  early  moved  to  Oklahoma  and  grad- 
uated from  the  State  University  (B.A.  1908;  M.A.  1909). 

An  opening  for  mission  work  came  with  a  call  to 
Instituto  Granbery  in  Juiz  de  Fora,  Brazil,  and  by  a 
mutual  agreement  between  the  Methodist  Church  and 
the  International  Y.M.C.A.,  he  was  sent  to  organize  "Y" 
work  and  to  teach  Bible,  English,  and  athletics.  He  sailed 
in  July,  1913.  On  the  ship,  he  met  Eula  Lee  Kennedy 
who  was  returning  to  Brazil  after  graduation  from  Ran- 
dolph-Macon Woman's  College.  They  fell  in  love  and 
were  married  on  Oct.  13,  1914. 

After  two  years  at  Cranbery,  Long  was  called  to  sei-ve 
the  Y.M.C.A.  in  Recife  (Pernambuco)  during  an  emer- 
gency; from  then  on  he  continued  in  this  organization. 
He  was  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  one  year,  and  then  sixteen 
years  in  Porto  Alegre  (Rio  Grande).  In  this  last,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Kenneth  Latourette,  the  success  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.  work  was  "phenomenal,"  and  Long's  record 
"striking."  Among  other  things  he  trained  athletes  for 
the  continental  Olympics,  some  of  whom  won  first  places, 
and  for  this  he  was  named  "Father  of  Athletics"  in  Rio 
Grande  do  Sul. 

He  served  on  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  College, 
now  Instituto  Porto  Alegre;  and  initiated  the  first  death- 
benefit  plan  for  Methodist  preachers  in  that  state.  In 
May  1918,  with  Mrs.  Long's  help,  he  introduced  Mothers' 
Day  to  Brazil,  possibly  a  first  in  all  South  America.  The 
day  was  later  officialized  by  government  decree.  In  a 
posthumous  celebration  in  1961,  the  city  council  of  Porto 
Alegre  named  a  public  square  the  "Praca  Frank  M. 
Long,"  and  in  1968  held  special  commemorations  and 
issued  a  stamp  fofio  in  his  honor. 

Recalled  to  the  United  States  in  1934,  because  of  the 
depression.  Long  served  in  the  Memphis  and  Roanoke 
Y.M.C.A.'s  until  1942;  then  in  Y-USO's  in  Dublin  and 
Hampton,    Va.    Upon    retirement    in    1952,    Frank    Long 


and  his  wife  spent  three  years  in  Norman,  Okla.,  where 
they  enrolled  in  university  classes.  He  died  in  Roanoke, 
Va.,  on  May  31,  1958,  of  congestive  heart  failure.  Sur- 
vivors included  his  wife  and  four  children — James,  a 
geophysicist;  Lewis,  a  psychologist;  Eulalee  Anderson; 
Edith  Schisler,  who  married  a  second  generation  mis- 
sionary to  Brazil;  and  fourteen  grandchildren.  A  son, 
Frank  Millard,  Jr.,  was  killed  in  the  Second  World  War. 

J.  Eabl  Mobeland 

LONG,  JOHN  WILLIAM  (1882-1956),  American  preach- 
er and  educator,  was  bom  in  Sussex  County,  Del.,  Nov. 
3,  1882.  The  son  of  Richard  Wilson  Long,  public  school 
teacher  and  Methodist  preacher,  he  attended  the  pubhc 
schools  of  Wicomico  County,  Del.,  graduating  from  the 
Delmar  High  School.  He  was  graduated  from  Wesley 
Junior  College,  Dover,  Del.,  in  1904,  and  Dickinson 
College  in  1907. 

Following  a  series  of  pastorates  in  the  Central  Penn- 
sylvania Conference,  the  last  at  St.  Paul's  Church,  State 
College,  Pa.,  he  was  elected  president  of  Williamsport 
Dickinson  Seminary,  Williamsport,  Pa.,  in  1921.  Under 
his  leadership  the  institution  became  a  Junior  College  in 
1929,  and  a  four-year  degree  granting  college,  Lycoming 
College,  in  1947. 

Lycoming  College  is  his  living  memorial.  It  reflects  the 
devotion  of  his  spirit  and  the  dedication  of  his  hfe.  His 
service  to  education  and  to  the  church  was  recognized  by 
a  D.D.  degree  conferred  by  Dickinson  College,  and  a 
LL.D.  from  Western  Maryland  College.  Wesley  Junior 
College  made  him  the  recipient  of  its  Wesley  Award  in 
recognition  of  a  half  century  of  sewice. 

He  was  married  to  Mildred  Lee  Lewis  and  they  became 
the  parents  of  four  sons  and  four  daughters.  He  retired 
in  1955  from  the  institution  which  he  served  as  president 
for  thirty-four  vears,  and  died  within  the  year  on  May  5, 
1956. 

Journal,  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference,  1956. 

D.  Frederick  Wertz 

LONG,  JOSEPH  (1800-1869),  American  Evangelical 
preacher  and  bishop,  was  born  Oct.  2,  1800  in  Berks 
County,  Pa.  In  1818  he  was  converted  in  Ohio  where 
his  family  had  moved.  He  entered  the  ministry  of  the 
Evangelical  Association  at  the  conference  session  held 
in  New  Berlin,  Pa.,  in  June  1822.  On  Jan.  10,  1826,  he 
was  married  to  Catherine  Hoy,  but  his  salary  was  very 
small,  so  he  had  to  locate  to  earn  a  living  for  his  family, 
his  parents  and  the  family  of  a  helpless  brother. 

In  1841  he  returned  to  the  itinerancy.  At  the  General 
Conference  in  1843,  held  in  Greensburg,  Ohio,  he  was 
elected  bishop  and  served  in  this  office  until  his  death  in 
Forreston,  111.,  June  23,  1869. 

Bishop  Long  was  an  outstanding  preacher  in  his  day. 
Many  men  declared  they  never  heard  his  equal.  He  was 
witty  and  sometimes  sarcastic.  Bishop  S.  P.  Spreng  writes 
that  "he  was  profound  and  overwhelmingly  powerful  .  .  . 
a  son  of  thunder."  Lacking  the  best  of  education  himself. 
Long  fostered  educational  institutions  within  the  church, 
even  applying  part  of  his  estate  to  the  maintenance  of 
Greensburg  Seminary  at  Greensburg,  Ohio. 

He  was  a  strict  disciplinarian,  understanding  both  the 
doctrine  and  the  law  of  the  Church.  Yet  he  was  progres- 
sive, quietly  adapting  himself  to  changing  conditions  and 


WORLD   METHODISM 

ideals.  He  was  kind  and  helpful  in  his  relations  with  young 
ministers  of  the  church.  In  him  the  Church  had  a  wise 
counsellor,  far-seeing  and  prudent,  and  a  staunch  defender 
of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Evangelical  Church. 

R.  W.  Albright,  Evangelical  Church.  1942. 

R.  m;  Veh,  Evangelical  Bishops.  1939.         Howard  H.  Mabtv 


Isaac  Long  Barn 

LONG  BARN,  ISAAC,  located  near  Neffsville  in  the 
Landis  Valley  of  Lancaster  County,  Pa.,  is  the  site  of  the 
meeting  between  Martin  Boehm  and  Philip  William 
Otterbein  on  Pentecost  Sunday  1767,  from  which 
evolved  the  former  Church  of  the  United  Brethren 
IN  Christ. 

As  was  the  custom  in  those  days,  a  crowd  of  German 
residents  of  central  and  eastern  Pennsylvania  had  gath- 
ered together  for  a  "Great  Meeting."  The  preacher  for  the 
occasion  was  Martin  Boehm,  a  Mennonite  minister  from 
the  southern  part  of  Lancaster  County.  In  his  audience 
was  a  German  Reformed  pastor  who  had  once  served  a 
congregation  in  Lancaster,  but  who  was  now  located  at 
York,  Pa.,  Philip  William  Otterbein. 

Otterbein  was  so  moved  by  the  fervor  of  the  sermon 
he  heard  that  he  rushed  forward  and  embraced  the 
preacher  with  the  greeting  Wir  sind  Bruder,  "We  are 
brethren." 

Although  other  meetings  of  a  similar  nature  were  con- 
ducted in  this  sturdy  stone  and  wood  bam  and  the  woods 
adjacent  to  it,  none  has  been  as  significant  in  the  history 
of  the  E.U.B.  Church  as  was  this  meeting  in  1767.  On 
June  16,  1960,  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  and  Museum 
Commission  erected  one  of  its  historical  markers  near  the 
Isaac  Long  Barn  in  recognition  of  its  importance  in  the 
religious  history  of  the  state. 

Although  it  has  been  enlarged,  the  original  building 
with  its  wooden  pegs  holding  the  timbers  in  place  still 
stands.  The  land  surrounding  it  was  farmed  in  1968  by 
the  Jacob  B.  Landis  family,  direct  descendant  Mennonites 
from  Isaac  Long,  who  have  been  most  cooperative  with 
the  historical  agencies  of  the  church  and  have  always 
welcomed  visitors  to  their  premises. 

On  May  14,  1967,  the  200th  Anniversary  of  the  meet- 
ing of  Boehm  and  Otterbein  at  the  Isaac  Long  Barn  was 
commemorated  with  a  service  that  had  to  be  conducted 
due  to  inclement  weather  in  the  auditorium  of  the  Man- 
heim  Township  High  School  before  an  audience  of  1,100. 

Bruce  C.  Soudebs 

LONG  BEACH,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.,  with  a  population 
of  346,975   (1970),  is  situated  on  the  Pacific  Ocean  and 


LONGACRE,   JAMES   BARTON 

noted  for  its  port  and  naval  activities,  its  oil  and  varied 
industries,  its  international  beauty  pageants  and  year- 
round  mild  climate.  Long  Beach  is  also  an  important  cen- 
ter for  Methodism.  "The  Methodist  Resort  Association" 
was  formed  in  1884,  sponsoring  tent  meetings  and  taber- 
nacle assemblies.  Out  of  this  came  First  Methodist  Church 
of  Long  Beach,  and  later  the  Long  Beach  District  Union  to 
aid  church  extension.  First  Church  was  organized  in  1884 
before  the  city  was  incorporated  or  chartered.  It  was 
destined  to  be  the  "mother  church"  of  Methodism  locally, 
and  the  host  for  numerous  Annual  Conference  sessions 
across  the  years. 

From  its  founding  Long  Beach  has  looked  to  Methodist 
clergy  and  laity  for  significant  leadership,  the  latter  espe- 
cially having  been  prominent  in  the  economic,  political, 
social,  cultural,  and  educational  life  of  a  fast  growing  city. 
Early  Methodist  names  in  Long  Beach  in  1884  were  Bish- 
op Cyrus  D.  Foss;  Presiding  Elder  R.  W.  C.  Farnsworth; 
and  G.  W.  Elwood,  first  pastor.  Prominent  names  of  laity 
near  the  turn  of  the  century  were  Charles  J.  Walker,  E. 
Vance  Hill,  Fell  Lightburn,  Dr.  D.  W.  Cuthbert,  M.  H. 
LaFetra,  E.  E.  Buffum,  R.  J.  Craig,  S.  A.  Stone,  E.  M. 
Lyman,  F.  D.  Bishop,  S.  Townsend,  F.  W.  Steams,  J.  W. 
Hand  and  C.  F.  Van  de  Water. 

While  there  have  been  several  mergers  and  relocations 
of  local  churches  to  better  serve  residential  needs.  Long 
Beach  Methodism  now  has  thirteen  local  churches  with  a 
combined  membership  of  9,884.  The  three  largest 
churches  are  Los  Altos,  Califomia  Heights,  and  Grace. 
The  Los  Altos  church  was  organized  in  1954  and  grew 
to  2,569  members  by  1970.  The  former  First  M.  E. 
Church,  South  is  now  known  as  Moore  Memorial.  The 
organizational  chronology  of  Long  Beach  churches  fol- 
lows: First,  1884;  Moore  Memorial,  1901  (formerly  First 
M.  E.  S.  and  Centenary  M.  E.  S.);  Grace,  1911  (formerly 
Alamitos  Park,  1903);  Atlantic,  1925  (merger  of  Central, 
1905  and  Trinity,  1913);  East,  1922  (foimerly  Zaferia, 
1913);  Belmont  Heights,  1914;  North,  1930  (formerly 
Virginia  Citv,  1923  and  Spaulding,  1929);  California 
Heights,  1930;  Silverado,  1944;  Los  Altos,  1954;  Latin 
American,  1956;  Dominguez,  1959.  Methodism  is  also 
represented  in  long  Beach  by  a  former  E.U.B.;  A.M.E.; 
C.M.E.;  and  Free  Methodist  churches. 

The  Long  Beach  District  of  the  Southern  California- 
Arizona  Conference  has  fifty-one  local  churches  with 
26,546  members  ( 1970  Journal) . 

Donald  R.  O'Connor 

LONGACRE,  JAMES  BARTON  (1794-1869),  American 
layman,  who  became  a  world  famous  engraver,  was  bom 
in  Delaware  County,  Pa.,  on  Aug.  11,  1794.  He  was  ap- 
prenticed to  an  engraver  in  Phil.'^delphia  and  obtained 
early  notice  by  an  engraving  he  did  of  President  Andrew 
Jackson.  In  1831  he  was  employed  in  the  illustration  of 
the  money  which  was  then  reproduced  in  certain  Ameri- 
can works  being  published.  At  first  in  conjunction  with 
James  Herring,  of  New  York,  and  later  independently,  he 
planned  and  published  the  National  Portrait  Gallery  of 
Distinguished  Americans  (1834-9).  Among  the  engrav- 
ings in  this  group  were  some  sketches  done  by  himself. 
The  Portrait  Gallery  yet  is  of  interest  and  he  held  in  high 
esteem. 

Descended  from  Swedish  ancestors,  he  was  early  trained 
in  religious  life,  and  when  young  became  a  member  of  old 
St.  George's  Chuhch  at  Philadelphia,  filling  the  offices 
of  class-leader,  steward,  and  trustee  for  many  years.  He 


LONGACRE,    LINDSAY   BARTHOLOMEW 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


left  St.  George's  with  others  to  form  the  Central  Church, 
Philadelphia,  and  served  it  also  in  the  same  positions  until 
his  death.  He  was  one  of  the  first  trustees  of  Dickinson 
College,  one  of  the  first  managers  of  the  Philadelphia 
Conference  Tract  Society  and  Publishing  House,  and  for 
thirty  years  was  a  vice-president  of  the  American  Sunday- 
School  Union. 

In  1844,  Longacre  was  appointed  engraver  to  the 
United  States  mint,  and  from  that  time  until  his  death 
designed  all  new  coins.  He  was  also  called  upon  to  re- 
model the  coinage  of  Chile — which  he  did. 

He  died  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  on  Jan.  1,  1869. 

Attiericana  Encyclopedia,  The.  Vol.   17.  New  York:   American 

Book-Stratford  Press,  Inc.  1950. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

LONGACRE,  LINDSAY  BARTHOLOMEW  (1870-1952), 
American  educator  and  hymnist,  was  born  on  Jan.  26, 
1870,  in  Pottsville,  Pa.  He  was  educated  at  Columbia 
University,  at  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  and  at  the 
University  of  Jena  in  Germany,  1905-10.  He  received  the 
Ph.D.  degree  from  New  York  University  in  1908.  For  a 
time  he  served  in  the  New  Y'ork  Conference,  but  then 
went  to  the  Iliff  School  of  Theology  in  1910,  where 
he  was  destined  to  spend  most  of  his  life.  Considered  an 
authority  on  liturgy  and  church  music,  he  wrote  the 
Riverdale  Hymn  Book,  published  by  Revell  in  1912,  and 
was  the  composer  of  songs,  hymns,  and  tunes.  He  served 
on  the  Commission  on  Ritual  and  Orders  of  Worship  of 
The  Methodist  Church.  1940-44,  which  Commission  cre- 
ated the  first  Book  of  Worship  of  The  Methodist  Church, 
and  in  this  Longacre  wrote  the  entire  section  of  daily 
devotions.  After  his  retirement  from  lliff,  Longacre  re- 
turned to  New  York  where  for  a  time  he  served  in  a  pas- 
toral way  as  an  assistant  to  Ralph  W.  Sockman  at 
Christ  Church.  He  died  on  Sept.  18,  1952. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 
Minutes,  Colorado  Conference,  1953.  N.  B.  H. 

LONGSTREET,  AUGUSTUS  BALDWIN  (1790-1870), 
American  jurist,  author,  educator,  and  minister,  was  born 
at  Augusta,  Ga.,  Sept.  22,  1790.  He  graduated  from  Yale 
University  in  1813  and  followed  the  e.xample  of  his  friend, 
John  C.  Calhoun,  by  studying  law  at  Litchfield,  Conn., 
In  1815  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Augusta,  Ga.,  and 
located  at  Greensboro,  Ga.,  where  he  married  Eliza  Parke 
and  became  judge  of  the  circuit  court.  Judge  Longstreet 
was  elected  to  the  Georgia  legislature  in  1821.  He  was 
a  religious  skeptic,  but  the  death  of  his  eldest  child  so 
affected  him  that  after  a  long  struggle,  he  joined  the 
M.  E.  Church  in  1827.  He  returned  to  Augusta  and 
resumed  his  law  practice.  There  he  edited  The  States 
Rights  Sentinel,  which  gave  him  a  national  reputation 
when  Harper  and  Brothers  published  the  sketches  in 
book  form  in  1840. 

In  1836  Longstreet  became  a  member  of  the  first  board 
of  trustees  of  Wesleyan  College  at  Macon,  Ga.  In  1838 
at  the  age  of  forty-eight  he  entered  the  Methodist  minis- 
try. Two  years  later  he  was  elected  president  of  Emory 
College  at  0,\ford,  Ga.  One  of  the  students,  L.  Q.  C. 
Lamar,  married  Longstreet's  daughter.  In  1841  Yale  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  LL.D,  degree. 

At  the  General  Conference  in  1844,  Longstreet  de- 
livered the  Declaration  of  the  Southern  Delegates  which 


stated  that  the  vote  against  Bishop  Andrew  had  made  it 
impossible  for  the  General  Conference  to  continue  to  legis- 
late for  the  Methodist  Church  in  the  slaveholding  states. 
He  played  a  prominent  role  in  the  Louisville  Conven- 
tion of  1845,  where  because  of  his  legal  experience,  he 
was  called  upon  to  help  draft  the  rules  for  the  proceedings 
of  the  Convention.  He  was  also  elected  to  the  first  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in  1846. 

During  1849  Longstreet  was  president  of  Centenary 
College  which  was  then  operated  by  the  Methodist  Con- 
ferences of  Mississippi  and  Louisiana.  From  1849  to 
1856  he  was  president  of  the  University  of  Mississippi, 
but  his  political  writings  against  the  "Know-Nothing" 
movement  aroused  such  controversy  that  he  retired  from 
public  life.  In  1857,  however,  he  accepted  his  fourth  col- 
lege presidency  at  the  University  of  South  Carolina.  In 
1865  Longstreet  settled  again  in  Mississippi  and  wrote 
extensively  to  justify  the  lost  cause  of  the  South.  His 
greatest  companion  in  his  old  age  was  his  (by  then 
famous)  son-in-law.  Senator  and  Justice  Lucius  Quintus 
Cincinnatus  Lamar.  Longstreet  died  in  0.\ford,  Miss.,  on 
July  9,  1870. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
Thomas  English,  Emory  Utiiversity.  1966. 
A.  M.  Pierce,  Georgia.  1956. 
A.  H.  Redford,  Organization  of  MES.  1871. 


G.  G.  Smith,  Georgia.  1913. 


Donald  J.  West 


LONGVIEW,  TEXAS,  U.S.A.,  First  Church  is  a  three-mil- 
lion dollar  church  plant  located  in  Longview's  business 
district,  with  a  graceful  church  tower  joining  with  tall 
office  buildings  to  make  the  city's  skyline. 

First  Church  had  its  beginning  about  1840  in  a  log 
meeting  house,  which  the  congregation  made  available 
for  use  by  other  early  Protestant  denominations  of  the 
community.  The  evangelistic  membership  steadily  grew, 
progressing  from  the  log  house  to  a  one-room  frame  struc- 
ture by  1860,  a  brick  church  in  1875,  and  a  much  larger 
brick  building  in  1900,  with  the  addition  of  the  church's 
first  educational  building  in  1909.  The  cornerstone  for 
the  present-day  church  was  laid  in  1951  by  Bishop 
A.  Frank  Smith. 

Today's  modem  plant  is  of  modified  Romanesque  archi- 
tecture and  situated  on  a  landscaped  square.  The  church- 
ly  sanctuary,  seating  724,  has  stained  glass  windows  de- 
signed to  give  a  complete,  connected  story  of  the  earthly 
ministr\'  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Equipment  includes 
a  3-manual,  32-rank  pipe  organ.  A  prayer  room,  near  the 
main  street  entrance,  is  open  at  all  times. 

Complete  facilities  provide  for  the  educational  and 
social  life  of  the  church.  The  three-story  Children  and 
Youth  Building  is  widely  recognized  throughout  the 
Southwest  as  a  model  of  eflRciency  and  beauty.  Functional, 
attractive  adult  classrooms,  a  well-stocked  library,  chapel 
and  parlor,  large  banquet  hall,  fully  equipped  kitchen, 
modem  stafi^  offices,  and  an  adjoining,  hard-surfaced  park- 
ing lot  are  features  of  this  building. 

A  distinctive  music  program  characterizes  First  Meth- 
odist. There  are  eight  choirs  with  more  than  200  mem- 
bers. The  Chancel  Choir  sings  each  Sunday  moming,  and 
presents  special  programs  with  symphonic  accompaniment 
during  the  year. 

The  School  for  Little  Children  is  a  highly  successful 
week-day  school  for  three-  to  five-year  olds.  Enrollment 
is  presently  limited  to  150. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LORD,   JOHN   WESLEY 


Present  church  membership  exceeds  2,200,  and  church 
school  attendance  averages  about  700.  First  Methodist 
is  mission-minded,  and  gives  approximately  $10,000  in 
World  Service  and  Conference  benevolences  from  its 
annual  budget  of  $190,000.  Two  worship  services  are 
held. each  Sunday  morning  and  one  on  Sunday  night. 
Wednesday  night  meetings  frequently  follow  a  general 
membership  supper.  The  church  staff  is  headed  by  its 
first  minister,  an  associate  minister,  a  director  of  Christian 
education,  day  school  director,  two  choir  directors,  an 
organist,  and  five  secretaries.  First  Methodist  calls  itself, 
"The  Church  at  the  Heart  of  the  City  with  the  City  at 
Heart." 

Longview  News  Journal,  Oct.  6,  1957. 

Derwood  L.  Blackwell 

LON  MORRIS  COLLEGE,  Jacksonville,  Texas,  was  founded 
in  1873  at  Kilgore,  Texas,  as  Alexander  Institute.  Two 
years  later  it  became  the  property  of  the  East  Texas 
Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  It  moved  to  its 
present  location  in  1894,  became  a  junior  college  in 
1912,  and  assumed  its  present  name  in  1924.  The  great 
growth  and  development  occurred  during  the  administra- 
tion of  Cecil  E.  Peeples,  who  has  been  president  since 
1935.  The  governing  board  consists  of  forty-one  mem- 
bers elected  by  the  Texas  Conference. 

John  O.  Gboss 

LOOFBOUROW,  LEONIDAS  LATIMER  (1877-1969), 
American  minister  and  historian,  started  life  at  Atlantic, 
Iowa,  Dec.  5,  1877,  but  was  destined  to  roam  widely  in 
the  service  of  Methodism.  He  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the 
California  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1903. 
His  California  pastorates  included  Eighth  Avenue,  Oak- 
land (1906-11);  First,  Burlingame  (1919-25);  and  Co- 
op Parish,  Richmond  (1949-59);  but  he  also  was  sta- 
tioned at  First,  Honolulu  (1915-19);  and  Union,  Balboa, 
in  the  Canal  Zone,  Panama  (1937-41).  From  1925  to 
1931  he  served  as  superintendent  of  the  Redwood-Shasta 
District,  and  was  a  member  of  various  boards  and  com- 
missions of  the  M.  E.  Church. 

Loofbourow  was  an  outdoorsman  in  his  youth  and  com- 
bined poetry  with  nature  study  while  in  the  high  Sierras, 
as  did  his  contemporary  and  fellow  Californian,  John 
Muir.  He  won  Phi  Beta  Kappa  honors  and  a  B.A.  degree 
at  Stanford,  a  B.D.  degree  at  Boston  University,  and 
an  honorary  D.D.  at  the  University  of  the  Pacific.  His 
publications,  mostly  in  church  history,  include  In  Search 
of  God's  Gold  (1950)  and  Steeples  Among  the  Sage,  A 
Centennial  Story  of  Nevada's  Churches  (1964).  He  also 
wrote  a  two  volume  account.  Cross  in  the  Sunset. 

"He  lived  his  history  as  he  wrote  it"  stated  the  To- 
gether news  edition  for  the  San  Francisco  Area  (UMC) 
as  it  announced  his  death  on  May  13,  1969.  "In  1952  at 
age  75  he  rode  horseback  nearly  one  hundred  miles 
around  the  southern  arm  of  San  Francisco  Bay  .  .  .  telling 
the  deeds  of  this  Conference  and  its  people."  He  and 
Mrs.  Loofbourow  (Anna  Hart  Robertson)  celebrated  their 
golden  wedding  anniversary  with  1,600  guests  several 
years  before  her  passing  at  age  93. 

Loofbourow  was  a  helpful  contributor  to  this  Encyclo- 
pedia covering  much  California  history  for  it. 

Clark  and  Stafford,  Who's  Who  in  Methodism.  1952. 

Leland  D.  Case 


LOPES,  JOSE  LEONEL  (1868-1920),  Brazilian  preacher, 
was  bom  in  Santa  Barbara  do  Mato  Dentro,  state  of 
Minas  Gerais,  on  Sept.  18,  1868,  the  only  child  of  staunch, 
traditionally  Roman  Catholic  parents.  As  a  youth  in  Ouro 
Preto,  Minas  Gerais,  he  heard  for  the  first  time  the  Gospel 
preached  by  Jo.\o  E.  Tavares.  He  began  to  inquire, 
then  was  convinced,  converted  and  gave  himself  utterly 
to  Christ. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  students  of  Granbery  College, 
now  Instituto.  In  1897,  he  married  Jovita  de  Araujo,  and 
they  had  eight  children. 

Lopes  served  many  churches  in  the  state  of  Minas 
Gerais,  Sao  Paulo,  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  Rio  Grande  do 
Sul.  He  was  always  a  hard  worker,  courageous,  and  com- 
pelling evangelist.  It  was  said  that  when  the  bishop 
needed  a  man  for  a  difficult  or  remote  station,  the  unani- 
mous recommendation  always  was,  "Get  Leonel  Lopes." 

Stricken  with  diabetes,  he  was  taken  to  the  Hospital 
Samaritano  in  Sao  Paulo.  Relatixes  and  friends  wanted  to 
secure  a  private  room  for  his  greater  comfort,  but  Leonel 
refused,  commenting,  "In  a  ward,  I  can  speak  of  Christ 
to  many  others."  And  this  he  did.  Though  both  legs  had 
to  be  amputated,  Leonel  never  faltered  in  faith  or  courage. 
He  died  on  Sept.  19,  1920. 

ISNARD  ROCHA 

LORD,   JOHN   WESLEY    (1902-  ),   American   bishop, 

was  born  in  Paterson,  N.  J.,  on  Aug.  23,  1902,  the  son 
of  John  James  and  Catherine  (Carmichael)  Lord. 

He  graduated  from  the  Montclair  State  Normal  School, 
Montclair,  N.  J.,  in  1922.  He  was  a  teacher  and  principal 
in  the  New  Jersey  schools  from  1922  until  1924.  He 
received  the  B.A.  degree  from  Dickinson  College  in 
1927,  and  the  B.D.  from  Drew  Theological  Seminary 
in  1930.  He  matriculated  for  his  Ph.D.  at  the  LTniversity 
of  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  in  1930  and  1931,  and  did 
graduate  work  at  Rutgers  University  in  the  field  of  educa- 
tion. He  received  a  D.D.  from  Dickinson  College  in  1943 
and  LL.D.  in  1949;  and  S.T.D.  from  Boston  University 
in  1949. 

On  April  29,  1931,  he  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Margaret  Farrington  Ratcliffe.  They  have  one  daughter, 
Jean  Phillips  Lord  (Mrs.  Arnold  C.  Cooper). 

He  was  admitted  on  trial,  and  ordained  deacon  at  the 
Newark  Conference  in  April,  1929;  admitted  to  full 
connection  and  elder  in  1931.  From  1927  until  1930  he 
was  an  assistant  pastor  of  the  Emory  Methodist  Church 
in  Jersey  City,  N.  J.;  then  pastor  of  the  Union  Community 
Church  in  Union,  N.  J.,  while  it  was  under  construction 
with  volunteer  labor,  1931-34.  Subsequently  he  held  pas- 
torates at  the  First  Church  in  Arlington,  N.  J.,  1935-38; 
and  at  the  First  Church  in  Westfield,  N.  J.  1938-48. 

At  the  Northeastern  Jurisdictional  Conference  in 
session  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  on  June  18,  1948.  he  was  elected 
bishop  and  was  consecrated  on  June  20  in  Trinity  Church, 
Albany,  N.  Y.  He  was  assigned  to  residence  in  the  Boston 
Area  and  served  as  presiding  bishop  there  until  June 
1960,  when  he  was  assigned  to  the  Washington  Area.  This 
embraces  the  District  of  Columbia,  Delaware,  most  of 
Maryland,  and  a  small  part  of  West  VraciNiA. 

In  1950-56  he  was  president  of  the  New  England  Dea- 
coness Hospital;  and  in  1953-55  of  the  Massachusetts 
Council  of  Churches.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Lay  Activities,  Northeastern  Jurisdiction. 

Bishop  Lord  is  a  Trustee  of  Claflin  College;   New 


LORD'S   SUPPER 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


England  Deaconess  Hospital,  Boston;  American  Univer- 
sity; Sibley  Memorial  Hospital,  Washington,  D.  C;  Wes- 
ley College,  Dover,  Del.;  Western  Maryland  College; 
Dickinson  College;  Morgan  Christian  Center,  Morgan 
State  College,  Baltimore.  He  is  Chairman  of  the  Board 
of  Governors,  Wesley  Theological  Seminary;  President 
of  The  Methodist  Corporation,  Washington,  D.  C;  Presi- 
dent of  the  General  Board  of  Pensions,  and  Chairman  of 
the  Interreligious  Committee  on  Race,  Washington,  D.  C. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Commission  on  Ecumenical  Af- 
fairs and  General  Board  of  Christian  Social  Concerns 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church;  General  Board  of  the 
National  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in  the  U.S.A.; 
National  Council  for  a  Responsible  Firearms  Policy;  U.S. 
Interreligious  Committee  on  Peace;  Clergy  and  Laymen 
Concerned  About  Vietnam;  and  Honorary  Chairman  of 
The  Committee  of  Responsibility  (to  save  war-burned 
and  war-injured  Vietnamese  children ) . 

Wlw's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

LORD'S  SUPPER.  (See  Communion,  The  Holy.) 


graduated  from  Otterbein  University  (1880)  and  Yale 
Divinity  School  (1883).  Following  study  at  Leipzig  and 
Berlin,  Germany,  he  served  as  pastor  in  Dayton  until 
1887,  when  he  was  called  to  be  president  of  Lebanon 
Valley  College  (1887-89). 

Ill  health  forced  him  to  leave  the  college,  and  he  then 
turned  to  the  work  for  which  he  became  famous.  In 
1890,  he  founded  the  Lorenz  Publishing  Company  in 
Dayton,  Ohio,  which  became  widely  renowned  for  the 
publishing  of  church  music.  As  editor  and  head  of  the 
company,  he  not  only  wrote  hymns  and  composed  music 
but  served  many  denominations  by  providing  music  publi- 
cations used  by  countless  local  churches  and  Sunday 
schools.  In  his  later  activities  he  functioned  primarily  as 
a  lay  businessman,  but  his  contributions  were  always 
church  oriented.  His  many  publications  of  religious  music 
included  the  editing  of  the  Otterbein  Hymnal  (1890) 
and  the  Church  Hymnal  (193.5)  for  the  United  Brethren 
in  Christ.  He  died  July  10,  1942,  in  Dayton,  Ohio. 

William  Coyle,  ed.,  Ohio  Authors  and  Their  Books.  Cleveland, 

World  Publishing  Co.,  1962. 

Religious  Telescope,  Vol.  108,  No.  30  (July  25,  1942). 

Donald  K.  Gorrell 


LORE,  DALLAS  D.  (1815-1875),  American  missionary 
and  editor,  bom  in  New  Jersey  in  1815,  who  joined  the 
Philadelphia  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1837. 
In  1840  he  was  nominated  as  a  missionary  to  Africa,  but 
circumstances  prevented  his  entering  upon  the  work.  He 
subsequently  served  as  a  pastor  in  Lancaster,  Pa.,  but 
in  1847  he  went  as  a  missionary  to  Buenos  Aires,  where 
he  remained  seven  years.  During  that  time  he  successfully 
supported  the  work  of  the  mission  in  Buenos  Aires.  Upon 
his  return  from  Buenos  Aires,  he  was  sent  upon  a  tour  of 
observation  in  New  Me.xico  with  a  view  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  mission  in  that  territory.  His  letters  back  to  the 
Board  of  Missions  from  Sante  Fe  in  1855  were  not  en- 
couraging, and  while  he  was  able  to  organize  a  class  of 
nine  persons  at  Socorro,  and  one  of  fourteen  members  at 
Peralto,  and  a  circuit  of  four  appointments,  he  did  not  feel 
that  the  work  should  be  continued.  After  receiving  his 
report,  the  Board  decided  to  discontinue  the  mission. 
Lore  then  was  elected  editor  of  the  Northern  Christian 
Advocate  by  the  General  Conference  of  1864,  and 
re-elected  in  '68  and  '72.  He  was  active  in  calling  the 
New  York  Methodist  State  Convention  which  met  at 
Syracuse  in  1870,  and  which  determined  upon  the  estab- 
lishment of  Syracuse  University.  Dallas  Lore  died  near 
Auburn,  N.  Y.,  on  June  20,  1875. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Metlwdist  Miss-ions.  1957. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

LORENZ,  EDMUND  SIMON  (1854-1942).  American 
United  Brethren  hvTnn  writer,  composer,  and  publisher 
of  religious  music,  was  born  at  North  Lawrence,  Ohio,  in 
the  home  of  a  United  Brethren  minister,  July  13,  1854. 
After  graduating  from  high  school  in  Toledo  he  taught 
German  in  the  public  schools  of  that  city  (1870-74).  In 
1874  Lorenz  went  to  work  for  the  United  Brethren 
Printing  Establishment  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  where  he  edited 
Hymns  for  the  Sanctuary  (1874).  For  several  years  he 
alternated  between  his  college  education  and  serving 
churches,  having  joined  the  Miami  Conference,  United 
Brethren  in  Christ,  in  1877. 

On    Oct.    1,    1878    he   married    Florence   Kuniler.    He 


LORENZ,  JUSTINA.  (See  Showers,  Justina  L.) 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.,  a  city  of  2,781,- 
829,  now  ranks  third  city  in  the  nation  in  population.  The 
Pueblo  de  Nuestra  Senora  la  Reina  de  los  Angeles  was 
founded  in  1781  and  given  its  name  by  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernor of  California.  The  Pueblo  soon  discarded  most  of 
its  name  and  became  known  as  the  "City  of  the  Angels" 
because  of  the  beauty  of  its  situation  and  e.vcellent  climate. 

Los  Angeles  was  incorporated  in  1850.  At  that  time  its 
twenty-eight  square  miles  held  a  population  of  1,610.  In 
1853  Bishop  Edward  R.  Ames,  presiding  at  the  Cali- 
fornia Conference  in  San  Francisco,  appointed  Adam 
Bland  a  "missionary"  to  Los  Angeles.  Bland's  first  move 
was  to  lease  El  Dorado,  a  saloon  located  on  Main  Street, 
near  the  town's  Plaza,  and  transform  it  into  a  chapel 
where  he  held  services  and  where  his  wife  conducted  a 
.school  for  girls. 

The  "Cit\'  of  Angels"  was  anything  hut  that  in  those 
early  days.  The  backwash  of  the  gold  rush  brought  un- 
savory characters  to  town  and  launched  a  period  of  gen- 
eral lawlessness.  Conditions  were  made  worse  by  the 
divided  loyalties  of  the  Civil  War  period.  For  a  time, 
the  representatives  of  all  Protestant  denominations  aban- 
doned their  work  in  this  area.  Bland  left  Los  Angeles 
and  became  the  presiding  elder  of  the  Santa  Clara  District 
in  northern  California. 

In  1866,  after  the  Civil  War  was  over,  Adam  Bland 
came  back  to  reorganize  the  work  he  had  left  earlier. 
It  was  not  until  1867  that  Columbus  Gillet  was  appointed 
pastor  and  thirty  people  attended  a  Quarterly  Conference 
and  Love  Feast  in  Los  Angeles.  This  was  the  beginning 
of  an  unbroken  appointment  of  ministers  to  the  Fort 
Street,  later  known  as  the  First  Methodist  Church. 

In  1868  the  Fort  Street  Church  was  built.  It  was  a 
brick  building  on  the  west  side  of  what  is  now  called 
Broadway,  between  Third  and  Fourth  Streets.  When  it 
became  too  small  for  its  growing  congregation,  a  larger 
frame  structure  was  erected  next  door.  In  1876  the  Fort 
Street  Church  established  a  school  for  young  people  and 
called  it  "The  Los  Angeles  Academy."  This  was  the  fore- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LOS   ANGELES,    CALIFORNIA 


runner  of  the  University  of  Southern  Cahfornia.  Marion 
M.  BovARD  became  pastor  of  the  Fort  Street  Church  in 
1878,  and  two  years  later  resigned  to  become  the  first 
president  of  the  University  of  Southern  California,  which 
opened  its  doors  in  1880  with  fifty-three  students  enrolled. 

The  Southern  Pacific  ran  its  tracks  into  the  city  in 
1876,  joining  Los  Angeles  to  the  rest  of  the  continent. 
When  the  Santa  Fe  extended  its  tracks  into  the  city  in 
1885,  there  resulted  a  rate  war  for  patronage  marked  by 
a  large  influx  of  newcomers.  Los  Angeles,  which  had  1,610 
people  in  1850,  had  8,453  in  1875.  The  population  of  Los 
Angeles  County  during  that  same  period  rose  from  3,530 
to  24,344.  In  September  of  1876,  with  Bishop  William 
L.  Harris  presiding,  the  Southern  California  Conference 
(M.E.)  was  organized  with  thirteen  buildings,  nine  par- 
sonages, 1,257  members,  twenty-seven  ministers  in  full 
relationship,  and  three  men  on  trial. 

In  1891  the  Fort  Street  Church  paid  $37,500  for  lots 
at  Sixth  and  Hill  Streets.  On  Easter  Sunday,  1900,  the 
new  First  Church  was  dedicated.  It  cost  more  than  $73,- 
000.  The  report  that  year  showed  984  members  and 
forty-four  probationers. 

From  1902  until  1963  the  ministers  of  First  Church 
were  drawn  directly  from  different  parts  of  the  country. 
Robert  C.  McIntyre,  widely  known  for  his  eloquence, 
having  served  distinguished  pastorates  in  Chicago  and 
Denver,  came  in  1902.  He  was  elected  bishop  in  1908. 
Ch..\rles  Edward  Locke,  who  sei"ved  pastorates  from 
Oregon  to  New  York  and  had  the  distinction  of  conduct- 
ing the  funeral  service  for  President  William  McKinley, 
came  in  1908.  During  his  pastorate,  in  1913,  the  present 
location  of  8th  and  Hope  Streets  was  purchased.  In  1920 
he  was  elected  bishop.  That  same  year  Elmer  E.  Helms 
came  from  Calvary  Church,  Philadelphia.  He  was  the 
leader  in  the  building  of  the  present  $1,500,000  church 
edifice  at  8th  and  Hope,  which  was  dedicated  free  of 
debt  on  July  8,  1923.  Roy  L.  Smith,  for  twelve  years 
pastor  of  Simpson  Methodist  Church,  Minneapolis, 
served  from  1932  to  1940  when  he  was  appointed  editor 
of  the  Christian  Advocate.  Donald  H.  Tippett  came 
from  the  Be.xley  Church,  Columbus,  Ohio,  and  served 
from  1940  to  1948,  when  he  was  elected  bishop.  Richard 
Sneed  came  from  the  Court  Street  Church  of  Rockford, 
111.,  in  1948  and  served  until  1963,  carrying  on  a  moderni- 
zation program  designed  to  meet  a  changing  environment 
and  a  changing  constituency.  John  A.  Zimmer  (1963-64) 
and  Don  R.  Boyd  ( 1964-  )  were  the  first  ministers  in 

more  than  half  a  century  who  served  other  churches  in 
the  Conference  before  becoming  pastors  of  First  Church, 
Los  Angeles. 

Today  both  First  and  Trinity  face  problems  arising 
from  financial  supporters  who  pass  away  or  move  to  more 
desirable  residential  areas  and  take  their  church  letters 
with  them.  In  1940  Trinity  had  4,944  members  and  First 
Church,  4,934.  In  1970  Trinity  had  437  members  and 
First  Church  619.  With  every  decrease  in  church  mem- 
bership there  has  been  an  increase,  per  member,  in  the 
cost  of  property  maintenance.  A  plan  for  merger  of  these 
two  churches,  set  forth  by  a  Committee  representing  both, 
failed  to  be  approved  by  Trinity.  The  hope  and  expecta- 
tion is  that  both  of  these  downtown  churches,  perhaps 
working  together,  will  find  avenues  of  service  and  financial 
support  comparable  to  earlier  days. 

In  1887  the  Fort  Street  Church  organized  a  Chinese 
Mission  which  operated  as  a  Sunda\'  school.  Six  years 
later  seventy-five  Chinese  were  enrolled  with  an  average 


attendance  of  forty-five.  The  Church  licensed  the  first 
Chinese  local  preacher  in  the  United  States.  Chan  Kin 
Lung  later  became  the  pastor  of  the  local  Chinese  Church. 

In  1880  the  Committee  on  Missions  of  the  Fort  Street 
Church  rented  a  small  building  for  eight  dollars  a  month, 
and  started  a  chapel  for  Spanish-speaking  people.  This 
was  the  forerunner  of  the  Spanish  American  Institute, 
the  Plaza  Community  Center,  and  the  Frances  DePauw 
Home  and  School  for  Mexican  girls,  the  latter  sponsored 
by  the  \\'oman's  Home  Missionary  Society. 

On  March  31,  1904,  the  Los  Angeles  City  Missionary 
Society  was  organized.  Most  of  the  Methodist  churches 
in  Los  Angeles  area  have  received  help,  at  one  time  or 
another,  from  what  is  now  called  the  Los  Angeles  Mis- 
sionary and  Church  Extension  Society. 

One  section  of  Los  Angeles  which  formerly  had  been  a 
choice  residential  area  became  the  home  of  thousands  of 
foreign-born  people.  Properties  were  run-dowTi  and  rents 
were  low.  Immorality  was  widespread  and  juvenile  delin- 
quency was  at  a  high  level.  Only  one  small  church,  the 
Newman  Methodist  Church,  remained  to  minister  to  the 
people.  It  was  here,  in  1917,  while  serving  as  pastor  of 
NewTnan  Church,  that  G.  Bromley  Oxnam  got  the  vision 
that  resulted  in  the  All  Nations  Foundation.  In  1936 
Oxnam  was  elected  a  bishop,  the  only  bishop  who  spent 
his  entire  parish  ministn,-  in  the  Southern  California 
Conference. 

Edgar  J.  Evans 

First  A. M.E.  Church  in  Los  Angeles  holds  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  first  Negro  church  in  the  city.  Afri- 
can Episcopal  Methodists  were  in  Los  Angeles  as  early 
as  1870.  In  1872  the  church  was  organized  with  twelve 
members  in  the  home  of  a  Mrs.  Biddie  Mason.  The  first 
edifice  was  built  on  a  lot  costing  $700  at  Fourth  and 
Grand  Avenue.  The  earliest  pastor  of  First  A. M.E.  was 
Jesse  Hamilton.  In  1887,  under  the  leadership  of  Jordan 
Allen,  the  church  removed  to  a  second  site  on  Agusa 
Street  where  it  remained  for  about  a  dozen  years.  The 
present  structure  was  completed  in  1903  on  the  corner 
of  Eighth  and  Towne.  Bishop  Frederick  D.  Jordan,  who 
was  pastor  of  First  A. M.E.  from  1940  to  1949,  was 
elected  bishop  in  1952. 

Grant  S.  Shockley 

Holman  Church  is  the  church  with  the  highest  rate  of 
growth  in  the  Southern  California-Arizona  Confer- 
ence over  the  past  twenty  years.  The  church  was  orga- 
nized in  1945.  Seven  persons  met  in  the  first  regular  meet- 
ing. At  the  first  Quarterly  Conference,  forty-three  per- 
sons were  listed  as  charter  members.  Membership  in 
1970  stood  at  2,688. 

In  the  early  days  of  Holman,  before  a  church  home 
was  purchased,  ser\'ices  were  held  in  a  dance  hall  called 
Music  Town;  in  a  Seventh  Day  Adventist  Church;  and 
in  a  Japanese  Methodist  Church.  A  Jewish  S>aiagogue 
was  the  first  church  home  purchased,  and  Lanneau  L. 
White  was  appointed  minister  in  1947.  He  is  now  the 
senior  of  a  ministerial  staff  of  three,  and  around  him  the 
growth  of  Holman  has  evolved.  The  ministerial  staff  is 
integrated.  The  predominantly  Negro  congregation  has 
provided  the  example  for  all  to  see,  as  the  two  Negro  and 
one  Caucasian  ministers  guide  the  in-depth  program  of  the 
church  and  provide  leadership  in  the  community. 

White  is  in  charge  of  preaching  and  church  administra- 
tion; Edward  S.  Williams  is  the  associate  minister  whose 


LOS  ANGELES,   CALIFORNIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


emphasis  is  on  membership  and  evangelism;  Victor  Hand 
was  later  appointed  associate  minister,  and  is  officially 
the  minister  of  education  and  community  affairs. 

In  1958  a  new  sanctuary  was  dedicated,  for  which 
Holman  received  an  award  for  excellence  from  the  Archi- 
tectural Guild  of  America,  Educational  facilities  are  now 
under  construction. 

Holman  Methodist  Church  is  nationally  known  for  its 
relevant  preaching,  beautiful  music,  inspiring  worship, 
and  its  warm  friendliness  and  outreach  of  service  to  others. 
It  has  many  firsts  to  its  credit,  and  is  noted  for  its  creative 
approach  to  the  problems  of  the  present  day  church  and 
the  inner  city. 

The  Church  leadership — both  ministerial  and  lay — 
insures  for  Holman  many  years  of  effective  Christian  wit- 
ness in  the  immediate  community,  in  the  Conference  and 
over  the  nation. 

E.  D.  Jerv'ey,  Southern  California  and  Arizona.  1960. 
Journals  of  tlie  Southern  California-Arizona  Conference. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 
R.  R.  Wright,  Encyclopedia.  1947. 

Pacific  Homes  is  a  non-profit  corporation  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church  (U.S.A.),  operating  seven  retirement 
homes  in  Southern  California,  Arizona  and  Hawaii, 
also  six  convalescent  hospitals.  With  a  background  of  over 
fifty  years  of  operation,  it  is  the  largest  as  well  as  one  of 
the  most  experienced  organizations  in  the  retirement  field. 
Admission  is  without  discrimination  as  to  race,  color  or 
creed. 

The  first  of  the  Pacific  Homes,  Kingsley  Manor,  was 
built  "in  the  country"  between  Los  Angeles  and  Holly- 
wood and  opened  in  January  1912,  on  a  site  formerly 
used  for  Methodist  camp  meetings.  For  many  years  it 
was  known  as  "Pacific  Home."  Construction  of  the  home 
was  aided  by  a  Mrs.  Margaret  Ammann's  bequest  to  the 
German  Methodist  Conference.  Following  the  merging 
of  the  GeiTnan  Methodist  and  M.  E.  Churches  a  new 
corporation  was  formed  which  ultimately  became  the 
present  Pacific  Homes  Corporation.  Through  the  years 
additional  homes  have  been  built  or  acquired  in  Clare- 
mont.  Pacific  Beach,  La  Jolla,  and  Chula  Vista  in  Cali- 
fornia; in  Phoenix,  Arizona,  and  in  suburban  Honolulu 
in  Hawaii.  These  represent  a  variety  of  locations — the 
seashore,  the  desert,  a  small  college  town  close  to  the 
mountains,  an  Island  of  the  Pacific,  and  well  known 
Hollywood. 

Today  these  seven  retirement  facilities  provide  a  total 
capacity  of  2,200,  or  approximately  twelve  percent  of  the 
total  accommodations  included  in  the  seven  score  and 
more  Methodist  Homes  in  the  United  States.  The  con- 
valescent hospital  facilities  include  500  beds  and  several 
of  the  units  also  serve  patients  from  the  community  at 
large.  The  Sparr  Convalescent  Hospital  in  Los  Angeles 
serves  mainly  community  patients. 

The  concept  of  full  life  care  has  gained  wide  acceptance 
and  Pacific  Homes  plan  of  organization  has  served  as  the 
pattern  for  many  homes  throughout  the  nation.  A  unique 
feature  is  the  fact  that  fees  are  never  increased  during 
the  tenure  of  a  resident  in  the  home.  Fifty  years  operating 
experience  makes  it  possible  for  costs  to  be  projected 
quite  accurately.  Retirement  home  funds  are  subject  to 
constant  scrutiny  under  California  laws. 

While  prepaid  life  care  is  the  general  requirement,  the 
financial  arrangements  are  sufficiently  flexible  to  meet  the 
needs  of  those  who  can   only   partially   prepay;    and   for 


those  who  have  mainly  monthly  income  from  Social  Se- 
curity, or  from  pension,  or  annuities,  full  monthly  pay- 
ments are  approved. 

Pacific  Homes  is  also  concerned  that  members  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church  in  the  Southern  California- 
Arizona  Conference  who  do  not  have  adequate  funds 
to  permit  them  to  be  residents  of  Pacific  Homes,  shall 
receive  some  assistance  from  the  earnings  of  the  Endow- 
ment Fund.  Approximately  150  accommodations  have 
been  reserved  for  these  Methodists  with  limited  means. 

Methodist  ministers  and  laymen  compose  the  Corpora- 
tion, the  Board  of  Directors,  and  the  individual  home 
Boards  of  Management.  They  give  of  their  talents  and 
many  hours  of  their  time  to  Pacific  Homes.  Dr.  Edward 
P.  O'Rear,  General  Manager  since  1953,  with  a  stafiF 
and  more  than  700  employees,  is  responsible  for  the  man- 
agement of  Pacific  Homes. 

.Abbie  E,  Sargent 


Westwood  Church,  Los  Angeles,  California 

Westwood  Community  Church  is  the  Methodist  church 
most  nearly  related  to  the  University  of  California  at  Los 
Angeles  with  its  25,000  students.  The  church  and  the 
University  have  grown  together.  When  in  1926  the  Uni- 
versity began  to  make  plans  to  move  to  the  Westwood 
hills,  G.  Bromley  Oxnam,  then  the  secretary  of  the  Los 
Angeles  Missionary  and  Church  Extension  Society,  later 
a  distinguished  bishop  of  the  church,  arranged  with  Con- 
ference Church  Extension  support,  to  buy  the  present 
property  on  Wilshire  Boulevard. 

By  1928  the  first  unit  was  begun  with  funds  raised 
by  the  First  Methodist  Church  of  Los  Angeles  under  the 
leadership  of  Elmer  Ellsworth  Helms.  The  fifteen  charter 
members  were  enrolled  by  certificate  of  transfer  from 
First  and  other  Methodist  churches.  By  1940  the  educa- 
tional   wing,   containing  classrooms,    parlor   and    a   social 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LOTT,   CLIFFORD   BARNETT 


hall,  was  added.  In  1948  the  administration  unit  was 
constructed.  The  beautiful  Memorial  Sanctuary,  with  its 
Glory  Window,  was  completed  by  1951.  The  parking 
area  was  increased  so  that  the  property  now  extends  535 
feet  along  the  boulevard. 

With  the  burning  of  the  mortgage,  July  1961,  the 
church  became  free  of  debt,  with  property  valued  at  over 
two  million  dollars  and  an  annual  budget  of  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  million.  Plans  are  on  the  drawing  boards 
for  a  million  dollar  replacement  and  refurbishing  program. 
The  staff  includes  four  ministers,  four  lay  directors,  and 
a  total  of  thirty  persons.  Membership  is  reported  in  1970 
as  2,306. 

F.  Harold  Esseht 

LOSEE,  WILLIAM  (1757-1832),  Canadian  preacher,  was 
the  first  regular  itinerant  to  be  sent  from  the  M.  E.  Church 
to  Canada  in  1790.  He  was  bom  June  30,  1757,  in 
Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.  He  was  a  Loyalist  and  served  in 
an  unofficial  regiment  known  as  the  Westchester  Loyalists. 
After  his  conversion  he  was  received  on  trial  by  the  New 
York  Conference  in  May  1789.  Immediately  after  the 
conference  sessions  he  was  sent  to  the  Lake  Champlain 
circuit — a  most  difficult  appointment  because  the  settle- 
ments were  widely  scattered  and  the  people  were  indif- 
ferent to  religion.  He  applied  for  permission  from  his 
presiding  elder  to  minister  to  Methodists  living  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  and  Freeborn 
Garrettson  permitted  Losee  to  proceed  with  this  mis- 
sionary journey. 

During  the  winter  of  1790  he  crossed  the  St.  Lawrence 
River,  probably  at  St.  Regis,  and  proceeded  westward 
toward  Kingston,  visiting  and  preaching  at  Matilda, 
Augusta,  Elizabethtown,  Kingston,  and  finally  Adolphus- 
town,  where  he  remained  for  the  rest  of  the  winter,  re- 
newing acquaintances  and  holding  services.  As  a  result, 
petitions  asking  for  an  ordained  itinerant  were  prepared 
and  sent  with  Losee  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the  New 
York  Conference,  held  in  New  York  in  October.  The 
conference  agreed  that  he  should  form  a  circuit  in  Canada. 

Returning  to  Upper  Canada  in  the  winter  of  1791,  he 
organized  a  circuit  in  the  Kingston  district.  The  first 
regular  classes  were  established  in  February  and  March 
of  that  year  at  Hay  Bay,  and  in  Emestown  and  Freder- 
icksburgh  respectively.  Within  a  year  plans  were  drawn 
for  the  erection  of  the  first  Methodist  chapel  in  Upper 
Canada.  This  building  still  stands  on  land  provided  by 
Paul  Huff,  a  member  of  Losee's  original  class.  Hay  Bay 
Church  is  one  of  the  few  shrines  of  Canadian  Methodism. 

At  the  New  York  Conference  in  1792  Losee  reported 
the  reception  of  165  members.  The  conference  appointed 
him  to  the  Oswegatchie  circuit,  east  of  Kingston,  but  in 
1793  he  was  located  because  of  ill  health.  Never  again 
does  his  name  appear  in  the  Minutes  of  Conference.  His 
creative,  spirited,  and  fruitful  ministry  covered  only  four 
years. 

Losee  was  tall,  active,  and  excitable.  Although  he  suf- 
fered from  a  withered  arm,  he  was  a  fearless  horseman, 
who  covered  great  distances  and  yet  seemed  to  have 
sufficient  physical  strength  to  preach  with  fire  and  power. 
He  could  be  classified  as  the  exhorting  type — fluent,  pas- 
sionate, and  prophetic  in  his  bold  denunciation  of  evil. 

There  are  a  few  random  references  to  his  subsequent 
life.  After  his  recovery  from  a  mental  breakdown,  usually 
attributed  to  the  marriage  of  his  beloved  to  his  colleague. 


Darius  Dunham,  he  entered  business  in  New  York, 
frequently  serving  as  a  lay  preacher.  He  returned  at  least 
once  to  visit  his  friends  in  Adolphustown,  and  S.  Stewart 
tells  of  hearing  William  Losee  preach  at  the  New  York 
Conference  held  in  Troy  in  1821. 

Losee  died  on  Oct.  16,  1832,  and  was  buried  in  the 
cemetery  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  Hempstead,  New  York. 
On  Jan.  30,  1834,  his  wife  Mary  died,  at  the  age  of 
eighty,  and  was  buried  beside  him.  In  1914  this  cemetery 
was  coverd  with  soil,  after  the  grave  markers  had  been 
laid  flat,  in  order  to  constitute  a  lawn  for  the  church. 

In  1969,  as  the  result  of  the  city  of  Hempstead  taking 
a  strip  of  land  from  the  church  yard  in  order  to  widen  the 
street,  it  became  necessary  to  remove  the  graves  of  some 
of  those  buried  in  this  area.  The  graves  of  William  and 
Mar\'  Losee  were  among  the  five  requiring  removal.  The 
Hempstead  church  gave  the  Losee  grave  stones  to  the 
Bay  of  Quinte  Conference,  The  United  Church  of  Canada, 
and  they  were  removed  to  Old  Hay  Bay  Church.  There 
a  cairn,  in  which  the  stones  were  embedded,  was  erected 
at  the  church  which  Losee  built  in  1792. 

J.  Carroll,  Case  and  His  Cotemporaries.  1867-77. 
Methodist  History,  October  1970;  January  1971. 
G.  F.  Playter,  Canada.  1862.  A.  E.  Kewley 

LOTHI,  MEYI,  son  of  Marashane's  chief  Induna  in  the 
Lulu  Mountains  of  the  Northern  Transvaal,  was  converted 
in  the  Cape  through  the  London  Missonary  Society.  He 
returned  in  1880,  preached,  taught,  erected  a  church 
building  and  appealed  to  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Mis- 
sionary Society  to  take  over  his  Society.  The  Chairman 
of  the  District  visited  the  area  in  1885,  baptized  forty- 
nine  adults,  forty-eight  children  and  solemnized  forty 
marriages.  Lothi  was  blind  in  one  eye. 

Journal  of  the   Methodist  Historical  Society  of   South   Africa. 

Vol.  Ill,  No.  2  (October  1958). 

Minutes  of  South  African  Conference,  1939.  D.  C.  Veysie 

LOTT,  CLIFFORD  BARNETT  (1919-  ),  American  min- 

ister and  son  of  Jesse  Jackson  and  Savannah  (Collins) 
Lott,  was  born  in  Groveton,  Texas,  Jan.  26,  1919.  He 
obtained  degrees  from  the  following  schools:  B.S.,  North 
Texas  State  LTniversity,  1941;  B.D.,  Garrett  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  1944;  and  D.D.,  Iowa  Wesley'an  Col- 
lege, 1964.  On  Dec.  27,  1941,  he  was  married  to  Betty 
Louise  Corson,  and  they  are  the  parents  of  three  children. 

Mr.  Lott  was  ordained  deacon  by  the  South  Iowa 
Conference  in  1945  and  elder  in  1947.  For  four  years 
he  served  an  Iowa  pastorate,  then  was  director  of  the 
Wesley  Found .\tion,  Texas  A.  and  1.  for  a  year  before 
becoming  Instructor  in  Bible,  Simpson  College,  1949-54. 
For  the  next  ten  years  he  was  associate  pastor,  Grace 
Church,  Des  Moines,  Iowa.  From  1964-66,  he  was 
district  superintendent,  Burlington  District.  He  became 
Administrative  Assistant,  Board  of  Lay  Activities,  1966, 
and  with  the  formation  of  The  United  Methodist  Church, 
he  was  elected  Associate  General  Secretary,  Division  of 
Stewardship  and  Finance,  General  Board  of  Laity. 

He  has  been  trustee  of  Halcyon  House,  Hillcrest  Chil- 
dren's Ser\'ices,  and  Iowa  Wesleyan  College.  He  served 
as  Dean  of  the  Iowa  Pastor's  School  and  a  number  of 
conference  responsibilities. 


Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966 


John  H.  Ness,  Jb. 


LOUISBURG   COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


LOUISBURG  COLLEGE,  Louisburg,  North  Carolina,  be- 
gan in  1787  as  Franklin  Academy  for  men.  Its  first 
principal  was  Matthew  Dickenson,  graduate  of  Yale,  who 
was  the  maternal  uncle  of  Cyrus  W.  Field.  Louisburg 
Female  Academy  was  added  in  1813,  to  be  reorganized  as 
Louisburg  Female  College  in  1857.  Operated  as  a  Meth- 
odist institution  since  1907,  it  became  a  junior  college  for 
women  in  1915  and  a  coeducational  junior  college  in 
1931.  The  goveniing  board  consists  of  thirty-six  members 
elected  by  tlie  North  Carolina  Conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

LOUISIANA,  sometimes  called  the  "Pelican  State,"  is  in 
the  south  central  part  of  the  United  States.  It  is  bounded 
on  the  north  by  Arkansas,  on  the  east  by  Mississippi, 
on  the  south  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  on  the  west  by 
Texas.  It  averages  about  100  feet  above  sea  level,  and  its 
climate  is  semi-tropical.  Originally  settled  by  the  French, 
Louisiana  was  ceded  to  Spain  in  a  secret  treaty  in  1762, 
but  in  1800  it  was  returned  to  France,  and  Napoleon 
sold  it  to  the  United  States  as  a  part  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase.  In  1804  Congress  designated  the  area  below  the 
thirty-third  parallel  as  Orleans  Territory,  and  on  April 
30,  1812,  the  territory  was  admitted  to  the  Union  as 
Louisiana. 

Industries  in  Louisiana  include  farming,  minerals,  pe- 
troleum, natural  gas,  salt,  sand,  gravel,  and  sulphur.  In 
addition,  the  forests  of  the  state  produce  some  of  the 
finest  lumber,  and  there  are  extensive  coastal  fisheries. 
With  an  area  of  48,523  square  miles,  the  state  has  a 
population  of  3,564,310  in  1970. 

Eccentric  evangelist  Lorenzo  Dow  may  have  been  the 
first  Methodist  to  preach  in  Louisiana.  Learner  Black- 
man,  presiding  elder  at  Natchez,  1805-07,  was  the  first 
regular  itinerant  to  visit  Louisiana.  In  1805  Elisha  W. 
Bowman  was  appointed  as  "missionary  to  Louisiana"  with 
instructions  to  begin  at  New  Orleans.  Unsuccessful  in 
that  city,  he  pushed  on  to  other  communities.  In  1806 
he  established  the  first  Methodist  circuit  in  Louisiana,  and 
organized  a  congregation  at  Opelousas.  In  1808  James 
AxLEY  who  endured  persecution  on  the  Catahouchee  and 
Wichita  Circuits,  erected  with  his  own  hands  the  first 
Methodist  church  building  in  Louisiana.  It  was  called 
Axley  Chapel. 

At  first  the  Louisiana  work  was  a  part  of  the  Mississippi 
Conference.  In  1836  the  part  of  the  state  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River  was  included  in  the  newly  created 
Arkansas  Conference.  In  1840  all  of  Louisiana  was 
again  in  the  Mississippi  Conference. 

The  Louisiana  Conference  ( MES )  was  created  by  the 
1846  General  Conference.  The  first  session  of  the  con- 
ference was  held  at  Opelousas  in  January  1847.  The 
conference  included  the  part  of  Louisiana  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River  and  the  cities  of  New  Orleans  and 
Baton  Rouge  on  the  east  side.  The  remainder  of  Louisi- 
ana east  of  the  river  continued  in  the  Mississippi  Con- 
ference until  1894.  Thereafter  the  Louisiana  Conference 
covered  the  entire  state. 

In  1869  the  M.  E.  Church  foimed  a  Louisiana  Con- 
ference by  dividing  the  Mississippi  Mission  Conference. 
This  conference  included  both  white  and  Negro  ministers 
and  churches.  In  1893  the  conference  was  divided  along 
racial  lines  and  the  white  work,  along  with  that  in  east 
Texas,  became  the  Gulf  Mission.  In  1897  it  became  the 
Gulf  Mission  Conference,  and  in   1904  the  Gulf  Confer- 


ence. When  it  became  a  full  conference  it  also  included 
the  white  work  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  Mississippi.  In 
1926  tlie  Gulf  Conference  was  absorbed  by  the  Southern 
Conference  which  until  two  years  before  had  been  the 
Southern  German  Conference  covering  Texas  and  Louisi- 
ana. The  merger  enlarged  the  boundaries  of  the  Southern 
Conference  to  include  the  white  work  in  Mississippi. 

Methodist  work  among  German  immigrants  in  New 
Orleans  began  in  the  1840's.  In  1860  the  Louisiana  Con- 
ference (MES)  had  four  German  missions  in  that  city 
and  one  in  Franklin.  The  Germans  chose  to  align  their 
churches  with  the  Louisiana  Conference  (ME)  when  it 
was  organized  in  1869.  They  were  placed  in  the  Southern 
German  Conference  (ME)  when  it  was  formed  in  1874. 
Never  strong  in  Louisiana,  the  German  work  consisted  of 
only  two  churches  in  New  Orleans  when  the  Southern 
German  Conference  was  absorbed  in  1924. 

At  unification  in  1939,  the  Louisiana  part  of  the  South- 
ern Conference  (ME)  brought  eighteen  preachers,  four- 
teen pastoral  charges,  and  3,278  members  into  The  Meth- 
odist Church.  The  Louisiana  Conference  (ME)  continued 
in  the  Central  Jurisdiction  of  The  Methodist  Church  and 
temporarily  in  the  South  Central  Jurisdiction  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church. 

The  Methodist  Protestants  organized  a  Louisiana  Con- 
ference in  1846  which  merged  in  1870  to  form  the  Arkan- 
sas and  Louisiana  Conference.  In  1884  the  work  was 
strong  enough  to  justify  setting  off  another  Louisiana  Con- 
ference which  continued  until  unification  in  1939  when  it 
brought  forty-eight  preachers,  thirty  pastoral  charges,  and 
3,529  members  into  The  Methodist  Church. 

The  three  large  Negro  Methodist  denominations — 
A.M.E.,  A.M.E.  Zion,  and  C.M.E. — have  relatively 
strong  conferences  in  Louisiana.  The  C.M.E.  Church 
reports  about  40,000  members  and  the  A.M.E.  Church 
about  11,000  members  in  the  state. 

The  Louisiana  Conference  (SCJ)  supports  Centenary 
College  at  Shreveport,  Glenwood  Hospital  at  West  Mon- 
roe, Methodist  Hospital  in  New  Orleans,  and  the  Louisi- 
ana Methodist  Children's  Home  at  Rustin.  The  Louisiana 
Methodist  is  published  for  the  conference  in  Little  Rock 
in  conjunction  with  the  Arkansas  Methodist.  The  confer- 
ence maintains  Wesley  Foundations  at  eight  state  and 
private  colleges  and  universities. 

In  1970  the  two  Louisiana  Conferences  reported  a  total 
of  489  ministers,  137,521  members,  and  603  churches 
valued  at  $75,797,535. 

R.  H.  Harper,  Louisiana  Methodism.  1949. 

C.  H.  Phillips,  History  of  the  C.M.E.  Church.  1925. 

G.  A.   Singleton,   The  Romance  of  African  Methodism.   New 

York:  Exposition  Press,  1952. 

Journals  of  the  Louisiana  Conferences.   J.  Henry  Bowdon,  Sb. 

LOUISIANA  CONFERENCE  (A)  was  created  by  the  1846 
General  Conference  by  dividing  the  Mississippi  Con- 
ference. The  new  body  was  organized  at  Opelousas, 
Jan.  6-13,  1847.  John  Powell,  the  only  presiding  elder 
present,  acted  as  president  of  the  conference  until  the 
arrival  of  Bishop  Joshua  Soule.  The  boiuidaries  of  the 
conference  included  New  Orleans  and  Baton  Rouge 
and  all  of  the  state  of  Louisiana  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River.  The  east  part  of  Lousiana  continued  in  the  Missis- 
sippi Conference  until  1894. 

When  organized  the  Louisiana  Conference  had  five 
districts,  fifty  effective  elders,  forty-three  pastoral  charges, 
and  8,101  members,  3,329  of  them  colored.  (See  Louisi- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LOUISVILLE   CONFERENCE 


ANA  for  early  Methodist  history  in  the  state.)  At  its 
seventh  session  in  Baton  Rouge  in  1853,  the  Louisiana 
Conference  made  history  by  adopting  a  resolution  favor- 
ing lay  representation  in  the  conferences.  It  was  one  of 
the  first  steps  made  in  that  direction  in  Southern  Meth- 
odism. 

During  its  history  the  Louisiana  Conference  supported 
educational  projects  such  as  Mansfield  Female  College, 
Homer  College,  Pierce  and  Paine  College,  and  other 
schools,  some  of  which  were  stillborn  or  lived  at  most  only 
a  few  years.  The  only  permanent  Methodist  institution  of 
higher  learning  established  in  Louisiana  is  Centenary 
College  at  Shreveport.  As  early  as  1825  an  academy 
was  started  at  Jackson,  La.  By  1845  it  had  failed,  and  the 
Mississippi  Conference,  of  which  Louisiana  was  then  a 
part,  bought  the  property.  Meantime,  in  1841  the  Mis- 
sissippi Conference  had  inaugurated  Centenary  College  at 
Brandon  Springs,  Miss.  Regarding  Jackson,  La.,  as  a  better 
location  for  a  college,  the  conference  proceeded  to  move 
Centenary  into  the  academy  property  it  had  bought.  Dur- 
ing the  Civil  War  Centenary  College  was  closed  and  its 
buildings  were  used  as  a  hospital  for  Confederate  soldiers; 
later  in  the  conflict  it  was  occupied  by  Federal  troops. 
The  college  reopened  in  1865.  In  1908  Centenary  was 
moved  to  Shreveport  where  it  continues  as  one  of  the 
strong  Methodist  colleges  in  America. 

The  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate  was  established 
in  1850  and  continued  publication  until  1946.  The  paper 
was  launched  by  a  joint  committee  of  the  Alabama  and 
Louisiana  Conferences,  and  the  Mississippi  Conference 
soon  joined  in  its  support.  In  1883  the  Alabama  Confer- 
ence withdrew  in  order  to  establish  its  own  paper.  The 
first  editor  of  the  New  Orleans  paper  was  Holland  N. 
McTyeire,  later  bishop  and  able  church  historian.  Four 
other  editors  of  the  publication  also  became  bishops — 
John  C.  Keener,  Linus  Parker,  Charles  B.  Galloway, 
and  J.  Lloyd  Decell.  In  its  day  the  New  Orleans  Chris- 
tian Advocate  was  a  strong  and  influential  church  paper. 
It  failed  in  1946  because  Mississippi  Methodism  withdrew 
support  in  order  to  establish  its  own  paper.  Since  1949 
the  Louisiana  Methodist,  issued  in  Little  Rock  in  con- 
junction with  the  Arkansas  Methodist,  has  served  Louisi- 
ana Methodism. 

The  Louisiana  Conference  operates  the  Louisiana  Meth- 
odist Children's  Home  at  Ruston;  the  Methodist  Home 
Hospital  in  New  Orleans,  an  institution  for  unmarried 
mothers  and  for  the  adoption  of  their  children;  St.  Mark's 
Community  Center  in  New  Orleans;  the  Dulac  Indian 
Mission  at  Houma;  and  the  Sager-Brown  Institute  at 
Baldwin.  The  conference  supports  the  Methodist  Hospital 
in  New  Orleans  and  the  Glenwood  Hospital  at  West  Mon- 
roe. Wesley  Foundations  are  maintained  at  eight  private 
and  state  colleges  and  universities  in  Louisiana. 

At  unification  in  1939,  the  Louisiana  Conference 
(MECS)  brought  189  ministers,  171  pastoral  charges,  and 
70,787  members  into  The  Methodist  Church.  In  1970 
the  conference  reported  398  ministers,  279  pastoral 
charges,  121, .302  members,  and  456  churches  valued  at 
$69,775,590. 

R.  H.  Harper,  Louisiana  Methodism.  1949. 

General  Minutes,  MECS  and  MC. 

Journals  of  the  Louisiana  Conference.  J.  Henry  Bowdon,  Sr. 

LOUISIANA  CONFERENCE  (B)  traces  its  lineage  to  the 
Louisiana  Conference    (ME)    which  was   organized   Jan. 


18,  1869  at  Wesley  Chapel,  New  Orleans,  with  Bishop 
Matthew  Simpson  presiding.  Composed  of  Negro  and 
white  ministers  and  churches  at  the  outset,  it  was  formed 
by  dividing  the  Mississippi  Mission  Conference.  (See 
Louisiana  for  early  history  of  Methodism  in  the  state.) 
At  its  organization  in  1869  the  conference  had  three  dis- 
tricts which  were  increased  to  five  by  the  end  of  the 
session,  twenty-seven  churches,  forty-three  charges,  and 
10,662  members.  In  1893  the  conference  was  divided 
along  racial  lines,  the  white  work  becoming  a  part  of  the 
Gulf  Mission. 

At  unification  in  1939,  the  Louisiana  Conference  be- 
came a  part  of  the  Central  Jurisdiction.  With  the  abolition 
of  that  Jurisdiction  in  1968,  the  conference,  pending 
merger,  was  placed  in  the  South  Central  Jurisdiction  of 
The  United  Methodist  Church. 

In  1968  the  conference  was  sponsoring  a  newspaper, 
the  Christian  Explorer  which  centered  on  Christian  educa- 
tion. The  conference  had  an  interest  in  Culfside  Assem- 
bly, Waveland,  Miss,  (badly  hurt  by  the  great  hurricane 
of  1969),  the  People's  Community  Center  in  New  Orleans, 
and  the  Lafon  Protestant  Home  in  the  same  city.  It  sup- 
ported a  deaconess  at  the  Sager  Brown  Home  in  Baldwin. 

In  1970  the  Louisiana  Conference  (B)  reported  91 
ministers,  89  charges,  16,219  members,  and  147  churches 
valued  at  $6,021,945. 

General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MC. 

Journal  of  tlie  Louisiana  Conference,  MEC  and  MC. 

F.  E.  Maseh 

LOUISIANA  CONFERENCE  (MP)  was  organized  in  1846. 
Its  territory  included  Louisiana  and  Texas  when  it  began. 
George  W.  Johnson  who  had  moved  to  Louisiana  from 
Ohio  two  years  before,  took  the  lead  in  organizing  the 
conference;  later  he  served  as  its  president. 

Because  Methodist  Protestantism  in  Louisiana  and 
Arkansas  was  weakened  by  the  Civil  War  and  its  after- 
math, the  work  in  south  Arkansas  was  linked  with  Louisi- 
ana about  1870  to  form  the  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  Con- 
ference. It  was  divided  in  1884  to  form  separate  Arkansas 
and  Louisiana  Conferences,  except  that  a  small  portion  of 
northern  Louisiana  continued  as  a  part  of  the  Arkansas 
Conference  until  unification  in  1939. 

The  Louisiana  Conference  (MP)  brought  forty-eight 
preachers,  thirty  pastoral  charges,  forty-four  churches,  and 
3,529  members  into  The  Methodist  Church  in  1939. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1882. 

R.  H.  Harper,  Louisiana  Methodism.  1949. 

Discipline  of  the  M.  P.  Church.  F.  E.  Maser 

LOUISVILLE  CONFERENCE  (MES)  was  created  by  the 
1846  General  Conference.  It  was  organized  at  Hop- 
kinsville,  Ky.,  Oct.  14,  1846  with  Bishop  James  O.  An- 
drew presiding.  Its  territoiy  is  western  Kentucky,  except 
the  part  west  of  the  Tennessee  River  which  is  in  the 
Memphis  Conference.  The  eastern  boundary  of  the  Lou- 
isville Conference  is  a  line  running  south  and  east  from 
Louisville  to  the  Tennessee  River.  When  it  began  the 
conference  had  fifty-six  preachers,  and  14,495  white  and 
2,225  colored  members. 

The  Louisville  Conference  came  to  unification  in  1939 
with  seven  districts,  173  charges,  524  societies,  73,618 
members,  and  churches  and  parsonages  valued  at  $4,831,- 
188.  At  that  time  it  was  merged  with  the  Louisville  Dis- 
trict of  the  M.  E.  Church  and  three  charges  of  the  M.  P. 


LOUISVILLE   CONVENTION,   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Church  to  form  the  Louisville  Conference  of  The  Method- 
ist Church.  The  M.  E.  Church  brought  28  charges  and 
9,996  members  to  the  merger. 

During  its  history  the  Louisville  Conference  has  con- 
tributed leaders  to  the  larger  church.  Edward  Stevenson 
was  the  first  secretary  of  the  Missionary  Society  (MES). 
David  Morton  organized  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 
(MES)  and  served  as  its  corresponding  secretary  for  six- 
teen years.  Four  Book  Editors  of  the  Southern  Church 
were  members  of  the  Louisville  Conference:  A.  H.  Red- 
ford,  John  J.  Ticert,  Cross  Alex.\nder,  and  Frank  M. 
Thomas.  While  serving  as  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, H.  C.  Morrison  was  elected  bishop  in  1898.  Roy 
H.  Short  sei-ved  as  editor  of  The  Upper  Room  and  was 
elected  bishop  in  1948.  Though  not  a  member  of  the 
Louisville  Conference,  Bishop  John  M.  Moore,  the  archi- 
tect of  Methodist  union,  was  born  at  Morganton  within 
the  bounds  of  the  conference. 

The  Louisville  Conference  supports  jointly  with  the 
Kentucky  Conference,  Kentucky  Wesleyan  College  at 
Owensboro,  Union  College  at  Barbourville,  Lindsey 
Wilson  Junior  College  at  Columbia,  and  the  Methodist 
Home,  Inc.  (for  children)  at  Versailles.  The  conference 
is  related  to  the  Methodist  Hospital  at  Henderson  and 
the  Methodist  Evangelical  Hospital  in  Louisville.  It  has 
two  retirement  homes,  Wesley  Manor  at  Louisville  and 
Lewis  Memorial  Home  in  Franklin. 

In  1968  when  the  Tennessee-Kentucky  Conference 
(CJ)  was  merged  with  the  overlying  conferences  of  the 
Southeastern  Jurisdiction,  the  Louisville  Conference  re- 
ceived some  of  the  ministers  and  churches  from  that 
conference. 

The  Louisville  Conference  in  1970  reported  six  dis- 
tricts, 290  pastoral  charges,  321  ministers,  103,400  mem- 
bers, property  valued  at  $45,178,925,  and  $4,283,547 
raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

General  Minutes,  MECS  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  Louisville  Conference. 

Jubilee  Addresses  at  the  Louisville  Conference,  1896. 

Harry  R.  Short 

LOUISVILLE  CONVENTION,  THE,  was  the  meeting  in 
1845  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  of  the  delegations  from  the  South- 
ern Conferences,  who  there  agreed  to  form  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South.  Their  assembly  was  in  response 
to  the  Plan  of  Separation  adopted  the  previous  year 
by  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  which 
had  met  in  New  York  and  provided  for  a  division  of  the 
M.  E.  Church  should  the  Southern  Conferences  so  desire. 
The  delegations  of  the  various  Southern  Conferences  met 
before  they  left  New  York  just  after  adjournment  of  the 
General  Conference  and  agreed  to  present  to  their  own 
Annual  Conferences  the  question  as  to  whether  or  not 
they  should  have  a  conference,  or  convention,  the  next 
year  in  Louisville,  to  discuss  and  arrive  at  a  final  conclu- 
sion regarding  their  separation  from  the  M.  E.  Church. 

Pursuant  to  this,  the  several  Annual  Conferences  in- 
cluding Kentucky,  Missouri,  Holston,  Tennessee, 
North  Carolina,  Memphis,  Arkansas,  Virginia,  Missis- 
sippi, Texas,  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  South  Carolina 
agreed  to  meet  in  such  a  convention,  and  provided  funds 
to  support  the  expenses  of  their  delegations  in  traveling 
to  Louisville. 

The  annual  conferences  in  the  "slave  holding  states," 
as  they  frankly  called  themselves,  proved  to  be  one- 
minded  regarding  the  holding  of  the  convention  in  Louis- 


ville in  May  1845,  and  the  meeting  there  was  clearly  and 
completely  representative  of  the  conferences  above  men- 
tioned. In  addition  to  the  conferences  above  named,  the 
Florida  Conference  sent  two  men,  and  the  Indian  Mis- 
sion Conference  two.  The  leaders  of  Southern  Method- 
ism were  almost  all  present  in  the  meeting  which  con- 
vened on  the  first  day  of  May  1845,  in  the  old  Fourth 
Street  Church  in  the  city  of  Louisville. 

Bishop  James  O.  Andrew  was  present  and  Bishop 
Joshua  Soule  likewise  was  there,  but  Bishop  Thomas  A. 
Morris,  who  was  also  present,  declined  to  preside  over 
the  convention  it.self,  engaging  only  in  what  the  Minutes 
called  "religious  exercises."  The  Convention  adopted  a 
resolution  declaring  that  they,  "acting  under  the  provi- 
sional plan  of  separation  adopted  by  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1844,  do  solemnly  declare  the  jurisdiction  hither- 
to exercised  over  said  Annual  Conferences,  by  the  General 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  entirely 
dissolved;  and  that  said  Annual  Conferences  shall  be,  and 
they  hereby  are  constituted,  a  separate  ecclesiastical  con- 
nexion, under  the  provisional  plan  of  separation  aforesaid, 
and  based  upon  the  Discipline  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  comprehending  the  doctrines  and  the  entire 
moral,  ecclesiastical,  and  economical  rules  and  regulations 
of  said  Discipline,  except  only,  in  .so  far  as  verbal  altera- 
tions may  be  necessary  to  a  distinct  organization,  and  to 
be  known  by  the  style  and  title  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South."  {History  of  American  Methodism, 
Vol.  2,  p.  118.) 

The  Louisville  Convention  was  not,  properly  speaking, 
a  General  Conference,  but  a  convention — which  however, 
did  make  provision  for  a  General  Conference  to  be  held 
the  next  year  in  Petersburg,  Va.  It  also  made  provisions 
for  mission  work  and  publishing  interests,  looked  toward 
the  formal  organization  planned  for  the  next  year  and 
adjourned  on  May  19,  1845. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 
History  of  the  Organization  of  the  Methodist  Church,  South: 
Comprehending  all  the  Official  Proceedings  of  the  General  Con- 
ference; the  Southern  Annual  Conferences,  and  the  General 
Convention.  (Nashville,  Tennessee:  Compiled  and  Published 
by  the  Editors  and  Publishers  of  the  South  Western  Christian 
Advocate  for  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  by  order  of  the  Louis- 
ville Convention.  WiUiani  Cameron,  Printer,  1845).     N.  B.  H. 

LOUISVILLE,  KENTUCKY,  U.S.A.  The  first  Methodist  So- 
ciety in  Louisville  was  formed  in  1806.  It  met  first  in  a 
private  home,  then  in  a  log  schoolhouse.  In  1809  a  build- 
ing was  erected  on  Market  Street  between  Seventh  and 
Eighth  Streets.  Francis  Asbury  records  in  his  Journal 
on  Oct.  22,  1812,  "I  preached  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  at 
eleven  o'clock,  in  our  neat  brick  church  30  x  48  ft.  I  had 
a  sickly  congregation.  This  is  a  growing  town,  a  handsome 
place." 

In  1816,  a  new  church  was  built  on  Fourth  Street  near 
Jefferson.  It  was  a  large  brick  church  with  a  wide  gallery 
on  each  side.  Louisville  at  that  time  was  a  part  of  the 
Ohio  Conference  and  the  conference  session  of  that 
year  was  held  in  this  church.  Bishop  McKendree  dedi- 
cated the  building  before  the  conference  convened.  The 
Louisville  church  became  a  station  in  1818  and  Henry 
B.  Bascom,  later  bishop,  became  its  pastor.  One  hundred 
and  twenty  white  members  and  thirty-seven  colored  were 
reported.  In  1835  two  other  congregations  were  formed 
from  the  membership  of  the  Fourth  Street  Church  on 
Brook  Street  and  on  Eighth  Street. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LOUISVILLE,   KENTUCKY 


After  the  division  of  American  Methodism  at  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1844,  the  Constitutional  Convention 
which  formed  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  met  in  the 
Fourth  Street  Church.  As  the  city  expanded,  churches 
were  organized  on  Shelby  Street  and  Twelfth  Street,  and 
in  1852,  the  Fourth  Street  Church  was  moved  to  Fifth 
and  Walnut  Streets,  and  the  Eighth  Street  Church  to 
Chestnut  near  Eighth.  The  M.  E.  Church  organized 
Trinity  Church  at  Third  and  Guthrie  Streets  in  1865;  and 
the  German  Methodists,  under  the  leadership  of  Jacob 
Shumaker,  organized  a  congregation  on  Jackson  Street  in 
1844.  In  1907  the  Walnut  Street  and  the  Chestnut  Street 
churches  united  to  form  the  Methodist  Temple  at  Sixth 
and  Broadway,  and  following  unification  the  Methodist 
Temple  and  Trinity  Church  merged  to  form  Trinity 
Temple  on  the  site  of  the  later  institution. 

The  A.M.E.,  the  A.M.E.  Zion  and  the  C.M.E.  denomi- 
nations have  built  a  strong  constituency  among  the  Negro 
population  and  seven  congregations  of  the  former  Central 
Jurisdiction  of  The  Methodist  Church  are  also  to  be 
counted  here.  These  however  have  been  merged  into  the 
Louisville  Conference  in  connection  with  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Central  Jurisdiction. 

With  the  growth  of  the  city,  Methodism  has  attempted 
to  serve  the  expanding  population.  It  now  has  seventy 
congregations  and  approximately  35,000  members  within 
the  metropolitan  area. 

Through  the  years  these  churches  have  been  served  by 
some  of  the  outstanding  ministers  of  Methodism,  and  Lou- 
isville Methodism  has  given  to  the  larger  circles  of  the 
Church  many  strong  leaders,  both  lay  and  clerical. 

Harry  R.  Short 

Fourth  Avenue  Church.  Methodism  was  the  first  of  all 
organized  religions  in  the  city  and  the  first  Methodist 
Society,  dating  from  1806,  and  has  enacted  its  fascinating 
history  in  six  different  homes,  under  five  distinct  names. 

The  first  building  in  1812  was  a  primitive  sanctuary 
only  34  by  38  feet  on  Market  Street,  where  Bishop 
Asbury  once  preached.  Though  he  called  the  group  a 
"sickly  congregation,"  it  grew  rapidly;  in  1816  a  larger, 
better  house  was  erected  nearer  tlie  town  center.  Here 
for  thirty-six  years  the  Fourth  Street  Church  was  blessed 
with  a  gifted  array  of  highly  talented  pastors,  many  of 
whom  became  widely  known  throughout  the  connection. 
Among  them  were  three  destined  to  be  elected  bishops: 
Henry  B.  Bascom,  1818-20;  Thomas  A.  Morris,  1828-30; 
and  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh,  1835-36. 

Other  early  pastors  of  note:  William  Burke,  later  Cin- 
cinnati's first  postmaster:  Charles  Holhday,  Marcus  Lind- 
sey,  William  Adams,  Edward  Stevenson,  Edmund  W. 
Sehon,  and  John  H.  Linn. 

In  1845  the  church  was  host  to  delegates  from  all  the 
southern  conferences  to  the  historic  Louisville  Conven- 
tion, gathered  to  plan  the  establishment  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  as  a  separate  denomination. 

After  1852  the  congregation  spent  fifty-five  notable 
years  in  a  new  home  called  the  Walnut  Street  Church, 
again  served  by  some  of  Methodism's  finest  preachers — 
men  like  Charles  B.  Parsons,  Thomas  Bottomley,  H.  C. 
Settle,  Samuel  A.  Steel,  Frank  M.  Thomas,  and  the 
fourth  pastor  to  become  a  bishop,  Henry  C.  Morrison. 

A  great  gathering  of  Methodist  leaders  from  all  over 
the  land,  north  and  south,  came  to  the  Church  in  1876 
for  the  first  churchwide  meeting  held  in  connection  with 
the  Cape  May  Commission  plans  for  the  restoration  of 


fraternal  relations  between  the  two  major  divisions  of  the 
original  M.  E.  Church. 

Unique  and  massive  was  the  congregation's  next  home, 
occupied  in  1907  at  Sixth  and  Broadway.  It  was  built 
by  the  Jews  in  1857,  but  constructed  in  the  traditional 
shape  of  a  Christian  cross!  Taking  back  a  branch  which 
had  left  in  1835,  First  Church  remodelled  the  old  temple 
and  took  the  legal  name.  Union  M.  E.  Church,  South, 
but  was  popularly  called  "The  Methodist  Temple."  For 
thirty-three  years  "The  Temple"  continued  faithful 
through  increasing  vicissitudes;  yet  in  this  period  alone 
2,126  new  members  were  received.  Outstanding  evangelis- 
tic pastors  were  U.  G.  Foote,  J.  W.  Weldon,  and  H.  H. 
Jones. 

In  1940  the  congregation  merged  with  the  Trinity  M.  E. 
Church,  organized  in  1865  near  the  site  where  the  First 
Church  began.  The  merged  congregations,  now  called 
Trinity  Temple  Church,  moved  into  this  forty-year-old 
edifice  and  enjoyed  a  great  ministry. 

In  order  to  provide  a  stronger  evangelistic  program 
for  the  city  and  a  surer  financial  base  for  it.self,  Trinity- 
Temple's  600-strong  membership  gave  up  its  home,  and 
in  1962  erected  on  a  downtown  corner  an  imposing  struc- 
ture of  eighteen  floors,  providing  apartments  for  elderly 
in  addition  to  handsome  church  quarters  on  the  first  three 
floors,  with  a  roof  garden  and  "Chapel  in  the  Sky"  at  the 
top. 

Elbert  B.  Stone 

Parkview  Church  is  the  oldest  continuous  Methodist 
congregation  in  Louisville.  One  must  go  back  to  1780  and 
the  early  days  of  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  River  to  discover 
that  the  area  was  crowded  with  flatboats  of  those  who 
had  drifted  down  to  Kentucky  from  the  settlements  of 
Pennsylvania  Dutch.  A  number  of  these  people  did  not 
stop  in  Louisville  but  pushed  on  to  the  banks  of  Mill 
Creek  and  the  wilderness  trail  to  the  Salt  Licks.  Among 
these  families  we  would  have  found  Christian  and  Jacob 
Shively,  who  purchased  from  the  governor  of  Virginia  a 
thousand-acre  tract  of  land  at  the  junction  of  Mill  Creek 
and  Man's  Lick  Trail.  Here  they  built  a  mill  and  did  a 
thriving  business  with  the  settlers. 

It  is  not  known  when  Methodism  was  first  brought 
into  this  section  of  Kentucky.  About  1811,  however,  the 
Jefferson  Circuit  was  established  and  in  1816  Andrew 
Monroe  was  appointed  preacher  over  the  Jefferson  Cir- 
cuit. It  was  under  his  ministry  that  the  Mill  Creek  Church 
was  built.  In  the  Jefferson  County  records  one  can  find 
that  Christian  Shively  gave  one  acre  of  ground  on  which 
the  church  was  built.  The  deed  is  dated  June  17,  1816, 
and  is  made  out  to  Isaac  Miller,  Hugh  Logan,  Phillip 
Shively,  Alexander  Smoot,  James  W.  ThoiTisberry  and 
Matthew  Love,  who  were  trustees  for  the  church  to  be 
erected  and  known  by  the  name  of  Mill  Creek  Church. 

John  Littlejohn,  a  pioneer  Methodist  preacher  in 
Louisville  and  vicinity,  whose  journal  is  preserved  in  the 
archives  of  the  Louisville  Conference  Historical  Society, 
records  on  Jan.  20,  1822:  "I  drove  from  Louisville  in  a 
sleigh  to  Shively's  Stone  Meeting  House  and  preached  to 
a  large  and  inspiring  crowd." 

For  a  time  the  church  was  used  by  all  denominations 
but  about  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  it  was  restored  as  a 
Methodist  building  and  it  has  continued  with  a  regular 
pastor  and  congregation  until  the  present  time. 

A  change  in  the  residents  of  the  community  reduced 
the  membership  and  attendance  about  the  middle  of  the 


LOVE,    EDGAR   AMOS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


eighties,  but  a  small  and  faithful  few  continued  having 
regular  services  until  a  turn  of  the  tide  of  residents 
brought  new  members  and  interest  in  the  church. 

In  1920  this  church  was  the  first  appointment  of  Roy 
H.  Short  (later  bishop),  then  in  his  teens.  When  he 
appeared  for  his  first  service,  the  Sunday  school  superin- 
tendent inquired  if  he  might  show  him  to  the  youth  class. 
The  reply  was:  "I'm  your  new  minister." 

The  church  was  moved  in  1945  to  a  location  on  Stowers 
Lane,  and  it  was  moved  again  in  1965,  due  to  construction 
of  a  highway,  to  its  present  location  at  2020  Garrs  Lane. 
The  church  which  has  been  knov\ai  as  Parkview  since 
1945  is  a  thriving  suburban  church  that  is  growing  in 
the  service  of  Christ,  through  its  work  in  the  community  of 
Shively. 

John  C.  Brinson 

Qoinn  Chapel  A.M.E.  Church.  In  1833  Bishop  Morris 
Brown  transferred  William  P.-vul  Quinn  to  the  Ohio 
Annual  Conference  of  the  A.M.E.  Church  and  assigned 
him  to  the  Pittsburgh  Circuit  as  a  missionary.  In  the 
course  of  his  travels  he  organized  a  congregation  of  Afri- 
can Methodists  at  Louisville  about  1838.  Between  1838 
and  1844  another  A.M.E.  itinerant,  George  Johnson,  "put 
up  a  little  frame  building  on  the  lot  they  bought  in  the 
city."  Quinn  refers  to  this  in  the  famous  missionary  report 
that  he  made  to  the  General  Conference  of  1844; 

Also  the  church  erected  in  the  city  of  Louisville,  Kentucky  i.s 
in  a  flourishing  condition.  I  am  fully  persuaded  (that)  this 
mission,  if  faithfully  conducted,  will  at  no  distant  period,  ac- 
complish wonders  for  our  people  settled  in  these  western  states 
in  their  moral  and  religious  elevation. 

Including  its  founder,  Quinn,  for  whom  it  was  later 
named,  this  church  has  had  as  its  pastors  five  men  who 
eventually  became  bishops:  William  P.  Quinn  (1844), 
Reverdy  C.  Ransom  (1924),  Noah  W.  Williams 
(1932),  Frank  M.  Reid  (1940)  and  Ernest  L.  Hick- 
man (1956). 

Grant  S.  Shockley 

Sf.  Paul  Church,  Bardstown  Road  at  Douglass  Boule- 
vard, began  its  life  as  an  outpost  Sunday  school  early  in 
1915.  This  was  a  missionary  enterprise  of  the  Highland 
Methodist  Church,  and  Professor  Henry  A.  Smith  was 
assigned  to  lead  this  endeavor.  He  became  its  first  Sunday 
school  superintendent  and  held  that  office  until  his  death, 
forty-three  years  later. 

In  1921,  the  present  church  lot  on  the  corner  of  Bards- 
town Road  and  Douglass  Boulevard  was  bought.  M.  L. 
Dyer  was  then  pastor  of  the  church.  The  building  was 
moved  from  Woodboume  Avenue  and  placed  over  a 
basement,  on  the  present  lot,  in  1923.  The  name  was 
changed  from  Woodboume  Avenue  to  St.  Paul.  This 
structure  was  used  until  the  present  sanctuary  was  built 
in  1931,  during  the  pastorate  of  J.  C.  Rawlings. 

In  1941,  Roy  H.  Short  (now  bishop)  came  to  be  the 
pastor  of  St.  Paul  Church,  from  which  pulpit  he  went  to 
the  editorship  of  The  Upper  Room  in  1944.  Howard  W. 
Wliitaker,  of  the  Kentucky  Conference,  was  appointed 
pastor  of  St.  Paul  in  1944.  Under  Jiis  ministry  the  church 
school  plant,  including  the  chapel,  was  erected  in  1949. 

In  July,  1949,  Bishop  William  T.  Watkins  appointed 
Ted  Hightower  as  minister  of  St.  Paul,  effective  Septem- 
ber 1.  He  was  installed  as  the  executive  minister  on  Sept. 
3,  1949  and  remained  in  the  position  until  June  1,  1966. 


St.  Paul  Church  has  had  a  steady  and  highly  useful 
history.  Following  the  consolidation  of  its  own  position 
and  buildings  in  1949,  St.  Paul  launched  its  first  mission- 
ary offensive.  In  1950  funds  were  raised  for  the  building 
of  St.  Paul  in  Camaguey  Cuba,  on  the  campus  of  Pinson 
College.  In  1951,  the  Rev.  and  Mrs.  Victor  L.  Rankin 
went  to  this  church  as  missionary  pastor  and  completed 
its  building.  The  Rankins  were  supported  by  St.  Paul. 

From  this  beginning,  several  other  churches  were  estab- 
lished in  Cuba,  parsonages  were  built,  school  buildings 
were  erected,  and  our  largest  missionary  endeavors  were 
centered  there  until  the  Castro  Revolution  necessitated 
the  withdrawal  of  our  missionaries. 

The  Woman's  Society  supports  Dr.  Mildred  Shepherd 
in  India.  A  medical  jeep  has  been  purchased  for  work 
in  the  Philippines.  Both  interest  and  money  have  gone  to 
P,\kistan,  the  Congo,  Scarbitt  College,  American  In- 
dian work,  and  many  other  causes,  as  well.  "St.  Paul  In 
India,"  located  at  Bidar,  has  now  been  completed  and 
paid  for  and  is  one  of  the  largest  Methodist  churches  in 
that  section  of  India. 

At  home,  St.  Paul  Church  has  been  a  sponsoring  church, 
establishing  four  suburban  churches,  some  of  which  are 
now,  after  twelve  years,  almost  as  large  as  the  parent 
church.  They  are  Christ  Church,  Buechel,  St.  Mark  and 
Walker  Memorial,  all  in  Louisville. 

In  1962,  the  church  purchased  property  at  2006  Doug- 
lass Boulevard,  adjoining  the  original  church  property. 
This  is  a  three-story  apartment  building  which  has  been 
renovated  as  "Fellowship  House"  and  put  into  service  for 
the  young  people  and  multiple  uses  of  the  church.  The 
Deaf-Oral  School  meets  in  this  building. 

In  1963  a  generous  gift  of  $100,000  made  possible  the 
installation  of  stained  glass  windows  in  the  sanctuary,  and 
twenty-two  outside  windows  of  St.  Paul  church.  This  re- 
markable fenestration  carries  a  continuous  iconography  of 
biblical  and  church  history,  beginning  with  the  Creation 
at  one  end  of  the  sanctuary  and  closing  with  the  building 
of  the  Church  Center  for  The  United  Nations  in  New 
York,  at  the  other  end.  It  also  has  the  headstone  for  a 
large  renovation  program  which  is  now  being  completed 
with  the  installation  of  a  new  pipe  organ  at  a  cost  of 
more  than  $75,000.  This  organ  is  being  dedicated  in  honor 
of  Ted  Hightower. 

A  Brief  History  of  Fourth  Avenue  Methodist  Church,  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky,  1888-1968. 

W.  F.  Lloyd,  History  of  Methodism  in  Louisville.  1901. 
W.   I.   Munday,   Louisville  Methodism  Yesterday,  Today  and 
Tomrrow.  1949. 

D.  A.  Payne,  History  (AME).  1891. 
J.  C.  Rawlings,  History  of  Louisville  Methodism.  1927. 
A.  H.  Redford,  Kentucky.  1868-70. 
R.  R.  Wright,  Enctjclopedia.  1947.    Walter  B.  White,  Jr. 

LOVE,  EDGAR  AMOS  ( 1891-  ) ,  American  bishop,  was 

born  in  Harrisonburg,  Va.,  Sept.  10,  1891,  the  son  of 
Julius  C.  and  Susie  Carr  Love.  His  early  educational 
training  was  received  in  the  public  schools  of  Vibginia  and 
Maryland.  In  1909  he  was  graduated  from  the  Academy 
of  Mobg.\n  College  and  in  1913  he  received  the  B.A. 
degree.  Cum  Laude,  from  Howard  University. 

The  B.D.  degree  was  awarded  him  by  Howard  Univer- 
sity School  of  Religion  in  1916,  and  the  S.T.B.  from 
Boston  University  School  of  Theology  in  1918.  For 
two  sessions  he  did  graduate  work  at  the  University  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Chicago.  He  was  awarded  the  D.D.  by  Morgan  College 
in  1935;  by  Gammon  Theological  Seminary  in  1946, 
and  by  Boston  University  in  1956. 

His  marriage  to  Virginia  Louise  Ross,  of  Staunton,  Va., 
took  place  on  June  16,  1923.  They  have  one  son,  Jon 
Edgar  Love. 

Admitted  on  trial  in  the  Washington  Conference 
(ME)    in   1916,  he  received  full  connection  as  elder  in 

1918.  His  pastorates  include:  Grace  Church,  Fairmount 
Heights,  Md.,  1916;  John  Wesley  Church,  Washington, 
Pa.,  1921-25;  Asburv  Church,  Annapolis,  Md.,  1925-28; 
Simpson  Church,  Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  1928-31;  and  John 
Wesley  Church,  Baltimore,  Md.,  1931-33. 

His  pastoral  work  was  interrupted  in  1917  when  he 
began  his  service  as  chaplain  in  the  United  States  Army, 
with  the  368th  Infantry  and  the  809th  Pioneer  Infantry, 
sei'ving  a  total  of  two  years  and  three  months,  fourteen 
months  of  which  was  overseas.  After  his  Army  service 
he  became  a  member  of  the  American  Legion  and  at- 
tended, as  a  delegate  from  the  State  of  Maryland,  the 
first  American  Legion  Convention,  Minneapolis,  Minn,  in 

1919.  Years  after  when  he  had  become  a  bishop,  he 
and  Bi.shop  Wunderuch  of  Germany  discovered  that 
they  had  been  in  the  directly  opposing  aimies  of  one  of 
the  late  battles  of  the  World  War.  The  daily  papers 
where  the  Council  of  Bishops  was  meeting  photo- 
graphed Bishops  Wunderlich  and  Love  standing  together 
and  featured  this  story. 

From  1919-21  he  was  an  instructor  at  Morgan  College. 

He  became  superintendent  of  the  Washington  District 
in  1933  and  served  in  this  capacity  until  1940,  when  he 
became  the  Superintendent  of  Negro  work.  Board  of 
Missions  and  Church  E.xtension,  of  The  Methodist  Church, 
New  York  City,  a  position  in  which  he  sei'ved  until  1952, 
when  he  was  elected  bishop  and  assigned  to  the  Balti- 
more Area,  Central  Jurisdiction,  of  The  Methodist  Church. 

He  served  as  Secretary  of  the  College  of  Bishops  and 
President  respectively.  Central  Jurisdiction,  and  at  various 
times  served  in  other  important  capacities.  After  1940 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Temperance  and  the 
Board  of  Missions  of  The  Methodist  Church.  During  his 
active  service  he  held  membership  in  the  following:  the 
Methodist  Commission  on  Chaplains;  the  General  Com- 
mission on  Chaplains;  the  National  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  the  U.S.A.;  the  Y.M.C.A.  (Balti- 
more, Md.);  The  International  Frontiers  Club  of  America 
— Baltimore  Chapter;  the  National  Association  for  Ad- 
vancement of  Colored  People,  Baltimore  Branch;  33° 
Mason,  Southern  Jurisdiction;  Methodist  Feder.\tion 
FOR  Social  Action;  the  Southern  Conference  Educa- 
tional Fund. 

He  has  served  as  trustee  of  the  following:  Morgan 
College  Corporation,  Baltimore,  Md.;  Bennett  College; 
and  of  Gulfside  Assembly,  Waveland,  Miss.  He  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Fraternal  Council  of  Churches,  Inc.,  and  in 
October  and  November,  1954,  visited  Methodist  work  in 
Malaya  on  invitation  of  the  Malayan  Board  of  Evangel- 
ism. By  appointment  of  Governor  Ritchie,  he  served  at  one 
time  as  a  member  of  the  Maryland  Interracial  Commis- 
sion. He  was  appointed  by  Mayor  McKeldin  of  Baltimore, 
to  the  Police  Advisory  Committee,  and  by  Governor  J. 
Millard  Tawes  of  the  Committee  to  Study  the  Penal  In- 
stitutions of  the  State  of  Maryland. 

One  of  the  outstanding  sermons  of  his  career  was  de- 
livered in  1959  in  connection  with  the  175th  Anniversarv 


of  Methodism.  In  it  he  made  a  stirring  appeal  to  an 
audience  of  young  ministers — all  of  whom  were  under 
thirty-five — not  to  conform  to  the  status  quo,  but  to  have 
the  courage  to  push  forward  to  new  horizons  of  their 
own.  He  reminded  them  that  the  founders  of  Methodism 
were,  like  themselves,  young  men.  Following  retirement 
at  the  Jurisdictional  Conference  of  the  Central  Jurisdic- 
tion in  1964,  he  continues  to  reside  in  Baltimore. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

Mary  French  Caldwell 

LOVE  FEAST  or  AGAPE.  The  oldest  known  document  on 
the  orders  of  the  church  is  the  Didache  and  it  is  here  that 
the  primitive  Christians  spelled  out  the  first  regulations 
for  the  Agape.  Several  things  seem  to  be  established  from 
examination  of  this  document:  (1)  The  Agape  was  not 
the  Eucharist,  or  Communion,  though  it  did  prescribe 
prayers  of  thanksgiving  before  and  after  the  celebration 
of  The  Lord's  Supper;  (2)  It  was  conducted  in  the 
absence  of  a  settled  ministry  by  the  laymen  who  belonged 
to  the  little  bands  of  gathered  Christians;  it  obviously 
was  the  Christian  carryover  of  the  Jewish  customs 
observed  by  families  when  a  blessing  was  said  before  the 
meal,  and  a  thanksgiving  following  the  meal. 

The  Eastern  Orthodox  Church  and  the  Coptic  Chris- 
tians are  credited  by  most  scholars  for  continuing  the 
practice  of  the  Love  Feast  during  the  remaining  centuries 
until  the  German  pietists  revived  the  custom  in  Europe 
in  the  late  1600's.  John  Wesley  met  the  Agape  for  the 
first  time  in  1737  when  he  was  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  and 
attended  a  Moravian  Love  Feast.  (Wesley's  Journal, 
Aug.  8,  1737).  Frank  Baker  indicates  in  Methodism  and 
the  Love  Feast  that  shortly  after  Wesley's  heartwarming 
at  Aldersgate  in  1738,  the  Fetter  Lane  Religious  So- 
ciety, to  which  he  then  belonged,  listed  among  its  rules 
the  fixing  of  regular  times  for  observance  of  the  Love 
Feast.  At  this  point  the  feasts  began  at  7  o'clock  and  ended 
at  10:00 — but  one  record  shows  a  Fetter  Lane  Love  Feast 
starting  at  9:00  p.m.  and  ending  at  3:00  a.m.!  Wesley 
records  in  his  Journal  for  Dec.  31,  1738  that  he,  his 
brother  Charles,  Whitefield,  and  others  attended  such 
a  feast  at  Fetter  Lane  and  that  "about  three  in  the  morn- 
ing .  .  .  the  power  of  God  came  mightily  upon  us." 

As  Methodism  grew  in  America  and  established  itself 
as  a  church  in  1784,  the  Love  Feast  was  an  integral  part 
of  its  pattern.  The  Love  Feast  and  the  Lord's  Supper 
were  immediately  identified  as  the  proper  places  to  receive 
offerings  for  the  poor.  By  1789  the  Discipline  not  only 
listed  as  a  required  duty  for  the  preachers  the  regular 
watch  night  .services,  the  prayer  services,  but  also  the 
Love  Feast.  To  strengthen  the  evidence  of  the  role  of 
the  Love  Feast,  the  clear  directions  of  Wesley  contained 
in  his  A  Plain  Account  of  Christian  Perfection  were  in- 
cluded in  the  Disciplines  of  1792,  1794,  1796,  and  1797. 
They  also  ruled,  "Suffer  no  Love  Feast  to  last  above  one 
hour  and  a  half." 

The  Discipline  of  1852  shows  a  liberalizing  trend  in 
the  matter  of  who  could  attend  the  Love  Feast.  In  Section 
III  of  that  Discipline,  question  5  reads,  "How  often  shall 
we  permit  strangers  to  be  present  at  our  Love  Feasts?" 
The  answer,  "Let  them  be  admitted  with  utmost  caution; 
and  the  same  person  on  no  account  above  twice  or  thrice, 
unless  he  become  a  member." 

Patterned  on  the  agape  of  New  Testament  and  apostolic 
times,    the    Love    Feast   became    an    important   devotion 


LOVELY   LANE   CHAPEL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


among  Methodists  in  the  days  of  John  Wesley,  and  has 
been  observed  on  occasions  by  Methodists  ever  since. 

When  possible,  worshipers  were  to  be  seated  in  a  circle 
or  around  a  table.  Bread  was  broken  into  small  portions, 
or  a  common  loaf  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  Tradition- 
ally a  loving  cup  with  two  handles  was  provided  for  water. 
The  usual  order  for  a  modern  observance  might  run: 

A  Prelude 

A  Hymn  of  Praise 

The  Scripture,  St.  John  6:26-35 

Voluntary  Prayers  and  the  Lord's  Prayer 

An  Address 

A  Hymn  of  Christian  Fellowship 

The  Passing  of  Bread  with  Blessing 

The  Passing  of  tlie  Cup  wit;h  Blessing 

A  Thanksgiving  in  unison 

An  offering  for  the  poor 

Testimonies 

A  Hymn  of  Thanksgiving 

A  Blessing 

A  Posdude 

In  both  British  and  American  Methodism  there  have 
been  attempts  to  revive  interest  in  observance  of  the  Love 
Feast.  American  Methodists  have  included  the  form  for 
observance  in  their  official  Book  of  Worship  and  many 
Annual  Conferences  set  a  time  in  their  programs  for  a 
Conference  Love  Feast.  The  Discipline  has  continued  all 
through  the  years  to  list  as  a  duty  of  the  pastor,  "To  hold 
or  appoint  prayer  meetings,  love  feasts,  and  watch-night 
meetings,  wherever  advisable."  (Discipline  1964,  Par. 
352.8)  In  honesty  it  must  be  reported  that  more  often 
than  not.  Twentieth  Century  Methodists  are  probably  un- 
aware of  the  Love  Feast,  but  there  is  a  great  value  in 
this  tradition  that  many  churchmen  seek  to  revive.  (See 
also  Worship.  ) 

F.  Baker,  Methodism  and  the  Love  Feast.  1957. 

Discipline,  1784,  1797,  1853.  Emouy  S.  Bucke 

LOVELY  LANE  CHAPEL,  Baltimore,  Maryland,  U.S.A.  The 
historic  building  in  which  the  M.  E.  Church  in  America 
was  organized  in  1784,  was  the  second  Methodist  Church 
built  in  Baltimore,  but  Francis  Asbury  loved  it,  and 
had  a  great  hand  in  its  building.  It  was  built  in  1774  with 
two  of  Asbury's  converts,  William  Moore  and  Philip 
Rogers,  playing  a  key  part  in  erecting  it.  When  Francis 
Asbury  laid  the  foundation  for  the  building  he  wrote  in 
his  Journal,  "Who  could  have  expected  that  two  men, 
once  among  the  chief  of  sinners,  would  ever  have  thus 
engaged  in  so  great  an  undertaking  for  the  cause  of  the 
blessed  Jesus?"  Further  mention  of  the  building  is  .seen 
in  Asbury's  Journal  earlier  in  the  year.  Asbury  himself 
proved  anxious  to  be  sent  to  Baltimore  that  he  might 
be  pastor  of  Lovely  Lane,  where  the  people  were  eager 
that  he  might  come  and  serve  with  them.  Thomas  Ran- 
kin, however,  then  Wesley's  superintendent,  insisted  on 
sending  him  to  Philadelphia.  Finally,  however,  late  in 
February,  1775,  Rankin  agreed  that  Asbury  might  go  and 
become  pastor  in  Baltimore,  and  especially  at  Lovely 
Lane. 

When  the  epochal  meeting  took  place  between  Coke 
and  Asbury  late  in  1784,  and  they  decided  to  call  a 
conference  of  the  preachers  to  consider  Wesley's  instruct- 
ing Coke  that  he  come  to  America  and  ordain  Asbury  (and 
the  furnishing  of  the  American  Methodists  with  a  Sunday 


Service),  it  is  not  strange  that  Asbury  wanted  Lovely  Lane 
in  Baltimore  to  be  the  meeting  place. 

The  chapel  was  down  by  the  harbor  (inner  harbor 
now)  of  old  Baltimore  town,  and  was  a  small  rectangular 
brick  building.  For  many  years,  and  even  today,  the  site 
upon  which  Lovely  Lane  stood  was  occupied  by  the  Mer- 
chants Club  (206  East  Redwood  Street),  upon  which  a 
bronze  tablet  reads,  "Upon  this  site  stood  from  1774  to 
1786,  the  Lovely  Lane  Meeting  House,  in  which  was 
organized  December,  1784,  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  Ajiierica."  In  Lovely  Lane, 
of  course.  Coke  was  taken  as  bishop,  and  Asbury  con- 
secrated as  one,  and  the  Church  organized.  The  successor 
to  Lovely  Lane  in  Baltimore  was  the  first  Light  Street 
Church  at  Light  Street  and  Wine  Alley,  begun  in  August, 
1785,  and  dedicated  by  Asbury  on  May  21,  1786. 

Within  recent  years  the  First  Methodist  Church  in 
Baltimore,  as  it  was  long  known,  standing  at  the  corner 
of  St.  Paul  Avenue  and  22nd  Street,  decided  to  adopt  the 
name  "Lovely  Lane,"  and  henceforth  will  be  known  under 
that  title.  This  Church  today  carries  on  a  full-time,  aggres- 
sive ministry,  as  befits  a  large  and  influential  city  church. 
In  connection  with  the  present  Lovely  Lane  is  the  Meth- 
odist Museum,  and  offices  of  the  Methodist  Historical 
Society  of  Maryland. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964.     N.  B.  H. 

LOVERN,  JAMES  CHESS  ( 1909-  ) ,  American  minister, 

was  born  in  Morgan  County,  Ga.,  Aug.  21,  1909.  He 
received  the  B.A.  and  B.D.  degrees  from  Southern 
Methodist  University,  and  the  D.D.  from  Southwest- 
ern University.  Admitted  on  trial  in  the  Southwest 
Te.\as  Conference  in  1935,  he  served  pastorates  in  San 
Angelo,  La  Feria,  Edinburg,  and  Harlingen  before  going 
to  Laurel  Heights  Church,  San  Antonio,  1949-54.  Trans- 
ferring to  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference,  he  served 
the  5,000-member  First  Church,  Lubbock,  1954-64,  and 
then  succeeded  Bishop  W.  McFerhin  Stowe  at  St.  Luke's 
Church,  Oklahoma  City,  Okla.  He  has  been  a  member 
of  the  General  Board  of  Missions  since  1964,  and  has 
been  elected  to  and  served  five  times  in  the  General  and 
Jurisdictional  Conferences. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

LOVETT,  WILLIAM  (1800-1877),  British  Methodist,  was 
born  in  Newlyn,  Cornwall.  He  was  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Chartist  Movement  in  1838,  became  secretary 
of  the  convention,  which  it  was  hoped  might  prepare  the 
way  for  Parliamentary  reform,  and  edited  a  newspaper 
Chartism,  a  New  Organ  of  the  People.  He  suffered  im- 
prisonment for  criticizing  police  action  against  demonstra- 
tors, but  he  had  no  sympathy  with  O'Connor  and 
Stephens,  the  "Physical  Force  Chartists."  Lovett's  moder- 
ate policy  estranged  him  from  other  Chartists,  and  he 
was  not  involved  in  the  fiasco  of  the  monster  petition  of 
1848.  In  1846  he  transferred  his  allegiance  to  the  anti- 
slavery  movement,  retired  from  acti\'e  politics,  and  spent 
his  last  years  in  teaching. 

William  Lovett,  Life  and  Struggles.  London,  1876. 

John  Kent 

LOWE,  THOMAS  G.  (1815-1869),  American  minister,  was 
born  between  the  towns  of  Halifax  and  Enfield,  N.  C, 
near  the  historic  Hayward's  Chapel  Methodist  Church,  on 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LOWES,  MATTHEW 


Aug.  10,  1815.  He  received  his  early  education  in  the 
"old  field  schools"  of  the  day,  and  became  a  local  preacher 
for  the  M.  E.  Church  before  he  was  twenty-one  years  old. 
Although  he  never  entered  the  annual  conference,  he 
preached  and  had  stated  appointments  in  many  areas  of 
eastern  North  Carolina  and  VmciNiA.  He  was  frequent- 
ly called  upon  "to  deliver  funeral  discourses  and  Masonic 
addresses,  in  both  of  which  he  very  greatly  excelled." 
His  sermons  always  attracted  large  audiences.  In 
a  eulogy  to  Lowe  presented  in  1882,  Theodore  B.  Kings- 
bury obsewed  that  Lowe's  name  "should  be  added  to 
that  roll  of  illustrious  American  preachers  who  were 
eminent  for  a  rich,  glowing,  and  inspiring  eloquence." 
Lowe  never  wrote  out  his  seimons,  made  an  outline,  or 
used  notes,  feeling  that  he  lost  all  inspiration  and  fervor 
when  he  resorted  to  a  pen.  HLs  seiTnons,  which  usually 
lasted  thirty  to  forty  minutes,  were  mentally  organized 
while  he  was  working  or  fishing  and  he  would  memorize 
the  language  he  wished  to  use.  His  "finest  oratory,"  how- 
ever, was  usually  heard  when  there  had  been  no  previous 
preparation  and  he  spoke  extemporaneously.  He  spoke 
with  a  clear,  musical  voice  and  always  used  pure,  correct 
English,  He  had  "a  splendid  imagination  but  under  the 
control  of  reason  and  taste  and  allied  to  wisdom  and  dis- 
cretion. He  was  a  very  sound  piece  of  American  timber." 
He  "spoke  fine  poetry,  although  presented  in  the  garb  of 
prose."  Once,  he  spoke  at  the  John  Street  Church  in 
New  York  City  and  afterward  was  invited  to  preach  there 
for  the  then  unheard  of  salary  of  $12,000  a  year.  He 
chose,  however,  not  to  leave  his  home  and  labors  in  North 
Carolina. 

Lowe  married  Maria  J.  Wade  of  New  Bern,  N.  C,  in 
August,  1842,  and  to  this  union  two  daughters  were  bom. 

He  died  on  Feb.  13,  1869. 

W.  C.  Allen,  History  of  Halifax  County.  Boston,  1918. 
Theodore  B.  Kingsbury,  An  Oration  on  the  Life  and  Character 
of  the  Late  Rev.  Thomas  G.  Lowe,  Delivered  at  Hayward's 
Church,  Halifax  County,  on  June  24th,  1882. 

Ralph  Hardee  RrvES 


LOWE,  TITUS  (1877-1959),  American  bishop,  was  bom 
in  Bilston,  England,  Dec.  17,  1877,  and  came  to  the 
United  States  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  The  Lowe  family 
settled  near  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  and  Titus,  the  youngest  of 
six  children,  worked  in  a  steel  mill  as  a  boy. 

He  was  educated  at  Ohio  Wesleyan  (A.B,,  1900; 
A,M.,  1908)  and  Western  Theological  Seminary  (B.D., 
1902),  and  received  honorary  degrees  from  Ohio  Wesley- 
an, Nebraska  Wesleyan,  and  the  College  of  Puget 
Sound.  He  married  Anna  B.  Creed  on  Oct.  18,  1901;  she 
died  April  4,  1911,  and  he  married  Edith  E.  Egloff  on 
Jan.  6,  1913.  She  died  after  Bishop  Lowe  retired,  and 
in  1957  he  married  Ellen  Louise  Stoy. 

Titus  Lowe  joined  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  in 
1900,  His  pastorates  were:  Fourth  Street,  Braddock,  Pa., 
1900-03;  Thoburn  Church,  Calcutta,  India,  1903-08; 
South  Fork,  Pa.,  1908-09;  First  Church,  Cedar  Falls,  Iowa, 
1909-13;  First  Church,  Omaha,  Neb.,  1913-21;  Y.M.C.A. 
Lecturer  in  France,  1917-18;  and  Corresponding  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in 
1921. 

He  was  elected  bishop  in  1924,  and  was  assigned  to 
Singapore,  1924-28;  Portland,  Ore.,  1928-39;  and  to 
Indiana,  1939-48.  In  1942,  Bishop  Lowe  organized  the 
School  of  the  Prophets  while  serving  the  Indiana  Area. 


It  was  a  week-long  annual  refresher  training  program  for 
the  state's  1,000  Methodist  pastors  and  was  still  conducted 
at  DePauw  University  when  Bishop  Lowe  died. 

A  big  athletic  man,  Bishop  Lowe  was  a  college  football 
player  in  his  youth  and  later  an  avid  golfer.  His  greatest 
relaxation  was  found  in  playing  the  piano,  and  it  was  his 
familiarity  with  church  music  that  caused  his  church  to 
put  him  on  the  Hymnal  Commission  of  1930-34. 

A  week  after  retirement.  Bishop  Lowe  was  appointed 
director  of  Methodist  Overseas  Relief,  and  he  served 
in  this  capacity,  1948-52. 

He  died  at  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  on  Nov.  27,  1959.  His 
funeral  was  conducted  on  November  30  by  Bi.shops 
Rich.\rd  C.  Raines  and  J.  Ralph  M.\gee.  The  remains 
were  cremated. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Clergy. 

World  Outlook,  January  1960.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

LOWELL,  LEROY  M.    (1894-  ),  an  ordained  elder  of 

the  Southern  Michigan  Conference  of  the  Free  Method- 
ist Church,  was  bom  at  Cortland,  N.  Y.  He  received 
the  A.B.  degree  (Magna  Cum  Laude)  at  Greenville 
College,  1923,  and  the  A.M.  degree  from  the  Winona 
Lake  School  of  Theology,  1933;  Seattle  Pacific  Col- 
lege conferred  the  Litt.D.  in  1943.  He  was  pastor  of 
Free  Methodist  churches  in  California,  Kansas  and 
Michigan.  Dr.  Lowell  served  as  president  of  Spring  Ar- 
bor (Michigan)  Junior  College,  1935-44  and  1955-57,  He 
was  the  first  speaker  of  the  denomination's  Light  and  Life 
Hour  broadcast.  He  is  author  of  Building  the  House 
Beautiful.  He  was  editor  of  denominational  youth  papers, 
1941-56,  Dr,  and  Mrs,  Lowell  live  near  Lakeland,  Fla, 
since  retiring, 

Byron  S,  Lamson 

LOWES,  MATTHEW  (1721-1795),  British  Methodist,  was 
born  in  Whitfield,  Northumberland.  As  a  young  man  he 
was  deeply  influenced  by  Charles  Wesley's  sermon, 
"Awake,  thou  that  sleepest!"  published  in  1742,  and  a 
visit  of  Christopher  Hopper  to  his  home  about  1748  led 


LOWRY,    HIRAM   HARRISON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


to  his  conversion.  John  Wesley  confirmed  the  urging  of 
his  friends  that  he  should  become  an  itinerant  preacher, 
but  he  remained  a  local  preacher  until  he  could  dis- 
charge his  father's  debts.  His  first  appointment  was  to  the 
Leeds  circuit  in  1751.  The  arduous  work  of  the  itinerancy 
proved  too  much  for  his  indifferent  health,  and  after  in- 
tervals of  serving  as  a  "half-itinerant"  in  1771,  Wesley  re- 
gretfully accepted  his  resignation  because  of  his  "asthmatic 
complaint. "  He  remained  in  Newcastle  as  a  supernumer- 
ary, whence  he  made  occasional  preaching  expeditions  as 
his  health  permitted. 

On  his  preaching  rounds  Matthew  Lowes  had  some- 
times sold  a  family  remedy,  "Lowes'  Balsam."  This  method 
of  supplementing  his  meager  income  to  support  a  large 
family  was  stopped  when  the  1768  conference  strongly 
urged  itinerant  preachers  not  to  engage  in  trade,  an  ex- 
hortation followed  up  in  1779  by  a  specific  prohibition. 
After  his  retirement,  however,  the  position  was  different, 
and  in  November  1771,  John  Wesley  wrote  to  Lowes: 
"Certainly  there  is  no  objection  to  your  making  balsam 
while  you  are  not  considered  as  a  travelling  preacher." 
Lowes'  Balsam  apparently  provided  sustenance  for  Lowes 
and  his  family  until  his  wife's  death  in  1793  and  his  own 
on  Feb.  8,  1795.  The  recipe  has  continued  to  serve  the 
farming  community  since,  passing  into  the  hands  of  a 
Methodist  chemist  in  Alston,  George  Thompson,  who  sold 
the  preparation  as  "Lowes'  Veterinary  Oil."  At  a  change 
of  ownership  on  Thompson's  death  in  1890,  it  became 
"Laws'  Oil,"  and  is  still  manufactured  by  a  firm  of  Carli.sle 
chemists. 


Arminian  Magazine,  1795. 
Methodist  Magazine,  March  1947. 


Frank  Baker 


LOWRY,  HIRAM  HARRISON  (1843-1924),  American  mis- 
sionary, church  builder  and  educator,  was  born  in  Zanes- 
ville,  Ohio,  May  29,  1843.  He  served  in  the  97th  Ohio 
Infantry,  1862-63.  In  1867  he  graduated  from  Ohio  Wes- 
leyan,  married  Parthenia  Nicholson,  and  went  to  Foo- 
chow,  China.  He  was  the  first  Methodist  missionary  to 
cross  the  Pacific  in  a  steamship. 

In  1869,  the  Wheelers  and  Lowrys  were  sent  to  Peking 
to  open  a  mission  there.  In  1873,  when  Wheeler  had  to 
return  to  the  United  States  because  of  ill  health,  Lowry 
became  superintendent  of  the  mission,  a  position  in  which 
he  continued  until  1893.  When  Peking  University  was 
opened  in  1894,  he  was  named  its  president  and  con- 
tinued until  1918,  when  it  was  reorganized  to  become  a 
union  institution  and  renamed  Yenching  University.  He 
died  in  Peking  on  Jan.  13,  1924. 

He  was  an  able,  broad-minded,  unselfish  and  diligent 
administrator,  and  the  North  China  Annual  Conference 
often  recognized  its  debt  to  this  pioneer  missionary. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

W.  N.  Lacy,  China.  1948. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19.  Francis  P.  Jones 

LOWSTUTER,  WILLIAM  JACKSON  (1871-1958),  Amer- 
ican minister,  teacher  and  New  Testament  scholar,  was 
bom  in  Brownsville,  Pa.,  on  Oct.  19,  1871.  His  family  in- 
heritance was  German  and  English.  His  early  religious  life 
was  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  his  mother. 
But  Methodism  early  appealed  to  him  and  he  turned 
toward  her  strong  educational  stress.  He  received  a  M.A. 
degree  for  public  school  teaching  from  California  Normal 


School,  California,  Pa.,  in  1890.  He  received  his  A.B. 
degree  from  Allegheny  College  in  1898,  and  was  re- 
ceived into  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  and  fully  or- 
dained in  1902. 

He  served  Methodist  Churches  in  Vanderbilt,  Pa.,  and 
Braddock,  Pa.,  and  then  decided  on  further  education  and 
entered  Boston  University. 

He  was  married  to  Lida  Vance  Moore  on  Sept.  15,  1903. 
One  son,  William  Robert  Lowstuter,  and  three  grandsons 
survive. 

He  received  the  S.T.B.  degree  from  Boston  University 
in  1908,  the  Ph.D.  in  1911,  and  the  D.D.  from  Allegheny 
in  1915.  Elected  the  Jacob  Sleeper  Fellow  from  Boston 
LTniversity,  he  spent  two  years  of  study  in  Berlin  and 
Marburg,  Germany. 

From  1911  to  1918  he  taught  at  the  Iliff  School  of 
Theology,  and  from  1918  until  his  retirement  in  1941 
at  the  Boston  University  School  of  Theology. 

He  died  at  St.  Petersburg,  Fla.,  in  1958.  After  Mrs. 
Lowstuter's  death  he  married  a  friend  of  many  years, 
Mrs.  Anna  Taylor,  who  died  in  1965. 

Lowstuter's  love  of  the  parish  ministry  never  left  him, 
and  there  is  a  Memorial  Room  in  his  honor  in  the  United 
Church  of  Norfolk,  Mass.,  where  he  served  many  years. 
He  had  a  superb  ability  in  the  classroom  to  unite  the 
study  of  the  New  Testament  text  to  the  living  church. 
He  was  an  able  lecturer,  but  most  of  all  he  was  a  teacher 
of  ministers!  No  man  ever  had  a  higher  respect  for  his 
calling.  "My  students  are  my  books,"  he  would  say,  and 
this  was  his  standard  for  faculty  efficiency  at  the  profes- 
sional level.  Few  men,  if  any,  ever  trained  more  men  for 
the  schools  and  churches  of  American  Methodism. 

Walter  G.  Muelder 

LOYNE,  SOPHIA  D.  (1845-1917),  was  the  wife  of  an 
American  clergyman,  and  a  pioneer  in  founding  institu- 
tions to  help  the  needy.  She  was  born  in  Yorkshire,  En- 
gland, a  daughter  of  James  and  Hannah  Drinkwater,  and 
came  to  the  United  States  during  the  period  of  the  Civil 
War.  She  married  William  A.  Loyne  in  October  1870, 
while  he  was  a  local  preacher  in  St.  John's  Church,  Dover, 
N.  H.  She  had  five  children,  four  of  whom  survived  her. 

After  her  husband  went  into  the  traveling  ministry  and 
during  her  residence  in  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  Mrs.  Loyne 
became  interested  in  the  poor  of  the  city,  the  needy 
sailors,  and  the  aged  people.  She  then  helped  found  a 
home  for  the  aged,  the  first  institution  of  its  kind  in  that 
state.  Also  through  her  prayers  and  influence  came  into 
existence  the  Manchester  (N.H.)  Children's  Home  and 
Dispensary  and  the  Mercy  Home  for  the  Care  of  Girls. 
During  residence  in  Colebrook,  N.  H.,  her  heart  bled  for 
the  neglected  lumbeirnen  of  the  North  Country,  and  from 
her  small  beginnings  the  work  grew  rapidly  until  it  was  a 
nation-wide  service  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union.  At  the  head  of  this  movement,  first  as  State  Super- 
intendent of  the  Department  of  Lumbermen  and  then  as 
National  Superintendent  of  the  Department  of  Lumber- 
men and  Miners,  Mrs.  Loyne  held  both  offices  throughout 
the  rest  of  her  life. 

This  work  embraced  over  four  million  men  and  many 
thousands  of  famibes,  and  was  one  of  the  largest  depart- 
ments of  Christian  activity  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the 
world  in  those  days.  While  living  in  Woodsxalle,  N.  H.,  she 
felt  moved  to  aid  the  woodmen  and  the  railroad  men,  and 
through  that  interest  the  Woodsville  Cottage  Hospital  was 


WORLD   METHODISM 

born,  designed  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  not  only  of 
woodsmen  and  railroad  men  but  of  a  multitude  that  con- 
tinue to  this  day  to  need  its  services.  The  city  of  Laconia, 
N.  H.,  owes  to  Mrs.  Loyne,  as  much  as  to  any  one  else, 
the  founding  of  Laconia's  Home  for  Old  People.  At  Mrs. 
Loyne's  death  on  July  14,  1917,  more  than  ordinary  loss 
was  felt. 

Journal  of  the  New  Hampshire  Conference,  1918. 

William  J.  Davis 

LO  YUN-YEN  (R.  Y.  Lo)   (1890-  ),  writer  and  public 

official,  was  born  in  Kiukiang,  Kiangsi  province,  China. 
He  was  educated  in  WiUiam  Nast  College  (see  article  on 
Carl  F.  Kupfeb  ) ,  Baldwin-Wallace  College  and 
Syracuse  University,  where  he  was  awarded  a  Ph.D.  for 
his  thesis.  The  Social  Teaching  of  Confucius.  On  his 
return  to  China  he  became  editor  of  The  Chinese  Christian 
Advocate  and  The  Young  People's  Friend.  He  was  also 
active  in  public  affairs  and  was  for  many  years  a  member 
of  the  Legislative  Yuan.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Jeru- 
salem Conference  of  the  International  Missionary 
Council  in  1928  and  to  the  Methodist  General  Confer- 
ences of  1928  and  1940. 

Besides  several  books  on  the  opium  problem,  he  was 
author  of:  The  Chinese  Revolution  from  the  Inside 
(1930);  What  is  Democracy?  (1924);  and  Christianity 
and  New  China  (1922).  As  far  as  is  presently  known,  he 
is  still  living  in  Communist  China,  but  nothing  has  been 
heard  from  him  since  about  1950. 

China  Christian  Yearbook,  19.36-37. 

Wlw's  Who  in  China,  1950. 

Who's  Who  in  Modern  China,  1954.  Francis  P.  Jonks 

LUBBOCK,  TEXAS,  U.S.A.  (1970  population  146,379). 
Methodism  was  first  organized  in  Lubbock  on  March  3, 
1892,  by  R.  M.  Morris,  with  wor.ship  on  one  Sunday  a 
month.  The  first  church  building,  a  frame  structure,  was 
completed  in  1905  and  cost  $1,500.  Services  were  then 
held  twice  a  month. 

A  modern  nine-story  hospital  was  opened  in  August 
1954,  near  Texas  Technological  College.  It  was  valued  at 
$3,581,197  and  was  acquired  by  the  Northwest  Texas 
Conference  about  si.x  months  later  and  named  Methodist 
Hospital.  Recent  improvements  include  a  $200,000  coro- 
nary care  unit  which  is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  com- 
pletely equipped  units  of  its  type  in  existence.  A  school 
of  nursing  and  a  nurse's  dormitory  are  an  important  ad- 
junct to  the  hospital. 

There  are  presently  twelve  United  Methodist  churches 
in  Lubbock,  including  Mount  Vernon  (Negro)  and  La 
Trinidad  (Spanish).  Also,  there  is  Bethel,  a  church  of 
the  A.M.E.  Church,  and  one  of  the  C.M.E.  Church. 

Lubbock's  twelve  United  Methodist  churches  are  valued 
at  $7,637,444  and  reported  14,538  members  in  1970,  First 
Church,  described  below,  is  the  largest  and  oldest  with 
5,960  members.  A  disastrous  tornado  struck  Lubbock  on 
May  11,  1970,  destroying  Wesley  Church,  a  frame  build- 
ing whose  congregation  numbered  120,  blowing  away  the 
roof  of  St.  John's,  and  damaging  the  windows  of  First 
Church. 

First  Church,  sometimes  called  "The  Cathedral  of  the 
West, "  is  of  contemporaiy  Gothic  design  based  on  the 
English  Gothic  style  of  architecture.  The  buildings,  in- 
cluding the  educational  building,  have  a  present  valuation 
of  approximately  $2,700,000. 


LUBBOCK,   TEXAS 


The  church  was  first  organized  on  March  3,  1892,  with 
sei-vices  in  the  courthouse,  and  twelve  charter  members. 
At  last  reporting  in  1970  the  membership  was  5,960  and 
the  church  school  enrollment  exceeded  3,000.  The  church 
claims  the  second  largest  church  school  average  atten- 
dance in  Methodism. 

In  1900  a  church  and  parsonage  were  built  by  volun- 
teer labor.  The  church  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  February, 
1917.  The  church  built  at  Broadway  and  Avenue  M  (loca- 
tion of  present  building)  was  dedicated  on  Oct.  17,  1920. 
The  present  building  was  opened  on  March  6,  1955. 

The  impressive  stained  glass  in  the  windows  in  the 
sanctuary  was  imported  from  England.  The  magnificent 
Rose  Window  is  twenty-six  and  one-half  feet  in  diameter, 
one  of  the  four  largest  rose  windows  in  the  world.  It 
depicts  in  part  "The  Creation."  The  windows  at  the  lower 
level  are  of  famous  Methodist  leaders  of  the  early  days, 
and  leading  Biblical  characters.  The  window  at  the  rear  of 
the  sanctuary  adumbrates  "Worship,"  with  appropriate 
symbols.  The  art  glass  windows  in  the  chapel  were 
brought  over  from  the  old  sanctuary.  Of  symbolic  interest 
in  the  church  is  a  wood  .sculpturing  of  "The  Last  Supper" 
(made  of  solid  quartered  white  Appalachian  oak) — an 
exact  replica  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  painting  and  set  in 
the  altar  at  the  head  of  the  chancel.  There  have  been 
twenty-three  pastors  since  the  organization  of  the  church. 
The  Avalanche  Journal,  Lubbock,  Texas:  March  6,  1955. 

St.  Luke's  Church  is  said  to  be  the  fastest  growing 
church  in  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference.  The  church 
began  on  Aug.  7,  1955,  with  the  Village  Theatre  as  a 
meeting  place.  Only  fifty-four  people  were  present  for 
the  first  worship  service  and  charter  membership  was 
closed  in  November  1955,  with  187  members.  Leo  K. 
Gee,  just  graduated  from  Perkins  School  of  Theology, 
was  the  new  pastor  of  this  new  church.  The  community 
was  growing  rapidly  and  the  church  was  able  to  keep 
step  with  it.  In  1970  St.  Luke's  reported  2,250  meml)ers 
and  it  continues  its  growth. 

The  completion  of  the  first  unit  of  building  was  on 
April  3,  1957.  Since  then  there  have  been  three  addi- 
tional building  programs.  St.  Luke's  rates  among  the  high- 
est of  the  churches  paying  into  World  Service.  One  of  the 
most  important  aspects  of  the  church  is  the  Ministry  to 
Children  and  Youth.  The  Church  School  is  large  and  well 
staffed  by  dedicated  laymen.  There  are  presently  a  senior 
pastor  and  three  associate  ministers  serving  St.  Luke's. 

J.  O.  Haymes 
1465 


LUCCOCK,    HALFORD   EDWARD 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


LUCCOCK,  HALFORD  EDWARD  (1885-1960),  American 
minister,  author,  and  educator,  was  bom  in  Pittsburgh, 
Pa.,  March  11,  1885,  the  son  of  Naphtali  and  Etta  An- 
derson LuccocK.  Luccock's  high  school  years  in  St.  Louis 
Mo.,  included  the  one  athletic  feat  of  his  life,  a  mile  run 
in  which  he  defeated  T.  S.  Eliot — who  later  became  the 
renowned  poet. 

On  June  17,  1914,  Luccock  married  Mary  Louise 
Whitehead.  They  had  two  children,  and  their  son  Robert 
became  professor  of  preaching  at  Boston  University 
School  of  Theology.  Luccock  entered  the  old  New 
York  E.\st  Conference  on  trial  in  1908,  was  ordained  a 
DEACON  in  1909,  and  was  ordained  an  elder  and  taken 
into  full  connection  in  1910.  He  served  pastorates  in  New 
York  and  Connecticut  until  1913  when  he  became  an 
instructor  at  Hartford  School  of  Missions.  From  1916  to 
1918  he  was  registrar  and  instructor  at  Drew  Theologi- 
cal Seminary.  He  was  editorial  secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions  from  1918  to  1924,  and  contributing 
editor  of  The  Christian  Advocate  (New  York)  from  1924 
to  1928. 

In  1928  Luccock  became  professor  of  preaching  at  Yale 
Divinity  School  where  he  did  his  major  work  of  teaching, 
preaching,  and  writing,  and  befriending  generations  of 
students  until  his  retirement  in  1953.  He  completed 
twenty-six  books  and  a  mountain  of  journalistic  writing. 
His  son  estimated  that  his  father  spent  the  equivalent  of 
eight  years  in  the  itinerant  travels  of  preaching  from  coast 
to  coast. 

Luccock  became  famous  for  his  dry  humor.  Until  his 
death  he  contributed  a  column  to  The  Christian  Century 
called  "Simeon  Stylites." 

It  was  said  that  Luccock  broke  every  rule  of  preaching, 
but  he  had  his  own  style  and  thrilled  and  inspired  count- 
less numbers  of  people.  He  was  considered  one  of  the 
great  authorities  on  preaching.  He  was  a  warm  human 
being,  and  wherever  he  traveled  made  an  effort  to  contact 
his  former  pupils.  He  maintained  an  interest  in  the  affairs 
of  the  New  York  East  Conference,  and  in  1926  he  col- 
laborated with  Paul  Hutchinson  in  writing  a  popular  his- 
tory of  American  Methodism.  In  1953  he  delivered  the 
famous  Beecher  Lectures  at  Yale. 

Luccock  received  honorary  degrees  from  Syracuse, 
Wesleyan,  Vermont,  Yale  and  Northwestern  univer- 
sities, and  a  Litt.D.  from  Allegheny  College.  He  died 
in  his  sleep  of  terminal  cancer  at  Hamden,  Conn.,  Nov.  5, 
1960. 

Christian  Century,  Dec.  14,  1960. 
C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities,  1945. 
Journal  of  the  New  York  East  Conference,  1961. 
Who's  Who  in  Methodism,  1952. 

Donald  J.  West 

LUCCOCK,  NAPHTALI  (1853-1916),  American  bishop, 
was  bom  at  Kimbolton,  Ohio,  Sept.  28,  1853.  He  grad- 
uated from  Ohio  Wesleyan  (A.B.,  1874;  A.M.,  1877) 
and  the  University  of  Pittsburgh  (Ph.D.,  1886).  He  was  a 
life-long  student,  with  a  keen  and  discriminating  apprecia- 
tion of  the  best  in  literature,  history  and  science. 

Entering  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  in  1874,  he  gave 
several  years  to  the  pastorate  and  then  became  professor 
of  Greek  at  Allegheny  College,  1885-88.  He  was  then 
pastor  of  First  Church,  Erie,  Pa.,  1888-93;  Smithfield 
Street,  Pittsburgh,  1893-97;  Union  Church,  St.  Louis, 
Mo.,  1897-1909;  Hyde  Park  Church,  Kansas  City,  a 
new  church  which  he  organized,  1909-12.  In  1910  he  was 


fraternal  delegate  to  the  General  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South. 

Elected  bishop  in  1912,  Luccock  was  assigned  to 
Helena,  Mont.  With  cheerful  diligence  and  unswerving 
devotion,  he  took  up  the  task  but  his  health  soon  failed. 
Exposure  because  of  a  delayed  train  brought  on  pneu- 
monia, the  occasion  of  final  collapse,  and  he  died  in 
LaCrosse,  Wis.,  April  1,  1916,  and  was  buried  in  Belle- 
fontaine,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

He  had  married  Etta  Anderson  on  Sept.  27,  1876.  She 
and  a  son  died  before  the  bishop  did.  Two  daughters  and 
one  son  suwived  their  father.  The  son,  Halford  E.  Luc- 
cock, became  a  gifted  preacher,  a  distinguished  writer, 
and  a  noted  professor  of  preaching  at  Yale  for  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century. 

Among  the  books  written  by  Naphtali  Luccock  were. 
Christian  Citizenship,  Living  Words  from  the  Pulpit,  and 
Sermons,  Royalty  of  Jesus. 

Bishop  F.  J.  McConnell  said,  "Bishop  Luccock,  in  his 
own  way  made  a  most  helpful  contribution  to  the  inner 
workings  of  the  Board  of  Bishops  during  the  brief  time 
that  he  lived  after  his  election  .  .  .  He  had  the  power  to 
use  an  intellectual  surgical  needle,  with  humor  for  an 
anesthetic,  so  that  the  puncturing  was  all  over  before  the 
patient  knew  what  had  happened." 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 
F.  J.  McConnell,  Autobiography.  1952. 
Pittsburgh  Christian  Advocate,  April  6,  1916.     Jesse  A.  Earl 

LUCKNOW,  India,  has  long  been  regarded  as  the  capital 
city  of  that  part  of  Indian  Methodism  which  was  founded 
by  American  Methodist  missionary  enterprise. 

Lucknow  had  earlier  been  the  capital  of  the  Muslim 
kingdom  of  Oudh,  and  chief  rival  to  Delhi  as  the  center 
of  Indian  Islamic  culture.  The  Urdu  language,  derived 
largely  from  Arabic  and  Persian,  still  spoken  by  Muslims 
in  this  part  of  India,  was  the  official  court  language  of 
the  Moghala. 

Two  hundred  miles  southeast  of  Lucknow  is  the  Hindu 
holy  city  of  Varanasi  ( Benares ) ,  so  that  the  area  was  both 
a  Muslim  and  a  Hindu  stronghold.  Those  who  founded  a 
Methodist  mission  center  in  Lucknow  in  the  mid-nine- 
teenth century  thus  faced  formidable  opposition.  Yet  in 
planning  the  mission  to  India,  the  Board  of  Missions 
and  William  Butler  considered  Lucknow  the  most  stra- 
tegic center. 

The  Butlers  arrived  in  Lucknow  on  Nov.  29,  1856,  a 
time  of  immense  importance  for  both  the  political  and 
the  religious  history  of  India.  In  that  year,  Oudh  came 
under  British  rule.  Many  of  the  complex  causes  of  the 
Indian  Mutiny  (now  sometimes  called  the  "first  war  of 
independence"),  which  broke  out  in  May  1857,  were 
already  in  fermentation  both  in  Lucknow  itself,  and 
throughout  North  India.  Lord  DaUiousie's  social  reforms, 
which  included  the  abolition  of  "suttee"  or  the  suicide  of 
widows,  were  exciting  suspicion  that  the  aim  of  British 
rule  was  to  subvert  Indian  faiths  and  traditional  religious 
customs. 

Within  a  few  months  of  the  Butlers'  arrival,  North 
India  was  aflame,  and  Lucknow  itself  besieged.  But  before 
that  the  Butlers  had  been  cordially  received,  and  enter- 
tained in  the  Residency  for  a  week.  However,  they  were 
advised  against  establishing  a  mission  in  Lucknow  at  that 
time,  and  found  themselves  unable  to  buy  or  rent  prop- 
erty there.  They  therefore  established  their  first  center  at 


WORLD  METHODISM 


LUCKNOW   CONFERENCE 


Bareilly.  Soon  after  the  Mutiny,  the  Commissioner  wrote 
to  Butler  advising  the  immediate  opening  in  Lucknow  of 
the  proposed  mission.  Property  was  quickly  found  and 
purchased.  The  Commissioner  and  his  friends  contributed 
two  thousand  rupees  for  repairs  and  supervised  the  work. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ralph  Pierce  were  the  first  missionaries  to  be 
appointed  to  Lucknow.  Pierce  and  Joel  Janvier  began 
immediately  an  active  program,  including  bazaar  preach- 
ing, three  primary  schools,  an  English  weekly  service  for 
British  soldiers,  and  class  meetings  in  English  and  Urdu. 
The  following  June  Hossin  Beg,  his  wife  and  their  daugh- 
ters were  baptized  as  the  first  Methodist  converts  from  a 
non-Christian  religion  in  Lucknow. 

Since  1936,  Lucknow  has  been  the  official  residence  of 
a  Methodist  bishop. 

British  Methodist  work  in  Lucknow  began  in  1864  when 
Daniel  Pearson,  a  Wesleyan  minister,  visited  the  city.  He 
was  told  that  the  American  missionaries  were  prepared  to 
hand  over  a  congregation  of  two  hundred  Europeans,  in 
order  to  concentrate  on  work  among  Indians.  Joseph 
Broadbent  was  stationed  in  Lucknow  from  1866  to  1873, 
for  military  and  English  work.  In  1879,  the  Lucknow  and 
Benares  (later  Varanasi  and  Lucknow)  district  was  set  up, 
with  a  total  of  only  sixty-one  full  members,  divided  be- 
tween congregations  in  Lucknow  and  Faizabad.  By  1968 
the  district  had  thirty-two  places  of  worship,  1,966  full 
members  and  a  community  of  4,819.  It  had  three  secon- 
dary schools  with  2,398  students,  and  one  teachers'  train- 
ing college  with  fifty-six  students.  (See  also  Lucknow 
Annual  Conference.) 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 
D.  B.  Childe 

Nur-Manzil  Psychiatric  Institute,  located  at  Lai  Bagh, 
Lucknow,  was  founded  in  1955  by  E.  Stanley  Jones,  a 
missionary  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist 
Church.  Jones  began  his  missionary  career  in  1907  at 
Lucknow.  His  experience  as  an  evangelist  and  counselor, 
combined  with  his  Bible  study,  led  him  to  regard  psychia- 
try as  a  field  of  knowledge  that  could  contribute  substan- 
tially to  the  welfare  of  people.  He  was  troubled  by  the 
signs  of  hostility  between  certain  psychiatrists  and  church- 
men, and  sought  to  bring  into  a  practical  synthesis  or 
working  partnership  the  insights  and  therapies  of  psychia- 
try and  Christian  discipleship.  Patients  now  treated  come 
from  a  wide  range  of  creedal  and  racial  communities  in 
India  and  other  countries  of  Asia.  The  superintendent  is 
now  James  Stringham. 

B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 

J.  N.  HoUister,  Southern  Asia.  1956. 

A.  D.  Hunt,  ed..  Seventy  Years  on  the  Lucknow  and  Banaras 

District  of  the  Methodist  Church,   1880-1950.   Mysore   City: 

Wesley  Press,  n.d.  J.  Waskom  Pickett 

LUCKNOW  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE.  In  1866,  the  centennial 
year  of  American  Methodism,  two  members  of  the  India 
Conference  discussed  until  late  at  night  the  opening  of  a 
college  by  the  conference  as  a  worthy  recognition  of  this 
special  anniversary.  The  suggestion  was  approved,  and 
by  1868  an  endowment  fund  of  10,000  rupees  had  been 
received.  The  school  was  opened  on  Feb.  1,  1877,  with 
Henry  Mansell  as  principal,  in  a  small  house  on  the 
mission  compound. 

The  following  year,  B.  H.  Badley  became  principal. 
Fifteen  of  the  nineteen  years  of  his  service  in  India  were 
given  in  Lucknow,   largely  in    developing  the   Christian 


College.  He  saw  the  school  become  the  Centennial  High 
School  in  1882,  and  then  raised  to  college  grade  when 
affiliated,  on  July  2,  1888,  with  the  Calcutta  University 
under  the  name  of  the  Lucknow  Christian  College.  In 
response  to  appeals  to  the  government,  Badley  secured  a 
desirable  triangular  plot  of  land  just  across  from  the  high 
school  building,  on  which  the  new  building  was  erected. 
The  foundation  stone  was  laid  by  Bishop  James  M.  Tho- 
burn  on  Aug.  6,  1891,  and  it  was  formally  opened  on  Oct. 
31,  1892.  Badley  did  not  live  to  see  the  fulfillment  of  his 
dreams. 

More  than  literary  education  was  provided,  for  as  early 
as  1892,  the  business  department  was  opened  and  for  two 
generations  trained  men  in  various  commercial  subjects. 
Then  it  had  to  be  closed  for  financial  reasons.  In  1920- 
22,  the  complete  reorganization  of  the  institution  was 
effected,  involving  the  separation  of  the  college,  high 
school,  and  school  of  commerce.  The  organization  of  the 
Lucknow  University  by  the  government  in  1920  reserved 
to  that  institution  the  right  to  confer  the  B.A.  and  B.Sc. 
degrees;  leaving  other  institutions  the  "Intermediate  Col- 
lege" level  of  only  two  years  beyond  high  school.  In  1946, 
degree  classes  were  restored. 

The  College  of  Arts,  Science,  and  Commerce  is  the 
largest  and  main  unit  of  the  institution.  The  most  impor- 
tant service  the  college  renders  as  a  four-year  institution 
is  in  science,  with  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  students 
in  this  department.  The  Teacher  Training  College  was 
opened  in  1952,  the  first  nongovernment  training  college 
in  the  state.  This  was  a  two-year  course  leading  to  the 
certificate  of  teaching,  but  when  this  was  abolished  by  the 
government,  the  college  was  upgraded  for  the  Licentiate 
Teaching  Diploma.  It  is  among  the  leading  teacher- 
training  colleges  of  the  state.  The  College  of  Physical  Edu- 
cation is  recognized  as  a  pioneering  institution  in  its  field. 
In  1955,  a  one-year  course  for  graduates,  leading  to  the 
Diploma  in  Physical  Education,  was  added  under  the 
Lucknow  University.  This  was  the  first  university  diploma 
in  physical  education  to  be  given  in  the  state. 

The  first  Indian  principal,  appointed  in  1921,  was  one 
of  its  own  alumni,  J.  R.  Chitambar,  who  left  the  position 
in  1930  when  he  was  elected  a  bishop  of  the  M.  E. 
Church.  One  of  the  buildings  in  the  later  years  of  an  ex- 
tensive building  program  is  the  Bishop  Chitambar  Memo- 
rial Chapel.  The  second  Indian  principal,  C.  M.  Thacore, 
has  been  at  the  helm  since  1949,  and  is  responsible  for 
much  of  the  expansion  of  the  present  time. 

John  N.  Hollisteh 

LUCKNOW  CONFERENCE,  in  India,  whose  area  begins 
about  300  miles  from  Calcutta  and  extends  on  both  sides 
of  the  Ganges  River  for  over  300  miles.  Methodist  work 
was  opened  there  in  1858.  Portions  of  the  conference  have 
been  included  at  various  times  in  the  North  India, 
Northwest  India,  and  Bengal  Annual  Conferences.  The 
Lucknow  Conference  was  organized  in  February  1921,  by 
Bishop  Frank  W.  Warne.  There  are  five  districts  in  the 
conference.  The  Arrah-Buxar  District  has  ten  circuits. 
Buxar  is  a  town  of  35,000  inhabitants  where  there  is  a 
church  of  882  members,  which  is  largely  self-supporting. 
The  Buxar  Brides'  School  is  also  located  there. 

The  Ballia  District  has  a  church  in  Balha,  and  there 
are  reported  to  be  3,917  members  in  the  district.  The 
Gonda  District,  where  work  began  in  1865,  has  about 
1,583  Methodists  in  eight  circuits.  These  center  in  Gonda, 


LUCKNOW   PUBLISHING   HOUSE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


a  town  of  about  46,000,  seventy-three  miles  east  of  Luck- 
now  on  the  North-Eastern  Railway.  It  is  in  the  midst  of 
an  agricultural  area.  There  is  a  partially  self-supporting 
church  in  the  town  with  a  membership  of  579,  a  consid- 
erable number  of  whom  are  students  and  teachers  at  the 
Chambers  Memorial  Girls'  School  there,  which  is  largely 
supported  by  the  Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Service. 

The  Kanpur  District  includes  six  civil  districts.  There 
are  approximately  7,732  Methodists  and  thirteen  circuits 
on  this  district. 

Allahabad,  where  there  is  a  church  with  almost  1,000 
members,  is  largely  self-supporting,  and  there  is  also  a 
Methodist  Primary  School  supported  by  the  Woman's 
Division  of  Christian  Service  with  an  enrollment  of  326 
boys  and  58  girls.  The  Allahabad  Agricultural  Insti- 
tute is  across  the  Ganges  River. 

Kanpur,  head  of  the  district  by  that  name,  is  a  city  of 
895,106,  situated  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Ganges  River, 
fifty  miles  southwest  of  Lucknow,  and  is  the  largest  city 
in  Uttar  Pradesh.  There  are  two  self-supporting  churches 
in  Kanpur.  There  are  several  other  centers  where  church 
groups  are  organized.  Kanpur  also  has  the  Methodist  High 
School  supported  by  the  Woman's  Division  of  Christian 
Service,  and  the  Hudson  Memorial  Girls'  School,  sup- 
ported by  this  same  division. 

In  the  Lucknow  District  there  are  2,951  members  in 
six  circuits.  The  Lucknow  Conference  in  its  five  districts 
reports  23,211  members,  including  those  of  baptized  chil- 
dren. The  bishop  of  the  Area  lives  in  Lucknow. 

Discipline,  UMC,  1968.  P.  1901. 

Project  Handbook  Overseas  Missions.  1969.  N.  B.  H. 


LUCKNOW  PUBLISHING  HOUSE.  In  January,  1860,  Wil- 
liam Butler  faced  a  problem;  orphan  boys  had  been 
gathered  together  in  Bareilly,  but  he  knew  that  not  only 
food  but  employment  was  necessary.  He  felt  there  was 
no  other  means  within  reach  but  printing.  And  for  this, 
J.  W.  Waugh's  experience  as  a  practical  printer  seemed 
providential — the  very  help  needed  for  the  enterprise,  and 
for  the  printing  of  hymns,  tracts,  and  catechism.  Funds 
were  made  available  by  seven  missionaries  who  gave  $100 
each  as  loans  for  two  years,  and  the  press  was  set  up  in 
Bareilly.  It  was  at  first  called  the  India  Book  Concern. 

In  1866,  the  press  was  moved  to  Lucknow  and  set  in 
a  small  room  near  the  home  of  the  superintendent.  The 
staff  consisted  of  six  men,  with  only  one  hand-press.  Chris- 
tian literature  was  made  available,  however,  and  for  more 
than  a  century  the  Lucknow  Publishing  House,  as  it  came 
later  to  be  known,  has  made  its  impact  on  Christian  teach- 
ing through  its  publications.  From  its  humble  beginnings 
the  publishing  house  now  occupies  its  own  building  with 
rooms  for  all  departments,  as  well  as  a  large  book-sales 
room.  Modern  facilities,  including  an  offset  press,  have 
been  added  to  the  equipment  in  recent  years  and  litera- 
ture can  be  produced  in  all  the  languages  of  India,  but 
especially  in  English,  Urdu,  and  Hindi. 

From  the  beginning,  the  agents  (managers)  of  the 
publishing  house  have  been  missionaries,  only  a  few  of 
whom  had  practical  training  for  the  work.  William  W. 
Bell,  with  both  technical  and  business  ability,  was 
appointed  agent  in  1954,  and  brought  the  publishing 
house  to  a  state  of  production  and  financial  stability  not 
exceeded  in  all  its  previous  years  of  service.   In   recent 


Lucknow  Publishing  House 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LUMBER   RIVER   ANNUAL 


years,  the  Boabd  of  Missions  has  departed  from  its  old 
practice  of  making  no  appropriation  for  publishing,  and 
has  given  grants  to  help  meet  the  need  of  making  litera- 
ture available,  not  only  for  the  Christian  community,  but 
for  others  who  ask  for  good  literature. 

James  Thobubn  felt  the  need  of  some  communication 
with  the  public  and  started  The  Witness  with  the  help  of 
James  Messmore.  It  was  published  first  in  May  1871, 
every  two  weeks,  but  the  following  year  it  became  a  week- 
ly. It  was  aided  at  first  by  special  subscription  but  very 
soon  became  self-supporting.  In  more  recent  years  it  has 
been  subsidized  by  the  pubhshing  house.  Now  called  The 
Indian  Witness,  it  has  a  full-time  editor,  trained  in  Jour- 
nalism. The  Kaukab-i-Hind  (Star  of  India),  a  bi-weekly  in 
Roman  Urdu,  meets  a  need  felt  by  many  village  pastors 
and  leaders. 

John  N.  Hollister 

LUGG,  THOMAS  BRANSFORD  (1889-1967),  American 
church  executive,  was  bom  in  Salem,  Wis.,  Dec.  11,  1889. 
His  education  was  received  at  Northwestern  University 
and  Garrett  Biblical  Institute.  Joining  the  Illinois 
Conference  in  1915,  he  served  pastoral  charges  until 
1932.  He  was  a  chaplain  in  World  War  I.  His  administra- 
tive ability  was  recognized,  and  he  became  superinten- 
dent of  the  Quincy  and  Jacksonville  districts  of  the  con- 
ference. He  served  the  Methodist  Church  as  a  whole  in 
the  position  of  Executive  Secretary  and  Treasurer  of  the 
World  Service  and  Finance  Commission  for  sixteen 
years,  from  1944-1960.  As  treasurer  of  The  Methodist 
Church,  he  brought  to  bear  in  the  councils  of  the  church, 
a  quiet  sincere  sagacity  and  administrative  ability  which 
had  marked  effect.  A  leader  of  the  Southern  section  of 
the  church  said  that  one  of  the  finest  things  about  the 
unification  of  American  Methodism  in  1939  was  "getting 
to  know  and  work  with  Tom  Lugg." 

He  died  in  Evanston,  111.,  on  Sept.  I,  1967. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

Henry  G.  Nylin 

LUKE,  BENJAMIN  R.  (  ?  -1918),  an  orphan  boy  from  an 
upper-caste  family,  came  to  the  orphanage  run  indepen- 
dently by  Louisa  H.  Anstey,  a  former  missionary  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society,  at  Kolar,  in  Mysore  State. 
When  Miss  Anstey  made  over  her  mission  to  the  M.  E. 
Church  in  1890,  and  it  became  an  institution  of  the  South 
India  Conference,  Benjamin  Luke  and  his  wife  joined 
the  Methodist  Church.  He  went  to  help  C.  B.  Ward  in 
pioneer  work  at  Sironcha  in  the  Central  Provinces.  In 
1889,  he  was  appointed  preacher-in-charge.  His  circuit 
became  larger  in  area  than  many  annual  conferences  now 
are.  The  work  prospered.  In  1917,  he  became  district 
superintendent.  Under  his  leadership,  church  membership 
and  local  support  gained  rapidly.  The  failure  of  the  rains 
the  next  year  brought  the  threat  of  famine.  Cholera  broke 
out  and  was  quickly  followed  by  the  arrival  of  the  influ- 
enza epidemic  that  was  then  sweeping  the  world.  It  over- 
took Luke  while  he  was  on  tour.  He  died  Oct.  21,  1918, 
and  his  body  was  brought  home  and  buried  in  Sironcha. 
Mrs.  Luke  remained  in  Sironcha  until  1930,  actively 
working  as  an  evangelist.  Their  only  son,  J.  R.  Luke,  has 
served  as  pastor  of  large  churches  and  as  district  superin- 
tendent. A  daughter.  Dr.  Jaya  Luke,  has  been  in  charge 
of  medical  work  since  1925,  mostly  at  Sironcha.  Another 


daughter,  Ada  Luke  became  the  first  Indian  principal  of 
the  co-educational  Methodist  High  School  of  Bidar. 

B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 

J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956.  J.  Waskom  Pickett 


LUKE,  CHARLES  MANLEY  (1857-1946),  New  Zealand 
Methodist  layman,  was  born  in  St.  Ives,  Cornwall,  En- 
gland, and  brought  up  in  nearby  Penzance.  He  came  to 
New  Zealand  and  soon  won  a  place  in  the  business  life 
of  Welhngton.  He  possessed  great  gifts  as  a  platform 
speaker  and  local  preacher.  He  served  for  many  years 
as  chairman  of  the  hospital  board,  and  became  mayor  of 
the  city.  He  was  a  member  of  the  executive  of  two  exhibi- 
tions and  a  member  of  the  royal  commission  to  consider 
the  federation  of  New  Zealand  with  the  Australian  states. 
He  served  for  many  years  on  the  Legislative  Council, 
where  he  was  a  strong  advocate  of  temperance  reform. 
Twice  president  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Conference, 
he  was  also  vice-president  of  the  Union  Committee  in 
1913. 

Archer  O.  Harris 

LUKE,  JOHN  PEARCE  (1858-1931),  New  Zealand  layman, 
was  the  son  of  Samuel  Luke,  who  emigrated  with  his 
family  from  Cornwall  in  1874.  Settling  in  Wellington, 
Samuel  Luke  founded  Luke's  Foundry,  an  engineering 
firm.  His  son  John  became  a  prominent  citizen,  serving  on 
the  City  Council  continuously  from  1898  to  1921.  For  the 
last  eight  years  of  that  period  he  was  mayor.  He  was  a 
member  of  Parliament  from  1908  to  1911,  and  again  from 
1918  to  1928.  He  was  knighted  in  1921.  He  and  his 
brother  Charles  were  actively  connected  with  the  Trinity 
Methodist  Church,  Newtown,  Wellington. 

Who's  Who  in  New  Zealand.  3rd  Ed.  (The  Rangatira  Press, 
Wellington,   1932).  Colin  D.   Clark 

LUMB,  MATTHEW  (1761-1847),  was  a  British  missionary 
pioneer  to  the  West  Indies.  He  was  born  near  Halifax, 
Yorkshire,  in  October  1761,  and  was  brought  up  as  an 
Independent.  But  he  became  a  Methodist  local  preach- 
er in  1780  and  an  itinerant  in  1783,  being  appointed  to 
Barnard  Castle.  In  1788  he  offered  as  a  missionary  and 
was  stationed  in  Antigua,  then  moved  to  St.  Vincent  in 
1789.  Here  the  law  forbade  unlicensed  preaching,  with 
fines  rising  from  £18  for  a  first  offense  to  death  for  a 
third.  Lumb  was  imprisoned;  and  when  Negroes  rioted 
against  the  injustice,  he  preached  through  his  cell  win- 
dow. Thomas  Coke  brought  his  case  to  the  Privy  Council 
and  gained  repeal  of  the  laws.  On  his  release  Lumb  went 
to  Barbados.  He  died,  after  later  ministering  in  England 
for  thirty-three  years,  on  March  2,  1847. 

T.  Coke,  West  Indies.  1808-11. 
P.  Duncan,  Jamaica.  1849. 

Findlay  and  Holdsworth,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Sac.  1921. 

Cyril  J.  Davey 

LUMBER  RIVER  ANNUAL  CONFERENCE  OF  THE  HOLI- 
NESS METHODIST  CHURCH  was  organized  as  the  Lumber 
Mission  Conference  of  the  Hobness  Methodist  Church  by 
several  M.  E.  Church,  South,  ministers  of  North  Caro- 
lina who  became  interested  in  their  local  situation.  They 
organized  Oct.  26,  1900,  at  Union  Chapel  Church,  Robe- 


lUNDY,    ROBERT   FIELDEN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


son  County,  N.  C,  with  a  special  emphasis  on  home 
missions  and  scriptural  holiness. 

Doctrinally,  tlie  church  is  Wesleyan  with  an  emphasis 
on  the  universality  of  the  atonement,  the  witness  of  the 
spirit,  and  holiness.  They  retain  the  class  meeting  struc- 
ture and  re(juire  a  probationary  period  of  six  months  for 
prospective  members. 

A  bishop  presides  over  the  six  congregations  and  1,000 
members  in  their  annual  conference  meeting.  Ministers 
are  not  itinerant  and,  hence,  have  no  time  limit  on  the 
length  of  their  pastorate.  The  Yearbook  of  American 
Churches  of  1968  lists  Bishop  M.  L.  Lowry  of  Pembroke, 
N.  C.  as  the  bishop. 

Cetisus  of  Religious  Bodies,  1936. 

Yearbook  of  American  Churches,  1968.       J.  Gordon  Melton 


Robert  F.  Lundy 

LUNDY,    ROBERT   FIELDEN  (1920-  ),   American  mis- 

sionary and  bishop,  is  the  son  of  Clyde  E.  and  Elizabeth 
(Teilman)  Lundy.  He  was  bom  at  Stilesboro,  Ga.,  on 
March  29,  1920.  He  is  a  graduate  of  Emory  and  Henry 
College,  and  Candler  School  of  Theology,  Emory 
University,  and  holds  the  honorary  D.D.  degree  from 
Emoiy  and  Henry. 

He  married  Elizabeth  Hall  of  Pulaski,  Va.,  on  June  15, 
1944,  and  they  have  three  children. 

From  1944  to  1948,  Robert  Lundy  was  pastor  of  First 
Church  of  Oak  Ridge,  Tenn.,  and  during  one  year  at 
Yale  he  was  pastor  of  East  Pearl  Street  Church  in  New 
Haven,  Conn. 

Going  to  Malaysia  in  1950  as  a  missionary,  he  served 
in  a  variety  of  capacities.  His  pastorates  included  Klang, 
Kuala  Lumpur,  Kuantan,  Ipoh,  Barker  Road  and  Wesley 
Churches  in  Singapore.  While  pastor  of  the  Kuantan 
Church  he  organized  and  served  the  Eastern  Malaya  Dis- 
trict. For  four  years  he  was  district  superintendent  of  the 
Perak  District.  In  addition  to  his  other  work,  Lundy  was 
editor  of  The  Methodist  Message,  the  official  organ  for 
Southeast  Asia,  and  served  as  Methodist  News  Correspon- 
dent for  Malaysia.  He  served  for  a  term  as  President  of 
the  Council  of  Churches  of  Malaysia  and  Singapore. 


He  was  elected  bishop  in  1964  to  head  the  work  in 
the  Singapore  area  for  a  four  year  term.  At  that  time  the 
Singapore  area  of  The  Methodist  Church  had  four  annual 
conferences  with  diverse  languages.  After  serving  his  terms 
as  bishop,  R.  F.  Lundy  resumed  his  place  in  the  autono- 
mous church  recently  organized  in  Malaysia. 

Going  simultaneously  to  Southeast  Asia  with  Bishop 
Lundy  were  his  brother,  John  Thomas  Lundy,  later  Field 
Treasurer  for  Singapore  and  a  cousin.  Dr.  Gunnar  Teil- 
mann,  a  leading  minister  in  Malaysia. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

Clyde  E.  Lundy 

LUNN,  HENRY  SIMPSON  (1859-1939),  British,  medical 
missionary  and  railway  and  shipping  agent,  was  bom  on 
July  30,  1859,  at  Horncastle,  Lincolnshire,  and  entered 
the  Wesleyan  ministry  in  1881.  After  training  as  a  min- 
ister, he  qualified  as  a  medical  doctor  with  a  view  to  ser- 
vice overseas;  and  in  1887  he  went  to  India,  but  returned 
the  following  year  because  of  ill  health.  Service  at  the 
West  London  Mission  was  interrupted  in  1890  by  con- 
troversy with  the  Mission  House  over  missionary  methods 
in  India,  and  this  led  to  Lunn's  resignation  from  the  min- 
istry in  1893  and  the  resumption  of  his  business  career. 
He  became  involved  in  Liberal  politics  and  discussions  of 
church  unity,  and  was  kiiighted  in  1910.  His  publications 
include  The  Love  of  Jesus,  The  Secret  of  the  Saints,  and 
Reunion  and  Lambeth.  He  edited  Review  of  the  Churches 
from  1892-96,  1920-30.  He  died  on  Feb.  16,  1939. 

H.  S.  Lunn,  Chapters  from  My  Life.  London,  1918. 

,  Nearing  Harbour.  London,  1934. 

H.  Mobley  Rattenbury 

LUTON  INDUSTRIAL  COLLEGE  in  England,  was  founded 
in  1957.  Its  charter  laid  down  the  following  principles: 
to  make  the  Christian  faith  relevant  in  the  realms  of 
industry  and  commerce;  to  give  practical  training  in  in- 
dustrial mission;  and  to  give  training  in  leadership  and 
corporate  responsibility.  The  College  was  founded  through 
the  initiative  of  a  Methodist  minister,  William  Gowland, 
who  left  the  Albert  Hall,  Manchester,  in  1954,  to  make 
his  headquarters  in  Luton,  Bedfordshire,  a  car  manufactur- 
ing town  in  the  south  of  England.  The  Conference  sta- 
tioned him  in  charge  of  a  church  called  Chapel  Street, 
built  to  seat  2,000,  and  then  on  the  point  of  closure. 
Gowland  developed  the  premises  as  a  community-center, 
the  Luton  Industrial  Mission,  and  was  soon  acting  as 
industrial  chaplain  in  eight  factories.  He  started  the  Col- 
lege itself  in  the  Chapel  in  1957,  and  during  the  first  ten 
years  6,000  students  attended  short  courses.  The  main 
aim  was  to  train  laymen  but  theological  students  also 
attended.  In  September  1959,  the  College  became  a  divi- 
sion of  the  Methodist  Home  Mission  Department.  The 
British  Methodist  Church  now  has  about  two  hundred 
ministers  who  serve  as  industrial  chaplains;  they  all  re- 
ceive an  induction  course  before  they  start,  and  are  invited 
back  every  third  year  for  retraining.  An  annual  study 
conference  for  the  chaplains  is  part  of  their  three-tier 
training.  The  College  is  ecumenical  in  terms  of  staff  and 
students.  It  was  the  first  industrial  college  of  its  kind  in 
the  world.  One  important  emphasis  of  industrial  chap- 
laincy in  British  Methodism  has  been  that  chaplains  should 
only  be  appointed  where  both  management  and  trade 
unions  are  in  agreement:  no  ecumenical  work  is  possible 
within  industry  where  the  unions  in  particular  oppose  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LYNCH,   JAMES 


Lydia  Patterson  Institute,  El  Paso,  Texas 


coining  of  the  chaplain.  There  has  been  a  tendency  in 
Britain  for  chaplains  to  be  set  up  through  management 
alone.  A  second  emphasis  has  been  on  the  need  for  con- 
tinuity in  the  chaplain's  work:  men  should  not  be  sent 
and  then  taken  away  again  within  two  or  three  years. 

William  Gowland 
Frank  Baker 

LYCETT,  FRANCIS  (1803-1880),  British  businessman  and 
benefactor  of  the  church,  was  bom  at  Worcester,  the  son 
of  a  glovemaker,  and  was  converted  in  his  youth.  In 
1832,  following  a  slump  in  his  father's  business,  he  be- 
came manager  of  a  glove  firm  in  London  and  prospered. 
From  1866-67  he  was  sherifiF  of  London  and  Middlesex, 
and  was  awarded  a  knighthood  in  1867.  He  refused  the 
honor  of  meeting  Emperor  Napoleon  III  because  the 
meeting  was  to  have  been  on  a  Sunday. 

Lycett  was  generous  in  support  of  the  Wesleyan  Theo- 
logical Institution,  the  Leys  School,  Cambridge,  home 
and  overseas  missions,  and  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society.  With  Gebvase  Smith  he  was  largely 
responsible  for  the  Metropolitan  Chapel  Building  Fund, 
launched  in  1860,  and  personally  promised  £50,000  for 
the  building  of  fifty  chapels  in  twenty  years,  provided  an 
equal  sum  was  raised  in  the  provinces.  He  died  on  Oct. 
29,  1880. 

G.  J.  Stevenson,  Methodist  Worthies.  1885. 

H.  MoRLEY  Rattenbury 


LYCOMING  COLLEGE,  Wilhamsport,  Pennsylvania,  was 
established  in  1812  as  Williamsport  Academy.  It  became 
Williamsport-Dickinson  Seminary  in  1848,  Williamsport 
Dickinson  Junior  College  in  1929,  and  Lycoming  College 
in  1948.  The  college  is  the  property  of  the  Preachers' 
Aid  Society  of  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference. 
Lycoming  is  the  Indian  name  for  the  region  around 
Williamsport.  The  college  offers  the  B.A.  degree.  The 
governing  board  has  thirty  members  elected  by  the 
Preachers'  Aid  Society  of  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Con- 
ference. 

John  O.  Gross 


LYDIA  PATTERSON  INSTITUTE,  El  Paso,  Texas,  originally 
a  school  for  Mexican  boys,  now  coeducational,  was  made 
possible  by  a  gift  of  $75,000  on  Dec.  4,  1913,  by  an 
El  Paso  attorney,  Millard  Patterson,  who  was  not  a  Meth- 
odist. Patterson  stipulated  that  the  money  was  "to  be 
used  under  the  auspices  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South  for  the  education  and  religious  training 
of  boys  and  young  men  to  preach  the  gospel  in  Mexico." 
The  school  was  named  Lydia  Patterson  in  memory  of 
Patterson's  wife  who  was  for  many  years  a  member  of 
Trinity  Church,  El  Paso.  The  original  gift  was  used  to 
erect  a  building  to  house  the  school.  From  the  beginning 
the  institute  received  support  as  a  missionary  project,  and 
today  it  is  related  to  the  National  Division  of  the  General 
Board  of  Missions  while  at  the  same  time  it  enjoys  a 
special  relationship  to  the  South  Central  Jurisdiction 
whose  annual  conferences  accepted  quotas  and  raised 
some  $750,000  for  its  building  program  in  the  1960's. 
The  institute  has  a  special  English  department,  an  inter- 
mediate school,  a  high  school,  a  preministerial  department, 
and  a  night  school  for  adults.  Young  men  preparing  for  the 
ministry  may  live  in  the  institute's  dormitories  while  at- 
tending college  in  El  Paso.  The  institute  is  closely  af- 
filiated with  the  Rio  Grande  Conference,  many  of  whose 
ministers  are  among  its  alumni.  Lydia  Patterson  Institute 
is  accredited  by  the  Southern  Association  of  Colleges  and 
Schools  and  by  the  University  Senate.  It  is  managed  by 
a  board  of  trustees  elected  by  the  South  Central  Jurisdic- 
tional Conference.  In  the  main  its  support  is  derived  from 
tuition,  individual  donations,  and  advance  specials  from 
the  churches  of  the  South  Central  Jurisdiction.  In  1969 
the  institute  reported  25  teachers,  582  regular  students, 
a  library  of  10,200  volumes,  a  plant  valued  at  $1,600,000, 
an  annual  budget  of  $262,000,  and  an  endowment  of 
$17,000. 

Bulletins  of  Lydia  Patterson  Institute. 

1970  Yearbook,  General  Board  of  Education. 

Project  Handbook  Section  of  Home  Fields  (National  Division, 

Board  of  Missions  of  The  Methodist  Church).  N.  B.  H. 

LYNCH,  JAMES  (1775-1858),  Irish  preacher  and  mis- 
sionary pioneer  in  Ceyxon  and  India,  under  the  British 
Wesleyans,   was   bom   in   Londonderry,   in   the   north  of 


LYNCH,    JAMES   D. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Iheland,  and  grew  up  as  a  Roman  Catholic.  He  was  con- 
verted under  Methodist  preaching  1802  and  entered  the 
ministry  in  1808. 

In  1812  he  was  one  of  the  volunteers  who  joined 
Thom.\s  Coke's  missionary  venture  to  the  East.  When 
Coke  died  on  this  jouniey,  James  Lynch  was  one  of  those 
with  qualities  of  leadership  to  take  over  the  difficult 
situation  that  ensued.  The  strategic  stations  the  little 
company  of  six  young  preachers  established  in  Ceylon 
have  remained  important  centers  of  witness  through  all 
the  years  since.  Not  being  good  at  languages.  Lynch  him- 
self ministered  mainly  to  British  civil  and  military  per- 
sonnel. 

Once  the  work  was  firmly  begun  in  Ceylon,  the  chance 
came  to  fulfill  something  of  Coke's  original  plan.  In  1817 
James  Lynch  became  a  pioneer  missionary  to  Madras, 
and  was  welcomed  by  a  group  of  serious-minded  people 
who  met  for  Bible  study  in  Royapettah.  He  built  the 
first  chapel  there  in  1817,  and  continued  a  ministry  mainly 
amongst  Europeans  until  a  breakdown  in  health  necessi- 
tated his  return  to  Ireland  in  1825. 

In  Ireland  he  threw  himself  again  into  circuit  work, 
mainly  in  the  north.  Increasing  physical  weakness  led  to 
his  retirement  from  active  ministerial  life  in  1842.  Most 
of  his  closing  years  as  a  supernumerary  were  spent  in 
England,  at  London  and  Leeds,  and  he  died  March  21, 
1858. 

A  junior  colleague  on  one  occasion  was  William  But- 
ler whose  missionary  zeal  was  so  kindled  by  James 
Lynch,  that  in  later  years  he  was  the  founder  of  Amer- 
ican Methodism's  missions  in  India  and  Mexico. 

C.  H.  Crookshank,  Methodism  in  Ireland.  1885-88. 
Findlay  and  Holdsworth,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Soc.   1921. 
W.  M.  Harvard,  Ceylon  and  India.  1823.       Cyril  J.  Davey 

Frederick  Jeffrey 

LYNCH,  JAMES  D.  (1839-1872),  American  Negro  min- 
ister and  politician,  was  bom  on  Jan.  8,  1839  in  Balti- 
more, Md.  His  father  was  a  free  man  who  had  purchased 
James'  mother  from  slavery.  After  he  graduated  from  the 
Kimball  Union  Academy  in  New  Hampshire  in  1857, 
Lynch  became  a  Presbyterian  minister  until  1859  when 
he  joined  the  A.  M.  E.  Church.  He  served  parishes  in 
Illinois  and  Indiana  before  his  transfer  to  the  Baltimore 
Conference  in  1860. 

In  May  1863,  Lynch  became  a  missionary  to  former 
slaves  in  South  Carolina  under  the  auspices  of  his 
church  and  the  National  Freedmen's  Relief  Association. 
Two  years  later  he  and  four  other  preachers,  with  Bishop 
Daniel  A.  Payne,  formed  the  South  Carolina  Conference 
of  the  A.M.E.  Church.  Returning  to  Philadelphia  in 
February  1866,  Lynch  became  editor  of  The  Christian 
Recorder,  the  official  A.  M.  E.  paper.  In  June  1867,  he 
resigned  that  post  to  join  the  M.  E.  Church,  convinced 
that  it  was,  he  wrote,  "God's  chosen  power  to  lift  up  my 
race  from  degradation."  Immediately  Lynch  went  to 
Mississippi  where  he  helped  to  organize  a  new  conference 
for  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1869. 

A  popular  orator  and  respected  spokesman  for  black 
Mississippians,  Lynch  pleaded  so  effectively  for  racial 
harmony  that  he  maintained  the  respect  of  his  white  eccle- 
siastical and  political  opponents.  In  1868  and  1872  he 
was  a  delegate  to  the  Republican  National  Convention. 
Educational  work  with  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  and  elec- 
tion in  1870  as  Secretary  of  State  for  Mississippi  involved 


him  further  in  politics.  He  continued,  however,  as  a  pre- 
siding elder  in  the  Mississippi  Conference  and  served 
as  one  of  the  first  Negro  delegates  in  a  M.  E.  General 
Conference  in  1868,  and  again  in  1872.  From  1868  until 
his  death  Lynch  published  the  Colored  Citizen's  Monthly 
"to  defend  the  interests  of  the  Negro,  the  Republican 
Party  and  the  M.  E.  Church."  His  death  from  pneumonia 
on  Dec.  18,  1872  in  Jackson,  Miss.,  cut  short  a  brilliant 
career  of  racial,  political  and  ecclesiastical  leadership. 

James  M.  McPherson,  ed.  The  Negro's  Civil  War.  How  Ameri- 
can Negroes  Felt  and  Acted  During  the  War  For  the  Union. 
New  York:  Pantheon  Books,  1965. 

Ralph  E.  Morrow.  Northern  Methodism  and  Reconstruction. 
East  Lansing,  Michigan:  Michigan  State  University  Press,  1956. 
Alexander  W.  Wayman.  Cyclopedia  of  African  Methodism. 
Baltimore:  Methodist  Episcopal  Book  Depository,  1882. 
Vernon  L.  Wharton.  The  Negro  in  Mississippi,  1865-1890. 
Chapel  Hill,  North  Carolina:  University  of  North  Carolina 
Press,    1947.  William    B.    Gravely 

LYNCHBURG,  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.,  on  the  James  River  in 
the  foothills  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains  with  a  popula- 
tion of  53,134  is  a  shipping  and  trading  center  for  a  rich 
agricultural  region.  Founded  by  John  Lynch  in  1757, 
Lynchburg  was  incorporated  as  a  town  in  1805  and  city 
in  1852.  During  the  Civil  War  the  Confederates  held 
Lynchburg  to  the  end  as  one  of  their  vital  supply  bases. 
Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox  Court  House  twenty  miles 
east  of  the  city. 

Three  schools  are  located  here:  Randolph-Macon 
Woman's  College,  Lynchburg  College,  and  Virginia 
Theological  Seminary.  Sweet  Briar  College  is  twelve 
miles  away. 

Bishop  Francis  Asbury  frequently  visited  Lynchburg 
and  held  several  conferences  there.  Both  Bishops  Asbury 
and  Whatcoat  preached  and  celebrated  holy  communion 
in  the  city  in  1805. 

In  1811  Lynchburg  was  mentioned  in  the  Minutes, 
with  John  Weaver  as  pastor  who  reported  207  members 
for  the  circuit.  At  the  division  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in 
1845,  the  society  of  course  adhered  to  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South.  After  the  Civil  War  the  M.  E.  Church  organized 
a  society  of  colored  members  before  1876.  That  year 
Lynchburg  had  three  Southern  Methodist  Churches:  Cen- 
tenary with  402  members;  Court  Street,  388;  City  Mis- 
sion, 108;  and  the  M.  E.  Church  (colored)  had  617 
members. 

Memorial  Church  was  organized  in  1883  with  eighty- 
nine  charter  members  who  transferred  from  Court  Street, 
among  whom  were  C.  V.  Winfree  and  John  Bell  Winfree, 
leaders  of  church  and  civic  life. 

Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College,  chartered  in 
1891,  opened  its  doors  in  1893  with  William  Waugh 
Smith  as  founder  and  first  president. 

In  1900  there  were  six  M.  E.  Church,  South,  congrega- 
tions: Court  Street,  Centenary,  Memorial,  Trinity,  Cabell 
Street,  and  Southview. 

The  unification  of  Methodism  in  1939  brought  two 
former  M.  P.  churches  (First  Church  and  Park  View) 
into  the  Virginia  Conference  (SEJ).  Jackson  Street 
Church,  organized  in  1866  as  a  Negro  M.  E.  Church, 
became  a  part  of  the  Washington  Conference    (CJ). 

Chestnut  Hill  Church  was  organized  in  1951  in  a 
building  purchased  from  the  Congregational-Christian 
Church  with  a  small  group  of  the  original  members  re- 
maining as  charter  members. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


LYNN,    MASSACHUSETTS 


In  1965,  a  group  of  dissenting  Methodists,  reacting 
against  the  position  of  The  Methodist  Church  on  civil 
rights,  withdrew  and  organized  the  First  Southern  Meth- 
odist Church  as  a  "segregated  church  without  bishops." 

Other  Methodist  bodies  in  Lynchburg  in  1965  were: 
the  C.  M.  E.,  organized  in  1872  (membership,  160); 
and  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  organized  in  1929 
(membership,  56). 

Lynchburg  has  been  the  host  to  many  history-making 
sessions  of  both  the  Virginia  Conference  and  the  Washing- 
ton Conference. 

In  1970  Lynchburg  reported  thirteen  United  Methodist 
Churches — Fort  Hill  with  1,454  members  and  Centenary 
with  1,114  members  being  the  larger.  Court  Street  had 
910  and  the  Lynchburg  District  23,529. 

Collier's  Encyclopedia  ( Crowell-CoUier  Publishing  Company, 
1965). 

Roberta  D.  Cornelias,  The  History  of  Randolph-Macon  Wom- 
an's College.  Chapel  Hill,  N.  C:  University  of  North  Carolina 
Press,  1951. 

General  Minutes  (U.M.C.),  1970. 

Alfred  A.   Kem,   Court   Street  Methodist  Church,   1851-1951 
( Richmond,  Va. :  Dietz  Press,  1951). 
Minutes,  Lynchburg  District  Conference,  1891-1965. 
Minutes,   North    Carolina-Virginia    Annual   Conference    (CJ), 
1965. 

Minutes,   The    District    Stewards,    Lvnchburg    District,    1853- 
1965. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Thomas  J.  Hawkins 

LYNCHBURG  COLLEGE,  Lynchburg,  Virginia,  U.S.A., 
also  called  "Lynchburg  Military  College,"  the  first  Meth- 
odist Protestant  College  in  the  American  South,  devel- 
oped from  the  tense  political  situation  of  the  mid-18.50's 
and  was  destined  to  close  soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the 
War  Between  the  States.  Due  to  the  slavery  issue,  the 
entire  faculty  at  Madison  College,  Uniontown,  Pa., 
resigned  at  the  commencement  of  1855  and  announced 
that  a  new  M.  P.  college  would  open  that  fall.  Lynchburg 
was  chosen  as  the  site  for  this  college  not  only  because 
it  was  centrally  located  and  in  Virginia  but  because  of 
its  healthy  climate  and  easy  accessibility.  Lynchburg  Col- 
lege opened  on  Oct.  1,  1855,  with  a  faculty  of  five  and 
eighty-one  students.  It  was  enthusiastically  endorsed  by 
local  citizens  who  raised  $20,000  toward  its  expenses. 
The  college  was  incorporated  by  an  Act  of  the  Virginia 
Assembly  passed  on  Dec.  17,  1855,  and  the  forty  trustees 
were  empowered  "to  confer  hterary  degrees  and  distinc- 
tions upon  such  persons  as  in  their  opinion  shall  merit 
the  same."  Among  the  tnistees  was  William  Henhy 
Wills  of  North  Carolina. 

During  the  first  term  of  the  college  there  were  108 
students  and  in  March,  1857,  there  were  135  students 
from  Alabama,  Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  Maryland 
and  Virginia.  Samuel  K.  Cox  was  president  of  Lynchburg 
College  until  1858,  when  Robert  L.  Brockett  accepted  the 
office.  In  1860  Robert  Boyd  Thomson  became  president. 
The  college  adopted  a  military  system  of  training,  at  first 
conducted  on  a  voluntary  basis  but,  after  1860,  compul- 
sory for  all  students  over  the  age  of  fourteen.  Uniforms 
were  worn  by  the  cadets  who  drilled  in  regular  military 
fashion. 

The  General  Conference  of  the  M.  P.  Church  which 
met  in  Lynchburg  in  1858  focused  denominational  atten- 
tion on  the  new  school.  Lynchburg  College  was  forced 
to  close  in  1861  when  most  of  the  faculty  and  students 


enlisted  in  the  Confederate  Army.  During  the  War  Be- 
tween the  States  the  buildings  were  used  as  a  hospital 
by  the  Confederate  government  and,  after  the  war,  as 
barracks  by  the  Federal  army.  Due  to  the  financial  diffi- 
culties following  the  war,  Lynchburg  College  was  never 
reopened. 

Acts  of  the  Virginia  Assembly,  1855-56. 
A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1870. 

J.  T.  Oakey,  "The  Story  of  the  Old  Lynchburg  College,"  ms. 
copy  in  Jones  Memorial  Library,  Lynchburg,  Va.,  dated  1936. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

LYNCHBURG  FEMALE  COLLEGIATE  INSTITUTE  (1858- 
c.  1861),  Lynchburg,  Va.,  U.S.A.,  known  also  as  "Lynch- 
burg Female  Seminary,"  was  established  and  operated 
by  the  faculty  of  the  Lynchburg  Methodist  Protestant 
College.  The  Institute  was  opened  on  Feb.  1,  1858,  with 
Samuel  K.  Cox,  President  of  Lynchburg  College,  as  presi- 
dent. Both  the  College  and  the  Institute  were  forced  to 
close  when  their  joint  faculty  resigned  in  1861  to  join 
the  Army  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America.  Neither 
school  was  ever  reopened. 

J.  T.  Oakey,  "The  Story  of  the  Old  Lynchburg  College,"  manu- 
script copy  in  tlie  Jones  Memorial  Library,  Lynchburg,  Virginia, 
dated   1936.  Ralph    Hardee    Rives 

LYNN,  MASSACHUSETTS,  U.S.A.,  with  a  population 
(1970)  of  87,817,  located  eleven  miles  northeast  of  Bos- 
ton, was  first  settled  in  1629.  Primarily  known  as  a  shoe 
manufacturing  center,  the  city's  industry  today  includes 
two  large  General  Electric  plants.  Here  Virginia-born 
Jesse  Lee,  "Apostle  of  Methodism  to  New  England," 
preached  in  December  1790,  at  the  comer  of  present 
Market  and  Essex  Streets  in  the  home  of  Benjamin  John- 
son. On  Feb.  20,  1791  with  eight  members,  Lee  organized 
the  first  Methodist  Church  in  Massachusetts  in  the  John- 
son bam.  The  following  June  a  building  was  erected; 
here  Bishop  Asbury  conducted  the  first  Methodist  con- 
ference in  New  England,  Aug.  3,  1792. 

On  March  3,  1968,  the  third  stmcture  built  of  red  brick 
in  1879  at  the  original  location  on  City  Hall  Square  was 
vacated;  the  property  was  sold  and  the  building  de- 
molished. The  historic  First  Church  congregation,  now 
relocated  and  united  with  St.  Paul's,  claims  to  have  estab- 
lished the  first  Methodist  Sunday  school  in  New  England 
in  1816;  organized  the  first  Methodist  Missionary  Society 
in  the  United  States,  Feb.  21,  1819;  released  William 
Butler,  pastor  in  1856,  to  become  the  first  native  New 
England  Methodist  missionary  and  the  father  of  Methodist 
missions  in  India  and  Mexico.  Four  ministers  of  this 
church  became  bishops:  Soule,  Hedding,  Mallalieu, 
and  Grose.  The  Paul  Revere  bell  from  the  tower  of  First 
Church,  to  which  Longfellow  referred  in  his  poem,  "Bells 
of  Lynn,"  has  been  re-hung  in  St.  Paul's  Church. 

At  the  present  time  besides  the  merged  congregations 
of  First  Church-St.  Paul's,  there  are  eight  other  Methodist 
churches  in  Lynn,  the  first  four  of  which  are  offshoots 
of  "the  church  on  the  Common":  Boston  Street,  South 
Street,  Maple  Street,  Trinity,  Broadway,  Lakeshore  Park, 
Lakeside  and  St.  Luke's.  All  the  Methodist  churches  in 
the  city  have  an  aggregate  membership  of  3,977  persons 
(1970).  In  order  to  meet  the  complex  problems  of  the 
changing  city  of  Lynn  three  churches  in  the  west  sec- 
tion— Boston  Street,  South  Street,  and  Trinity — though 
retaining  their  original  identity  have  pooled  their  resources 


LYONS,    ERNEST   SAMUEL 


in  "a  group  ministry"  for  effective  Christian  action.  More 
mergers  will  undoubtedly  be  consummated  in  the  near 
futvire. 

Encyclopedia  Americana  (International  edition).  Vol.  17 
Minutes,  New  England  Annual  Conference. 
165th  Anniversary  Book,  First  Methodist  Church,  Lynn,  Mass. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Ernest  R.  Case 

LYONS,  ERNEST  SAAAUEL  (1868-1948),  American  mis- 
sionary to  the  Philippines  and  leader — in  his  later  years 
— of  the  C.\LiFORNi.\  Oriental  Mission,  was  born  at 
Howell,  Mich.,  on  May  12,  1868.  Lyons  was  educated 
at  Puget  Sound  Business  College  and  the  Garhett  Bib- 
lical Institute,  from  which  he  received  the  B.D.  in 
1899,  and  the  D.D.  in  1925.  He  obtained  a  law  degree 
from  Washington  State  College  in  1893.  In  the  Philippines 
itself  he  took  the  bar  examination  in  1913  so  that  he 
could  take  care  of  the  increasing  legal  business  having  to 
do  with  Methodist  properties  in  the  Philippines  at  that 
time.  He  married  Harriet  Elenor  Ewers  on  Dec.  4,  1900, 
and  to  them  were  born  five  children. 

He  was  received  into  the  Rock  River  Conference 
in  1899  and  ordained  elder  in  1901.  After  student  pas- 
torates in  the  United  States,  he  went  overseas  as  head- 
master of  the  Anglo-Chinese  School,  Singapore,  in  1899. 
He  was  appointed  Field  Missionary  to  the  Philippines  in 
1903;    district   superintendent    of    the    Northern    District 


(Philippines)  in  1905;  superintendent,  Manila  District, 
1912;  and  pastor  of  the  Students'  Church  in  Manila  in 
1914.  He  left  Manila  with  Mrs.  Lyons  on  March  21, 
1937,  with  an  official  tribute  paid  to  them  in  these 
words,  "These  two  veteran  missionaries  have  had  a  re- 
markable service  in  the  Philippines  and  have  seen  in 
their  thirty-four  years  of  residence  here  a  most  phenom- 
enal growth  of  the  evangelical  Christian  movement  and 
especially  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  whose  mis- 
sionaries they  are." 

After  Lyons  and  his  wife  had  come  back  to  California, 
he  was  called  back  into  active  service  to  be  superintendent 
of  the  California  Oriental  Mission.  It  was  through  his 
work  that  the  mission  became  organized  as  a  Provisional 
Conference  in  1945,  after  which  time  he  again  retired. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  American  Bar  Association,  a 
life  member  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  Straits  Branch. 
One  of  the  most  versatile  men  in  his  activities  and  one  of 
great  usefulness  to  the  church,  Ernest  S.  Lyons  left  an 
enduring  memory  with  those  who  knew  and  worked  with 
him  in  the  Phihppines  and  in  California.  He  died  in  1948. 

Mrs.  Harriet  Elenor  Lyons  died  in  Los  Angeles  on 
Oct.  4,  1966. 

Journal  of  the  California  Oriental  Provisional  Conference,  1949. 
The  Methodist  Bulletin,  M.  E.  Church  in  the  Philippines,  No. 
5,  May  1937. 
World  Outlook,  January  1967.  N.  B.  H. 


McANALLY,  DAVID  RICE  (1810-1895),  American  church 
editor,  was  bom  in  Granger  County,  Term.,  Feb.  17, 
1810,  the  son  of  Charles  and  EUzabeth  (Moore)  McAnal- 
ly.  He  was  twice  married,  first  to  Marie  Thompson,  and 
later  to  Julia  Reeves. 

Admitted  on  trial  in  the  Holston  Conference  in 
1829,  he  served  various  charges  in  Tennessee,  North 
Carolina,  and  Virginia  during  the  next  fourteen  years. 
Taking  the  presidency  of  East  Tennessee  Female  Institute 
at  Knoxville  in  1843,  he  held  that  post  until  1851  when 
he  was  elected  editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate. 
Except  for  brief  periods,  he  continued  in  that  position 
until  his  death  in  1895. 

McAnally  was  an  eflFective  editor.  In  presenting  the 
news  he  sought  to  keep  his  readers  informed  on  the  march 
of  events,  and  in  his  editorials  he  tried  to  ground  them  in 
sound  doctrine.  As  the  Civil  War  approached  he  was 
frankly  pro-Southern,  upholding  states'  rights  and  defend- 
ing (without  praising)  the  institution  of  slavery.  In  1862 
he  was  arrested,  his  paper  was  suppressed  for  treasonable 
and  subversive  statements,  and  for  some  weeks  he  was 
held  in  Myrtle  Street  Military  Prison  in  St.  Louis. 
Throughout  his  editorship  he  was  recognized  both  in  his 
own  denomination  and  in  the  M.  E.  Church  as  a  strong 
voice  speaking  in  and  for  Missouri  and  Missouri  Meth- 
odism. 

In  1852  McAnally  was  chairman  of  the  convention 
which  founded  Central  Methodist  College  and  he 
cooperated  with  other  Missouri  Methodist  leaders  in  rais- 
ing an  endowment  for  it.  While  in  Tennessee  he  was 
interested  in  the  common  school  system  and  joined  Horace 
Mann  and  others  in  an  effort  to  improve  it.  He  was  a 
delegate  to  five  General  Conferences  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  1854,  '58,  '66,  70,  and  '82,  leading  his 
delegation  to  the  last  three. 

McAnally  wrote  several  books,  including  Life  and  Times 
of  Rev.  William  Patton  (1858),  Life  and  Times  of  Rev. 
Samuel  Patton  (1859),  Life  and  Labors  of  Bishop  E.  M. 
Marvin  (1878),  and  History  of  Methodism  in  Missouri 
(1881).  His  primary  interest  was  in  the  church,  and  most 
of  what  he  wrote  dealt  with  it,  but  some  chapters  in  his 
works  were  devoted  to  an  interpretation  of  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  times. 


Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 
F.  C.  Tucker,  Missouri.  1966. 


Albea  Godbold 


McARTHUR,  ALEXANDER  (1814-1909),  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  industrialist  and  politician  in  Australia  and 
Britain,  was  bom  in  Ireland  on  March  10,  1814.  In 
1841  he  went  to  Australia  for  his  health.  His  brother, 
William  McArthur,  encouraged  him  to  set  up  as  an 
export  merchant,  and  during  the  gold  rush  the  business 
prospered.  He  became  a  member  of  the  Sydney  Legis- 
lative Assembly  and,  later,  of  the  Legislative  Council.  In 


1863  he  returned  to  England,  and  became  M.P.  for 
Leicester  from  1874-92.  In  1883,  he  gave  £5,000  toward 
a  new  fund  for  building  chapels  in  London.  He  died  on 
Aug.  1,  1909. 

H.  MORLEY  Rattenbuby 

McARTHUR,  WILLIAM  (1809-1887),  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist,  merchant,  alderman,  and  politician,  was  bom 
in  County  Donegal  in  Ireland  on  July  6,  1809.  He  be- 
came manager  of  a  woolen  drapery  business  which  pros- 
pered when  his  brother  Alexander  McArthur  went  to 
Australia.  Already  an  alderman  of  Londonderry,  in 
1857  he  moved  to  London,  and  in  1867  became  sheriff 
of  London  and  Middlesex,  in  1872  an  alderman,  and  in 
1880  lord  mayor.  From  1868-85  he  was  Liberal  M.P.  for 
Lambeth  and  was  a  leading  advocate  of  the  annexation  of 
Fiji  to  the  British  crown.  He  was  knighted  in  1882.  A 
Sunday  school  teacher  for  forty  years,  he  supported  the 
church  in  many  ways,  giving  £10,000  in  1883  to  a  new 
fund  for  building  fifty  chapels  in  London  and,  with  his 
brother,  £3,000  toward  the  building  of  Wesley  College, 
Belfast,  whose  foundation  stone  he  laid  in  1865.  In 
1881,  as  lord  mayor,  he  entertained  the  first  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference  at  a  reception  at  the  Mansion 
House,  London.  He  died  on  Nov.   16,  1887,  in  London. 

T.  McCullagh,  Sir  William  McArthur.  London,  1891. 
G.  J.  Stevenson,  Methodist  Worthies,  iv.  1885. 

H.  MoRLEY  Rattenbuby 

M'AULAY,  ALEXANDER  (1818-1890),  British  Wesleyan 
evangelist  and  missionary,  was  bom  in  Glasgow  on  March 
7,  1818,  and,  though  his  father  had  been  baptized  by 
John  Wesley,  had  a  Presbyterian  upbringing.  He  and  his 
brother  Samuel  were  both  converted  at  a  mission  prayer 
meeting  in  1835,  and  both  entered  the  Wesleyan  minis- 
try, Alexander  in  1840.  He  became  known  as  an  anti- 
Socialist,  but  also  as  a  leader  of  a  forward  movement  and 
evangelist.  As  secretary  of  the  Metropolitan  Chapel  Build- 
ing Fund,  he  was  responsible  for  the  erection  of  several 
chapels,  and  in  1876  he  succeeded  Charles  Prest  as 
general  secretary  of  the  Home  Mission  Department. 
In  1867  he  was  elected  to  the  Legal  Hundred,  and  in 
1876  became  president  of  the  Conference.  After  his  re- 
tirement he  fulfilled  a  lifelong  ambition  to  preach  the 
gospel  overseas,  traveling  at  his  own  expense  to  the 
West  Indies  and  Africa.  He  died  on  Jan.  1,  1890,  at 
Somerset  East,  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

G.  J.  Stevenson,  Methodist  Worthies,  iii.  1885. 

H.  MoHLEY  Rattenbuby 

McBRIER,  EDWIN  MERTON  (1865-1956),  American  mer- 
cantile executive,  churchman  and  philanthropist,  was  bom 
July  16,  1865,  on  his  father's  farm  near  Russell,  N.  Y. 
As  a  young  man  of  twenty-two,  he  taught  day  school 


MCCABE,    CHARLES   C. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


and  at  the  same  time  taught  a  Sunday  school  teachers' 
Bible  class  in  the  local  Methodist  church.  In  1887,  he 
opened  a  variety  store  in  Lockport,  N.  Y.,  over  the  door 
of  which  read  "Woolworth  &  McBrier."  The  "Morning 
Watch"  movement  stimulated  him  to  systematic  Bible 
study  and  prayer,  and  in  late  1889  he  sold  his  business 
and  went  to  China  as  a  missionary  under  the  China  In- 
land Mission,  intending  to  spend  his  hfe  in  this  calling. 
The  fatal  illness  of  his  brother,  with  whom  he  had  been 
in  partnership,  impelled  him  to  return  to  the  States,  to 
save  his  business. 

In  1894,  McBrier  opened  a  five  and  ten  store  for  S.  H. 
Knox  and  Company  in  Detroit.  During  this  period,  he 
taught  the  Bible  class  in  the  Woodward  Avenue  Methodist 
Church.  In  January  1912,  five  chains  of  five  and  ten 
stores  merged  to  form  the  F.  W.  Woolworth  Company. 
Six  of  the  principal  executives,  including  E.  M.  McBrier, 
F.  W.  Woolworth,  F.  M.  Woolworth  and  S.  H.  Knox, 
had  one  parent  or  the  other  who  was  a  McBrier.  E.  M. 
McBrier  continued  to  rise  in  responsibility,  becoming 
buyer  of  merchandise  for  the  merged  stores,  and  retiring 
on  Aug.  1,  1921. 

In  1912,  the  McBrier  family  had  moved  to  Montclair, 
N.  J.,  and  in  1914,  McBrier  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  M.  E.  Church.  In  Montclair,  he  cultivated  the 
intimate  friendship  of  John  R.  Mott  and  other  Y.W.C.A. 
leaders.  He  continued  on  the  Board  of  Missions  until 
1949.  In  1917,  he  became  treasurer  of  the  United  Board 
of  Christian  Colleges  in  China,  and  continued  in  this 
capacity  until  1949,  during  which  period  he  hired  his  own 
secretary  and  rented  his  own  ofiRce  space,  serving  with  no 
compensation. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors  and  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Montclair  Y.M.C.A.  from  1916 
to  1948,  and  led  the  campaign  to  liquidate  the  indebted- 
ness of  the  Methodist  Home  for  the  Aged  in  Ocean 
Grove,  N.  J.  Among  the  many  honors  accorded  him  for 
his  leadership  and  benevolence,  were  the  "Order  of  the 
Jade"  tendered  by  the  Republic  of  China  in  1940,  a  cita- 
tion by  Syracuse  University  in  1944  (on  whose  Board 
he  served  from  1923  to  1944),  and  a  citation  by  St. 
Lawrence  University  in  1949.  His  service  from  his  re- 
tirement to  his  death  accounted  for  thirty-three  years  of 
unremunerated  leadership  for  missions  and  the  Church. 

He  died  in  1956  and  is  survived  by  two  daughters.  He 
is  interred  in  Montclair,  New  Jersey. 

Bible  Studies  of  Edwin  Merton  McBrier  from  1887  to  1952. 
Private  Printing,  1952. 

E.  M.  McBrier,  Some  Reminiscences.   Private  Printing,   1955. 
Gordon  E.  Michalson 

McCABE,  CHARLES  C.  (1836-1906),  "Chaplain-Bishop" 
of  American  Methodism,  was  bom  Oct.  11,  1836,  at 
Athens,  Ohio,  a  grandson  of  Robert  McCabe,  class  leader 
and  adviser  of  John  Stewart,  pioneer  American  Meth- 
odist missionary  to  the  Delaware  and  Wyandott  Indians 
of  Ohio.  In  1847  McCabe's  family  moved  to  Chillicothe, 
Ohio,  and,  from  thence,  to  Burlington,  Iowa,  in  1850. 
For  a  short  time  he  farmed  at  Mt.  Pleasant,  Iowa,  and 
clerked  in  a  Cedar  Rapids  store.  He  was  converted  at 
the  age  of  eight,  under  the  ministry  of  Jacob  Young; 
later,  in  1850,  after  his  removal  to  Iowa,  he  went  to  the 
altar  at  a  watch  night  service  conducted  by  Levin  B. 
Dennis  in  Burlington's  Old  Zion  Church,   afterward  ex- 


Charles  C.  McCabe 

plaining:  "I  was  born  in  Ohio,  and  bom  again  in  Burling- 
ton." He  joined  Old  Zion  in  1851. 

McCabe  attended  school  at  Athens,  Ohio,  and  at 
Burlington,  Iowa,  before  entering  preparatory  school  at 
Ohio  Wesleyan  University  (1854).  For  two  years  he 
was  high  school  principal  in  Ironton,  Ohio.  He  married 
Rebecca  Peters  on  July  5,  1860.  Also,  in  1860,  having 
been  previously  a  local  preacher,  he  was  ordained  deacon, 
was  admitted  to  the  Ohio  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  and  was  assigned  to  Putnam  (now  in  Zaneville), 
Ohio. 

In  1862,  the  Civil  War  having  broken  out,  he  became 
Chaplain  of  the  122nd  Ohio  Volunteer  Infantry  and,  be- 
ing captured  June  16,  1863,  spent  four  months  in  Libby 
Prison,  Richmond,  Va.;  later,  he  went  into  the  Christian 
Commission  movement  to  obtain  assistance  for  wounded 
soldiers.  His  singing,  in  this  position,  popularized  the 
"Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic,"  while  his  addresses  crys- 
talized  into  his  lecture,  "The  Bright  Side  of  Life  in  Libby 
Prison." 

In  1865  McCabe  became  pastor  at  Portsmouth,  Ohio, 
building  a  church  there,  and  served  as  Conference  Cen- 
tenary and  Educational  Agent  (1866).  He  was  financial 
agent  of  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  (1867),  before  being 
called  to  Philadelphia  in  1868  as  assistant  to  A.  J. 
Kynett  in  the  Methodist  Extension  Society,  where  he 
continued  as  a  secretary  for  sixteen  years.  His  battle  cry 
in  promoting  church  extension,  "we're  building  two  a  day," 
became  famous  throughout  the  church. 

McCabe  transferred  to  the  New  York  Conference 
in  1870.  This  "apostle  of  optimism"  was  elected  Corre- 
sponding Secretary  of  the  Missionary  Society  by  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  in  1884  and  soon  began  sounding  the 
slogan,  "a  miHion  for  missions."  "Chaplain"  McCabe  was 
elected  to  the  Methodist  episcopacy  in  1896.  This  mis- 
sionary promoter,  evangelist,  and  gospel  singer,  known 
to  many  as  the  "Methodist  missionary  millionaire,"  be- 
came Chancellor  of  American  Unfversity,  Washington, 
D.  C,  in  December  1902.  He  died  Dec.  19,  1906,  in 
New  York  City  and  was  buried  in  Rose  Hill  Cemetery, 
Chicago,  111. 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Bishop  McCabe's  writings  include  Final  Report  on  Salt 
Lake  City  Church  (pamphlet,  1880);  A  Glance  Back- 
wards (pamphlet,  1886);  The  Open  Door  in  Latin  Coun- 
tries (First  General  Missionary  Convention  Address, 
Cleveland,  1903);  The  American  University — Taking 
Our  Bearings  (pamphlet,  1903);  Shouting  (pamphlet 
about  Christian  rapture,  n.d.);  and  "Dream  of  Ingersoll- 
ville"  (an  allegory).  He  edited  Winnowed  Hymns,  assisted 
by  D.  F.  McFarlane. 

Burlington  Hawk-Eye,  Sept.  5,  1907. 

Chri^ian  Advocate,  Dec.  27,  1906. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

The  Epworth  Herald,  Dec.  29,  1906. 

J.  B.  Finley,  WyandoU  Mission.  1840. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Northwestern  Christian  Advocate,  Jan.  2,  1907. 

Zion's  Herald,   Dec.   26,    1906.  Martin   L.    Gheeu 

MeCAINE,  ALEXANDER  (1768-1856),  American  preach- 
er and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church,  was  bom  in  Dublin,  Ireland,  of  Roman  Cath- 
olic parents  and  designed  for  the  priesthood.  When  he 
was  about  twenty  years  of  age  he  came  to  Charleston, 
S.  C,  where  he  was  converted  under  the  ministry  of 
William  Hammett,  who  led  one  of  the  earliest  seces- 
sions from  the  M.  E.  Church. 

McCaine  began  preaching  in  Charleston  and  attracted 
the  favorable  attention  of  Bishop  Francis  Asbury,  who 
took  him  as  a  traveling  companion.  He  joined  the  Con- 
ference in  1797  and  served  circuits  in  the  Carolinas  and 
Virginia.  He  located  in  1806  to  educate  his  children,  but 
after  the  death  of  his  wife  in  1815  and  at  the  solicitation 
of  Asbury  he  re-entered  the  active  ministry.  Although  he 
was  not  a  member  of  the  General  Conference,  he  was 
elected  secretary  of  that  body  in  1820.  He  again  with- 
drew in  1821  and  became  the  head  of  a  boys'  school  in 
Baltimore. 

He  was  appointed  by  Asbury  to  prepare  a  commentary 
on  the  Bible  but  did  not  complete  the  work.  In  1827  he 
wrote  a  book  under  the  title  of  The  History  and  Mystery 
of  Methodist  Episcopacy,  in  which  he  opposed  episcopacy 
and  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Reformers,  whose  agitation 
led  to  the  formation  of  the  M.  P.  Church.  John  Emory, 
the  BOOK  AGENT  in  New  York,  published  a  reply,  A  De- 
fense of  Our  Fathers,  which  called  forth  from  McCaine  a 
rebuttal  entitled,  A  Defense  of  the  Truth,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1829.  In  1850  he  published  a  book  under  the 
title  of  Letters  on  the  Organization  and  Early  History  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Among  his  other  writ- 
ings were  a  series  of  thirty-six  letters  in  the  Pittsburgh 
Christian  Advocate,  and  forty  letters  in  the  Boston  Olive 
Branch,  which  appeared  also  in  book  form.  In  all  of  these 
he  upheld  the  principles  of  the  Reformers.  He  also  wrote 
in  defense  of  slavery  and  published  in  1842  a  work  called 
Slavery  Defended  Against  the  Attacks  of  the  Abolitionists. 
He  contributed  numerous  articles  to  the  Western  Recorder 
on  the  same  theme. 

McCaine  was  active  in  the  M.  P.  Church  to  the  end  of 
his  life.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conventions  at 
Baltimore  in  1827  and  1828  and  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1830,  and  a  member  of  the  committee  which  pre- 
pared the  Constitution  and  the  Discipline  of  the  new 
denomination.  He  was  also  a  delegate  to  the  General 
Conferences  of  1842  and  1854. 

He  worked  mainly  in  the  South  and  died  in  the  home 


MCCLELLAND,   CLARENCE   PAUL 

of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  James  Brett,  in  Augusta,  Ga.,  on 
June  1,  1856. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

T.  H.  Colhouer,  Sketches  of  the  Founders.  1880. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Elmer  T.  Clark 

McCALLUM,  DUNCAN  (  ?  -1834),  was  John  Wesley's 
apostle-general  in  Scotland,  commissioned  to  convert  the 
heathen  there.  Self-taught,  he  mastered  four  languages 
and  extensive  scientific  knowledge.  McCaUum  preached  in 
Erse  and  English.  He  commenced  as  an  itinerant  in  1775 
and  labored  indefatigably  until  1829,  becoming  then 
supernumerary.  He  traveled  forty  years  in  Scottish  cir- 
cuits, serving  long,  broken  terms  at  Aberdeen,  Inverness, 
Edinburgh,  and  Dumfries,  and  eleven  years  around  New- 
castle, Shields,  and  Moiphet.  He  was  named  in  the  Deed 
OF  Declaration.  Wesley  ordained  him  deacon  and 
ELDER  in  August  1787.  A  celebrated  preacher,  disciplinar- 
ian, and  frequently  chaiiman  of  the  district,  he  experi- 
enced hardship  among  Calvinistic  and  unresponsive  fel- 
low countrymen.  He  died  July  21,  1834. 


City  Road  Magazine.  London,  1875. 
L.  Tyerman,  John  Wesley.  1870-71. 


George  Lawton 


McCLEARY,   PAUL    (1930-  ),  missionary  to  Bolivl\, 

was  bom  in  Illinois,  received  his  A.B.  degree  from 
Olivet  Nazarene  College,  attended  the  University  of  II- 
hnois,  and  earned  a  B.D.  degree  from  Garrett  Theolog- 
ical Seminary.  He  married  Rachel  Timm,  a  science 
teacher,  and  they  have  four  children.  Since  he  began  work 
in  Bolivia  in  1957,  he  has  served  as  j>astor  in  Cochabamba, 
both  of  the  Union  Church  (English-speaking)  and  the 
Spanish-speaking  Methodist  church,  and  of  the  Methodist 
church  in  Santa  Cruz.  He  was  superintendent  of  the 
Central  District.  In  1962  he  was  appointed  executive 
secretary  of  the  annual  conference. 

Natalie  Barber 

McClelland,  clarence  PAUL  (1883-  ),  American 

college  president,  was  bom  at  Dobbs  Ferry,  N.  Y.,  on 
Jan.  18,  1883.  He  was  educated  at  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity, Drew  Theological  Seminary,  and  Syracuse  Uni- 
\'ERSiTY.  He  joined  the  New  York  Conference  in  1908, 
serving  churches  until  1917.  From  then  until  1925  he 
was  president  of  Drew  Seminary  for  Young  Women. 

Transferring  to  the  Illinois  Conference,  he  became 
president  of  Illinois  Woman's  College,  later  named  Mac- 
Murray  College,  in  Jacksonville,  111.  During  his  twenty- 
six-year  term,  until  retirement  in  1952,  the  college  was 
greatly  expanded  in  every  way.  The  religious  emphasis 
of  his  administration  was  exemplified  by  the  new  Annie 
Merner  college  chapel,  erected  in  1949. 

Dr.  McClelland  served  as  a  director  of  the  Association 
of  American  Colleges,  and  as  a  member  of  the  National 
Council  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  He  is  the  author  of  Question 
Marks  and  Exclamation  Points.  Upon  retirement  he  and 
Mrs.    McClelland   continued  to   live   in   Jacksonville,    111. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 

Who's  Who  in  Methodism,   1952.  Henry  G.   Nylin 


MCIINTOCK,    JOHN,    JR. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


John  McClintock 

M'CLINTOCK,  JOHN,  JR.  (1814-1870),  American  clergy- 
man, educator,  editor,  was  bom  in  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
on  Oct.  27,  1814,  the  son  of  John  and  Martha  (M'Mackin) 
M'Clintock,  both  born  in  County  Tyrone,  Ireland.  He 
was  educated  in  the  Grammar  School  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania.  At  fourteen  he  started  clerking  in  his  father's 
retail  dry  goods  store;  at  si.xteen  he  became  a  bookkeeper 
in  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  in  New  York  City. 
While  here  he  was  soundly  converted  and  considered  en- 
tering the  ministry.  He  entered  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania in  1832,  completing  the  required  course  with  honors 
in  three  years.  During  his  last  year  at  the  University  he 
preached  regularly.  In  April  1835,  he  was  admitted  on 
trial  in  the  Philadelphia  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  and  appointed  to  Jersey  City,  N.  J.  Never  phys- 
ically strong,  his  health  broke  in  1836  and  he  gave  up  the 
pastorate. 

With  the  help  of  friends  he  turned  to  education,  be- 
coming assistant  professor  of  mathematics  at  Dickinson 
College,  and  two  years  later  (1837)  full  professor.  Here 
he  remained  for  twelve  years,  transferring  in  1840  to  the 
chair  of  classical  languages.  He  published  A  First  Book 
in  Latin  (1846),  and  with  George  R.  Crooks,  A  First 
Book  of  Greek  (1848).  "Second  Books"  in  both  subjects 
appeared  a  few  years  later.  These  are  noteworthy  in  tha^ 
they  started  a  method  of  teaching  the  classical  languages 
which  is  still  used. 

Improving  health  enabled  him  to  preach  more  fre- 
quently and  on  April  19,  1840,  he  was  ordained  an  elder 
by  Bishop  Elijah  Hedding. 

In  1848  the  General  Conference  elected  him  editor 
of  The  Methodist  Quarterhj  Review  and  he  resigned  his 
professorship  to  accept.  During  his  eight-year  term  the 
Review  became  a  scholarly  exponent  of  the  best  Christian 
thought,  and  for  the  first  time,  self-supporting.  His  analyti- 
cal essays  on  the  positivist  philosophy  of  Auguste  Comte, 
and  his  detection  of  its  errors  attracted  the  French  philos- 
opher's notice  and  led  to  a  correspondence  between  them. 

He  declined  the  presidencies  of  two  universities  to 
which  he  was  elected,  Wesleyan  (1851),  and  Troy 
(1855). 

In  1853,  with  James  Strong,  he  began  the  Cyclopaedia 


of  Biblical,  Theological  and  Ecclesiastical  Literature,  a 
work  in  twelve  volumes,  still  authoritative  in  many  fields, 
which  took  much  of  his  time  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Other 
publications  included  The  Temporal  Power  of  The  Pope, 
(1855);  a  volume  of  sermons;  a  translation  of  A  History 
Of  The  Council  Of  Trent,  from  the  French  of  L.  F. 
Bungener  (1855);  and  from  the  German,  with  Charles  E. 
Blumenthal,  The  Life  of  Christ,  by  August  Neander. 

In  1856,  resigning  from  the  Review  he  accompanied 
Bishop  Matthew  Simpson  as  a  delegate  to  the  British 
Wesleyan  Conference  and  the  Conference  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Alliance  at  Berlin.  On  his  return  he  became  pastor 
of  St.  Paul's  M.  E.  Church,  New  York  City.  This  appoint- 
ment expiring  by  limitation  in  1860,  he  was  appointed 
pastor  of  the  American  Chapel,  Paris,  France. 

During  the  Civil  War  he  was  a  most  effective  repre- 
sentative of  the  Northern  interests  through  his  speeches, 
writings,  and  personal  contacts,  removing  apprehensions 
abroad,  and  through  The  Methodist,  of  which  he  was 
corresponding  editor,  giving  correct  information  at  home. 
In  1864  he  returned  to  the  pastorate  of  St.  Paul's  from 
which  ill  health  forced  his  resignation. 

As  chairman  of  the  General  Conference  Centenary 
Committee  (1864-1868),  he  kept  busy  planning  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Centennial  of  American  Methodism 
(1866).  Daniel  Drew,  financier  and  philanthropist  of 
New  York  City,  desired  to  found  a  "Biblical  and  Theolog- 
ical School"  in  connection  with  this  event,  and  in  accor- 
dance with  his  wishes  M'Clintock  became  the  first  presi- 
dent of  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  now  part  of 
Drew  University,  in  1867.  Less  than  three  years  later 
(March  4,  1870),  he  died  and  is  buried  in  Madison. 

In  1837  he  married  Caroline  A.  Wakeman,  to  whom 
was  bom  one  son,  Emory.  In  October  1851,  he  married 
Catherine  W.  Emory,  widow  of  his  friend,  Robert 
Emory.  The  University  of  Pennsylvania  honored  him  with 
a  D.D.  (1848),  and  Rutgers  University  conferred  the 
LL.D.  on  him  in  1866. 

American   Annual   Encyclopaedia.    D.   Appleton  &   Co.,    1870. 
George  R.  Crooks,  Life  and  Letters  of  the  Rev.  John  M'Clin- 
tock, D.D.,  LL.D.,  Late  President  of  Drew  Theological  Semi- 
nary. New  York:  Nelson  &  Phillips,  1876. 
Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
Minutes  of  the  Newark  Conference.  William  M.  Twiddy 

McCOLL,  DUNCAN  (1754-1830),  Canadian  preacher, 
the  apostle  of  Methodism  in  southwestem  New  Bmns- 
wick,  was  bom  in  Argyllshire,  Scotland.  His  parents 
belonged  to  the  Scotch  Episcopal  Church,  which  he  later 
left  to  become  "a  hearty  and  zealous  Wesleyan."  At  an 
early  age  he  enhsted  as  pay  sergeant  in  the  British  army. 
In  1778  his  regiment  was  ordered  to  Halifax,  and  at  the 
battle  of  Penobscot  Bay  he  was  under  fire  for  the  first 
time. 

His  military  experiences  caused  him  to  think  deeply 
about  religion,  to  set  aside  a  day  for  prayer,  and  to  slip 
away  with  his  Bible  to  a  quiet  retreat  in  the  woods.  While 
in  Bermuda  in  the  winter  of  1784  he  met  a  Methodist 
woman  from  Philadelphia,  who  told  him  about  Meth- 
odism. She  later  became  his  wife  and  a  help  to  his  min- 
istry. 

When  his  regiment  was  disbanded  in  the  spring  of  1784, 
he  settled  at  St.  Andrews,  New  Brunswick,  and  during 
the  next  year  he  entered  business  at  St.  Stephen.  Because 
the  people  were  without  a  place  of  worship,  he  opened  his 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MCCONNELL,   CHARLES   MELVIN 


home  for  service.  So  many  were  drawn  to  his  services  that 
the  magistrate  threatened  to  suppress  them,  and  in  conse- 
quence McCoU  was  certain  that  it  was  his  duty  to  preach. 

At  this  stage  he  gave  up  his  business,  formed  a  Meth- 
odist society,  and  devoted  his  time  to  preaching.  It  was 
not  easy,  nor  did  he  have  full  cooperation.  "I  had  also  to 
provide  a  house,  seats,  and  a  fire  for  people  in  the  winter, 
for  no  one  took  it  into  his  head  to  help  me,"  he  wrote. 
In  1790,  however,  he  induced  his  supporters  to  build  a 
church. 

William  Black  met  Duncan  McColl  in  1792  and 
encouraged  him  to  become  a  Methodist  itinerant.  He 
helped  to  found  societies  in  Fredericton  and  in  other 
parts  of  the  St.  John  valley.  Ordained  in  1795  by  Asbury, 
McColl  returned  to  St.  Stephen  where  he  remained  the 
rest  of  his  career. 

For  thirty-five  years  of  his  ministry,  Duncan  McColl 
labored  hard  to  win  souls  to  Christ  and  to  form  Methodist 
societies.  He  had  to  endure  many  hardships,  provocations, 
and  discouragements  and  the  numerical  results  were  not 
great.  Nevertheless  he  left  a  deep  impression  on  the  reli- 
gious life  of  the  region. 

In  1829  he  became  superannuated,  but  was  unable  to 
assist  his  successor  greatly.  He  finished  his  diary  Dec.  5, 
1830,  and  on  December  17  he  died.  He  was  buried  in  the 
St.  Stephen  and  MiUtown  Protestant  Cemetery  where, 
in  1885,  a  substantial  monument  was  erected  in  his  honor. 

Duncan  McColl  was  a  brave  soldier.  Loyalist,  settler, 
and  preacher  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  symbolized  the  fact  that 
the  strength  of  the  Methodist  movement  in  the  Loyalist 
period  depended  on  the  spontaneous  response  of  con- 
verted and  deeply  concerned  persons  to  the  profound 
religious  needs  of  the  new  communities.  As  a  lay  preacher 
he  emerged  to  meet  the  challenge  of  spiritual  destitution 
on  the  frontier.  He  introduced  Methodism  to  New  Bruns- 
wick and,  to  his  distinguished  colleague  Matthew  Richey, 
"he  was  second  to  none  of  the  earlier  Provincial  itinerants 
in  mental  power." 

The    Autobiography    of    a    Wesleyan    Methodist    Missionary. 

Montreal:  E.  Pickup,  1856. 

British  North  American  Wesleyan  Methodist  Magazine,  1841- 

42. 

G.  S.  French,  Parsons  and  Politics.  1962. 

T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1877-90.  A.  E.  Kewley 

MeCOMBS,  VERNON  MONROE  (1875-1951),  American 
missionary  and  eventually  leader  in  Spanish-American 
missions  in  the  far  west,  was  bom  at  Parkers  Prairie, 
Minn.,  in  July,  1875.  Licensed  to  preach  in  1902,  he  at- 
tended St.  Cloud  Teachers  College  and  taught  for  a  short 
time.  Later  he  graduated  with  the  B.A.  degree  from  Ham- 
line  University,  1903,  and  then  from  Drew  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  1906.  In  the  same  year  he  received  the 
M.A.  degree  from  New  York  University.  In  1906  also  he 
married  Eva  M.  White,  and  he  and  his  young  wife,  both 
Student  Volunteers,  sailed  for  the  mission  field  in  Peru, 
where  he  engaged  for  a  time  in  teaching.  Later  he  was 
appointed  as  superintendent  of  North  Andes  Mission, 
covering  Peru  and  Ecuador.  After  a  few  years  of  work, 
he  broke  in  health  and  had  to  return  to  America.  A  physi- 
cian in  New  York  advised  him  to  go  to  the  Southwest  for 
rest,  and  thus  he  went  to  southern  California. 

As  early  as  1879  the  Southern  California  Confer- 
ence had  interested  itself  in  mission  work  among  the 
Mexicans.  The  first  Sunday  that  McCombs  was  in  Los 


Angeles  he  made  his  way  to  the  Mexican  Sunday  school 
on  Bloom  Street.  There  he  found  one  teacher  struggling 
with  a  small  class.  The  visitor  was  invited  to  speak  to  them 
and  this  he  did  in  perfect  Spanish.  This  was  his  introduc- 
tion to  new  work,  for  that  same  year  he  was  named  super- 
intendent of  Spanish  work  in  Los  Angeles.  By  his  deep 
interest  in  and  love  for  the  Mexicans,  he  gathered  about 
him  a  growing  number  of  them,  and  by  Conference  time 
the  work  was  so  well  established  that  in  1912  he  was  ap- 
pointed superintendent  of  Spanish  and  Portuguese  work 
and  later,  after  some  years,  he  was  appointed  superin- 
tendent of  the  Latin  American  Mission. 

To  secure  help  for  the  expanding  work,  he  had  to 
secure  two  ministers  from  Mexico,  and  the  new  impact 
on  the  Mexican  population  soon  made  it  necessary  to 
move  from  the  Bloom  Street  building  to  an  adequately 
planned  church  on  the  old  Plaza,  the  center  of  the  Spanish 
speaking  community.  In  a  comparatively  short  time,  a 
long-time  hoped  for  school  for  young  Mexicans  was 
started.  Earlier  in  the  century,  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Conference  had  established 
a  school  for  Mexican  girls  in  Hollywood.  In  1909  a  group 
of  interested  Methodists  had  organized  and  incorporated 
The  Spanish  American  Training  School  for  Boys,  but  little 
happened  until  McCombs  revived  the  project,  and  since 
in  southern  California  he  had  been  fortunate  in  meeting 
former  friends  from  his  Hamline  student  days,  many  of 
whom  had  prospered,  he  readily  found  cooperators. 

Ten  acres  of  land  was  secured  on  Fifueroa  Street  on 
the  outskirts  of  Gardena,  and  here  in  October  1913,  the 
school  became  a  reality  in  newly  erected  buildings.  Its 
aim  was  "to  educate  and  give  industrial  and  spiritual 
training  to  Mexican  boys."  Today  the  school  is  known  as 
the  Spanish  American  Institute. 

The  phght  of  the  Mexican  people  demanded  that  well 
planned  social  work  should  go  hand  in  hand  with  the 
religious  activities,  and  this  resulted  in  the  organization 
of  the  Plaza  Community  Center.  This  actually  began  in 
the  Bloom  Street  quarter,  and  in  a  way  was  the  fore- 
runner for  the  Goodwill  Industries,  for  bags  were  given 
out  to  interested  people  to  be  filled  with  cast-offs.  This 
gave  employment  to  a  few  needy  people.  However,  that 
method  was  changed  with  the  coming  of  the  better 
equipped  Goodwill.  The  center  developed  an  Employ- 
ment Office,  a  Medical,  and  a  Legal  Clinic,  a  Dental 
Clinic  and  a  General  Welfare  Office.  The  Center  has  fol- 
lowed the  Mexicans  as  they  moved  from  the  Plaza  area 
to  other  homes  on  the  East  side  of  the  city.  The  work, 
however,  is  the  same.  Today  several  of  the  leaders  in 
both  church  and  social  service  have  come  from  the  Gar- 
dena School  and  from  the  influence  of  the  Plaza  Church 
and  the  Community  Center.  Both  the  Superintendent  of 
the  School  and  of  the  Center  are  Mexicans  today.  These 
institutions  are  living  and  growing  memorials  to  the  love, 
devotion,  and  tireless  labors  of  Vernon  Monroe  McCombs, 
who  died  in  Los  Angeles,  Calif.,  on  March  15,  1951,  and 
is  buried  in  Forest  Lawn  Cemetery,  Glendale,  Calif. 

E.  D.  Jervey,  Southern  California  and  Arizona.  1960. 
Journals   of   the   Soutliem   California   Conference,    ME,    1911, 
1912,   1920,   and  of  the   Southern  California-Arizona   Confer- 
ence,  TMC,    1951.  John   Gabrielson 

McCONNELL,  CHARLES  MELVIN  (1886-1957),  an  Amer- 
ican clergyman  and  educator,  son  of  Israel  and  Nancy 
Jane     (Chalfant)     McConnell    and    brother    of    Bishop 


MCCONNEIL,    DOROTHY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Francis  J.  McConnell,  was  bom  on  Jan.  16,  1886.  He 
was  educated  at  Ohio  Wesleyan  (B.A.,  1907)  and  Bos- 
ton Univehsity  School  of  Theology  (S.T.B.,  1910). 
Cornell  College  honored  him  with  the  D.D.  in  1941. 
In  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference,  he  was  received 
on  trial  in  1909  and  in  full  connection,  1911.  His  ap- 
pointments were  as  follows:  Middlefield,  1910-12;  Berea, 
1913;  Lakeville-Newkiik,  1914-20;  Board  of  Sunday 
Schools,  1921-23;  representative  of  the  General  Board  of 
Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension,  1924-25;  professor, 
Boston  University  School  of  Theology,  1926-54. 

He  married  Grace  Dimmick  in  1911  and  to  them  were 
bom  four  daughters.  Mrs.  McConnell  died  in  1949.  In 
1953  McConnell  married  Mrs.  Margaret  Brown  and  they 
made  their  home  in  Deering,  N.  H.,  where  he  died,  Sept. 
6,  1957.  Burial  was  in  Delaware,  Ohio. 

His  career  included  teaching  at  Andover-Newton  The- 
ological School,  staff  membership  with  the  Interseminary 
Commission  for  Training  for  the  Rural  Ministry,  and 
activities  as  a  founder  of  the  Methodist  Rural  Fellow.ship. 
The  Metfwdist  Rural  Fellowship  Bulletin  (Winter,  1957) 
was  dedicated  to  "Pat"  McConnell  and  carries  wonderful 
tributes  to  him.  He  had  an  unerring  sense  of  the  values 
of  rural  life  and  of  the  need  to  nourish,  to  consei"ve,  and 
to  enhance  them.  In  both  Methodist  and  in  ecumenical 
circles  he  played  a  leading  role  in  giving  spiritual  depth 
and  practical  expression  to  the  great  movement  for  rural 
betterment. 

Journal  of  the  New  Hampshire  Conference,  1958. 

William  J.  Davis 

McCONNELL,  DOROTHY  (1900-  ),  American  editor 
and  author,  was  born  at  Ipswich,  Mass.,  Sept.  18,  1900, 
daughter  of  Francis  John  and  Eva  (Thomas)  McCon- 
nell. 

She  received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Ohio  Wesleyan 
University  in  1920,  and  the  M.A.  degree  in  1922  from 
Columbia  University. 

She  was  a  social  worker,  1922-26,  and  an  editor,  1926- 
32.  From  1940  to  1966  she  was  editor  of  World  Outlook, 
periodical  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  The  Methodist 
Church,  New  York,  New  York. 

Miss  McConnell  has  served  as  a  member  of  the  Board 
of  Higher  Education  in  Asia,  on  the  executive  committee 
of  the  World  Methodist  Council,  on  the  national  board 
of  the  Y.W.C.A.,  committee  member  of  the  National 
Council  of  The  Churches  of  Christ  in  the  U.S.A., 
and  of  the  World  Council  of  Churches. 

She  is  the  author  of  Friends  of  Nippon,  Sugar  is  Sweet, 
Focus  on  Latin  America,  Pattern  of  Things  to  Come, 
Contemporary  Man  and  the  United  Nations,  and  co- 
author of  Sharing  The  Gift.  She  continues  to  reside  in 
New  York. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.    J.  Marvin  Rast 

McCONNELL,  FRANCIS  JOHN  (1871-1953),  American 
bishop,  was  bom  on  a  farm  about  five  miles  from  Trinway, 
Ohio,  on  Aug.  18,  1871,  tlie  son  of  I.  H.  and  Nancy  J. 
(Chalfant)  McConnell.  His  father  and  one  of  his  brothers 
were  Methodist  preachers.  He  was  educated  at  Ohio 
Wesleyan  (A.B.,  1894)  and  Boston  University  (S.T.B., 
1897;  Ph.D.,  1899).  Eleven  institutions,  including  Har- 
vard, Yale,  Boston,  and  Ohio  Wesleyan  Universities, 
awarded  him  honorary  degrees.  On  March  11,  1897,  he 


Francis  J.  McConnell 

married  Eva  Thomas,  and  they  had  two  sons  and  one 
daughter. 

McConnell  joined  the  New  England  Conference  in 
1894.  He  had  four  appointments  in  Massachusetts — 
West  Chelmsford,  1894-97;  Newton  Upper  Falls,  1897- 
99;  Ipswich,  1899-02;  and  Harvard  Street,  Cambridge, 
1902-03 — and  was  pastor  of  New  York  Avenue  Church, 
Brookly'N,  1903-09.  He  served  as  president  of  DePauw 
University,  1909-12,  and  was  elected  bishop  in  the  lat- 
ter year.  His  episcopal  residence  was  in  Denver,  Colo., 
1912-20;  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  1920-28;  and  New  York,  1928- 
44.  He  retired  in  1944. 

He  was  president  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  1929,  and  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Religious  Education  Association  in  1916.  He 
was  a  leader  in  the  Methodist  Federation  for  Soclal 
Action  from  its  founding  in  1912  to  his  retirement  in 
1944. 

Bishop  McConnell  and  Edgar  S.  Brightman  were  recog- 
nized as  the  two  most  famous  students  of  Borden  P. 
BowNE,  the  personalist  philosopher  of  Boston  University. 
Bowne  once  told  McCoimell  that  if  he  planned  to  enter 
the  ministry,  he  should  pursue  the  study  of  philosophy 
long  enough  to  earn  the  Ph.D.  degree,  and  then  concen- 
trate on  economics  and  political  theory.  Later  McConnell 
said  that  he  could  work  any  problem  in  mathematics  ever 
given  him,  but  still  he  might  make  a  mistake  "in  the 
additions  and  subtractions." 

A  great  preacher,  more  intellectual  than  emotional, 
McConnell  was  one  of  the  eleven  American  Methodists 
who  up  to  his  time  deUvered  the  Lyman  Beecher  lectures 
at  Yale  (1930).  In  1931  he  was  the  Barrows  lecturer  in 
India.  He  served  as  visiting  professor  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, 1932-33,  at  Drew  and  Garrett  Seminaries  in 
1934,  and  at  Yale  in  1946.  His  sermons  were  simpler  than 
his  lectures. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MCCOY,   JAMES   HENRY 


While  president  of  DePauw,  McConnell  attended  more 
to  the  spiritual  development  of  the  students  than  to  the 
finances  of  the  institution.  He  astounded  church  people 
by  urging  the  Indiana  legislature  to  appropriate  more 
money  for  state  schools  because,  he  said,  it  would  result 
in  more  money  being  given  to  DePauw. 

During  McConnell's  episcopal  residence  in  Denver,  the 
area  included  Mexico,  a  nation  then  undergoing  revolu- 
tion. In  administering  the  area,  he  traveled  an  average 
of  42,000  miles  a  year. 

McConnell  received  both  praise  and  condemnation  for 
serving  as  chairman  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement 
Committee  to  investigate  and  report  on  the  Pittsburgh 
steel  strike  in  1919.  A  strong  champion  of  human  rights 
on  moral  and  religious  grounds,  he  disregarded  the  pres- 
sure brought  to  bear  on  him  to  repudiate  the  committee's 
report.  In  the  end  the  report  proved  helpful  in  eliminating 
the  twelve-hour  day  in  the  steel  mills,  and  some  of  the 
industrialists  later  became  McConnell's  friends.  After  the 
steel  strike  McConnell  was  recognized  as  an  ecclesiastical 
leader  of  the  first  rank. 

In  a  debate  with  Clarence  Darrow,  the  famous  agnostic 
lawyer.  Bishop  McConnell  granted  so  many  of  the  at- 
torney's contentions  that  it  surprised  Darrow.  Then  in  a 
masterful  way  McConnell  showed  that  there  is  intelli- 
gence in  the  universe.  Taking  Darrow's  premises  and  lead- 
ing the  man  into  what  for  him  was  a  new  field  of  thought, 
McConnell  presented  impressive  and  all  but  unanswerable 
arguments  in  favor  of  theism. 

In  writing  a  1,000-word  weekly  article  for  The  Church 
School  Journal  for  thirty  years.  Bishop  McConnell  pub- 
lished about  3,500,000  words.  In  addition,  he  produced 
twenty-four  books.  Some  of  them  were:  7s  God  Limited? 
1924;  The  Christlike  God,  1927;  Borden  Parker  Bowne, 
1929;  The  Prophetic  Ministry,  1930;  John  Wesley,  1939; 
and  By  the  Way,  1952,  which  was  his  autobiography. 

As  was  the  case  with  John  Wesley,  Bishop  McConnell 
met  the  needs  of  the  people  at  the  place  of  their  greatest 
need.  He  was  one  of  the  foremost  American  prophets  of 
neighborly  concern  during  his  generation.  In  intellect,  in 
religious  insight,  and  in  world-wide  sympathy,  he  stood 
forth  as  a  scholarly  seer,  a  practical  theologian,  and  a 
prophet  of  the  social  gospel.  He  died  at  his  home  in 
Lucasville,  Ohio,  on  his  eighty-second  birthday,  Aug.  18, 
1953,  and  was  buried  there.  Bishop  Frederick  B.  New- 
ell of  New  York  officiated  at  the  funeral,  and  two  master- 
ful addresses  by  Bishop  Herbert  Welch,  then  past 
ninety,  and  Harris  F.  Ball,  were  read  by  sponsors,  with 
Bishop  U.  V.  W.  Darlington  among  those  in  attendance. 

Eva  Thomas  McConnell  (July  23,  1871-Feb.  19,  1968). 
the  wife  of  Bishop  McConnell,  was  a  remarkable  woman 
in  her  own  right  and  enjoyed  wide  esteem  over  the 
whole  church.  For  some  years  she  was  vice-president  of 
the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  and  traveled  widely  with  her  husband.  Speaking 
at  a  final  dinner  given  in  his  honor  by  the  New  York 
Area  on  his  retirement.  Bishop  McConnell  said  that  his 
wife  had  asked  him  a  few  days  before  just  what  was 
meant  by  a  "realist."  The  bishop  said,  "I'm  not  sure  I 
know,  but  if  there  ever  was  one,  she  is."  She  died  at 
Lucasville,  Ohio,  in  her  ninety-seventh  year. 

Homer  J.  Chalfant,  "The  Golden  Links."  Ms.,  1962. 
The  Christian  Advocate,  Sept.  3,  1953. 

F.  J.   McConnell,   By  the  Way.   1952.         Albea   Godbold 

N.  B.  H. 


Mccormick,  THOMAS  (I792-I883),  a  charter  member 
of  historic  St.  John's  Church,  Baltimore,  Md.,  was  one 
of  eleven  preachers  in  Baltimore  who  were  expelled 
from  the  M.  E.  Church  because  of  their  advocacy  of  re- 
form in  the  church  government.  He  was  bom  in  Loudoun 
County,  Va.,  on  Jan.  5,  1792,  but  following  the  death  of 
his  mother  he  was  reared  by  his  uncle,  Thomas  Moore, 
in  Montgomery  County,  Md.,  and  brought  up  in  a  Quaker 
atmosphere.  He  visited  Methodist  churches,  however,  and 
in  1811  joined  the  M.  E.  Church.  He  was  bcensed  to  ex- 
hort in  1816  and  in  the  following  year  was  licensed  to 
preach.  On  April  21,  1822,  he  was  ordained  deacon  by 
Bishop  McKendree.  McCormick  served  as  a  pallbearer 
at  Bishop  Francis  Asbury-'s  funeral  in  1816.  He  attended 
the  General  Conferences  of  1816  and  1820.  An  early 
advocate  of  ecclesiastical  reform,  McCormick  joined  the 
first  Union  or  Reform  Society  in  Baltimore,  and  follow- 
ing the  establishment  of  the  Associated  Methodist  Church, 
later  known  as  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  he 
was  ordained  an  elder  by  Nicholas  Snethen  on  April 
5,  1829.  Following  a  long  and  active  career  in  the  M.  P. 
Church,  he  was  elected  as  a  supernumerary  member  of 
the  Mahyxand  Conference  (MP)  in  1869.  He  later 
served  as  a  member  of  the  famous  Union  Convention  of 
1877  in  which  the  two  branches  of  the  M.  P.  Church 
re-united. 

He  died  on  Feb.  20,  1883,  and  was  buried  in  Mount 
Olivet  Cemetery  in  Baltimore. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1887. 

T.  H.  Colhouer,  Sketches  of  the  Founders.  1880. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 


James  H.  McCoy 

McCOY,  JAMES  HENRY  (1868-1919),  American  bishop, 
was  bom  in  Blount  County,  Ala.,  on  Aug.  6,  1868.  He 
received  the  degrees  of  B.A.,  M.A.  and  D.D.  from  South- 
em  University,  Greensboro,  Ala.,  now  Birmingham 
Southern  College.  He  joined  the  North  Alabama  Con- 
ference in  1889,  and  served  the  Ensley  Circuit  and 
churches  in  New  Decatur,  Dadeville,  Alexander  City, 
Birmingham,  Tuscaloosa  and  Huntsville. 

He  was  editor  of  the  Alabama  Christian  Advocate  for 
one  year  and  was  president  of  Birmingham  College  from 
1906-1910.  He  was  elected  bishop  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  by  the  Gen'eral  Conference  in  1910.  He  sei-ved 


MCCOY,    LEWISTINE   M. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


as  president  of  the  Epworth  League  Board  and  trustee 
of  various  institutions  of  learning.  He  died  March  22, 
1919. 

Bishop  McCoy  u'as  a  man  of  singularly  modest  de- 
meanor. His  strength  was  in  his  sincerity  and  the  utter 
trust  his  brethren  of  North  Alabama  had  come  to  repose 
in  him.  He  did  not  live  to  become  widely  known  over  the 
whole  church,  dying  in  an  untimely  way  when  he  was 
only  fifty-one  years  of  age.  He  presided  only  once  back  in 
and  over  his  own  home  conference  held  in  Anniston,  Ala., 
in  1913.  "From  his  election  to  the  episcopacy  until  his 
death,"  says  Lazenby,  "his  name  was  carried  at  the  head 
of  the  clerical  roll  of  the  Conference  as  an  honorary  mem- 
ber." 

M.  E.  Lazenby,  Alabama  and  West  Florida.  1960. 

Who   Was  Who   in   America.  Elmeb  T.   Clark 

McCOY,  LEWISTINE  M.  (1918-  ),  American  mission- 

ary to  Chin'.\  and  Brazil,  and  now  Executive  Secretary 
for  Brazil,  Mexico,  Panama  and  Costa  Rica  of  the 
Board  of  Missions  of  The  United  Methodist  Church. 
He  was  born  on  March  9,  1918  in  Lexington,  Ky.,  and 
graduated  from  Kentl'cky  Wesleyan  College  in  1940. 
In  1943  he  married  Jessie  Marion  Wall  of  North  Caro- 
Li.VA,  a  graduate  of  Duke  University.  They  have  five 
children. 

After  receiving  his  B.D.  in  1944  from  the  Divinity 
School  at  Duke  University,  McCoy  joined  the  Kentucky 
Conference.  For  a  year  he  taught  Bible  and  Religion  at 
Kentucky  Wesleyan;  then,  planning  to  go  to  China  as  a 
missionary,  he  spent  a  year  at  Yale  studying  the  Chinese 
language  and  culture.  The  McCoys  sailed  for  China,  and 
arrived  in  Shangahi  on  Dec.  31,  1946.  He  was  ordained 
elder  in  the  East  China  Conference,  served  as  co-pastor 
at  Huchow  Institutional  Church  and  as  Relief  Adminis- 
trator until  forced  to  leave  China  because  of  the  Com- 
munist take-over.  The  McCoys  moved  to  Hong  Kong, 
and  there  he  opened  the  first  American  Methodist  office; 
helped  some  400  missionaries  to  leave  China,  and  find 
iither  work;  served  as  treasurer  of  Church  World  Service, 
of  the  American  Mission  to  Lepers,  the  United  Board  of 
Christian  Colleges,  and  some  Brethren  and  Mennonite 
groups. 

In  1951  he  came  back  to  the  United  States  on  furlough 
and  in  1952  was  appointed  to  Brazil.  During  the  ne.xt 
ten  years  there,  McCoy  served  as  church  pastor,  treasurer 
for  the  old  Division  of  World  Missions,  and  for  the  Wom- 
an's Division  of  Christian  Service.  He  was  president  of 
the  Social  Security  Department  of  the  Methodist  Church 
of  Brazil  and  of  its  Judicial  Council;  as  president  of  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  the  Interdenominational  Language 
School  in  Campinas  (Sao  Paulo),  and  a  member  of  other 
church  Boards.  He  was  twice  elected  delegate  to  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Brazil.  In 
1961  he  was  named  delegate  from  Brazil  to  the  Second 
Latin-American  Protestant  Conference  in  Lima,  Peru; 
and  in  1962,  was  made  Executive  Secretary  of  the  first 
Latin  American  Methodist  Consultation,  held  in  Buenos 
Aires.  In  1958  Kentucky  Wesleyan  awarded  him  the 
honorary  title  of  D.D. 

McCoy  was  called  to  New  York  in  1963  to  be  the 
Executive  Secretary  of  the  Joint  Commission  on  Mission- 
ary Personnel.  In  September  1965,  he  was  elected  Execu- 
tive Secretary  for  Brazil,  Mexico,  Panama  and  Costa  Rica 
in  the  Division  of  World  Missions.  He  also  serves  on  the 


Administrative  Committee  of  the  Latin  America  Depart- 
ment of  the  Division  of  Overseas  Ministries  of  the  Na- 
tional Council  of  Churches,  and  is  Chairman  of  the 
Supporting  Committee  on  Brazil  within  that  department. 
Recently,  he  was  elected  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
Santiago  College,  Chile. 

Minutes  of  the  East  China  Conference,  1946-49. 
Minutes  of  the  Third  Annual  Conference  in  Brazil,  1952. 
Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.      Eula  K.  Long 

M'CULLAGH,  THOMAS  (1822-1908),  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist,  was  born  at  New  Inn,  Galway,  Ireland,  on 
Feb.  17,  1822.  He  was  brought  up  in  the  Estabhshed 
Church  of  Ireland,  but  became  a  Methodist  in  Kilkenny 
in  1839.  He  was  employed  by  the  Ordnance  Survey;  and 
in  1841  his  work  took  him  to  Yorkshire,  where  his  in- 
creasing devotion  to  Methodism  led  him  into  the  Wes- 
leyan ministry  in  1845.  He  soon  became  a  preacher 
known  all  over  the  country  and  was  a  respected  superin- 
tendent and  chairman.  In  1875  he  was  elected  to  the 
Legal  Hundred,  and  the  presidency  of  the  Conference 
followed  in  1883.  His  literary  work  appeared  mostly  in 
journals,  and  revealed  his  considerable  interest  in  Meth- 
odist history.  He  died  on  Nov.  11,  1908. 

Minutes  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference,  1909. 
G.  J.  Stevenson,  Methodist  Worthies,  iv.  1885. 

H.  Mobley  Rattenbuhy 

Mcculloch,  Joseph  FLAVIUS  (1856-1934),  American 
educator,  minister,  and  editor,  was  born  in  Guilford 
County,  N.  C,  Jan.  24,  1856.  He  received  his  education 
at  Adrian  College,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  and  Clark 
University.  He  served  on  the  faculty  of  Adrian  College 
and  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  later  returned  as 
President  of  Adrian  College. 

McCulloch  had  one  supreme  purpose  in  his  life,  and 
that  was  to  see  the  establishment  in  North  Carolina 
of  a  college  for  members  of  the  M.  P.  Church.  He  worked 
toward  that  goal  for  forty  years. 

In  1893  McCulloch  moved  to  Greensboro,  N.  C,  and 
established  a  church  paper.  Our  Church  Record,  which 
first  appeared  in  1894.  It  was  later  called  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Herald.  His  reason  for  starting  the  paper  was 
to  create  sentiment  for  the  building  of  a  M.  P.  college  in 
North  Carohna.  He  saw  his  dream  realized  when  the 
cornerstone  of  Roberts  Hall,  the  first  building  on  the 
campus  of  High  Point  College,  was  laid  in  1924. 
The  boy's  dormitory  was  named  McCulloch  Hall  in  recog- 
nition of  McCulloch's  patient  crusade. 

A  quiet,  determined  man  who  was  so  engrossed  in  his 
work  and  purpose  that  he  allowed  few  people  to  get  to 
know  him  well,  McCulloch  was  respected  as  a  man  of 
deep  conviction  and  high  ideals. 

He  died  in  Greensboro,  N.  C,  Oct.  1,  1934. 

J.  Elwood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro,  1939. 
Minutes  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  MP,  1934. 

J.  C.  Madison 

Mcculloch,  mary  Elizabeth  barrow  (i858-i924), 

outstanding  leader  in  the  woman's  work  of  the  M.  P. 
Church,  was  born  near  Oberhn,  Ohio,  on  April  9,  1858. 
She  attended  school  at  Blissfield,  Mich.,  and  at  Adrl\n 
College   where  she   and   her   husband-to-be,   Joseph  F. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MCCUTCHAN,    ROBERT   GUY 


McCulloch,  graduated  in  1883.  They  were  married  in 
September  of  that  year.  Mrs.  McCulloch  took  an  active 
role  in  supporting  the  work  of  her  husband  while  he 
served  as  President  of  Adrian  College,  and  as  minister 
in  churches  in  Fairmont,  W.  Va.,  and  Greensboro,  N.  C. 
She  did  pioneer  work  in  organizing,  expanding,  e.xtending 
and  strengthening  the  North  Carolina  Branch  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.  P. 
Church.  The  women  of  this  organization  paid  the  follow- 
ing tribute  to  her:  "To  Mrs.  McCulloch 's  far-sighted  lead- 
ership, her  quiet  suggestion  and  her  spirit  of  hopefulness 
we  owe  much  that  we  have  gained.  For  nearly  twenty 
years  she  led  us,  always  forward,  steadily  upward,  push- 
ing toward  the  great  objective  with  that  active  faith  that 
must  achieve  even  if  conditions  were  unfavorable."  She 
served  (1902-1920)  as  the  editor  of  The  Woman's  Mis- 
sionary Record,  a  M.  P.  paper  aimed  toward  creating  a 
missionary  spirit  by  letting  its  readers  know  the  need  and 
work  being  accompLshed  in  the  mission  field.  She  died 
in  November  1924,  and  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  at 
Tabernacle  Church,  Greensboro,  N.  C. 

J.  Elwood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro,  1939. 
Mrs.  E.  C,  Chandler,  WFMS  of  the  MP.  1920. 
Journal  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  MP,  1924. 

Ralph  Hardee  RrvES 

McCULLOH,  GERALD  OTHO  (1912-  ),  American 
minister  and  church  official,  was  bom  at  Auburn,  Kan., 
Sept.  10,  1912,  son  of  Otho  John  and  Eva  (Skaggs) 
McCulloh. 

He  was  graduated  with  the  A.B.  degree  from  Baker 
Untversity  in  1932,  and  by  that  University  he  was 
awarded  the  D.D.  degree  in  1954.  He  received  the  M.A. 
degree  from  Boston  University  in  1934  and  the  S.T.B. 
there  in  1935.  In  1938  he  received  the  Ph.D.  degree  from 
the  University  of  Edinburgh  (Scotland).  He  was  awarded 
the  D.D.  degree  by  Hamline  University,  and  the  L.H.D. 
by  Ohio  Northern  University. 

Admitted  on  trial  into  the  Kansas  Conference,  M.  E. 
Church,  and  ordained  deacon  in  1934,  he  was  received 
in  full  connection  and  ordained  elder  in  1936. 

He  was  professor  of  philosophy  in  Hamline  University, 
1938-42;  minister,  Hamhne  Church,  St.  Paul,  Minn., 
1942-46;  professor,  systematic  theology,  Garrett  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  1946-53.  Since  1953  he  has  been 
director  of  the  Department  of  Ministerial  Education  of  the 
General  Board  of  Education  of  The  Methodist  Church, 
known  now  as  the  Department  of  the  Ministry,  in  which 
he  continues  at  Nashville,  Term. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  World  Methodist  Con- 
ference, 1951,  1956,  1961,  1966;  to  the  World  Confer- 
ence on  Christian  Education,  Tokyo,  Japan,  1958;  and 
to  the  World  Council  of  Churches,  New  Delhi,  India, 
1961,  and  Uppsala,  Sweden,  1968.  Since  1956  he  has 
been  a  member  of  the  department  of  ministry,  and  since 
1962  of  the  triennial  assembly  and  the  General  Board  of 
the  National  Council  of  Chltrches. 

Since  1953  he  has  been  a  trustee  of  Gammon  The- 
ological Seminary;  and  since  1957  he  has  been  a  trustee 
of  the  Interdenominational  Theological  Center,  Atlanta, 
Ga.,  and  of  St.  Paul  School  of  Theology'.  He  is  also 
a  trustee  of  Hamline  University.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
American  Society  for  Church  History  and  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Association. 


On  June  8,  1939  he  was  married  to  Evelyn  Belle  Butler, 
and  they  have  two  children. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.    J.  Marvin  Rast 


McCULLOUGH,  WILLIAM  (1759-1840),  American  layman, 
who  named  Asbury,  N.  J.,  was  bom  near  Bloomsbury, 
Warren  Co.,  N.  J.,  on  Dec.  18,  1759,  the  son  of  Benjamin 
and  Hannah  Cook  McCullough.  Both  father  and  son 
served  in  the  Revolutionary  Army,  the  former  as  a  cap- 
tain, and  the  latter,  seventeen  years  old  when  he  enlisted 
in  1776,  as  a  private,  later  becoming  brigade  quarter- 
master. 

In  1784,  Wilham  settled  in  Hall's  Mills,  N.  J.  In  1793 
he  became  a  lieutenant  colonel  of  the  Sussex  County 
Militia,  and  thereafter  was  called  "Colonel."  He  was  a 
member  of  the  New  Jersey  State  Assembly,  1793-1799, 
the  State  Council,  1801-1803,  and  Countv  Judge,  1803- 
1838. 

McCullough  was  converted  and  joined  a  Methodist 
society  in  1786  under  the  preaching  of  John  McClaskey 
and  EzEKiEL  Cooper.  His  mansion  on  a  bluff  overlooking 
the  Musconetcong  River  was  a  place  of  entertainment 
and  preaching  for  the  preachers,  and  there  he  welcomed 
Bishop  Asbury  in  1789.  The  meeting  house  at  Hall's  Mills 
was  erected  in  1796,  and  Asbury  laid  the  cornerstone  on 
August  9.  Colonel  McCullough  named  both  the  church 
and  the  town  for  the  bishop;  Hall's  Mills  was  the  first 
community  in  America  to  be  called  Asbury,  and  the  same 
was  true  of  the  church.  He  had  the  Warren  County  com- 
munity of  Mansfield  renamed  Washington,  in  honor  of 
George  Washington.  He  aided  in  the  establishment  of 
a  Methodist  society  there  and  gave  the  property  on  which 
the  First  Methodist  Church  was  erected  in  1825. 

McCullough  died  on  Feb.  9,  1840,  and  was  buried  in 
the  cemetery  at  Asbury,  N.  J. 

V.  B.  Hampton,  Newark  Conference.  1957. 

History  of  Asbury  Church,  n.d.  Vernon  B.  Hampton 

McCUSKEY,  ROY  (1883-  ),  American  pastor,  district 

superintendent,  and  college  president,  was  bom  four 
miles  from  Cameron,  W.  Va.,  on  June  19,  1883. 

He  entered  the  West  Virginu  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Church  and  after  serving  a  number  of  appoint- 
ments became  President  of  West  Virginl\  Wesleyan 
College,  1931-41.  Then  he  served  St.  Paul's,  Parkersburg 
from  1941  until  his  retirement  in  1949. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Gener.\l  Conferences  of 
1924,  1932,  1936,  and  1940. 

Roy  McCuskey  did  more  than  any  man  to  save  the 
college  during  the  depression  of  the  early  thirties.  After 
unification,  he  kept  the  institution  in  Buckhannon,  W.  Va., 
where  it  is  said  to  have  the  most  beautiful  campus  in 
America.  Under  McCuskey  one-half  the  members  of  the 
West  Virginia  M.  E.  Conference  were  then  trained  at 
Wesleyan.  Dr.  McCuskey  resides  in  Parkersburg,  W.  Va. 

Methodist  Ministers  of  the  West  Virginia  Conference. 

Roy  McCuskey,  All  Things  M'ork  Together  for  Good  to  Them 

That  Love  God.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

McCUTCHAN,  ROBERT  GUY  (1877-1958),  American  mu- 
sician, hymnologist  and  editor  of  The  Metliodist  Hymnal 
(U.S.A.)  of  1935,  was  bom  Sept.  13,  1877,  at  Mt.  Ayr, 


MACOONALD,   FREDERIC   WILLIAM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Iowa.  He  graduated  from  Simpson  College,  Iowa,  Bache- 
lor of  Music,  1904,  and  Doctor  of  Music  in  1927.  He  be- 
gan teaching  music  in  Baker  University,  Kansas,  1904, 
but  in  1911  became  dean  of  the  School  of  Music  of  De- 
Pauw  University  Indiana.  In  1939  McCutchan  went  to 
Claremont,  Calif.,  becoming  a  lecturer  in  the  Claremont 
Graduate  School  in  1940  and  there  he  remained  until  his 
death  in  1958. 

His  first  wife  was  Carrie  Bums  Sharp  whom  he  mar- 
ried on  Nov.  23,  1904  (deceased  1941),  and  they  had  one 
son,  Robert  John.  He  married  again  on  Dec.  11,  1944, 
Helen  Laura  Cowles. 

A  skilled  choral  conductor,  Robert  McCutchan  devel- 
oped wide  interest  in  congregational  singing  throughout 
the  country  and  lectured  on  church  music  to  church 
groups  and  at  colleges  and  universities.  He  made  a  prac- 
tice of  collecting  church  hymnals,  commentaries,  and  early 
American  writings  on  religious  music  beginning  with  the 
seventeenth  century.  He  left  3,000  such  items  to  Clare- 
mont College  in  1957.  This  collection  is  considered  to  be 
the  finest  of  its  field  in  the  west. 

McCutchan  once  observed:  "Hymns  have  always  filled 
the  common  need  of  human  beings  to  praise  God,  give 
thanks,  meditate  or  speak  in  penitence.  When  you  want 
to  discover  the  essential  spirit  of  Christianity,  turn  to  a 
hymn."  He  edited  The  Methodist  Hymnal  of  1935  and 
wrote  Our  Hymnody,  1937 — an  annotated  enlargement  of 
this  h>Tnnal.  He  also  wrote  Hymns  in  the  Lives  of  Men, 
1945;  Music  in  our  Churches,  1925,  and  Music  in  Wor- 
ship, 1927.  In  1957  he  wrote  his  last  book,  Hymn  Tunes: 
Their  Sources  and  Significance.  He  died  on  May  15,  1958, 
at  Pilgrim  Place,  Claremont,  Calif.,  and  was  buried  in 
Greencastle,  Ind. 

Pomona  Progress  Bulletin,  The.  Pomona,  California:    May  15, 

1958. 

Who's    W/jo    in    Methodism.    Chicago:    A.    N.    Marquis    Co., 

1952.  Jesse  A.  Eabl 

MACDONALD,  FREDERIC  WILLIAM  (1842-1928),  Brit- 
ish Methodist,  was  born  at  Leeds,  Feb.  25,  1842,  the 
son  of  George  Browne  Macdonald,  a  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist minister,  and  grandson  of  James  Macdonald,  one  of 
John  Wesley's  preachers.  Frederic  was  educated  at  St. 
Peter's  Collegiate  School,  London,  and  at  Owens  Col- 
lege, Manchester,  the  earliest  form  of  what  was  to  become 
the  present  Manchester  University.  He  entered  the  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  ministry  in  1862,  and  served  as  circuit 
minister,  theological  tutor  at  Handsworth  College,  Bir- 
mingham (from  1881),  and  secretary  of  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Missionary  Society  (from  1891).  He  was 
a  fraternal  delegate  to  the  Gener.\l  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Church  at  Cincinnati  in  1880  and  was  elected 
president  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in  1899.  He  super- 
annuated in  1914,  and  died  in  Bournemouth,  Oct.  16, 
1928.  He  was  most  famous  as  one  of  the  preachers  of  his 
time;  he  also  wrote  biographies  of  William  Morley 
Pu.NSHON  and  John  W.  Fletcher  of  Madeley. 

Macdonald  came  from  a  remarkable  family.  His  sisters 
Georgiana  and  Agnes  married  respectively  the  painters 
Sir  Edward  Bume-Jones  and  Sir  Edward  Poynter;  and 
Alice  and  Louisa  became  the  respective  mothers  of 
Rudyard  Kipling,  poet  and  novelist,  and  Earl  Stanley 
Baldwin  of  Bewdley,  Conservative  leader  and  prime  min- 
ister. One  result  of  this  relationship,  we  are  told,  was  that 


Kipling  sometimes  made  suggestions  about  the  phrasing 
of  Baldwin's  speeches. 

Methodist  Recorder  (1899).  Wesleyan  Methodist  Minutes, 
1929.  John    Newton 

McDonald,  WILLIAM  (I82O-I9OI),  American  holiness 
minister,  writer,  and  editor,  was  bom  March  1,  1820,  at 
Belmont,  Maine.  He  was  converted  and  received  his  call 
to  the  ministry  in  1838  and  was  licensed  to  preach  in 
1840.  In  1843  he  joined  the  Maine  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Church.  During  his  sixty-one  years  of  active  service 
he  was  pastor  of  charges  in  Maine,  Wisconsin,  Provi- 
dence, New  York  East,  and  New  England  Confer- 
ences, some  twenty-six  charges  in  all. 

McDonald  stated  that  he  experienced  entire  Sancti- 
FiCATiON  in  1857  at  the  Kennebunk  (Maine)  Camp- 
meeting,  and  as  the  holiness  movement  progressed  he 
came  quickly  to  the  front.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  National  Campmeeting  Association  for  the  Promo- 
tion of  Holiness  and  served  as  vice-president  for  sixteen 
years  and  president  for  twelve.  He  was  the  first  editor  of 
the  Advocate  of  Bible  Holiness,  the  Association's  national 
periodical,  and  later  edited  the  Christian  Witness. 

He  wrote  numerous  books  in  a  variety  of  fields.  His 
most  popular  were  his  holiness  books.  The  Nciv  Testa- 
ment Standard  of  Piety  and  The  Scriptural  Way  of  Holi- 
ness. He  wrote  a  history  of  Methodism  in  Providence, 
R.  1.,  where  he  had  organized  the  Trinity  Church.  While 
he  lay  dying,  his  last  book.  Young  Peoples'  Wesley,  was  at 
the  press.  He  passed  away  Sept.  11,  1901. 


Zions  Herald,  Sept.  11,  18,  1901. 


J.  Gordon  Melton 


MacDONELL,    GEORGE    NOWLAND     (1879-1953),    an 

American  missionary  to  Cuba  and  Mexico,  was  born  in 
Savannah,  Ga.,  the  son  of  George  N.  and  Margaret  Walker 
MacDonell.  He  was  graduated  from  Emory  College,  Ox- 
ford, Ga.,  in  1893,  then  studied  theology  for  three  years 
at  Vanderbilt  University.  He  was  first  appointed  for 
work  in  China,  and  studied  the  language  and  customs 
of  the  Chinese  people.  Although  his  reservation  had  been 
made  to  sail  from  San  Francisco,  Bishop  Warren  A. 
Candler,  in  charge  of  both  China  and  Cuba,  recognizing 
the  strategic  need  for  workers  to  go  immediately  to  Cuba, 
canceled  the  trip  to  China  and  ordered  MacDonell  to 
go  to  Cuba. 

Accordingly,  he  arrived  in  Havana  on  Dec.  31,  1898, 
and  the  following  day  the  Spanish  flag  went  down  and 
the  United  States  flag  went  up.  The  day  marked  the  end 
of  the  era  of  Spanish  colonization  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere. Since  there  were  many  American  soldiers  stationed 
at  Camp  Columbia,  in  Havana,  for  some  months  after  the 
end  of  the  War  with  Spain,  he  assisted  chaplains  while 
studying  Spanish. 

There  was  then  raging  an  epidemic  of  yellow  fever 
with  a  heavy  death  toll,  which  MacDonell  noted  in  his 
diary.  He  and  his  room-mate,  Thaddeus  E.  Leland,  came 
down  with  the  dread  disease,  and  both  were  nursed  back 
to  health  by  Mabel  Kenerly  Thrower,  a  teacher  in  the 
Colegio  Central  of  which  Leland  was  principal.  While  the 
two  men  were  still  sick,  they  were  visited  by  Major  W.  C. 
Gorgas,  head  of  the  Army  department  of  sanitation,  and 
Dr.  Carlos  J.  Finlay,  Cuban  physician  who  first  advanced 
the  theory  that  the  disease  was  transmitted  by  the  mos- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MCDOUGALL,    GEORGE   MILLWARD 


quito.  They  formed  a  lasting  friendship.  As  associates, 
MacDonell  soon  had  Hubert  W.  Baker  and  H.  W.  Penny. 

He  was  married  in  1900  by  Bishop  Candler  to  Mabel 
K.  Thrower,  and  their  first  child,  George  MacDonell,  Jr., 
was  bom  in  Havana.  Two  other  sons,  Thomas  and  Robert, 
and  a  daughter,  Margaret,  were  bom  after  they  left  Cuba. 

Recognizing  the  need  for  medical  missions,  he  asked 
for  leave  of  absence  to  study  medicine  and  graduated 
from  Adanta  Medical  College,  now  a  part  of  Emory 
University.  On  finishing  his  medical  course  he  engaged 
in  practice  as  surgeon  at  the  Minas  Viejas,  near  Villaldama, 
and  later  conducted  the  American  hospital  in  Monterrey, 
Nuevo  Leon,  Mexico. 

After  ten  years  in  Mexico,  he  retired  from  that  field 
due  to  severe  revolutionary  conditions  which  forced  Amer- 
ican citizens  to  be  recalled  to  the  U.S.  He  moved  to 
Miami,  Fla.,  where  he  became  head  of  the  city  health 
department.  He  was  awarded  the  Carlos  J.  Finlay  medal 
by  the  Cuban  government  for  his  continued  interest  in 
Cuba,  and  his  research  with  Finlay  on  the  transmission 
of  yellow  fever  by  the  mosquito. 

His  widow  continued  the  missionary  zeal  of  her  partner 
and  for  many  years  was  vitally  interested  in  the  missionary 
work  of  The  Methodist  Church.  She  passed  away  in 
Miami,  on  Feb.  23,  1968. 

S.  A.  Neblett,  Metlwdism  in  Cuba.  1966.  Garfield  Evans 

MacDONELL,  ROBERT  WALKER  (1857-1888),  pioneer 
missionarv'  to  Mexico  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  was 
bom  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  on  Oct.  11,  1857,  the  son  of 
George  G.  N.  MacDonell.  His  primary  education  was 
in  the  public  schools  of  Savannah  and  then  he  attended 
Emory  College  at  0.xford,  Ga.,  graduating  in  1877.  He 
was  converted  in  a  camp  meeting  near  Springfield  in 
October  1872,  and  received  into  the  church  in  November 
of  that  year.  Having  finished  college,  he  taught  school  for 
a  time  and  was  then  licensed  to  preach  in  1877  and 
admitted  to  the  South  Georgi.\  Conference  on  trial.  For 
a  time  he  served  a  circuit  in  South  Georgia.  He  felt  the 
call  to  the  mission  field  in  1880,  and  Bishop  George  F. 
Pierce  presented  his  name  to  the  Board  of  Missions 
for  that  work.  He  was  accepted  in  May  1880,  but  was 
permitted  by  the  Board  of  Missions  to  remain  in  Georgia 
for  the  rest  of  that  year,  serving  at  Savannah  in  place  of 
a  pastor  who  had  been  injured  in  a  railroad  accident.  He 
was  ordained  de.\con  and  elder  in  December  1880,  by 
Bishop  Pierce.  On  December  28  of  that  year,  he  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Fachie  Williams,  the  daughter  of 
W.  D.  M.  Williams,  president  of  the  State  Institute  for 
the  Blind.  They  traveled  to  Mexico  early  the  next  year. 

He  served  in  several  places  in  Mexico — for  a  time  as 
superintendent  of  the  District  of  Leon  and  in  April  1884, 
was  transferred  to  the  American  Church  in  El  Paso.  He 
maintained  his  interest  in  and  contact  with  the  Mexican 
believers  during  this  time,  however.  In  1885,  he  was 
charged  with  opening  a  new  mission  in  the  city  of  Du- 
rango,  capital  of  the  state  of  the  same  name.  He 
was  well-received  and  soon  a  school  was  opened  with  the 
cooperation  of  Catherine  McFarren,  a  Presbyterian.  He 
obtained  the  right  to  be  known  as  the  "Apostle  of  Meth- 
odism" in  the  state  of  Durango.  His  influence  widened 
and  he  was  respected  throughout  the  area. 

At  a  conference  in  San  Antonio  in  1885,  the  missions 
in  the  far-reaching  territories  of  the  area  were  formed  into 
an  Annual  Conference  and  MacDonell  was  named  secre- 


tar\'  of  this  body.  This  organization  was  the  forerunner 
of  the  Rio  Grande  Conference  of  the  present.  At  times, 
the  district  superintendent  did  not  arrive  when  scheduled 
for  conferences  and  other  meetings  and  MacDonell  pre- 
sided in  his  absence.  In  1886,  at  the  Annual  Conference 
in  Monterrey,  H.  C.  Hernandez  was  named  assistant  to 
MacDonell  and  his  help  proved  most  valuable  in  main- 
taining the  work  established  at  Nombre  de  Dios  and  San 
Juan  del  Rio  as  well  as  in  the  capital.  At  the  following 
session  of  the  Annual  Conference  in  1887,  a  new  District 
was  formed  of  the  work  in  Dui"ango,  Chihuahua,  Sonora 
and  Sinaloa  in  Mexico  and  of  the  American  territories 
of  New  Mexico,  Arizona  and  the  mission  at  El  Paso. 
MacDonell  was  named  District  Superintendent.  He  died 
at  Nombre  de  Dios  on  Dec.  21,  1888,  after  a  hard  ride  on 
horseback  to  keep  a  preaching  engagement. 


McDOUGALL,  GEORGE  MILLWARD  (1821-1876),  Cana- 
dian Methodist  missionary,  was  bom  in  Kingston,  Upper 
Canada,  Ontario,  on  Sept.  9,  1821.  Educated  at  Victoria 
College,  he  was  received  on  trial  in  1850.  As  a  proba- 
tioner he  worked  with  William  Case  at  Alderville  and 
subsequently  ser\'ed  at  the  Garden  River  and  Rama  mis- 
sions. Ordained  in  1854,  he  was  appointed  in  1860  as 
chairman  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  and  Rocky  Mountains  dis- 
trict and  missionary  at  Rossville,  Manitoba. 

After  a  1,200-mile  exploratory  trip  to  Fort  Edmonton 
in  1862  with  his  son  John  and  Thomas  Woolsey,  he 
established  a  new  mission  about  eighty  miles  east  of  Ed- 
monton. Here  he  worked  with  Woolsey,  H.  B.  Stein- 
HAUER,  and  John  as  a  lay  assistant.  In  1867-68  he  visited 
eastern  Canada  to  raise  money  to  recruit  men  for  his 
field.  George  and  Egerton  Ryerson  Young  and  Peter 
Campbell  responded  to  his  appeal. 

Following  a  great  smallpox  epidemic  in  1871,  during 
which  he  lost  two  children  and  many  of  his  Indian 
charges,  he  established  a  permanent  mission  at  Edmonton, 
a  post  first  occupied  by  R.  T.  Rundle  in  1840.  Two  years 
later  he  opened  a  new  mission  on  the  Bow  River  to  the 
Stoney  and  Blackfoot  Indians.  In  1874-75  he  returned  to 
the  east  and  to  Britain.  His  mission  was  exceptionally  suc- 
cessful in  arousing  enthusiasm  for  the  Indian  missions  and 
in  persuading  the  federal  government  to  improve  the  con- 
dition of  the  Northwest. 

Upon  his  return  to  the  west,  McDougall  was  asked  by 
Lieutenant-Govemor  Morris  of  Manitoba  to  pacify  the 
westem  Indians.  They  accepted  his  advice  and  did  not 
block  the  work  of  surveyors  and  other  federal  officials. 

While  he  was  engaged  in  January  1876,  in  putting  up 
new  buildings  at  Morleyville  on  the  Bow  River,  McDoug- 
all perished  on  the  plains.  He  was  buried  at  the  mission 
site. 

George  McDougall  was  the  efi^ective  founder  of  Meth- 
odist and  indeed  Protestant  Christianity  in  Alberta.  To 
Principal  Grant  of  the  Queen's  University,  he  was  "one  of 
our  simple  great  ones."  Governor  Laird  acclaimed  him  as 
"one  of  the  most  devoted  and  intelligent  advisers  the 
Indians  ever  had." 

J.   McDougall,   George   Millicard  McDougall,   Pioneer,   Patriot 
and  Missionary.  Toronto:  Briggs,  1888. 
J.  McLean,  The  Hero  of  the  Saskatchewan.  Barrie,  1891. 
I   E.  Nix,  Mission  Among  the  Buffalo.  Toronto:  Ryerson,  1960. 

J.  E.  Nix 
F.  \V.  Armstrong 


MCDOUGALL,   JOHN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


McDOUGALL,  JOHN  (1842-1917),  Canadian  Methodist 
missionary  to  the  Indians,  was  bom  at  Owen  Sound,  On- 
tario, Dec.  27,  1842,  and  was  married  in  1864  to  Abigail, 
daughter  of  Henry  B.  Steinhaueb,  and  after  her  death  in 
1871  to  EUzabeth,  daughter  of  S.  C.  Boyd.  His  parents 
were  the  George  M.  McDouc.\lls,  also  missionaries  to 
the  Canadian  Indians.  His  education  was  acquired  in  mis- 
sion and  village  schools  in  Ontario,  and  two  sessions  at 
VicTORi.\  College,  Cobourg.  He  left  college  to  accom- 
pany his  father  to  his  mission  station  in  Manitoba,  where 
young  John  taught  school.  Moving  with  his  father's  family 
to  Victoria  Mission,  near  Fort  Edmonton,  he  continued  as 
his  father's  lay  assistant  and  interpreter,  being  stationed 
at  Pigeon  Lake  as  a  lay  supply.  He  was  ordained  July 
30,  1872,  at  the  missionary  conference  held  at  Winnipeg, 
Manitoba.  In  1873  he  began  a  new  mission  to  the  Stoney 
and  Blackfoot  Indians  at  Morleyville,  then  in  unsettled 
territory.  On  the  death  of  his  father  in  1876,  he  became 
chairman  of  the  Saskatchewan  district  in  the  Methodist 
Church,  a  position  he  held  until  1896. 

He  served  as  president  of  the  Manitoba  and  North 
West  Conference  in  1893  and  of  the  Alberta  Conference 
in  1906,  and  as  delegate  to  General  Conference  in  1886, 
1890,  and  1894.  He  was  granted  the  doctorate  of  divinity 
by  Victoria  College,  Toronto.  After  retirement  in  1906, 
he  was  appointed  by  the  Canadian  government  as  com- 
missioner to  the  Doukhobors  and  Indian  commissioner  for 
British  Columbia,  Alberta,  and  Saskatchewan. 

Between  1888  and  1912  he  wrote  a  biography  of  his 
father,  a  series  of  six  volumes  of  personal  memoirs,  a 
novel,  and  many  newspaper  and  magazine  articles  on  the 
west. 

An  ardent  Canadian  nationalist,  he  advised  the  Indians 
at  the  signing  of  Treaties  6  and  7  with  the  federal  gov- 
ernment and  acted  as  guide,  scout,  and  chaplain  during 
the  Northwest  Rebellion  in  1885.  His  missionary  career 
had  spanned  the  transition  of  the  Canadian  West  from  a 
Hudson's  Bay  fur-trading  empire  to  a  peaceful  agricultural 
settlement,  and  the  Indians'  transition  from  nomads  depen- 
dent on  the  buffalo  to  a  new  life  on  the  reserves.  He  died 
in  Calgary  on  Jan.  15,  1917. 

J.  McDougall,  On  Western  Trails  in  the  Early  Seventies. 
Toronto:  Briggs,  1911. 

,   In  the   Days   of   the   Red   River   Rebellion. 

Toronto:  Briggs,  1903. 

John  Maclean,  McDougall  of  Alberta.  Toronto:  Ryerson,  1927. 

J.  E.  Nix 

McDowell,  WILLIAM  FRASER  (1858-1937),  American 
bishop,  was  bom  at  Millersburg,  Ohio,  Feb.  4,  1858,  the 
son  of  David  A.  and  Rebecca  (Fraser)  McDowell.  His 
father,  a  devoted  layman,  was  a  member  of  the  1904 
General  Conference.  Young  McDowell  was  educated 
at  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  (A.B.,  1879,  and  Ph.D., 
1893),  and  Boston  University  (S.T.B.,  1882).  Ameri- 
can, Denver,  Northwestern,  Ohio  Wesleyan,  Vermont, 
and  Wesleyan  Universities  conferred  honorary  degrees 
on  him — D.D.,  LL.D.,  and  L.H.D.  He  married  Clotilda 
Lyon,  Galion,  Ohio,  the  daughter  of  a  Methodist  minis- 
ter, Sept.  20,  1882.  They  had  one  daughter,  Olive,  who 
died  while  still  a  young  woman.  Mrs.  McDowell,  presi- 
dent of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
(ME),  1908-21,  died  Dec.  27,  1930. 

McDowell  was  admitted  to  the  North  Ohio  Confer- 
ence in  1882,  and  was  ordained  deacon  in  1883  and 
ELDER  in  1886.  He  ser\'ed  three  charges  in  the  conference: 


Lodi,  1882-83;  Oberlin,  1883-85;  and  TiflBn,  1885-90.  In 
the  latter  year  he  was  named  Chancellor  of  the  University 
of  Denver,  serving  nine  years.  While  in  that  position  he 
delivered  the  first  series  of  university  extension  lectures 
ever  given  in  the  state,  using  the  subject,  "Some  Studies 
in  the  French  Revolution."  Also,  while  in  Denver  he 
served  on  the  state  board  of  charities  and  correction. 

In  1899  McDowell  became  Corresponding  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Education  (ME).  In  1900  he  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  General  Conference  from  the  Colorado 
Conference,  and  in  1904  he  led  the  North  Ohio  Confer- 
ence delegation  to  the  General  Conference.  At  that  time 
he  was  elected  bishop  and  served  in  Chicago,  1904-16; 
and  in  Washington,  D.  C,  1916-32,  retiring  in  the  latter 
year.  In  1910-11  he  made  episcopal  visits  to  India,  China, 
Japan,  and  the  Philippines. 

Widely  recognized  as  a  great  preacher,  McDowell  was 
invited  to  deliver  the  prestigious  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures 
on  Preaching  at  Yale  Divinity  School  in  1917.  He  gave 
the  following  lectures  at  educational  institutions:  Cole, 
Vanderbilt,  1910;  Mendenhall,  DePauw,  1922;  Merrick, 
Ohio  Wesleyan,  1926;  Earl,  Pacific  School  of  Religion, 
1926;  Alumni,  Gammon,  1927;  Wilkin,  Wesley  Founda- 
tion, Illinois,  1928;  and  Drew  at  Drew,  1933.  When  in 
his  eightieth  year,  just  two  months  before  his  death, 
McDowell  delivered  a  series  of  lectures  at  Boston 
University  which  were  later  published  under  the  title. 
In  All  His  Offices.  Commenting  on  the  man  and  the  occa- 
sion. President  Daniel  L.  Marsh  said,  "After  eleven  years, 
I  do  not  recall  that  I  ever  witnessed  anything  quite  com- 
parable to  that  week  at  Boston  University.  Bishop  Mc- 
Dowell had  the  spirit  of  a  patriarch  and  the  bearing  of  a 
kindly  king.  Students  wept  unashamed.  After  each  lecture, 
students  gathered  and  talked  in  a  reverent  and  subdued 
manner  about  the  things  the  great  bishop  had  said."  Bish- 
op Edwin  H.  Hughes  said  McDowell  was  the  "most  dis- 
tinctive in  manner  and  speech"  of  all  the  bishops,  and 
added,  "He  specialized  in  the  devotional  Ufe.  His  prayers 
swung  us  into  God's  orbit.  His  benedictions  became  equal 
to  a  complete  service."  Others  declared  that  there  was 
hardly  a  speaker  on  the  American  platform  in  McDowell's 
day  who  could  equal  him  in  the  power  to  sway  an 
audience. 

McDowell  was  dedicated  to  the  cause  of  the  imion  of 
American  Methodism  and  he  gave  much  time  and  energy 
to  it.  He  sei'ved  on  his  own  denomination's  commission  on 
union  from  1916  until  his  death  in  1937.  After  the  death 
of  Bishop  Earl  Cranston  in  1932,  McDowell  was  chair- 
man of  the  commission.  In  referring  to  McDowell's  con- 
tribution. Bishop  John  M.  Moore  called  him  "that  prince 
of  men,  that  master  of  assembhes,  that  apostle  of  union, 
that  untiring  toiler  in  the  creation  of  an  acceptable  and 
adequate  plan  of  union."  Edwin  H.  Hughes  declared  that 
at  a  meeting  of  the  joint  commission  in  Louisville,  Bish- 
op McDowell  "lay  in  agonized  wakefulness  until  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning"  praying  and  pondering  a  solution 
to  the  race  issue  in  relation  to  Methodist  union.  When  the 
Plan  of  Union  was  completed.  Bishop  McDowell  consid- 
ered it  a  high  privilege  to  present  it  to  the  1936  General 
Conference  for  adoption. 

Tall  and  dignified  in  bearing,  McDowell  was  impressive 
in  appearance.  He  looked  the  part  of  a  church  leader,  and 
he  always  brought  statesmanlike  quahties  to  bear  on 
ecclesiastical  problems.  He  was  at  home  in  any  company; 
in  conversation  his  wit  was  brilliant.  Withal  he  was  hum- 
ble. He  said,  "When  I  hear  men  talk  about  the  bishop 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MCFERRIN,    JOHN    BERRY 


being  the  'chief  minister,'  and  'chief  pastor,'  I  always  think 
not  of  the  word  'chief  but  of  being  chief  'ministeT,'  chief 
'pastor'  to  my  brethren." 

Between  1910  and  1933  Bishop  McDowell  wrote  eight 
books:  In  the  School  of  Christ,  A  Man's  Religion,  Good 
Ministers  of  Jesus  Christ  (Yale  Lectures),  This  Mind, 
Making  a  Personal  Faith,  That  I  May  Save  Some,  Them 
He  Also  Called,  and  Father  and  Brethren. 

On  Sunday  April  25,  1937,  Bishop  McDowell  preached 
at  Morganton,  N.  C,  and  died  the  next  day  in  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  A  funeral  service  was  held  at  Foundry  Church 
with  Bishops  McConnell  and  Hughes  as  the  principal 
speakers.  There  was  a  second  service  in  the  chapel  at 
Ohio  Wesleyan  University  with  President  Edmund  D. 
SoPER  in  charge.  Burial  was  in  Delaware,  Ohio.  A  hand- 
somely carved  pulpit  was  later  installed  in  the  historic 
Foundry  Church  in  memory  of  Bishop  McDowell. 

Christian  Advocate,  Jan.  16,  1941. 

E.  H.  Hughes,  /  Was  Made  a  Minister.  1943. 

F,  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

W.  F.  McDowell,  In  All  His  Offices.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

McFARLAND,  JOHN  THOMAS  (1851-1913),  American 
minister,  educator  and  editor,  was  bom  at  Mt.  Vernon, 
Ind.,  on  Jan.  2,  1851.  His  family  moved  to  Iowa  in  1853 
and  he  soon  enrolled  in  the  preparatory  department  of 
Iowa  Wesleyan  University,  where  he  remained  until 
his  senior  college  year.  After  a  year  at  the  Boston  Univer- 
sity School  of  Theology,  he  served  as  student  pastor  in 
the  Iowa  Conference  (ME)  before  returning  to  Boston 
University,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1878.  Ac- 
cepted into  the  Iowa  Conference,  he  served  a  year  at 
Eddyville  and  in  1879  filled  the  combined  position  of 
the  University  charge,  Mount  Pleasant,  and  adjunct  pro- 
fessor of  natural  science  at  Iowa  Wesleyan.  In  1880  he 
was  transferred  to  the  Central  Illinois  Conference  for 
a  year  each  at  Elmwood  and  Peoria.  Returning  to  Iowa 
Wesleyan  in  1882  as  Vice  President  and  Professor  of 
Belles  Letters  and  History,  he  was  elected  President  in 
1884.  His  dynamic  leadership  until  1891  increased  the 
endowment  fund,  raised  the  enrollment,  expanded  the 
science  and  music  curricula,  developed  the  museum  and 
laboratories,  and  initiated  work  on  the  Hall  of  Science 
and  Chapel.  He  attracted  attention  in  national  educa- 
tional circles  and  served  as  a  delegate  to  the  1888  Gen- 
eral Conference  and  the  1891  Ecumenic.\l  Method- 
ist Conference. 

In  1891  he  returned  to  pastoral  work  in  the  Illinois 
Conference;  in  1895  in  the  New  York  East  Confer- 
ence at  the  New  York  Avenue  Church,  Brooklyn,  and  in 
the  Kansas  Conference  at  First  Church,  Topek.^,  1899- 
1904.  In  1905  he  became  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Sunday  School  Union  and  Tract  Society,  and  in  1909 
Editor  of  the  Sunday  School  Publications.  To  the  task  of 
editing  multiple  materials  for  a  vast  circulation  change, 
he  brought  learning,  insight  and  flexibility  in  spite  of 
criticism  from  ultra  conservative  areas  of  the  church.  He 
died  at  Maplewood,  N.  J.  on  Dec.  22,  1913.  During  his 
career  he  received  an  honorary  D.D.  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  the  Pacific  in  1885,  an  LL.D.  from  Simpson  in 
1903  and  an  L.H.D.  from  Iowa  Wesleyan  in  1905. 

General  Minutes,  1880-1914. 

Minutes  of  tlie  Iowa  Conference,  1873-1891. 

The  Methodist  Yearbook,   1915.         Louis  A.  Haselmayer 


McFERRIN,  JAMES  (1784-1840),  American  pioneer 
preacher,  was  bom  in  Washington  County,  Va.,  March 
25,  1784,  of  Irish  Presbyterian  ancestry.  He  was  brought 
up  as  a  farmer.  At  age  twenty  he  married,  settling  in 
Rutherford  County,  Tenn. 

James  McFerrin  was  a  captain  in  the  War  of  1812 
under  General  Andrew  Jackson;  and  subsequently  suffered 
great  privations  in  the  campaign  against  the  Creek 
Indians.  He  was  elected  Colonel  and  for  several  years  led 
the  best-trained  regiment  of  state  troops. 

In  1820  he  was  converted  and  immediately  began  to 
preach.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Tennessee  Conference 
Nov.  25,  1823.  His  ministry  was  in  Alabama  after  1828, 
and  in  western  Tennessee  after  1834.  He  filled  a  number 
of  prominent  appointments  and  traveled  extensively.  He 
reported  the  following  in  1839:  "Since  I  joined  the  Con- 
ference, I  have  preached  2,080  times,  baptized  573  adults 
and  813  infants,  and  have  taken  into  society  3,965  mem- 
bers." As  a  preacher  he  was  somewhat  peculiar  in  his 
manner,  but  possessed  an  indescribable  influence  over  the 
multitude.  He  had  three  sons  who  entered  the  ministry. 
One  was  John  Berry  McFerrin,  able  Southern  leader. 
James  McFerrin  died  in  Tipton  County,  Tenn.,  Sept.  4, 
1840. 

Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography. 

M.   Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.   1878.  Jesse  A.   Earl 


John  B.  McFerrin 

McFERRIN,  JOHN  BERRY  (1807-1887),  American  preach- 
er, editor,  and  administrator,  was  born  June  15,  1807  in 
Rutherford  Count\',  Tenn.  His  father,  James  McFerrin, 
was  a  Methodist  preacher  who,  before  his  con\ersion, 
had  been  a  famier  and  soldier,  having  served  as  an  officer 
with  General  Andrew  Jackson  in  the  Creek  Indian  war. 

John  McFerrin  was  converted  in  1820,  and  the  next 
year  at  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  called  on  more  and 
more  frequently  to  deliver  prayer  during  meetings.  At 
sixteen  he  was  appointed  a  class  leader,  gaining  from 
this  experience  what  he  called  the  best  theological  training 
ever  organized  by  the  Methodists. 

At  Cambridge,  Aik.,  Oct.  8,  1825,  McFerrin  was  pub- 
licly examined,  licensed  to  preach,  and  recommended  for 
admission  on  trial  as  a  traveling  preacher  in  the  Tennes- 
see Conference.  He  was  assigned  to  Franklin  Circuit, 
and   delivered   his   first   seimon   at   Tuscumbia,    Ala.,    as 


MACGEARY.    JOHN   SAMUEL 

northern  Alabama  was  then  a  part  of  the  Tennessee  Con- 
ference. 

After  his  ordination  as  deacon  by  Bishop  Joshua  Soule, 
McFerrin  was  sent  as  a  missionary  to  the  Cherokee  Indians 
— a  highly  responsible  assignment  to  be  laid  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  a  young  man  not  yet  twenty  years  old.  He 
preached  and  conducted  a  school  for  the  Indian  children 
until  1829,  when  he  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Roberts  and 
assigned  to  the  Limestone  Circuit  in  north  Alabama.  He 
was  only  twenty-four  when  he  was  appointed  to  Hunts- 
ville  (Ala.)  Station.  From  there  he  went  to  Nashville, 
Tenn. 

Despite  his  protests  about  being  unready  for  its  respon- 
sibilities, McFerrin  was  appointed  presiding  elder  for  the 
Florence  (Ala.)  District  in  1836.  In  1837  he  was  named 
presiding  elder  of  the  Cumberland  District  in  TEN>fESSEE. 

McFerrin  was  transferred  from  the  pastorate  to  the 
editorial  field  in  1840,  when  he  was  asked  to  edit  the 
Christian  Advocate.  What  was  intended  as  a  temporary 
assignment  lasted  for  eighteen  years. 

When  the  split  between  the  Northern  and  Southern 
Methodists  occurred  in  1844,  McFerrin  supported  the 
position  of  the  South,  and  provided  strong  guidance  in  the 
organization  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South. 

Its  General  Conference  in  1858  elected  McFerrin  Book 
Agent,  a  post  he  served  effectively. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  War  Between  the  States,  he 
was  placed  in  charge  of  all  Methodist  missionary  work  in 
the  Army  of  Tennessee  (C.  S.  A.),  frequently  preaching 
to  the  troops. 

In  1866  at  the  General  Conference  held  in  New  Or- 
leans, which  practically  reorganized  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  following  the  war,  he  was  elected  Secretary  of  Do- 
mestic Missions.  When  this  post  was  combined  with  that  of 
Secretary  of  Foreign  Missions  in  1870,  McFerrin  won  the 
election  to  head  the  work  of  the  Missions  board. 

For  eight  years  he  was  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Missions,  until  he  was  returned  to  the  post  of  Book  Agent 
at  a  time  when  the  department  was  in  grave  financial  dif- 
ficulties. His  experienced  management  enabled  the  depart- 
ment to  regain  its  former  strength  and  extend  its  influence. 

An  honor  that  stood  out  for  McFerrin  was  his  election 
as  a  delegate  to  the  1881  Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference in  London.  He  also  attended  the  important 
Centennial  of  American  Methodism  held  in  1884  at 
Baltimore,  Md. 

So  beloved  was  McFerrin  that  even  in  1886,  when  his 
hearing  and  sight  had  failed  very  much,  he  was  named 
overwhelmingly  as  the  leader  of  the  Tennessee  delegation 
to  the  General  Conference,  where  he  was  again  elected 
as  Book  Agent. 

This  big,  sharp-featured  man  with  prodigious  memory 
and  rapier-like  wit  sat  in  more  General  Conferences  and 
occupied  connectional  offices  longer  than  any  man  of  his 
day.  He  was  widely  known  for  his  ability  as  a  rough-and- 
tumble  debater,  and  rarely  was  he  defeated. 

Although  he  was  best  known  for  his  work  as  an  admin- 
istrator, McFerrin  excelled  as  a  preacher.  His  distinctive, 
somewhat  nasal  voice  and  simple,  direct  style  created  a 
deep  impression  on  his  listeners. 

One  example  of  the  effect  McFerrin's  preaching  had  on 
people  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  when  U.S.  President  James 
Knox  Polk  was  dying,  he  sent  for  J.  B.  McFerrin.  Polk 
had  never  before  united  with  a  church,  but  had  been 
Methodist  in  sentiment  since  hearing  McFerrin  preach  at 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

a  camp  meeting  in  1833.  At  the  request  of  the  dying 
ex-President,  McFerrin  baptized  him  and  received  him 
into  the  church.  When  Polk  died  June  15,  1849,  McFerrin 
delivered  the  sermon  at  the  funeral. 

John  B.  McFerrin  died  on  May  10,  1887,  and  was 
buried  in  Nashville,  Tenn. 

O.   P.   Fitzgerald,  John  B.  McFerrin,  A  Biography.   Nashville: 
Publishing  House  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  1888. 
Minutes  of  the  Tennessee  Conference,  1887. 
J.  P.  Pilkington,  Methodist  Publishing  House.  1968. 

H.  D.  Watts 

MacGEARY,  JOHN  SAMUEL  (1853-1931),  a  missionary 
bishop  of  the  Free  Methodist  Church,  was  bom  near 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.  In  early  life  he  taught  in  rural  schools. 
Converted  when  about  twenty-two  years  of  age,  he  joined 
the  M.  E.  Church,  and  later  the  Free  Methodist  Church. 
Called  to  the  ministry,  he  was  admitted  to  the  Genesee 
Conference  in  1876.  He  was  a  charter  member  of  the 
Pittsburgh  Conference,  1883,  where  he  served  as  pastor 
and  superintendent,  and  also  a  charter  member  of  the 
Oil  City  Conference  of  1899.  He  served  as  field  secre- 
tary for  Greenville  College  for  several  years.  In  1911 
he  was  elected  the  first  (and  only)  missionary  bishop  of 
the  Free  Methodist  Church.  He  travelled  in  India,  China, 
Japan  and  Africa.  He  was  General  Missionary  Secretary, 
1915-19;  pastor  and  district  elder  of  the  California  Con- 
ference until  his  death  at  Oakland,  Calif.,  Jan.  20,  1931. 
He  was  the  author  of:  Outline  History  of  Free  Methodist 
Church.  He  was  Corresponding  Editor  of  The  Free  Meth- 
odist for  twenty-two  years.  John  S.  MacGeary  was  a 
progressive  thinker,  aggressive  church  builder,  and  out- 
standing pulpiteer. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

McGEHEE,  EDWARD  (1786-1880),  prominent  American 
layman  of  early  Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  was  born  in 
November  1786  in  Georgia,  but  went  into  Mississippi  and 
settled  in  Wilkinson  County  when  he  was  quite  a  young 
man.  He  became  wealthy  and  was  a  benefactor  of  the 
Colonization  Society  and  the  American  Bible  Society, 
and  estabhshed  an  academy  near  his  home.  He  gave  large- 
ly to  Centenary  College  when  that  was  founded. 

He  came  to  New  Orleans  with  Mark  Moore  and  Wil- 
liam Winans  in  1819,  and  helped  to  secure  a  preaching 
place  for  these  Methodist  ministers  in  the  loft  of  a  flour 
inspector's  office.  Later  on  he  gave  some  $40,000  for  the 
church  which  was  first  known  as  Poydras  Street,  and  later 
Carondelet  Street.  The  official  title  of  the  latter  church 
was  in  time  fixed  as  "The  McGehee  M.  E.  Chmch,  South." 

Judge  McGehee,  as  he  became,  served  in  the  Missis- 
sissippi  legislature  and  was,  it  is  said,  offered  the  place  of 
Secretary  of  the  United  States  Treasury  by  Zachary 
Taylor,  then  President.  McGehee,  however,  declined  to  so 
serve.  His  handsome  residence,  Bowling  Green,  near 
Woodville,  Miss.,  was  bunied  during  the  Civil  War.  He 
helped  to  build  the  first  railroad  and  first  cotton  factory  in 
the  deep  South,  and  is  said  to  have  invented  the  cattle 
guards  which  kept  cattle  from  attempting  to  go  upon  the 
railroad  trestles  and  bridges  of  that  day.  He  was  the  last 
survivor  of  a  family  of  thirteen  children,  his  brothers 
Abner,  Abram,  John,  and  William  becoming  planters  in 
Mississippi  and  Louisiana. 

Judge  McGehee  died  on  Oct  1,  1880.  A  memorial  ser- 
mon was  delivered  by  Bishop  John   C.   Keener  at  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MCKAY,   WILLIAM   JOHN 


Carondelet  Street  Church  on  October  31  of  that  year. 
Although  one  son,  Micajah,  died  in  an  untimely  way,  the 
Judge  was  survived  by  seven  children  and  many  grand- 
children. 

N.  B.  H. 

McGOVERN,  GEORGE  STANLEY  (1922-  ),  United 
States  senator  and  member  of  the  World  Methodist 
CouNcn-,  was  bom  in  Avon,  S.  D.,  on  July  19,  1922,  the 
son  of  Joseph  C.  and  Frances  (McLean)  McGovern.  He 
was  educated  at  Dakota  Wesleyan  University  and 
NoRTirwESTERN  UNIVERSITY,  from  which  he  received  the 
M.A.  degree  in  1949  and  the  Ph.D.  in  1953.  His  wife 
was  Eleanor  Stegeberg,  whom  he  married  on  Oct.  31, 
1943,  and  they  have  five  children. 

For  a  time  Senator  McGovem  taught  history  and  politi- 
cal science  at  Dakota  Wesleyan  University,  but  in  1956 
he  was  elected  to  the  U.S.  House  of  Representatives  from 
the  First  District  of  his  state.  He  was  the  Food-for-Peace 
Director  in  the  Kennedy  Administration,  1960-62;  and  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  U.S.  Senate  from  South  Dakota 
in  1963.  He  served  as  a  pilot  of  the  U.S.  Air  Force  in  the 
second  World  War,  and  was  decorated  with  the  Distin- 
guished Flying  Cross.  He  is  the  author  of  The  Colorado 
Coal  Strike,  1913-14,  1953;  War  Against  Want,  1965.  He 
was  a  candidate  for  nomination  as  the  Democratic  nomi- 
nee for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  at  the  1968 
Democratic  Convention,  and  that  same  summer  served  as 
a  delegate  to  the  World  Council  of  Churches  meeting 
at  Uppsala,  Sweden.  In  1972  he  was  the  Democratic 
candidate  for  the  Presidency  but  was  defeated  by  Richard 
Nixon. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,   1966.  N.  B.  H. 

MclNTYRE,  ROBERT  (1851-1914),  American  bishop,  was 
bom  in  Selkirk,  Scotland,  of  solid  Presbyterian  parents, 
on  Nov.  20,  1851.  His  father  was  a  weaver  and  brought 
his  family  to  Philadelphia  in  America  in  1858.  His  moth- 
er died  not  long  after  this  move,  and  the  father  married 
again,  but  died,  leaving  the  support  of  the  family  to 
Robert  who  was  then  seventeen.  The  future  bishop  learned 
the  trade  of  bricklayer  and,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  moved 
the  family  to  Chicago  where  the  great  fire  just  at  that 
time  made  his  services  much  in  demand.  Mclntyre  never 
forgot  his  laboring  days,  and  kept  a  trowel  hung  in  his 
office  the  rest  of  his  life  as  a  reminder. 

Becoming  a  book  salesman,  he  was  converted  in  a  reviv- 
al meeting  in  St.  Louis  and  decided  for  the  ministry.  He 
was  received  into  the  Illinois  Conference  in  1878,  and 
his  unusual  preaching  ability  opened  to  him  some  of  the 
largest  churches  in  the  Conference.  Leaving  the  Illinois 
Conference,  he  became  pastor  of  Trinity  Church  in  Den- 
ver, St.  James  in  Chicago,  and  finally  the  great  First 
Church,  Los  Angeles,  which  almost  doubled  its  member- 
ship in  the  six  years  of  his  ministry.  He  always  drew  great 
congregations  to  his  churches  and  was  Lkewise  a  popular 
lecturer.  He  had  an  unusual  gift  for  painting  word  pic- 
tures, some  of  them  becoming  famous,  and  his  early  back- 
ground made  him  sympathetic  to  social  problems  and  kept 
him  in  touch  with  common  people.  He  was  judged  by 
many  to  be  the  greatest  Methodist  preacher  of  his  day. 

He  attended  Vanderbilt  UNrvERsrTY  for  one  year  and 
was  given  the  D.D.  degree  by  the  University  of  Denver 
in  1896.  In  1908  he  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  of  the 


M.  E.  Church,  but  served  only  a  few  months  more  than 
six  years.  While  on  his  official  journeys,  he  was  taken 
acutely  ill  in  Chicago  and  died  there  on  Aug.  30,  1914. 
He  lies  buried  in  Inglewood,  Los  Angeles. 

The  following  incident  is  told  of  Robert  Mclntyre,  in- 
dicative of  his  character:  Once  when  Bishop  Warren  was 
presiding  over  the  Southern  California  Conference,  a 
minister  guilty  of  a  very  serious  indiscretion  was  required 
to  stand  before  the  brethren  to  be  reprimanded  by  the 
Bishop.  There  he  stood  alone  in  humiliation  before  the  bar 
of  the  Conference,  while  Bishop  Warren  with  trembling 
voice  visited  the  rebuke  upon  him.  Unexpectedly,  a 
brother  minister  arose,  went  forward  and  took  his  stand 
close  beside  the  offending  brother  as  if  he  would  share 
with  him  his  shame.  As  a  result  of  the  unpremeditated. 
Christlike  deed,  the  Bishop  and  the  entire  Conference 
were  in  an  instant  weeping.  Such  a  man  was  Robert  Mc- 
lntyre. "When  he  came  to  Los  Angeles  he  was  known  as 
Robert  Mclntyre,  the  orator;  when  he  left  he  was  known 
as  Robert  Mclntyre,  the  saint." 

Journals  of  the  Illinois  and  Central  Illinois  Conferences,  1914. 
F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Richard  D.  Leonard 

McKAY,  ORVILLE  HERBERT  ( 1913-  ) ,  American  minis- 
ter and  seminary  president,  was  born  at  Croswell,  Mich., 
on  Oct.  9,  1913.  His  parents  were  Herbert  Washington 
and  Iva  M.  (Perry)  McKay.  He  was  educated  at  Asbury 
College,  receiving  the  A.B.  in  1934;  at  Drew  Univer- 
sity, B.D.,  1937,  and  the  Ph.D.,  1941;  and  did  post- 
graduate work  at  Oxford,  England,  in  the  summer  of 
1949.  Adrian  College  awarded  him  the  D.D.  degree  in 
1962.  He  was  awarded  an  S.T.D.  by  MacMurray  College 
in  1965,  and  LL.D.  by  McKendree  College  in  1966. 
His  wife  was  Mabel  Coppock,  whom  he  married  on  Aug. 
19,  1935,  and  they  had  three  children. 

Dr.  McKay  joined  the  Detroit  Conference  and  was 
ordained  deaco.v  in  1936  and  came  into  full  connection 
and  was  ordained  elder  in  1938.  He  served  as  associate 
minister  at  the  Nardin  Park  Church,  Detroit,  1941-43,  and 
1946-47;  was  the  minister  of  First  Church,  Highland  Park, 
Mich.,  1947-51;  First  Church,  Midland,  Mich.,  1951-65, 
in  which  year  he  was  elected  president  of  Garrett  Theo- 
logical Seminary  at  Evanston,  111.  He  has  been  the 
chairman  of  the  Board  of  Hospitals  and  Homes  of  the 
Detroit  Conference;  the  chairman  of  the  Board  of  the 
Ministry  of  that  Conference  and  a  member  of  its  Com- 
mission on  Ecumenical  Affairs,  and  on  that  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church  since  1965;  and  The  General  Board  of 
Education  of  the  Church.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the 
North  Central  Jurisdictional  Conference,  1956,  '60, 
'68;  and  to  the  General  Conference  of  1960  and  '64, 
'66  and  '68.  He  was  chaplain  of  the  U.S.  Army  Air  Force, 
1943-45. 


Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


McKAY,  WILLIAM  JOHN  (1847-1921),  American  preach- 
er, born  at  Belfast,  Ireland,  May  29,  1847.  At  five  years  of 
age  he  came  to  the  United  States  where  he  lived  in  Port 
Washington,  Horicon  and  near  DeSoto,  in  Wisconsin. 
At  seventeen  years  of  age,  he  enlisted  in  the  Fourth 
Wisconsin  Infantry  and  served  during  the  last  year  of  the 
Civil  War.  He  was  converted  and  at  once  felt  the  call  to 
preach,  in  answer  to  which  he  joined  the  West  Wiscon- 


MCKECHNIE,   COLIN   CAMPBELL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


SIN  CoNFEBENCE  in  1870.  His  appointments  included  Mt. 
Sterling,  LaCrosse,  Eau  Claire  and  Madison  and  he  was 
also  presiding  elder  of  the  Eau  Claire  and  Madison  Dis- 
tricts. He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conferences 
of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1884,  1888  and  1896. 

La\vhence  College  of  Appleton,  Wisconsin  conferred 
upon  him  the  honorary  D.D.  degree  in  1895.  Besides  his 
Conference  activities,  he  was  very  active  in  the  affairs  of 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  and  was  for  many  years 
Commander  of  the  G.A.R.  Post  in  Madison,  Wis.  He  was 
a  man  of  great  effectiveness  in  prayer  and  one  who  made 
a  deep  impress  on  his  Conference. 

Yearbook  of  the  West  Wisconsin  Conference,  1922. 

John  W.  Harris 

McKECHNIE,  COLIN  CAMPBELL  (1821-1896),  British 
Primitive  NIethodist,  was  bom  at  Paisley,  Scotland.  He 
began  his  ministry  in  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  in 
Ripon,  in  Yorkshire,  and  continued  his  years  of  circuit 
ministry  in  the  Sunderland  district  until  1870.  During  this 
period  he  inaugurated  the  Sunderland  Ministerial  Associa- 
tion for  the  stimulation  of  ministerial  studies,  and  this 
movement  spread  throughout  Primitive  Methodism.  In 
1855  he  became  the  editor  of  the  Christian  Ambassador 
(founded  in  1854,  the  forerunner  of  the  Primitive  Method- 
ist Quarterhj  Review),  and  continued  in  the  post  until 
his  death.  He  was  general  connexional  editor  from  1876 
to  1887.  Deeply  interested  in  ministerial  education,  he 
was  the  first  secretary  of  the  Sunderland  Theological 
Institution  founded  in  1868,  the  earliest  Primitive  Meth- 
odist experiment  with  a  theological  college,  later  super- 
seded by  Hartley  College  at  Manchester.  In  1880  he  was 
elected  President  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Conference. 
He  was  also  responsible,  in  1892,  for  the  revision  of 
William  Antliff's  Life  of  the  Venerable  Hugh  Bourne. 
He  died  in  September,  1896. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 


William  McKendree 


McKENDREE,  WILLIAM  (1757-1835),  the  first  native 
American  bishop,  was  bom  on  July  6,  1757,  in  King  Wil- 
liam County,  Va.,  the  son  of  John  and  Mary  McKendree. 


He  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War  and  was  present  at 
the  surrender  of  Comwalhs  at  Yorktown. 

He  was  reared  in  the  Anglican  faith  but  joined  a  Meth- 
odist society  when  he  was  about  nineteen  years  old.  Ten 
years  later  he  was  converted  under  the  preaching  of  John 
Easter.  He  was  received  on  trial  in  the  Virginia  Con- 
ference in  1788  and  appointed  with  Philip  Cox  to  the 
Mecklenburg  Circuit.  His  succeeding  annual  appointments 
until  1794  were  the  Cumberland,  Portsmouth,  Amelia, 
Greenville,  and  Norfolk  Circuits. 

For  four  years  his  presiding  elder  was  James  O'Kelly, 
who  became  disaffected  and  withdrew  to  form  a  separate 
body  called  the  Republican  Methodist  Church.  When 
the  General  Conference  in  1792  refused  to  adopt 
O'Kelly's  resolution  providing  for  an  appeal  by  any 
preacher  who  was  dissatisfied  with  his  appointment,  Mc- 
Kendree went  with  him  for  a  brief  period  and  declined  to 
take  a  circuit  for  one  year.  Then  he  traveled  briefly  with 
Bishop  AsBURY  and  became  convinced  that  O'Kelly  was 
in  error,  and  again  took  his  place  in  the  Conference.  In 
1795  he  served  the  Bedford  Circuit  and  the  following  year 
he  became  a  presiding  elder,  a  post  which  he  filled  for 
eleven  years  until  he  was  elected  bishop. 

In  1801  he  was  sent  to  the  Kentucky  District  of  the 
vast  Western  Conference,  which  covered  Ohio,  Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee,  Western  Virginia  and  part  of  Illi- 
nois. He  later  served  two  years  on  the  Cumberland  Dis- 
trict. Thus  be  became  identified  with  the  western  area. 

In  1808  he  was  asked  to  preach  before  the  General 
Conference,  although  unknown  to  most  of  its  members. 
So  powerful  was  his  deliverance  that  Asbury  predicted 
his  election  as  bishop,  a  prophecy  which  was  fulfilled  a 
few  days  later. 

As  a  bishop  he  introduced  some  new  features  which  did 
not  meet  with  Asbury 's  wholehearted  approval.  One  of 
these  was  consultation  with  the  presiding  elders  in  making 
the  appointments,  from  which  emerged  the  "cabinet," 
which  persisted  in  the  Church.  Another  was  a  formal 
report  to  the  General  Conference,  which  gave  rise  to  the 
Episcopal  Address  at  all  succeeding  conferences.  Mc- 
Kendree usually  traveled  with  Asbury  and  the  latter  made 
the  appointments,  but  at  the  Tennessee  Conference  in 
1815,  the  aging  bishop  said,  "My  eyes  fail.  I  will  resign 
the  stations  to  Bishop  McKendree — I  will  take  away  my 
feet."  McKendree  was  then  practically  alone  in  the  epis- 
copacy, for  Asbury  did  not  hold  another  conference  and 
died  the  following  March. 

McKendree  did  not  have  much  formal  education  but  he 
became  a  great  preacher  and  ecclesiastical  statesman.  In 
1820  he  opposed  vigorously  a  movement  in  the  General 
Conference  to  limit  the  power  of  the  bishops  in  assigning 
the  preachers  to  their  charges. 

Because  of  physical  infirmities  he  was  largely  relieved 
of  his  work  after  1820  but  he  continued  to  travel  over 
the  connexion  and  assist  in  the  superintendency  until  his 
death.  In  1830  he  gave  480  acres  of  land  to  the  Lebanon 
Seminary  in  Ilfinois,  and  its  name  was  changed  to  Mc- 
Kendree College. 

He  died  at  the  home  of  his  brother.  Dr.  James  McKen- 
dree, in  Sumner  County,  Term.,  on  March  5,  1835.  He  was 
buried  nearby,  but  his  body  was  later  transferred  to  the 
campus  of  Vanderbilt  University  at  Nashville. 

J.  M.  Buckley,  Constitutional  and  Parliamentary  History.  1912. 
Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
R.  Paine,  William  M'Kendree.  1869. 


WORLD   METHODISM 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Pulpit.  1861. 

T.  O.  Summers,  Biographical  Sketches.  1858. 

J.  J.  Tigert,  Constitutional  History.  1894.     Elmer  T.  Clark 


McKendree  Chapel 

McKENOREE  CHAPEL,  three  miles  east  of  Jackson,  Missou- 
ri, was  designated  as  a  Methodist  Historic  Shbine  by  the 
1960  General  Conference.  Built  in  1819,  it  is  the 
oldest  Methodist  and  the  oldest  Protestant  church  build- 
ing west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 

In  1801,  William  Williams,  a  Methodist  layman,  moved 
from  Kentucky  to  Missouri  and  soon  set  aside  two  acres 
of  his  farm  to  be  used  for  camp  meetings.  The  site  was 
first  used  for  that  purpose  probably  in  1806.  A  Methodist 
class  or  congregation  was  organized  there  in  1809.  Wil- 
liams sei"ved  as  class  leader  from  the  beginning  until  his 
death  in  1838.  Bishop  William  McKendree  attended  a 
camp  meeting  there  in  1818,  and  the  chapel  which  was 
begun  that  year  was  named  for  him.  The  Missouri  Con- 
ference met  in  the  chapel  in  1819,  its  first  session  west  of 
the  River.  Also,  the  conference  convened  in  the  chapel 
in  1821,  1826,  and  1831,  an  indication  that  McKendree 
was  an  important  church  with  an  adequate  building  for 
that  period. 

When  the  M.  E.  Church  divided  over  slavery  in  1844, 
a  majority  of  the  McKendree  Chapel  members  voted  to 
adhere  South,  but  the  pastor  on  the  charge.  Nelson  Henry, 
strongly  favoring  the  Church  North,  managed  to  align  the 
chapel  with  that  body.  As  time  passed  the  Church  North 
grew  weaker  in  the  region  and  the  chapel  regularly  re- 
ceived missionary  aid.  About  1890  it  ceased  to  exist  as  an 
organized  church.  However,  the  building  was  not  for- 
gotten. In  September  1910,  the  St.  Louis  Conference 
(MES)  met  in  Jackson  and  took  occasion  to  go  out  in  a 
body  and  hold  a  special  session  in  the  old  chapel.  In  1916, 
the  same  conference  met  in  Cape  Girardeau  and  went  out 
to  conduct  a  service  at  McKendree  Chapel  commemorat- 
ing the  organization  of  the  Missouri  Conference  in  1816. 

In  1925,  William  Stewart  was  appointed  pastor  at  New 
McKendree  Church,  Jackson.  Finding  Old  McKendree  in 
desolation  and  disrepair,  he  led  a  movement  for  its  restora- 
tion. He  aroused  the  interest  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference 
(ME),  and  in  1926  that  body  voted  to  deed  a  one-half 
interest  in  the  chapel  to  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  with 
the  request  that  it  appoint  one-half  of  the  trustees  and 
share  in  the  upkeep  of  the  property.  Laymen  donated 
money  and  physical  labor  to  clean  up  the  grounds  and 
repair  and  restore  the  chapel.  A  right  of  way  from  the 
pubLc  road  to  the  chapel  was  purchased.  In  time  a  steel 
canopy  was  built  over  the  chapel,  and  later  still  a  home 


MCKENNA,   DAVID   L. 

for  a  curator  was  erected  on  the  grounds.  Since  1933  an 
annual  service  of  commemoration  featuring  an  outstanding 
speaker  has  been  conducted  at  the  chapel  with  several 
hundred  people  attending. 

Singularly,  Old  McKendree  Chapel  might  not  have  sur- 
vived had  not  Nelson  Henry  managed  to  keep  it  in  the 
hands  of  the  minority  of  members  who  adhered  North  in 
1845.  Also,  it  is  significant  that  the  new  deed  for  the 
chapel  dated  July  22,  1927,  providing  that  thereafter  half 
the  trustees  would  be  members  of  the  Church  South,  be- 
came a  point  of  reunion  of  the  two  churches  formed  by 
the  division  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1844. 

William  Stewart,  Mindful  of  Man.  Cape  Girardeau,  Mo.: 
Missouri  Litho  and  Printing  Co.,  1964. 

Frank  C.  Tucker,  Old  McKendree  Chapel.  Cape  Girardeau, 
Mo.:  Missouri  Litho  and  Printing  Co.,  1959.   Albea  Godbold 

McKendree  college,  Lebanon,  Illinois,  was  opened  in 
1828  as  Lebanon  Seminary  with  Edward  R.  Ames,  later 
a  bishop,  as  the  principal,  and  with  a  Miss  McMurphy  as 
the  other  teacher.  In  1830,  the  name  was  changed  to 
McKendree  College  in  honor  of  Bishop  William  Mc- 
Kendree. He  later  deeded  480  acres  of  rich  Shiloh  Valley 
land  to  the  college. 

The  legislature  of  the  State  of  Illinois  granted  a  charter 
to  McKendree  College  on  Feb.  9,  1835.  A  second  charter, 
more  detailed,  under  which  the  college  still  operates,  was 
approved  by  the  state  legislature  on  Jan.  26.  1839.  The 
first  three  members  of  the  faculty  were  graduates  of  Wes- 
leyan  University.  Peter  Cartwright  was  an  active  sup- 
porter of  the  college  and  served  as  chairman  of  its  board 
of  trustees.  Peter  Akers,  an  able  preacher  of  the  Illi- 
nois Conference,  was  its  first  president,  and  was  recalled 
to  the  office  on  two  later  occasions. 

The  institution  has  limited  accreditation  by  the  Univer- 
sity Senate  of  The  United  Methodist  Church.  It  offers 
the  B.A.  and  B.S.  degrees.  The  governing  board  has  thirty- 
six  members,  a  majority  of  whom  must  be  active  members 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church:  twelve  elected  by  the 
Southern  Illinois  Conference,  twenty-four  elected  by  the 
board  but  confirmed  by  the  Southern  Illinois  Conference. 

John  O,  Gross 

McKENNA,  DAVID  L.  (1929-  ),  American  Free 
Methodist  educator  and  ordained  elder  in  the  Pacific 
Northwest  Conference,  was  bom  at  Detroit,  Mich.  He 
was  educated  as  follows:  A. A.,  Spring  Arbor  (Junior) 
College,  1949;  B.A.,  Western  Michigan  University,  1951; 
B.D.,  AsBiTRY  Theological  Seminary,  1953;  M.A.,  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan,  1955;  Ph.D.,  University  of  Michigan, 
1958.  He  married  Janet  Ruth  Voorheis  in  1950.  His  service 
includes:  pastor,  Vicksburg,  Mich.,  1950-51;  Dean  of  Men; 
Academic  Dean;  Vice-president,  Spring  Arbor  (Junior) 
College,  1953-60;  Assistant  Professor  of  higher  education, 
Ohio  State  University,  1960-61;  President,  Spring  Arbor 
College,  1961-68;  President,  Seattle  Pacific  College 
since  1968.  He  has  been  a  member.  Board  of  Administra- 
tion, Pacific  Northwest  Conference;  president.  Association 
of  Free  Methodist  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools;  mem- 
ber of  denominational  Board  of  Administration;  member 
of  Resolution  and  Education  Committees,  National  As- 
sociation of  Evangehcals.  He  holds  membership  in  Phi 
Kappa  Phi,  Association  of  Higher  Education,  and  Phi 
Delta    Kappa.    His   community   interests   include   United 


MCKENZIE,    JOHN   WITHERSPOON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Community  Service,  Jackson,  Mich.;  Michigan  Commis- 
sion on  College  Accreditation;  MetropoHtan  (Detroit) 
YMCA  Board  of  Directors;  Seattle  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
Education  Committee;  Seattle  Rotary  Club.  He  is  the 
author  of  Concept  of  the  Christian  College,  1963;  editor 
The  Urban  Crisis,  1969;  contributing  editor,  United  Evan- 
gelical Action,  and  articles  in  The  Free  Methodist  and 
Christianity  Today. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

McKENZIE,  JOHN  WITHERSPOON  PETTIGREW  (1806- 
1881),  American  preacher  and  educator,  was  born  on 
April  26,  1806  in  Burke  County,  N.  C,  He  founded  a 
school  at  Columbia,  Tenn.,  in  1831  and  was  admitted  to 
the  Tennessee  Conference  in  1836.  He  transferred  at 
once  to  the  Ark.-vns.'^s  Conference  and  his  first  appoint- 
ent  was  to  the  Choctaw  Indians  in  what  was  later  Indian 
Territory.  In  1839  he  was  appointed  to  a  circuit  extending 
from  western  Arkansas  to  Preston  Bend,  near  Denison  on 
Red  River  in  the  Republic  of  Texas.  In  1841  he  started 
a  small  school  in  a  log  house  with  si.\teen  children,  the 
beginning  of  McKenzie  College  located  near  Clarksville, 
Texas.  In  a  few  years  the  school  became  the  most  pros- 
perous and  vigorous  institution  in  the  southwest,  if  not 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  during  the  period  up  to  the 
Civil  War.  McKenzie  continued  to  preach  on  request  and 
officiated  at  many  weddings,  funerals,  and  church  dedica- 
tions, but  his  major  work  was  conducting  the  school. 
Originally  the  school  was  chiefly  a  preparatory  one  but 
in  1845  a  "female  department"  and  a  "collegiate  depart- 
ment" were  added.  In  1848  the  first  A.B.  degree  was  con- 
ferred. By  1846  there  were  sixty-three  students  and  in 
1848  eighty-six  were  reported  in  the  college,  with  even 
more  in  the  preparatory  department.  By  1859-60  there 
were  405  students  taught  by  nine  faculty  members.  The 
war  years  cut  enrollment,  and  severe  economic  conditions, 
plus  McKenzie's  advancing  age,  resulted  in  the  closing 
of  the  school  in  1868.  A  total  of  about  3,300  students 
attended  the  school,  and  McKenzie  reported  that  about 
2,200  of  these  "made  public  profession  of  religion"  while 
there.  Many  of  the  later  leaders  in  the  area  and  the  state 
attended  the  college.  In  1853  four  large  new  buildings, 
erected  at  a  cost  of  $30,000  provided  almost  unrivaled 
facilities  among  nineteenth  century  schools,  at  least  in  the 
South  and  the  Southwest.  In  1878  McKenzie  was  awarded 
an  honorary  D.D.  degree  by  Emory  College  (now  Uni- 
versity). He  died  on  June  20,  1881. 

"McKenzie  College"  by  John  D.  Osburn  in  Southwestern  His- 
torical Quarterly  (April,  1960). 
M.  Phelan,  Texas.  1924.  Walter  N.  Vernon 

MACKENZIE,  PETER  (1824-1895),  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  evangelist  and  humorist,  was  bom  at  Glenshee, 
Perthshire,  Scotland,  Nov.  11,  1824,  but  migrated  to 
England  to  become  a  pitman  in  Haswell  Colliery,  Dur- 
ham. He  was  converted  in  1849.  He  entered  the  Wesleyan 
ministry  in  1859  and,  after  many  successful  years  in  a 
number  of  circuits,  was  in  1886  relieved  of  circuit  work 
for  work  in  the  connection  at  large.  In  great  demand  as  a 
preacher  because  of  his  racy,  humorous  style,  he  is  de- 
scribed on  his  epitaph  at  Dewsbury,  Yorkshire,  as  "the 
Greatheart  of  Methodism."  He  died  on  Nov.  21,  1895. 

J.  Dawson,  Peter  Mackenzie,  1896. 
D.  T.  Young,  Peter  Mackenzie.  1904. 

H.  Morley  Rattenbury 


McKINLEY,  WILLIAM  (1843-1901),  the  twenty-fourth 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America  and  a  staunch 
Methodist,  was  born  in  Miles,  Ohio  on  Jan.  29,  1843.  At 
the  age  of  ten  he  was  baptized  and  received  into  member- 
ship in  the  M.  E.  Church  by  the  Rev.  Aaron  D.  Morton. 
During  the  American  Civil  War  he  served  with  distinction 
in  the  Northern  Army,  rising  from  a  private  to  the  rank  of 
major.  Following  the  war  he  studied  law  and  in  1867 
opened  an  office  in  Canton,  Ohio.  Here  he  met  and  in 
1871  married  Ida  Saxton.  They  had  two  children  who  died 
in  infancy.  While  in  Canton,  McKinley  was  active  in  the 
local  M.  E.  Church  and  for  a  time  served  as  superinten- 
dent of  the  church  school.  The  pew  he  occupied  in  First 
Church,  Canton,  is  specially  marked  by  an  appropriate 
metal  plate. 

In  1876  McKinley  was  elected  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  as  a  representative  from  Ohio.  Defeated  in 
1882,  he  was  re-elected  in  1884.  All  together  he  served 
six  two-year  terms  between  1876  and  1890.  As  a  congress- 
man he  was  known  for  his  advocacy  of  a  higli  protective 
tariff.  In  1890  he  sponsored  a  tariff  bill  bearing  his  name 
which  became  law.  While  a  congressman  McKinley  arid 
his  wife  attended  the  Foundry  M.  E.  Church  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  In  1891  he  ran  for  governor  of  Ohio  and 
was  elected. 

In  1896  McKinley  was  nominated  by  the  Republican 
Party  for  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States.  In 
the  election  he  defeated  his  Democratic  opponent,  William 
Jennings  Bryan,  and  was  inaugurated  on  March  4,  1897. 
In  1900  he  was  re-elected.  During  his  first  administration 
the  United  States  engaged  in  a  brief  war  with  Spain.  As 
a  result  of  this  war  the  Philippines,  Guam,  and  Puerto 
Rico  were  ceded  to  the  United  States  and  the  island  of 
Cuba  became  an  independent  country.  While  President, 
McKinley  attended  the  Metropolitan  M.  E.  Church,  the 
national  Methodist  church  which  had  been  erected  during 
the  administration  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant  by  contributions 
from  Methodists  throughout  the  country.  His  pastors  dur- 
ing this  time  were  Hugh  M.  Johnston  and  Frank  M. 
Bristol. 

Included  among  his  private  papers  is  a  signed  statement 
declaring:  "My  belief  embraces  the  Divinity  of  Christ  and 
a  recognition  of  Christianity  as  the  mightiest  factor  in  the 
world's  civilization."  In  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  on  Sept.  6,  1901, 
William  McKinley  was  shot  by  Leon  Czolgosz.  Eight  days 
later  he  died.  He  is  buried  in  Canton,  Ohio. 
Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
Hampton,  Religious  Backgrounds  of  the  White  House. 
Kane,  Facts  About  the  Presidents. 
Leech,  In  the  Days  of  McKinley.  H.  Alden  Welch 

McKINNEY,  JOHN  WESLEY  (  ?  -1946),  sixteenth  bish- 
op of  the  C.M.E.  CiaiRCH,  was  born  in  Texas.  He  re- 
ceived his  education  at  Prairie  View  Normal  School  and 
Austin  College.  He  began  preaching  in  1883  and  served  as 
a  local  preacher  for  several  years  before  entering  the  itin- 
erant ministry.  McKinney  served  as  pastor,  presiding  elder, 
and  Secretary  of  Church  Extension  before  being  elected 
to  the  office  of  bishop  by  the  General  Conference  in  1922. 
He  and  Bishop  Robert  Turner  Brown  led  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  church  in  Trinidad,  West  Indies.  Bishop 
McKinney  was  noted  as  a  man  of  conviction  and  high 
moral  standards.  He  retired  in  1942  and  died  on  Aug.  28, 
1946. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965. 
The  Mirror,  General  Conference,  CME,  1958.    Ralph  G.  Gay 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MCLAUGHLIN,   WILLIAM   PATTERSON 


MACKINNON,  SALLIE  LOU  (1889-1973),  American  mis- 
sionary and  Mission  Board  executive,  was  born  at  Maxton, 
N.  C,  on  Oct.  27,  1889,  the  daughter  of  Alexander  James 
and  Virginia  Lee  Mackinnon. 

She  graduated  from  Randolph-Macon  Woman's  Col- 
lege, 1911,  and  at  Scarritt  Biblical  Institute  (then  in 
Kansas  City,  Mo. ) .  She  volunteered  and  was  sent  to 
China,  where  she  served  as  a  missionary  under  the  Board 
OF  Missions  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  for  ten  or  twelve 
years.  She  then  became  the  executive  secretary  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  whose  headquarters  then  were  in  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.  After  the  unification  of  Methodism  in  1939- 
40,  she  went  to  New  York  City  where  she  served  as 
executive  secretary  for  China,  Africa  and  Europe  under 
the  Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Service  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church.  Later  with  the  changing  situation  in  China, 
she  remained  in  charge  of  Africa  and  Europe  for  the 
Woman's  Division.  She  retired  in  1956,  and  after  living 
in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  for  several  years,  took  up  her  resi- 
dence in  the  Brooks  Howell  Home  in  Asheville,  N.  C, 
in  1964.  In  her  tenure  as  executive  secretary,  she  sei-ved 
on  many  important  committees  and  was  quite  influential 
in  interdenominational  and  international  mission  groups 
in  their  wider  plans  and  moves. 

She  died  in  Asheville  on  March  16,  1973. 

The  Methodist  Woman,  Vol.  15,  No.  6,  February  1955. 

N.  B.  H. 

Mcknight,  GEORGE  (?  -I8I3  or  I8I4),  American  pio- 
neer layman,  at  whose  home  on  the  Yadkin  River  in 
North  Carolina,  the  three  important  frontier  confer- 
ences of  1789,  1790,  and  1791  were  held,  was  one  of 
the  earliest  settlers  on  the  Yadkin  River.  His  land  grant  is 
dated  1762,  and  there  is  evidence  that  he  had  occupied 
the  land  near  the  mouth  of  Linville  Creek,  where  the 
Great  Wagon  Road  from  Pennsylvania  crossed,  at  least 
as  early  as  1758. 

In  the  years  before  the  Revolutionary  War  he  was  con- 
nected with  the  Moravians  of  the  Wachovia  settlement, 
and  opened  his  house  to  them  for  preaching  in  English. 
Sometime  about  1783  a  Methodist  society  was  organized 
in  his  community,  and  in  1786  Bishop  Francis  Asbuby 
found  a  living  society  there,  and  a  chapel  at  McKnight's. 
Located  just  below  where  the  Yadkin  turns  south,  the 
place  was  admirably  located  for  gathering  the  preachers 
from  all  directions,  and  Asbury  took  full  advantage  of  it. 

The  1789  Conference  was  attended  by  the  preachers 
from  the  Holston  country  of  East  Tennessee,  who  crossed 
the  mountains  by  way  of  the  Flower  Gap.  "We  had 
weighty  matters  for  consideration  before  us,"  wrote 
Asbury.  The  most  important  such  matter  was  the  launch- 
ing of  the  Anninian  Magazine,  which  the  Book  Steward, 
John  Dickins,  edited  and  pubhshed  at  Philadelphia.  The 
preface  to  the  first  volume  was  signed  by  Asbury  and 
Thomas  Coke  at  "North  Carolina,  April  10,  1789." 

After  the  1791  Conference  the  growing  Methodism  on 
the  Holston  side  of  the  mountains  made  conferences  there 
desirable,  and  McKnight's  faded  into  the  background. 

The  home  and  chapel  of  McKnight  were  located  about 
where  the  present  U.  S.  Highway  158  crosses  the  first 
branch  east  of  the  Yadkin  River  just  south  of  the  Inter- 
state 40.  It  is  now  in  Forsyth  County,  but  at  the  time 
of  George  McKnight  it  was  in  Rowan  County,  almost  on 
the  Surry  County  line.  McKnight  died  at  the  home  of  a 
son-in-law  in  Surry  County  in  1813  or  1814. 


In  1808  and  1809  the  society  there,  led  by  McKnight's 
sons  and  sons-in-law,  built  a  new  church  by  the  name  of 
Mt.  Pleasant,  some  two  miles  to  the  south.  This,  in  turn, 
gave  way  to  a  church  and  school  at  Clemmonsville,  a  mile 
east  of  the  original  site.  The  old  Mt.  Pleasant,  however, 
has  been  restored  and  stands  as  a  shrine  in  Tangelwood 
Park,  a  public  park  donated  by  some  of  the  Reynolds 
family  of  that  section. 

W.  L.  Grissom,  North  Carolina.  1905. 

Moravian  Records. 

Rowan  and  Iredell  Counties  (North  Carolina),  Records. 

Homer  M.  Keever 
Louise  L.  Queen 

McLaughlin,   JOHN    RUSSELL    (1905-  ),   American 

minister,  and  general  secretary  of  the  Commission  on 
Chaplains,  was  bom  at  Blue  Mound,  Kan.,  May  24,  1905, 
son  of  William  and  Mattie  (King)  McLaughlin. 

He  received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Baker  University 
in  1930,  and  was  awarded  the  D.D.  degree  by  Baker  in 
1952.  From  Drew  University  he  received  the  B.D.  de- 
gree in  1932  and  the  M.A.  degree  in  1934.  He  pursued 
postgraduate  study  at  Columbia  University,  1934-35;  at 
Garrett  Theological  Seminary,  1938-40;  and  at  New 
York  University,  1946-48. 

He  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  Newark  Confer- 
ence, M.  E.  Church,  and  was  ordained  deacon  in  1933. 
He  was  received  into  full  connection  and  ordained  elder 
in  1935. 

His  pastorates  were:  Baldwin,  Kan.,  1926-28;  Edwards- 
ville,  Kan.,  1929;  Woodrow,  Staten  Island,  N.  Y.,  1932-35; 
Jersey  City,  N.  J.,  1935-41;  Leonia,  N.  J.,  1941-49.  He 
was  superintendent  of  North  District,  Newark  Conference, 
1949-55.  From  1956  for  more  than  two  quadrennia  he  was 
general  secretary.  Commission  on  Chaplains,  Washington, 
D.  C.  He  served  to  become  chaplain-major  in  the  U.S. 
AiTny  Air  Force. 

He  married  Ada  Frances  Richard  on  June  10,  1928,  and 
they  had  two  children.  She  died  in  Berchtesgaden,  Ger- 
many, in  1961. 

He  was  married  to  lona  S.  Henry  on  June  15,  1963. 
They  continue  to  reside  in  Washington,  D.  C. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.     J.  Marvin  Rast 

McLaughlin,  william  Patterson  (1849-1921),  mis- 
sionary pastor  in  Argentina,  was  bom  in  Cincinnati, 
Ohio.  He  was  graduated  from  Ohio  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity and  Boston  University  School  of  Theology  and 
entered  the  Ohio  Annual  Conference.  After  eleven 
years  of  service  in  several  churches,  McLaughlin  and  his 
wife,  the  former  Rebecca  Long,  accepted  an  appointment 
in  New  Orleans,  La.,  where  he  organized  a  missionary 
district  among  French-  and  Italian-speaking  people.  After 
seven  years  he  accepted  the  call  to  South  America. 

Arriving  at  Christmas  1892,  he  served  as  pastor  of  First 
Methodist  Church,  Buenos  Aires  for  twenty-nine  years, 
until  his  death  in  February  1921.  His  pastorate  was  dis- 
tinguished by  a  widening  influence  and  deepened  rela- 
tionships which  left  enduring  marks.  His  social  insights 
were  particularly  effective  during  the  years  of  the  First 
World  War.  "He  went  about  doing  good,"  are  words  on  a 
marble  monument  erected  to  his  memory. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957.  Hubert  R.  Hudson 

1493 


MACIAY,    CHARLES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


MACLAY,  CHARLES  (1821-1890),  American  businessman 
and  Methodist  benefactor,  joined  the  Baltimore  Con- 
FEBENCE  but  in  1851  transferred  to  the  California.  In 
1859  he  asked  for  location  on  medical  advice.  He  pros- 
pered in  business,  and  was  one  of  the  chief  financial 
supporters  of  the  church.  He  served  in  both  the  State 
Assembly  and  Senate  from  Santa  Clara  County.  His  in- 
terest in  an  educated  ministry  led  him  to  be  active  in  sup- 
porting the  University  of  the  Pacific.  Later  he  en- 
dowed the  Maclay  College  of  Theology  in  connection 
with  the  University  of  Southern  California. 

The  collapse  of  the  land  boom  in  that  part  of  the  state 
brought  a  series  of  financial  crises.  Finally  the  endowment 
and  the  university  were  lost  to  the  church.  But  Maclay 's 
loyalty  to  Methodism  never  wavered.  He  was  one  of 
California's  distinguished  laymen. 

C.  V.  Anthony,  Fifty  Years.  1901. 

H.  H.  Bancroft,  Chronicles  of  the  Builders,  II,  p.  307. 

E.  D.  Jervey,  Southern  California  and  Arizona.  1960. 

Leon  L.  Loofboubow 


Robert  S.  Maclay 

MACLAY,  ROBERT  SAMUEL  (1824-1907),  pioneer  mis- 
sionary of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  China,  Japan  and  Korea, 
was  born  in  Concord,  Pa.,  on  Feb.  7,  1824.  After  grad- 
uation from  Dickinson  College  in  1845,  he  was  ordained 
and  sailed  for  China  in  1847.  His  fiancee,  Henrietta  Caro- 
line Sperry,  followed  him  two  years  later,  and  they  were 
married  in  Hong  Kong  in  1850.  He  was  appointed  super- 
intendent and  treasurer  of  the  mission  and  continued  until 
1872. 

His  first  plan  for  developing  Methodist  work  in  China 
was  to  move  steadily  westward,  from  Fukien  to  Kiangsi, 
and  then  to  West  China  and  possibly  to  Tibet.  In  further- 
ance of  this  plan  he  sent  Virgil  Hart  and  Elbert  Todd 
from  Foochow  to  Kiukiang  on  the  Yangtze  River  in  1867. 
But,  by  the  following  year,  he  was  ready  to  sidetrack 
further  westward  advance  for  a  time,  in  favor  of  estab- 
lishing work  in  North  China.  In  1869,  Lucius  N.  Wbeeler 
and  Hiram  H.  Lowry  were  sent  to  Peking  to  begin  work 
there. 

In  1861,  Maclay  published  his  interesting  book,  Life 
Among  the  Chinese,  and  in   1871   he  collaborated  with 


C.  C.  Baldwin  in  a  massive  dictionary  of  the  Chinese 
language  in  the  dialect  of  Foochow. 

By  this  time  his  tliought  was  reaching  out  even  beyond 
the  bounds  of  China.  On  Dec.  16,  1870,  he  wrote  to  the 
missionary  society,  urging  that  work  be  established  in 
Japan.  The  following  year  he  returned  to  America — his 
second  furlough  in  twenty-three  years — and  while  away 
the  bishops  transferred  him  to  Japan  to  found  the  mission 
he  had  advocated. 

He  arrived  in  Japan  in  1873,  and  was  superintendent 
of  that  mission  until  1888,  serving  also  in  Tokyo  as  presi- 
dent of  Ei  Wa  Gakko,  a  college  which  embraced  the 
Anglo-Chinese  Academy  and  the  Philander  Smith  Biblical 
Institute.  He  was  delegate  from  Japan  to  the  Ecumen- 
ical Methodist  Conference  in  London  in  1881.  While 
there  he  made  a  strong  plea  for  the  closest  possible  co- 
operation of  the  various  Methodist  mission  boards 
throughout  the  world. 

His  continuing  statesmanlike  concern  for  the  whole 
East  Asia  area  showed  itself  in  a  visit  to  his  old  home  in 
Foochow  in  1881,  when  he  helped  to  establish  the  Anglo- 
Chinese  College;  and  also  in  a  visit  to  the  king  of  Korea 
in  1884,  when  he  obtained  permission  for  the  establish- 
ment of  Methodist  work  in  that  country. 

In  1888,  he  was  ministerial  delegate  from  Japan  to 
the  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  held  in 
New  York.  After  the  Conference  he  resigned  from  mission 
work  and  became  dean  of  the  newly  opened  Maclay 
College  of  Theology  in  San  Fernando,  Calif.,  a  post  which 
he  held  from  1888  to  1893,  when  he  retired. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

W.  N.  Lacy,  China.  1948. 

Who's  Who   in   America,    1906-07.  Francis   P.   Jones 

McLEAN,  JOHN  (1775-1861),  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  who  among  other  things  is 
remembered  for  his  thirty-one-year  tenure  on  that  Court. 
He  was  the  first  Ohioan  to  become  a  Justice  of  the  highest 
court  in  the  land. 

A  native  of  Morris  County,  N.  J.,  bom  March  11,  1775, 
he  settled  with  his  family  in  what  became  Warren  County 
in  southwestern  Ohio.  He  worked  on  the  family  farm  until 
he  was  eighteen,  then  went  to  Cincinnati  to  work  in  the 
Hamilton  County  Clerk  of  Court's  office  and  to  read  law. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1807,  and  began  his  prac- 
tice in  Lebanon,  county  seat  of  Warren  County. 

Almost  immediately  he  began  his  long  political  career, 
first  as  U.S.  Congressman  in  1812,  re-elected  in  1814.  In 
1815  he  was  elected  to  the  Ohio  Supreme  Court  bench. 
In  1822,  President  Monroe  named  him  Commissioner  of 
the  General  Land  Office.  The  next  year  be  became  Post- 
master General.  Although  he  disagreed  with  President 
Andrew  Jackson,  Jackson  appointed  him  to  the  U.S.  Su- 
preme Court. 

Justice  McLean  dissented  from  Chief  Justice  Roger 
Taney  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  holding  that  slavery  "had 
its  origin  in  power,  was  contrary  to  right  and  upheld 
only  by  local  law." 

His  peers  described  him  as  "conscientious,  thorough, 
inherently  just.  .  .  .  inclined  to  reject  the  opinion  of 
others." 

For  many  years  he  was  a  communicant  member  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  and  one  historian  said  of  him,  "His  private 
life  was  in  perfect  harmony  wdth  his  profession."  He  once 
was  president  of  the  American  Sunday  School  Union. 


WORLD   /METHODISM 


MCMAHAN   CHAPEL 


Despite  his  lack  of  formal  higher  education,  four  col- 
leges conferred  upon  Justice  McLean  the  honorary  LL.D. 
degree.  Harvard  was  one  and  Wesleyan  University 
in  Connecticut  another. 

A  tall  and  commanding  figure,  Justice  McLean  was  a 
man  of  simple  habits;  his  manners  were  genial  and  cour- 
teous, and  he  was  distinguished  by  his  intellectual  versatil- 
ity. It  was  said  that  he  was  as  regular  in  attending  class 
meeting  as  Chief  Justice  Taney  was  in   attending  mass. 

Few  men  in  pohtical  life  enjoyed  such  broad  support. 
In  1836  the  Whigs  favored  him  for  presidential  nomina- 
tion; he  was  considered  a  possible  nominee  of  the  Liberty 
party  in  1848,  and  later  the  same  year  at  the  Free  Soil 
Convention.  In  1856  the  Ohio  delegation  favored  him  for 
the  presidential  nomination  at  the  first  national  Repub- 
lican convention.  He  was  of  great  help  in  acting  as 
mediator  in  the  suit  the  Southern  Church  (MES)  brought 
against  the  Northern  (ME)  to  obtain  its  share  of  the 
Book  Concern's  worth  after  the  Northern  Church  had 
repudiated  the  Plan  of  Separation  which  in  1844  had 
been  agreed  upon.  However  when  the  suit  of  the  South 
finally  came  before  the  Supreme  Court,  Justice  McLean 
excused  himself  because  he  was  a  Methodist,  and  let  his 
fellow  justices  decide  the  issue — as  they  did  for  the  South. 

He  also  entered  the  field  of  Methodist  biography, 
writing  a  life  of  Philip  Catch  and  of  John  Collins. 

Justice  McLean  died  April  4,  1861.  The  next  day  the 
Ohio  State  Journal,  Columbus  morning  newspaper,  said: 
"Justice  McLean  was  a  profound  jurist,  a  citizen  justly 
esteemed  for  his  excellent  social  qualities,  and  an 
exemplary  Christian." 

Dictionary  of  American  Biograpliy. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  John  F.  Young 

MACLEAN,  JOHN  (1851-1928),  Canadian  Methodist  mis- 
sionary to  the  Indians  and  historian,  was  bom  in  Kil- 
marnock, Scotland,  Oct.  30,  1851,  and  was  educated 
at  the  Burgh  Academy,  Dumbarton.  In  1873  he  emigrated 
to  Canada.  He  attended  Victoria  University  (B.A., 
1882;  M.A.,  1887)  and  Illinois  Wesleyan  University 
(Ph.D.,  1888). 

Received  on  trial  in  1875,  he  was  ordained  in  the 
Methodist  Church  in  1880.  From  1880  to  1889  he  was 
a  missionary  to  the  Blood  Indians  near  Fort  Macleod,  in 
what  is  now  Alberta.  During  this  period  he  was  also  a 
public-school  inspector.  Subsequently  he  had  pastorates 
at  Moose  Jaw,  Saskatchewan;  Port  Arthur,  Ontario;  Nee- 
pawa  and  Winnipeg,  in  Manitoba;  in  the  last  of  which 
he  founded  the  Maclean  Mission.  In  1895  he  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Manitoba  Conference,  and  from  1902  to  1906 
he  was  editor  of  The  Wesleyan.  For  many  years  he  was 
the  historian  of  the  Manitoba  Conference,  and  from  1918 
to  1922  he  was  archivist  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

Maclean's  interests  were  extensive.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Canadian  Institute,  the  American  Folklore  Society, 
and  the  Manitoba  Historical  Society.  Widely  regarded 
as  an  authority  on  the  Western  Indians,  he  wrote  numer- 
ous ethnological  pamphlets  and  a  variety  of  books.  These 
included  Canadian  Savage  Folk  (1896),  James  Evans 
(1890),  and  McDougall  of  Alberta  (1927).  He  did  much 
to  interpret  and  to  preserve  the  culture  of  the  Western 
tribes  and  to  strengthen  Methodism  in  the  prairie  prov- 
inces. 

G.  H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.  1881. 
L.  E.  Horning  and  L.  J.  Burpee,  A  Bibliography  of  Canadian 


Fiction.  Toronto:   Victoria  University  Library,    1904. 
W.  S.  Wallace,  ed.,  Macmillan  Dictionary  of  Canadian  Biog- 
raphy.   London:    Macmillan,    1963.  J.    E.    Nix 

F.  W.  Armstrong 

McLEAN,  JOHN  H.  (1838-1925),  American  clergyman 
and  educator,  was  bom  in  Hinds  County,  Miss.  He  at- 
tended (and  taught  for  two  years  at)  McKenzie  College, 
Clarksville,  Texas,  and  entered  East  Texas  Conference 
in  1860;  went  into  Trinity  (later  named  North  Texas) 
Conference  when  organized  in  1867.  He  served  leading 
churches  and  districts;  was  head  of  Paris  Female  Col- 
lege, 1869-71;  vice-regent  of  Southwestern  University 
at  Georgetown,  Texas,  1880-91;  and  regent,  1891-97. 
He  was  manager  of  Texas  Methodist  Orphanage,  1908- 
12;  and  a  member  of  the  Ecumenical  NIethodist  Con- 
ference in  Washington,  1891,  and  in  New  York  in 
1901. 

Walter  N.  Vernon 

McMAHAN  CHAPEL,  organized  in  1833,  is  the  oldest 
Methodist  church  and  the  oldest  continuing  Protestant 
congregation  in  the  state  of  Texas.  The  chapel  is  located 
on  Spur  35  two  miles  south  of  Route  21  some  twelve 
miles  east  of  San  Augustine.  There  in  what  was  then  the 
San  Augustine  Municipality  of  the  Mexican  Government, 
Samuel  D.  McMahan  (d.  1854)  who  came  from  Tennes- 
see, settled  in  1831. 

At  the  Mississippi  Conference  in  Vicksburg,  Novem- 
ber 1832,  James  P.  Stevenson  was  appointed  to  the  Sabine 
Circuit  in  Louisiana,  a  few  miles  east  of  where  McMahan 
had  settled.  In  the  spring  of  1833  at  Nachitoches,  La., 
Stevenson  met  some  Texans  who  asked  him  to  come  across 
the  line  and  preach  to  them,  even  though  Protestant 
services  were  forbidden  in  Mexican  territory.  Assured  by 
the  laymen  of  protection  from  prosecution,  Stevenson 
went  over  and  held  a  two-day  meeting  in  a  private  home 
near  what  is  now  Milam,  Texas.  McMahan  attended  the 
services  and  invited  Stevenson  to  come  and  preach  at 
his  home  also.  Stevenson  did  so,  returning  several  times 
during  the  year  to  hold  services.  The  people  requested 
Stevenson  to  organize  a  church,  but  he,  knowing  that 
organizing  a  Methodist  church  would  be  against  the  law, 
formed  instead  in  September  1833,  a  "religious  society" 
of  forty-eight  members  and  named  McMahan  the  "class 
leader."  Such  was  the  beginning  of  McMahan  Chapel. 
Then  in  July  1834,  Henry  Stephenson,  successor  of  J.  P. 
Stevenson  on  the  Sabine  Circuit,  formally  organized  a 
Methodist  society  in  McMahan's  home,  and  it  was  soon 
called  McMahan  Chapel. 

Following  the  Texas  War  of  Independence  in  1836, 
the  McMahan  congregation  grew  rapidly,  and  there  was 
need  for  a  church  building.  In  December  1838,  the  Mis- 
sissippi Conference  appointed  Littleton  Fo\vler  as  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  Texas  Mission  District.  Fowler  built  a 
home  near  Samuel  McMahan's  place  and  made  it  his 
headquarters.  Also,  in  1839  Fowler  assisted  with  the 
building  of  a  log  chapel  forty  by  thirty  feet  for  the 
McMahan  congregation. 

The  McMahan  log  structure  was  replaced  by  a  frame 
church  in  1872,  and  another  of  similar  material  was 
erected  in  1900.  The  present  brick  edifice,  valued  at 
$49,500,  was  built  in  1949  and  was  dedicated  in  1956  by 
Bishop  A.  Frank  Smith. 

The  1970  General  Conference  designated  Mc- 
Mahan Chapel  as  one  of  the  first  three  official   United 


MCMILLAN,    ETHEL 

Methodist  Landmarks  because  of  its  historic  significance. 
A  cemetery  containing  the  graves  of  Samuel  D.  Mc- 
Mahan,  Littleton  Fowler,  and  other  early  Methodist  lead- 
ers in  Texas,  adjoins  McMahan  Chapel.  The  chapel  is  the 
head  of  a  four-point  work  with  the  pastor  residing  in  a 
brick  parsonage  beside  the  church.  In  1969  McMahan 
Chapel  reported  twenty-nine  members. 

Texas  Christian  Advocate,  Sept.  18,  1880. 

Walter  N.  Vernon,  "McMahan's  Chapel:   Landmark  in  Texas," 

in  Methodist  History,  October  1970. 

Walter  Prescott  Webb,  ed..  The  Handbook  of  Texas.  Austin, 

1952. 

C.  A.  West,  McMahan's  Methodist  Chapel.  Pamphlet,  n.p.,  n.d. 

Henderson    Yokum,    History    of    Texas.    II,    221.    New    York: 

Redfield,    1856.  Albea   Godbold 

McMillan,  ETHEL  (?-1954),  a  New  Zealand  Methodist 
missionary  sister,  was  bom  in  Victoria,  Australia.  After 
qualifying  as  a  midwife,  in  1915  she  became  a  missionary 
nursing  sister  under  the  Methodist  Church  of  Australasia, 
on  the  island  of  Choiseul  in  the  Western  Solomons.  When 
the  New  Zealand  Conference  took  over  the  Solomon  Is- 
lands field  in  1922,  she  continued  to  work  on  Choiseul 
for  a  further  twenty  years.  For  a  good  part  of  that  time 
she  was  the  only  European  worker  on  the  island.  Hun- 
dreds of  oiphans  owe  their  lives  to  her  unremitting  care, 
and  through  her  influence,  hygienic  and  domestic  con- 
ditions were  revolutionized  in  many  of  the  villages.  She 
retired  in  Melbourne,  where  she  died  on  Jan.   19,   1954. 

Arthur  H.  Scrivin 

M'MULLEN,  JAMES  (17P-1804),  British  Methodist  pio- 
neer missionary  to  Gibraltar,  entered  the  Wesleyan 
ministry  in  Ireland  in  1788  and  answered  an  appeal  to 
go  to  Gibraltar  in  1804.  The  society  consisted  of  about 
twenty  members,  both  soldiers  and  civilians.  Yellow  fever 
was  raging  on  his  arrival,  and  his  wife  died  almost  im- 
mediately. He  himself  visited  the  sick  and  preached, 
but  died  on  Oct.  17,  1804,  only  a  week  or  so  after  land- 
ing, the  first  Wesleyan  missionary  martyr  of  the  European 
field. 

Findlay  and  Holdsworth,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Soc.  1921-24. 
W.  Moister,  Wesleyan  Missionaries.  1878.     Cyril  J.  Davey 

McMULLEN,  WALLACE  (1819-1899),  Irish  minister,  was 
born  in  Ards,  County  Down,  in  the  north  of  Ireland, 
and  entered  the  ministry  in  1841.  He  soon  showed  admin- 
istrative gifts,  and  in  1859  he  began  his  connection  with 
Home  Mission  affairs  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Con- 
tingent Fund.  His  connection  with  this  work  lasted  until 
he  died,  and  for  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  he  was 
the  General  Secretary  of  the  Home  Mission  Fund.  This 
was  the  department  through  which  the  whole  organization 
and  finance  of  the  Irish  Methodist  Church  was  guided. 
He  advocated  and  helped  carry  through  the  plan  for  lay 
representation  in  the  Irish  Conference  in  1877.  Much  of 
the  work  for  Methodist  Union  in  Ireland  in  1878  was  his 
responsibility,  and  he  helped  to  consolidate  united  Irish 
Methodism  by  his  constructive  financial  genius.  As  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Legal  Hundred,  he  was  four  times  called  to 
the  highest  ofiBce  in  the  Church  in  Ireland,  Vice-President 
of  the  Conference,  in  1874,  1878,  1888  and  1895. 

Frederick  Jeffery 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

MacMURRAY  COLLEGE,  Jacksonville,  Illinois,  was  char- 
tered as  Illinois  Conference  Female  College  in  1846.  The 
name  was  changed  to  Illinois  Woman's  College  in  1899, 
and  in  1930  to  MacMurray  College  for  Women  in  honor 
of  the  late  James  E.  MacMurray,  former  Senator  from 
Illinois,  whose  devotion  to  the  college  was  reflected  by 
his  large  gifts.  The  college  is  related  to  the  Central 
Illinois  Conference.  A  coordinate  college  for  men  was 
established  in  1955.  Degrees  offered  are  the  B.A.,  M.Ed. 
(Education),  and  M.S.  The  governing  board  has  thirty- 
three  members;  it  is  self-perpetuating. 

John  O.  Gross 

McMURRY,  WILLIAM  FLETCHER  (1864-1934),  American 
bishop,  was  the  son  of  a  Methodist  preacher,  William 
Wesley  McMurry,  and  was  born  in  Shelby  County,  Mo., 
June  29,  1864.  His  father  was  a  very  influential  leader  in 
Missouri  Methodism  and  sent  his  son  to  St.  Charles 
College  (1880-1882)  and  to  Central  College  at  Fay- 
ette (1882-1885).  A  few  years  after  he  left  Central  Col- 
lege he  was  married  to  Frances  Byrd  Davis,  Oct.  9,  1888, 
and  they  had  three  children.  He  was  ordained  in  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South,  in  1886.  He  held  several  pastorates 
between  1886  and  1897  and  was  a  presiding  elder  from 
1897  to  1902.  He  then  became  pastor  of  Centenary 
Church  in  St.  Louis  and  served  in  that  important  down- 
town church  until  1906.  These  were  the  World  Fair  years 
in  St.  Louis  and  his  pastorate  at  Centenary  was  one  of  the 
most  successful  evangelistic  pastorates  in  the  long  history 
of  Missouri  Methodism.  In  1906  he  was  elected  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  of  his  denomination 
and  served  until  1918,  when  he  was  elected  a  bishop  at 
the  General  Conference  in  Atlanta. 

His  first  assignment  as  bishop  took  him  to  the  Orient, 
and  then  in  subsequent  years  he  served  several  Episcopal 
areas  in  Southern  Methodism.  For  years  he  was  President 
of  the  Board  of  Finance  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  was 
a  member  of  the  Joint  Commission  on  Unification  of 
American  Methodism,  and  he  was  twice  a  delegate  to 
the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  in  1901  and 
1921.  In  addition  to  his  work  as  bishop  he  served  as 
President  of  Central  College  from  1924  to  1930. 

He  presided  over  a  great  meeting  of  his  Episcopal 
Area,  including  the  Baltimore,  the  Kentucky  and  the 
West  Virginia  Conferences,  at  Staunton,  Va.,  on  Jan. 
9,  1934.  He  returned  home  with  an  attack  of  influenza, 
was  taken  to  Barnes  Hospital  in  St.  Louis  and  died  there 
of  a  heart  attack  on  the  morning  of  Jan.  19,  and  he  was 
buried  at  Shelbyville,  Mo.,  in  his  native  county. 

Bishop  McMurry,  measured  by  any  standard,  was  a 
big  man.  He  was  as  able  an  administrator  as  Methodism 
in  the  United  States  ever  produced,  and  he  would  have 
gone  to  the  top  in  any  field  of  endeavor.  He  was  an  in- 
defatigable worker,  and  he  demanded  of  all  who  served 
under  him  the  same  kind  of  devoted  and  energetic  work. 
Because  the  tasks  committed  to  him  by  his  church  re- 
quired such  drives  and  strength,  he  seemed  at  times  to  be 
overpowering. 

I.  L.  Holt,  Missouri  Bishops.  1953. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Ivan  Lee  Holt 

McMURRY  COLLEGE,  Abilene,  Texas,  was  estabLshed  in 
1920  and  named  for  Bishop  William  F.  McMurry  who 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MACON,   GEORGIA 


presided  over  the  conference  that  ordered  the  founding. 
Its  founder  was  James  W.  Hunt,  a  minister  of  the  North- 
west Texas  Conference. 

McMurry  is  the  legal  and  spiritual  successor  of  four 
educational  institutions  of  West  Texas  and  New  Mexico: 
Stamford  College,  Clarendon  College,  Seth  Ward  Col- 
lege, and  Western  College  of  Artesia.  McMurry  College 
received  the  first  endowed  lectureship  given  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  J.  M.  Willson  of  Floydada,  Texas.  Willson  lecture- 
ships have  been  given  by  them  to  thirty  educational  in- 
stitutions. Degrees  offered  are  the  B.A.  and  B.S.  The 
governing  board  has  sixty  trustees  elected  by  the  North- 
west Texas  and  New  Mexico  Annual  Conferences. 

John  O.  Gross 

MACNAUGHTON,  NORMAN  (1880-1951),  American 
preacher,  lecturer  and  teacher,  was  bom  March  3,  1880 
in  Glengarry,  Ontario,  Canada,  the  son  of  Alexander  and 
Sarah  (McDonald)  MacNaughton.  He  earned  his  A.B., 
B.Th.,  and  B.D.  degrees  at  McMaster  University,  Toronto, 
Canada,  and  received  the  M.A.  degree  at  Yale  in  1912. 
Further  graduate  work  was  taken  at  the  University  of 
Chicago,  1925-1929.  Adrian  College  conferred  upon 
him  the  degree  of  LL.D.  in  1945. 

He  married  Kathleen  Mabel  Chalk  on  Sept.  20,  1910, 
in  Toronto,  Canada.  He  served  congregations  in  New 
Westminster,  British  Columbia;  Southfield,  Chicago,  111.; 
and  Tecumseh,  Mich.  He  joined  the  Adrian  College  facul- 
ty in  1930,  where  he  held  the  Chair  of  Christian  Philos- 
ophy for  twenty  years  until  his  retirement  in  1950.  He 
was  in  constant  demand  as  a  speaker  for  various  special 
occasions.  As  a  teacher  of  college  students  he  had  few 
superiors.  The  Michigan  Christian  Advocate  said,  "Over 
a  period  of  years  his  wit,  wisdom,  and  common  sense 
had  been  a  source  of  inspiration.  Dr.  MacNaughton  was 
both  humble  and  great  in  spirit."  His  conference  relation- 
ship was  with  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Conferences 
of  the  M.  p.  Church,  and  then  into  the  Detroit  Con- 
ference of  The  Methodist  Church  at  the  time  of  union 
in  1939.  His  death  occurred  July  12,  1951,  and  he  was 
buried  in  Adrian. 

Detroit  Conference  Journal,  1952. 

Daily  Telegram,  Adrian,  Mich.,  July  12,  1951. 

Michigan  Christian  Advocate,  July  26,  1951. 

Who's  Who  in  Methodism,  1952.       Frank  W.  Stephenson 

MACON,  GEORGIA,  U.S.A.  In  1803,  white  settlers  in 
Georgia  purchased  a  tract  of  land  from  the  Creek  Indians. 
At  the  top  of  the  hill  on  the  east  side  of  the  Ocmulgee 
River,  Fort  Hawkins  was  built,  and  on  the  west  side, 
the  streets  for  Macon  were  laid  out.  Circuit  riders  from 
adjoining  territory  came  to  the  settlement  to  preach 
and  hold  revivals. 

The  first  Methodist  Society  was  organized  in  the  home 
of  R.  R.  Evans  in  1826.  On  Dec.  23,  1826,  Governor  G.  M. 
Thorpe  signed  a  bill  passed  by  the  Georgia  Legislature, 
authorizing  the  Commission  appointed  to  plan  the  town 
of  Macon,  "to  lay  off  a  suitable  piece  of  ground  for  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church."  The  granite  marker  on 
this  building  site  (which  is  Mulberry  Street  Methodist 
Church)  says,  "No  building  has  ever  stood  on  this  spot 
except  a  Methodist  Church  dedicated  to  the  worship 
and  service  of  Almighty  God."  The  first  building  was 
erected  in  1828. 

First  Macon  appointments  read:    1827,   South  Caro- 


lina Conference,  Milledgeville  District,  Macon  and 
Clinton,  Thos.  Darly,  P.C.  In  1828  the  circuit  was  re- 
arranged to  read — South  Carolina  Conference,  Milledge- 
ville District,  Milledgeville  and  Macon,  Samuel  K.  Hodges, 
sup.,  Charles  Hardy.  In  1829  Macon  was  made  a  station 
with  Ignatius  A.  Few,  preacher-in-charge.  At  the  end  of 
that  first  year  as  a  station  the  membership  was  120  white 
and  36  colored. 

In  1828  the  General  Conference  authorized  the 
South  Carolina  Conference  to  be  divided,  and  in  January 
1829,  the  division  was  made  at  the  Savannah  River,  with 
the  Carolinas  in  one  conference,  and  Georgia  with 
Florida  in  the  other.  The  Georgia  Conference  was 
organized  in  Macon  in  January  1830. 

Wesleyan  College,  under  the  name  of  Georgia  Fe- 
male College,  received  its  charter  from  the  Legislature  of 
the  State  of  Georgia  on  Dec.  23,  1836;  began  construction 
in  1837;  faculty  elected  in  1838;  opened  its  doors  Jan.  7, 
1839,  and  issued  the  world's  first  college  degrees  for  wom- 
en, July  16,  1840,  George  F.  Pierce,  President.  Today 
Wesleyan  College  is  located  on  a  240-acre  campus  and 
is  supported  by  South  Georgia,  North  Georgia,  and 
Florida  Conferences  and  the  Board  of  Education 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church. 

Additional  Methodist  churches  have  been  organized  in 
Macon,  beginning  with  Vineville,  1849,  followed  by  First 
Street,  East  Macon,  South  Macon,  and  then  Centenary. 
Today  there  are  twenty-six  congregations  with  14,710 
members  out  of  a  population  of  118,764  people.  The 
A.M.E.,  A.M.E.  ZiON,  and  C.M.E.  Churches  are  repre- 
sented in  congregations  numbering  more  than  1,000  mem- 
bers. Macon  is  the  strongest  Methodist  center  in  South 
Georgia. 

King  Vivion 

Mulberry  Street  Church,  Macon,  located  in  the  heart 
of  Georgia,  in  1826  had  a  population  of  about  800  people 
and  this  was  the  third  year  of  the  community's  life.  There 
were  stores,  a  school,  a  Masonic  lodge  haU,  a  hotel,  but 
no  church  building.  Occasional  religious  services  were 
held  in  a  temporary  court  house  located  on  Mulberry 
Street. 

The  first  regular  services  of  Christian  worship  began 
in  Macon  when  a  Methodist  society  was  organized  in 
1826  with  seventeen  members.  Named  the  "Macon 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,"  the  congregation  was  a  part 
of  the  South  Carolina  Conference. 

By  special  act  of  the  Georgia  Legislature  a  tract  of 
land  was  granted  the  young  congregation  at  the  comer  of 
Mulberry  and  First  Streets  adjacent  to,  but  outside,  the 
city  limits.  On  this  site  the  first  building  for  Christian 
worship  in  the  City  of  Macon  was  erected  in  1828.  The 
church  has  remained  on  this  site  during  all  its  life.  In  the 
first  simple  frame  structure  built  there  the  Georgia  Con- 
ference, including  the  churches  in  Georgia  which  had 
formerly  been  a  part  of  the  South  Carolina  Conference, 
was  organized.  Because  of  this  historic  event  Mulberry 
Street  Church  has  been  known  as  the  "Mother  Church  of 
Georgia  Methodism."  In  the  year  1847  the  name  of  the 
church  was  changed  from  "Macon  Church"  to  "Mulberry 
Street  Church." 

In  1850  a  second  and  larger  church  building,  this  one 
of  brick  construction  and  more  handsome  than  the  first, 
was  erected.  As  the  congregation  grew  there  was  a  need 
for  still  further  expansion,   and  in   1882  the  third  sane- 


MCPHEETERS,   JULIAN   CUUDIUS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


tuary  building  was  constructed.  The  walls  of  this  building 
are  still  in  use. 

By  the  time  Mulberry  Street  Church  was  ready  to 
celebrate  its  centennial  it  had  "mothered"  eight  congrega- 
tions in  the  growing  city  of  Macon.  At  the  time  of  the 
centennial  a  new  expansion  program  was  begun,  and  in 
1929  a  large  educational  building  and  a  remodelled  sanc- 
tuary were  completed  at  a  cost  of  $250,000. 

The  economic  depression  of  the  1930's  found  the  church 
in  serious  financial  difficulties  with  a  large  debt.  In  1937 
a  legal  agreement  was  reached  with  holders  of  bonds  on 
the  church's  debt  by  which  only  a  portion  of  the  indebted- 
ness was  to  be  paid.  But  the  moral  obligation  to  pay  100 
percent  of  the  value  of  the  bonds  was  never  forgotten  by 
the  church,  and  in  1945  this  was  done.  The  dedication  of 
the  educational  building  followed.  In  the  early  1950s 
plans  were  made  and  funds  raised  for  a  new  activities 
building,  a  chapel,  a  new  organ,  and  the  renovation  of 
the  sanctuary.  Before  the  end  of  that  decade  the  task 
was  completed  at  a  cost  of  more  than  $400,000,  and  in 
1960  the  Stevens-Taylor  Chapel  was  dedicated. 

On  an  April  morning  in  1965  a  disastrous  fire  destroyed 
all  but  the  walls  of  Mulberry's  sanctuary.  With  courage 
and  devotion  the  congregation  made  plans  for  rebuilding. 
The  new  construction  was  done  within  the  same  walls 
of  the  old  sanctuary  and  was  completed  in  1968  at  a  cost 
of  $560,000. 

Through  the  years  the  Mulberry  congregation  has 
sought  to  set  a  pace  for  the  churches  which  it  has  spon- 
sored in  evangelism,  missions,  education,  social  concerns, 
and  stewardship.  At  a  time  when  the  growth  of  cities 
and  suburban  churches  has  weakened  many  congregations 
in  the  downtown  areas.  Mulberry  has  maintained  a  vigor- 
ous strength  and  leadership. 

In  1970  it  reported  2,091  members,  property  valued 
at  $2,469,458,  and  $134,940  raised  for  all  purposes. 

Frank  L.  Robertson 

Swiff  Creek  Church,  situated  in  Bibb  County,  near 
Macon,  is  an  old  country  church  which  was  founded  in 
1867.  It  was  organized  by  William  Capers  Bass  of  Wes- 
leyan  College  as  Swift  Creek  Mission.  When  first  entered 
in  the  minutes  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference,  120 
white  and  two  colored  members  were  reported.  A  cen- 
tury later  the  membership  is  approximately  double  that 
number,  this  still  being  a  rural  community. 

The  men  of  the  community  built  the  Swift  Creek 
church  on  a  lot  of  three  and  one-half  acres  deeded  by 
Mrs.  Elisha  Davis  to  the  first  trustees,  William  Hanover 
Donnan,  James  Duke  and  Lunce  Riggins,  Nov.  5,  1868. 
The  original  building  is  still  the  sanctuary.  Wings  have 
been  added  and  extensive  improvements  made. 

For  ninety  years  Swaft  Creek  was  on  a  circuit  with  one 
pastor  serving  several  churches.  By  1933  the  depression 
had  nearly  depopulated  the  community,  the  membership 
had  dwindled  to  six  active  members  and  the  church  was 
closed.  In  1936  it  was  reopened  with  twenty-five  members. 
Membership  and  attendance  steadily  increased.  In  1957 
a  parsonage  was  bought  and  it  became  a  station  with  a 
full-time  pastor. 

WiLMUTH  Donnan 

R.  F.  Burden,  Historical  Sketch  of  Vineville  Methodist  Church. 

J.  W.  W.  Daniel,  The  150th  Anriiversary,  Mulberry  St.  Church. 

Macon:  J.  W.  Burke  Co.,  1951. 

Bessie  L.  Hart,  Pastors  of  Mulberry.  Macon:   Southern  Press, 

1965. 

1498 


Methodism  in  Macon,  Georgia  from  1826  to  1903,  75th  An- 
niversary of  Macon  Metliodism. 
Minutes  of  the  Awiual  Conferences,  177.3-1839. 
O.  A.  Park,  The  Centennial  Celebration— 1826-1926.  Macon: 
J.  W.  Burke  Co.,  1926. 
G.  G.  Smith,  Georgia  and  Florida.  1877. 

McPHEETERS,  JULIAN  CLAUDIUS  (1889-  ),  Ameri- 
can evangelist,  pastor  and  educator,  was  bom  at  Oxley, 
Mo.,  on  July  6,  1889,  the  son  of  William  Garland  and 
Edna  (Greer)  McPheeters.  Educated  at  Marvin  College, 
Missouri,  he  later  taught  Latin  and  Greek  and  studied 
at  Meridian  College,  Mississippi,  1910-11,  and  was  at 
Southern  Methodist  University  for  one  year,  1916. 
Honorary  degrees  were  later  conferred  upon  him.  He 
married  Ethel  Chilton  on  Jan.  28,  1914,  and  they  had 
two  children,  Chilton  Claudius  and  Virginia  Wave. 

Licensed  to  preach  in  1908,  he  held  summer  revivals 
and  then  was  received  on  trial  in  the  St.  Louis  Con- 
ference (MES).  He  was  ordained  deacon  and  elder  and 
went  into  full  connection  in  1921.  His  appointments  were: 
Oran,  1909-10;  evangelist,  1912-16;  Williamsville,  1917; 
Mellow  Memorial,  St.  Louis,  1918;  Summersville,  1919- 
21;  Missoula,  Mont.,  1921-23;  University  Church,  Tucson, 
Ariz.,  1923-30;  Glide  Memorial,  San  Francisco,  1930- 
48.  He  became  president  of  Asbury  Theological  Semi- 
nary, 1942-62  (1942-48  serving  both  Glide  Memorial 
and  the  seminary),  and  he  retired  in  1962. 

In  1918  an  authoritative  medical  report  indicated  that 
he  had  tuberculosis  and  would  never  be  able  to  preach 
but  might  find  it  possible  to  do  light  work  in  five  years. 
By  faith,  prayer  and  following  his  physician's  directions 
(he  slept  on  an  open  porch  for  three  years),  he  was 
preaching  twice  on  Sunday  within  one  year.  During  his 
pastorate  at  Missoula,  the  membership  doubled  in  two 
years. 

He  was  the  founder  and  builder  of  Glide  Memorial 
Institutional  Church  in  San  Francisco,  then  called  the 
most  pagan  city  in  America.  When  Glide  Church  pur- 
chased the  Califomian  Hotel,  McPheeters  did  away  with 
the  bar,  and  within  one  month  the  hotel's  average  rate  of 
occupancy  became  the  highest  in  the  city. 

A  leader  of  the  holiness  movement,  McPheeters  re- 
stored the  academic  accreditation  of  Asbury  Theological 
Seminary;  paid  off  its  debt;  and  increased  the  armual  en- 
rollment from  sixty  to  250  students.  He  was  also  founder 
and  president  of  the  Redwoods  Camp  Meeting  near  Santa 
Cruz,  Calif.  From  1942  to  1962  he  was  editor  of  The 
Herald,  successor  of  The  Pentecostal  Herald,  edited  by 
H.  C.  Morrison.  After  retirement  McPheeters  continued 
to  edit  The  Herald.  He  wrote  eleven  books  and  was  a 
delegate  to  the  Uniting  Conference  in  1939,  the  Juris- 
dictional Conference  in  1940,  and  the  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference,  1947. 

The  Asbury  Seminarian,  Spring-Summer,  1962. 

Who's  Who  in  Methodism,  1952.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

Mcpherson,  harry  W.  (I879-I957),  American  educa- 
tion executive,  was  born  in  rural  Cumberland  County, 
III.  His  college  education  was  at  Illinois  Wesleyan 
University,  and  his  theological  training  at  Boston  Uni- 
versity. Joining  the  Illinois  Conference  in  1904,  he 
served  churches  until  1932,  with  a  term  as  superintendent 
of  the  Springfield  District,  1923-25.  His  social  and  ecu- 
menical outlook  led  him  to  be  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Illinois  Council  of  Churches. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MCTYEIRE,    HOLLAND   NIMMONS 


As  president  of  Illinois  Wesleyan  during  the  difficult 
depression  years,  1932-36,  he  saved  it  from  financial  losses 
by  his  firm  and  wise  administration.  His  plan  of  accepting 
farm  produce  as  tuition  kept  many  students  in  college,  and 
gave  Wesleyan  much  good  publicity.  The  larger  church 
called  him  in  1936  as  Executive  Secretary  of  its  Bo.\bd 
OF  Education,  and  gave  him  charge  of  the  Division  of 
Educational  Institutions.  He  was  continued  in  this  position 
in  The  Methodist  Church  from  1940  to  1948,  in  which 
position  he  served  with  distinction. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 

Journal  of  the  Illinois  Conference,  1958. 

Elmo  Scott  Watson,  The  Illinois  Wesleyan  Story,  1850-1950. 

Bloomington,  1950.  Henby  C.  Nylin 

McQUIGG,  JAMES,  Irish  preacher  and  scholar,  had  an 
outstanding  knowledge  of  the  Irish  language  and  was  one 
of  three  General  Missionaries  along  with  Charles 
and  Gideon  Ouseley  appointed  in  1799.  Owing  to  the 
hardships  he  had  to  endure,  he  broke  down  in  health 
and  had  to  return  to  circuit  work.  Here  also  his  evange- 
listic success  led  to  the  formation  of  many  new  Societies. 
Trinity  College,  Dublin,  offered  him  a  Readership  in 
Irish,  but  he  refused  this  attractive  academic  post,  choos- 
ing to  remain  a  Methodist  preacher.  In  1815,  after  twenty- 
six  years  as  a  preacher,  he  was  expelled  by  the  Conference 
on  the  grounds  of  immorality,  despite  his  strong  denial 
of  the  charge.  He  continued  the  work  he  had  begun  of 
editing  the  Bible  in  Irish  for  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society.  Not  until  after  his  death,  a  few  years 
later,  was  his  innocence  proved  and  his  name  cleared  by 
the  confession  of  the  guilty  party. 

C.  H.  Crookshank,  Methodism  in  Ireland.  1885-88. 

R.  H.  Gallagher,  Pioneer  Preachers  (Irish).  1965. 

F.  Jeffery,  Irish  Methodism.  1964.  Fredebick  Jeffery 

MacROSSIE,  ALLAN  (1861-1940),  American  pastor,  dis- 
trict superintendent,  educator,  was  bom  of  Scotch  parent- 
age at  Kingston,  Ontario,  Canada,  the  son  of  William 
and  Althea  (Hershey)  MacRossie,  both  devout  Method- 
ists. He  married  Edith  M.  Weston  on  Oct.  18,  1888,  and 
they  had  two  sons,  William  and  Allan,  Jr. 

Educated  at  Queens  University,  Kingston,  Ontario 
(A.B.)  and  Drew  Theological  Semin.\by,  B.D.,  1887, 
and  later  the  D.D.,  he  entered  the  New  York  East  Con- 
ference in  1888.  His  appointments  were:  Corona,  N.  Y., 
1888-91;  South  Park,  Hartford,  Conn.,  1891-93;  Mamar- 
oneck,  N.  Y.,  1893-94;  Grace,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1894-99; 
Sand  Street,  Brooklyn,  1900-01;  St.  James,  New  York, 
1901-11;  Superintendent,  New  York  District,  1911-17; 
St.  Andrew's,  New  York,  1917-21;  Commissioner,  War 
Council,  American  Red  Cross,  1917-18;  then  he  became 
educational  director.  General  Conference  Commission  on 
Courses  of  Study,  1921-39,  and  proved  a  commanding 
leader  in  the  field  of  ministerial  training. 

A  member  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions,  and  Commission  on  Conservation  and 
Advance,  he  was  also  a  trustee  of  Drew  and  Drew  Semi- 
nary for  Young  Women.  MacRossie  was  a  manager  of 
the  New  York  Federation  of  Churches,  the  New  York 
Deaconess  Home,  and  the  Methodist  Hospital  in  Brooklyn. 
Several  times  he  was  a  delegate  and  reserve  delegate  to 
the  General  Conference. 

MacRossie's  excellent  training  in  Biblical  perspective 
at  Queens  University  and  Drew  Seminary  prepared  him 


in  the  beginning  for  the  so-called  higher  criticism  which 
was  then  starting  to  stir  theological  circles  and  causing 
confusion  and  bitterness.  Young  MacRossie  found  his 
way  between  "the  stagnation  of  reactionaryism  and  the 
over-rashness  of  radicalism."  As  pastor  and  district  super- 
intendent he  was  an  inspiring  counsellor. 

A  dynamic  executive,  he  completely  revolutionized  the 
method  of  training  young  ministers  in  the  Conference 
Course,  establishing  virtually  a  system  of  adult  education 
through  correspondence.  He  developed  what  might  be 
called  a  college  of  preachers  which  met  once  a  year  at 
Evanston,  111.,  to  listen  to  religious  leaders  from  the  most 
important  pulpits  and  theological  schools.  The  ministers 
in  the  Conference  Course  constituted  what  was  sometimes 
called  the  largest  theological  school  in  the  world. 

Bishop  McConnell  said  in  his  memoir  of  MacRossie 
in  1940: 

He  had  to  be  on  his  guard  constantly  against  otlier  ad- 
ministrative agencies  which  would,  if  they  could,  have  taken 
over  his  commission  as  a  secondary  part  of  some  other  organi- 
zation. He  had  need  of  all  his  Scotch  sturdiness  before  he 
came  to  the  end.  During  the  past  two  decades,  the  influence 
of  Dr.  MacRossie  has  played  more  directly  upon  the  majority 
of  younger  ministers  than  that  of  any  other  educational  official 
during  his  time.  Dr.  MacRossie  was  a  marvel  of  industry,  of 
presistent  persistence  in  working  toward  an  end,  of  shrewdness 
of  discernment  as  to  men's  capabilities  and  peculiarities,  of 
loyalty  to  his  friends  and  his  ideals. 

He  died  on  March  2,  1940,  and  his  funeral  was  con- 
ducted in  Christ  Church  Methodist,  New  York  City,  on 
March  5.  Bishops  E.  H.  Hughes  and  F.  J.  McConnell  de- 
livered the  addresses.  Burial  was  in  Kingston,  Ontario. 
He  was  survived  by  his  wife  and  two  sons. 

Alumni  Record,  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  1867-1925. 

F.  J.  McConnell,  By  the  Way.  1952. 

E.  H.  Hughes,  I  Was  Made  a  Minister.  1943. 

New  York  Conference  Journal,  1940. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 


H.  N.  McTyeire 


McTYEIRE,  HOLLAND  NIMMONS  (1824-1889),  American 
bishop,  editor,  educator,  and  the  great  figure  in  Southern 
Methodism  during  the  crucial  years  following  the  Civil 
War,  was  bom  in  Barnwell  County,  S.  C,  on  July  28, 


MACY,   VICTOR  W. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


1824.  He  was  educated  at  the  old  Cokesburv  School 
in  his  native  state  and  at  Randolph-Macon  College 
in  Virginia,  remaining  there  as  a  tutor  one  year  after  his 
graduation.  In  1845  he  was  admitted  on  trial  to  the  Vra- 
GiM.\  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  and 
appointed  to  Williamsburg.  Two  years  later,  he  became 
pastor  of  St.  Francis  Street  Church  in  Mobile,  Ala.  He 
was  sent  to  New  Orleans  in  1849  and  in  1851  he 
founded  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate.  He  be- 
came editor  of  the  central  organ  of  his  Church,  the 
Christian  Advocate  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  1858  and  con- 
tinued in  that  influential  position  for  four  years,  becoming 
an  intense  Southern  protagonist  as  the  Civil  War  came 
on.  He  attacked  abolitionists.  Republicans,  and  the  North 
generally  until  1862  when  Nashville  was  taken  over  by 
the  Union  Army  and  the  Methodist  Publishing  House 
property  occupied.  McTyeire  bitterly  criticized  the  with- 
drawal from  Nashville  under  General  Joseph  Johnston 
and  wrote:  "The  tameness  of  surrender,  without  a  blow, 
must  have  made  the  bones  of  Andrew  Jackson  turn  in  his 
grave  at  the  Hermitage." 

The  McTyeires  refugeed  in  southern  Alabama  at  a 
cabin  built  in  the  woods  near  Mobile.  The  effectiveness 
of  the  Northern  blockade  was  such  that  McTyeire  could 
buy  no  shoes  for  his  wife  in  all  Mobile. 

Later  McTyeire  was  appointed  pastor  in  Montgomery, 
Ala.,  where  he  served  until  the  General  Conference 
of  1866.  There  was  some  question  just  after  the  war 
among  the  Southern  bishops  of  abandoning  the  Church's 
status  as  an  independent  organization,  but  they  asked 
McTyeire  to  draft  an  address  which  would  summon  the 
annual  conferences  to  elect  delegates  to  a  General  Con- 
ference to  decide  on  these  matters.  He  did  so  and  in  this 
General  Conference,  the  first  the  South  had  had  in  eight 
years,  McTyeire  took  the  lead,  being  the  champion  of 
lay  representation  and  for  an  increase  in  the  pastoral  time 
limit  from  two  years  to  four.  He  also  championed  plans 
for  organizing  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  and  took  the  lead  in  calling  for  the  reestablish- 
ment  of  the  missionary  program  of  the  Church,  and  for 
rehabilitating  the  Publishing  House  in  Nashville. 

He  was  elected  bishop  by  this  conference  and  at  this 
critical  time  when  he  was  forty-two  years  of  age.  As 
Bishop  SouLE  died  in  1867,  this  threw  great  responsibility 
on  him  as  one  of  the  new  bishops.  He  lived  in  Nashville, 
but  conducted  125  annual  conferences,  an  average  of  five 
and  one-half  for  each  year  he  served  as  bishop. 

McTyeire  was  the  virtual  founder  of  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity in  Nashville  in  1872.  He  secured  from  ComeUus 
Vanderbilt  the  original  gift  of  $500,000,  which  was  later 
increased  to  $1,000,000  and  which  has  been  added  to  by 
other  members  of  the  family  in  later  years.  Vanderbilt 
provided  that  Bishop  McTyeire  should  be  president  of 
the  Board  of  Trustees  with  full  veto  power. 

In  his  later  years  he  lived  on  the  grounds  of  the  Uni- 
versity. He  died  there  on  Feb.  15,  1889,  and  is  buried 
on  the  campus. 

McTyeire 's  greatest  literary  contribution  was  his  His- 
tory of  Methodism.  He  also  wrote  a  work  called  Duties 
of  Christian  Masters,  dealing  with  the  question  of  slavery. 
He  was  the  foremost  authority  on  Church  law  and  pub- 
lished A  Manual  of  the  Discipline  and  A  Catechism  on 
Church  Government.  He  was  one  of  the  strongest  bishops 
of  the  Church  in  an  era  of  strong  bishops.  Bishop  Atticus 
Haygood  wrote  of  him:  "He  was  no  mere  ecclesiastic.  He 


was  in  his  Church,  its  first  statesman,  as  well  as  chief 
pastor." 

G.  Alexander,  History  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  1894. 

C.  T.  Carter,  Tennessee  Conference.  1948. 

Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

Journal  of  the  General  Conference,  1890. 

J.  J.  Tigert,  Holland  Nimmons  McTyeire.  1955. 

Elmeh  T.  Clark 

MACY,  VICTOR  W.  (1910-  ),  American  Free  Meth- 

odist ordained  elder  of  the  Southern  California  Con- 
ference of  his  Church  and  a  mission  executive,  was  bom 
at  Los  Angeles,  Calif.  He  was  educated  at  Seattle 
Pacific  College,  B.A.,  D.D.;  Biblical  Seminary  in  New 
York,  S.T.B.,  and  S.T.M.  He  married  Susan  B.  Blain  in 
1936,  and  became  a  missionary,  under  appointment  of  the 
General  Missionary  Board  for  Mozambique,  Africa,  1936- 
60.  He  has  been  Area  Secretary  for  Africa  since  1960. 
His  foreign  travels  include  Africa,  Asia  and  Latin  Amer- 
ica areas. 

Dr.  Macy  has  speciahzed  in  production  of  mission  films, 
developing  near-professional  levels  in  color-sound  filming. 
His  sound-color  films  are:  Africa  Fellowship;  Beauty  for 
Ashes;  Cheeza;  High  Calling;  Missionaries  are  Human; 
Ziuko;  African  Harvest;  Eastern  Harvest;  Four  Seasons; 
The  Mountains  Sing;  World  Parish;  Conquerors  for  Christ; 
World  Fellowship;  Beautiful  Feet;  and  a  film  for  Seattle 
Pacific  College.  He  is  the  author  of  History  of  Free  Meth- 
odist Mission  in  Portuguese  East  Africa.  He  resides  in 
Bukavu,  Congo. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

MADAN,  MARTIN  (1726-1790),  Anglican  Evangelical, 
was  the  elder  brother  of  Spencer  Madan,  Bishop  of  Peter- 
borough, and  cousin  to  William  Cowper,  the  poet.  Edu- 
cated at  Westminster  School  and  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
Madan  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1748.  Shortly  afterward 
he  was  converted  under  John  Wesley's  preaching  and 
was  ordained  in  the  Church  of  England.  In  1750  he  was 
appointed  chaplain  of  the  Lock  Hospital  in  London,  a  post 
which  he  held  for  thirty  years.  He  itinerated  for  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon  from  1757.  He  also  associated 
with  the  Methodists  and  attended  the  Conference  of  1762. 

GentlerrMn's  Magazine,  1790,  part  i,  478. 

Gospel    Magazine,    iv,    196.  A.    Skevington    Wood 

MAOHYA  PRADESH  ANNUAL  CONFERENCE  is  a  con- 
ference of  India  which  was  named  for  and  covers  a  cen- 
tral and  the  second  largest  state  of  India.  Bhopal  is  its 
capital,  and  the  state  is  located  between  the  Narbada  and 
Godavari  Rivers,  and  touches  the  states  of  the  Deccan, 
as  well  as  of  the  northern  part  of  the  country.  It  is  rich 
in  minerals  and  has  extensive  forests.  Hinduism  is  the 
predominant  rehgion  and  Hindi  the  chief  language.  There 
are  many  tribal  languages  and  dialects.  The  state  covers 
an  area  of  171,217  square  miles  and  has  a  population  of 
about  32,000,000. 

The  Madhya  Pradesh  Conference  was  organized  in  1913 
out  of  what  had  been  the  Central  Provinces  Mission  Con- 
ference. The  name  was  changed  after  independence  to 
Madhya  Pradesh  Annual  Conference,  which  has  the  same 
meaning. 

The   conference   has   four   districts,    namely    Balaghat, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MAGARET,    ERNST   CARl 


Bastar,  Jabalpur,  and  Khandwa.  Of  these  the  largest  is  the 
one  centered  in  Jabalpur,  a  city  of  295,375,  and  perhaps 
the  most  centrally  located  city  in  India,  with  a  healthful 
climate  and  high  altitude.  It  is  about  616  miles  from 
Bombay  and  733  miles  from  Calcutta.  Jabalpur  contains 
two  Methodist  churches  and  the  Leonard  Theological 
College.  The  conference  supports  a  membership  of  15,901 
(1968)  served  by  approximately  thirty-two  ordained  and 
fifty  supply  pastors. 

Disciplines. 

Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 

Project   Handbook   Overseas  Missions,   The   United   Methodist 

Church.  New  York:  Board  of  Missions,  1969.  N.  B.  H. 

MADISON,  WISCONSIN,  U.S.A.,  the  state  capital,  popu- 
lation of  170,073,  was  planned  as  a  community  by  Steven 
Mason  and  James  Doty  in  1836  and  was  named  for  Presi- 
dent James  Madison.  Incorporated  as  a  city  in  1856,  it  is 
the  seat  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  (chartered  in 
1848)  and  of  Edgewood  College. 

Methodist  services  were  first  held  in  Madison  in  Novem- 
ber 1837,  "in  the  Barroom  of  the  American  House,  then 
owned  by  James  Morrison."  Salmon  Stebbins,  a  presiding 
elder,  preached  that  night,  and  then  received  an  offering 
totaling  $11.  During  1838,  a  Mr.  Pillsbury  preached  in 
Madison  about  once  a  month.  Salmon  Stebbins  also  is 
reported  to  have  stopped  by  occasionally  that  year,  as 
presiding  elder. 

The  first  Methodist  building  was  begun  in  1849,  and 
completed  in  1853.  The  second  building,  on  the  present 
site  at  Wisconsin  and  Dayton,  was  built  in  1876.  Madison 
first  appears  in  the  minutes  in  1843,  with  Thomas  L.  Ben- 
nett as  pastor.  In  1845  the  church  had  only  forty-six 
members.  By  1876  the  Madison  M.  E.  Church  reported 
230  members  and  church  property  appraised  at  $43,590. 
Then  the  German  Methodist  Church  had  sixty-five  mem- 
bers and  property  worth  $4,500. 

During  the  1890's  the  membership  grew  rapidly  to 
about  400.  As  early  as  1908  the  church  employed  an  as- 
sistant pastor  to  work  with  the  University  students,  and 
in  1912  a  Wesley  Foundation  was  started  near  the 
campus.  A  few  years  later  First  Church  sponsored  the 
forming  of  a  mission  in  the  city's  Italian  district,  and  this 
was  merged  with  a  neighborhood  church  in  the  early 
1960's.  In  1919,  First  Church  started  Methodist  Hospital, 
which  today  is  a  modern  150-bed  institution. 

The  greatest  period  of  expansion  into  the  growing 
suburban  areas  came  after  World  War  II,  when  new 
congregations  were  established  in  each  new  major  de- 
velopment in  the  city. 

Madison  also  has  two  Wesleyan  Methodist  churches, 
a  Free  Methodist  Church,  and  an  A.M.E.  Church. 

Madison  had  eleven  United  Methodist  churches  in 
1970  with  a  combined  membership  of  7,481  and  property 
appraised  at  $3,549,862.  First  Church  with  2,302  mem- 
bers had  property  worth  $1,292,739. 

General  Minutes 

History  of  First  Methodist  Church,  Madison,  Wisconsin.  1937. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 
J.  Ellsworth  Kalas 

MADISON  COLLEGE,  Uniontown,  Pennsylvania,  the  third 
college  established  in  the  United  States  under  the  auspices 
of  the  M.  E.  Church.  It  was  a  project  of  the  Pittsburgh 
Conference  launched  at  the  initial  session  of  that  Con- 


ference in  1825.  It  opened  for  students  and  was  chartered 
by  the  Legislature  of  Pennsvxvania  in  1827.  The  first 
President  was  Henry  B.  Bascom,  later  a  bishop  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South.  Bascom  had  been  Chaplain  of 
Congress  in  1823  and  named  the  College  for  President 
James  Madison. 

Madison  only  continued  as  a  M.  E.  College  for  five 
years,  until  1832,  at  which  time  the  patronage  of  the 
Pittsburgh  Conference  was  transferred  to  Allegheny 
College  at  Meadville,  Pa.,  and  the  faculty  and  students 
of  Madison  were  transferred  to  Allegheny.  Since  the 
first  Methodist  college,  Cokesbury,  had  been  discontinued 
after  the  fire  that  destroyed  it  in  1795;  and  since  the 
second  college,  Augusta,  established  under  the  patronage 
of  Ohio  and  Kentucky  Conferences  in  1822,  was  aban- 
doned in  the  1840s,  this  continuity  of  Madison  in  and  via 
Allegheny  gives  to  Allegheny  College  the  claim  to  be  the 
oldest  Methodist  college  in  the  United  States. 

The  Madison  College  buildings  in  Uniontown  were 
occupied  for  a  time  in  the  1830s  as  a  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian college,  and  then  they  went  under  the  control  of 
the  M.  P.  Church.  At  the  meeting  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  that  church  in  1850,  George  Brown  reported 
that  the  trustees  of  Madison  College  had  offered  the 
institution  to  the  conference.  Since  the  location  was  at 
a  central  point  between  the  northern  and  southern  con- 
ferences of  the  M.  P.  Church,  the  offer  was  accepted. 

A  Board  of  Trustees  was  appointed  and  Madison  Col- 
lege commenced  operations  again  in  the  summer  of  1851. 
In  1853,  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.  P. 
Church  recommended  Madison  College  "as  the  most  suit- 
able place  at  which  the  sons  of  Methodist  Protestants 
may  be  educated."  In  1854,  John  Speight  was  appointed 
to  act  as  agent  for  the  North  Carolina  Conference  and 
solicit  funds  for  the  college.  R.  H.  Ball,  Francis  Waters, 
and  Samuel  K.  Cox  each  served  as  President  of  Madison 
College  for  short  periods  of  time.  However,  since  the 
various  presidents,  faculty  members,  commissioners  and 
trustees  of  the  college  were  largely  selected  from  the 
southern  conferences  of  the  M.  P.  Church,  some  tension 
was  created.  As  a  result  of  the  controversial  political 
atmosphere  of  the  period,  the  faculty  and  president  re- 
signed at  the  commencement  of  1855  and  announced  that 
a  new  M.  P.  college  would  open  in  Lynchburg,  Va.,  in 
September  of  that  year.  Eighty-five  students  also  with- 
drew from  Madison  College  to  enroll  at  Lynchburg  Col- 
lege. Brown,  who  had  served  as  President  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  became  President  of  Madison  College  that 
fall,  and  remained  in  that  position  until  1857  when,  due 
to  indebtedness,  small  enrollment,  lack  of  financial  sup- 
port and  endowment,  the  trustees  decided  to  close  the 
college. 

A.  H.  Bassetl,  Concise  History.  1877. 
Minutes  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference,  ME,  1876. 
Our  Church  Record,  June  23,  Sept.  29,  1898. 
W.  G.  Smeltzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951. 

Ralph  Hardee  RrvES 
W.  Guy  Smeltzer 

MAGARET,  ERNST  CARL  (1845-1924),  German-Ameri- 
can minister  and  hymn  writer,  was  bom  at  Anklam, 
Pomerania,  Germany  on  July  6,  1845.  Educated  in  the 
classical  Gymnasia  at  Anklam  and  Greifswald,  he  emi- 
grated to  America  in  1864  and  became  a  teacher  at 
Central  Wesleyan  College,  Warrenton,  Mo.  In  1869 


MAGATA,    DAVID 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


he  was  admitted  to  the  Southwest  German  Annual  Con- 
ference of  the  M.  E.  Church.  From  1868-1883  he  ser\ed 
various  churches  in  Iowa  and  Illinois.  From  1883-1884 
he  was  a  professor  at  the  Mount  Ple.-^sant  German 
College.  He  then  served  important  German  churches  in 
Burlington,  Iowa;  Warsaw,  Pekin  and  Belleville,  Illinois; 
and  in  St.  Louis  until  his  retirement  in  1917. 

He  was  noted  for  his  writings,  particularly  poetry, 
and  the  editorship  of  the  ]uhildunisbuch  der  St.  Lottis 
Dcutschrn  Konjercnz.  His  greatest  achievement  was  in 
the  translation  and  composition  of  original  hymns  for 
everv  important  Gennan  Methodist  hvmnal:  Deutacfies- 
Cesang-und  Mclodienhuch  (1888);  Die  Terlc  (1894); 
Lobe  din  Herrn!  (1895)  and  Die  Pilgerkliinge  (1907). 
He  edited  himself  Die  Kliene  Fahne  (1895)  which  con- 
tained fifty-six  translations  and  twenty-one  originals.  He 
died  in  Omaha,  Neb.,  on  July  3,  1924. 

juhildumsbuch  der  St.  Louis  Deutschen  Konferenz;  Minutes 
of  the  St.  Louis  Gennan  Conference  1924;  Hymnals  and 
Memorabilia  in  Z.  F.  Meyer  Collection  of  German-American 
Methodism   (Iowa  Wesleyan).  Louis  A.   Haselmayer 

MAGATA,  DAVID,  was  born  in  the  Magaliesberg,  was 
captured  by  the  Matabele  and  became  a  personal  at- 
tendant of  Mzilikazi.  He  escaped  when  Mzilikazi  was 
attacked  by  the  Boers  and  went  to  Thaba  'Nchu  Wesleyan 
Mission.  Converted  he  returned  to  the  Magaliesberg  to 
find  his  family  had  disappeared.  He  settled  in  Potchef- 
stroom  and  preached  every  morning  on  the  market  square 
to  the  Bantu  and  colored  people.  Some  whites  laid  a 
charge  of  disturbing  the  peace  against  him.  The  local 
magistrate  ordered  a  public  lashing  and  banished  him  from 
the  Republic.  After  receiving  his  lashing,  Magata  went 
to  Natal  and  then  to  Sekukuniland.  On  the  border  he 
met  Commandant  Paul  Kruger  who  listened  to  his  story 
syTnpathetically  and  gave  him  written  permission  to  re- 
turn to  Potchefstroom.  He  was  to  be  allowed  to  preach 
and  no  one  was  to  interfere  with  him.  Blencowe  appointed 
Magata  as  a  lay  agent  of  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  So- 
ciety at  an  annual  salary  of  £12. 

Journal  of  the  Methodist  Historical  Society  of  South  Africa. 

Vol.  Ill,  No.  2  (October  1958). 

Minutes  of  the  South  African  Conference,  1939. 

D.  C.  Veysie 

MAGAZINES.  American  Methodism.  The  general  story 
of  the  publication  of  magazines  and  newspapers  in  Amer- 
ican Methodism  will  be  found  in  the  account  of  the 
Methodist  Publishing  House  and  the  Book  Concern 
which  it  succeeded.  Certain  distinctive  and  significant 
magazines  which  have  been  and  may  now  be  published 
as  official  organs  of  the  Church  will  be  found  listed  under 
their  own  names,  as  Arminian  Magazine,  Methodist  Re- 
view, Southern  Quarterly  Review,  Religion  In  Life,  etc. 
British  Methodism.  Wesleyan  Methodism.  The  first 
Magazine  of  Methodism,  The  Arminian  Magazine  (q.v.) 
was  started  by  John  Wesley  in  1778  and  continued  under 
various  titles  until  1969  (vide  Methodist  Magazine).  The 
nineteenth-century  controversies  within  the  Connexion, 
together  with  the  growing  literacy  of  the  people,  created 
a  great  demand  for  more  reading  matter,  and  the  number 
of  Methodist  magazines  and  newspapers  multiplied.  The 
Watchman  (see  below).  The  Illuminator  (1835-36),  and 
The  Wesleyan  Vindicator  (1850-52)  defended  the  official 
Wesleyan  policy  and  polity  against   left-wing  reformers. 


Learned  comment  on  events  and  current  Lterature  was 
catered  for  in  The  London  Quarterly  Review  (1853- 
1932),  later  to  be  amalgamated  with  The  llolhorn  Quar- 
terly (see  below)  to  form  The  London  Quarterly  and 
Holborn  Review  ( 1932-68 )  and  now  allied  with  The 
Church  Quarterly  Review  to  form  the  present  Church 
Quarterly. 

Local  preachers  were  served  by  The  Preachers  Maga- 
zine (1890-1927)  and  The  Preachers  and  Class  Leaders 
Magazine  (1928-54)  which  has  now  been  superseded  by 
The  Preachers  Quarterly.  An  earlier  publication,  The 
Methodist  Pulpit  (1871-73),  simply  reproduced  sermons 
by  well-known  preachers. 

For  Sunday  school  teachers  there  were  The  Wesleyan 
Sunday  School  Magazine  (1857-89),  The  Methodist  Sun- 
day School  Magazine  (1890-1901),  The  Teacher  and 
Preacher  (1909-13)  and  The  Teachers  Magazine  (1930- 
47). 

Many  magazines  for  children  and  young  people  were 
issued:  The  Child's  Magazine  (1824-45),  Early  Days 
(1846-1916),  The  Kiddies  Magazine  (1917-57),  Our  Boys 
and  Girls  (1887-1905),  Youth's  Instructor  (1817-55), 
and  The  Guild  (1897-1901).  The  Choir  (1910-64)  ca- 
tered for  musicians,  and  was  superseded  by  a  general 
magazine  on  the  arts.  Mosaic  (1965-67).  The  Church 
Record,  under  various  similar  titles  (1892-1957)  pro- 
vided an  inset  for  local  church  magazines.  Magazines 
for  home  reading  included  The  Cottager's  Friend,  later 
entitled  The  Chrisiian  Miscellany  and  Family  Visitor 
(1846-1900),  The  Wesleyan  Tract  Reporter  (1841-49), 
The  City  Road  Magazine  (1871-76),  The  Methodist 
Messenger  (1871-72),  The  Kings  Highway  (1872-1927, 
"A  Journal  of  Scriptural  Holiness"),  Experience  (1881- 
1927),  The  Monthly  Greeting  (1890-92),  Hope  (1909- 
11)  and  Home  and  Empire  Magazine  (1924).  Special 
interests  were  met  in  The  Methodist  Temperance  Maga- 
zine (1868-1906),  The  Wesley  Naturalist  (1887-89), 
The  Journal  of  the  Wcdey  Bible  Union  (1914-27). 

The  Methodist  New  Connexion.  The  first  real  rival 
to  The  Methodist  Magazine  was  one  of  the  same  title, 
started  by  the  Methodist  New  Connexion  in  1798,  but 
in  1812  the  title  was  changed  to  The  New  Methodist 
Magazine  and  in  1833  to  The  Methodist  New  Connexion 
Magazine.  Thus  it  continued  until  1907.  The  Methodist 
Monitor  had  appeared  in  1796-97  as  an  organ  for  dis- 
seminating the  views  of  the  Kilhamites  who,  under  the 
leadership  of  Alexander  Kilham  and  William  Thom, 
separated  from  the  Wesleyans  in  1796  to  form  the  Meth- 
odist New  Connexion.  This  connexion  also  published 
The  Sunday  Scholars  Magazine  (1850-98)  and  Young 
People  (1899-1907). 

The  Reform  Movements.  The  Reform  Movements  pro- 
duced an  abundance  of  literature.  The  Tent  Methodist 
Magazine  (1823),  The  Wesleyan  Protestant  Methodist 
Magazine  (1829-34),  The  Wesleyan  Association  Magazine 
(1828-57),  The  Watchman's  Lantern  (1834-35),  The 
Wesley  Banner  (1849-54)  (q.v.),  The  Wesleyan  Review 
and  Evangelical  Record  (1850-51),  The  Wesleyan  Re- 
former (1851-52),  all  expressed  the  thought  and  traced 
the  development  of  the  reform  agitation  witliin  Meth- 
odism during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but 
when  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  was  fonned 
in  1857,  The  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  Magazine 
held  the  field  until  1907— from  1892  to  1907  the  title 
was  The  Methodist  Monthly.  Other  magazines  of  this  body 
were    The    Sunday    School    Hive    (1849-91),    Welcome 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MAGEE,   JUNIUS   RALPH 


Words  (1867-91),  and  The  Brooklet  (1885-94).  The  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  Penny  Magazine  ran  from  1853  to  1857. 
Those  who  did  not  enter  the  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches  formed  The  Wesleyan  Reform  Union,  and  as 
such  exist  to  this  day.  They  pubhshed  The  Wesleyan  Re- 
form Union  Magazine  (1861-65),  which  in  1866  assumed 
the  title  Christian  Words  which  it  still  carries. 

The  Bible  Christians.  This  small  Connexion  published 
The  Bible  Christian  Magazine  (1822-1907)  and  a  Young 
People's  Magazine  which  began  about  1825  and  ran, 
imder  various  titles,  until  1907. 

The  United  Methodist  Church.  This  body  published 
The  United  Methodist  Magazine  (1907-32),  Young  Peo- 
ple (1907)  and  Pleasant  Hour  (1908-12). 

The  Primitive  Methodist  Church.  This,  the  largest  non- 
Wesleyan  body,  published  its  own  magazine  from  1819  to 
1932.  From  1819  to  1899  its  title  was  The  Primitive 
Methodist  Magazine,  and  from  1900  to  1932  The  Alders- 
gate  and  Primitive  Methodist  Magazine.  Of  high  quality, 
especially  under  the  editorship  of  A.  S.  Peake,  was  The 
Holborn  Review  (1910-32),  previously  known  as  The 
Christian  Ambassador  (1863-77)  and  The  Primitive  Meth- 
odist Quarterly  Review  (1878-1915).  Teachers  and 
preachers  were  catered  for  by  The  Primitive  Methodist 
Preachers  Magazine  (1832-?)  and  later  by  adapting  the 
Wesleyan  periodical  of  the  same  title,  The  Teachers  Assis- 
tant (1873-95),  The  Sunday  School  Journal  and  Preachers 
Magazine  (1896-1907),  The  Teacher  and  Preacher  (1908- 
13),  The  Primitive  Methodist  Sunday  School  Magazine 
(1914-32).  Young  people  were  provided  for  in  Spring- 
time (1886-1929),  Joyful  Tidings  (1892-1903),  Advance 
(1923-32),  and  The  Child's  Friend  (1865-1914). 

Interdenominational.  A  magazine  intended  to  serve  all 
branches  of  Methodism,  The  Methodist  Quarterly,  ran 
from  1867  to  1872.  It  claimed  to  be  "independent  and 
unsectional,"  sympathetic  to  liberal  tendencies  in  Church 
polity  and  without  bigotry.  It  believed  that  the  days  of 
controversy  over  ecclesiastical  polity  were  past.  Of  shorter 
duration  were  The  Methodist  World  (1870)  and  a  Meth- 
odist Times  which  ran  from  1867  to  1869  and  is  not  to 
be  confused  with  a  newspaper  of  the  same  title  which 
ran  from  1885  to  1932  (see  below). 

Newspapers  in  British  Methodism.  The  first  Methodist 
newspaper  to  appear  was  The  Watchman  (1834-85) 
(q.v.),  intended  to  defend  Wesleyan  policy  and  polity 
against  the  attacks  of  left-wing  reformers  (as  Protestant 
Methodists,  The  Warrenite  Controversy  and  The  Fly 
Sheets  agitation).  Although  it  was  not  an  official  Con- 
ference publication,  it  exerted  a  strong  influence  on  Wes- 
leyan Methodists.  Conservative  in  tone,  it  reported  and 
commented  on  ecclesiastical  and  political  events.  The 
newspaper  of  the  Wesleyan  Reformers  was  The  Wesleyan 
Times  (1849-52),  but  there  were  others  of  short-lived 
duration — The  Wesleyan  Chronicle  (1840),  The  Wes- 
leyan and  Christian  Record  (1841),  and  The  Wesleyan 
(1843-48).  In  1861  The  Methodist  Recorder  (q.v.)  ap- 
peared, and  is  still  in  circulation.  In  1885  a  new  publica- 
tion, representing  more  liberal  tendencies,  was  started 
under  the  editorship  of  Hugh  Price  Hughes — The  Meth- 
odist Times  (1885-1932).  The  Primitre  Methodists 
had  The  Primitive  Methodist  (1868-1905)  which  incorpo- 
rated The  Primitive  Methodist  World  (1883-1908),  and, 
in  turn,  became  The  Primitive  Methodist  Leader  ( 1905- 
25)  and  The  Methodist  Leader  (1926-32).  With  the  con- 
summation of  Methodist  Union  this  newspaper  amalga- 
mated with  The  Methodist  Times  to  become  The  Meth- 


odist Times  and  Leader  (1932-37)  and  in  1937  this  was 
incorporated  with  The  Methodist  Recorder.  Other  news- 
papers representing  the  smaller  denominations  were  The 
United  Methodist  (1903-1932)  and  The  Free  Methodist 
(1886-1907).  The  Methodist  (1874-84)  endeavored  to 
serve  all  branches  of  Methodism  and  was  of  wide  culture, 
politically  liberal  and  was  the  predecessor  of  The  Meth- 
odist Times  which  it  commended  in  its  last  issue.  The 
Wesleyan  Methodist  (1923-24)  promulgated  the  views 
of  a  party  within  Wesleyan  Methodism  which  protested 
against  Methodist  Union. 

The  Joyful  News  was  a  lively  weekly  journal  with  an 
emphasis  on  evangelism.  The  first  issue,  edited  by  Thomas 
Champness,  appeared  in  February  1883.  It  greatly  ex- 
tended its  influence  under  Samuel  Chadwick,  Principal 
of  Cliff  College.  As  the  magazine  of  this  college,  it 
continued  under  its  original  title  until  1962,  when  it  ap- 
peared as  Advance  (not  to  be  confused  with  an  earlier 
magazine  of  this  title).  In  1964  it  was  succeeded  by 
The  Cliff  Witness. 

John  C.  Bowmer 


J.  Ralph  Magee 

MAGEE,  JUNIUS  RALPH  (1880-1970),  American  bish- 
op, was  born  in  Maquoketa,  Iowa,  June  3,  1880,  the  son 
of  John  Calvin  and  Jane  Amelia  (Cole)  Magee.  He  re- 
ceived his  early  educational  training  in  his  native  state. 
He  graduated  from  the  Iowa  State  Teachers  College  in 
1901  with  the  B.D.  degree.  In  1904  he  received  the  Ph.B. 
degree  from  Morningside  College  and  the  LL.D.  de- 
gree there  in  1931.  He  graduated  at  Boston  University 
School  of  Theology  in  1910,  receiving  the  S.T.B., 
and  the  D.D.  in  1947.  He  held  a  number  of  other  honorary 
degi-ees. 

He  was  ordained  and  served  as  a  deacon  in  1904  and 
as  elder  in  1906.  His  pastorates  were:  Rustin  Avenue 
Church,  Sioux  City,  la.,  1902-04;  Paulina,  la.,  1904-07; 
Falmouth,  Mass.,  1907-11;  First  Church,  Taunton,  Mass., 
1911-14;  Daniel  Dorchester  Memorial,  Boston,  1914-19; 
St.  Mark's  Church,  Brookline,  Mass.,  1919-21;  and  First 
Church,  Seattle,  Wash.,  1921-29. 

He    became    superintendent    of    the    Seattle    District, 


MAGIC   METHODISTS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


serving  in  this  capacity  until  1932,  when  he  was  elected 
and  consecrated  bishop.  He  was  resident  bishop  of  the 
St.  Paul  (Minn.)  Area  from  1932  until  1939;  pre.sident 
of  Ha.viline  U.MvERSiTY,  St.  Paul,  1933-34;  resident  bish- 
op of  the  Des  Moines  Area,  1939-44,  and  resident  bishop 
of  the  Chicago  Area  from  1944  until  1952,  when  he  re- 
tired. He  was  director  of  the  Crusade  for  Christ,  1944- 
48  and  president  of  the  Council  of  Bishops,  1950-51. 

Bishop  Magee  was  married  to  Harriet  A.  Keeler  on 
Sept.  10,  1902.  Their  children  are  J.  Homer  Magee,  Asso- 
ciate Secretary  of  the  Council  on  World  Service  and 
Finance;  and  Dorothy  J.  Magee  of  the  American  Hospital 
Supply  Corporation.  Mrs.  Magee  died  on  Oct.  31,  1943. 

In  1944  a  portrait  of  Bishop  Magee  was  presented  by 
Iowa  Methodists  to  the  Iowa  State  Department  of  His- 
tory and  Archives.  Bishop  Magee  was  the  first  native 
lowan  ever  to  be  made  a  bishop  and  to  serve  in  Iowa 
as  such  from  any  denomination. 

Bishop  Magee  served  in  an  official  capacity  in  a  num- 
ber of  important  church-wide  organizations.  He  was 
named  by  B.  C.  Forbes  in  the  Hearst  Newspapers,  as  one 
of  the  sixteen  most  influential  persons  in  Seattle. 

He  was  the  chairman  of  the  committee  to  combine  the 
Puget  Sound  Conference  and  Columbia  River  Conference 
into  what  is  now  the  Pacific  Northwest  Conference, 
and  presided  at  the  Northwest  German  Conference  when 
it  was  integrated  into  nine  other  conferences.  This  meant 
considerable  work  with  pension  funds,  equalization  in  re 
ages  of  members,  etc. 

He  served  as  trustee  of  the  following  organizations: 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  Seattle,  1925-32;  University  of 
Puget  Sound;  Simpson  College;  Cornell  College; 
McKendree  College;  Iowa  Methodist  Hospital;  Hamline 
University;  Northwestern  University;  Greater  Chicago 
Federation  of  Churches;  Garrett  Theological  Semi- 
nary; Kendall  College;  Illinois  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity; Wesley  Foundation,  University  of  Illinois;  Wesley 
Memorial  Hospital,  Chicago;  and  the  Lake  Bluff,  Illinois, 
Children's  Home. 

He  died  Dec.  19,  1970,  in  Morton  Grove,  111. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church.  1966. 

Mary  French  Caldwell 

MAGIC  METHODISTS,  a  nickname  given  to  the  followers 
of  James  Cravvfoot  in  addition  to  the  more  widely  ac- 
cepted title  of  Forest  Methodists. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

MAHABANE,  EZEKIEL  EGBERT  (1900-  ),  South  Afri- 
can minister,  was  born  at  Thaba  'Nchu,  Orange  Free 
State  (brother  of  Z.  R.  Mahabane),  on  Feb.  21,  1900. 
He  received  primary  education  at  Besonvale  Practising 
School  and  high  school  education  at  Morija  in  Basutoland 
(now  Lesotho).  He  then  trained  as  a  teacher  at  Lovedale 
Missionary  Institution  and  thereafter  entered  the  Method- 
ist ministry  in  1925.  After  theological  training  at  Wesley 
House,  Fort  Hare,  he  travelled  in  the  following  circuits: 
Douglas,  Kilnerton,  Pretoria,  Randfontein,  Vereeniging 
and  Johannesburg.  In  1962  he  became  the  first  African 
Superintendent  of  the  Witwatersrand  (African)  Mission. 
Offices  held:  General  Secretary  of  the  Temperance  and 
Social  Welfare  Department  of  the  Methodist  Church 
1939-56;  General  Missionary  Secretary  1957-62;  Minis- 
terial General  Officer  of  the  Missionary  Department  1963 
to  present  time;  Vice-President  of  the  Christian  Council 
of  South  Africa  1960-61;  President  of  the  Witwatersrand 


E.  E.  Mahabane 

Christian  Council  1965  to  present  time.  He  represented 
the  Methodist  Church  of  South  Africa  at  the  1956  World 
Methodist  Conference  at  Lake  Junaluska,  and  at  the 
Third  Assembly  of  the  World  Council  of  CHtmcHEs  at 
New  Delhi  in  1961.  He  is  a  member  of  the  World  Council 
of  Churches  Central  Committee. 

S.  P.  Freeland 

MAHABANE,  ZACCHEUS  RICHARD  (1881-  ),  South 
African  minister,  was  bom  on  Aug.  15,  1881  at  Thaba 
'Nchu,  Orange  Free  State.  His  parents  were  converted 
from  heathenism  when  he  was  ten  years  old  and  his  father 
began  to  preach  immediately.  Zaccheus  was  a  herd  boy 
until  he  went  to  school.  He  trained  for  the  teaching  pro- 
fession at  Morija,  Basutoland,  but  after  two  years'  teach- 
ing became  a  court  interpreter.  Accepted  for  the  ministry 
in  1908,  he  was  trained  at  Lesseyton,  Queenstown  and 
served  in  the  following  circuits:  Cape  Town,  Vrede,  Kim- 
berley,  Winburg,  Kroonstad,  Brandfort.  He  became  the 
first  African  official  member  of  the  Methodist  Conference 
in  South  Africa  when  he  was  appointed  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Examiners  (1935-40),  and  served  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Revision,  Church  Union  and  Sessional  Com- 
mittees. He  also  became  the  first  African  President  of  the 
Triennial  Convention  of  the  Young  Men's  Guild,  held  a 
number  of  positions  on  national  bodies,  and  attended 
gatherings  in  Belgium  (1926),  Accra  (1957)  and  Ibadan, 
Nigeria  (1958).  He  retired  from  active  work  at  the  end 
of  1957,  but  continues  to  preach  and  undertake  supply 
work. 

S.  P.  Freeland 

MAHIN,  MILTON  (1824-1916),  pioneer  American  clergy- 
man, was  bom  in  Green  Co.,  Ohio,  on  Oct.  22,  1824.  He 
moved  to  Indiana  and  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  North 
Indiana  Conference  in  1841.  He  married  Eliza  Dorsey, 
Oct.  31,  1843.  Milton  Mahin  had  an  enviable  and  unique 
record  in  that  the  Conference  Minutes  show  that  he 
served  a  total  of  seventy-five  years  as  pastor  and  presiding 
elder.  He  was  elected  to  the  General  Conference  in 
1868.  He  died  Oct.  7,  1916. 

Harold  Thrasher 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MAHON,  ROBERT  HENRY  (1840-1929),  American  min- 
ister, was  born  in  Crockett  County,  Tenn.,  on  Oct.  22, 
1840,  the  son  of  Jackson  H.  Mahon,  a  Methodist  minister. 
He  was  received  on  trial  in  the  Memphis  Conference 
in  1860,  and  appointed  junior  pastor  with  his  uncle, 
Robert  Bums,  to  the  Trenton  Circuit.  After  two  years 
he  was  sent  to  Paris,  Tenn.  He  served  also  as  pastor  at 
Grenada,  Miss.,  at  Mayfield,  Ky.;  Broadway,  in  Paducah, 
Ky.;  First  and  Central  Churches,  Memphis;  and  at 
Brownsville,  Dyersburg  and  Union  City,  Tenn.;  presiding 
elder  of  Memphis,  Dyersburg  and  Brownsville  Districts. 
Seven  times  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference and  two  other  times  alternate;  several  times  he 
received  a  considerable  vote  for  bishop.  He  published  a 
book.  The  Token  of  the  Covenant  or  The  Meaning  of 
Baptism.  R.  H.  Mahon  was  one  of  the  outstanding  scholars 
and  ecclesiastical  statesmen  of  his  conference,  and  was 
well-known  as  interpreter  of  the  Scriptures. 

In  1864  he  was  married  to  Annie  Vaulx  Blakemore  of 
Trenton,  Tenn.,  who  died  in  1876;  in  1878  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Mrs.  Sue  Hobson  Senter  of  Nashville,  Tenn.;  she 
died  in  1912.  This  same  year  he  took  the  supernumerary 
relation  after  fifty-two  years  of  active  ministry.  There- 
after he  lived  in  the  home  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Ruth 
Hay  of  Brownsville,  Tenn.  He  died  May  28,  1929.  He 
taught  a  ladies'  Bible  class  regularly  during  his  years  of 
retirement. 

While  pastor  of  First  Church,  Memphis,  he  secured  the 
appointment  of  John  R.  Pepper  as  Sunday  school  super- 
intendent, a  world  figure  in  Sunday  school  work. 

F.  H.  Peeples 


Idabelle  Lewis  Main 

MAIN,   IDABELLE   LEWIS    (1887-  ),  missionary  edu- 

cator in  China  and  Brazil,  was  bom  in  Iowa  and  studied 
at  Morningside  College  and  Columbia  University.  Her 
first  teaching  was  at  Tientsin,  in  the  Keen  School  for  Girls. 
She  also  taught  English  in  Nankai  University,  where  for 
one  semester  she  had  Chou  En-lai  in  her  class. 

In  1924,  she  was  appointed  assistant  secretary  of  Meth- 
odist education  for  all  China,  and  assisted  in  editing  The 


China  Christian  Educational  Review.  In  1926,  she  be- 
came president  of  Hwanan  College  in  Foochow,  but 
resigned  in  1929  to  make  way  for  a  Chinese  president, 
and  in  the  following  year  she  returned  to  Shanghai  as  a 
secretary  of  die  China  Christian  Educational  Association. 
In  1932,  she  was  married  to  W.  A.  Main,  treasurer  of 
the  China  missions  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  They  remained 
in  China  until  1941,  editing  The  China  Christian  Educa- 
tional Review  and  The  China  Christian  Advocate.  In  1941 
they  retired  and  lived  in  America,  but  after  Mr.  Main's 
death  in  1945,  she  returned  to  Hwanan  College  where  she 
taught  until  the  Communist  occupation  in  1949.  In  1950 
she  was  appointed  to  Colegio  Bennett  in  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
and  taught  there  for  five  years.  She  is  now  retired  and 
living  in  Robincroft  Home,  Pasadena,  Calif. 

Francis  P.  Jones 

MAINE  is  the  extreme  northeastern  state  of  the  Union. 
It  is  bounded  on  the  east,  north,  and  west  by  Canada, 
on  the  southwest  by  New  H.\mpshire,  and  on  the  south- 
east by  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  forty-fifth  parallel  di- 
vides the  state  into  almost  equal  northern  and  southern 
sections.  The  extreme  north  is  free  of  killing  frost  about 
diree  and  one-half  months  of  the  year,  and  most  of  the 
state  is  spared  for  about  four  and  one-third  months.  The 
largest  of  the  New  England  states,  Maine's  area  is  33,215 
square  miles,  and  its  population  is  about  977,260. 

The  Province  of  Maine  was  granted  to  Ferdinando 
Gorges  and  John  Mason  in  1622.  Gorges  became  the  sole 
owner;  after  his  death  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
gradually  encroached,  and  finally  in  1677  bought  the 
province  from  Gorges'  heirs  for  1,250  pounds.  Maine 
continued  as  a  part  of  Massachusetts  until  it  was  admitted 
to  the  Union  as  a  state  in  1820. 

Methodism  entered  Maine  when  Jesse  Lee  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Province  of  Maine  and  Lynn,  Mass.,  at 
the  session  of  the  New  England  Conference  in  Lynn 
in  August  1793.  On  September  10,  of  that  year,  Lee 
delivered  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in  Maine  at  Saco. 
He  soon  visited  eighteen  towns  in  the  province.  In  1794 
Lee  was  named  presiding  elder,  and  his  district  included 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Maine.  On  Novem- 
ber 13  that  vear,  Lee  preached  at  Monmouth,  Maine, 
and  found  that  a  man  named  Wagner  had  formed  a  class 
of  fifteen  members  there;'  it  was  the  first  Methodist  class 
to  be  organized  in  Maine.  During  the  conference  year 
1794-95,  Lee  dedicated  a  Methodist  meetinghouse  at 
(East)  Readfield,  the  first  one  to  be  erected  in  Maine. 
The  next  year  a  chapel  was  dedicated  at  Monmouth. 

In  1798  Bishop  Asbury  conducted  the  New  England 
Conference  at  (East)  Readfield.  At  the  1799  session  of 
the  same  conference  in  New  York  City,  Joshua  Soule 
was  admitted  on  trial;  he  was  the  first  native  of  Maine 
to  become  a  member  of  the  New  England  Conference. 
Asbury  appointed  Soule  a  presiding  elder  in  1804.  As  a 
member  of  the  1808  General  Conference,  Soule  drafted 
the  plan  for  a  delegated  General  Conference,  one  of  the 
most  important  pieces  of  legislation  ever  adopted  by  the 
supreme  law-making  body  of  Methodism  (see  Restric- 
tive Rules).  Elected  bishop  in  1824,  Soule  was  a  domi- 
nant figure  in  the  office  for  more  than  two-score  years.  He 
adhered  South  after  the  division  in  1844.  Two  other 
bishops  were  born  in  Maine,  Davis  W.  Clark  and  Edgar 
Blake,  elected  in  1864  and  1920,  respectively.  All  three 


MAINE   CAMP   MEETINGS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


men  were  serving  m  other  states  and  conferences  when 
elevated  to  the  episcopacy. 

For  several  years  Maine  formed  one  district  in  the  New 
England  Conference,  and  in  time  it  grew  to  tliree  districts. 
The  Maine  Conference  was  created  by  the  1824  Gen- 
eral Conference,  and  was  organized  in  1825.  In  1848 
the  Maine  Conference  was  divided  to  forni  the  East 
Maine  Conference.  After  seventy-five  years  the  two  con- 
ferences were  merged  to  form  again  the  Maine  Confer- 
ence covering  Maine  and  part  of  New  Hampshire. 

As  soon  as  tlie  Maine  Conference  was  organized  it 
became  affiliated  with  a  school  called  the  Maine  Wesleyan 
Seminan,-  which  had  opened  at  Kent's  Hill  in  February 
of  that  year.  The  institution  had  difficulties,  but  it  kept 
going  and  in  time  was  named  the  Maine  Wesleyan  Semi- 
nary and  Female  College.  The  conference  board  of  educa- 
tion declared  in  1880  that  Maine  Wesleyan  was  the  lead- 
ing institution  of  learning  in  the  state  and  said  that  many 
young  men  were  going  directly  from  the  school  into  the 
ranks  of  the  itineracy.  In  1900  the  same  board  said  there 
were  few  churches  in  the  conference  which  had  not  felt 
the  uplifting  influence  of  the  college.  About  1910  Maine 
Wesleyan  became  a  secondary  school  and  was  called 
Kents  Hill  School.  Under  that  name  it  is  today  an 
accredited  Methodist  secondary  school  with  an  endow- 
ment of  some  $750,000,  a  plant  worth  $1,000,000,  and 
about  300  students. 

The  Maine  Wesleyan  Journal  was  published  from  1832 
to  1841,  and  was  then  merged  with  Zion's  Herald. 

In  1970  the  Maine  Conference  reported  three  districts, 
134  pastoral  charges,  142  ministers,  33,257  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $16,366,666. 

Allen  &  Pillsbury,  Methodism  in  Maine.  1887. 

General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  tlie  Maine  Conference.       Alfred  G.  Hempstead 

MAINE  CAMP  MEETINGS.  The  first  camp  meeting  in 
Maine  is  believed  to  have  been  held  at  Buxton  in  1806. 
About  twenty  preachers,  traveling  and  local,  were  present. 
Bishop  AsBURY  preached  on  Saturday  and  Sunday  to  a 
crowd  estimated  to  be  5,000.  Two  years  previously  Asbury 
was  in  Buxton  for  a  session  of  the  New  England  Con- 
ference. At  that  time  he  preached  and  ordained  ministers 
in  a  grove,  using  a  hay  cart  for  a  pulpit. 

From  this  beginning  at  Buxton,  camp  meetings  spread 
throughout  the  State,  becoming  a  powerful  influence  in 
the  life  of  Methodism.  Evangelism  was  the  prime  purpose; 
however,  not  only  were  souls  converted  but  also  for  sev- 
eral generations  many  preachers  in  the  Conference  were 
men  converted  at  camp  meetings.  Here,  too,  the  moral 
reform  movements,  especially  the  abolition  of  slavery  and 
the  temperance  cause,  were  powerfully  presented. 

In  the  earlier  development  of  the  camp  meeting,  not 
much  equipment  was  required — a  speaker's  stand,  plank 
seats  for  the  congregation,  straw  for  mattresses,  a  place 
for  tents  and  perhaps  some  sort  of  fence  with  a  gate.  As 
time  went  on,  refinements  were  added,  such  as  a  "taber- 
nacle," a  boarding  house  for  meals,  and  cottages  built  by 
individuals  or  by  local  churches  on  ground  rented  from 
the  local  camp  meeting  association. 

There  are  known  to  have  been  forty  or  more  locations 
in  Maine  where,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  camp  meet- 
ings were  held.  Some  changed  from  one  site  to  another. 
The  greatest  crowds  on  record  were  those  at  Littleton. 
"Some  of  the  Presiding  Elders,"  wrote  A.  A.  Callaghan, 


"reported  great  crowds,  one  reported  an  attendance  of 
15,000  and  said  that  if  anyone  had  any  suggestion  as  to 
how  the  situation  could  be  handled  he  would  be  glad  to 
consult." 

East  Livermore  Camp  Meeting  was  established  in  1847; 
one  of  the  organizers  was  a  man  who  came  to  be  known 
as  Camp  Meeting  John  Allen.  He  was  converted  in  1825 
at  the  camp  meeting  at  Industry.  He  used  to  take  his 
granddaughter  to  the  camp  meeting  at  Strong,  a  few 
miles  from  her  home  at  Fairbanks,  where  she  often  sang 
as  a  girl.  Later  she  was  kno\\Ti  in  world  opera  as  Madame 
Nordica.  Camp  Meeting  John  Allen  fittingly  preached  his 
last  sennon  at  the  age  of  ninety-three  at  the  East  Liver- 
more  Camp  Meeting,  and  the  next  morning  went  "home 
to  glory."  The  East  Livermore  Camp  Meeting  is  still 
active,  though  for  several  years  has  not  been  under  Meth- 
odist auspices. 

Two  outstanding  camp  meetings  deserving  particular 
mention  are  Old  Orchard  and  Northport.  The  former, 
which  ran  from  1872  to  1934,  at  one  time  attracted  na- 
tional attention.  The  Northport  Camp  Meeting,  which 
served  the  churches  up  and  down  the  Penobscot  River, 
had  a  landing  for  tlie  Bangor-Boston  steamships  which 
was  an  added  convenience  and  attraction.  The  association 
sponsoring  this  camp  disbanded  in  the  1920's.  Many  of 
the  cottages  were  privately  owned;  the  others  were  ac- 
quired by  individuals,  and  the  place  became  a  summer 
resort. 

At  present  only  two  camp  meetings  continue  to  hold 
services  and  to  preserve  their  organizations.  The  Empire 
Grove  Camp  Meeting  at  East  Poland  draws  considerable 
support  from  the  Portland  District,  holds  a  week  of  ser- 
vices and  a  Church  Vacation  School.  The  cottagers  who 
spend  the  summer  on  the  grounds  for  the  most  part  have 
Methodist  membership  or  traditions.  Several  Conference 
ministers  own  cottages,  and  one  retired  minister  "winter- 
ized" his  cottage  and  lives  there  the  year  round. 

The  other  camp  meeting  still  in  operation  is  at  Jack- 
sonville located  in  Washington  County  on  the  Bangor 
District.  It  has  a  week  of  services  and  a  youth  program 
for  those  who  cannot  get  to  the  Methodist  Camp  at 
Winthrop.  For  several  years  there  has  also  been  a  camp 
for  underprivileged  youth. 

As  the  camp  meetings  gradually  disappeared,  especially 
from  about  1910  to  1918,  the  work  with  adults  in  the 
field  of  evangelism  of  the  revival  type  has  declined  al- 
most to  the  vanishing  point.  Beginning  with  about  1920, 
several  Epworth  League  Institutes  were  held  across  the 
state  in  preparatory  schools  and  teacher's  colleges.  After 
much  experiment  and  with  the  increased  availability  of 
automobile  transportation  for  delegates,  it  seemed  wise 
to  establish  only  one  organization  and  to  secure  a  desirable 
camp  site  for  the  newer  approach  to  youth  work.  Such 
a  camp  with  a  dozen  buildings  and  a  waterfront  was 
purchased  on  a  lake  in  Winthrop  in  1948.  There  a  series 
of  different  age  groups  of  children  and  youth  attend 
camps  of  one  or  two  weeks  duration  from  mid-June  until 
September,  followed  by  a  camp  for  the  Conference  Lay 
Activities.  Many  young  adults  as  well  as  youth  who  are 
active  members  of  local  churches,  and  several  young  min- 
isters in  the  Conference,  answered  the  challenge  of  Christ 
at  the  recent  Methodist  Camp  and  this  seems  to  have 
taken  over  some  of  the  function  of  the  camp  meeting  of 
former  times. 

A.  A.  Callaghan,  "Camp  Meetings  in  Maine,"  Maine  Con- 
ference Year  Book,  1951,  pp.  59-63.    Alfred  G.  Hempstead 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MAINE  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  created  by  the  1824 
General  Conference.  Its  territory  at  the  beginning 
was  Maine  and  the  part  of  New  HAMPSHraE  east  of  the 
White  Hills  and  north  of  Ossipie  Lake.  The  Maine  Con- 
ference was  carved  out  of  the  New  England  Confer- 
ence. The  new  conference  was  organized  at  Gardiner, 
Maine,  July  6,  1825,  with  Bishop  Enoch  George  presid- 
ing. It  began  with  three  districts,  thirty-two  charges, 
forty-two  preachers,  and  6,960  members.  (See  Maine 
for  beginning  of  Methodism  in  the  state. ) 

By  1840  the  membership  of  the  Maine  Conference  had 
trebled,  and  in  1843  it  reported  27,400  members,  the 
high  water  mark  in  membership  for  a  century.  In  the  next 
three  years  the  net  loss  was  nearly  7,000  members.  The 
total  membership  in  1847  was  20,448. 

In  1848  the  Maine  Conference  was  divided  to  form, 
the  East  Maine  Conference.  The  division  left  10,773 
members  in  the  Maine  Conference. 

From  the  beginning  the  Maine  Conference  supported 
a  school  at  Kent's  Hill  called  the  Maine  Wesleyan  Semi- 
nary (see  Rent's  Hill  School).  Also,  the  conference 
supported  the  Boston  School  of  Theology,  and  it  had 
close  ties  with  Wesleyan  University  in  Connecticut 
as  long  as  that  institution  was  related  to  the  church.  The 
conference  owns  and  operates  a  180-acre  Camp  and  Con- 
ference Center  at  Winthrop.  Instead  of  maintaining  Wes- 
ley Foundations,  in  more  recent  years  the  conference 
has  supported  an  ecumenical  ministry  on  college  cam- 
puses. In  1968  the  conference  estabhshed  the  Methodist 
Conference  Home,  Inc.  at  Rockland,  Maine. 

The  1920  General  Conference  adopted  an  enabling 
act  permitting  the  Maine  and  East  Maine  Conferences 
to  merge  during  the  quadrennium  if  both  should  so  vote. 
The  Maine  Conference  rejected  the  merger  in  1921,  but 
in  1922  both  conferences  voted  for  it,  and  it  was  consum- 
mated in  1923.  The  first  session  of  the  enlarged  Maine 
Conference  was  held  at  Bangor,  April  18-23,  1923.  At 
that  time  the  conference  had  four  districts,  271  charges, 
and  23,234  members.  By  1930  the  conference  member- 
ship had  declined  to  21,880,  but  thereafter  it  increased. 
In  1935  there  were  25,908  members,  and  in  1945  the 
total  was  28,425. 

In  1966  Margaret  K.  Henrichsen  was  appointed 
superintendent  of  the  Bangor  District,  the  first  woman 
district  superintendent  in  Methodism. 

In  1970  the  Maine  Conference  reported  three  districts, 
Augusta,  Bangor,  and  Portland,  134  charges,  142  min- 
isters, 33,257  members,  property  valued  at  $16,366,666 
and  $2,067,918  raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

Allen  &  Pillsbury,  Methodism  in  Maine.  1887. 

General  Minutes,  MEG  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  Maine  Conference.       Alfred  G.  Hempstead 

MAITLAND,  New  South  Wales,  Australia,  was  originally 
known  as  the  Hunter  River  Circuit  and  included  the 
settlement  at  Newcastle.  Samuel  Leigh  visited  the  penal 
establishment  at  Newcastle  in  1821.  A  second  visit  was 
made  later.  Joseph  Orton  passed  through  Newcastle  in 
August  1839,  sailing  up  the  Hunter  River  to  Morpeth 
and  travelling  across  country  to  Maidand.  Here  he  found 
a  Methodist  Society  and  a  chapel  in  course  of  construc- 
tion, due  largely  to  the  labors  of  a  local  preacher  from 
Ireland  named  Jeremiah  Jedsam.  Later  the  same  year, 
Nathaniel  Turner  preached  and  met  members  of  the 
Society  during  a  brief  visit.  The  first  missionary  stationed 


at  Maitland,  Jonothan  Innes,  arrived  the  following  year 
(1840);  the  circuit  then  extended  from  Newcastle  to 
Singleton.  For  several  years  previously,  meetings  for 
Christian  fellowship  had  been  held  in  Newcastle,  led  by 
William  Lightbody,  later  employed  by  the  Wesleyan 
Conference  as  a  local  preacher  and  school  teacher.  In 
1854  Rev.  W.  Cumow  resided  in  Newcastle  for  a  short 
period.  In  1856  it  was  separated  from  the  Maitland  Cir- 
cuit, with  William  Clarke  as  the  first  minister.  Singleton 
Circuit  was  created  the  same  year.  The  mother-circuit. 
Hunger  River,  was  in  1855  renamed  Maitland. 

J.  Colwell,  Illustrated  History.  1904. 

"Glory  Be,"  Brochure  of  Centenary  of  Newcastle  Methodism, 

1945.  Australian  Editorial  CoMMrrrEE 

MALAYSIA  is  a  constitutional  monarchy  comprised  of 
the  nine  Sultanates  and  two  British  Straits  Settlements 
of  the  former  Federation  of  Malaya  (Malay  Peninsula), 
together  with  the  former  British  Colonies  of  Sar.\wak 
and  Sabah  (North  Borneo)  situated  on  the  Island  of 
Borneo.  Singapore  (city  and  island)  had  been  a  constit- 
uent element  of  Malaysia  when  it  was  established  in  1963, 
but  it  withdrew  in  1965,  because  of  racial  and  political 
tensions,  to  become  an  independent  country.  Both  Ma- 
laysia and  Singapore  are  members  of  the  United  Nations 
and  the  British  Commonwealth. 

The  area  of  present  Malaysia  is  approximately  138,000 
square  miles,  of  which  78,000  stands  in  the  elements  on 
Borneo  ( Sarawak  and  Sabah ) .  The  population  is  about 
8,350,000,  of  which  1,250,000  hve  in  Sarawak  and  Sabah. 
In  the  population,  Malays  predominate  in  all  sections 
except  Singapore,  where  Chinese  are  at  least  seventy-five 
percent.  There  are  sizeable  groups  of  Tamils  from  India, 
as  well  as  Indonesians.  The  capital  is  Kuala  Lumpur 
(300,000  people),  twenty-five  miles  inland  from  Port 
Swettenham  on  the  Straits  of  Malacca. 

The  aborigines  of  Malaya  were  never  left  alone.  Varied 
peoples  came  from  far  to  trade  and  settle,  bringing  their 
gods  and  their  cultures  with  them.  A  hardy  group  of  the 
Singh  clan  of  northwest  India,  forced  from  their  homes, 
settled  on  the  island  at  the  southern  tip,  building  a  town 
which  they  called  "Lion  City" — Singapore.  Others  from 
South  India  and  Ceylon,  speaking  Tamil,  came  in  such 
numbers  as  to  form  an  enclave  with  Hinduism  and  its 
culture.  The  teachings  of  Buddha  entered  by  way  of  a 
strong  dynasty  out  of  Siam  (Thailand).  China  seems 
always  to  have  been  overpopulated,  and  thousands  have 
poured  into  Malaya,  revering  Confucius — sturdy  peasants, 
astute  businessmen,  wise  legislators.  Early  Arab  traders 
dominated  the  eastern  seas,  Islam  appearing  in  their  com- 
munities in  every  port  city. 

Catholic  Christianity  arrived  with  the  ships  of  Portu- 
gal, Spain  and  France,  soon  to  be  followed  by  the 
Protestantism  of  the  Dutch  and  British.  Portugal  proved 
unable  to  maintain  any  sizeable  area.  Spanish  influence 
centered  in  the  Philippines.  France  consolidated  what 
became  French  Indo-China — now  Viet  Nam,  Laos  and 
Cambodia.  The  Dutch  achieved  an  island  empire  of  over 
1,500  miles  from  Sumatra  to  Celebes — now  Indonesia. 
Britain's  foothold  was  the  cosmopolitan  focal  center,  Singa- 
pore, and  the  supporting  peninsula,  producing  great  quan- 
tities of  rubber  and  tin.  Singapore  and  environs  became 
a  Crown  Colony,  while  Protectorates  were  established 
for  the  Peninsula  Sultanates. 

After  Pearl  Harbor  and  the  decimation  of  all  AlHed 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Tamil  Church,  Kuala  Lampur 


naval  units  between  India  and  Australia,  early  in  World 
War  II,  Japanese  forces  swarmed  down  the  coast  and 
along  the  NIalay  Peninsula.  Singapore  fell  without  a  siege, 
its  strong  defenses  having  been  constructed  against  sea- 
attack,  and  requiring  supporting  naval  power.  After  the 
ultimate  defeat  of  Japan,  British  sovereignty  was  re- 
stored, the  Federation  of  Malaya  was  established  and 
independence  achieved.  A  wearisome  and  costly  struggle 
against  Communist  infiltration  and  sabotage  has  practically 
eliminated  that  menace  from  the  Peninsula. 

The  British-protected  Sultanates  and  Settlements  of 
the  Malay  Peninsula,  together  with  the  separate  city- 
island,  Singapore,  were  constituted  a  limited  monarchy 
in  August  1957,  becoming  a  member  of  the  United  Na- 
tions. In  September  1963,  following  two  years  of  negotia- 
tions, this  Federation  in  turn  became  the  sovereign  state, 
Malaysia,  including  the  former  Briti.sh  colonies,  Sarawak 
and  Sabah  (North  Borneo),  located  on  the  northwest 
coast  of  Borneo.  Malaysia  was  duly  admitted  to  member- 
ship in  the  United  Nations,  occupying  the  seat  of  the 
former  Federation  of  Malaya.  Indonesia,  under  Sukarno, 
had  consistently  challenged  the  procedure,  entering  upon 
forceful  attack.  Numerous  military  invasions  of  the  Borneo 
elements  were  repulsed  by  the  Malaysia  armed  forces, 
aided  by  some  British  troops.  The  Philippines  also  entered 
a  legal  claim  to  the  Borneo  territories. 

Early  in  1966  a  military  coup  occurred  in  Indonesia, 
toppling  the  Sukarno  regime.  Lieut.  Gen.  Suharto  assumed 
leadership  of  the  new  military  junta,  designating  the 
experienced  Adam  Malik  as  Foreign  Minister  to  succeed 
Dr.  Subandrio  who  was  arrested  on  charges  of  treason. 

1508 


Sukarno  was  retained  as  a  figurehead  of  government, 
stripped  of  all  essential  powers.  The  Indonesia  Provisional 
People's  Consultative  Congress  unanimously  approved 
overthrow  of  the  Sukarno  regime,  and  ordered  the  com- 
plete realignment  of  the  foreign  policy.  After  careful 
negotiations,  on  Aug.  11,  1966,  Abdul  Razak,  Malaysia 
Vice-President,  and  Adam  Malik,  Indonesia  Foreign  Min- 
ister, signed  a  formal  accord  and  treaty,  declaring  the 
cessation  of  hostilities  between  the  two  countries.  The 
accord  also  provided  for  the  restoration  of  normal  diplo- 
matic relations,  and  pledged  to  the  citizens  of  Sabah  and 
Sarawak  (North  Borneo)  the  right  to  a  plebiscite  to  deter- 
mine their  future  status  as  between  Indonesia  and  Ma- 
laysia. The  restoration  of  normal  trade  and  cultural  re- 
lations is  implicit  in  the  accord. 

On  Feb.  7,  1885,  William  F.  Oldham  (later  bishop) 
arrived  at  Singapore  with  James  M.  Thoburn  (later 
bishop),  to  establish  work  under  appointment  of  the 
South  India  Annual  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church. 
Witliin  a  month  Oldham  had  organized  a  church  and 
quarterly  conference,  including  English,  Eurasians,  Tamils 
and  Chinese  in  membership.  The  Municipality  granted 
land,  and  the  first  church  building  was  erected  that  year. 
The  Chinese  colony  provided  several  thousand  dollars 
for  a  school.  The  Tamils  developed  their  own  church  and 
school.  In  1887  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Soci- 
ety appointed  Sophia  Blackmore  of  Australia,  under  sup- 
port of  the  Minneapolis  Branch.  She  arrived  July  18 
and  promptly  opened  a  school  for  Tamil  girls.  Miss  Black- 
more  gave  forty  years  of  service  in  Malaya. 

The  Malaya  work  passed  to  the  Bengal  Conference 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MALIINSON,   WILLIAM 


at  its  organization  in  1887.  In  1889  the  work  became  the 
Malaya  Mission,  and  the  Malaysia  Mission  Conference  in 
1894.  Annual  Conference  status  was  gained  in  1902.  The 
extensive  growth  of  work  among  the  Chinese  prompted 
separate  organization  for  that  element,  as  the  Malaysia 
Mission  Conference  1936,  Provisional  Annual  Conference 
1940,  and   Malaysia   Chinese   Annual   Conference,    1948. 

Among  the  early  missionaries  in  Malaya,  William  G. 
Shellabear  should  be  named.  English  by  birth,  an  officer 
in  the  Royal  Engineers,  ordered  to  Singapore,  he  met 
Oldham.  Catching  the  gleam  of  missionars-  service,  Shell- 
abear went  back  to  England,  resigned  his  commission, 
married,  and  returned  to  the  new  line  of  dut>'  among  the 
Malays.  A  bom  linguist,  he  acquired  several  dialects  as 
well  as  the  basic  language,  translated  and  printed  much 
literature  in  Malay  tongue,  as  he  studied,  loved  and 
served  that  fascinating  people.  Unable  to  remain  on  the 
equator  in  the  later  years,  Shellabear  came  to  America. 
He  taught  oriental  languages  at  Drew  Theological 
Semlmary,  and  also  at  Kennedy  School  of  Missions,  Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  until  his  death.  "He  was  a  distinguished 
linguist  and  scholar,  an  authority  on  the  Malays  and  their 
language,  a  wise  and  devoted  missionary,  and  a  sincere 
Christian." 

The  Methodist  Church  has  grown  steadily  on  the  Penin- 
sula, with  over  eighty  churches  and  about  12,000  mem- 
bers. The  chief  centers  are  the  capital,  Kuala  Lumpur, 
and  Klang,  Malacca,  Seremban,  Raub,  Ipoh,  Sitiawan, 
Telok  Anson,  Penang,  Taiping.  The  schools,  however, 
with  registration  of  many  thousands,  constitute  the  dis- 
tinguishing mark  of  the  Mission.  Statements  concerning 
Methodist  work  in  Singapore,  and  Sarawak-Sabah,  will 
be  found  in  separate  articles  under  those  titles. 

Methodist  Church  of  Malaysia  and  Singapore.  In  re- 
sponse to  the  felt  need  of  an  autonomous  Methodist 
Church  in  Malaysia,  and  pursuant  to  permission  given  by 
the  Gener.'Vl  Conference  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church  in  1968  to  effect  the  same,  such  a  Church,  de- 
nominated the  Methodist  Church  of  Malaysia  and  Singa- 
pore, was  officially  constituted  on  Aug.  9,  1968.  Upon 
that  same  day,  the  first  national  of  that  land  to  be  elected 
a  bishop.  Dr.  Yap  Kim  Hao,  was  by  ballot  elected  as  the 
first  bishop  of  the  new  autonomous  Church. 

The  Malaysia  Chinese  Annual  Conference,  the  Singa- 
pore-Malaya Annual  Conference,  and  the  Tamil  Provi- 
sional Annual  Conference  in  West  Malaysia  and  Singa- 
pore, and  the  Sarawak  Annual  Conference  and  the  Sara- 
wak Iban  Provisional  Annual  Conference  in  East  Malaysia 
comprise  the  new  Church.  In  its  structuie  it  has  been 
provided  that  there  shall  be  a  president  for  each  annual 
conference  who  will  be  the  administrative  head.  Not  all 
such  presidents  will  receive  remuneration,  but  will  serve 
in  other  capacities  in  the  Church.  The  bishop  is  looked 
to  as  the  spiritual  leader  of  the  whole  Church  and  his 
voice  is  to  be  the  voice  of  the  Church.  He  makes  appoint- 
ments in  each  annual  conference  with  the  help  of  an 
advisory  board,  and  will  ordain  those  who  seek  ordina- 
tion as  DEACON  or  elder  when  proper  authorization  is 
given. 

The  early  life  of  the  new  Church  is  being  guided  by 
eight  ministers  and  eight  laymen  foiming  the  Executive 
Council  of  its  General  Conference.  These  will  share  with 
Bishop  Yap  the  important  task  of  fashioning  policies  and 
procedures,  and  of  establishing  the  guidelines  by  which 
the  autonomous  Church  will  function  under  the  new 
Discipline.  "New  Life  for  the  New  Church"  has  become 


the  theme  for  this  autonomous  Methodist  Church  as  it 
"faces  with  vitality  and  a  new  commitment  the  opportu- 
nities for  effective  witness  and  mission  in  newly  developed 
nations." 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 

Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 

National  Geographic,  September  1961. 

World  Methodist  Council  Handbook  of  Information,  1966-71. 

World  Parish,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  6,  March  1969. 

Abthuh  Bruce  Moss 
N.  B.  H. 

MALDEN,  MASSACHUSETTS,  U.S.A.  Centre  Church,  lo- 
cated five  miles  north  of  Boston,  was  organized  in  1821, 
largely  through  the  work  of  shoemaker  James  Howard 
in  whose  home  a  class  was  formed.  Prior  to  tliis  time  the 
Methodist  influence  had  been  at  work  through  the  preach- 
ing of  George  Whitefield  (in  1740  and  1770)  and 
Jesse  Lee  (1790).  Although  a  class  was  formed  on  Cross 
Street  at  the  time  of  Lee's  preaching,  no  permanent  re- 
sults followed. 

The  Maiden  congregation,  outgrowing  two  earlier 
buildings,  each  one  at  different  sites  (one  erected  in 
1826,  the  other  in  1856),  constructed  the  present  large, 
red  brick  edifice  on  Washington  and  Pleasant  Streets  in 
1874.  A  three-story  brick  building  was  added  in  1911. 

The  congregation  numbering  in  1970,  1,071  members 
has  been  influential  in  civic,  educational  and  philan- 
thropic circles.  Four  pastors  of  this  church  have  become 
bishops:  Erastus  O.  Haven,  Gilbert  Haven,  Jr.,  Edwin 
Holt  Hughes,  and  Lauress  J.  Birney.  Another  pastor, 
Lucms  BuGBEE,  became  the  editor  of  Methodist  church 
school  publications.  From  this  church  eighteen  men  have 
gone  into  the  ministry. 

Centre    Methodist   Chvirch's    125th    anniversary,    1946    (pam- 
phlet). 
Minutes  of  the  New  England  Conference.      Ernest  R.  Case 

MALLALIEU,  WILLARD  FRANCIS  (1828-1911),  American 
bishop,  was  born  at  Sutton.  Mass.,  Dec.  11,  1828,  and 
was  educated  at  Wesleyan  University  in  Connecticut. 

He  joined  the  New  England  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  in  1858  and  was  pastor  at  Grafton,  Mount  Belling- 
ham,  Chelsea,  Lynn,  Monument  Square,  Charleston; 
Bromfield  Street,  Boston;  Walnut  Street,  Chelsea;  Trinity 
in  Worcester;  Broadway  in  South  Boston;  and  presiding 
elder  of  the  Boston  District.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
General  Conferences  of  1872,  1880,  and  1884.  At  the 
last  he  was  elected  bishop.  He  served  for  nine  years  as 
bishop  in  New  Orleans,  four  years  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
eight  in  Boston.  He  retired  in  1904. 

Bishop  Mallalieu  received  honorary  degrees  from  East 
Tennessee  Wesleyan  University  and  New  Orleans  Uni- 
versity. He  was  the  author  of  the  Why,  When  and  How  of 
Revivals,  The  Fullness  of  the  Blessing  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  and  Word^  of  Cheer  and  Comfort.  He  died  on 
Aug.  1,  1911  at  Auburndale,  Mass.,  and  was  buried  in 
Bay  View. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Journal  of  the  General  Conference,  1912. 

Wha's  Who  in  America.  Elmer  T.  Clark 

MALLINSON,  WILLIAM  (1854-1936),  British  layman  and 
philanthropist,  was  bom   at  V^itechapel,   London,   July 


MALTBY,   WILLIAM   RUSSELL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


6,  1854.  He  was  a  timber  merchant  and  prospered  in 
business.  Brought  up  a  member  of  the  United  Method- 
ist Free  Churches,  be  became  treasurer  of  the  London 
Church  Extension  and  Mission  Committee  in  1893  and 
held  office  for  forty  years.  During  this  period  the  United 
Methodist  Free  Churches — and  after  1907  the  United 
Methodist  Church — built  under  his  leadership  in  Lon- 
don thirty  chapels  and  thirteen  schools.  He  endowed  the 
Mallinson  Trust  for  the  benefit  of  London  churches,  and 
carried  through  a  scheme  for  the  extinction  of  all  debt  on 
United  Methodist  chapels  in  London  and  the  home  coun- 
ties, the  amount  totaling  £66,000.  He  held  other  con- 
nectional  offices,  was  a  magistrate,  and  was  created  a 
baronet  in  May,  1935.  He  died  on  May  5,  1936,  at 
\\'althamstow,  London. 

H.  Smith,  J.  E.  Swallow,  and  W.  Treffry,  The  Story  of  the 
United  Methodist  Church.  London,  1933. 

OLrVER  A.  Beckerlegge 

MALTBY,  WILLIAM  RUSSELL  (1866-1951),  British  Meth- 
odist, was  bom  at  Selby,  Yorkshire,  on  Dec.  5,  1866.  A 
Wesleyan  Methodist  minister's  son,  he  qualified  as  a 
solicitor  in  1892,  but  in  1893  entered  the  Wesleyan  min- 
istry. He  was  warden  of  the  Wesley  De.\coness  Order 
from  1920-40.  He  was  President  of  the  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference in  1926.  In  1928  he  gave  the  Burwash  Memorial 
Lecture,  on  The  Significance  of  Jesus.  He  delivered  the 
first  Cato  Lecture  in  Australia  in  1935,  Christ  and  His 
Cross.  He  strongly  supported  proposals  to  admit  women 
to  the  Methodist  ministry. 

John  Kent 

MALVERN,  ARKANSAS,  U.S.A.  Rockport  Church  is  one 

of  the  earliest  churches  organized  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  established  in  1816  by  John  Henry.  The  first 
Rockport  Church  was  built  of  logs  and  heated  by  a  large 
stone  fireplace  with  split  log  benches  for  seats  and  a  split 
log  table.  It  was  situated  on  the  Ouachita  River  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Military  Road,  which  was  then  the 
Southwest  Indian  Trail.  One  of  the  first  bridges  across 
the  Ouachita  River  was  built  at  this  point  about  two 
miles  northwest  of  Malvern. 

One  of  the  earliest  settlers  was  Christian  Fenter,  and 
most  of  the  preachers  in  early  days  stayed  in  his  home 
when  they  preached  or  traveled  by.  The  township  in 
which  Rockport  is  located  is  named  after  him. 

In  1877  the  Rockport  Methodists  decided  to  move  their 
church  building  to  Malvern,  because  the  railroad  had 
come  through  that  place  in  1871,  and  most  of  the  mem- 
bers at  Rockport  moved  into  Malvern.  At  Malvern  itself 
a  new  church  building  was  erected  in  1888.  During  the 
time  the  building  was  going  on  in  Malvern,  the  Methodists 
who  remained  at  Rockport  reassembled  and  held  services 
in  the  public  school  building  at  Rockport.  When  the  con- 
gregation at  Malvern  did  build  their  new  church,  the 
church  at  Rockport  bought  back  their  old  church  building 
for  $50,  moved  it  back  to  Rockport  where  it  stands  today. 

During  the  Centennial  celebration  of  Arkansas  in 
1936,  which  was  also  the  centennial  of  the  Rockport 
Church  having  been  established  as  a  preaching  circuit, 
the  church  received  a  visit  from  President  Franklin  D. 
Roosevelt  and  his  wife.  The  President  delivered  an  ad- 
dress to  several  thousand  people  from  the  porch  of  this 
old  church,  and  the  sermon  for  the  occasion  was  preached 
by  Bishop  John  M.  Moore  of  Dallas,  Texas. 


Rockport  Church  has  been  remodeled  and  repaired 
many  times  and  is  today  a  neat  frame  building  sitting  at 
the  intersection  of  two  well-traveled,  paved  highways. 
The  people  in  that  section  consider  it  a  monument  to  the 
religious  devotion  and  endeavors  of  their  pioneer  an- 
cestors. 

Mrs.  Bennie  Finch,  History  of  Malvern  Methodist  Church.  N.d. 
Malvern  Daily  Record,  25th  Anniversary  Edition,  1942;  50th 
Anniversary  Edition,  1967.  Ray  N.  Boyle 

MANCHESTER,  ARKANSAS,  U.S.A.  The  first  Methodist 
church  east  of  the  Ouachita  River  was  organized  in  1837 
by  Jacob  Custer.  It  was  located  on  one  acre  of  land  given 
by  George  S.  Wimberley.  The  chartered  members  of  this 
church  included  the  following:  Thomas  C.  and  Jamima 
Hudson,  Nathan  and  Nancy  Strong,  Miss  Tennessee  Hud- 
son, Miss  Mariah  Strong,  and  one  colored  member,  Laney. 
Later  came  the  Joneses,  the  Bullocks,  the  Littlejohns, 
and  the  Sims.  The  Manchester  Chuch  was  the  strongest 
church  in  the  south  Arkansas  area  during  the  days  of  its 
prosperity.  Preaching  was  held  in  homes  of  the  members 
until  a  log  cabin  of  one  room  was  built  in  1844.  It  was 
named  the  Manchester  M.  E.  Church. 

About  1850  the  Princeton  Circuit  was  set  off,  embrac- 
ing nearly  all  the  territory  between  the  Ouachita  River 
on  the  west,  Saline  on  the  east,  Camden  on  the  south. 
Hot  Springs  on  the  north,  of  which  Manchester  was  the 
principal  church.  In  1863  the  Manchester  Church,  due  to 
the  problem  of  slavery,  changed  its  name  to  the  Man- 
chester M.  E.  Church,  South,  which  it  remained  until 
unification  in  1939. 

In  1888  Manchester  Church  was  divided  due  to  a 
growing  community  called  Dalark.  At  this  time  the  Man- 
chester M.  E.  Church,  South  moved  from  the  one-room 
log  building  to  its  present  location,  which  was  given  by 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  F.  McCaskell,  and  two  sons,  Joe  and 
Charlie  Neal.  This  deed  is  recorded  in  the  Circuit  Court 
Clerk's  office  in  Arkadelphia,  Ark.,  Sept.  20,  1910. 

In  1910  and  1911,  under  the  capable  leadership  of 
J.  H.  McKelvy,  the  first  part  of  the  present  building  was 
constructed.  It  continued  in  use  till  1938  under  the  capa- 
ble leadership  of  A.  J.  Bearden.  The  present  sanctuary 
was  added  to  the  old  part  of  the  original  church.  The 
original  church  was  made  into  class  rooms  for  the  church 
school.  At  this  time  it  was  placed  on  the  Dalark  Charge. 
In  1970  Manchester  had  a  membership  of  74  with  an 
average  attendance  of  seventy  at  its  morning  service. 

J.  J.  McKnight 

MANCHESTER,  CONNECTICUT,  U.S.A.  In  August  1790, 
George  Roberts,  assistant  to  Jesse  Lee,  organized  a 
Methodist  Society  in  Manchester  in  the  home  of  Thomas 
Spencer.  Four  years  later  Bishop  Asbury  found  a  neat 
house  of  worship  on  Spencer  Street.  In  1821  a  larger 
church  was  built  at  the  Center,  which  was  used  for  thirty 
years. 

Three  preaching  points  developed:  one  in  the  north 
section  which  started  its  first  Sunday  school  in  1826  and 
developed  into  a  separate  church  in  1851.  This  is  today 
known  as  St.  Paul's  in  Manchester.  One  developed  in 
Buckland's  Comers  and  flared  up  in  a  revival,  but  never 
managed  to  become  an  enduring  church.  The  Center 
congregation  moved  to  the  south  and  built  its  church  in 
1854  and  this  last  was  destined  to  endure  and  to  become 
known  today  as  South  Methodist  Church. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MANCHESTER,   ENGLAND 


South  Church,   Manchester,   Connecticut 

South  Church  today  has  an  elegantly  appointed  sanc- 
tuary and  the  largest  membership  of  any  church  in  the 
New  England  Southern  Conference.  The  style  of 
the  church  is  Tudor  Gothic  and  is  of  local  grey  field 
stone  with  trimmings  of  grey  case  stone  and  with  English 
cathedral  glass  windows  leaded  in  small  panes.  The  build- 
ing is  now  covered  with  ivy.  A  square  tower,  sixty-seven 
feet  high  and  surmounted  by  turreted  battlements,  is 
placed  at  the  southwest  corner  of  the  main  building  and 
contains  a  bell  from  the  first  Methodist  church  in  Man- 
chester and  a  memorial  set  of  chime  bells  ranging  in  size 
from  275  to  2,000  pounds.  Because  of  its  unique  design 
and  setting  the  South  Church  has  long  been  a  familiar 
and  famous  landmark  of  Manchester,  Conn. 

Throughout  the  interior,  there  are  carved  oak  antique 
decorations.  Julian  S.  Wadsworth,  a  former  pastor  and 
wood  carving  enthusiast,  carved  the  Twelve  Apostles  in 
oak  to  form  panels  in  the  reredos  screen.  Guido  Mayr 
of  Oberammergau,  who  portrayed  the  part  of  Judas  in 
the  "Passion  Play,"  carved  a  bas-relief  of  the  famous 
Leonardo  da  Vinci  painting  of  "The  Lord's  Supper"  across 
the  top  of  the  screen.  Other  wood  carvings  decorate  the 
pulpit  and  lectern  and  depict  the  Uves  of  Christ  and  His 
Disciples. 

The  lectern  itself  is  bronze  and  represents  an  eagle 
standing  on  a  globe,  a  symbol  of  St.  John  in  his  capacity 
as  an  Evangelist  where  "He  soared  in  the  Spirit  and  saw 
God." 

The  Pulpit  has  five  carved  oak  panels  representing 
Biblical  references  to  Christ  and  His  Church.  The  central 
panel,  carved  by  Wesley  B.  Porter,  a  former  member  of 
South  Church,  symbohzes  Christ — The  Rose  of  Sharon 
and  the  Cross  forming  what  is  knovin  as  the  "Rose-Croix." 
At  the  base  of  this  panel  is  the  inscription,  "As  a  Lily 
Among  Thorns,"  taken  from  the  Song  of  Solomon. 

The  music  of  South  Church  has  been  emphasized  for 
many  years  with  vocal  choirs  of  all  ages  and  a  rhythm 
choir  which  interprets  ideas  through  rhythmic  motion. 
The  large  window  in  the  sanctuary,  facing  east  has  been 
given  the  name  of  "Creation,"  for  here  in  the  ivy-covered 
panes,  the  birds  nest  year  after  year  and  raise  their  young. 

The  baptismal  font  made  of  Carrara  Italian  marble  is 


located  in  the  west  arm  of  the  cruciform  building.  The 
handcarved  antique  silver  lamp  which  hangs  above  the 
font  came  from  one  of  the  ancient  churches  of  Jerusalem 
and  was  presented  by  Mrs.  Mattie  Case. 

Across  the  street  from  the  Church  proper  are  ten  acres 
of  land  known  as  the  "South  Church  Campus,"  where  two 
Cheney  mansions  are  located.  Today,  these  two  mansions 
provide  class  space  for  all  the  church  school  below  junior 
high  school  age,  a  church  parlor  for  group  meetings 
and  a  hundred-car  parking  lot. 

From  the  original  membership  of  six,  the  church  has 
now  grovim  to  2,397  members,  making  South  Church 
the  largest  as  well  as  the  most  influential  church  in  the 
New  England  Southern  Conference. 

Almond,  Methodism  in  Manchester.  N.d. 

Hibbard,    History   of  the   North   Methodist   Church   of   Man- 
chester, Conn. 
R.  C.  Miller,  New  England  Southern  Conference.  1898. 

Harvey  K.  Mousley 

MANCHESTER,  England.  Manchester's  growth  into  one 
of  the  greatest  industrial  and  commercial  centers  of  mod- 
em England  dates  from  the  industrial  revolution  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

John  Wesley  visited  Manchester  on  three  occasions 
before  his  evangelical  conversion  to  see  his  friend  John 
Clayton.  George  Whitefield  paid  the  first  of  seven 
visits  there  in  December  1738;  and  Benjamin  Ingham 
preached  in  Long  Millgate  in  May  1742.  The  first  Meth- 
odist sermon  was  delivered  by  John  Nelson  at  Man- 
chester Cross  in  either  1742  or  1743;  but  not  until 
Charles  Wesley's  visit  in  January  1747  was  a  society 
formed.  John  Bennet,  who  had  already  pioneered  Meth- 
odism in  the  surrounding  villages,  added  the  society  to 
his  round  in  March  of  that  year;  and  John  Wesley  came 
in  May  1747,  when  he  preached  at  Salford  Cross.  This 
new  society  had  several  homes,  including  a  garret  by  the 
river  Irwell  and  a  Baptist  chapel  in  Shudehill,  before  a 
chapel  was  begun  in  Birchin  Lane  in  1750.  Completed 
in  1751,  it  was,  with  Liverpool,  the  first  Methodist  chapel 
in  Lancashire. 

In  1752  Manchester  became  the  head  of  a  circuit  cover- 
ing much  of  Lancashire  and  Cheshire.  The  following  year, 
despite  the  defection  of  John  Bennet,  there  were  250 
members,  and  the  chapel  had  to  be  enlarged.  In  1765 
the  Conference  met  in  Manchester  for  the  first  time,  a 
sign  of  the  town's  growing  connectional  importance.  In 
1781  Birchin  Lane  was  replaced  by  the  Oldham  Street 
Chapel,  which  was  "about  the  size  of  that  in  London." 
For  some  years  later  after  1788  there  was  a  close  link 
with  the  nearby  St.  James'  Church,  and  the  Oldham  Street 
congregation  attended  services  there  in  a  body.  The  Wes- 
leyans  also  played  a  part  in  setting  up  interdenominational 
Sunday  schools  in  Manchester  in  1786. 

After  1751  John  Wesley  usually  visited  Manchester 
every  year.  On  Easter  Day,  1790,  his  last  visit,  he  de- 
scribed 1,600  communicants  at  Oldham  Street.  The  mem- 
bership grew  with  the  rapid  rise  in  the  town's  population 
— in  1799  there  were  2,225  members  in  Manchester  and 
Salford.  More  chapels  were  built:  Gravel  Lane,  Salford, 
1791;  Great  Bridgewater  Street,  1801;  Swan  Street,  1808 
(closed,  1826);  Chancery  Lane,  1817;  Grosvenor  Street, 
1820.  In  1826  four  large  chapels  were  built:  Irwell  Street, 
Salford;  Ancoats;  Oxford  Road;  and  Oldham  Road,  Wes- 
ley. 


MANCHESTER.    NEW   HAMPSHIRE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


In  1824  a  second  VVesleyan  circuit  was  formed,  with 
Grosvenor  Street  at  its  head.  For  some  years  this  was 
the  wealthiest  chapel  and  circuit  in  the  British  con- 
nection, as  may  be  seen  from  its  contributions  in  The 
Centenary  Fund,  1839.  Despite  the  Warrenite  secession 
of  1834-35  (see  below),  Wesleyan  Methodist  member- 
ship reached  10,000  in  Manchester  in  1883.  The  second 
VVesleyan  theological  college,  Didsbury,  was  built  there 
in  1842.  In  1886,  when  the  central  area  was  beginning  to 
lose  ground,  the  first  Wesleyan  Central  Mission  was  begun 
in  Manchester  under  Samuel  Collier.  The  failing  Old- 
ham Street  Chapel,  now  surrounded  by  warehouses,  was 
closed  in  1883,  and  the  Central  Hall  was  erected  on  the 
same  site. 

Collier  built  up  what  he  called  "the  largest  congrega- 
tion in  the  world,"  which  met  for  more  than  twenty  years 
in  the  famous  Free  Trade  Hall  until  the  Albert  Hall  was 
built  in  1910  as  its  permanent  home.  This  is  still  the 
preaching  center  of  the  mission.  The  first  General  Chapel 
Committee  met  in  Manchester  in  1790;  from  this  grew 
the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Department  for  Chapel  Af- 
fairs, which  was  established  in  Manchester  in  1855. 
It  remains  the  only  British  Methodist  departmental  head- 
quarters outside  London. 

The  Methodist  New  Connexion  started  in  the  city 
in  1797,  when  a  secession  took  place,  mainly  in  Salford. 
Manchester  formed  one  of  the  first  seven  Methodist  New 
Connexion  circuits.  Mount  Zion  Chapel,  Nicholas  Croft, 
was  built  in  1800,  but  had  to  be  relinquished  in  1808  for 
a  smaller  building  in  Oldham  Street.  The  cause  made  little 
progress  until  1835,  when  a  new  chapel  was  opened  in 
Peter  Street.  The  Methodist  New  Connexion  Book  Room 
was  in  the  city  from  1827-44,  and  the  Jubilee  Conference 
of  the  denomination  was  held  there  in  1846.  Salem  Chap- 
el, Strangeways,  was  opened  in  1851  and  the  following 
year  became  the  head  of  a  Manchester  North  Circuit. 
Apart  from  strong  churches  at  Pendleton  and  Newton 
Heath,  the  New  Connexion  made  slow  progress;  in  1906 
the  total  membership  of  the  two  circuits  was  fourteen 
hundred. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  secession  of  1834-35  under 
Samuel  Warren  was  much  more  serious,  as  Warren 
was  then  superintendent  of  the  Wesleyan  Oldham  Street 
Circuit.  About  a  thousand  members  left  the  four  Man- 
chester circuits  and  formed  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  As- 
sociation. Their  chapels  were  often  built  as  close  as  pos- 
sible to  those  of  their  Wesleyan  rivals.  Sunday  school 
teachers  seem  to  have  played  an  important  part  in  the 
division.  Membership  fell  slightly  after  the  initial  excite- 
ment, but  in  1851  there  were  eleven  Association  chapels 
in  the  Manchester  registration  district,  compared  with 
eighteen  Wesleyan,  five  Methodist  New  Connexion,  and 
two  Primitive  Methodist  chapels.  These  Association 
chapels  entered  union  with  the  Wesleyan  Reformers  in 
1857,  and  membership  then  increased.  In  1876  the  re- 
sulting United  Methodist  Free  Churches  opened  their 
ministerial  training  college  in  Manchester  at  Victoria  Park. 

As  for  Primitive  Methodism,  evangelism  probably 
reached  Manchester  late  in  1819.  By  October  1820  there 
were  130  members,  and  in  1821  Manchester  was  con- 
stituted a  separate  circuit.  The  first  chapel  was  in  Jersey 
Street,  Ancoats,  opened  in  1823,  followed  by  one  in  the 
Oxford  Road,  and  in  King  Street,  Salford.  The  main  ex- 
pansion came  between  1850  and  1900,  when  several 
large  chapels  were  built,  including  Great  Western  Street, 
in  Moss  Side,  and  Higher  Ardwick.  The  Primitive  Meth- 


odist theological  college.  Hartley,  was  set  up  in  Man- 
chester in  1868,  not  far  from  Great  Western  Street.  In 
1932  there  were  twelve  Primitive  Methodist  circuits  in 
the  city  area,  with  thirty-eight  churches.  These  circuits, 
together  with  the  Wesleyan  circuits,  joined  the  six  United 
Methodist  Church  circuits  (formed  in  the  union  of 
1907)  in  1932.  The  strength  of  the  Wesleyans  was  ap- 
proximately equal  to  that  of  the  other  two  bodies  com- 
bined. 

Despite  the  decline  in  religious  observance  in  England 
and  the  fall  of  Manchester's  population,  it  was  more  than 
twenty  years  before  the  rationalization  of  the  city's  circuits 
neared  completion.  Membership  has  fallen  steadily  since 
1932;  and  although  the  number  of  chapels  has  been  re- 
duced from  about  one  hundred  in  1932  to  about  fifty-six 
in  1965,  some  overlapping  remains.  Other  changes  in- 
cluded the  removal  of  Didsbury  College  to  Bristol  in 
1945  and  the  closure  of  Victoria  Park  College  in  1932, 
when  it  was  amalgamated  with  Hartley  to  become  Hart- 
ley Victoria  College.  The  Central  Hall  in  Oldham 
Street  was  damaged  by  bombs  in  the  Second  World  War, 
but  reopened  in  1954.  The  offices  of  the  Chapel  Affairs 
Department  remain  in  the  building. 

E.  A.  Rose 

MANCHESTER,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  U.S.A.,  is  situated  on 
the  east  bank  of  the  Merrimack  River  and  on  the  Boston 
and  Maine  Railroad  in  the  south  central  portion  of  the 
state.  Its  territory  was  traversed  by  the  early  pioneers 
of  Methodism,  although  because  of  its  connection  with 
older  appointments,  the  name  appears  first  in  the  con- 
ference minutes  in  1819.  Services  were  occasionally  held 
at  the  Town  House  by  Reuben  Peaslee  of  Hampstead, 
and  later  by  John  Haskell,  a  member  of  the  Legislature, 
both  local  preachers.  Orlando  Hines,  here  a  few  years 
on  a  part-time  basis,  was  the  first  Methodist  to  administer 
the  ordinance  of  baptism  in  this  town,  having  baptized 
Mrs.  Edna  Procter  and  Miss  Rhoda  Hall  by  immersion 
about  1827.  Made  a  part  of  the  Poplin  Circuit,  embracing 
Popkin,  Chester,  Sandown,  and  Manchester  in  1828,  it 
was  the  scene  of  a  great  revival  a  year  later,  with  meet- 
ings conducted  by  John  Brodhead  and  Caleb  Lamb, 
preachers  on  the  circuit.  Eiglity  were  converted,  among 
them  James  M.  Young  and  James  McCaine,  who  entered 
the  Methodist  ministry. 

On  Sept.  29,  1829  the  first  Methodist  society  was 
organized  in  the  kitchen  of  Israel  Morrill  on  Huse  Road 
with  eighty  members.  A  church  commenced  at  the  Cen- 
ter was  completed  the  following  year  at  a  cost  of  $1,800. 
This  building  was  used  for  ten  years.  On  Dec.  16,  1839, 
a  new  church  society  was  organized  and  building  erected 
on  the  comer  of  Hanover  and  Chestnut  Streets.  This  was 
soon  removed  to  the  corner  of  Pine  and  Merrimac  Streets 
and  was  transferred  later  to  another  denomination.  In 
1842  a  brick  church  on  Elm  Street  was  built  at  a  cost 
of  $16,000  when  John  Jones  was  pastor.  The  lower  part 
of  this  Elm  Street  Church  was  occupied  by  stores.  In 
1856  a  third  society  was  organized  as  the  North  Elm 
Street  Church,  which  first  met  in  a  hall  up  the  street. 
It  continued  in  existence  until  1862,  when  it  was  united 
with  the  old  church  and  Bishop  Osmon  C.  Baker  named 
the  new  organization  St.  Paul's  and  appointed  James 
Monroe  Buckley  as  pastor.  In  1875  a  society  known  as 
The  Tabernacle  was  organized  and  held  services  in 
Smythe's  Hall.  It  continued  six  years,  but  gradually  grow- 


WORLD  METHODISM 


MANHATTAN,   KANSAS 


ing  weaker  it  finally  favored  re-uniting  with  St.  Paul's 
to  help  build  a  new  church. 

At  the  north  end  a  new  society  was  organized  in  1886 
called  The  People's  Church.  W.  A.  Loyne  was  appointed 
pastor.  The  City  Hall,  the  Y.M.C.A.  parlor,  and  homes 
were,  the  scenes  of  services,  until  a  lot  at  the  comer  of 
Pine  and  Penacook  Streets  was  secured  and  a  chapel 
built.  Later  the  name  was  changed  to  St.  James'  Church 
and  during  M.  V.  B.  Knox's  pastorate,  1891-92,  a  fine  new 
church  was  built.  This  was  merged  with  St.  Paul's  during 
the  pastorate  of  Franklin  P.  Frye,  Oct.  1,  1951. 

Feehng  itself  no  longer  at  the  center  due  to  popula- 
tion shifts,  Center  Church  considered  the  need  for  mov- 
ing. While  J.  W.  Bean  was  pastor,  1885-87,  a  lot  was 
bought  on  Valley  and  Jewett  Streets  and  a  house  built, 
later  to  be  used  as  a  parsonage  though  at  first  this  was 
used  for  chapel  services.  When  Claudius  Byrne  became 
pastor,  the  Center  Church  was  moved  to  a  location  next 
to  the  parsonage,  raised,  and  a  story  built  beneath  it 
for  a  vestry  and  the  house  finished  for  a  parsonage.  Here 
the  membership  remained  until  1920,  when  with  Cen- 
tenary aid  they  erected  a  splendid  modem  plant,  now 
known  as  First  Church.  New  pews,  a  new  chancel,  and 
a  change  of  the  choir  loft  was  made  during  the  pastorate 
of  Ray  H.  Cowen  in  1953-54,  at  a  cost  of  $14,200.  In 
1960,  $12,400  was  spent  on  redecorating  the  sanctuary, 
installing  new  light  fixtures,  covering  the  floor  with  tile 
and  laying  asphalt  driveways  to  church  and  parsonage. 

From  1891-1911  some  work  was  carried  on  in  a  chapel 
at  Massabosic  Lake,  which  for  a  time  was  a  Methodist 
Church  served  by  the  pastor  at  First  Church,  but  because 
of  lack  of  growth  the  work  was  given  up.  In  1888,  Louis 
N.  Beaudrey,  a  French  missionary,  began  work  in  Man- 
chester among  French  people.  This  subsequently  was  car- 
ried on  by  Thomas  A.  Dorion  in  1889,  and  by  Emile  J. 
Palisoul  for  many  years.  In  October  1895,  a  church  society 
was  organized  on  the  west  side  with  sixteen  members.  This 
was  called  Trinity  Church.  The  following  year  there  were 
thirty-nine  members,  a  congregational  average  atten- 
dance of  150  and  a  Sunday  school  of  sixty  students.  With 
the  purchase  of  a  schoolhouse  on  School  Street  and  much 
sacrifice,  a  desirable  house  of  worship  was  made  in  1897. 
This  served  nobly  until  with  the  gradual  weakening  a 
merger  was  effected  with  St.  James  Church  in  1940. 

The  1970  statistical  report  gives:  Manchester,  First, 
644  members,  359  church  school  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $403,175.  St.  Pauls,  444  members,  147  church 
school,  and  $301,000  property  values. 

Cole  and  Baketel,  New  Hampshire  Conference.  1929. 

Journals  of  the  New  Hampshire  Conference. 

M.    Simpson,    Cyclopaedia.    1878.  William    J.    Davis 

MANEFIELD,  ALBERT  GEORGE  (1896-1963),  Australian 
minister,  was  born  at  Wallsend,  New  South  Wales,  Aus- 
tralia. He  was  accepted  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry 
in  1919,  trained  at  Leigh  College,  and  ordained  in  1925. 

Prior  to  appointment  as  Assistant  Home  Mission  Secre- 
tary in  1934,  he  ministered  in  the  Far  West  and  North 
West  Missions  of  New  South  Wales.  He  was  appointed 
Home  Mission  Secretary  in  1940  and  became  General 
Superintendent  in  1949,  which  position  he  held  until 
retirement  in  1962. 

He  was  elected  President  of  the  New  South  Wales 
Conference  in  1954.  It  is  recognized  that  his  work  and 
vision  made  possible  the  Methodist  Nursing  Service  in  the 
Far  West  of  New  South  Wales.  He  was  responsible  for 


the  establishment  of  the  Deaconess  Order  in  New  South 
Wales. 

He  was  an  able  administrator,  a  competent  preacher 
and  a  significant  leader.  He  was  the  Convenor  of  the 
Federal  Home  Missions  Council  and  the  Canberra  Con- 
sultative Council  in  the  Australian  Capital  Territory. 

Australian  Editorial  Committee 

MANGUNGU,  Northland,  New  Zealand,  situated  on  the 
Hokianga  River,  was  the  site  of  the  re-estabhshment  of 
the  Wesleyan  mission  following  the  forced  withdrawal 
from  Wesleydale,  and  the  return  of  the  missionaries  to 
New  South  Wales  in  January,  1827. 

The  mission  party,  led  by  John  Hobbs  arrived  at  the 
Hokianga  Heads  on  the  "Governor  Macquarie"  on  Oct. 
31,  1827.  They  settled  temporarily  at  Horeke  under  the 
protection  of  the  great  chief,  Patuone.  Shortly  afterward, 
land  was  secured  but  not  occupied  at  Te  Toke. 

Final  choice  fell  on  Mangungu,  where  an  area  of  850 
acres  was  purchased.  The  missionaries  moved  in  on  March 
28,  1828,  and  established  a  base  from  which  the  work 
spread  throughout  the  whole  country.  It  continued  to 
be  of  importance  until  the  late  1850's,  when  as  a  result 
of  population  movements,  it  was  largely  abandoned  in 
favor  of  Waima. 

C.  H.  Laws,  First  Years  at  Hokianga.  Wesley  Historical 
Society,  New  Zealand,   1945.  L.   R.   M.  Gilmobe 

MANHATTAN,  KANSAS,  U.S.A.,  First  Church,  is  a  large 
church  serving  not  only  the  community  but  the  Kansas 
State  University  of  Manhattan.  It  records  for  itself  an 
interesting  and  colorful  past.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 
of  1854,  with  its  doctrine  of  "Popular  Sovereignty,"  which 
left  the  slavery  question  up  to  the  settlers,  created  a  rush 
of  emigrants  hurrying  to  settle  the  West  and  taking  one 
side  or  the  other  of  the  slavery  issue.  The  groups  that 
came  to  the  junction  of  the  Blue  and  Kansas  Rivers  were 
predominantly  Northern  Methodists,  and  were  there  to 
keep  Kansas  a  free  state.  Isaac  T.  Goodnow,  professor 
at  the  Providence  Seminary  at  East  Greenwich,  R.  I., 
was  the  leader,  along  with  his  wife's  brother,  Joseph 
Denison.  Denison  was  to  be  the  first  regular  minister 
of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  Manhattan. 

These  folk  came  to  Kansas  in  1855,  built  a  church, 
established  Bluemont  Central  College  (which  later  be- 
came Kansas  State  University),  and  helped  to  make 
Kansas  a  free  state.  Charles  H.  Lovejoy  held  the  first 
Methodist  church  services  on  March  25,  1855.  The 
Church  was  really  first  established  on  the  Hartford,  a 
steamboat  bringing  a  group  of  ardent  free-staters  from 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  to  Kansas.  This  group  was  organized 
under  the  leadership  of  Judge  John  Pipher  on  April  30, 
1855.  On  its  return  the  Hartford  burned,  but  the  bell, 
known  as  the  "Hartford  Bell"  is  still  a  museum  piece  in 
Manhattan  First  Church.  The  name  "Manhattan"  was 
chosen  because  money  was  given  to  the  settlers  by  donors 
from  the  island  of  Manhattan,  New  York  City,  with  the 
understanding  that  this  would  be  the  name.  Nearby  is 
the  famous  "Beecher  Bible  and  Rifle  Church"  at 
Wabaunsee. 

Bluemont  Central  College,  chartered  in  1858  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  began  classes  in  1859.  Washington  Marlatt 
was  its  promoter  and  first  president.   He  was  joined  by 


MANILA,    PHILIPPINES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Isaac  T.  Goodnow  and  Joseph  Denison  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Kansas  State  Agricultural  College.  This  re- 
ceived the  first  land  grant  provided  for  Kansas  under  the 
Morrill  Act.  Bluemont  Central  College  was  turned  over 
to  the  State,  and  eventually  became  Kansas  State  Univer- 
sity. 

The  University  has  several  buildings  named  after  former 
Methodist  ministers,  including  Goodnow,  Washington 
Marlatt,  and  Joseph  Deni.son.  First  Church  in  1970  had 
2,635  members,  and  property  valued  at  $947,000. 

General   Minutes,    UMC.  Kenneth    R.    Hemphill 


Mary    Johnston    Hospital,    Manila 


MANILA,  Philippines.  The  city  of  Manila,  on  Luzon  Is- 
land in  the  Republic  of  the  Philippines,  is  the  cultural, 
commercial,  industrial,  educational,  and  religious  center 
of  this  relatively  new  nation.  It  is  the  governmental  capi- 
tal, though  Quezon  City,  a  former  suburb  of  Manila,  is 
technically  the  governmental  capital  of  the  Republic. 
Manila's  population  is  approximately  one-twentieth  of 
the  3.5,000,000  people  on  the  whole  archipelago. 

Manila  was  the  first  city  in  the  Philippines  entered 
by  Methodist  missionaries  in  1899,  and  it  has  continued  to 
be  the  "headquarters  city"  for  Methodism  and  its  principal 
institutions  since  that  time.  There  are  thirty-five  Meth- 
odist churches  in  Manila  and  its  immediate  environs.  The 
two  largest  Methodist  churches  in  the  Islands  are  in  the 
heart  of  Manila,  and  there  are  two  English-speaking 
congregations. 


Harris  Memorial  School,  Manila 

Serving  the  entire  archipelago  are  the  following  special- 
ized institutions  founded  by  Methodist  missionaries,  and 
now  largely  operated  by  Filipino  pastors,  teachers,  and 
technical  personnel:  the  Harris  Memorial  School, 
training  young  women  from  all  east  and  southeast  Asia 
as  deaconesses  and  kindergarten  teachers;  Mary  Johnston 
Hospital,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire  during  World  War 
II,  and  later  rebuilt  with  American  and  Filipino  funds; 
the  Mary  Johnston  School  of  Nursing;  Eveland  Hall,  a 
residence  for  graduate  nurses;  Methodist  Social  Center, 
including  Hugh  Wilson  Hall,  a  college  girls'  dormitory, 
and  pre-school  and  kindergarten  classes,  and  a  dental 
clinic;  and  the  Methodist  Book  Room,  providing  educa- 
tional and  religious  reading  materials  for  Methodists  and 
the  general  public.  In  cooperation  with  other  Protestant 
groups  in  the  Philippines,  Methodists  are  engaged  in  the 
support  and  administration  of  these  institutions  in  Manila: 
Philippine  Christian  College;  Protestant  Chapel  and  Fel- 
lowship Hall  at  the  University  of  the  Philippines;  the 
Sampaloc  University  Center;  and  the  activities  of  the 
National  Council  of  Churches  of  the  Philippines. 


Mary  Johnston  Hospital  began  with  the  dream  of  Dr. 
Rebecca  Parish  when  she  volunteered  to  go  to  Vlanila  in 
1906  to  put  her  life  into  the  task  of  saving  babies,  chil- 
dren, mothers,  and  to  help  bring  health  to  the  Philippines. 
By  December  10  of  that  year  she  had  opened  Despensaria 
Betania  and  the  project  was  undeiway. 

D.  S.  B.  Johnston  of  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  gave  $12,500  for 
a  hospital  to  be  a  memorial  for  his  wife.  Located  on  a  sea 
beach  in  Manila  the  hospital  was  inaugurated  on  Aug. 
18,  1908,  with  rooms  and  wards  for  thirty-five  patients. 
There  were  three  missionaries  on  the  staff,  which  was 
headed  by  Dr.  Rebecca  Parish,  and  eleven  nursing 
students. 

In  1911,  the  hospital  burned  but  it  was  repaired  and 
a  third  floor  for  nurses'  dormitory  was  added.  In  1913, 
the  Philippine  government  gave  funds  for  an  additional 
building  to  house  the  maternity  ward,  dispensary  and 
milk  station. 

At  the  outbreak  of  World  War  II,  the  hospital  became 
an  emergency  hospital  where  the  wounded  from  air  raids 
were  hospitalized.  The  Imperial  Japanese  Army  allowed 
work  to  continue  under  the  supervision  of  the  Filipino 
staff.  The  hospital  bunied  on  Feb.  5,  1945,  during  the 
liberation  of  Manila. 

On  Sept.  3,  1949,  the  cornerstone  of  the  new  building 
was  laid.  On  Aug.  26,  1950,  the  new  building  was  in- 
augurated with  President  Elpidio  Quirino  as  the  main 
speaker.  The  new  137-bed  hospital  was  designed  to  serve 
as  a  general  hospital,  accommodating  men,  women,  and 
children.  As  in  the  past,  crowds  still  throng  to  the  hospital, 
seeking  health,  hope  and  happiness.  After  the  war  until 
his  death  in  1964  the  administrator  of  the  hospital  was 
Dr.  GuMERSiNDO  Garcia,  Sr. 

Project  Handbook  Overseas  Missions,  UMC,  1969. 

W.  W.  Reid 
Byron  W.  Clark 

MANLEY'S  CHAPEL,  located  in  Henry  County,  Tenn., 
U.S.A.,  was  the  first  church  in  the  territory  now  embraced 
by  the  Memphis  Conference  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church.  In  1820  a  local  Methodist  preacher,  John  Man- 
ley,  organized  the  church  and  the  first  pastor  was  Ben- 
jamin Peeples,  who  had  been  sent  by  the  Kentucky 
Conference  to  organize  Methodist  work  in  the  territory. 
The  original  log  church  was  built  in  1821,  but  was  soon 
replaced  by  a  larger  log  building,  as  Manley's  Chapel 
became  the  head  church  and  center  of  the  Sandy  River 
Circuit. 

In  1823  the  Manleys  donated  land  and  John  Manley, 
in  conjunction  with  Richard  and  Hamlin  Manley,  William 
and  Abraham  Walters,  T.  F.  Lilley,  Johanan  and  Robert 
Smith,  James  and  John  Randle,  Henry  Wall,  Joel,  John 
and  W.  T.  Hagler,  the  Moodys,  the  Lowrys  and  a  few 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MANSO,   JUANA 


Others  organized  a  camp  ground  around  the  church.  The 
annual  camp  meetings  became  a  vital  part  of  Manley's 
Chapel  and  were  held  every  year  but  one  until  1912. 

The  old  log  church  was  replaced  by  a  frame  structure 
in  1857,  when  W.  H.  Gillespie  was  pastor,  and  in  1934, 
when  the  site  of  Manley's  Chapel  had  become  inaccessible 
to  automobiles,  a  church  built  largely  of  materials  salvaged 
from  the  old  building  was  constructed  on  a  location  do- 
nated by  Melvin  Carter.  On  this  site  about  seven  miles 
from  Paris,  Tenn.,  on  Reynoldsburg  Road,  a  new  brick 
church  was  erected  and  dedicated  on  Nov.  2,  1958. 

Journals  of  Memphis  Conference.  Mary  Sue  Nelson 

MANNING,  CHARLES  (1714-1799),  British  Anglican,  was 
the  son  of  a  Norwich  painter.  He  graduated  from  Caius 
College,  Cambridge,  and  from  1738  to  1757  was  rector 
of  Hayes,  Middlesex.  He  supported  the  Wesleys  and 
attended  the  Conferences  of  1747  and  1748.  He  is  said 
to  have  officiated  at  John  Wesley's  wedding  in  1751,  but 
there  is  no  entry  in  the  parish  register  to  confirm  this 
statement. 

A.  Skevincton  Wood 

MANSELL,  HENRY  (1833-1911),  pioneer  M.  E.  mission- 
ary in  India,  was  a  graduate  of  Allegheny  College. 
He  then  married  Annie  Benschoff,  and  they  arrived  in 
India  in  1863.  He  founded  a  boys'  school  at  Pauri,  Garh- 
wal,  out  of  which  has  grown  the  Messmore  College, 
named  for  James  Messmore,  one  of  his  colleagues  who 
was  associated  with  the  institution  for  many  years. 

Mansell  was  the  first  principal  of  the  Centennial  School 
at  LucKNOw,  forerunner  of  Lucknow  Christian  Col- 
lege. He  was  principal  of  Bareilly  Theological  Seminary, 
1884-85,  and  of  Philander  Smith  College  at  Naini  Tal. 

Mansell  acquired  a  mastery  of  Hindu  and  Urdu;  and 
in  addition  to  preaching  often  in  these  languages,  he 
wrote  many  articles  and  a  number  of  books,  including 
commentaries  on  the  Old  Testament  prophecies,  as  well 
as  adaptations  and  translations  of  English  language  com- 
mentaries. 

His  children  became  the  first  second-generation  M.E. 
missionaries  in  India.  A  daughter,  Hattie,  was  sent  to 
India  by  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  and, 
after  brief  service  in  Moradabad,  joined  Isabella  Tho- 
BURN  as  a  professor  in  the  Woman's  College  at  Lucknow. 
She  later  married  David  C.  Monroe,  and  their  son,  Harry 
Monroe,  served  as  a  missionary  in  India.  A  son,  William 
Mansell,  became  principal  of  Lucknow  Christian  College 
during  the  furlough  of  the  founder,  and  later  was  principal 
of  the  Bareilly  Theological  Seminary. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 


leyan  Missionary  Society.  He  had  a  first-class  flair  for 
journalism  and  co-edited  the  Australian  Magazine  which 
showed  interest  in  secular  matters.  It  was  successful  but 
its  policy  disturbed  the  Wesleyan  Committee  in  England 
who  prohibited  its  pubUcation. 

In  July  1823,  he  was  appointed  to  Van  Diemen's  land 
and  in  Hobart  Town  presided  at  the  first  business  meet- 
ing of  the  Hobart  Town  Society  on  Aug.  11,  1823.  In 
1824  Lieutenant-Governor  Arthur  desired  to  form  a  native 
establishment  for  the  education  and  civilization  of  the 
aborigines.  Mansfield  was  keen  to  establish  a  training 
school  for  young  men  in  tliis  missionary  enterprise.  Noth- 
ing concrete  seems  to  have  developed. 

The  Lieutenant-Governor  assisted  in  the  building  of  a 
chapel  and  asked  that  a  chaplain  be  nominated  for  Mac- 
quarie  Harbour.  Again  the  London  committee  rejected 
local  suggestions.  Mansfield  was  transferred  to  Sydney 
in  June  1825.  He  became  the  District  Secretary.  The 
London  committee  was  unsympathetic  toward  suggestions 
from  Mansfield,  and  he  was  disciplined  for  preaching 
during  church  hours  and  administering  Holy  Communion. 
In  1838  the  committee  refused  to  increase  or  consider 
New  South  Wales  requests  for  increased  living  allow- 
ances. Mansfield,  incensed  at  their  parsimony,  resigned 
in  October  1828.  He  wrote,  "I  formally  resign  but  am 
virtually  expelled.  I  do  not  resign  the  Ministerial  office 
but  simply  that  of  a  Wesleyan  missionary.  As  a  local 
preacher  I  hope  that  I  may  still  be  useful  to  the  cause  of 
God." 

His  resignation  and  slight  obstinacy  was  a  serious 
loss  to  the  connexion.  He  became  joint-editor  with  Robert 
Howe  of  The  Sydney  Gazette  in  January  1829.  A  month 
later  Howe  was  drowned  and  Mansfield  became  sole 
editor.  He  was  editorially  involved  in  political  concerns 
and  supported  Governor  Darling.  In  1831  he  printed  the 
first  issue  of  the  Government  Gazette  and  for  eight  years 
contributed  to  The  Colonist.  Keenly  interested  in  educa- 
tion, he  became  the  Secretary  of  the  Protestant  committee 
opposed  to  Governor  Burke's  "Irish  system  of  National 
Education." 

In  1836  he  was  director  and  secretary  of  the  Australian 
Gaslight  Company,  secretary  of  the  Sydney  Floating 
Bridge  Company  and  Royal  Exchange  Company.  In  1841 
he  was  appointed  Editor  of  The  Sydney  Morning  Herald 
of  left-wing  politics. 

Deeply  attached  to  the  church,  he  felt  it  an  honor  to 
hold  the  position  of  first  secretary  to  the  Baptist  Church 
in  New  South  Wales. 

He  died  at  Parramatta  on  Sept.  1,  1880,  remembered 
as  a  man  of  courage,  a  lavonan  wiio  never  lost  his  mis- 
sionary vision,  a  man  of  rare  ability  who  sei-ved  God 
and  man. 

S.  G.  Clavchton 


MANSFIELD,  RALPH  (1799-1880),  early  missionary  to 
Australia,  was  born  at  Liverpool,  England  on  March 
12,  1799,  the  son  of  Ralph  and  Ann  Mansfield.  He  was 
ordained  in  1820,  designated  as  a  missionary  to  New 
South  Wales,  and  received  into  full  connexion  at  the 
Conference  of  1823.  After  an  eventful  voyage  in  the 
Surry,  anchor  was  cast  at  Hobart  Town  where  he  "was 
graciously  received  by  His  Honour,  Lieutenant-Governor 
Sorrell  with  permission  to  preach  and  with  a  guard  of 
constables  to  prevent  disturbances."  Arriving  in  Sy'dney, 
he  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the  auxihary  of  the  Wes- 


MANSO,  JUANA  (1819-1875),  was  an  Argentine  educa- 
tor and  writer.  In  1836  she  went  into  exile  in  Montevideo, 
Uruguay,  because  of  political  persecution  by  partisans 
of  the  Argentine  dictator  Juan  Manuel  de  Rosas.  When 
Rosas  partisans  dominated  that  city  also,  her  family  fled 
to  Brazil.  There  Miss  Manso  married  a  Brazilian  musi- 
cian, Francisco  Paula  de  Noronha,  whom  she  accompanied 
to  the  United  States.  There  he  deserted  her.  Probably 
sometime  during  her  stay  in  the  L^nited  States  she  became 
a  Methodist.  Shortly  after  Rosas  had  fallen,  she  returned 


MANTRIPP,    JOSEPH    CL055 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


to  Buenos  Aires  (in  1854)  and  became  active  in  the 
Methodist  church  there. 

The  great  Argentine  educator,  President  Domingo  F. 
Sarmiento,  charged  her  with  organizing  pubHc  hbraries. 
She  was  one  of  the  very  few  persons  who  joined  Sarmiento 
in  his  revolutionary  ideas  on  public  education.  She  was 
founder  of  the  government  publication,  Los  Anales  de  la 
Educacion  Comun  (Annals  of  Common  Education).  She 
wrote  books  on  pedagogy,  but  also  wrote  in  tlie  fields  of 
history  and  sociology  and  was  the  author  of  novels  and 
plays. 

One  of  Miss  Manso's  novels.  La  hija  del  comendador 
(The  Commander's  Daughter),  was  a  cry  against  slavery 
— obviously  written  under  the  influence  of  Harriet  Bee- 
cher  Stowe's  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  published  two  years 
before.  Miss  Manso  was  concerned  with  social  problems 
and  the  advancement  of  young  women.  Already,  during 
her  stay  in  Montevideo,  she  had  founded  the  Young 
Ladies'  Atheneum,  and  in  Buenos  Aires  she  started  one  of 
the  first  women's  magazines  in  the  country.  Album  de 
Seiioritas  ( Young  Ladies'  Album ) . 

Her  life  in  the  United  States  stirred  in  Miss  Manso 
a  desire  to  establish  Sunday  schools  in  her  mother  coun- 
try'. In  1870  she  published  in  Argentina  a  booklet  de- 
scribing Sunday  schools  in  North  America. 

Miss  Manso  confronted  many  hardships  and  persecu- 
tions because  of  her  Protestant  profession,  extending  even 
to  her  death  bed.  She  was  buried  in  the  British  (Protes- 
tant )  Cemetery  in  Buenos  Aires,  but  in  1920  her  remains 
were  transferred  to  the  National  Mausoleum  of  the  Teach- 
ing Profession. 

£/  Estandarte  Evangelico  de  Sud  America,  75th  anniversary 
edition,   1911.  Ismael  A.  \'ago 

MANTRIPP,  JOSEPH  CLOSS  (1867-1943),  British  Meth- 
odist, was  born  at  Lowestoft  in  1867.  He  entered  the 
Primitive  Methodist  ministry  in  1891.  He  became  secre- 
tary of  the  Derby  Conference  in  1913,  and  from  1926 
to  1931  served  as  Connexion al  Editor.  After  Meth- 
odist Union  in  1932  he  was  deputy  editor.  His  publica- 
tions included  The  Faith  of  a  Chrisiian  (Hartley  Lec- 
ture, 1931)  and,  later.  The  Devotional  Use  of  the  Meth- 
odist Hymn  Book  and  The  Great  Good  News.  He  was  a 
valued  member  of  the  Methodist  Union  Committee,  and 
high  tribute  was  paid  to  his  editorial  work  as  a  member 
of  the  Methodist  Hymn-Book  Committee.  He  died  on 
Feb.  3.  1943. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

MANUAL  LABOR  SCHOOL,  west  of  Covington,  Newton 
County,  Georgia,  was  a  forerunner  of  Emory  Univer- 
sity in  Atlanta,  and  of  Emory  College  (later  called 
Emory-at-Oxford  and  now  again  Emory  College).  The 
Manual  Labor  School  was  established  in  1834  but  was 
absorbed  by  Emory  College  in  1840.  Emory  College  was 
named  in  memory  of  Bishop  James  O.  Andrew's  epis- 
copal classmate.  Bishop  John  Emory,  who  was  killed  in 
a  carriage  accident  in  1835.  Manual  labor  was  a  part  of 
the  college  (chartered  Dec.  19,  1836)  program  but  was 
doomed  to  failure.  One  year  after  absorption  of  the  Man- 
ual Labor  School,  the  system  was  dropped. 

Because  the  latter  school  was  not  as  successful  as  it 
had  been  hoped,  the  1836  General  Conference  noted 
that   Randolph-Macon    College    in    Virginia   was    too 


distant  for  Georgia  youth  who  might  want  an  education 
under  Methodist  auspices.  So  the  Conference  acted  on 
Ignatius  Few's  suggestion  to  establish  a  Methodist  col- 
lege in  Georgia.  Samuel  Bryan  and  Thomas  Benning  were 
appointed  agents  to  raise  $100,000  for  it.  Few  was  chair- 
man, and  then  became  the  college's  first  president.  It  is 
significant  that  he  was  also  the  prime  mover  in  plans  for 
the  Manual  School. 

Few  inspected  land  purchased  by  the  Manual  Labor 
School  lying  one  to  three  miles  north-northwest  of  Coving- 
ton. The  college  and  the  330  acres  of  that  land  laid  out 
for  the  college  town  of  Oxford  are  both  named  for  "the 
seat  of  learning  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley." 

E.  J.  Hammond,  M.  E.  Church  in  Georgia.  1935. 

Ouida  Wade  Roton 

MAORI  KING  MOVEMENT.  In  1858  a  confederation  of 
powerful  inland  tribes  in  the  Waikato  area  of  the  North 
Island  of  New  Zealand  "elected"  an  aged  chief,  Potatau 
Te  Wherowhero,  as  the  first  Maori  king.  The  purpose 
was  threefold:  to  oppose  further  sales  of  land  to  European 
settlers;  to  secure  law  and  order  among  warring  tribes, 
in  which  it  was  felt  that  the  European  administration 
had  failed;  and  to  seek  to  recapture  the  dwindling  pres- 
tige of  the  Maori  people. 

Through  the  interxening  years  "the  king  movement" 
has  lost  much  of  its  early  political  significance,  and  remains 
as  a  cultural  and  spiritual  link  between  all  the  Maori 
tribes  of  New  Zealand.  The  Movement's  headquarters  is 
the  Turangawaewae  Pa,  at  Ngaruawahia,  and  the  present 
leader  is  Queen  Te  Ata-i-rangi-kaahu,  sixth  in  line  of 
direct  descent  from  the  first  Maori  king.  Ngatete  Kerai 
Kukutai,  a  New  Zealand  minister,  was  a  respected  friend 
and  adviser  of  the  Movement. 

M.  P.  K.  Sorenson,  "The  Maori  King  Movement,"  Studies  of 
a  Small  Democracy,  ed.  by  R.  Chapman  and  K.  Sinclair. 
Pauls    Book    Arcade    for   the    University    of   Auckland,    1963. 

L.  R.  M.  Gilmore 

MARIETTA,  GEORGIA,  U.S.A.,  First  Church,  was  orga- 
nized in  1833  in  the  home  of  George  W.  Winters  with 
thirty-seven  charter  members,  John  P.  Dickinson  serving 
as  pastor.  Shortly  thereafter  a  building  was  erected  on 
Husk  Street  at  Whidock  Avenue. 

LInder  the  pastorate  of  Charles  R.  Jewett  in  1848  a 
new  sanctuary  was  dedicated  on  Atlanta  Street  at  Waverly 
Way.  Here  the  first  Sunday  school  was  organized.  The 
first  railroad  in  Cobb  County  began  operations  Sept. 
15,  1845,  from  Marietta  to  "Marthasville"— renamed  "At- 
lanta" two  years  later.  Marietta  was  directly  in  the  path 
of  Sherman's  march-to-the-sea  and  was  all  but  destroyed 
by  the  ravages  of  that  terrible  conflict.  Although  the  par- 
sonage was  bumed,  the  church  building  was  spared  and 
is  still  standing. 

In  June  1878  the  first  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  in  Southern  Methodism  was  organized  by  this 
congregation.  Some  years  later  it  merged  with  the  Wom- 
an's Home  Missionary  Society  and,  after  unification  in 
1939,  became  known  as  the  Woman's  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Service. 

At  the  turn  of  the  century  a  new  building  on  Atlanta 
and  Anderson  Streets  was  built  during  the  pastorate  of 
J.  W.  Quillian  and  dedicated  by  W.  W.  Wadsworth.  This 
plant,  with  subsequent  additions,  served  admirably  for 
some  sixty  years.  During  World  War  I,  sixty-three  of  its 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MARION,   OHIO 


members  entered  the  armed  services  and  during  World 
War  II  a  service  flag  with  seventy-seven  stars  was  proudly 
displayed.  At  the  Atlanta  Street  location  the  member- 
ship grew  from  455  in  1896  to  2,115  as  reported  in  1965. 
Numerically  it  had  then  become  the  fifth  largest  in  the 
North  Georgia  Conference  and  had  long  since  out- 
grown its  physical  capacity. 

In  September  1909.  Dr.  Fred  P.  Manget,  with  a  M.D. 
degree  from  Emory,  returned  to  Marietta  and  married 
Louise  Anderson,  daughter  of  W.  D.  Anderson,  a  beloved 
former  pastor  of  this  church.  This  dedicated  young  couple 
left  immediately  for  the  Orient,  founded,  and  for  almost 
four  decades  operated  the  Huchow  General  Hospital,  one 
of  Methodism's  great  missionary  outposts. 

In  the  early  1960's  a  movement  was  started  for  a  com- 
plete new  church  facility.  Prevailing  sentiment  was  that 
it  should  continue  as  a  "downtowai"  church.  During  the' 
pastorate  of  Gordon  Thompson  (1957-61),  enough  money 
was  raised  to  buy  several  acres  within  two  blocks  of  the 
Public  Square,  and  to  have  left  a  substantial  start  on  a 
building  fund.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  tract  of 
land  included  the  site  of  the  original  church  built  in 
1835. 

Under  the  able  leadership  of  Charles  B.  Cockran  the 
building  program  was  brought  to  a  successful  conclusion. 
On  Jan.  16,  1966,  Bishop  J.  Ow'En  Smith  with  District 
Superintendent  W.  Candler  Budd  consecrated  the  present 
plant — said  to  be  one  of  the  finest  in  Georgia  Methodism. 
A  church  school  of  thirty-two  class  rooms,  a  fellowship 
hall,  administrative  offices,  library,  parlor,  and  chapel  are 
all  air  conditioned  and  tastefully  decorated.  The  sanctuary 
seats  1,046.  Membership  in  1970  was  2,103. 

George  D.  Anderson,  Jr.,  The  M.  E.  Church,  South,  of  Mari- 
etta, Georgia.   Marietta:    Brumby  Press,   Inc.,   1933. 
Journal  of  the  North  Georgia  Conference. 

S.  B.  G.  Temple,  The  First  Hundred  Years.  Atlanta:  Walter 
R.  Brown  Pub.  Co.,   1935.  Guy  Northcutt 

MARIETTA,  OHIO,  U.S.A.,  an  old  historic  city  situated 
at  the  confluence  of  the  Ohio  and  Muskingum  Rivers, 
was  the  first  organized  settlement  in  the  Northwest  Ter- 
ritory. Methodism  began  in  the  new  settlement  in  1799, 
when  Robert  Manley  crossed  the  Ohio  River  and  orga- 
nized classes.  "He  was  welcomed  to  the  log  cabin  of 
Robert  McCabe,  a  shoe-maker-settler,  who  with  his  wife 
and  two  other  couples  professed  faith  in  Christ  and  were 
constituted  the  first  regular  Methodist  Church  in  Ohio." 
A  circuit  was  organized  before  the  close  of  the  year. 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  Methodism  gained  a  foothold 
in  Marietta.  In  1805  Jacob  Young,  one  of  the  famous 
frontier  preachers,  held  a  successful  camp  meeting.  A 
number  of  persoirs  were  converted  and  a  class  was  formed 
under  the  leadership  of  Jones  Johnson,  who  had  been  a 
follower  of  Thomas  Paine  before  his  conversion.  This 
class  marks  the  beginning  of  real  growth  of  Methodism 
in  Marietta. 

In  1806,  during  the  pastorate  of  the  famous  Peter 
Cartwright,  a  camp  meeting  was  held  and  a  number 
of  influential  persons  converted.  Marietta  was  at  that 
time  a  part  of  the  Marietta  and  Kanawha  circuit  which 
extended  along  the  Ohio  River  for  150  miles  and  far 
into  (West)  Virginia.  In  1808  the  Marietta  Circuit  was 
formed.  In  1816  John  Stew.\ht,  a  dissipated  black 
man,  was  converted  and  went  out  as  a  missionary  to  the 
Indians,  thus  inaugurating  the  great  missionary  move- 
ment of  American  Methodism. 


For  the  ten  years  after  their  first  organization,  the 
Methodists  worshiped  in  private  homes  and  schoolhouses. 
In  1815  a  church  building  was  erected.  It  was  twice  en- 
larged before  the  erection  of  the  Centenary  church  in 
1839.  In  this  new  brick  structure  the  society  prospered 
greatly.  In  a  revival  held  in  1842  there  were  187  new 
members  brought  into  the  membership.  The  greatest 
revival  in  its  history  swept  the  church  in  1856  when  210 
persons  were  converted.  In  1859  Whitney  Chapel  was 
formed,  mainly  from  the  membership  of  the  Centenary 
Church.  Two  bishops,  David  H.  Moore  and  Earl 
Cranston,  were   among  the  pastors   of  this   church.   In 

1875  Whitney  Chapel  and  Centenary  Church  were  con- 
solidated to  form  the  First  M.  E.  Church  in  Marietta. 
First  Church  today  is  still  located  on  the  site  of  the  newly 
formed  church  and  has  a  membership  of  1,383. 

Crawford  Chapel  was  erected  on  tlie  Fort  HaiTnar  side 
of  the  Muskingum  River  in  1833.  Tliis  church  and  Cen- 
tenary were  a  circuit  until  1848  when  both  became  sta- 
tions. In  1895  Crawford  Chapel  was  rebuilt  and  became 
the  Gilman  Avenue  M.  E.  Chuich.  It  has  sent  two  mis- 
sionaries to  the  foreign  field — Miss  Carrie  Jewell  to 
China,  and  Miss  Esther  Devine  to  India.  The  Gilman 
Church  today  has  a  membership  of  429. 

The  German  Methodist  Church  was  founded  in  1839. 
Many  of  the  early  settlers  in  Marietta  came  from  the 
northern  part  of  Germany.  A  number  were  converted  and 
joined  the  English  Methodist  church  and  organized  a 
class  within  the  church.  In  June  1839,  a  mission  was 
organized  for  the  German  Methodists  when  Carl  Best 
was  sent  to  Marietta.  The  first  German  Methodist  church 
building  was  purchased  from  the  English  church  in  1840, 
services  being  held  in  private  homes  before  this.  The 
congregation  continued  to  worship   in  this  building  until 

1876  when  they  relocated  and  built  a  new  building.  The 
name  was  changed  to  Trinity  Church  during  the  first 
World  War  in  1918.  In  1933  the  Central  Geiman  Con- 
ference was  disbanded  and  Trinity  Church  became  a  part 
of  the  Zanesville  District  of  the  Ohio  Conference. 

Other  churches  in  Marietta  include  the  Norwood 
Church  which  has  568  members,  the  John  Stewart 
Memorial  Methodist  Church  with  eight  members  (this 
is  a  Negro  church  which  carries  the  name  of  Methodism's 
first  missionary  to  the  Indians);  there  is  also  a  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church  in  Marietta. 


J.  M.  Versteeg,  Ohio  Area.  1962. 


Floyd  W.  Powell 


MARION,  OHIO,  U.S.A.  Epworth  Church,  the  "mother 
church"  of  Methodism  in  Marion  County,  Ohio,  traces 
its  history  back  to  1820  when  a  sturd>  group  of  eight 
devout  pioneers  organized  the  first  Methodist  class.  The 
first  building  was  erected  in  1831,  and,  becoming  speediK' 
outgrown,  was  replaced  in  1845  by  a  new  building  known 
as  Centenary  M.  E.  Church.  The  closeness  of  the  railroad 
made  this  location  undesirable,  and  in  1854  the  congrega- 
tion moved  to  another  site  where  it  remained  for  thiity- 
fi\e  years.  In  1890,  when  the  membership  liad  grown  to 
over  600,  the  present  building  was  erected,  which  at  that 
time  was  one  of  the  largest  and  best  church  buildings 
in  Ohio. 

Four  great  revivals  have  made  Epworth  what  it  is 
today:  1854-55.  1869-70,  1893,  and  1896.  Literally  hun- 
dreds of  members  were  received  into  the  church,  making 
Epworth  the  largest  church  then  in  the  conference.  The 
longest  pastorate  was  that  of  Jesse  Swank,  who  endeared 


MARKEY,    M.    BELLE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


himself  to  the  entire  city.  He  served  from  1915-25. 
Two  former  pastors  became  college  presidents;  Albert  E. 
Smith,  President  of  Ohio  Northern  University  for  twen- 
ty-five years,  and  John  L.  Hillman,  President  of  Simpson 
College.  Among  the  many  outstanding  laymen  who  have 
served  Epworth,  mention  should  be  made  of  John  H.  Clark 
(1872-1960),  for  over  fifty  years  a  trustee  of  Ohio  North- 
ern University,  a  delegate  to  four  General  Conferences, 
a  member  of  the  General  Bo.\rd  of  Missions,  and  of  the 
Book  Committee.  He  taught  a  Sunday  school  class  for 
young  men  wliich  grew  to  be  one  of  the  largest  in  the 
state.  The  membership  of  Epworth  in  1970  was  2,013. 

John  F.  Young 

MARKEY,  M.  BELLE  (1875-1961),  American  missionary 
to  Cuba  and  Mexico,  was  bom  at  MacClenny,  Fla., 
Dec.  8,  1875.  Her  education  was  at  Polytechnic  College, 
Fort  Worth,  Texas,  Scarritt  College  and  George  Pea- 
body  College,  Nashville,  Tenn.  After  finishing  college  she 
taught  for  two  years  at  Clarendon  College,  Clarendon, 
Texas. 

In  1902  she  was  accepted  by  the  Board  of  Missions 
(MES)  and  arrived  in  Cuba  the  same  year.  She  was  ap- 
pointed teacher  at  Irene  Toland  School,  Matanzas,  where 
she  remained  until  1920  when  she  was  transferred  to 
Colegio  Buenavista,  Marianao.  In  1926  she  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Centro  Cristiano  at  Chihuahua,  Mexico. 
After  forty-one  years  of  service  she  retired  in  1943. 

On  a  visit  to  Mexico  in  1944  she  decided  to  remain  for 
another  year  as  a  helper  in  Chihuahua.  Although  retired 
and  while  living  in  California  she  assumed  positions  of 
responsibility  as  a  leader  and  teacher  in  the  local  churches. 
She  passed  to  her  reward  Feb.  1,  1961  at  Pasadena,  Calif. 

Her  work  was  always  characterized  by  a  faithful  sense 
of  duty  and  carefulness  in  all  details. 

Garfield  Evans 

MARKHAM,  EDWIN  (1852-1940),  American  poet,  author 
of  "The  Man  with  the  Hoe,"  was  a  teacher  by  profession. 
He  was  born  in  Oregon,  but  in  early  life  moved  to  a 
California  farm.  Here  he  developed  his  love  of  nature, 
and  in  an  ungraded  school  had  a  teacher  who  introduced 
him  to  the  world  of  poetry.  After  graduating  from  the 
San  Jose  Normal  School  lie  taught  in  Coloma,  Calif., 
famous  as  the  site  of  the  discovery  of  gold.  Placer  mining 
had  given  out,  but  he,  as  he  said,  discovered  spiritual  gold 
through  the  visits  of  the  Methodist  presiding  elder.  It 
was  in  Coloma  that  he  saw  in  a  magazine  a  reproduction 
of  Millet's  picture  and  wrote  the  opening  lines  of  his 
great  poem.  For  a  time  he  was  licensed  as  a  local  preach- 
er. His  last  teaching  was  as  principal  of  an  Oakland, 
Calif,  school.  Here  he  saw  the  original  Millet  canvas, 
and  finished  his  poem. 

"The  Man  with  the  Hoe"  immediately  caused  nation- 
wide— almost  worldwide — controversy.  His  other  best- 
known  poem  was  "Lincoln,  Man  of  the  People."  He  con- 
tinued to  write  and  lecture  until  over  eighty  years  of  age. 

He  was  the  poet  of  the  social  awakening  that  stirred 
the  church  in  the  early  years  of  the  twentieth  century. 
By  pen  and  voice  he  did  much  to  aid  reform  movements, 
as  in  legislation  to  prohibit  child  labor.  He  was  the  poet 
of  social  reform. 

A  large  man  physically,  with  rugged  features  crowned 


with  ample  white  hair  and  beard,  he  was  to  the  last  an 
impassioned  pleader  for  "Bread,  Beauty,  Brotherhood." 

William    L.    Stidger,    Edwin    Markham.    Nashville:    Abingdon 

Press,  1933. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Leon  L.  Loofbouhow 


MARKSMAN,  PETER  (  ?  -1892),  a  Chippewa  Indian  mis- 
sionary in  the  nineteenth  century  in  Wisconsin  and  Mich- 
igan, was  a  member  of  the  Michigan  Conference.  He 
grew  up  among  the  Chippewa,  his  father  a  medicine 
man,  his  mother  a  nominal  Roman  Cathohc.  Although 
little  is  known  about  his  early  life  and  conversion,  he 
was  brought  into  Methodist  circles  in  1833  by  the  Indian 
missionary  John  Sunday  and  John  Clark,  who  in  the 
1830's  was  organizing  work  among  the  Indians,  and  was 
trained  in  mission  work  by  Alfred  Brunson. 

In  1835  he  was  sent  by  Clark  to  establish  a  mission 
at  Lac  Court  Oreille  in  northwest  Wisconsin.  He  ac- 
companied Brunson  on  a  project  among  the  Sioux.  From 
1840  on  he  served  under  appointment  in  various  mis- 
sions in  the  Michigan  and  Detroit  Conferences.  He 
was  ordained  deacon  in  the  Michigan  Conference  in  1842 
and  ELDER  in  1862.  In  1844  he  married  a  French-Indian 
woman,  Hannah  Morien.  He  served  at  various  times  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Fond  du  Lac,  Janesville,  Kazier,  Grand 
River,  Pesahgening,  Saginaw  Bay,  Iroquois  Point,  and 
Sugar  Island. 

One  of  the  most  successful  enterprises  was  work  with 
Indians  at  Kewawenon  mission,  a  Methodist  station  at 
the  head  of  Keweenaw  Bay  on  Lake  Superior.  Between 
1843  and  1847,  owing  to  a  mysterious  lapse  in  his  life, 
he  was  expelled  from  Michigan  Conference,  but  restored, 
first  on  trial,  then  in  1850  into  full  connection.  In  his  later 
years  he  was  highly  regarded  as  an  able  senior  missionary 
for  Indian  work,  and  was  recognized  in  a  full  obituary  in 
the  Conference  Minutes  when   he  died.   May  28,   1892 

R.  A.  Brunger,  "Peter  Marksman — Cliippewa  Indian  Mission- 
ary," Michigan  Christian  Advocate,  March  3  and  10,  1966. 
Frederick  A.  Norwood,  "Peter  Marksman,  Chippewa  Mission- 
ary," Adult  Student,  August  1959.     Frederick  A.  Norwood 

MARKWOOD,  JACOB  (1815-1873),  American  United 
Brethren  bishop,  son  of  John  and  Margaret  (Durst)  Mark- 
wood,  was  born  Dec.  26,  1815,  near  Charleston,  W.  Va., 
and  died  Jan.  22,  1873,  at  Luray,  Va.  He  attended  public 
school  about  one  year,  but  devoted  his  life  to  study,  read- 
ing copiously,  becoming  scholarly  in  languages,  logic, 
metaphysics,  medicine,  and  the  Bible.  He  married  Arbe- 
line  Rodeffer  on  Sept.  3,  1837. 

Converted  at  seventeen,  he  joined  "Old  Stone  Church," 
a  congregation  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  in 
Green  Springs,  Va.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  and  re- 
ceived into  the  Virginia  Annual  Conference  in  1837,  or- 
dained in  1841,  and  elected  presiding  elder  in  1843,  hold- 
ing that  office  until  he  was  elected  bishop  by  the  General 
Conference  of  1861.  Re-elected  bishop  in  1865,  his  ill- 
health  prevented  re-election  in  1869.  He  was  a  member  of 
every  General  Conference  from  1841  to  1869.  From  1855- 
1861,  he  was  a  member  of  the  denomination's  Board  of 
Missions  and  was  sometime  Trustee  of  Mt.  Pleasant  Col- 
lege and  Otterbein  Unfs'ersity. 

Weak  in  health,  he  threw  himself  without  reserve  into 
the  work  of  the  Church  and  the  causes  he  espoused.  He 


WORLD   METHODISM 


was  strongly  opposed  to  slavery  and  this  opposition  made 
him  persona  non  grata  in  his  home  state  of  Virginia  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War.  An  example  of  a  man  who  burnt  him- 
self out  for  his  Lord,  he  died  with  the  conviction  that  the 
Lord  had  no  more  work  for  him  to  do. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  U.B.  1924. 
Koontz  and  Roush,  The  Bishops.  1950. 
H.  A.  Thompson,  Our  Bishops.  1889.       Howabd  H.  Smith 

MARLATT,  WASHINGTON  (1829-1909),  American  pio- 
neer preacher  of  the  western  prairies,  was  born  June 
28,  1829,  in  Wayne  County,  Ind.  He  graduated  at  Asbury 
University  (now  DePauw)  at  Greencastle,  Ind.,  in  1853. 
He  studied  theology  at  this  university,  was  licensed  to 
preach,  and  went  to  Manhattan,  Kan.,  in  1856.  It  is  said 
that  he  came  the  entire  distance  on  foot  and  alone. 

Marlatt  was  present  at  the  first  Methodist  Conference 
held  at  Lawrence,  Kansas  Territory,  in  November  1856. 
He  was  admitted  on  probation  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Conference  at  Nebraska  City  in  April,  1857.  He  became 
a  circuit  preacher  and  was  assigned  to  the  Wabaunsee 
Circuit,  which  included  that  county,  Davis  County  (later 
Geary  County)  and  all  of  the  territory  west  to  Pike's  Peak 
in  Colorado.  His  salary  was  $100  per  year.  He  traveled 
over  his  circuit  on  horseback.  When  Bluemont  Central 
College  (now  Kansas  State  University)  was  organized 
at  Manhattan  in  1859,  Marlatt  became  the  first  principal. 
A  building  on  the  campus  is  named  for  him.  Marlatt 
was  instrumental  in  obtaining  much  of  the  land  for  the 
first  college.  He  died  in  Manhattan,  Kan.,  on  Sept.  27, 
1909,  and  is  buried  there. 

Kenneth  R.  Hemphill 

MARRIAGE.  As  the  foundation  of  both  Church  and  State 
rests  upon  the  family,  and  the  family  on  marriage,  it  is 
easy  to  understand  that  the  marriage  relation  everywhere 
should  be  regarded  with  the  highest  respect.  In  almost 
all  tribes  and  nations  marriage  has  been  considered  as  a 
religious  rite,  and  its  celebration  is  universally  accompa- 
nied by  a  social  sanction  and  public  observance  which 
even  among  the  most  primitive  peoples  may  be  termed 
religious.  Among  the  Hebrews  this  was  especially  true. 
In  the  first  book  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  outlining  this 
relation  of  man  and  woman,  it  is  written:  "For  this  cause 
shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall 
cleave  to  his  wife;  and  they  shall  become  one  flesh" 
(Genesis  2:24).  This  passage  the  Lord  not  only  referred 
to,  but  sealed  unto  His  people  by  adding  to  it,  "WTiat 
therefore  God  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put 
asunder."  By  the  creation  of  man  and  woman  together  in 
Eden;  by  the  laws  written  (Levitical  code)  and  unwritten 
which  guard  this  estate;  by  the  family  relationships  of  our 
Lord  and  His  Apostles;  by  His  teaching  respecting  the 
matrimonial  tie — the  divine  seal  has  been  set  on  the 
marriage  institution.  With  the  growth  of  the  priesthood 
this  class  always  took  over  the  celebration  of  this  Rite. 

Matrimony  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  Sacr.\ment 
by  the  Roman  Church  during  medieval  times,  and  is  still 
so  regarded  by  that  Church.  That  marriage  itself  is  a 
Sacrament  was  denied  by  the  Reformers.  In  following 
the  Church  of  England's  teaching  in  this  regard,  Meth- 
odism in  its  Article  on  Religion  XVI,  after  explaining 
the  two  Sacraments  ordained  of  God  (Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper)  this  Article  goes  on  to  name  matrimony 
as  an  "allowable  estate."  However,  marriage  has  been  re- 


garded among  all  Christian  people  as  something  more  than 
a  mere  "allowable  estate,"  and  "it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  after  the  convenanting  together  of  man  and  woman 
in  the  sight  of  God  and  their  solemn  promise  each  to  the 
other,  the  pronouncing  them  man  and  wife  together  in 
the  Name  of  the  Fadier,  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  approximates  a  sacramental  act,  in  the  old  English 
sense  of  a  'making  sacred'."  Bishop  R.  J.  Cooke  put  it: 
"The  solemnization  of  matrimony  is  a  religious  service, 
and  levity  or  lightness  of  a  manner  of  any  description  on 
the  part  of  the  minister  should  receive  a  severe  rebuke." 

Until  those  comparatively  recent  times  when  the 
Church  and  State  became  separate — certainly  in  America 
— the  whole  matter  of  marriage  was  left  entireh'  in  the 
hands  of  the  Church,  or  its  ministry.  However,  eventually 
the  civil  power  took  over  and  began  to  regulate  the  mat- 
ter of  marriage,  since  marriage  is  as  necessary  to  its  own 
existence  as  it  is  to  the  life  of  the  Church.  The  relation 
of  Church  and  State  has  nowhere  come  into  stranger  com- 
plexity than  in  the  "concurrent"  jurisdiction  which  they 
dius  have  over  the  marriage  state.  In  the  view  of  the 
State,  the  minister  is  empowered  to  authorize  and  execute 
a  special  type  of  contract  between  man  and  woman  when 
they  marry  each  other;  and  ministers  are  forbidden  to 
marry  persons  unless,  or  until,  they  procure  a  civil  license. 

The  Methodist  Church  for  a  time  followed  rather  strict- 
ly the  age-old  Christian  teaching  which  warned  Christians 
against  being  united  in  marriage  with  unbelievers  or  ir- 
religious persons.  This  was  because  of  the  influence  which 
a  married  partner  exercises  over  the  whole  of  hfe.  The 
following  rules  are  found  in  early  Methodist  Disciplines: 
"Many  of  our  members  have  been  married  with  una- 
wakened  persons.  This  has  produced  bad  effects;  they 
have  been  either  hindered  for  life  or  have  turned  back  to 
perdition.  To  discourage  such  marriages,  1.  Let  every 
preacher  publicly  enforce  the  apostle's  caution,  'Be  ye  not 
unequally  yoked  together  with  unbehevers,"  II  Cor.  vi.l4. 
2.  Let  all  be  exhorted  to  take  no  step  in  so  weighty  a  mat- 
ter without  advising  with  the  more  serious  of  their  breth- 
ren. In  general  women  ought  not  to  many  without  the 
consent  of  their  parents.  Yet  there  may  be  exceptions.  For 
if,  1,  a  woman  believes  it  to  be  her  duty  to  marry;  if,  2, 
her  parents  absolutely  refuse  to  let  her  marry  any  Chris- 
tian; then  she  may,  nay,  ought  to  marry  without  their 
consent.  Yet  even  then  a  Methodist  preacher  ought  not 
to  be  married  to  her.  We  do  not  prohibit  our  people  from 
marrying  persons  who  are  not  of  our  church,  provided 
such  persons  have  the  form  and  are  seeking  the  power  of 
godliness;  but  we  are  determined  to  discourage  their 
marrying  persons  who  do  not  come  up  to  this  description." 
{Discipline,  M.  E.  Church,  1864,  p.  35.) 

These  regulations  were  in  time  dropped  from  the  Dis- 
cipUne,  though  the  danger  that  prompted  them  is  still 
felt  by  many  a  good  pastor  and  parent. 

Methodism  has  never  raised  any  question  conceniing 
the  ceremony  or  rite  by  which  sincere  persons  marry  each 
other.  However,  a  "civil  marriage,"  in  the  view  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  no  Christian  or  Sacramental 
marriage  at  all,  since  it  is  not  celebrated  by  one  of  her 
priests,  though  it  is  an  honorably  binding  social  engage- 
ment. This  standpoint,  however,  is  not  adopted  by  Protes- 
tants, and  any  properly  licensed  marriage,  whether  sol- 
emnized by  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  or  a  minister,  is  taken 
as  fully  valid  spiritually  in  our  connection. 

Early  American  Methodist  Disciplines,  until  as  late  as 
1844,  directed  that  the  Banns  or  "ecclesiastical  License" 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


for  any  proposed  marriage  should  be  proclaimed  in  Meth- 
odist churches,  as  they  were  in  the  Church  of  England. 
But  the  power  of  the  State  to  regulate  and  license  the 
proposed  relation  of  the  parties  soon  superseded  the 
Church's  attempt  to  do  so.  At  present  properly  ordained 
ministers  who  are  empowered  to  solemnize  matrimony 
are  simply  directed  to  see  that  the  parties  are  "qualified 
according  to  Law." 

Who  May  Celebrate.  As  marriage  in  view  of  the 
church  has  always  been  a  religious  rite  or  observance,  its 
conduct  has  always  been  in  the  hands  of  the  priestly 
class.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  when  marriage  became  a 
sacrament,  the  priest  or  bishop  had  charge  of  this  mat- 
ter, especially  since  he  joined  to  it  the  service  of  the  Mass. 
In  the  English  Prayer  Book,  from  which  we  borrowed 
our  office,  the  officiating  minister  is  commonly  termed 
"the  Priest,"  though  there  are  places  where  he  is  termed 
"the  Minister." 

When  the  M.  E.  Church  organized  in  1784,  the  cele- 
bration of  matrimony  in  the  Sunday  Service  and  Discipline 
was  committed  to  de.acons  as  well  as  to  elders,  Within 
recent  years,  however,  "supply"  preachers,  even  though 
they  may  not  be  ordained,  have  been  allowed  to  marry 
couples,  but  this  must  only  be  within  their  own  pastoral 
charge.  When  a  minister  becomes  fully  ordained,  he  is 
entitled  to  conduct  all  rites  of  the  church  wherever  he  is. 

The  Position  in  Britain.  Originally  the  only  way  in 
which  it  was  possible  legally  to  be  married  in  England 
was  in  the  Established  Church,  though  Scottish  law  made 
some  provision  for  "common  law"  marriages.  This  strict- 
ness was  felt  to  be  a  disability  and  hardship  by  Noncon- 
formists, particularly  by  Quakers,  who  professed  conscien- 
tious scruple  at  going  to  the  Parish  Church,  yet  who  found 
that  their  own  ceremonies  were  not  recognized  by  the  law. 
Early  Methodists  as  a  matter  of  course  were  married  in 
the  Church  of  England,  and  this  custom  still  continues 
to  some  extent,  particularly  in  rural  areas.  During  the 
last  century  legislation  was  passed  for  the  relief  of  Non- 
conformity, to  make  provision  for  weddings  in  churches 
other  than  the  Church  of  England,  and  also  for  purely 
civil  ceremonies  at  which  the  law  forbids  prayers  to  be 
said.  British  Methodist  marriages  proceed  under  these 
Marriage  Acts.  The  legal  marriage  consists  in  the  presence 
in  the  legally  registered  building  of  the  couple,  duly  quali- 
fied by  Registrar's  Certificate  and  by  residence,  who  shall 
make  the  declarations  required  by  law  in  the  presence 
of  the  Authorized  Responsible  Person  recognized  for  that 
building  by  the  Registrar-General,  and  in  the  presence  of 
two  witnesses.  The  declaration  is  one  of  "no  lawful  im- 
pediment," and  of  consent  to  the  marriage,  and  the  Au- 
thorized Responsible  Person  must  write  up  the  record  in 
the  official  marriage  registers,  which  he  and  the  witnesses 
must  sign.  The  law  takes  no  cognizance  of  what  religious 
ceremonies  may  be  performed,  nor  does  it  require  that  the 
Authorized  Responsible  Person  be  an  ordained  minister. 
It  is,  however,  the  almost  universal  custom  for  the  local 
Trustees  of  the  Church  to  nominate  the  minister  to  the 
Registrar-General  as  the  Authorized  Responsible  Person. 
Thus  at  the  normal  Methodist  wedding  the  minister  stands 
in  a  distinct  dual  capacity,  both  as  a  public  legal  official 
performing  a  civil  ceremony,  and  as  a  minister  performing 
a  Christian  marriage  at  the  same  time.  Yet  he  does  not 
perform  the  legally-binding  ceremony  because  he  is  an 
ordained  minister,  but  because  he  is  the  Authorized  Re- 
sponsible Person  under  the  Marriage  Acts.  A  visiting 
minister  who  is  not  the  Authorized  Person  can  and  often 

1520 


does  come  to  take  the  rehgious  service,  but  the  Authorized 
Person  (or  a  public  Registrar),  who  does  not  as  such 
have  anything  to  say,  must  be  present  to  hear  the  legal 
declarations,  and  make  and  sign  the  entry  in  the  Registers. 

Who  May  Be  Married.  From  ancient  times  there  have 
been  certain  degrees  of  blood  kin  which  prevent  the 
marriage  relation,  and  in  time  the  medieval  church  de- 
veloped a  body  of  canon  law  which  set  forth  prescribed 
conditions  preventing  matrimony,  or  in  case  an  actual 
ceremony  was  had,  declaring  that  the  marriage  was  in- 
valid. The  general  principle  of  "forbidden  degrees  of 
consanguinuity"  followed  the  law  of  Leviticus,  but  ex- 
tended by  the  sacramental  principle  that  the  man  and 
his  wife  are  "one  flesh,"  with  the  effect  that  relations  by 
marriage  as  well  as  blood  relations  are  included  within 
the  "forbidden  degrees."  In  particular,  it  was  against  the 
canon  law  to  marry  one's  deceased  husband's  brother 
(one's  "brother"),  or  one's  deceased  wife's  sister  (one's 
"sister").  The  effect  of  this  was  to  create  a  very  various 
complication  of  technical  impediments  to  marriage,  which 
could  if  necessary  be  dispensed  with  by  the  ecclesiastical 
courts,  or  which  could  give  rise  to  proceedings  for  nullity. 
So  while  there  was  technically  no  divorce  there  were 
ways  of  dissolving  marriages  in  cases  of  pressing  neces- 
sity. Methodists,  with  Protestants  in  general,  do  not  pro- 
ceed in  this  way,  but  follow  the  civil  law.  They  feel  that 
since  the  granting  of  a  license  now  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
State,  that  power  can  be  looked  to  to  follow  its  own  laws, 
and  will  refuse  a  marriage  license  to  persons  who  cannot 
be  properly  qualified.  Furthermore,  as  is  well  known,  the 
qualifications  that  the  State  does  make  for  marriage  and 
annulment,  rest  heavily  upon  the  laws  and  customs  the 
Christian  Church  has  long  inculcated. 

Divorce.  Persons  who  have  been  divorced  present  a 
special  problem  when  they  come  and  ask  to  be  married 
again  by  their  own  minister.  The  traditional  Christian 
standard  from  ancient  time  has  been  to  forbid  a  second 
Church  marriage  to  a  person  who  has  been  party  to  a 
divorce,  whether  "innocent"  or  "guilty,"  on  the  ground 
that  the  sacramental  union  is  in  principle  indissoluble 
(Mark  x:2-9).  Divorce  is  indeed  allowable  on  the  ground 
of  adultery  (Matthew  xix:9),  but  it  is  only  a  legal  per- 
mission to  live  apart,  and  does  not  bring  the  right  to  re- 
marry, as  the  marriage  still  in  principle  exists  (Mark 
x:  11-12).  However,  in  the  modern  period  the  Protestant 
Churches  have  tended  to  modify  this  discipline  by  ac- 
commodating it  to  the  mores  and  laws  of  the  civic  com- 
munity. They  have  in  general  been  reluctant  to  call  in 
question  the  validity  of  a  divorce  pronounced  by  the  law 
of  the  state.  The  M.  E.  Church  for  many  years  forbade 
its  ministers  to  marry  any  couple  where  a  divorce  was 
involved,  unless  this  divorce  was  for  adultery — "the  one 
scriptural  cause,"  as  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  (which 
had  the  same  regulation)  termed  it  in  its  Discipline.  How- 
ever, of  recent  years  The  Methodist  Church  recognized 
the  fact  that  causes  other  than  adultery  may  break  a  mar- 
riage, and  present  regulations  in  the  Book  of  Discipline 
so  indicate.  "Divorce  is  not  the  answer  to  the  problems 
that  caused  it.  It  is  symptomatic  of  deeper  difficulties," 
— so  states  the  1964  Discipline  in  its  paragraph  1821 
dealing  with  the  Christian  family.  Present  regulations 
provide  that  "a  minister  may  solemnize  the  marriage  of 
a  divorced  person  only  when  he  has  satisfied  himself  by 
careful  counseling  that  (a)  the  divorced  person  is  suf- 
ficiently aware  of  the  factors  leading  to  the  failure  of  the 
previous  marriage,    (b)    the  divorced  person  is  sincerely 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MARSH,    CHARLES   FRANKLIN 


preparing  to  make  the  proposed  marriage  truly  Christian, 
and  (c)  sufficient  time  has  elapsed  for  adequate  prepara- 
tion and  counseling.  The  usual  minister  endeavors  to  de- 
cide upon  each  case  on  its  own  merits  when  there  is  a 
divorce  involved,  sometimes  refusing  to  perform  the  cere- 
mony, sometimes  judging  that  it  is  right  and  proper  for 
him  to  do  so  after  he  has  looked  into  the  entire  situation. 

British  Methodism.  Cases  where  divorced  persons  seri- 
ously apply  for  marriage  in  a  Methodist  Church  are  not 
in  general  very  numerous,  for  a  common  feeling  is  that  a 
civil  marriage  is  the  appropriate  step  in  such  cases.  This 
is  probably  the  least  unsatisfactory  solution  to  a  painful 
and  compromised  business,  for  the  unfortunate  in  life  are 
not  forbidden  to  marry,  but  the  Church  is  not  asked 
publicly  to  compromise  the  admitted  Christian  ideal  of 
hfe-long  and  indissoluble  marriage.  There  is  also  the 
somewhat  invidious  problem  that  the  Church  of  England, 
which  nominally  comprises  the  bulk  of  the  nation,  in 
general  adheres  to  the  traditional  strict  standard,  and 
refuses  to  marry  divorced  persons.  Thus  some  who  are  in 
fact  not  Methodist  people  may  at  times  come  making 
enquiry  whether  some  other  Church  is  more  accommodat- 
ing. The  rule  is  that  if  a  minister  is  approached  to  marry 
a  divorced  person  he  shall  communicate  the  matter  to  the 
Chairman  of  the  District.  If  there  is  any  doubt  he  shall 
consult  with  his  colleagues  in  the  Circuit,  and  if  there  is 
still  doubt  the  Chairman  shall  call  together  a  special  ad- 
visory committee  to  consider  the  case.  A  reasonable  inter- 
pretation of  this  procedure  is  that  if  there  is  some  person 
of  Christian  integrity,  well  known,  who  has  been  the 
victim  of  wrongdoing  by  an  erring  partner,  and  who 
wishes  for  a  second  marriage  in  Church,  he  or  she  should 
not  be  refused  by  the  Church.  But  other  people,  less 
known  to  us,  and  of  whose  understanding  of  Christ's 
marriage  law  we  are  less  sure,  ought  not  to  be  encouraged 
to  come  for  Church  weddings,  particularly  in  cases  where 
the  divorced  party  has  been  guilty  of  the  matrimonial 
offense.  There  must  be  special  reason  for  confidence  that 
the  person  in  question  has  come  to  a  real  change  of  mind 
and  life.  There  is  on  the  one  hand  the  possibility  of  the 
forgiveness  and  restoration  of  sinners,  but  the  Church  must 
be  on  guard  against  adjusting  her  standards  to  the  con- 
ventional mores  of  society,  or  using  her  services  to  give 
an  air  of  respectability  to  impenitent  sinners  against  the 
Christian  marriage  law  of  a  life-long  union.  The  Church 
ought  to  give  full  moral  support  to  the  minister  who 
undertakes  the  invidious  and  painful  task  of  upholding 
the  Church's  standards  in  personal  pastoral  contact.  Thus 
the  Standing  Orders  rightly  guarantee  the  position  of  a 
minister  who  has  conscientious  scruples  against  marrying 
divorced  persons. 

The  Marriage  Rite.  The  rite  of  matrimony  as  found 
in  the  Methodist  Discipline  and  sent  over  to  American 
Methodism  by  John  Wesley  himself  is  an  abridgment  of 
the  Form  of  Solemnization  of  Matrimony  in  the  English 
Prayer  Book.  It  is  a  beautiful  office,  skillfully  put  together, 
so  as  to  join  devotion  and  liturgical  excellence  with  a 
stately  and  yet  gracious  service.  John  Wesley  did  not 
change  the  matrimonial  office  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  any 
way,  except  to  leave  out  the  "wedding" — commonly  called 
the  "ring  ceremony."  In  omitting  the  ring,  and  all  men- 
tion of  it  in  the  wedding  prayer,  Wesley  followed  the 
Puritan  idea,  as  the  Puritans  objected  bitterly  to  the 
wedding  ring,  which  to  them  savored  of  the  old  un- 
reformed  ritual. 

In  American  Methodism,  however,  in  the  middle  of  the 


nineteenth  century,  the  M.  E.  Churches  both  put  back 
the  ring  ceremony,  and  at  present  there  is  a  provision 
for  a  double  ring  where  the  parties  each  desire  to  give 
the  other  such  a  token.  The  word  "wed"  in  old  English 
meant  a  pledge,  or  something  given  in  pledge,  and  "with 
this  ring  I  thee  wed"  meant  that  with  this  ring  I  thee 
pledge.  John  Wesley  sent  to  American  Methodism  a 
marriage  service,  without  a  wedding! 

In  the  revision  of  the  marriage  rite  through  the  years, 
not  too  many  changes  have  been  made,  though  since  1940 
the  challenge  to  the  parties  ("If  either  of  you  know  any 
reason  why  ye  may  not  be  lawfully  joined  together,  ye 
do  now  confess  it")  has  been  omitted,  since  it  is  said  the 
parties  have  already  responded  to  that  question  before  the 
clerk  of  the  court  in  order  to  obtain  their  license,  and 
satisfied  him  that  they  are  ready  to  be  married,  and  there- 
fore, the  Church  need  not  stop  to  challenge  them.  The 
omission  of  this  challenge,  however,  has  been  to  the 
distaste  of  some,  who  feel  that  it  not  only  belongs  in  the 
formal  wedding  drama,  but  that  the  church  or  minister 
ought  not  to  pronounce  a  man  and  woman  husband  and 
wife  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity  unless  and  until  he 
has  publicly  asked  them  himself,  if  they  know  any  reason 
why  they  may  not  be  lawfully  joined. 

A  recent  revision  of  the  Ritual  has  clarified  certain 
of  the  rubrics  at  the  beginning  of  the  wedding  service, 
but  no  other  great  change  has  been  made.  The  British 
Methodist  marriage  service  has  been  less  revised  away 
from  the  Anglican  original,  and  has  never  been  without 
"the  giving  and  receiving  of  a  ring,"  though  the  conti- 
nental custom  of  the  bride  also  giving  a  ring  to  the  bride- 
groom is  uncommon.  (See  also  Ethical  Traditions, 
British. ) 

Disciplines. 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Rites  and  Ritual.  1926.  N.  B.  H. 


MARRIAGE  OF  MINISTERS.  (See  Articles  of  Religion, 
Article  XXI.) 

MARRIOTT,  WILLIAM  (1753-1815),  one  of  John  Wes- 
ley's executors,  was  born  in  London  on  Dec.  16,  1753. 
Both  his  parents  were  among  the  earliest  members  of 
Wesley's  society  at  the  Foundeby.  He  was  educated  first 
at  the  school  which  Wesley  started  there,  and  then  at 
Madeley  by  John  Fletcher.  Marriott  entered  his  father's 
business  as  a  baker  but  later  became  a  wealthy  stock- 
broker. In  1801  he  was  nominated  as  sheriff  of  London 
but  declined  the  office.  He  was  a  generous  philanthropist 
and  a  treasurer  of  the  Stranger's  Friend  Society.  He 
died  in  London  on  July  15,  1815. 

L.  F.  Church,  More  About  the  Early  Methodist  People.  1949. 
G.  J.  Stevenson,  City  Road  Chapel.  1872.      G.  Ernest  Long 

MARSH,    CHARLES    FRANKLIN    (1903-  ),    American 

college  president,  was  bom  at  Antigo,  Wis.,  Aug.  18,  1903, 
son  of  Charles  O.  and  Mae  (Bamett)  Marsh.  He  was 
graduated  from  L.4\vrence  College,  A.B.,  1925;  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois,  M.A.,  1926;  Ph.D.,  1928. 

He  was  an  examiner  with  the  U.S.  Civil  Service  Com- 
mission the  summers  of  1929-30;  a  member  of  the  faculty 
of  the  College  of  William  and  Mary,  1930-58;  chancellor, 
professor  of  economics  and  business  administration,  1941- 
54;   dean  of  the  faculty,    1952-58.    In    1958  he  became 


MARSH,   DANIEL   L. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


president  of  Wofford  College,  Spartanburg,  S.  C, 
serving  in  that  capacity  until  retirement  in  1968. 

He  has  been  active  in  educational,  church,  and  civic 
affairs,  serving  as  a  member  of  the  University  Senate, 
on  the  Commission  on  Church  Union,  Commission  on 
Ecumenical  Affairs,  and  Consultation  on  Church 
Union.  Also  he  was  deputy  administrator  of  the  NRA, 
1935-36,  principal  economist  (Federal)  Board  of  Investi- 
gation and  Research,  and  was  active  in  various  councils 
of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia,  being  chairman  of  the 
Williamsburg  Postwar  Planning  Commission,  a  member 
of  the  City  Council,  and  president  of  the  Williamsburg 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  He  has  been  president  of  the 
Council  for  Spartanburg  County  and  chairman  of  the 
commission  for  long  range  planning  of  the  City  of  Spartan- 
burg. He  has  served  as  member  of  the  American  Eco- 
nomics Association,  of  state  and  regional  education  as- 
sociations, as  president  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 

In  The  Methodist  Church  he  has  been  a  delegate  to 
the  Jurisdictional  Conference,  1960,  and  to  the  Gen- 
eral and  Jurisdictional  Conferences  of  1964  and  1968. 

He  is  author  of  various  books  and  publications  in  the 
line  of  his  own  interests.  Also  he  wrote  "Contributions  of 
Wofford  College  to  Methodism,"  Methodist  History,  1965. 

He  was  married  to  Chloro  Nancy  Thurman,  Sept.  8, 
1928,  and  they  have  two  children. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

J.  Marvin  Rast 

MARSH,  DANIEL  L.  (1880-1968),  American  minister, 
church  leader,  and  university  president  and  chancellor, 
was  bom  in  West  Newton,  Pa.,  on  April  12,  1880.  He 
was  the  son  of  George  W.  and  Mary  (Lash)  Marsh.  He 
received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Northwestern  Univer- 
sity in  1906,  the  A.M.  in  1907,  and  S.T.B.  from  Boston 
University  in  1908.  Thereafter  he  studied  at  Garrett 
BiHLiCAL  Institute,  the  University  of  Chicago,  Univer- 
sity of  Pittsburgh,  University  of  Geneva  and  at  Oxford 
University.  He  received  the  Ph.D.  from  the  University 
of  Bologna  in  Italy  in  1931,  and  was  the  recipient  of 
numerous  honorary  degrees. 

On  Aug.  22,  1906,  he  married  Harriet  Truxell,  who 
died  on  July  15,  1937.  Their  children  are  Mary  (Mrs. 
Ronald  W.  Ober);  Marjorie  (Mrs.  Paul  N.  Otto);  Made- 
line (Mrs.  Harold  DeWolf — wife  of  the  Dean  of  West- 
minster Theological  Seminary  in  Washington);  and  Har- 
riett (Mrs.  Robert  H.  Murray).  He  married  Mrs.  Arline 
Woodford  McCormick  on  Nov.  24,  1938,  and  their 
adopted  daughter  Nancy  Arline  is  Mrs.  Mason  N.  Hart- 
man. 

Marsh  served  pastorates  in  the  Pittshurgh  Confer- 
ence for  a  time  and  then  became  president  of  Boston 
University  in  1925,  where  he  served  until  1951,  when 
he  became  chancellor  for  life.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1916,  '20, 
'24,  '28,  '32,  '36;  a  member  of  the  Uniting  Conference  of 
The  Methodist  Church  in  1939,  and  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1940,  '44,  '48.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  from  1929 
to  1952,  and  belonged  to  various  scientific  and  honorary 
groups.  He  was  the  author  of  numerous  books  including 
The  House  of  Seven  Pillars;  Life's  Most  Arresting  Ques- 
tion (1950);  The  True  Church  (1958);  Religion  in  Edu- 
cation in  a  Time  of  Change  (1962).  He  died  May  20, 
1968,  and  a  funeral  service  was  held  for  him  in  the  Marsh 


Chapel  at  Boston  University  on  May  25.  At  his  death 
Time  magazine  commented:  "There  was  no  argument 
about  the  near  miracle  he  worked  at  Boston  University 
where  he  took  a  moldering  collection  of  brownstones  for 
9,600  students  in  1926  and  built  a  multiversity  that  today 
boasts   23,000   students   and   thirteen   graduate   schools." 

New  York  Times,  May  23,  1968. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  N.  B.  H. 

MARSHALL,  CHARLES  KIMBALL  (1811-1891),  distin- 
guished American  minister  and  leader  of  Southern  Meth- 
odism, was  born  in  Durham,  Maine,  of  French  Huguenot 
ancestry.  His  parents  removed  to  Boston  for  several 
years  where  he  was  educated.  Then  later  they  moved  to 
New  Orleans,  La.,  where  he  carried  on  his  studies,  and 
also  began  to  hold  religious  meetings.  In  May  1832,  he 
was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Methodist  Conference 
at  New  Orleans.  In  that  year  he  went  to  Natchez,  Miss., 
to  fill  a  vacated  pulpit,  and  there  became  a  member  of  the 
Mississippi  Conference.  Always  handsome  and  eloquent, 
the  young  minister  found  himself  famous  at  once  and  m 
demand  for  the  best  pulpits.  Later  he  served  in  Baton 
Rouge,  La.,  and  in  Jackson  and  Vicksburg,  Miss.  He 
was  known  throughout  the  south  and  the  nation  as  the 
"silver  tongued  orator"  of  Methodism. 

In  1836  he  married  Miss  Amanda  Maria  Vick,  daughter 
of  Newitt  and  Elizabeth  Clarke  Vick.  Newitt  Vick  was 
the  foimder  of  Vicksburg,  and  in  this  town  Marshall  and 
his  wife  made  their  home.  Sargeant  S.  Prentiss,  also  a 
native  of  Maine,  lived  in  Vicksburg,  and  he  and  Marshall 
became  fast  friends.  Both  known  as  great  orators,  they 
each  ranked  high  in  popular  esteem  throughout  the  nation. 

Marshall  continued  his  Methodist  ministerial  work  with 
zeal  and  energy  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Much  of  his  time 
was  spent  in  helping  those  in  distress  and  danger.  He 
went  through  thirteen  yellow  fever  epidemics,  ministering 
night  and  day  to  the  ill  and  dying — especially  in  the 
dreadful  one  of  1878  in  which  Bishop  Charles  B.  Gallo- 
way came  so  near  death  when  he  was  pastor  at  Vicksburg. 

During  the  War  Between  the  States,  1861-65,  C.  K. 
Marshall  devoted  his  time  and  strength  and  finances  to 
aiding  the  sick  and  wounded  on  the  field.  To  him  the 
Confederate  government  was  greatly  indebted  for  a  system 
he  provided,  or  planned  for,  of  depots  and  hospitals,  and 
its  factory  for  making  wooden  legs,  the  model  for  which 
he  drew  up. 

In  1880,  Marshall  gave  especial  attention  to  the  Negro 
problem,  and  the  future  of  the  colored  race  in  relation  to 
the  southern  states.  He  wrote  many  pamphlets  on  the 
subject.  He  never  refused  to  join  in  aggressively  upon 
the  issues  of  any  day  and  time. 

After  an  attack  of  pneumonia,  he  died  at  his  home  in 
Vicksburg,  on  Jan.  14,  1891.  Bishop  Charles  B.  Galloway, 
a  close  friend,  conducted  the  funeral  services. 

Dunbar  Roland,  Mississippi.  Atlanta,  1907. 

Mrs.  N.  Vick  Robbins 

MARSHALL,  WILLIAM  (1811-1846),  was  born  in  England 
and  joined  the  Methodist  ministry  in  1838.  From  June, 
1839,  to  May,  1842,  he  served  on  the  Western  Shore 
mission,  which  stretched  for  almost  two  hundred  miles 
along  the  south  coast  of  Newfoundland.  During  the  first 
year  he  visited  fifty-two  coves  and  harbors,  in  some  of 
which  the  people  had  not  seen  a  minister  before.  In  that 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MARTHA'S   VINEYARD   CAMP   MEETING   ASSOC. 


year  he  baptized  150  children.  In  his  second  year  on  the 
mission  he  visited  sixty  places  by  boat.  In  June,  1842, 
he  was  appointed  to  the  Green  Bay  mission  with  Twilbn- 
gate  as  his  headquarters.  On  this  mission  also,  he  travelled 
extensively.  By  his  devotion  and  zealous  labors  he  laid  the 
foundation  on  which  Methodism  was  built  in  the  northern 
part  of  Newfoundland.  Not  surprisingly,  he  died  at  the 
early  age  of  thirty-five. 

W.  Wilson,  Newfoundland  and  Its  Missionaries.  Cambridge, 
Mass.:   Dakin  &  Metcalf,   1866.  X.   Winsor 

MARSHALL  SCHOLARSHIPS  are  offered,  under  the  will 
of  the  late  Miss  Marshall  of  Glasgow,  to  ordained  min- 
isters of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Great  Britain  who  have 
completed  not  more  than  ten  years  of  their  ministry 
after  ordination.  The  Major  Scholarship  is  of  the  value  of 
£20,  and  the  Minor  Scholarship  is  of  £5.  The  Minor 
Scholarship  is  open  only  to  those  candidates  who  at  the 
time  of  the  examination  possess  no  university  degree; 
the  Major  Scholarship  is  open  to  all  candidates  without 
restriction.  The  scholarships  are  awarded  on  the  results  of 
an  examination  held  each  year  in  May.  The  papers  are 
set  on  the  language  and  exegesis  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  on  the  history  and  criticism  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  examination  is  concerned  primarily  with  translation, 
grammar,  and  interpretation,  but  candidates  are  expected 
to  show  a  general  grasp  of  the  critical  questions  involved. 

W.  F.  Flemincton 


L.  R.  Marston 

MARSTON,  LESLIE  RAY  (1894-  ),  American  ordained 

elder  of  the  Central  Illinois  Conference  and  bishop-emer- 
itus of  the  Free  Methodist  Chlibch,  was  bom  at  Maple 
Ridge,  Mich.  He  received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Green- 
ville College,  1916;  the  A.M.  degree  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Illinois  in  1917;  and  the  Ph.D.  degree  from  the 
University  of  Iowa,  1925.  Houghton  College  conferred  the 
LL.D.  degree  in  1939,  and  Greenville  College  the  D.D.  in 
1942. 

Dr.  Marston  is  the  autlior  of  The  Emotions  of  Young 


Children,  1925;  From  Chaos  to  Character,  1935;  Youth 
Speaks,  1939;  and  A  Living  Witness,  1960.  He  was  Execu- 
tive Secretary'  for  the  National  Research  Council's  Com- 
mittee on  Child  Development,  1926-28.  He  served  as  a 
member  of  the  1930  White  House  Conference  on  Child 
and  Health  Protection.  He  was  president  of  the  National 
Association  of  Evangelicals,  1944-46,  and  chairman  of  its 
World  Relief  Commission,  1950-59.  He  is  a  fellow  of  the 
America  Association  for  Advancement  of  Science  and  the 
Society  for  Research  in  Child  Development.  As  Dean 
and  President  of  Greenville  College,  he  served  the  institu- 
tion a  total  of  fifteen  years.  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Marston  make 
their  residence  at  Greenville,  111. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

MARTHA'S  VINEYARD  CAMP  MEETING  ASSOCIATION, 

Oak  Bluffs,  Mass.,  U.S.A.  For  many  years  this  Associa- 
tion sponsored  an  annual  camp  meeting  which  became 
an  institution  on  this  island  off  the  Massachusetts  coast. 
The  first  of  these  camp  meetings  was  held  in  1835  in 
what  was  then  called  the  Wesleyan  Grove.  Only  a  few 
hundred  people  were  in  attendance.  By  1851  the  con- 
gregation on  the  Sabbath  of  camp-meeting  week  num- 
bered between  3,500  and  4,000;  in  1858  there  were  some 
12,000  Sabbath  worshipers. 

A  feature  of  the  camp  ground  was  the  appearance  of 
small  family  tents  which  sprang  up  around  the  large 
church  tents,  and  which  were  occupied  year  after  year  by 
certain  families  who  made  a  habit  of  attending,  and  whose 
social  life  was  largely  dominated  by  camp-meeting  occa- 
sions. In  1846  there  were  thirteen  church  tents  and  one 
family  tent;  b>-  1860  the  number  had  increased  to  over 
500  tents  of  all  kinds.  Gradually  the  family  tents  were 
replaced  by  cottages,  which  many  of  the  families  occupied 
for  the  entire  summer.  Cottage  City,  now  Oak  Bluffs,  grew 
up  around  the  camp  grounds.  In  1869  there  were  more 
than  30,000  visitors,  many  of  them  attracted  by  the  Grand 
Illumination.  This  event  traditionally  climaxed  the  summer 
season,  when  parks,  avenues,  cottages  and  the  camp 
grounds  were  decorated  with  Japanese  lantenis.  Elaborate 
fireworks  were  displayed  at  Ocean  Park,   in  Oak  Bluffs. 

The  camp-meeting  program  changed  gradually  from  a 
type  of  revival  service,  but  its  religious  usefulness  did  not 
diminish.  In  1878  Trinity  Church  was  built,  and  in  1879 
the  present  steel  Tabernacle  was  erected,  to  take  the  place 
of  the  large  canvas  circus  tent,  seating  4,000  people, 
which  had  been  in  use  during  the  preceding  years.  Grace 
Chapel,  in  back  of  Trinity  Church,  was  constructed  in 
1885. 

During  the  summer  services  are  held  every  Sunday 
morning  in  the  Tabernacle,  with  a  "Commimity  Sing" 
every  Wednesday  evening.  The  delightful  custom  of  "II- 
limiination"  is  still  observed  on  the  camp  grounds  and 
surrounding  cottages  one  night  a  year,  in  August. 

The  unique  character  of  the  camp  grounds,  a  heritage 
from  quite  a  different  day,  has  been  wonderfully  pre- 
served by  the  many  generations  of  cottage  owiers.  To 
keep  the  outward  appearance  of  serenity  and  charm,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  enjoy  the  modem  conveniences  of  a 
mechanized  age  is  the  desire  of  those  who  have  chosen 
this  place  for  a  summer  retreat. 

Joseph  C.  Allen,  Tales  and  Trails  of  Martha's  Vineyard.  Boston: 
Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1938. 

Charles  Edward  Banks,  The  History  of  Martha's  Vineyard. 
Boston:  George  H.  Dean,  1911. 


MARTIN,    ISAAC    PATTON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Henry    Beetle    Hough,    Martha's    Vineyard,    Summer    Resort, 
1835-1935.  Rutland,  Vt.:  Tuttle  Publishing  Co.,  1936. 
A.    K.    Lobek,    Brief    History    of    Martha's    Vineyard    Camp- 
Meeting  Association.  Oak  Bluffs,  Mass.:  1956. 
R.  C.  Miller,  New  England  Southern  Conference.  1897. 
Hebron  Vincent,  A  History  of  the  Wesleyan  Grove,   Martha's 
Vineyard  Camp  Meeting.   Vol.    1,   18.3.5-1858,  Boston;   George 
C.    Rand  and   Avery,    1858;   Vol.   2,    1859-1870,   Boston:    Lee 
&  Shepard,   1870. 
Vineyard  Gazette,   various   numbers.        Mabel   E.   Waring 

MARTIN,  ISAAC  PATTON  (1867-1960),  American  preach- 
er and  historian,  was  born  near  Strawberry  Plains,  Tenn., 
on  Dec.  11,  1867.  He  joined  the  Holston  Conference 
on  trial  in  1889,  and  was  sent  as  a  supply  pastor  to 
Lebanon,  Ore.,  for  one  year.  He  then  returned  to  Holston, 
where  he  spent  the  rest  of  his  life. 

His  appointments  there  in  order  were  Louisville,  Mary- 
ville,  Pocahontas,  Tazewell,  Lebanon,  Sweetwater,  Morris- 
town,  Knoxville  district.  Church  Street  Church  in  Knox- 
ville.  Big  Stone  Gap  district,  Abingdon  district,  confer- 
ence educational  secretary,  Morristown  district,  Knoxville 
district.  Fountain  City  Church  in  Kno.\ville,  agent  for 
Emory  and  Henry  College.  He  retired  in  1940. 

On  Jan.  1,  1890,  he  married  Bettie  Lee  Trent  and  they 
had  four  children.  He  received  the  honorary  D.D.  degree 
from  Emory  and  Henry  College  in  1911. 

Martin  was  a  delegate  to  seven  General  Conferences 
(MES),  including  the  Uniting  Conference  in  1939,  and 
also  to  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conferences  in 
1911  and  1931.  He  was  co-author  with  John  Stewart 
French  of  legislation  creating  the  Judicial  Council 
of  first  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  and  then  The  Methodist 
Church. 

Martin  was  the  historian  of  the  Holston  Conference 
and  wrote  History  of  Methodism  in  The  Holston  Con- 
ference, (2  vols.,  1944)  and  a  biography  of  Bishop  E.  E. 
Hoss  (1942).  He  died  at  Knoxville  on  March  9,  1960,  and 
was   buried   in   the  conference  cemetery   at   Emory,   Va. 

Journal  of  the  Holston  Conference,  1960. 

Who's  Who  in  Methodism,  1952.  Elmer  T.  Clark 


J.  S.  Martin 

MARTIN,  JOHN  S.  (1815-1888),  American  minister  and 
Conference  Secretary,  was  bom  at  Alexandria,  Va.,  Sept. 
7,   1815.  At  the  thorough  school  of  Benjamin  Hallowell 

1524 


he  obtained  a  scholastic  training  which  served  as  a  suf- 
ficient basis  for  continuous  study  during  the  years  of  his 
ministry.  He  was  converted  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  licensed 
to  preach  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  and  received  into  the 
Baltimore  Conference  in  1835.  Recognizing  his  ability, 
his  bretliren  sent  him  to  General  Conference  in  1856  at 
Indianapolis,  and  in  1860  at  Buffalo.  Adhering  to  the 
South  at  the  division  of  the  Baltimore  Conference,  he 
became  a  commanding  figure  at  every  General  Conference 
of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  from  1866  on.  In  1882  and 
1886  he  was  secretary  of  the  General  Conference.  At  the 
Methodist  Centenary  held  in  Baltimore  in  1884  he 
was  elected  secretary  by  acclamation  of  all  parties.  He 
was  systematic  in  his  methods  and  a  fine  organizer,  a  faith- 
ful pastor  and  to  the  last  a  constant  student.  His  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures  and  his  fine  memory 
gave  accuracy  and  beauty  to  his  apt  and  frequent  quota- 
tions. His  burning  zeal  often  swept  the  assemblies  and 
brought  multitudes  to  repentance  and  salvation.  No  place 
was  too  exalted,  none  too  humble  for  him  willingly  and 
gladly  to  serve.  He  was  appointed  to  his  last  charge  at 
Saint  Paul's  in  Baltimore,  and  although  in  his  seventy-third 
year  entered  upon  his  work  with  an  enthusiasm  and  ac- 
tivity that  seemed  to  renew  his  youth.  J.  E.  Aimstrong 
said,  "He  preached  to  crowded  houses  as  if  his  tongue 
had  been  touched  with  a  live  coal  from  off  the  Altar." 
He  died  July  8,  1888. 

J.  E.  Armstrong,  Old  Baltimore  Confereixce.  1907. 

W.  W.  McIntyre 

MARTIN,  JOHN  THOMAS  (1816-1897),  American  cap- 
italist, philanthropist,  and  churchman,  was  bom  in  Balti- 
more, Md.,  on  Oct.  2,  1816.  He  was  the  son  of  John 
and  Maria  (McConkey)  Martin.  His  ancestors  were  na- 
tives of  England.  They  settled  in  Maryland  in  1633.  The 
house  built  by  Thomas  Martin  in  the  1600's  at  Island 
Creek  Neck,  Talbot  County  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
family  until  1866. 

John  Martin  received  his  education  at  St.  Mary's  School 
in  Baltimore  and  then  entered  the  mercantile  house  of 
Birckett  &  Pearce.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  joined  the 
Light  Street  M.  E.  Church  in  Baltimore. 

In  1835,  he  moved  to  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  where,  with  his 
brother,  he  built  up  a  large  clothing  business.  He  associ- 
ated himself  with  the  Fourth  Street  Church  in  St.  Louis 
and  served  for  fourteen  years  as  its  recording  steward 
and  secretary  of  the  Sabbath  school. 

In  1844,  Martin  went  to  New  York  City  to  start  a 
manufacturing  branch  of  the  company.  He  settled  in 
Brooklyn  and  became  a  member  of  the  Pacific  Street 
Methodist  Church.  He  later  served  as  president  of  its 
Board  of  Trustees  for  many  years,  and  was  instrumental 
in  securing  a  larger  building  for  the  congregation  when 
the  former  one  became  too  small. 

Ill  health  forced  his  retirement  for  a  time,  but  in  1862, 
he  returned  to  business  and  became  the  main  supplier 
of  clothing  to  the  Federal  government  during  the  Civil 
War.  It  is  reported  that  he  sold  over  $50,000,000  worth 
of  clothing  to  the  government,  and  that  there  were  times 
when  the  govemment  owed  him  from  $8,000,000  to 
$13,000,000.  His  success  in  business  enabled  him  to  buy 
up  large  tracts  of  water  front  property  and  to  invest 
heavily  in  banks  and  railroads.  Martin  was  one  of  the 
founders,  and  first  treasurer,  of  the  Brooklyn  Polytechnic 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MARTIN,   WILLIAM   CLYDE 


Institute,  a  member  of  the  Brooklyn  Historical  Society 
and  a  Director  of  the  Mercantile  Library. 

In  1866,  the  centennial  year  of  American  Methodism, 
Martin  gave  $25,000  for  the  erection  of  a  building  at  the 
Theological  Seminary  at  Bremen,  Germany.  The  school 
was  under  the  direction  of  Ludwig  S.  Jacoby,  an  Amer- 
ican sent  out  by  the  Mission  Board  and  supported  by  the 
German  missions  in  America,  whom  Martin  had  gotten 
to  know  years  before  in  St.  Louis.  Before  the  building 
was  erected  in  Bremen,  it  was  decided  to  move  the  school 
to  Frankfurt-on-Main.  At  Frankfurt  a  building  was 
erected  with  Martin's  money,  and,  in  honor  of  his  gift 
the  name  of  the  school  was  changed  to  "Martin  Missions 
Anstalt."  It  is  today  the  Pbedigerseminar  der  Metho- 
disten  Kirche,  or  Theological  Seminary  at  Frankfurt. 

In  the  later  years  of  his  life,  iVlartin  lost  his  interest 
in  Brooklyn  Methodism.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  his 
church,  Pacific  Street,  found  itself  caught  in  urban  change. 
Differences  of  opinion  arose  as  to  the  best  methods  of 
maintaining  the  church.  Martin  apparently  did  not  agree 
with  the  decisions  which  were  made  and,  for  nearly 
twenty  years  prior  to  his  death,  attended  the  "Church  of 
Pilgrims."  On  April  10,  1897,  John  Thomas  Martin  died 
in  New  York  City. 

Christian  Advocate,  May  27,  1897. 

New  York  Times,  April  12  and  15,  1897. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.     C.  Wesley  Christman,  Jr. 

MARTIN,  JOSEPH  C.  (1865-1939),  fourteenth  bi.shop  of 
the  C.  M.  E.  Church,  was  born  in  Gibson  County,  Tenn., 
on  Feb.  8,  1865.  He  attended  Howe  Institute  in  Memphis, 
Tenn.,  and  Roger  Williams  University  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.  Martin  began  preaching  in  1887  and  was  pastor 
of  churches  in  Tennessee,  Washington,  D.  C,  and 
South  Carolina.  In  1912,  he  was  elected  publishing 
agent  and  as  such  became  noted  as  an  organizer  and 
financier.  At  the  General  Conference  in  1922,  he  was 
elected  to  the  office  of  bishop.  He  gained  a  reputation 
for  his  organizational  and  financial  leadership.  Bishop 
Martin  died  on  Feb.  6,  1939. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965. 

The  Mirror,  General  Conference,  CME,  1958.    Ralph  G.  Gay 

MARTIN,  PAUL  ELLIOTT   (1897-  ),  American  bishop, 

was  bom  on  Dec.  31,  1897,  at  Blossom,  Texas,  the  son 
of  Charles  E.  and  Willie  (Black)  Martin.  He  received  the 
following  degrees;  Southern  Methodist  University, 
A.B.,  1919;  LL.D.,  1945;  Southwestern  University', 
D.D.,  1938;  Hendbix  College,  D.D.,  1945;  Oklahoma 
City  Unh-ersity,  S.T.D.,  1968. 

On  June  29,  1920,  he  was  united  in  marriage  to  Mildred 
Helen  Frayar,  who  has  accompanied  him  in  all  his  church- 
wide  activities. 

During  the  first  World  War,  he  served  as  a  lieutenant 
in  the  United  States  Army.  For  a  time,  he  was  principal 
of  the  Blossom  High  School,  1919,  and  then  the  Superin- 
tendent of  Public  Schools  there  from  1920  until  1922. 
Entering  the  ministry  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in 
1922,  he  was  ordained  deacon  in  1924,  and  an  elder 
in  1926.  All  of  his  pastorates  were  in  the  North  Texas 
Conference:  Cedar  Hill  Church,  Dallas,  1922-24; 
Maple  Avenue,  Dallas,  1924-27;  Henrietta,  1927-29;  Iowa 
Park,  1929-30;  Kavanaugh  Church,  Greenville,  1930-35; 
district  superintendent,  Wichita   Falls   District,   1935-38; 


Paul  E.  Martin 

First  Church,  Wichita  Falls,  1938-44.  He  was  elected  a 
bishop  at  the  South  Central  Jurisdictional  Conference 
in  1944  and  assigned  to  the  Arkansas-Louisiana  Area, 
where  he  served  until  1960,  when  he  was  assigned  to  the 
Houston  Area. 

From  1960  to  1968  he  was  president  of  the  Methodist 
Council  on  World  Service  and  Finance.  He  was  chair- 
man of  the  American  Section  of  the  World  Methodist 
Council,  1956-61.  He  was  president  of  the  Board  of 
Temperance  and  vice-president  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, president  of  the  Council  of  Bishops,  1962.  He 
was  a  delegate  to  the  Gener.^l  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  in  1938.  the  Uniting  Conference  in  1939, 
and  the  General  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  in 
1940  and  1944.  He  is  a  trustee  of  Southern  Methodist 
University,  Southwestern  University,  and  Western  Meth- 
odist Assembly. 

Since  1949,  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Martin  have  visited  the 
following  mission  fields:  Alaska,  Formosa,  Japan,  the 
Philippines,  Malaya,  India,  Pakistan,  South  America, 
and  Africa.  In  Africa  in  1957,  they  studied  Methodist 
work  in  the  Congo,  Southern  Rhodesia,  South  Africa, 
Angola,  and  Liberi.\.  Bishop  Martin  has  lectured  at 
various  colleges  and  elsewhere.  He  delivered  the  Fondren 
Lectures  at  Ministers'  Week  at  Southern  Methodist  Uni- 
versity, 1968;  he  was  elected  to  serve  as  a  professor  at 
Perkins  School  of  Theology,  S.M.U.,  upon  his  retire- 
ment in  1968.  He  is  the  author  of  My  Call  to  Preach, 
1946,  and  of  a  booklet.  Humanity  Hath  Need  of  Thee. 

Bishop  Martin  at  his  formal  retirement  in  1968  was 
administering  the  work  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  the 
Te.xas  and  Rio  Grande  Annual  Conferences,  compris- 
ing about  730  churches  with  a  total  membership  of  more 
than  220,000.  He  resides  in  Dallas. 

Who's  Who  in  America. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

MARTIN,  WILLIAM  CLYDE  (1893-  ),  American  Meth- 

odist bishop,  was  born  in  Randolph,  Tenn.,  July  28,  1893. 
His  parents  were  John  Harmon  and  Leila  (Ballard)  Mar- 
tin. 

On  July  1,    1918,  he  was  married  to  Sally  Katharine 


MARTIN   COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


William  C.  Martin 

Beene,  of  Blevins,  Ark.  Their  children  are:  Donald 
Hankey,  Mary  Catherine,  and  John  Lee. 

He  attended  the  University  of  Arkansas  in  1913-14; 
received  his  B.A.  degree  from  Hendrix  College  in  1918 
and  his  D.D.  in  1929.  He  was  a  student  at  the  United 
Free  Church,  Aberdeen,  Scotland,  1919.  In  1921  he 
received  his  B.D.  degree  at  Southern  Methodist  Uni- 
versity. Honorary  degrees  conferred  on  him  are:  LL.D., 
Nebraska  Weslevan  University,  1940;  Baker  Univer- 
sity, 1944;  Southern  Methodist  University,  1958;  D.D., 
Central  College,  1947;  Denver  University,  1953; 
and  Texas  Christian  University,  1963. 

He  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  in  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  in  1921  and  was  pastor  of  the  Grace  Methodist 
Church,  Houston,  Texas,  1921-25;  First  Methodist 
Church,  Port  Arthur,  Texas,  1925-28;  First  Church, 
Little  Rock,   1928-31;   First  Church,  Dallas,   1931-38. 

He  was  elected  bishop  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South, 
May  3,  1938,  and  assigned  to  its  Pacific  Coast  Area,  1938- 
39.  He  was  bishop  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Area  1939- 
48  and  of  the  Dallas-Fort  Worth  Area  from  1948  until 
his  retirement  in  1964. 

He  has  been  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education; 
Board  of  Lay  Activities;  the  Peace  Commission;  the  Rural 
Life  Commission  (chairman  1944-48);  Committee  on 
Study  of  the  Ministry;  and  the  Advance  for  Christ. 

Among  other  groups  in  which  Bishop  Martin  has  been 
a  member  and  often  occupied  important  positions  of  lead- 
ership have  been:  The  National  Council  of  Churches, 
of  which  he  served  as  president  during  the  biennium  of 
1953-54,  representing  a  membership  of  35,000,000  Protes- 
tants; President  of  the  South  Central  College  of  Bish- 
ops, 1956;  General  Board  of  Evangelism,  1956-64;  Presi- 
dent, Commission  on  Promotion  and  Cultivation,  1952- 
64;  President,  Association  of  Methodist  Historical  Socie- 
ties, 1956;  President,  Council  of  Bishops  for  1953; 
trustee  of  Southern  Methodist  University  since  1939; 
Southwestern  University  since  1948;  a  vice-president  of 
the  Methodist  Board  of  Missions  and  president  of  the 
Board's  Division  of  World  Missions,  1960-64;  vice-presi- 
dent. Division  of  World  Missions,  1956-60;  General  Board 
of  National  Council  of  Churches  since  1952;  board  of  Lub- 

1526 


bock  Methodist  Hospital  since  1954;  and  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  World  Council  of  Churches  since  1954. 
He  is  also  a  .Mason. 

He  is  author  of  To  Fulfill  This  Ministry  and  Proclaim- 
ing the  Good  News.  Bishop  Martin  retired  in  1964.  He 
sei-ved  on  the  faculty  of  Perkins  School  of  Theology 
as  Lecturer  in  Church  Administration,  1964-68.  He  re- 
sides in  Dallas. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

Mary  French  Caldwell 

MARTIN  COLLEGE,  Pulaski,  Tennes.see,  was  founded  in 
1870  as  Martin  Female  College.  It  was  named  for  Thomas 
Martin,  an  attorney  residing  in  Pulaski  who  made  the 
original  gift  to  found  the  institution.  Ownership  was 
transferred  to  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in  1908.  The 
junior  college  program  began  in  1914,  and  the  school 
became  coeducational  in  1937.  The  governing  board  con- 
sists of  thirty-two  members  elected  by  the  Tennessee 
Annual  Conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

MARTINDALE,  WILLIAM  J.  (1841-1916),  American  min- 
ister, son  of  Moses  and  Margaret  Martindale,  was  bom 
Oct.  18,  1841,  in  Miami  County,  Ind.  and  died  in  Wichita, 
Kan.,  Aug.  18,  1916.  His  parents  were  devoted  Meth- 
odists and  under  this  influence  he  felt  the  call  to  the 
ministry  early  in  life.  He  preached  his  first  sermon  as  a 
local  preacher  Oct.  25,  1862,  and  joined  the  Northwest 
Indiana  Conference  in  1863.  He  transferred  to  the 
Missouri-Arkans.vs  Conference  in  1865,  where  he 
sei"ved  as  a  pastor  sixteen  years  and  as  presiding  elder 
five  years.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1876  and  was  reported  as 
the  youngest  member  of  that  body. 

He  transferred  to  the  Southwest  Kansas  Confer- 
ence in  1887,  where  he  served  twenty-six  years  before 
retiring  in  1913.  He  served  as  a  presiding  elder  eighteen 
years,  twelve  of  these  years  in  western  Kansas  where  new 
settlers  were  coming  in  and  where  new  churches  were 
being  organized.  These  districts  were  lands  of  great  dis- 
tances where  in  six  years  on  the  Dodge  City  District  he 
travelled  83,000  miles  by  horseback,  buggy,  walking  or 
train.  Such  men  as  Martindale  made  the  Methodist  Church 
strong  in  that  part  of  Kansas. 

His  brethren  honored  him  by  electing  him  three  times 
as  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference.  He  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  Centennial  Christmas  Conference  in  Balti- 
more in  1884,  and  to  the  World  Sunday  School  Conven- 
tion in  Rome  in  May,  1907. 

He  was  an  evangelist,  a  builder  of  churches  and  a 
builder  of  men. 

Journal  of  the  Soutliwest  Kansas  Conference,  1917. 

Western  Methodist,  March  26,  1896.    William  F.  Ramsdale 

MARVIN,  ENOCH  MATHER  (1823-1877),  American  bish- 
op, was  born  near  Wright  City,  Warren  County,  Mo., 
June  12,  1823,  the  son  of  Wells  and  Mary  (Davis)  Mar- 
vin. His  parents  came  from  New  England.  Marvin  had 
little  schooling  other  than  in.struction  given  him  by  his 
parents  who  had  taught  school  in  the  east.  His  father  be- 
longed to  no  church;  his  mother  was  an  unaffiliated  Bap- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Enoch  M.  Marvin 

tist;  he  liimself  attended  Methodist  services  in  the  home 
of  a  neiglibor  and  was  converted  in  1840.  He  married 
Harriet  Brotherton  Clark  in  October  1845,  and  they  had 
five  children.  Their  son  Fielding  became  an  itinerant 
in  the  Missouri  Conference. 

Marvin  joined  the  Missouri  Conference  in  1841,  and 
was  ordained  deacon  in  1843  and  elder  in  1845.  In  the 
latter  year  he  adhered  South  as  the  M.  E.  Church  di- 
vided. His  appointments  were;  1841,  Grundy  Mission; 
1842,  Oregon  Circuit;  1843,  Liberty  Circuit;  1844,  junior 
preacher.  Fourth  Street,  St.  Louis;  1845,  Weston  Cir- 
cuit; 1846-47,  Hannibal  Station;  1848-49,  Monticello  Cir- 
cuit; 1850,  Palmyra  Station;  1851,  St.  Charles  Circuit; 
1852-53,  St.  Charles  District;  1854,  agent,  St.  Charles 
College;  1855,  transferred  to  the  St.  Louis  Conference 
and  stationed  two  years  at  Centenary,  St.  Louis;  1857-58, 
First,  St.  Louis;  and  1859-61,  Centenary,  St.  Louis. 

Tall,  angular,  and  dressed  in  homemade  clothes,  Marvin 
made  less  than  a  prepossessing  appearance  as  a  young 
preacher.  After  a  year  in  the  conference  three  of  his 
brethren,  believing  him  unsuited  to  the  ministry,  advised 
him  to  drop  out.  Fortunately  he  did  not  heed  their  ad- 
vice. Ten  years  later,  at  the  request  of  the  conference,  he 
preached  the  memorial  sermon  for  one  of  those  men,  and 
twenty-five  years  afterward  he  returned  to  Missouri  as  the 
presiding  bishop  and  made  the  appointment  of  another! 

Notwithstanding  his  homely  appearance,  Marvin  quick- 
ly won  recognition  as  a  pulpit  preacher  of  great  power. 
W.  W.  Redman,  his  presiding  elder  the  first  three  years, 
said  on  the  conference  floor,  "Bishop,  he  is  a  green  look- 
ing boy,  but  I  tell  you  he  can  preach,  and  if  he  lives  he 
will  be  a  star!"  An  assiduous  student,  an  indefatigable 
worker,  and  endowed  with  what  today  is  called  charisma, 
Marvin  was  widely  recognized  as  the  premier  preacher  in 
Missouri  Methodism  before  he  was  thirty.  He  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  1854-58  General  Conferences  and  led  his 
delegation  to  the  one  that  did  not  meet  in  1862.  Ap- 
pointed presiding  elder  at  twenty-nine,  he  constantly  as- 
sisted his  preachers  in  revivals,  formed  two  new  circuits, 
and  at  the  end  of  his  two  years  showed  a  net  gain  of  fifteen 
percent  in  church  members. 

Marvin  was  notably  successful  in  his   St.   Louis  pas- 


MARVIN,    ENOCH    MATHER 

torates.  A  skilful  debater,  he  used  his  pulpit  to  answer  a 
Roman  Cathofic  priest  who  delivered  and  published  lec- 
tures critical  of  Protestantism.  Marvin's  twenty-three  re- 
buttal messages  appeared  in  the  newspaper  each  week  and 
then  were  brought  out  as  a  book,  Errors  of  the  Papacy. 
The  volume  had  a  good  sale  and  made  him  widely  known. 

When  the  Civil  War  began,  Marvin  was  unwilling  to 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  required  in  St.  Louis.  Sending 
his  family  to  his  boyhood  farm  home,  he  slipped  out  of 
the  city  at  night  in  February  1862,  and  made  his  way 
south.  He  supplied  the  Methodist  church  at  Woodville, 
Miss.,  for  some  months,  and  then  became  unofficial  chap- 
lain to  General  Sterling  Price's  army,  serving  in  Missis- 
sippi and  Arkansas.  He  held  revivals  among  the  troops 
and  organized  an  undenominational  army  church  to  con- 
serve the  results.  Also,  he  conducted  revivals  in  churches 
in  the  region  in  which  Price's  army  maneuvered.  For 
the  last  year  and  a  half  of  the  war  he  made  the  home 
of  Rev.  W.  E.  Doty,  Greenwood,  La.,  his  headquarters. 
In  February  1865,  he  began  supplying  the  Methodist 
church  at  Marshall,  Texas,  and  continued  there  until 
August  1866.  His  wife  and  children  joined  him  in  Marshall 
in  March  1865,  thanks  to  a  pass  provided  by  President 
Lincoln. 

Though  still  a  member  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference, 
Marvin  was  not  elected  a  delegate  to  the  1866  General 
Conference  which  met  in  New  Orleans.  However,  many 
if  not  most  of  the  delegates  knew  him  by  reputation,  and 
since  there  was  talk  that  at  least  one  of  the  new  bishops 
to  be  elected  would  come  from  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  his  name  was  prominently  mentioned.  Moreover, 
his  friend  Doty  on  his  own  motion  went  to  New  Orleans 
and  advocated  Marvin  for  the  episcopacy.  Therefore,  it 
was  not  surprising  that  Marvin,  though  not  a  delegate 
and  not  even  present  at  the  General  Conference,  was 
elected  a  bishop  on  the  first  ballot.  He  appeared  at  the 
conference  the  next  day;  he  had  arranged  his  travel 
schedule  so  as  not  to  arrive  in  New  Orleans  until  the 
balloting  for  bishops  was  over. 

Marvin's  first  episcopal  assignment  was  the  Indian  Mis- 
sion. Finding  the  preachers  discouraged  and  ready  to 
disband,  he  fired  them  with  new  enthusiasm,  personally 
pledged  $5,000  for  their  support,  and  then  traveled  over 
the  church  and  raised  it.  Marvin  probably  did  more  than 
any  other  one  man  to  rouse  Southern  Methodism  from 
defeatism  after  the  war.  He  opposed  Methodist  union  at 
the  time,  saying  amicable  relations  must  first  be  estab- 
lished between  the  two  churches.  However,  he  believed 
that  union  would  come  in  fifty  years.  He  defended  the 
right  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  to  expand  in  any 
geographical  direction.  Also,  he  supported  the  Southern 
view  of  the  episcopacy,  maintaining  that  the  bishops  in 
caring  for  all  the  churches  had  a  pastoral  function  as 
well  as  administrative  responsibility. 

Moving  back  to  St.  Louis,  Marvin  gave  strong  leader- 
ship to  Methodism  in  the  city  and  the  state.  He  led  in 
collecting  $100,000  to  establish  the  influential  St.  John's 
Church  in  St.  Louis  in  1868,  and  he  helped  to  raise  a 
similar  amount  for  the  endowment  of  Central  College. 
He  spent  seventeen  months  on  the  west  coast  strengthen- 
ing Southern  Methodism  in  that  region. 

The  1874  General  Conference  voted  that  one  of  the 
bishops  should  visit  the  Orient.  Chosen  for  the  assignment, 
Marvin  looked  upon  it  as  a  means  of  dramatizing  and  in- 
spiring support  for  tlie  missionaiy  movement.  Sailing 
from  San  Francisco  in  November  1876,  the  ten  months' 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


joumey  took  him  around  the  world,  and  it  was  a  pro- 
nounced success.  His  book,  To  the  East  by  Way  of  the 
West,  sold  20,000  copies. 

Marvin  began  writing  for  the  Western  Christian  Advo- 
cate as  a  young  preacher,  and  in  time  he  contributed  to 
the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate  and  to  every  periodical 
in  the  church.  His  books  in  addition  to  those  already  men- 
tioned were:  The  Work  of  Christ,  The  Life  of  William 
Coff  Caples,  Sermons,  and  The  Doctrinal  Integrity  of 
Methodism. 

Marvin's  contemporaries  declared  that  he  had  more  than 
ordinary  endowments.  Certainly  he  had  a  quick,  keen,  and 
exceptionally  retentive  mind,  and  he  was  motivated  by 
a  strong  inner  drive  to  succeed  at  whatever  he  undertook. 
He  was  a  powerful  pulpiteer;  D.  R.  McAn.^lly  who 
heard  him  often  believed  that  if  he  could  have  been 
accurately  reported  when  at  his  best,  the  frame  of  his 
sermons  would  not  have  been  surpassed  in  his  day.  Withal 
Marvin  was  dedicated  and  devout;  he  constantly  prac- 
ticed the  presence  of  God.  He  died  in  St.  Louis,  Nov. 
26,  1877,  and  was  buried  in  Bellefontaine  Cemetery 
there. 

General  Minutes,  MEG  and  MEGS. 

Thomas  M.  Finney,  Life  and  Labors  of  Enoch  Mather  Marvin. 

St.  Louis:  James  H.  Ghambers,  1880. 

Albea   Godbold,   "Bishop   Enoch   Mather   Marvin,"   Methodist 

History,  April,  1964,  pp.  1-22. 

Ivan  Lee  Holt,  The  Missouri  Bishops.  1953. 

D.  R.  McAnally,  Life  and  Labors  of  E.  M.  Marvin.  St.  Louis: 

Advocate  Publishing  House,  1878.  Albea  Godbold 

MARYLAND  is  a  Middle  Atlantic  state  south  of  the  famous 
Mason  and  Dixon  line  boundary  with  Pennsylvania  and 
north  of  the  rambling  Potomac  River  which  separates  it 
from  the  Virginias.  Known  as  "America  in  miniature," 
Maryland's  10,577  square  miles  include  most  of  the  vast 
Chesapeake  Bay,  a  drowned  estuary,  and  extend  from 
Atlantic  beaches  westward  235  miles  over  coastal  plains 
and  piedmont  plateau  into  the  Appalachian  Mountains. 
Flora  and  fauna  run  the  gamut  from  cypress  swamps  and 
aquatic  bird  refuges,  to  Frostburg's  subarctic  winters, 
with  oyster  fisheries  and  rich  farmland  in  between.  Mega- 
lopolis cuts  a  northeasterly  swath  from  the  national  capital, 
but  burgeoning  high  income  bedroom  suburbs  are 
matched  by  declining  highland  and  rural  counties.  Out- 
side the  latter  areas,  the  populace  has  become  a  cross 
section  of  the  ethnic,  socio-economic  melting  pot  which 
is  America. 

As  an  English  colony  settled  in  1634  by  the  Catholic 
proprietor  Lord  Baltimore,  Maryland's  Assembly  in  1649 
became  the  first  in  America  to  enact  religious  toleration. 
However,  Catholic  worship  was  later  proscribed,  and  in 
1692  the  Church  of  England  was  "established "  and  was 
supported  until  1776  by  levies  from  all  taxables  irrespec- 
tive of  religion.  Non-Anglican  Protestants  found  a  haven 
in  the  colony,  and  both  Quakers  and  Presbyterians  trace 
some  of  their  American  origins  to  Maryland  soil. 

About  1760  an  Irish  Methodist  local  preacher,  Robert 
Strawbbidge,  settled  in  what  is  now  Carroll  County  near 
the  present  New  Windsor  and  began  to  preach  over  a 
wide  area,  including  much  of  northern  Maryland.  He 
built  log  meetinghouses  near  his  home  and  at  Bush  now 
in  Harford  County.  The  body  of  his  loyal  followers  in- 
cluded William  Watters  and  Richard  Owings  who 
became    the   first    native    American    traveling    and    local 

1528 


preachers.  John  King  preached  in  Baltimore  in  1771,  and 
on  June  22,  1772,  John  Wesley's  missionary,  Joseph  Pil- 
MORE,  organized  the  first  Methodist  classes  there.  By 
1773  some  500  of  the  1,160  American  Methodists  were 
in  Maryland,  and  four  preachers  were  appointed  to  the 
Baltimore  Circuit. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War  an  oath  of  fidelity  was 
required  in  Maryland,  and  numerous  nonjuring  Methodist 
preachers  suffered  prosecution.  Despite  the  turmoil,  the 
withdrawal  of  Wesley's  mission  force,  and  the  death  of 
Strawbridge,  the  numbers  in  the  Methodist  societies  great- 
ly increased.  By  the  first  Federal  census  of  1790,  4.4 
percent  of  Maryland's  population  were  Methodist  mem- 
bers, twice  the  2.2  percent  in  Virginia,  which  was  second. 
Circuit  preachers  found  their  greatest  hearing  on  the 
"eastern  shore"  which  has  remained  the  "garden  of  Meth- 
odism" for  two  centuries.  Methodism  took  a  leading  place 
among  the  churches  in  all  but  the  southern  part  of  the 
state. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  organized  at 
Baltimore  in  1784  and  its  quadrennial  General  Con- 
ferences met  there  1792  to  1808  and  1816  to  182'4. 
CoKESBUBY,  the  first  Methodist  college  in  the  world, 
was  founded  at  Abingdon  in  1787  and  continued  opera- 
tion until  1795,  when  it  was  destroyed  by  fire.  A  second 
Cokesbury  College  was  started  in  Baltimore  in  1796,  only 
to  meet  a  like  fiery  fate  within  the  year. 

The  United  Brethren  Church  was  formally  organized 
at  the  Kemp  home  near  Frederick  in  1800  and  flourished 
among  German  speaking  Marylanders. 

From  the  first,  Negroes  were  objects  of  Methodist  con- 
cern and  great  numbers  became  followers.  Splits  else- 
where in  1796  and  1816  gave  rise  to  the  A.  M.  E.  and 
A.  M.  E.  ZioN  Churches,  but  despite  the  fact  that  Daniel 
CoKER,  co-founder  of  the  A.  M.  E.  Church,  was  from 
Baltimore,  most  Maryland  Negroes  remained  in  the  M.  E. 
Church. 

The  Mutual  Rights  controversy  from  1820  to  1827 
largely  centered  in  Baltimore,  and  it  was  there  that  the 
ousted  Reformers  held  their  conventions  of  1827,  1828, 
and  1830  which  resulted  in  the  organization  of  the  Meth- 
odist Protestant  Church.  At  Holly  Run  in  Anne  Arun- 
del County  the  new  denomination  erected  its  first  church 
building,  while  at  Baltimore  it  sustained  the  secession  of 
the  mother  church,  St.  John's,  from  the  M.  E.  Church  in 

1843.  From  the  beginning  a  portion  of  M.  P.  pubhshing 
was  conducted  at  Baltimore.  In  1867  the  denomination 
founded  Western  Maryland  College  at  Westminster, 
adding  the  Westminster  Theological  Seminary  in  1882. 
A  short-lived  schism  in  the  M.  P.  Church  was  healed  at 
Baltimore  on  May  16,  1877,  when  the  northern  and 
western  group  of  conferences  known  as  "the  Methodist 
Church,"  reunited  with  the  M.  P.  Church.  It  was  the 
first  union  of  Methodist  denominations  in  America. 

When  the  slavery  issue  divided  the  M.  E.  Church  in 

1844,  the  part  of  the  Philadelphia  Confebence  which 
extended  into  the  nine  eastern  counties  of  Maryland, 
and  the  Baltimobe  Confebence  on  the  western  side  of 
Chesapeake  Bay  adhered  North  even  though  a  majority 
of  the  general  population  in  the  region  was  proslavery. 
The  sincerity  of  the  historic  Maryland  Methodist  procla- 
mation that  slavery  was  a  "great  evil"  was  attested  by  the 
financial  support  given  by  Maryland  Methodists  for  the 
colonization  of  Negroes  in  Libebia  and  by  the  numerous 
manumissions  of  slaves,  so  many  in  fact  that  by  1860  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MARYLAND   CONFERENCE 


number  of  free  Negroes  in  Maryland  almost  outnumbered 
the  slaves. 

Prior  to  the  Civil  War,  the  VmciNiA  Conference  of 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South  succeeded  in  organizing  circuits 
at  Potomac  and  Rock  Creek  in  Montgomery  County,  Md., 
and  the  proslavery  members  of  the  Catch  Church  near 
Baltimore  organized  Andrew  Chapel. 

The  "new  chapter"  on  slavery,  adopted  by  the  1860 
Ceneral  Conference,  urged  preachers  and  laymen  to  seek 
the  e.\tiipation  of  slavery  by  all  lawful  and  Christian 
means.  Strongly  opposed  to  such  legislation,  the  Baltimore 
Conference  in  its  1861  session  disowned  the  General  Con- 
ference. Though  not  in  favor  of  the  "new  chapter,"  the 
Philadelphia  Conference  and  the  East  Baltimore  Confer- 
ence (the  latter  formed  in  northern  Maryland  and  central 
Pennsylvania  in  1857  by  dividing  the  Baltimore  Confer- 
ence), remained  relatively  calm.  The  onset  of  the  Civil 
War  in  April,  1861  forestalled  the  impending  rupture  in 
the  Baltimore  Conference,  but  the  hostilities  of  four  years 
utterly  disorganized  church  life  and  work.  Rival  "orig- 
inal" Baltimore  Conferences  contended  with  each  other, 
while  a  group  of  pastors  who  sympathized  with  the  South 
but  who  were  caught  in  Baltimore  organized  several  in- 
dependent churches.  The  "original"  Baltimore  Conference 
(which  always  called  itself  "Old  Baltimore")  which 
sympathized  with  the  South,  was  visited  in  1865  by 
Bishop  John  Early  of  the  Southern  Church,  and  in  1866 
it  became  the  Baltimore  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South.  Its  territory  included  Maryland,  except  Garrett 
County,  and  northern  Virginia,  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  a  small  part  of  West  VmciNLv. 

Negro  Methodists  in  Baltimore  secured  separate  dis- 
trict conferences  for  their  local  preachers  in  1856.  In 
1864,  the  Del.\ware  Conference  on  the  eastern  shore 
and  the  Washington  Conference  west  of  Chesapeake 
Bay  were  organized  for  Negroes.  White  and  Negro  Meth- 
odists of  Baltimore,  assisted  by  the  Freedmen's  Aid 
Society,  began  Centenary  Biblical  Institute  in  1867.  It 
became  Morg.\n  College.  Later  a  branch  of  the  institu- 
tion was  started  at  Princess  Arme. 

Civil  War  losses  to  the  economy  and  the  church  were 
never  fully  retrieved.  The  bitter  aftermath  of  lawsuits  and 
recrimination  resulted  in  church  extension  which  was  more 
competitive  than  cooperative.  However,  by  1884  Meth- 
odists North  and  South  came  to  Baltimore  for  the  Cen- 
tennial Methodist  Conference.  Subsequent  celebra- 
tions were  held  in  the  same  city  in  1934  and  1966  to 
mark  the  sesqui-centennl\l  of  the  Christm.\s  Confer- 
ence and  the  Bicentennial  of  American  Methodism. 

Methodist  institutions  in  Maryland  included  two  homes 
for  the  aged  at  Baltimore  begun  in  1868  and  1870,  and 
two  at  Westminster  which  opened  in  1896  and  1926. 
The  two  latter  institutions  have  since  merged  with  the 
outstanding  Asbury  Home  at  Gaithershurg  which  was 
founded  in  1926.  The  Kelso  Home  for  Girls,  started  in 
1873,  and  the  Strawbridge  Home  for  Boys,  launched  in 
1923,  merged  to  become  the  present  Board  of  Child  Care 
at  Rockdale.  Maryland  General  Hospital  at  Baltimore 
was  acquired  in  1911,  and  the  Woman's  College  of  Balti- 
more, now  the  front  rank  Goucher  College,  was  begun 
in  1884.  Other  institutions  include  two  Baltimore  homes 
for  business  girls,  a  deaconess  home,  and  the  Baltimore 
Goodwill  Industries  which  was  established  in  1919. 

In  1970  there  were  about  1,000  Methodist  churches  in 
Maryland   with   more   than   284,000    members,    as    com- 


pared with  199,686  members  in  1950,  about  eight  per 
cent  of  the  state's  population  in  both  periods. 

E.  M.  Amos,  An  Official  Souvenir  Book,  American  Methodist 

Bicentennial.  Baltimore,  1966. 

J.  E.  Armstrong,  Old  Baltimore  Conference,  1907. 

E.  C.  Hallman,  Garden  of  Methodism.  1948.     Edwin  Schell 

MARYLAND  CONFERENCE  of  the  M.  P.  Church  was  the 
largest  in  the  denomination.  This  was  due  to  several 
factors.  The  M.  E.  Church  was  organized  in  Baltimore 
in  1784  and  "the  seed  sown  on  Maryland  soil  reproduced 
in  marvelous  increase."  Among  advocates  of  lay  rights — 
"Reform" — after  1820  were  such  prominent  traveling 
preachers  as  Nicholas  Snethen  and  Alexander  Mc- 
Caine,  not  to  mention  several  able  Baltimore  local  preach- 
ers. These  men  became  contributors  to  the  Wesleyan 
Repository  and  its  successor  Mutual  Rights  through  which 
they  agitated  effectively  for  lay  representation.  Also,  "the 
first  Union  Society  was  formed  in  Baltimore,  and  the  first 
to  feel  the  prosecution  encountered  in  the  cause  of  re- 
form was  a  Maryland  minister,  Dennis  B.  Dorsey,  who 
was  denied  appointment  at  the  Baltimore  Conference." 
Then  the  Baltimore  Union  Society  which  included  eleven 
local  preachers  and  twenty-two  laymen  was  expelled  from 
the  M.  E.  Church  for  disturbing  its  peace.  After  their 
appeal  was  denied  by  the  1828  General  Conference, 
widespread  sympathy  added  to  their  ranks.  CoUiouer's 
Founders  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  mentions 
thirty-one  Marylanders  who  constituted  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  total.  Seven  of  the  first  thirteen  presidents  of 
the  M.  P.  General  Conference  were  from  Maryland. 
Finally,  Baltimore  had  become  a  "storm  center,"  and  the 
three  preliminary  national  conventions  of  the  Reformers 
were  held  in  the  city  in  1827,  1828,  and  1830.  In  1828 
they  organized  as  the  Associated  Methodist  Churches,  and 
in  1830  they  took  the  Methodist  Protestant  name. 

The  Maryland  Conference  was  organized  in  April, 
1829  under  the  presidency  of  Nicholas  Snethen.  Ad- 
mitted at  that  time  were  the  first  thirteen  of  the  611 
traveling  preachers  who  were  enrolled  in  the  110-year 
history  of  the  conference.  By  1831  some  2,256  members 
were  reported  in  eleven  appointments.  Largely  as  a  result 
of  CAMP  meetings  and  revivals,  the  number  doubled  by 
1839  and  doubled  again  by  1843. 

Among  early  churches  were  St.  John's,  Baltimore,  orga- 
nized in  December,  1828  in  a  former  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  on  Liberty  Street;  Georgetown,  D.  C,  begun  by 
forty  members  on  Dec.  2,  1828;  Reisterstown  Circuit  and 
Centreville  in  December,  1828,  Deer  Creek  and  Pipe 
Creek  Circuits,  January,  1829.  At  Uniontown  on  the  latter 
circuit  the  entire  membership  of  the  M.  E.  church  joined. 
Holly  Run  Meetinghouse,  still  standing  at  Linthicum 
Heights,  was  finished  in  the  spring  of  1829  and  is  said 
to  be  the  first  church  building  erected  by  the  new  denom- 
ination. Savage,  Brookeville,  Magothy  and  Union  Chapel 
near  Roxbury  Mills,  along  with  Kent  Island,  Chestertovra 
and  Easton  were  other  pioneer  societies.  Ninth  Street 
Church,  Washington,  was  built  in  1835  with  aid  from 
other  churches  throughout  the  connection. 

The  infant  conference  had  sent  missionaries  to  Penn- 
sylvania and  New  Jersey  by  1831,  and  had  recorded 
itself  as  opposed  to  slaveholding  and  in  favor  of  absti- 
nence. Thomas  Hamilton  Lewis,  the  conference  his- 
torian from  1879  to  1929,  chronicled  only  one  contro- 
versy. It  involved  pastoral  tenure,   sought  by  St.  John's 


MASER,    FREDERICK   ERNEST 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Church,  Baltimore,  for  August  Webster  beyond  the  two- 
year  limit  which  obtained  in  the  denomination  at  that 
time.  The  quarrel  eventuated  in  1844  in  loss  of  control 
of  St.  John's  and  appointments  in  Philadelphia,  along 
with  the  withdrawal  of  Webster  and  Thomas  S.  Stockton 
from  the  conference. 

The  Maryland  Conference  adopted  many  of  the  prac- 
tices of  the  mother  church.  A  full  time  conference  presi- 
dent was  elected  annually.  He  visited  the  charges  and 
made  the  appointments  of  the  preachers  subject  to  con- 
ference approval,  and  to  appeal  by  any  pastor  to  a  com- 
mittee on  appeals. 

In  1829,  the  conference  started  a  fund  for  worn  out 
preachers  and  widows.  Within  half  a  century  the  corpus 
had  grown  to  $76,000  while  some  $90,000  had  been 
distributed  to  claimants.  A  home  missionary  society  was 
started  in  1831,  a  foreign  mission  society  in  1837,  and  a 
women's  missionary  society  in  1881.  The  denomination's 
first  missionary  to  the  foreign  field  was  sent  out  in  the 
latter  year.  Institutions  within  the  bounds  of  the  confer- 
ence were:  Western  Maryland  College,  Westminster 
Theological  Seminary,  Aged  Peoples  Home,  Working 
Girls  Home,  and  Book  Concern  Property.  The  first  three 
were  established  in   1867,   1882,  and  1896,  respectively. 

At  the  time  of  Methodist  union  in  1939,  James  H. 
Straughn  of  the  Maryland  Conference  was  one  of  two 
bishops  elected  from  the  M.  P.  Church.  The  Maryland 
Conference  brought  into  The  Methodist  Church  in  1939 
some  169  ministers,  240  Sunday  schools  with  35,946 
pupils,  255  churches  with  37,225  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $6,695,420.  The  benevolent  giving  of  the  con- 
ference in  that  year  totaled  $630,000. 

T.  H.  Lewis,  Maryland  Conference.  1879. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

James  H.  Straughn 

MASER,  FREDERICK  ERNEST  (1908-  ),  American  min- 
ister and  historian,  was  bom  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  Feb. 
26,  1908.  His  parents  were  Herman  A.  and  Clara  M.  L. 
(Krumn)  Maser.  In  1930  he  received  an  A.B.  degree 
from  Union  College,  Schenectady,  N.  Y.;  in  1933  a  Th.B. 
from  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  and  also  in  1933  an 
M.A.  in  English  from  Princeton  University.  Dickinson 
College  awarded  him  an  honorary  D.D.  degree  in  1957 
and  McKendree  College  a  LL.D.  in  1964.  He  married 
Mary  Louise  Jarden  on  Dec.  25,  1959.  He  joined  the 
Philadelphia  Conference  on  trial  in  1933,  and  went 
into  full  connection  in  1935.  His  appointments  were  Birds- 
boro,  1933-38;  Central,  Frankfort,  Philadelphl\,  1938- 
45;  St.  James  Church,  Philadelphia,  1945-53;  District 
Superintendent  of  the  Northwest  Philadelphia  District, 
1953-58;  Old  St.  George's  Church,  Philadelphia  1958- 
67;  Sabbatical  leave,  1967-68;  Dean  of  Students  and 
Assistant  Professor  of  Homiletics,  Conwell  School  of  The- 
ology, Philadelphia,  1968- 

He  was  Chairman  of  the  Division  of  Evangehsm  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Council  of  Churches,  1950-58;  a  delegate  to 
the  Northeastern  Jurisdictional  Conference,  1952,  to 
the  General  Conference  of  1956,  and  to  the  World 
Methodist  Conferences,  1956  and  1961.  He  has  been 
a  member  of  the  Advisory  Council  of  Wesley  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  since  1961.  He  served  as  a  member  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  Association  of  Methodist  His- 
torical Societies,  1956-68,  and  was  Vice-President,  1960- 
68.  He  has  been  a  member  of  the  International  Association 


of  Methodist  Historical  Societies  since  1966.  He  belongs 
to  the  Colonial  Philadelphia  Historical  Society,  Penn's 
Towne  Historical  Society,  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  the 
Pennsylvania  Historical  Society,  Church  History  Society, 
and  numerous  other  historical  organizations.  He  wrote  The 
Dramatic  Story  of  Early  American  Methodism,  1965, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  editorial  Board  and  a  contributor 
to  the  three  volume  History  of  American  Metfiodism, 
published  in  1964.  He  was  a  member  of  the  editorial 
board  of  the  Methodist  History  magazine,  editor  of  Dis- 
covery Magazine,  1960-64,  editor  of  the  Journal  of  Joseph 
Pilmore,  1969,  and  has  contributed  articles  to  various 
church  publications.  He  has  written  extensively  in  the 
field  of  Methodist  history.  He  was  a  consulting  editor 
and  a  contributor  to  Corpus  Dictionaries,  1967-68.  He 
was  cited  by  Temple  University,  Philadelphia,  for  his  gift 
to  the  Sullivan  Library  of  First  Editions,  signed  copies 
and  manuscripts  of  Joseph  Conrad,  and  in  1967  he  was 
the  recipient  of  the  St.  George's  Gold  Medal  Award  for 
"distinguished  service  to  the  Methodist  Church."  He  is 
a  collector  of  rare  Bibles,  Prayer  Books,  Wesleyana,  and 
Early  American  Book  Bindings.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
supervisory  board  of  the  Encyclopedia  of  World  Method- 
ism. In  1971  he  was  elected  the  first  executive  secretary 
of  the  World  Methodist  Historical  Society  (formerly  the 
International  Methodist  Historical  Society). 

Who's  Who  in  the  East,  1968. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

MASHABA,  ROBERT,  was  born  in  the  Tembe  tribe  in 
Portuguese  East  Africa,  went  to  Durban  as  a  youth  to 
work  in  the  sugar  plantations,  and  then  to  Port  Elizabeth 
in  1875.  Here  he  was  converted  in  the  Wesley  an  church 
and  baptized  by  the  Reverend  Robert  Lamplough,  whose 
Christian  name  he  adopted.  He  went  to  Lovedale  Train- 
ing Institution  for  three  years  and  became  fluent  in  En- 
glish. In  1885  he  returned  to  Lourenco  Marques  to  preach. 
He  worked  for  a  time  on  the  construction  of  the  railway 
to  the  Transvaal,  as  he  received  no  financial  support  from 
the  church.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  Swiss  Mis- 
sion and  the  Anglican  Church  offered  to  take  him  and  his 
converts  into  their  work  but  Mashaba  demurred.  He  wrote 
to  the  Wesleyans  in  the  Cape  Colony  telling  them  that 
some  200  converts  awaited  baptism.  This  letter  was 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Rev.  Ezra  Nuttall  and 
the  Rev.  William  Mtembu  was  sent  to  estabLsh  the  Soci- 
ety. The  South  African  Conference  recommended  that 
the  work  be  taken  over  by  the  Transvaal  District.  In  1892 
the  Rev.  George  Weavind,  acting  Chairman,  went  to 
Lourenco  Marques.  He  found  a  day  school  with  about 
fifty  children,  four  local  preachers,  a  congregation  of  200, 
a  church  building  three  miles  from  the  town  and  other 
preaching  places.  In  1893  Weavind  opened  a  new  church 
at  Mabota,  eight  miles  from  Lourenco  Marques.  It  seated 
400  and  cost  £100  which  was  raised  by  the  congregation. 
In  the  same  year  Mashaba  was  accepted  as  a  candidate  for 
the  ministry.  In  October  1894  a  rebellion  against  the 
Portuguese  broke  out  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mashaba's 
church  and  he  was  accused  of  complicity  with  the  rebels. 
Mashaba  moved  his  church  from  the  area  in  order  to  dis- 
associate himself  and  his  people  from  the  rebels.  Notwith- 
standing his  plea  of  innocence,  Mashaba  was  arrested  on 
Jan.  7,  1896  and  deported  to  Cape  Verde.  It  was  six 
years  before  he  was  released.  The  Portuguese  authorities 
would  not  permit  him  to  return  to  Lourenco  Marques  so 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MASON,   JOHN 


he  continued  his  ministry  on  the  Witwatersrand  and  in 
Swaziland.  Mashaba  made  a  valuable  contribution  to 
Christian  literature  in  his  native  tongue.  He  had  two  read- 
ing books  printed  for  use  in  his  school,  translated  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew  into  Seshona  and  translated  and  com- 
posed ninety  hymns.  He  retired  in  1934  and  was  allowed 
to  return  to  his  birthplace,  Nkasana,  where  he  died  on 
May  20,  1939. 

Journal  of  the  Methodist  Historical  Society  of  South  Africa. 

Vol.  Ill,  No.  2  (October  1958). 

Minutes  of  South  African  Conference,  1939.     D.  C.  Veysie 

MASIH,  DAULAT  (1872-1949)  and  MANOHAR  (1906- 
),  were  father  and  son,  both  born  in  the  village  of 
Phatgali  in  the  Katyur  Valley  of  tlie  Kumaun  foothills  of 
the  Himalayas.  Masih  is  a  surname  adopted  after  their 
conversion.  Before  they  became  Christians  they,  like  all 
their  neighbors,  used  the  surname  Singh.  Daulat's  older 
brother,  Deb  Singh,  was  the  first  convert  of  the  family 
and  suffered  rough  treatment  at  the  hands  of  relatives 
and  neighbors.  But  Daulat  Singh  was  so  much  impressed 
by  his  brother's  witness  to  Christ  in  words  and  behavior 
that  he,  a  widower  at  the  time,  was  converted  and  put 
his  sons  in  the  boarding  school  maintained  by  the  London 
Missionary  Society  at  Almora. 

Daulat  Masih  was  thirty-nine  years  old  when  converted 
in  1911.  After  more  than  a  year  of  residence  in  Almora, 
he  returned  to  his  village,  leaving  the  sons  in  Almora. 
He  undertook  to  win  to  Christ  his  kinsmen  and  neigh- 
bors throughout  the  valley,  and  to  that  end  he  begaji 
preaching  and  composing  Bhajans  (Hindi  religious  lyrics) 
in  Kumauni,  the  dialect  of  Hindi  commonly  spoken  in 
villages  of  Almora  District.  He  obtained  help  from  a 
senior,  well-educated  Indian  minister,  U.  S.  Rawat,  in 
editing  the  songs.  Rawat  lauded  Daulat  Masih  as  a  man 
of  faith  and  devotion.  In  Phatgali  and  in  other  villages, 
his  relatives  and  friends  turned  to  Christ. 

On  Jan.  1,  1926,  the  London  Missionary  Society  official- 
ly withdrew  from  the  Almora  District  and  made  their 
responsibilities  and  property  over  to  the  M.  E.  Church. 
The  congregations  and  scattered  Christians  united  with 
the  Methodists,  retaining  strong  love  and  respect  for  those 
who  had  brought  them  to  Christ.  Daulat  Masih  continued 
his  work  as  a  singing  evangelist  and  personal  witness. 

Manohar  Masih,  the  older  son  in  the  boarding  school, 
made  an  excellent  record  there  and  afterward  graduated 
from  the  government  medical  school  at  Agra,  becoming  a 
Licentiate  of  Medical  Practice.  He  later  took  special 
training  in  the  treatment  of  leprosy;  and,  shortly  after 
the  Methodist  Church  accepted  responsibility  in  Almora, 
he  was  named  as  superintendent  of  the  Almora  leper 
asylum,  which  is  believed  to  be  the  first  institution  in 
India  established  to  help  sufferers  from  Hansen's  disease. 

Henry  Ramsey,  commissioner  of  the  Almora  District 
when  the  Methodist  Church  began  work  in  India,  and  a 
great  benefactor  of  the  church,  had  started  this  project 
at  his  own  expense.  Manohar  Masih  soon  became  one  of 
India's  most  able  leprologists.  He  has  been  superintendent 
of  the  Almora  Home  for  more  than  forty  years.  In  1956, 
he  was  invited  to  help  the  mission  to  lepers  and  the  United 
Mission  to  Nepal  in  recommending  to  the  Government  of 
Nepal  plans  for  opening  leprosy  work   in   that   country. 

After  twenty  years  of  work  for  sufferers  in  Almora  and 
in  a  network  of  village  clinics  established  to  discover 
and  treat  cases  of  the  disease  in  early  stages,  Masih  de- 


cided that  he  could  be  more  helpful  as  an  ordained  min- 
ister than  as  a  layman.  He  took  the  conference  course  of 
study  and  joined  the  North  India  Annual  Conference. 
He  was  ordained  deacon  and  elder  by  Bishop  J.  Waskom 
Pickett.  More  than  a  thousand  people  with  leprosy  have 
confessed  faith  in  Christ  and  been  baptized  through  the 
work  of  the  Almora  institution. 

A  protege  of  Masih,  also  from  a  village  home,  is  now 
associate  superintendent  of  leprosy  work  in  the  North 
India  Conference,  and  Masih  serves  as  secretary  to  the 
medical  council  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Southern  Asia. 
He  gives  three  days  each  month  to  a  primary  school  and 
a  dispensary  operated  by  the  church  in  Phatgali.  In  that 
village  there  are  now  forty-four  resident  families.  Thirty- 
eight  of  these  families  are  active  members  of  the  church. 
The  remaining  six  families  cooperate  in  many  church 
activities,  though  calling  themselves  Hindus.  From  Phat- 
gali have  come  eight  ordained  ministers,  two  physicians, 
six  nurses,  eight  teachers  in  Indian  schools,  a  district 
woman  evangehst,  the  wife  of  an  Indian  surgeon,  a  uni- 
versity lecturer  in  home  economics,  a  college  professor 
in  the  United  States  and  more  than  a  dozen  men  and 
women  holding  responsible  positions  in  India's  defense 
forces  or  in  civilian  government  employment. 

B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 

J.  N.  Hollistcr,  Southern  A.«a.  1956. 

Journal  of  the  North  India  Conference.  J.  Waskom  Pickett 

MASON,  HAROLD  CARLTON  (1888-1964),  American 
Free  Methodist  and  an  ordained  elder  of  the  Wabash 
Conference.  He  married  Alta  E.  McFate  in  1909.  He 
received  his  education  at  Huntington  College,  B.S.,  1907; 
A.B.,  1913;  honorary  D.D.,  1924;  Adrian  College,  A.B., 
1916;  University  of  Michigan,  M.A.,  1924;  Indiana  Uni- 
versity, Ed.D.,  1945.  He  was  ordained  in  the  Church 
OF  THE  United  Brethren  in  Christ  in  1907.  His  teach- 
ing service  included  Chesbrough  Seminary,  North  Chili, 
N.  Y.;  principal  of  schools,  Whitmore  Lake,  Mich.;  super- 
intendent of  schools,  Horton,  Mich,  until  1911;  pastor, 
Adrian,  Mich.,  1911-12;  instructor,  Huntington  College 
and  pastor,  1912-13;  pastor,  Blissfield,  Mich.,  1913-18; 
Central  Church,  Montpefier,  Ohio,  1918-21;  bishop,  1921- 
25;  professor  of  philosophy  and  dean,  Adrian  College, 
1925-29;  superintendent  of  schools  and  Lenawee  County 
Normal  School,  1929-32;  president,  Huntington  College, 
1932-39;  professor  of  philosophy,  Winona  Lake  School 
of  Theology;  pastor,  Winona  Lake  Free  Methodist 
Church,  1939-43;  special  lecturer,  Grace  Theological 
Seminary,  Winona  Lake,  1943;  professor.  Northern  Baptist 
Theological  Seminai-y,  1943-48;  professor,  Asbury  The- 
ological Seminaby,  1948-1961. 

He  was  a  member  of  several  learned  societies  and 
educational  associations.  He  wrote  The  Teaching  Task  of 
the  Local  Church,  1960;  Abiding  Values  in  Christian 
Education;  Reclaiming  the  Sunday  School,  and  contrib- 
uted to  Light  and  Life  Press  Sunday  school  publications, 
and  to  the  American  Sunday  School  Union.  He  was  an 
eloquent  gospel  preacher,  a  Christian  gentleman  with 
great  capacity  for  friendship. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

MASON,  JOHN  (1780P-1864),  British  Methodist,  en- 
tered the  Wesleyan  ministry  in  1811.  He  had  a  natural 


MASON,   WILLIAM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


aptitude  for  business  and  finance,  and  was  commercially 
trained  before  entering  the  ministry.  In  1824  he  was  a 
general  secretary  of  the  Missionary  Society.  He  was  Book 
Steward  from  1827  to  1864 — the  longest  period  of  ser- 
vice so  far.  He  faced  an  appalling  debt,  the  business  having 
been  for  years  drained  of  its  capital  in  the  interests  of 
Methodist  work  (an  endemic  Book  Room  disease).  He 
laid  the  foundations  of  great  prosperity  and  sought  to 
create  a  distinctively  Methodist  literature.  Richard  Wat- 
son wrote  much  of  his  work  at  Mason's  request.  In  the 
1832  Conference  he  declared,  "I,  as  Book  Steward,  am 
not  under  the  Book  Committee" — a  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence not  infrequently  occurring  in  Book  Room  poli- 
tics. Mason  preached  twice  a  Sunday  and  led  a  society 
class  at  City  Road  Chapel.  He  died,  age  eighty-three,  on 
March  1,  1864. 

Frank  Cumbers 


MASON,  WILLIAM  (1790-1873),  British  Bible  Chbis- 
TiAN  minister,  was  born  at  Stepleton,  Cookbury,  North 
Devon.  A  champion  wrestler,  he  was  converted  through 
William  O'Bryan  in  1816  and  opened  missions  in  Kent, 
Northumberland,  and  West  Somerset.  In  1827  Mason 
married  Mary  Hewitt  (1803-53),  a  maiden  preacher  of 
breeding  and  Quaker  extraction  from  Milverton.  Immense- 
ly strong,  he  could  walk  great  distances  and  quell  an 
interrupter;  at  the  age  of  sixty-six  he  was  called  out  of 
superannuation  to  reopen  the  Portland  Mission,  closed 
through  persistent  hooliganism,  and  was  triumphantly  suc- 
cessful. He  died  at  Holsworthy  May  30,  1874,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Bible  Christian  Chapel  Yard. 

Bible  Christian  Magazine,  June  1873. 

Lois  Deacon,  So  /  Went  My  Way:  William  Mason  and  His 

Wife,  Mary,  1790-1873.  London:  Epworth  Press,  1951. 

Glyn  Court 

MASON  CITY,  IOWA,  U.S.A.  First  Church,  of  colonial 
architecture,  is  the  fourth  largest  United  Methodist  con- 
gregation in  the  state  of  Iowa.  It  was  once  served  by 
William  H.  Spence,  whose  son,  Hartzell,  wrote  One 
Foot  in  Heaven  and  Get  Thee  Behind  Me  as  memoirs 
of  his  life  in  a  Methodist  parsonage,  part  of  which  were 
experienced  in  Mason  City. 

Judge  Elisha  Randall,  the  pioneer  Methodist  in  Mason 
City,  came  from  New  York  in  1855,  carrying  a  preacher's 
license  from  his  home  church.  A  man  of  clear  vision,  he 
erected  a  saw  mill  on  the  banks  of  the  Winnebago.  The 
winter  of  1855-56,  which  is  recorded  as  one  of  the  worst 
on  Iowa's  prairies,  left  great  choking  white  drifts  which 
in  springtime  melted  to  carry  havoc  before  them.  The 
saw  mill  was  swept  away.  Undaunted  Elisha  Randall 
and  his  neighbors  built  a  new  saw  mill  on  the  ruins  of 
the  old.  Randall  and  ten  companions  soon  afterward 
started  a  Methodist  class  on  March  8,  1857,  the  first 
religious  organization  in  the  little  settlement  of  Mason- 
ville. 

In  1866  it  was  decided  to  build  a  church.  The  deed 
was  in  the  name  of  the  Congregational  Society.  All  helped 
to  build  the  stone  structure,  now  a  part  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church. 

The  first  Methodist  church  building  was  constructed 
in  1869,  a  flat-roof  structure  costing  $3,000.  The  congre- 
gation is  now  worshipping  in  its  third  building,  valued 
in  excess  of  $1,000,000.  A  large  cross-section  of  the  city's 


populace,  3,000  persons  in  a  city  of  32,500  population, 
are  members  of  the  present-day  church,  and  many  others 
turn  to  it  for  spiritual  help  and  guidance. 

General  Minutes. 

Mason  City  Globe-Gazette,  Oct.  21,  1968.    Leroy  E.  Bauman 

MASSACHUSETTS,  one  of  the  five  smallest  states  in  the 
Union  with  an  area  of  8,257  square  miles  and  a  popula- 
tion of  5,630,224  in  1970,  has,  from  its  Puritan  beginning 
at  Plymouth  in  1620  to  the  present,  made  a  distinctive 
imprint  upon  the  character  and  culture  of  the  United 
States.  The  nickname  "Bay  State"  characterizes  the  eastern 
shoreline  bordering  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  It  suggests  a 
great  history  of  fishing,  shipbuilding,  and  commerce.  The 
Indian  word  "Massachusetts,"  meaning  "near  hills,"  char- 
acterizes the  intervening  140  miles  to  the  Berkshire  Hills 
near  New  York  State;  it  suggests  small  farms,  diversified 
industry,  and  the  tourist  trade.  Into  this  territory  Meth- 
odism made  a  late  organizational  thrust  in  the  final  decade 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

To  be  sure,  George  Whitefield  impressed  thousands 
throughout  Massachusetts  with  his  preaching  during  the 
evangelical  revival  from  1740  onward.  In  Boston  Charles 
Wesley,  stormbound  en  route  from  Georgia  to  England, 
had  preached  in  1736;  there  Richard  Boardman  orga- 
nized a  class  in  1772;  there  William  Black  served  Meth- 
odism briefly  in  1784,  and  there  Freeborn  Garrettson 
did  the  same  a  few  years  later.  But  all  of  those  early 
efforts  were  without  permanent  results. 

To  Jesse  Lee  history  appropriately  accords  the  title, 
"Apostle  of  New  England  Methodism."  Having  been  ap- 
pointed at  John  Street  Church  in  New  York  City  on 
May  28,  1789  to  "the  Stamford  Circuit,"  as  yet  without 
boundaries  or  organization,  Lee  began  his  New  England 
work  the  following  month  in  Norwalk,  Conn.  By  the 
summer  of  1790  he  had  penetrated  Massachusetts,  preach- 
ing in  Wilbraham  on  May  3  and  in  Boston,  July  9.  His 
first  organizational  success  was  the  establishment  of  a 
society  in  Lynn  on  Feb.  20,  1791.  The  following  year  a 
small  society  was  organized  in  Boston.  As  time  passed, 
Lynn  became  the  stronghold  of  Massachusetts  Methodism. 

Bishop  Asbury  made  his  first  visit  to  Massachusetts  in 
1791.  He  was  disappointed  because  Methodism  was  being 
so  poorly  received  throughout  New  England.  Method- 
ism's difficulty  in  Massachusetts,  as  in  other  parts  of  New 
England,  was  threefold.  (1)  Congregationalism  and  An- 
glicanism were  already  well  established;  in  many  com- 
munities the  established  clergymen  were  supported  by 
taxation;  and  the  coming  of  itinerant  enthusiasts  threat- 
ened the  social  and  economic  status  of  the  community. 
(2)  The  "experimental  nature"  of  Methodism  with  field 
preaching,  extempore  prayers,  and  testimonies  was  viewed 
suspiciously  by  conservative  Yankee  Calvinists.  (3)  Meth- 
odist leaders,  including  Asbury,  had  deliberately  post- 
poned work  in  Massachusetts  and  the  other  New  England 
states,  concentrating  first  on  the  South  and  the  West,  er- 
roneously believing  there  was  no  "dearth  of  religion"  in 
New  England  because  of  the  "Edwards-Whitefield  evan- 
gelical revival." 

In  spite  of  difficulties  Methodism  moved  forward.  In 
1796  the  New  England  Conference  was  created.  Orig- 
inally including  all  the  New  England  states,  the  bound- 
aries of  this  conference  were  altered  several  times.  By 
1840  the  words  "the  New  England  Conference"  were 
synonymous  with  Massachusetts  Methodism  alone,  minus 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MASTERSON'S   STATION 


sections  not  only  in  the  extreme  west  but  also  in  the 
southeastern  and  northeastern  portions  of  the  state. 

There  were  824  Methodists  in  Massachusetts  in  1796. 
Between  1800  and  1820  there  were  nearly  600  conver- 
sions a  year  in  the  New  England  Conference.  In  1900  the 
conference  reported  40,667  members.  Still  numerically 
few  in  comparison  with  the  total  population  of  the  state 
(about  two  percent  were  members  of  The  Methodist 
Church  in  1968),  Massachusetts  Methodists  have  exerted 
a  liberalizing  influence  on  the  Christian  church  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  beyond  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  num- 
bers. This  claim  is  substantiated  by  the  work  of  Orange 
Scott,  Henry  Helms,  and  Lewis  O.  Hartman  in  the 
field  of  social  concerns;  by  the  sei-vice  of  William  But- 
ler, Clementina  Butler,  and  Gilbert  Haven  in  mis- 
sions; by  the  ministry  of  John  Dempster,  Wilbur  Fiske, 
and  James  Porter  in  education;  and  by  the  contribution 
of  Albert  C.  Knltdson  and  Edgar  F.  Brightman  in 
theology.  At  the  present  time  Massachusetts  Methodists 
are  striving  to  relate  the  pragmatism  and  piety  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  revival  to  urban  renewal,  church  extension,  and 
ecumenicity. 

The  Methodist  Protestants  organized  a  small  Boston 
Conference  in  1830.  It  became  a  mission  conference  in 
1880  and  disappeared  soon  after  1900. 

The  Methodists  began  the  publication  of  Zion's  Herald 
in  Boston  in  1823.  It  changed  names  and  combined  with 
other  papers  for  brief  periods.  Now  a  monthly  it  has  been 
published  under  the  original  name  for  more  than  140 
years. 

In  1970  The  United  Methodist  Church  had  about 
100,000  members  in  Massachusetts. 

Boston  Area  Study,  Church  Surveys,  Boston  Univ.,  1963. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica  Junior,  Vol.  X,  1960. 

Jones,  George  H.,  Methodist  Tourist  Guidebook,  1966. 

Minutes  of  tlie  New  England  Conference. 

Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

W.  W.  Sweet,  Methodism  in  American  History. 

Ernest  R.  Case 

MASSEY,  ALABAMA,  U.S.A.  McKendree  Church,  located 
in  the  far  southwestern  comer  of  Morgan  County,  north 
Alabama,  is  an  old  historic  Methodist  church. 

Named  for  an  early  Methodist  leader.  Bishop  Mc- 
Kendree, the  McKendree  Church  was  established  in  the 
1820's  as  a  society,  where  meetings  were  held  in  an  old 
threshing  bam,  on  Crowdabout  Creek.  The  old  bam, 
weatherproof ed  and  renovated,  was  used  as  a  house  of 
worship,  which  was  served  by  visiting  circuit-riders,  until 
1840.  In  that  year,  land  was  donated  by  Augusta  Hewlett, 
grandfather  of  the  late  Roy  Hewlett,  Methodist  minister 
of  the  North  Alabama  Conference.  On  this  land  a  log 
church  was  built  and  this  remained  in  use  until  the  need 
for  a  larger  church  necessitated  the  building  of  a  third 
structure  across  the  road  in  the  year  1887. 

This  sanctuary  was  used  until  the  present  church  was 
built  in  1947.  Throughout  these  years,  the  McKendree 
Methodist  Church  has  remained  a  vibrant  witness  to  a 
faith  as  strong  as  its  pioneer  founders. 

Decatur  (Alabama)   Daily,  Dec.   12,   1964;   Dec.   19,   1965. 

Jimmy  E.  Howard 

MASTER,  VIRJIBHAI  KHOJABHAI  (1892-1953),  and 
ITHIELBHAI  VIRJIBHAI  (1912-  ),  Gujarati  Methodist 
ministers,  were  father  and  son. 


Virjibhai,  the  father,  was  born  at  Uttarsanda,  a  village 
five  miles  from  Nadiad.  His  education  began  in  a  Salva- 
tion Army  primary  school  in  his  village.  He  came  to  the 
Methodist  Boys'  School  at  Nadiad  when  he  was  about 
nine  years  old.  He  passed  the  Vernacular  Gujarati  Final 
Examination,  equivalent  to  the  sixth  grade,  and  then  en- 
tered the  Florence  B.  Nicholson  School  of  Theology  in 
Baroda,  where  he  was  known  as  an  intelligent  and  studious 
young  man  and  a  fervent  Christian.  He  served  acceptably 
in  rural  appointments;  and,  while  not  neglecting  any  part 
of  his  pastoral  duty,  he  continued  his  Bible  study  and 
acquired  considerable  freedom  in  the  use  of  English. 

He  became  a  teacher  in  the  school  of  theology,  and  a 
missionary  colleague  said  of  him,  "He  studies  harder  than 
any  of  his  students."  While  teaching  in  the  seminary,  he 
began  editing  a  Gujarati  language  paper.  He  translated 
into  Gujarati  the  Methodist  Book  of  Discipline  and  a  num- 
ber of  English  hymns.  For  a  few  years,  he  was  principal 
of  the  school  of  theology.  Other  appointments  were  the 
pastorate  of  two  strong  city  churches,  the  superintendency 
of  three  districts,  and  the  chaplaincy  of  the  Nadiad  Meth- 
odist Hospital.  He  died  on  April  15,  1953,  in  Baroda. 

Ithielbhai,  his  son,  is  a  graduate  of  Leonard  Theolog- 
ical College.  As  a  Crusade  Scholar  he  took  advanced 
training  in  the  United  States,  eaming  a  Master's  Degree 
from  Southwestern  University  at  Georgetown,  Texas, 
and  a  B.D.  at  Asbury  Seminary.  He  has  sei-ved  with  dis- 
tinction as  a  pastor  and  a  district  superintendent  and  has 
been  prominent  in  interdenominational  activities.  For  five 
years,  he  was  vice-president  of  the  India  Christian  En- 
deavor Union  and  was  a  delegate  to  the  world  convention 
of  that  body  at  London  in  1950.  For  years  he  has  been 
secretary  of  the  Gujarat  Regional  Christian  Council.  He 
has  represented  his  Annual  Conference  in  the  Central 
Conference  of  Southern  Asia  repeatedly,  and  has  been 
delegate  to  the  General  Conference  of  The  Methodist 
Church  three  times. 

Journals  of  the   Bombay  and  Gujarat   Annual   Conferences. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

MASTERSON'S  STATION,  near  Lexington,  Ky.,  U.S.A., 
was  the  seat  of  the  first  Methodist  Conference  in  Ken- 
tucky in  1790.  Richard  Masterson  came  from  Virginia 
and  in  1784  built  a  log  dwelling  five  miles  northeast  of 
Lexington.  A  Methodist  class  was  organized  in  his  home 
and  soon  a  log  meetinghouse  was  built,  the  first  Methodist 
meetinghouse  in  Kentucky. 

In  the  spring  of  1790  Francis  Asbury  called  the 
preachers  who  had  come  into  Kentucky  to  meet  him  at 
this  place  in  the  first  Methodist  Conference  to  be  held  in 
the  Kentucky  territory.  Bishop  Asbury  came  through  the 
wilderness  from  North  Carolina  accompanied  by  Rich- 
ard Whatcoat  (later  Bishop),  Hope  Hull,  and  John 
Sewell.  At  Masterson's  Station  they  met  with  the  six 
preachers,  Francis  Poythress,  James  Haw,  Wilson  Lee, 
Stephen  Brooks,  Barnabas  McHenry,  and  Peter  Massie. 
Thomas  Wilkerson  arrived  later.  The  conference  lasted  for 
two  days;  Wilson  Lee,  Thomas  Wilkerson  and  Barnabas 
McHenry  were  ordained  elders.  Bishop  Asbury  writes  in 
his  Journal:  "We  had  preaching  noon  and  night  and 
souls  were  converted  and  the  fallen  restored." 

There  were  no  separate  minutes  taken  of  the  confer- 
ence. The  only  records  we  have  are  from  the  testimony 
of  those  who  were  present.  To  the  two  circuits  in  the 
state,  two  new  circuits  were  added  and  four  new  preachers 


MASTERTON,    NEW   ZEALAND 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


were  assigned.  Francis  Poythress  was  appointed  as  pre- 
siding elder.  The  membership  of  the  chiirch  was  reported 
as  1,265  whites  and  107  colored.  Plans  for  Bethel  Acad- 
emy were  adopted.  No  other  church  had  at  that  time 
undertaken  such  an  enterprise.  A  subscription  of  300 
pounds  in  land  and  money  was  taken  and  the  preachers 
sent  out  with  instructions  to  "Beg  for  Bethel  Academy." 


W.  E.  Arnold,  Kentucky.  19.35-36. 
F.  Asbur>-,  Journal  and  Letters.  19.58. 
A.    H.    Redford,    Kentucky.    1868-70. 


Hahry    R.    Short 


MASTERTON,     New     Zealand.     Homeleigh     Children's 

Home,  si.\ty-four  miles  northeast  of  Wellington,  was  estab- 
lished in  1921  as  a  Methodist  home  for  children  denied 
normal  home  care.  It  serves  the  southern  half  of  the  North 
Island.  The  home  is  a  single  unit,  three-story  concrete 
building  to  which  a  recreation  wing  was  added  in  1959. 
Funds  for  the  establishment  and  partial  maintenance  of 
the  home  were  provided  from  income  from  trust  lands 
granted  to  the  Wesleyans  in  1852  by  the  colonial  gover- 
nor, George  Grey.  The  home  stands  on  fourteen  acres  of 
ground  that  produce  vegetables,  milk,  and  eggs  for  home 
use. 

The  first  matron  was  Sister  May  Moriarty,  and  James 
Cocker  was  secretary-manager  until  his  death  in  1935. 
N.  H.  Prior,  a  foundation  member  of  the  board  of  man- 
agement and  honorary  physician  to  the  home,  served  for 
a  record  term  of  forty-two  years  before  retirement  in 
1962. 

John  B.  Dawson 

MATHABATHE,  SAMUEL,  was  bom  in  Secocoeni's  tribe, 
went  to  Pietermaritzburg  in  Natal  to  look  for  work  in 
1866  and  was  converted  through  the  Rev.  James  Allison. 
In  1873  he  returned  to  his  own  people  with  a  Christian 
companion,  Johannes.  The  chief,  Pahlala,  threatened  to 
kill  him  if  he  preached,  so  he  went  from  house  to  house 
teaching  the  Bible.  Four  years  later  the  chief  died  and 
his  successor,  his  chief  wife,  a  sister  to  Secocoeni,  granted 
permission  for  services  and  a  school.  The  work  prospered. 
A  church  was  erected.  Converts  were  baptized  by  Dr. 
Hofmeyr  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  who  honored 
their  wish  to  remain  Wesleyans,  and  even  gave  them  tlie 
Holy  Communion.  Two  men  were  sent  to  the  French 
Mission  in  Basutoland  for  training  as  teachers  and  on  their 
return,  worked  under  the  direction  of  Mathabathe.  In 
1882  Mathabathe  resisted  an  order  of  the  chieftainess 
that  a  twin  child  should  be  killed  according  to  heathen 
custom.  In  consequence,  the  church  was  burned  to  the 
ground  and  200  Christians  were  ordered  to  leave.  Matha- 
bathe arranged  for  some  to  go  North  with  Johannes  while 
he  took  the  rest  to  a  farm  in  the  South  called  Good  Hope. 
Watkins  purchased  this  farm  165  miles  north  of  Pretoria, 
on  behalf  of  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  in  1883 
and  it  became  an  influential  mission  station. 

Journal  of  the  Methodist   Historical  Society  of   South   Africa. 

Vol.  Ill,  No.  2  (October  1958). 

Minutes  of  South  African  Conference,  1939.       D.  C.  Veysie 

MATHER,  ALEXANDER  (173.3-1800),  British  Methodist, 
was  bom  at  Brechin,  Scotland,  in  February  1733.  His 
account  of  his  early  life,  written   in    1780,   includes  the 

1534 


Alexander  Mather 

story  of  how  as  a  boy  he  joined  the  rebellion  of  1745  and 
was  lucky  to  escape  with  his  life.  The  autobiography  also 
contains  an  important  description  of  his  experience  of 
Christian  perfection  in  the  years  1757-60.  He  had 
been  converted  under  John  Wesley's  own  preaching 
in  London  in  1754  and  became  an  itinerant  in  1757. 
He  was  one  of  Wesley's  closest  confidants  and  lieutenants 
during  the  last  ten  years  of  Wesley's  life,  and  in  1788  be- 
came the  first  of  the  itinerants  to  be  ordained  by  Wesley 
for  the  English  work. 

Mather  believed  that  Wesley  had  intended  him  to  as- 
sume a  guiding  role  in  the  government  of  the  Methodist 
societies  after  his  death  and,  together  with  Thomas  Coke, 
to  exercise  some  kind  of  episcopal  oversight  of  the  whole 
body.  The  Conference  of  1791,  however,  did  not  want 
an  episcopal  system,  and  both  Mather  and  Coke  were 
passed  over  in  the  election  of  the  first  president  of  the 
Conference,  thougli  Mather  was  chosen  in  1792  as  the 
second  president.  In  1794  Mather  was  associated  with 
other  leading  preachers  in  the  Lichfield  Plan,  another 
attempt  to  graft  an  episcopal  order  onto  the  connection, 
but  this  scheme  was  also  rejected  by  the  Conference  of 
1794. 

Mather  was  personally  involved  in  the  dispute  which 
led  to  the  expulsion  of  Alexander  Kilham  in  1796,  and 
published  a  pamphlet  defending  the  action  of  the  Con- 
ference. He  was  perhaps  the  leading  figure  in  the  group 
of  itinerants  who  would  have  liked  to  mold  the  Methodist 
system  more  closely  on  the  Anglican  pattern,  but  he  never 
won  the  full  confidence  of  the  preachers  as  a  leader, 
though  he  was  greatly  respected  as  "a  perfect  master  of 
all  the  minutiae  of  the  doctrines  and  discipline  of  Meth- 
odists." He  died  on  Aug.  22,  1800. 

T.  Jackson,  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers.  1837-38. 
Minutes  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference,  1801. 
G.  Osbora,  Outlines  of  Wesleyan  Bibliography.  1869. 

John  Newton 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MATHEWS,   JAMES   KENNETH 


MATHEWS,  GEORGE  MARTIN  (1848-1921),  American 
United  Brethren  bishop,  was  bom  east  of  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  on  the  Mathews'  homestead,  Aug.  22,  1848.  He 
graduated  from  Otterbein  College,  anticipating  a  legal 
profession.  In  1872,  he  married  Clara  Belle  Hopper,  and 
had  one  son,  Milton.  Without  consulting  him,  his  home 
church  recommended  him  for  license  to  preach  in  1878. 
The  next  year  he  was  licensed  by  the  Miami  Conference, 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  and  ordained  by  the  same 
Conference  in  1882.  He  graduated  from  Union  Biblical 
Seminary  (now  United  Theological  Seminary)  also  in 
1882.  He  was  pastor  of  the  Summit  Street  Church,  Day- 
ton, Ohio,  1884-89;  served  as  presiding  elder  of  the 
Miami  Conference,  1889-94;  was  pastor  of  the  First 
Church,  Dayton,  Ohio,  1894-98;  and  was  associate  editor 
of  the  Religious  Telescope,  1898-1902. 

At  age  fifty-three,  he  was  elected  bishop  in  1902  where 
first  he  had  residence  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  then  in  Chicago, 
111.,  for  twelve  years,  but  was  back  in  Dayton  for  the  last 
quadrennium.  During  this  time  he  wrote  two  books; 
Justification  (1902)  and  Christ  in  the  Life  of  Today 
(1916). 

Bishop  Mathews  touched  every  part  of  the  church.  He 
served  on  the  executive  committee  of  the  Federal  Coun- 
cil OF  Churches.  He  was  distinguished  for  the  tenderness 
and  strength  of  his  emotional  nature,  at  once  genuinely 
human  and  thoroughly  Christian. 

He  died  after  a  short  illness  at  Dayton,  Ohio,  April  3, 
1921.  Orville  Wright,  the  famous  inventor,  served  as  one 
of  the  honorary  pallbearers.  Interment  was  in  Woodland 
Cemetery,  Dayton. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  U.B.  1924. 

Koontz  and  Roush,  The  Bishops.  1950.      Gale  L.  Bakkalow 


James  K.  Mathews 

MATHEWS,   JAMES    KENNETH    (1913-  ),   American 

missionary  and  bishop,  was  bom  on  Feb.  10,  1913,  at 
Breezewood,  Pa.,  the  son  of  James  Davenport  and  Laura 
Mae  Wilson  Mathews.  He  grew  up  in  Ohio  and  Texas. 
He  received  his  A.B.  degree  from  Lincoln  Memorial 
University  in  1934;  his  S.T.B.  in  1937  from  the  Biblical 
Seminary  in  New  York.  He  did  graduate  work  in  1937- 
38  at  the  Boston  UNivERsrry  School  of  Theology.  In 


1957  he  received  his  Ph.D.  from  Columbia  University, 
his  thesis  being  a  study  of  the  religious  teachings  of 
Mahatma  Gandhi.  In  1955  he  spent  a  four-month  leave 
in  special  studies  on  India  at  Cambridge  University  in 
England.  He  holds  honorary  degrees  from  Lincoln  Memo- 
rial University,  D.D.,  1954;  Wesleyan  University,  D.D., 
1965;  Lycoming  College,  L.H.D.,  1966;  Ohio  Wes- 
leyan University,  L.H.D.,  1967. 

Following  a  brief  pastorate  in  New  York  City,  he  was 
commissioned  a  missionary  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1938 
and  assigned  to  service  in  India.  He  served  as  pastor  of 
Bowen  Memorial  Church  in  the  city  of  Bombay. 

On  June  1,  1940,  in  Naini  Tal,  Northern  India,  he  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Eunice  Treffry  Jones,  an  only 
daughter  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  E.  Stanley  Jones.  They  have 
three  children,  Anne  TreflFry,  Janice  Virginia  and  James 
Stanley. 

In  1941  he  was  transferred  to  Dhulia,  West  Khandesh 
district,  north  of  Bombay,  where  he  was  superintendent 
of  the  Dhulia-Pantamba  district,  until  he  volunteered  for 
military  service.  He  was  a  major  with  the  American  Army 
in  India  during  World  War  II,  1942-46.  In  1946  he  was 
elected  to  the  staff  of  the  Methodist  Board  of  Missions 
in  New  York  City  as  Secretary  for  Southern  Asia.  In  1952 
he  became  associate  general  secretary  of  the  Division  of 
World  Missions  of  the  Board.  In  that  position,  he  shared 
general  administrative  responsibility  for  the  denomina- 
tion's missionary  program  in  forty-four  countries. 

In  1956,  he  was  elected  a  bishop  of  The  Methodist 
Church  by  the  Southern  Asia  Central  Conference 
(India),  but  resigned  before  consecration,  believing  that 
at  that  stage  Indian  Methodism  was  mature  enough  no 
longer  to  require  non-Indians  for  its  episcopacy.  Two 
Indian  national  bishops  were  subsequently  elected,  Man- 
gal  Singh  and  Gabriel  Sundaram.  In  Washington, 
D.  C,  on  June  17,  1960,  he  was  elected  a  bishop  of  The 
Methodist  Church  by  the  Northeastern  Jurisdictional 
Conference  and  consecrated  on  June  19,  1960.  He  was 
assigned  to  residence  in  the  Boston  Area. 

Bishop  Mathews  has  been  active  in  the  International 
Missionary  Council  and  in  the  World  Council  of 
Churches;  he  is  a  member  of  its  Central  Committee  and 
chairman  of  the  Structure  Committee.  He  has  served  as 
a  member  of  the  General  Board  of  Evangelism;  and  of 
the  General  Board  of  Education  of  The  Methodist 
Church  and  its  Division  of  Higher  Education,  as  well 
as  chairman  of  the  Department  of  College  and  University 
Religious  Life.  He  has  been  chairman  of  the  Interboard 
Committee  on  Missionary  Education,  the  Methodist 
Committee  for  Overseas  Relief,  the  Crusade  Scholar- 
ship Committee,  and  the  Coordinating  Council.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  General  Board  of  Missions  and  of  the 
Commission  on  Ecumenical  Affairs  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church.  He  was  chairman  of  the  Consultation 
on  Church  Union,  1968-70.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Executive  Committee  and  of  the  Structure  and  Program 
Committee  of  the  World  Methodist  Council  and  of 
the  Advisory  Committee  for  a  World  Conference  on 
Religion  and  Peace.  He  has  been  a  delegate  to  numerous 
international  ecumenical  gatherings  of  the  World  Council 
of  Churches,  the  International  Missionary  Council  and 
the  World  Methodist  Council.  He  is  a  Vice-President  of 
the  National  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in  the 
U.S.A.,  a  member  of  its  Executive  Committee  and  Gen- 
eral Board,  as  well  as  chairman  of  its  Division  of  Chris- 
tian Unity. 


MATHEWS,   JOHN 

Bishop  Mathews  is  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  North  Conway  Institute  and  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  Santiago  (Chile)  College.  He  is  also  a  Trustee  of 
Boston  Unt\ersit\',  where  he  is  a  member  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee;  of  the  New  England  Deaconess  Hospital; 
Kents  Hill  School;  Tilton  School;  Claflin  Univer- 
sity, and  Bangor  Theological  Seminary. 

Bishop  Mathews  is  the  author  of  South  of  the  Hima- 
laijas,  1955,  a  popular  study  of  India  and  Pakistan  and 
the  story  of  Methodism  in  those  lands;  To  the  Ends  of 
the  Earth,  1959;  Eternal  Values  in  a  World  of  Change, 
1960;  A  New  Church  for  a  New  World  (1968);  and 
of  many  articles  and  papers  for  presentation. 


Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


MATHEWS,  JOHN  (1826-1907),  colorful  American  pas- 
tor, was  bom  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  June  13,  1826,  the 
son  of  Scotch-Irish  parents.  As  a  youth  he  moved  to 
Shelbyville,  Tenn.,  where  he  joined  the  Presbyterian 
Church  but  soon  transferred  to  the  M.E.  Church,  South. 
He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1845  and  was  admitted  to 
the  Tennessee  Conference  in  1846. 

In  the  spring  of  1852,  after  serving  several  charges  and 
while  pastor  at  Andrew  Chapel  in  Nashville,  Mathews 
responded  to  the  call  for  volunteers  for  Californl\. 
Finding  that  the  M.  E.  Church  was  already  well  en- 
trenched in  California,  and  perceiving  that  of  necessity 
he  would  be  compelled  to  defend  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  against  the  charge  that  it  was  a  slave  church,  and 
knowing  that  in  so  doing  he  would  have  to  say  things 
that  would  not  harmonize  with  his  own  convictions,  he 
soon  concluded  that  he  had  made  a  mistake.  In  the  spring 
of  1853  he  requested  a  transfer  back  to  the  States,  but 
the  bishop  (Joshua  Soule)  refused  to  grant  it.  Deter- 
mined, Mathews  boarded  the  next  steamer  out  of  San 
Francisco  and  returned  to  Tennessee.  That  fall  Bishop 
William  Capers  broke  church  law  and  appointed  him 
as  supply  preacher  at  Fayetteville,  Tenn.,  even  though  he 
was  still  a  member  of  the  Pacific  Conference.  In  1854, 
that  conference  located  Mathews  and  he  was  then  re- 
admitted to  the  Tennessee  Conference.  He  married  Mary 
A.  Menefee,  April  30,  1857,  and  they  had  five  children. 

Mathews  soon  gained  recognition  as  an  able  pastor- 
evangelist.  He  preached  to  great  audiences  wherever  he 
served  and  won  thousands  of  converts  in  his  long  min- 
istry. He  was  unique.  He  had  the  capacity  to  arouse 
enthusiasm  for  himself  and  the  cause  he  represented.  In 
the  pulpit  he  used  five  or  six  sheets  of  paper  filled  with 
notes.  Grasping  the  sheets  at  the  lower  lefthand  corner, 
he  would  fan  them  out  at  the  top  as  he  preached.  His 
hearers  observed  that  when  the  sermon  was  well  fanned 
out,  so  to  speak,  Mathews  was  through  preaching. 
Mathews  was  so  popular  that  at  the  end  of  his  first  pas- 
torate at  Centenary  Chuich,  St.  Louis  (1890),  a  testi- 
monial was  presented  to  him  by  the  mayor  of  the  city, 
the  judges  of  the  criminal  courts,  the  prosecuting  at- 
torneys, and  the  heads  of  the  police  department.  After 
three  years  at  St.  John's  Church  in  St.  Louis,  Mathews 
returned  as  pastor  at  Centenary  in  1893  and,  contrary 
to  the  law  of  the  church  which  limited  pastorates  to  four 
years  at  that  time,  stayed  five  years.  During  the  fifth 
year  his  appointment  was  listed  in  the  conference  jour- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

nal  as  "Sunday  school  Agent  and  member  of  Centenary 
Quarterly  Conference." 

Mathews  served  about  thirty  charges  in  his  long  career. 
In  addition  to  those  already  mentioned,  some  of  his  more 
important  assignments  were:  Franklin,  Decatur,  Gallatin, 
Spring  Hill,  and  McKendree  (Nashville)  in  Tennessee; 
Auburn,  Florence,  Montgomery,  Tuscaloosa,  Tuskegee, 
and  Wetumpka  in  Alabama;  Carondelet  Street,  Felicity 
Street,  and  Rayne  Memorial  in  New  Orleans;  and  Wal- 
nut Street  and  Washington  Street  in  Kansas  City,  Mo. 
He  was  appointed  to  the  important  McKendree  Church, 
Nashville,  when  seventy-two  years  of  age.  During  his 
fourth  year  there  his  health  suddenly  failed  and  he  re- 
tired at  once. 

Mathews'  autobiography.  Peeps  Into  Life,  published 
in  1904,  shows  that  he  was  a  dedicated  minister,  a  keen 
observer  of  life,  an  able  preacher,  and  an  interesting 
writer.  He  died  in  St.  Louis,  Sept.  1,  1907,  and  was  buried 
there.  A  great  crowd  attended  his  funeral. 

General  Minutes,  MECS. 

John  Mathews,  Peeps  Into  Life.  Published  by  the  Tennessee 
Conference,   1904.  Jesse  A.   Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

MATHIAS,   REX   (1907-  ),  Australian  church  leader, 

was  bom  at  Maldon,  Victoria  on  Jan.  9,  1907.  He  is  a 
graduate  of  the  University  of  Melbourne.  He  served  for 
nine  years  as  a  journalist  on  the  staffs  of  The  Herald  and 
The  Argus,  both  of  Melbourne.  In  1932  he  was  ac- 
cepted as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  and  entered  the 
Theological  Hall,  Queens  College,  and  secured  his  M.A. 
degree  in  1934.  He  gained  the  Selly  Oaks  Colleges' 
Diploma  of  Religious  Education  and  for  two  years  was  a 
lecturer  in  the  Westhill  Training  College,  Selly  Oak, 
Birmingham,  England.  On  his  return  he  was  appointed  as 
a  staff  member  to  the  Victoria  and  Tasmania  Methodist 
Young  People's  Department  and  in  1940-44  was  Chaplain 
at  Wesley  College. 

He  became  the  First  Director  of  the  Council  for  Chris- 
tian Education  in  Schools  (Victoria),  1944-46,  followed 
by  an  appointment  as  First  Director  of  the  Methodist 
Federal  Board  of  Education  and  Co-Director  and  Editor- 
in-Chief  of  the  Joint  Board  of  Graded  Lessons  of  Aus- 
tralia and  New  Zealand.  Always  interested  in  mass 
media,  he  was  first  Chairman  of  the  Australian  Religious 
Film  Society,  1945-64.  He  was  a  popular  and  regular 
speaker  on  Melbourne's  famous  Yarra  Bank  on  the  "Voice 
of  Methodism"  platform,  1946-61.  Deeply  involved  in 
Evangelism,  he  served  as  Secretary  to  "The  Mission  to  the 
Nation,"  1953-56. 

Elected  as  Secretary  of  the  Victoria  and  Tasmania 
Conference,  he  became  President  in  1962-63.  In  1965- 
69  he  was  Superintendent  of  the  Canberra  Circuit,  Aus- 
tralian Capital  Territory,  and  is  now  Chairman  of  the 
Geelong  Synod  District,  Victoria  and  Tasmania  Confer- 
ence, 

He  is  the  Secretary-General  and  President-General  elect 
of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Australasia,  1969-72. 

S.  G.  Claughton 

MATIU  and  RIHIMONA,  New  Zealand  Methodist  Maori 
laymen,  were  the  first  martyrs  for  Christ  among  their 
people.  During  1837,  the  two  young  men,  accompanied 
by  Wiremu  Patene  and  Hohepa  Otene  went  to  preach 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MAVIS,   W.    CURRY 


the  Gospel  to  a  Chief  Kaitoke,  who  hved  near  Manga- 
muka  (Northland). 

Kaitoke  had  threatened  to  kill  anyone  who  dared  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  him  and  fired  on  the  party,  killing 
Matiu  and  Rihimona,  and  wounding  the  others.  The  rela- 
tives of  the  martyrs  attacked  and  captured  Kaitoke,  who, 
after  receiving  instruction,  professed  a  desire  to  become  a 
Christian. 


W.   Morley,   New  Zealand.   1900. 


L.     R.     M.     GiLMORE 


MATLACK,  LUCIUS  C.  (1816-1883),  American  minister 
and  organizer  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Connection 
in  the  United  States,  was  born  in  Baltimore  on  April 
28,  1816.  Having  been  licensed  to  preach,  he  was  recom- 
mended for  reception  into  the  Philadelphia  Annual 
Conference  in  1837.  He  was  refused  admission  by  a 
unanimous  vote  because  of  his  abolitionist  sentiment,  and 
in  1838  he  was  rejected  a  second  time  for  the  same  reason. 
In  1839  his  license  was  withheld,  whereupon  he  accepted 
an  invitation  from  Orange  Scott  and  went  to  New 
England.  There  he  was  rehcensed  by  the  Quarterly  Con- 
ference at  Lowell,  Mass.,  and  was  received  on  trial  into 
the  New  England  Conference  in  1840.  In  protest 
against  the  ambiguous  position  of  various  Methodist  con- 
ferences on  the  matter  of  slavery,  Matlack  in  1842  joined 
with  Orange  Scott,  La  Roy  Sunderland,  and  Jothan  Hor- 
ton  in  a  statement  of  withdrawal  from  the  M.  E.  Church 
and  agreed  to  call  a  convention  to  organize  a  new  denomi- 
nation, "free  from  episcopacy  and  slavery."  Thus  began 
the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in  America. 

Matlack  filled  many  offices  of  trust  in  the  new  organi- 
zation, at  one  time  serving  both  as  Connectional  Agent 
and  Editor,  and  as  president  of  the  General  Conference. 
In  1860  he  was  appointed  chaplain  of  the  8th  Illinois 
Cavalry  but  was  soon  transferred  to  the  fighting  ranks  of 
the  Union  Army  as  a  major,  and  for  heroic  services  in  the 
field  he  was  breveted  colonel  of  the  17th  Illinois  Cavalry. 

In  the  fall  of  1866,  however,  Matlack  along  with  Luther 
Lee,  John  McEldowny,  and  Cyrus  Prindle  withdrew  from 
the  Wesleyan  Connection  in  disappointment  over  the 
failure  of  merger  considerations  with  the  M.  P.  Church. 
Matlack  reunited  with  the  M.  E.  Church,  being  received 
by  unanimous  vote  and  with  great  cordiality  into  the 
Philadelphia  Conference  in  1867. 

He  served  appointments  on  the  Wilmington  District 
until  1869,  when  he  transferred  to  the  Louisiana  Con- 
ference. He  was  presiding  elder  of  the  New  Orleans 
District  until  1873,  when  he  transferred  to  the  Wilming- 
ton Conference  which  had  been  formed  out  of  the 
Philadelphia  Conference.  Matlack  continued  to  serve 
appointments  in  Wilmington  and  Easton  Districts,  with 
four  years  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Wilmington  District, 
until  his  death  at  Cambridge,  Md.,  June  24,  1883. 

Matlack  was  married  twice.  First  to  Miss  Maria  Ruhl 
of  Philadelphia,  who  died  in  New  Orleans;  and  in  1873 
to  Miss  Roberta  H.  Stephenson,  who,  with  a  son,  survived 
him. 

General  Minutes,  1884. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism,  1964. 

The  American  Wesleyan  for  July   11,   1883   and  October  3, 

1966.  Louise    L.    Qiteen 

MATTOON,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A.  (population  19,616).  First 
Church  is  a  large  church  in  a  small  city  with  approxi- 


mately ten  percent  of  the  people  in  its  membership.  As 
early  as  Jan.  5,  1856,  there  is  a  filed  record  naming 
"trustees  of  the  M.  E.  Church  of  Mattoon,  as  of  the  18th 
day  of  August  last."  In  1856  W.  R.  Howard,  a  circuit 
rider,  gathered  together  eight  people  and  organized  the 
first  Methodist  Society  of  Mattoon.  The  first  meetings 
were  held  in  the  homes  of  the  people,  and  among  the 
first  members  was  Clemm  Goar,  who  was  the  moving 
spirit  of  the  group.  The  first  resident  pastor  was  Benjamin 
Newman,  who  came  in  1857. 

In  1859  the  first  church  building,  a  brick  edifice  with 
ceihng  eighteen  feet  high  and  costing  $10,000,  was  dedi- 
cated at  what  is  now  1318-1320  Champaign  Avenue.  A 
great  storm  did  much  damage  to  the  church  building  in 
1864. 

By  1871  the  town's  population  had  shifted,  so  the  con- 
gregation erected  a  larger  brick  church  at  the  northwest 
comer  of  Charleston  Avenue  at  First  Street  (now  17th). 
This  cost  $12,500.  E.  D.  Wilkins  was  then  pastor.  In 
1878-79  the  membership  was  463  and  average  Sunday 
school  attendance  was  321.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dudley  Hopper 
deeded  their  home  to  the  church  for  a  parsonage,  and  it 
was  used  by  J.  B.  Homey,  1900-03. 

The  second  church  building  was  completely  destroyed 
by  fire  June  15,  1901,  and  the  cornerstone  for  the  present 
church  was  laid  April  10,  1902.  The  new  church  on  a  new 
site  was  dedicated  in  February  1903.  It  cost  $42,500, 
and  had  a  membership  of  750. 

After  some  improvements,  a  rededication  service  was 
held  in  1910  with  Bishop  William  A.  Quayle  preaching. 
Value  of  the  property  then  was  $60,000.  Under  G.  W. 
Oliver,  1913-15,  die  membership  reached  1,640.  Thomas 
B.  LuGG  was  pastor  from  1928  to  1931,  and  he  later  be- 
came general  treasurer  of  World  Service  and  Finance 
of  The  Methodist  Church. 

During  the  pastorate  of  Leland  L.  Lawrence,  1946- 
49,  remodeling  and  improvements  were  made  costing 
$140,000.  Under  the  present  pastor,  Clifford  C.  Brown, 
1964-  ,  remodeling  for  new  classrooms  was  done. 
Also  a  building  was  purchased  in  the  church  block  for 
educational  purposes  costing  $63,000. 

Forty-two  pastors  have  served  First  Church.  It  has 
entertained  three  annual  conferences,  the  first  in  Septem- 
ber 1874.  In  1970  First  Church  had  1,839  members  and 
the  property  was  valued  at  $651,066. 

Mrs.  H.  E.  Champion,  "History  of  First  Church,"  ms.  1968. 
General  Minutes.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

MAVIS,  W.   CURRY    (1905-  ),  American  minister,  is 

an  ordained  elder  of  the  Kentucky-Tennessee  Conference 
of  the  Free  Methodist  Church  and  a  professor  at 
Asbury  Theological  Seminary.  He  was  bom  at  West 
Salem,  111.  He  secured  the  A.B.  degree  at  Greenville 
College,  and  the  A.M.  at  New  York  University.  He  also 
holds  the  Th.M.  and  Ph.D.  degrees  from  the  University 
of  Southern  California.  He  was  pastor  of  Free  Methodist 
churches  in  Iowa  and  California  and  a  superintendent 
of  the  Iowa  Conference  of  the  Free  Methodist  Church. 
Dr.  Mavis  was  president  of  Los  Angeles  Pacific  College 
and  is  now  professor  at  Asbury  Theological  Seminary, 
Wilmore,  Kentucky.  He  is  author  of  Advancing  the 
Smaller  Local  Church;  Beyond  Conformity;  and  The 
Psychology  of  Christian  Experience.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Mavis 
make  their  home  at  Wilmore,  Ky. 

Bi-RON  S.  Lamson 


MAXEY,    ELIZABETH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


MAXEY,  ELIZABETH  (1846-1924),  was  a  Methodist  dea- 
coness in  Calcutta  for  many  years.  She  was  closely  as- 
sociated with  the  ministry  of  Francis  Wesley  Warne 
while  he  was  pastor  of  Thoburn  Church,  Calcutta.  Before 
leaving  for  Indl\  in  1888,  she  had  taught  in  Ohio  schools 
for  twenty-one  years. 

Miss  Ma.xey  succeeded  in  helping  a  vast  number  of 
people,  moving  easily  and  often  between  the  palaces  of 
the  wealthy  and  the  hovels  of  the  poor.  Among  those 
who  bore  witness  to  her  helpfulness  were  the  renowned 
merchants  and  their  wives.  Sir  Thomas  and  Lady  Lipton 
and  Sir  Robert  and  Lady  Laidlaw.  The  former  invited 
her,  after  she  returned,  to  their  home  in  Britain  and  pro- 
vided the  expenses  of  her  return  to  India.  The  latter  were 
members  of  Thoburn  Church  and  conferred  with  her 
often  about  the  needs  of  poor  Anglo-Indians  and  Indian 
Christians. 

Bishop  Warne  testified  to  her  rare  ability  to  move  well- 
to-do  people  to  assist  the  needy,  and  credited  her  with  an 
influence  upon  Robert  Laidlaw  that  contributed  largely  to 
his  magnificent  benefactions  to  Calcutta  Boys'  School  and 
to  other  English-language  schools  in  India. 

Miss  Maxey  died  in  Urbana,  Ohio,  May  30,  1924. 

J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956.       J.  Waskom  Pickett 


Thomas  Maxfield 

MAXFIELD,  THOMAS  (d.l784),  British  Methodist,  was 
converted  as  a  young  man  under  John  Wesley's  preach- 
ing at  Bristol  on  May  21,  1739,  and  was  soon  made  the 
leader  of  a  band  there.  The  following  year  he  accompa- 
nied Charles  Wesley  to  London,  where  he  was  given 
pastoral  responsibility  as  a  trusted  assistant  leader.  It  was 
almost  certainly  in  the  winter  of  1740-41  that  John  Wes- 
ley left  him  in  pastoral  charge  of  the  Foundery  society 
while  he  went  to  Bristol.  During  that  period  Maxfield 
gradually  progressed  from  speaking  of  his  Christian  expe- 
rience and  giving  general  exhortations  to  preaching,  i.e. 
expounding  a  text  from  the  Bible.  In  Wesley's  view  this 
was  the  prerogative  of  an  ordained  deacon,  to  whom 
alone  was  committed  the  ministry  of  God's  Word.  When 
news  of  tliis  indiscretion  was  relayed  to  him  in  Bristol, 
therefore,  he  hastened  to  London,  complaining  to  his 
mother  (who  spent  her  last  years  at  the  Foundery), 
"Thomas  Ma.\field  has  turned  preacher,  I  find." 

She  replied,  "Take  care  what  you  do  with  respect  to 
that  young  man,   for  he  is   as  surely   called  of  God   to 


preach  as  you  are.  Examine  what  have  been  the  fruits  of 
his  preaching,  and  hear  him  also  yourself."  Having  fol- 
lowed her  advice,  Wesley's  "prejudice  bowed  before  the 
force  of  truth:  and  he  could  only  say,  'It  is  the  Lord:  let 
him  do  what  seemeth  him  good.'"  (Coke  and  Moore, 
Life  of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  pp.  219-20.) 

Maxfield  made  a  similar  deep  impression  upon  Selina, 
Countess  of  Huntingdon.  Thus  convinced,  in  the  early 
months  of  1741,  John  Wesley  began  to  employ  Thomas 
Maxfield  as  a  full  time  lay  preacher,  his  first  "son  in  the 
gospel,"  the  forerunner  of  the  many  more  without  whose 
assistance  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  extend  and 
sustain  the  Methodist  societies  throughout  the  British  Isles. 

For  many  years  Maxfield  remained  one  of  Wesley's 
most  trusted  itinerant  preachers,  present  at  many  con- 
ferences, and  from  1745  onwards  named  one  of  the 
Assistants,  although  the  minutes  for  1755  listed  him 
for  the  time  being  as  one  of  the  chief  Local  Preachers. 
At  the  1758  conference  his  name  followed  immediately 
those  of  the  Wesleys,  a  position  which  would  have  been 
especially  appropriate  if  (as  is  likely)  he  had  already 
been  ordained  priest  by  Dr.  William  Barnard,  bishop  of 
Derry  1747-68.  This  ordination  was  on  Wesley's  recom- 
mendation, and  the  bishop  told  Maxfield:  "Mr.  Maxfield, 
I  ordain  you  to  assist  that  good  man,  that  he  may  not 
work  himself  to  death." 

Maxfield  was  an  emotional  preacher,  and  somewhat 
inclined  to  exaggeration.  In  the  early  1760's  he  became 
the  leader  of  a  group  of  London  visionaries  (including 
George  Bell)  who  rejected  normal  Methodist  discipline. 
Disowned  by  Wesley  (or  disowning  Wesley,  depending 
on  the  point  of  view)  in  1763  he  set  up  as  an  independent 
minister  in  London.  In  1766  he  published  for  his  con- 
gregation A  Collection  of  Psalms  and  Hymns,  with  a 
companion  Collection  of  Hymns  for  the  Lord's  Supper. 
The  following  year  he  issued  A  Vindication  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Maxfield's  Conduct  in  not  continuing  with  the  Rev. 
Mr.  John  Wesley,  and  of  his  behaviour  since  that  time, 
which  Wesley  belatedly  answered  in  print  in  1778. 

Maxfield  married  a  wealthy  lady,  Elizabeth  Branford, 
one  of  George  Whitefield's  converts,  by  whom  he  had 
a  large  family.  She  died  in  1777.  Maxfield  himself  was 
seized  with  a  paralytic  stroke  on  Dec.  21,  1782,  and  died 
March  18,  1784.  His  breach  with  Methodism  was  to  some 
extent  healed  during  his  later  years. 

C.  Atmore,  Methodist  Memorial.  1801,  1871. 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 
J.  Wesley,  Journal.  1909-16. 

,  Letters.  1931. 

Wesley  Historical  See.  Proceedings,  x.xi,  xxvii.     Frank  Baker 

MAXWELL,  D'ARCY,  Lady  Maxwell  (P1742-1810),  Scots 
Methodist,  was  the  youngest  daughter  of  Thomas  Bris- 
bane of  Brisbane,  Ayrshire,  Scotland.  Educated  in  Edin- 
burgh, at  sixteen  she  went  to  live  in  London  with  her 
aimt  the  Marchioness  of  Lothian,  by  whom  she  was 
presented  at  court.  Shortly  afterwards  she  married  Sir 
Walter  Maxwell,  fourth  baronet  of  Pollok,  Scotland,  but 
at  the  age  of  nineteen  lost  both  her  husband  and  their 
baby  son.  Personal  tragedy  led  to  a  deepened  spiritual 
life,  conversion,  and  an  unceasing  spiritual  pilgrimage. 
Later  she  testified:  "God  brouglit  me  to  himself  by  afflic- 
tions." In  January  1762  she  entered  into  a  solemn  covenant 
with  God,  which  she  put  into  writing  in  1764  and  fre- 
quently renewed,  especially  at  Holy  Communion. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MAYSVILLE,   KENTUCKY 


Shortly  after  her  husband's  death  Lady  Maxwell  had 
moved  to  Wariston's  Close,  Edinburgh,  and  became  a 
member  of  the  West  Kirk  (St.  Cuthbert's).  Although  at 
first  she  employed  a  private  chaplain  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  to  care  for  the  spiritual  needs  of  her  household, 
after  a  few  years  she  herself  conducted  daily  worship  for 
them,  a  practice  which  she  kept  up  for  about  forty  years. 

D'Arcy,  Lady  Maxwell,  was  much  more  sensitive  and 
saintly  than  her  friend,  the  somewhat  imperious  Lady 
Glenorchy,  yet  she  retained  the  attributes  of  Martha 
as  well  as  of  Mary.  Named  as  Lady  Glenorchy's  executor, 
she  faithfully  prosecuted  her  friend's  chapel-building  and 
other  religious  projects.  On  her  own  account  she  also 
founded  in  1770  and  continued  to  maintain  a  charity 
school  in  Edinburgh,  where  by  her  death  over  800  poor 
children  had  been  trained.  She  was  a  keen  advocate  of 
Sunday  Schools,  of  which  she  founded  at  least  three, 
two  in  Scotland  and  one  in  England. 

Membership  of  the  Methodist  Society  was  open  to 
those  who  wished  also  to  continue  as  churchmen  or 
dissenters,  and  in  1764  Lady  Maxwell  seems  officially 
to  have  become  a  Methodist,  remaining  such  until  her 
death,  although  her  name  does  not  appear  in  the  earliest 
extant  Society  Book,  dated  1806.  The  Society  Book  does 
record,  however,  that  the  Methodist  preachers  in  Edin- 
burgh were  still  holding  a  special  Class  Meeting  in 
the  evenings  as  at  first.  She  also  met  in  a  Methodist 
BAND,  and  was  one  of  the  most  generous  and  enthusiastic 
supporters  of  Methodist  principles  and  causes.  During 
the  bitter  Calvinistic  controversy  of  the  1770's  Lady  Max- 
well remained  loyal  to  Wesley,  even  in  a  stronghold  of 
Calvinism. 

She  had  first  become  friendly  with  John  Wesley  in 
1764,  and  maintained  a  regular  correspondence  with  him 
until  his  death  in  1791,  when  she  inserted  a  notice  of  his 
death  in  the  Edinburgh  newspapers,  pleading  for  belated 
justice  "to  one  of  the  greatest  characters  that  has  appeared 
since  the  apostolic  age."  At  least  twenty-five  of  Wesley's 
letters  to  her  are  known.  He  constantly  urged  her  to  eke 
out  her  frail  health  by  exercise  and  travel,  advice  which 
she  followed.  She  died  July  2,  1810,  respected  and  be- 
loved by  Methodists  and  Presbyterians  alike. 

John  Lancaster,  The  Life  of  Darcy,  Lady  Maxwell,  2nd  ed. 
London,  Kershaw,  1826;  see  also  the  revised  3rd  ed.,  by 
William  Atherton,  London,  John  Mason,  1838.  Frank  Baker 

MAYFIELD,  ROBERT  GREENLEAF  (1911-  ),  American 
lay  leader,  was  born  at  Lebanon,  Mo.,  on  July  31,  1911. 
He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Missouri  where  he 
got  his  LL.B.  degree;  he  was  given  the  honorary  LL.D. 
from  Illinois  Wesleyan  University,  1958.  His  wife 
was  Frances  Margaret  Odom,  whom  he  married  on  Jan. 
12,  1943,  and  they  have  two  children. 

Dr.  Mayfield  was  admitted  to  the  Missouri  bar  in  1935, 
and  practiced  in  his  native  tovini  of  Lebanon  for  some 
seven  years,  at  which  time  he  became  associate  secretary 
of  the  General  Board  of  Lay  Activities  of  The  Method- 
ist Church  with  offices  in  Evanston,  111.  He  became 
General  Secretary  in  1952  and  served  in  that  capacity 
until  1968.  He  served  with  the  Army  of  the  United  States, 
1942-46,  and  again  from  1950-52. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the 
United  Church  Men  during  the  period  1952-68,  and  was 
a  lay  member  of  the  Third  Assembly  of  the  World 
Council  of  Chuhches  at  New  Delhi,  India,   1961,  and 


of  the  Fourth  Assembly  at  Uppsala,  Sweden,  in  1968.  He 
was  also  a  delegate  to  the  World  Methodist  Confer- 
ences of  1956,  '61,  and  '66,  and  was  a  member  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  World  Methodist  Council. 
He  is  presently  Assistant  to  the  President  in  stewardship 
at  AsBURY  Theological  Seminary. 


Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


MAYSVILLE,  KENTUCKY,  U.S.A.  The  area  of  Mason 
County,  fomierly  Bourbon  County  before  statehood  was 
granted,  was  touched  by  Methodism  after  Bishop  Francis 
AsBURY  at  the  1786  Conference  in  Baltimore  created  a 
Kentucky  Circuit.  Two  years  later  he  visited  the  settle- 
ment of  Limestone  (now  MaysvUle),  and  created  the 
Limestone  Circuit.  Benjamin  Ogden  and  James  Haw, 
said  to  be  the  first  itinerant  Methodist  preachers  to  set 
foot  on  Kentucky  soil,  organized  the  second  Methodist 
Church  in  Kentucky  in  1786.  This  was  in  a  cabin  occupied 
by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Stevenson.  Mrs.  Stevenson  had 
united  with  a  church  in  Maryland  in  1768,  and  she 
became  a  member  of  this  second  Methodist  church  orga- 
nized in  Kentucky.  This  church  was  located  within  a 
few  miles  of  Maysville,  or  Limestone.  When  Limestone 
was  a  trading  post  and  Indians  lingered  in  the  area  the 
first  Methodist  church  was  built  in  Maysville.  Samuel 
Tucker  and  Joseph  Lillard  were  the  first  pastors  assigned  to 
Limestone  Circuit.  Returning  from  a  trip  with  friends. 
Tucker  was  the  only  person  to  survive  an  attack  by 
Indians,  but  expired  soon  after  reaching  Maysville  and 
was  buried  in  an  unmarked  grave  located  in  the  area  of 
Front  and  Market  Streets. 

In  1813  the  first  Methodist  church,  a  small  frame  build- 
ing, was  erected  on  the  south  side  of  Second  Street  ad- 
joining Graces  Alley.  Four  different  buildings  occupied 
this  site,  the  last  of  which  was  dedicated  in  1891.  This 
building  was  dismantled  in  1966  and  the  site  is  now  oc- 
cupied by  a  car  lot. 

In  1844,  pursuant  to  provisions  of  the  Plan  of  Sepa- 
ration for  churches  in  the  border  states  to  the  Mason- 
Dixon  Line  to  determine  whether  they  would  identify 
with  the  M.  E.  Church  or  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  109 
members  of  the  Maysville  Church  voted  to  go  to  the  new 
church,  and  ninety-seven  to  remain  with  the  M.  E. 
Church.  The  group  with  the  majority  vote  claimed  pos- 
session of  the  building  and  the  M.  E.  group  brought  suit 
for  possession  of  the  property.  This  became  a  test  case 
and  went  to  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  Frankfort,  Ky., 
which  decided  in  favor  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South. 
Maysville  Methodism  thus  became  bitterly  divided. 

In  1847,  John  Armstrong,  a  wealthy  merchant  and  a 
strong  supporter  of  the  old  church,  bought  a  parcel  of 
land  on  Third  Street  and  the  Third  Street  M.  E.  Church 
was  erected  thereon.  In  1946,  following  the  Uniting  Gen- 
eral Conference  in  Kansas  City  in  1939,  these  two 
churches  were  united  and  Trinity  Methodist  Church  was 
bom.  In  1955  a  new  sanctuary  was  erected. 

Methodism  has  traditionally  been  a  vital  religious  move- 
ment in  Maysville  and  in  later  years  Seddon  Church  and 
Central  Church  were  organized.  Few  other  towns  of 
comparable  size  have  more  than  one  Methodist  church. 
The  Seddon  Church  was  organized  in  1888  and  the  Cen- 
tral Church  in  1886.  Scott  Church,  which  gets  its  name 
from  Bishop  Le\'I  Scott,  was  organized  in  1864,  by  a 
Rev.  Talbert,  and  the  first  active  pastor,  Adam  Nunn,  was 
appointed  in  1869.  The  Lexington  Annual  Conference 


MAZE,    MATTHEW   T. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


(ME)  was  entertained  at  the  Scott  Church  in  1872,  1877, 
1895  and  1910. 

The  total  membership   of  the   four  churches   in    1970 
was  1,873. 

W.  E.  Arnold,  Kentucky.  1935-36. 

J.  B.  Finley,  Sketches  of  Western  Methodism.  1854. 

Frank    C.    King,    History   of   First   Methodist   Church,    1790- 

1941.  RoBEHT  L.  Anderson 

MAZE,  MATTHEW  T.  (1857-1940),  American  bishop  of 
the  Ev.^NCELic.\L  Chvbch,  was  bom  near  Lewisville,  Ind., 
on  Nov.  16,  1857.  In  1881  he  married  Katie  Goar.  They 
fanned  in  Nebrask.\  from  1883  until  1888,  when  he 
was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Nebraska  Conference  of  the 
Evangelical  Association.  In  the  subsequent  denominational 
division.  Maze  joined  the  minority  group,  which  created 
The  United  Evangelical  Church.  He  served  his  de- 
nomination as  presiding  elder  in  the  Kansas  Conference 
(1895-1903),  pastor  (1903-06),  and  presiding  elder  again 
(1906-14).  He  also  served  (1914-18)  as  Treasurer  of 
Western  Union  College  in  LeMars,  Iowa,  of  which  he 
had  been  a  founder.  His  episcopal  tenure  extended  from 
1918  to  1934.  He  died  in  Lincoln,  Neb.,  on  Oct.  28,  1940, 
survived  by  his  wife  and  two  children.  An  outstanding 
administrator,  Maze  gave  prominent  support  to  the  re- 
union which,  in  1922,  created  The  Evangelical  Church. 
He  also  served  for  a  time  as  President  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Council  of  Churches  and  gave  active  support  to 
the  Federal  Council  of  Churches. 

R.  W.  Albright,  Evangelical  Church.  1942. 

The  Evangelical  Messenger,  Nov.  9  and  16,  1940. 

K.  James  Stein 


Charles  L.  Mead 

MEAD,  CHARLES  LAREW  (1868-1941),  American  bishop, 
was  bom  in  Vienna,  N.  J.,  on  July  20,  1868,  the  son  of 
Joshua  and  Alice  A.  (Hough)  Mead  of  the  Newark 
Conference.  Charles  Mead  was  educated  at  the  Cen- 
tenary Boarding  School  in  Hackettstown,  N.  J.,  and  later 
took  his  B.A.  degree  at  New  York  University  in  1896. 
While  attending  school  in  Hackettstown  he  met  Eleanor 
M.  Smith  of  Mauch  Chunk,  Pa.  They  were  married  in  June 
1896,  after  he  had  been  ordained  by  the  Newark  Confer- 
ence in  the  year  1895.  Five  children  were  born  to  them. 


Bishop  Mead  served  the  following  churches  as  pastor 
before  his  election  to  the  episcopacy:  Rutherford  (1895- 
99);  Hoboken  (1899-1904);  Newark,  Centenarv  (1904- 
08);  Hoboken  (1908-09);  Baltimore,  First  (1909-13); 
New  York  City,  Madison  Avenue  (1913-14);  and  Den- 
ver, Trinity  (1914-20).  He  was  elected  bishop  May 
20,  1920  at  the  General  Conference  in  Des  Moines, 
Iowa.  He  sei-ved  as  bishop  of  the  Denver  Area  from  1920- 
32.  He  then  moved  to  Kansas  City  where  he  was  the 
presiding  bishop  from  1932  to  1941.  He  was  the  resident 
bishop  of  the  area  at  the  time  of  the  Uniting  Conference 
of  Methodism. 

Bishop  Mead  during  the  First  World  War  felt  the 
responsibility  of  aiding  American  soldiers  and  thus  served 
with  the  Y.M.C.A.  for  six  months  on  the  front  lines  in 
France. 

His  ministry  was  recognized  far  and  wide,  Syracuse 
awarding  him  a  D.D.  in  1907  and  the  University  of 
Denver  awarding  him  an  LL.D.  in  1920.  Never  a  great 
intellectual.  Bishop  Mead  was  one  of  the  "pastoral  bish- 
ops" of  Methodism  during  this  period.  His  sermons  were 
brilliant  with  pertinent  illustrations  and  he  knew  the 
secret  of  touching  people  where  they  lived.  He  closely 
identified  himself  with  those  pastors  under  his  care,  and 
many  of  them  regarded  him  not  only  as  their  bishop  but 
as  their  counsellor  and  friend. 

Bishop  Mead  died  May  17,  1941,  and  is  buried  in 
Denver,  Colo. 

Charles  L.  Mead,  Jr. 

MEAD,  STITH  (1767-1834?),  American  preacher,  was 
born  in  Bedford  County,  Va.,  the  son  of  wealthy  Colonel 
William  Mead,  and  was  educated  at  Augusta  Academy 
in  Georgia.  He  was  converted  in  1789  and  three  years 
later  entered  the  Virginia  Conference. 

Mead  in  his  journal  set  down  the  happenings  at  this 
conference,  including  his  admission:  "Monday,  May  21, 
1792.  We  rode  over  Peter's  Mountain  by  the  Sweet 
Springs,  to  brother  Edward  Keenan's  at  Rehoboth  Chap- 
el, Sinks  of  Greenbrier  county,  where  I  was  glad  to  meet 
with  the  bishop.  Rev.  Fr.\ncis  Asbury;  Hope  Hull, 
Philip  Co.\,  Jeremiah  Abel,  elders;  Salathiel  Weeks,  John 
Lindsey,  Bennett  Maxey  and  John  Metcalf,  deacons.  .  .  . 
James  Ward  and  Stith  Mead  admitted  on  trial,  as  proba- 
tioners. .  .  .  Bennett  Maxey  and  John  Kobler,  by  requests 
of  the  bishop,  related  to  the  Conference  their  religious  ex- 
perience, and  then  the  Conference  adjourned  until  Tues- 
day, at  8  o'clock  A.M.,  at  which  time  J.  Kobler,  Geo. 
Martin,  S.  Mead  were  examined  by  the  bishop  before  the 
Conference,  first,  of  our  debts;  secondly,  of  our  faith  in 
Christ;  thirdly,  of  our  pursuits  after  holiness"  (Armstrong, 
pp.  108-9). 

In  1797  Stith  Mead,  William  McKendree  and  LeRoy 
Cole  were  harbingers  of  a  great  Gloucester  Circuit  revival 
with  marked  power.  Along  with  500  conversions  came 
persecution  and  Mead  was  strongly  opposed,  as  he  was 
later  by  his  own  relatives  while  founding  Methodism  in 
Augusta,  Ga.,  1798.  His  revival  preaching  was  greatly 
useful  elsewhere  in  Virginia  and  Georgia — one  convert 
being  John  Early.  W.  W.  Sweet  says  that  Stith  Mead 
was  "the  father  of  the  Virginia  camp  meeting." 

Mead  served  six  years  on  the  Georgia  and  Richmond 
Districts  as  a  presiding  elder,  and  in  the  1808  General 
Conference.  He  located  in  1816  but  was  readmitted  as 
a   superannuate.    His   journal,    which    was    unfortunately 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MEANS   OF   GRACE 


consumed  in  the  burning  of  Richmond  at  the  evacuation 
of  the  Confederate  troops  in  1865,  was  of  considerable 
assistance  to  William  W.  Bennett  when  he  was  writing 
Methodism  in  Virginia. 

J.  E.  Armstrong,  Old  Baltimore  Conference.  1907. 

W.  W.  Sweet,  Virginia  Methodism.  1955.       Edwin  Schell 

MEADOWS,  CLYDE  WILLIAMSON  (1901-  ),  Amer- 
ican United  Brethren  (Old  Constitution)  bishop  and 
youth  leader,  was  born  at  Pamplin,  Appomattox  Co.,  Va., 
Jan.  3,  1901.  His  parents  were  both  ministers,  serving 
home  mission  fields. 

He  began  high  school  in  Virginia  and  was  graduated 
with  an  A.B.  (1925)  from  Huntington  College.  The 
Lutheran  Theological  Seminary,  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  B.D.  and  S.T.M.  degrees.  He  was 
awarded  the  D.D.  (1940)  by  Huntington  College. 

He  definitely  answered  the  call  to  the  ministry  under 
the  influence  of  Christian  Endeavor  at  the  age  of  nine- 
teen. He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1920.  He  has  served 
in  the  pastoral  ministry  for  thirty-nine  years  in  Indiana, 
Pennsylvania  and  Ontario.  He  also  was  pastor-confer- 
ence superintendent  for  twenty-eight  years. 

His  pastorate  of  thirty-three  years  at  the  King  Street 
Church  of  Chambersburg,  Pa.,  saw  church  membership 
increased  from  450  to  over  1,300. 

He  was  elected  to  the  bishopric  and  served  his  de- 
nomination from  1961  to  1969,  when  he  was  retired  as 
bishop  emeritus.  He  has  served  on  general  church  boards 
and  for  many  years  has  been  a  trustee  of  the  Milton 
Wright  Memorial  Home,  Inc.,  which  operates  two  insti- 
tutions, one  serving  children  and  the  other  elderly  people. 

He  was  president  of  the  International  Society  for  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  from  1959  to  1962  and  was  vice-president 
before  his  election  to  the  presidency.  He  was  elected 
president  of  the  World's  Christian  Endeavor  Union  at 
the  convention  in  Sydney,  Australia  in  1962. 

He  is  the  author  of  the  books.  Why  We  Choose  Christ, 
Music  in  Christian  Education,  and  A  Christian  and  His 
Church,  and  numerous  pamphlets  on  evangehsm.  He 
served  as  editor  of  three  editions  of  The  United  Brethren 
Hymnal. 

He  likes  to  fly,  holds  a  private  pilot's  license  and  has 
been  labeled  the  "flying  pastor." 


Contact,    May    14,    1967. 


J.    Ralph    Pfister 


MEADVILLE,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.,  the  seat  of  Craw- 
ford County,  the  center  of  farm  and  oil  producing  land 
thirty-three  miles  south  of  Erie  on  French  Creek,  was 
settled  about  1788  by  Major  David  Mead  as  a  Revolu- 
tionary outpost. 

Steps  to  establish  Allegheny  College,  located  here, 
were  first  taken  in  1815.  On  March  24,  1817  this  col- 
lege was  incorporated.  Later  that  year  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  Thomas  Alden,  was  inaugurated  as  its  first 
president.  Originally  controlled  by  Presbyterians,  the  col- 
lege later  (1833)  was  managed  by  the  Pittsburgh  Con- 
ference of  the  M.  E.  Church  and  subsequently  by  ad- 
ditional afiiliated  conferences.  With  an  enrollment  (1970) 
of  1,634  and  a  faculty  of  121,  almost  sixty  percent  of  the 
students  continue  academic  work  in  graduate  and  pro- 
fessional schools.  Influential  far  beyond  the  community 
of   Meadville,   distinguished    names    associated    v^ith    the 


college  have  been  Martin  Ruter,  Lucius  H.  Bugbee, 
Bishop  Matthew  Simpson,  Bishop  Calvin  Kingsley  and 
James  Thoburn. 

In  1806  Robert  R.  Roberts  brought  Methodist  preach- 
ing to  Meadville.  The  first  service  was  held  in  a  hotel 
bar  room.  Strong  opposition  to  Methodism  delayed  the 
establishment  of  Meadville  as  a  regular  appointment  on 
the  Erie  Circuit  until  1818.  In  1824  a  class  was  formed; 
in  1825,  under  Robert  C.  Hatton,  religious  interest  was 
stimulated  and  a  church  formed.  The  congregation  met 
first  in  the  upper  story  of  a  blacksmith  shop.  Joseph  S. 
Barris,  the  first  stationed  pastor,  reported  155  members 
in  1832.  In  1867,  through  the  generosity  of  Allegheny 
College  friends,  as  well  as  townspeople,  a  beautiful  stone 
edifice  was  erected  to  house  the  Methodist  congregation. 
Three  years  later  another  Methodist  congregation  built 
and  occupied  what  was  then  known  as  the  State  Street 
Methodist  Church.  Today  the  Stone  Methodist  Church  has 
a  membership  (1970)  of  1,542  and  a  church  school  enroll- 
ment of  628.  Two  smaller  groups,  Bethany  and  Center- 
ville,  are  associated  with  Stone  Church.  The  other  large 
congregation,  Grace  Church,  has  a  membership  (1970) 
of  663. 


Allegheny  College  Handbook. 

General  Minutes. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 


Ernest  R.   Case 


MEANS  OF  GRACE  is  a  theological  expression  which  has 
been  much  used  by  Methodists  and  indicates  those  ser- 
vices through  which  spiritual  influences  usually  reach  a 
Christian  heart.  Umphrey  Lee  explains  in  his  book.  Our 
Fathers  and  Us:  "And  Wesley's  notion,  which  persisted 
for  many  years  in  this  country  as  well  as  in  England,  was 
that  men  should  attempt  to  use  the  grace  of  God  as  it 
came  to  them  through  the  means.  The  phrase  'means 
of  grace'  is  an  old  ecclesiastical  phrase" — coming,  he  ex- 
plains, into  the  English  Prayer  Book  in  1662  in  the  Gen- 
eral Thanksgiving.  There  thanks  are  given  "for  the  means 
of  grace  and  for  the  hope  of  Glory."  The  expression  was 
of  common  usage  so  far  as  Wesley  was  concerned,  and  in 
one  of  his  standard  sermons,  Wesley  preached  on  "The 
Means  of  Grace."  He  defines  these  as  "outward  signs, 
words,  or  actions,  ordained  of  God,  and  appointed  for  this 
end,  to  be  the  ordinary  channels  whereby  He  might  con- 
vey to  men,  preventing,  justifying,  or  sanctifying  Grace." 
Methodists  do  not  teach  that  Grace  is  limited  to  par- 
ticipants in  particular  services  but  believe  that  it  is  freely 
given  to  the  obedient  heart  through  the  operation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  They  do,  however,  attach  great  importance 
to  the  faithful  observance  of  the  Means  of  Grace  as  these 
have  been  prescribed  in  Scripture,  and  as  they  are  empha- 
sized in  John  Wesley's  General  Rules.  In  the  General 
Rules  are  emphasized  the  attendance  upon  the  public 
preaching  of  God's  word;  private,  family  and  public 
prayers;  Christian  conversation  and  testimony,  in  class  or 
social  meetings;  reading  the  Holy  Scripture;  Baptism, 
the  Lord's  Supper  and  certain  of  the  ordinances. 

The  chief  of  these  means  are  prayer,  whether  in  secret  or 
with  the  great  congregation;  searching  the  scriptures  (which 
implies  reading,  hearing  and  meditating  thereon);  and  receiv- 
ing the  Lord's  Supper,  eating  bread  and  drinking  wine  in 
remembrance  of  Him;  and  these  we  believe  to  be  ordained 
of  God,  as  the  ordinary  channels  of  conveying  His  grace  to 
the  souls  of  men.  (Wesley,  Sermon) 


MEARA,    WILLIAM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


John  Wesley  omitted  Baptism  in  his  sermon  on  the 
Means  of  Grace.  Siigden  thinks  that  was  because  those 
to  whom  Wesley  was  preaching  the  sermon  had  aheady 
been  baptized  in  infancy.  Wesley,  however,  put  the  great- 
est emphasis  upon  using  the  Means  of  Grace,  and  had 
no  sympathy  for  those  who  thought  that  people  might 
know  what  is  in  the  Bible  simply  by  some  inspiration 
of  the  Spirit,  or  that  they  must  "wait  for  the  Spirit"  to 
impel  them  before  they  begin  to  utilize  the  Means  of 
Grace.  This  was  his  quarrel  with  the  enthusiasts — those 
who  said  that  it  was  not  right  to  use  the  Means  of  Grace 
unless  ones'  heart  felt  "inclined"  to  use  them. 

Wesley  reacted  heatedly  against  this.  He  said  that  we 
"must  trample  under  foot  that  enthusiastic  doctrine  of 
devils  that  we  are  not  to  do  good  unless  our  hearts  be 
free  to  it"  (Rules  of  the  Society,  1743).  That  is  to  say, 
when  one  does  not  feel  like  using  the  Means  of  Grace, 
Wesley  believed  that  one  was  the  very  person  who  ought 
to  use  them.  If  anyone  did  not  feel  like  praying,  Wesley 
said  he,  of  all  people,  needed  prayer.  Methodists  in  part 
got  their  name  from  their  regularity  in  going  to  Com- 
mimion — no  matter  how  they  felt — and  for  meticulously 
observing  habits  and  acts  taught  by  Scripture  and  put 
into  practice  by  Christian  life. 

Lee  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  Methodists  believe 
that  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  a  converting 
ordinance,  and  that  Sus.anna  Wesley  herself  was  said 
to  have  been  converted  during  her  reception  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  The  Board  of  Evangelism  of  The  Methodist 
Church  within  recent  years  refened  to  certain  practices 
devolving  on  Christians  as  "the  Holy  habits,"  but  this 
expression  does  not  seem  to  have  been  generally  adopted 
and  cannot  quite  be  equaled  with  the  Xleans  of  Grace.  It 
refers  more  to  acts  of  personal  participation,  to  the  purely 
human  regimen  found  helpful,  rather  than  to  the  objec- 
tive divinely  estabhshed  procedures  which  may  properly 
be  called  God's  Means  of  Grace.  "Our  Methodists  do  not 
believe  that  any  special  form  of  worship  is  absolutely 
prescribed,"  said  Bishop  Simpson.  "They  do  believe  that 
wherever  there  is  a  sincere  desire  to  please  God,  the 
person  will  engage  in  these  varied  exercises;  and  where 
these  are  neglected,  Methodists  have  always  felt  that 
delinquent  members  should  be  instructed,  admonished 
and  warned."  Simpson  with  the  stem  authoritarianism  of 
his  day  added,  "If  willfully  and  persistently  negligent, 
they  shall  be  expelled  from  the  Church."  Modem  Meth- 
odism is  not  as  strict  as  this  last  injunction  seems  to  im- 
ply, but  it  can  be  asserted  that  wherever  the  Means  of 
Grace  are  neglected  and  are  persistently  ignored,  the 
result  is  always  a  forgotten  Church  and  a  forgotten  God. 
Methodists  gladly  join  the  Church  of  England  and  the 
Protestant  Episcopalians  in  formally  thanking  God  for 
"the  Means  of  Grace  and  the  Hope  of  Glory." 

J.  Wesley,  Standard  Sermons.  1921.  N.  B.  H. 

MEARA,  WILLIAM  (1871-1959),  Methodist  minister  and 
twice  President  of  the  South  African  Conference,  was 
the  son  of  a  small  farmer  and  was  born  at  Dunmanway, 
West  Cork.  His  boyhood  ambition  to  become  a  sailor 
was  overruled  by  his  conversion  and  call  to  the  ministry. 
After  theological  training  in  Belf.\st,  Meara  served  in 
three  Irish  circuits  before  coming  to  the  Transvaal  in 
1899.  Soon  after  his  arrival  the  Anglo-Boer  War  broke 
out,  and  he  interrupted  his  ministry  at  Barberton  to  serve 
as  a  chaplain  to  the  British  forces.  During  the  years  that 


William  Meara 

followed,  he  served  with  great  acceptance  in  Pretoria  and 
other  towns  of  the  Province.  He  once  again  served  as  a 
chaplain  to  the  forces  during  World  War  I,  first  in  the 
South  West  Africa  campaign,  and  later  in  France  where 
he  had  a  narrow  escape  from  death  on  the  day  Armistice 
was  declared. 

William  Meara's  greatest  ministry  was  at  the  Methodist 
Central  Hall  in  the  heart  of  Johannesburg,  South  Africa's 
largest  city.  Here  for  fifteen  years  he  wielded  a  great 
influence  upon  the  life  of  the  brash,  young  and  growing 
metropolis  of  the  Witwatersrand  Gold  Reef,  and  again,  as 
in  previous  ministries,  many  people  were  led  to  know 
Christ  as  Saviour  through  his  preaching  and  pastoral 
work. 

In  1936  he  was  appointed  to  the  Trinity  Methodist 
Church,  East  London,  and  at  the  same  time  assumed  the 
Chairmanship  of  the  Queenstown  District.  A  thriving 
work  in  both  European  and  African  circuits  brought 
many  problems,  and  he  proved  a  wise  and  efiBcient  ad- 
ministiator  and  a  father-in-God  to  his  ministerial  brethren. 
It  was  during  his  East  London  ministry  that  he  was  elected 
twice  to  the  Presidency  of  the  Methodist  Conference,  the 
first  man  to  reach  this  high  office  on  two  occasions  for 
over  forty  yeai'S. 

After  a  year's  furlough  and  a  brief  three-year  ministry 
in  Pietermaritzburg,  William  Meara  retired  to  Umkomaas, 
Natal,  where  he  died  on  May  5,  1959.  He  is  remembered 
by  many  with  respect  and  afi^ection  as  one  of  the  out- 
standing figures  of  South  African  Methodism  in  the  twen- 
tieth century. 

S.  P.  Freeland,  Fighter  for  God — the  Story  of  William  Meara. 
Stockwell,  Ilfracombe,  Devon,  n.d.  S.  P.  Freeland 

MEEK,  ROBERT  ABNER  (1867-1949),  American  minister 
and  editor,  was  bom  on  Dec.  7,  1867,  at  Black  Hawk, 
Miss.  He  was  the  son  of  Robert  Drayton  and  Martha 
Anne  (Johnson)  Meek.  He  graduated  from  the  University 
of  Mississippi  in  1888,  and  received  the  D.D.  degree  from 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MEISTER,    KARL   PHILIP 


Emory  and  Henry  College  in  1910.  His  wife  was 
Cornelia  C.  Crippen  (b.  Dec.  10,  1868),  whom  he  mar- 
ried on  Dec.  7,  1893.  They  had  one  son,  Robert  Edwin 
Meek. 

Meek  entered  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  in 
1890  and  served  at  Carrollton,  Vaiden,  Coldwater,  Tupelo, 
Starkville,  West  Point,  Greenville  (all  in  Mississippi), 
and  then  in  1906  went  on  the  Greenville  District  as  pre- 
siding elder,  1906-09.  In  1910  he  became  editor  of 
the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate,  the  organ  of  the 
Louisiana  and  the  Mississippi  and  North  Mississippi 
Conferences  (MES)  and  served  until  1918.  On  leaving 
the  Advocate,  he  served  for  the  next  four  years  as  presid- 
ing elder  of  the  Sardis  District,  North  Mississippi.  Meek 
was  a  bom  editor,  knowing  not  only  what  to  publish  but 
how  to  give  guidance  with  strong  editorials  in  which  he 
set  forth  well  reasoned  convictions  with  great  strength 
and  ability.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence (MES)  of  1910,  '14,  '18,  and  '22.  Locating  in  1922, 
he  was  subsequently  elected  a  lay  delegate  from  North 
Mississippi  to  the  General  Conferences  of  1926  and  1930. 
After  he  retired  from  the  editorship  of  the  New  Orleans 
Christian  Advocate,  in  his  later  years  (1922-30)  Meek 
edited  an  independent  paper.  The  Southern  Methodist, 
devoted  largely  to  fighting  what  he  considered  to  be 
harmful,  modernistic  trends  in  the  church.  He  never 
failed  to  attack  by  name  church  leaders  whom  he  felt  were 
leading  the  people  amiss,  and  as  a  Southerner  bitterly 
opposed  union  with  the  M.  E.  Church.  When  he  died, 
the  editor  of  the  Baltimore  Southern  Methodist  in  com- 
menting on  his  life  said  that  no  church  editor  dared  to 
evaluate  R.  A.  Meek  "until  they  were  sure  he  could  not 
reply."  He  was,  however,  greatly  respected  by  his  brethren 
and  had  many  devoted  followers.  He  was  a  trustee  of 
MiLLSAPs  College,  serving  for  a  time  as  vice-president 
of  the  Board;  and  also  a  trustee  of  the  Methodist  Hospital 
in  Memphis.  He  died  on  Feb.  4,  1949  in  Lexington,  Miss. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

N.  B.  H. 

MEHARRY,  JESSE  (1806-1881),  American  farmer  and 
philanthropist,  son  of  Alexander  and  Jane  (Francis)  Me- 
harry,  was  bom  Aug.  15,  1806,  near  Manchester,  Adams 
County,  Ohio.  In  1827  he  came  to  Indiana  and  took 
up  240  acres  of  land  at  Shawnee  Mound  in  Tippecanoe 
County.  He  was  a  very  successful  farmer.  He  was  con- 
verted in  1828  at  a  camp  meeting.  He  was  a  life  member 
of  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Church.  In 
1869  he  offered  his  394-acre  farm  at  Shawnee  Mound  as 
a  gift  to  the  state  if  the  new  agricultural  college  were 
located  there.  In  1876  he  made  his  first  gift  of  $11,000 
to  Indiana  Asbury  University.  Meharry  Hall  in  East  Col- 
lege at  DePauw  University  bears  his  name.  He  was  a 
delegate  to  General  Conference  in  1876.  He  married 
Jane  Love  Francis  Aug.  10,  1831.  There  were  no  children, 
but  eight  homeless  children  made  this  their  home  and 
received  a  good  start  in  life.  He  died  Aug.  20,  1881. 

History  of  the  Meharry  Family  in  America,  1925. 
Minutes  Northwest  Indiana  Conference,  Committee  on  Educa- 
tion, 1881.  W.  D.  Archibald 

MEHARRY  MEDICAL  COLLEGE,  Nashville,  Tennessee,  be- 
gan as  the  medical  department  of  Central  Tennessee  Col- 
lege in  1876,  an  institution  founded  by  the  Freedmen's 


Meharry  Medical  College 

Aid  Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  In  1900,  Central  was 
reorganized  as  Walden  University,  and  tlie  medical  de- 
partment was  named  to  honor  the  Meharry  family  of 
Illinois,  substantial  contributors  toward  the  expansion  of 
the  school. 

The  institution  is  one  of  two  medical  schools  in  the 
United  States  dedicated  to  the  education  of  Negroes  as 
physicians,  dentists,  and  nurses.  Through  the  assistance  of 
the  General  Education  Board  (Rockefeller),  Carnegie 
Foundation,  and  other  benevolent  agencies,  it  has  been 
able  to  erect  a  modern  plant  for  medical  education.  Forty 
percent  of  all  the  Negro  physicians  and  dentists  in  the 
United  States  are  graduates  of  this  institution.  Hubbard 
Hospital  is  also  owned  and  operated  by  Meharry  Medical 
College.  The  governing  board  has  thirty-two  trustees, 
elected  by  the  board.  The  charter  requires  representation 
from  The  United  Methodist  Church  but  does  not  specify 
the  number  of  persons. 

John  O.  Gross 

MEISTER,  KARL  PHILIP  (1886-1965),  American  pastor 
and  executive,  and  the  first  full-time  executive  secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Hospitals  and  Homes  of  The  Methodist 
Church  following  unification.  Bom  in  Caledonia,  Ohio, 
on  Oct.  31,  1886,  he  was  the  son  of  Philip  and  Georgetta 
(Boyles)  Meister.  He  married  Jessie  Irene  Kinnamon  on 
June  24,  1909,  and  there  was  one  son,  Herbert  H.  Meister. 

He  was  a  student  at  Ohio  Wesleyan  Prep.  School,  1912- 
14;  B.A.  Cum  Laude,  Ohio  Wesleyan,  1918;  D.D.,  in 
1942;  a  student  at  Boston  University  School  of  The- 
ology, 1919-23.  He  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  North- 
west Ohio  Conference  in  1917;  and  into  full  connection 
in  1922;  became  a  deacon  in  1920,  elder  1922.  He 
served  as  field  secretary  of  the  Ohio  Methodist  Children's 
Home,  Worthington,  Ohio,  1914-18;  office  manager, 
CincinnaH  Area,  Columbus,  Ohio,  1919;  as  pastor  of 
Centralville  Church,  Lowell,  Mass.,  1920-23;  field  secre- 
tary Board  of  Hospitals,  Homes  and  Deaconess  Work  of 
the  M.E.  Church,  Chicago,  1923-24;  secretary,  church 
relations  of  Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  1924-30;  the  super- 
intendent of  Elyria  Methodist  Home  and  Hospital  for 
Aged,  1930-39;  superintendent,  Nonvalk  District,  1939- 
43;  superintendent,  St.  Luke's  Methodist  Hospital,  Cedar 
Rapids,  Iowa,  1943-44;  and  executive  secretary.  Board  of 
Hospitals  and  Homes,  1944-56. 

He   was   an   oflBcial   delegate   to   the   National   Health 


MELBOURNE,   AUSTRALIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Assembly  in  1948;  a  member  of  the  Advisory  Committee, 
Children's  Bureau,  1948-52;  member  Advisory  Committee, 
Division  of  Aid  to  Dependent  Aged,  1948-52;  Mid-Cen- 
tury Conference  on  Children  and  Youth,  1950;  Delegate  to 
the  National  Conference  on  Aged  and  Aging,  1958;  a 
charter  member  of  the  National  Committee  on  Aging;  a 
writer  of  articles  for  church  and  other  pubhcations. 

Meister  was  an  undisputed  leader  in  health  and  welfare 
matters.  He  promoted  the  highest  standards  of  care  and 
sei-vice  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  compassion.  He  won  for 
the  Board  of  Hospitals  and  Homes  a  recognized  place  in 
the  Church  and  in  the  nation. 

He  died  on  Feb.  13,  1965,  in  Elyria,  Ohio. 

Clark  and  Stafford,  Who's  Wfw  in  Methodism.  1952. 

MELBOURNE,  Australia,  capital  of  Victoria,  was  founded 
by  John  Batman  and  is  Australia's  second  largest  city, 
with  a  population  of  over  2,000,000.  Since  the  second 
World  War  European  migration  has  accounted  for  Mel- 
bourne's population  increase.  Today  this  city  is  looked 
upon  as  Australia's  financial  bastion  in  addition  to  being 
a  center  of  culture  and  learning.  (For  the  beginning  and 
development  of  Methodist  work  in  and  about  Melbourne 
see  Victoria  and  Tasmania  Conference.  ) 


Wesley  Chapel,  Melbourne,  Australia 

The  Methodist  Ladies'  College  in  Melbourne  was 
founded  in  1882  by  W.  H.  Fitchett  and  is  a  primary 
and  secondary  school  for  girls.  It  began  with  sixteen 
pupils  and  now  has  an  enrolment  of  2,000  in  the  main 
school.  Fitchett  encountered  much  opposition  to  his  plan 
for  a  church  school,  largely  because  the  governments  of 
the  Australian  states  had  their  own  systems  of  education, 
and  because  of  the  financial  outlay  involved.  However, 
his  commanding  influence  in  the  church,  his  reputation 
as  an  author,  and  his  personality  prevailed  and  the  school 
was  estabhshed.  During  his  forty-six  years  at  the  school 


(where  he  died  in  1928),  he  saw  the  school  grow  and 
achieve  good  academic  rating. 

Fitchett  was  succeeded  as  principal  by  the  late  J.  W. 
Crove,  and  A.  Harold  Wood  was  principal  from  1939 
until  his  retirement  in  1966. 

Buildings  now  include  a  very  beautiful  chapel,  an 
assembly  hall  of  modern  design  with  a  seating  capacity 
of  1,100,  laboratories  and  other  special  buildings.  The 
school  has  won  distinction  for  its  music  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Miss  Ruth  Flockart.  A  branch  of  the  school  was 
established  in  the  Melbourne  suburb  of  Elstemwick  in 
1929.  This  has  an  enrolment  of  over  500  and  became 
an  independent  school  in  1961. 

Wesley  College  is  a  well-known  boys'  school  in  Mel- 
bourne, and  is  one  of  a  group  of  independent  boys' 
schools  in  that  city.  It  was  founded  at  a  time  when  the 
discovery  of  gold  was  bringing  great  prosperity  to  Victoria, 
and  it  owed  a  great  deal  to  the  planning  and  enthusiasm 
of  two  great  Methodists  of  those  early  days  in  the  state, 
Daniel  J.  Draper  and  Walter  Powell. 

The  college  was  opened  in  January  1866,  with  J.  S. 
Waugh  as  president  and  James  Corrigan  as  headmaster. 
Subsequent  headmasters  include  M.  H.  Irving  and  H.  M. 
Andrews,  A.  S.  Way,  L.  A.  Adamson,  Harold  Stewart, 
Neil  McNeil,  W.  H.  Frederick,  and  T.  H.  Coates. 

In  1933  the  college  was  entirely  rebuilt  and  enlaiged 
through  the  gift  of  two  generous  laymen,  A.  M.  and  G.  R. 
Nicholas,  and  it  became  one  of  the  best  equipped  schools 
in  Australia.  From  an  original  enrobneiit  of  eighty  boys, 
Wesley  College  now  has  930.  Because  of  increased  enrol- 
ment, accommodation  and  playing  fields  have  proved 
inadequate  and  a  fine  property  has  recently  been  pur- 
chased in  an  outer  suburb  of  Melbourne  on  which  further 
playing  fields  are  to  be  developed  and  a  junior  section  of 
the  school  opened.  The  college  is  governed  by  a  council 
of  ministers  and  laymen  appointed  by  the  Victorian  and 
Tasmanian  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church.  Now 
over  a  century  old,  Wesley  has  a  splendid  scholastic 
and  sporting  record  and  numbers  many  outstanding  jurists, 
statesmen,  teachers,  scientists  and  leaders  of  the  church 
among  the  "old  boys." 

C.  I.  Benson,  Victorian  Methodism.  1935. 

Australian  Editorial  Committee 

MELLARD,  JAMES  HENRY  (1778-1855),  pioneer  Ameri- 
can minister  and  one  of  the  four  original  presiding  elders 
of  the  Alabama  Conference,  first  joined  the  old  South 
Carolina  Conference  in  1801.  He  served  as  an  itinerant 
in  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  and  North  Carolina, 
and  was  one  of  the  first  two  missionaries  (1808)  to  the 
Negroes  ever  sent  out  by  the  M.  E.  Church.  On  June  1, 
1809,  he  married  Ann  Rumph,  and  located  the  next  year. 
In  1821  he  was  still  a  local  preacher  in  Autauga  County, 
Ala.  Mellard  contributed  greatly  to  the  spread  of  Meth- 
odism in  Montgomery,  for  he  preached  Aug.  26,  1821, 
in  the  Montgomery  County  Court  House,  and  is  said  to 
have  organized  the  FrasT  Methodist  Church  in  Mont- 
gomery, Ala.,  on  Sept.  25,  1829. 

Mellard  joined  the  Mississippi  Conference  in  1827 
and  was  appointed  to  the  Alabama  Circuit.  In  1828  he 
became  presiding  elder  of  the  Alabama  District.  He  was 
thus  one  of  the  original  presiding  elders  in  1832  when 
the  Alabama  Conference  was  established.  He  was  also 
appointed  one  of  the  first  trustees  of  La  Grange  Col- 
lege, chartered  in  1830  as  the  first  college  in  Alabama. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MEMBERSHIP   IN    METHODIST   CHURCHES 


In  1833  he  located  again,  but  he  continued  to  labor  as  a 
local  preacher  for  twenty-two  years,  while  rearing  a  large 
family.  By  his  first  wife,  Ann  Rumph,  he  had  five  children. 
On  Nov.  5,  1822,  he  married  Mrs.  Sophie  Addison,  and 
they  had  five  children.  By  Mrs.  Rachel  M.  Rumph,  whom 
he  married  May  2,  1837,  he  had  one  child.  He  died  Nov. 
17,  1855,  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven  years,  having  been 
a  preacher  of  the  gospel  in  connection  with  the  Methodist 
Church  for  fifty-six  years.  He  was  buried  near  Three 
Notch  in  Bullock  County,  Ala. 

Alabama  Christian  Advocate,  Jan.  18,  1955. 

M.  E.  Lazenby,  Alabama  and  West  Florida.  1960. 

Donald  J.  West 


F.  Otto  Melle 

MELLE,  F.  H.  OTTO  (1875-1947),  German  bishop,  the 
first  one  to  be  so  elected  by  the  Germany  Central  Con- 
ference, was  bom  at  Liebengruen  (now  East  Germany). 
His  parents  were  devoted  Methodists,  his  father  a  lay 
preacher.  After  studying  at  Frankfurt  Methodist  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  and  one  year  as  pastor  at  Dresden,  he  was 
appointed  to  ser\'e  in  the  then  united  Austria  and 
Hungary  as  missionary  and  superintendent  (1900-20). 
Through  his  work  missionary  conferences  were  founded 
in  these  countries  and  in  the  Yugosl.\vl\  of  post  World 
War  I.  He  married  Hanna  Eckardt  in  1907;  they  had 
one  son  and  two  daughters. 

In  1920  he  was  elected  President  of  Frankfurt  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  As  an  able  educator  he  trained  men 
from  the  Baltics,  Germany,  and  Switzerland  to  South- 
east Europe;  numerically  the  Seminar^'  has  never  again 
reached  the  peaks  of  the  twenties.  His  asset  in  dealing 
with  young  men  was  a  heart  full  of  understanding.  When 
the  1936  General  Conference  consented  to  the  forma- 
tion of  a  Germany  Central  Conference,  F.  H.  Otto  Melle 
was  elected  its  first  bishop  and  served  until  1946,  when 
he  retired. 

Bishop  Melle  was  a  superb  leader  of  men,  an  extreme- 
ly versatile  administrator,  and  a  pastor  of  pastors.  His 
vision  of  a  worldwide  Methodist  family  with  special 
emphasis  on  the  United  States  and  of  German  Methodist 
Free  Church  life  challenged  his  students  and  his  pastors. 
He  was  one  of  the  foremost  leaders  of  the  German  Evan- 


gelical Alliance;  his  struggle  for  total  abstention  and  for 
local  administrative  control  of  breweries  and  saloons, 
when  put  to  a  nationwide  popular  vote,  failed  to  win  a 
majority  of  the  German  people  but  was  indicative  of  what 
he  stood  for  and  how  he  would  fight  for  matters  he  con- 
sidered essential. 

He  was  a  very  powerful  speaker  and  a  popular  preach- 
er. Evangelism  was  near  to  his  heart.  He  was  in  charge  of 
the  Gei-many  Central  Conference  in  years  of  the  most 
difficult  home  situation  and  of  nearly  six  years  of  total 
warfare.  In  responsibility  before  God  he  undertook  the 
precarious  task  of  steering  clear  of  the  various  cliffs  that 
threatened  church  and  society  during  the  Nazi  regime. 
He  did  better  than  has  been  accredited  to  him  at  times, 
and  the  Methodist  Church  in  Germany  owes  him  more 
than  can  be  expressed. 

C.  Ernst  Sommer 

MELLO,  JOEL  JORGE  DE  (1914-1963),  Brazilian  lay 
leader,  engineer,  and  businessman,  was  born  in  Sao 
Paulo  on  Nov.  1,  1914.  Though  poor,  Joel  was  able  to 
graduate  in  engineering  from  Mackenzie  University,  an 
evangelical  school,  in  1936.  Before  graduation,  he  had 
been  working  for  the  Ingersoll-Rand  Corporation  of  Bra- 
zil, and  through  them  he  was  given  an  opportunity  to 
study  in  the  United  States.  On  his  return  to  Sao  Paulo, 
he  taught  for  several  years  in  the  Mackenzie  Engineering 
School,  and  later  became  a  director  of  the  E.B.E. — Brazil- 
ian Engineering  Enterprises. 

In  1943  he  married  Arcilia  Rocha,  by  whom  he  had 
seven  children.  Though  he  went  through  more  than  one 
financial  crisis  in  his  business,  he  always  succeeded  in 
rehabilitating  himself. 

He  worked  with  great  consecration  in  three  different 
Methodist  churches  in  Sao  Paulo,  one  of  which  he 
founded.  He  later  became  a  supply  pastor  and  worked 
without  salary. 

He  was  for  some  years  secretary  of  Missions  in  the 
Third  Region  Conference.  Deeply  impressed  with  the 
possibilities  of  Christian  witness  by  radio  and  television, 
Mello  initiated  a  television  program,  "Songs  of  my  Faith," 
which  became  popular.  Not  long  before  his  death,  he 
headed  a  campaign  for  the  acquisition  of  an  evangelical 
broadcasting  station  in  Sao  Paulo,  and  in  time  bought 
the  Radio  Cometa.  Because  of  his  sudden  death,  he  was 
unable  to  liquidate  all  his  commitments;  but  interested 
persons  caiTied  on,  and  today.  Radio  Cometa  is  a  reality. 

On  his  farm  in  nearby  Guararema,  he  built  an  adequate 
camping  site  for  young  people,  whatever  their  denomina- 
tion, for  study  and  relaxation.  Also  into  his  large  country 
home,  he  and  his  wife  cared  for  abandoned  children, 
paying  the  support  of  a  couple  engaged  to  look  after 
them.  On  Nov.  11,  1963,  while  traveling  to  a  church 
meeting  in  Resende,  state  of  Sao  Paulo,  he  suffered  a  heart 
attack,  which  led  to  his  death.  He  was  buried  in  die 
Canipo  Grande  Cemetery  in  Sao  Paulo. 

Numberless  tributes  were  paid  to  his  character.  The 
city  council  of  Sao  Paulo  ga\e  his  name  to  the  street  on 
which  stood  the  Vila  Mariana  Church,  which  he  had 
shepherded  for  two  years. 

Expositor  Cristao,   Dec.    1,    1963.  Isnard   Rocha 

MEMBERSHIP  IN  METHODIST  CHURCHES.  When  early 
Methodist   Societies   were   formed,    they   made  no   claim 


MEMBERSHIP    IN   METHODIST   CHURCHES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


to  be  churches,  but  simply  associations  of  Christians  which 
enabled  persons  who  belonged  to  them  to  increase  their 
piety  and  usefulness.  John  Wesley,  in  outlining  his  Gen- 
eral Rlo-es  for  the  United  Societies  stated  that  there 
was  only  one  condition  "previously  required"  for  those 
who  desired  admission  into  these  Societies,  "a  desire  to 
flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  be  saved  from  their 
sins."  (Paragraph  95,  Discipline,  1968.)  Admission  into 
the  Society  was  gained  by  showing  a  proper  spirit,  and 
by  being  approved  by  a  minister  or  class  leader  after 
undergoing  a  system  of  probationary  trial.  Under  this 
method  of  probation,  the  person  was  allowed  all  the  privi- 
leges of  the  meetings,  though  was  not  received  into  full 
fellowship  until  after  a  period  of  six  months  acquaintance 
— or  some  definite  time  of  trial.  Receiving  a  member  into 
one  of  these  Societies  or  dismissing  him  from  it,  did  not 
affect  his  membership  in  the  Church  of  England,  or  other 
Church,  to  which  he  may  have  belonged.  Indeed,  there 
were  members  of  the  Societies  who  did  not  belong  to 
any  church  at  all  when  they  were  admitted. 

When  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  organized 
in  the  United  States,  and  later  when  the  Wesleyan  Church 
in  Britain  was  organized,  what  had  been  a  group  of 
Methodist  Societies  became  a  Metliodist  Church.  This 
had  an  immediate  bearing  upon  the  life  and  discipline  of 
individual  members.  For  when  a  person  was  turned  out 
of  an  early  Methodist  Society,  he  did  not  thereby  lose  his 
standing  in  his  Church  nor  his  claim  upon  the  Sacra- 
ments of  the  Church.  But  when  church  membership  was 
entirely  in  a  Methodist  church  which  administered  the 
Sacraments,  and  this  was  his  sole  ecclesiasticism,  it  was 
soon  found  that  the  church  could  not  be  as  strict  in  ex- 
pelling people  and  cutting  them  off  from  all  churchly  ordi- 
nances as  the  societies  had  been  in  holding  members  to  the 
original  special  Methodist  disciplines.  There  are  those 
who  say  today  that  yet  tlie  marks  of  a  society  are  deeply 
ingrained  in  all  the  Methodist  churches. 

Reception  of  Members.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Soci- 
eties and  indeed  during  the  formative  period  of  the  M.E. 
Church  in  America  and  elsewhere,  the  manner  of  receiving 
members  into  the  Church  was  exceedingly  simple.  Those 
who  wished  to  unite  with  the  church  gave  their  names  to 
the  ministers  and  were  placed  in  classes,  and  if  at  the  end 
of  six  months  these  were  recommended  by  the  class  leader 
or  by  the  pastor  who  had  charge  of  training  them,  they 
were  eligible  to  be  received  by  the  church  as  full  mem- 
bers. There  was,  however,  in  American  Methodism  no 
regular  ritualistic  Form  for  the  Reception  of  Members 
(as  it  was  later  called)  either  in  the  M.E.  Church,  or  its 
cognate  branches  until  pivst  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  This  was  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  Wesley 
did  not  send  over  any  office  for  Confirmation  in  the  Sun- 
day Service  (Prayer  Book)  which  he  sent  to  American 
Methodism.  Eventually  in  the  M.E.  Church  and  the  M.E. 
Church,  South,  forms  for  the  reception  of  members  were 
drawn  up,  which  forms  were  greatly  influenced  by  the 
Office  of  Confirmation  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  America.  These  forms  were  revised  from  time  to  time, 
and  when  the  three  Methodist  Churches  united  in  1939, 
a  new  form  was  drawn  up  which  was  used  until  1964 
when  a  further  revision  of  this  office  was  ordered. 

This  fonn  now  in  the  Ritual  (see  Book  of  Worship) 
and  known  as  "Order  for  Confirmation  and  Reception 
into  the  Church"  is  the  first  time  the  name  "confirmation" 
has  been  given  frankly  to  this  office  in  the  Methodist 
Church,    Disciplinary    regulations    provide    that    a   person 


must  be  baptized  before  he  or  she  may  be  received  into 
the  Church,  but  quite  often  when  a  person  has  not  been 
baptized,  baptism  may  be  administered  to  such  person 
just  previous  to  or  sometimes  as  part  of  the  Office  for 
Confirmation.  The  office  itself  calls  for  a  public  profession 
of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  applicant,  an  affirmation  of  be- 
lief in  the  teachings  of  the  Church,  and  a  promise  to  con- 
form to  its  Discipline.  The  vows  thus  taken  pledge  the 
one  being  admitted  to  obey  the  rules  and  regulations  of 
The  United  Methodist  Church.  Within  recent  years  the 
congregation  present  is  made  to  participate  in  the  recep- 
tion of  members  by  expressing  an  intent  to  assist  and  help 
the  person  being  received  (see  the  Ritual,  in  loc) . 

Present  regulations  in  The  United  Methodist  Church 
insist  that  admission  to  the  Church  shall  be  "without 
regard  to  race,  color,  national  origin  or  economic  condi- 
tion." The  membership  of  a  local  church  is  defined  as 
consisting  of  all  persons  who  have  been  received  into  its 
fellowship  on  profession  of  their  faith,  by  transfer  from 
some  other  church  or  by  restoration,  and  whose  member- 
ship has  not  been  terminated  by  death,  transfer,  with- 
drawal, expulsion,  or  action  of  the  Quarterly  Conference. 
A  member  of  a  local  Methodist  church  is  a  member  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church  anywhere  in  the  connection. 
(Discipline,  1964,  Paragraphs  107-111.) 

Further  regulations  provide  that  when  anyone  offers 
himself  for  membership,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  pastor,  or 
proper  persons  appointed  by  him,  to  instruct  such  persons 
in  the  meaning  of  Christian  Faith  and  the  history,  the 
organization  and  teaching  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church,  to  explain  the  baptismal  and  membership  vows 
and  to  lead  them  to  commit  themselves  to  Jesus  Christ 
as  Lord  and  Savior.  When  the  minister  is  convinced  that 
such  persons  have  given  proof  of  the  genuineness  of  their 
faith,  and  their  desire  and  ability  to  assume  the  obliga- 
tions and  become  faithful  members  of  the  church,  he  is  to 
bring  them  before  the  congregation,  administer  the  vows 
and  receive  them  into  the  fellowship  of  the  church,  and 
enroll  them  as  members. 

Children,  as  members,  should  be  brought  by  their 
parents  for  Baptism  at  an  early  age.  A  roll  of  baptized 
children  of  the  church  constitutes  a  "preparatory  member- 
ship roll"  of  the  church  (Discipline,  1968,  Paragraph 
122).  When  children  are  received  into  full  membership, 
of  course  their  preparatory  period  ends. 

Various  disciplinary  regulations  give  instruction  regard- 
ing preparatory  membership,  and  as  such  regulations 
change  from  time  to  time,  it  will  not  be  possible  here  to 
set  forth  the  various  changes  which  have  occurred  in 
them.  Regulations  regarding  "probationary  members,"  as 
those  on  trial  were  formerly  ternied,  have  also  been  altered 
from  time  to  time. 

Affiliate  Member  is  a  member  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church  who  resides  for  an  extended  period  in  a  city  or 
community  away  from  his  home  church,  but  does  not  wish 
to  take  (change)  his  membership  from  his  home  church. 
He  may,  however,  on  his  request  be  enrolled  as  an  Affili- 
ate Member  of  a  Methodist  church  located  in  the  vicinity 
of  his  temporary  residence.  The  Discipline  provides  that 
the  home  pastor  shall  be  notified  of  such  affiliate  member- 
ship, and  the  membership  itself  entitles  the  person  to  the 
fellowship  of  the  church  he  attends,  and  to  its  pastoral 
care  and  oversight,  and  to  participation  in  its  affairs.  He 
must  however  continue  to  be  counted  as  a  member  of  his 
own  home  church.  Persons  of  other  denominations  may 
become  associate  members  of  a  local   Methodist  church 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MEMPHIS,   TENNESSEE 


under  much  the  same  conditions  as  these  outhned  above. 

Associate  Members  are  often  nominal  members  of  an- 
other denomination,  usually  of  a  State  church  in  lands 
outside  the  United  States,  who  under  rules  adopted  by  a 
Central  Conference,  have  been  permitted  certain  of  the 
privileges  and  responsibilities  of  membership  in  a  local 
Methodist  church.  Such  associate  membership  came  about 
in  certain  lands  where  the  support  and  fellowship  of 
members  of  other  Churches  who  were  willing  to  give 
needed  support  and  fellowship  were  made  welcome.  Regu- 
lations provided  by  the  former  Discipline  of  The  Method- 
ist Church  held  that  no  action  should  be  taken  in  this 
regard  contrary  to  the  Constitution  and  to  the  General 
Rules  of  The  Methodist  Church.  {Discipline,  1964,  Para- 
graph 562.)  Certain  Judicial  Council  decisions  were 
made  within  recent  years  defining  more  particularly  the 
powers  of  the  Central  Conferences  in  this  regard. 

Termination  of  Membership.  Membership  in  the  Meth- 
odist Church  is  considered  to  be  a  precious  possession  not 
to  be  terminated  except  by  death,  transfer,  withdrawal, 
expulsion  or  action  of  the  Quarterly  (Charge)  Confer- 
ence (in  British  Methodism  by  the  Leaders'  Meeting). 
The  pastor  must  report  the  loss  of  any  members  at  each 
Quarterly  (Charge)  Conference,  and  indicate  the  reason 
for  such.  One  of  the  Restbictive  Rules  binding  upon  the 
General  Conference  prevents  that  body  from  making 
any  regulation  which  would  deprive  a  person  of  church 
membership  without  a  due  trial  "before  the  church,  or  by 
a  committee,  and  of  an  appeal."  (Restrictive  Rule  4,  Para- 
graph 18,  Discipline  1968.)  Rather  minute  directions  are 
given  today  guiding  and  directing  the  pastor  as  to  what 
he  shall  do  when  a  member  wishes  to  transfer  to  another 
denomination,  or  finds  that  such  a  person,  without  prior 
notice  has  united  with  another  denomination.  Pastors  also 
are  carefully  directed  as  to  how  they  may  furnish  a  letter 
of  transfer  to  a  member  wishing  to  move  to  another 
church. 

The  Charge  (Quarterly)  Conference  of  the  Church  has 
the  right  to  remove  from  the  roll  the  name  of  a  person  if 
such  person  cannot  be  located,  and  if  the  Commission  on 
Evangelism  of  the  local  church  together  with  the  pastor 
so  recommends. 

The  duty,  power  and  privilege  of  receiving  members 
according  to  the  Discipline  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church  is  in  the  hands  of  the  pastor  of  each  charge  and 
of  him  only.  This  has  been  the  case  since  the  beginning  of 
American  Methodism.  No  conference,  no  bishop,  no  offi- 
cial board  may  forbid  the  pastor  to  receive  any  person 
whom  he  feels  is  properly  qualified.  But  while  only  the 
pastor  may  receive,  he  may  not  e.xpel,  once  a  member  is 
admitted.  Only  by  procedures  carefully  outlined  in  the 
Discipline,  the  processes  of  a  church  trial — if  one  be  asked 
or  by  action  of  the  Quarterly  Conference  when  a  person's 
whereabouts  cannot  be  located,  may  a  name  be  dropped 
from  the  roll,  death  or  withdrawal  of  course  excepted. 
(See  also  Theology,  British.) 


Disciplines. 

Judicial  Council  Decisions,  TMC. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 


N.  B.  H. 


MEMOIRS  AND  MEMORIAL  SERVICES.  A  memoir,  in 
common  parlance,  may  be  an  official  note  or  report,  or 
something  to  be  remembered,  but  in  Methodist  practical 
usage,  the  term  usually  has  to  do  with  the  biographical 


material  covering  the  life  of  a  deceased  minister  and  pub- 
lished in  the  official  Journal  of  his  Annual  Conference. 
Formerly  such  memoirs  were  read  one  after  another  at 
the  Annual  Conference  in  a  fonnal  memorial  sei"vice.  How- 
ever, the  great  growth  of  the  Conferences  in  later  years, 
and  the  time  which  the  reading  of  such  memoirs  con- 
sumed, well  nigh  forced  the  abandonment  of  such  time 
honored  procedure. 

Of  late  years  it  has  become  customary  in  the  Confer- 
ences of  The  United  Methodist  Church  to  have  a  foiTnal 
memorial  service  in  charge  of  a  Committee  on  Memoirs 
at  each  Annual  session,  and  to  have  a  single  address  given 
by  some  selected  person.  This  deals  in  general  terms 
with  the  life  and  effectiveness  of  those  whose  memoirs 
are  being  presented.  The  separate  memoirs  are  usually 
prepared  by  persons  who  are  formally  requested  to  do  so 
by  the  Committee  on  Memoirs,  which  usually  consults  be- 
forehand the  deceased  minister's  family.  The  names  of  the 
departed  brethren  are  all  read  at  the  memorial  service 
with  special  places  reserved  for  the  families  of  the  de- 
ceased who  may  be  able  to  attend.  The  written  memoirs 
are  later  published  in  the  Conference  Journal.  These 
memoirs  may  be  referred  to  for  many  important  matters 
in  connection  with  the  life  of  the  men  memorialized. 

A  listing  of  the  memoirs  of  all  deceased  ministers  of 
the  M.E.,  M.E.  South,  and  M.P.  Churches  is  kept  in 
the  library  of  the  Publishing  House  in  Nashville,  so  that 
when  the  name  of  one  memorialized  is  given,  it  is  possible 
to  ascertain  at  once  the  Conference  Journal  and  year  in 
which  the  memorial  appeared. 

N.  B.  H. 

MEMPHIS,  TENNESSEE,  U.S.A.  The  first  Methodist  to 
preach  in  Memphis  was  probably  Uncle  Harry  Lawrence, 
a  Negro  who  preached  to  his  people.  The  first  society 
was  organized  in  February  1826,  nine  months  before  the 
town  was  chartered.  This  became  in  time  the  First  Meth- 
odist Church.  T.  P.  Davidson  was  the  first  pastor,  and 
there  were  three  charter  members,  Mrs.  Pauline  Perkins, 
Elijah  Coffee,  and  a  Portuguese  named  Dickens.  The 
church  was  part  of  the  Wolfe  River  charge,  a  six-week 
circuit.  In  18.31  Bishop  Roberts,  presiding  over  the 
Tennessee  Conference,  appointed  Francis  A.  Owen 
to  organize  a  station.  For  a  time  they  met  in  the  "Blue 
Ruin  Tavern."  In  1832  land  was  purchased  and  the 
first  church  building  of  any  kind  in  Memphis  was  erected, 
a  frame  building  with  split  benches  for  pews.  A  Sunday 
school  was  organized  the  following  year.  By  1843  there 
were  300  white  and  more  than  200  Negro  members. 

In  1840  Davidson's  Chapel  was  organized  near  Fort 
Pickering,  two  miles  south  of  the  city  limits.  Asbury  be- 
gan in  1843,  Forest  Chapel  and  Edgewood  in  1853, 
Central  (St.  John's)  in  1859.  The  Civil  War  touched 
Methodism  heavily.  Several  churches  were  used  as  hos- 
pitals by  Union  troops,  two  were  burned,  and  ^\'esley 
Chapel  (First)  was  assigned  a  Union  chaplain  as  pastor. 

Yellow  fever  in  1878  almost  destroyed  Memphis,  but 
by  1900  there  were  fourteen  churches.  During  the  next 
twenty  years,  six  more  were  organized.  Then  came  a 
drouth  with  no  new  Methodist  church  for  twenty-six  years. 
In  1946  Grimes  Memorial  was  begun  with  thirty  members, 
named  for  C.  C.  Grimes,  district  superintendent  at  the 
time.  By  1970  there  were  two  districts  and  sixty-nine 
churches  in  the  city  and  county.  The  statistics  report  46,- 


MEMPHIS,   TENNESSEE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


750  members  in  the  Memphis  and  Memphis-Shelby  Dis- 
tricts. 

Roy  D.  Williams 

Christ  Church  was  organized  in  the  Poplar  Plaza  The- 
atre on  June  26,  1955,  with  600  charter  members.  The 
present  membership  is  2,610.  While  located  in  the  affluent 
East  Memphis  residential  area,  it  draws  members  from 
all  over  the  city.  The  church  was  organized  under  the 
leadership  of  Charles  W.  Grant.  Three  additional  ministers 
are  on  the  staff. 

There  are  two  educational  buildings  and  a  sanctuary, 
with  a  seating  capacity  of  1,510,  located  on  more  than 
ten  acres  of  ground.  The  sanctuary  contains  stained  glass 
windows,  much  admired,  with  Scriptural  symbols.  Pres- 
ently, plans  are  being  drawn  for  a  fourth  and  final  build- 
ing with  additional  classrooms,  a  gymnasium,  and  another 
library. 

Due  to  a  vital  interest  in  missions,  supporting  mission- 
aries in  Brazil,  Japan,  Africa  and  Borneo,  Malaysia, 
Christ  Church  ranked  third  in  American  Methodism  in 
Advance  Special  giving,  1966-67.  Christ  Church  has 
sponsored  two  new  churches — Scenic  Hills  and  Good 
Shepherd.  It  also  sponsors  a  week  day  school,  comprised 
of  junior  kindergarten,  kindergarten,  and  grades  one 
through  six.  State  standards  are  met. 

Christ  Church  is  deeply  interested  in  and  is  generously 
contributing  to  a  Memphis  renewal  program,  presently 
giving  full  support  to  an  "Inner-City  Worker."  Total  giv- 
ing for  all  purposes  in  1969-70  Conference  year  was 
$450,.3.35.  Church  property  is  valued  at  $2,773,913. 

Methodist  Hospital,  located  at  1265  Union  Avenue, 
was  founded  in  1918.  The  institution  has  grown  from 
si.\ty-five  beds  to  900  beds,  but  its  purpose,  to  serve  as 
a  haven  of  rest  and  treatment  for  the  sick  and  needy — 
usually  those  of  the  Mid-South — has  remained  the  same. 

Ownership  of  the  vast  enterprise  rests  with  the  North 
Mississippi,  North  Arkansas  and  Memphis  Confer- 
ences of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  and  is  held  in 
trusteeship.  Trustees  (six  from  each  of  the  three  confer- 
ences) are  elected  annually.  The  trustees  in  turn  elect  a 
Board  of  Managers  to  handle  (under  delegated  power 
only)  the  actual  operation  of  the  hospital. 

Methodist  Hospital  was  incorporated  in  the  state  of 
Tennessee  as  a  non-profit  institution  in  1922.  On  Sept. 
17,  1924,  the  hospital  moved  to  its  present  location  with 
a  capacity  of  120  beds.  Two  and  a  half  years  later,  the 
Lucy  Brinkley  Annex  was  completed,  increasing  the  pa- 
tient capacity  to  185. 

The  West  Wing,  opened  in  November  1940,  raised 
patient  occupancy  to  300.  Construction  in  1950  included 
the  North  Wing,  a  new  laundry  and  storeroom,  and  addi- 
tions to  the  Doctor's  Office  Building  and  Pharmacy. 

The  hospital  acquired  and  began  operating  Memphis 
Eye,  Ear,  Nose  and  Throat  Hospital  with  a  patient  ca- 
pacity of  sixty  on  Jan.  1,  1943. 

Another  major  addition  to  Methodist  Hospital,  the 
East  Wing,  opened  in  June  1958.  Ten  stories  high,  the 
East  Wing  houses  246  patient  beds.  Also  completed  in 
1958  was  a  new  service  wing  constructed  in  connection 
with  the  East  Wing.  This  sei-vice  wing  houses,  among 
other  things,  a  surgical  suite  and  obstetrical  suite. 

On  Jan.  13,  1966,  the  fifteen-floor  WiUiam  Green 
Thomas  Wing,  providing  an  additional  364  beds,  was 
opened.   Three  additional   service  wing  floors  were   also 


added.  This  new  service  area  affords  new  X-ray,  labora- 
tory, physical  therapy,  surgical  and  intensive  care  unit 
facilities. 

Another  new  feature  of  the  Thomas  Wing  is  the  teen- 
age patient  floor  located  on  the  thirteenth  floor.  This  new 
unit  is  manned  by  specially  trained  staff  to  care  for  chil- 
dren between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  eighteen.  The  floor 
provides  a  special  recreation  room  for  use  of  ambulatory 
patients.  With  the  opening  of  the  Thomas  Wing,  aU  opera- 
tion of  the  Memphis  Eye,  Ear,  Nose  and  Throat  Hospital 
was  moved  to  Methodist  Hospital. 

The  Hospital  maintains  several  educational  programs. 
The  School  of  Nursing  is  probably  best  known,  and  main- 
tains the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  finest  schools  in 
the  land.  Other  programs  include  schools  for  X-ray  tech- 
nicians, medical  technologists,  and  inhalation  therapists. 
In  addition  to  the  educational  programs  for  interns  and 
residents,  the  Hospital  also  has  intern  programs  for  admin- 
istrative residents  and  graduate  students  in  pharmacy. 

Probably  the  largest  and  most  extensive  home  mission 
program  is  carried  on  at  Methodist  Hospital  through  the 
Golden  Cross  Service  Program,  with  contributions  coming 
from  the  three  owning  conferences. 

Both  the  Women's  Auxiliary  and  the  Volunteer  Pink 
Lady  Program  make  major  contributions  of  time  and  finan- 
cial support. 

Fred  Munson 

St.  Luke's  Church  has  for  many  years  enjoyed  a  unique 
position  among  the  churches  of  the  city. 

The  growth  of  the  City  of  Memphis  and  expansion  of 
Memphis  State  University  have  combined  to  make  St. 
Luke's  the  largest  Methodist  church  in  the  city  and  one 
of  the  most  significant  in  the  state.  It  is  a  church  that 
always  gives  special  attention  to  education,  mission  and 
youth. 

St.  Luke's  began  as  an  unattached  preaching  point, 
and  then  as  Bethel  Church  on  the  corner  of  Prescott  and 
Barron,  where  shortly  after  the  Civil  War  a  small,  one- 
room,  frame  church  was  built  on  a  lot  given  by  D.  R.  S. 
Rosebrough. 

In  1888  the  church  moved  to  the  population  center  of 
East  Memphis,  a  community  called  Buntyn.  For  sixteen 
years  the  church  was  knowTi  as  the  Buntyn  Methodist 
Church.  From  1875-1911  this  church,  known  first  as 
Bethel  and  then  as  Buntyn,  was  a  part  of  the  Springdale 
circuit,  which  circuit  was  Methodism's  attempt  to  keep 
step  with  the  eastward  movement  of  the  city  in  these 
years. 

In  1911  the  church,  with  200  members,  became  a  new 
appointment  known  as  "The  Buntyn  Station. " 

In  1925  the  property,  at  the  center  of  the  community  on 
which  St.  Luke's  now  stands,  was  given  to  the  church 
by  John  T.  Fisher,  a  prominent  Memphis  Methodist  busi- 
ness man.  During  the  months  while  the  congregation 
worshipped  at  West  Tennessee  State  CoUege,  a  small 
brick  church  was  erected.  This  building  is  now  the  center 
for  a  Boy  Scout  program  that  reaches  about  500  boys. 
In  1930  the  present  sanctuary  of  the  church  was  built 
and  the  name  changed  to  St.  Luke's. 

Since  1930  the  story  has  been  one  of  expanding  pro- 
gram and  increased  membership.  The  area  once  served  by 
St.  Luke's  now  has  ten  Methodist  churches — some  of  the 
most  impressive  churches  in  the  City  of  Memphis.  St. 
Luke's,  with  3,082  members,  continues  to  make  plans  for 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MENDENHALL,    MARMADUKE   H. 


St.  Luke's  Church,  Memphis,  Tennessee 


growth  in  membership,  budget  and  building.  It  has  been 
served  by  some  of  the  most  distinguished  ministers  of  the 
Memphis  Conference.  The  longest  pastorates  have  been 
tliose  of  James  D.  Jenkins,  William  C.  Aden  and  James  A. 
Fisher. 

The  goal  assumed  by  the  church  and  pursued  vigorously 
centers  in  youth  with  a  determination  to  make  the  service 
of  St.  Luke's  Church  relevant  to  college  young  people 
today  and  across  the  years. 

MEMPHIS  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  organized  at  Jack- 
son, Tenn.,  Nov.  4,  1840,  with  Bishop  J.  O.  Andrew  pre- 
siding. It  was  formed  from  portions  of  the  Tennessee 
and  Mississippi  Conferences.  When  organized  its  terri- 
tory included  west  Tennessee,  west  Kentucky,  and  north 
Mississippi.  At  the  beginning  the  conference  had  12,680 
white  and  1,995  colored  members.  Named  for  the  Cit\' 
of  Memphis  which,  though  on  the  west  side  of  the  con- 
ference territory,  was  about  equidistant  from  its  northern 
and  southern  ends,  the  conference  included  what  was  and 
still  is  an  important  cotton  producing  area.  After  the  di- 
vision of  the  church  in  1844,  the  Memphis  Conference 
adhered  South  under  the  Plan  of  Sep.\ration. 

The  conference  grew  rapidly.  Starting  with  three  dis- 
tricts and  twenty-eight  charges,  it  had  ten  districts  and 
some  29,000  white  and  7,000  colored  members  in  1850. 
In  1869  there  were  about  40,000  white  and  235  Negro 
members.  Notwithstanding  the  loss  of  the  Mississippi  terri- 
tory to  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  in  1870,  the 
Memphis  Conference  had  grown  to  more  than  58,000 
members  by  1900,  and  at  unification  in  1939  it  had  more 
than  98,000  members. 

In  1939  there  was  a  determined  effort  to  place  the 
Kentucky  section  of  the  Memphis  Conference  in  the 
Louisville  Conference,  in  accordance  with  the  plan  to 
make  annual  conference  lines  conform  as  nearly  as  possible 
with  state  lines.  Objection  on  the  part  of  the  NIemphis 
Conference  and  its  Kentucky  members  thwarted  the  move. 
In  1964  the  Memphis  Conference,  knowing  that  one  new 
episcopal  area  would  be  created  in  the  Southeastern 
Jurisdiction,  asked  that  it  be  so  designated  with  the  provi- 


sion that  the  bishop  reside  in  Memphis.  But  the  Jurisdic- 
tional Conference  after  some  debate  awarded  area  status 
to  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  the  bishop  to  re- 
side in  Baleigh. 

Notwithstanding  its  record  of  growth,  the  Memphis 
Conference  has  been  somewhat  straitened  through  the 
years  by  the  fact  that  the  City  of  Memphis  is  in  the  ex- 
treme southwest  corner  of  Tennessee.  The  Mississippi 
Biver  on  the  west  and  the  Mississippi  state  line  immediate- 
ly on  the  south  constrict  the  conference.  In  working  for 
expansion  and  growth  the  conference  cannot  cross  the 
river  into  Arkansas  or  the  state  line  into  Mississippi;  it  can 
work  only  in  the  wedge  of  Tennessee  territory.  It  is  to 
the  credit  of  the  conference  that  notwithstanding  this 
geographical  constriction,  it  has  done  well  through  the 
years. 

The  Memphis  Conference  gave  The  Methodist  Church 
its  first  General  Conference  Secretary  (1939-1956), 
Lud  H.  Estes,  who  also  served  many  years  as  secretary  of 
his  own  conference  and  as  Secretary  of  the  General  Con- 
ference (1930-1938)  of  the  former  M.E.  Church,  South. 
Bishop  William  C.  Martin,  who  was  elevated  to  the 
episcopacy  in  1938,  the  last  bishop  elected  by  the  former 
M.E.  Church,  South,  was  bom  at  Bandolph,  Tenn.,  within 
the  bounds  of  the  Memphis  Conference. 

The  Memphis  Conference  supports  Lambuth  College 
at  Jackson,  and  in  1968  it  voted  to  endow  a  Methodist 
Chair  in  Memphis  Theological  Seminary  (Cumberland 
Presbyterian),  when  and  if  that  institution  is  accredited. 
The  conference  is  justly  proud  of  the  great  Methodist 
Hospital  at  Memphis.  Plans  for  building  a  retirement  home 
are  in  progress. 

In  1970  the  Memphis  Conference  had  eight  districts. 
370  ministers,  294  charges,  119,696  members,  and  prop- 
erty valued  at  $63,024,619. 

General  Minutes,  MEC,  MECS,  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  tlie  Memphis  Coiiference.  N-  B.  H. 

MENDENHALL,  MARMADUKE  H.  (1836-1905),  American 
preacher  and  philantliropist,  was  bom  in  Guilford,  N.C., 
May   13,    1836.    Upon   moving  to   Union   City,   Ind.,   he 

1549 


MENDOZA,    VINCENTE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


joined  the  North  Indiana  Conference  in  1856.  He  is 
remembered  as  an  effective  preacher  and  pastor,  being 
elected  to  the  General  Conference  in  1880.  In  addition 
to  his  pastoral  work,  he  engaged  in  numerous  business 
ventures  which  proved  quite  successful.  He  endowed  the 
Mendenhall  lectureship  at  DePauw  University.  This 
lectureship  has  attracted  some  of  the  keenest  minds  and 
best  known  ministers  and  theologians  in  the  country  as 
the  amiual  lecturers.  Mendenhall  died  Oct.  9,  1905. 

Harold  Thhasher 

MENDOZA,  VINCENTE  (1875-1955),  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  men  in  Mexican  Methodism,  was  bom  in  Guadala- 
jara, Dec.  24,  1875.  He  studied  with  the  famous  teacher 
Aurelio  Ortega  and  was  looked  after  by  David  F.  Wat- 
kins,  a  Congregational  missionary.  He  first  entered  work 
at  a  printing  plant  but  heard  the  call  for  the  ministry 
and  entered  the  Presbyterian  Seminary.  It  was  closed 
temporarily,  and  he  went  to  the  School  of  Theology  in 
Puebla.  He  entered  the  Annual  Conference  on  trial  in 
1899,  and  served  churches  in  Tezontepec,  Pachuca, 
Puebla,  and  Gante.  From  1915  to  1921,  because  of  the 
revolution,  he  went  to  California  and  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Southern  California  Conference.  There  he 
lost  his  first  wife,  by  whom  he  had  four  children.  Then 
he  married  Natalia  Garcia  Bravo.  From  1922-38  he  was 
part-time  pastor,  and  also  teacher  at  Union  Evangelical 
Seminary.  Also  he  acted  as  a  newspaper  editor.  From 
1947-48  he  devoted  his  time  to  the  Seminary.  He  retired 
in  1949  but  was  active  until  illness  and  death  came  on 
June  14,  1955. 

Mendoza  was  a  strong  speaker,  good  writer  and  poet, 
lecturer  and  teacher.  Large  congregations  and  numerous 
audiences  outside  the  church  gathered  to  listen  to  his 
interpretation  of  the  Bible  and  to  his  prophetic  word.  At 
institutes,  conventions,  ministerial  assemblies,  and  all  kinds 
of  gatherings,  his  Bible  classes  were  enjoyed  by  both 
adults  and  young  people.  He  served  the  same  in  small 
as  well  as  in  large  churches. 

He  was  successful  in  his  pastorates  but  even  more  so 
with  his  pen.  From  1910  to  1914  he  was  director  of  the 
Christian  Advocate,  from  1922-27  of  El  Mundo  Cristiano 
(an  interdenominational  paper).  He  was  director  of  El 
Evangclista  Mcxicano  (1935-38),  a  new  name  for  the 
Methodist  official  paper  which  is  still  pubhshed,  and 
from  there  on  he  was  a  contributor  to  it  until  his  death. 
His  writings  were  strong,  stimulating  and  controversial. 
Mendoza's  memory  will  long  live  as  the  best  hymn  writer 
in  Latin  America.  Throughout  his  life  he  assembled  a 
growing  collection  of  hymns  for  all  occasions.  Himnos 
Selcctos  finally  appeared  as  a  hymnal  in  which  he  included 
original  works,  words  and  music,  or  translations  and  selec- 
tions of  good  music  for  church  use  in  various  departments. 
He  enabled  the  Christians  of  Mexico  to  sing  their  faith 
with  joy  and  power. 

Gustavo  A.  Velasco  G. 


MENGEL,  CHARLES  H.  (1879-1964),  a  bishop  in  the 
American  Evangelical  Congregational  Church,  was  noted 
for  his  aggressive  leadership.  Born  at  Summit  Station  in 
Schuylkill  County,  Pa.,  May  8,  1879,  he  became  a  pastor 
in  The  United  Evangehcal  Church  in  1899.  Starting  as 
a  "breaker  boy"  in  the  anthracite  coal  mines,  his  educa- 
tion   had    to   be   secured   wherever   possible    with    some 


studies  at  Temple  University  in  Philadelphia,  and  other 
studies  by  correspondence.  However,  he  was  greatly  in- 
terested in  education,  and  in  time  (1953)  led  the  Board  of 
Education  of  his  church  in  starting  the  Evangelical  Con- 
gregational School  of  Theology  in  Myerstown,  Pa.  He 
also  helped  found  and  was  president  of  the  trustees  of 
the  Burd  and  Rogers  Home  for  aging  people  (first  lo- 
cated at  Hemdon,  Pa.  [1924]  and  later  at  Myerstown). 
He  was  elected  a  presiding  elder  in  the  East  Pennsyl- 
vania Conference  and  served  from  1922  to  1930,  then 
served  as  bishop  for  eight  years,  1934-42  (the  limit  in  his 
church ) .  He  was  a  leader  in  opposing  the  merger  of  The 
United  Evangelical  Church  with  the  Evangelical 
Association  in  1922,  and  thus  was  a  dominant  figure  in 
organizing  the  Evangelical  Congregational  Church.  Bishop 
Mengel  died  Jan.  14,  1964,  at  Allentowm,  Pa.  His  body 
was  laid  to  rest  in  the  Greenwood  Cemetery,  Allentown. 

Robert  Wilson 

MENTOR,  OHIO,  U.S.A.,  celebrated  150  years  of  Meth- 
odism in  1968.  Ohio  was  visited  by  Methodist  preachers 
as  early  as  1790,  but  credit  for  establishing  Methodism  in 
Mentor  must  be  given  to  Ira  Eddy  who  organized  a 
society  in  1818.  He  had  eight  charter  members,  four  pio- 
neer men  and  their  wives.  His  circuit  was  called  Grand 
River.  It  consisted  of  forty-three  townships  and  appoint- 
ments so  arranged  that  he  could  preach  in  each  of  them 
every  twenty-one  days. 

Eddy  was  a  preacher  and  organizer  of  great  ability, 
serving  in  time  as  pastor  of  almost  every  charge  in  North- 
eastern Ohio  and  one  who  doubtless  accomplished  as 
much  for  the  beginnings  of  Methodism  along  the  lake 
shore  as  any  other  man. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  church's  history  services  were 
held  in  homes  and  later  in  school  houses.  The  pioneer 
preachers  were  men  of  great  courage.  Their  exposure 
to  storms  and  floods,  wild  beasts  and  Indians  through  the 
almost  trackless  forest  that  was  then  the  Mentor  commu- 
nity, made  them  all  become  heroes.  One  official  board 
sent  a  petition  to  conference  asking  for  "a  preacher  who 
could  swim,"  as  the  one  appointed  to  Mentor  the  year  be- 
fore had  drowned  in  trying  to  cross  a  swollen  stream. 

An  early  example  of  Christian  cooperation  was  the 
building  of  the  first  church  in  Mentor.  This  was  a  brick 
building  erected  in  1838  by  the  Methodist  and  Disciple 
congregations. 

The  first  Board  of  Trustees  was  elected  in  April 
1842,  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  a  distinctly  Methodist 
church.  A  frame  building  was  completed  in  1844  on  a 
half  acre  of  ground  purchased  for  $50  at  the  site  of  the 
present  church.  The  contractor  accepted  his  pay  in  cattle 
due  to  the  scarcity  of  cash.  When  the  first  services  were 
conducted,  the  building  had  not  been  lathed  or  plastered. 
The  worshippers  brought  in  blocks  of  wood  on  which 
planks  were  laid  for  seats.  The  building  was  completed  in 
1848.  In  1866  extensive  repairs  were  made  to  the  "audi- 
ence room." 

When  Frank  Dunbar  was  appointed  to  the  Mentor 
Church  in  1900,  he  was  asked  after  his  first  service  if  he 
had  been  sent  by  the  Lord  to  build  a  new  church.  He 
affirmed  that  he  had.  When  a  building  fund  had  been 
raised  and  a  plan  selected,  the  old  church  was  moved  to 
the  rear  of  the  property,  and  worship  continued  to  be 
held  in  it  until  the  new  building  was  completed.  Farewell 
services  in  the  frame  church  were  held  in  January  1906, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MERRIFIELD,   GEORGE 


and  the  new  church  was  dedicated  the  following  Sunday. 
During  the  dedication  service  the  small  deficit  in  the 
building  fund  was  subscribed,  and  the  building  dedicated 
free  of  debt.  Its  construction  price  was  $11,000.  Later 
improvements  included  installation  of  electric  lights  and 
a  pipe  organ. 

Anticipating  rapid  growth — for  Mentor  is  located  in 
the  center  of  one  of  Ohio's  most  rapidly  growing  counties 
— the  congregation,  in  1955,  adopted  an  over-all  plan 
providing  that  an  education  building  be  the  first  phase 
of  the  building  program,  with  a  new  sanctuary  the  second 
phase.  Other  steps  would  include  a  new  social  hall  and 
more  educational  facilities. 

As  soon  as  the  Christian  education  center  was  con- 
structed in  1957,  it  was  necessary  immediately  to  begin 
plans  for  a  new  sanctuary.  The  present  sanctuary,  com- 
pleted in  1962,  accommodates  1,200,  not  including  the 
choir,  and  there  are  two  services  each  Sunday.  Duplicate 
sessions  of  the  church  school  are  also  held.  Present  church 
membership  is  reported  as  2,017. 

"History  of  Mentor  Methodism,"  The  Quarterly  Bulletin,  Vol. 
I.  Mentor,  Ohio,  September  1894. 

"Mentor  Methodist  Church,"  The  Telegraph,  Painesville,  Ohio, 
Nov.   21,    1953.  Mae    Booth 

MERIDIAN,  MISSISSIPPI,  U.S.A.  Central  Church.  Orga- 
nized Methodism  began  in  Lauderdale  County,  Miss.,  in 
January  1839,  when  the  Alabam.\  Conference,  of  which 
the  region  was  then  a  part,  appointed  William  Howie 
to  the  Lauderdale  Mission.  A  year  later  the  mission  re- 
ported 358  white  and  twenty-nine  colored  members,  and 
in  1841  it  became  the  Lauderdale  Circuit. 

Dearman  Chapel,  erected  in  1852  on  what  is  now  Ninth 
Street  near  Eleventh  Avenue,  was  the  first  Methodist 
church  building  in  the  Meridian  community.  In  1859 
Meridian  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  the  conference 
appointments,  Junius  E.  Newman  preacher  in  charge. 
The  next  year  the  charge  reported  150  white  and  fifty 
colored  members.  The  Mobile  Conference,  formed  in  1863 
by  dividing  the  Alabama  Conference,  met  in  Meridian  in 
1868. 

The  1870  General  Conference  readjusted  annual 
conference  boundaries  and  placed  Lauderdale  and  some 
other  counties  on  the  eastern  edge  of  Mississippi  in  the 
Mississippi  Conference.  The  Meridian  District,  fonried 
in  1868,  was  continued.  The  Meridian  church  had  208 
white  and  no  colored  members  in  1870. 

In  1886  a  new  church  building,  said  to  be  "the  best  in 
the  conference,"  was  erected  in  Meridian.  For  a  time  it 
was  called  First  Church,  but  in  1890  it  was  officially 
named  Central  Church.  The  building  was  destroyed  by 
fire  in  1913,  and  the  congregation  then  relocated  at  Tenth 
Street  and  Twenty-Third  Avenue.  An  impressive  new 
sanctuary  was  erected  in  1923.  In  1951  an  education 
building  was  added,  and  in  1960  the  interior  of  the  church 
edifice  was  remodeled. 

A  Woman's  Missionary  Society  was  organized  in  1879, 
and  in  1887  Central  Church  sent  Betty  Hughes  as  a  mis- 
sionary to  China.  The  church  claims  to  have  had  the 
first  organized  Adult  Bible  Class  in  the  Mississippi  Con- 
ference. 

As  the  downtown  church.  Central  is  one  of  sixteen 
United  Methodist  congregations  in  a  city  of  about  45,000. 
In  1970  it  had  1,636  of  the  7,186  members  of  The  United 


Methodist  Church  in  Meridian.  The  value  of  its  property 
was  $917,390,  and  it  raised  $10,539  for  all  purposes  dur- 
ing the  year. 

General  Minutes,  MEG,  MECS,  MC,  and  UMC. 

B.  M.  Hunt,  History  of  Central  Methodist  Church,  Meridian. 

(Typescript).  19.58. 

M.  E.  Lazenby,  Alabama  and  West  Florida.  1960. 

Minutes  of  the  Mississippi  Conference.      Nohman  U.  Boone 

MERITON,  JOHN  (1698-1753),  British  Anglican,  hailed 
from  East  Anglia,  where  his  father  was  an  incumbent. 
He  graduated  from  Caius  College,  Cambridge;  and  after 
serving  as  a  curate  at  Oxburgh,  moved  to  the  Isle  of  Man, 
where  he  was  converted.  John  Wesley  met  him  in  1741 
and  invited  him  to  join  the  Methodists.  He  accompanied 
Wesley  on  numerous  preaching  tours  and  acted  as  a 
secretary.  He  attended  the  first  Conference  in  1744. 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Magazine  ( 1900),  495-501. 

A.  Skevington  Wood 


MERKEL,  HENRY  M.  (1889-1960),  American  minister  and 
historian  of  Utah  Methodism,  was  born  Feb.  14,  1889 
at  Tamaroa,  111.  He  was  educated  in  the  schools  of  south- 
ern IlUnois,  the  Academy  of  McKendree  College,  the 
New  Mexico  State  Normal  University,  and  the  Iliff 
School  of  Theology. 

He  was  ordained  deacon  in  1917,  and  elder  in 
1920,  at  tlie  Southern  Illinois  Conference,  trans- 
ferring to  the  New  Mexico  Mission  in  1920,  and  to  the 
Colorado  Conference  in  1925,  after  which  he  served 
in  the  Utah  Mission  from  1926-1935.  Returning  to  the 
Colorado  Conference,  he  retired  in  1954. 

Henry  Merkel  is  best  known  for  his  authorship  of  the 
book.  History  of  Methodism  in  Utah,  which  has  become 
a  source  book  of  facts,  not  only  on  Methodism  in  Utah, 
but  of  much  in  the  religious,  social,  economic  and  political 
development  of  the  West. 

His  ministry  was  marked  by  deep  friendships,  an  evan- 
gelistic message,  and  a  warm  heart.  He  died  June  15, 
1960,  speaking  to  the  Rocky  Mountain  Conference 
meeting  in  Denver,  Colo.,  on  behalf  of  McKendree  Col- 
lege, an  institution  which  had  conferred  upon  him  the 
D.D.  degree.  He  is  buried  in  Wiley,  Colo.,  near  the  ranch 
he  owned  and  loved. 

Journal  of  the  Utah  Mission  and  tlie  Rocky  Mountain  Confer- 
ence. 
H.   M.  Merkel,   Utah.   1938.  Warren  Bainbridge 

MERRIFIELD,  GEORGE  (1854-1929),  American  minister, 
was  bom  in  Sutton,  County  of  Surrey,  England,  Aug.  13, 
1854.  He  came  to  America  with  his  brother  in  1873, 
coming  to  Detroit  where  he  planned  to  secure  employ- 
ment. He  later  worked  as  a  miner  in  the  Minnesota  iron 
range  and  in  the  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania.  He  mined 
silver  in  Colorado  and  there  "made  a  strike"  which 
enabled  him  to  enter  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  to 
prepare  for  the  ministry.  Almost  all  of  his  ministr>-  was 
spent  in  the  West  Wisconsin  Conference.  Dodgeville, 
Darlington,  Lake  St.  Eau  Claire,  and  Trousdale  in  Madi- 
son were  among  his  appointments.  He  was  also  super- 
intendent of  the  Platteville  District.  1903-1909.  Death 
came  on  March  5,  1929,  in  Platteville. 

He  was  an  excellent  preacher,   having  a  fine   literary 


MERRILL,   ANNIS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Style.  An  expression  often  used  concerning  him  was,  "a 
perfect  Christian  gentleman." 

Yearbook  of  tlie  West  Wisconsin  Conference,  1929. 

John  W.  Harris 

MERRILL,  ANNIS  (1810-1905?),  American  attorney  at 
law  and  Methodist  pioneer  in  California.  Son  of  a  mem- 
ber of  New  England  Conference,  he  graduated  at  Wes- 
LEYAx  Unh'ersity  in  1835,  studied  law,  and  practiced  in 
Boston.  Coming  to  San  Francisco  in  1849,  he  was  a 
member  of  the  first  board  of  trustees  of  First  Church, 
and  of  the  University  of  the  Pacific.  He  drew  up  the 
charter  for  the  university,  and  was  president  of  its  trustees 
for  many  years.  He  handled  more  legal  cases  for  the 
church  during  its  first  half  century  than  any  other  attorney 
in  the  state.  A  Sunday  school  teacher  for  forty  years,  at 
ninety  he  rode  his  bicycle  in  Golden  Gate  Park  for  his 
morning  constitutional.  He  was  regarded  as  one  of  the 
partriarchs  of  California  Methodism,  both  in  his  local 
church  and  in  the  Conference.  The  date  of  his  death  is 
uncertain  as  it  occurred  shortly  before  the  great  earth- 
quake and  fire  of  1906  in  San  Francisco  which  destroyed 
the  official  records. 

C.  V.  Anthony,  Fifty  Years.  1901. 

F.  K.  Baker,  History  of  First  Methodist  Church,  San  Francisco. 

N.d.  Leon  L.  Loofbourow 


MERRILL,  STEPHEN  MASON  (1825-1905),  American  bish- 
op, was  born  the  fifth  in  a  family  of  eleven  children  at 
Mount  Pleasant,  Ohio,  on  Sept.  16,  1825.  The  giandson 
of  a  Revolutionary  Minuteman,  he  joined  the  church  at 
seventeen  and  entered  the  Ohio  Conference  in  1846. 
His  father  was  a  farmer  and  shoemaker  and  his  mother 
the  daughter  of  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  both  strict  Meth- 
odists. 

After  learning  the  shoemaker's  trade  and  then  teaching, 
he  gave  up  both  for  the  ministry.  His  first  appointment 
was  Georgetown,  Ohio,  a  "hardscrabble"  circuit  with 
twenty-two  preaching  places.  On  July  18,  1848,  he  mar- 
ried Anna  Bellmire,  who  survived  him  by  only  a  few 
days.  They  had  one  son.  Ordained  deacon,  1849,  and 
elder,  1851,  he  rode  hard  circuits  and  read  hard  books 
for  eleven  years.  Though  without  academic  training, 
Indiana  Asbury  (now  DePauw)  University  gave  him  an 
honorary  A.M.  in  1864,  He  had  only  a  term  or  two  in  a 
rural  academy. 

For  many  years  before  receiving  a  station  church,  his 
salary  was  only  $216  annually,  and  "table  exercises".  Be- 
fore transferring  to  the  Kentucky  Conference  in  1859, 
he  was  presiding  elder  in  Ohio.  Returning  to  the  Ohio 
Conference  in  1863,  Merrill  overcame  a  tendency  to 
pulmonary  disease  and  enjoyed  good  health.  A  close  stu- 
dent of  the  doctrines  and  polity  of  Methodism,  and  having 
naturally  a  fine  legal  mind,  he  won  recognition  on  the 
public  forum  and  in  the  church  press  as  a  powerful 
speaker.  Serving  as  presiding  elder  on  the  Marietta  (Ohio) 
district,  he  was  elected  to  General  Conference,   1868. 

Developing  into  a  great  church  lawyer,  Merrill  won 
recognition  in  the  General  Conference  for  his  wide  knowl- 
edge of  church  constitutional  law.  Although  he  was  a 
strong  Union  man  and  against  slavery,  he  was  not  in  the 
troubled  post-Civil  War-period  a  radical  agitator.  In  the 
General  Conference,  with  lay  representation  a  key  issue, 
he  delivered  a  strong  argument  to  the  effect  that  laymen 


could  not  be  admitted  to  that  body  without  duly  amend- 
ing the  constitution  of  the  church.  He  so  impressed  the 
General  Conference  with  his  ability  as  a  newcomer  that 
he  was  at  that  session,  1868,  elected  editor  of  the  Western 
Christian  Advocate. 

Four  years  later  (in  1872)  he  was  elected  bishop,  and 
assigned  to  the  St.  Paul,  Minn.  Area,  1872-80;  and  then 
to  Chicago  until  he  retired  in  1904.  He  died  suddenly 
while  on  a  visit  to  Keyport,  N.  J.,  on  Nov.  12,  1905. 
He  was  buried  in  Rose  Hill,  Chicago. 

Bishop  Merrill  traveled  widely  over  the  United  States 
and  Mexico.  He  wrote:  Christian  Baptism;  A  Digest  of 
Methodist  Law;  The  Organic  Union  of  American  Meth- 
odism (1892);  Mary  of  Nazareth  and  Her  Family,  and 
eight  other  lesser  known  books. 

Bishop  Merrill  was  no  revivalist  or  popular  speaker — 
as  is  the  case  quite  often  with  strictly  legal  minds.  But 
in  the  forum  of  any  great  conference,  his  "massive  argu- 
ment, which  his  admirers  likened  to  that  of  Daniel 
Webster,  bore  down  all  opposition."  A  walking  encyclope- 
dia on  Methodist  law,  he  was  to  his  brethren  a  calm  and 
useful  counselor.  He  ranked  next  to  Bishop  Joshua  Soule 
in  his  knowledge  of  the  Methodist  Constitution  and  law. 
A  great  parliamentarian,  his  humor  and  calm  made  him 
a  good  presiding  officer. 


Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 
M.    Simpson,   Cyclopaedia.    1878. 


Jesse   A.    Earl 


MERRITT,  KINSEY  NEWTON  (1891-1967),  American  con- 
ference lay  leader  and  business  executive,  was  bom  in 
Baltimore,  Md.,  June  5,  1891,  the  son  of  John  J.  and 
Mary  Ellen  (Nellie)  Merritt.  Educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Baltimore,  he  married  Helen  Brown  Maynadier 
Jan.  15,  1916.  He  worked  for  a  time  with  what  was  then 
tlie  Railway  Express  Company,  and  going  to  New  York 
City,  became  vice  president  of  that  company  in    1958. 

Merritt  joined  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1900,  and  served 
in  his  local  church  faithfully  as  long  as  he  lived.  He 
was  Sunday  school  superintendent  of  St.  Mathew's  Church 
in  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  president  of  the  Sunday  School 
Superintendents'  Association,  Philadelphia;  and  later  on 
moving  to  northern  New  Jersey,  became  lay  leader  of 
the  Newark  Conference,  as  the  Northern  New  Jersey 
Conference  was  named  then.  He  was  president  of  the 
Ocean  Ghove  Camp  Meeting  Association,  1953-63,  and 
contributed  articles  to  various  religious  and  business  maga- 
zines. He  was  a  lay  delegate  from  his  conference  to  the 
General  Conference  in  his  later  years. 

Kinsey  N.  Merritt  was  a  dominant  personage  and 
proved  to  be  an  orator  with  unique  talents.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  a  public  lecturer  of  power  and  persuasion, 
and  exerted  great  influence  in  his  whole  section  of  The 
Methodist  Church.  In  retirement  he  lived  at  Meadow 
Lakes,  Hightstown,  N.  J.  He  died  in  June  1967. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.    Jesse  A.  Earl 

MERRITT,  TIMOTHY  (1775-1845),  American  preacher  and 
writer,  was  born  in  Connecticut  just  prior  to  the  Revolu- 
tion and  was  directed  into  the  ministry  by  Enoch  Mudge. 
From  1797  to  1801  he  was  associated  with  Joshua  Taylor, 
presiding  elder  of  the  district  of  Maine  lying  between  the 
Penobscot  and  Saco  Rivers.  In  1822  he  had  charge  of  a 
class  of  twenty-five  members  at  Wood  End,  Lynn.  From 


WORLD   METHODISM 


1817  to  1819,  and  again  from  1825  to  1827,  he  served 
the  First  Methodist  Society  in  Boston. 

The  New  England  Methodist  historian,  James  Mudge, 
writes  of  Timothy  Merritt:  "Christian  perfection  was  his 
favorite  theme,  and  he  was  a  living  exemplification  of 
that  Wesleyan  doctrine.  .  .  .  His  favorite  topics  were 
those  which  pertain  to  experimental  and  practical  piety." 

As  a  writer,  Merritt  was  well  known.  For  a  time  he 
was  one  of  the  editors  of  Zion's  Herald;  he  was  also  an 
assistant  editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate  for  a  four- 
year  period.  He  launched,  in  July  1839,  a  periodical 
called  Guide  to  Christian  Perfection.  He  was  elected  first 
vice-president  of  the  third  general  convention  of  the 
Methodist  anti-slavery  movement  which  met  in  Lowell, 
Mass.,  in  November  18.38.  This  well-loved  personality  in 
the  New  Engl.\nd  Conference  died  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  on 
May  2,  1845. 

J.  M.  Buckley,  History  of  Methodists.  1896. 

J.  Mudge,  New  England  Conference.  1910. 

New   England   Historical   and  Genealogical   Register,   Vol.    I, 

1847;    Vol.   XV,    1861.  Ernest    R.   Case 

MESSMORE,  JAMES  H.  (1836-1911),  was  an  early  M.  E. 
missionary  in  North  India.  A  Canadian  by  birth,  he  was 
educated  at  Allegheny  College,  as  were  so  many  of  the 
early  Methodist  missionaries  to  India.  He  arrived  in  India 
in  1860,  and  was  married  in  1861  to  Elizabeth  Husk, 
the  first  unmarried  woman  missionary  sent  to  India  by  an 
organization  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  The  Methodist  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  sent  three  women  to  India  early  in 
the  1860's,  in  the  expectation  that  they  would  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  proposed  Woman's  Missionary  Society  as 
soon  as  it  was  organized.  The  other  women  soon  returned 
to  America. 

James  Messmore  made  a  distinguished  record  as  a 
Hindustani  scholar,  seminary  instructor,  publisher,  editor, 
English-church  pastor  and  presiding  elder.  With  James 
M.  Thoburn,  he  founded  The  Liicknow  Witness  in  1871, 
and  was  its  editor  for  years.  Its  name  was  changed  to 
The  Indian  Witness,  and  it  became  the  official  organ  of 
the  Methodist  Church  in  Southern  Asia.  Messmore  spent 
many  years  in  Garhwal  and  gave  much  to  the  principal- 
ship  of  the  boys'  school,  the  first  high  school  in  Garhwal. 
After  his  death,  it  was  named  the  Messmore  High  School 
by  public  request.  It  is  now  an  intermediate,  or  two-year, 
college.  So  much  was  the  veteran  missionary  revered  that 
the  Brahman  teachers,  senior  students,  and  community 
leaders,  nearly  all  former  students  of  the  school,  insisted 
on  carrying  his  coffin  to  the  cemetery  for  intennent. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

METHODISM  is  a  term  usually  applied  to  that  system  of 
doctrine  and  general  plan  of  economy  held  and  professed 
first  by  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  in  England  and  then 
by  the  organized  Methodist  Church  bodies  there  and  in 
America  and  now  in  almost  all  the  nations  on  the  earth. 
In  its  wider  significance,  it  is  applied  to  the  religious 
movement  which  commenced  under  the  labors  of  the 
Wesleys  and  Whitefield  in  the  first  half  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century. 

The  origin  and  development  of  the  movement  may  be 
found  narrated  in  other  parts  of  this  Encyclopedia,  in  the 
biographies  of  its  founder  and  his  helpers,  and  in  the 
story  of  Methodism  as  it  has  developed  in  the  many  lands 


where  it  is  today  at  home.  Although  each  one  of  these 
present-day  organized  Methodist  bodies  may  have  certain 
characteristics  which  may  cause  it  to  differ  somewhat  from 
the  others,  all  are  one  in  the  idea  and  practice  of  a 
"connexion,"  as  Wesley  liked  to  call  it. 

"Methodism  is  a  family  of  Churches."  This  statement 
by  the  nineteenth  century  Wesleyan,  William  Arthur, 
goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  for  the  ties  that  bind 
this  world  communion  together  are  neither  legal  nor  con- 
stitutional, but  they  are  those  of  a  common  origin,  a 
common  growth,  and  above  all  they  bind  together  church- 
es which  primarily  consist  not  of  institutions,  but  of  per- 
sons. Despite  all  the  differences  which  race  and  culture 
and  geography  impose,  there  is  a  recognizable  Methodist 
character,  and  Methodists  from  Zambia,  Cornwall, 
California,  Germany,  Cuba,  India,  Hong  Kong  would 
find  that  they  had  a  common  spiritual  inheritance.  That 
this  bond  is  "in  the  spirit"  is  not  a  fact  to  be  under-rated, 
for  of  all  institutions,  it  is  the  family  with  its  informalities 
and  its  personal  relationships  which  proves  to  be  tough 
and  enduring  when  more  pretentious  entities  have  passed 
away.  The  family  too  is  the  place  of  growth  and  change; 
sons  and  daughters  grow  up,  tensions  develop  between 
age  groups,  and  one  by  one  the  members  of  families  make 
their  own  lives,  get  married,  settle  down  elsewhere,  so 
that  there  is  in  the  strict  sense  an  "organic  unity"  between 
them,  capable  of  constant  modification.  The  rise  and 
development  of  Methodism  from  a  number  of  societies 
within  the  Church  of  England  into  a  world-wide  com- 
munion justifies  and  exemplifies  this  "family"  analogy. 

The  eighteenth  century  was  a  century  of  reaction 
against  a  century  and  a  half  of  religious  zeal,  intolerance 
and  dogmatic  strife.  It  was  itself  tolerant,  almost  indiffer- 
ent to  supernatural  claims,  preferring  to  appeal  to  reason, 
and  expressing  its  religion  in  an  accommodating  moralism. 
It  was  a  ferment  too,  of  critical  ideas,  of  dissolving  cer- 
tainties, with  attacks  on  current  orthodoxies,  centering  on 
the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  of  the  Person  of  Christ. 
One  notable  feature  of  the  Evangelical  Revival  and 
especially  of  the  sermons  of  John  Wesley  and  the  hymns 
of  his  brother  Charles  is  their  kerygmatic  character,  their 
joyful  and  confident  proclamation  of  the  Holy  Trinity  and 
of  the  Nicene  faith. 

Modern  historians  emphasize  that  the  brothers  Wesley 
did  not  inaugurate  an  awakening  which  had  already  begun 
in  America  and  in  Wales  before  their  conversion,  and  have 
drawn  attention  to  the  eminent  and  various  Anglican 
Evangelicals,  some  but  loosely  associated  with  the  Wesleys 
and  some  explicitly  dissociated  from  them,  in  whose 
parishes  there  were  the  fruits  of  converted  souls,  and 
renewed  Christian  communities.  Nonetheless,  the  work  of 
the  brothers  Wesley  is  central  to  the  revival,  and  to  their 
efforts  we  owe  the  emergence  of  the  Methodists,  not  as 
masses  of  converted  individuals,  but  as  societies  with  their 
own  coherent  pattern  of  discipline  and  worship. 

The  Wesleys  brought  with  them  their  own  spiritual 
heritage:  several  generations  of  clerical  ancestors,  who 
handed  down  to  them  through  Samuel  and  Susanna 
Wesley  all  that  was  richest  in  the  English  religious  tradi- 
tion, Puritan  and  Catholic,  as  well  as  the  more  recent 
awareness,  through  the  Non-Jurors  of  the  spirituality  of 
Jansenism  and  of  seventeenth  century  Catholic  mysticism. 

To  a  tired  English  religion  John  Wesley  brought  the 
blood  transfusion  of  German  Pietism  and  of  Moravianism, 
a  warm  affective  piety,  closely  linked  to  study  of  the 
Bible  and  finding  expression  in  noble  philanthropy.  The 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


rise  of  Methodism  John  Wesley  was  wont  to  trace  to  the 
Holy  Club  originated  by  his  brother  and  a  few  academic 
companions  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  It  may  be  that 
it  was  from  their  programmed  and  patterned  integrity 
of  worship  and  study  that  the  nickname  "Methodist"  arose. 
Their  search  after  hohness  was  in  the  main  along  tradi- 
tional high  church  lines.  It  was  later  and  above  all  during 
their  missionary  experience  in  Georgia,  that  the  Wesleys 
made  first-hand  contact  with  the  exiled  Lutherans  and 
MoR.^vi.\.Ns  at  Ebenezer  and  Savann.\u  and  drew  from 
them  lessons  and  clues  for  what  they  had  so  far  sought  in 
vain.  Despite  the  comparative  failure  of  their  mission  in 
Georgia,  they  had  learned  much  in  their  own  private  and 
personal  lives,  and  in  an  extraordinary  way  John  Wesley 
had  improvised  means  of  growth  in  piety  for  liis  people 
which  were  later  to  become  embodied  in  the  structure  of 
Methodism. 

After  their  return  to  England,  and  especially  in  the 
summer  of  1738,  things  began  to  happen  quickly.  Both 
brothers  imderwent  conversion  experiences.  Both  found 
their  preaching  unwelcome  in  the  fashionable  churches 
of  London.  It  was  a  turning  point  when  their  companion, 
George  Whitefield,  summoned  Wesley  to  join  him  in 
preaching  in  the  open  air  outside  Bristol,  and  from  this 
point  on  the  revival  became  evident,  as  their  preaching 
drew  crowds  who  would  not  enter  churches  to  hear  them. 

But  Wesley's  converts  were  not,  like  those  of  White- 
field,  "ropes  of  sand,"  for  from  the  beginning  he  organized 
them  in  bands,  cl.\sses,  societies,  a  simple  yet  intricate 
discipline  with  their  own  means  of  grace,  love  feasts, 
vigils,  fasts,  etc.  The  sacramental  services  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Revival  were  a  notable  feature  of  the  religious 
awakening,  but  these  centered  on  the  few  occasions  when 
the  Wesleys  and  their  small  band  of  ordained  clergy  could 
assist  them.  For  the  most  part  the  Methodists  were  driven 
to  the  sacramental  and  liturgical  pattern  of  the  Established 
church,  and  it  was  at  such  points  that  tension  and  hostility 
grew.  By  his  constant  travelling,  and  assisted  by  a  splendid 
band  of  laymen,  dedicated,  tough,  enduring  all  manner  of 
hardness,  he  covered  the  land  in  constant  journeys,  though 
there  were  areas  and  places  which  he  revisited  more  often 
than  others,  following  his  own  injunction,  "Go  not  only  to 
those  who  need  you,  but  to  those  who  need  you  most." 

In  the  1740's  the  Methodists  were  often  greeted  with 
hostility  from  both  mobs  and  magistrates,  but  by  the  end 
of  their  lives  the  Wesleys  had  become  honored  and  re- 
spected national  figures.  It  was  among  the  uncared-for 
proletariat,  the  miners  of  Cornwall  and  Wales,  the  move- 
ing  populations  of  the  new  industrial  area  that  the  Meth- 
odists found  their  strength.  The  Church  of  England  was 
involved  in  its  own  past,  and  in  an  alliance  with  the  State, 


The    First    Methodist    Conference,    June    25,     1744 
1554 


politically  fruitful,  but  paralyzing  in  the  end  to  the  pas- 
toral machinery  of  the  church.  Its  deliberative  Synods,  the 
Houses  of  Convocation,  were  in  abeyance  during  this 
critical  period,  with  the  result,  as  Newman  observed,  that 
the  Church  of  England  as  a  whole  never  met  Methodism 
as  a  whole,  never  made  up  its  corporate  mind  about  it, 
came  to  no  decision  about  it.  The  result  was  that  the  grow- 
ing difference  in  ethos  between  the  Methodists  and  the 
Establishment  was  unchecked,  and  after  the  death  of  Wes- 
ley this  led  to  the  separation  of  the  Methodists  from  the 
Church  of  England,  a  singularly  painless  schism. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  the  Methodists  in  England 
were  driven  to  institute  their  own  ordinances  of  Word 
and  Sacrament,  to  introduce  ordination  (with  laying  on 
of  hands  after  1836)  and  to  exist  as  a  separate  communion 
until  the  1830's,  rather  self-consciously  thinking  of  itself 
as  "the  Body"  and  distinct  from  either  the  Church  of 
England  or  the  older  Dissent.  The  Cathohc  revival,  the 
Oxford  Movement  and  the  renewal  of  Roman  Catholicism 
in  England  drove  the  Methodists  into  the  aUiance  with 
the  historic  Free  Churches  which  marked  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  During  that  century  other 
Methodist  bodies  arose — the  Bible  Christians  in  the 
West  of  England,  and  the  Primitive  Methodists  mainly 
in  the  midlands  and  north,  themselves  originating  in  re- 
vivals, but  in  their  polity  and  discipline  giving  a  larger 
place  to  the  laity  than  the  more  clerical  Wesleyan  organi- 
zation, and  unattached  by  any  tradition  to  the  Church  of 
England. 

The  famous  four  "Our's"  of  the  first  Methodists  signify 
their  characteristic  ethos:  "Our  doctrines."  These  were 
the  scriptural  doctrines  of  Justification  by  Faith,  As- 
surance, New  Birth,  a  combination  known  as  "Evangeli- 
cal Arminianism,"  but  which  had  little  to  do  with  the 
theology  of  the  Dutch  Arminius.  It  was  rather  the  offer 
of  free  grace  to  all  mankind,  and  the  universal  scope  of 
the  gospel  which  marked  them  off  from  the  Calvinist 
evangelicals.  None  the  less,  it  is  probably  best  to  see  both 
sides  of  the  Revival,  Arminian  and  Calvinist,  as  within  a 
common  Augustinianism,  and  emphasis  on  the  triumphant 
power  of  divine  grace. 

"Our  hymns"  were  the  hymns,  in  the  main,  of  Charles 
Wesley  which  put  into  rousing,  forthright,  and  unsenti- 
mental verse  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel. 

"Our  literature"  marks  a  whole  educational  revival,  in 
which  John  Wesley  took  the  lead,  of  which  his  schools 
at  Kingswood  were  a  first  fruit,  and  which  educated  his 
people  by  means  of  cheap  tracts  and  pamphlets,  as  well 
as  with  the  formidable  library  of  classics,  the  Christian 
Library  in  fifty  volumes  which  he  edited  for  his  preach- 
ers. 

"Our  discipline"  was  the  entirely  characteristic  polity, 
the  result  of  a  series  of  inspired  improvisations  by  Wesley 
himself:  wheels  within  wheels  of  Christian  companies, 
from  the  band  and  class  and  society,  to  the  district  synod 
and  the  annual  conference  of  preachers — this  last,  after 
Wesley's  deadi  becoming  the  sovereign  body  among  the 
British  Methodists;  the  itineracy  of  the  preachers,  going 
back  to  Wesley's  own  incessant  joumeyings,  resembling 
those  of  a  judge  on  "circuit";  the  use  of  lay  preachers  and 
the  growing  opportunities  for  lay  ministries  within  the 
Church. 

During  Wesley's  own  lifetime  the  Revival  had  spilled 
overseas,  and  in  North  America  and  in  the  West  Indies, 
there  were  revivals  of  similar  pattern  and  with  similar 
fruits  to  those  in  England.  In  the  early  nineteenth  century 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODISM    IN   THE   U.    S. 


a  series  of  heroic  and  costly  missionary  adventures  re- 
sulted in  Methodist  communities  in  West  and  South 
Africa,  and  in  Australia  and  the  Pacific  Islands.  It  was 
in  North  America,  however,  that  the  greatest  develop- 
ment took  place.  Following  the  liberation  of  the  colonies 
from  English  rule,  the  new  American  nation  found  room 
for  the  Methodists  with  their  flexible  organization  and 
enterprising  spirit,  and  as  the  great  extension  of  American 
life  westward  began,  the  Methodists  were  always  in  the 
van.  The  result  was  a  great  Church  which  in  numbers  and 
in  extent,  and  in  the  size  of  its  mission  fields,  greatly  out- 
numbers the  rest  of  Methodism.  Here,  too,  as  in  Africa  and 
India  and  Australasia,  the  institutional  pattern  followed 
of  orphanages  and  hospitals,  and  above  all  schools  and 
colleges  and  universities.  The  size  of  the  American  church, 
the  nature  of  its  growth  and  its  expansion,  resulted  in 
structural  differences  from  British  Methodism,  above  all 
in  that  the  American  Methodist  churches  are  episcopal. 

For  the  history  and  development  of  the  separate  Meth- 
odist Churches,  see  each  one  under  its  own  name  in  this 
Encyclopedia.  All  are  marked  in  their  professed  doctrinal 
statements  by  a  general  adherence  to  Amiinian  doctrine  as 
opposed  to  Calvinism,  and  the  feature  of  the  polity  of 
each  one  is  the  itinerant  system  for  ministerial  placement. 
This  is  almost  universally  practiced  save  in  certain  small 
Congregational  Methodist  bodies. 

In  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  size  and 
diversity  of  the  Methodist  churches  throughout  the  world 
called  for  some  kind  of  explicit  link  between  them,  and 
from  1881  onwards  Ecumenical  Methodist  Confer- 
ences have  been  held  at  regular  intervals,  where  matters 
of  common  concern  might  be  deliberated.  In  the  most 
recent  years  this  has  been  strengthened  by  regular  meet- 
ings of  a  World  Methodist  Council. 

Methodism  across  the  world  has  been  active  in  the 
Ecumenical  Movement,  and  Methodists  share  in  the  work 
of  the  World  Council  of  Churches  at  all  levels.  One 
of  the  effects  of  the  Ecumenical  Movement  itself  has  been 
to  throw  back  to  the  various  communions  questions  about 
their  own  inheritance.  They  too,  however,  are  conscious  of 
the  impulse  towards  a  closer  manifestation  of  Christian 
unity  in  a  divided  world.  They  are  taking  part,  unilaterally 
and  in  company  with  other  churches  in  dialogues  and  con- 
versations with  Roman  Catholics,  Orthodox  and  other 
Christian  traditions.  In  many  lands  they  too  have  been 
involved  in  discussions,  plans  and  schemes  for  Christian 
unity,  which  in  South  India  and  in  the  United  Church  in 
Canada  have  already  come  to  fruition. 

These,  then,  are  the  two  marks  of  the  last  half  century. 
The  growth  to  autonomy  and  independence  of  churches 
in  Australia,  New  Zealand,  South  Africa  and  in  one 
African  state  after  another,  resulting  in  a  new  partnership 
between  the  churches  of  the  Methodist  family,  the  useful- 
ness and  fruit  of  which  has  still  to  be  explored.  And 
second,  the  call  to  unity,  which  faces  Methodist  churches 
in  many  lands  and  continents.  Methodists  are  aware  that 
this  brings  problems  about  their  future  relations  with  one 
another:  they  realize  that  it  is  important  to  take  counsel 
with  one  another  about  these  things,  and  to  keep  one 
another  informed  about  common  problems  and  opportuni- 
ties. But  they  know  that  their  loyalty  to  Christ  and  to  His 
one  Church,  and  their  common  dedication  in  mission  to 
one  world  must  always  be  the  over-riding  consideration. 
In  His  providence  God  raised  up  the  Metliodist  people: 
He  has  greatly  blessed  them  in  their  joumeyings  through 


two  and  a  half  centuries.  They  take  heart  from  these 
things,  and  go  forward  on  their  providential  way. 

Bibliographical  note:  The  Methodist  bibliography  published 
in  this  Encyclopedia,  as  well  as  the  reference  citations  under 
many  institutions  and  biographies,  may  be  referred  to  for  a 
closer  study  of  Methodism  at  any  point  of  interest. 

E.  Gordon  Rupp 

METHODISM  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  1784-1939 

The  beginning  of  American  Methodism  is  closely  as- 
sociated with  immigrants  arriving  shortly  before  the  War 
for  Independence.  Philip  Embury,  an  Irish  exhorter 
and  local  preacher  of  German  descent,  preached  in  New 
York  in  1766.  In  1767  the  New  York  Methodists  formed 
a  society,  and  in  the  same  year  they  were  joined  by 
Thomas  Webb,  a  British  army  captain  then  stationed  in 
America  who  had  been  converted  by  John  Wesley.  Webb 
extended  his  preaching  to  Philadelphia  (1767  or  1768), 
Long  Island  and  Delaware,  and  formed  societies  in  New 
Jersey.  Embury  and  the  generous  Captain  Webb  are 
known,  respectively,  as  the  founders  of  Methodism  in 
New  York  and  Philadelphia.  To  come  to  the  distinctive 
character  of  American  Methodism,  however,  one  has  to 
appreciate  the  kind  and  extent  of  Methodist  activity  in 
the  area  south  of  Philadelphia. 

Methodist  work  in  America  may  well  have  been  under- 
way before  1766.  Robert  Strawbridge  quite  possibly 
had  been  preaching  in  Maryland  before  1763.  This  in- 
dependent-minded Irishman  made  preaching  journeys 
into  Delaware,  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania.  He  organized 
societies,  built  a  preaching  house,  raised  up  preachers, 
and  in  time  admini.stered  the  sacraments  among  his  fol- 
lowers, who  welcomed  his  ministrations  and  strongly  sup- 
ported him  later  when  Wesley's  assistants  took  him  to  task 
for  his  irregularities. 

Three  young  men  converted  in  the  wave  of  evangelistic 
activity  initiated  under  Strawbridge  and  his  followers 
were  outstanding  among  the  first  native  Methodist  preach- 
ers. These  were  Philip  Catch,  William  Watters,  and 
Freeborn  Garrettson.  Each  was  bom  and  reared  in 
the  general  vicinity  of  Baltimore,  and  each  had  been  a 
communicant  of  the  Church  of  England. 

To  the  names  of  these  independent  lay  preachers  must 
be  added  that  of  the  young  Irish  itinerant,  Robert  Wil- 
liams, who  came  with  the  reluctant  approval  of  Wesley. 
Wesley  was  irritated  by  Williams'  preaching  against  the 
clergy  and  made  him  promise  to  work  in  subordination  to 
the  appointed  missionaries.  Williams'  preaching  in  the 
parish  of  the  friendly  evangelical  clergyman,  Devereux 
Jarratt  in  tidewater  Virginia,  was  to  mark  the  real  be- 
ginning of  the  Methodist  revival  in  that  commonwealth. 
Even  Asbury  was  later  to  pay  tribute  to  this  "son  of 
thunder,"  who  came  to  be  known  as  the  founder  of  Vir- 
ginia Methodism.  But  Williams,  like  Strawbridge,  was  to 
create  problems  for  Wesley's  assistants. 

The  Question  of  Discipline.  Those  who  heard  the 
Methodist  itinerants  probably  found  nothing  strange  in  the 
continuation  of  a  pattern  of  freelance  preaching  already 
made  familiar  by  the  revivals  of  the  time.  Wesley,  how- 
ever, would  have  no  truck  with  freelance  preaching  which 
left  nothing  more  behind  than  "a  rope  of  sand."  If  there 
were  to  be  Methodist  converts  in  North  America,  Wesley 


METHODISM    IN    THE   U.    S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


held,  they  should  be  under  the  same  rigid  connectional 
discipline  that  he  maintained  in  England. 

Consequently,  at  the  British  conference  of  1769  Wesley 
appointed  Ricr\bd  Boabdman  and  Joseph  Pilmore  as 
missionaries  to  America.  Two  years  later  Francis  Asbury 
and  Richard  Wright  came  out  as  missionaries.  They 
were  followed  in  177.3  by  Thomas  Rankin  and  George 
Shadford. 

Wesley  looked  to  Rankin  to  correct  the  defective  dis- 
cipline of  his  predecessors.  Rankin's  first  conference,  con- 
vened six  weeks  after  his  arrival  in  Philadelphia,  laid 
bare  the  problems  confronting  the  missionaries.  Neither 
Strawbridge  nor  Williams  was  present.  Moreover,  of  Meth- 
odists now  reported  "in  society"  (1,160),  the  preponder- 
ance were  in  those  very  areas  to  the  south  dominated  by 
the  two  Irish  preachers,  Strawbridge  and  Williams,  and 
their  followers.  However,  the  preachers  attending  Rankin's 
conference  agreed  that  the  American  preachers  and 
societies  should  be  under  the  authority  of  Wesley,  and 
that  acceptance  of  the  English  Minutes  (the  Large 
Minutes)  as  the  standard  of  doctrines  and  discipline 
should  be  the  basis  of  the  connectional  fellowship. 

Rankin  continued  the  yearly  meeting  of  the  preachers, 
but  after  the  1777  conference,  with  the  War  for  Indepen- 
dence on,  he  returned  to  England,  as  had  all  the  other 
missionaries  save  Asbury.  With  the  outbreak  of  war, 
suspicion  toward  the  Methodists  had  increased  because  of 
their  relation  to  the  church,  and  because  of  Wesley's 
Toryism  and  the  pacifism  of  some  of  the  preachers  and 
members.  Most  Methodists,  however,  moved  toward  an 
alignment  with  the  Baptists  and  the  Presbyterians  in  op- 
position to  the  established  Church. 

By  1777  the  number  of  Methodists  in  society  had  in- 
creased fivefold  to  6,968,  with  the  bulk  of  the  membership 
still  in  the  south.  Only  488  members  were  reported  from 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey  and  New  York.  When  the 
preachers  met  in  1778  at  Leesburg,  the  first  yearly  con- 
ference on  Virginia  soil,  Asbury  was  already  in  seclusion 
at  Thomas  White's  in  Delaware,  and  the  young  native 
preachers  appeared  in  unquestioned  control  of  the  move- 
ment. 

The  Ordinance  Controversy.  The  encounter  between 
the  sectarian  native  movement  and  the  old-plan  Meth- 
odism reached  a  crisis  in  the  Fluvanna  conference  of  1779. 
Noting  that  the  Episcopal  establishment  was  now  dis- 
solved, the  preachers  established  a  presbytery  from  among 
their  own  number,  accepted  ordination  from  each  other, 
and  began  to  administer  the  sacraments.  Meanwhile, 
Asbury,  operating  from  his  base  in  Delaware,  undertook  to 
win  over  the  dissidents  and  preserve  what  he  could  of 
old-plan  Methodism.  Assuming  de  facto  the  office  of  "gen- 
eral assistant,"  he  was  able  to  muster  sufficient  support  to 
heal  the  schism;  and  the  Virginia  preachers  agreed  to 
await  further  direction  from  Wesley.  In  the  four  years 
intervening  before  the  arrival  of  Wesley's  authoritative 
emissaries,  Asbury  not  only  assured  the  survival  of  much 
of  the  Wesleyan  heritage  but  also  laid  foundations  that, 
as  it  turned  out,  greatly  facilitated  the  transition  to  an 
independent  church.  By  1784  the  minutes  showed  14,988 
members  and  eighty-four  itinerants,  and  Asbury  had 
emerged  as  leader  of  the  movement. 

On  Sept.  1,  1784,  John  Wesley,  assisted  by  two  other 
presbyters  of  the  Church  of  England,  Thomas  Coke  and 
James  Creighton,  ordained  as  deacon  Richard  What- 
COAT  and  Thomas  Vasey.  On  the  next  day  the  two  were 
ordained  elders,  and  Wesley,  assisted  by  Creighton  and 

1556 


Whatcoat,  "set  apart"  Thomas  Coke  as  "superintendent" 
for  America.  The  three  emissaries,  bearing  Wesley's  in- 
structions, arrived  in  New  York  on  November  3. 

What  Wesley  envisaged  for  American  Methodism  is 
not  clear.  In  his  letter  to  "Our  brethren  in  America"  he 
mentioned  "a  little  sketch"  he  had  drawn  up  in  response 
to  the  request  of  "some  thousands  of  the  inhabitants  of 
these  States"  for  his  advice.  (Apparently  the  "little  sketch" 
was  either  lost  or  destroyed.  A  reasonable  assumption  is 
that  what  actually  happened  in  the  Christmas  Confer- 
ence soon  to  be  held  did  not  conform  altogether  to 
Wesley's  intentions.)  "I  conceive  myself  at  full  liberty," 
Wesley's  letter  continued,  "as  I  violate  no  order  and 
invade  no  man's  right  by  appointing  and  sending  labourers 
into  the  harvest.  I  have  accordingly  appointed  Dr.  Coke 
and  Mr.  Francis  Asbury  to  be  Joint  Superintendents  over 
our  brethren  in  North  America;  as  also  Richard  Whatcoat 
and  Thomas  Vasey  to  act  as  elders  among  them,  by 
baptizing  and  administering  the  Lord's  Supper,  And  I 
have  prepared  a  Liturgy  little  differing  from  that  of  the 
Church  of  England  (I  think,  the  best  constituted  National 
Church  in  the  world),  which  I  advise  all  the  travellirfg 
preachers  to  use  on  the  Lord's  Day  in  all  the  congrega- 
tions, reading  the  Litany  only  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays 
and  praying  extempore  on  all  other  days.  I  also  advise  the 
elders  to  administer  the  Supper  of  the  Lord  on  every 
Lord's  Day."  (J.  Wesley,  Letters,  vii,  237-39.) 

Wesley  explained  the  difficulties  attendant  upon  his 
further  attempts  to  persuade  the  English  bishops  to  ordain 
ministers  for  America.  Even  if  the  bishops  should  ordain, 
their  action  would  entangle  the  Americans  with  both  the 
state  and  the  English  hierarchy.  Besides,  Wesley  had  long 
been  persuaded  "that  bishops  and  presbyters  are  the  same 
order,  and  consequently  have  the  same  right  to  ordain." 
He  considered,  therefore,  that  the  American  Methodists 
were  "now  at  full  liberty  simply  to  follow  the  Scriptures 
and  the  Primitive  Church."  (Ibid.) 

A  third  document  sent  over  by  Wesley  was  his  Letter 
Testimonial  of  Coke's  ordination.  (J.  Wesley,  Journal,  vii, 
facing  16.)  In  it  he  referred  to  the  desire  of  the  Ameri- 
cans "to  continue  under  my  care  and  still  adhere  to  the 
doctrines  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England"  and 
to  receive  the  sacraments  "according  to  the  usage  of  the 
said  Church."  This  document,  which  came  to  light  only 
after  Coke's  death,  does  not  in  itself  support  the  view  that 
Wesley  intended  that  the  Americans  form  an  independent 
church. 

The  Christmas  Conference.  Coke  first  met  Asbury  at 
Barratt's  Chapel  in  Delaware  on  Sunday,  Nov.  14, 
1784.  Asbury  wrote  in  his  Journal:  "The  design  of  orga- 
nizing the  Methodists  into  an  Independent  Episcopal 
Church  was  opened  to  the  preachers  present,  and  it  was 
agreed  to  call  a  General  Conference,  to  meet  at  Balti- 
more the  ensuing  Christmas."  (F.  Asbury,  Journal  and 
Letters,  1,  471-72.)  Freeborn  Garrettson  was  dispatched 
to  summon  all  the  preachers.  Some  sixty  or  more  were 
present  when  the  conference  convened  at  Lovely  Lane 
Chapel  on  December  24.  Wesley  could  hardly  have 
understood  the  mood  of  the  Americans  at  the  end  of 
their  long  conflict  with  England,  nor  the  extent  to  which 
the  ties  with  English  Methodism  had  been  weakened.  The 
American  preachers  were  of  a  mind  to  make  their  own 
decisions.  (See  Christmas  Conference.  ) 

Asbury  noted  that  all  things  were  determined  by  major- 
ity vote.  After  the  reading  of  Wesley's  letter  the  preachers 
agreed  to  form  themselves  into  an  Episcopal  Church  and 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODISM    IN    THE   U.    S. 


adopted  the  name  proposed  by  John  Dickins — The  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church.  Asbury  had  declined  to  accept 
the  office  of  Superintendent  merely  on  the  basis  of  Wes- 
ley's appointment,  but  both  he  and  Coke  were  unanimously 
elected  superintendents  by  the  conference.  Assisting  in 
Asbury's  consecration  at  Asbury's  invitation,  was  Philip 
William  Otterbein,  later  to  become  a  founder  of  the 
United  Brethren  Church.  Designation  of  the  two  super- 
intendents by  vote  of  the  conference  symbolized  the  new 
constitutional  base,  yet  to  be  perfected,  of  the  American 
church.  It  marked  the  transfer  of  the  personal  power  of 
Mr.  Wesley  into  the  hands  of  the  American  preachers 
assembled  in  conference. 

The  form  of  Discipline  adopted  at  Baltimore  in  1784 
was  heavily  dependent  upon  Wesley's  Large  Minutes, 
the  alterations  reflecting  the  changed  situation  of  the 
American  Methodists.  The  conference  adopted  twenty- 
four  Articles  of  Religion  which  Wesley  had  adapted 
from  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  Religion  of  the  English 
Church,  and  added  an  Article  entitled  Of  the  Rulers  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  conference  also  adopted 
The  Sunday  Service,  the  liturgy  sent  over  by  Wesley. 
Although  The  Sunday  Service  was,  after  a  few  years,  to 
fall  into  desuetude,  its  importance  as  a  bridge  between 
American  Methodism  and  the  Church  of  England,  not  to 
mention  the  whole  Western  Latin  tradition,  cannot  be 
overemphasized.  In  both  doctrine  and  liturgy  American 
Methodists  were  thus  held  in  the  great  Christian  tradition. 

Other  actions  taken  by  the  Christmas  Conference  in- 
cluded the  decision  to  establish  Cokesbury  College;  a 
stringent  rule  prohibiting  preachers  from  drinking  intoxi- 
cating liquors  (except  as  medicine);  and  the  acceptance  of 
a  detailed  plan  "to  extirpate  the  abomination  of  slavery." 

There  is  evidence  that  not  all  the  preachers  were 
pleased  with  what  was  done  at  Baltimore.  Thomas 
H.\SKiNS,  for  instance,  felt  that  more  consideration  should 
have  been  given  to  the  opinion  of  the  mother  church. 
Indeed,  three  leaders  of  the  American  clergy  met  with 
Coke  and  Asbury  after  the  Christmas  Conference  had 
convened,  and  discussed  with  them  a  plan  whereby  the 
Methodists  might  retain  organic  relation  with  what  was 
to  be  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  plans  for  which 
were  then  only  in  the  discussion  stage.  But  the  Methodist 
superintendents  were  not  responsive  to  these  informal 
overtures. 

Organization  Still  Incomplete.  With  adjournment  of 
the  founding  conference  the  preachers  could  present  the 
new  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  their  constituency  as 
apostolic  in  character,  founded  upon  scripture,  loosed 
from  its  questionable  connections,  no  longer  a  group  of 
"societies,"  but  a  church  firmly  dedicated  to  its  divine 
vocation.  In  his  sermon  at  the  ordination  of  Asbury, 
Thomas  Coke  said  to  the  new  superintendent:  "[God] 
will  carry  his  gospel  under  thy  direction  from  sea  to  sea, 
yea,  perhaps,  from  one  end  of  the  Continent  to  the  other." 
(T.  Coke,  Sermon  .  .  .  at  Ordination  of  .  .  .  Asbury, 
22.) 

The  new  church,  however,  was  not  yet  able  to  give 
a  clear  definition  of  its  corporate  structure.  Its  organiza- 
tion remained  tentative  and  partial.  Its  most  distinctive 
structures  were  to  emerge  in  the  next  generation  as  a 
means  of  controlling  and  extending  the  phenomenal  expan- 
sion begun  in  the  1780's.  Expansion  was  to  push  toward 
the  West,  the  North  and  the  South.  In  1784  Asbury  was 
travehng  in  southwest  Pennsylvania,  and  by  1790  he  was 
in  Kentucky.  In  1801   there  were  eight  circuits  in  the 


Pittsburgh  District  and  nine  in  the  Kentucky  District. 

In  1788  Freeborn  Garrettson  presided  over  six  circuits 
between  New  Rochelle  (New  York)  and  Lake  Champlain. 
In  1789  Jesse  Lee  had  begun  his  work  in  New  England, 
and  William  Losee  was  ranging  "at  large"  in  Canada. 
Three  years  later  missionaries  were  at  work  on  the  New 
York  frontiers  and  near  what  is  now  Kingston,  Ontario. 

Asbury  appointed  a  preacher  to  "range"  in  Georgia 
in  1785.  and  the  next  year  he  sent  Henby  Willis  to 
"Holston."  By  1787  three  circuits  had  been  formed  in 
Georgia.  Most  often  the  conference  itinerants  probing  the 
frontier  found  that  they  had  been  preceded  by  local 
preachers  who  had  already  organized  societies.  In  its  first 
quarter-century  the  new  Church  increased  the  number  of 
circuits  seven-fold,  to  324,  and  the  number  of  members 
eleven-fold,  to  over  163,000. 

The  office  of  Presiding  Elder  took  form  in  these  early 
years  of  expansion.  The  duty  of  the  twelve  elders  elected 
and  ordained  at  the  Christmas  Conference  was  to  be 
present  at  all  the  quarterly  meetings  of  the  circuits  under 
their  charge  in  order  to  administer  the  sacraments.  In 
1786  the  Discipline  added  to  the  elder's  duties  the  exercis- 
ing "within  his  own  district,  during  the  absence  of  the 
superintendents,  all  the  powers  invested  in  them  for  the 
government  of  the  Church."  The  first  General  Confer- 
ence, in  1792,  employed  the  term  "presiding  elder"  for 
the  first  time,  thus  distinguishing  between  preachers,  or- 
dained ELDERS,  and  those  of  their  number  bearing  special 
administrative  responsibilities. 

Conference  System  Develops.  The  Annual  Confer- 
ence as  such  developed  after  considerable  experimenta- 
tion. The  yearly  meeting  of  the  preachers  was  basic  in  the 
Methodist  discipline,  but  the  widening  deployment  of 
preachers  made  a  single  yearly  meeting  impracticable. 
Asbury  met  the  preachers  in  three  sections  in  1786  and 
1787.  Therafter  the  sections  increased  and  varied  in  num- 
ber from  year  to  year.  These  "district"  conferences,  as 
they  were  called,  "collectively,  or  in  the  final  session,  were 
competent  to  exercise  in  any  year  the  full  legislative 
powers  of  the  Church."  (J.  J.  Tigert,  Constitutional  His- 
tory, 222.) 

A  brief  experimentation  with  an  administrative  Council 
was  an  attempt  to  meet  the  need  for  a  centralized  struc- 
ture to  overcome  the  awkward  problem  of  processing 
legislation  through  the  several  "district"  conferences.  As- 
bury wished  to  avoid  calling  or  depending  upon  a  general 
conference  of  the  preachers.  The  Council  failed  to  win 
general  acceptance,  however,  and  after  only  two  sessions, 
in  1789  and  1790,  it  was  quietly  abandoned.  Turning  ne.xt 
to  his  less-favored  alternative,  Asbury  called  the  preachers 
to  meet  in  1792  in  what  was  to  be  the  first  General  Con- 
ference. At  its  second  meeting,  in  1796,  the  General  Con- 
ference fixed  the  boundaries  of  six  Annual  Conferences 
which  were  to  take  the  place  of  the  various  sectional 
conferences.  By  1804  the  Annual  Conference  had  assumed 
its  distinctive  features  as  the  self-contained  ecclesiastical 
unit  in  which  the  preachers  held  their  membership,  in 
which  appointments  were  made,  and  in  which  the  work 
of  the  denomination  had  its  regional  organization.  The 
Aruiual  Conference  thus  became  basic  to  the  whole  orga- 
nization of  the  church  as  the  Discipline  of  the  present 
United  Methodist  Church  declares  it  to  be.  (Constitution 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  Division  Two,  Section 
vii.  Art.  II.) 

The  first  General  Conference  was  composed  of  all  the 
preachers  in  full  connection  and  was  regarded  as  holding 


METHODISM    IN   THE   U.    S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


in  itself  the  full  power  of  the  church.  It  bound  itself 
not  to  modify  any  received  rule  of  Methodism  without  a 
majority  of  two-thirds.  It  resolved  to  meet  every  four 
years.  When,  four  years  later  (in  1796),  the  General 
Conference  defined  the  Annual  Conference,  the  basic 
conference  system  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
was  complete. 

Embraced  within  this  system  was  the  Qu.\rtebly  Con- 
ference, which  was  the  organizational  focus  of  the 
connection  on  the  circuit  level.  Even  before  the  arrival 
of  Wesley's  missionaries,  the  lay  preachers  in  the  Chesa- 
peake area  had  conducted  "quarterly  meeting  confer- 
ences," and  the  first  American  Discipline  assumed  the 
continuation  of  the  quarterly  meeting  as  a  part  of  the 
.Methodist  economy.  More  stable  in  operation  than  the 
local  society,  the  Quarterly  Conference  consisted  of  the 
preacher  in  charge,  all  the  local  preachers  and  class 
leaders,  and  the  circuit  stewards.  Presiding  over  its  ses- 
sions was  the  Elder,  who  functioned  as  "eyes,  ears  and 
mouth"  of  the  episcopacy.  The  Quarterly  Conference  was 
the  occasion  on  which  the  Methodist  people,  especially  in 
the  newer  sections,  had  opportunity  to  experience  most 
completely  their  participation  in  the  church.  Inasmuch 
as  the  Presiding  Elder  then  in  charge  was  often  the  only 
ordained  minister  present,  many  Methodists  found  the 
Holy  Communion  only  at  the  Quarterly  Conferences. 
Since  the  Conferences  were  occasions  of  much  preaching, 
they  also  became  centers  of  revival  activity,  and,  begin- 
ning about  1802,  the  summer  quarterly  conference  often 
coincided  with  a  c.\mp  meeting.  From  time  to  time  the 
Book  of  Discipline  assigned  additional  administrative  and 
judicial  functions  to  the  Quarterly  Conference,  but  it  was 
not  until  1848  that  a  separate  section  of  The  Discipline 
was  to  deal  with  the  conference. 

Period  of  Controversy.  Controversies  during  this  period 
left  their  mark  upon  the  church.  James  O'Kelly  chal- 
lenged Asbury  on  his  e.xercise  of  the  episcopal  power. 
Strongly  imbued  with  revolutionary  ideology  and  popular 
rationalism,  O'Kelly  appealed  to  scripture  in  his  opposition 
to  episcopacy.  He  vigorously  opposed  the  Administrative 
Council,  and  gained  the  support  of  Coke  and  Jesse  Lee 
in  pressing  Asbury  to  call  the  first  General  Conference. 
When  the  Conference  met,  O'Kelly  introduced  a  proposal 
that  a  preacher  dissatisfied  with  his  appointment  might 
appeal  to  the  conference  for  another  than  the  one  fixed 
by  the  bishop.  The  conference  failed  to  support  this 
furdier  attack  upon  the  bishop's  power,  and  O'Kelly  with 
several  followers  withdrew  from  the  church.  Against  the 
continued  preaching  and  writing  of  O'Kelly,  Asbury  de- 
fended the  episcopacy  as  essential  to  the  unity  of  the 
church  and  as  especially  necessary  for  the  preservation 
of  the  itinerant  system. 

Asbury  sensed  another  threat  in  the  constituting  of  The 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  1789.  This  event,  a  sur- 
prise to  some  in  view  of  the  weakened  state  of  the  Church 
of  England  parishes  in  America,  put  an  end  to  the  hope 
entertained  by  some  that  the  Methodists  might  absorb 
the  remnants  of  the  Established  Church.  More  serious  in 
the  view  of  Methodist  leaders  was  the  loss  of  some  preach- 
ers who  accepted  orders  from  the  Episcopal  bishops.  The 
threat  was  dramatized  in  1791  with  Asbury's  discovery 
that  Coke  had  privately  approached  Episcopahans  relative 
to  bringing  the  Methodists  into  The  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  (see  Coke -White  Correspondence).  Asbury's 
response  was  to  intensifv  that  self-conscious  differentiation 


from  the  Episcopalians  which  was  to  characterize  much 
of  American  Methodism  down  to  the  present. 

Against  Protestant  Episcopal  claims  of  apostolic  succes- 
sion, the  Methodists  now  began  to  emphasize  their  "suc- 
cession" from  John  Wesley,  "the  most  respectable  divine 
since  the  primitive  ages,  if  not  since  the  time  of  the 
apostles."  (R.  Emory,  History  of  Discipline,  282.)  These 
words  may  seem  strange  in  view  of  Wesley's  known  dis- 
approval of  the  American  Methodists'  use  of  the  designa- 
tion "bishop"  in  tlie  place  of  "superintendent"  and  in 
view  also  of  American  resentment  toward  Wesley's  at- 
tempts in  1787  to  have  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Freeborn 
Garrettson  elected  superintendents. 

Because  the  American  preachers  did  not  fully  trust 
Coke's  administration,  the  whole  burden  of  supervision 
had  fallen  upon  Asbury.  Coke  spent  little  time  in  America, 
his  function  being  restricted  largely  to  presiding  at  con- 
ferences. (See  Thomas  Coke  and  American  Method- 
ism.) After  his  departure  in  1806  he  was  not  to  return  to 
America.  Richard  Whatcoat  was  elected  bishop  in  1800, 
in  his  sixty-fifth  year.  With  Whatcoat's  death  in  1806 
and  the  final  departure  of  Coke  in  the  same  year,  Asbury, 
himself  now  in  declining  health,  became  the  sole  episcopal 
administrator.  The  General  Conference  of  1808  provided 
some  relief  for  Asbury  by  electing  William  McKendree 
to  the  episcopacy.  McKendree,  already  prominent  because 
of  his  work  as  Presiding  Elder  in  the  Western  Confer- 
ence, became  the  first  native-bom  bishop  and  was  to 
carry  on  strongly  the  Asburian  episcopacy. 

The  Delegated  General  Conference.  The  1808  General 
Conference  also  adopted  legislation  that  came  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  constitution  of  the  Church.  Until  that  year 
a  simple  majority  in  the  General  Conference  might  have 
radically  altered  or  abolished  any  Methodist  standard. 
Not  only  that,  but  factors  of  distance  had  made  for  un- 
equal representation  of  the  Annual  Conferences  in  the 
General  Conference.  In  1804,  for  instance,  three  of  the 
seven  Annual  Conferences — Philadelphia,  Baltimore  and 
Virginia — because  of  their  proximity  to  the  traditional 
seat  of  the  General  Conference,  supplied  over  three- 
fourths  of  the  conference  membership. 

To  correct  this  imbalance  and  to  provide  for  a  safer 
center  of  power,  it  was  determined  that  the  General 
Conference  should  become  a  delegated  body,  operating 
under  carefully  defined  restrictions.  This  was  accom- 
plished, and  the  delegated  conference  was  forbidden  to 
change  the  Articles  of  Religion  or  the  Gener.\l  Rules; 
to  do  away  with  the  episcopacy  or  the  general  itinerant 
superintendency;  to  do  away  with  tlie  right  of  trial  and 
appeal;  or  to  divert  the  profits  of  the  Book  Concern 
or  Chartered  Fund  to  other  than  the  benevolent  objects 
to  which  they  had  been  devoted.  Strict  procedures  were 
defined  in  time  for  altering  these  "Restrictive  Rules," 
as  they  came  to  be  called. 

Bishop  McKendree's  election  symbolized  the  new  im- 
portance of  the  West.  The  great  camp  meetings  of  the 
first  years  of  the  new  century  soon  became  largely  a 
Methodist  enterprise,  and  a  "harvest  time"  for  the  frontier 
preachers.  The  whole  Methodist  system  was  remarkably 
adapted  for  expansion  in  the  new  sections.  The  Methodist 
bishop,  not  a  diocesan  but  a  general  superintendent, 
directed  the  deployment  of  a  corps  of  itinerant  preachers, 
establishing  circuits,  expanding  circuits  into  districts  and 
districts  into  new  annual  conferences.  Peteh  Cartwright 
was  typical  of  the  rugged  group  of  Presiding  Elders, 
directly  responsible  to  the  bishops,  commanding  the  cadres 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODISM   IN   THE   U.   S. 


of  itinerants,  training  young  preachers  on  the  job,  and 
representing  all  the  connectional  interests  of  the  church. 
Robert  R.  Roberts,  elected  bishop  in  1816,  the  first 
married  bishop  of  the  church,  established  his  home  in 
Indiana,  thus  becoming  the  first  bishop  to  itinerate  from 
a  permanent  base  in  the  West. 

The  message  of  the  itinerant  preacher  was  congenial 
to  the  hardy  character  of  the  frontiersman;  and  Methodist 
literature  (circulated  by  every  preacher),  and  Methodist 
singing  served  the  purposes  of  the  expanding  revival.  For 
the  Methodists  the  revivalism  of  America's  Second  Great 
Awakening  was  converted  to  a  system  of  expansion,  sub- 
servient to  the  hierarchical  organization  of  the  church. 
Camp  meetings  moved  from  the  frontiers  back  to  the  older 
sections  of  the  East,  and,  with  the  growth  of  towns  and 
cities,  became  the  "protracted  meetings"  of  the  settled 
communities.  Philip  Schaff,  young  German  scholar  who 
had  migrated  to  America,  observed  at  mid-century  that  the 
Methodist  movement  had  "next  to  Puritanism,  the  greatest 
influence  on  the  general  religious  life  ....  It  has  uncom- 
mon energy  and  activity,  and  enjoys  an  organization 
eminently  fitted  for  general  enterprises  and  systematic, 
successful  cooperation." 

The  Great  Expansion.  The  years  between  the  death 
of  Asbury  in  1816  and  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
marked  the  heyday  of  Methodist  expansion  in  America. 
A  new  generation  of  circuit  riders  moved  out  in  advance 
of  the  Pony  Express,  and  before  there  was  a  solid  line  of 
states,  Methodist  conferences  reached  to  the  Pacific. 
Jason  Lee  preached  the  first  Methodist  sermon  west  of 
the  Rockies  in  1834.  In  1837  Martin  Ruter  entered  Tex- 
as. Isaac  Owen  was  appointed  to  California  in  1853, 
and  in  the  following  year  Wlliam  H.  Goode  entered 
Kansas.  Annual  Conferences  already  organized  in  the 
great  central  valley  served  as  bases  for  the  new  drive  into 
the  Far  West.  This  same  period  saw  the  beginnings  of 
Methodist  foreign  mission  work  in  Africa  (1833),  South 
America  (1836),  China  (1847),  and  India  (1856).  There 
were  also  special  appointments  for  work  with  Indians  and 
immigrant  groups.  In  1864  three  Gennan  conferences 
were  organized,  consolidating  Methodist  missions  serving 
the  many  Germans  who  liad  come  to  America. 

A  wave  of  benevolent  interest  and  activity,  drawing 
support  from  the  revivals  and  contributing  to  further 
expansion,  now  spread  over  America.  Following  Asbury 's 
death,  a  new  generation  of  younger  preachers,  including 
such  men  as  Natha.n  Bangs,  Wilbur  Fisk  and  Martin 
Ruter,  moved  into  the  leadership  of  the  various  benevolent 
enteiprises  and  contributed  to  the  building  of  new  in- 
stitutions. The  General  Conference  of  1820  officially  com- 
mitted the  denomination  to  the  support  of  education;  and 
the  two  decades  following  came  to  be  known  as  the  great 
college  building  era  of  the  church.  By  1865  Methodists 
had  started  schools  in  thirty-three  of  the  thirty-four  states. 
In  the  1840's  and  1850's  John  Dempster,  though  en- 
countering much  opposition,  stirred  an  interest  in  theo- 
logical education.  To  Dempster  belongs  credit  for  the 
founding  of  two  theological  schools,  the  Methodist  General 
Biblical  Institute  at  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  and 
Garrett  Biblical  Institute  at  Evanston,  Illinois. 

Zion's  Herald,  appearing  in  1823,  was  the  first  of  a 
distinguished  line  of  weekly  religious  journals.  By  die 
opening  of  the  Civil  War  the  General  Conference  had 
authorized  nine  Advocates  to  serve  various  geographical 
areas  from  New  York  to  California.  (See  Advocates, 
Christian.) 


Methodists  in  general  did  not  support  the  large  number 
of  interdenominational  benevolent  societies  growing  up 
in  the  first  quarter  of  the  century.  They  were  apprehensive 
of  the  control  of  the  so-called  "benevolent  empire"  by 
the  older  churches,  and  suspicious  of  what  they  consid- 
ered its  Calvinist  orientation.  Moreover,  Methodists 
shared  with  the  frontier  churches  a  certain  resentment 
toward  missionary  and  benevolent  enterprises  directed 
from  the  Eastern  seaboard.  Consequently,  Methodists  pre- 
ferred their  own  benevolent  societies.  A  Methodist  Tract 
Society  was  founded  in  1817,  and  in  1820  the  General 
Conference  endorsed  the  Methodist  Missionary  Society. 
The  Methodist  Sunday  School  Union  was  established 
in  1827,  and  the  Methodist  Bible  Society  in  1828. 
Daniel  P.  Kidder,  elected  corresponding  secretary  of 
the  Sunday  School  Union  in  1844,  laid  the  foundations 
for  the  Christian  Education  program  of  the  Church. 

Ferment  and  Division.  The  M.  E.  Church  could  not 
avoid  the  swell  of  religious  and  social  ferment  and  the 
sectaiian  controversy  that  swept  over  the  country  in  this 
period.  Because  of  the  structure  of  Methodist  polity,  most 
of  the  controversy  within  the  church  eventually  took  the 
forni  of  criticism  of  the  episcopal  system.  Agitation  for 
the  election  of  presiding  elders  and  lay  representation 
in  the  annual  conferences  eventuated  in  the  schism  of 
1830  and  the  organization  of  The  xMethodist  Protestant 
Church.  Deep  cultural  differences  contributed  to  the  divi- 
sions involving  the  slavery  question  and  racial  attitudes. 
Discrimination  against  Negro  Methodists  in  Philadelphia 
and  New  York  led  to  the  founding  of  the  African  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Zion  Church  (1820).  Radical  anti- 
slavery  Methodists  founded  the  Wesleyan  Connection 
(now  designated  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  in 
1843;  and  the  largest  rupture  in  the  history  of  American 
Methodism  occurred  with  the  constituting  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  after  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1844. 

A  revival  of  interest  in  the  Wesleyan  teaching  on 
Christian  perfection  in  the  1830's  soon  led  to  an  un- 
fortunate polarization  in  the  church  between  ardent  de- 
fenders of  the  renewed  form  of  the  doctrine,  and  those 
who  considered  the  emphasis  to  be  divisive.  Defenders  of 
holiness  teachings  made  common  cause  with  a  growing 
number  who  feared  for  the  loss  of  old  and  familiar  ways 
in  the  church.  The  Free  Methodist  Church  emerged 
(1860)  out  of  the  holiness  controversy. 

Factors  other  than  the  slavery  question  contributed 
to  the  tragic  division  of  1844.  Chief  among  these  was  a 
difference  in  interpretation  of  the  nature  of  the  episcopal 
office.  With  the  moderates  in  the  church  no  longer  able  to 
set  a  course  between  the  more  extreme  parties,  deeply 
rooted  hostilities  flared  into  the  open  in  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1844,  which  at  length  agreed  upon  a  Plan  of 
Separation  to  be  followed  in  the  event  of  separation. 
Southern  leaders  moved  at  once  to  lay  plans  for  a  separate 
church,  and  in  May  1846,  the  first  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  met  in 
Petersburg,  Virginia.  Great  bitterness  ensued,  particular- 
ly in  the  border  conferences.  The  whole  course  of  events 
subsequent  to  the  1844  General  Conference  gave  rise  to 
such  a  wave  of  revulsion  in  the  Northern  conferences  that 
the  1848  General  Conference  voted  to  repudiate  the  Plan 
of  Separation,  which  both  sides  had  four  years  before 
considered  fair  and  equitable.  The  act  of  repudiation 
added  to  the  heritage  of  bitterness  affecting  relations  be- 


METHODISM   IN   THE   U.   S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


tween  the  two  churches  long  after  the  conclusion  of  the 
Ci\  il  War. 

The  Civil  War  Years.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
VV'ar,  each  of  the  two  Churches  produced  by  the  division 
in  1844  was  the  largest  and  the  wealthiest  denomination  in 
its  own  geographical  area.  Both  churches  now  supported 
their  governments  and  turned  to  the  work  of  ministering 
to  their  troops,  supplying  chaplains  and  providing  Bibles 
and  tracts.  The  great  revival  fervor  that  had  stirred  the 
nation  immediately  before  the  war  moved  into  the  army 
camps  in  both  North  and  South. 

The  Northern  Church  suffered  far  less  dislocation  from 
military  operations.  Its  institutions  were  stronger  and  its 
resources  more  ample.  Northern  bishops,  editors  and 
preachers  set  about  mobilizing  public  opinion,  encourag- 
ing recruitment  and  raising  funds  to  support  both  Method- 
ist and  interdenominational  ministries  in  camp  and  field. 
The  church's  extensive  wartime  activity  reflected  and 
encouraged  a  growing  sense  of  responsibility  on  the  part  of 
the  church  for  the  moral  quality  of  the  whole  of  public 
life.  This  understanding  of  the  scope  of  the  church's  re- 
sponsibility was  not  altogether  new,  but  it  found  forceful 
expression  in  new  leadership  emerging  during  the  war, 
represented  by  men  such  as  Bishop  Matthew  Simpson 
and  the  wartime  denominational  editors.  Bishop  Simpson, 
who  enjoyed  wide  contact  with  political  leaders,  especial- 
ly with  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  swayed  multitudes  with 
his  oratory,  also  represented  a  new  concern  among  Meth- 
odists tliat  their  church  be  fully  recognized  in  the  ec- 
clesiastical affairs  of  the  nation.  Harper's  Weekly  referred 
to  the  Methodists  in  1866  (Oct.  6)  as  "the  predominant 
ecclesiastical  fact  of  the  nation."  In  contrast  to  the  dis- 
organization, demoralization  and  impoverishment  of  the 
Southern  Church,  the  Northern  Church  came  to  the  end 
of  the  war  with  its  institutions  intact  and  its  leadership 
steering  it  into  the  mainstream  of  American  political  life. 

Mission  to  the  South.  Cultural  imperialism,  ecclesiasti- 
cal conquest  and  sincere  motives  of  compassion  were 
strangely  mixed  in  the  mission  of  the  Northern  Church  to 
the  South  after  the  war.  Bitterness,  resentment  and 
violence  met  the  often  heroic  ministries  of  Northern  Meth- 
odists entering  the  South  to  assist  with  the  education  of 
the  emancipated  Negro  slaves.  Northern  bishops  looked 
upon  the  South  as  missionary  territory.  Northern  Method- 
ist expansion  began  behind  the  Federal  lines  in  1863  and 
pressed  fonvard  as  military  operations  opened  the  way, 
with  Northern  preachers  proselyting  freely  and  laying 
claim  to  church  property.  Ten  new  Annual  Conferences 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  were  organized  in  the 
South  by  1869. 

Work  with  freed  slaves  began  in  1862.  Methodists  at 
first  cooperated  with  various  interdenominational  organiza- 
tions concerned  with  relief  of  the  freemen;  but  in  1866  the 
Society  was  supporting  twenty-nine  institutions  for  Ne- 
groes and  sixteen  academies  for  whites. 

Changes  in  Methodism  following  the  Civil  War  paral- 
leled in  many  respects  similar  changes  in  the  nation.  Both 
the  church  and  the  nation  responded  to  the  movement 
and  growth  of  the  population,  to  radical  alterations  in 
social  and  political  life,  and  to  profound  changes  in  the 
intellectual  climate.  The  forces  of  industrialization  and 
urbanization  and  the  flood  of  immigrants,  the  rise  of  a 
boisterously  competitive  capitalism,  the  rapid  increase  of 
wealth,  and  the  stirrings  of  labor  brought  sometimes  vio- 
lent social  conflict,  political  corruption,  social  stratification, 
and  the  problems  of  the  slum.  There  was  need  for  the 


consolidation  of  institutions  and  the  forming  of  new 
structures  to  cope  with  the  growing  complexities  of  life. 
The  nation  faced  increasing  involvement  in  foreign  rela- 
tions. All  these  developments  had  their  parallels  in  the 
growth  of  Methodism  after  1865.  Young,  aggressive, 
jealous  of  its  new-found  status  and  confident  in  its  future, 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  now  entered  into  a  period 
of  "rugged  denominationalism."  The  Centennial  of 
American  Methodism  celebrated  in  1866,  was  the  first 
church-wide  program  to  raise  funds  for  planned  improve- 
ment and  expansion,  and  appropriated  Methodist  experi- 
ence gained  in  fund-raising  for  benevolent  causes  during 
the  war.  It  symbolized  the  transition  to  a  new  way  of 
doing  things.  The  Centennial  campaign  raised  nearly  $9 
million,  a  large  part  of  which  was  directed  toward  educa- 
tion. 

Missions  and  Church  Extension.  Both  branches  of  the 
Church  had  continued  their  missionary  interests  following 
the  division  of  1844,  but  it  was  not  until  after  the  war 
that  organization  and  financial  support  was  provided  for 
an  expanding  missionary  enterprise.  In  the  last  decades 
of  the  century,  missionary  activity  was  integrated  into 
the  whole  life  of  the  church.  Machinery  for  the  administra- 
tion of  missionary  endeavors  followed  roughly  parallel 
lines  in  the  Northern  and  Southern  churches.  Geograph- 
ically speaking,  American  Methodism  had  for  the  most 
part  completed  its  overseas  expansion  by  the  end  of  World 
War  I,  In  the  same  period  the  church  established  a  pro- 
gram of  national  missions  to  serve  within  the  borders  of 
the  nation  and  its  dependencies. 

American  Methodism  committed  half  of  its  missionaries 
to  its  two  largest  mission  fields,  Chin.\  and  India,  where 
work  had  begun  before  the  war.  Methodist  missionaries 
entered  Japan  in  1873  and  began  work  in  Korea  in  1885. 
From  its  base  in  India  the  Church  established  missions  in 
Southeast  Asia.  Methodist  missions  expanded  steadily  in 
Latin  America  after  the  Civil  War  and,  after  1885,  in 
various  parts  of  Africa.  By  1921  American-related  Meth- 
odists in  Europe  outnumbered  those  in  Latin  America  and 
Africa;  but  the  earlier  American  missionaries  in  Europe 
were  usually  nationals  who  had  returned  to  their  home- 
land. 

As  expansion  continued  the  Church  developed  new 
patterns  of  organization  for  overseas  work.  In  1858  the 
Northern  Church  elected  Francis  Burns  the  first  of  its 
missionary  bishops.  In  1868  the  General  Conference  gave 
all  former  Mission  Annual  Conferences  the  status  of 
Aimual  Conferences.  Growing  self-sufficiency  of  the  over- 
seas mission  was  registered  in  the  rise  of  the  Central 
Conferences  (authorized  by  General  Conference  in 
1884),  the  affiliated  autonomous  churches  (e.g.,  Brazil, 
1930)  and  the  independent  Methodist  churches  (e.g., 
Japan,  1907). 

Facing  the  surge  of  growth  in  newly  opening  areas  in 
the  West,  the  Northern  Church  organized  in  1864  its 
General  Extension  Society,  chiefly  to  raise  capital  funds 
to  lend  to  new  congregations.  Under  leadership  of  the 
colorful  C.  C.  "Chaplain"  McCabe,  the  Extension  Society 
(see  Church  Extension)  was  an  important  factor  in 
establishing  Methodism  in  the  prairie  and  Rocky  Mountain 
states.  In  the  wake  of  the  swelling  tide  of  immigration, 
work  with  various  non-Anglo-Saxon  groups  rapidly  in- 
creased. In  1907  the  church  created  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  and  Church  Extension.  Organization  of  the  De- 
paitment  of  City  Work   (1912),  and  the  Department  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODISM    IN   THE   U.    S. 


Rural  Work  (1916)  reflected  the  growing  importance  of 
specialized  ministries. 

Language  Conferences.  Methodism  was  significantly 
enriched  by  its  language  conferences  (as  they  were  often 
called),  ministering  to  Germans,  Swedes,  Norwegians  and 
Danes  in  the  United  States.  Most  effective  was  the  work 
among  the  Germans.  An  outstanding  German  leader,  him- 
self an  immigrant,  was  William  Nast,  who  became  the 
prototype  of  the  Methodist  leader  engaged  in  language 
work.  By  1915  there  were  ten  M.  E.  German  language 
conferences.  The  first  of  four  Swedish  language  con- 
ferences was  organized  in  1877.  The  Norwegian  Confer- 
ence (later  changed  to  Norwegian-Danish)  was  orga- 
nized in  1880.  Bilingual  missions  were  developed  also 
among  Chinese,  Japanese  and  Mexicans  in  the  1870's,  and 
among  Italians  in  the  last  decade  of  the  century.  By 
1924  some  740  effective  pastors  were  engaged  in  foreign 
language  work.  The  last  of  the  language  conferences  was 
dissolved  in  the  early  1940's. 

Women's  agencies  for  the  support  of  missions  made 
their  appearance  shortly  after  the  Civil  War.  The  Wom- 
an's Foreign  Missionary  Society  was  formed  in  Boston 
in  1869  to  support  women  missionaries  and  national 
Christian  teachers.  The  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society  was  organized  in  1880.  The  General  Conference 
officially  recognized  the  deaconess  movement  in  1888, 
and  by  1920  the  Northern  Church  had  almost  900  deacon- 
esses. 

Christian  Education.  In  1858  the  General  Conference 
committed  the  Church  to  the  religious  instruction  and 
nurture  of  children  preparatory  to  reception  into  fuU 
membership.  This  official  stand,  taken  after  several  years 
of  debate  over  the  significance  of  Christian  nurture  prior 
to  conversion,  led  to  more  clarity  of  thought  and  consis- 
tency of  practice  in  reference  to  the  Church's  task  in  the 
nurture  of  its  children. 

The  most  revolutionary  development  in  Christian  edu- 
cation began  during  the  term  (1868-1888)  of  John  H. 
Vincent  as  secretary  and  editor  of  the  Sunday  School 
Union.  Vincent's  administration  brought  radical  improve- 
ments in  teacher  training  and  the  refinement  of  methods, 
and  introduced  such  modem  things  as  age  grouping  and 
building  plans  adapted  for  religious  instruction.  Vincent 
sought  to  introduce  many  of  the  standards  and  practices 
of  public  education.  By  1876  almost  every  Methodist 
Church  had  a  Sunday  School,  and  the  number  of  students 
was  reported  to  exceed  the  number  of  church  members. 
Contributing  to  this  growth  was  the  multiplication  of 
printed  materials  furnished  for  teachers  and  students. 
Methodist  literature  constantly  increased  in  diversity  and 
adequacy,  and  in  general  was  popular,  well-balanced,  and 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  churches. 

The  Methodist  educational  program  also  reflected  the 
wide-spread  interest  in  the  development  of  youth  leader- 
ship. Youth  organizations  appeared  in  various  conferences. 
In  1889  several  of  these  organizations  were  absorbed  in 
the  Epworth  League,  which  was  to  become  the  official 
youth  organization  in  both  the  Northern  and  Southern 
churches.  As  Methodist  work  expanded  among  college 
students,  Wesley  Foundations  appeared  on  the  campuses 
of  state  and  non-Methodist  institutions.  By  1920  student 
work  at  state  colleges  and  universities  had  extended  to 
fifty  centers. 

Publishing  Interests.  For  a  brief  period  after  the  war 
both  the  Pubhshing  House  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 
and  the  Book  Concern  of  the  M.   E.   Church  suffered 


from  mismanagement  and  questionable  business  practices. 
However,  with  the  appointment  of  more  laymen  to 
management  positions,  and  the  introduction  of  improved 
administrative  practices,  the  publishing  enterprises  soon 
entered  a  period  of  prosperity.  With  the  marked  increase 
in  demand  for  Sunday  School  materials,  new  sales  records 
were  established,  additional  buildings  were  acquired  and 
modern  equipment  installed.  In  the  early  1900's  the  Book 
Concern  entered  into  cooperative  projects  with  other 
Protestant  publishers.  The  Graded  Lesson  Series,  intro- 
duced in  1908,  enjoyed  surprising  popularity.  Of  continu- 
ing significance  for  the  health  of  the  publishing  venture 
as  well  as  the  moral  and  spiritual  improvement  of  the 
Methodist  people  was  the  system  of  distribution,  with 
every  minister  continuing  to  serve  as  local  agent  of  the 
Book  Concern. 

Methodist  editors  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  rose  to  high  places  of  influence  in  the  life  of 
the  church.  Most  of  them  plain  and  self-made  men,  they 
were  fiercely  loyal  to  the  denomination.  Three  war-time 
editors  were  elected  bishops  in  1864.  After  the  war  Meth- 
odist editors  wrestled  with  most  of  the  social  problems  of 
their  day.  Repeated  attempts  were  made  to  merge  the 
various  Advocates.  Merger  was  finally  accomplished  in 
1932  with  the  establishing  of  a  single  national  weekly 
(see  Advocate,   Christian)    with   six   regional  editions. 

With  the  founding  of  the  Cokesbury  Press  by  the 
Southern  Church  and  the  Abingdon  Press  in  the  Northern 
Church,  the  two  larger  churches  countered  a  decline  in 
the  sale  of  strictly  denominational  books  with  expansion 
into  the  general  rehgious  field. 

Higher  Education.  Of  some  200  colleges  estabfished  by 
Methodists  before  1865,  only  thirty-four  continued  to  exist 
up  to  1939.  Limited  finances,  poor  location  and  internal 
dissensions  contributed  to  this  high  mortality.  Methodist 
colleges  founded  after  the  Civil  War  reflected,  on  the 
whole,  a  much  sounder  condition.  Although  enrollments 
were  greatly  reduced  in  the  war  years,  none  of  the 
Northern  colleges  closed.  Postwar  expansion  was  confined 
largely  to  the  North  and  the  West.  Methodist  schools 
were  established  in  some  western  states  before  the  admis- 
sion of  these  states  into  the  union.  This  period  also  saw 
the  beginning  of  the  Methodist  imiversities,  only  North- 
\vestern  having  started  before  the  war. 

Many  of  the  Negro  institutions  established  in  the  South 
were  at  first  hardly  more  than  primary  schools  or  acad- 
emies. The  Negro  schools  of  collegiate  grade,  strengthened 
by  the  gifts  of  philanthropists  and  later  by  foundation 
grants,  pioneered  in  training  ministers,  teachers,  physicians 
and  other  leaders.  Efforts  to  upgrade  Methodist  institu- 
tions serving  Negro  youth  were  intensified  after  1920. 
Although  educational  work  among  white  people  in  the 
South  was  more  limited,  four  colleges  had  been  firmly 
established  by  the  time  of  Union  in  1939.  Contributing 
immeasurably  to  the  improvement  of  academic  and  busi- 
ness practices  of  Methodist  schools  was  the  work  of  the 
University  Senate,  organized  in  1892. 

The  scope  of  educational  and  professional  concern  in 
the  Methodist  institutions  was  constantly  broadened  even 
as  their  strictly  Methodist  character  tended  to  diminish. 
In  certain  cases  there  was  a  loosening  of  ties  between  the 
church  and  its  institutions.  At  the  time  of  unification, 
however,  Methodism's  Hst  of  schools  was  considered  the 
strongest  of  all  the  Protestant  groups.  The  three  Methodist 
branches  brought  into  their  union  in  1939  nine  universi- 
ties,   nine    theological    schools,    sixty-seven    colleges    and 


METHODISM   IN   THE   U.   S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


twenty-seven  junior  colleges.  (See  Education  in  Meth- 
odism. ) 

The  creation  of  theological  schools  had  profound  im- 
plications for  the  changing  character  of  the  church  and 
its  ministry.  It  was  only  after  the  founding  of  two  such 
schools  that  the  General  Conference,  in  1856,  gave  formal 
approval  to  theological  education  of  its  ministers.  In  these 
earlier  years  no  formal  academic  training  was  required 
of  candidates  for  the  traveling  ministry.  The  historic 
four-year  Conference  Coubse  of  Sti.'dy  was  considered 
adequate  preparation.  Although  theological  education  was 
theoretically  the  concern  of  the  whole  church,  the  theolog- 
ical schools  resulted  from  efforts  independent  of  the 
General  Conference.  As  the  church  matured  there  was 
increasing  demand  for  a  ministry  equipped  with  broad 
theological  training.  Even  so,  as  late  as  1939  less  than 
half  the  ministers  entering  Annual  Conferences  on  trial 
had  professional  training  in  theological  schools. 

A  Changing  Constituency.  The  story  of  Methodism  af- 
ter the  Civil  War  was,  in  the  popular  sense  of  the  term,  a 
success  story.  Success  led  to  considerable  complacency. 
There  was  little  evidence  before  1880,  either  in  the  church 
press  or  in  official  pronouncements,  of  the  questioning  of 
conventional  attitudes  toward  economic  and  social  ques- 
tions. This  was  Methodism's  age  of  affluence,  and  affluence 
was  generally  taken  as  confirmation  of  the  rightness  of  the 
social  order  that  produced  it.  The  system  magnified  the 
traditional  virtues  of  thrift,  sobriety  and  hard  work,  the 
same  virtues  that  enabled  Methodists  to  climb  up  the 
economic  and  educational  ladder. 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  then  the  running  mate  of  Presi- 
dent William  McKinley,  a  Methodist,  and  later  Presi- 
dent himself,  spoke  "these  warming  words"  of  "the  most 
representative  church  in  America.  .  ."  at  the  M.  E.  General 
Conference  in  1900:  'The  Methodist  Church  plays  a  great 
part  in  many  lands;  and  yet  I  think  I  can  say  that  in 
none  other  has  it  played  so  great  and  peculiar  a  part 
as  here  in  the  United  States.  Its  history  is  indissolubly 
interwoven  with  the  history  of  our  country  for  the  six 
score  years  since  the  constitutional  convention  made  us 
really  a  nation.  Methodism  in  America  entered  on  its 
period  of  rapid  growth  just  about  the  time  of  Washington's 
first  presidency.  Its  essential  democracy,  its  fiery  and  rest- 
less energy  of  spirit,  and  the  wide  play  that  it  gave  to 
individual  initiative,  all  tended  to  make  it  peculiarly 
congenial  to  a  hardy  and  virile  folk,  democratic  to  the 
core,  prizing  individual  independence  above  all  earthly 
possessions,  and  engaged  in  the  rough  and  stem  work  of 
conquering  a  continent." 

All  the  while,  the  constituency  of  the  church  was 
rapidly  changing.  Their  increasing  middle-class  orientation 
made  Methodists  less  able  to  understand  and  identify  with 
the  poor.  The  church  found  itself  more  and  more  alienated 
from  the  working  classes  and  especially  from  those 
immigrant  groups  that  were  not  responsive  to  Meth- 
odism's standards  of  conduct.  Moreover,  the  style  of  Meth- 
odist piety  was  also  undergoing  alteration.  Among  the 
old  familiar  ways  abandoned  in  many  places  were  the 
class  meeting,  probationary  membership,  the  enforcement 
of  discipline,  revivals  and  camp  meetings,  and  simplicity 
in  dress,  worship  and  congregational  life. 

A  revival  of  the  Holiness  movement  had  followed  the 
war,  and  many  conservatives  in  the  church,  including 
some  bishops  and  editors,  supported  that  movement, 
thinking  that  its  teachings  and  the  earnestness  that 
it  inspired  might  preserve  Methodism  against  the  erosion 


of  affluence,  urban  culture  and  theological  liberalism.  The 
Holiness  movement,  which  possessed  some  aflRnity  with 
the  romantic  idealism  of  die  period,  turned  many  of  its 
converts  into  evangelistic  and  missionary  work  and  various 
forms  of  social  service.  Unfortunately,  however,  a  more 
radical  wing  of  the  Holiness  revival  introduced  fanatical 
and  divisive  tendencies  which  by  1900  resulted  in  the 
loss  of  many  preachers  and  members  to  scores  of  inde- 
pendent Holiness  congregations  and  various  sectarian 
groups.  The  chief  complaint  against  the  more  radical 
Holiness  leaders  was  their  criticism  of  episcopal  authority, 
and  their  deteimination  to  keep  their  widespread  activi- 
ties independent  of  the  bishops'  control. 

During  the  1880's  there  were  increasing  signs  that  the 
church  was  awakening  to  its  responsibility  toward  the 
larger  social,  economic  and  political  problems.  The 
episcopal  address  of  1888  devoted  a  long  section  to  the 
problems  of  labor.  If  the  Methodist  interest  was  tardy, 
its  growth  was  to  be  vigorous  and  extensive.  The  Social 
Creed,  adopted  in  1908,  gave  expression  to  the  Methodist 
conscience  for  the  ills  of  modem  society.  Shortly,  the 
social  emphasis  was  registered  in  the  teaching  materials 
of  the  Sunday  schools,  in  the  Conference  Course  of  Study 
and  the  seminary  curricula. 

Methodist  confrontation  with  social  change  was  en- 
couraged by  many  of  the  church's  teachers  of  theology, 
who  sought  to  understand  die  new  intellectual  currents 
influencing  the  mind  of  the  nation,  and  to  state  the  faith 
in  terms  more  relevant  to  the  times.  The  questioning  of 
old  formulations  brought  inevitable  criticism  and  contro- 
versy, and  two  professors  in  Boston  Unwersity  were 
accused  of  heresy.  However,  the  charges  were  not  sus- 
tained. Neither  heresy  charges  nor  the  fundamentalist- 
modernist  controversy  was  to  bring  the  disruption  in  Meth- 
odism that  troubled  some  other  churches.  Methodist 
fundamentalists  in  the  1920's  launched  an  attack  on  the 
books  listed  in  the  Course  of  Study,  but  the  General 
Conference  declined  to  act  upon  the  charges. 

Lay  Representation.  Laymen  were  first  seated  in  the 
Northem  and  Southern  General  Conferences  in  the  1870's. 
After  the  great  controversy  that  led  to  the  Methodist 
Protestant  division,  "lay  delegation"  ideas  were  generaUy 
under  suspicion;  but  by  mid-century  prominent  laymen 
were  supporting  the  cause  of  more  democratic  representa- 
tion. An  independent  paper.  The  Methodist,  championed 
the  cause,  and  among  the  sympathizers  was  Bishop  Mat- 
thew Simpson.  The  Southern  Church  seated  an  equal 
number  of  laymen  and  preachers  in  their  1870  General 
Conference.  Two  years  later  the  Northern  General  Con- 
ference seated  laymen  on  the  basis  of  two  from  each  An- 
nual Conference.  It  was  not  until  1900  that  laymen  were 
admitted  to  the  Northern  General  Conference  in  equal 
number  with  ministers. 

Lay  representation  in  the  Annual  Conferences  came 
more  slowly.  The  Southern  Church  introduced  legislation 
in  1866  to  seat  four  laymen  from  each  district  in  the 
Annual  Conferences.  The  Northem  Church  established  a 
"Lay  Conference"  at  the  Annual  Conference  level  in 
1900,  and  finally  admitted  laymen  into  the  Annual  Con- 
ference in  1932.  (See  Lay  Delegation  and  Lay  Move- 
ment IN  Methodism.) 

The  Road  to  Union.  "The  long  road  to  Methodist  union" 
began  before  the  wounds  of  war  were  healed.  When 
Bishops  Janes  and  Simpson  met  with  the  Southern 
bishops  in  St.  Louis  in  1869,  it  became  clear  that  organic 
union  could  not  be  discussed  until  full  fraternal  relations 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODISM    IN   THE   U.    S. 


had  been  established.  The  two  churches  exchanged 
fraternal  delegates  in  1874  and  1876,  and  in  the  latter 
year  a  Joint  Commission  on  Fraternal  Relations  meeting 
at  Cape  May,  N.  J.  (The  Cape  May  Commission),  drew 
up  a  "Declaration  and  Basis  of  Fraternity,"  which  ac- 
knowledged each  church  as  a  legitimate  branch  of  epis- 
copal Methodism.  In  effect  the  Cape  May  Declaration  put 
an  end  to  the  discussion  of  the  Plan  of  Separation.  It 
stands  as  the  first  great  milestone  on  the  road  to  union. 

Twenty  years  were  to  pass  before  discussion  of  actual 
steps  toward  union,  but  other  events  were  to  make  the 
question  of  union  inescapable.  The  First  and  Second 
Ecumenical  Methodist  Conferences  in  1881  and  1891 
raised  the  question  of  Methodist  federation.  Leaders  of 
both  the  Northern  and  the  Southern  churches  participated 
in  the  planning  for  the  Centennial  Methodist  Conference 
in  Baltimore  in  1884.  Methodists  in  other  countries  were 
discussing  union,  and  in  1883  the  four  Canadian  Meth- 
odist groups  united  to  form  The  Methodist  Church  in 
Canada. 

A  "period  of  federation"  was  initiated  in  1898  with 
a  joint  meeting  of  commissions  appointed  by  the  Southern 
and  Northern  General  Conferences.  Resulting  from  the 
work  of  the  Joint  Commission  on  Federation  were  a  com- 
mon hymnal,  catechism  and  order  of  worship. 

The  three  churches  actually  came  to  grips  with  the 
possibility  of  organic  union  in  1910,  when  a  commission 
of  Methodist  Protestants  met  with  the  Joint  Commission  on 
Federation.  This  enlarged  group  produced  a  proposal 
plan  of  union,  the  so-called  "Chattanooga  Report"  of  1911, 
which  was  to  be  the  real  basis  upon  which  unification 
was  eventually  accomphshed.  Methodist  Protestants,  feel- 
ing now  that  the  union  question  was  at  this  stage  a  matter 
to  be  settled  by  the  two  larger  groups,  stood  aside  to 
await  the  outcome.  The  two  General  Conferences  set  up 
a  Joint  Committee  on  Unification,  which  got  down  to 
work  in  1916.  Its  first  proposed  constitution  was  turned 
down  by  both  General  Conferences.  This  plan  called  for 
six  white  Jurisdictional  or  Regional  Conferences  and  one 
embracing  "the  work  among  colored  people  in  the  United 
States,"  with  each  Regional  Conference  retaining  full  pow- 
er over  distinctly  regional  afi^airs  within  its  jurisdiction. 
(See  Jurisdictional  Conferences.) 

Returning  to  its  work,  the  Joint  Commission  next  ofi^ered 
a  proposal  establishing  one  General  Conference  with  two 
Regional  or  Jurisdictional  Conferences,  one  composed  of 
the  Annual  Conferences  of  the  Northern  Church  and  the 
other  composed  of  the  Annual  Conferences  of  the  South- 
ern Church.  Although  both  General  Conferences  in  1924 
(there  was  a  called  session  of  the  M.  E.  South  Confer- 
ence) gave  approval  to  the  plan,  it  failed  to  carry  the 
required  three-fourths  of  all  votes  cast  in  the  Southern 
Annual  Conferences.  The  final  count  was  4,528  in  favor 
and  4,108  against. 

But  union  was  really  closer  than  the  disappointing  vote 
of  1925  seemed  to  indicate.  A  younger  generation,  im- 
patient with  inherited  resentments  and  more  objective 
in  their  assessment  of  history,  demanded  union.  The  three 
churches,  never  difi^ering  in  basic  doctrines,  had  now 
drawn  closer  together  in  spirit  and  practice  and  in  various 
cooperative  enterprises.  Above  all,  the  men  who  had 
gained  much  experience  and  insight  in  long  discussions 
in  the  union  commissions  refused  to  resign  their  hopes. 

Methodist  Protestant  leaders,  catalysts  from  the  begin- 
ing  in  the  union  discussions,  initiated  the  final  drive 
toward   union.    After    each   of   the    three   churches   had 


authorized  a  commission  for  union,  the  Joint  Commission 
met  in  August  1934,  and  a  year  later  completed  work  on 
the  Plan  of  Union.  The  Plan  passed  all  three  General 
Conferences  and  their  Annual  Conferences  by  tremendous 
majorities.  The  Uniting  Conference  convened  in  Kan- 
sas City,  Mo.,  on  April  26,  1939.  (For  a  more  detailed 
account  of  the  above  moves,  see  Unification  of  Ameri- 
ican  Methodism.  ) 

THE  METHODIST  CHURCH,   1939-1968 

The  Methodist  Church  bom  in  the  Uniting  Conference 
of  1939  found  itself  in  a  world  unbelievably  changed,  not 
only  from  that  of  the  early  Methodist  fathers,  but  also 
from  that  in  which  the  separated  branches  had  come  to 
maturity.  For  one  thing,  the  population  of  the  United 
States  had,  between  1845  and  1940,  increased  over  seven- 
fold. What  was  more,  the  new  problems  that  had  chal- 
lenged the  churches  after  the  Civil  War  seemed  almost 
simple  in  comparison  with  the  crises,  convulsive  and 
worldwide  in  scope,  that  the  two  decades  after  1940  were 
to  bring.  Moreover,  the  whole  Christian  enterprise  was  in 
the  midst  of  a  re-examination  of  the  statement  of  its 
message  and  the  understanding  of  its  mission.  Therefore, 
the  new  church  faced  the  dual  task  of  consolidating  its 
inherited  structures  and  of  girding  itself  for  mission  in 
the  radically  altered  environment  to  which  it  would  be- 
come increasingly  sensitive. 

The  reorganization,  and  in  some  cases  relocation,  of 
general  church  boards  and  agencies  called  for  much  dis- 
cussion and  compromise.  The  new  structures  were  more 
complicated  and  sophisticated,  requiring  expansion  in  per- 
sonnel. Understandably,  the  early  changes  were  in  general 
conservative.  The  new  jurisdictional  system  was  a  source 
of  uneasiness.  Although  it  ofFered  the  possibility  of  a 
desirable  regional  diversity,  the  jurisdictional  system 
carried  within  it — at  least  in  the  eyes  of  its  critics — ^the 
threat  of  division  into  regional  churches.  The  existence  of 
the  Central  Jurisdiction,  which  symbolized  the  whole 
struggle  of  the  church  with  the  problem  of  racial  segrega- 
tion, evoked  a  controversy  that  mounted  in  intensity  until 
the  dissolution  of  that  structure  in  1968. 

Responding  to  growing  criticism  of  duplication  and 
overlapping  of  programs,  the  General  Conference  of  1948 
ordered  a  comprehensive  survey  by  a  management  con- 
sulting firm.  Although  the  1952  Conference  largely  re- 
jected the  Church  Survey  Report,  several  important 
changes  resulted  either  directly  or  indirectly,  from  the 
recommendations  of  the  survey  commission.  These  in- 
cluded the  establishment  of  a  Coordinating  Council, 
charged  with  the  task  of  review  and  coordination  of  the 
work  of  the  general  boards  and  agencies;  and  a  Com- 
mission ON  Promotion  and  Cultivation  to  promote 
and  interpret  the  programs  of  the  benevolence  agencies. 
The  emerging  administative  structure  placed  long-term 
church-wide  program  planning  under  the  Council  of 
Bishops,  the  Council  of  Secretaries  (organized  in 
1940)  and  the  Coordinating  Council,  with  the  Commission 
on  Promotion  and  Cultivation  responsible  for  general 
promotion  of  the  unified  program.  In  view  of  the  achieve- 
ment of  the  quadrennial  programs  instituted  in  1944  and 
1948,  the  1952  General  Conference  wrote  into  the  law  of 
the  church  a  provision  for  continuation  of  these  programs. 
The  quadrennial  emphases  brought  direction  and  stimula- 
tion to  the  work  of  the  church  and  contributed  to  the 
increase  in  benevolent  giving. 

In  its  first  two  decades  after  imification  The  Methodist 


METHODISM   IN   THE   U.   S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Church  registered  steady  if  not  dramatic  expansion  in  all 
areas  of  its  work.  This  was  a  period  of  unprecedented 
mobility  in  the  American  population,  of  rapid  growth  in 
the  metropolitan  areas  and  acceleration  of  the  movement 
from  the  inner  city  to  the  suburbs.  By  1960  Methodist 
membership  had  increased  by  a  fifth,  although  the  general 
population  had  grown  by  a  third.  The  number  of  pastoral 
charges  increased  from  approximately  21,000  to  over 
24,000.  Most  of  the  new  congregations  were  in  the  rapidly 
growing  suburbs.  With  the  merger  or  closing  of  many 
small  churches,  the  number  of  preaching  places  declined, 
but  the  average  membership  per  congregation  increased 
from  174  to  252.  In  these  twenty  years  the  value  of  local 
church  and  parsonage  property  quadrupled,  and  the  over- 
all per  capita  giving  to  benevolences  increased  by  136 
percent. 

The  Ministry.  Expansion  of  its  organizational  structure 
after  1940  tended  to  magnify  the  connectional  character 
of  Methodism.  This  was  reflected  in  developments  in  the 
offices  of  bishop  and  district  superintendent — as  the  pre- 
siding elder  of  earlier  days  was  now  called.  With  more 
and  more  administrative  involvement,  the  bishop  was  in- 
creasingly judged  in  terms  of  his  administrative  skills. 
Although  the  constitutional  description  of  the  episcopal 
office  had  not  been  altered,  the  traditional  authority  of 
the  bishop  faced  subtle  challenge  by  other  power  centers. 
The  large  coordinating  bodies,  for  instance,  were  exercis- 
ing prerogatives  in  program  planning  formerly  claimed 
exclusively  by  the  bishops.  More  and  more  the  district 
superintendent  became  the  key  person  in  the  connectional 
program.  An  extensive  amount  of  administrative  detail 
was  added  to  his  responsibilities. 

The  rising  educational  level  of  the  general  population 
emphasized  more  than  ever  the  importance  of  adequate 
professional  training  for  the  minister.  Pressure  increased 
to  set  uniform  minimum  standards  for  admission  to  the 
Annual  Conferences.  The  General  Conference  in  1944 
placed  the  church  on  record  as  normally  expecting  a 
Bachelor  of  Arts  degree  or  its  equivalent  as  the  minimum 
academic  qualification  of  a  candidate  for  the  ministry.  The 
Commission  on  Ministerial  Training  made  available  a 
variety  of  opportunities  for  ministers  to  study  for  profes- 
sional advancement.  In  the  meantime,  a  study  ordered  at 
the  time  of  unification  to  investigate  the  whole  program 
of  ministerial  supply  revealed  disturbing  facts  about  the 
age  of  ministers,  the  rate  of  retirement  and  the  adequacy 
of  new  recruits.  One  result  of  this  continuing  study  was 
the  provision  of  more  Lberal  financial  support  for  theol- 
logical  education.  In  1956  the  General  Conference 
authorized  two  new  theological  seminaries,  bringing  the 
total  number  then  to  twelve. 

The  Local  Church.  Perhaps  at  no  point  was  progress 
more  notable  after  imification  than  in  the  organization 
and  work  of  the  local  church.  Responding  to  the  report 
of  its  Commission  on  the  Local  Church,  the  1952  General 
Conference  provided  for  a  more  functional  organization 
to  include  required  program  commissions  in  Evangelism, 
Education,  Missions,  and  Finance.  In  1960  a  fifth  re- 
quired local  church  commission,  on  Christian  Social 
Concerns,  was  added.  The  new  plan  for  the  local  church 
did  away  with  much  overlapping  of  interests  and  respon- 
sibilities, increased  lay  initiative,  and  at  the  same  time 
boimd  the  work  of  the  local  church  to  the  general  program 
of  the  denomination. 

The  years  following  unification  brought  a  reorganization 
of  all  aspects  of  the  church's  Christian  education  program. 


Beginning  in  1947  the  Curriculum  Committee  initiated 
intensive  studies  leading  to  the  revision  of  all  Church 
school  curriculum  materials.  The  new  materials  were  char- 
acterized by  firm  grounding  in  the  teaching  of  the  church, 
and  by  employment  of  sound  educational  procedures. 
With  facilities  crowded  and  leadership  taxed  in  the  wake 
of  the  high  birth  rate  after  World  War  II,  the  Board  of 
Education  of  the  Church  devoted  much  attention  to 
leadership  training.  New  programs  were  developed  in 
weekday  education,  family  life,  camping,  and  work  with 
older  persons.  Programs  for  youth,  sponsored  by  various 
agencies  in  the  church,  were  gradually  co-ordinated,  and 
emphasis  placed  upon  guiding  youth  and  their  counselors 
in  developing  their  own  programs  and  projects.  A  Board 
of  Missions  program  of  short-term  assignments  for  youth 
opened  challenging  new  avenues  of  service  for  young 
people.  The  great  interest  in  the  use  of  audio-visual 
facilities  and  techniques  led  eventually  to  the  establishing 
of  an  independent  agency,  the  Television,  Radio  and 
Film  Commission  (TRAFCO),  to  produce  motion  pic- 
tures and  filmstrips  for  use  on  television  and  in  the  local 
church. 

Lay  Activities.  Laymen  moved  into  wider  participation 
in  all  areas  of  the  life  of  the  church.  In  time,  lay 
delegates  were  given  full  membership  in  the  Annual  Con- 
ferences, a  status  they  had  not  achieved  in  the  former 
M.  E.  Church.  Lay  representation  on  the  general  boards 
was  approximately  equal  to  that  of  ministers,  and  laymen 
were  increasingly  elected  to  major  staff  positions.  The 
General  Board  of  Lay  Activities  sponsored  work  with 
Methodist  Men's  organizations  and  gave  special  emphasis 
to  Stewardship  and  Finance.  The  Board  was  not  as  suc- 
cessful in  reaching  its  special  constituency,  however,  as 
was  the  Woman's  Society  of  Christian  Service.  A 
complete  realignment  of  the  church's  work  and  the  in- 
terests of  women,  far  beyond  the  traditional  limits  of  the 
Ladies  Aid  and  the  missionary  societies  in  the  uniting 
churches,  brought  great  numbers  of  women  into  broad 
participation  in  the  church's  work. 

Reinforcing  the  work  of  these  organizations  charged 
specifically  with  development  of  lay  programs  was  a 
deepening  understanding  of  the  ministry  of  the  laity.  This 
new  interest  in  'lay  Christianity,"  which  revived  a  dis- 
tinctive emphasis  of  early  Methodism,  was  inspired  in 
part  by  ecumenical  emphases  upon  Christian  vocation  and 
church  renewal,  and  in  part  by  a  deeper  appreciation 
among  Methodists  of  the  meaning  of  church  membership. 
Methodist  churches  had  a  wider  and  more  varied  program 
of  evangelism  in  1960  than  in  1940,  and  in  most  instances 
laymen  assumed  the  major  responsibility  for  recruitment. 
"Joining  the  church"  was  to  be  taken  far  less  casually 
than  before  1940,  and  pastors  were  more  insistent  that 
new  members  be  adequately  instructed.  An  abundance  of 
devotional  literature,  such  as  The  Upper  Room,  circulated 
in  the  churches,  and  groups  for  the  cultivation  of  spiritual 
life  stimulated  fresh  and  serious  interest. 

Theological  Renewal.  Supporting  this  new  seriousness 
and  affecting  the  witness  of  the  church  in  all  areas  of 
its  work,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  was  the  theological 
renewal  that  had  begun  in  the  years  leading  up  to  Meth- 
odist reunion.  Some  Methodist  leaders  in  the  mid-1930's 
were  sensitive  to  the  theological  revival  in  Europe  and 
were  growing  more  critical  of  the  evangelical  hberalism 
which  at  that  time  was  perhaps  dominant  among  Meth- 
odist theologians.  Issues  raised  by  these  men  were  sharp- 
ened   in    the    next    decade.    Moreover,    the    impact    of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODISM    IN   THE   U.    S. 


ecumenical  conversations  was  leading  Methodists  to  re- 
capture Wesley's  theological  orientation  and  to  re-examine 
the  theological  heritage  of  American  Methodism.  The 
work  of  a  younger  generation  of  theologians  led  to  a 
theological  renaissance  which  penetrated  the  seminaries 
and  began  to  reach  laymen  as  well.  Coextensive  with  the 
theological  revival  was  a  new  interest  in  biblical  studies, 
which  also  flowered  in  the  seminaries  and  found  expres- 
sion in  the  preaching  and  teaching  of  the  church.  (See 
the  Doctrinal  articles  in  this  Encyclopedia;  and  also 
Ethical  Traditions  in  American  Methodism.) 

Its  deeper  theological  interest  helped  Methodism  to 
think  more  critically  about  the  church  and  its  mission, 
about  the  relation  of  faith  to  culture,  and  the  meaning 
of  Christian  vocation. 

Christian  Social  Concerns.  After  the  adoption  of  its 
Social  Creed  in  1908  American  Methodism  wrote  an 
enviable  chapter  of  compassion  and  persistent  courage  in 
social  witness.  The  wide-ranging  social  justice  program 
advocated  in  1908  still  seemed  radical  a  quarter-century 
later  when  much  of  it  was  written  into  law.  Other  prob- 
lems— race  relations,  peace  and  world  order — which  had 
claimed  less  attention  in  earlier  years,  moved  into  the 
center  of  the  church's  concerns.  All  the  while  the  Meth- 
odist Federation  for  Social  Service,  an  unofficial 
organization  founded  in  1907,  guarded  the  church  against 
complacency.  Bishops  of  the  church,  such  as  Herbert 
Welch,  Francis  J.  McConnell  and  Frederic  B.  Fisher, 
were  prominent  in  the  leadership  of  the  social  movement. 

Even  as  it  moved  toward  greater  social  responsibility, 
however,  Methodism,  like  most  of  American  Protestantism, 
was  disturbed  by  anxieties.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
century  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  successful, 
numerous  and  relatively  wealthy,  enjoyed  the  favored 
position  of  senior  partner,  so  to  speak,  in  the  national 
culture.  With  its  middle-class,  rural  and  Anglo-Saxon 
orientation  it  lent  sanctity  to  the  traditional  values  of  the 
older  America.  When  the  church  did  move  to  champion 
the  cause  of  labor  and  to  defend  the  Negro  and  the  im- 
migrant, it  created  for  itself  a  disturbing  problem  of 
identity.  As  the  "new  Americans"  began  to  claim  a  place 
of  their  own  in  the  national  life,  Methodists  saw  their 
former  position  of  influence  eroding.  The  story  of  the 
prohibition  crusade  and  Methodist  involvement  in  the 
1928  presidential  election,  illustrated  both  the  changing 
character  of  American  culture  and  the  declining  power  of 
the  older  Protestantism.  Almost  at  the  moment  of  its 
triumph  over  the  "wets,"  Methodists  found  that  they  no 
longer  were  senior  partners.  The  experience  of  the  30's 
and  40's  would  make  clearer  what  the  failure  of  the 
prohibition  crusade  had  implied:  Methodism  (indeed,  all 
of  Protestantism)  must  function  in  a  plural  society;  it 
must  distinguish  carefully  between  the  standards  of  its 
culture  and  the  ethical  demands  of  its  inherited  faith; 
and  its  social  witness  would  be  no  less  demanding,  but 
more  wisely  and  realistically  conceived. 

When  the  wave  of  conservative  reaction  after  World 
War  II  directed  fierce  attacks  on  Methodist  social  teach- 
ings in  general,  and  the  Methodist  Federation  for  Social 
Action  (its  new  name)  in  particular,  the  church's  response 
was  not  to  surrender  its  position,  but  to  bring  the  program 
of  social  education  and  action  more  completely  under  the 
oversight  of  the  General  Conference.  The  Conference  in 
1952  set  up  a  Board  of  Social  and  Economic  Relations  to 
deal  with  questions  in  the  areas  of  economic  life,  race 
relations  and  civic  and  social  welfare.  Early  in  the  follow- 


ing year  Bishop  G.  Bromley  Oxnam,  on  his  own  request 
and  with  unanimous  support  of  the  Council  of  Bishops, 
appeared  before  the  House  Un-American  Activities  Com- 
mittee in  Washington  to  answer  charges  that  he  was 
"soft"  on  Communism.  Although  the  charges  were  not 
formally  withdrawn.  Bishop  Oxnam's  brilliant  defense 
blunted  the  point  of  much  of  the  irrational  attack  upon 
the  churches.  In  I960  the  General  Conference  furtlier 
strengthened  its  base  for  social  witness  by  consolidating 
the  work  of  the  Board  of  Social  and  Economic  Relations 
with  that  of  two  older  agencies,  the  Board  of  Temperance 
and  the  Board  of  World  Peace,  under  a  single  agency,  the 
Board  of  Christian  Social  Concerns.  For  the  first  time  the 
Church  now  had  strong  and  effective  co-ordination  of  its 
social  concerns  at  the  highest  level  and  auxiliary  means  to 
bring  these  concerns  to  the  attention  of  every  member. 
Methodists  did  not  speak  with  one  voice  on  the  crucial 
social  issues  of  the  mid-20th  century,  but  the  church  was 
prepared  to  guide  its  people  in  the  study,  discussion  and 
action  required  of  responsible  Christians. 

Higher  Education.  Methodist  institutions  for  higher 
education  underwent  considerable  change  after  unification 
because  of  a  phenomenal  increase  of  tax-supported  in- 
stitutions and  radical  changes  in  what  the  public  expected 
of  education.  Church  institutions  placed  heavy  emphasis 
upon  improvement  of  standards  and  strengthening  of 
faculty  and  endowments.  The  number  of  unaccredited  se- 
nior colleges  was  reduced  from  thirty-four  in  1940  to  two 
in  1960.  A  few  Methodist-founded  institutions,  in  their 
search  for  funds,  broke  their  ties  with  the  denomination. 
However,  in  1960  eight  universities,  twelve  schools  of 
theology,  seventy-seven  senior  colleges,  and  twenty-one 
junior  colleges  retained  their  Methodist  ties.  Although 
higher  education  was  then  receiving  a  larger  proportion  of 
the  Methodist  benevolence  dollar  than  ever  before,  con- 
certed emphasis  was  placed  on  developing  within  the 
Annual  Conferences  increased  support  for  institutions  in 
their  areas.  A  Department  of  College  and  University  Re- 
ligious Life  in  the  Division  of  Educational  Institutions  of 
the  Board  of  Education  was  maintaining  contact  with 
students  in  non-Methodist  as  well  as  in  Methodist  schools, 
and  was  instrumental  in  raising  the  standards  of  work 
with  students. 

New  Publishing  Ventures.  Of  all  the  enterprises  in- 
herited by  the  united  church  in  1939  none  expanded  more 
eflfectively  in  sei'vice  than  did  the  publishing  interests. 
Six  printing  and  manufacturing  plants  were  consolidated 
into  two  plants,  and  the  administrative  and  organizational 
structure  was  completely  revamped.  By  1960  sales  had 
grown  fivefold,  and  capital  assets  had  increased  to  $21 
million.  By  1967  the  Publishing  House  had  seventeen 
retail  outlets  in  major  metropolitan  areas.  Abingdon  Press 
had  become  one  of  the  major  book  publishers  of  the  na- 
tion. Publication  of  The  Interpreter's  Bible,  completed  in 
1957  at  a  cost  of  $2  million,  was  the  most  notable  achieve- 
ment of  its  kind  in  the  church's  history.  Another  impressive 
publishing  venture  was  a  new  periodical  for  the  Christian 
family,  called  Together,  which  by  1960  reached  a  cir- 
culation of  a  million.  Other  general  church  periodicals 
were  the  bi-weekly  Christian  Advocate  for  Methodist 
leaders;  and  Religion  in  Life,  a  quarterly  published  for  the 
Christian  scholar.  The  Publishing  House,  in  cooperation 
with  the  Editorial  Division  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
coordinated  the  church  school  literature  of  the  three  unit- 
ing churches  and  continued  work  on  improvement  of  these 
materials. 


METHODISM    IN   THE   U.    S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Social  Services.  Changes  in  other  Methodist  institu- 
tions reflected  shifts  in  population  patterns  and  the  marked 
growth  in  federally-assisted  welfare  services.  The  number 
of  homes  for  the  elderly  increased  from  the  thirty-seven 
established  before  union  to  ninety-six  in  1960.  This  growth 
stood  in  contrast  with  the  small  increase  in  hospitals,  and 
that  in  homes  for  children.  The  number  of  hospitals  in- 
creased from  sixty-eight  to  seventy-six.  Of  the  forty-four 
homes  maintained  for  children  in  1960,  only  one  had  been 
opened  since  unification.  More  of  the  Methodist  homes 
were  adapting  their  programs  to  serve  troubled  children 
and  children  from  broken  families.  The  church  also 
sponsored  several  residences  for  business  women  and  two 
homes  for  unmarried  mothers.  Goodwill  Industries,  de- 
voted to  employment  and  rehabilitation  of  handicapped 
workers,  were  in  1960  operating  in  141  cities.  Some  of 
these  centers  were  maintained  on  an  interdenominational 
basis. 

Hardly  had  the  Uniting  Conference  adjourned  when 
the  churches  received  urgent  calls  for  chaplains  to  serve 
in  the  armed  forces.  In  1942  the  Council  of  Bishops 
established  the  Commission  on  Chaplains  to  develop  stan- 
dards and  recruit  candidates.  By  1944  over  1,300  Meth- 
odists were  serving  as  military  chaplains.  The  Commission, 
established  as  a  permanent  agency  in  1948,  continued  to 
maintain  liaison  with  Methodist  chaplains  during  the 
Korean  War  and  in  the  enlarged  peace-time  military 
services.  In  1956  the  Commission  was  authorized  to  re- 
cruit and  endorse  chaplains  to  serve  in  industry  and  in 
certain  public  and  private  institutions.  (See  Chaplain 
AND  Commission  on  Chaplains.  ) 

The  Inner  City.  In  the  area  of  national  missions  the 
problems  overshadowing  all  others  as  Americans  moved 
past  mid-century  were  those  associated  with  the  inner 
core  of  the  large  cities  and  industrial  areas.  The  church 
entered  a  variety  of  ventures,  many  of  them  on  an  inter- 
denominational basis,  in  the  inner  city.  Assisting  in  the 
development  of  new  strategies  for  national  missions,  urban 
and  rural,  were  research  personnel  in  the  various  boards 
and  the  seminaries,  whose  work  was  co-ordinated  by  an 
Interagency  Committee  on  Research  established  in  1960. 

The  urban  ghettos,  created  at  least  in  part  by  the  flight 
of  the  middle  classes  to  the  suburbs,  caused  Protestants 
to  look  afresh  at  the  social  stratification  of  their  churches. 
A  new  urgency  had  now  entered  the  picture,  too,  in  the 
wake  of  America's  Negro  revolution;  and  white  churchmen 
began  to  recognize  that  they  could  no  longer  think  in 
terms  of  ministering  "to"  Negroes.  Symbohzing  this  change 
in  perspective  was  the  dropping  of  the  Department  of 
Negro  Work  from  the  organizational  structure  of  tlie 
Division  of  National  Missions.  Yet  the  task  of  building  a 
racially  inclusive  church  was  hardly  more  than  begun. 

Meanwhile,  the  Department  of  Town  and  Country 
Work  continued  its  interest  in  the  small  church  and  rural 
communities,  as  the  nation  was  becoming  more  sensitive 
to  the  presence  of  rural  poverty.  The  Woman's  Division 
also  continued  to  work  in  rural  areas,  particularly  in  the 
maintenance  of  schools,  and  in  providing  Christian  edu- 
cation workers  in  rural  areas. 

Boards  and  agencies  of  the  church  found  themselves 
intricately  involved  in  the  work  of  interdenominational 
agencies  which  had  grown  steadily  in  number  since  the 
beginning  of  the  century.  From  the  time  of  its  organiza- 
tion in  1908,  Methodist  leaders  were  actively  engaged  in 
the  life  of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ 
in  America.  In  1950  the  Federal  Council  joined  with  a 


number  of  other  interdenominational  agencies  in  which 
Methodists  had  participated  to  form  the  National  Coun- 
cil of  Churches  of  Christ  in  the  United  States  of 
America.  The  comprehensive  program  of  united  work  and 
witness  launched  by  the  National  Council  drew  frequently 
from  Methodist  leadership  for  officers  and  staff.  Countless 
other  Methodists  worked  in  state  and  local  councils  and 
in  special  conferences  related  to  the  National  Council. 

World  Outreach.  Nowhere  were  Methodists  made  more 
aware  of  the  passing  of  the  world  of  their  fathers  than 
in  the  area  of  world  mission.  Not  only  had  the  world 
changed.  The  church  itself  was  gaining  a  new  understand- 
ing of  its  mission  and  learning  that  mission  had  to  be 
undertaken  in  cooperation  with  other  denominations.  If 
World  War  II  disrupted  the  usual  work  of  the  mission- 
aries in  every  field,  it  also  accelerated  a  whole  range  of 
world-wide  developments,  long  since  underway,  but  now 
intensified  with  inescapable  urgency.  Administrators  of 
the  missionary  enterprise  had  to  confront  the  rise  of  a  new 
nationalism  and  the  end  of  western  colonialism,  the  revival 
of  non-Christian  faiths  and  the  insistence  upon  cultural 
integrity,  the  extension  of  Communism  and  the  evolution 
of  socialistic  political  and  economic  systems,  the  explosion 
of  population  and  the  impact  of  new  communications 
media. 

The  church's  mission  required  new  strategies,  new 
policies  of  recruitment  and  deployment  of  personnel,  new 
ways  of  assisting  indigeneous  leadership,  and  new  rela- 
tions between  the  overhead  agencies  and  the  workers  in 
the  field.  Of  no  less  urgency  was  the  need  to  help  members 
of  the  local  churches  gain  a  better  understanding  of  "the 
church  in  mission."  The  quadrennial  programs  of  the 
General  Conference  emphasized  more  personal  contact 
between  the  missionary  on  the  field  and  the  members  of 
the  home  congregation.  Response  to  the  promotion  of 
"mission  specials"  was  so  extensive  that  by  1960  over  half 
of  the  receipts  by  the  Division  of  World  Missions  was 
from  this  source.  Two  decades  after  unification,  despite 
the  vast  changes  that  had  intervened,  the  number  of 
missionaries  representing  the  Division  of  World  Missions 
and  the  Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Service  in  the 
Christian  enterprise  outside  the  United  States  and  its 
territories  had  increased  by  approximately  thirty  percent. 

Closely  related  to  mission  in  the  twentieth  century 
was  Methodist  involvement  in  the  Ecumenical  Move- 
ment. It  was  a  Methodist  layman,  John  R.  Mott,  who 
more  than  any  other  one  man,  laid  the  groundwork  for 
this  movement.  Mott  in  1910  presided  over  the  first 
World  Missionary  Conference  at  Edinburgh,  which  is 
often  called  the  fountainhead  of  the  Ecumenical  Move- 
ment. Methodist  missionary  leaders  helped  guide  the 
International  Missionary  Council,  organized  to  follow 
up  the  Edinburgh  Conference.  American  Methodist  theo- 
logians and  ecclesiastical  leaders  also  participated  in  the 
Faith  and  Order  and  Life  and  Work  Movements  prior 
to  the  founding  of  the  World  Council  of  Churches; 
but  it  was  really  at  the  first  assembly  of  the  World  Council 
in  Amsterdam  in  1948  that  Methodist  leadership  began 
to  appear  in  strength.  American  Methodists  had  a  closer 
view  of  ecumenical  conversations  in  1954  when  the  second 
assembly  of  the  World  Council  met  on  the  campus  of 
Northwestern  University  of  Evanston.  Since  1954  an  in- 
creasing number  of  Methodists  have  participated  in  World 
Council  assemblies,  in  various  ecumenical  study  commis- 
sions and  in  writing  and  teaching  in  the  field  of  ecumenics. 

One  of  the  fruits  of  Vatican  Council  II  has  been  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODISM    IN   THE   U.    S. 


friendly  discussions  and  positive  relationships  between 
Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics.  Methodists  were  among 
the  official  observers  at  the  Council  in  Rome,  and  the 
Methodist  Council  of  Bishops  when  in  session  dispatched 
a  letter  of  greetings  to  the  Council. 

Changes  in  Worship.  As  the  Methodist  Church  broad- 
ened its  participation  in  the  ecumenical  movement  and 
increased  in  its  own  self-understanding  it  was  also  in- 
fluenced by  the  liturgical  renewal  that  moved  through 
many  of  the  churches.  Too  long  accustomed  to  the  ways 
of  free  worship  to  give  way  to  radical  changes  or  imposed 
uniformity,  Methodists  had  nevertheless,  since  the  Civil 
War,  manifested  growing  interests  in  church  architecture, 
in  the  improvement  of  its  resources  in  music,  and  in 
achieving  greater  dignity  in  its  services.  At  times  this 
interest  proved  more  cultural  and  esthetic  than  distinc- 
tively religious.  With  the  rediscovery  of  its  theological 
heritage,  however,  the  church  was  moved  to  give  more 
deliberate  consideration  to  the  meaning  and  use  of  his- 
toric forms  of  worship.  Interest  developed  especially 
among  youth  and  student  groups.  A  department  of  Min- 
istry of  Music  under  the  Board  of  Education,  the  National 
Fellowship  of  Methodist  Musicians,  the  Department 
of  Architecture  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  and  the 
general  Commission  on  Worship  offered  guidance  and 
provided  resources.  Courses  in  worship  found  place  in  the 
seminary  curricula.  A  revision  of  The  Hymnal,  prepared 
by  the  Commission  on  Worship  and  officially  adopted  in 
1964,  drew  more  extensively  than  its  predecessor  upon 
both  the  Wesleyan  hymnody  and  the  heritage  of  ecumeni- 
cal hymnody,  while  retaining  many  of  the  hymns  long 
cherished  in  various  sections  of  the  church.  New  services 
prepared  by  the  Commission  and  placed  in  The  Hymnal 
and  The  Book  of  Worship  brought  contemporary  Meth- 
odist worship  more  fully  into  the  tradition  of  its  own 
Wesleyan  heritage  as  well  as  that  of  Western  Christianity 
in  general. 

On  the  eve  of  the  General  Conference  of  1968  The 
Methodist  Church  made  ready  to  merge  its  relatively 
brief  institutional  life  into  a  larger  union.  It  then  joined 
hands  with  the  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church 
and  formed  The  United  Methodist  Church.  In  its  twenty- 
nine  years  The  Methodist  Church  had  labored  in  one  of 
the  most  critical  periods  in  the  life  of  the  nation  and 
perhaps  of  the  world.  With  all  the  changes  in  its  exterior 
life,  however,  and  despite  a  humbling  awareness  of  un- 
finished tasks,  one  may  fairly  claim  that  it  had  not  been 
unfaithful  to  its  heritage.  That  heritage  had  been  shared 
by  the  Evangelical  United  Brethren.  To  the  United  Meth- 
odist Church  has  been  handed  not  only  the  stewardship 
of  a  common  heritage,  but  also  a  parish  reaching  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  in  which  Christians  of  many  heritages 
will — one  devoutly  hopes — discover  their  unity  as  dis- 
ciples of  one  Lord. 

James  W.  May 

(Ed. — An  enomious  bibliography  may  be  referred  to  for  further 
study  at  any  point  of  interest  in  the  above  account.  The  general 
bibliography  of  Methodist  historical  works  listed  in  this 
Encyclopedia  will  indicate  many  of  these.  The  History  of 
American  Metlwdism  in  three  volumes,  edited  by  Dr.  Emory 
Bucke  (Abingdon,  1964)  will  provide  a  sweeping  and  accurate 
account  of  the  general  development  of  American  Methodism 
up  to  1964.  The  many  persons  and  institutions  whose  names  are 
printed  in  small  capitals  in  the  above  account  may  be  referred 
to  in  their  alphabetical  listing  in  this  work  for  a  deeper  and 
more  detailed  study  of  such  persons  and  institutions. ) 


THE    UNITED   METHODIST   CHURCH    (1968-         ) 

In  late  November  of  1946,  just  seven  years  after  the 
1939  union  which  formed  The  Methodist  Church,  and 
just  a  few  days  after  the  union  which  formed  the  Evangeli- 
cal United  Brethren  Church,  a  definite  move  toward  the 
union  of  these  two  churches  began.  Bishop  G.  Bromley 
Oxnam  of  The  Methodist  Church  brought  a  fraternal 
address  to  the  first  General  Conference  of  The  Evangelical 
United  Brethren  Church.  In  it  he  mentioned  the  natural- 
ness and  possibility  of  such  a  union. 

First  Moves  Toward  Union.  Prior  to  the  Evangelical 
United  Brethren  General  Conference  of  1958  several 
persons  sent  petitions  to  the  conference  asking  that  E.U.B. 
leaders  explore  the  possibility  of  union  with  The  Methodist 
Church.  That  19.58  conference,  meeting  in  Harrisburg, 
Pa.,  directed  its  Commission  on  Church  Federation  and 
Union  "to  further  study  and  explore  the  possible  advan- 
tages and  the  potential  problems  involved  in  organic 
union  with  The  Methodist  Church,  and  "to  continue 
exploratory  conversations  with  the  Commission  on  Church 
Union  of  The  Methodist  Church." 

Bishop  Reuben  H.  Mueller  of  the  Evangelical  United 
Brethren  Church  went  as  fraternal  delegate  to  the  1960 
General  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  Denver, 
and  spoke  there  about  the  possibility  of  union.  That  con- 
ference authorized  The  Methodist  Commission  on  Union 
to  negotiate  a  P*lan  of  Union  with  a  similar  commission 
from  the  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church.  It  was 
not  until  1962,  however,  that  the  E.U.B.  Commission  was 
authorized  by  the  Grand  Rapids  General  Conference  of 
that  church  to  negotiate  such  a  plan.  Union  was  the 
dominant  theme  of  the  Grand  Rapids  meeting  where  the 
subject  was  literally  prayed  through  the  legislative  com- 
mittee first  and  later  through  the  plenary  session. 

By  early  1964  the  Joint  Commission  on  Union  had 
negotiated  a  proposed  Constitution  for  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church.  The  preamble  to  that  Constitution  said. 

The  prayers  and  intentions  of  The  Methodist  Church  and 
The  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church  have  been  and  are 
for  obedience  to  the  will  of  our  Lord  that  His  people  be  one, 
in  humility  for  tlie  present  brokenness  of  tlie  church,  and  in 
gratitude  that  opportunities  for  reunion  have  been  given.  In 
harmony  witli  these  prayers  and  intentions  these  churches  do 
now  propose  to  unite,  in  the  confident  assurance  that  this  act 
is  an  expression  of  the  oneness  of  Christ's  people. 

Conversations  concerning  union  between  the  two  churches 
and  their  constituent  members  have  taken  place  over  a  long 
period  of  years,  and  the  churches  have  a  long  and  impressive 
history  of  fellowship  and  cooperation. 

Therefore,  we,  the  Commissions  on  Church  Union  of  The 
Methodist  Church,  and  of  The  Evangelical  United  Brethren 
Church,  holding  that  these  churches  are  essentially  one  in 
origin,  in  belief,  in  spirit,  and  in  purpose,  and  desiring  that 
this  essential  unity  be  made  actual  in  organization  and  adminis- 
tration in  the  United  States  of  America  and  throughout  the 
world,  do  hereby  propose  and  transmit  to  our  respective  Gen- 
eral Conferences  the  following  Plan  of  Union  and  recommend 
to  the  two  churches  its  adoption  by  the  processes  which  they 
respectively  require. 

This  Plan  of  Union  or  constitution  was  presented  to 
the  General  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  at 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  in  April  of  1964.  That  conference  did  not 
adopt  or  approve  the  constitution,  but  it  did  approve  the 
imion  in  principle  and  voted  to  hold  an  adjourned  session 
of  the  Methodist  General  Conference  at  the  same  time 


METHODISM    IN   THE   U.    S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


and  in  the  same  city  as  the  1966  General  Conference  of 
the  E.U.B.  church.  This  proved  to  be  Chicago. 

Following  this  aflRrmative  Methodist  action  of  1964, 
seventeen  joint  committees  involving  almost  200  persons 
were  appointed  to  share  in  the  work  of  negotiating  a  total 
Plan  of  Union.  At  that  time  Bishop  Lloyd  C.  Wicke  of 
The  Methodist  Church  and  Bishop  Reuben  H.  Mueller 
of  The  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church  were  co- 
chairmen  of  The  Joint  Commission  on  Union,  and  Mr. 
Charles  C.  Pablin  of  The  Methodist  Church  and  Bishop 
J.  Cordon  Howard  of  The  Evangelical  United  Brethren 
Church  were  co-secretaries.  In  November  of  1964  Dr. 
Paul  Washburn  was  called  from  a  pastorate  at  First 
Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church  in  Naperville,  Il- 
linois, to  become  executive  secretary  of  the  E.U.B.  Com- 
mission. 

Early  in  1966  The  Plan  of  Union,  a  book  of  361  pages, 
was  mailed  to  delegates  to  The  General  Conferences  of  the 
two  churches  which  were  to  meet  in  Chicago,  Illinois,  in 
early  November.  The  book  included  a  Letter  of  Transmit- 
tal, an  Historical  Statement,  The  Constitution,  Doctrinal 
Statements  and  The  General  Rules,  Social  Principles  and 
Organization  and  Administration.  It  was  in  reality  the 
Plan  of  Union  lacking  only  The  Enabhng  Legislation. 

The  Chicago  Conferences.  At  Chicago,  the  two  con- 
ferences meeting  Nov.  8-12,  1966,  in  back-to-back  ball- 
rooms of  the  Conrad  Hilton  Hotel,  elected  an  Inter-Con- 
ference Committee  to  negotiate  different  positions  held 
by  the  two  conferences  regarding  the  published  plan. 
By  Friday  morning,  November  11,  the  negotiating  was 
ended  and  the  two  conferences  were  ready  to  vote.  The 
Methodist  conference  needed  a  two-thirds  majority,  and 
the  Evangelical  United  Brethren  conference  needed  a 
three-fourths  majority  to  adopt  the  Constitution  and  The 
Enabling  Legislation.  At  high  noon,  an  hour  after  the 
conferences  had  paused  to  honor  America's  military  men 
who  died  in  wars,  it  was  announced  that  both  confer- 
ences had  voted  and  cast  the  required  number  of  affirma- 
tive votes  to  send  the  Constitution  and  Enabling  Legis- 
lation on  to  the  Annual  Conferences  for  their  approval. 
On  the  afternoon  of  that  day  the  two  conferences  met 
together  for  a  Service  of  Thanksgiving.  Bishops  Mueller, 
Raines  and  Wicke  spoke,  and  the  joint  conference  sang 
"Blest  be  the  Tie  That  Binds." 

During  the  following  months  The  Plan  of  Union  was 
republished  as  it  had  been  amended  at  Chicago.  An  edi- 
torial committee — Emory  S.  Bucke,  Curtis  A.  Chambers, 
Charles  C.  Parlin  and  Paul  Washburn — had  responsibility 
for  this  republication. 

By  June  26,  1967  enough  aflirmative  votes  had  been 
cast  in  the  Annual  Conferences  of  the  two  churches  to 
assure  the  union.  On  that  day  Bishop  Donald  Tippett, 
President  of  the  Methodist  Council  of  Bishops,  and  Bishop 
Reuben  Mueller,  President  of  The  Evangelical  United 
Brethren  Board  of  Bishops,  made  formal  public  announce- 
ment that  the  union  had  been  approved. 

The  Uniting  Conference.  The  celebration  of  the  union 
took  place  in  Dallas,  Texas  on  April  23,  1968.  During 
the  service  of  worship  Dr.  Albert  Outler  preached  on 
"The  Unfinished  Business  of  an  Unfinished  Church."  Some 
of  his  poignant  lines  follow: 

The  essence  of  tlie  event  is  self-evident:  it  is  tlie  accom- 
plished fact  of  The  United  Methodist  Church.  Where  once, 
scarcely  a  generation  ago,  there  were  five  churches,  now  there 
is  one.  Where  once  our  differences  kept  us  apart — with  dif- 


ferent languages  and  folkways — now  they  are  overcome  or 
else  at  least  contained  within  a  larger  circle  of  committed 
fellowship.  We  have  been  Christian  bretliren,  after  a  fashion, 
for  the  better  part  of  two  centuries — but  separated  brethren. 
Now  our  memberships  and  ministries  have  been  mingled  with- 
out compromise  or  indignity;  our  separate  traditions  have  been 
sublated  and  made  one. 

.  .  .  This,  then,  is  our  birthday — a  day  to  celebrate,  a  day 
to  remember,  a  day  for  high  hopes  and  renewed  commitments. 
This  is  a  day  when  tlie  eyes  of  tlie  whole  Christian  community 
are  focused  on  us  and  especially  those  of  our  Methodist  breth- 
ren in  Britain  who  are  with  us  in  spirit.  This  is  the  day  that 
the  Lord  has  made.  Let  us  really  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it — 
glad  for  the  new  ohance  God  now  gives  us:  to  be  a  church 
united  in  order  to  be  uniting,  a  church  repentant  in  order  to 
be  a  church  redemptive,  a  church  cruciform  in  order  to  man- 
ifest God's  triumphant  agony  for  mankind. 

Till   sons  of  men   shall   learn   his   love 

And  follow  where  his  feet  have  trod 

Till  glorious  from  the  heavens  above 

Shall  come  the  city  of  our  God! 

Following  the  sermon  Bishop  Mueller  and  Bishop 
Wicke  made  declaration  of  the  union  in  the  following 
words : 

I,  Reuben  H.  Mueller,  a  bishop  of  The  Evangelical  United 
Bretliren  Church,  hereby  announce  that  the  Plan  of  Union 
with  The  Methodist  Church  has  been  adopted  by  The  Evangeli- 
cal United  Bretliren  Church  in  accordance  with  the  procedures 
prescribed  in  its  constitutional  law,  namely,  by  an  affirmative 
vote  of  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  members  of  the  Chicago 
General  Conference  present  and  voting  on  November  11,  1966, 
and  by  more  than  a  two-thirds  affirmative  vote  of  the  aggregate 
number  of  members  of  all  the  annual  conferences  in  North 
America  present  and  voting  thereon. 

I,  Lloyd  C.  Wicke,  a  bishop  of  The  Methodist  Church, 
hereby  announce  that  the  Plan  of  Union  with  The  Evangelical 
United  Brediren  Church  has  been  adopted  by  The  Methodist 
Church  in  accordance  widi  the  procedures  prescribed  in  its 
constitution,  namely,  by  vote  of  more  than  a  two-thirds  major- 
ity of  the  members  of  the  Chicago  General  Conference  present 
and  voting  on  November  11,  1966,  and  by  more  than  a  two- 
thirds  majority  of  all  members  of  the  several  annual  confer- 
ences present  and  voting  thereon. 

We  now  jointly  declare  that  the  Plan  of  Union  between 
The  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church  and  The  Method- 
ist Church  has,  by  its  terms  and  by  the  terms  of  the  Enabfing 
Legislation,  become  effective  and  henceforth  The  Evangelical 
United  Brethren  Church  and  The  Methodist  Church  shall  go 
forward  as  a  single  entity  to  be  known  as  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church. 

After  the  Declaration  of  Union  the  two  bishops,  then 
two  children,  then  two  youths,  then  two  adults,  then  six 
ordained  ministers  from  five  continents,  then  two  church 
officers,  and  finally  all  the  10,000  persons  present  joined 
hands  and  said. 

Lord  of  the  Church,  we  are  united  in  thee,  in  thy  Church, 
and  now  in  The  United  Methodist  Church.  Amen. 

and  the  union  was  a  fact. 

Near  the  close  of  the  celebration  Bishop  Tippett  led 
the  congregation  in  an  impressive  Covenant. 

We  are  no  longer  our  own,  but  thine.  Put  us  to  what  thou 
wilt,  rank  us  with  whom  thou  wilt;  put  us  to  doing,  put  us  to 
suffering;  let  us  be  employed  for  thee  or  laid  aside  for  thee, 
exalted  for  thee  or  brought  low  for  thee;  let  us  be  full,  let 
us  be  empty;  let  us  have  all  things,  let  us  have  nothing;  we 
freely  and  heartily  yield  all  things  to  thy  pleasure  and  disposal. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   ADVOCATE,   THE 


And  now,  O  glorious  and  blessed  God,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit,  thou  art:  ours,  and  we  are  tliine.  So  be  it.  And 
the  covenant  which  we  have  made  on  earth,  let  it  be  ratified  in 
heaven.  Amen. 

Following  the  act  of  union,  the  Uniting  Conference 
turned  to  the  work  of  perfecting  The  Discipline  for  the 
new  United  Methodist  Church.  While  such  perfecting 
was  accomplished,  it  could  not  be  said  that  the  conference 
was  totally  occupied  with  the  new  church's  structure.  It 
was  much  more  concerned  about  the  situation  in  the 
United  States,  and  focused  its  attention  again  and  again 
upon  how  to  be  a  church  on  relevant  mission  to  the  world 
of  1968  and  beyond.  It  therefore  established  a  new  Com- 
mission on  Religion  and  Race.  It  adopted  a  Quadrennial 
Program  under  the  theme,  "A  New  Church  for  a  New 
World";  it  voted  to  secure  $20,000,000  to  be  used  in 
ministering  to  the  crisis  in  the  nation.  Bishop  James  K. 
Mathews,  who  was  elected  to  head  the  Quadrennial 
Program  said,  "The  Uniting  Conference  was  a  renewal 
conference  and  will  be  known  as  one  of  the  great  Chris- 
tian gatherings  of  this  century." 

Paul  Washbubn 

METHODIST,  THE,  was  an  independent  church  paper, 
published  weekly  in  New  York  beginning  June  14,  1860. 
Often  called  "The  New  York  Methodist,"  it  was  at  first 
the  organ  of  conservatives  in  the  M.E.  Church  who  pro- 
tested a  new  disciplinary  provision  against  slavery  passed 
at  the  General  Conference  of  1860.  Earlier,  leading 
members  of  the  New  York  East  Conference  had  formed 
a  Laymen's  and  Ministers'  Union  to  lobby  against  revi- 
sions in  the  chapter  on  slavery  in  the  Discipline,  which 
had  been  unchanged  since  1816.  At  the  General  Confer- 
ence the  Union  sided  with  border  Methodists,  some 
of  whom,  clergy  and  laity,  were  slaveholders.  They  threat- 
ened to  secede  from  the  church  because  of  attacks  from 
antislavery  Methodists.  After  the  passage  of  the  new  legis- 
lation, and  with  the  defeat  of  Abel  Stevens,  the  incum- 
bent editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate  and  Journal  in  New 
York,  the  Union  no  longer  had  direct  access  to  the  official 
church  press.  Its  members  decided  to  issue  The  Methodist 
in  order  to  prevent  a  disruption  of  border  Methodism  and 
to  provide  a  journal  of  conservative  opinion  for  the  church. 

The  leading  supporters  of  the  new  paper  included 
Stevens,  later  an  eminent  historian  of  Methodism;  Oliver 
Hoyt,  a  New  York  banker;  Daniel  Ross,  a  New  York 
leather  merchant;  and  its  first  editors,  John  M'Clintock, 
a  professor  and  former  editor  of  the  Methodist  Quarterly 
Review,  and  George  R.  Crooks,  later  a  professor  at 
Drew  Theological  Seminary.  Crooks  went  to  work  im- 
mediately to  keep  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  the 
northern  church.  He  argued  that  the  new  antislavery  rule 
was  merely  advisory,  and  not  prohibitory.  Crooks'  cam- 
paign was  partially  successful,  despite  the  withdrawal  of 
sixty-six  ministers  and  twenty-five  thousand  members  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia  who  formed  an  independent 
Central  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  which  merged  with 
southern  Methodism  after  the  war.  While  southern  states 
were  forming  their  confederacy  in  1860  and  1861, 
Crooks  cultivated  Union  sentiment  in  Maryland  and  west- 
em  Virginia  to  support  a  loyal  Methodist  church  on  the 
border. 

During  the  war  The  Methodist  abandoned  its  tolera- 
tion of  slavery  and  supported  President  Abraham  Lincoln's 


policies,  including  the  edict  of  emancipation.  Its  editorial 
position  was  a  barometer  of  northern  public  opinion, 
which,  at  first,  backed  the  war  as  necessary  to  preserve 
the  union,  and  only  later  supported  it  as  a  means  to  end 
slavery.  Editorial  correspondent  M'Clintock,  who  was  pas- 
tor of  the  American  Church  in  Paris  from  1861  to  1864, 
published  a  regular  series  of  articles  on  European  political 
and  public  attitudes  toward  the  American  war.  His  re- 
ports were  infoiTnative  documents  about  the  competition 
for  foreign  support  between  the  Confederacy  and  the 
United  States. 

Early  in  the  war  The  Methodist  took  up  a  new  cause. 
Its  offices  became  headquarters  for  the  lay  representation 
movement  in  northern  Methodism.  Crooks  sent  out  lec- 
turers to  promote  the  cause  and  published  250,000  tracts 
urging  Methodists  to  end  clerical  domination  of  church 
conferences.  The  final  success  of  lay  representation  in 
1872,  was  due,  in  large  measure,  to  the  work  of  Crooks 
and  his  associates. 

After  the  Civil  War,  The  Methodist  promoted  the  re- 
union of  northern  and  southern  Methodism.  Throughout 
the  reconstruction  period,  the  paper  was  the  leading  voice 
in  the  North  calling  for  fraternal  relations  which  were 
finally  consummated  between  the  M.E.  Church  and  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  in  1876.  Crooks  and  his  successor, 
David  H.  Wheeler,  who  became  editor  in  1875,  opposed 
radical  reconstruction  in  the  South  and  consistently  criti- 
cized racial  equalitarians  in  the  northern  church. 

Even  though  it  was  not  an  official  paper  supported  by 
the  General  Conference,  many  outstanding  Methodists 
wrote  for  and  subscribed  to  this  journal.  Weekly  circula- 
tion grew  to  nearly  22,000  by  1873.  Bishop  Matthew 
Simpson,  nationally  known  orator  and  preacher,  regularly 
published  sermons  in  The  Methodist.  After  the  bishop's 
death.  Crooks  edited  a  volume  of  his  selected  sermons 
which  were  first  published  in  the  paper.  Simpson's  Lyman 
Beecher  lectures  on  preaching  at  Yale  University  also 
appeared  in  the  columns  of  The  Methodist  during  the  fall 
and  winter  of  1878-1879. 

In  1881,  Daniel  Curry,  former  editor  of  the  Christian 
Advocate  in  New  York,  became  Wheeler's  associate,  but 
the  paper's  future  was  doubtful.  It  no  longer  had  any 
special  cause  to  promote.  On  Oct.  7,  1882,  therefore,  the 
final  issue  appeared,  after  which  time  The  Methodist 
consolidated  with  the  New  York  Advocate. 

Robert  D.  Clark,  The  Life  of  Matthew  Simpson.   New  York, 

1956. 

G.  R.  Crooks,  Matthew  Simpson.  1890. 

Zion's  Herald,  Sept.  21,  Oct.  5,  19,  1859. 

William  B.  Gravely 

METHODIST  ADVOCATE,  THE,  a  weekly  periodical  pub- 
lished in  1868  and  for  some  years  afterward  in  Atlanta, 
Ga.,  under  the  controlling  patronage  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
when  that  Church  was  enlarging  its  work  strongly  in  the 
Southern  States  following  the  Civil  War.  The  General 
Conference  (ME)  of  1868  authorized  the  Book  Agents 
at  Cincinnati  to  publish  such  a  periodical,  either  at 
Knoxville,  Atlanta,  or  Nashville,  with  the  editor  to 
be  appointed  by  the  bishops  of  the  Church  with  the  con- 
currence of  the  Book  Agents.  It  was  understood  that  these 
were  at  liberty  to  discontinue  the  paper  if  its  publication 
should  involve  a  greater  loss  to  the  concern  than  $2,000 
per  annum.  After  a  time  the  Book  Agents  selected  Atlanta, 
and  the  first  number  of  the  paper  appeared  on  Jan.  6, 


METHODIST   BOOK   AND   PUBLISHING   HOUSE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


1869,  E.  Q.  Fuller  having  been  appointed  editor  by  the 
bishops.  The  subscription  list,  however,  averaged  a  little 
less  than  3,000  per  year,  and  as  there  was  considerable 
tension  between  the  "Northern  Methodists,"  as  the  M.E. 
Church  was  called  in  the  deep  South,  and  the  reorganized 
M.E.  Church,  South,  the  Methodist  Advocate  did  not 
grow  rapidly. 

At  the  Ceneral  Conference  of  1872,  N.  E.  Cobleigh 
was  elected  editor,  and  upon  his  death  in  1874,  E.  Q. 
Fuller  was  again  appointed  to  fill  the  place,  and  he  was 
duly  elected  to  it  by  the  General  Conference  of  1876.  The 
circulation  as  reported  to  that  General  Conference  was 
3,102. 

The  Methodist  Advocate  did  not  prosper  and  was  dis- 
continued at  the  direction  of  the  Book  Committee,  the 
last  number  being  issued  on  Feb.  24,  1883.  At  the  1884 
General  Conference,  it  was  reported  that  T.  C.  Carter, 
former  missionary  to  China,  had  purchased  the  printing 
plant  and  furnishings  and  had  reestablished  the  paper  in 
Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  under  the  same  name. 

The  Book  Concern  at  the  General  Conference  of  1888, 
secured  the  adoption  of  a  resolution  to  subsidize  Method- 
ist Advocate  and  to  recognize  it  as  "the  ofiRcial  organ  of 
the  Church  in  its  patronizing  territory  in  the  Southern 
States,"  the  subsidy  not  to  exceed  $500  per  quarter.  The 
resolution  pro\ided  for  church  control  over  the  "general 
tone  and  editorial  conduct"  of  the  paper,  but  denied  any 
responsibility  for  its  financial  obligations. 

At  the  1892  General  Conference  the  Book  Committee 
reported  that  the  obligations  of  the  paper  were  too  great 
for  its  resources,  even  including  the  subsidy,  and  the 
Publishing  and  Book  Committees  had  deemed  it  wise  to 
purchase  the  property  and  franchises.  After  negotiating 
for  two  years,  the  Book  Committee  closed  a  contract 
with  T.  C.  Carter  on  Nov.  15,  1891,  securing  his  resigna- 
tion as  editor.  The  agreement  included  filling  the  unex- 
pired subscriptions  of  Methodist  Advocate  with  the  West- 
ern Christian  Advocate. 

Journal  of  the  General   Conference,   ME,    1868,    1884,    1888, 

1892. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H 

METHODIST    BOOK    AND    PUBLISHING    HOUSE,    THE 

(1829-1925),  at  Toronto,  Canada,  was  organized  on 
authority  granted  by  the  Canada  Conference  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  meeting  at  Ancaster,  Upper  Can- 
ada, Ontario,  in  August  1829.  It  was  resolved: 

That  a  weekly  paper  should  be  established  under  the  direction 
of  the  Conference,  of  a  religious  and  moral  character,  to  be 
entitled  The  Christian  Guardian.  That  the  place  of  its  location 
be  the  Town  of  York  (now  Toronto).  That  the  sum  of  $700 
is  sufficient  to  purchase  all  the  apperatus  for  a  printing  estab- 
lisliment.  That  tlie  sum  of  $2,050  will  meet  the  annual  expence 
of  such  a  paper.  .  .  .  That  tlie  stock  to  the  amount  of  $2,000 
be  raised  by  dividing  it  into  100  shares  of  $20  each,  half  of 
which  to  be  paid  immediately,  and  tlie  remainder  subject  to  die 
call  of  tlie  persons  who  may  be  appointed  to  superintend  tlie 
publishing  of  the  paper;  the  said  stock  to  be  repaid  with 
interest  as  soon  as  the  avails  of  the  concern  will  admit  of  it. 
That  .  .  .  the  members  of  the  Conference  .  .  .  take  up  die 
shares  among  diemselves,  but  if  all  be  not  disposed  of  in  diat 
way,  diat  they  use  their  influence  with  their  friends  to  have 
the  remainder  taken  up  immediately.  That  a  committee  of  5 
persons  be  appointed  annually  by  the  Conference  to  super- 
intend the  publishing  of  the  paper  and  other  printing  that 
may  be  done  in  the  office.  (Canada  Conference,  Ms.  Minutes, 
1829.) 


Egehton  Ryerson  was  elected  book  steward  and  edi- 
tor, and  was  furnished  with  the  following  handwritten 
certificate  which  is  still  preserved  in  the  offices  of  the 
Publishing  House:  "This  may  certify  that  the  Bearer, 
Rev.  Egerton  Ryerson,  is  appointed  Agent  for  procuring 
a  printing  Estabhshment  for  The  Canada  Conference,  and 
is  hereby  commended  to  the  Christian  confidence  of  all, 
on  whom  he  may  have  occasion  to  call  for  advice  and 
assistance  for  the  above  purpose."  It  is  signed,  "William 
Case,  Superintendent,  Ancaster,  Upper  Canada,  Sept.  4, 
1829." 

The  first  publication  of  the  church  press  was  entitled 
The  Doctrines  and  Discipline  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  Canada  (1829).  This  was  followed  in  1835  by 
the  first  book,  a  Canadian  edition  of  The  Village  Black- 
smith, or  Piety  and  Usejulness  Exemplified,  a  memoir  of 
the  hfe  of  Samuel  Hick,  by  James  Everett,  published 
by  Matthew  Lang  for  The  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
in  Canada.  Minutes  of  Conferences,  special  reports,  a  few 
sermons  and  addresses,  an  early  book  of  poems,  pam- 
phlets on  temperance,  a  cookbook  entitled  The  Frugal 
Housewife's  Manual,  by  A.  B.  of  Grimsby  (1840),  and 
a  variety  of  writings  by  Egerton  Ryerson  himself  mark 
the  lists  of  the  early  years  of  the  Publishing  House.  In 
1860  there  was  an  experiment  in  publishing  a  missionary 
biography.   The  Life  and  Journals  of  Rev.   Peter  Jones. 

During  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  The 
Canadian  Methodist  Magazine,  edited  by  W.  H.  With- 
Row,  which  ranked  with  the  best  literary  publications  of 
that  period,  was  issued  by  the  Publishing  House.  In  addi- 
tion, it  began  to  prepare  Sunday  school  publications  for 
Canadian  church  schools.  The  Sunday  School  Banner 
made  its  first  appearance  as  a  teacher's  assistant  in  1868 
(editor,  Alexander  Sutherland).  Illustrated  story  pa- 
pers for  recreational  reading  began  with  The  Sunday 
School  Guardian  (1846),  The  Sunbeam  (1880),  Pleasant 
Hours  (1880),  Onward  (1891).  These  have  been  revised, 
enlarged,  succeeded  by  new  publications,  until  today  the 
Publishing  House  issues  four  such  story  papers  with  a 
total  weekly  circulation  of  more  than  300,000. 

The  name  of  Wh^liam  Briggs  is  important  in  the  record 
of  the  development  of  the  Methodist  Publishing  House. 
He  sei-ved  as  book  steward  from  1879  until  1918,  and 
during  this  time  the  volume  of  business  increased  enor- 
mously. He  acquired  printing  contracts,  notably  from  the 
provincial  government,  which  enabled  the  plant  to  enlarge 
its  equipment,  until  it  became  the  largest  printing  as  well 
as  publishing  concern  in  Canada.  Briggs  acquired  Ca- 
nadian publishing  rights  from  a  number  of  British  authors 
and  publishers,  and  began  to  import  books  from  the 
United  States.  The  Methodist  Book  Room,  as  it  was 
popularly  called,  became  a  depository  and  a  pubhshing 
house  for  books  of  all  kinds.  William  Briggs  used  his  own 
name  as  publisher.  A  trade  name  was  adopted  shortly 
afterward. 

General  book  pubhshing,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
teiTn,  in  addition  to  official  church  publishing,  began  with 
the  appointment  of  a  book  editor  in  1920.  Lome  Pierce 
(1890-1962),  who  came  into  the  office  as  literary  adviser 
to  the  book  steward,  was  to  review  books  and  periodicals 
for  the  official  church  paper.  But  his  passion  for  Canadian 
literature,  born  out  of  his  studies  at  Queen's  University, 
Kingston,  and  fed  by  a  simultaneous  flowering  of  Canadian 
hterary  expression  after  the  First  World  War,  compelled 
him  to  think  of  building  a  publishing  program  which  was 
destined  to  make  a  great  house  greater.  The  house  adopted 


WORLD  METHODISM 


METHODIST   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH,    SOUTH 


as  its  trade  name  The  Ryerson  Press,  in  honor  of  its 
founder,  and  under  that  imprint  undertook  seriously  to 
publish  the  best  by  Canadian  authors,  artists,  poets  and 
historians.  Some  of  the  significant  items  pubHshed  in  the 
twenties  were:  Our  Canadian  Literature;  Representative 
Prose  and  Verse  by  Albert  Durrant  Watson  (1859-1926); 
Methodism  and  the  New  Catholicism,  by  Lome  Pierce; 
Makers  of  Canadian  Literature,  a  series  of  thirteen  vol- 
umes of  biographical  and  critical  studies  of  early  Canadian 
authors;  Ryerson  Essays,  a  series  of  pamphlets  written  by 
Canadian  churchmen  on  religious  topics  and  heresies; 
Canadian  History  Readers,  a  series  of  brief  biographies 
of  Canadian  pioneers;  and  the  Ryerson  Poetry  Chapbooks, 
a  series  of  inexpensive  publications  to  record  the  current 
output  of  verse. 

When  the  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  and  Congregational 
Churches  of  Canada  united  in  1925  to  form  The  United 
Church  of  Canada,  the  Methodist  Book  and  Publishing 
House  became  The  United  Church  Publishing  House 
(The  Ryerson  Press).  The  original  church  paper,  The 
Christian  Guardian,  published  without  interruption  for 
ninety-six  years,  became  successively  The  New  Outlook 
(1926)  and  The  United  Church  Observer  (1939),  which 
is  still  being  published.  The  Sunday  school  publications 
have  become  The  New  Curriculum,  a  series  of  annual 
study  books  for  teachers  and  pupils  of  all  grades.  Book 
publishing,  including  a  full  range  of  educational  text 
books  for  elementary  and  secondary  schools  and  trade 
books  in  all  categories,  continues  to  give  the  church 
Publishing  House  a  unique  place  among  its  counterparts 
in  other  countries.  Through  the  medium  of  publishing, 
Methodism  in  Canada  produced  a  lively  and  imaginative 
mission  to  the  church  and  the  nation.  (See  also  The 
Christian  Guardian.  ) 

A.  Green,  Life  and  Times.  1877. 

L.  A.  Pierce,  Chronicle  of  a  Century.  1929. 

C.   B.   Sissons,   Egerton   Ryerson.    1937.     C.   H.   Dickinson 

METHODIST  COLLEGE,  Belfast,  Ireland,  was  opened  in 
1868  as  a  school  providing  higher  education  leading  to 
university  entrance,  and  as  a  theological  college  for  the 
Methodist  Church  in  Ireland.  From  the  beginning  the 
school  was  open  to  boys  and  girls  of  all  denominations, 
and  a  boarding  department  for  boys  was  an  integral  part 
of  the  institution.  One  special  feature  was  to  provide  for 
the  education  of  the  children  of  Methodist  ministers.  A 
boarding  department  for  girls  was  established  in  1891 
in  McArthur  Hall,  provided  by  the  munificence  of  Sir 
William  McArthur.  The  school  pioneered  in  develop- 
ments in  secondary  education,  particularly  after  the  cre- 
ation of  the  Ministry  of  Education  in  Northern  Ireland, 
following  the  Government  of  Ireland  Act,  1920.  In  1919 
the  theological  department  was  transferred  to  Edgehill, 
and  an  Act  of  Parliament  in  1926  completed  the  legal 
separation.  The  original  site  of  about  fourteen  acres  is 
now  almost  wholly  occupied  by  the  new  buildings  modern 
developments  have  made  necessary,  especially  in  science 
laboratories,  but  in  1932  a  site  of  almost  forty  acres  was 
obtained  at  Pirrie  Park,  Belfast,  for  playing  fields.  One  of 
the  two  junior  schools,  Downey  House,  was  established 
there;  the  other,  Fullerton  House,  is  beside  the  main 
college.  Methodist  College  now  has  2,149  pupils — 1,288 
boys  and  846  girls — of  whom  1,609  are  in  the  secondary 
grammar  department,  eleven  to  eighteen  years  of  age, 
while    there    are    301    in   Fullerton    House    and    239    in 


Downey  House  in  the  two  preparatory  departments,  five 
to  eleven  years  of  age.  Of  the  total  number  there  are 
203  boarders.  Principals  and  Heads  of  the  Theological 
Department  have  been  William  Arthur,  1868-71; 
Robert  Crook,  1871-73;  Robinson  Scott,  1873-80;  Joseph 
McKay,  1880-91;  Oliver  McCutcheon,  1891-95;  William 
Nicholas,  1895-1908;  Joseph  Campbell,  1908-20;  then 
see  Edgehill  College.  Headmasters  have  been  Robert 
Crook,  1868-71;  Henry  R.  Parker,  1871-90;  Henry  S. 
Mcintosh,  1890-1912;  Ernest  I.  Lewis,  1912-17;  John  W. 
Henderson,  1917-43;  John  Falconer,  1943-48;  Albert  H.  R. 
Ball,  1948-60;  and  A.  Stanley  Worrall,  1961-     . 

R.  L.  Cole,  Methodism  in  Ireland.  1960. 

J.  W.  Henderson,  Book  of  M.C.B.,  1868-1938. 

F.  Jeffery,  Irish  Methodism.  1964. 

R.  Marshall,  Centenary  Volume.  1968.         Frederick  Jeffery 

METHODIST  COLLEGE,  Fayetteville,  N.  C,  was  char- 
tered Nov.  1,  1956,  as  an  institution  of  higher  education 
under  the  auspices  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 
The  citizens  of  Fayetteville  and  Cumberland  County  as- 
sumed responsibility  for  providing  a  campus  and  for  con- 
tributing $2,000,000  to  match  a  like  amount  from  the 
conference,  plus  $50,000  annually  for  current  operations. 
The  campus  of  577  acres,  with  12  modem  buildings  ac- 
quired since  1957,  is  valued  at  a  higher  figure  than  many 
institutions  which  have  been  in  existence  100  years  or 
more.  The  college  was  admitted  to  membership  in  the 
Southern  Association  of  Schools  and  Colleges  in  1966  and 
was  accredited  by  the  University  Senate  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church  in  1967.  Degrees  granted  are  the  B.A.  and 
B.S. 

The  governing  board  has  a  minimum  of  twenty-four 
and  a  maximum  of  thirty-six  trustees,  nominated  by  the 
board,  approved  by  the  North  Carolina  Conference  Board 
of  Education,  and  confirmed  by  the  annual  conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

METHODIST  COMMITTEE  FOR  OVERSEAS  RELIEF.  (See 
United  Methodist  Committee  for  0\'erseas  Re- 
lief.) 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  THE.  (See  Method- 
ism IN  THE  United  States.  ) 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  SOUTH,  the  second 
largest  American  Methodist  denomination  prior  to  Uni- 
fication in  1939,  grew  out  of  constitutional  questions  re- 
lated to  slavery.  The  law  of  the  Church  then  provided  that 
Methodists  should  not  hold  slaves  in  those  states  where 
the  laws  allowed  emancipation  and  where  emancipated 
slaves  could  enjoy  freedom. 

Bishop  James  O.  Andrew  of  Georgia  became  con- 
nected with  slavery  through  his  marriage  to  a  woman  who 
owned  slaves.  Since  the  laws  of  the  state  did  not  permit 
emancipation,  Andrew  executed  a  document  in  which  the 
ownership  was  secured  to  his  wife,  and  which  provided 
that  the  slaves  would  be  assisted  to  go  to  a  state  where 
emancipation  was  legal  if  they  chose  to  do  so. 

The  situation  led  to  a  notable  debate  in  the  General 
Conference  of  1844.  The  Northern  delegates  insisted 
that  a  bishop's  connection  with  slaveiy  would  be  harmful 


METHODIST   FEDERATION    FOR   SOCIAL   SERVICE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


to  the  Church  in  the  North,  while  the  Southern  delegates 
took  the  position  that  the  Church  would  be  practically 
destroyed  in  the  South  by  punitive  action  against  a  slave- 
holder in  a  state  where  emancipation  was  forbidden  by 
law,  and  who  had  violated  no  rule  of  the  Church.  Further- 
more, it  was  claimed  that  the  General  Conference  pro- 
posed to  pass  on  the  constitutionality  of  its  own  action. 

The  Northern  majority  adopted  a  resolution  which  re- 
quested Bishop  Andrew  to  desist  from  exercising  the 
functions  of  his  office  so  long  as  the  impediment  remained. 
In  the  impasse  a  Pl.\n  of  Separation  was  adopted.  This 
provided  that  if  the  Southern  Conferences  deemed  it 
advisable  to  organize  a  separate  General  Conference  the 
assets  of  the  Book  Concern  would  be  divided  proportion- 
ately, conferences  and  churches  should  decide  to  which 
branch  they  would  adhere,  and  neither  body  would  con- 
tinue or  organize  work  in  areas  which  adhered  to  the 
other.  All  this  was  mutually  and  amicably  agreed  upon. 

Under  the  Plan  of  Separation  the  Southern  Conferences 
elected  delegates  to  a  Convention  which  met  at  Louis- 
ville, Ky.,  and  there  decided  to  organize  a  separate 
Church.  In  1846  the  first  General  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South  met  in  Petersburg,  Va.,  and  held  its  ses- 
sions in  a  Negro  church  building,  as  the  Washington  Street 
Church  had  not  been  completed.  The  new  Church  re- 
tained the  same  law  on  slavery. 

Bishop  Joshua  Soule  of  Maine,  who  in  1808  had  been 
the  author  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Church,  adhered 
to  the  South  because  he  believed  that  the  action  of  the 
General  Conference  deposing  Andrew  broke  the  Third 
Restrictive  Rule  and  was  in  violation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. The  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  gladly 
accepted  Bishop  Soule  as  bishop,  and  elected  William 
Capers  of  South  Carolina  and  Robert  Paine  of  Ten- 
nessee to  the  episcopacy.  Further  moves  of  this  important 
conference  may  be  seen  in  the  brief  synopsis  of  its  work 
under  General  Conferences. 

A  change  of  sentiment  occurred  in  the  North,  however. 
The  General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1848 
repudiated  the  Plan  of  Separation,  declined  to  receive 
LoviCK  Pierce,  the  fraternal  delegate  from  the  Southern 
Church,  and  refused  to  divide  the  assets  of  the  Book 
Concern.  A  long  period  of  estrangement  followed  and 
Northern  conferences  were  organized  in  the  South.  The 
Plan  of  Separation  was,  however,  upheld  by  the  U.  S. 
Supreme  Court.  In  1876  the  Cape  May  Commission, 
appointed  by  both  Churches,  unanimously  declared  that 
both  were  legitimate  branches  of  Episcopal  Methodism 
and  fraternal  relations  were  established. 

The  M.E.  Church,  South  grew  greatly  and  later  estab- 
lished conferences  on  the  West  Coast  and  in  the  North- 
west, which  was  not  a  part  of  the  United  States  at  the 
time  of  the  division.  In  1939  there  were  thirty-four  annual 
conferences  with  6,500  pastoral  charges  and  a  member- 
ship of  over  3,000,000.  There  were  organized  missions 
among  the  Orientals,  Indians  and  Mexicans  in  the  West 
and  Southwest,  and  these  had  around  12,000  members. 
Foreign  missions  had  been  established  in  ten  countries, 
and  these  had  a  total  membership  of  approximately  150,- 
000.  (See  also  Methodism  in  the  United  States.) 

G.  Alexander,  History  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  1894. 
Histonj  of  the  Organization  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  1845. 
Missionary  Year  Books,  MES. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.   1878.  Elmer  T.  Clark 


METHODIST  FEDERATION  FOR  SOCIAL  SERVICE  was  an 

unofficial  group  formed  in  1908  within  the  M.  E.  Church 
to  work,  as  its  name  implies,  for  social  justice  in  American 
life.  Some  extremely  able  cliurch  leaders  v\'ere  among 
its  first  organizers,  including  Bishop  F.  J.  McConnell, 
Bishop  Herbert  Welch,  and  others.  For  the  account  of 
its  involvement  and  pronouncements  in  matters  that 
caused  the  withdrawal  of  support  from  it  by  the  1952 
General  Conference,  see  Ethical  Traditions  in 
American  Methodism. 

N.  B.  H. 

METHODIST  HISTORY  is  a  64-page  quarterly  periodica] 
published  by  the  Commission  on  Archu'Es  and  History 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C. 
Volume  1,  Number  1  of  the  journal  appeared  in  October 
1962,  with  Elmer  T.  Clark  as  editor,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  then  Association  of  Methodist  Historical  Soci- 
eties. The  magazine  carries  both  scholarly  and  popular 
articles  on  Methodist  history.  It  fills  a  need  in  that  it  prints 
and  preserves  valuable  Methodist  historical  material. 

Albea  Godbold 

METHODIST  HOMES  FOR  THE  AGED  (Br.).  Through  the 
initiative  of  the  Rev.  Walter  Hall,  the  last  twenty  years  of 
whose  active  ministry  were  spent  in  the  London  area, 
the  British  Methodist  Conference  of  1942  founded  the 
Methodist  Homes  for  the  Aged.  This  organization  was 
designed  to  aid  at  least  a  few  of  the  many  who  retire  on 
fixed  incomes  of  dwindling  value  because  of  the  rising 
cost  of  living,  and  was  in  the  tradition  of  John  Wesley's 
provision  of  homes  for  poor  widows.  Large  houses  were 
secured,  and  subdivided  into  bed-sitting-rooms  for  the 
residents,  who  share  a  communal  dining  room  and  lounge. 
Residents  must  be  over  sixty-five,  and  they  contribute  to 
the  expenses  of  the  Home  according  to  their  means.  Hall 
and  his  successors,  the  Revs.  William  Stoate  and  Richard 
J.  Connell  (the  present  General  Secretary),  have  been 
successful  in  raising  money  from  many  sources,  mainly 
in  gifts  from  individuals.  The  Homes  available  have  in- 
creased from  three  in  1947  to  twenty-six  in  1969,  and 
others  are  in  the  planning  stage.  One  of  the  earliest  res- 
idents in  the  Bognor  Home  was  Mrs.  E.  Rhein,  a  de- 
scendant of  Charles  Wesley.  There  is  always  a  long 
waiting  list  of  people  seeking  accommodation.  (For  Meth- 
odist Homes  for  the  Aged  in  American  Methodism,  see 
Health  and  Welfare  Ministries,  Board  of,  and  Homes 
ANT)  Facilities  for  the  Aging  (EUB).) 

Frank  Baker 

METHODIST  INFORMATION  (U.S.A.),  whose  full  title  is 
the  Commission  on  Public  Relations  and  Methodist  In- 
formation of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  is  the  official 
news  bureau  and  public  relations  office  of  that  Church. 
It  was  begun  in  1940  at  the  General  Conference 
(TMC)  of  that  year  and  owes  its  origin  to  the  Bishops 
of  the  Church  at  the  time  of  the  reorganization  of  their 
Methodism  in  1939.  They  had  observed  that  social  service 
organizations  were  estabhshing  strong  publicity  depart- 
ments, and  that  there  were  successful  public  relations 
operations  in  other  religious  bodies.  Therefore,  in  their 
Episcopal  Address  to  the  Uniting  Conference,  the  Bish- 
ops,   under   the   heading   "An   Intelligent    Church,"    said 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   MEN'S   FELLOWSHIP 


that  "Methodism  in  this  great  day  finds  itself  with  large 
numbers  of  communicants  and  adherents  who  have  little 
knowledge  of  its  activities,  plans,  purposes,  happenings 
and  movements.  They  are  not,  except  in  the  most  meager 
way,  methodistically  informed.  The  Church  must  keep 
them  in  touch  .  .  .  The  greatest  modern  agencies  for 
taking  the  messages  of  this  church  to  its  own  people  and 
to  all  people  must  be  called  into  full  action  ...  A  depart- 
ment of  Methodist  Intelligence  .  .  .  adequate  in  equip- 
ment, capable  in  management,  and  vigorous  in  action  will 
have  extraordinary  possibilities  for  the  United  Church." 

This  recommendation  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  a 
report  which  called  for  the  establishment  of  a  Commission 
on  Public  Information.  In  1952  the  General  Conference 
changed  the  Commission's  name  to  the  present  title  as 
given  above,  but  all  through  the  years  it  has  been  pop- 
ularly known  by  the  shortened  title — Methodist  Informa- 
tion. This  has  become  a  familiar  trademark  in  hundreds 
of  newspaper,  radio  and  television  offices  over  our  land. 

This  agency  is  "to  gather  news  of  public  interest  con- 
cerning Methodist  activities  and  opinion,  and  disseminate 
it  through  the  secular  press,  the  religious  press,  radio, 
television  and  other  legitimate  media  of  public  informa- 
tion." (Discipline,  1964,  1  1586)  It  is  also  charged  with 
certain  responsibilities  for  training  in  church  public  re- 
lations. Successive  Disciplines  carry  full  details  and  direc- 
tions concerning  the  Commission's  work. 

The  top  executive  officer  of  Methodist  Information  for 
the  first  six  quadrennia  of  its  existence  ( twenty-four  years ) 
was  Dr.  Ralph  Stoody  of  New  York.  He  retired  in 
1964.  An  annual  fellowship  of  $3,000  for  graduate  study 
in  religious  journalism  has  been  provided  by  the  Com- 
mission to  honor  Dr.  Stoody,  and  to  help  perpetuate  the 
high  standards  epitomized  by  him. 

The  Headquarters  office  was  maintained  during  its  first 
years  in  New  York.  Following  the  reorganization  of  the 
Commission  on  Public  Relations  and  Methodist  Informa- 
tion in  1968  in  The  United  Methodist  Church,  the  Head- 
quarters office  was  moved  to  Dayton,  Ohio.  The  decision 
to  establish  a  new  headquarters  office  in  Dayton  was 
based  on  that  city's  more  central  location  with  reference 
to  the  church  constituency  and  other  general  offices;  and 
the  fact  that  Dayton  had  been  the  location  of  the  admin- 
istrative offices  of  the  former  E.U.B.  Church.  Other  na- 
tional-level offices  are  maintained  in  cities  where  the 
principal  boards  and  agencies  are  located;  at  New  York 
City,  Nashville,  Tenn.;  Evanston,  III;  and  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

Affiliated  with  the  national  offices  is  a  network  of 
some  thirty-five  area  offices  of  Methodist  Information. 
While  these  offices  are  autonomous  and  answerable  to  the 
bishop  and  governing  commissions  in  their  respective 
episcopal  areas,  they  do  cooperate  with  the  general  office 
of  Methodist  Information,  and  many  of  them  were  estab- 
lished with  the  help  of  modest  grants-in-aid  from  the 
national  office. 

Methodist  Information  nationally  is  governed  by  a 
twelve  man  commission,  nominated  by  the  Council  of 
Bishops  and  elected  by  the  General  Conference.  The  cur- 
rent chairman  of  the  commission  is  Bishop  Eugene  M. 
Frank  of  St.  Louis. 

Dr.  Arthur  West  in  the  Dayton  Headquarters  office 
is  the  present  general  secretary  of  the  commission. 

Disciplines. 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Organization.  1953.  Arthur  West 


METHODIST    LAY    PREACHERS'    ASSOCIATION     (New 

Zealand)  is  an  organization  recognized  by  the  Conference, 
its  duties  being  to  foster  the  interests  of  lay  preachers, 
until  recently  known  as  "local"  preachers.  Control  is  vested 
in  an  elected  executive,  with  branches  in  each  synodal 
district.  All  lay  preachers  who  have  been  granted  full 
status  by  their  quarterly  meetings  are  members  of  the 
association. 

This  association  was  formed  in  1921,  but  before  that 
time  the  Local  Preachers'  Mutual  Aid  Association  served 
the  needs  of  preachers  in  all  branches  of  Methodism. 
While  much  of  the  work  of  the  executive  is  of  necessity 
administrative,  the  chief  aim,  both  at  national  and  district 
levels,  is  the  improvement  in  the  standard  of  preaching  by 
lay  men  and  women. 

Accredited  status  is  granted  by  quarterly  meetings  when 
a  candidate  has  been  successful  in  written  and  oral  exami- 
nations, and  has  shown  satisfactory  ability  in  the  conduct 
of  public  worship.  Since  1922  the  written  examinations 
have  been  conducted  by  the  board  of  examiners  of  the 
New  Zealand  church.  However,  schemes  of  study  and 
written  examinations  were  earlier  approved  through  the 
Mutual  Aid  Association,  and  were  operated  from  1908 
on  behalf  of  the  Wesleyan  and  Primitive  Methodist 
churches. 

The  lay  preacher  has  played  an  effective  part  in  the 
work  of  church  extension  since  the  early  settlement  days 
of  this  country.  In  place  after  place  they  have  prepared 
the  way  in  the  organization  of  societies  before  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  local  minister.  Experienced  preachers  from 
England  were  to  be  found  in  the  work  of  evangelism  in  all 
the  main  settlements  of  the  1840-50  era.  Even  in  the 
church  settlements  of  Canterbury  and  Otago,  Methodist 
local  preachers  were  among  the  settlers  arriving  on  the 
first  immigrant  ships.  Again  they  were  to  be  found  in  the 
military  estabhshments  during  the  Maori  Wars. 

The  gold  rushes  of  the  1860's  brought  to  New  Zealand 
an  influx  of  men  of  all  classes  of  life  seeking  fortunes  from 
the  icy  waters  of  high-country  gullies — gold!  Among  them 
were  many  who  had  already  found  that  which  is  of  more 
value  than  gold,  and  soon  local  preachers  were  given  the 
Christian  message  in  hastily  erected  tent  churches  in  the 
many  mining  settlements.  Their  evangelistic  fire  prepared 
the  way  for  the  ministers  who  were  later  appointed  to 
work  in  these  difficult  fields. 

The  early  days  were  times  of  many  small  and  scattered 
settlements.  With  the  turn  of  the  century  came  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  large  land  holdings,  and  with  this  the  num- 
ber of  small  settlements  greatly  increased.  This  was  the 
day  when  the  "circuit  buggy"  carried  the  preachers  far 
and  wide  over  unpaved  roads  with  mud  and  potholes  in 
abundance.  The  "clip-clop"  of  the  horse  and  buggy  was 
a  familiar  sound  to  settlers  in  a  hundred  townships  as 
the  "local"  traveled  about  to  preach  the  Word  of  God. 

Increasing  industrialization  and  city  growth,  combined 
with  modem  transport,  have  reduced  somewhat  the  de- 
mand on  the  services  of  lay  preachers.  However,  in  the 
true  spirit  of  Methodism  new  doors  are  opening,  and  the 
lay  preacher  still  finds  large  fields  in  which  to  serve. 

William  T.  Blight 

METHODIST  MEN'S  FELLOWSHIP,  official  association  of 
Methodist  laymen  in  New  Zealand,  was  formed  in  1931 
with  the  idea  of  enlisting  the  cooperation  of  the  men  of 
Methodism  in  the  promotion  of  the  work  of  the  church  at 


METHODIST   MEN   AND   UNITED   METHODIST   MEN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


home  and  abroad  in  the  spiritual,  mental,  and  social 
aspects  of  Christian  living.  Branches  have  been  formed 
in  many  circuits,  and  where  the  movement  is  strong, 
district  executives  have  been  set  up.  At  the  head  of  the 
organization  is  the  national  executive,  which  carries  out 
the  policy  of  the  movement  as  decided  at  the  annual 
meeting  held  during  the  Church  Conference. 

In  recent  years,  the  movement  has  placed  emphasis  on 
the  provision  of  a  wide  variety  of  resource  materials  and 
ideas  to  prepare  for  the  tasks  confronting  the  men  of  the 
church. 

E.  L.  F.  Buxton 

METHODIST  MEN  AND  UNITED  METHODIST  MEN.  (See 
Lav  Monement  ix  American  Methodism.) 

METHODIST  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  Origins.  Thomas 
Coke  was  the  impassioned  visionary  first  responsible  for 
British  Methodist  missionary  work.  In  1784  he  pubhshed 
A  Plan  of  the  Society  for  the  Establishment  of  Missions 
amongst  the  Heathen,  and  followed  this  in  1786  with  a 
financial  appeal,  An  Address  to  the  Pious  and  Benevolent . 
Wesley,  sharply  critical  because  he  felt  British  Methodism 
to  be  already  overstrained,  gave  Coke  his  support  from 
the  1787  Conference.  On  Christmas  Day,  1786,  on  the 
way  to  America  with  the  preachers.  Coke  had  landed  at 
St.  John's,  Antigua.  Here  he  found  a  thousand  Negro 
slaves  gathered  for  worship,  shepherded  by  John  Baxter, 
a  shipwright,  who  had  continued  the  work  of  preaching  to 
slaves  begun  in  1760  by  Nathaniel  Gilbert  on  his  own 
plantation.  Coke  left  the  three  preachers  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  William  Warrener  was  oflBcially  stationed 
at  Antigua  in  1787.  Coke  poured  time  and  money  into 
the  West  Indies  circuits;  and  despite  bitter  persecution, 
the  work  grew  steadily  throughout  the  islands. 

Coke's  plea  for  a  mission  to  Africa  and  the  East  met 
unyielding  opposition  until  1813,  when  at  the  Liverpool 
Conference  he  offered  £6,000,  the  remainder  of  his  for- 
tune, for  its  establishment.  The  mood  of  Methodism  was 
changing.  Suspicion  of  Coke  had  given  away  to  affection. 
George  Warren  had  already  been  appointed  to  Sierra 
Leone  in  1811 — the  first  missionary  outside  the  West 
Indies  and  the  colonies.  Jabez  Bunting  founded  the  first 
District  Missionary  Society  at  Leeds  in  October,  1813, 
and  other  districts  quickly  followed  suit.  Coke  finally 
sailed  for  Ceylon  on  Dec.  31,  1813,  with  seven  other 
volunteers.  On  May  3,  1814,  he  died  on  the  Indian  Ocean 
and  was  buried  at  sea. 

Advance  and  Withdrawal  to  the  Mid-Nineteenth 
Century.  An  era  of  spectacular  advance  followed  Coke's 
death.  In  1816  the  Missionary  Committee  was  formally 
constituted  by  the  Wesleyan  Conference — all  noncolonial 
missionary  work  was  done  by  the  Wesleyans  until  the 
1850's.  Within  ten  years  almost  all  British  Methodism's 
main  fields  were  entered.  In  the  West  Indies  membership 
leapt  to  twenty  thousand  in  1820,  and  was  over  forty  thou- 
sand by  1840.  Warren  died  within  a  year  of  landing  in 
Sierra  Leone;  but  although  the  "White  Man's  Grave" 
claimed  110  missionaries  of  all  denominations  in  thirty 
years,  volunteers  were  always  ready  to  fill  the  gaps.  Gam- 
bia was  occupied.  Joseph  E>unwell  went  to  the  Cape 
Coast,  followed  by  Thomas  Birch  Freeman,  who  pio- 
neered into  Ashanti  and  pressed  on  to  Dahomey.  In  1816 
Barnabas  Shaw  went  to  Cape  Colony,  and  a  year  or  so 


later  began  to  open  up  the  hinterland,  with  William 
Shaw.  James  Lynch  moved  from  Ceylon  to  Indu.  in  1817. 
In  1815  Samuel  Leigh  was  sent  to  Australia  and  then, 
in  1822,  to  New  Zealand.  In  the  same  year  Walter 
Lawry  landed  in  Tonga,  and  soon  afterward,  Nathaniel 
Turner,  David  Cargill,  William  Cross,  John  Hunt, 
and  others  began  preaching  in   Samoa  and  Fiji. 

In  Europe,  Charles  Cook  began  his  work  in  France 
in  1821,  and  British  Methodist  missions  were  established 
in  Germany,  Sweden,  Gllbraltah,  Malta,  the  Ionian 
Islands,  Palestine,  and  Alexandria. 

But  by  the  middle  of  the  century  the  apparently 
glorious  picture  had  completely  changed.  In  1840  the 
Canadian  Conference  was  constituted,  and  in  1855  the 
new  Australasian  Conference  took  over  responsibility  for 
the  South  Seas.  Even  so,  the  Wesleyan  society  could  not 
meet  all  the  needs  that  were  left.  Too  much  had  been 
attempted  too  quickly,  and  withdrawals  were  inevitable. 
In  Europe  only  France  and  a  small  society  at  Wurtem- 
burg  remained.  That  too  much  attention  had  been  given 
to  making  converts  and  too  little  to  training  them  had 
resulted  in  a  sharp  membership  decline  in  the  West 
Indies.  A  natural  response  to  such  existing  areas  as 
Ashanti  and  the  South  Seas  had  left  harder  fields,  such 
as  India  and  Ceylon,  almost  unmissioned.  Missionaries 
were  frustrated  by  the  lack  of  financial  support  and  new 
recruits,  even  when  prospects  were  at  their  brightest;  and 
in  Africa,  Thomas  Birch  Freeman  withdrew  from  the  min- 
istry for  some  years.  Financial  stringency  was  inevitable. 
British  Methodism,  already  sadly  divided  for  almost  half 
a  century,  was  stricken  once  more.  At  a  time  when  mis- 
sionary work  needed  full  support,  the  Wesleyans  lost 
a  hundred  thousand  members  as  a  result  of  the  Fly 
Sheets  agitation  against  clerical  autocracy.  Many  of 
these  united  to  form  the  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches  in  1857.  The  midcentury  was  a  time  for 
"rethinking  missions."  Priorities,  strategy,  motive,  and 
approach  all  had  to  be  reconsidered. 

New  Beginnings.  By  the  Jubilee  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Missionary  Society  in  1863,  it  was  clear  that  despite 
failures  much  had  been  achieved.  More  careful  attention 
was  given  to  pastoral  care,  as  well  as  evangelism,  in  the 
West  Indies.  West  Africa  had  ten  thousand  members. 
Though  only  two  were  found  in  Ashanti,  human  sacrifice 
there  was  fast  disappearing.  The  last  cannibal  feast  had 
already  been  held  in  Fiji.  France,  like  Canada  and 
Australasia,  had  its  own  Conference.  Income  began  to  rise 
again,  augmented  by  the  "Children's  Offerings"  (later 
to  be  known  as  the  Juvenile  Missionary  Association) 
begun  in  1841.  Haphazard  response  to  any  call  for  help 
was  giving  way  to  planned  advance.  In  India  and  Ceylon 
a  more  genuine  encounter  with  the  historic  Eastern  faiths 
was  taking  place;  and  though  the  Madras  and  Mysore 
districts  had  less  than  four  hundred  members  between 
them,  a  real  advance  had  been  made  through  the  estab- 
lishment of  high  schools  and  later  primary  schools  for 
boys.  New  missionary  societies,  agencies,  and  fields  were 
a  feature  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

1)  New  Societies.  Up  to  this  period  the  non-Wesleyan 
societies  had  missioned  only  in  the  colonies.  The  Primi- 
tive Methodists  had  sent  missionaries  to  the  United 
States  and  Canada  as  early  as  1829,  and  others  in  1844 
to  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  John  Addyman  had  gone 
to  Canada  for  the  Methodist  New  Connexion.  The  Bible 
Chhistlans  had  workers  in  Canada  and  Australia,  and  the 
United  Methodist  Free  Churches  sent  men  to  Australia 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   MISSIONARY   SOCIETY 


and  New  Zealand  as  soon  as  their  Conference  was  formed 
in  1857.  From  the  midcentury  they  took  their  share  in 
full  missionary  work,  (a)  The  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches  undertook  some  work  in  Sierra  Leone  in  1859; 
responded  to  appeals  from  J.  Lewis  Krapf,  a  German 
explorer,  and  sent  men  to  Kenya  in  1862;  and  in  1864 
began  Chinese  work  at  Ningpo  which  soon  extended  to 
Wenchow.  (b)  The  Methodist  New  Connexion  also  turned 
to  Chin.\  (Tientsin)  in  1859.  (c)  Primitive  Methodists 
concentrated  on  Africa.  R.  W.  Burnett  and  Henry  Roe 
went  to  Fernando  Po  in  1870,  and  it  later  became  the 
springboard  for  the  Mendeland  Mission  in  Sierra  Leone. 
In  the  same  year  Henry  Buckenham  began  work  at  Aliwal 
North,  in  South  Africa,  (d)  The  last  in  the  field,  the 
Bible  Christians,  began  work  at  Yunnan  in  1844 — a  hard 
ground  until  the  Miao  "mass  movement"  in  Samuel  Pol- 
lard's time. 

2)  New  Fields.  Wesleyans,  after  so  many  withdrawals 
in  Europe,  were  hesitant  to  enter  China  when  it  was 
opened  to  Western  influence.  The  first  missionary,  George 
PiERCY,  was  a  layman  who  paid  his  own  charges  in  1851. 
The  Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionary  Society  appointed 
JosiAH  Cox  to  Hankow  in  1853.  All  the  other  societies, 
except  the  Primitive  Methodists,  quickly  followed  (see 
above).  The  last  field  entered  was  Burma,  in  1881,  where 
a  chaplain  began  work  among  the  Buddhists.  The  Wes- 
leyan Missionary  Society  had  stationed  ministers  in  Italy, 
Spain  and  Portugal  in  the  1860's. 

Though  women  had  worked  alongside  their  husbands 
from  the  beginning,  it  was  not  until  1858  that  the  Wes- 
leyans set  up  "The  Ladies'  Committee  for  the  Amelioration 
of  the  Condition  of  Women  in  Heathen  Countries."  From 
this  essentially  Victorian  beginning  has  grown  Women's 
Work.  Though  the  first  women  missionaries  were  regarded 
as  freak  products  of  the  missionary  movement,  it  soon 
became  clear  that  they  were  essential  to  the  missionary 
effort,  especially  among  women  and  children.  They  served 
at  first  as  evangelists  and  teachers,  later  as  nurses  and 
doctors,  and  later  still  in  many  kinds  of  "social"  work. 

3)  Medical  Work.  Dr.  Porter  Smith  was  the  first  medical 
missionary  on  his  appointment  to  Hankow  in  1864.  "Heal- 
ing" was  soon  seen  to  be  an  essential  means  of  evangelism, 
at  first  especially  in  China  and  then  in  India.  African 
medical  work  was  aided  by  the  Wesley  Guild,  which 
first  undertook  work  in  Ilesha,  sending  Dr.  Stephens  in 
1912.  The  first  Leper  Home  was  opened  in  Mandalay  in 
1898,  and  early  leprosy  work  owes  much  to  Dr.  Isobel 
Kerr,  who  went  with  her  husband  to  Hyderabad  in  1907. 

Twentieth  Century  Developments.  All  the  societies 
have  faced  the  same  kind  of  problems  in  this  period.  Meth- 
odist Union  came  easily  in  1932  to  societies  already  much 
accustomed  to  consultation,  especially  as  few  of  their  fields 
overlapped.  Women's  work  was  integrated  into  the  new 
Methodist  Missionary  Society  at  this  period.  Established 
means  of  evangelism — preaching,  village  tours,  colportage 
— have  continued,  and  so,  to  less  degree,  have  pioneering 
efforts,  notably  in  Northern  Burma,  the  Zambezi  area, 
and  under  Ephraim  Alphonse  in  British  Guiana.  Educa- 
tion has  been  basic  to  the  work,  and  many  leaders  in 
church  and  nation  have  come  from  mission  schools.  State 
control  has  tightened  in  India  and  Ceylon,  where  specif- 
ically Christian  education  has  become  less  possible.  In 
Africa  south  of  the  Sahara  the  church  still  makes  the 
major  contribution  to  education  through  schools  or  per- 
sonnel, but  there  is  much  leeway  in  girls'  higher  education. 
General  medical  work  has  grown  rapidly  in  scope,  in- 


fluence, and  experiment.  Growing  literacy  emphasizes  the 
need  for  Christian  literature,  and  such  established  print- 
ing presses  as  that  at  Mysore  and  bookshops  as  in  Accra 
help  to  meet  this.  So  do  Methodist  wTiters  on  the  field, 
who  normally  write  for  a  larger-than-Methodist  constit- 
uency. Social  and  "reconstruction"  work  is  widely  under- 
taken, and  lately  this  has  been  considerably  helped  by 
the  cooperation  of  the  Methodist  Relief  Fund  and  the 
Methodist-inspired  Fund  for  Hiunan  Need.  Typical  ex- 
amples are  Hong  Kong  housing  for  refugees,  famine 
relief  in  South  India,  flood  relief  in  Kenya  and  Bengal,  and 
the  Rastafarian  project  in  Jamaica.  Orphanages  have  long 
been  part  of  Methodist  missionary  effort. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  comparative  figures  of  mem- 
bership during  this  period  owing  to  ( 1 )  the  withdrawal 
from  China;  (2)  the  integration  of  Methodism  into  united 
churches,  such  as  the  Eglise  Reforme  in  France  (1940), 
and  the  Church  of  South  India  (1947).  In  the  earlier  part 
of  the  century,  membership  was  greatly  increased  through 
the  phenomenon  of  mass  movements — in  the  Gold  Coast, 
in  Southwest  China  under  Samuel  Pollard  and  F.  J. 
Dymond,  in  Hyderabad  under  Charles  Posnett,  and  in 
the  Ivory  Coast  through  "Prophet"  William  Harris — 
in  which  whole  villages  and  tribes  asked  for  baptism.  The 
danger  was  that  so  broad  a  stream  rushing  into  the  church 
could  not  but  be  shallow  in  experience  and  training. 
Adequate  manpower  remained  the  great  need. 

The  main  developments  have  stemmed  from  the  transi- 
tion from  mission  to  church.  The  missionary  has  ceased 
to  be  the  accepted  leader  in  most  fields,  but  is  accepted 
as  the  colleague  of  national  workers.  This  has  been  the 
aim  of  missionary  work  at  its  best,  but  it  has  been  ac- 
centuated by  nationalist  movements,  with  their  emphasis 
on  the  value  of  the  indigenous.  Architecture,  music,  forms 
of  worship,  the  expression  of  the  faith  must  be  more  and 
more  in  national  terms.  Administrative  leadership  in  this 
situation  passes  naturally  to  indigenous  nationals.  One 
diflSculty  for  the  church  arises  because  extreme  nation- 
alists have  suspected  that  "colonial"  interests  may  still 
affect  the  church.  In  financial  affairs  most  of  the  Mis- 
sionary Society  budget  is  spent  on  the  support  of  mis- 
sionaries and  their  work;  but  though  many  districts  have 
long  been  self-supporting  (e.g.,  Ghana,  Ceylon,  the  West 
Indies),  other  low-income  areas  (e.g.,  South  India)  still 
need  support.  In  "advance  projects"  and  missionary 
activity  undertaken  by  overseas  districts  and  conferences, 
the  Missionary  Society  shares  fully,  but  "plant"  and  "prop- 
erty" appeals  can  seldom  be  adequately  met. 

Full  cooperation  between  overseas  churches  and  the 
home  base  is  now  normal,  but  recent  examples  are  the 
"Skegness  Conference"  (1961),  at  which  representatives 
of  all  Methodist  districts  and  churches  overseas  met  with 
Missionary  Society  officers;  and  the  appointment  of  the 
first  non-European  field  secretary  at  Missionary  Society 
headquarters. 

The  transition  from  mission  to  church  is  seen  most 
fully  in  the  inauguration  of  new  conferences  in  Ghana 
(1961),  Nigeria  (1962),  Italy  (1962),  and  Ceylon 
(1964).  These  conferences  are  fully  autonomous,  but 
maintain  links,  through  both  missionary  personnel  and 
official  representation,  with  the  British  Conference. 

Official  cooperation  with  other  churches  has  been  part 
of  missionary  poficy  since  the  Edinburgh  Conference  of 
1910.  The  Missionary  Society  has  been  a  major  partner 
in  the  Conference  of  British  Missionary  Societies.  Over- 
seas  it  has  participated   in  imited   medical   work    (e.g., 


METHODIST   NEW   CONNEXION 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Vellore,  South  India),  united  schemes  of  evangehsm  (e.g., 
Cooper  Belt  Mission,  Northern  Rhodesia),  and  joint  theo- 
logical training  (e.g.,  Bangalore,  South  India;  Caenwood, 
Jamaica;  and  Nigeria). 

The  outstanding  example  of  cooperation  leading  to 
actual  church  union  is,  of  course,  the  Church  of  South 
India  (1947),  which  included  a  quarter  of  a  million  Meth- 
odists, and  in  which  over  a  hundred  Missionary  Society 
missionaries  are  still  at  work. 

The  Methodist  Missionary  Society  today  is  regarded  as 
the  Overseas  Missions  Department  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Great  Britain,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  the 
partner  in  mission  of  the  autonomous  conferences  bom  of 
its  labors.  At  the  headquarters  the  officers  are  responsible 
individually  for  the  care  of  the  four  zones:  (1)  the  United 
Kingdom,  (2)  Asia,  (3)  the  Western  Area,  and  (4) 
Africa,  while  one  officer  is  responsible  for  coordination 
across  the  zones.  A  great  deal  of  attention  has  to  be  given 
to  the  ecumenical  relationships  which  are  developing 
rapidly  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

The  present  financial  commitment  of  the  society  is 
above  £1,000,000  annually  in  home  income.  With  grants 
from  governments  and  other  overseas  income,  the  total 
annual  expenditure  never  falls  below  £4,000,000  (1963). 

Women's  Work.  Prior  to  Methodist  Union  in  Britain 
(1932)  each  denomination  had  its  own  women's  society 
for  the  support  of  missionary  work  and  the  provision  of 
women  missionaries.  These  were  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Women's  Auxiliary  (founded  1858);  Bible  Christian 
Women's  Missionary  League  (1892);  Ladies  Missionary 
Association  of  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches 
(1897);  the  Methodist  New  Connexion  Ladies  Missionary 
Association  (1899);  and  the  Primitive  Methodist  Women's 
Federation  (1909).  In  1834,  David  Abeel,  an  American 
missionary  invafided  home  from  China,  began  a  "Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Female  Education  in  the  East." 
Suitable  women  who  applied  were  recommended  as 
"helpers"  to  missionaries  unable  to  tackle  zenana  work 
themselves.  Mary  Twiddy,  sent  by  this  society  to  Ceylon 
in  1840  and  then  to  India,  urged  the  need  of  a  more 
official  Methodist  approach  which  would  give  women 
"helpers"  a  proper  status  and  gain  greater  support  for  work 
which  they  alone  could  do.  As  a  result  there  was  formed 
on  Dec.  20,  1858,  with  fifteen  members,  "The  Ladies 
Committee  for  the  Amelioration  of  the  Condition  of 
Women  in  Heathen  Countries,  Female  Education,  etc." 
Its  task  was  to  select,  train,  and  station  women  mission- 
aries, mostly  teachers,  and  to  raise  money  for  their  sup- 
port. In  an  age  when  women's  place  was  in  the  home, 
early  attitudes  were  critical  and  financial  support  com- 
paratively slight,  but  within  fifteen  years  twenty-one 
women  were  appointed.  Early  appointments  were  hap- 
hazard, in  response  to  calls  for  help.  Policy  needed  to  be 
developed,  financial  support  increased,  and  closer  links 
made  with  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionary  Society. 
In  1874  Mrs.  Luke  Wiseman  joined  the  committee, 
providing  the  leadership  and  insight  needed  for  these 
changes  for  almost  forty  years.  At  her  death  in  1912  the 
early  patronizing  title  had  been  changed  to  the  Women's 
Auxiliary;  the  Girl's  League  had  been  started  in  1908; 
ninety-three  women  missionaries  were  overseas,  many  of 
them  in  medical  work.  The  other  Methodist  organizations 
were  set  up  on  similar  lines,  benefiting  from  the  longer 
Wesleyan  experience.  At  Union,  in  1932,  the  various 
auxiliaries  took  the  name  of  "Women's  Work,"  and  though 
it  has  three  General  Secretaries  and  its  own  committees 


at  every  level,  it  is  an  integral  part  of  the  Methodist  Mis- 
sionary Society.  In  1965  there  were  about  two  hundred 
women  missionaries.  (See  Missions,  and  Organized 
Methodist  Missionary  Work  for  American  missionary 
history. ) 

Cybil  J.  Davey 

METHODIST  NEW  CONNEXION  was  a  British  Methodist 
denomination  which  was  started  in  1797  and  which  finally 
became  part  of  the  United  Methodist  Church  in  1907. 
The  founders  were  William  Thom  and  Alexander  Kil- 
HAM;  and  their  earliest  followers  were  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odists, chiefly  from  cities  in  the  north  of  England  in  the 
industrial  areas.  They  withdrew  from  the  old  connection 
because  after  John  Wesley's  death  in  1791  the  Wesleyan 
Conference  was  unwilling  to  grant  to  the  laity  the  right 
to  choose  their  own  class  leaders,  to  decide  who  should 
become  and  who  should  cease  to  be  a  member  of  society, 
and  to  send  their  own  elected  representatives  to  the 
annual  conference  to  decide  all  business  in  conjunction 
with  the  itinerant  ministers. 

The  New  Connexion  also  thought  that  Methodism 
should  unite  with  the  nonconformist  churches  rather  than 
with  the  Anglican  Establishment.  About  5,000  Wesleyans 
seceded  in  1797;  by  1815  there  were  about  8,000  mem- 
bers; the  connection  did  not  grow  very  rapidly,  and  in 
1907  the  membership  was  37,000.  The  first  New  Con- 
nexion Conference  was  held  at  Leeds  in  1797,  when 
William  Thom  was  chosen  president;  the  second,  at  Shef- 
field in  1798,  adopted  a  constitution  which  treated  the 
laity  and  the  ministry  as  equally  responsible  for  church 
government;  this  included  lay  representation  in  the  An- 
nual Conference,  which  Wesleyan  Methodism  did  not 
accept  until  1877. 

One  of  the  most  famous  early  ministers  was  Richard 
Watson,  the  theologian,  who  served  as  a  New  Connexion 
minister  from  1803  to  1811,  when  he  returned  to  the 
Wesleyan  connection.  In  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  leadership  was  provided  by  Thomas  Allin 
(1784-1866),  but  the  course  of  the  New  Connexion  was 
deflected  by  the  career  of  Joseph  Barker,  whose  gradual 
retreat  from  orthodoxy  into  Chartist  politics  caused  the 
loss  of  about  4,000  members  when  he  was  expelled  from 
the  ministry  in  1841.  The  litigation  which  followed  these 
withdrawals  led  to  the  legal  embodiment  of  the  New 
Connexion  by  a  Deed  Poll  signed  by  all  the  members  of 
the  Conference  of  1846;  this  provided  for  the  septennial 
revision  of  the  constitution  by  the  Conference  with  the 
approval  of  the  circuits;  a  Model  Trust  Deed  was  also 
drawn  up;  and  District  Meetings,  in  which  the  laity  were 
represented  as  well  as  the  itinerancy,  had  been  started 
in  1844. 

The  New  Connexion  seemed  fated  not  to  retain  its 
most  unusual  servants:  "General"  William  Booth  had 
joined  the  Wesleyan  Reformers  in  1851;  he  became  a 
hired  preacher  in  1852;  he  was  dissatisfied  with  the 
chaotic  state  of  the  new  body,  however,  and  so  became  a 
New  Connexion  probationer  minister  in  1854.  He  was 
actually  ordained  in  1858.  It  was  during  his  ministry 
at  Gateshead  (1858-61)  that  his  wife  Catherine  began 
to  speak  in  public.  Booth,  however,  was  unwilling  to  be 
restricted  to  the  work  of  a  single  circuit,  and  in  1861  he 
resigned,  becoming  an  independent  revivalist. 

In  1862-64  the  New  Connexion  established  a  theological 


WORLD  METHODISM 


METHODIST   PROTESTANT   CHRISTIAN    ENDEAVOR   UNION 


college  at  Ranmoor,  Sheffield,  which  was  used  until  the 
First  World  War  and  then  sold  in  1919.  It  was  in  1860 
that  John  Innocent  and  W.  N.  Hall  arrived  in  China 
to  start  a  mission;  Innocent  lived  to  be  president  of  the 
Centenary  Conference  held  in  Sheffield  in  1897.  Between 
1837  and  1874  the  New  Connexion  established  a  Canadian 
Mission,  which  had  about  8,000  members  when  it  united 
with  other  Methodist  bodies  and  ceased  a  separate  exis- 
tence. In  England,  however,  the  New  Conne.xion  did  not 
grow  tremendously;  after  the  Wesleyan  schism  of  1849, 
the  reforming  impetus  was  taken  up  by  the  United 
Methodist  Free  Churches,  whose  members  were  not 
attracted  by  the  New  Connexion — they  wanted  a  still 
looser  constitution  and  a  more  revivalistic  style  of  piety. 
As  late  as  1889  negotiations  between  the  New  Connexion 
and  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  broke  down 
completely  over  the  status  of  the  circuit  minister,  which 
the  New  Connexion  felt  was  insufficiendy  guarded  by  the 
proposals  for  a  union. 

The  negotiations  which  led  to  the  union  of  1907  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  third  Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, which  met  in  London  in  1901.  The  negotiations 
which  followed  this  brought  an  approach  to  the  New 
Connexion  from  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church.  The 
New  Connexion  Conference  of  1905,  however,  rejected 
the  Wesleyan  approach  and  united  with  the  Bible  Chris- 
tians and  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  in  1907. 
At  that  time  the  New  Connexion  had  37,000  members, 
204  ministers,  1,123  local  preachers,  and  nearly  88,000 
Sunday  school  scholars. 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT,  THE.  (See  Methodist  Prot- 
estant-Recorder. ) 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT  CHILDREN'S  HOME  (1910- 
1941),  located  first  at  Denton,  N.  C,  U.S.A.,  and  after 
August  1913,  at  High  Point,  N.  C,  was  established  by  the 
Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina Annu.\l  Conference  and  was  the  only  denomina- 
tional orphanage  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church. 
Mrs.  W.  C.  (Minnie  Lee  Hancock)  Hammer  recom- 
mended the  establishment  of  a  children's  home  in  a  presi- 
dential address  in  May  1910,  and  the  Rev.  G.  L.  Reynolds, 
who  became  interested  in  the  project,  offered  an  old, 
discarded  school  building  located  on  the  M.P.  Church 
property  in  Denton.  The  Methodist  Protestant  Children's 
Home  was  opened  on  Aug.  22,  1910.  Mrs.  R.  S.  (Mabel 
Williams)  Russell,  who  served  as  the  first  matron,  Mrs. 
J.  W.  (Etta  Auman)  Austin,  and  Mrs.  Fannie  Page  op- 
erated the  home  until  it  was  removed  to  High  Point. 
Arminius  G.  Dlxon  took  an  active  role  in  having  the 
home  established  in  High  Point  (considered  to  be  a  more 
central  location),  and  J.  R.  Reitzel,  A.  M.  Rankin,  George 
T.  Penny  and  W.  P.  Pickett  gave  financial  assistance  to- 
ward making  the  move,  A  thirty-eight-acre  farm  was  pur- 
chased from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  J.  Welch  near  High  Point 
and  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Welch  gave  substantial  gifts  on  the 
price  of  the  land.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  H.  A.  Garrett  became 
superintendents  of  the  home  on  Aug.  1,  1913,  and  upon 
their  resignation  in  1924  the  property  was  valued  at  more 
than  $200,000.  Rev.  and  Mrs.  E.  G.  Lowdermilk  and 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  E.  F.  Allman  supervised  the  home  prior  to 
1928  when  Dr.  Dixon  and  his  wife,  Margaret  Minerva 
KuHNs  Dixon  took  charge.  There  were  seventy-two  chil- 
dren in  the  home  at  this  time. 


The  Children's  Home  made  steady  progress  throughout 
its  existence  and  received  the  cooperation  and  support  of 
the  North  Carolina  Conference,  to  whom  the  property 
was  deeded,  and  in  1912  it  was  endorsed  by  the  General 
Conference  from  which  it  also  received  annual  financial 
assistance.  The  Sunday  Schools  of  the  North  Carolina 
Conference  donated  approximately  fifty  percent  of  the 
home's  operational  costs  and  additional  funds  came  from 
the  Duke  Endowment,  private  gifts  and  the  women  of 
the  North  CaroUna  Branch  of  the  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety. 

In  1939  the  property  was  valued  at  approximately 
$350,000,  and  there  were  some  115  children  being  cared 
for  in  the  home.  Following  the  unification  of  the  M.P. 
Church,  the  M.E.  Church  and  the  M.E.  Church,  South, 
the  Children's  Home  was  closed  in  1941. 

Mabel  Williams  Russell,   History  of  the   Methodist   Protestant 

Children's  Home,  1910-1935.  High  Point,  1935. 

J.    Elwood    Carroll,    History    of   the    North    CaroUna    Annual 

Conference  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro, 

1939. 

The  Methodist  Protestant,  May  16,  1928. 

Ralph   Hardee  Ruxs 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT  CHRISTIAN  ENDEAVOR 
UNION  (1892-1939),  the  official  youth  organization  of 
the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  assisted  local 
churches  in  training  young  people  "to  conduct  meetings, 
lead  public  prayers,  make  addresses,  do  Christian  service, 
give  systematically  and  develop  their  spiritual  natures  in 
private  meditation,  prayer  and  Bible  study."  The  organiza- 
tion was  an  affiliate  of  the  Interdenominational  Union  of 
the  Christian  Endeavor.  The  General  Conference  of 
the  M.P.  Church  of  1892  recognized  young  people's  soci- 
eties as  a  general  agency  of  the  church  and  at  a  meeting 
held  in  Trinity  Church,  Brooklyn,  in  July  1892,  the  Meth- 
odist Protestant  Christian  Endeavor  Union  was  estab- 
lished. At  the  General  Conference  of  1908,  a  Board  of 
Young  People's  Work  was  formally  established  to  promote 
the  rehgious  education  program  of  the  M.P.  Church 
through  the  expansion  of  Sunday  schools  and  Christian 
Endeavor  societies.  Charles  H.  Hubbell  served  for 
seven  years  as  the  first  General  Secretary  of  the  Board 
and  traveled  throughout  the  various  M.P.  conferences 
enlisting  and  training  young  people  for  more  efficient 
church  service.  Upon  his  death,  Harlan  L.  Feeman  was 
appointed  his  successor  and  in  1917,  when  Feeman  be- 
came the  President  of  Adrian  College,  A.  G.  Dixon 
became  Secretary.  Under  the  leadership  of  E.  A.  Sex- 
smith,  who  succeeded  Di.xon,  a  leadership  training  pro- 
gram of  summer  conferences,  institutes  and  schools  of 
methods  was  inaugurated.  Sexsmith  was  followed  by 
Lawrence  Little.  The  Board  of  Young  Peoples  Work 
directed  the  rehgious  educational  program  not  only  of  the 
Christian  Endeavor  Societies  but  of  Sunday  schools,  vaca- 
tion church  schools,  week-day  schools  of  religion,  leader- 
ship training  schools,  institutes  and  summer  conferences, 
conventions,  vocational  guidance  and  various  other  phases 
of  the  children,  young  people  and  adult's  work.  Free 
organizing  literature  for  Christian  Endeavor  Societies 
was  furnished  by  the  Board.  The  individual  societies 
were  organized  on  the  senior,  inteiTnediate  and  junior 
levels  and  used  The  Christian  Endeavor  World  and  The 
Junior  Work  (a  monthly  publication),  published  by  the 
United  Society  in  Boston,  Mass.  John  F.  Cowan,  an 
active  M.P.   editor,   founded   Our   Young   People,    which 


METHODIST   PROTESTANT   CHURCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


became  the  official  organ  of  the  Christian  Endeavor 
Societies  until  it  was  discontinued.  The  New  Guide  (orig- 
inally known  as  Our  Morning  Guide)  was  oriented  toward 
both  Sunday  school  and  Christian  Endeavor  constituency. 

The  Methodist  Protestant,  May  16,  1928. 

J.  Elvvood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro,  1939. 
Scattered  issues  of  the  Journal  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual 
Conference   of  the  Methodist   Protestant   Church,   1892-1939. 

R.\LPH  Hardee  Ri\es 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT  CHURCH.  A  major  division  of 
Methodism  which  united  in  1939  with  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South  to  form  The  Methodist  Church. 

Beginnings.  The  Methodist  Protestant  Church  was  orga- 
nized in  Baltimore,  Md.,  1830,  as  a  result  of  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  episcopacy  and  the  lack  of  lay  representation 
in  the  conferences  of  the  M.E.  Church.  Such  dissatisfac- 
tion had  existed  for  some  time.  It  was  part  of  the  Amer- 
ican thinking  following  the  Revolution.  One  of  the  "Re- 
formers," Alex.^nder  McCaine,  wrote  a  preamble  to  his 
History  and  Mystery  of  Methodist  Episcopacy  which 
was  very  much  like  the  opening  words  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  Thomas  HAMrLTON  Lewis,  in  a  fraternal 
message  to  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church 
in  1908,  spoke  of  the  inherent  differences  within  Meth- 
odism as  exemplified  by  Francis  Asbury  and  Nicholas 
Snethen.  "They  represented  two  principles  of  govern- 
ment radically  different  .  .  .  Asbury  believed  that  men 
must  be  ruled,  Snethen  that  they  might  be  developed  to 
nile  themselves  .  .  .  Snethen  laid  the  ax  to  the  root  of 
the  tree  of  ecclesiastical  absolutism  by  the  simple  ex- 
pedient of  giving  unofficial  Methodism  the  right  to  vote." 

In  1816,  and  again  in  1820,  there  was  attempt  to  make 
the  presiding  eldership  elective.  A  resolution  to  that  effect 
was  passed  by  the  General  Conference  of  1820  by  vote 
of  65-25,  and  in  the  same  session  it  was  suspended  for 
four  years  by  vote  of  45-35.  The  following  General  Con- 
ference, 1824,  it  was  declared  that  the  resolution  provid- 
ing for  election  of  presiding  elders  was  void  because  it 
had  not  been  sustained  by  a  majority  of  the  annual  con- 
ferences. The  mounting  suspicions  of  the  Reformers  be- 
came convictions,  that  epi.scopal  power  had  worked  be- 
hind the  scenes  to  defeat  the  will  of  the  General  Con- 
ference. 

On  the  failure  of  this  piece  of  legislation,  a  prominent 
layman,  William  S.  Stockton,  began  publication  of  a 
paper  called  the  Wesleyan  Repository  at  Trenton,  N.  J., 
for  the  promotion  of  the  ideas  of  the  Reformers.  Its  utter- 
ances were  aggre.ssive  and  radical,  but  since  the  official 
Methodist  Magazine  had  announced  that  it  would  publish 
no  articles  on  controversial  subjects,  the  Repository  gained 
wide  circulation. 

A  petition  for  a  change  in  the  form  of  Methodist  govern- 
ment was  sent  to  the  Genera!  Conference  in  1824,  and 
when  it  was  rejected,  a  convention  of  the  Reformers  was 
held.  This  group  established  a  periodical  called  the  Mutual 
Rights  of  the  Minisiers  and  Members  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  to  succeed  the  Wesleyan  Repository, 
and  took  steps  to  organize  societies  throughout  the  coun- 
try. In  an  attempt  to  suppress  this  movement,  the  B.\lti- 
more  Conference  expelled  Dennis  B.  Dorsey,  W.  C. 
Pool,  and  thirty-three  others  "for  spreading  incendiary 
publications."  A  test  case  was  made  in  the  appeal  of 
1578 


T'^ 


CONSTITUTIOIV 


DISCIPLINE 


METHODIST  PROTESTANT 
CHURCH. 


BALTIMORE: 

Publlibed  for  Iho  Book  conimlttee  of  the  Method  kit  ProtutaDt  Cburoh 

.BY  JOHN  J.  HARROD, 

Book  Agent  of  I 


.  Church. 


WM.  WOODDY,  PBINT. 

1830. 


Title  pace,  first  Discipline 

Dorsey  and  Pool  to  the  General  Conference  of  1828, 
which  appeal  was  denied. 

Prior  to  1828  the  expelled  members  and  others  formed 
a  society  known  as  "Associate  Methodist  Reformers,"  and 
two  years  later  at  the  1830  convention  adopted  a  Constitu- 
tion and  Discipline  and  took  the  name  Methodist  Prot- 
estant Church.  In  doctrine  it  did  not  depart  from  accepted 
Methodist  standards,  but  it  eliminated  episcopacy  and  the 
presiding  eldership,  and  admitted  laymen  to  both  annual 
and  general  conferences.  Each  annual  conference  had  a 
president  and  there  was  also  by  election  a  president  of 
the  general  conference.  The  appointment  of  ministers 
was  generally  made  by  a  "Stationing  Committee,"  made 
up  of  ministers  and  laymen,  though  very  significantly, 
in  the  Maryland  Conference,  the  appointments  were 
made  by  the  president,  just  as  they  were  by  the  bishop 
in  the  M.E.  Church. 

Development.  The  first  General  Conference  of  the  M.P. 
Church  met  in  Georgetown,  D.C.,  May  6,  1834.  Nicholas 
Snethen  was  elected  president.  There  were  representatives 
from  thirteen  conferences  which  reported  a  membership 
of  26,587,  not  including  ministers.  The  outstanding  min- 
isterial leaders  of  the  church  were  Alexander  McCaine, 
Asa  Shinn,  Nicholas  Snethen,  Dr.  Samuel  K.  Jennings, 
George  Brown,  Cornelius  Springer,  John  French,  Wil- 
liam C.  Lipscomb.  Lay  leaders  of  note  were  John  Chap- 
pell,  Thomas  McKeever,  Spier  Whitaker,  Philemon  B. 
Hopper,  and  William  S.  Stockton.  Thomas  H.  Stockton, 
son  of  William,  was  one  of  the  eloquent  preachers  of  his 
day.  He  served  as  Chaplain  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives  in    Congress    and   made   the   dedicatory    prayer    at 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   PROTESTANT   CHURCH 


Gettysburg  at  the  time  of  Lincoln's  famous  address.  The 
quality  of  this  leadership  was  attested  by  Abel  Stevens 
when  he  spoke  of  them  as  "men  whose  character,  talents 
and  prestige  .  .  .  rendered  their  loss  to  the  parent  church 
a  deplorable  misfortune." 

The  reform  movement  had  begun  by  the  publication 
of  its  principles  in  the  Wesleyan  Repository  and  the 
Mutual  Rights.  Considerable  literary  abihty  had  been 
shown  in  promoting  the  cause  of  reform.  The  young 
church  saw  the  need  of  continuing  publication.  The 
Methodist  Correspondent  appeared  in  Cincinnati  in 
1830,  with  Moses  M.  Henkle  as  editor,  and  among  its 
distinguished  contributors  were  Asa  Shinn,  Nicholas 
Snethen,  and  Cornelius  Springer.  The  Mutual  Rights  and 
Methodist  Protestant,  of  Baltimore,  shortened  its  title  and 
as  the  Methodist  Protestant  became  the  official  organ  of 
the  church  in  the  East.  At  the  General  Conference  of 
1834  a  stock  company  was  organized  to  establish  a  Book 
Concern,  which  was  incorporated  by  the  General  As- 
sembly of  Maryland  in  1835.  In  1854  there  was  a  divi- 
sion, and  the  Western  Methodist  Protestant  Book  Concern 
was  set  up  at  Springfield,  Ohio,  and  with  it  the  publication 
of  the  Western  Methodist  Protestant. 

The  church  launched  out  on  an  educational  venture 
almost  from  the  start.  Nicholas  Snethen  migrated  to  the 
West  and  started  Dearborn  College  at  Lawrenceburg, 
Ind.  It  was  an  unfortunate  enterprise,  for  the  buildings 
were  destroyed  by  fire  in  1839  and  never  rebuilt.  The 
Michigan  Conference  took  steps  to  establish  the  Mich- 
igan Literary  Institute  at  Leoni,  Mich.,  in  1847,  but  before 
buildings  could  be  built  the  movement  was  absorbed  by 
Adrian  College,  a  Congregational  institution  at  Adrian, 
Mich.,  which  in  turn  was  taken  over  by  the  M.P.  Church 
at  the  General  Conference  of  1862.  Madison  College, 
at  Uniontown,  Pa.,  came  over  to  the  M.P.  Church  in 
1849,  but  never  prospered,  due  to  North-South  factions 
within  student  body  and  faculty.  It  was  closed  in  1855, 
with  faculty  and  students  transferring  to  Lynchburg  Col- 
lege, Virginia.  Western  Maryland  College  was  orga- 
nized at  Westminster,  Md.,  in  1867,  taking  over  the  loca- 
tion of  the  Buell  Academy,  and  has  had  an  immensely 
successful  career. 

The  General  Conference  of  1834  set  up  a  Board  of 
missions,  with  Dr.  Samuel  K.  Jennings  as  president.  The 
first  missionaries  were  sent  to  the  western  part  of  the 
United  States,  principally  to  Oregon.  In  1836  a  Negro 
minister  from  Maryland,  David  James,  was  appointed 
superintendent  of  a  mission  at  Cape  Palmas,  Africa,  but 
the  venture  seems  to  have  been  a  failure,  since  no  further 
notice  was  given  to  it. 

Division.  Even  while  the  M.E.  Church  was  involved  in 
the  controversy  over  lay  representation,  the  slavery  ques- 
tion was  also  troubling  the  church.  After  the  separation 
of  episcopal  Methodism  in  1844,  the  M.P.  Church  con- 
tinued the  debate.  In  the  eastern  part  of  the  church  Alex- 
ander McCaine  of  Maryland  was  writing  tracts  in  support 
of  slavery  while  Asa  Shinn  of  the  Pittsburgh-Ohio  area 
was  opposing  it.  The  Cincinnati  Convention  of  1857  pre- 
pared an  anti-slavery  memorial  for  the  General  Conference 
which  met  in  Lynchburg,  Va.,  May,  1858.  The  memorial 
was  not  adopted,  a  resolution  declaring  that  the  General 
Conference  should  never  legislate  on  questions  of  morality 
taking  its  place. 

A  "General  Convention  of  Delegates  from  the  Northern 
and  Western  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church"  was  held  in  Springfield,  Ohio,  November  1858, 


to  which  delegates  from  nineteen  conferences  had  been 
elected.  The  action  of  the  Convention  was  to  dissolve 
relations  with  such  conferences  which  practiced  or  tol- 
erated slave-holding,  "until  the  evil  of  slavery  complained 
of  be  removed."  In  1862  the  "General  Convention  of  the 
Methodist  Protestant  Church"  met  in  Cincinnati.  In  1871 
the  "Second  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church 
(formerly  xMethodist  Protestant)"  was  held  in  Pittsburgh. 
Under  the  same  name  the  General  Conference  met  in 
Princeton,  III,  May  1875,  and  adopted  a  report  on  "Meth- 
odistic  Union,"  naming  commissioners  to  meet  with  like 
commissioners  of  the  M.P.  Church.  The  Civil  War  being 
over  and  the  slavery  issue  settled,  tlie  two  divisions.  North 
and  South,  met  in  Baltimore,  May  11,  1877,  and  the  M.P. 
Church  was  re-united,  "inasmuch  as  the  cause  for  suspen- 
sion of  official  relations  ...  is  now  entirely  removed  by 
the  providence  of  God." 

Maturity.  The  last  General  Conference  of  the  M.P. 
Church  before  uniting  with  the  two  Episcopal  bodies  was 
held  in  High  Point,  N.  C,  May  20,  1936.  It  had  as  presi- 
dent James  H.  Straughn  of  Maryland,  and  as  secretary, 
C.  W.  Bates,  of  North  Carolina.  The  Board  of  Missions, 
organized  in  1834,  had  now  expanded  to  include  both 
Home  and  Foreign  boards,  and  had  incorporated  the 
Women's  Foreign  Mission.\ry  Society.  The  Board  was 
carrying  on  missions  in  Japan,  China,  and  India.  The 
Board  of  Christian  Education  had  two  divisions:  (1) 
Educational  Institutions,  promoting  Adrian  College, 
Adrian,  Mich.;  High  Point  College,  High  Point,  N.  C; 
Western  Maryland  College,  Westminster,  Md.;  West- 
minster College,  Tehuacana,  Texas;  and  the  Westminster 
Theological  Seminary,  Westminster,  Md.;  (2)  Division 
of  Religious  Education,  promoting  the  work  of  Church 
Schools  and  continuing  the  activities  of  the  former  Board 
of  Young  People's  Work. 

In  1929  the  Methodist  Recorder,  published  in  Pitts- 
burgh and  successor  to  the  Methodist  Correspondent 
and  the  Western  Recorder,  was  merged  with  the  Meth- 
odist Protestant,  of  Baltimore,  to  form  the  Methodist 
Protestant-Recorder,  thus  in  a  way  bringing  together  the 
Western  and  Eastern  sections  of  the  church.  However, 
the  church  still  maintained  two  Book  Directories,  one  in 
Pittsburgh,  one  in  Baltimore. 

The  General  Conference  of  1936  reported  a  total  mem- 
bership of  191,863  for  the  M.P.  Church.  The  Man.land 
Conference,  with  35,758  members,  had  not  only  been  at 
the  center  in  founding  of  the  denomination,  but  at  the 
forefront  throughout  its  history.  But  the  phenomenal 
growth  of  which  Edw.\rd  J.  Drinkhouse  frequently  spoke 
was  not  maintained.  The  General  Conference  of  1877 
reported  169,405  members  and  there  was  a  wave  of 
enthusiasm  over  the  union  of  slavery  and  anti-slavery 
factions.  It  was  proclaimed  that  the  church  had  entered 
upon  a  "tide  of  prosperity  unexcelled  in  the  history  of 
denominations."  But  the  gains  were  not  remarkable  from 
1877  to  1936.  The  original  cause  of  separation  from  the 
M.E.  Church  had  been  resolved.  The  M.P.  Church  had 
become  another  Methodist  Church. 

Union  of  Methodism.  The  General  Conference  of  1908, 
held  in  Pittsburgh,  appointed  its  president,  Thomas 
Hamilton  Lewis,  together  with  A.  L.  Reynolds  and  J.  W. 
Bering,  as  fraternal  delegates  to  the  M.E.  General  Con- 
ference meeting  in  Baltimore.  Lewis  was  chaiiTnan  of  the 
Commission  on  Union  of  the  M.P.  Church,  and  in  a 
memorable  address  to  the  General  Conference  he  made  a 
long  remembered  plea  for  die  union  of  divided  Method- 


METHODIST   PROTESTANT   CHURCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


ism.  His  telling  argument  was  that  the  M.P.  Church  was 
a  child  separated  from  divorced  parents  and  wanted  to 
come  back  to  a  united  home.  Tremendous  applause  was 
reported  and  the  high  inspiration  of  the  occasion  was 
carried  through  the  years.  At  the  General  Conference  of 
the  M.P.  Church  in  1936  a  Plan  of  Union  was  approved. 
The  church  set  about  securing  ratification  of  the  Plan 
among  its  annual  conferences.  The  President  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference,  James  H.  Straughn,  played  a  very  signifi- 
cant part  in  this  work  of  ratification  of  the  Plan. 

At  the  Uniting  Conference,  held  in  Kansas  City, 
1939,  the  M.P.  Church  by  vote  of  its  delegates  elected 
as  bishops  of  The  Methodist  Church,  James  Henry 
Straughn  and  John  Calvin  Broomfield.  The  matter  of 
lay  representation  had  been  settled  years  before  in  the 
Episcopal  branches  of  Methodism  and  it  was  now  demon- 
strated that  the  episcopacy  was  no  longer  a  stumbling 
block.  The  controversy  of  the  Reformers  was  ended. 
Bishop  John  M.  Moore,  when  presiding,  spoke  facetious 
and  suggestive  words  when  he  presented  Bishop-elect 
Straughn  to  the  Uniting  Conference:  "Once  a  totalitarian 
leader  and  now  a  colleague  in  the  ranks  of  benevolent 
democracy."  (See  also  Methodism  in  the  United 
States.  ) 

Centennial.  The  M.P.  Church  observed  its  Centennial 
Anniversary  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  May  16-17,  1928.  The 
celebration  was  held  in  connection  with  the  twenty-fifth 
quadrennial  General  Conference  of  the  church.  The  con- 
ference sessions  were  conducted  in  St.  John's  M.P.  Church 
and  at  the  Lyric  Theater,  and  were  attended  by  some 
3,000  persons,  the  largest  number  of  Methodist  Protes- 
tants ever  to  gather  in  one  place  in  the  history  of  the 
denomination. 

The  program  was  prepared  by  a  committee  appointed 
by  the  1924  General  Conference.  President  Thomas  H. 
Lewis  served  as  chairman;  he  was  assisted  by  the  presi- 
dents of  seven  annual  conferences.  A  300-member  chorus 
organized  by  E.  D.  Stone,  pastor  of  Hampden  Church, 
Baltimore,  provided  special  music  for  the  celebration. 
Young  ladies  representing  twenty-four  annual  conferences 
presented  the  offerings  for  the  "Centennial  Gratitude  Gift" 
which  amounted  to  more  than  $100,000.  James  H. 
Straughn  directed  the  promotion  for  the  Gratitude  Gift. 
Lyman  Edwin  Davis  wrote  a  special  "Centennial  Hymn." 
President  Lewis  presented  an  "Address  of  Salutation," 
and  representatives  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  the  M.E.  Church,  and  the  Fed- 
eral Council  of  Churches  brought  greetings.  Addresses 
were  delivered  by  Hugh  Latimer  Elderdice,  Harlan 
L.  Feeman,  Cuthbert  W.  Bates,  Frank  T.  Benson, 
and  John  C.  Broomfield. 

The  Centennial  Anniversary  was  preceded  by  a  five- 
day  M.P.  Centennial  Young  People's  Convention  which 
used  the  theme,  "Christ  Preeminent."  Several  denomina- 
tional leaders,  including  A.  G.  Dixon,  Frank  W.  Stephen- 
son, and  Robert  M.  Andrews,  addressed  the  young  people. 
A  special  "Centennial  Edition"  of  The  Methodist  Protes- 
tant was  published  May  16,  1928. 

Memorial  Collection.  The  M.P.  Church  Memorial  Col- 
lection was  established  in  1963  at  North  Carolina  Wes- 
leyan  College,  Rocky  Mount,  N.  C,  by  a  number  of 
friends  and  members  of  the  former  M.P.  Church  who 
were  interested  in  the  preservation  of  research  materials 
connected  with  that  branch  of  Methodism.  The  collection 
includes  a  wide  assortment  of  books,  bulletins,  pamphlets, 
newspaper  articles,  and  varied  other  memorabilia.   There 


are  portions  of  the  private  libraries  of  several  distinguished 
members  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.P. 
Church,  including  J.  F.  Dosier,  John  F.  Speight,  N.  G. 
Bethea,  and  C.  W.  Bates.  There  are  a  number  of  reli- 
gious treatises  and  denominational  publications  of  signifi- 
cance. 

All  of  the  published  histories  of  the  M.P.  Church  are 
in  this  collection,  including:  James  R.  Williams,  History 
of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  (Baltimore,  1843); 
John  Paris,  History  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church 
(Baltimore,  1849);  Ancel  H.  Bassett,  A  Concise  History  of 
the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  (Pittsburgh,  1882); 
J.  Elwood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  (Greensboro, 
1939);  Edward  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Re- 
form, 2  vols.  (Norwood,  Mass.,  1899).  There  is  a  com- 
plete file  of  the  Journal  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference 
for  the  years  1894-1939  and  miscellaneous  copies  of  the 
Journal  of  the  General  Conference  dating  back  to  1850. 
Of  special  interest  to  historians  and  rhetoricians  are  the 
handwritten  copies  of  several  sermons  given  by  John 
Paris,  as  well  as  other  personal  correspondence  and  pub- 
lished works  of  this  well  known  nineteenth-century  min- 
ister and  author.  There  are  also  records  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Conference  of  the 
M.P.  Church,  and  a  number  of  M.P.  Disciplines  dating 
from  1834,  and  hymnals  dating  from  1851. 

Other  valuable  Methodistica  connected  specifically  with 
the  former  M.P.  Church  may  be  found  in  the  library  at 
High  Point  College,  at  the  library  of  the  Commission  on 
Archives  and  History,  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C,  and  at 
Westminster  Theological  Seminary. 

Washington  Conference.  This  significant  gathering 
was  held  in  Washington,  D.C.,  May  12-15,  1931.  It  had 
been  called  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  M.P. 
Church  at  a  time  critical  both  for  the  church  and  the  gov- 
ernment, and  its  goal  was  to  strengthen  interest  in  de- 
nominational obligations  and  church  activities  and  to  dis- 
cuss the  Christian  church  and  its  place  in  world  affairs. 
The  motto  of  the  conference  was  "Forward  Together." 
Over  2,600  persons,  representing  a  large  number  of  the 
2,000  M.P.  churches  and  200,000  members  of  the  de- 
nomination, registered  for  the  conference,  which  held  its 
sessions  in  the  Memorial  Continental  Hall  of  the  Daugh- 
ters of  the  American  Revolution.  John  Calvin  Broomfield, 
President  of  the  General  Conference,  gave  the  opening 
address.  Others  who  spoke  included  George  W.  Hadda- 
WAY,  Mrs.  C.  W.  Bates,  J.  W.  Hawley,  E.  A.  Sexsmith, 
Charles  E.  Forlines,  Frank  W.  Stephenson,  Lawrence 
C.  Little,  and  James  H.  Straughn.  There  were  over  1,400 
persons  present  for  the  Fellowship  Banquet  held  at  the 
Mayflower  Hotel  on  Friday,  May  15. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  conference,  A.  Norman  Ward, 
chairman  of  a  forty-member  "Committee  of  Findings," 
reported  some  twelve  points  set  for  the  denomination  by 
the  Conference,  including  the  placing  of  greater  emphasis 
on  evangelism  and  on  the  enlarged  fields  of  Christian 
service  opened  by  religious  education,  raising  in  full 
church  assessments,  and  the  awakening  of  the  denomina- 
tion "to  a  new  sense  of  its  importance  and  obligation  in 
the  spreading  of  'scriptural  holiness'  throughout  the  lands, 
and  for  the  great  work  ...  in  carrying  forward  .  .  .  the 
plans  and  purposes  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  .  .  ."  Follow- 
ing the  Washington  Conference  a  series  of  "Echo  Meet- 
ings" were  held  on  the  grass  roots  or  local  level  of  the 
denomination  in  order  to  make  known  these  goals.  The 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   PROTESTANT-RECORDER 


Conference  had  great  effect  in  mobilizing  the  work  of 
the  M.P.  Church  at  that  time. 

Centennial  Anniversary  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church, 

1828-1928.  Memorial  Volume.  Baltimore,  1928. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

S.  K.  Jennings,  Exposition  of  the  Late  Controversy.  1831. 

Journals  of   the   General   Conference,    ME,    1796-1836,    1908. 

Journals  of   the   General   Conference,   MP,    1827-1858,    1939. 

Journal  of  the  Uniting  Conference,  TMC,  1939. 

A.   McCaine,  History  and  Mystery  of  Methodist  Episcopacy, 

1827. 

Methodist  Protestant-Recorder,  May  19,  1931. 

The   Mutual   Rights   of   the    Ministers   and   Members   of   the 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Vol.  II,  Baltimore:  R.  J.  Matchett, 

1826. 

News  and  Observer,  Raleigh,  N.  C,  Dec.  30,  1962;  July  20, 

1963. 

The  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate,  Jan.   11,   1962;   July 

25,  1963. 

N.  Snethen,  Essays  on  Lay  Representation.  1835. 

A.  Stevens,  History  of  Religious  Movement.  1858-61. 

W.  W.  Sweet,  Methodism  in  American  History.  1933. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 
N.  B.H. 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT  CHURCH  (1939-  ).  The 
continuing  Methodist  Protestant  Church  was  formed  by 
ministers  and  members  of  the  Mississippi  Conference  of 
the  former  M.P.  Church  who  did  not  wish  to  join  in  the 
1939  Methodist  merger  because  of  what  they  teimed  the 
liberalism  of  The  Methodist  Church.  They  emphasize  the 
Bible  as  the  literal  word  of  God,  the  indwelling  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  subsequent  to  regeneration,  and  the  premil- 
lennial  return  of  Jesus  Christ.  They  are  a  racially  segre- 
gated church,  believing  this  serves  the  best  interests  of 
both  black  and  white.  Their  motto  is,  "Earnestly  contend 
for  the  faith  which  was  once  delivered  to  the  saints." 

The  church  has  congregations  in  Mississippi,  Alabama, 
MissouHi,  Louisiana,  and  Ohio  in  three  conferences.  Mis- 
sion work  has  been  established  in  Korea  and  in  two  loca- 
tions in  British  Honduras.  A  liberal  arts  school,  Whit- 
worth  College,  is  operated  in  Brookhaven,  Miss.  They 
are  members  of  the  American  Council  of  Christian 
Churches  and  the  International  Council  of  Christian 
Churches.  They  are  affiliated  with  the  Southern  Meth- 
odist Church,  the  Fundamental  Methodist  Church,  and 
the  Evangelical  Church  in  America  in  the  International 
Fellowship  of  Bible  Methodists. 

The  government  is  a  representative  democracy  modeled 
on  the  United  States  government.  Equal  representation  is 
given  laymen  in  all  functions  of  the  church.  There  are  no 
bishops. 

W.  L.  Hamrick,  The  Mississippi  Conference  of  the  Methodist 

Protestant  Church.  1957. 

"The  Metliodist  Protestant  Church",  a  tract. 

J.  Gordon  Melton 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT  HERALD,  THE  (1894-1939), 
was  a  weekly  denominational  periodical  maintained  by 
the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.P.  Church. 
It  was  an  outgrowth  of  The  Central  Protestant  and  was 
the  only  publication  sponsored  by  a  specific  conference 
in  the  M.P.  Church.  J.  F.  McCulloch  started  Our  Church 
Record  in  1894  with  the  view  of  arousing  interest  in  the 
need  for  a  conference  educational  institution.  The  name 
was  changed  to  The  Methodist  Protestant  Herald  in  1910. 


The  paper  was  published  throughout  its  existence  in 
Greensboro,  N.  C.  In  1896-97  the  M.P.  Publishing  House 
was  built  in  Greensboro  and  the  income  was  used  for  the 
support  of  the  paper  until  the  opening  of  High  Point 
College  in  1924,  when  the  income  went  to  it.  The  M.P. 
Publishing  House  was  sold  for  $30,000  in  1938,  a  profit 
of  $20,000  for  the  college. 

McCulloch  possessed  considerable  mechanical  skill  and 
not  only  edited  The  Methodist  Protestant  Herald  but 
personally  printed  it.  The  subscription  price  was  one 
dollar  a  year  until  1916,  when  it  was  raised  to  $1.50  and 
in  1929  it  was  raised  to  two  dollars.  A  subsidy  based 
upon  size  and  ability  to  pay  was  levied  against  all  the 
churches  and  organizations  in  the  North  Carolina  Annual 
Conference  in  order  to  support  the  paper.  Despite  severe 
financial  difficulties,  the  paper  survived  the  economic 
depression  of  the  1930's.  McCulloch  died  in  1934  and 
J.  E.  Prichard,  who  had  assisted  McCulloch,  assumed 
the  editorship  for  the  remainder  of  1934  and  through 
1936.  R.  M.  Andrews  served  as  editor  from  1937  until 
1939  when  the  paper  was  merged  with  The  North  Caro- 
lina Christian  Advocate,  the  official  organ  of  the  two 
conferences  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South. 

The  North  Carolina  Annual  Conference  was  rendered 
an  impressive  service  by  The  Methodist  Protestant  Herald 
during  the  forty-five  years  of  its  publication.  "Editor 
McCulloch,  in  addition  to  seeing  High  Point  College 
opened  and  in  operation,  which  was  the  primary  purpose 
of  the  estabhshment  of  the  paper,  saw  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Children's  Home  brought  into  being  largely 
through  the  work  of  his  paper.  McCulloch  also  rendered 
a  great  service  in  the  development  of  the  entire  Con- 
ference program  through  the  years." 

J.  Elwood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro,  1939. 
Scattered  issues  of  Our  Church  Record  and  The  Methodist 
Protestant  Herald  and  the  Journal  of  the  North  CaroUna 
Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT-RECORDER,  the  official  peri- 
odical of  the  M.P.  Church  at  the  time  of  Methodist  union 
in  1939,  was  an  outgrowth  of  the  merging  of  two  papers: 
The  Methodist  Protestant,  issued  from  Baltimore,  Md., 
and  The  Methodist  Recorder,  published  at  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

The  origin  of  The  Methodist  Protestant  may  be  traced 
to  The  Wesleyan  Repository  and  Religious  Intelligencer 
(1821-1824),  a  bi-monthly  in  large  octavo  form  with 
sixteen  pages,  initially  issued  from  Trenton,  N.  J.,  by 
William  H.  Stockton,  an  influential  layman  of  the 
Philadelphia  Conference,  M.E.  Church.  When  The 
Methodist  Magazine,  the  only  Methodist  periodical  in 
America  at  the  time,  refused  to  publish  controversial  sub- 
jects that  might  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  church,  Wil- 
liam Stockton  published  this  liberal  periodical  to  expose 
the  abuses  of  clerical  power  and  urge  more  lay  representa- 
tion in  the  governing  bodies  of  the  church. 

After  several  years  of  controversy  The  Wesleyan  Re- 
pository and  Religious  Intelligencer,  of  which  the  second 
and  third  volumes  were  issued  monthly  at  Philadelphia, 
was  succeeded  by  The  Mutual  Rights  of  the  Ministers 
and  Members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  which 
appeared  from  Baltimore  as  a  monthly  in  August  1824. 
It  was  authorized  by  the  Baltimore  Union  Society  of  re- 


METHODIST   PUBLISHING   HOUSE,   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


formers  whose  constitution  in  the  first  issue  became  the 
model  for  other  similar  societies  and  an  important  guide 
in  creating  the  Constitution  of  The  Methodist  Protestant 
Church.  A  committee  of  ministers  and  laymen  edited  the 
paper  with  Dr.  Samuel  K.  Jennings,  chairman.  The  title 
was  changed  in  1828  to  The  Mutual  Rights  and  Chris- 
tian Intelligencer,  edited  and  published  by  D.  B.  Dorsey 
as  a  semi-monthly  folio  of  four  large  pages.  From  Jan. 
7,  1831  it  became  The  Mutual  Rights  and  Methodist 
Protestant  until  the  words  "Mutual  Rights"  were  dropped 
from  the  title  in  June  1834. 

Mutual  Rights,  as  it  was  often  referred  to,  like  its  prede- 
cessor and  early  successors,  was  frankly  controversial  and 
pledged  to  open  debate  about  fornis  of  church  govern- 
ment. Favorite  themes  were:  equal  representation  by  lay- 
men and  ministers  in  all  church  conferences;  election  of 
presiding  elders  as  opposed  to  their  appointment  by  the 
bishops;  local  preachers'  rights  including  membership  in 
annual  conferences;  rights  of  trial  and  appeal  by  ministers 
and  members  of  the  church.  Most  of  the  writers  were 
anonymous  "for  prudential  reasons,"  but  the  names  of 
many  were  revealed  in  1850  by  Stockton.  The  list  in- 
cluded EzEKiEL  Cooper  (whose  ideas  were  later  used  in 
the  Constitution  and  Discipline  of  The  Methodist  Protes- 
tant Church),  Henry  B.  Bascom,  John  Emory,  Asa 
Shinn,  Alexander  McCaine,  Thomas  E.  Bond,  Cor- 
nelius Springer,  and  Gideon  Davis.  Nicholas  Snethen 
was  the  most  able  and  prolific  of  the  contributors.  Be- 
cause it  was  the  chief  propaganda  organ  of  the  Methodists 
agitating  for  reform  in  the  1820's,  the  possession,  circula- 
tion, and  use  of  Mutual  Rights  became  grounds  for  ex- 
pulsion from  the  M.E.  Church. 

The  Methodist  Protestant,  as  the  paper  was  called  from 
June  1834  to  its  merger  with  The  Methodist  Recorder 
in  1929,  had  several  distinguished  editors  during  the  nine- 
teenth century,  including  E.  Yeates  Reese  and  E.  J. 
Drinkhouse.  It  continued  to  be  issued  from  Baltimore 
during  that  period. 

The  Methodist  Recorder  had  its  origin  when  Cornelius 
Springer  in  1839  issued  an  independent  paper  from 
Zanesville,  Ohio  entitled  Western  Recorder.  He  continued 
it  for  six  years.  Then  in  1845  A.  H.  Bassett  became  the 
editor,  issuing  it  from  the  same  place  under  the  same 
title.  In  1855,  this  independent  paper  was  accepted  by  the 
northern  and  western  annual  conferences  as  an  official 
paper,  to  express  more  adequately  their  views  on  slavery 
and  abolition.  Its  name  was  changed  to  Western  Meth- 
odist Protestant  and  issued  from  Springfield,  Ohio.  During 
the  >ears  when  the  northern  section  of  The  M.P.  Church 
withdrew  to  become  The  Methodist  Church,  1866-1877, 
this  paper  served  exclusively  as  its  denominational  voice. 
Its  name  was  changed  to  Methodist  Recorder.  In  1871, 
the  publishing  house  was  estabhshed  at  Pittsburgh,  and 
this  paper  was  issued  from  that  location. 

Following  church  union  in  1877,  both  The  Methodist 
Protestant  (Baltimore)  and  Methodist  Recorder  (Pitts- 
burgh) were  accepted  as  official  church  papers  until  they 
were  united  Nov.  1,  1929  as  The  Methodist  Protestant- 
Recorder,  issued  from  Baltimore.  The  two  editors,  Fr.\nk 
T.  Benson  (Methodist  Protestant)  and  Lyman  E.  D.wis 
(Methodist  Recorder)  were  retained  as  editorial  associ- 
ates. Shortly  before  the  merger  Benson  died  and  Davis 
became  editor-in-chief,  the  paper  being  located  at  Balti- 
more. H.  H.  Price  succeeded  Davis  and  was  followed  by 


Richard  L.  Shipley,  who  continued  until  Methodist  union 
in  1939,  when  the  paper  was  discontinued. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1887. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

Methodist  Protestant,  May  16,  1928. 

Methodist  Recorder,  Oct.  25,  1871,  p.  4. 

Douglas  R.  Chandler 
Ralph  Hardee  RrvES 


Methodist  Publishing  House 

METHODIST  PUBLISHING  HOUSE,  THE.  Official  publish- 
ing agency  of  The  United  Methodist  Church;  oldest  and 
largest  of  Methodist  connectional  agencies;  publisher, 
printer,  and  retail  distributor  of  books,  church  and  church 
school  supplies,  periodicals  and  audio-visual  aids;  non- 
profit, self-sustaining,  appropriates  from  its  earnings 
monies  for  the  retirement  and  pension  funds  of  annual 
conferences  for  conference  claimants;  headquarters  in 
Nashville,  Tennessee;  retail  branches  and  other  operations 
in  thirteen  other  cities,  coast  to  coast;  governed  by  the 
Methodist  Board  of  Publication;  John  E.  Procter,  present 
President  and  Publisher;  employs  1,865  persons;  annual 
sales  in  e.xcess  of  $40,000,000  for  1970-71  fiscal  year. 

The  Methodist  Book  Concern.  The  Methodist  Publish- 
ing House,  America's  oldest  continuing  publisher,  traces 
its  official  history  to  1789  when  the  M.E.  Church  ap- 
pointed two  of  its  preachers,  John  Dickins  and  PhiHp 
Cox,  to  the  post  of  Book  Steward.  The  Minutes  of  the 
Church  for  1789  record  these  appointments,  implying  that 
Cox  served  as  a  traveling  book  steward  while  Dickins 
was  stationed  in  Philadelphia  as  the  minister  of  St. 
George's  Church.  By  August  of  1789,  Dickins  was  is- 
suing books  bearing  his  own  imprint,  the  earliest  reputed 
to  have  been  Wesley's  translation  of  Thomas  a  Kempis' 
Imitation  of  Christ,  entitled  An  Extract  from  The  Chris- 
tian's Pattern.  Soon  the  publishing  enterprise  was  being 
spoken  of  as  the  Methodist  Book  Concern,  the  name 
under  which  it  was  incorporated  in  1836. 

Although  for  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  1789  has 
been  accepted  as  the  official  founding  date  of  the  Meth- 
odist Book  Concern,  it  should  be  noted  that  publishing 
has,  since  the  earliest  days,  been  associated  with  Wes- 
leyan  Methodism.  John  Wesley  himself  employed  both 
pen  and  pulpit  in  his  evangelical  efforts  in  England  even 
before  sending  preachers  to  America.  As  the  movement 
developed  on  the  North  American  continent  in  the  1760's, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   PUBLISHING   HOUSE,   THE 


Wesley's  publications,  especially  those  defining  his  the- 
ological position,  and  the  Wesleyan  method  of  salvation, 
were  needed  and  sought  by  those  who  came  into  the 
Methodist  societies.  Prior  to  the  American  Revolution, 
officially  these  publications — sermons,  Notes,  hymnbooks, 
and  Large  Minutes — were  forwarded  to  America  by  Wes- 
ley himself  for  distribution  by  the  early  preachers.  In  the 
late  1760's  and  early  1770's,  one  of  the  preachers  pre- 
sumed on  his  own  to  publish  Wesley  items  in  this  country. 
He  was  Robert  Williams,  who  came  to  America  in  1769 
and  preached  in  the  colonies  from  Virginia  to  New  York. 
Effective  though  Williams  was  in  the  spread  of  Meth- 
odism, his  private  publishing  venture  did  not  meet  with 
Wesley's  approval  and  at  the  first  American  Conference, 
held  in  1773,  he  was  instiiicted  to  publish  no  further 
items.  For  the  next  several  years,  presumably,  such  Meth- 
odist books  as  were  distributed  by  the  preachers  were 
imported  from  England,  specifically  from  John  Wesley. 
Evidence  exists  of  a  rather  brisk  business  in  these  items 
and  the  supervision  of  their  sale  by  persons  called  Book 
Stewards.  All  this,  however,  transpired  before  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  M.E.  Church. 

The  story  of  Methodism  during  the  years  of  the  Revolu- 
tion belongs  in  another  portion  of  this  volume,  but  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  vicissitudes  of  wartime 
affected  the  distribution  of  Methodist  books  as  they  did 
other  aspects  of  the  Methodist  movement.  During  the 
war,  when  Francis  Asbury  desisted  from  traveling  and 
remained  at  the  White  farm  in  Delaware,  there  is  evi- 
dence in  his  Journal  that  for  a  time  he  was  engaged  in  the 
distribution  of  books,  packing  them  for  shipment  to  other 
sections.  These  volumes,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  were  manu- 
factured in  England. 

With  the  coming  of  peace,  and  the  independence  of 
the  American  colonies,  American  Methodism  changed 
from  a  movement  within  the  Church  of  England  to  a 
church,  separately  organized  and  established  in  its  own 
right.  This  occurred,  as  will  be  noted  elsewhere,  at  the 
Christmas  Conference  of  1784.  In  accord  with  the 
Wesleyan  tradition,  American  Methodism  at  its  organizing 
Conference  stressed  the  importance  of  reading,  and  im- 
mediately following  published  as  its  first  official  work  the 
minutes  of  this  Conference.  Also  published  soon  thereafter 
was  the  sermon  preached  by  Thomas  Coke  on  the  occa- 
sion of  Francis  Asbury's  ordination.  These  publications 
appeared  in  1785  and  bore  the  imprint  of  the  church,  but 
not  a  distinct  publishing  agency. 

The  years  1786,  1787,  and  1788  are  significant  in  the 
history  of  Methodist  publishing  in  that  during  each  one 
distinct  references  are  made  to  publishing  as  a  specific 
activity  of  the  church.  In  Asbury's  Journal,  the  entry  for 
April  26,  1786,  reference  is  made  to  accounts  of  the  "Book 
Concern,"  with  specific  reference  to  B.^ltimore  as  its 
location.  In  1787  there  first  appeared  in  the  Discipline 
a  separate  section  devoted  to  publishing.  This  section,  in 
accord  with  Wesley's  English  pattern,  provided  that 
publishing  should  be  a  connectional  enterprise,  to  the 
extent  that  items  published  "in  this  country"  bear  the 
approval  of  the  conference  ("if  it  can  be  gotten")  and 
that  profits  from  such  activities  be  devoted  to  Methodist 
causes.  In  1828  Ezekiel  Cooper,  the  second  Book  Stew- 
ard of  the  Methodist  publishing  activity,  recalled  that 
John  Dickins,  the  first  Steward,  while  the  minister  in 
New  York,  in  1787  "commenced  printing  some  books, 
the  small  pocket  hymnbook,  and  some  others."  The 
year   1788  is  significant   as   some   argue  that  the  action 


in  which  Dickins  was  officially  made  Book  Steward, 
was  taken  in  that  year,  although  not  recorded  until 
1789.  The  fact  that  publishing  was  much  in  the  minds 
of  the  Methodists  during  these  years  is  borne  out  by 
the  fact  that  Asbury's  ill-fated  Council  of  1788 
and  1789  was  called  to  deal  with,  among  other  things, 
"our  printing  business."  In  fact,  Jesse  Lee  implied  that 
pubhshing  perhaps  began  in  New  York  as  early  as  1783, 
when  Dickins  first  went  there  as  a  stationed  minister. 

Significant  though  all  these  dates  are  in  a  consideration 
of  the  history  of  The  Methodist  Publishing  House,  the 
fact  remains  that  the  title  Book  Steward  first  appears  in 
the  1789  minutes,  and  that  the  earliest  imprints  bearing 
the  name  of  a  steward,  so  far  found,  bear  also  the  date 

1789,  and  Philadelphia  as  the  place  of  publication. 
Thus  1789  must  remain  as  the  official  date  for  the  found- 
ing of  this  agency,  until  other  evidence  is  produced.  Ear- 
lier activities,  however,  should  not  be  overlooked. 

The  Book  Concern  in  Philadelphia.  The  man  credited 
with  the  founding  of  The  Methodist  Pubhshing  House, 
John  Dickins,  was  born  in  England  in  1747.  E.xcept  for 
his  own  record  of  his  birth  date  on  a  page  in  his  family 
Bible,  he  enters  history  in  the  year  1774  as  a  Methodist 
in  Virginia.  In  1777  he  was  admitted  to  the  Conference 
on  trial,  and  until  1779  preached  on  circuits  in  southern 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  In  1779  he  was  married 
to  Elizabeth  Yancey,  the  daughter  of  a  landed  gentleman 
of  Halifax  County,  N.  C.  In  1781,  with  the  Revolutionary 
War  for  the  most  part  concentrated  in  that  section  of  the 
country,  Dickins  located  and  until  the  end  of  the  war  lived 
in  North  Carolina,  near  Fishing  Creek,  at  the  Edgecombe 
County  line,  on  property  evidently  in  his  wife's  dower. 
In  April  1783,  Francis  Asbury  records  his  successful 
persuasion  of  Dickins  to  return  to  the  ministry  and  accept 
an  assignment  in  New  York,  at  Wesley  Chapel — later 
John  Street  Church.  By  June  of  that  year  Dickins  and 
his  family  ( two  of  his  six  children  had  been  bom  by  this 
time)  were  in  New  York,  where  he  remained — except  for 
the  conference  year  1785-1786,  which  he  spent  in  North 
Carolina — until  sent  to  Philadelphia  in  1789. 

It  was  Dickins  who  first  met  Thomas  Coke  on  his  ar- 
rival in  America,  he  who  first  heard  Wesley's  plan  for  the 
new  church,  and  he  who  suggested  the  name  for  this 
church  when  it  was  organized  at  the  Christmas  Con- 
ference. Dickins  was  further  distinguished  by  being  re- 
garded as  the  best  educated  of  the  early  Methodist  preach- 
ers ( tradition  says  he  was  educated  at  Eton ) ,  and  the 
originator  of  the  idea  for  a  Kingswood  School  in  Amer- 
ica, which  was  founded  as  Cokesbury  College.  That 
he  was  a  well-educated  man,  with  literary  inclinations, 
seems  doubtless. 

Arriving  in  Philadelphia  in  June  1789,  Dickins  immedi- 
ately turned  his  attention  to  publishing,  with  several 
books  appearing  during  that  year  and  in  the  spring  of 

1790.  These  volumes  included,  besides  a  Kempis  already 
mentioned.  Saints  Everlasting  Rest  (the  work  of  John 
Fletcher),  the  Arminian  Magazine  for  1789  (evidently 
published  in  one  volume,  late  in  the  year),  John  Wesley's 
Primitive  Physic,  and  the  Pocket  Hymnbook.  Philip  Cox, 
the  traveling  book  steward,  apparently  coordinated  the 
sale  of  these  items  to  the  people  through  the  Methodist 
circuit  riders.  John  Dickins'  first  book  list,  like  those 
which  came  later,  consisted  of  items  originally  published 
in  England,  which  through  the  emphasis  of  Wesley  had 
come  to  be  recognized  as  "Methodist"  books.  For  the 
most  part  they  fell  in  the  category  of  practical  theology. 


METHODIST   PUBLISHING   HOUSE,   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


From  1789  to  1798  Dickins  operated  the  publishing 
agency  that,  in  the  course  of  time,  came  to  be  known  as 
the  Book  Concern.  Publishing  at  several  different  Phila- 
delphia addresses  throughout  the  decade,  Dickins  em- 
ployed others  to  print  his  books  and,  contrary  to  legend, 
never  himself  operated  a  print  shop.  Considerable  evi- 
dence remains  of  his  sales  eflForts,  however,  including 
records  of  shipments  to  the  "West"  and  South,  and  efforts 
to  collect  payment  for  the  items. 

For  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  tradition  was 
held  that  Dickins  began  the  Book  Concern  on  his  life's 
savings;  and  while  exact  record  of  the  transaction  of  the 
founding  of  the  Book  Concern  has  yet  to  be  found,  it  can 
be  said  with  certainty  that  Dickins,  like  his  successor. 
Cooper,  used  his  own  finances  in  the  venture.  At  the 
first  General  Conference  of  the  Church,  in  1792,  over- 
sight of  the  Book  Concern  and  supei"vision  of  Dickins' 
work,  became  an  assignment  of  the  PnrLADELPHiA  Con- 
ference, especially  the  three-man  Book  Committee  of 
that  Conference. 

Although  surviving  the  yellow  fever  epidemics  that 
ravaged  Philadelphia  in  1783  and  again  in  1787,  Dickins, 
in  1798,  contracted  the  disease  and  on  September  27  of 
that  year  died.  His  oldest  daughter,  Betsy,  was  also 
stricken  and  preceded  her  father  in  death  by  one  day. 

Immediately  Francis  Asbury  summoned  Ezekiel  Cooper, 
a  minister  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference,  and  chairman 
of  the  Book  Committee,  to  superintend  the  Concern. 
Reluctantly,  Cooper  agreed,  although  for  several  months 
John  Dickins'  older  son,  Asbury,  managed  the  business. 
When  the  Philadelphia  Conference  met  in  the  summer  of 
1799,  Cooper  was  officially  elected  Book  Steward  and 
Editor,  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  young  Asbury  Dick- 
ins, as  well  as  his  mother,  continued  in  literary  pursuits, 
with  the  result  that  their  names  have  a  place  in  the  history 
of  American  literature  as  co-publishers,  after  1800,  with 
Joseph  Dennie,  of  the  Port  Folio,  the  literary  magazine 
of  Philadelphia's  intellectual  circle  in  a  day  when  Phila- 
delphia was  the  cultural  center  of  American  society. 

At  the  time  of  John  Dickins'  death,  the  Methodist  pub- 
lishing agency  was  $4,500  in  debt,  largely,  it  appears 
from  records,  to  the  Dickins  estate.  Cooper,  however,  by 
careful  management  and  the  investment  of  some  of  his 
own  money,  set  the  Concern  on  its  feet,  reorganizing  it 
and  concentrating  its  attention  on  the  publishing  of  strict- 
ly Methodist  items.  For  the  most  part,  however,  it  con- 
tinued as  a  small,  one-room  enterprise,  in  straitened  cir- 
cumstances. 

In  1803,  just  as  the  Book  Concern  was  beginning  to 
enjoy  a  modest  prosperity,  difficulty  arose  among  the 
Philadelphia  Methodists  at  their  conference  ostensibly 
over  Cooper's  being  allowed  to  stay  in  one  place  for  so 
long.  Cooper,  along  with  his  Book  Concern,  was  requested 
by  the  Book  Committee  to  leave  the  city.  Asbury,  ever 
vitally  interested  in  the  business,  desired  that  Cooper 
should  go  to  Baltimore.  The  General  Conference  of  1804, 
however,  directed  him  to  New  York,  which  was  much 
more  favorable  to  Cooper.  The  summer  of  1804  found 
him  operating  the  business  under  the  direction  of  the 
New  York  Conference  in  the  Battery  section  on  Gold 
Street. 

Early  Years  in  New  York.  By  1808  Cooper  was  able 
to  report  that  the  Concern  was  out  of  debt  and  valued 
at  $45,000.  At  this  Conference  he  refused  election  to  the 
Steward's  post,  thus  setting  a  precedent  of  eight-year 
tenure  that  for  many  years  was  the  policy  of  the  church. 


and  turned  the  job  over  to  his  assistant,  John  Wilson. 
Upon  the  death  of  Wilson  in  1810,  Daniel  Hitt,  who 
had  been  one  of  the  most  successful  book-selling  circuit 
riders  in  Dickins'  day,  became  Book  Steward,  with 
Thomas  Ware  as  his  assistant.  Hitt  remained  in  charge 
of  the  Concern  through  the  years  of  the  War  of  1812, 
which,  while  marked  by  tremendous  growth  of  the  church, 
were  not  prosperous  for  the  Book  Concern.  The  lists  dur- 
ing these  years  remained  much  the  same  as  they  had 
under  Dickins — reprints  of  English  volumes  published 
to  define  the  tenets  and  teachings  of  Methodism. 

In  1816,  at  the  end  of  Hitt's  term  as  Book  Steward,  the 
General  Conference  elected  to  the  post  Joshua  Soule, 
then  a  young  minister  of  the  denomination.  Soule  had 
already  won  recognition  as  the  composer,  in  1808,  of  the 
document  that  for  many  years  served  the  M.E.  Church 
as  a  constitution.  Like  Ezekiel  Cooper,  Joshua  Soule  did 
not  relish  assignment  to  the  post  of  Book  Steward.  He 
accepted  it,  however,  and  following  the  direction  of  the 
Conference,  in  1818  published  the  first  number  of  The 
Methodist  Magazine,  which  was  immediately  successful. 
This  periodical,  which  soon  had  a  circulation  of  10,000 — 
a  phenomenal  circulation  for  its  day — had  been  preceded 
by  two  unsuccessful  efforts  in  the  line  of  periodical  publi- 
cations. In  1789-90  and  again  in  1797-98,  John  Dickins 
had  attempted  to  publish  a  duplicate  of  Wesley's  Arminian 
Magazine  for  circulation  in  America.  Composed  largely 
of  e.xcerpts  from  the  English  publication,  with  a  few  Amer- 
ican articles,  these  ventures  had  proved  unsuccessful  for 
the  Book  Concern,  with  its  staff  of  two  or  three  (at 
various  times)  persons.  The  Methodist  Magazine,  how- 
ever, largely  emphasizing  "the  work  of  God  on  this  con- 
tinent" won  favor  right  away,  and  was  the  first  real  basis 
of  hope  for  the  future  of  the  Book  Concern.  Despite  this 
success,  however,  Soule  refused  reelection  as  Steward  in 
1820,  and  the  post  went  to  a  New  York  minister  later 
famous  as  a  M.E.  editor,  author,  and  organizer.  His 
name  was  Nathan  Bangs.  Thomas  Mason  sei'ved  as  his 
assistant. 

The  Era  of  Nathan  Bangs.  Nathan  Bangs,  a  man  of  the 
optimistic  1820's,  thought  big;  and  under  the  insistent 
urgings  of  his  hand,  the  little  Book  Concern  grew.  For  a 
time  it  seemed  as  if  the  forced  flowering  would  prove 
fiscally  fatal  for  the  tender  enterprise,  but  under  the  care- 
ful management  of  later  Stewards  it  grew  roots  to  sustain 
the  ambitious  program  conceived  and  executed  by  Bangs. 
In  1821  the  Concern,  after  having  moved  all  over  the 
lower  end  of  Manhattan  Island,  rented  the  basement  of 
the  Wesleyan  Seminary  building  on  Crosby  Street,  and 
here  Bangs  installed  a  bindery,  the  first  of  the  Concern's 
own  book  manufacturing  departments.  In  1824  Bangs 
opened  a  print  shop;  and  when  the  Seminary  moved  to 
White  Plains,  on  his  own  initiative  he  bought  the  New 
York  property.  This  done.  Bangs  proceeded  to  enlarge 
the  list  of  publications.  In  1823  a  periodical  entitled  The 
Youth's  Instructor  and  Guardian  had  been  started.  This 
was  followed,  in  1826,  by  the  Christian  Advocate,  and 
in  1827  by  the  Child's  Magazine.  The  Methodist  Maga- 
zine was  also  continued.  Besides  enlarging  the  list  of 
periodicals,  Nathan  Bangs  revised  the  book  lists,  adding 
to  them  more  works  by  American  Methodists.  In  1824  the 
Concern  began  issuing  Adam  Clarke's  commentary,  en- 
titled The  Hohj  Bible,  and,  the  next  year,  Watson's  The- 
ological Institutes.  Of  all  Bang's  innovations,  however, 
nothing   excelled   the   Christian    Advocate    in   popularity. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   PUBLISHING   HOUSE,   THE 


By  1828,  with  25,000  subscribers,  it  had  the  largest  circu- 
lation of  any  publication,  religious  or  secular,  in  the  entire 
country.  After  Bangs  had  sei-ved  eight  years  as  Senior 
Book  Agent,  in  1828  he  became  editor  of  the  paper,  filling 
this  position  until  1836. 

The  Opening  of  the  First  Branch  House.  The  General 
Conference  of  1820,  which  elected  Bangs  Book  Steward, 
authorized  the  opening  of  a  branch  of  the  Book  Concern 
in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  elected  Martin  Ruter,  a  min- 
ister distinguished  as  a  teacher  and  scholar,  to  direct  the 
affairs  of  the  new  undertaking.  The  difficulty  of  trans- 
porting goods  from  the  east  to  the  Mississippi  Valley 
region,  and  the  difference  in  currency  values  between  the 
two  sections,  prompted  the  western  venture.  Begun  as  a 
subsidiary  of  the  New  York  Concern,  the  operation  in 
Cincinnati  soon  proved  itself  and  in  1836  was  incorpo- 
rated as  a  separate  enteiprise,  under  the  name  of  the 
Western  Methodist  Book  Concern.  Until  1912  this  orga- 
nization functioned  separately  from  the  Concern  in  New 
York,  for  many  years  even  being  guided  in  its  affairs  by 
a  separate  Book  Committee  from  the  one  which  had  over- 
sight of  the  New  York  operation.  Even  after  consolidation 
of  the  Book  Committees  in  1868,  two  separate  local  com- 
mittees had  immediate  responsibility  for  the  two  houses. 

Although  at  first  primarily  concerned  with  circulating 
reprints  of  New  York  publications  in  the  western  country, 
the  Western  Book  Concern  soon  began  a  book  list  and 
later  a  list  of  periodicals,  distinct  from  those  published 
in  the  east.  Most  notable  of  these  were  the  German  publi- 
cations, books  and  periodicals,  which  began  to  issue  from 
the  Western  Book  Concern  in  1839;  and  the  elaborate 
monthly,  entitled  the  Ladies'  Repository,  published  from 
1841  to  1876.  The  Western  Christian  Advocate,  a  weekly 
newspaper  similar  to  but  not  a  duplicate  of  the  New  York 
paper,  first  made  its  appearance  in  1834. 

Expansion  of  the  New  York  Concern.  The  decade  of 
the  1830's,  during  which  the  Book  Concern  moved  posi- 
tively to  the  publication  of  books  and  materials  for  the 
Sunday  schools,  was  marked  by  expansion  of  the  Con- 
cern's real  estate  holdings  in  New  York.  In  1833,  at  200 
Mulberry  Street,  the  Concern  erected  its  first  building 
designed  and  built  for  its  own  use.  A  multi-story  brick 
edifice,  accommodating  all  departments  for  book  manu- 
facture as  well  as  the  Concern's  retail  and  mail-order 
sales  departments,  this  building  was  destroyed  by  fire 
in  February  1836.  Later  in  that  year,  partly  financed  by 
donations  from  Methodists  and  members  of  other 
churches,  another  building  was  constructed  at  the  same 
address.  It  was  used  by  the  Concern  until  1889,  when  a 
structure  was  erected  at  150  Fifth  Avenue. 

During  the  1840's  the  publishing  programs  of  both 
the  eastern  and  western  Concerns  developed  extensively  as 
the  church  grew  and  as  her  Sunday  schools  flourished. 
By  1844,  when  the  church  divided  North  and  South,  im- 
pressive catalogs  of  Book  Concern  publications  were  being 
issued,  encompassing  not  only  traditional  theological  titles, 
church  requisites,  hymnbooks,  and  volumes  of  moral  and 
ethical  value,  but  also  list  after  list  of  Sunday  school 
books,  grouped  as  libraries  (in  the  Wesleyan  manner)  or 
offered  for  sale  as  separate  volumes.  These  Sunday  school 
items  were  nearly  all  directed  to  children. 

The  Book  Concerns  and  the  Division  of  the  Church. 
When  the  M.E.  Church  split  in  1844,  division  of  the 
property  of  the  Book  Concerns  (in  the  east  and  in  the 
west)  came  to  be  one  of  the  main  points  at  issue  between 
the  M.E.   Church  and  the  newly  formed  M.E.   Church, 


South.  According  to  the  famous  Plan  of  Separation 
approved  by  the  General  Conference  of  1844  (the  last 
one  attended  by  both  the  Northern  and  Southern  fac- 
tions), the  holdings  of  the  Book  Concerns,  along  with 
other  church  properties,  were  to  be  divided  proportion- 
ately with  the  Southern  group,  should  the  annual  con- 
ferences vote  to  establish  a  separate  Southern  church.  In 
1845,  at  the  Louisville  Convention,  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  came  into  being.  Between  1844  and  1848  discord 
between  the  two  churches  rather  generally  prevailed, 
especially  in  the  border  conferences  between  the  two 
sections.  In  1848,  when  the  General  Conference  of  the 
M.E.  Church  met  for  the  first  time  following  the  split, 
the  Plan  of  Separation  agreed  to  by  the  Conference  of 
1844  was  repudiated,  on  the  grounds  that  it  had  not  been 
approved  by  a  majority  of  the  annual  conferences.  By 
this  time  the  separation  of  the  Southern  group,  approved 
in  1844,  was  viewed  in  the  North  as  a  secession,  in  which 
the  Church,  South,  had  no  claim  on  the  property  of  the 
Book  Concern.  The  Southern  Church  promptly  filed  suits 
in  the  civil  courts  for  its  share  of  the  holdings.  Ultimately, 
late  in  1853,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
to  which  the  decisions  of  the  lower  courts  were  finally 
appealed,  ruled  in  favor  of  the  Southern  Church,  awarding 
it  $254,000  as  its  share  of  the  Book  Concerns.  With  this 
money  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  in  1854  began  its  own 
publishing  house  in  Nashville,  Tenn. 

The  Book  Concerns  in  the  Last  Half  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century.  Despite  the  heavy  financial  burden  imposed  by 
the  court  decision,  the  Book  Concerns  of  the  M.E.  Church 
continued  to  grow  in  size  and  program  during  the  decades 
of  the  1850's  and  1860's.  Except  for  a  slight  setback  in 
the  first  year  of  the  Civil  War,  the  Concerns  prospered 
during  the  war  years.  Their  Agents  (in  1844  the  title 
Book  Steward  was  changed  to  Book  Agent  which  had 
been  infonnally  used  for  many  years)  arrived  at  the  Gen- 
era] Conference  of  1868  with  reports  of  growth,  expan- 
sion, and  financial  solvency.  The  New  York  Concern,  as 
had  always  been  the  case,  was  the  larger  of  the  two;  but 
the  Concern  in  Cincinnati  was  likewise  a  sizable  operation, 
complete  with  manufacturing  and  sales  departments,  and 
branches  in  other  cities.  By  1868  the  New  York  Concern 
had  branches  in  Boston,  Buffalo,  Pittsburgh,  Syra- 
cuse, and  San  Francisco;  the  Cincinnati  Concern  had 
branches  in  Chicago  and  St.  Louis.  Of  all  these  branches 
the  one  in  Chicago  was  by  far  the  most  solid.  Since  its 
establishment  by  the  General  Conference  of  1852,  the 
Chicago  operation  had  experienced  steady  growth. 

During  the  twenty  years  from  1852  to  1872,  the  com- 
manding figure  in  the  Book  Concerns  of  the  M.E.  Church 
was  Thomas  Carlton,  Senior  Agent  in  New  York,  a 
Methodist  minister  with  a  gift  for  administration  and  finan- 
cial management.  Under  his  direction  the  Methodist  Book 
Concern  in  New  York  moved  into  the  front  ranks  of 
American  publishing  houses,  weathering  even  the  severe 
financial  depression  of  1857  that  closed  many  other  firms. 
An  ambitious  publishing  program,  embracing  both  books 
and  periodical  publications,  became  characteristic  of  the 
Methodist  Book  Concern,  which  annually  issued  extensive 
catalogs  heavily  slanted  to  the  Sunday  school  and  includ- 
ing a  wider  variety  of  subjects  than  had  initially  been 
typical  of  Book  Concern  lists.  Perhaps  the  outstanding 
periodical  publication  of  these  years  was  the  Sujtday 
School  Advocate,  begun  in  1841  and  published  in  New 
York,  Cincinnati,  and  Chicago. 

As  it  had  done  since  1852,  the  General  Conference  in 


METHODIST   PUBLISHING   HOUSE,   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


1868  reelected  Thomas  Carlton  to  the  position  of  Senior 
Agent  in  New  York.  John  Lanahan,  a  minister  of  the 
Baltimore  Conference,  was  elected  Junior  Agent.  It 
was  an  unequally  paired  team,  and  the  next  four  years  in 
the  history  of  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  were  wracked 
with  dissension  and  scandal.  Amid  the  scandalous  hubbub 
of  American  life  of  the  1870's,  discord  issued  also  from 
the  Methodist  Book  Concern.  Suspecting  mismanagement 
of  the  business,  Lanahan  shortly  after  taking  office,  began 
investigations  into  the  several  departmental  operations 
in  the  New  York  organization.  In  the  printing  depart- 
ment, he  found  evidence  that  seemed  to  justify  his  fears; 
and  in  some  manner  these  discoveries  came  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  secular  press,  notably  the  New  York  Times. 
A  front  page  story  in  this  paper  in  September  1869,  an- 
nounced to  the  world  that  the  Methodist  Book  Concern 
was  tainted  with  fraud.  Thus  began  a  season  of  turmoil 
that  lasted  until  the  meeting  of  the  General  Conference 
of  1872.  Lanahan's  actions  left  him  open  to  the  charge  of 
slander  and  insubordination.  The  actions  of  the  Book 
Committee,  ultimately  responsible  for  investigating  the 
matter,  left  this  body  open  to  the  charge  of  whitewashing 
corruption  in  the  name  of  public  relations.  Thomas  Carl- 
ton, who  very  unwisely  had  engaged  in  financial  specula- 
tion in  oil  companies  worth  millions  of  dollars,  and  who 
even  more  unwisely  had  done  so  in  partnership  with  other 
employees  of  the  Concern  and  on  the  Concern's  premises, 
became  the  subject  of  hot  debate  between  those  who  con- 
sidered him  a  martyr  and  those  who  considered  him  the 
prime  offender.  Finally  the  General  Conference  of  1872 
took  action,  appointed  a  special  committee  to  investigate 
the  matter,  and  approved  the  committee's  report,  in  which 
both  Agents  were  exonerated  of  the  charge  of  fraudulent 
actions.  Declaring  that  minor  fraudulent  practices  had 
been  perpetrated  by  certain  employees  in  the  Concern, 
but  stating  that  they  had  not  endangered  the  financial 
position  of  the  House,  the  report  called  for  a  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  accounting  procedures,  which  in  their  laxity 
left  the  way  open  for  fraud  should  such  be  attempted. 
Needless  to  say,  neither  Carlton  nor  Lanahan  was  re- 
elected to  the  Agency  in  1872. 

In  their  stead  Reuben  Nelson,  a  minister  from  the 
Wyoming  Conference,  and  John  Milton  Phillips,  a 
layman  from  Cincinnati,  were  elected  Agents  for  New 
York.  Phillips  has  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  lay- 
man ever  to  be  elected  to  the  top  position  in  the  Meth- 
odist Book  Concern.  It  should  be  said  in  passing  that  the 
General  Conference  of  1872,  when  Phillips  was  first 
elected,  was  the  first  General  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church  to  be  composed  of  lay,  as  well  as  clerical  dele- 
gates. Besides  his  significance  as  the  first  layman  to  hold 
the  position  of  Book  Agent,  Phillips  is  also  significant 
as  the  first  man  from  the  west  to  head  the  Book  Concern 
in  the  east.  The  son  of  a  former  assistant  editor  of  the 
Western  Christian  Advocate,  Phillips  was  employed  at  the 
Western  Book  Concern  in  his  early  youth  and  rose  to  a 
position  of  responsibility  there  before  being  elected  Book 
Agent  in  New  York. 

Following  the  so-called  Era  of  Frauds,  the  Methodist 
Book  Concerns,  east  and  west,  both  prospered,  and  the 
eastern  Concern  together  with  the  Missionary  Society  of 
the  M.E.  Church,  in  celebration  of  its  100th  Anniversary 
in  1889,  erected  an  impressive  headquarters  building  at 
the  corner  of  Fifth  Avenue  and  Twentieth  Street  in  New 
York  City  to  house  all  its  operations.  In  1869,  the  Con- 
cern and  Missionary  Society  had  jointly  purchased  a  build- 


ing at  805  Broadway,  and  it  was  occupied  by  office  and 
sales  operations  for  the  ensuing  twenty  years.  The  manu- 
facturing departments  remained  at  200  Mulberry  Street. 
Opened  with  elaborate  ceremonies,  the  structure  at  150 
Fifth  Avenue  served  as  headquarters  of  the  Methodist 
Board  of  Missions  and  the  Book  Concern  (later  the  Pub- 
lishing House)  in  New  York  until  the  late  1950's. 

In  terms  of  publications,  the  twenty  years  following  the 
Civil  War  were  distinguished  for  the  Methodist  Book  Con- 
cerns by  their  publication  of  uniform  Sunday  school 
lessons  (the  first  ones  issued  as  "the  Berean  Series"),  and 
publications  for  Chautauqua.  Phillips  and  Hunt,  Agents 
for  the  New  York  Concern,  were  the  first  publishers  of 
Chautauqua  texts  designed  specifically  for  that  purpose. 
Notable  advancement  of  the  printing  industry  in  these 
years  resulted  in  increased  book  production  both  in  the 
eastern  and  western  houses.  This  carried  over  into  the 
1890's,  when  publications  and  other  materials  for  the 
Epworth  League  formed  a  significant  part  of  the  publish- 
ing program.  These  years  also  saw  an  increase  in  the 
number  of  theological  books  published  by  the  Concerns. 

Stepped-up  production,  resulting  in  sharpened  compefi- 
tion,  together  with  the  depression  of  1893,  so  severely  af- 
fected the  Book  Concern  in  New  York  that  at  the  turn  of 
the  century,  this  house,  which  had  been  the  unquestioned 
leader  in  Methodist  publications  for  more  than  a  century, 
fell  behind  its  counterpart  in  Cincinnati,  not  so  directly 
affected  by  the  economic  fluctuations  of  the  more  heavily 
industrialized  east.  For  many  years  consolidation  of  the 
two  publishing  houses  had  seemed  fiscally  desirable, 
especially  as  the  two  chief  reasons  for  the  existence  of 
the  Cincinnati  Concern,  lack  of  cross-country  transporta- 
tion and  sectional  differences  in  currency,  had  disap- 
peared. This  union  was  approved  in  1908  and  accom- 
plished by  1912.  At  this  time  Chicago,  along  with  New 
York  and  Cincinnati,  became  a  headquarters  city  for  the 
unified  Concern. 

In  1914,  following  the  union  of  the  two  houses,  Abing- 
don Press  was  selected  as  the  imprint  of  the  Book  Con- 
cern on  those  books  designed  for  wider  use  than  simply 
within  the  M.E.  Church.  Up  to  this  time,  and  since  the 
days  of  John  Dickins,  pubhcations  of  the  Concern  had 
been  issued  in  the  name  of  the  Book  Agents,  a  practice 
also  followed,  because  of  copyright  restrictions,  in  the 
publishing  house  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  This  prac- 
tice, which  continued  until  a  decade  ago,  often  makes 
difficult  the  identification  of  items  published  by  the  of- 
ficial pubhshing  agencies  of  Methodism.  The  first  line  of 
Abingdon  Press  books,  although  consistently  of  high  moral 
tone,  extended  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  strictly  religious. 

Enjoying  the  general  prosperity  of  the  times,  in  the 
mid  1920's,  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  extended  its  real 
estate  holdings  and  erected  a  printing  plant  in  suburban 
Dobbs  Ferry,  N.  Y.,  moving  its  manufacturing  operations 
out  of  New  York  City.  This,  along  with  other  factors,  left 
the  Concern  in  weakened  condition  to  weather  the  big 
depression  of  the  1930's.  As  a  result  the  organization 
arrived  at  the  end  of  the  decade  in  serious  economic  con- 
dition. Thus  its  affairs  were  somewhat  disordered  at  the 
time  of  unification  in  1939. 

Publishing  House  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South.  When  Nathan  Bangs  began  the  Christian  Advocate 
in  1826,  so  popular  was  this  publication  that  local  Meth- 
odist papers,  modeled  after  the  New  York  periodical, 
began  to  spring  up  throughout  the  settled  portions  of  the 
country.  Further  impetus  was  given  them  when  the  Book 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   PUBLISHING   HOUSE,   THE 


Concern  in  1833  approved  the  publication  of  a  "Christian 
Advocate"  for  the  Mississippi  Valley  Region  (the  Western 
Christian  Advocate).  Sectional  feeling  was  rather  gen- 
erally characteristic  of  the  country,  and  the  desire  for 
special  sectional  papers  sprang  up  in  smaller  and  smaller 
regions.  One  of  these  was  begun  in  Nashville,  Tenn., 
in  1833;  and  there  were  others  elsewhere,  both  within 
and  outside  the  South.  The  General  Conference  of  1836 
accorded  official  sanction,  including  Book  Concern  spon- 
sorship, to  six  of  these  papers,  one  of  which  was  the 
Nashville  publication.  Thus  began  Methodist  publishing 
in  Tennessee's  capital  city. 

By  the  time  of  the  split  in  the  M.E.  Church,  the 
Nashville  paper,  titled  the  South-Western  Christian 
Advocate,  was  being  ably  edited  and  managed  by  John 
B.  McFerbin,  a  Methodist  minister  of  the  Tennessee 
Conference.  In  1845,  the  first  book  published  by  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  a  history  of  its  organization,  was 
issued  in  Nashville  under  the  direction  of  McFerrin.  The 
organizing  convention  in  Louisville  provided  for  a  South- 
ern Book  Concern,  and  at  the  church's  first  General  Con- 
ference in  1846,  John  Early,  later  bishop,  was  named 
Book  Agent.  Located  in  Richmond,  Early  gave  direction 
to  such  book  publishing  as  the  Church,  South  undertook 
in  its  early  years.  Thomas  O.  Summers,  in  Charleston, 
S.  C,  was  named  editor  of  the  Church's  Sunday  school 
publication,  the  Sunday  School  Visitor,  and  Advocates 
were  approved  for  all  three  cities.  More  formalized  pub- 
lishing plans  were  to  be  laid  when  the  property  of  the 
Book  Concerns  of  the  Northern  Church  was  divided.  As 
has  already  been  seen,  this  required  ten  years,  during 
which  interval  the  Southern  publishing  program  was  car- 
ried out  in  a  scattered  fashion. 

The  General  Conference  of  1854,  anticipating  a  large 
sum  of  money  to  be  received  from  the  M.E.  Church 
in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  Plan  of  Separation 
and  the  decision  of  the  courts,  voted  to  establish  a  full- 
blown publishing  house,  complete  with  print  shop,  in 
Nashville,  Tenn.  This  city  was  already  identified  with 
Methodist  publishing;  was  nearer  the  center  of  the  South 
than  either  Charleston  or  Richmond;  and  was  neither 
a  border  town,  such  as  Louisville,  nor  a  river  town, 
such  as  Memphis.  Thus  to  it  fell  the  honor  of  being  the 
site  of  the  first  real  publishing  house  south  of  the  Mason- 
Dixon  line.  The  whole  section,  other  denominations  as 
well  as  Methodists,  took  pride  in  it.  As  its  first  quarters, 
a  tobacco  warehouse  on  Nashville's  public  square  was 
secured,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  Philadelphia  binder  who 
relocated  his  shop  in  Nashville,  the  Southern  Methodist 
Publishing  House  got  under  way  late  in  1854.  Edward 
Stevenson  and  F.  A.  Owens  were  elected  Book  Agents. 

To  make  up  for  lost  time,  the  Southern  House  im- 
mediately launched  a  full-scale  publishing  program, 
duplicating  insofar  as  possible  that  of  the  two  Northern 
Book  Concerns.  During  its  first  year,  the  Book  Editor, 
as  the  title  had  become,  again  T.  O.  Summers,  said  that 
150  titles  were  issued  by  this  house.  Some  were  tradi- 
tional Methodist  items,  while  others  were  reprints  of 
English  books,  quickly  "revised"  by  Summers — who  was 
bom  in  England — and  pushed  through  the  press.  By  1858 
it  was  obvious  that  the  new  enterprise  had  overextended 
itself,  and  John  McFerrin,  editor  of  the  Nashville  Chris- 
tian Advocate,  was  elected  Book  Agent.  From  the  outset 
his  task  was  to  correct  the  fiscal  mistakes  the  House  had 
made  in  its  first  four  years. 

McFerrin  was  well  on  the  way  to  accomplishing  his 


assignment  when,  in  1861,  the  Civil  War  erupted,  un- 
settling conditions  throughout  the  section.  Nashville,  the 
carefully  chosen  site  of  the  Publishing  House,  was  the 
first  major  Southern  city  to  fall.  It  was  occupied  in 
February  1862  by  the  federal  army,  in  advance  of  which 
McFerrin  and  most  of  the  officials  of  the  House  (all 
staunchly  Confederate  in  their  sympathies)  fled  farther 
south  to  escape  capture.  From  this  time  until  the  end  of 
the  war,  activities  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Publishing 
House  were  at  a  standstill,  especially  after  the  property 
of  the  House  was  confiscated  in  1863  for  use  as  a  U.  S. 
Government  printing  house. 

During  the  late  spring  and  summer  of  1865,  McFerrin 
and  other  departed  Publishing  House  officials  returned 
to  Nashville  to  begin  their  work  anew.  Securing  from 
President  Andrew  Johnson  a  release  of  the  property,  badly 
damaged  during  the  federal  occupancy,  McFerrin  resumed 
publication  of  the  Nashville  Christian  Advocate  in  the 
late  fall  of  1865.  Prior  to  the  war,  in  the  interest  of 
economy,  the  Nashville  paper  had  been  made  the  sole 
official  organ  of  the  denomination,  the  other  papers  such 
as  the  Southern  Christian  Advocate  in  Charleston  and  the 
Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  reverting  to  the  support  of 
their  related  annual  conferences. 

When  the  first  postwar  General  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South  met  in  New  Orleans  in  May  1866,  con- 
tinuation of  the  Publishing  Hou,se,  despite  all  odds,  was 
voted.  A.  H.  Redford,  a  minister  of  the  Louisville 
Conference,  was  made  Book  Agent,  while  editorial  re- 
sponsibilities were  largely  assigned  to  T.  O.  Summers. 

Recovering  with  rather  amazing  speed  from  the  plight 
in  which  it  found  itself  in  1865,  the  Southern  House 
by  1872  felt  itself  to  be  sufficiently  strong  to  undertake 
the  erection  of  a  new  office  building  and  plant  in  Nash- 
ville. Hardly  had  the  new  structure  been  completed  than 
faults  in  the  construction  made  immediate  repairs  neces- 
sary if  the  building  was  to  be  safely  occupied.  This  un- 
expected cost,  coupled  with  poor  financial  management 
and  the  overextending  of  credit,  so  sapped  the  life  of  the 
enterprise  that  by  1878  bankruptcy  appeared  the  only 
choice.  However,  at  the  General  Conference  that  year, 
McFerrin,  since  1866  the  church's  Mission  Secretary,  was 
recalled  to  the  post  of  Book  Agent,  and  with  the  Book 
Committee  was  authorized  to  make  whatever  disposition 
of  the  House  seemed  best.  Determined  that  the  Southern 
Methodist  Publishing  House  should  not  fail,  McFerrin  and 
the  Book  Committee  devised  a  plan  whereby  low  interest 
bonds  could  be  sold  to  pay  off  high  interest  loans  the 
House  had  previously  made.  The  sale  of  these  bonds 
across  the  South,  largely  accomplished  by  John  B.  Mc- 
Ferrin himself,  a  tough,  consecrated  campaigner  as  well 
as  a  master  of  oratory,  comprises  one  of  the  most  dramatic 
chapters  in  the  history  of  The  Methodist  Publishing 
House.  Within  less  than  two  years  the  bonds,  totaling 
$300,000,  were  sold;  and  by  1884,  when  McFerrin  died, 
the  House  was  declared  free  from  debt. 

The  careful  and  cautious  management  required  by  these 
circumstances  somewhat  inhibited  the  program  of  the 
Southern  Methodist  Publishing  House  during  these  years, 
throughout  which  its  major  efforts  were  concentrated  on 
production  of  the  Christian  Advocate,  edited  by  the  able 
and  popular  O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  and  items  for  the  Sunday 
school.  In  the  latter  field  (although  elsewhere  the  pro- 
gram of  the  organization  was  weak),  obvious  efforts  were 
made  to  keep  abreast  of  the  times. 

The  decade  of  the  1890's  was  a  period  of  significant 


METHODIST   PUBLISHING   HOUSE,   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


growth  for  the  southern  organization  which,  as  the  cen- 
tury turned,  was  further  benefited  by  money  appropriated 
by  the  U.  S.  Senate  to  pay  off  the  long-standing  war 
diunage  claim  occasioned  by  federal  occupancy  of  the 
Nashville  property  during  the  Civil  War.  This  claim  was 
based  on  the  declaration  of  the  Lincoln  administration 
that  restitution  would  be  made  for  war  damage  to  prop- 
erty of  churches,  educational  institutions,  and  other 
eleemosynary  enterprises.  In  1898,  after  more  than  thirty 
years,  the  U.  S.  Senate  acted  favorably  on  the  claim  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South.  In  the  final  days — indeed  in  the 
final  hours — of  the  Senate's  consideration,  a  question  was 
raised  concerning  the  size  of  the  fee  the  House  had 
agreed  to  pay  its  lawyer  for  handling  the  case.  A  hasty 
exchange  of  letters  and  telegrams  between  the  Agents 
and  Washington  officials  on  this  point  (which  was  judged 
to  have  no  bearing  on  the  justice  of  the  claim),  resulted 
in  a  charge  that  the  Agents,  J.  D.  B.\rbee  and  D.  M. 
Smith,  had  been  deliberately  misleading  in  their  answers 
to  certain  questions.  Considerable  furor  was  caused 
throughout  the  Southern  Church,  with  the  result  that  the 
General  Conference  of  1902  staged  a  full-fledged  in- 
vestigation of  the  matter.  Assured  by  the  U.  S.  Senate 
that  the  Church  would  not  be  expected  to  return  the 
money — $288,000 — paid  on  the  claim,  the  General  Con- 
ference exonerated  the  action  of  the  Agents.  Barbee, 
however,  was  not  re-elected  Book  Agent,  although  Smith 
was  returned  to  the  position  of  Junior  Agent.  In  1903, 
upon  the  resignation  of  Barbee's  elected  successor,  R.  J. 
Bigham,  Smith  became  Senior  Agent.  Like  John  Milton 
Phillips  in  the  M.E.  Church,  Smith  was  the  first  la\man 
to  hold  the  post  of  Book  Agent  in  the  Southern  Church. 

The  generally  favorable  condition  of  the  Southern 
Methodist  Publishing  House  in  the  early  1900"s  led  to 
expansion  of  the  enterprise  and  real  estate  improvements 
in  Nashville.  In  1899  a  branch  was  begun  in  D.\ll.as, 
Texas,  and  in  1902,  together  with  the  Missionary  Society 
of  the  M.E.  Church,  the  Southern  House  opened  a  branch 
in  Shanghai,  China,  which  functioned  for  several  years. 
This  bold  step  was  in  accord  with  a  tradition  of  assistance 
to  missionary  endeavors  for  many  years  practiced  by  the 
Methodist  Book  Concern  in  New  York.  During  the  middle 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  missionary  publishing 
house  in  Bremen,  Gebm.'^ny,  had  to  a  certain  extent  been 
sponsored  by  the  Methodist  Book  Concern.  The  program 
of  German  publishing  in  Cincinnati  and  that  of  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  publishing  in  the  Southern  House  were  in 
the  same  tradition.  In  1912  a  branch  was  officially  opened 
in  Richmond,  Va.,  where  through  colporteurs  and  other 
channels  Methodist  books  had  been  sold  for  many  years. 

In  1907  the  Nashville  operation  of  the  Southern  Meth- 
odist Publishing  House  moved  from  the  public  square 
location  to  a  building  erected  for  its  use  at  810  Broadway 
in  Nashville.  For  many  years  this  building,  since  it  also 
housed  several  general  agencies  of  the  church,  was  infor- 
mally regarded  as  the  headquarters  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South.  After  unification  in  1939,  810  Broadway,  Nash- 
ville was  official  headquarters  for  the  Publishing  House  of 
The  Methodist  Church  until  1957. 

Following  a  steady  though  undramatic  course  during 
the  years  between  1910  and  1920,  the  Southern  Meth- 
odist Publishing  House  in  1924  adopted  a  policy  of 
publishing  books  of  general  Christian  appeal  as  well  as 
issuing  titles  bearing  specifically  on  Methodism.  At  this 
time  the  House  selected  the  imprint  Cokesbury  Press, 
which   until   unification   was    used   on   these   items.    The 


venture  was  immediately  successful,  and  was  partly  re- 
sponsible for  the  healthy  condition  in  which  the  Southern 
Methodist  Publishing  House  emerged  from  the  depression 
of  the  1930's.  Well  patronized  by  the  church  and  accus- 
tomed to  weathering  adverse  times,  the  Southern  House 
at  the  time  of  Methodist  union  in  1939  was  the  soundest 
publishing  enterprise  of  any  of  the  three  churches. 

As  a  manufacturer  of  books  since  1854,  the  Southern 
Methodist  Publishing  House  had  been  a  leader  in  this 
industry.  In  1924  a  separate  printing  plant  was  erected 
on  Demonbreun  Street  in  Nashville,  which  in  1957  formed 
the  core  of  a  new  structure  now  headquarters  of  Methodist 
publishing.  Since  1935  the  Methodist  printing  plant  in 
Nashville  has  employed  as  its  trade  imprint  The  Parthenon 
Press.  This  imprint,  since  unification,  has  also  applied  to 
printing  done  in  the  Cincinnati  plant. 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Book  Concern.  Within 
bounds  it  might  be  said  that  the  formation  of  the  Method- 
ist Protestant  Church  commenced  in  1828  had  as  its  basis 
the  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Methodist  Reformers  for  a 
free  press.  Claiming  with  some  justification  that  they  had 
only  limited  access  to  the  columns  of  The  Methodist  Mag- 
azine, then  under  the  editorship  of  Nathan  Bangs,  certain 
Methodist  ministers  independently  began  publication  of  a 
periodical  entitled  Mutual  Rights.  This  publication,  issued 
from  Baltimore,  advocated  equal  lay  and  clerical  repre- 
sentation in  the  conferences  of  the  church,  together  with 
restrictions  on,  if  not  elimination  of,  the  powers  of  the 
episcopacy.  Reprimanded  for  fostering  a  schismatic  move- 
ment within  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  leaders 
were  e.xpelled.  As  a  result  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church  was  organized  in  1830. 

The  importance  of  publications,  especially  periodicals, 
was  recognized  by  the  church  at  its  organizing  convention. 
John  Jolly  H.'^brod,  a  Baltimore  book  dealer,  was  named 
Book  Agent  and,  it  was  said,  like  John  Dickins  before 
him,  began  the  enterprise  with  his  own  funds.  Prominent 
among  its  publications  was  the  Methodist  Protestant,  a 
weekly  newspaper  which  succeeded  Mutual  Rights.  For  a 
time  Harrod  attempted  to  publish  and  sell  books  for  the 
denomination,  but  as  the  response  in  this  area  was  limited, 
he  relinquished  his  commission,  and  the  church  attempted 
to  establish  a  book  concern  through  contributions  from 
the  church  members.  This  effort  was  never  successful, 
but  publication  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  was  continued. 

In  the  1850's  dissatisfaction  arose  in  the  northern  and 
western  conferences  of  the  church  over  the  policy  govern- 
ing the  Methodist  Protestant's  refusal  to  admit  discussions 
of  slavery  in  its  columns.  By  action  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1854,  peiinission  was  given  for  each  section 
of  the  church  to  have  its  own  periodical,  if  the  confer- 
ences desired,  with  responsibility  for  the  publications  to 
rest  on  the  annual  conferences,  not  the  General  Confer- 
ence. While  meeting  to  discuss  the  beginning  of  a  western 
publication,  the  western  anti-slavery  conferences  decided 
to  withdraw  entirely  from  the  eastern  and  southern  con- 
ferences. As  a  result  there  were  two  churches  from  1866 
to  1877,  as  well  as  two  publications.  The  Methodist  Prot- 
esiant,  published  in  Baltimore,  continued  as  the  organ  of 
the  southern  and  eastern  sections  of  the  church,  while 
the  Western  Methodist  Protestant  became  the  organ  of 
the  western  conferences.  Published  for  a  time  at  Zanes- 
ville,  Ohio,  and  later  at  Springfield,  Ohio,  the  Western 
Recorder  as  it  was  ultimately  named,  along  with  the 
Western  Methodist  Protestant  Book  Concern,  in  the  early 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   PUBLISHING   HOUSE,   THE 


1870's  came  to  rest  at  Pittsburgh.  Although  neither  of  the 
Book  Concerns  was  a  large  operation,  the  Book  Concern 
of  the  western  Methodist  Protestant  body  operated  its  own 
print  shop. 

In  1877  when  the  two  sections  of  the  church  again 
came  together,  a  Board  of  Publications  was  established, 
with  separate  local  "directories"  in  charge  of  the  Baltimore 
and  Pittsburgh  operations.  By  this  time  the  Pittsburgh 
Directory  was  publishing  not  only  the  Recorder,  but  also 
a  Sunday  school  periodical  entitled  Our  Morning  Guide, 
similar  to  the  Sunday  School  Advocate  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  and  the  Sunday  School  Visitor  of  the 
Southern  Church.  The  Baltimore  Directory  was  publish- 
ing the  Methodist  Protestant  and  a  series  of  uniform  Sun- 
day school  lessons,  both  edited  by  Edw.\rd  J.  Drink- 
house.  In  1884  all  Sunday  school  pubhcations  were  trans- 
ferred to  the  Pittsburgh  Directory,  from  which  point 
they  were  distributed  as  well  as  printed. 

Maintaining  distinct  identities  for  many  years,  the  two 
Methodist  Protestant  publishing  enterprises  came  closer 
together  in  1929,  when  the  two  papers,  the  Methodist 
Protestant  and  the  Methodist  Recorder,  were  merged  as 
the  Methodist  Protestant  Recorder,  published  in  Balti- 
more, where  by  this  date  a  print  shop  was  also  being  op- 
erated. This  printing  establishment  employed  as  its  trade 
name  The  Stockton  Press,  in  commemoration  of  Thomas 
Stockton,  early  denominational  leader. 

Methodist  Protestant  publishing,  while  never  carried 
out  on  so  extensive  a  scale  as  the  publishing  programs  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  is  notable  for  its  consistent  produc- 
tion of  both  general  and  Sunday  school  periodicals.  These 
publications  did  much  to  establish  and  maintain  the 
identity  of  the  relatively  small  denomination. 

Since  Unification.  When  the  three  Methodist  Churches 
came  together  in  1939,  Nashville  was  chosen  as  head- 
quarters of  what  all  agreed  should  be  called  The  Meth- 
odist Publishing  House.  At  this  time  the  organization  had 
mail-order  branches  in  thirteen  cities  in  addition  to  six 
printing  plants.  Each  of  the  three  uniting  churches  had 
its  own  system  of  Sunday  school  literature,  and  each  its 
own  assortment  of  periodicals.  Consolidation  of  these  op- 
erations, gre<itly  affected  by  the  entry  of  the  United 
States  into  World  War  II  in  December  1941,  was  not 
completely  achieved  until  the  late  1940's.  When  finally 
accomplished  The  Methodist  Publishing  House  consisted 
of  thirteen  mail-order  locations,  two  printing  plants  (one 
in  Nashville  and  one  in  Cincinnati),  one  system  of  Sunday 
school  (by  this  time  called  "church  school")  literature, 
one  general  church  periodical  (the  Christian  Advocate), 
and  one  quarterly  publication  as  successor  to  The  Meth- 
odist Magazine  and  the  old  Quarterly  Reviews  (under 
the  title  Religion  in  Life ) .  Except  for  official  Methodist 
items,  the  House  was  using  the  imprint  Abingdon-Cokes- 
bury  Press  on  its  books,  and  The  Parthenon  Press  as  the 
trade  name  of  its  manufacturing  department.  It  was 
headed  by  two  Publishing  Agents,  one  lay  and  one  clerical, 
and  governed  by  the  Methodist  Board  of  Publications. 

Blessed  with  financial  success  during  the  war  years  and 
the  years  of  the  religious  boom  following  the  war,  the 
newly  unified  operation  was  enabled  to  move  forward 
despite  almost  constant  organizational  changes  necessi- 
tated by  the  continuing  process  of  unification.  The  decade 
of  the  1940's  was  distinguished  by  initiation  of  the  project 
to  publish  a  Bible  commentary,  which  appeared  in  twelve 


volumes  published  between  1951  and  1956  as  The  Ititer- 
preter's  Bible,  now  a  classic  of  biblical  scholarship. 

In  1956  the  Christian  Advocate  became  two  publica- 
tions: Together,  a  handsome  monthly  family  magazine 
rivaling  in  technical  perfection  and  editorial  content  elab- 
orate secular  publications  of  the  period;  and  the  New 
Christian  Advocate,  a  professional  journal  for  Methodist 
ministers  and  laymen  intimately  involved  in  the  affairs 
of  the  local  and  general  church.  (In  1960  this  publication 
reassumed  the  original  title  Christian  Advocate.)  In  1957 
the  House  completed  and  occupied  a  new  headquarters 
building  at  201  Eighth  Avenue,  South,  in  Nashville,  and 
in  that  same  year  undertook  studies  leading  to  a  reorga- 
nization of  its  retail  and  mail-order  departments  and 
distribution  points.  In  1960  it  adopted  the  trade  name 
Cokesbury,  for  this  aspect  of  its  services,  and  changed  the 
name  of  its  book  publishing  department  to  Abingdon 
Press. 

The  recurrence  of  these  names  throughout  the  recent 
history  of  Methodist  publishing  deserves  explanation. 
Both  are  related  to  the  first  educational  endeavor  of  Meth- 
odism in  America.  Cokesbury  College,  the  first  Methodist 
school  in  this  country,  was  opened  in  1787  at  Abingdon, 
Md.  The  name  Cokesbury  combines  syllables  from  the 
names  of  the  first  two  Methodist  bishops:  Thomas  Coke 
and  Francis  Asbury.  The  idea  for  Cokesbury  College, 
it  will  be  remembered,  was  first  set  forth  by  John  Dickins, 
who  is  recognized  as  the  founder  of  The  Methodist  Pub- 
lishing House.  Beminiscent  of  the  days  of  the  mounted 
circuit  rider  is  the  present  circuit  rider  colophon  or  trade- 
mark of  The  Methodist  Publishing  House,  a  tribute  to  the 
men  who  first  circulated  the  books  and  periodicals  pub- 
lished by  the  organization. 

Today  The  Methodist  Publishing  House  has  opera- 
tions in  fourteen  metropolitan  areas  across  the  nation. 
In  Nashville  are  offices  of  its  five  central  divisions:  Retail 
Sales,  Publishing,  Manufacturing,  Accounting,  and  Per- 
sonnel and  Public  Relations.  In  Nashville  also  is  the  larger 
of  its  two  printing  plants,  one  of  the  largest  complete 
printing  operations  in  the  nation;  its  Southern  Regional 
Service  Center  (mail  order);  and  one  of  its  Cokesbury 
Book  Stores.  In  Chicago  and  suburban  Park  Ridge,  Il- 
linois, are  editorial  offices  of  Together;  the  Christian 
Advocate;  the  North  Central  Regional  Service  Center; 
and  a  Cokesbury  store. 

In  New  York  City  and  suburban  Teaneck,  New  Jersey, 
are  the  Northern  Regional  Service  Center,  a  Cokesbury 
store,  and  a  Cokesbury  book  depository,  in  the  Church 
Center  near  the  United  Nations  Building.  Other  regional 
service  centers  and  book  stores  are  in  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia; Dallas,  Texas;  and  San  Francisco,  California.  Cokes- 
bury stores  are  likewise  operated  in  Atlanta;  Boston; 
Baltimore;  Cincinnati  (where  is  located  the  second  of  the 
Methodist  printing  plants);  Detroit;  Kansas  City,  Missouri; 
Los  Angeles;  and  Pittsburgh. 

Some  indication  of  the  book  publishing  activity  of  The 
Methodist  Publishing  House  may  be  seen  in  the  catalogs 
of  Abingdon  Press,  which  annually  list  more  than  a  hun- 
dred new  titles,  including  religious  books,  children's  books, 
and  books  of  general  interest  to  youth  and  adults.  A  siz- 
able portion  of  the  publishing  program  of  the  House  is 
concerned  with  the  publication  of  teaching  materials  for 
the  Church  school,  bearing  the  Graded  Press  imprint, 
editorially  prepared  by  the  Editorial  Division  of  the  Meth- 
odist Board  of  Education  on  outlines  devised  by  the 
church's  Curriculum  Committee. 


METHODIST   QUARTERLY   REVIEW 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


A  Nonprofit,  Self-Sustaining  Organization.  From  its 
inception  The  Methodist  Publishing  House  and  its  prede- 
cessor organizations  have  been  nonprofit  but  self-sustain- 
ing. Even  before  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  officially 
came  into  being,  the  Discipline  of  1787  specified  that 
profits  arising  from  the  sale  of  books  should  be  directed  to 
denominational  causes  at  the  discretion  of  the  bishop  and 
the  Council.  The  1792  Discipline  directed  the  Book  Stew- 
ard to  pay  monies  out  of  the  book  fund  for  Cokesbury 
College,  district  schools,  and  "distressed  preachers."  From 
the  outset,  success  was  so  presumed  for  the  publishing 
activity  that  no  provision  was  made  for  its  own  sustenance 
other  than  such  monies  as  would  come  from  its  own  opera- 
tion. For  a  time,  in  the  early  1800's,  an  effort  was  made 
to  collect  money  for  a  Tract  Fund  to  enable  the  Concern 
to  sell  at  less  than  publishing  cost  evangelistic  and  moral- 
istic tracts.  This  effort,  however,  was  notably  unsuccessful. 
Therefore,  it  can  be  truthfully  said  that  The  Methodist 
Publishing  House  has  been  self-sustaining  since  its  found- 
ing. 

The  practice  of  drawing  support  for  church  causes  from 
book  sales,  early  established  by  the  church,  continued 
almost  uncontrolled  during  the  early  years  of  the  Book 
Concern.  Despite  the  passage  of  the  sixth  Restrictive 
Rule  in  1808,  forbidding  the  General  Conference  to  use 
the  surplus  funds  of  the  Book  Concern  for  any  other 
purpose  than  the  support  of  worn-out  preachers,  the 
Concern  for  many  years  paid  the  salaries  and  expenses 
of  the  bishops  and  underwrote  the  expenses  of  the  General 
Conferences,  besides  supplying  money  for  other  less  obvi- 
ous expenses  of  the  church.  In  1860,  Thomas  Carlton 
said,  "The  Concern  has  paid  the  general  expenses  of  the 
whole  church,  ...  at  an  average  of  nearly  $38,000  per 
annum  since  18.36."  It  is  calculated  that  during  this  period 
about  $300,000  was  actually  distributed  to  the  annual 
conferences  for  the  relief  of  the  retired  ministers,  their 
widows  and  dependent  children.  Betu'een  1860  and  1868, 
$132,609  went  for  this  purpose, 

At  the  turn  of  the  century,  the  Methodist  Book  Con- 
cern, including  the  Concern  in  Cincinnati,  began  making 
larger  appropriations  for  the  conference  claimants.  By 
1939,  it  was  reckoned  that  a  total  of  nearly  $9,000,000 
had  been  appropriated  by  the  Methodist  Book  Concern 
for  this  purpose. 

The  precedent  established  by  the  M.E.  Church  of 
drawing  money  from  its  publishing  house  for  the  miscel- 
laneous expenses  of  the  church  was  followed  from  the  first 
by  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  By  1866,  it  was  figured  that 
$233,000  of  Publi.shing  House  money  had  been  spent  in 
"outside  enterprises"  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  Because 
of  the  straitened  financial  circumstances  of  the  Southern 
Methodist  Publishing  House,  no  appropriations  were  made 
to  the  conference  claimants  of  the  Church,  South  during 
the  1870's  and  for  most  of  the  1880's.  Resimiing  the  prac- 
tice in  1888,  the  Southern  Methodist  Publishing  House 
by  unification  had  appropriated  a  total  of  $1,848,290  for 
the  conference  claimants  of  the  Southern  Church. 

The  Book  Concerns  of  the  M.P.  Church,  although  basi- 
cally organized  in  a  diflFerent  manner  from  those  of  the 
episcopal  churches,  were  from  the  first  hopefully  consid- 
ered a  source  of  revenue  for  the  denomination.  This  hope 
never  materialized,  however,  as  the  concerns  at  best  only 
met  their  own  expenses. 

Since  unification.  The  Methodist  Publishing  House,  has 
operated  strictly  in  conformity  with  the  church's  Fifth 
Restrictive  Rule,  which  provided  that  the  income  of  the 


organization  could  only  be  used  for  the  business  itself, 
with  proceeds  above  operating  expenses  and  proper  re- 
serves going  only  to  the  conference  claimants.  A  total  of 
$12,365,000  was  appropriated  for  these  beneficiaries  be- 
tween 1940  and  1968. 

In  the  aggregate,  since  its  organization  in  1789,  the 
publishing  agency  of  The  Methodist  Church  has  provided 
more  than  $23  million  for  the  denomination's  retired 
ministers,  widows,  and  orphaned  children. 

In  The  United  Methodist  Church.  At  the  union  of  The 
Methodist  Church  and  the  Evangelical  United  Brethren 
Church  in  1968,  the  publishing  interests  of  both  Churches 
were  put  under  one  General  Board  of  Publication,  similar 
to,  and  for  practical  purposes  an  extension  of,  the  Board  of 
Publication  of  The  Methodist  Church  as  it  had  been  up 
to  that  time.  The  General  Board,  comprising  all  the  pub- 
lishing interests  of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  func- 
tions as  The  Methodist  Publishing  House.  The  Board 
consists  of  forty-five  members  including  two  bishops  se- 
lected by  the  Council  of  Bi.shops,  five  members  at  large, 
elected  by  the  Board,  and  thirty-eight  members  elected 
by  the  Jurisdictional  Conferences,  the  number  from  each 
Conference  determined  by  the  membership  of  the  Juris- 
diction. 

The  E.U.B.  Church  brought  into  the  union  the  Otter- 
bein  Press,  located  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  and  the  Evangelical 
Press  in  Harrisburg,  Pa.  Centralization  of  the  entire  print- 
ing operation  in  the  interests  of  efficiency  and  economy 
brought  all  publishing  to  the  Nashville  plant.  In  view  of 
this,  the  Cincinnati,  Dayton,  and  Harrisburg  plants  were 
sold.  (See  also  Publishing  House  Contbovebsy.  ) 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

N.  Bangs,  History  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  1838-41. 

J.    Minton   Batten,   The   Histonj   of   tlie    Methodist   Publishing 

House.   Nashville:   Personnel  and  Public  Relations  Division  of 

The  Methodist  Publishing  House,  1954. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1877. 

Centennial  of  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  and  Dedication  of 

the  New  Publishing  and  Mission  Building,  a  memento  volume. 

New  York:  Hunt  and  Eaton,  1890. 

Disciplines. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

Fifteen   Years   and   an   Idea.    A    Report   on    Cokesbury    Press. 

Nashville:  Cokesbury  Press,  1938. 

H.  C.  Jennings,  Book  Concern.  1924. 

Journals  of  the  General  Conferences. 

J.  Lanahan,  Era  of  Frauds.  1896. 

Jesse  Lee,  Short  History.  1810. 

J.  P.  Pilkington,  Methodist  Publishing  House.  1968. 

Millard    George    Roberts,    "The    Methodist    Book    Concern   in 

the     West."     Unpublished     dissertation.     The     University     of 

Chicago,  1947. 

Ralph  Stoody,  "Religious  Journalism:   Whence  and  Wliither?" 

Unpublished  tliesis,  Gordon  College  of  Theology,  1939. 

W.  F.  Wliitlock,  Book  Concerns.  1903.    James  P.  Pilkington 

METHODIST  QUARTERLY  REVIEW.  This  title  covers  the 
publishing  history  of  a  periodical  which  began  in  1818 
as  The  Methodist  Magazine,  and  continued  to  appear 
under  various  titles  (except  1829)  until  its  demise  in 
1931:  The  Methodist  Magazine,  monthly,  1818-28;  The 
Methodist  Magazine  and  Quarterly  Revieiv,  quarterly, 
1830-40;  The  Methodist  Quarterly  Rcvieiv,  1841-84; 
and  The  Methodist  Revieic,  bimonthly,  1885-1931.  In 
addition  to  English  predecessors  (beginning  with  The 
Arminian  Magazine  from  1778)  two  abortive  efforts  had 
already  been  made:  the  reprinting  of  the  first  t^vo  volumes 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST  QUARTERLY   REVIEW 


METHODIST  MAGAZINE, 


THK  VK*n  OF  Oun  LORD 


ARMINIAN  MAGAZlNi;: 


r   \   T  R.  A  C  T  S 


O  R  I  G  I  N  \  L    T  R  li  A  T  I S  1! 


Gcncrjl  Rcifcmpti 


Methodist  Quarterly  Review 

of  the  English  magazine  by  John  Dickins  in  1789-90  as 
enterprises  of  the  newly  founded  Metliodist  Book  Con- 
cern, and  the  distribution  in  1797-98  of  a  few  numbers 
of  a  proposed  Methodic  Magazine  authorized  by  the 
General  Conference  of  1796. 

In  1816  the  General  Conference  instructed  "the  book 
steward  and  his  assistant,"  who  turned  out  to  be  Joshua 
SouLE  and  Thomas  Mason,  to  begin  anew  the  project  of 
publishing  a  serious  religious  periodical.  Accordingly  in 
1818  appeared  the  first  issue  of  The  Methodist  Magazine. 
"The  great  design  of  this  publication,"  averred  the  editors, 
"is  to  circulate  religious  knowledge — a  design  which  em- 
braces the  highest  interests  of  rational  existence,  as  the 
sum  of  individual  and  social  happiness  increases  on  a 
scale  of  proportion  with  the  increase  of  spiritual  light  and 
information."  The  subsequent  editors  were:  Nathan 
Bangs,  1820-36;  Samuel  Luckey,  1836-40;  George  Peck, 
1840-48;  John  McClintock,  1848-56;  Daniel  Whedon, 
1856-84;  Daniel  Curry,  1884-88;  James  Mendenhall, 
1888-92;  William  Kelley,  1892-1920;  George  Elliott, 
1920-30. 

During  the  early  years  the  little  monthly  subsisted  on 
reprints  of  articles  drawn  chiefly  from  the  Arminian 
Magazine  and  pious  accounts  of  divine  providence  and 
saintly  deaths.  Bangs  accomplished  much  with  little  until 
his  election  as  Missionary  Secretary  in  1836,  when  Samuel 
Luckey  took  over  for  a  quadrennium.  During  this  period 
book  reviews  became  a  part  of  the  regular  features.  The 
change  from  small  monthly  to  substantial  quarterly  in 
1830  marked  the  emergence  of  a  true  theological  review. 
Not  until  the  era  of  George  Peck,  however,  did  the 
magazine  assume  mature  status  as  a  serious  journal.  Inter- 
pretations of  new  trends  in  philosophy  and  theology  began 
to  appear.  German  works  were  reviewed. 

The  MQR  entered  an  exciting  period  with  the  ap- 
pearance of  John  McClintock  as  editor.  Taking  up  his 
duties  as  General  Conference  complained  against  the 
scholarly  standards  in  favor  of  more  popular  treatment, 
he  forthrightly  stood  firm  for  yet  higher  standards.  Long 
intensive  review  articles  appeared  on  religious  and  secular 
books  like  Butler's  Analogy  and  Ticknor's  classic  on  Span- 
ish  literature.    Several   articles    took   up   cudgels   against 


prevailing  liberalism  of  the  Channing-Parker-Comte  vari- 
eties. Throughout  the  whole  century  contributions  fol- 
lowed in  regular  succession  on  aspects  of  Wesleyan  the- 
ology and  Methodist  church  order. 

During  the  long  decades  between  1856  and  1884 
Daniel  D.  Whedon  spent  his  tremendous  energy  on  build- 
ing the  MQR  into  a  journal  unsurpassed  by  any  other  of 
the  time.  Its  influence  was  felt  not  only  within  the  circle 
of  Methodism  but  throughout  American  Protestantism. 
Many  contributions  came  from  non-Methodists,  among 
them  Philip  Schaff^.  Whedon  was  not  afraid  of  controversy. 
The  pages  sparkled  with  fires  of  debate  on  lively  issues. 
Schleiermacher  and  Bushnell  came  off^  rather  well  in  crit- 
ical articles;  but  Theodore  Parker  and  Balph  Waldo 
Emerson  were  severely  mauled.  The  Review  took  account 
of  the  appearance  of  a  new  generation  of  Methodist  the- 
ological writing — Whedon's  own  Freedom  of  the  Will, 
Miner  Raymond's  Systematic  Theology,  John  Miley's 
Atonement  in  Christ.  In  addition  it  sought  to  interpret  for 
its  readers  the  broader  aspects  of  nineteenth  century 
culture,  especially  in  the  field  of  literature.  A  few  voices 
were  raised  in  favor  of  original  American  art. 

With  Whedon's  retirement,  the  new  editors,  Daniel 
Curry  and,  more  important,  James  Mendenhall,  expanded 
the  review  to  a  fat  bimonthly,  including  several  added 
features  designed  to  win  a  wider  audience,  the  "Arena" 
and  "Itinerants'  Club."  The  doughty  old  editor  turned  his 
journal  into  a  veritable  fortress  against  the  attacks  of 
"agnosticism.  Old  Testament  criticism,  and  all  the  cognate 
upheavals  in  the  path  of  Christian  culture  and  progress." 
He  was  already  struggling  to  prevent  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury from  becoming  the  twentieth.  Nevertheless  new 
voices  were  heard  and  diff^erent  points  of  view  were  ex- 
pressed. Culturally  a  reaction  set  in  against  the  romantic 
vagaries  of  Berlioz  and  "the  unspeakable  Zola." 

The  next  period,  the  long  editorship  of  William  V. 
Kelley,  carried  the  MQR  into  the  twentieth  century. 
Names  like  Ball  and  Lewis  and  Knudson  appeared,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  perennial  Bowne.  Kelley  suited  well 
the  spirit  of  the  turn-of-centuiy  with  his  combination  of 
serious  theological  and  broad  cultural  interests.  The 
furious  battles  of  modernists  and  fundamentalists  were 
muted  in  the  magazine.  There  was  a  respite  from  the  fiery 
crusades  of  Whedon  and  Mendenhall. 

The  last  decade  was  controlled  by  George  Elliott,  who 
died  suddenly  in  1930.  The  MQR  died  almost  as  suddenly, 
doubly  stricken  by  the  death  of  its  editor  and  the  Great 
Depression,  and  expired  with  the  third  issue  of  volume 
114  in  1931.  It  had  been  bom  three  years  after  the 
venerable  North  American  Review,  which  managed  to 
survive  eight  years  longer.  It  continued  in  unbroken  vigor- 
ous publication  far  longer  than  any  other  scholarly  reli- 
gious periodical  in  America.  It  was  reborn  in  1932  as  the 
ecumenical  review.  Religion  in  Life,  diff^erent  in  title  and 
scope  but  of  the  same  parentage. 

Frederick  A.  Norwood 

METHODIST  QUARTERLY  REVIEW  (ME.  Church,  South). 
This  magazine  was  launched  in  1847,  with  H.  B.  Bas- 
COM,  President  of  Transylvania  University,  Louisville, 
Ky.,  as  editor  and  John  Early  the  publisher. 

The  introduction  in  the  first  issue  stated  the  maga- 
zine's policy.  Following  are  excerpts.  "It  is  intended  as  a 
general  Church  organ,  authorized  by  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  at  LouisviUe,  Kentucky  .  .  .  Ours  is 


METHODIST   RECORDER,    THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


an  age  of  nominal  opulence,  commercial  greatness,  varied 
mechanical  activity  and  rapid  progress  .  .  .  This  review  is 
designed  to  explore  theology,  philosophy,  science,  edu- 
cation and  literature.  It  is  written  primarily  for  the  south, 
to  encourage  southern  authors  .  .  .  Honest  search  for  facts 
of  theology  and  historical  reality  are  always  to  be  sought 
and  fairly  presented  ...  As  a  Nation,  we  are  one,  and 
God  grant  that  we  shall  forever  continue  to  be." 

The  first  volume  featured  a  defense  of  "State  Rights," 
and  a  plea  for  "Adequate  Religious  Education  of  the 
Negro."  A  department  of  "exegesis"  and  a  generous  edi- 
torial section  were  carried  throughout  its  history.  The 
Quarterly  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  during  the  nine- 
teenth century,  carried  articles  titled  "Is  A  Classical  Lib- 
eral Arts  Education  Essential  To  An  Effective  Minister?" 
"The  Merits  of  the  Property  Settlement  of  the  Divided 
Methodism,"  "Proper  Female  Education,"  "Missions,"  "Bi- 
ographies of  Eminent  Ministers"  (many  of  other  denomi- 
nations), and  many  other  subjects. 

In  1851  D.wiD  S.  DoGGETT  became  the  editor  and 
John  Early  continued  as  publisher,  in  Richmond,  Va.  By 
1858  the  Quarterly  was  moved  to  N.\shville,  Tenn.,  with 
Thom.^s  O.  Summers  the  editor.  In  1859  the  Southern 
Methodist  Publishing  House  was  listed  as  the  publisher. 

The  Quarterly  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  was  discon- 
tinued in  1860,  with  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  It  was 
some  years  before  that  Church  recovered  from  war  enough 
to  publish  a  journal  again,  but  in  the  meanwhile  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1870,  struggling  to  get  the  Church 
back  after  the  ravages  its  people  had  suffered,  adopted 
the  Southern  Revietv  as  their  official  journal.  This  was 
edited  by  Albert  Taylor  Bledsoe  and  became  the 
"representative  connectional  publication"  of  the  Church, 
South. 

Bledsoe  had  begun  this  quarterly  journal  in  Balti- 
more in  1867  and  it  soon  obtained  a  wide  and  powerful 
influence  "over  the  southern  half  of  the  continent,"  as 
Bishop  Horace  DuBose  expressed  it.  Bishop  DuBose 
termed  Bledsoe  "a  demiurge  who  seemed  to  have  con- 
creted all  masteries  into  a  single  brain  and  taken  his 
place  upon  the  tripod.  Its  editor  being  a  Methodist  lay- 
man who  a  little  later  entered  into  the  local  ministry, 
the  people  called  Methodists  felt  a  peculiar  loyalty  to 
the  Review."  The  Recieiv  and  the  church's  support  of  it 
continued  to  the  close  of  1877  when  Bledsoe  died.  Bishop 
DuBose  properly  observed  that  the  numbers  of  this  maga- 
zine "are  a  repository  of  theological  and  philosophical 
thought  of  such  excellence  as  to  constitute  a  library  in 
themselves."  This  is  true,  and  the  forty-eight  issues  of 
the  Southern  Review  are  today  highly  prized,  cherished 
and  often  referred  to  in  many  important  libraries,  especial- 
ly over  the  South. 

Two  years  after  Bledsoe's  death,  in  1879,  the  old  Quar- 
terly of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  was  revived.  J.  W.  Hinton 
of  Macon,  Ga.  was  editor  and  J.  W.  Beck  of  Ch.atta- 
nooga  and  Birmingham  the  printers,  under  contract  with 
the  Southern  Methodist  Publishing  House  until  1887, 
when  the  "new  series  of  the  Quarterly  Review"  was  first 
printed  in  the  Nashville  plant. 

The  Southern  Methodist  Publishing  House  was  severely 
handicapped  by  the  Union  Army  of  Occupation  in  Nash- 
ville, when  it  commandeered  their  new  building  and 
equipment,  for  five  years,  as  Army  Headquarters.  "The 
Federal  War  Claims  Committee"  appraised  the  damage 
at  $500,000  but  the  Church  could  not  secure  an  act  of 
Congress  for  payment   until    1897,   when   a   compromise 


settlement  was  made  for  $288,000,  thirty-five  percent  of 
this  amount  going  for  attorneys'  fees,  and  cost  the  Church 
another  long  controversy. 

In  1886  appeared  the  first  two  of  many  articles  on 
"Union  of  the  Methodist  Churches."  W.  P.  Harrison  was 
editor  from  January  1887  through  1902,  when  John  J. 
Tigert  gave  distinction  to  the  magazine  until  1906.  Gross 
Alexander  was  listed  editor  during  1906,  however,  E.  E. 
Hoss  edited  the  quarterly  for  1907  when  Alexander  took 
over  the  editorship  until  1915.  Horace  DuBose  gave  edi- 
torial luster  to  "The  Review"  for  1916-18.  Frank  Thomas 
was  editor  for  1919-21,  to  be  succeeded  by  Gilbert 
RowE  from  1921-28.  William  Peter  King  became  the 
thirteenth  and  last  editor  in  1928  until  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1930  decreed  that  the  "Honorable  Methodist 
Quarterly  Revietv  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  be  discontinued  with  the  current  volume."  The 
depression  also  helped  to  terminate  the  Quarterly  Revietv 
of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1931.  Subsequently  Religion  in 
Life  began  to  be  published  under  the  auspices  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  and  this  journal  was  adopted  and  provi- 
sion made  for  its  continuance  in  The  Methodist  Church. 

Before  and  after  1860  brief  experiments  were  made  to 
publish  the  magazine  as  a  monthly  and  a  bi-monthly.  Dur- 
ing the  nineteenth  century  the  most  frequently  listed 
topics  were  on  Methodist  polity,  ministerial  education, 
Methodist  schools  and  colleges,  the  place  of  women  in  the 
church,  lay  representation  in  the  annual  and  general  con- 
ferences. Less  frequent  articles  explored  English  Litera- 
ture, biographies  and  missions. 

The  "dawn  of  the  golden  century"  was  hailed  in  1900. 
Articles  reflected  new  issues  in  the  twentieth  century  such 
as  secularism,  modernism,  fundamentalism,  the  "status  of 
the  Negro,"  labor,  temperance,  peace  and  woman  suffrage. 
By  1966  many  of  these  once  issues  have  been  resolved, 
or  are  now  rapidly  moving  towards  some  adjustment. 

H.  M.  DuBose,  History.  1916. 

Metlwdist  Quarterly  Revietv,  complete  file  on  microfilm  in  the 
Library  of  the  Methodist  Publishing  House,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

J.  Richard  Spann 

METHODIST  RECORDER,  THE,  a  Wesleyan  newspaper, 
first  issued  on  April  4,  1861,  under  G.  T.  Perks  and 
W.  Morley  Punshon,  was  more  liberal  and  cheaper 
than  The  Watchman.  Its  editors  or  managing-editors  have 
been  W.  T.  Davison,  Nehemiah  Curnock,  J.  B.  Watson, 
F.  D.  Wiseman,  R.  G.  Burnett,  and  the  present  editor, 
W.  E.  Pigott.  It  is  vigorously  independent  and  not  the 
property  of  the  denomination  or  the  Conference.  It  re- 
ports foreign  and  general  news  and  comments  thereon  in 
"Notes  of  the  Week."  Having  absorbed  The  Methodist 
Times  and  Leader  and  The  United  Methodist,  it  is  the 
only  Methodist  newspaper  circulating  today  in  England. 
A  series  of  "Winter  Numbers"  issued  annually  at  Christmas 
from  1892  to  1907  are  rich  in  articles  on  Methodist  his- 
tory.  (See  photo,  p.  1593.) 

The  Methodist  Recorder,  Centenary  supplement,  April  6,  1961. 

John  C.  Bowmer 

METHODIST  REVIVAL  FELLOWSHIP  was  fomied  in  1952 
by  a  few  evangelical  British  Methodist  ministers  and  lay- 
men who  had  begun  to  meet  together  annually  for  prayer 
and   Bible   study   shortly  after   the   Second   World   War. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


METHODIST   THEOLOGICAL   SCHOOL   IN   OHIO 


Unity 


'memo' 


to  the 


Anglicans 


5,874    THURSDAY.  JULY  2, 1810 


JUST 

IN 

CASE 

YOU 

NEED 

US... 


MANCHESTER 
A:  isALFUKD 
MISSION, 
lENTRAI. 


Conference  ready  now  for 
Stage  One 


SEVENTY-NINE  PER  CENT  SEAL 
ON  1969  DECISION 


BY  THE  EDITOR 


WhltHorth  Hall, 

Unireralty  of  Manchester, 

Saturday,  June  27 


The  Representative  Session  of  the  1970  Conference  this  morning  served 
notice  on  the  Church  of  KngliMiri  tliat  it  is  ready  to  proceed  with  Stage  One 
of  the  plan  for  Unity. 

It  was  made  clear  that  a  simple  majority  would  have  been  enough.  In  the 
event,  on  a  show  of  hands,  4S5  representatives  voted  in  favour  with  124 
against,  a  majority  of  79.64  per  cent 

Earlier  in  the  year  twenty-nine  Synods  liad  given  approval  to  the  1969 
decision  in  the  foUowing  terms: 

The  Coofennoe,  affirming  Hs  faith  that  the  Holy  Spirit  wlD  lead  ns 

intc  a  new  Church,  gives  approval  to  the  inaaguration  of  Stage  One  of  the 

Anglinui-Methodist  proposats. 


Methodist  Recorder 


Since  that  date  it  has  grown  (1963)  to  a  fellowship  of 
some  two  hundred  ministers  and  over  a  thousand  laymen, 
whose  membership  is  scattered  not  only  in  British  Meth- 
odism but  through  the  mission  field.  It  also  has  branches 
in  Australia  and  New  ZEALA>fD.  Its  aims  are  to  encour- 
age study  of  the  ways  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  worked 
in  past  revivals,  and  to  stimulate  prayer  for  a  revival  in 
the  present  age,  believing  that  this  is  a  most  desperate 
need.  In  order  to  prepare  for  revival,  the  fellowship  be- 
lieves that  there  is  a  need  to  stress  not  only  prayer,  but 
also  dependence  upon  the  Scriptures  and  in  particular 
the  doctrines  of  assurance  and  scriptural  holiness. 

Robin  J.  O.  Catlin 

METHODIST  SOCIETY  (Stillwellites),  U.S.A.,  was  formed 
in  1820  in  New  York  when  Samuel  Stillwell,  a  prom- 
inent politician  in  New  York  City  and  leader  of  a  class 
of  Negroes,  and  William  M.  Stillwell,  his  nephew 
and  traveling  preacher  in  charge  of  two  Negro  congrega- 
tions in  New  York  City,  led  over  300  people  out  of  the 
M.E.  Church.  The  cause  of  the  schism  was  a  resolution 
passed  by  the  1820  General  Conference  concerning 
the  trust  clause  in  the  deed.  The  Conference  said  it  would 
henceforth  admit  no  charter  for  any  house  of  worship  not 
in  keeping  with  the  Discipline  of  the  M.E.  Church.  This 
resolution   offended   many  of   the   independently-minded 


New  York  Methodists,  who  then  left  to  foim  the  Methodist 
Society  in  the  City  of  New  York. 

The  new  church  was  congregational;  bishops  and  pre- 
siding elders  had  no  place  in  the  organization.  The  Bible 
was  to  be  the  guide  of  discipline,  and  any  rules  were  to  be 
made  by  the  members'  vote.  A  Discipline  was  published 
in  1821  and  a  periodical,  The  Friendly  Visitor,  began.  In 
1826  disagreement  over  whether  the  church  was  to  be 
purely  congregational  or  somewhat  connectional  caused 
a  split.  The  2,000  member  body  had  spread  to  Con- 
neticut.  New  Jersey,  and  Long  Island.  After  the  split, 
the  church  died  out,  though  William  Stillwell  continued 
to  preach  in  an  independent  Methodist  church  until  1851. 

Frederick  E.  Maser  and  George  A.  Singleton,  "Further 
Branches  of  Methodism  are  Founded,"  in  History  of  American 
Methodism,   1964.  J.   Gordon   Melton 

METHODIST  STUDENT  MOVEMENT.  (See  Youth  Move- 
ment.) 

METHODIST  THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOL  IN  OHIO,  Dela- 
ware, Ohio,  was  authorized  by  the  General  Conference 
of  1956,  when  that  body  called  for  expansion  in  the  edu- 
cation of  ministers.  For  several  years  prior  to  this  date, 
Ohio  Methodists,  under  the  leadership  of  Bishop  Hazen 
G.   Werner,   had  been   studying   the   possibihties  for   a 


METHODIST   UNION   FOR   SOCIAL   SERVICE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


seminary  in  Ohio.  Between  1956  and  1960,  Ohio  Meth- 
odists raised  $3,500,000  in  a  state-wide  campaign.  Later, 
$2,000,000  was  added.  Ohio  Wesleyan  University 
gave  the  school  fifty-seven  acres  for  a  campus,  and  an 
additional  fifteen-acre  plot  was  obtained.  The  physical 
plant,  dedicated  October  14,  1960,  was  erected  at  a 
cost  of  $4,000,000.  Instruction  began  in  September, 
1960.  The  seminary  gives  a  B.D.  degree.  The  governing 
board  is  made  up  of  forty-four  trustees,  twelve  each 
elected  by  two  Ohio  conferences;  nine  from  bordering 
annual  conferences,  nominated  by  the  bishops  and 
elected  by  the  conferences;  ten  at  large;  and  the  bishops 
of  the  two  Ohio  areas. 

John  O.  Gross 

METHODIST  UNION  FOR  SOCIAL  SERVICE,  an  organiza- 
tion founded  by  S.  E.  Keeble  in  1905,  and  dissolved  in 
1926  when  its  functions  were  taken  over  by  the  Temper- 
ance Department  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Maldwyn  L.  Edwards,  S.  E.  Keeble,  London,  Epworth  Press, 
[?  19.50].  Frank  Baker 

METHODIST  UNITARIAN  MOVEMENT,  THE,  (1806-58) 
forms  the  only  real  example  of  Methodist  deviation  upon 
doctrinal  grounds.  It  was  founded  by  Joseph  Cooke 
(1775-1811),  and  gave  birth  to  vigorous  churches  on  the 
borders  of  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire.  Because  of  two 
sermons  preached  at  Rochdale  in  1805,  Cooke  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  Methodist  Society  on  grounds  of  doctrinal 
error.  Although  he  never  reached  a  Unitarian  position, 
he  appeared  to  have  Socinian  leanings,  and  the  Meth- 
odist Unitarian  Movement  was  the  logical  outcome  of  his 
methods  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  His  followers  be- 
came known  as  "Cookites,"  and  their  first  chapel  was 
built  in  Rochdale  in  1806,  followed  by  one  at  Newchurch- 
in-Rossendale  in  1809.  The  earliest  extant  plan  (1812) 
shows  eighteen  preachers  and  prayer  leaders  and  sixteen 
places. 

Closely  associated  with  Cooke  was  John  Ashworth.  The 
introduction  of  the  Cookites  to  organized  Unitarianism 
arose  as  a  result  of  their  preachers  occasionally  supplying 
the  pulpit  of  the  Elland  Unitarian  Chapel,  at  that  time 
in  a  straitened  condition.  The  first  annual  meeting  of  the 
Methodist  Unitarian  Association,  which  existed  until  1844, 
was  held  in  Rochdale  in  1818.  In  the  following  years 
Richard  Wright  (1764-1836),  an  itinerant  of  the  Unitarian 
Fund,  a  missionary  society  established  by  the  Unitarians  in 
1806,  stimulated  and  encouraged  the  Methodist  Unitarian 
congregations.  About  1838,  however,  their  organization 
began  to  dissolve.  The  leaders  of  the  movement  died; 
John  Ashworth  in  1851;  James  Taylor  in  1856;  James 
Wilkinson,  the  last  of  the  faithful  band  of  Cookite  preach- 
ers, in  1858.  Henceforth  the  congregations  became  in- 
dependent in  government  and  discipline,  and  passed  into 
the  main  stream  of  Unitarian  Christianity.  Ashworth  was 
the  author  of  Ten  Letters:  Giving  an  account  of  the 
Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Unitarian  Doctrine  in  the  Soci- 
eties .  .  .  formerly  in  connection  with  the  late  Joseph 
Cooke  (1817;  2nd  ed.,  1829;  reprinted,  1870). 

The  government  and  discipline  of  the  movement  was 
Methodist;  the  annual  meeting  of  the  association  was  a 
Methodist  conference  in  miniature.  The  movement 
strongly  supported  the  growth  of  Sunday  schools,  an  out- 
standing example  of   which   was   at   Todmorden,    where 


John  Fielden  (1784-1849),  M.  P.,  was  superintendent. 
The  half  century  during  which  the  movement  flourished 
was  a  period  of  social  and  political  unrest.  The  Methodist 
Unitarians  were,  in  the  main,  weavers,  colliers,  and 
artisans,  and  their  ministers  belonged  to  the  same  class. 
Fielden  threw  himself  into  the  crusade  for  factory  reform, 
and  many  Methodist  Unitarians  were  behind  the  Tod- 
morden Political  Union,  formed  in  1831  to  obtain  radical 
reforms,  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  oppression.  Of  the 
pobtical  council,  numbering  twenty,  seven  were  prominent 
Methodist  Unitarians.  The  Methodist  Unitarians  also  num- 
bered in  their  ranks  some  of  the  earliest  advocates  of 
cooperation  in  England. 

H.  McLachlan,  The  Methodist  Unitarian  Movement.  Man- 
chester,   1919.  John    T.    Wilkinson 

METHODIST  WOMEN'S  FELLOWSHIP  in  New  Zealand 
came  into  being  on  Feb.  1,  1964,  for  the  first  time  com- 
bining all  women's  work  in  the  church  into  a  single,  na- 
tionwide movement.  The  former  Women's  Missionary 
Union  and  the  Women's  Guild  Fellowship  thereupon 
ceased  to  exist;  and  in  addition  many  local  groups,  various- 
ly known  as  Fireside  Clubs,  Young  Mothers'  Groups  and 
so  on,  were  affiliated  to  the  movement.  The  result  has  been 
a  great  increase  in  efficiency  and  a  considerable  saving  in 
overhead  expenses. 

The  new  movement  has  taken  over  the  programs  and 
responsibilities  of  the  former  separate  organizations.  Its 
executive  powers  are  vested  in  a  national  convention 
which  meets  annually  in  October.  Membership  is  ap- 
proximately ten  thousand,  and  the  amount  raised  for  na- 
tional objectives  (year  ending  August  31,  1966)  was 
£18,000.  In  addition,  local  fellowships  raised  a  further 
£20,000  for  circuit  and  trust  objectives. 

New  Zealand  Metlwdist  Conference  Minutes,  1964-66. 

L.  R.  M.  GiLMORE 

METHODIST  WOMEN'S  MISSIONARY   UNION  in  New 

Zealand  was  formed  in  1915.  For  many  years  auxiliaries  or 
groups  of  missionary  minded  women  had  been  working 
for  missionary  advancement:  in  Dunedin  from  1902,  in 
Christchurch  from  1907,  in  Auckland  and  Wellington 
from  1908.  Representatives  of  these  and  other  auxiliaries 
— twelve  in  all — met  in  Christchurch  in  1915  and  formed 
the  Methodist  Women's  Missionary  Union  and  annual 
conferences  have  been  held  ever  since. 

In  1962,  the  union  reported  226  auxiliaries  with  a  total 
membership  of  6,363.  The  income  for  1960-61  was 
£17,302.  Since  1906,  gift  parcels  have  been  sent  periodi- 
ically  to  home  and  overseas  sisters  engaged  in  missionary 
work.  Kurahuna,  a  hostel  for  Maori  girls  was  opened  by 
the  union  and  is  still  supported  by  members  of  the  Meth- 
odist Women's  Fellowship.  Each  year,  a  special  objective 
was  accepted  by  the  union;  and  in  1960-61,  £2,750  was 
raised  and  sent  to  the  Home  and  Maori  Mission  Depart- 
ment to  assist  in  replacing  furniture  and  amenities  in 
one  of  the  department's  hostels  for  Maori  girls. 

The  "Gleaners'  Circle"  has  always  endeavored  to  enlist 
support  for  missions  from  women  living  in  isolated  places. 
Gleaners  have  been  sent  regular  missionary  letters  from 
the  national  president  and  from  missionary  sisters.  Used 
stamps  are  sold  too;  and  in  1960-61,  £1,486  was  raised 
in  this  way. 

District  conventions  have  been  a  feature  of  the  union 


WORLD   METHODISM 


program,  and  the  movement  has  been  singularly  used  of 
God  to  enrich  the  spiritual  life  of  the  church. 

In  1964,  the  union  united  with  the  Women's  Guild 
Fellowship  to  form  a  single  movement  known  as  the  Meth- 
odist Women's  Fellowship.  All  former  activities  of  the 
union  are  continued  by  the  new  fellowship  movement. 

Kurahuna,  a  Maori  girls'  school  hostel,  at  Onehunga, 
Auckland,  New  Zealand,  owned  and  operated  by  the 
Women's  Missionary  Union  (and  now  by  the  new  Fellow- 
ship Movement),  was  opened  on  January  26,  1931,  as  the 
Kurahuna  School  of  Domestic  Science  and  Hygiene  for 
the  training  of  adolescent  Maori  girls.  Union  members 
raised  most  of  the  money  to  purchase  a  house  and  land 
and  have  maintained  the  work  by  instituting  a  penny-per- 
week-per-member  fund.  In  1944  the  policy  was  changed 
to  take  younger  Maori  girls  who  live  at  the  hostel  and 
receive  Christian  and  domestic  training,  while  attending 
the  local  primary  and  secondary  schools. 

Methodist  Women's  Missionary  Union  Souvenirs  and  Reports. 

William  T.  Blight 

METHOPRESS.  ( See  Argentina.  ) 

METHVIN,  JOHN  JASPER  (1846-1941),  American 
preacher  and  missionary  to  the  Indians  of  Oklahoma,  was 
born  in  Jeffersonville,  Ga.,  Dec.  17,  1846.  Educated  in  the 
schools  of  Georgia  after  serving  two  years  in  the  Con- 
federate States  Army,  he  became  a  lawyer,  then  a  teacher 
in  the  public  schools,  and  then  became  president  of 
Gainesville  College  and  also  of   Butler  Female  College. 

He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 
in  1870,  ordained  deacon  in  1874,  admitted  on  trial  in 
the  Indian  Mission  Conference  and  ordained  elder  in 
1885,  and  admitted  to  full  membership  in  1887,  super- 
numerary in  1905,  and  retired  in  1908. 

In  1885  John  Methvin  heard  the  call  of  the  church  for 
missionaries  to  the  Indians  and  went  out  to  be  Super- 
intendent of  New  Hope  Seminary  for  girls  among  the 
Choctaws.  The  next  year  he  had  similar  work  at  Seminole 
Academy.  During  this  year  he  made  a  tour  of  the  Western 
Tribes  in  Oklahoma  Territory,  and  wrote  a  report  of 
conditions  among  these  Indians  urging  that  missionaries  be 
sent.  At  the  Annual  Conference  on  Oct.  12,  1887,  he 
was  appointed  "Missionary  to  the  Western  Tribes." 

Immediately,  he  and  his  wife  and  children  began  the 
long  journey  west  to  Anadarko,  Okla.,  where  the  Indian 
Agency  for  these  tribes  was  located.  He  spent  two  years 
visiting  the  tribes  from  Kansas  to  Texas,  and  decided  to 
concentrate  on  the  Kiowa,  Comanche  and  Apache  tribes. 
A  parsonage  was  built  with  an  annex  for  public  worship, 
and  the  Indians  were  invited  to  join  in  the  "New  Wor- 
ship." 

He  visited  in  teepees  and  tents,  held  prayer  sei^vices, 
talked  with  individuals,  speaking  through  interpreters. 
He  made  it  clear  he  wanted  nothing  other  than  the  op- 
portunity to  tell  them  of  the  love  of  God  for  all  men. 
Among  the  very  first  converts  was  an  Indian  chief, 
To-hau-sin,  and  many  followed  his  lead.  Churches  and 
Sunday  schools  were  started,  and  in  1890  a  day  school 
was  opened.  This  was  known  as  "Methvin  Institute"  and 
for  twenty  years  it  was  one  of  the  great  civilizing  agencies. 
A  ready  writer,  many  articles  and  books  came  from  his 
pen.  Among  them  are:  Our  Brother  in  Red,  Andele  or  the 
Mexican-Kiowa  Captive,  Fig  Leaves  or  Else,  and  In  the 
Limelight. 


He  died  Jan.  17,  1941,  and  his  body  was  laid  to  rest 
in  the  cemetery  at  Anadarko,  in  the  land  and  among  the 
people  he  loved. 

Clegg  and  Oden,  Oklahoma.  1968. 

Journals  of  the  Oklalioma  Conference  and  the  Indian  Mission 

Conference.  C.    E.   Nisbett 

MEXICAN  BORDER  CONFERENCE.  (See  Rio  Grande 
Conference.) 

MEXICO  (Estados  Unidos  Mexicanos)  is  located  in  North 
America,  bordered  by  the  U.S.A.  and  Guatemala,  and 
has  an  area  of  1,972,545  square  kilometers.  The  popula- 
tion is  48,600,000  (1970)  and  increases  at  the  rate  of 
1,400,000  a  year.  It  is  fifteen  percent  white  of  European 
extraction,  twenty-nine  percent  indigenous,  fifty-five  per- 
cent mixed  races  (mestizos),  and  one  percent  of  other 
races.  The  official  language  is  Spanish. 

Mexico  has  a  variety  of  climates.  The  main  sources  of 
its  economy  are  agriculture,  livestock  and  mining. 

As  early  as  eight  to  ten  thousand  years  B.C.,  nomad 
tribes  wandered  through  its  territory.  The  Maya-quiche 
and  the  Nahuatl  groups  were  outstanding.  They  were 
highly  developed,  but  they  were  in  a  period  of  decline, 
and  were  conquered  by  the  Aztecs,  a  warrior  people. 
During  this  period,  in  1519,  Hernando  Cortez  landed  in 
Vera  Cruz. 

The  conquest  of  Mexico  was  done  by  Spanish  adven- 
turers interested  in  gold,  not  in  God.  The  natives,  ac- 
cording to  their  traditions,  took  them  to  be  descendants 
of  their  god  (Quetzalcoatl).  Assisted  by  Franciscan, 
Dominican  and  Augustinian  monks,  the  conquerors  took 
over  all  power,  imposed  their  civilization  and  established 
a  social  life  according  to  the  feudal  system  from  Europe. 
Big  haciendas  were  built;  slavery  and  exploitation  were 
effected  in  the  name  of  the  new  religion. 

Europeans  destroyed  the  native  idols,  substituting  for 
them  statues  of  Mary  and  of  the  infant  Jesus.  They 
evangelized  them,  imposing  ideas  and  rituals  by  force, 
and  baptized  them  by  thousands.  Conversion  was  made 
to  forms,  therefore  the  result  was  syncretism,  and  the 
natives  were  made  to  live  in  darkness,  superstition,  and 
ignorance.  A  few  priests,  like  Bartolome  de  las  Casas  and 
Fr.  Pedro  de  Gante,  are  remembered  for  their  good  inten- 
tions and  efforts  to  protect  the  defenseless,  innocent  na- 
tives. Such  was  the  colonial  period  for  300  years. 

Mexico  fought  its  war  of  independence  from  Spain  in 
1810,  led  by  Miguel  Hidalgo  y  Costilla,  a  priest.  A  period 
of  chaos  followed.  By  1857  there  was  in  existence  a  liberal 
party.  It  was  composed  of  men  who  were  not  under  the 
control  of  the  traditional  church;  they  were  free  to  think 
and  to  act  for  themselves.  Through  the  assistance  of  this 
party  the  President  Benito  Juarez,  an  Indian,  was  able 
to  consolidate  the  Republic  and  to  strengthen  it.  Under 
his  leadership  there  was  formulated  the  progressive  con- 
stitution of  1857  and  the  famous  laws  of  reform  were 
enacted.  These  two  documents  established  freedom  of 
religion,  the  separation  of  Church  and  State,  the  nation- 
alization of  cemeteries  and  of  the  property  of  the  clergy, 
lay  teaching  in  the   official  schools,   and  civil  marriage. 

Following  Juarez  there  was  a  thirty-four  year  period 
of  dictatorship  under  Porfirio  Diaz.  In  1910  Mexico  was 
again  involved  in  a  much  bigger  revolution,  social  in 
essence  and  purpose,  started  by  Francisco  I.  Madero.  This 
revolution  is  even  going  on  today,  and  has  provided  for 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


a  new  nation.  The  Constitution  was  revised  and  a  new 
one  made  in  1917,  which  provided  justice  for  all,  estab- 
lished national  sovereignty,  safeguarded  individual  rights, 
and  recognized  the  rights  of  the  manual  worker  and  the 
need  of  agrarian  changes.  Through  the  years  major 
developments  have  been  in  industry  and  commerce,  edu- 
cation for  all,  new  content  and  meaning  in  international 
relations,  and  self-determination  for  a  new  nation,  old 
though  it  be. 

It  is  recognized  that  the  natives  of  Mexico  were  very 
religious.  There  was,  however,  not  much  progress,  due 
to  the  type  of  Christianity  brought  by  the  conquistadores 
and  lived  by  the  colonizers.  The  Bible  was  practically 
unknown  by  the  priesthood  and  forbidden  to  be  read 
or  owned  by  lay  people.  Roman  Catholicism  was  the 
official  religion.  An  effort  to  evaluate  the  effect  of  the 
church  in  Mexico  at  that  time  shows  that  much  of  the 
misery,  illiteracy,  backwardness,  and  unrest  of  the  people 
was  due  to  the  inability  of  the  clergy  to  see  the  needs 
of  the  people  as  they  ought  to  have  done. 

The  reform  movement  under  Juarez  favored  freedom 
of  worship.  Liberalism  peimeated  different  levels  of 
society.  The  Inquisition  was  forbidden,  therefore  it  was 
possible  to  strengthen  colportage.  Work  of  the  British 
and  American  Bible  Societies  started  in  1827.  By  1860 
Protestant  missionary  work  was  being  done  along  the 
U.  S.  border  and  missionaries  were  even  sent  south  into 
the  country. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  President  Benito  Juarez  said,  "I 
could  wish  that  Protestantism  would  become  Mexican  by 
conquering  the  Indians;  they  need  a  religion  which  will 
compel  them  to  read  and  not  to  spend  their  savings  on 
candles  for  the  saints."  He  also  said,  "Upon  the  develop- 
ment of  Protestantism  depends  the  future  happiness  and 
prosperity  of  my  nation." 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Mexico.  Two  main 
branches  of  Methodism  from  the  United  States  opened 
work  in  Mexico.  The  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  appointed  a  committee  in  1836  to  consider  the 
advisability  of  establishing  work  in  Mexico  and  South 
America.  In  November  1871,  under  the  leadership  of 
Bishop  Matthew  Simpson,  an  appropriation  for  the  work 
was  made.  In  1872  William  Butler  was  selected  to  be 
superintendent  of  the  work  in  Mexico.  Bishop  Gilbert 
Haven  preceded  him  and  arrived  at  the  port  of  Vera 
Cruz  in  December  of  1872,  and  on  Christmas  day  he  was 
a  passenger  on  the  first  through  train  of  the  newly  con- 
structed railroad  to  M6xico  City. 

William  Butler  has  been  called  "the  founder  of  two 
missions,"  because  twenty  years  before  he  came  to  Mexico, 
he  had  gone  on  a  similar  work  to  India.  He  arrived  in 
Mexico  City,  Feb.  23,  1873,  and  remained  there  seven 
years,  after  which  he  returned  to  the  United  States.  He 
was  an  efficient  and  skillfull  worker.  Soon  after  arriving 
in  Mexico  City,  he  managed  to  buy  a  property.  It  hap- 
pened to  be  the  cloister  of  the  first  Franciscan  monastery 
erected  in  the  Americas.  It  is  located  on  Gante  Street, 
No.  5,  the  place  in  which  Fr.  Pedro  de  Gante  had  estab- 
hshed  the  first  grammar  school  in  the  continent  and  had 
opened  it  for  the  Indians.  The  place  was  dedicated,  and 
consecrated  as  a  Methodist  Church,  and  opened  to  public 
worship  on  Christmas  day  of  1873. 

Southern  Methodism.  In  1873  the  Louisiana  Confer- 
ence met  at  New  Orleans.  Bishop  George  F.  Pierce 
was  presiding,  and  invited  Bishop  John  C.  Keener  to 


make  a  few  remarks.  In  his  speech  he  mentioned  interest 
in  Mexico,  the  closest  neighbor,  and  thrilled  his  hearers 
with  an  account  of  the  conversion  of  Alejo  Hernandez, 
a  political  exile  from  Mexico  then  living  in  Brownsville, 
Texas.  When  he  finished,  a  voice  from  the  rear  of  the 
church  called  out,  "If  there  were  sufiicient  money,  could 
you  go  to  Mexico?"  To  this  Bishop  Keener  responded, 
"Of  course  I  could  go."  A  collection  was  raised,  and  so 
the  first  missionary  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  was 
Bishop  Keener.  He  embarked  on  the  steamer  Tabasco 
for  Vera  Cruz. 

By  1875  he  had  secured  a  property  in  Mexico  City 
to  be  used  as  a  church.  It  was  the  San  Andres  Chapel 
which  had  been  a  part  of  the  Capuchin  monastery.  They 
called  it  "The  Messiah"  in  Mexico  City,  and  it  later  be- 
came the  Church  of  El  Mesias.  Alejo  Hernandez  was  then 
appointed  pastor  of  the  newly  organized  church,  and 
Sostenes  Juarez,  a  man  distantly  related  to  the  famous 
president,  preached  the  first  sermon  in  Spanish  to  a 
Spanish  congregation  of  seven  persons.  Before  returning 
to  the  States,  the  founder  appointed  J.  L.  Daves  the  first 
superintendent  of  that  Mexican  Mission. 

Protestant  work  in  Mexico  during  that  time  was  very 
difficult  for  the  Methodists,  as  for  all  Protestants.  The 
people  were  divided  into  two  classes,  the  rich  and  the 
poor,  and  the  poor  were  very  poor.  Fanaticism  created 
great  opposition.  Persecution  was  almost  everywhere. 
Families  were  divided  on  account  of  faith.  New  converts 
were  ostracized  by  their  relatives  and  friends.  However, 
the  work  was  carried  on  courageously  by  both  the  mis- 
sionaries and  the  congregations.  With  firm  resolution  they 
planted  the  seed. 

In  accord  with  the  times,  the  work  was  led  by  mis- 
sionaries, mainly  from  the  U.S.A.:  men  and  women, 
preachers  and  teachers.  They  established  churches,  day 
schools,  seminaries,  orphanages  and  medical  clinics  in 
some  of  the  most  important  cities,  such  as  Chihuahua, 
Durango,  Torreon,  Monterrey,  Guadalajara,  General 
Teran,  Saltillo,  Guanajuato,  Queretaro,  Pachuca,  Puebla, 
Caxaca,  San  Luis  Potosi  and  the  Federal  District. 


Templo  Metodista,  Durango,  Mexico 

Very  soon  because  of  the  readiness  in  many  ways  of 
the  country  and  its  people,  there  were  converts  and 
naturally  national  leaders  began  to  share  in  the  work, 
taking  upon  themselves  important  duties. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Long  would  be  the  list  of  that  legion  of  faithful  workers 
from  both  countries  who  witnessed  to  their  faith  in  Christ 
and  tried  to  help  others  to  find  peace,  happiness  and 
salvation.  It  would  be  impossible  to  forget  such  mission- 
aries as  John  W.  Butler  and  his  wife,  Sarah;  J.  P.  Hauser 
and  Mrs.  Gould  C.  Hauser;  Jackson  B.  Cox;  Frank  S. 
Onderdonk;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lemuel  Newberry.  In  the 
field  of  education  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Matthew  D.  Smith,  Ethel 
Thomas,  Laura  Temple,  Helen  Hewith,  Grace  Hallister 
and  Mae  B.  Seal.  In  the  training  of  the  ministry,  Milton 
C.  Davis;  in  medical  work.  Miss  Edna  Pathoff  and  Dr. 
Levi  B.  Salmans;  in  social  work  and  evangelism,  Hattie  L. 
Ayres,  Lillie  Fox,  Leila  Roberts,  Helen  M.  Hodgson, 
Bishop  W.  P.  Thirkield,  and  Bishop  George  A.  Miller. 

Some  outstanding  nationals  ought  to  be  mentioned. 
Ministers:  Agustin  Palacios,  Justo  M.  Euroza,  Pedro  Flores 
Valderrama,  Victoriano  D.  Baez,  Vincente  Mendoza, 
Epigmenio  Velasco,  Eduardo  Guerra  S.,  Agapito  C. 
Coronado,  Caspar  Garza  y  Garza,  Benjamin  Fernandez, 
Felipe  Rincon,  Raul  Rios  Leon,  Eucario  M.  Sein,  Ernesto 
M.  Villansana,  J.  T.  Ramirez,  and  Manuel  V.  Flores.  In 
the  field  of  education,  Juan  Diaz  Galindo,  Manuela 
Vargas,  Antonio  Carro,  Agustin  Romero  Lopez,  Francisco 
Cruz  Aedo,  Benjamin  N.  Velasco,  Francisco  Cepeda  C. 
and  Maria  Gonzalez.  Women  active  in  denominational 
and  interdenominational  work,  Mrs.  Josefina  C.  de 
Velasco,  Elisa  S.  de  Pascoe,  Maria  Q.  de  Frausto, 
Guadelupe  S.  de  Perales,  Elizabeth  M.  de  Lopez,  Mercedes 
Fernandez,  Maclovia  Garza  Flores,  Victoria  Reyes,  and 
Carmen  Davila. 

Mexican  Methodism  United.  Methodist  unity  came 
true  in  Mexico  on  Sept.  16,  1930,  even  before  the  union 
in  the  U.S.A.  From  the  beginning  the  M.  E.  Church  and 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South  in  Mexico  were  somewhat  re- 
lated and  very  much  in  parallel.  Each  worked  indepen- 
dently and  attained  triumphs  and  successes  or  faced  dan- 
gers on  its  own,  but  often  there  was  coordination.  They 
supported  enthusiastically  the  "National  Convention,"  an 
interdenominational  annual  gathering  for  inspiration  and 
spiritual  growth.  From  it  much  fruit  has  come  about. 

In  1917-19  there  was  a  joint  effort  in  which  several 
Missionary  Boards  proclaimed  the  "Cincinnati  Plan."  This 
plan  expressed  the  desire  and  the  imperative  need  to 
establish  not  only  fraternal  relations  between  the  two 
Methodist  churches,  but  also  intimate  and  organic  forms 
of  cooperation  with  each  other.  The  Central  Area  Latin 
American  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  was  held  in 
Panama.  Mexico  was  worthily  represented  by  Bishop 
Wilbur  P.  Thirkield,  Vincente  Mendoza,  Victoriano  D. 
Baez,  and  Epigmenio  Velasco.  Those  men  were  commis- 
sioned to  work  towards  the  unification  of  the  two  branches 
of  Methodism  before  the  next  General  Conference.  The 
following  Annual  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  meet- 
ing in  Mexico  City  and  presided  over  by  Bishop  George 
A.  Miller,  approved  unanimously  the  idea,  and  asked  the 
Bishop  to  write  a  project  for  unification.  There  was  similar 
support  at  the  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South, 
presided  over  by  Bishop  William  B.   Beauchamp. 

Duly  representative  committees  were  appointed  to 
study  and  work  on  the  project.  Approval  was  given  by  the 
General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  Kansas  City, 
Mo.,  May  25,  1928,  and  by  the  General  Conference  of 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South  at  Dallas,  Texas,  May  14,  1930. 
The  four  ofiicial  committees  met  in  Mexico  City  on  July 
7  and  8,  1930,  with  twenty  representatives  from  each 
Conference.  Bishop  W.   A.   Candler  presided  and   uni- 


fication was  accomplished  in  the  Iglesia  Metodista  de 
Mexico,  an  autonomous  entity,  affiliated  with  the  mother 
churches. 

On  Sept.  16,  1930,  on  the  day  of  the  celebration  of  the 
independence  of  Mexico,  with  a  solemn  sei"vice,  the  ses- 
sion of  the  First  General  Conference  was  opened  to  estab- 
lish the  Methodist  Church  of  Mexico.  Victoriano  D.  Baez 


Iglesia  Metodista  El  Divino  Salvador,  Juarez,  Mexico 

presided.  Legislation  was  enacted  and  promulgated  in  the 
original  Discipline.  Plans  for  work  were  formulated  and 
Juan  Nicanor  Pascoe  was  elected  the  first  bishop  of  the 
Iglesia  Metodista  de  Mexico.  He  was  consecrated  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday,  Sept.  21,  1930. 

Medical  work  was  most  urgent  when  Methodism  began. 
Dr.  Levi  B.  Salmans  established  in  Guanajuato  an  impor- 
tant center  which  no  longer  exists.  There  were  others  in 
Monterrey,  San  Luis  Postosi  and  Mexico  City.  The  people 
lacked  knowledge,  and  illness  and  suffering  were 
abundant.  There  was  very  little  application  of  hygienic 
measures.  Medicines  and  hospital  care  were  very  expen- 
sive. Much  work  was  done  through  teaching,  campaigns, 
lecturing,  and  practical  service,  through  improvised  clinics 
and  movable  staff.  Now  that  the  Social  Security  program 
of  the  Government  has  taken  the  major  responsibility  for 
medical  care  for  working  men  and  their  families,  the 
church  tries  to  help  in  areas  where  the  need  is  not  met 
by  the  government  program. 


Sanatorio  Palmore,  Chihuahua,  Mexico 

An  important  Methodist  medical  center  exists  in 
Chihuahua.  The  Sanatorio  Palmore,  with  a  plant  valued 
at  four  million  Mexican  pesos,  a  school  for  nurses,  a 
combined    staff    of    evangehcal    and    non-church-related 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


doctors,  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  important 
medical  centers  in  the  north  of  the  country-.  There  is  still 
a  ministry  to  be  carried  on  in  producing  Christian  nurses 
and  Christian  doctors,  not  only  trained  with  the  best  of 
knowledge  but  with  the  love  of  Christ. 

Education.  The  first  missionaries  of  the  Methodist 
Church  recognized  the  great  need  for  schools  and  edu- 
cation for  the  underprivileged  masses,  and  schools  of 
higher  learning,  especially  for  the  training  of  teachers.  In 
most  cases  a  day  school  was  built  by  the  side  of  the 
church.  The  pastor  was  at  the  same  time  teacher  in  the 
school.  Even  through  the  revolutionary  years,  up  to  1930, 
Protestant  schools  were  recognized  as  among  the  out- 
standing centers  of  education,  because  of  their  quality 
and  moral  contribution.  One  emphasis  of  the  Mexican 
Revolution  still  in  process  is  a  strong  program  of  edu- 
cation, which  includes  school  buildings  with  the  best  of 
equipment,  the  training  of  teachers,  a  program  of  develop- 
ment to  take  care  of  the  needs  of  a  fast-developing  coun- 
try, and  facilities  for  students  to  study  for  a  career  to  be 
trained  abroad  in  technical  fields. 

The  Protestant  schools  still  have  a  place.  Colegio  Pal- 
more  in  Chihuahua,  under  the  leadership  of  Francisco 
Cepeda,  in  celebrating  its  seventy-five  years  of  service, 
finds  its  graduates  in  key  positions  in  government,  in- 
dustry, commerce,  education,  as  well  as  members  of  a 
society  where  Christian  ideals  and  standards  learned  at 
the  school  find  a  place  of  operation.  There  is  Colegio 
Elliot  Torreon,  Instituto  "Dr.  Andres  Osuna"  in  Piedras 
Negras,  and  Colegio  Juarez  in  Guanajuato. 

Queretaro,  a  city  full  of  history,  still  feels  the  impact 
of  the  Instituto  Benjamin  N.  Velasco,  a  militarized  school. 
Augustin  Romero  Lopez  has  rendered  sei-vice  to  the 
church,  the  community  and  the  country  in  assisting 
parents  in  the  education  of  their  boys. 

Pachuca  will  long  hve,  although  Manuela  Vargas  re- 
tired from  active  work  and  Antonio  Cano  Zempualteca 
has  been  called  home  to  his  deserved  reward.  The  Hijas 
de  Allende  and  the  Julian  Villagran  schools  will  live  on 
with  a  high  record  for  their  services.  Ministers,  school 
teachers,  outstanding  professional  men,  and  active  work- 
ers in  many  organizations  found  training,  inspiration  and 
backing  at  these  important  schools. 

Puebla  is  another  important  state  capital  where  two 
schools  were  established.  The  life  of  the  city  has  been 
affected  in  more  than  one  way.  Juarez  School,  Instituto 
NoiTnal  Mexico,  and  Instituto  Mexicano  Madero  will  re- 
member names  like  Blanche  Betz,  Juana  Palacios,  Adela 
Palacios,  Angela  Lozano,  Altagracia  Juarez.  Maria  Robles, 
and  Consuelo  Vargas  de  Romero,  Pedro  Flores  Valde- 
rrama,  Gonzalo  Baez-Camargo,  Carlos  Laguna,  Juan  Diaz 
Galindo,  Francisco  Cruz  Aedo  and  Miguel  Sarmiento  and 
many  more  who  taught  at  these  institutions.  No  matter 
where  they  are  living  or  working  such  mottoes  as  "the  best 
culture  for  the  best  service,"  along  with  the  inspiring 
personalities  and  living  examples,  will  enlarge  the  action 
of  such  schools.  Many  of  their  students  have  been  active 
leaders  in  the  progress  of  their  home  towns.  Some  are 
authors  of  text  books,  some  are  active  church  leaders. 
Deaconesses  and  ministers  trained  in  Methodist  schools 
are  now  the  pride  of  the  two  Annual  Conferences.  Some 
are  serving  the  church  in  other  countries.  Through  edu- 
cation, the  Methodist  Church  has  made  a  great  contribu- 
tion to  Mexican  life. 

In  Mexico  City,  Laura  Temple's  vision  still  holds  on. 


Ethel  Thomas,  Sara  Alarcon,  Delfina  Huerta  and  many 
others  have  carried  since  1906  the  school  for  girls,  which 
even  today  is  an  important  asset  for  the  activities  of  the 
Methodist  Church. 

Methodism  could  not  have  carried  on  as  successfully 
as  it  has  without  training  girls  to  become  deaconesses. 
Such  a  school  is  now  directed  by  Miss  Carmen  Davila, 
a  graduate  from  it.  The  school  cooperates  with  the  Union 
Evangelical  Seminary  in  training  boys  and  girls  for  service 
to  the  Master.  Seminary  training  was  first  started  in  Puebla 
by  the  M.  E.  Church,  in  Saltillo  and  in  Mexico  City  by 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in  efforts  to  provide  the  much 
needed  leadership.  Since  1917,  just  having  celebrated 
fifty  years  of  service,  the  Methodist  Church,  with  Con- 
gregationalists  and  Disciples  of  Christ,  has  cooperated  in 
the  Union  Evangelical  Seminary  where  their  ministers 
are  trained.  Manuel  V.  Flores  is  at  present  the  Principal. 
He  carries  forward  the  memories  that  John  Howland, 
Milton  C.  Davis,  F.  J.  Huegel,  and  Juan  Diaz  have  left, 
in  this  field  of  service. 

Social  Centers.  Mexico  has  been  a  country  of  revolu- 
tions, a  mixture  of  the  old  with  the  new  and  of  rapid 
social  changes.  Half  the  population  is  now  under  fifteen 
years  of  age.  People's  needs  vary  much  from  place  to 
place  and  from  one  person  to  another.  Christian  environ- 
ment and  guidance  for  growth  and  adjustment  is  sought 
by  those  at  a  disadvantage.  A  combined  effort  of  the 
Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Service  in  the  U.S.A.  with 
national  leaders  made  possible  the  creation  of  Christian 
Social  centers. 

The  Centro  Social  Cristiano  in  Chihuahua  was 
founded  in  1919  and  developed  under  the  experienced 
leadership  of  Li  Hie  F.  Fox.  At  present  it  has  a  modem 
plant  with  a  gymnasium,  a  day  nursery,  a  program  for 
personality  development,  and  a  complete  commercial 
study  course,  thanks  to  the  devoted  ministry  of  Irene 
Nixon,  who  led  it  from  1951  to  1965.  The  director  today 
is  Horacio  Rios. 

Monterrey  is  an  important  industrial  city,  second  to  the 
Federal  District,  fast  growing  with  a  large  floating  popu- 
lation seeking  employment  or  entrance  to  the  United  States 
as  braceros  (seasonal  workers).  It  was  blessed  by  the 
Centro  Social,  founded  by  Sara  E.  Wame  in  1921.  Helen 
M.  Hogdson  made  of  this  place  a  true  life  investment  in 
every  sense.  The  results  will  long  be  felt.  She  discovered 
and  made  possible  training  for  leaders  now  serving  the 
centers.  Maria  Gonzalez,  a  worthy  successor,  learned 
by  her  side  the  art  of  serving  in  the  name  of  our  Master. 
The  Centro  has  a  full  program  for  every  day  in  the  week 
and  supports  the  church  program.  Classes  in  English, 
cooking,  clubs,  work  with  children,  young  people,  and 
adults,  sports  and  playground,  community  service,  exten- 
sion work  at  needed  barrios,  and  personal  guidance  keeps 
them  busy.  Camping  is  done  at  a  beautiful  site  in  the 
mountains — a  dream  came  true  through  Anna  Belle  Dyck's 
consecrated  work. 

Other  centers  with  similar  work  are  located  in  Durango, 
Centro  MacDonell;  Saltillo,  Centro  Social  Roberts;  and 
Cortazar,  Centro  Social  Rural. 

The  Country  and  the  Church  Today.  No  doubt  Mexico 
is  fast  developing.  It  makes  headway  among  under- 
developed nations  growing  and  strengthening  its  life, 
and  even  marks  routes  for  international  understanding  and 
cooperation  for  universal  peaceful  survival.  Religion  finds 
it  difficult  to  follow  that  speed.  The  Church  as  an  in- 
stitution is  caught  amid  the  fast  changing  moves,  and  yet, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MEYER,    LUCY    RIDER 


the  Methodist  Church  in  Mexico  recognizes  that  it  has 
responsibility  to  its  members,  to  its  tradition,  but  more  so 
to  the  country  and  to  the  people  living  there. 

Bishop  Alejandro  Rmz  Munoz  aims  to  recover  the 
youthful  power  and  the  strength  with  which  Methodism 
was  bom  and  is  trying  to  relocate  the  message  and  its 
proclaimers  amid  the  modem  roads  of  needs  and  conflicts 
and  is  studying  the  ways  and  means  to  make  it  live  ac- 
cording to  the  times. 

The  Methodist  Church  in  Mexico  is  organized  in  two 
Annual  Conferences  constituted  by  three  districts  each. 
It  has  296  congregations  and  pastoral  charges.  It  has 
194  church  buildings  and  342  preaching  places.  It  has 
156  pastors,  40  women  workers  and  deaconesses,  and 
26  missionaries.  The  membership  is  27,463  and  7,825 
probationers,  making  a  grand  total  of  35,288  (1969 
figures ) . 

The  Methodist  Church  of  Mexico  is  now  planning  its 
one  hundredth  anniversaiy.  Plans  are  underway  and  much 
effort  is  being  put  forth  to  make  of  this  date  a  strong 
goal  to  double  the  membership,  to  deepen  its  life  in 
Christ  and  to  widen  its  influence  in  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  in  service  to  humanity  and  in  witness  of 
the  faith  among  the  Mexican  people. 

The  Free  Methodists  have  for  some  time  had  work 
in  Mexico,  though  the  1917  constitution  severely  restricted 
all  church  work  in  that  country.  Both  church  and  govern- 
ment made  concessions  in  1929,  but  anti-church  riots 
broke  out  in  1931.  Against  this  background,  Gonzalo 
Cisneros,  Free  Methodist  minister,  went  to  Mexico  in 
the  early  thirties  as  a  missionary  from  the  California  Latin 
Conference.  He  established  churches  in  the  states  of 
Sinaloa  and  Sonora.  A  Bible  Training  School  was  located 
at  Nogales,  Arizona.  Here  young  people  were  prepared 
for  service  in  Mexico.  The  school  has  now  been  relocated 
at  the  University  City  of  Hermosillo,  and  the  program 
modified  to  give  Bible  instruction  to  young  people  prepar- 
ing for  any  of  the  professions.  In  1965  a  church  constitu- 
tion meeting  the  provisions  of  Mexican  law,  was  adopted. 
The  Mission  superintendent  resides  at  Nogales,  Arizona. 
He  is  haison  between  the  conference  and  the  mission 
board.  Membership  is  reported  at  721. 

J.  W.  Butler,  M.  E.  Church  in  Mexico.  1918. 

Mrs.  John  Wesley  Buder,  Historic  Churches  in  Mexico.  New 

York  and  Cincinnati:  Abingdon  Press,  1915. 

Gonzalo    Baez-Camargo,    Biografia    de    un    Templo.    Mexico: 

Ediciones  Luninar,  1953. 

and  Kenneth  G.  Grubb,  Religion  in  the  Republic 

of  Mexico.  Wodd  Dominion  Press,  1935. 

Cincuentenario  de  la  Fundacion  de  la  Iglesia  Metodista  Epis- 
copal en  Mexico.  Casa  Unida  de  Publicaciones  S.A.,   1924. 
Ada    M.    C.    Drees,    Thirteen    Years    in    Mexico.    New    York: 
Abingdon  Press,  1915. 

Elizabeth  M.  Lee,  He  Wears  Orchids.  New  York:  Friendship 
Press,  1951. 

,  Methodism  in  Mexico.  New  York:  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, n.d. 

and   Alfred    W.    Wasson,    The    Latin   American 

Circuit.  New  York:  Board  of  Missions,  1942. 

Libro  Conmemorativo  de  las  Bodas  de  Diamante  de  la  Iglesia 

Metodista  de  Mexico.  Imprenta  Nueva  Educacion,  1948. 

Los   Primeros   Veinticinco    Anos    del   Metodismo    en   Mexico. 

Imprenta  de  la  Iglesia  Metodista  Episcopal,  1899. 

Frank  S.  Onderdonk,  A  Glimpse  at  Mexico.  Nashville,   1930. 

Andres  Osuna,  For  La  Escuela  y  por  La  Patria.  Casa  Unida 

de  Publicaciones  S.R.L.,  1943. 

Horacio  Westrup  Puentes,  Paladines  del  Evangelic  en  Mexico. 

Casa  Unida  de  Publicaciones,  1953. 


Olga   Vela    and    Margaret    Wade    Campbell,    Cinco    Centres. 
Cincinnati:   Board  of  Missions,  n.d.       Gustavo  A.  Velasco 


MEXICO,  NEW  YORK,  U.S.A.,  Mexico  Methodist  Church, 

oldest  continuous  church  in  the  Black  River-Ontario  Dis- 
trict, began  about  1808  when  a  Methodist  circuit  rider 
preached  the  first  sermon.  That  year  he  organized  the 
first  class  at  the  home  of  Leonard  and  Minerva  Ames 
with  five  members.  The  Ames  home  was  used  for  church 
services  until  about  1820. 

In  1810  the  Mexico  Circuit  extended  from  Camden 
and  Redfield  to  the  Oswego  River.  The  Methodists  and 
the  Congregationalists  for  some  years  used  a  schoolhouse 
built  in  1820.  Mexico  M.  E.  Church  was  legally  organized 
in  1833  and  a  brick  building  was  erected  that  year.  A 
parsonage  was  built  in  1840. 

The  brick  church  was  burned  in  1840.  Then  for  years 
the  Methodists  worshipped  in  Town  Hall.  The  present 
church  was  constructed  in  1851.  From  1883  to  1885 
the  church  was  repaired  and  enlarged,  adding  memorial 
windows.  The  present  parsonage  was  received  as  a 
legacy  from  Dr.  Harriet  Ames  Rundell  in  1897. 

When  the  centennial  was  celebrated  in  1908,  the 
church  had  grown  from  five  to  332  members,  with  twenty 
descendants  of  Minerva  Ames  present.  In  1926  a  new 
chapel  costing  $15,000  was  added.  In  1943  the  church 
had  four  missionaries  in  China  and  Japan.  In  1947  the 
sanctuary  was  repaired  and  renovated. 

For  two  separate  periods  the  Sunday  school  rooms 
were  used  by  the  Mexico  Academy  and  Central  School 
while  erecting  new  school  buildings.  Again  in  1957  the 
church  was  remodeled,   and   rededicated  Nov.   3,    1957. 

In  1970  Mexico  First  Church  had  566  members  and 
church  property  valued  at  $236,623. 

General  Minutes. 

History  of  Mexico  Methodist  Church.  Leaflet  published  by  the 

church,  1958. 

Mexico  Methodism — The  Centennial  Celebration — 1808-1898. 

Elisabeth  M.  Simpson,  Mexico,  Mother  of  Towns.  N.d. 

Jesse  A.  Eabl 

MEYER,  LUCY  RIDER  (1849-1922),  founder  of  the  Chicago 
Training  School  for  Mission  and  Social  Service  and  of  the 
Deaconess  Order  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  was  born  Sept. 
1,  1849,  in  New  Haven,  Vt.,  the  daughter  of  Richard  D. 
and  Jane  (Child)  Rider.  She  held  degrees  from  Oberlin 
College  (A.B.,  1872;  A.M.,  1880),  and  the  Woman's 
Medical  College  of  Northwestern  University  (M.D., 
1887),  and  she  did  graduate  study  in  the  Divinity  School 
of  the  University  of  Chicago.  On  May  21,  1885,  she 
married  Josiah  S.  Meyer,  and  they  had  one  son. 

At  fourteen  Lucy  joined  the  Methodist  church  at  Wey- 
bridge,  Vt.  As  a  young  woman  she  taught  school  in  several 
places,  including  one  year  at  Greensboro,  N.  C,  in  a 
freedmen's  school  supported  by  Quakers.  She  later  wrote 
a  number  of  Negro  Spirituals  which  won  recognition. 

After  graduating  from  Oberhn  she  entered  medical 
school  because  her  fiance  was  training  to  go  out  as  a  medi- 
cal missionary.  Because  of  his  untimely  death  in  1875 
she  returned  to  her  parents'  home  in  Vermont.  As  a 
teacher  in  the  local  Sunday  school  she  prepared  Bible 
readings  and  lists  of  questions  for  her  pupils,  and  soon 
was  contributing  to  Methodist  Sunday  school  periodicals, 
a  practice  she  continued  through  the  years.  Her  signature, 
"Lucy  J.  Rider,"  became  a  familiar  name  in  church  and 


MIAMI,   FLORIDA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Sunday  school  papers.  She  copyrighted  twenty  "Whisper 
Songs"  for  children,  the  words  and  music  bearing  her 
initials. 

In  1876  she  became  "Lady  Principal"  in  the  Troy 
Conference  Academy,  Poultiiey,  Vt.,  teaching  natural 
science.  After  one  year  she  entered  Boston  School  of 
Technology  for  further  training.  Her  first  book.  The 
Fairy  Land  of  Chemistry,  financially  her  most  successful 
literary  effort,  was  published  about  that  time. 

In  1879  she  went  to  McKendree  College,  Lebanon, 
111.,  as  professor  of  chemistry.  While  there  she  spent  many 
weekends  going  to  distant  towns  and  cities  to  address  or 
to  help  organize  Sunday  school  conventions.  In  June  1880, 
she  was  a  delegate  to  the  World  Sunday  School  Conven- 
tion in  London,  and  returned  to  become  Field  Secretary 
of  the  Illinois  State  Sunday  School  Association,  a  post  that 
called  for  travel,  speaking,  and  writing.  It  was  soon  said 
that  her  presence  made  any  Sunday  school  convention  a 
notable  event.  In  1883  she  published  Children's  Meetings, 
a  book  that  had  a  large  sale  for  many  years. 

While  serving  (four  years)  with  the  Sunday  School 
Association,  Lucy  Rider  dreamed  of  starting  a  permanent 
school  to  train  young  women  for  leadership  in  Christian 
work  and  often  spoke  of  the  need  in  public  addresses  and 
in  private  conversation.  Disappointed  because  no  school 
materialized,  she  resigned  from  the  Sunday  School  As- 
sociation and  spent  the  winter  of  1884-85  teaching  Bible 
study  and  music  in  Dwight  L.  Moody's  school  at  North- 
field,  Mass.  Also,  while  in  the  east  she  tried  unsuccess- 
fully to  interest  church  leaders  in  New  York  in  helping  to 
found  a  school.  Returning  to  Chicago  in  May,  she  was 
married.  Shortly  afterward  the  Chicago  Preachers'  Meet- 
ing invited  her  to  speak  on  her  plan  for  a  training  school. 
Following  her  enthusiastic  address,  a  committee  composed 
of  ministers  and  representatives  of  the  two  women's  mis- 
sionary societies  of  the  church  was  appointed. 

Assisted  by  her  husband,  Lucy  Meyer  worked  and 
planned  feverishly  through  the  summer  of  1885  and  in 
October  the  Chicago  Training  School  for  Christian 
Women,  as  it  was  first  called,  opened  with  four  students. 
Well  informed  on  the  deaconess  movement  in  Europe, 
Lucy  Meyer  aimed  to  train  Christian  young  women  who, 
assured  of  board,  room,  laundry  and  $8  per  month,  would 
give  full  time  in  ministry  to  the  poor,  the  orphan,  the  sick, 
and  the  aged.  The  school's  monthly  paper,  the  Deaconess 
Advocate,  told  of  its  work  and  encouraged  financial  con- 
tributions. As  finances  permitted,  new  buildings  were 
erected,  and  an  orphanage,  a  hospital,  and  a  home  for 
the  aged  were  established.  The  1888  General  Confer- 
ence recognized  deaconess  work  and  provided  for  a  board 
of  deaconesses  in  the  annual  conference.  A  General  Board 
of  Deaconesses  was  set  up  in  1900,  and  in  1908  the 
Methodist  Deaconess  Association  was  established  with 
Lucy  R.  Meyer  as  secretary.  The  Chicago  Training  School 
reached  a  peak  enrolment  in  1910  of  256  and  a  graduating 
class  of  eighty-four. 

Controversy  swirled  around  Lucy  Meyer  through  the 
years.  Some  objected  to  her  school  saying  the  church  and 
Sunday  school  could  fit  young  women  for  such  service. 
The  deaconess  uniform  which  she  designed  was  criticized 
as  a  step  toward  Roman  Catholicism.  Her  biggest  dif- 
ficulty was  with  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society. 
Early  in  its  history  that  organization  employed  deacon- 
esses, and  with  some  logic  it  argued  that  the  institution 
and  the  movement  headed  by  Lucy  Meyer  should  be 
under   its   care   and   guidance.    A   capable,    independent. 


strong-minded  woman,  Mrs.  Meyer  would  not  agree.  A 
long  struggle,  damaging  to  both  sides,  ensued  for  the 
control  of  the  deaconess  movement  in  the  church.  In 
1903  bishops  met  with  representatives  of  both  sides  to 
no  avail.  In  the  1912  General  Conference  an  impassioned 
speech  by  Mrs.  Meyer  (she  was  a  delegate  three  times 
beginning  in  1904)  won  an  overwhelming  vote  for  the 
minority  report  which  kept  the  work  independent.  The 
friction  began  to  subside  in  1924  with  the  formation  of  the 
Board  of  Hospitals,  Homes,  and  Deaconess  Work. 

Lucy  Rider  Meyer  felt  divinely  called  to  educate  young 
women  for  Christian  service.  The  training  school  she 
established  in  Chicago  was  her  life.  All  she  did  and 
suffered  was  to  the  end  that  the  school  and  the  deaconess 
movement  might  prosper.  At  a  banquet  in  New  York 
she  was  humorously,  and  yet  appropriately,  introduced  as 
the  "Archbishop  of  Deaconesses."  For  more  than  thirty 
years  she  and  her  husband,  a  former  YMCA  secretary 
whose  business  ability  and  practical  sagacity  comple- 
mented her  enthusiasm  and  consecration,  gave  them- 
selves sacrificially  to  the  school. 

A  writer  of  ability,  Lucy  Meyer  published,  in  addition 
to  the  books  already  mentioned.  Deaconesses,  Biblical, 
Early  Church,  European,  American,  1890;  The  Shorter 
Bible,  1895;  Deaconess  Stories,  1900;  and  a  novel,  Mary 
North,  1903.  Also,  she  compiled  poems  and  hymns  and 
wrote  a  number  of  articles  which  were  published.  In  1918 
she  was  made  president  emeritus  of  the  training  school. 
She  died  in  Chicago,  March  16,  1922. 

General  Conference  Journals,  1904-12. 

Isabelle  Horton,  High  Adventure,  Life  of  Lucy  Rider  Meyer. 

Cincinnati:  Metliodist  Book  Concern,  1928. 

Lucy  R.  Meyer,  Deaconesses,  Biblical,  Early  Church,  European, 

American.  Cincinnati:  Cranston  and  Stowe,  1890. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Who  Was  Who  in  America,  Vol.  1,  1897-1942. 

Albea  Godbold 

MIAMI,  FLORIDA,  U.S.A.,  today  is  the  largest  city  in 
Florida,  the  county  seat  of  Dade  County,  and  is  known 
the  world  over  as  a  resort  center.  About  1870  the  first 
settlers  built  on  the  site  where  Fort  Dallas  had  stood 
during  the  Indian  War. 

The  first  Methodist  service  to  be  held  in  Miami  was  in 
Pierce's  sponge  warehouse  on  the  banks  of  Biscayne  Bay 
sometime  in  1892.  C.  W.  White,  who  served  the  Indian 
River  Mission  and  who  came  to  Miami  monthly  by  stage- 
coach or  boat,  helped  this  congregation  to  build  a  church 
in  1893.  The  church  was  located  on  the  Military  Trail 
at  an  Indian  trail  crossing.  At  this  site  a  little  community 
was  emerging  known  as  Lemon  City,  so  the  new  church 
took  the  name  of  Lemon  City  Methodist  Church,  by 
which  it  was  known  until  1934  when  its  name  was 
changed  to  Grace  Methodist.  The  first  service  was  held 
in  this  church  on  Easter  Sunday,  1893.  At  this  time  the 
present  downtown  Miami  was  little  more  than  a  jungle 
where  only  seven  white  people  lived.  Lemon  City,  how- 
ever, had  a  thriving  population  of  300  inhabitants. 

On  April  15,  1896  the  last  spike  was  driven  on  the 
Henry  Flagler  railroad  line  to  Miami.  Pioneers  began  to 
pour  into  the  area  and  the  pines  and  palmetto  scrub  gave 
way  to  a  city  of  tents  and  rough  pine  board  houses.  In 
October  of  1896,  Levi  L.  Fisher,  the  presiding  elder  of 
tlie  Jacksonville  District  of  the  St.  John's  River  Confer- 
ence of  the  M.  E.  Church,  arrived  in  Miami  to  take  a 
boat  to  Key  West.  While  he  was  waiting  passage  on  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MICHALSON,   GORDON   ELLIOTT 


boat,  he  began  talking  with  some  fishermen  who  were 
mending  their  nets.  While  chatting  with  them  he  asked, 
"Are  there  any  Methodists  living  along  the  River?"  A 
houseboat  was  pointed  out  belonging  to  Bill  Wilson,  who 
they  said  was  a  Methodist.  The  presiding  elder  visited  the 
Wilsons  and  stirred  them  up  about  starting  a  Methodist 
Church.  A  month  later,  on  Nov.  15,  1896,  fifteen  persons 
met  on  Wilson's  houseboat  and  organized  the  M.  E. 
Church  in  Miami.  E.  V.  Blackman  was  appointed  as 
pastor  of  this  work.  Shortly  after  he  arrived  he  went  to 
Henry  M.  Flagler,  the  capitalist,  and  persuaded  him  to 
donate  a  lot  for  the  building  of  a  M.  E.  Church  and  at 
the  same  time  he  secured  donations  of  land  for  a  Baptist 
Church  and  for  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  Flagler  had 
several  years  earlier  given  $200  to  help  build  the  Lemon 
City  Church. 

In  December  of  1896,  James  Bolton  was  sent  to  Miami 
by  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  to  the  Biscayne  Mission 
embracing  Lemon  City,  Miami  and  Coconut  Grove;  how- 
ever, that  year  nothing  was  done  to  organize  a  church 
in  Miami  itself.  It  was  a  year  later  when  Fred  Blackburn 
was  appointed  to  Miami  in  1898,  that  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  was  organized.  He  visited  through  the  community 
trying  to  ride  through  the  wagon-rutted  sand  roads  on  a 
bicycle. 

The  M.  E.  Church  and  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  both 
began  their  work  under  the  name  of  First  Methodist 
Church.  In  1912  a  new  church  and  parsonage  was  built 
by  the  M.  E.  Church  at  a  cost  of  $87,000.  This  new 
church  was  named  White  Temple.  In  1914  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South  erected  a  new  building  at  a  cost  of  $44,100, 
and  its  name  was  changed  to  Trinity.  Lemon  City,  Trinity 
and  White  Temple  became  mother  churches  for  numbers 
of  mission  churches  as  the  Miami  area  grew.  By  1939, 
at  the  time  of  Methodist  union  there  were  eleven  ap- 
pointments in  the  greater  Miami  area  made  by  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South  and  six  by  the  M.  E.  Church.  Both  church- 
es had  a  Miami  District. 

As  the  city  grew,  the  number  of  Methodist  churches 
increased.  By  1945  there  were  twenty-one  churches  with 
a  total  membership  of  11,152.  By  1970  the  number  of 
appointments  had  increased  to  thirty-seven  with  a  total 
of  30,645  members. 

First  Church.  Trinity  Church  was  for  sixty-eight  years 
the  historic  downtown  church  of  southern  Methodism, 
mother  church  to  a  number  of  thriving  Miami  area 
churches  and  one  of  the  most  prolific  churches  in  giving  of 
her  sons  and  daughters  to  the  ministry.  In  1966,  Trinity 
Church  united  with  White  Temple  Church  which  was 
located  just  two  blocks  away,  to  form  the  First  Methodist 
Church  of  Miami.  The  name  is  significant  in  that  both 
Trinity  and  White  Temple  were  originally  organized  as 
First  Methodist  Church,  White  Temple  in  1896,  and 
Trinity  in  1898.  The  "new"  Church  has  1,916  members 
and  is  presently  engaged  in  a  building  program  to  erect 
a  center  of  Methodism  and  Protestantism  for  downtown 
Miami  which  will  cost  in  excess  of  a  million  dollars. 

General  Minutes. 

Glenn  James,  Golden  Anniversary,  pamphlet  issued  by  White 
Temple  Church,  1946. 

Miatni  Herald,  April  2,   1960.  William  E.  Brooks 

Clarence  M.  Yates 

MICHALSON,  CARL  (1915-1965),  American  theologian, 
author  and  teacher,  was  bom  in  Waverly,  Minn.,  Jime 
29,  1915,  son  of  Carl  D.  and  Gertrude  K.    (Leuzinger) 


Michalson.  He  was  educated  at  John  Fletcher  College, 
B.A.,  1936;  Drew  University,  B.D.,  1939,  M.A.,  1940; 
Yale  University,  Ph.D.,  1945. 

He  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  Minnesota  Confer- 
ence, M.  E.  Church,  1938,  ordained  deacon  1939,  re- 
ceived in  full  connection  and  ordained  elder  1940. 

He  was  a  pastor  in  Iowa,  1935-36;  Teabo,  N.  J.,  1938- 
40;  New  Hyde  Park,  N.  Y.,  1941-43,  and  then  became 
professor  in  Drew  Theological  Seminary  in  1943.  He 
soon  came  into  prominence  as  a  theologian  and  lecturer. 
He  was  visiting  lecturer  in  Southern  Methodist  Univer- 
sity the  summer  of  1955,  and  in  Tokyo  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  Japan,  1958.  He  sewed  as  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Governors  of  tlie  Council  for  Clinical  Training, 
Theological  Foundation  for  Southeast  Asia;  as  member  of 
the  American  Theological  Society,  American  Philosophical 
Association,  and  of  the  Society  for  Theological  Discussion. 
He  wrote  during  these  years  Faith  for  Personal  Crises, 
1958;  The  Hinge  of  History,  1959;  Japanese  Contributions 
to  Christian  Theology,  1960;  The  Witness  to  Kierkegaard 
(Editor),  1960;  The  Rationality  of  Faith,  1963. 

He  was  married  to  Janet  Aloyse  Merrill,  May  30,  1944. 
Their  children  are  Karen  and  Steven. 

Michalson  was  tragically  killed  in  a  plane  accident  on 
Nov.  8,  1965,  while  enroute  to  address  an  educational 
gathering.  In  1967  a  collection  of  his  essays  was  pub- 
lished posthumously  under  the  title  Worldly  Theology — 
The  Hermeneutical  Focus  of  an  Historical  Faith.  His  work 
and  influence  were  outlined  and  evaluated  in  appreciative 
articles  and  reviews  in  such  journals  as  The  Christian 
Century  and  Religion  in  Life  following  his  untimely 
demise. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.     J.  Marvin  Rast 

MICHALSON,  GORDON  ELLIOTT  (1911-  ),  American 

educator,  was  born  at  Waverly,  Minn.,  Aug.  22,  1911, 
son  of  Carl  D.  and  Gertrude  Kathryn  (Leuzinger) 
Michalson. 

He  received  the  B.A.  degree  from  the  University  of 
Minnesota,  1937;  M.A.,  1939;  B.D.,  Drew  University, 
1941;  Ph.D.,  1947.  He  did  postgraduate  study  in  Union 
Theological  Seminary  the  summer  of  1941  and  in  Edin- 
burgh (Scotland)  University  the  summer  of  1951.  In 
1962  he  was  awarded  the  L.H.D.  degree  by  Bradley 
University,  and  the  same  by  MacMurray  College  in 
1968. 

He  was  engaged  in  business  and  commerical  aviation, 
1929-36.  In  1938  he  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  North 
Minnesota  Conference,  M.  E.  Church,  was  received  in 
full  connection  and  ordained  deacon  in  1939,  and  ordained 
elder  in  1941. 

His  pastorates  were  in  Norwood  and  Kimball,  Minn., 
1935-38;  East  Orange,  N.  J.,  1939-42;  Montclair,  N.  J., 
1946-52;  Westfield,  N.  J.,  1952-57.  He  was  professor  of 
historical  theology  in  Garrett  Theological  Seminary, 
1958-60.  From  1960  to  1968  he  was  president  of  Mac- 
Murray  College.  In  1968  he  became  president  of  the 
School  of  Theology  at  Claremont,  Calif. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  the 
Newark  Conference,  1948-50;  chairman  of  the  Board 
of  Pensions,  1952-58.  He  was  a  trustee  of  Centenary 
Junior  College,  1952-54;  of  the  Methodist  Home  for  the 
Aged,  Ocean  Grove,  N.  J.,  and  of  Methodist  Hospital  in 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1956-58;  of  Lincoln  Academy  in  Illinois; 
and  member  of  the  Lincoln  Society  of  Illinois.  He  served 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


to  Lieutenant  Commander,  United  States  Naval  Air  Corps, 
1942-45.  He  is  a  member  of  the  American  Association 
of  Colleges  and  Universities,  and  American  Theological 
Society,  the  Union  League  Club  of  Chicago,  and  the  Uni- 
versity Club  of  St.  Louis.  He  is  contributor  of  articles 
to  religious  and  educational  journals. 

He  was  married  to  Louise  Buckley  Card  on  Aug.  16, 
1939.  Their  children  are  Kathryn  Louise  and  Gordon 
Elliott. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.     J.  Marvin  Rast 

MICHIGAN,  one  of  the  north  central  states,  is  divided 
into  two  peninsulas,  and  is  nearly  surrounded  by  the 
Great  Lakes.  The  name  is  derived  from  the  Indian 
"Mishigamavv,"  which  means  "Great  Water."  The  state 
ranks  eleventh  or  twenty-third  in  size,  96,720  square  miles 
or  57,022,  according  to  whether  one  includes  that  part 
of  the  Great  Lakes  over  which  the  commonwealth  has 
undisputed  possession.  It  has  3,121  miles  of  coastline, 
more  than  any  state  save  Alaska. 

During  the  colonial  period  Michigan  was  explored  and 
settled  by  French  missionaries  and  fur  traders.  They  estab- 
lished settlements  at  Sault  Ste.  M.a.rie  (1668),  the 
Straits  of  Mackinac  (1671),  and  Detroit  (1701).  In 
1760-61,  during  the  French  and  Indian  War,  Michigan 
passed  from  French  to  British  control.  Title  to  what  is  now 
Michigan  went  to  the  United  States  at  the  close  of  the 
Revolution. 

At  first  a  part  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  then  of 
Indiana  Territoiy,  Michigan  was  organized  as  a  separate 
Territory  in  1805,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Union  in  1837. 
On  the  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal  in  1825,  a  tide  of 
immigration  flowed  into  Michigan.  In  1830  the  population 
was  31,639. 

Michigan  ranks  high  in  agriculture,  tourism,  mining, 
and  manufacturing.  With  the  rise  of  the  automobile  in- 
dustrv  in  the  twentieth  century,  the  population  grew 
rapidly— 2,800,000  in  1910,  over  5,000,000  by  1940,  and 
8,778,187  in  1970.  Michigan  was  called  the  "arsenal  of 
democracy  "  in  the  second  world  war. 

The  first  Methodist  preacher  in  Michigan  was  Daniel 
Freeman  who  came  from  Canada  in  the  spring  of  1804 
and  preached  several  times.  Later  in  the  same  year 
Nathan  Bangs  delivered  several  sermons  in  Detroit. 
Methodism  was  established  in  the  Territoiy  by  William 
Case  of  the  New  York  Conference  in  1809  when  he 
made  Detroit  a  regular  preaching  point  on  his  circuit 
which  covered  southwestern  Ontario.  In  the  fall  of  1810, 
William  Mitchell,  a  member  of  the  Western  Confer- 
ence, organized  a  class  of  seven  members  in  Detroit. 
The  Detroit  Circuit  of  the  Upper  Canada  District  re- 
ported 134  members  in  1812,  of  whom  about  fifty  were 
in  Michigan. 

During  the  war  years  of  1812  and  1815  there  was  no 
Methodist  preacher  in  Michigan  and  the  work  became 
disordered.  In  1815  when  Joseph  Hickco,\  of  the  Genesee 
Conference  was  appointed  to  the  Detroit  Circuit,  he 
found  the  original  seven  members  in  the  town  sHll  faith- 
ful but  he  declared  tliat  even  so  the  place  was  a  "sink  of 
iniquity."  His  three-weeks  circuit,  300  miles  around,  had 
three  preaching  places  in  Michigan. 

The  first  Methodist  church  edifice  (the  first  Protestant 
church)  in  Michigan  was  built  in  March  1818,  on  the 
River  Rouge  six  miles  west  of  Detroit  in  what  is  now  east 


Dearborn.  The  structure,  some  24  by  30  feet,  was  of  logs, 
and  it  had  rough  benches  for  seats;  it  was  in  use  for  ten 
years. 

The  Methodist  work  in  Michigan  was  in  the  Upper 
Canada  District  of  the  Genesee  Conference  until  1820, 
when  the  General  Conference  placed  Michigan  Terri- 
tory in  the  Ohio  Conference.  By  1824  the  Detroit  Cir- 
cuit had  242  members.  In  1835  two  districts  were  estab- 
lished in  the  Territory. 

In  1836,  the  Ohio  Conference  was  divided  to  form  the 
Michigan  Conference  which  included  the  two  districts 
in  Michigan  and  four  in  northern  Ohio.  The  conference 
was  organized  Sept.  7,  1836  at  Mansfield,  Ohio,  with 
Bishop  Joshua  Soule  presiding.  At  the  outset  the  con- 
ference had  two  stations  and  twenty  circuits.  The  two 
Michigan  districts  had  4,044  members.  A  few  appoint- 
ments in  southwestern  Michigan  were  in  the  La  Porte 
District  of  the  Indiana  Conference  from  1832  to  1840. 

In  1840  the  Michigan  Conference  was  limited  to  the 
state  of  Michigan  and  at  the  time  it  had  seventy-eight 
ministers  and  11,523  members. 

John  Clark  of  the  New  York  Conference  began  mis- 
sion work  among  the  Indians  in  the  upper  peninsula  in 
1832.  The  conference  took  charge  of  the  mission  in  1837. 
Copper  mining  began  in  the  state  in  1844,  and  in  1847 
John  Pitezel,  an  Indian  missionary,  was  appointed  to 
work  among  the  miners.  In  time  there  were  five  appoint- 
ments in  the  Indian  Mission  District,  including  one  at 
Sandy  Lake,  Minnesota.  Judson  Collins  went  from  Albion 
as  a  missionary  to  China  in  1847. 

In  1835,  on  the  request  of  several  Michigan  Conference 
leaders,  the  state  legislature  issued  a  charter  for  a  college. 
Wesleyan  Seminary  opened  at  Albion  in  1843  and  became 
Albion  College  in  1861. 

In  1856,  the  Michigan  Conference  was  divided  to  form 
the  Detroit  Conference  which  covered  the  eastern  half 
of  the  lower  peninsula  and  all  of  the  upper  peninsula.  At 
the  time  the  state  had  21,378  Methodists. 

The  Michigan  Christian  Advocate,  a  weekly,  was  estab- 
lished in  1874.  With  a  circulation  of  nearly  30,000,  it  is 
today  the  only  independent  Methodist  paper  in  the  North 
Central  Jurisdiction  and  the  only  Protestant  weekly  in 
Michigan. 

In  1876  the  two  conferences  chose  Bay  View  as  the 
location  for  an  annual  state-wide  camp  meeting,  and  it 
continues  as  an  important  summer  religious  and  cultural 
center.  In  1906  the  Michigan  Conference  estabhshed  the 
Clarke  Memorial  Home  for  the  Aged  in  Grand  Rapids,  and 
the  Detroit  Conference  started  a  similar  institution  at 
Chelsea.  In  1962  the  latter  conference  established  another 
home  in  Detroit.  The  two  conferences  acquired  Bronson 
Hospital  in  Kalamazoo  and  the  Methodist  Children's  Vil- 
lage near  Detroit  in  1920.  In  1939  with  Methodist  unifica- 
tion the  conferences  acquired  Adrian  College,  a  former 
Methodist  Protestant  school.  There  are  now  ten  Wesley 
Foundations  in  Michigan.  Both  conferences  have  camps 
and  extensive  camping  programs. 

In  1900  there  were  approximately  100,000  Methodists 
in  Michigan  rather  evenly  divided  between  the  two  con- 
ferences. After  that  date,  due  in  part  to  the  rapid  rise 
of  the  automobile  industry,  the  Detroit  Conference  forged 
ahead.  By  1929  it  had  some  103,000  members  to  about 
65,000  for  the  Michigan  Conference. 

In  1933,  when  the  Chicago  Northwest  Conference 
(German)  was  absorbed  by  the  English-speaking  con- 
ferences in  several  states,  the  two  Michigan  conferences 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MICHIGAN    CHRISTIAN   ADVOCATE 


received  seventeen  of  the  German  churches.  Methodist 
unification  in  1939  brought  fifty-seven  Methodist  Protes- 
tant pastoral  charges  with  3,426  members  into  the  con- 
ferences. In  1942  some  eleven  Swedish  churches  came  in 
when  the  Central  Northwest  Conference  (Swedish)  was 
absorbed.  In  1958,  two  churches  from  the  Lexington 
Conference,  Central  Jurisdiction,  were  received  into  the 
Detroit  Conference,  and  nine  more  came  in  1964  when 
the  Lexington  Conference  was  absorbed. 

Between  1940  and  1955  the  population  of  Michigan 
increased  37.7  per  cent  and  the  Methodist  membership 
grew  31  per  cent.  The  rapid  gi"owth  of  suburban  areas, 
the  decline  of  inner  city  areas,  and  the  loss  of  popu- 
lation in  the  lumbering,  mining,  and  agricultural  areas  of 
the  state,  have  posed  problems  for  Michigan  Methodism. 
The  conferences  had  compaigns  for  funds  for  church 
extension  in  1953  and  1955.  In  1962  they  projected  a 
united  crusade  for  money  to  undergird  Albion  and  Adrian 
Colleges  and  Garrett  Theological  Seminary. 

In  1970  the  two  Michigan  conferences  had  a  total  of 
thirteen  districts,  1,014  churches,  163,541  church  school 
pupils,  300,428  church  members,  and  property  valued  at 
$201,359,752. 

Willard  Baird,  This  Is  Our  Michigan.  Battle  Creek:  Federated 

Publications,  Inc.,  1959. 

Robert    Gildart,    Albion    College,    1835-1960.    Albion;    Albion 

College,  1961. 

Minutes  of  the  Detroit  and  Michigan  Conferences. 

E.  H.  Pilcher,  Michigan.  1878.  Ronald  A.  Brunger 

MICHIGAN  CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE.  The  town  of 
Adrian,  Mich.,  was  the  birthplace  of  two  Michigan  Chris- 
tian Advocates.  In  1851  J.  V.  Watson  published  a  paper 
by  that  name.  Shortly  thereafter  he  moved  to  Chicago, 
taking  with  him  the  paper  which  became  the  Northwestern 
Christian  Advocate. 

Twenty-two  years  later  in  1873,  another  clergyman  by 
the  name  of  Orrin  Whitmore,  presiding  elder  of  the  then 
Adrian  District,  broadened  the  scope  of  his  Adrian  Dis- 
trict Methodist,  a  monthly  publication,  into  a  paper  for  all 
of  Michigan  Methodists  entitled  The  Michigan  Christian 
Advocate.  By  a  striking  coincidence  the  second  Michigan 
Christian  Advocate  was  edited  in  the  same  Adrian  ofiBce 
as  the  first.  Whitmore's  monthly  paper  did  not  seem  to 
meet  the  need  or  come  up  to  the  expectations  of  Michigan 
Methodists.  Finally  the  matter  was  brought  before  the 
Annual  Conference  which  recommended  by  a  strong  vote 
that  a  weekly  paper  be  pubhshed. 

The  next  question  was:  Who  would  publish  it?  After 
considerable  discussion  among  prominent  laymen  and  min- 
isters it  was  decided  to  form  a  stock  company  to  be  known 
as  The  Methodist  Publishing  Company  whose  purpose 
was  to  print  a  religious  newspaper  called  the  Michigan 
Christian  Advocate.  Book  and  job  printing  were  also  a 
function  of  that  company.  Detroit  was  to  be  its  head- 
quarters. Capital  stock  totaled  $10,000  and  was  divided 
into  100  shares  of  $100  each.  Two  days  before  Christmas 
in  1874  final  organization  of  the  company  was  effected  at 
Detroit  and  the  Michigan  Christian  Advocate  was 
launched  upon  its  illustrious  career. 

Ten  years  after  the  Advocate  was  bom  a  campaign 
boosted  its  circulation  from  6,000  to  10,000.  From  there 
it  went  to  14,000,  15,000  and  finally  18,000.  In  those 
days  subscriptions  were  carried  many  months  beyond 
expiration  date.   It  was  a  common  practice  until   postal 


regulations  outlawed  it.  So  the  18,000  was  hardly  com- 
parable to  a  similar  figure  today,  but  it  was  a  noteworthy 
attainment. 

From  1886  until  the  end  of  the  First  World  War  the 
Pubhshing  Company  made  money  and  gave  its  profits 
to  the  retired  ministers'  pension  fund.  Associate  editor, 
Elmer  Houser,  wrote  in  1933  that  the  gifts  to  the  pension 
fund  totaled  $93,000. 

All  this  time  the  paper  was  actually  under  the  direction 
of  the  private  corporation,  run  by  dedicated  laymen  and 
ministers  who  had  the  interests  of  the  church  at  heart, 
and  regarded  the  Advocate  as  a  service  they  were  glad 
to  perform.  However,  following  the  First  World  War  in 
1919,  it  seemed  fitting  that  the  stock  company  be  dis- 
solved. This  was  done  and  the  Advocate's  equipment, 
assets  and  subscription  list  were  given  outright  to  the 
two  annual  conferences  of  the  Michigan  Area,  namely, 
the  Detroit  and  Michigan  Conferences.  A  board  of 
eight  ministerial  trustees,  four  from  each  conference,  were 
elected  by  the  conferences  and  became  responsible  for 
publishing  and  operating  the  job  printing  business  which 
augmented  the  Advocate's  income. 

For  many  years  Zion's  Herald,  published  in  Boston,  and 
the  Michigan  Christian  Advocate  were  the  only  "indepen- 
dent" weekly  Methodist  periodicals  published  in  the 
Northern  part  of  the  Church.  The  others  were  under 
General  Conference  control.  Zion's  Herald  continues 
as  a  monthly,  leaving  the  Advocate  the  only  one  in  the 
North  publishing  witli  weekly  frequency.  (Some  years 
ago  the  Advocate  started  publishing  forty-six  issues  a  year, 
skipping  every  other  week  during  the  summer  period. 
This  policy  continues.) 

The  editors  of  the  Advocate  invariably  have  been  min- 
isters. Yet  it  must  be  said  that  the  longest  and  perhaps 
the  most  distinguished  service  ever  rendered  the  Advocate 
was  by  a  consecrated  layman. 

The  first  editor  after  the  Publishing  Company  was 
formed  was  Orrin  Whitmore,  who  continued  in  this  capac- 
ity until  his  appointment  in  1876  to  a  pastorate  in  Saline, 
Mich. 

There  were  at  least  two  in  those  early  days  who  were 
called  "Editor-in-Chief."  One  was  L.  R.  Fiske,  one-time 
president  of  Albion  College,  and  J.  M.  Arnold.  The 
latter  managed  a  private  bookstore  in  Detroit,  which  was 
later  purchased  by  the  Methodist  Book  Concern,  prob- 
ably in  November  of  1886.  Today  the  Detroit  Cokesbury 
bookstore  of  the  Methodist  Publishing  House  is  the 
outgrowth  of  that  original  purchase.  In  addition  to  man- 
aging his  bookstore,  Arnold  became  Business  Manager 
and  Assistant  Editor  of  the  Advocate  and  finally  its  Editor- 
in-Chief. 

To  J.  H.  Potts  belongs  the  distinction  of  being  editor 
for  the  longest  period.  He  was  a  towering  figure  of  over 
six  feet  in  height — a  member  of  the  Michigan  Conference. 
For  forty  years  (1877-1917)  his  pen  worked  overtime  for 
the  Advocate,  and  his  trumpet-like  voice  resounded 
throughout  the  state  as  he  was  called  upon  to  speak  in 
its  various  pulpits.  He  was  also  a  strong  liberal  voice  in 
the  General  Conference  and  crossed  verbal  swords  with 
another  distinguished  editor,  James  M.  Buckley,  on  the 
issue  of  seating  women  in  that  body.  Potts  won. 

The  next  editor  was  picked  from  the  Detroit  Con- 
ference and  served  briefly  during  the  difficult  years  of  the 
First  World  War.  He  was  Frank  F.  Fitchett,  who  was 
stricken  in  health  and  was  forced  to  retire  in  1920. 

The  Advocate  trustees  again   turned  to  the   Michigan 


MICHIGAN   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Conference  for  someone  to  fill  the  vacancy.  This  time  their 
choice  was  William  H.  Phelps,  who  had  served  as  pastor 
and  district  superintendent,  and  is  remembered  by  many 
Michigan  Methodists  for  his  kindly  spirit  and  unquench- 
able wit.  His  editorship  covered  a  period  when  Biblical 
controversy  raged,  and  when  the  devastating  depression 
took  a  heavy  toll  of  church  papers.  For  nineteen  years 
(1920-1939)  he  stood  serene  amid  these  storms  which 
he  made  easier  to  endure  by  his  never-ending  sense  of 
humor.  Like  his  predecessor,  he  retired  because  of  ill 
health  and  died  shortly  thereafter. 

Following  him  is  the  present  editor,  John  E.  Marvin, 
who  came  to  the  editorship  in  1939  from  three  years' 
experience  as  Associate  Editor.  He  is  a  son  of  the  Meth- 
odist parsonage  and  ser\'ed  several  churches  in  the  Detroit 
Conference  before  joining  the  Advocate  staff. 

In  its  Associate  Editors,  the  Advocate  has  always  been 
blessed  with  both  editorial  and  business  ability.  Only  the 
following  are  mentioned:  Joseph  F.  Berry,  who  became 
editor  of  the  Epworth  Herald  and  later  a  bishop;  James 
E.  Jacklin,  who  was  the  moving  spirit  in  founding  Chelsea 
Home,  a  Detroit  Conference  institution  for  the  elderly, 
and  who  served  the  Advocate  for  twenty-four  years;  Elmer 
Houser,  a  Methodist  layman  who  served  for  a  total  of 
fifty  years  as  circulation  manager,  bookkeeper,  business 
manager  and  finally  as  Associate  Editor. 

In  the  summer  of  1941  the  Advocate  returned  to 
Adrian,  the  place  of  its  birth,  after  a  Detroit  sojourn  of 
about  sixty-seven  years.  The  circumstances  of  this  return 
represent  a  unique  undertaking  in  Methodist  history.  The 
biggest  influence  leading  up  to  this  event  was  the  unifica- 
tion of  the  Northern,  Southern  and  M.  P.  branches  of 
Methodism  in  1939.  Two  M.  P.  institutions  played  a 
major  role  in  the  Advocate's  transition — the  former  M.  P. 
Publishing   House   in   Pittsburgh,    and   Adrian    College. 

After  unification  it  was  decided  to  discontinue  the  Pitts- 
burgh publishing  plant  and  to  give  to  Adrian  College 
certain  pieces  of  printing  equipment.  This  seemed  natural 
because  both  institutions  had  been  affiliated  with  the  M.  P. 
branch  of  the  now  united  Church.  It  was  Samuel  J. 
Harrison,  then  president  of  Adrian  College,  who  saw  the 
possibilities  of  setting  up  a  printing  plant  carried  on  by 
the  College  as  a  part  of  the  student  self-help  program. 
He  also  saw  the  possibility  of  bringing  the  Advocate  to 
Adrian's  campus  and  pooling  the  equipment  of  both  print- 
ing establishments  to  form  what  came  to  be  known  as 
the  Adrian  College  Press. 

A  change  in  college  administration  in  1959,  and  the 
lack  of  adequate  space  for  printing  facilities  and  editorial 
offices  resulted  in  the  Advocate  moving  to  a  new  location 
in  the  same  touii.  A  Methodist  layman,  Robert  Tuttle, 
who  had  managed  the  Adrian  College  Press,  joined  with 
another  layman,  Donald  Swenk,  to  form  a  printing  busi- 
ness which  leased  certain  pieces  of  Advocate  equipment, 
and  continued  to  print  the  paper  under  a  contractual 
arrangement. 

As  time  passed,  the  Advocate  board  was  enlarged  to 
include  an  equal  number  of  laymen  and  ministers  from 
both  the  sponsoring  conferences.  Circulation  reached  its 
lowest  point  in  the  depression  of  the  30's  when  it  dropped 
to  8,000.  Since  then,  it  has  climbed  slowly  but  surely  to 
reach  its  current  listing  of  over  28,000 — the  highest  in 
its  93-year  history. 

The  content  of  the  publication  is  described  by  its  state- 
ment on  the  cover,  "The  Newsmagazine  of  Michigan 
Methodists."  While  it  majors  on  local,  state,  national  and 


world  news  of  Methodism  in  particular,  and  of  Chris- 
tendom in  general,  it  is  also  an  opinion  magazine  dealing 
with  current  issues,  many  of  them  highly  controversial. 
The  policy  is  thoroughly  democratic,  however,  allowing 
for  the  widest  possible  latitude  of  opinion  on  a  variety 
of  moral  and  rehgious  subjects. 

This  liberal  editorial  policy  has  kept  the  Advocate's 
editors  in  the  center  of  current  debate  whatever  the 
issue.  When  Phelps  was  editor,  he  was  accused  of  heresy, 
and  actually  investigated  by  a  committee  from  his  con- 
ference— but  given  a  clean  bill  of  theological  health.  In 
characteristic  humor  he  boasted  to  his  last  days  that  he 
was  the  only  minister  in  his  conference  who  was  orthodox 
because  he  had  a  committee's  report  to  prove  it!  This 
incident  will  illustrate  the  freedom  practiced  by  Michigan 
Christian  Advocate  editors  through  the  years  of  the 
modernist-fundamentalist  controversy,  and  in  the  more 
reeent  times  of  social  and  political  turmoil.  Besides  news 
and  opinion,  the  Advocate  has  carried  a  limited  amount 
of  promotional  material,  but  has  always  been  careful  to 
avoid  becoming  a  purely  promotional   type   publication. 

John  E.  Marvin 

MICHIGAN  CONFERENCE  was  formed  in  1836  by  divid- 
ing the  Ohio  Conference.  (See  Michigan  for  account 
of  early  Methodism  in  the  state.)  At  the  beginning  the 
conference  had  two  districts  in  Michigan  and  four  in 
Ohio.  The  two  Michigan  districts  had  4,044  members. 
The  first  session  of  the  conference  was  held  at  Mansfield, 
Ohio,  Sept.  7,  1836,  with  Bishop  Joshua  Soule  presiding. 
Beginning  in  1840,  the  conference  was  limited  to  Mich- 
igan, and  at  that  time  it  had  seventy-eight  ministers  and 
11,523  members. 

In  1856,  the  Detroit  Conference  was  formed  by 
dividing  the  state  and  thereafter  the  Michigan  Conference 
was  limited  to  the  west  half  of  the  lower  peninsula.  The 
division  left  the  conference  with  ninety-one  ministers 
and  10,623  members.  Down  to  1900  the  two  conferences 
were  about  equal  in  numerical  strength,  but  thereafter  the 
increasing  population  in  the  Detroit  area,  due  largely  to 
the  rise  of  the  automobile  industry,  caused  the  Detroit 
Conference  to  forge  ahead. 

In  1931  when  the  Michigan  Conference  had  approxi- 
mately 64,000  members,  it  reduced  the  number  of  its 
districts  from  six  to  five.  In  1968  with  a  membership  of 
more  than  105,000  a  sixth  district  was  again  created. 
The  names  of  the  districts  are:  Albion,  Kalamazoo, 
Lansing,  Grand  Rapids,  Central  Michigan,  and  Grand 
Traverse. 

In  1969  the  name  was  changed  to  West  Michigan 
Conference  and  in  1970  the  Conference  reported  464 
churches,  110,906  members,  67,401  enrolled  in  Church 
schools,  and  property  valued  at  $73,632,842. 

General  Minutes,  ME  and  TMC. 

M.  B.  Macmillan,  Michigan.  1967.  Albea  Godbold 

MICHIGAN  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  was  organized  in 
Grand  Rapids,  Mich,  in  June  1951,  following  the  1946 
union  of  The  Evangelical  Chubch  and  the  Church  of 
the  United  Brethren  in  Christ.  It  brought  together 
the  work  of  the  former  denominations  in  Michigan. 
The  work  of  The  Evangelical  Church  had  begun  in 
Michigan  in  1838,  when  Solomon  Altimos,  a  minister  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MICHIGAN   CONFERENCE 


the  East  Pennsylvania  Conference,  settled  in  Ash  Town- 
ship near  Flat  Rock,  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  the 
state.  He  began  to  preach  in  the  area  and  also  traveled 
across  southern  Michigan  as  far  as  St.  Joseph  County.  In 
1845,  a  mission  was  formed  near  Ann  Arbor  by  the  Ohio 
Conference.  About  this  time,  work  was  started  in  south- 
western Michigan  by  both  the  Indiana  and  Illinois  Con- 
ferences. The  General  Conference  of  The  Evangelical 
Church,  meeting  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  in  1863,  ordered  the 
organization  of  the  Michigan  Conference,  its  boundaries 
to  include  all  of  the  state  of  Michigan,  that  portion  of  the 
state  of  Ohio  lying  north  of  the  Maumee  River,  and  a 
narrow  strip  from  the  northern  edge  of  the  state  of 
Indiana.  The  organization  was  accomplished  in  May, 
1864,  at  the  session  of  the  Ohio  Conference,  meeting  in 
Carey,  Ohio,  with  the  first  regular  session  of  the  Michigan 
Conference  being  held  in  April,  1865,  in  the  Beagle 
Church,  near  Blissfield.  This  infant  conference  of  sixteen 
churches  and  1,414  members  (1865)  enjoyed  steady 
growth  through  the  years,  first  in  the  rural  areas  and 
later  spreading  to  the  rapidly  growing  urban  centers.  By 
1950  there  were  124  organized  congregations  and  14,946 
members.  The  conference  boundaries  remained  virtually 
unchanged  during  this  period. 

In  1831,  the  Wabash  Conference  of  the  United  Brethren 
Church  assigned  William  Davis  to  travel  the  St.  Joseph 
Circuit,  which  included  St.  Joseph,  Cass,  and  Berrien 
Counties  in  southwestern  Michigan,  along  with  some  terri- 
tory in  northern  Indiana.  Shortly  thereafter,  a  group  was 
meeting  in  Brown's  Tavern  in  Berrien  Springs  but  no  per- 
manent work  was  established  until  1845.  In  1838,  the 
Ohio  Sundusky  Conference  appointed  Stephen  Lillybridge 
to  the  Michigan  Mission,  an  area  in  the  southeastern  cor- 
ner of  Michigan;  but  no  permanent  work  was  established 
here  until  1848. 

The  General  Conference  of  the  United  Brethren  Church 
across  the  years  took  a  number  of  actions  affecting  con- 
ference boundaries  in  Michigan;  but  these  actions  involved 
only  the  lower  peninsula  of  the  state,  for  no  work  was 
ever  begun  in  the  upper  peninsula.  In  1845,  the  territory 
of  Michigan  was  divided  east  and  west,  that  part  lying 
north  of  Ohio  being  given  to  the  Sandusky  Conference, 
and  the  part  north  of  Indiana  to  the  St.  Joseph  Confer- 
ence. Work  progressed  so  that  by  1853,  the  Michigan 
Conference,  a  mission  conference  including  all  of  the  state 
except  the  southwest  comer,  was  authorized.  The  south- 
west corner,  including  St.  Joseph,  Berrien,  and  Cass 
Counties,  remained  with  the  St.  Joseph  Conference.  In 
1857,  Michigan  became  a  self-supporting  conference.  1861 
saw  a  major  revision  of  boundaries  as  Michigan  Confer- 
ence was  given  the  bottom  two  rows  of  counties  in  the 
state  plus  the  Maumee  District  of  the  Sandusky  Con- 
ference. St.  Joseph  Conference  maintained  its  comer  while 
all  the  state  north  of  the  two  rows  of  counties  was  or- 
ganized as  the  North  Michigan  Conference.  This  arrange- 
ment held  until  1869,  when  the  Michigan  Conference 
became  the  North  Ohio  Conference  and  was  given  only 
the  southernmost  row  of  counties  in  Michigan.  The  rest 
of  the  area  was  assigned  to  the  northern  conference 
which  was  renamed  Michigan.  In  1877,  the  state  was 
again  divided  north  and  south  with  the  division  line 
running  through  Grand  Rapids  and  Flint.  The  southern 
portion  was  named  the  Michigan  Conference  and  the 
northern  portion  was  called  the  Saginaw  Mission  Con- 
ference, a  name  which  was  changed  four  years  later  to 
North  Michigan  Conference  when  it  became  self-support- 


ing. Following  the  division  of  the  United  Brethren  Church 
(1889),  Michigan  and  North  Michigan  were  consohdated 
into  one  Michigan  Conference  (1897)  and,  in  1901,  St. 
Joseph  Conference  gave  its  comer  of  the  state  to  the 
Michigan  Conference.  This  boundary  was  then  maintained 
until  the  conference  union  of  1951,  but  the  many  divisions 
over  the  years  contributed  to  slow  growth.  By  1950, 
there  were  39  organized  congregations  and  4,993  mem- 
bers. 

The  Michigan  Conference  of  The  Evangelical  United 
Brethren  Church  had  21,830  members  in  1968.  There 
were  113  charges  and  a  total  of  133  churches.  Ministerial 
membership  was  180  in  all  classes.  The  conference  was 
divided  into  two  districts,  with  a  residence  for  the  East 
District  Superintendent  in  Detroit,  and  a  residence  for 
the  West  District  Superintendent  in  Grand  Rapids.  The 
conference  office  was  maintained  in  Lansing.  The  total 
value  of  church  property  in  Michigan  was  $14,009,626. 
$2,732,510  was  paid  out  for  all  purposes  in  1967. 

In  1969,  the  conference  united  with  the  Detroit  and 
West  Michigan  Conferences  of  the  former  Methodist 
Church  to  form  the  present  Detroit  and  West  Michigan 
Conferences. 

Watson:  History  of  the  Michigan  Conference  of  the  Evangeli- 
cal Church,  1942. 

Watson  and  Spafford:  History  of  the  Michigan  Conference  of 
the  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church,  Vol.  II,  1961. 

Arthub  L.  Spafford 


MICHIGAN  CONFERENCE  (MP)  was  organized  in  July 
1842,  with  five  itinerant  ministers  from  the  Ohio  Con- 
ference, three  circuits,  and  some  250  church  members. 
James  Gay  was  the  first  president.  In  1858  the  conference 
was  divided  to  form  the  West  Michigan  Conference  which 
continued  as  a  separate  body  until  1908  and  was  then 
absorbed  by  the  Michigan  Conference. 

The  Michigan  Conference  was  strongly  opposed  to 
slavery.  It  refused  to  elect  delegates  to  the  M.  P.  General 
Conference  in  1850  because  to  do  so  would  mean  com- 
plicity with  the  evil  of  slavery.  In  1864  the  conference 
passed  a  strong  resolution  in  support  of  the  Federal 
government  as  it  prosecuted  the  war  against  "rebellion." 

Apparently  some  members  of  the  conference  believed 
that  Methodist  Protestantism  in  its  enthusiasm  for  democ- 
racy had  developed  a  connection  that  was  too  loose  for 
effective  church  life.  In  1873  the  conference  formed  eight 
subdistricts  of  five  to  seven  churches  with  a  pastor  as 
chairman  of  each.  The  chairman  visited  the  circuits  and 
the  quarterly  conferences  in  his  subdistrict  and  was  ex- 
pected to  act  as  the  conference  president  would  if  he 
were  present.  The  chairman  had  no  control  over  the 
appointments  of  the  preachers  unless  he  was  a  member 
of  the  conference  stationing  committee.  The  subdistrict 
plan  proved  helpful  in  promoting  missions  and  finances. 
There  was  some  opposition  to  the  subdistrict  plan;  over 
a  period  of  several  decades  it  was  adopted  in  some  years 
and  rejected  in  others. 

Perhaps  Methodist  Protestantism's  most  important  ven- 
ture in  Michigan  was  Adrian  College.  Chartered  in 
1839,  it  became  a  Wesleyan  Methodist  school  in  1852. 
In  1859  it  was  moved  from  near  Jackson  to  Adrian.  In 
1862  the  trustees  voted  to  invite  the  Methodist  Protestants 
to  cooperate  at  Adrian.  The  move  seemed  logical  because 
at  that  time  there  was  serious  talk  of  uniting  the  non- 
episcopal  Methodists  in  the  north  and  west  and  because 


MIDDLEBURG,    FLORIDA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


the  Methodist  Protestants  in  Ohio,  Illinois  and  Michigan 
had  for  some  time  desired  to  start  a  college. 

The  union  plans  failed,  but  the  Adrian  trustees,  caught 
in  a  financial  crisis,  wanted  help  with  the  college  debt 
and  a  proposed  endowment  fund.  The  college  was  put 
in  the  hands  of  the  Methodist  Protestants  by  the  simple 
expedient  of  electing  a  majority  of  the  trustees  from  that 
church.  The  Methodist  Protestants  did  not  pay  off  the 
debt  nor  did  they  raise  the  endowment  fund,  but  they 
took  charge  of  the  college.  In  succeeding  decades  the 
institution  had  a  precarious  existence,  but  it  managed  to 
survive.  At  unification  in  1939,  Adrian  College  came  into 
The  Methodist  Church  with  no  debt,  an  endowment  of 
some  $152,000,  and  a  plant  valued  at  $340,000.  It  has 
grown  to  be  a  first-rate  church  college. 

The  Methodist  Protestants  in  Michigan  were  never 
numerous,  as  compared  with  the  membership  of  the  M.  P. 
Church.  Their  churches  were  almost  altogether  in  the  rural 
areas  and  small  villages.  A  congregation  of  more  than  100 
members  was  rare.  Simpson's  Cyclopaedia,  fourth  edition, 
published  in  1882,  reported  two  Methodist  Protestant 
conferences  in  Michigan,  104  itinerant  ministers,  seventy- 
two  unstationed  preachers,  4,352  members,  thirty-three 
churches  and  thirty-one  parsonages  valued  at  $82,490. 
As  a  denomination  probably  the  Methodist  Protestants 
exerted  an  influence  beyond  what  might  be  expected  in 
view  of  their  small  constituency  in  the  state. 

In  1938  the  Michigan  Conference  journal  reported 
seventy  ministers,  fifty-seven  churches,  7,630  enrolled  in 
the  Sunday  schools,  1,038  in  the  women's  societies,  and 
4,176  church  members. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism,  1964. 

Margaret  B.  Macmillan,  The  Methodist  Church  in  Michigan, 

1967. 

Michigan  Conference  Journals,  1932-1938.     Albea  Godbold 

MIDDLEBURG,  FLORIDA,  U.S.A.  MIddleburg  Method- 
ist Church,  a  pioneer  Florida  church,  is  located  twenty- 
six  miles  southwest  of  Jacksonville  on  State  Highway  21. 
A  historical  marker  gives  directions  to  the  church  which 
is  located  just  east  of  the  highway  at  the  place  where 
Highway  21  crosses  Black  Creek. 

The  Methodist  Church  at  Middleburg  is  one  of  Florida's 
oldest  Protestant  congregations  with  an  unbroken  line  of 
pastoral  appointments  dating  from  1823,  two  years  after 
Florida  became  a  Territory  of  the  United  States.  The  local 
records  indicate  that  Methodist  people  met  prior  to  that 
time  but  no  organized  church  is  noted  until  1823.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  no  Protestant  worship  was  permitted 
under  Spanish  rule  in  Florida.  The  Middleburg  Church 
was  cited  by  the  1963  Florida  Conference  for  140 
years  of  continuous  service.  The  building  is  the  oldest  in 
the  Florida  Conference.  It  remains  an  excellent  example 
of  church  construction  in  Florida  during  the  pre-Civil 
War  period.  As  one  visits  this  church  and  the  adjoining 
cemetery,  one  feels  that  one  has  been  transferred  back 
a  century  and  a  quarter. 

The  church  structure  is  of  wide  clapboards  on  the 
exterior  and  wide  random  width  tongue  and  grooved 
ceihng  on  the  inside,  all  painted  white.  The  nails  were 
wrought  by  hand  at  a  then  nearby  forge.  The  pews  are 
mahogany.  All  of  the  lumber  was  cut  from  neighboring 
forests  and  was  dressed  by  hand.  The  visible  evidence 
of  the  drawknife  can  be  observed  by  all.  The  labor  in 


the  cutting  of  lumber  and  the  construction  of  the  church 
was  by  slaves  owned  by  members  of  the  church. 

No  major  change  has  been  made  in  the  interior  of  the 
building  since  the  1850's.  There  is  a  wide  center  aisle 
which  was  designed  to  separate  the  men  and  the  women. 
Two  back  pews  were  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  slaves, 
"that  they  might  have  the  privilege  of  joining  in  the 
common  worship." 

Descendants  of  the  early  settlers  in  the  Middleburg 
area,  who  had  received  land  grants  from  the  King  of 
Spain,  are  represented  in  the  church  membership. 

Gordon  N.  Cbaic 


W.  Vernon  Middleton 

MIDDLETON,  WILLIAM  VERNON  (1902-1965),  American 
bishop,  was  born  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  Dec.  25,  1902,  the 
son  of  William  F.  and  Stella  (Fort)  Middleton.  He  was 
educated  at  Dickinson  College  (A.B.,  1928),  New  York 
University  (A.M.,  1932),  and  Drew  University  (B.D., 
1931,  and  Ph.D.,  1946).  His  honorary  degrees  were: 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  L.H.D.,  J.U.D.,  and  Litt.D.  He  married 
Miriam  Kathleen  Horts,  June  13,  1931,  and  they  had 
two  children,  Patricia  Jean  and  William  H.  L. 

Received  on  trial  in  the  Philadelphia  Conference 
in  1928,  Middleton  was  ordained  both  deacon  and  elder 
in  1930.  His  pastoral  appointments  were:  Dauphin  and 
Heckton  Circuit,  1924-28;  Hulmeville,  1928-31;  associate, 
First  Church,  Germantown,  1931-33;  Canadensis,  1934- 
35;  and  Narberth,  1935-39.  He  was  pastor  of  Covenant 
Church,  Philadelphia,  and  executive  secretary  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia Missionary  and  Church  Extension  Society,  1939- 
42.  From  1942  to  1944,  he  gave  full  time  to  the  work  of 
the  society.  From  1944  to  1960,  he  served  with  the 
Division  of  National  Missions  in  Philadelphia,  first  as  sec- 
retary of  the  church  extension  section,  1954-56;  and  finally 
as  general  secretary  of  the  Division,  1956-60. 

Middleton    was    a    delegate    to    the    1956    and    1960 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MIDUND,   NORTH   CAROLINA 


General  Conferences,  leading  his  delegation  to  the 
latter.  He  was  a  trustee  of  three  Pennsylvania  colleges: 
Dickinson,  Allegheny-,  and  Lycoming.  He  published 
two  books,  Methodism  in  Alaska  and  Hawaii,  and  The 
Arm  of  Compassion.  Elected  bishop  in  1960,  he  was 
assigned  to  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Area,  renamed  the 
Pittsburgh  Area  in  1964. 

Middleton  was  recognized  as  an  able  administrator. 
His  work  as  secretary  of  church  extension  promoted  the 
growth  of  Methodism  in  Puerto  Rico,  and  today  it  is 
the  largest  Protestant  church  in  the  island.  As  bishop 
he  conducted  two  successful  financial  campaigns  for 
church  extension  in  his  area.  He  made  a  favorable  im- 
pression as  host  bishop  of  the  1964  General  Conference 
at  Pittsburgh.  He  died  Nov.  12,  1965  at  Minneapolis 
while  en  route  to  a  meeting  of  the  Council  of  Bishops 
in  Seattle.  Burial  was  at  Chambersburg,  Pa. 

Methodist  Story,  January,  1966. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.      Jesse  A.  Eahl 

MIDDLETOWN,  OHIO,  U.S.A.  First  Church  is  the  direct 
descendent  of  the  first  religious  group  organized  there 
when  a  little  band  of  devout  Methodists  met  for  worship 
in  the  fall  of  1805  in  the  log  cabin  home  of  James  Grimes, 
a  Methodist  local  preacher  who  had  migrated  from 
Virginia  after  serv'ing  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Itinerant 
preachers  and  such  circuit  riders  as  Peter  Cartwright 
served  the  growing  society,  which  soon  became  a  member 
of  the  Miami  Circuit,  the  first  in  Ohio.  On  Sept.  17,  1815, 
at  the  Ohio  Annual  Conference  held  in  Lebanon,  James 
Grimes,  the  founder  of  the  Society,  was  ordained  a  local 
preacher  by  Bishop  Francis  Asbury.  Participating  in  the 
ordination  service  was  William  McKendree,  then  the 
only  other  American  Methodist  bishop. 

The  group  outgrew  the  Grimes  cabin  and  for  a  time 
beginning  in  1815  met  in  a  new  one-room  brick  school 
house,  the  first  to  be  erected  in  the  hamlet.  The  congre- 
gation built  its  own  one-room  house  of  worship  in  1829, 
the  first  brick  church  in  Middletown.  It  was  dedicated  by 
Bishop  Joshua  Soule. 

In  1849  the  group  outgrew  the  one-room  church  and  a 
two-story  brick  building  forty-two  by  sixty-seven  feet  was 
built  at  a  cost  of  $3,900.  It  was  dedicated  Jan.  20,  1850, 
by  George  W.  Walker,  the  presiding  elder,  and  was  named 
Walker  Chapel  in  his  honor.  The  Ohio  Annual  Conference 
met  in  this  church  in  1880,  with  Bishop  Jesse  T.  Peck 
presiding. 

After  forty  years  the  two-story  brick  church  became 
inadequate  and  the  present  handsome  one,  the  first  stone 
church  in  Middletown,  was  erected  in  1890,  at  a  cost  of 
over  $50,000,  and  dedicated  May  3,  1891,  by  Bishop 
Isaac  W.  Joyce. 

The  church  immediately  opened  Middletown 's  first  pub- 
lic library  in  one  of  its  rooms.  About  1,000  books  had 
been  contributed  and  members  served  as  voluntary  li- 
brarians. 

The  Ohio  Annual  Conference  was  entertained  again  in 
1892,  with  Bishop  Willlvm  X.  Ninde  presiding.  During 
its  161-year  existence  many  dedicated  ministers  have 
served  Middletown  church,  and  one  of  them,  Wilbur 
E.  Hammaker  (1904-1908),  later  became  a  bishop. 

Additions  and  improvements  have  been  made  from  time 
to  time,  the  latest  in  1953,  when  a  modem  three-story 
educational  building  adjoining  the  church   was  built  at 


a  cost  of  $102,600.  The  membership  in  1970  was  2,190 
and  tlie  annual  budget  at  that  time  was  in  excess  of 
$153,000. 

Wilfred  D.  Vorhis,  The  150  Year  History  of  the  First  Meth- 
odist Church  of  Middletown,  Ohio.  1956.   Wilfrid  D.  Vorhis 


MIDLAND,  MICHIGAN,  U.S.A.  First  Church  is  located  in 
what  is  called  the  "City  of  Beautiful  Churches."  The 
present  building,  the  only  downtown  church,  was  started 
in  1950.  The  sanctuary — a  brick,  steel  and  glass  structure 
with  balconies — seats  1,000  worshipers.  The  attention  of 
the  worshiper  is  drawn  upward  toward  the  skylighted 
altar  and  cross.  Through  the  side  walls  of  plain  glass, 
accentuated  by  smaller  colored  panes,  the  congregation 
looks  out  on  one  side  to  a  landscaped  pool  and  on  the 
other  to  a  cloistered  garden.  Individual  panes  in  memorial 
windows  express  personal  concepts  of  Christian  faith. 

Fellowship  Hal!  and  classrooms  are  in  the  lower  level. 
The  educational  wing  and  the  chapel  were  consecrated  in 
1953.  The  final  phase,  the  construction  of  improved  office, 
choir,  church  school,  hbrary  and  caretaker  facilities,  was 
completed  in  1967.  The  church  complex  covers  a  city 
block. 

Midland  became  a  part  of  a  circuit  in  1857  with  four 
members  and  nine  probationers.  In  1868  the  40  by  70 
frame  building  was  started.  This  building  with  renovation 
and  additions  served  the  church  until  a  fire  in  1936 
forced  the  547  members  to  a  new  decision. 

The  membership  tripled  in  the  period  from  1950  to 
1965  and  in  1970  stood  at  3,427.  The  church  school  and 
youth  programs  have  an  average  attendance  of  1,000.  Out- 
standing is  the  young  leadership  in  the  church  and  the 
wide  participation  in  community  affairs  by  many  of  its 
members. 

The  church  is  a  center  for  Methodist  district  and  con- 
ference meetings  and  also  community  religious  meetings. 
The  architecture  and  natural  setting  of  the  church  was 
arranged  to  inspire  in  its  membership  the  concept  of 
growth — growth  beyond  themselves,  beyond  walls,  be- 
yond this  earth,  beyond  time. 


MIDLAND,  NORTH  CAROLINA,  U.S.A.  Bethel  Church  in 

Cabarrus  County  was  organized  in  1782  in  Yadkin  Cir- 
cuit, and  was  put  in  Salisbury  Circuit  in  1783-1814. 
Among  the  first  members  were  Alexander  McLarty  and 
family,  by  certification  from  "South  End  of  Kinlyse  (or 
Kintze)  (Scotland),  29  July  1773."  Margaret  McLellan 
joined  in  1783,  and  David  and  Mary  Taylor,  David  White 
and  John  Garmon  in  1784. 

"Taylor's  Meetinghouse"  became  "Bethel"  about  1808 
with  the  first  deed  and  a  new  log  church.  Under  the 
Virginia  Conference  until  1815,  Bethel  was  then  put  on 
Sugar  Creek  Circuit  and  its  successors  in  the  South 
Carolina  Conference  until  1870.  Then  it  went  into  the 
North  Carolina  Conference  until  1890,  when  the 
Western  North  Carolina  Conference  was  organized. 
Associated  with  Clear  Creek  Circuit  until  1906,  Bethel 
was  then  on  two-point  charges  with  Mill  Grove,  Big  Lick, 
and  Bogers  until  it  became  a  permanent  station  appoint- 
ment in  1946. 

Bethel  was  rebuilt  about  1850  and  in  1924.  The  1970 
membership    was    274    and    the    property    is    valued    at 


MIDLAND,   TEXAS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


$121,300.  Nine  men  have  gone  into  the  ministry  from 
Bethel. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

W.  L.  Grissom,  North  Carolina.  1905. 

Minutes  of  the  Conferences,  1773-1813. 

Charlotte  Circuit  Quarterly  Conference  Minutes,  1815-67. 

G.  W.  BUMCABNER 

MIDLAND,  TEXAS,  U.S.A.,  is  the  only  city  or  town  in 
Midland  County.  The  county  was  organized  in  1885.  It 
is  traditionally  ranching  country,  but  in  recent  years  vast 
oil  resources  have  been  discovered,  and  today  several 
major  oil  companies  maintain  regional  oflBces  in  Midland. 
The  First  Methodist  Church  was  organized  in  Midland 
in  August  1885,  with  seven  charter  members,  six  women 
and  one  man.  There  are  now  five  Methodist  churches  in 
Midland  with  a  total  membership  of  6,225.  First  Church, 
the  mother  church,  is  the  largest,  with  a  membership  of 
2,288  and  a  Church  school  enrollment  of  1,374.  The  first 
building  was  a  small  frame  structure  erected  in  1889.  The 
present  church  building  is  valued  at  $900,000  and  the 
parsonage  at  $64,000.  A  new  sanctuary,  built  in  1967-68, 
is  considered  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Texas. 

J.  O.  Haymes,  Northwest  Texas  Conference.  1962. 

J.  O.  Haymes 

MIDWEST  CITY,  OKLAHOMA,  U.S.A.,  WIckline  Church. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  a  town  sprang  up  on  a  wheat 
field  across  from  Tinker  Air  Force  Base.  A  few  months 
later,  June  13,  1943,  the  first  Methodist  church  in  this 
area  started  in  a  tent.  In  the  struggling  early  days  of  the 
church,  an  elderly  woman,  Mrs.  Jeffie  Wickline,  left  all 
she  had  to  this  church  in  memory  of  her  husband  for 
whom  the  church  was  named.  The  money  derived  from 
the  estate  was  a  little  over  $18,000,  but  the  new  church 
found  the  money  and  the  sacrificial  gift  an  inspiration  for 
a  renewed  stewardship.  Over  the  next  fifteen  years,  four 
building  projects  completed  the  church  plant  worth 
$500,000.  The  membership  has  grown  from  four  the  first 
Sunday  to  2,417  today. 

Seven  pastors  have  given  their  encouragement  to  this 
progress.  The  pastors  were:  D.  Allen  Polen,  C.  E.  Nisbett, 
Lee  Bowles,  D.  Wesley  Doak,  Don  F.  Harrel,  Elwyn  O. 
Thurston,  H.  Ray  Baker.  Seventeen  young  men  have  gone 
into  full-time  Christian  service. 

The  church  has  been  known  for  its  progressive  ideas. 
There  are  no  traditions  that  have  to  be  followed.  Wickline 
Church  has  assisted  in  the  organization  of  four  new 
churches  in  this  area.  When  the  new  day  in  education  was 
presented,  leaders  in  children  and  adult  education  pre- 
pared themselves.  Presendy  youth  leaders  are  pushing  the 
new  youth  ministry.  Wickline  is  still  a  young  church  and 
eager  to  find  new  ways  to  serve  her  community. 

Mrs.  Robert  Carlisle 

MIGUEZ-BONINO,  JOSE  (1924-  ),  Argentine  theolo- 

gian and  educator,  was  bom  in  Sante  Fe,  Argentina,  to 
staunch  Methodist  parents.  He  received  theological  train- 
ing at  the  Facultad  Evangelica  de  Teologia  in 
Buenos  Aires.  Upon  graduation  he  went  to  Union 
Theological  Seminary  in  New  York,  where  he  earned  B.D., 
M.A.,  and  Ph.D.  degrees. 

Prior  to  launching  into  a  teaching  career,  he  was  pastor 
of    the    Ramos    Mejia    (Buenos    Aires)    and    San    Rafael 


(Mendoza)  churches.  After  some  years  as  a  professor  in 
the  seminary  at  Buenos  Aires,  he  became  president  in 
1960.  Currently  he  writes  articles  for  theological  journals, 
and  he  was  invited  to  teach  for  one  semester  at  Union 
Seminary,  New  York,  in  1967.  He  was  one  of  the  Meth- 
odist observers  at  the  first  and  third  sessions  of  the  Vatican 
II  Ecumenical  Council  of  the  Roman  Cathohc  Church. 
He  is  married  to  the  former  Noemi  Niewenhuyze,  and 
they  have  three  sons. 

Edwin  Maynard 

MILBURN,  WILLIAM  HENRY  (1823-1903),  blind  chaplain 
of  the  United  States  Congress,  was  born  in  Philadelphia, 
Sept.  26,  1823,  the  son  of  Nicholas  Milbum.  When  five 
years  of  age,  the  sight  of  his  left  eye  was  destroyed  by  a 
piece  of  glass  thrown  by  a  playmate.  The  other  eye  be- 
came inflamed  and  its  vision  was  seriously  impaired.  By 
the  age  of  thirty  he  was  totally  blind.  His  family  moved 
to  Jacksonville,  111.,  in  1838.  He  entered  Illinois  College 
in  1841,  but  was  obliged  to  leave  in  1843  because  of 
poor  health.  He  had  been  able  to  read  only  by  holding 
a  book  very  close  to  his  eyes. 

Pioneer  Methodist  preachers,  including  the  famous 
Peter  Cartwright,  frequented  the  Milbum  home,  and 
young  Milbum  decided  to  become  a  preacher.  As  an 
exhorter,  in  1843,  he  accompanied  Peter  Akers  on  a 
500-mile  circuit.  They  slept  on  shuck  mattresses  laid  on 
cabin  floors  and  ate  the  food  the  people  offered.  Milbum 
claimed  that  thereafter  he  never  liked  fried  chicken,  hog, 
hominy,  or  corn  bread.  On  Sept.  13,  1843,  Milburn  was 
admitted  to  the  Illinois  Conference  and  appointed  to 
the  Winchester  Circuit.  Two  years  later  he  was  ordained 
deacon  and  appointed  agent  to  raise  money  for 
McKendree  College  and  a  female  seminary  which  later 
became  MacMurray  College.  While  en  route  from 
Wheeling  to  Cincinnati  by  boat,  he  met  a  group  of  con- 
gressmen whom  he  reproved  for  drinking,  card  playing, 
and  profanity.  Impressed,  they  raised  a  purse  for  him 
and  almost  immediately  (1845)  secured  his  election  as 
chaplain  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Milburn  mar- 
ried, Aug.  13,  1846,  and  moved  to  Baltimore,  though 
he  continued  as  financial  agent  for  his  conference. 

Because  of  poor  health,  Milburn  moved  South  in  1848, 
transferred  to  the  Alabama  Conference,  was  ordained 
elder,  and  in  January  1849,  was  appointed  to  Montgom- 
ery. After  serving  there  and  in  Mobile,  he  went  back  to 
Congress  as  chaplain  for  one  term  (1853),  and  then 
settled  in  New  York.  There  he  supplied  churches,  includ- 
ing historic  John  Street,  and  lectured  widely  in  the 
United  States,  Canada,  and  England.  About  1862  he  took 
orders  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  but  in  1878 
he  was  readmitted  to  the  Illinois  Conference.  Resuming 
as  chaplain  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1885, 
he  served  until  1893,  when  he  became  chaplain  of  the 
U.S.  Senate.  He  resigned  the  latter  position  in  1902  be- 
cause of  failing  health.  In  1893  he  offered  the  invocation 
at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  and  in  1897  he 
led  the  opening  prayer  at  Queen  Victoria's  Diamond 
Jubilee. 

Milbum  wrote  four  books,  including  Ten  Years  of 
Preacher  Life,  and  The  Pioneers,  Preachers,  and  People 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  As  a  speaker  and  writer,  his 
style  was  simple  and  undecorated,  but  it  was  enlivened 
by  humor  and  illustration.  He  traveled  1,500,000  miles 
lecturing   and   preaching,   and   he   was   the   most    distin- 


WORLD   METHODISM 

guished  blind  man  of  his  time.  He  died  at  Santa  Barbara, 
CaHf.,  April  10,  1903. 

General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MECS. 
Christian  Advocate,  June  22,  1944. 
Dictionary  of  American  Biography,  Vol.  12.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

MILES,  WILLIAM  H.  (1828-1892),  first  bishop  of  the  C.  M. 
E.  Church,  was  born  on  Dec.  26,  1828,  at  Springfield,  Ky. 
He  was  bom  a  slave  and  owned  by  Mrs.  Mary  Miles, 
who  freed  him  in  her  will.  In  1855,  William  Miles  joined 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South  and  was  licensed  to  preach  in 
1857.  When  the  C.  M.  E.  Church  was  formed  in  1870, 
he  was  the  first  to  be  elected  to  the  office  of  bishop  by 
the  first  General  Conference.  His  consecration  to  the 
episcopacy  was  by  Bishops  McT'V'eire  and  Paine  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South.  Bishop  Miles  served  for  twenty-two 
years  as  the  Senior  Bishop  and  was  noted  as  an  eloquent 
preacher.  He  died  on  Nov.   14,   1892,  at  Louisville,  Ky. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.  M.  E.  Church.  1965. 

I.  Lane,  Autobiography.  1916.  Ralph  G.  Gay 


MILES  COLLEGE,  Bimiingham,  Ala.,  named  for  Bishop 
William  H.  Miles,  is  a  co-educational  liberal  arts  in- 
stitution. It  is  the  result  of  early  efforts  put  forth  by  the 
C.  M.  E.  Church  to  establish  an  educational  institution 
of  collegiate  rank.  The  college  is  considered  to  have 
been  a  development  from  two  high  schools — one  at 
Thomasville,  established  in  1898,  and  the  other  one  at 
Booker  City  (now  Docena)  established  in  1902.  These 
high  schools  were  organized  and  maintained  by  the 
Alabama  and  North  Alabama  conferences.  The  college 
received  its  charter  from  the  State  of  Alabama  in  1909. 

It  grants  the  Bachelor  of  Arts  and  Bachelor  of 
Science  degrees. 

The  governing  board  consists  of  twenty-six  members, 
three-fourth  of  whom  must  be  members  of  the  C.  M.  E. 
Church,  and  three  members  from  the  Board  of  Missions 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church. 

Total  enrollment  is  1,029;  total  faculty  is  105;  value 
of  physical  plant,  $2,740,224;  and  endowment,  $235,447. 

MILEY,  JOHN  (1813-1895),  American  minister  and  theo- 
logian, was  born  in  Butler  County,  Ohio,  on  Christmas 
day,  1813.  He  was  graduated  at  Augusta  College  (A.B., 
1834,  A.M.,  1837),  and  entered  the  Church's  ministry 
through  the  Ohio  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in 
1838.  He  was  minister  to  numerous  local  churches  in  Ohio 
until  1825,  when  he  transferred  to  the  New  York  East 
Conference  where  he  remained  until  1873,  when  he 
was  called  from  his  pastorate  at  Washington  Square 
Church,  New  York  City,  to  the  chair  of  systematic 
theology  at  Drew  Theological  Seminary.  In  this  posi- 
tion he  served  as  professor  and  author  until  his  death 
on  Dec.  13,  1895;  his  funeral  was  held  in  the  chapel  at 
Drew. 

During  his  years  at  Drew,  Miley  not  only  met  the 
classroom  responsibilities  attendant  upon  his  professorship, 
but  also  assumed  the  task  of  propounding  a  Methodist 
theology  for  his  day.  That  theology  was  set  forth  in  a  host 
of  published  articles  but  especially  in  two  discursive 
works:  The  Atonement  in  Christ  (1879)  and  Systematic 
Theology  (in  two  vols.,  1892  and  1894).  The  former  was 
an  explication  of  the  dominant  theories  of  the  atonement 
and   a   defense   of    the   "Governmental    Theory"    (which 


MILHOUSE,   PAUL   WILLIAM 

aimed  to  preserve  the  justice  of  God's  moral  demands) 
of  Grotius,  a  seventeenth  century  Arminian  statesman  and 
theologian.  Miley's  Systematic  Theology  was  his  effort 
to  present  a  "Methodist  Arminianism"  which  would 
theologically  differentiate  Methodism  from  Calvinism  and 
Romanism  and  which  would  acknowledge  the  insights  and 
limitations  of  the  science  and  scientific  method  of  his 
time.  Both  of  the  above  books  were  included  in  the  Con- 
ference Course  of  Study  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  the 
work  on  the  atonement  occupying  this  honor  from  1880 
to  1908. 

Despite  his  active  life  as  teacher  and  theologian,  John 
Miley  served  as  a  member  of  four  General  Conferences 
and  in  1886  was  fraternal  delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South. 

J.  R.  Joy,  Teachers  of  Drew.  1942. 
Lamb's  Biographical  Dictionary  of  the  United  States. 
Miley,    The   Atonement  in  Christ,   and   Systematic   Theology. 

Conrad  Cherry 


Paul  W.  Milhouse 

MILHOUSE,  PAUL  WILLIAM  (1910-  ),  American 
E.U.B.  bishop,  churchman  and  author,  was  born  on  Aug. 
31,  1910,  at  St.  Francisville,  111.  His  formal  education  was 
received  at  Indiana  Central  College,  A.B.,  1932, 
Magna  Cum  Laude,  and  at  American  Theological  Semi- 
nary, B.D.,  1937,  and  Th.D.,  1946.  Honorary  degrees  were 
conferred  on  him  by  Indiana  Central,  D.D.,  1950,  and 
Westmar  College,  L.H.D.,  1965.  On  June  29,  1932, 
he  married  Frances  Noblitt;  they  have  three  children. 
Ordained  in  the  Illinois  Conference,  Church  of  the 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  in  1931.  he  served 
churches  at  Elliott,  Olney,  and  Decatur.  He  has  been 
statistician,  secretary,  director  of  student  work,  director 
of  youth  and  young  adult  camps  in  the  Illinois  Conference 
(EUB).  He  conducted  a  religious  news  television  program 
at  Harrisburg,   Pa.,   for  one  year.  Wider  churchmanship 


MILLAR,   ALEXANDER   COPELAND 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


has  been  expressed  in  his  presidency  of  the  Ministerial 
Association  and  Council  of  Churches  in  Decatur;  associate 
editorship  of  the  Telescope-Messenger,  1950-59;  executive 
secretaryship  of  the  General  Council  of  Administration, 
1959-60;  election  to  the  bishopric  in  1960;  membership 
in  General  Assembly  of  the  World  Council  of 
Churches,  1961,  and  in  the  General  Assemblies  of  the 
National  Council  or  Churches,  1960,  '63,  and  '66.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Arbitration  Panel  in  Decatur  labor 
strike,  and  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Illinois  State 
Council  of  Churches. 

An  interest  in  writing  from  high  school  days  has  found 
expression  in  several  widely  used  books.  They  include 
Enlisting  and  Developing  Church  Leaders,  1946;  Come 
Unto  Me,  1947;  Except  the  Lord  Built  the  House,  1949; 
Doorways  to  Spiritual  Living,  1950;  Lift  Up  Your  Eyes, 
1955;  Christian  Worship  in  Symbol  and  Ritual,  1953; 
Laymen  in  the  Church,  1957;  At  Life's  Cross  Roads, 
1959;  and  Otterbein,  Pioneer  Preacher,  1968.  He  edited 
Crowing  Together,  1959,  and  Facing  Frontiers,  1960. 
Additional  writings  of  his  have  appeared  in  numerous 
periodicals.  In  The  United  Methodist  Church  Bishop  Mil- 
house  was  assigned  to  the  Oklahoma  Area. 

Builders,  Dec.  18,  1960. 

The  Telescope-Messenger,  Dec.  9,  1950;  Nov.  8,   1958;  Dec. 

10,    1960.  Arthur   C.    Core 


A.  C.   Millar 

MILLAR,  ALEXANDER  COPELAND  (1861-1940),  Ameri- 
can clergyman,  educator  and  editor,  was  born  at  McKees- 
port.  Pa.,  on  May  17,  1861,  the  son  of  William  John  and 
Ellen  (Coven)  Millar.  He  attended  Central  College  in 
Missouri,  receiving  the  A.B.  degiee  in  1885,  and  the  A.M. 
in  1889;  Wesleyan  College,  Winchester,  Ky.,  D.D.,  1907; 
Hendrix  College,  Conway,  Ark.,  D.D.,  1940;  University 
of  Arkansas,  LL.D.,  1922.  He  married  Elizabeth  Harwood 
(deceased.  May  22,  1924)  of  Brooksfield,  Mo.,  on  June 
27,   1887,  and  they  had  two  sons  and  a  daughter.  Nlillar 


married  a  second  time  Susie  McKinnon  of  Jacksonville, 
Texas,  on  Oct.  15,  1925. 

He  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  in  1888,  after  serving  for  a  year  as  professor  of 
Latin  and  philosophy  at  the  Neosho,  Mo.,  Collegiate 
Institute,  1886-87.  He  became  president  of  the  Central 
Collegiate  Institute  of  Altus,  Ark.,  which  was  moved  later 
to  Conway,  Ark.,  and  renamed  Hendrix  College  in  1890. 
He  served  as  professor  of  history  and  economics,  Central 
College,  Fayette,  Mo.,  1902-04;  presiding  elder.  Little 
Rock  District,  1906-10;  president  of  Hendrix  College 
(second  time),  1910-13;  president  of  Oklahoma  Methodist 
College,  Muskogee,  Okla.,  1913-14;  associate  editor  of 
the  Western  Methodist  (now  Arkansas  Methodist) ,  1904- 
14.  He  was  editor-in-chief  of  the  Arkansas  Methodist, 
1914-40,  also  ser\ing  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Arkadel- 
phia  District,  1931-32. 

Millar  was  head  of  the  good-roads-movement  in  Ar- 
kansas which  resulted  in  the  adoption  in  1899  of  an 
amendment  to  the  Arkansas  Constitution,  authorizing 
counties  to  levy  a  road  tax.  He  led  a  movement  to  secure 
legislation  regulating  college  degrees.  In  the  larger  church, 
he  was  delegate  to  the  Ecumenical  Conference  on  Foreign 
Missions;  a  member  of  the  General  Board  of  Education 
(MES),  1898-1902;  a  member  of  the  Educational  Com- 
mission; of  the  Arkansas  Historical  Commission,  1909-13, 
and  again  in  1927.  He  led  a  special  investigation  of  the 
Arkansas  Penitentiary  in  1908;  was  president  of  the 
Arkansas  Education  Association,  1911.  He  was  a  delegate 
to  the  General  Conference,  MES,  five  times  including 
1930;  secretary  of  the  Arkansas  Forestry  Commission, 
1924-40;  president  of  the  Arkansas  Anti-Saloon  League, 
1923-40;  president  of  the  Western  Methodist  Assembly, 
1922-33;  vice-president,  1933-40.  He  was  vice-president 
of  the  Judicial  Council  (MES),  1934-39.  He  traveled 
in  Latin  America,  1920.  He  died  in  Little  Rock,  Ark., 
on  Nov.  9,  1940.  He  is  the  author  of  Twentieth  Century 
Education  Problems,  1901;  Together  (poem),  1910;  "My 
Own  Loved  Arkansas"  (song),  1937. 

Journal  of  the  Little  Rock  Conference,  1940. 

Who's  Who  in  America,   1938-39.  Kenneth   L.   Spore 

MILLER,  ADAM  (1810-1901),  American  German  preacher, 
was  born  in  Maryland,  of  Mennonite  ancestry,  having  a 
grandfather  and  two  uncles  who  were  Amish  preachers. 
He  grew  up  in  an  Amish  colony  at  Shanesville,  twenty- 
five  miles  from  Canton,  Ohio.  His  father,  impressed 
by  Joseph  McDowell,  later  an  itinerant  in  the  Ohio,  Rock 
River,  and  Iowa  Conferences,  sent  Adam  to  McDowell 
for  English  instruction.  Influenced  by  McDowell's  preach- 
ing. Miller  was  the  first  of  his  family  to  embrace  Meth- 
odism. He  received  an  e.xhorter's  license  and  spent  almost 
two  years  with  McDowell,  going  to  school  in  summer  and 
teaching  in  winter.  Licensed  to  preach  in  1830,  he  entered 
the  Ohio  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  in  1831,  and 
was  assigned  to  Nicholas  Circuit,  Virginia,  traveling  350 
miles  around  thirty-one  appointments.  Also,  serving 
Guyandotte  and  Point  Pleasant  circuits,  then  in  Virginia, 
Miller  traveled  in  Kanawha  District  for  four  years. 

Removing  to  Indiana,  he  was  assigned  to  Greenville 
Circuit  (1835),  West  Union  Circuit  (1836),  Milford 
Circuit  (1838),  and  then  to  the  German  Methodists  in 
Cincinnati  and  on  Lebanon  District  (1839).  In  1840  he 
was  appointed  to  a  regular  German  District  of  the 
Cincinnati  Conference.  Miller,  who  was  the  first  native 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MILLER,    FREDERIC   K. 


American  to  join  Wilhelm  Nast's  ministry  to  German 
settlers,  helped  establish  churches  in  Baltimore,  New- 
ark, Rahway,  Poughkeepsie,  Albany,  and  Buffalo. 

In  1858,  transferring  from  the  Peoria  Conference  to 
the  Iowa  Conference,  Adam  Miller  began  teaching  in  the 
German  Language  and  Literature  Department  of  Iowa 
Wesleyan  University.  Granted  "superannuated  or  worn- 
out"  status  in  1861,  he  removed  to  Springfield,  111.;  he 
then  resided  almost  a  decade  in  Chicago  and  was  living 
in  Denver,  Colorado  Territor\',  in  1873.  His  Iowa  Con- 
ference membership  was  terminated  by  location  in  1874. 
Adam  Miller  was  effective  as  a  preacher  for  twenty-two 
years,  eight  on  circuits,  one  on  a  station,  and  thirteen  in 
other  appointments,  while  having  fifteen  non-effective 
years. 

P.  F.  Douglass,  German  Methodism.  1939. 
A.  Miller,  German  Methodist  Preachers.  1859. 

,  German  Missions.  1843. 

A.  W.  Haines,  Makers  of  Iowa  Methodism.  1900. 

Minutes  of  the  Cincinnati  Conference,  1909. 

Minutes  of  the  Iowa  Conference,  1858-74. 

J.   M.   Versteeg,   Ohio  Area.   1962.  Martin   L.   Greer 

MILLER,  ELIZABETH  KUMLER  (1835-1908),  outstanding 
American  church  woman,  was  born  on  a  farm  near  Mill- 
ville,  Ohio,  Feb.  1,  1835.  Her  father,  Daniel  C.  Kumler, 
was  one  of  the  three  men  sent  to  Africa  in  1855  to  begin 
United  Brethren  Mission  work  in  Sierra  Leone,  West 
Africa. 

She  attended  the  village  school,  Oxford  Female  Semi- 
nary (now  Western  College  for  Women,  Oxford,  Ohio) 
and  Otterhein  College,  graduating  in  1858.  One  of 
her  classmates  at  Otterbein  College  was  Benjamin  R. 
Hanby,  the  famous  song  writer. 

After  teaching  in  an  integrated  village  school  in  Ohio, 
in  1859  she  married  John  S.  Miller  and  began  house- 
keeping in  a  log  cabin.  In  1862  she  was  called  to  be 
principal  of  the  Ladies  Department  of  Otterbein  College. 
She  accepted  and  they  moved  to  Westerville,  where  her 
husband  died  a  year  later. 

In  1880  she  came  to  Dayton,  Ohio  to  serve  the 
Women's  Missionary  Association  of  the  Church  of  the 
United  Brethren  in  Christ.  She  served  in  various 
capacities — as  trustee,  editor  of  the  Woman's  Evangel 
and  national  president.  It  was  said  of  her  during  these 
years  that  "she  was  the  best  known  and  the  best  loved 
woman  in  the  Church." 

She  was  a  sensitive  woman  with  remarkable  insight 
into  the  total  task  of  the  Church  and  with  a  worldwide 
concern.  She  was  also  a  poet  and  a  book  of  her  poems 
was  published  after  her  death.  Early  on  Oct.  23,  1908, 
she  died  and  was  laid  to  rest  in  Woodland  Cemetery, 
Dayton,  Ohio. 

Woman's   Evangel,    December    1908.        Mrs.    S.    S.    Hough 

MILLER,  EMORY  (1834-1912),  American  minister,  was 
bom  in  Moimt  Pleasant,  Pa.,  on  Dec.  23,  1834.  He 
attended  Mt.  Pleasant  College  and  after  moving  to  Iowa 
enrolled  at  the  Iowa  Conference  Seminary  (Comell  Col- 
lege) and  later  took  some  work  at  the  Garrett  Bib- 
lical Institute. 

He  was  admitted  to  the  Iowa  Annual  Conference 
of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1858  and  served  churches,  until 
retirement,    in    the    Iowa   Conference,    the    Upper    Iowa 


Conference,  the  Des  Moines  Conference,  with  the 
years  1860-1861  in  the  Missouri  Conference,  and  1882- 
1885  in  the  Minnesota  Conference.  Outstanding  pastor- 
ates were  filled  at  Cedar  Rapids  1863-1864;  Davenport 
1871-1872;  Iowa  City  1880-1881;  Des  Moines  1884-1886; 
1905-1907  and  Indianola  1887-1891.  He  was  presiding 
elder  of  the  Davenport  District  1868-1870;  Cedar  Falls 
District  1875-1879;  Des  Moines  District  1892-1897. 

His  preaching  and  expositions  of  Holy  Scripture  were 
especially  effective  in  large  urban  congregations.  Recog- 
nized by  Iowa  Wesleyan  University  with  an  M.A.  in 
1856,  he  was  twice  honored  by  the  State  University  of 
Iowa  with  a  D.D.  in  1877  and  an  LL.D.  in  1888.  A  book. 
The  Evolution  of  Love  (1892),  received  many  commenda- 
tions. During  his  pastorate  at  Indianola  and  after  retire- 
ment. Miller  was  a  member  of  the  teaching  staff  at 
Simpson  College. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conferences  of 
1876,  1880,  1892,  1896,  1904  and  to  the  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference  in  Washington,  1891.  He  died 
in  Des  Moines  on  July  3,  1912. 

Des  Moines  Conference,  Official  Minutes  1912,  pp.  83-85. 

Louis  A.  Haselmayer 

MILLER,    FREDERIC    K.     (1908-  ),    Commissioner    of 

Higher  Education  for  Pennsylvania,  was  bom  Nov.  28, 
1908,  in  Lebanon,  Pa.,  to  United  Brethren  parents,  the 
Rev.  Harry  E.  and  Laura  (Keiper)  Miller.  He  earned 
his  A.B.  degree  at  Lebanon  Valley  College  (1929)  and 
his  M.A.  (1931)  and  Ph.D.  (1948)  at  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  an  Assistant  in  History 
from  1931  to  1933. 

After  serving  as  a  teacher  of  social  sciences  and  basket- 
ball coach  at  Lebanon  High  School  (1933-39).  he  be- 
came Chairman  of  the  Department  of  History  at  Lebanon 
Valley  College.  From  1948  to  1950,  he  added  to  his 
teaching  responsibilities  the  duties  of  Assistant  to  the 
President;  and  following  the  death  of  President  Clyde  A. 
Lynch,  he  served  as  the  Acting  President  from  1950  to 
1951.  In  1951,  Dr.  Miller  was  elected  President  of 
Lebanon  Valley  College,  a  position  he  held  until  1967, 
when  he  assumed  his  present  post  with  the  Department 
of  Public  Instruction  of  Pennsylvania. 

Dr.  Miller's  tenure  as  President  of  Lebanon  Valley 
College  was  marked  by  great  growth  in  assets,  faculty 
strength,  and  academic  quality.  In  addition  to  the  leader- 
ship he  supplied  his  Alma  Mater,  Dr.  Miller  found  time 
to  participate  in  numerous  religious,  community,  and 
educational  affairs. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Gent;r.\l  Conference  of 
the  E.U.B.  Church  from  1954  to  1966;  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Publications  and  Trustee  of  the  Otterbein 
Press,  1955-60;  and  President  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  The  Eastern  Confeience,  1950-66.  He  holds  his 
membership  in  the  Ann\ille  United  Methodist  Church. 

In  educational  circles,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mission on  Higher  Education  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  States 
Association  of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools.  1960-66; 
President  of  the  EUB  College  Administrators.  1957-60; 
Secretary  (1957-61),  Vice  President  (1961-62),  and 
President  (1962-63)  of  the  Pennsylvania  Association  of 
Colleges  and  Universities;  and  Chairman  of  the  Board  of 
the  University  Center  at  Harrisburg,  1961-63  and  1966-67. 

His  participation  in  community  affairs  ranges  from 
membership  on  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Good  Samari- 


MILLER,   GEORGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


tan  Hospital,  Lebanon;  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
Lebanon  County  Chamber  of  Commerce;  and  the 
Lebanon  County  L'nit  of  the  American  Cancer  Society; 
the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Lebanon  YMCA  to  member- 
ship on  the  Student  Services  Committee  and  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Pennsylvania  State  YMCA. 

Dr.  Miller  is  married  to  the  former  Marion  Stover  of 
Philadelphia  and  is  the  father  of  a  daughter,  Janet  Louise, 
wife  of  Robert  N.  McLeod.  Dr.  Miller  served  with  the 
U.S.  Army  in  the  European  Theater  of  Operations,  1943- 
45.  He  has  been  awarded  honorary  degrees  as  follows: 
Litt.D.,  .Muhlenberg  College,  L.H.D.,  Dickinson  Col- 
lege, LL.D.,  Lebanon  Valley  College,  and  Ped.D., 
Geneva  College. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Bruce  C.  Soudebs 


MILLER,  GEORGE  (1774-1816),  was  one  of  the  first  two 
ordained  men  to  become  associated  with  Jacob  Albright, 
founder  of  the  "Evangelische  Gemeinschaft"  in  Pennsyl- 
v.wiA  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
other  of  the  two  was  John  Walter. 

George  Miller  was  born  Feb.  16,  1774,  at  Pottstown, 
Montgomery  Co.,  Pa.,  and  died  April  .5,  1816,  in  Union 
tomiship.  Union  County  of  that  state.  He  is  buried  at 
New  Berlin,  Pa. 

In  his  childhood,  the  parents,  Jacob  and  Elizabeth 
Miller,  moved  to  Alsace  township,  Berks  County,  where 
the  father  died  when  George  was  but  eleven  years  of  age. 
He  had  erected  and  was  operating  a  grist  mill  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  The  business  proved  to  be  a  valuable 
source  of  income  for  the  family.  There  were  two  other 
sons  in  the  family,  Jolm  and  Solomon.  The  family  was  of 
the  Lutheran  faith. 

George  Miller  suffered  a  confining  illness  at  the  age 
of  twelve.  He  reported  that  this  experience  resulted  in 
a  new  sense  of  respect  for  his  mother  and  led  him  to 
read  through  the  entire  Bible  by  the  age  of  eighteen. 
Regaining  his  health,  he  received  catechetical  instruction 
from  a  Lutheran  pastor  of  Reading,  Pa.  Although  sensing 
an  urgency  toward  the  abiding  spiritual  values  of  life, 
he  was  also  at  times  beset  with  temptations  common  to 
youth  of  his  age. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen,  .Miller  took  up  residence  with 
his  brother  John  and  soon  became  a  master  millwright, 
fully  informed  on  the  construction  of  grist  mills  and  the 
milling  business.  In  1798  he  purchased  a  tract  of  land  in 
Brunswick  township,  Schuylkill  County,  where  he  erected 
and  operated  his  own  mill.  In  1800  he  was  married  to 
Magdalena  Brobst,  at  which  time  they  erected  their  own 
home  near  the  mill  site. 

It  was  in  the  years  of  early  1796  that  Jacob  Albright 
began  his  itinerant  preaching  in  eastern  Pennsylvania.  In 
1798,  Miller  first  heard  Albright  speak  and  was  deeply 
impressed.  In  1802,  while  Miller  was  operating  his  own 
milling  business,  Albright  called  one  evening  and  asked 
for  night's  lodging.  He  was  invited  to  preach  in  the  Miller 
home. 

On  June  2,  1802,  while  at  work  in  his  own  mill, 
George  Miller  made  a  complete  surrender  to  God.  Both 
his  wife  and  brother  Solomon  embraced  the  Christian 
faith  under  the  early  influences  of  Jacob  Albright  and 
John  Walter.  A  class  was  established  of  which  he  became 
the  leader. 

In  1805  Miller  sold  his  land  and  mill  properties  and 
entered  into  full-time  itinerant  Christian  work  under  the 


direction  of  Albright  and  Walter.  His  first  assignment 
covered  work  in  Lancaster,  Dauphin  and  Berks  counties. 

The  first  Annual  Conference  of  the  newly  emerging 
church  was  held  at  Muhlbach  (now  Kleinfeltersville), 
Lebanon  County,  in  1807.  At  this  session  Miller  was 
ordained  elder. 

In  the  early  1800's  Miller  became  afflicted  with  in- 
termittent illness.  After  1809  he  could  accept  no  definite 
assignment  to  the  pastorate.  Having  some  literary  ability 
and  upon  the  urging  of  his  fellow  pastors,  he  accepted 
the  responsibility  of  writing  the  newly  projected  Discipline 
which  Jacob  Albright  had  not  been  able  to  carry  through. 
This  historic  original  draft  of  seventy-five  pages  was 
completed  in  1809.  Shortly  thereafter  he  compiled  a  "book 
of  rules"  for  Conference  business.  In  succession  he  wrote 
Practical  Christianity,  a  short  biography  of  Jacob  Albright, 
and  then  his  own  autobiography.  Much  of  this  work  was 
done  on  a  small  printing  press  in  his  own  home. 

William  C.  F.  Hayes 

MILLER,  GEORGE  AMOS  (1868-1961),  American  bishop, 
was  born  in  Mendon,  111.,  July  8,  1868,  the  oldest  of 
four  children  of  Martin  and  Ardalissa  Dryer  Miller.  The 
family  moved  to  California,  where  the  father  became 
a  pioneer  in  early  California  Methodism,  serving  churches 
in  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  Valleys,  farming  virgin 
soil  to  support  his  family. 

George  Miller  attended  the  University  of  Southern 
California  and  later  graduated  from  Stanford.  In  1895 
he  married  Margaret  Ross  and  they  had  two  daughters. 

He  was  ordained  in  1896  and  served  pastorates  in 
Hanford,  Calif.  (1896-1900)  and  Fresno  First  Church 
(1900-04),  a  church  founded  by  his  father.  He  went  to 
Central  Church  in  M.\nila,  P.  I.  (1905-07),  returning 
to  the  States  to  lecture  and  do  field  work  with  the 
American  Bible  Society  (1907-08).  He  served  Hamilton 
Church,  San  Francisco  (1908-09),  and  First  Church, 
San  Jose  (1909-14),  Grace  Church,  San  Francisco  (1914- 
16),  and  then,  sent  by  California  Epworth  Leaguers,  he 
went  to  Panama  as  Mission  Superintendent  (1917-19), 
pioneering  Methodist  work  in  Costa  Rica.  He  then  be- 
came E,\ecutive  Secretary  of  Mission  Work  in  South 
America  for  the  M.  E.  Church.  In  1924  he  was  elected 
to  the  episcopacy  at  the  General  Conference  of  that 
church  held  in  Springfield,  Mass.,  though  he  was  not  a 
delegate  to  the  Conference. 

Bishop  Miller  served  one  quadrennium  each  from  head- 
quarters in  Mexico  City,  Buenos  Aires,  and  Santi.\go. 
He  retired  in  1934,  served  a  local  church  in  Lafayette, 
Calif.,  and  continued  his  interest  in  Spanish  American 
missions.  He  raised  funds  for  and  established  the  Training 
School  for  Christian  workers  in  Costa  Rica.  He  died  Oct. 
12,  1961,  his  wife,  who  had  greatly  helped  him  through 
the  years,  predeceasing  him. 

Bishop  Miller's  service,  in  line  with  nationalistic  trends 
the  world  over,  spanned  the  years  when  Methodism 
moved  into  an  era  of  increasing  self-administration,  self- 
extension  and  self-support,  on  the  mission  field.  He  turned 
over  to  "national"  bishops,  one  by  one,  the  three  episcopal 
areas  in  Spanish  America,  bringing  to  a  close  the  period 
of  church  administration  from  the  United  States. 

Before  modern  travel  facilities.  Bishop  Miller  traveled 
up  and  down  the  hemisphere  on  burro-back,  by  cattle 
boat,  through  tropical  jungles  and  over  blizzard  swept 
mountains,    enduring   at    times    the    miseries    of   altitude 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MILLS,    EDWARD   LAIRD 


sickness.  He  was  a  gifted  and  prolific  writer,  some  thirty 
books  in  English  and  Spanish  and  several  blank  verse 
dramatizations  of  Biblical  stories  coming  from  his  pen. 
He  was  also  a  musician,  playing  both  string  and  wind 
instruments;  an  artist,  who  created  exquisite  wood  carv- 
ings and  charcoal  sketches.  Many  a  church  benefitted 
from  his  versatile  skills  as  organ-builder,  expert  mechanic, 
able  carpenter,  photographer,  and  printer.  His  sense  of 
humor  never  failed,  nor  did  his  calm  acceptance  of  life, 
a  prime  requisite  for  a  difficult  administration  with  ten- 
sions of  decreasing  depression  appropriations  and  the 
growing  pains  of  a  church  moving  toward  self-direction 
and  maturity. 

Among  the  books  written  by  Bishop  Miller  were:  In- 
teresting Manila;  The  Life  Efficient;  China  Inside  Out; 
Prowling  About  Panama;  Adventures  With  Christ  in  Latin 
America;  Restlessness  and  Reality;  Missionary  Morale; 
Mexico  and  the  Mexicans;  and  his  autobiography.  Grotv- 
ing  Up,  which  he  wrote  when  he  was  ninety-one  years 
of  age. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Evelyn  Miller  Bebger 

MILLER,  HARRY  E.  (1873-1947),  American  clergyman, 
pastor  of  the  Salem  United  Brethren  Church,  Lebanon, 
Pa.,  from  1904  to  1945,  one  of  the  longest  pastorates  on 
record  in  the  former  United  Brethren  Church. 

The  son  of  Isaac  and  Frederica  Schach  Miller,  Harry 
Miller  was  bom  at  Orvvin,  Pa.,  June  5,  1873.  After  moving 
to  Lebanon  with  his  parents,  he  was  converted  at  the 
age  of  twelve  in  the  Memorial  United  Brethren  Church; 
but  he  later  transferred  his  membership  to  the  Salem 
Church,  which  recommended  him  for  the  Quarterly  Con- 
ference license  in  1893.  He  was  ordained  in  1899,  by  the 
East  Pennsylvania  Conference,  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ,  the  year  he  received  his  A.B.  degree 
from  Lebanon  Valley  College. 

In  1903,  he  graduated  from  Bonebrake  Theological 
Seminary  (now  United  Theological  Seminary),  Day- 
ton, Ohio,  and  returned  to  Pennsylvani,\  where  he  served 
as  pastor  of  the  Zion  Church,  Myerstown,  for  a  year  before 
assuming  the  leadership  of  his  home  congregation  in  1904. 
In  1912,  he  took  a  M.A.  degree  at  Lebanon  Valley  Col- 
lege; and  in  1916  he  was  honored  with  a  D.D.  degree  by 
the  same  institution. 

During  his  pastorate.  Miller  received  1,078  members 
into  the  Salem  congregation  on  profession  of  faith.  He 
was  known  throughout  the  denomination  as  a  masterful, 
sincere  preacher  and  to  his  congregation  as  a  devoted 
pastor.  He  was  active  in  a  number  of  responsible  positions 
in  both  the  East  Pennyslvania  Conference  and  the  de- 
nomination as  a  whole.  Beginning  with  1909,  he  repre- 
sented his  annual  conference  at  General  Conference 
eight  times;  but  illness  prevented  his  accepting  election 
to  the  merging  conference  of  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ  and  The  Evangelical  Church  in 
1946.  He  was  a  Trustee  of  Lebanon  Valley  CoUege  for 
twenty-seven  years,  and  a  member  of  a  number  of  agencies 
of  his  annual  conference  throughout  his  active  pastorate. 

Miller  died  Feb.  4,  1947,  two  years  after  the  Salem 
congregation  had  honored  him  by  electing  him  as  Pastor 
Emeritus.  He  is  buried  at  the  Mt.  Lebanon  Cemetery, 
Lebanon.  He  had  been  preceded  in  death  in  1941  by 
his  wife,  the  former  Laura  Keiper.  The  Millers  were  the 
parents  of  two  sons.  Dr.  Frederic  K.  Miller,  President 


of  Lebanon  Valley  College  from   1950  to  1967,  and  the 
Rev.  Paul  A.  Miller. 

P.  B.  Gibble,  East  Pennsylvania  Conference.  1951. 

Bruce  C.  Souders 


MILLER,   LOIS    C.    (1918-  ),   daughter  of  an   E.U.B. 

minister  in  the  Kansas  Conference,  was  bom  in  Wichita, 
Kan.  She  received  her  collegiate  education  from  York 
College  (now  Westmar  College),  where  she  received 
the  B.A.  degree.  Westmar  College  later  gave  her  an 
honorary  doctorate. 

Miss  Miller  served  briefly  as  a  teacher  in  the  New 
Mexico  Mission  and  ten  years  in  weekday  religious  educa- 
tion in  California  and  Ohio.  Then  followed  a  three- 
year  service  as  bookstore  manager  for  the  Otterbein 
Press,  prior  to  becoming  in  1955  secretary  of  missionary 
education  for  children  and  youth  in  the  Women's  Division, 
Board  of  Missions.  From  1963  to  1968  she  was  secretary 
of  Interpretation  and  Education  for  the  E.U.B.  Board  of 
Missions.  With  the  formation  of  the  United  Methodist 
Church  in  1968,  she  became  associate  general  secretary 
of  the  Joint  Commission  on  Education  and  Cultivation, 
Board  of  Missions. 

A  delegate  to  the  1968  Assembly  of  the  World 
Council  of  Churches  (Uppsala),  Dr.  Miller  was  elected 
to  the  World  Council  Central  Committee.  She  has  also 
been  active  as  a  member  of  the  Department  of  Education 
for  Mission,  N.ational  Council  of  Churches  in  America. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

MILLER,  WILLIAM  (1775-1846),  American  bishop  of  the 
A.M.E.  Zion  Church,  was  born  in  Queen  Anne  County, 
Md.,  Aug.  23,  1775.  He  was  converted  March  4,  1788, 
and  was  licensed  to  preach  in  New  York  City  in  1808. 
He  joined  the  conference  June  21,  1821  and  was  ordained 
deacon  June  22,  1821.  He  received  his  elder's  orders  in 
1823  and  was  elected  a  superintendent  (full)  in  1840. 
He  died  June  10,  1846.  Flood  has  his  death  listed  in 
Philadelphia  in  1849,  while  Moore  reports  his  death 
in  the  twenty-sixth  Conference  (New  York,  1846).  We 
feel  that  the  first  account  (June  10,  1849)  is  therefore 
incorrect. 

David  H.  Bradley 


MILLS,  ALFRED  AVERY  (1877-1963),  Australian  minister 
and  President  of  the  Queensland  Conference  1930  and 
1947,  was  born  in  Bendigo,  Victoria.  He  was  a  diligent 
minister  from  1907-1948.  He  served  as  circuit  minister, 
military  chaplain.  Secretary  of  Home  Missions  and  Con- 
nexional  Secretary.  He  established  many  circuits,  extended 
the  work  of  the  Church  and  inspired  and  directed  new 
and  aggressive  enterprises.  He  was  statesmanlike  and 
zealous  in  determining  the  future  pattern  of  the  Church 
in  Queensland. 

.Australian  Editorial  Committee 


MILLS,  EDWARD  LAIRD  (1875-1959),  American  mmister 
and  church  leader,  was  born  on  March  30,  1875,  at 
Ryegate,  Vt.  He  was  reared  and  partly  educated  in  the 
westem  United  States.  He  graduated  from  Wesleyan 
Unixersity  in  1898,  and  from  Boston  UNi\ERsnY 
School  of  Theology  in   1902.  Following  his  ordination 


MILLS,   JACOB 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


in  the  same  year  he  went  to  Montana  where  he  served 
various  churches  until  1910,  when  he  was  appointed 
superintendent  of  the  Butte  District  of  the  Montana 
Conference.  In  1914  he  became  superintendent  of  the 
Utah  Mission. 

Edward  L.  Mills  was  elected  superintendent  of  frontier 
work  under  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church 
Extension  (ME)  in  1916,  which  office  he  held  until  1920, 
when  he  was  elected  editor  of  the  Pacific  Christian 
Advocate,  a  position  he  filled  admirably  until  his  retire- 
ment. 

He  was  author  of  the  book,  The  Advancing  Church, 
and  also  Plains,  Peaks  and  Pioneers.  The  D.D.  degree  was 
conferred  upon  him  in  1911  by  Willamette  University 
and  by  Wesleyan   University,  his   alma  mater,   in   1921. 

He  was  a  wise  and  efficient  leader,  a  fearless  advocate 
of  civic  righteousness,  and  a  keen  and  constructive  ec- 
clesiastical statesman.  He  died  on  Nov.  7,  1959. 

H.  M.  Merkel,  Utah.  1938. 

Minutes  of  the  Oregon  Conference,  1960. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Warren  S.  Bainbridce 

MILLS,  JACOB  (1842-1925),  American  minister,  was  born 
Nov.  18,  1842,  near  Topham,  Vt.  He  lost  an  arm  in  the 
Civil  War,  then  served  eleven  years  in  internal  revenue 
and  customs.  He  married  Jennie  Forrest,  Nov.  17,  1870. 
They  had  three  children:  Edward  Laird,  George,  and 
Edith.  Answering  an  advertisement  by  Col.  Wilbur  F. 
Sanders,  he  invested  in  a  horse  ranch  in  Montana.  After 
he  was  called  to  preach  in  1881,  he  responded  to  an 
appeal  by  F.  A.  Riggin  for  ministers  for  Montana,  went 
west  in  1882,  became  the  first  resident  pastor  at  Fort 
Benton,  built  the  Benton  parsonage  and  the  Sun  River 
church  (the  first  Methodist  buildings  in  northern  Mon- 
tana), and  was  ordained  elder  in  1885.  He  was  presiding 
elder  of  Bozeman  District,  1887-93,  and  of  the  Helena 
District,  1899-1905.  He  secured  the  organization  of  the 
Great  Falls  District,  later  North  Montana  Mission,  and 
the  organization  of  Kalispell  Mission.  He  was  twice  dele- 
gate to  General  Conference;  was  conference  evangelist, 
1907-14,  and  died  at  a  cottage  prayer  meeting,  Oct.  28, 
1925.  Burial  was  at  Forestvale  Cemetery,  Helena. 

E.  L.  Mills,  Plains,  Peaks  and  Pioneers.  1947. 

Roberta  Baur  West,  "How  They  Brought  the  Good  News  of 

Methodism  to  North  Montana."  Mss.     Roberta  Baur  West 

MILLS,  JOB  S.  (1848-1909),  American  U.B.  minister 
and  bishop,  was  born  Feb.  28,  1848,  in  Wa.shington  Coun- 
ty, Ohio,  of  Quaker  ancestry. 

He  received  a  license  to  exhort  in  1867,  a  quarterly 
conference  license  to  preach  in  1868,  and  joined  the 
Scioto  Conference,  Church  of  the  United  Brethren 
IN  Christ,  in  1870.  He  became  college  pastor  at  Wester- 
ville,  Ohio,  in  1874,  and  served  a  six-year  term,  and 
another  two-year  term  later.  For  a  period  of  time  Job 
Mills  was  a  presiding  elder  of  the  Central  Ohio  Confer- 
ence. In  1887  he  became  professor  of  English  literature 
and  rhetoric  in  Western  College,  at  Toledo,  Iowa,  when 
two  years  later  he  was  made  president  of  that  institution, 
serving  three  years.  This  was  followed  by  one  year  as 
profes.sor  of  philosophy  there. 

Mills  was  elected  bishop  in  1893  and  re-elected  quad- 
rennially  until   his   death   in    1909.    In    1896,   and   again 


in  1903,  he  embarked  on  visitation  tours  to  the  mission 
fields  in  Africa  and  Germany.  In  1902  he  visited  Puerto 
Rico.  In  1907  he  visited  the  missions  in  Japan,  China, 
and  the  Philippines. 

Largely  through  private  study  and  upon  examination 
he  received  A.M.  and  Ph.D.  degrees.  One  of  his  friends 
said  of  him,  "His  messages  were  backed  by  the  force  of 
clear  thinking,  full  information,  and  an  impressive  person- 
ality." In  1870  he  married  Sarah  A.  Metsgar,  who  died 
in  1874.  In  1876  he  was  married  to  Mary  Keister,  of 
Scottdale,  Pa.  To  them  were  bom  two  sons  and  three 
daughters. 

Bishop   Mills   died   at   Annville,    Pa.,   Sept.    16,    1909. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  U.B.  1931.  Clayton  G.  Lehman 

MILLSAP,  KATHRYN  ANNA  (1890-  ),  American  dea- 

coness, was  bom  in  Benton,  Kan.,  on  Jan.  30,  1890,  the 
daughter  of  John  Riley  Millsap,  a  Methodist  minister  in 
the  Southwest  Kansas  Conference,  and  Katie  E. 
Dugan. 

Miss  Millsap  attended  the  Wichita  (Kansas)  College  of 
Music  but,  having  decided  to  become  a  Methodist  dea- 
coness, she  enrolled  in  the  Kansas  City  National  Training 
School  for  Deaconesses  and  Missionaries  (later  National 
College)  and  graduated  in  1914.  She  first  served  as 
pastor's  assistant  in  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  then  as  missionary 
on  the  Carthage  (Missouri)  District  for  four  years.  In 
1926-27  she  was  pastor's  assistant  at  Bethel  Church,  Wich- 
ita. In  1927  the  Southwest  Kansas  Conference  appointed 
her  chaplain  of  Wesley  Hospital,  Wichita,  and  she  sei"ved 
there  continuously  until  her  retirement  in  1959.  She  re- 
ceived specialized  training  at  Wichita  University;  Iliff 
School  of  Theology;  took  clinical  training  under  Dr. 
Anton  Boisen,  Elgin  (Illinois)  State  Hospital;  and  studied 
at  Columbia  University  and  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York  City. 

She  pioneered  in  the  midwest  in  new  concepts  of 
pastoral  care  and  counseling  in  hospital  ministry,  and  her 
work  received  national  recognition.  She  initiated  the 
organization  of  Ministers  and  Physicians  Clinic  at  Wesley 
Hospital  which  has  met  annually  since  1944.  She  was  a 
charter  member  of  the  Protestant  Hospital  Chaplains  Asso- 
ciation and  served  as  member  of  hospital  committees  of 
national  import;  she  has  been  called  on  for  addresses  at 
Conferences  of  Ministers,  National  Hospital  Organizations, 
Mental  Hygiene  Societies,  Ministers  and  Physicians 
Clinics,  and  other  groups. 

She  was  lay  delegate  from  the  Central  Kans.\s  Con- 
ference to  the  Gener.\l  Conference  (TMC)  and  the 
South  Central  Jurisdictional  Conference  of  1940.  Up- 
on retirement  from  active  service  she  was  appointed 
Chaplain  Emeritus  and  Consultant  to  the  Chaplain's  De- 
partment by  the  Central  Kansas  Conference. 

Minutes    of    the    Central    Kansas,    Minnesota,    St.    Louis,    and 

Southwest  Kansas  Conferences. 

Wichita  Beacon-Eagle,  various  numbers,  1927-59. 

World  Horizons.   1940-65.  Mary  F.  Smfth 

MILLSAPS,  REUBEN  WEBSTER  (1833-1916),  American 
layman  and  philanthropist,  was  bom  May  30,  1833,  in 
Copiah  County,  Miss.,  a  son  of  Reuben  and  Lavinia 
Glowers  Millsaps.  Young  Reuben  left  his  home  at  the  age 
of  seventeen,  walked  to  Natchez,  a  distance  of  about 
sixty  miles,  where  he  took  passage  on   a  steamboat  for 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MILWAUKEE,   WISCONSIN 


Madison,  Ind.,  to  enter  Hanover  College.  After  Uvo  years 
at  Hanover  he  transferred  to  DePauw  University,  from 
which  he  graduated  in  1854.  He  went  back  to  Missis- 
sippi and  taught  school  for  two  years,  saving  every  penny 
he  made  so  he  could  go  to  Harvard  Law  School.  After 
receiving  his  law  degree  at  Harvard,  he  practiced  law  in 
Pine  Bluff,  Ark.,  from  1858  to  the  beginning  of  the  Civil 
War.  He  saw  extensive  service  in  the  Confederate  Anriy 
and  came  out  at  the  close  of  the  conflict  with  the  rank  of 
major.  After  his  discharge,  he  returned  to  south  Mississippi 
and  entered  the  business  of  cotton  buying  and  transport- 
ing. From  that  he  entered  merchandising  at  Brookhaven. 
In  1880  he  sold  his  business  and  went  to  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
where  he  established  a  wholesale  grocery  and  cotton  com- 
mission business.  In  1885,  he  returned  to  Hazlehurst, 
Miss.,  and  established  the  Merchants  and  Planters  Bank, 
then  moved  to  Jackson,  Miss.,  in  1887  and  became  presi- 
dent of  the  Capitol  State  Bank. 

In  1869  he  married  Mrs.  Mary  F.  Younkin,  daughter  of 
Horace  Bean,  a  wealthy  banker  of  New  Orle.^ns.  They 
had  no  children,  but  reared  a  niece  whom  they  adopted. 

Major  Millsaps  was  a  stalwart  Methodist  and  a  loyal 
churchman.  He  was  a  constant  attendant  at  the  business 
meetings  of  the  church  from  the  local  Church  Conference 
to  the  General  Conference.  No  layman  in  Mississippi 
was  more  frequently  elected  a  delegate  to  the  General 
Conference  than  he. 

His  great  work  was  in  laying  the  foundation  for 
Millsaps  College  with  an  initial  gift  of  $50,000,  in 
1889.  All  told,  he  gave  more  than  ten  times  that  amount 
to  the  college  which  bears  his  name  and  took  a  prominent 
part  in  its  first  Board  of  Trustees.  In  addition,  he  gave 
the  property  on  which  the  Mississippi  Methodist  Chil- 
dren's Home  is  located,  and  gave  financial  help  to  other 
educational  and  religious  institutions. 

He  died  on  June  28,  1916,  and  was  buried  in  a 
mausoleum  on  the  campus  of  Millsaps  College. 

Journal  of  the  Mississippi  Conference,  1916. 

New   Orleans  Christian   Advocate,   1916.       J.    A.    Lindsey 

MILLSAPS  COLLEGE,  Jackson,  Mississippi,  was  chartered 
in  1890.  It  was  named  for  its  chief  benefactor.  Major 
Reuben  W.  Millsaps,  a  graduate  of  DEPAmv  University, 
who  offered  $50,000  for  endowment,  provided  Methodists 
of  Mississippi  matched  it,  and  who  gave  to  the  college 
additional  amounts  totaling  over  $100,000.  Its  first  presi- 
dent was  WrLLiAM  Belton  Murrah,  later  a  bishop  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South.  Bishop  Murrah,  Bishop  Charles 
Galloway,  and  Major  Millsaps  are  generally  recognized 
as  the  founders. 

During  the  1930's  a  study  of  the  educational  work  of 
Mississippi  Methodists  resulted  in  consolidating  with  Mill- 
saps College  the  two  junior  colleges  under  control  of  the 
Methodist  Conferences  in  Mississippi — Grenada  College 
and  Whitworth  College.  In  1966,  the  Ford  Foundation 
made  a  challenge  grant  of  $1,500,000  to  the  college  which 
the  college  more  than  met  in  the  subsequent  months.  It 
now  offers  the  B.A.,  B.S.  and  B.M.  (Music)  degrees.  The 
governing  board  has  sixteen  members  elected  by  the 
Mississippi  and  North  Mississippi  Conferences. 

John  O.  Gross 

MILNE,  ANDREW  MURRAY  (1838-1907),  pioneer  mis- 
sionary and  South  American  Bible  agent  "from  Cape  Horn 


to  Quito,"  has  been  called  "the  most  noted  Bible  agent 
of  his  generation." 

Born  in  Scotland  in  a  pious  home,  he  entered  upon  a 
life  of  consecration  to  Christ  during  the  religious  awaken- 
ing of  1857-58,  and  became  an  active  member  of  the 
United  Presbyterian  Church.  He  came  to  Buenos  Aires 
in  secular  work  and  was  sent  to  Gualeguay,  where  he, 
"though  unable  to  speak  the  language  of  the  country, 
embraced  early  opportunities  for  distributing  gospels  and 
tracts  to  the  lightermen  with  whom  he  had  to  deal." 
Back  in  Buenos  Aires,  Milne  was  recounting  his  experi- 
ences to  William  Goodfellow,  whose  church  he  had 
joined  upon  arrival  in  Argentin.\,  when  the  latter  sud- 
denly turned  to  him  and  said:  "How  would  you  like  to  be 
engaged  in  such  work  all  the  time?"  Milne  replied  that  it 
was  just  the  work  he  would  delight  in.  The  American 
BiRLE  Society  had  been  in  correspondence  with  Good- 
fellow  about  opening  Bible  work  in  the  River  Platte 
region;  Milne  applied  and  in  February  1864,  was  ap- 
pointed agent  of  the  society. 

The  appointment  indicated  Montevideo,  but  since  an 
agency  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  was 
already  there,  Milne  established  himself  at  Rosario,  Argen- 
tina. From  that  up-river  port  he  visited  new  towns  and 
cities.  Later  (1869-79)  he  spent  eleven  years  in  Mon- 
tevideo, then  came  back  to  Buenos  Aires  to  establish  the 
River  Platte  Agency  in  1880.  He  wrote  in  a  letter  in 
1904: 

Since  the  establishment  of  this  agency,  there  has  fallen 
to  the  agent  the  very  distinguished  honour  of  planting  the 
flag  of  the  society's  permanent  operations  in  all  tlie  capitals 
and  in  many  of  tlie  chief  cities  of  the  ten  republics  of  South 
America.  ...  In  carrying  out  the  instructions  of  the  managers, 
the  agent  has  circumnavigated  South  America  once,  crossed 
the  Cordilleras  [the  Andes]  ten  times,  and  passed  from  die 
Atlantic  to  tlie  Pacific  or  vice  versa  still  oftener,  and  with  his 
own  hands  sold  tons  of  Scriptures.  .  .  .  Many  years  ago  we 
expressed  a  desire  to  see  Ecuador  opened  to  the  Gospel;  to 
see  the  American  Bible  Society's  work  established  in  every 
country  of  South  America,  to  see  the  work  of  this  agency 
efficiently  established  from  Ecuador  to  Cape  Horn,  and  to 
liave  a  hand  in  the  opening  of  the  Fountain  of  Life  to  die 
.3,500,000  Quichua  Indians  of  Bolivia,  Peru  and  Ecuador. 
In  His  amazing  grace  God  has  permitted  us  to  see  all  of  these 
desires  realized. 

On  the  last  day  of  1864,  Milne  had  been  married  to 
Harriet  Leggat,  born  in  Aberdeenshire.  She  lived  to 
complete  forty  years  of  joint  service  with  her  husband, 
taking  full  charge  of  the  agency  during  his  long  absences 
on  Bible  work.  Milne  died  in  Buenos  Aires  on  Aug.  22, 
1907. 

Ines  Milne,  From  Cape  Horn  to  Quito  with  the  Bible.  Rosario, 
Argentina,  1942. 

Adam  F.  Sosa,  Desde  el  Caho  de  Homos  hasta  Quito  con  la 
Biblia.  Buenos  Aires:  La  Aurora  Press,  1944. 

Daniel  P.  Monti 

MILWAUKEE,  WISCONSIN,  U.S.A..  the  largest  city  in 
the  state,  was  founded  by  Solomon  Juneau  in  1818  and 
was  incorporated  in  1846.  Mark  Robinson  was  admitted 
on  trial  in  the  Illinois  Conference  in  1835  and  was 
appointed  to  the  ".Milwaukee  Mission."  The  Wisconsin 
region  was  then  included  in  the  Chicago  District.  Robin- 
son preached  the  first  Protestant  sermon  in  Milwaukee  and 
organized  a  class  with  four  members.  At  the  1836  con- 


MINISTERIAL   CALL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


ference  session  Robinson  reported  fifty-three  members  for 
Milwaukee,  the  figure  including  members  at  other  points 
on  the  circuit.  In  1837  the  Milwaukee  District  was  formed 
with  Salmon  Stebbins  as  presiding  elder.  That  year  a 
board  of  trustees  was  appointed  for  the  Milwaukee  church, 
and  in  1841  a  church  building  was  dedicated.  It  was 
rebuilt  in  1844  at  a  cost  of  $10,000.  Originally  called 
Spring  Street,  it  later  became  First  Church.  In  1847  some 
members  withdrew  and  formed  a  Wesleyan  Methodist 
church.  In  tlie  same  year  a  second  M.  E.  congregation 
called  Walker's  Point  was  formed  with  nine  members. 
Two  years  later  it  had  thirty  members.  In  1848  the 
Wisconsin  Conference  was  organized. 

In  1880  the  M.  E.  Church  had  four  English-speaking 
churches  in  Milwaukee  with  a  total  of  839  members 
and  three  GeiTnan-language  congregations  with  475  mem- 
bers. In  1920  there  were  eleven  English-speaking 
churches  and  six  German  with  4,047  and  909  members, 
respectively. 

In  1969  The  United  Methodist  Church  had  twenty-five 
congregations  in  Milwaukee,  twelve  of  them  from  the 
former  Methodist  Church  and  thirteen  from  the  former 
E.U.B.  Church.  The  first  group  reported  5,904  members, 
property  valued  at  $7,705,881,  and  a  total  of  $214,213 
raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year.  The  former  E.U.B. 
churches  reported  4,949  members,  property  valued  at 
$3,958,727,  and  $509,246  raised  for  all  purposes  during 
the  year. 

First  Church  is  the  city's  oldest  congregation.  The  first 
Methodist  service  was  held  in  the  Solomon  Juneau  trading 
post  in  1835,  and  the  church  was  organized  in  1836. 
During  its  history.  First  Church  has  occupied  church 
facilities  in  eight  locations,  and  it  is  presently  in  the 
process  of  building  the  first  major  downtown  church 
edifice  to  rise  in  a  metropolitan  area  of  more  than  a  million 
people  within  twenty-five  years. 

First  Church  "established"  the  government  of  Milwau- 
kee and  housed  the  first  city  hall.  The  city  council  met  in 
the  sanctuary  and  the  city  offices  were  in  the  church 
basement.  First  Church  claims  to  have  started  the  first 
kindergarten  in  the  world,  and  it  had  the  first  public 
library  in  .Milwaukee.  The  church  has  long  e.xerted  great 
influence  in  the  city. 

When  an  expressway  removed  its  older  building,  First 
Church  purchased  a  complete  block  in  the  center  of  the 
city,  a  site  valued  at  more  than  $2,000,000.  Present  plans 
call  for  the  erection  of  an  impressive  church  edifice  with 
adequate  parking  facilities.  In  1969  First  Church  reported 
712  members  and  S26.462  raised  for  all  ptnposes  during 
the  year. 

Kingsley  Church  is  the  largest  Methodist  congregation 
within  the  city  limits.  Its  stately  nave  in  Gemian  Gothic  is 
impressive.  The  church  began  as  a  store-front  mission  at 
Lisbon  Avenue  and  28th  Street  in  1891  and  it  grew 
rapidly.  The  first  building  was  erected  at  29th  and  Brown 
Streets  in  1893.  In  1907  the  cornerstone  of  a  new  edifice 
was  laid  at  33rd  and  Walnut  Streets,  and  the  present 
sanctuary  was  erected.  As  the  years  passed  the  area  around 
the  church  developed  into  a  thriving  residential  district. 
In  1908  the  church  had  246  members. 

With  changing  times  and  an  altered  environment  the 
mission  of  Kingsley  Church  changed.  The  area  to  the 
east  became  the  inner  core  of  the  city  inhabited  largely 
by  Negroes.  The  residential  area  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  the  church  became  a  "port  of  entry"  for  white 
families  from  the   rural  districts   and   from   the   South,   as 


well  as  for  young  couples  starting  out  in  married  life. 
The  church  has  steadily  tried  to  serve  the  needs  of  the 
population  around  it.  A  large  and  well-equipped  gymna- 
sium offers  recreation  to  city  boys  and  girls  who  are  with- 
out playground  space  and  who  are  often,  because  both 
parents  work,  without  much  parental  care.  A  day  care 
center  is  maintained.  Various  activities  are  provided  for 
teenagers.  The  congregation  aggressively  seeks  out  new 
couples  and  others  in  need  of  guidance,  encouragement, 
fellowship,  and  Christian  nurture.  It  has  been  successful 
in  training  these  newcomers  for  church  leadership.  Many 
of  them,  as  they  acquire  more  economic  resources,  move 
out  to  the  suburbs  and  strengthen  the  churches  there. 
Methodist  churches  west  of  Milwaukee  have  many  former 
Kingsley  Church  members  as  leaders  in  their  congrega- 
tions. 

In  1969  Kingsley  Church  reported  979  members,  prop- 
erty valued  at  $728,641,  and  $40,033  raised  for  all 
purposes  during  the  year. 


General  Minutes,  MEG  and  UMC. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 


Albea  Godbold 
Ensworth  Reisner 


MINISTERIAL  CALL.  It  is  the  acknowledged  position  in  the 
Church  that  "only  Christ  can  make  a  minister."  There- 
fore the  indispensable  qualification  for  a  man  to  take 
upon  himself  the  ministry  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments 
is  that  he  be  called  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  This 
traditional  Christian  doctrine  is  reflected  plainly  in  the 
Ordinal  of  the  Church  of  England,  where  the  first  ques- 
tion addressed  to  him  who  presents  himself  to  be  ordained 
Deacon  or  Priest,  or  consecrated  Bishop,  is  to  this  effect: 
"Do  you  trust  that  you  are  inwardly  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  take  upon  you  this  office  and  ministration — ?" 
and  this  question  is  retained  in  this  leading  position  in 
the  Ordinals  of  the  Methodist  Churches. 

The  reason  for  this  is  plain.  No  man  is  good  enough 
or  wise  enough  to  become  a  Christian  minister  on  the 
ground  of  personal  qualification.  The  minister  is  not  one 
who  has  mastered  the  subject  of  religion,  and  who  on 
this  account  offers  good  advice  to  those  who  have  not. 
In  this  he  is  in  a  position  fundamentally  different  from  the 
practitioners  of  other  learned  professions.  Though  the 
minister  certainly  ought  to  be  inwardly  devoted  to  Christ, 
and  outwardly  of  upright  conduct,  yet  in  the  end  he  is 
in  as  great  need  of  the  Gospel  as  those  who  listen  to  him, 
or  who  receive  the  sacraments  at  his  hands.  As  he  preaches 
he  is  offering  to  the  people  good  counsel  which  he  him- 
self finds  it  desperately  difficult  to  take,  and  he  is  aware 
that  unless  he  constantly  watches  unto  prayer,  self-exami- 
nation, and  the  discipline  of  the  moral  life,  he  will  shame- 
fully compromise  the  standards  which  he  holds  out  to 
others.  Thus  the  man  who  preaches  or  gives  spiritual 
counsel,  or  who  administers  the  sacraments,  because  he 
imagines  that  his  own  spiritual,  theological,  or  moral  at- 
tainments entitle  him  so  to  do,  is  convicted  of  the  basest 
hypocrisy.  There  is  only  one  possible  honest  reason  for 
offering  for  such  a  task,  and  that  is  a  deep  sense  that 
God  has  chosen  one  to  be  His  messenger  and  agent,  and 
that  lo  refuse  the  task  would  be  to  do  despite  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace. 

No  minister,  however  devout,  or  eloquent,  or  learned, 
can  "convert"  one  of  his  hearers  to  God,  or  evoke  in  him 
the  gift  of  saving  faith,  for  faith  is  the  gift  of  God  alone. 
Thus  when  the  preacher  stands  in  his  pulpit  he  is  inviting 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MINISTERIAL   CALL 


God  to  use  him  to  work  a  miracle.  If  this  be  so,  lie  cannot 
go  as  a  well-intentioned  volunteer,  but  as  a  man  impelled 
by  God. 

Biblical  Doctrine.  This  is  the  position  of  the  Bible. 
Though  the  sense  of  personal  divine  call  is  most  clearly 
expressed  in  the  case  of  the  more  individual  ministry  of 
the  prophets  (Isaiah  vi  8,  Ixi  1,  Jeremiah  i  4-10,  xx  7-9, 
Ezekiel  iii  4-11,  xxxiii  7-9,  Amos  vii  14-15),  yet  the  same 
is  true  in  principle  of  the  continuous  hereditary  priest- 
hood, for  the  house  of  Aaron  owed  its  position  to  the 
circumstance  that  it  was  chosen  by  God  from  among 
Israel  to  be  priests  before  Him  (Numbers  xvi  4-11,  ff., 
Hebrews  v  4).  The  New  Testament  Church,  likewise, 
lived  under  a  very  distinct  sense  of  the  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  all  its  actions,  and  in  nothing  was  this  more 
plain  than  in  the  choice  and  commissioning  of  the  Chris- 
tian ministry  (Mark  iii  13-19,  John  xv  16,  xx  19-23,  Acts 
i  21-6,  ix  15,  xiii  2-3,  Galatians  i  1,  11-17,  1  Corinthians 
ix  16-17). 

There  is,  however,  another  important  spiritual  principle 
complementary  to  the  above.  The  true  and  profitable 
servant  of  Christ  is  not  an  autonomous  Christian  in- 
dividualist, but  a  loyal  member  of  the  disciplined  and 
ordered  Body  of  Christ.  His  concern  in  Christian  service 
must  always  be  not  to  please  himself,  or  merely  "to  ex- 
press himself,"  but  to  do  that  which  is  useful  for  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  whole  Body  (1  Corinthians  xiv  1-5,  13-18, 
26-8).  In  bestowing  the  gift  of  the  ministry  upon  the 
church,  God  has  granted  a  great  variety  of  spiritual  office 
and  equipment,  which  are  complementary  one  to  another. 
It  is  most  necessary,  therefore,  for  all  Christ's  servants  to 
cooperate  with  one  another  in  due  order  for  the  advantage 
of  the  whole  church,  behaving  one  towards  another  with 
unselfish  modesty  and  corporate  loyalty,  forswearing  the 
natural  instincts  of  rivalry,  and  the  sinful  desire  for  status 
and  pre-eminence  (Luke  xxii  24-6,  1  Corinthians  xii  28- 
31,  Ephesians  iv  7-8,  11-16,  1  Peter  v  1-6,  3  John  9-10). 

There  thus  rests  upon  the  disciplined  corporate  church 
both  the  right  and  the  duty  to  make  careful  examination 
of  those  who  profess  to  have  received  a  call  to  the  Chris- 
tian ministry,  to  determine  both  their  integrity  of  purpose 
and  their  suitability  to  particular  tasks.  John  Wesley, 
himself,  emphasized  this  duty  of  examining  those  who 
"think  they  are  moved  by  tlie  Holy  Ghost  to  preach." 
Among  other  things,  Wesley  said  that  inquiry  should  be 
made,  not  only  regarding  their  own  religious  experience, 
but  also,  "Have  they  gifts  (as  well  as  grace)  for  the  work? 
Have  they  (in  some  tolerable  degree)  a  clear,  sound 
understanding?  Have  they  a  right  judgment  in  the  things 
of  God?  ...  A  just  conception  of  salvation  by  faith?  And 
has  God  given  them  any  degree  of  utterance?  Do  they 
speak  justlv,  readily,  clearly?"  (Wesley's  Works,  Vol.  V, 
p.  230). 

These  questions  are  yet  kept  in  the  present  Book  of 
Discipline  of  The  United  Methodist  Church  and  will  be 
seen  to  be  sensible,  as  well  as  practical. 

It  is  sadly  possible  for  one  who  has  a  distinct  sen,se 
of  "call"  to  be  the  victim  of  delusion.  Thus  the  man  who 
perhaps  quite  sincerely  feels  himself  called  of  God,  yet 
whose  general  moral  reputation  may  be  called  in  ques- 
tion, is  clearly  the  victim  of  a  dangerous  self-deception, 
and  his  call  must  be  rejected  (1  Timothy  iii,  1-12).  Like- 
wise, no  man  can  be  accepted  into  the  position  of  a 
public  teacher  in  the  church  if  his  doctrine  subverts  the 
given  and  fixed  principles  of  the  divine  revelation  in 
Christ  (Galatians  i  8,  ii  4-5,  1  Timothy  vi  3-5).  Further- 


more, that  a  man  is  authentically  called  to  the  ministry 
does  not  involve  that  he  is  the  sole  judge  of  the  kind  of 
ministry  to  which  he  is  called.  This  choice  depends  to 
a  large  extent  on  what  practical  tasks  there  are  to  do  in 
the  church  at  the  time,  and  what  talents  and  equipment 
of  personality  are  possessed  by  the  available  ministers. 
Not  all  have  the  gifts  which  make  good  preachers,  or 
teachers,  or  administrators,  or  pastoral  counsellors,  or 
choristers,  though  all  these  functions  are  necessary  in  their 
place,  as  equally  are  those  gifts  which  are  less  conspicuous 
in  public,  such  as  prayer,  attendance  at  worship,  and 
kindly  aid  to  one's  neighbors.  The  church  cannot  send 
a  man  to  a  task  of  which  he  is  incapable  simply  because 
lie  feels  a  desire  (o  do  it.  His  sense  of  "call"  needs  to  be 
educated  and  guided  by  the  advice  of  his  fellow-Chris- 
tians. In  making  acknowledgement  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
called  a  man,  the  church  has  to  exercise  the  duty,  also 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  deciding  to 
what  foiTn  of  ministry  he  is  to  be  sent.  And  one  of  the 
leading  marks  of  the  man  who  is  truly  called  is  cheerful 
loyalty  to  the  church  in  this  matter. 

The  Examination  of  the  Call.  Thus  in  the  Anglican 
Ordinal  the  leading  question  regarding  the  divine  call  is 
coupled  with  another,  no  less  searching,  regarding  ec- 
clesiastical Order:  "Do  you  think  in  your  heart  that  you 
be  truly  called,  according  to  the  will  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  order  of  this  Church  of  England — ?" 
The  same  effect  is  conveyed  in  the  question  in  the  Meth- 
odist Ordinal,  reflecting  as  it  does  (in  the  British  office), 
a  characteristic  phra.se  of  Wesley:  "Will  you  submit  your- 
selves as  sons  in  the  Gospel,  to  those  whom  the  Methodist 
Church  shall  appoint  to  have  the  rule  over  you?"  How- 
ever, this  balance  between  the  individual  call  and  the 
corporate  order  is  not  always  easy  to  maintain  in  practice, 
because  the  church  and  her  servants  are  not  always  and 
everywhere  fully  guided  by  the  Spirit,  being  frail  and 
human.  Therefore  all  too  often  the  peace  and  spiritual 
health  of  the  church  have  been  wounded  by  sad  collision 
between  the  zeal  of  someone  who  wishes  to  serve  in 
some  perhaps  novel  or  irregular  way,  and  the  prudential 
conservatism  of  authority  within  the  established  church. 
The  one  can  easily  fall  into  impatience  and  self-pleasing, 
the  other  into  defensive  jealousy  for  status,  and  self- 
seeking.  This,  the  chief  cause  of  the  crippling  divisions 
of  the  church,  is  a  tragedy  of  church  life.  The  welfare 
of  the  Christian  church  largely  depends  upon  keeping 
this  just  balance  between  the  rightful  claims  of  prophetic 
zeal  and  of  church  order. 

It  may  be  well  to  consider  the  way  in  which  this  has 
worked  out  in  practice  within  the  church,  and  within 
Methodism.  In  the  great  institutional  churches,  such  as 
the  Roman  Catholic,  the  balance  has  tended  to  come  down 
heavily  in  the  direction  of  institutional  loyalty  and 
regular  ecclesiastical  order.  Thus  the  activity  of  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  in  making  a  minister  has  been  interpreted 
chiefly  as  the  due  selection  of  candidates  to  go  into  the 
seminary,  their  proper  training,  and  the  regular  act  of 
ordination.  An  overwhelming  conscious  personal  impres- 
sion that  one  must  be  a  minister  of  Christ  has  been 
considered  rather  as  the  characteristic  of  a  few  outstand- 
ing saints.  In  the  "revivalist"  denominations  and  religious 
societies,  on  the  other  hand,  the  balance  has  come  down 
in  the  opposite  direction  of  individual  prophetic  call.  It 
has  often  been  assumed  that  any  man  who  feels  within 
himself  an  urge  to  preach,  and  who  shows  the  ability  to 
draw   after   him   a   group   of  followers,    has   a   Christian 


MINISTERIAL   CALL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


right  to  form  his  own  congregation,  and  give  to  it  what 
standards  of  doctrine  and  discipline  he  sees  fit.  Methodists 
feel  that  both  these  positions  are  defective,  the  one  by 
swallowing  up  the  sense  of  a  conscious  personal  call,  the 
other  by  swallowing  up  ecclesiastical  discipline  and 
cohesion. 

It  may  without  immodesty  be  claimed  that  authentic 
Methodism,  such  as  reflects  the  true  spirit  of  Wesley, 
has  found  a  salutary  balance  in  this  important  matter. 
The  standard  has  been  upheld  before  the  people  that  he 
who  offers  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  should 
have  as  his  indispensable  qualifications  a  genuine  con- 
scious experience  of  saving  faith  in  Christ,  showing  itself 
in  a  morally  strict  and  upright  life,  and  a  whole-hearted 
devotion  to  Christ,  a  faithful  and  loving  zeal  for  the 
welfare  of  the  church,  and  some  degree  of  evident  divine 
blessing  upon  the  witness  he  has  already  made  for  the 
Gospel,  and  upon  the  sei'vice  he  has  already  rendered  to 
the  church.  And  to  this  must  be  added  some  real  measure 
of  inward  spiritual  compulsion  to  offer  for  the  work  of 
the  ministry,  though  it  need  not  be  supposed  that  this 
must  necessarily  come  through  the  medium  of  some  sud- 
den and  startling  spiritual  impression.  The  growing  sense 
of  a  task  before  one  crying  to  be  done  may  be  sufficient 
to  bring  a  genuine  sense  of  call,  and  such  a  candidate 
should  not  be  deterred  from  offering  because  he  has  not 
"heard  a  voice." 

At  the  same  time  it  has  always  been  made  clear  within 
Methodism  that  this  ministry  is  to  be  exercised  within  the 
controlling  and  sustaining  discipline  of  a  closely-knit  con- 
nexional  polity.  The  man  offering  for  the  ministry  is  to  be 
prepared  to  lay  aside  all  self-pleasing  and  self-seeking, 
to  put  the  welfare  of  the  church  and  her  people  first  in 
his  loyalties,  and  to  give  himself  cheerfully  to  that  part 
of  the  work  not  which  he  would  choose,  but  which  the 
church  shall  choose.  And  he  is  to  be  a  preacher  not  of 
his  own  notions  but  of  the  church's  faith,  revealed 
authoritatively  in  Christ,  recorded  in  Scripture,  and  in- 
teipreted  according  to  the  mature  wisdom  of  the  church. 

The  Call  to  fhe  Ministry  In  Methodism.  It  has  not  al- 
ways been  easy  even  within  Methodism  to  keep  this  bal- 
ance. During  the  long  years  when,  at  any  rate  in  British 
Methodism,  there  were  noiTnally  more  candidates  for  the 
ministry  than  could  be  found  room  for  in  the  connexion, 
the  natural  custom  was  to  examine  all  candidates  carefully, 
and  to  choose  the  required  number  on  the  basis  of  the 
selection  of  those  who  had  already  been  most  blessed  by 
fruits  to  their  work,  or  who  appeared  to  have  the  most 
promising  personality  and  gifts.  There  was  no  particular 
evidence  that  many  of  the  rejected  candidates  were  not 
just  as  sincerely  devoted  to  Christian  service,  and  authen- 
tically called,  as  those  accepted.  Thus  it  could  be  objected 
by  the  critic  that  the  church  was  in  fact  inconsistent  with 
her  professed  principles,  and  made  acceptance  to  the 
ministry  a  matter  of  ecclesiastical  expediency,  rather  than 
of  recognition  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit.  This  is  indeed  a 
hard  question,  and  it  often  caused  bitter  disappointment 
to  good  men. 

There  is  perhaps  no  completely  satisfactory  solution 
which  will  resolve  all  hard  cases,  for  the  reconciliation  of 
elevated  spiritual  principle  with  practice  can  never  be 
complete  in  an  imperfect  church  operating  in  an  imperfect 
world.  First  it  must  be  said  that  no  man  has  a  right 
to  become  a  minister  of  a  particular  church  so  that  if 
the  right  be  denied  by  the  church  he  has  a  cause  for 
umbrage.  The  ministiy  is  not  a  matter  of  human  right. 


but  of  divine  duty.  The  notion  that  the  right  to  preach 
the  Word  and  administer  the  Sacraments  in  the  congrega- 
tion is  in  effect  a  sort  of  professional  status-symbol  con- 
ferred upon  the  fully  accomplished  Christian  worker  is 
a  revolting  profanation  of  sacred  things,  and  an  idea  to  be 
fought  tooth  and  nail  in  the  Church.  The  office  is  an 
obligation  laid  upon  one  of  the  servants  of  God,  and 
involves,  if  rightly  understood,  a  call  to  self-sacrifice  such 
as  will  certainly  be  shunned  by  the  man  who  is  in  fact 
seeking  his  own  gratification. 

FurtheiTnore,  a  call  to  the  ministry  does  not  neces- 
sarily mean  admission  to  the  ministry  of  the  church  in  a 
particular  place,  or  even  of  a  particular  branch  of  the 
church.  Thus  many  candidates  for  whom  there  was  in 
former  years  no  room  in  England  went  abroad  and  en- 
tered the  ministry  of  Methodist  and  other  churches  in 
the  dominions  overseas,  or  in  America.  This  is  surely  a 
wise  administration  of  the  church's  talents,  fully  in  keep- 
ing with  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  call.  Finally,  failure 
on  account  of  family  or  other  circumstances,  or  age,  or 
health,  or  gifts,  to  be  eligible  for  the  separated  and  or- 
dained ministry  does  not  involve  in  Methodism  e.xclusi(5n 
from  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel.  There  is  also  the  min- 
istry of  the  laity,  and  the  consecrated  and  qualified  Meth- 
odist layman  can  noimally  preach  or  teach  as  often  as 
he  will,  knowing  full  well  that  there  are  parts  of  the 
Gospel  message  which  can  be  declared  with  more  effect 
by  a  dedicated  lay  preacher  who  is  known  to  earn  his 
living  in  the  world,  than  by  the  separated  minister.  It  is 
most  necessary  to  resist  the  very  un-Methodist  notion  that 
lay  preachers  are  in  some  way  "amateur"  or  "stop-gap" 
preachers.  The  ministry  of  the  laity  and  the  separated  and 
ordained  ministry  is  all  one  colleagueship  together  in  the 
service  of  Christ.  Thus  a  lay  preacher  of  perhaps  modest 
gifts  and  education,  who  understands  the  message  of  the 
Bible,  and  who  faithfully  declares  the  Gospel,  has  exactly 
the  same  divine  Gospel-authority  as  the  ordained  min- 
ister, and  may  be  used  by  God  to  do  as  much  good  in  the 
church,  though  he  may  not  be  equally  quahfied  for  every 
pulpit.  Conversely,  he  who  stands  in  the  pulpit  and  is  so 
taken  up  speaking  of  his  own  notions  that  he  forgets  to 
declare  God's  revelation  in  Christ  has  forfeited  his  Gospel- 
authority,  even  though  he  may  have  had  hands  laid  on 
him  in  ordination,  and  be  a  member  of  a  conference,  and 
be  appointed  by  a  bishop,  and  the  posses.sor  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal vestments  and  a  Ph.D. 

If  we  turn  to  modern  conditions,  particularly  in  the 
large  and  institutionally  secure  American  Methodist 
Churches,  another  problem  can  present  itself.  There  is  a 
very  rightful  desire  to  improve  the  educational  standards 
of  the  ministry,  as  well  as  its  technical  standards  in  pro- 
fessional training.  This  is  in  keeping  with  the  doctrine  of 
the  call,  for  the  man  who  is  authentically  called  by  God 
will  certainly  want  to  do  everything  in  his  power  to 
improve  his  talents,  and  to  be  as  widely  useful  a  servant 
of  Christ  as  he  may.  Nevertheless,  in  these  circumstances 
the  idea  can  creep  in  unawares  that  the  accepted  practical 
qualification  for  the  Christian  ministry  is  a  degree  in 
theology,  and  that  the  higher  the  degree  the  more  digni- 
fied the  ministry  for  which  a  man  is  qualified.  This  is  to 
look  upon  the  ministry  as  a  professional  occupation 
comparable  to  other  professional  occupations,  the  status 
of  which  depends  upon  membership  of  some  body  which 
alone  has  the  right  to  practice  some  skill,  on  account  of 
some  special   training.  There  is  a  dangerous  invasion  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MINISTERIAL   CALL 


the  church  by  unspirittial  ideas  of  status  derived  from  the 
usages  of  secular  society. 

An  attempt  to  fortify  the  position  of  the  churcli  by 
estabhshing  a  system  of  "secure  professional  status"  for 
the  Christian  ministry  is  foredoomed  to  failure,  because 
the  true  minister  of  Christ  may  expect  often  to  find  him- 
self an  object  of  contempt  in  the  eyes  of  the  men  of  this 
world,  not  on  account  of  his  incompetence  but  on  account 
of  his  competence.  This  is  because  the  Gospel  itself  is  an 
object  of  offense  to  those  who  are  foolish  enough  to  ac- 
count themselves  wise,  or  capable,  or  sophisticated — as 
was  our  Lord  Himself  despised.  Accidental  circumstance 
may  indeed  from  time  to  time  have  brought  the  church 
and  its  ministry  into  a  position  of  communal  prestige,  but 
these  have  generally  proved  to  be  occasions  of  spiritual 
peril.  The  true  status  of  the  Christian  minister  is  one  only 
to  be  discerned  by  those  awakened  souls  who  are  seeking 
for  God,  and  to  these  the  minister  of  the  Gospel  has  a 
status  which  cannot  be  enhanced  by  professional  qualifica- 
tions, prestige  in  society,  or  money.  The  office  of  speaking 
to  men  and  women  on  behalf  of  God  Himself,  and  of 
giving  to  needy  souls  the  sacrament  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  the  Lord,  is  a  privilege  far  above  any  human  desei'ving, 
which  far  out-tops  any  distinction  of  birth,  or  rank,  or 
public  office,  or  academic  degree,  or  wealth,  though  this 
can  only  be  seen  to  be  so  by  those  having  eyes  to  see. 

The  Call  of  Women.  A  question  which  has  been  much 
discussed  in  some  circles  is  how  far  the  church  can  rightly 
recognize  a  call  to  the  ministry  in  a  woman.  One  issue 
which  is  often  forgotten  in  this  discussion  must  first  be 
clarified.  This  is  that  in  the  Order  of  Deaconesses  the 
Methodist  Church  already  has  for  long  had  a  ministry 
of  women,  ordained  (the  Book  of  Discipline  used  the 
word  consecrated)  by  laying  on  of  hands,  who  can  be 
pastors  of  congregations,  and  who,  if  qualified  so  to  do, 
can  preach,  and  who  in  certain  appointments  (in  Britain) 
are  by  regular  custom  given  by  the  conference  a  special 
dispensation  to  administer  the  sacraments.  Thus  the  dis- 
tinction between  such  a  ministry  and  the  itinerant  min- 
istry of  men  is  not  in  any  clear  sense  a  theological  or 
spiritual  distinction.  It  is  a  distinction  chiefly  consisting  in 
conference  membership  and  sphere  of  administration,  i.e. 
a  distinction  of  Order.  However,  what  is  meant  in  the 
present  discussion  is  the  issue  as  to  whether  women  can 
be  called  into  the  same  Order  of  ministry  as  the  separated 
and  ordained  ministry  of  men. 

It  would  certainly  seem  that  this  is  a  matter  of  the 
due  Order  of  the  Church,  rather  than  of  theological 
principle,  because  the  efficacy  of  the  preached  Word  and 
of  the  Sacraments  depends  upon  the  action  of  God,  and 
not  upon  the  personal  characteristics  of  the  minister. 
The  church  has  in  fact  had  a  very  long  and  dignified 
tradition  of  the  ministration  of  women  in  the  church,  as 
deaconesses,  but  more  particularly,  in  the  monastic  Orders. 
The  custom  whereby  women  have  not  been  admitted  to 
the  priesthood  clearly  goes  back  to  the  religious  and 
social  ideas  prevalent  in  and  natural  to  the  Jewish  back- 
ground of  Christianity.  That  this  custom  has  so  largely 
endured  into  a  modern  world  in  which  women  have  made 
good  their  claim  to  enter  many  occupations  and  callings 
is  a  mark  of  the  traditionalism  and  conservatism  which 
is  natural  to  organized  religion.  This  conservatism  is  al- 
most as  manifest  in  those  parts  of  the  church  which  have 
oflBcially  admitted  women  into  the  separated  ministry, 
because  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  these  cases  church 
leaders  have  generally  been  more  willing  to  ordain  women 


than  have  local  congregations  to  accept  them  as  pastors. 
On  the  other  hand,  those  institutional  churches  which  are 
furthest  from  admitting  women  to  the  priesthood  have 
in  point  of  fact  e.xperienced  more  of  the  ministry  of 
consecrated  women! 

Though  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  spiritual  or 
theological  reason  why  a  call  to  the  ministry  should  not 
be  recognized  in  a  woman,  the  common  argument  of 
"se.x  equality"  can  hardly  be  admitted  as  a  theological  or 
spiritual  reason  why  it  should  be  recognized,  because,  as 
has  been  obsei"V'ed  above,  admission  to  the  ministry  is 
in  no  sense  a  mark  of  Christian  status.  The  woman  who 
tacitly  says,  "I  am  willing  to  devote  my  full  time  to  the 
service  of  the  church  on  condition  that  I  can  be  given 
equal  status  with  the  men,  but  I  am  not  prepared  to  serve 
in  a  different  Order  of  ministry,  such  as  a  deaconess," 
clearly  does  not  fully  understand  what  is  involved  in  the 
conception  of  the  call  to  the  ministry.  This  fonn  of  argu- 
ment almost  answers  to  the  notion  (just  as  wrong  in  a 
woman  as  in  a  man! )  that  one  is  doing  a  favor  to  the 
church  by  offering  for  Christian  sei'vice,  and  a  favor  which 
ought  to  be  "recognized."  And  this  manner  of  thought, 
derived  from  the  standards  and  customs  of  the  world, 
is  totally  opposed  to  the  conception  of  the  ministry  as  a 
divine  call.  The  true  minister  of  Christ  is  not  primarily 
rendering  a  sei"vice  to  man,  but  fulfilling  an  obligation 
to  God. 

However,  one  must  have  the  deepest  sympatliy  with  a 
devoted  Christian  woman  who  is  moved  by  a  strong  sense 
of  call  to  the  ministry,  yet  who  finds  her  call  tragically 
frustrated  by  a  difference  of  judgment  expressed  in  the 
order  of  her  church,  which  is  not  prepared  to  accept  her. 
Yet  she  is  in  the  same  position  as  many  men  who  have 
felt  this  call,  yet  who  have  not  been  accepted  by  the 
church  into  the  separated  ministry.  The  chief  argument 
against  the  admission  of  women  to  the  separated  ministry 
would  appear  to  be  one  of  expediency,  namely,  that  for 
particular  denominations  to  do  this  apart  from  the  general 
body  of  Christendom  increases  occasions  of  ecclesiastical 
separation  within  the  church,  and  is  an  unecumenical 
action.  Admission  is  something  which  ideally  ought  to  be 
done  by  the  whole  church  together.  A  salient  example  of 
this  is  the  situation  in  British  Methodism,  where  the 
main  reason  for  delay  in  admitting  women  to  the  itinerant 
ministry  is  undoubtedly  that  to  do  so  would  present 
added  difficulty  in  the  establishment  of  a  common  min- 
isterial order  with  the  Church  of  England.  And  the  reason 
in  turn,  though  often  unavowed,  why  the  Church  of 
England  is  so  far  from  admitting  women  to  the  priesthood 
is  that  this  would  occasion  a  further  degree  of  separation 
between  Anglicanism  and  the  Roman  Catholic  and  East- 
em  Churches. 

Prospective  Ministerial  Calls.  It  has  been  noticed  that 
in  some  parts  of  the  church  there  has  during  the  mid- 
centui-y  years  been  a  decline  in  the  number  of  those  pro- 
fessing a  call  to  the  ministry.  This  is  a  token  of  something 
seriously  wrong  in  the  church,  either  in  the  past,  or  else 
in  the  present.  It  can  be  argued  that  in  some  parts  of  the 
church  entrance  upon  the  Christian  ministry  was  formerly 
a  way  in  which  young  men  lacking  money  and  position 
could  rise  to  a  place  of  honorable  status  in  the  community, 
and  that  this  made  it  easier  for  them  to  respond  to  the 
sense  of  call.  Nowadays,  however,  with  wider  education 
opportunities  open  to  the  people,  and  a  much  greater 
variety  of  professional  and  semi-professional  occupations 
in   which  a  Christian   can   render   useful   service   to   the 


MINISTERIAL   SUPPORT 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


community,  this  incentive  has  been  relaxed.  It  has  in 
short  became  harder  for  young  men  to  resolve  to  enter 
upon  a  calling  which  has  little  to  offer  in  advancement,  or 
worldly  status,  or  income.  In  so  far  as  this  is  indeed  the 
case,  here  is  a  condemnation  of  the  past,  and  a  sign  that 
the  church  has  not  always  succeeded  in  living  up  to  the 
principle  she  has  professed.  And  if  this  be  so,  the  church 
may  have  to  get  used  to  organizing  herself  with  fewer 
separated  ministers.  From  the  spiritual  point  of  view  this 
might  prove  to  be  no  bad  thing,  because  the  ministry  of 
the  laity  is  just  as  vital  for  the  welfare  of  the  church  as  is 
the  separated  ministry.  Furthennore,  these  many  occupa- 
tions of  public  responsibility  and  welfare  are  often  in 
fact  important  parts  of  the  ministry  of  the  laity.  And  in 
any  case,  the  church  is  certainly  better  off  if  its  official 
ministry  is  rid  of  the  type  of  man  who  can  be  moved  by 
considerations  of  worldly  advantage  and  status.  In  con- 
sidering the  supply  of  candidates  for  the  ministry,  the 
church  must  consider  first  and  foremost  the  welfare  of  the 
Gospel,  and  not  the  institutional  convenience  of  her  estab- 
lislied  organization. 

There  is  some  ground  for  fearing,  however,  that  when 
there  is  a  decline  in  number  of  candidates  for  the  min- 
istry this  may  sometimes  be  due  to  more  serious  causes. 
That  is  to  say,  the  sense  of  divine  calling  may  have  dis- 
appeared, and  the  Christian  ministry  appeared  as  a  mere 
human  occupation.  Some  of  the  Christian  laity  have  per- 
haps been  too  much  inclined  to  speak  of  their  minister  as 
though  he  were  a  lecturer  on  miscellaneous  subjects  of 
his  own  choosing,  airing  his  own  opinions  in  the  pulpit 
with  the  aim  of  "keeping  the  people  interested,"  and  as 
such,  a  fair  target  for  criticism.  His  pastoral  activity  has 
been  represented  as  though  he  were  the  "organizing 
secretary"  employed  by  a  little  local  organization,  whose 
chief  concern  was  to  keep  "the  going  concern"  going. 
And  it  is  sadly  to  be  admitted  that  some  ministers  have  at 
times  fallen  into  attitudes,  policies,  and  preaching  which 
have  encouraged  their  people  to  suppose  that  all  this  is 
indeed  the  case.  If  so,  the  spiritually  earnest  and  sensitive 
man,  who  of  all  men  most  ought  to  become  a  Christian 
minister,  will  certainly  not  feel  called  to  enter  upon  so 
ignominious  and  compromised  an  occupation.  In  the  last 
resort  a  church  gets  the  ministry  it  deserves.  If  the  Chris- 
tian community  evidently  and  sincerely  looks  upon  the 
minister  of  the  Gospel,  even  though  he  be  modestly  paid 
and  of  no  importance  in  the  sight  of  the  world,  as  a  man 
of  God,  summoned  by  God  Himself  to  the  most  august 
task  in  human  experience,  and  if  the  ministers  by  the 
whole  course  of  their  life  and  preaching  make  this  exalted 
view  credible  to  their  people,  then  the  church  will  never 
lack  a  sufficiency  of  men  called  into  the  ministry.  The 
whole  history  of  the  church  plainly  shows  that  what 
matters  for  the  welfare  of  the  Gospel  is  not  how 
numerous,  or  how  clever,  or  how  endued  with  prestige 
are  God's  servants,  but  whether  they  are  the  sort  of  men 
and  women  whom  God  can  use  to  perform  His  own  work. 

Discipline,  UMC,  1968,  P.  301,  305. 

Large  Minutes. 

W.  E.  Sangster,   The  Approach   to  Preaching.   London,    1954. 

Spencer  and  Finch,  Constitutional  Practice.  1958. 

John  Lawson 

MINISTERIAL  SUPPORT.   The  early  Methodist  preachers 
went  forth  to  preach  the  gospel  moved  by  a  divine  im- 
pulse,  and   without   at  first   having  societies   upon   which 
1620 


to  depend.  John  Wesley  supported  himself  by  a  fellow- 
ship which  he  held  in  Oxford  University,  and  by  the 
profits  on  books  which  he  published  from  time  to  time. 
He  also  aided  his  ministers  by  giving  away  all  that  he 
could  possibly  spare,  limiting  himself  merely  to  the  sup- 
ply of  his  own  wants.  Many  of  the  early  preachers  were 
engaged  in  business  employment.  They  were  called  "lay 
preachers,"  and  simply  gave  their  Sabbaths  or  week-day 
evenings  for  service,  acting  as  the  "local  preachers" 
in  America  came  to  do  later.  As  Methodist  societies  were 
organized,  and  as  they  became  strong,  they  contributed 
for  the  support  of  their  ministers,  who  were  thus  in  time 
enabled  to  devote  their  whole  time  to  their  specific  calling. 

The  support  of  the  early  preachers  in  the  United  States 
was  exceedingly  meagre.  The  membership  was  generally 
poor,  and  the  ministers  were  unmarried  men,  who  traveled 
from  place  to  place,  living  among  the  people,  and  sub- 
sisting on  small  contributions.  In  1774,  before  the  M.E. 
Church  was  organized,  we  find  an  enactment  that  each 
preacher  should  have  $64  per  year  and  traveling  ex- 
penses; indeed,  the  earliest  preachers  did  not  receive  this 
sum.  Captain  Webb,  who  founded  many  of  the  societies, 
and  who,  more  than  any  other  person,  gave  great  help  to 
American  Methodism,  supported  himself  as  an  army  officer 
and  by  other  means,  besides  contributing  to  the  erection 
of  church  edifices.  Embury  and  Stbawbridge  were  mar- 
ried men,  but  were  local  preachers — called  'lay  preach- 
ers"— the  one  being  a  carpenter  and  the  other  a  farmer, 
and  they  were  in  part  supported  by  their  labor.  Asbury, 
BoARDMAN,  Pilmore,  Rankin,  Robert  Williams,  and 
Shadford  were  single  men.  Williams  subsequently  mar- 
ried and  located,  and  of  him  it  was  said,  "He  was  the 
first  American  Methodist  preacher  that  published  a  book, 
got  married,  and  died"  (Simpson,  p.  616). 

In  1774  the  stipend  for  an  itinerant  in  full  connection 
was  set  at  six  pounds  per  quarter.  The  preacher  had  the 
right  of  ownership  and  use  of  his  horse,  even  though  the 
animal  may  have  been  provided  and  provisioned  by  the 
circuit. 

In  1778  paper  money  had  during  the  war  depreciated, 
and  the  ministerial  salary  was  thereupon  raised  to  thirty 
pounds  per  year,  which  was  nearly  equivalent  to  eighty 
dollars.  As  some  ministers,  being  greater  favorites,  re- 
ceived gifts  which  added  to  their  support,  the  Confer- 
ence of  1782  desiring  to  equalize  the  allowances  adopted 
a  resolution  that  "all  the  gifts  received  by  the  preachers, 
whether  in  money  or  clothing,  should  be  brought  into  the 
quarterly  meeting  and  valued  by  the  preachers  and  stew- 
ards, and  the  preacher  who  had  received  the  gifts  should 
be  considered  as  having  received  so  much  of  his  quarter- 
age, and  if  he  is  still  deficient  he  shall  carry  to  the  account 
such  deficiency,  that  if  possible  he  shall  have  it  made 
up  out  of  the  profits  arising  out  of  the  sale  of  books  and 
the  annual  collections"  (Simpson). 

In  1780  the  first  notice  occurs  of  the  wives  of  preach- 
ers, the  fourteenth  question  reading,  "What  provision 
shall  be  made  for  the  wives  of  married  preachers?"  A. 
"They  shall  receive  an  equivalent  with  the  husband  if 
they  stand  in  need."  In  1783  we  find  the  answer  to  the 
question,  "How  many  preachers'  wives  are  to  be  provided 
for?"  is  "Eleven,  and  the  sum  needed  for  their  support  is 
260  pounds. "  As  regards  this  sum  it  was  said,  "Let  the 
preachers  make  a  small  collection  in  all  the  circuits." 
That  purpose  was  to  equalize  the  support,  or  rather  that 
all  the  circuits  should  combine  in  sustaining  the  families. 
In  1784  thirteen  preachers  were  reported  as  married,  and 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MINISTERIAL  SUPPORT 


302  pounds  were  apportioned  to  different  charges.  A 
collection  was  also  ordered  to  be  taken  up  in  every 
charge,  prior  to  Conference,  to  meet  the  deficiency.  This 
was  called  the  "Conference  collection,"  a  name  that  was 
destined  to  last  in  American  Methodism  for  a  long  time, 
but  to  be  more  broadly  applied.  A  year  after  the  orga- 
nization of  the  church  this  collection  amounted  to  300 
pounds,  which  was  applied  to  making  up  the  quarterly 
deficiency  and  sending  out  two  missionaries. 

The  English  Wesleyans  for  a  time  had  a  system  of 
equalization  so  that  large  families  could  be  supported  by 
small  circuits;  the  Children's  Fund  and  the  Educational 
Fund  was  taken  up  on  all  the  charges,  and  was  distributed 
according  to  the  number  of  the  family.  This  system  did 
not  prevail  in  the  United  States.  In  1785  the  thirty- 
seventh  question  of  the  minutes  reads,  "What  shall  be  the 
regular  salary  of  the  elders,  deacons,  and  helpers?"  To 
which  answer  is  made,  "$64,  and  no  more;  and  for  each 
preacher's  wife  $64;  and  for  each  preacher's  child,  if 
under  the  age  of  six  years,  there  shall  be  allowed  $16; 
and  for  each  child  over  the  age  of  six  and  under  the  age 
of  eleven  years,  $21.33."  This  rule  in  reference  to  children 
created  dissatisfaction,  and  the  Conference  of  1787  re- 
solved that  no  provision  should  be  made  in  future  for  the 
children  of  married  preachers,  and  this  appears  to  have 
been  the  practice  of  the  church  until  1800. 

In  those  early  days  they  were  strict,  even  beyond 
propriety,  in  reference  to  all  financial  matters.  One  of 
their  rules  reads,  "We  will  on  no  account  whatever  suffer 
any  deacon  or  elder  among  us  to  receive  any  fee  or 
present  for  administering  the  ordinance  of  marriage,  bap- 
tism, or  the  burial  of  the  dead;  freely  we  have  received, 
freely  we  give."  It  is  probable  that  this  mle  was  adopted 
to  prevent  jealousy  among  the  ministers,  as  but  few  at 
first  were  elected  to  orders.  A  few  years  subsequently  it 
was  agreed  that  a  present  might  be  received  for  the  mar- 
riage ceremony,  but  it  must  be  reported  to  the  stewards 
of  the  circuit,  to  be  applied  to  the  quarterage.  This  rule 
continued  in  force  until  1800.  At  this  day  it  seems  sur- 
prising how  so  great  a  work  could  have  been  sustained 
on  such  .small  means.  Brave  and  self-denying  were  the 
men  who  laid  the  firm  foundations  of  the  edifice  of  Meth- 
odism; yet  it  became  almost  impossible  for  men  with 
families  to  remain  in  the  traveling  ministry,  and  hence 
nearly  all  of  them  located.  The  loss  of  so  much  talent 
and  experience  out  of  the  ministry  of  the  church  by  loca- 
tion greatly  grieved  Bishop  Asbury  and  other  leading 
minds.  In  part  to  remedy  this  evil,  in  1796  the  Gen-eb.\l 
Conference  organized  the  Chartered  Fund,  appoint- 
ing for  it  a  board  of  trustees.  Its  design  was  to  supple- 
ment the  salaries,  and  to  afford  some  support  for  the 
worn-out  preachers,  their  widows  and  orphans.  Prior  to 
that  time  an  effort  had  been  made  to  support  a  Preachers' 
Fund,  by  requiring  every  person  when  admitted  to  pay 
$2.67,  then  one  pound  American  currency,  and  to  con- 
tribute annually  $2.  This  organization  was  on  the  principle 
of  a  mutual  aid  society;  but  in  1796  it  was  merged  into 
the  Chartered  Fund.  An  appeal  was  issued  on  behalf  of 
this  fund,  in  which  we  find  the  following  paragraph: 
"It  is  to  be  lamented,  if  possible  with  tears  of  blood,  that 
we  have  lost  scores  of  our  most  able  married  ministers; 
men  who,  like  good  house-holders,  could  upon  all  occa- 
sions bring  things  new  and  old  out  of  their  treasury,  but 
were  obliged  to  retire  from  the  general  work  because  they 
saw  nothing  before  them  for  their  wives  and  children, 
if  they  continued  itinerant,  but  misery  and  ruin." 


Until  1860  the  salary  of  a  preacher  was  fixed  at  $100, 
and  $100  for  his  wife,  and  a  small  allowance  was  made  to 
the  children.  The  circuits  or  stations  were  also  required 
to  estimate  a  sufficient  amount  for  the  family  expenses. 
But  in  1860  in  the  M.E.  Church  the  rule  for  specific  al- 
lowances was  removed  from  the  Discipline,  and  the  sta- 
tions and  circuits  were  allwved  to  determine  what  they 
considered  necessary  for  ministerial  support.  The  same 
plan  was  followed  by  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  which  in 
1854  directed  that  "the  claims  of  preachers  shall  be 
estimated  by  theii;  ^-espective  Boards  of  Stewards"  (Peter- 
son, p.  102),  andthis  was  followed  by  clarifying  legisla- 
tion along  the  same  line  in  succeeding  General  Confer- 
ences. Thus  by  stages  came  the  system  which  has  pre- 
vailed in  American  Methodism  since  that  time,  of  each 
local  charge  whether  circuit  or  station  fixing  and  paying 
the  salary  of  the  minister  appointed  to  them.  Bishop 
Matthew  Simpson  felt  that  this  created  great  inequality 
in  the  charges,  and  added  to  the  embarrassment  of  arrang- 
ing the  appointments.  In  too  many  cases  the  estimate  made 
was  not  fully  met;  but  even  then  the  preacher  had  no 
claim  upon  the  property  of  the  church  as  a  compensation 
for  his  services.  The  Discipline  expressly  provides  that  the 
church  property  shall  not  be  mortgaged  or  encumbered 
for  current  expenses. 

The  difference  in  the  salaries  paid  by  the  various 
charges  has  been  criticized  as  establishing  a  financial 
grading  for  ministers  and  ministerial  appointments,  thus 
making  money  somewhat  the  measure  of  ministerial  evalu- 
ation which  it  should  not  be.  From  time  to  time  a  move 
is  made  in  present-day  American  Methodism  to  equalize 
salaries  as  they  were  equalized  in  the  earlier  days,  and 
this  move  has  been  largely  successful  in  the  matter  of  the 
district  superintendents'  salaries  in  the  respective  annual 
conferences.  In  conferences  where  these  salaries  have  not 
been  equalized,  the  district  stewards  decide  what  their 
district  shall  pay  their  superintendent.  Where  a  confer- 
ence equalizes  the  superintendents'  salaries,  these  are  paid 
out  of  a  general  fund  raised  by  the  conference  as  a  whole, 
the  amount  being  decided  by  the  conference  following  the 
report  of  its  World  Service  Commission. 

Recent  disciplinary  regulations  provide  that  the  salary 
which  is  to  be  paid  the  preacher-in-charge  be  fixed  by 
the  charge  conference  and  made  a  matter  of  record  be- 
fore each  annual  conference  year  begins.  It  is  the  duty  of 
the  official  board  in  each  local  church  "after  consultation 
with  the  Committee  on  Pastoral  Relations,  or  with  the 
pastor  if  there  is  no  such  committee,  and  after  all  matters 
pertaining  to  his  efficiency,  to  recommend  to  the  Quarterly 
[now  Charge]  Conference,  at  the  session  next  preceding 
the  Annual  Conference,  the  salary  and  expense  allowance 
of  the  pastor,  and  of  the  associate  pastor  or  pastors  if 
any."  (Discipline,  1964,  Paragraph  215.2.)  The  fixing  of 
the  salary  in  advance  gives  the  appointive  power  and  the 
preachers  involved,  a  sure  commitment  as  to  what  may 
be  counted  upon  as  each  appointment  is  made.  It  may 
be  noted  that  any  additional  income,  as  for  instance  fees 
for  preaching  and  even  wedding  fees,  must  be  counted 
by  each  minister  as  taxable  income  by  the  U.  S.  Internal 
Revenue  Service. 

In  early  days,  due  to  the  smallness  of  the  remuneration 
paid  preachers,  the  people  made  up  something  of  this 
by  a  certain  generosity  in  gifts  of  produce.  A  "pounding" 
was  the  somewhat  colloquial  word  used  to  describe  con- 
certed gifts  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  provisions,  pro- 
duce, etc.  At  the  same  time  merchants  began  to  allow  a 


MINISTERIAL   TRAINING 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


"ministerial  discount"  to  ministers  and  their  families  in  the 
purchase  of  goods,  and  physicians  usually  refused  to  ac- 
cept payment  for  their  services  to  the  parsonage  family. 
As  better  salaries  began  to  be  paid,  "poundings"  and 
ministerial  discounts,  etc.,  have  become  less  and  less  in 
evidence.  The  ministry  as  a  whole  expresses  satisfaction 
over  this,  preferring  an  adequate  salary  and  housing,  with 
the  responsibilities  that  go  with  these,  to  the  well-meant 
but  desultory  support  of  former  days. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Disciplines,  ME,  MES,  TMC,  UMC. 

P.  A.  Peterson,  Revisions  of  the  Discipline.  1889. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

MINISTERIAL  TRAINING  (British).  The  Minutes  of  the 
first  Conference  (1744)  includes:  "Q.  Can  we  have  a 
seminars-  for  labourers?  A.  If  God  spare  us  until  another 
Conference."  In  1745  to  the  same  question  the  answer 
was:  "Not  till  God  give  us  a  proper  Tutor."  Lists  of  books 
were  drawn  up  to  guide  the  preachers'  reading,  and  they 
were  expected  to  read  as  well  as  sell  the  Christian  Library. 
Courses  were  sometimes  held  for  preachers  in  London, 
at  KiNGSwooD  School  and  at  the  Orphan  House,  New- 
castle. It  was  not  until  the  Conference  of  1834,  however, 
that  the  Wesleyans  resolved  to  set  up  "The  Wesleyan 
Theological  Instittition  for  the  Improvement  of  the  Junior 
Preachers."  After  some  controversy  (see  S.\muel  War- 
ben)  tliis  led  to  the  inauguration  of  several  Theological 
Colleges,  and  nearly  all  candidates  accepted  for  the  min- 
istry are  sent  to  one  of  them.  Each  college  is  closely  linked 
with  its  local  university,  and  those  students  who  are  quali- 
fied to  do  so  usually  take  a  degree  locally  or  else  take  the 
divinity  degree  of  London  University,  which  one  may  do 
as  an  external  student. 

The  curriculum  of  the  colleges  stresses  biblical  studies, 
church  history,  and  systematic  theology;  in  recent  years 
there  has  been  more  emphasis  on  homiletics,  pastoral 
theology,  etc.  In  his  fourth  and  final  year,  the  student 
normally  spends  two  months  gaining  practical  experience 
in  circuits.  Each  college  is  a  commimity,  with  its  devo- 
tional life  centered  in  its  chapel,  and  the  students  preach 
frequently  in  nearby  circuits.  On  leaving  college  a  pro- 
bationer is  stationed  in  a  circuit  under  the  supervision  of  a 
superintendent  for  the  remaining  years  of  his  probation, 
usually  not  more  than  two  in  number;  he  also  engages  in 
courses  of  study  under  the  direction  of  another  minister 
in  the  district.  On  the  successful  completion  of  his  proba- 
tion, he  proceeds  to  ordination  and  full  connexion.  The 
Ministerial  Training  Department  in  London,  which  has  a 
full-time  ministerial  secretary,  supervises  the  whole  sys- 
tem. 

A.  Raymond  George 


MINISTRY,  American  Methodist.  The  M.E.  Church  in 
America  organized  with  and  was  organized  by  a  ministry 
as  set  forth  in  actions  published  in  the  Minutes  of  the 
Ghbistmas  Conference.  The  words  are  historic:  "We 
will  form  ourselves  into  an  episcopal  church  under  the 
direction  of  superintendents,  elders,  deacons  and  helpers, 
according  to  the  forms  of  ordination  annexed  to  our  liturgv 
and  the  form  of  discipline  set  forth  in  these  Minutes."  The 
word  "preachers"  was  not  used  in  this  connection,  though 
Methodist  ministers  everywhere  have  been  known  by  the 
term  preacher,  as  they  were  in  Wesley's  day  in  England. 


The  ministry  in  America  stemmed  from  the  ordinations 
of  John  Weslev  himself  and  whatever  may  have  been 
the  view  regarding  these  ordinations  in  other  lands,  Amer- 
ican Methodist  ministers  have  always  been  proud  to  trace 
their  ecclesiastical  descent  back  to  the  founder  of  Meth- 
odism. He  ordained  Thonlas  Coke  to  be  a  superintendent, 
and  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Vasey  to  be  elders, 
and  instructed  Coke  to  ordain  Asbury  also  a  superinten- 
dent, and  provided  him  and  the  American  Methodists 
foiTns  for  the  ordination  of  superintendents,  elders  and 
deacons,  which  forms  were  used  at  the  Christmas  Con- 
ference and  ever  afterwards.  The  word  "helpers"  which 
occurs  in  the  Christmas  Conference  Minutes,  was  really 
the  equivalent  of  "preachers,"  and  was  absorbed  and  lost 
in  the  term  preacher  in  a  very  few  years. 

In  early  American  Methodism,  there  was  for  a  time  a 
bit  of  uncertainty  on  the  part  of  some  churchly  elements 
because  of  the  influence  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
that  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  its  successor  in 
America.  For  a  time  these  denied  the  validity  of  Methodist 
orders  since  Wesley  was  not  a  bishop.  Thomas  Vasey  him- 
.self,  whom  Wesley  had  ordained,  on  his  return  to  England, 
later  besought  orders  from  and  was  ordained  by  a  bishop 
of  the  Established  Church.  However,  the  great  success  of 
early  Methodism,  and  the  signs  of  spiritual  strength  and 
of  God's  effective  presence  in  its  work,  soon  swept  away 
any  criticism  on  ecclesiastical  grounds.  Methodist  orders 
established  themselves  not  by  resting  upon  past  descent, 
but  by  immediate  strength  and  power.  "The  test  of  Apos- 
tolic Succession  is  apostolic  success,"  some  Methodists 
have  liked  to  put  it. 

In  American  Methodism  from  the  day  when  Francis 
Asbury  refused  to  allow  himself  to  be  consecrated  a  bish- 
op unless  and  until  his  brethren  should  elect  him  to  that 
position,  all  ordinations  whether  of  bishops,  elders  or 
deacons,  have  depended  upon  the  enabling  vote  of  a 
Conference.  In  the  case  of  bishops,  electing  was  always 
to  be  done  by  a  General  Conference,  or,  as  it  is  at 
present,  by  Jurisdictional  or  Central  Conferences. 
In  the  case  of  elders  and  deacons,  the  clerical  members 
of  an  Annual  Conference  itself  before  the  LTnion  of  1939 
.sometimes  voted  orders  for  men,  as  was  shown  by  its 
direction  known  as  the  "missionary  rule"  by  which  those 
to  go  as  missionaries  might  be  ordained  by  special  ap- 
pointment; and  also  by  the  empowerment  given  to  the 
War  Work  Commission  (MES)  in  the  first  World  War  to 
authorize  the  ordination  of  chaplains  for  the  armed  ser- 
vices in  a  time  of  emergency.  However,  with  these  rare 
exceptions  no  General  Conference  has  ever  endeavored  to 
take  away  from  the  Annual  Conferences  their  right  to 
vote  orders  for  deacons  and  for  elders.  Under  the  present 
Constitution  of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  this  right 
is  specifically  granted  to  the  annual  conferences.  Also  no 
power  to  elect  a  bishop  can  inhere  in  the  General  Con- 
ference, but  only  in  the  Jurisdictional,  or  Central  Con- 
ferences. 

Wesley  sent  over  three  forms  of  ordination,  and  while 
that  for  the  bishop  or  "superintendent"  is  an  exact  replica 
of  that  "For  the  Ordaining  and  Consecrating  of  a  Bishop 
or  Archbishop"  in  the  Church  of  England,  the  Methodist 
Churches  in  America,  following  and  stirred  by  the  epis- 
copal controversy  of  earlier  years,  decided  that  the  bishop 
in  Methodist  polity  is  not  a  member  of  a  third  order, 
but  simply  an  elder  who  has  been  set  apart  for  a  special 
type  of  administrative  work.  Various  actions  by  General 
Conferences    have    strengthened    and    certified    this    prin- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ciple,  and  a  rubric  at  the  beginning  of  the  office  for  the 
consecration  of  a  bishop  in  the  M.E.  Church  during  its 
later  years  stated  flatly  "this  service  is  not  to  be  under- 
stood as  an  ordination  to  a  higher  order  in  the  Christian 
ministry  beyond  and  above  that  of  Elders  or  Presbyters, 
but  as  a  solemn  and  fitting  consecration  for  the  special 
and  most  sacred  duties  of  Superintendency  in  the  Church" 
(M.E.  Discipline,  1920,  paragraph  533) . 

Francis  Asbury,  anxious  to  strengthen  Methodist  epis- 
copacy by  every  means  possible,  not  primarily  for  its  own 
sake  but  to  have  the  power  to  establish  itinerancy  firmly 
in  American  Methodism,  leaned  a  bit  toward  the  idea 
that  a  bi.shop  did  possess  something  of  unusual  status  in 
regard  to  orders.  However,  in  the  unremitting  struggle 
carried  on  through  the  years  to  limit  Methodist  epis- 
copacy, not  because  of  its  name  or  status,  but  because 
of  its  absolute  power  in  making  appointments,  it  caiiie 
about  that  e\en  in  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  where  the 
bishop  was  traditionally  in  much  stronger  position  than  he 
was  in  the  M.E.  Church,  bishops  were  never  held  to  be  a 
"third  order."  (See  Episcop.\cy.) 

The  Methodist  eldership,  comparable  to  the  priesthood 
in  the  Church  of  England,  has  ever  been  held  in  high 
repute  among  American  Methodists,  and  to  be  ordained 
elder  is  the  ultimate  goal  of  each  minister  who  gives 
himself  in  life  service  to  the  church.  And  just  here  comes 
in  the  unusual  relationship  which  has  existed  between 
Conference  membership  on  one  hand,  and  ministerial 
orders  on  the  other,  which  has  been  a  marked  feature 
of  American  Methodism,  and  which  has,  at  times,  led  to 
embarrassing  involvements.  Conference  membership,  or 
the  admission  into  an  Annual  Conference  by  vote  of  the 
Conference,  is  a  process  entirely  apart  from  ordination. 
Yet  this  was — and  still  is  in  many  ways — the  rule  for 
long  years  in  all  American  Methodism.  This  situation 
stemmed  from  John  Wesley's  own  policy  of  admitting 
men  to  Conference  long  before  he  agreed  to  allow  them 
the  privileges  of  the  ordained.  As  it  was,  in  actual  practice 
in  American  Methodism,  once  a  man  was  fonnally  ad- 
mitted to  the  Conference,  after  progress  had  been  made 
in  certain  studies  or  sometimes  in  work  accomplished, 
the  brethren  would  vote  that  that  person  should  be  or- 
dained, first  deacon  and  then  elder.  Thus  there  have 
always  been  two  distinct  types  of  initiation  for  Methodist 
ministers.  One  is  when  a  Conference  is  entered  by  vote 
of  the  ministers  of  that  Conference  and  after  answering 
the  questions  which  Wesley  said  all  should  answer  who 
joined  his  own  "connexion."  The  second  is  when  one  has 
been  voted  orders,  and  takes  the  vows  of  ordination, 
and  by  the  imposition  of  hands  of  a  bishop,  and  other 
presbyters,  is  made  a  deacon  or  elder.  For  well  over  the 
first  hundred  years  of  Methodism  in  America,  preachers 
might  belong  to  a  Conference  and  yet  never  be  ordained; 
and  in  time  some  could  be  ordained  as  "local  elders"  who 
never  joined  the  Conference  at  all  or  came  within  the 
travehng  connection.  Also  ordained  conference  members 
may  "locate"  without  losing  their  orders.  Instances,  how- 
ever, have  been  known  when  such  a  person  no  longer 
under  the  control  of  the  Conference  has  presumed  upon 
his  orders  and  this  has  led  to  embarrassment.  This  situ- 
ation in  time  caused  confusion,  not  only  in  the  keeping  of 
Conference  records,  but  in  the  whole  matter  of  Confer- 
ence relationship  and  orders.  To  clarify  ministerial  status 
at  least  two  different  Commissions  have  been  appointed 
within  recent  years  (TMC)  to  study  the  ministry  and 
make  appropriate  recommendations.  The  study  has  been 


continued  by  Hie  United  Methodist  Church. 

Also,  within  recent  years,  in  order  to  enforce  more 
fiiTTily  the  regulation  that  each  minister  must  complete 
a  certain  Course  of  Study,  it  was  provided  that  one  must 
be  ordained  a  deacon  before  he  may  be  admitted  on  trial 
in  an  Annual  Conference. 

Ordained  ministers  of  the  Methodist  churches  are 
recognized  as  of  equal  status  with  the  ordained  ministers 
of  other  Christian  denominations  ever>'where;  and  in 
tum,  provision  is  made  for  admitting  into  an  Annual 
Conference  ministers  from  other  denominations  who  have 
themselves  been  ordained,  provided  that  they  take  the 
requisite  vows.  They  are  not,  however,  asked  to  submit 
again  to  the  imposition  of  hands.  It  is  thus  clear  that 
admission  to  an  Annual  Conference  thereby  putting  a 
man  into  the  traveling  preacherhood  is  one  thing — a 
special  Methodist  situation;  while  ordination  as  a  deacon 
or  elder  really  puts  a  man  into  the  ministry  of  the  general 
worldwide  Church,  and  his  ordination  is  so  regarded  by 
other  Christian  brotherhoods. 

As  part  of  the  fight  against  the  strong  Asburian  epis- 
copacy of  early  days,  an  attack  was  made  upon  the  Meth- 
odist diaconate.  It  was  asserted  to  be  no  ministerial  order 
but  an  "office" — as  Baptists  for  instance  hold.  Indeed, 
the  M.P.  Church  when  organized  (with,  of  course,  no 
bishops)  decided  also  that  they  would  have  no  deacons 
but  simply  one  order  of  ministers,  namely  elders.  The 
Methodists  in  Germany  also  decided  that  they  would 
not  have  deacons  as  a  separate  order,  but  elders  only. 
The  Judicial  Council  of  the  Methodist  Church,  when 
the  right  of  the  General  Conference  to  agree  that  in  the 
Germany  Central  Conference  the  ordination  of  an  elder 
might  be  one's  final  ordination,  and  ordination  as  a  deacon 
might  be  omitted,  decided  that  gianting  this  power  to  the 
Germany  Conference  was  a  constitutional  right  of  the 
General  Conference  and  did  not  break  fundamental  Meth- 
odist law.  (Decision  58,  May  6,  1948.) 

At  the  1964  General  Conference  a  strong  effort  was 
made  to  declare  the  Methodist  diaconate  simply  an  office, 
and  not  an  order.  There  was  a  minority  and  majority  re- 
port from  the  Committee  on  Ministry  presenting  opposite 
views  upon  this  matter.  The  situation  was  deferred  by 
referring  the  whole  matter  to  a  commission  empowered  to 
further  study  the  ministry. 

The  influence  of  other  great  ecclesiasticisms  which  have 
only  one  order — but  not  of  course  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church — is  very  strongly  felt  in  American  Meth- 
odism, and  this  tends  to  hold  the  deacon  to  be  more  of  a 
lay  officer  than  a  ministerial  order.  The  move  to  denature 
the  traditional  Methodist  diaconate  has  also  been  abetted 
by  the  argument  that  many  supply  ministers — now  local 
pastors — might  be  allowed  to  hold  the  office  of  deacon 
and  be  called  deacons  with  no  ordination,  if  the  diaconate 
shall  ever  be  called  an  oflBce.  It  is  worthy  of  note  however 
that  in  the  episcopal  controversy  of  1810-1830,  Bishop 
Robert  Emory  in  his  Defence  of  Out  Fathers  defended 
the  order  of  deacon  by  saying  that  whatever  happened 
to  Methodist  episcopacy,  the  deacon  should  be  left  un- 
touched in  his  own  order. 

Local  Preachers  was  the  name  given  to  those  assistants 
of  Wesley  who  "assisted  us  only  in  one  place"  as  over 
against  those  who  traveled  about  at  Wesley's  command. 
The  local  preacher  was  usually  termed  a  'lay  preacher" 
in  Britain. 

In  American  Methodism,  the  tenn  local  preacher  his- 
torically came  to  be  given  to  those  who  are  licensed  to 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


preacli  but  not  members  of  an  Annual  Conference  and 
so  not  under  the  appointment  of  a  bishop.  When  a  Con- 
ference member  dropped  out  of  the  travehng  connection, 
he  was  said  to  "locate"  and  became  again  a  local  preacher 
not  subject  to  appointment.  However,  "location"  always 
was  at  the  vote  of  the  Conference  which  alone  had  the 
right  to  grant  location  when  this  was  requested;  or  which 
could  "locate"  a  man  against  his  will  if  it  found  him  un- 
acceptable. Occasionally  men  were  forced  to  locate  or 
located  by  Conference  action  as  a  disciplinary  measure 
against  them  for  certain  improper  actions  not  deemed 
worthy  of  a  trial.  However,  Bishop  Collins  Denny  said 
that  the  status  of  a  local  preacher  was  so  estimable  that 
"location"  should  never  be  used  as  a  penalty  since  the 
local  preachers  of  .Methodism  have  done  such  heroic 
ministerial  sendee.  In  The  United  Methodist  Church,  the 
Uniting  Conference  of  1968  changed  "local  preacher"  to 
"local  pastor,"  keeping  the  status  itself  much  as  it  had 
been.  When  a  man  is  first  licensed  to  preach,  he  becomes 
a  local  pastor  and  holds  such  status  until  he  is  admitted 
to  Conference  membership,  and  thus  goes  into  the  travel- 
ing connection.  As  a  pastor,  he  is  under  the  direction  of 
the  minister  over  him,  and  he  must  make  a  report  of  his 
activities  from  time  to  time  as  the  Discipline  provides. 

Men  who  have  been  Conference  members  and  locate 
because  of  health  or  family  reasons,  or  for  other  valid 
reasons,  continue  to  hold  their  orders  if  they  have  been 
ordained.  It  should  be  said  that  regular  Conference  men 
who  are  retired  or  superannuated  on  account  of  age  or 
infirmity  are  not  considered  local  preachers — or  local 
pastors — as  are  those  who  have  never  joined  a  Conference, 
or  who  have  dropped  out  before  they  reach  the  age  of 
retirement. 

Supply  Pastor.  A  supply  pastor  is  a  preacher  appointed 
to  a  pastoral  charge,  usually  as  a  substitute  either  because 
of  an  emergency  between  sessions  of  the  Annual  Con- 
ference, or  because  there  is  a  shortage  of  Conference  min- 
isterial members  at  the  time  of  the  Conference,  and  the 
appointment  otherwise  could  not  be  filled.  (The  name 
"Lay  Pastor"  was  given  to  this  type  of  minister  at  the 
Uniting  Conference  of  1968,  but  we  describe  the  develop- 
ment here  under  the  old  name  of  Supply  Pastor.) 

The  use  of  supply  preachers  came  about  gradually  and 
was  usually  due  to  some  aforementioned  emergency 
when  the  bishop  or,  as  was  frequently  the  case,  the  dis- 
trict superintendent,  put  into  a  local  pulpit  a  man  who 
was  asked  to  "supply  it"  until  the  ne.\t  session  of  the  An- 
nual Conference.  When  that  time  came  it  was  expected 
that  a  regular  Conference  member  would  be  appointed 
and  usually  was.  But  with  the  great  growth  of  the 
Church  and  the  proliferation  of  many  small  and  circuit 
charges  for  which  regular  ministers  could  not  be  secured, 
there  grew  in  the  Methodist  Churches  a  large,  and  to  a 
certain  extent,  a  permanent  body  of  "supply  preachers." 
The  most  of  these  have  been  men  who  could  not  get  into 
the  actual  Conference  membership  by  reason  of  stipu- 
lated educational  or  other  requirements  which  the  General 
Conference  in  later  years  has  seen  fit  to  enact.  They  have 
been,  nevertheless,  men  of  ability  and  consecration,  and 
the  usual  Annual  Conference  has  a  great  number  of  "sup- 
plies." In  The  Methodist  Church,  before  its  reorganization 
as  The  United  Methodist  Church,  there  were  Approved 
Supply  Pastors.  These  were  local  preachers  who  on 
recommendation  of  the  Board  of  Ministerial  Training  and 
qualifications  of  each  annual  conference — or  a  similar 
body — were  approved  by  the  annual  conference  as  eligible 


for  an  appointment  during  the  ensuing  year  as  "supply 
pastor"  of  a  charge.  In  1968  the  name  Approved  Supply 
was  dropped  in  favor  of  Local  Pastor,  though  the  office 
itself  can  scarcely  be.  Indeed  it  is  generally  admitted 
that  The  United  Methodist  Church  could  not  do  its  work 
nor  man  its  charges  were  it  not  for  these  men.  Their  aim 
is  of  course,  when  possible,  to  secure  membership  in  the 
annual  conference  itself,  and  within  recent  years  less 
stringent  regulations  have  been  passed  regarding  educa- 
tional requirements,  so  that  more  of  the  better  qualified 
local  pastors,  as  they  are  now  to  be  called,  may  be  ad- 
mitted by  conference  vote. 

Superannuates,  or  Retired  Ministers,  are  those  who 
are  officially  placed  in  the  retired  relationship  and  have 
thereby  "ceased  to  travel."  A  superannuated  minister  in 
The  United  Methodist  Church  "is  one  who  at  his  own 
request,  or  by  action  of  the  ministerial  members  in  full 
connection  (in  his  Conference)  on  recommendation  of 
the  Board  of  the  Ministry  has  been  placed  in  the  retired 
relation"  {Discipline  1968,  Paragraph  359).  Every  min- 
isterial member  of  an  annual  conference  whose  seventy- 
second  birthday  precedes  the  first  day  of  the  regular 
session  of  his  annual  conference  must  be  automatically 
retired  from  the  active  ministry  at  the  said  conference 
session;  and  at  his  own  request  and  by  vote  of  the  annual 
conference,  any  ministerial  member  who  has  attained  age 
sixty-five  or  has  completed  forty  years  of  full-time  ap- 
proved service  prior  to  the  date  of  the  opening  session  of 
the  conference,  may  be  placed  in  the  retired  relation  with 
the  privilege  of  making  an  annuity  claim  upon  the  pension 
funds  of  the  church  (Paragraph  362).  An  annual  con- 
ference has  the  right  to  place  any  ministerial  member  in 
the  retired  relation,  with  or  without  his  consent  and  ir- 
respective of  his  age,  if  such  relation  is  recommended  by 
the  conference  Board  of  the  Ministry    (Paragraph  360). 

It  is  possible  and  quite  frequent  for  a  superannuate 
minister,  if  he  is  willing,  to  be  assigned  to  active  duty  by 
the  bishop,  and  thereby  to  be  known  as  a  "retired  sup- 
ply." Every  Superannuate  is  a  member  of  the  local  charge 
conference  and  has  all  the  privileges  of  membership  in 
the  local  church  where  he  resides,  except  as  the  Dis- 
cipline may  set  forth  otherwise.  He  must  report  to  the 
charge  conference  and  to  the  pastor  all  marriages  per- 
formed and  baptisms  administered,  if  any.  If  he  resides 
outside  the  bounds  of  his  annual  conference,  he  must 
forward  annually  to  his  conference  a  certificate  of  his 
Christian  and  his  ministerial  conduct,  must  tell  something 
about  the  number  and  circumstances  of  his  family,  and 
the  district  superintendent  or  the  pastor  of  the  charge 
within  whose  bounds  he  resides  must  sign  his  report. 
(Discipline,  1968,  Paragraph  364.) 

In  the  early  days,  retirement  or  superannuation  entailed 
great  hardship  upon  ministers  since  there  was  then  small 
provision  for  their  support.  At  a  very  early  period  in 
English  Methodism,  a  collection  was  taken  in  the  various 
societies  for  the  support  of  the  superannuated  preachers 
and  the  American  Christmas  Conference  of  1784  adopted 
the  same  provision.  This  was  long  continued.  After  a  time 
there  was  organized  a  Ch.\rtered  Fund  for  the  purpose 
of  aiding  the  retired  ministers,  but  the  income  from  these 
sources  was  so  scanty  that  those  who  could  manage  their 
own  support  either  from  property  or  by  business  which 
they  were  able  to  follow  were  not  considered  claimants 
on  the  conference  funds. 

Later  on,  in  the  growing  Methodist  churches,  much 
better  provision  was  made  for  the  support  of  retired  men, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


and  in  time  a  Board  of  Pensions  was  created  to  look 
after  this  matter  on  the  part  of  the  general  church;  each 
annual  conference  came  to  set  aside  in  its  annual  budget 
each  year  a  certain  amount  for  conference  claimants.  The 
annual  conferences  within  recent  years  have  been  making 
much  better  provision  for  their  claimants,  including  super- 
annuates, basing  the  annuity  amount  usually  upon  years 
of  active  service. 

Superannuated  ministers  continue  to  hold  membership 
in  their  annual  conference  and  often  take  an  active  part 
in  its  deliberations  and  in  voting  at  each  annual  session. 
Every  ministerial  member,  active  or  retired,  is  "active" 
until  the  conference  session  ends,  and  his  status  an- 
nounced or  reannounced  in  the  appointments  or  minutes. 
As  is  the  case  with  all  conference  members,  their  retired 
relation  depends  upon  the  vote  of  the  conference,  though 
the  provision  retiring  men  automatically  at  seventy-two 
years  of  age  is  fixed  law  of  the  whole  church. 

Bishops  often  use  the  superannuate  ministers  when 
they  are  willing  to  fill  pulpits  made  vacant  by  death  or 
for  other  reasons,  or  sometimes  use  retired  men  for  ap- 
pointments where  their  services  will  greatly  help  the 
work.  Incidents  have  been  known,  however,  where  a 
man  in  a  strong  pulpit  who  reached  the  retirement  age 
but  wished  to  be  reappointed  to  his  same  pulpit  as  a 
"retired  supply"  was  not  allowed  to  do  so.  The  Council 
of  Bishops  itself  has  acted  upon  this  matter  in  certain 
instances  and  stated  that  "a  bishop  could  not  do  by  in- 
direction what  the  General  Conference  said  could  not 
legally  be  done  in  re  a  man's  retirement  at  seventy-two." 

The  annual  conference  pauses  usually  at  each  of  its 
sessions  to  pay  tribute  to  the  men  who  are  at  that  time 
retiring,  and  the  superannuates  are  held  in  high  honor  in 
every  Methodist  conference. 

Supernumerary  Minister  is  one  who  by  reason  of  im- 
paired health,  or  other  equally  sufficient  reason,  is  tem- 
porarily unable  to  perfoiTn  full  work.  {Discipline  1968, 
Paragraph  358.)  The  relation,  of  course,  is  one  to  be 
granted  by  the  man's  Annual  Conference  and  cannot  be 
granted  for  more  than  five  years  in  succession,  e.xcept  by 
a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  conference,  and  on  recommenda- 
tion of  the  Committee  on  Conference  Relations.  A  super- 
numerary minister  may  receive  an  appointment  or  be 
left  without  one,  according  to  the  judgment  of  the  Annual 
Conference  of  which  he  is  a  member.  He  is  subject  to  all 
limitations  of  the  Discipline  in  respect  to  reappointment 
and  continuance  in  the  same  charge  as  those  that  apply  to 
effective  ministers.  If  he  is  given  no  pastoral  charge,  he 
has  a  seat  in  the  local  Charge  Conference,  and  all  the 
privileges  of  membership  in  the  place  where  he  resides. 
He  must  report  to  the  Charge  Conference  and  to  the  pas- 
tor, all  marriages  performed  and  all  baptisms  adminis- 
tered. Should  he  reside  outside  the  bounds  of  his  Annual 
Conference,  he  must  forward  to  it  annually  a  certificate 
telling  of  his  work,  and  the  like,  and  if  he  fails  to  make 
such  a  report,  the  Annual  Conference  may  locate  him 
without  his  consent.  A  supernumerary  minister  has  no 
claim  on  the  conference  funds  except  by  vote  of  the  con- 
ference itself. 

The  English  Minutes  originally  defined  supernumerary 
preachers  to  be  "those  who  can  preach  four  or  five  times 
a  week"  (Simpson's  Cyclopaedia) .  This  definition  was 
adopted  when  ministers  were  expected  to  preach  not  only 
three  times  on  the  Sabbath,  but  almost  as  often  on  every 
day  of  the  week.  In  the  M.E.  Church  in  the  United 
States,    the    first    definition    of    those    who    are    super- 


numeraries came  in  1792  when  it  was  affirmed  that  a 
supernumerary  preacher  was  one  "so  worn  out  in  the 
itinerant  service  as  to  be  rendered  incapable  of  preaching 
constantly:  but  at  the  same  time  is  willing  to  do  any  work 
in  the  ministry  which  the  conference  may  direct,  and  his 
strength  enable  him  to  perform."  In  1800,  on  motion  of 
Thomas  Coke,  supernumerary  preachers,  their  widows 
and  oiphans,  were  to  have  the  same  support  which  was 
then  accorded  to  effective  preachers. 

In  early  days  the  supernumerary  relation  gave  the 
M.E.  Church  little  trouble,  as  there  was  no  tendency  to 
remain  in  the  Conference  unless  one  had  the  ability  to 
labor  effectively.  Indeed,  in  those  days  the  great  embar- 
rassment of  the  Church  was  the  constant  tendency  in  the 
ministry  to  seek  location.  However,  as  the  funds  of  the 
Conferences  increased,  and  as  a  connection  with  the  Con- 
ference became  more  desirable,  some  who  desired  to  seek 
rest  for  a  few  years,  for  travel  or  to  engage  in  various 
work — even  in  business — desired  to  maintain  their  con- 
nection with  the  Conference  but  to  be  placed  on  the 
supernumerary  list.  Because  of  the  difficulties  this  caused, 
the  1860  M.E.  General  Conference  abolished  the  rela- 
tionship so  far  as  the  Annual  Conferences  were  concerned, 
but  the  phrase  still  remained  in  the  Restrictive  Rules 
in  relation  to  the  General  Conference  appropriating  the 
produce  of  the  Publishing  House  "to  any  purpose  other 
than  for  the  benefit  of  the  traveling,  supernumerary, 
superannuated,  and  worn-out  preachers,  their  wives, 
widows  and  children."  In  1864  the  former  relation  was 
restored,  however,  but  with  the  definition  which  has 
lasted  to  the  present  and  the  provision  that  the  super- 
numerary preachers  "shall  have  no  claim  upon  the  bene- 
ficiary funds  of  the  church,  unless  by  vote  of  the  Armual 
Conference."  {Discipline  1968,  Paragraph  358.) 

The  supernumerary  relationship  is  one  not  often  sought 
today,  as  superannuation,  even  for  those  who  are  dis- 
abled physically,  will  usually  be  granted  by  the  Annual 
Conference  if  the  Board  of  the  Ministry  so  recommends. 
Since  a  supernumerary  minister  has  no  claim  on  Con- 
ference or  general  church  funds  except  by  special  vote  of 
his  Conference,  and  since  a  regularly  retired  or  super- 
annuated minister  does  have  a  claim  when  the  Confer- 
ence grants  him  superannuation,  the  latter  status  is  usually 
sought  rather  than  the  supernumerary  relationship.  Five 
hundred  and  forty-three  supernumeraries  were  reported 
in  the  ministerial  membership  of  the  five  Jurisdictions 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church  in  the  United  States 
in  the  General  Minutes  of  1970. 

N.  B.  H. 

MINISTRY,  British  Methodist.  John  Wesley's  initial  re- 
luctance to  allow  laymen  to  expound  the  Scriptures  was 
overcome  in  1739.  In  1744,  at  the  first  Conference,  he 
and  his  brother  and  four  other  clergymen  of  the  Church 
of  England  began  by  inviting  four  of  the  laymen  to  join 
them.  The  business  included  the  following:  "Q.  Are  Lay 
Assistants  allowable?  A.  Only  in  cases  of  necessity."  There 
followed  an  account  of  their  office,  "in  the  absence  of  the 
Minister,"  and  the  "Rules  of  an  Assistant,"  later  known 
as  the  "Rules  of  a  Helper." 

The  Minutes  of  1745  contained  a  list  of  these  assis- 
tants. The  Minutes  of  1745  contained  the  following: 
"Q.  In  what  view  are  we  and  our  helpers  to  be  con- 
sidered? A.  Perhaps  as  extraordinary  messengers,  designed 
of  God  to  provoke  the  others  to  jealousy."  The  tests  of 


MINNEAPOLIS,    MINNESOTA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


those  called  of  God  to  preach  were  said  to  be  grace, 
gifts,  and  success  (later  called  fruit).  The  Minutes  con- 
tains the  stationing  of  the  assistants  in  circuits.  In  1747  a 
distinction  was  drawn  between  "our  present  Assistants" 
and  "those  that  assist  us  only  in  one  place."  Thus  arose 
the  distinction  between  the  Traveling  Preachers  and  the 
Local  Preachers. 

The  traveling  preachers,  who  were  the  forerunners  of 
the  Methodist  ministry,  were  eventually  divided  into  the 
Assistants  (the  assistant  being  the  traveling  preacher  in 
charge  of  each  Circuit)  and  the  other  traveling  preach- 
ers, who  were  called  helpers,  a  term  which  did  not  long 
survive.  The  traveling  preachers  included  preachers  on 
trial,  also  called  probationers.  The  term  "probationer" 
was  also  used  occasionally  for  local  preachers  on  trial. 
When  they  had  successfully  completed  this  period  of 
probation,  which  at  first  was  one  year,  but  was  later 
extended  to  four  years,  they  were  received  "into  Full 
Connexion"  with  John  Wesley  and  the  Conference.  They 
received  allowances  for  themselves  and  their  wives  and 
were  forbidden  to  engage  in  trade. 

Wesley  insisted,  especially  in  his  "Korah"  sermon  on 
the  ministerial  office,  that  they  were  not  priests  and  had 
no  right  to  administer  the  Sacraments;  but  he  was  equally 
emphatic,  in  the  face  of  much  opposition,  in  asserting 
their  right  to  preach  and  to  exercise  an  itinerant  rather 
than  a  parochial  ministry.  The  principle  of  itinerancy  was 
expressed  in  two  ways:  they  traveled  around  the  large 
circuits,  often  spending  each  night  in  a  new  place,  and 
they  were  not  stationed  in  the  same  circuit  for  many  years 
together.  But  when  a  preacher  was  too  worn  out  to  travel 
any  longer,  his  name  was  printed  in  the  circuit  in  which 
he  resided,  with  the  title  of  Supernumerary. 

In  1784,  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  people  of  North 
America,  Wesley  ordained  deacons  and  elders  by  the 
imposition  of  hands,  and  by  the  same  method  set  apart 
as  a  superintendent  Thomas  Coke,  who  like  himself  was  a 
priest  of  the  Church  of  England.  Wesley  had  been  per- 
suaded by  the  works  of  Lord  Chancellor  Peter  King, 
which  he  read  in  1746,  and  by  other  books,  that  presbyters 
have  the  right  to  ordain,  and  he  defended  his  action  by 
claiming  it  was  scriptural.  He  also  sent  to  America  The 
Sunday  Service  of  the  Methodists  in  North  America.  This 
was  in  reality  an  abridgment  of  The  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  and  included  services  of  ordination  for  deacons, 
elders,  and  superintendents.  In  the  following  years  he 
ordained  men  for  Scotland  and  other  places,  and  after 
1788  for  England.  He  ordained  men  as  deacons  and  as 
elders  (or  sometimes  as  presbyters),  and  probably  or- 
dained Alexander  Mather  as  superintendent  for  En- 
gland. In  all  Wesley  ordained  at  least  twenty-seven  men, 
and  many  of  the  certificates  survive. 

After  his  death  some  ordinations  were  performed  by 
those  whom  he  had  ordained,  but  ordinations  were  soon 
stopped,  and  the  distinction  between  ordained  and  un- 
ordained  preachers  was  dropped.  Coke,  however,  and 
later  others,  often  ordained  by  the  imposition  of  hands 
those  who  were  going  as  missionaries  overseas.  The  title 
of  the  chief  preacher  in  each  circuit,  which  in  Wesley's 
lifetime  had  been  assistant,  was  changed  a  few  years 
after  his  death  to  Superintendent.  Certain  preachers  were 
chosen  as  chairmen  of  districts,  and  eventually  overseas 
some  of  these  were  given  the  status  of  general  superin- 
tendent. 

In  1795  by  the  Plan  of  Pacification  the  traveling 
preachers  in  Full  Connexion  were  permitted  to  administer 


the  Sacraments  where  this  was  desired  locally,  subject 
to  the  control  of  the  Conference.  Hitherto,  this  had  been 
permitted  only  occasionally  amid  much  controversy,  but 
now  quickly  it  became  the  universal  practice.  Thus  the 
connection  acknowledged  that  its  traveling  preachers  per- 
formed the  usual  function  of  Christian  ministers  and  so 
claimed  its  independent  place  within  the  universal 
Church.  Reception  into  full  connexion  received  even 
greater  emphasis  and  came  to  be  described  as  "virtual 
ordination." 

In  1836  the  Wesleyan  Conference  resolved  that  the 
men  to  be  received  into  full  connexion  should  be  ordained 
by  the  Scriptural  method  of  the  imposition  of  hands;  in 
subsequent  years  the  reception  into  full  connexion  and 
the  ordination  were  separated  by  a  few  hours.  In  1846  the 
three  ordination  sewices,  which  had  survived  in  most 
editions  of  The  Sunday  Service,  were  replaced  by  a 
single  service. 

The  other  Methodist  bodies  all  followed  the  same  pat- 
tern. At  the  end  of  his  probation  a  candidate  was  voted 
"into  Full  Connexion,"  "to  the  approved  list,"  or  the  like, 
by  the  Conference;  or,  among  the  Primitive  Methodists, 
by  the  District  Meeting.  The  public  ordination  which  fol- 
lowed the  same  evening  usually  included  some  outward 
sign,  such  as  the  giving  of  the  ordination  Bible,  or  the 
right  hand  of  fellowship,  but  not  the  imposition  of  hands. 

The  ministry  in  Great  Britain  is  heir  to  all  these  tra- 
ditions. Generally  speaking,  those  who  have  completed 
their  probation  are  received  into  full  connexion  by  the 
Representative  Session  of  the  Conference,  which  resolves 
that  they  shall  be  ordained  by  the  imposition  of  hands 
the  same  evening;  and  this  is  done  by  the  president  or 
his  representative,  assisted  by  other  ordained  ministers. 
The  itinerancy  has  been  somewhat  modified,  in  that  min- 
isters change  circuits  less  frequently,  and  to  some  extent 
concentrate  on  particular  churches  within  a  circuit.  Chair- 
men of  districts  are  now  recognized  as  pastores  pastorum. 

J.  H.  S.  Kent,  Age  of  Disunity.  1966. 

A.  B.  Lawson,  John  Wesley.  1963. 

London  Quarterly  ir  Holborn  Review,  April  1951. 

Ministry,  Baptism  and  Membership  in  the  Methodist  Church 

(  Official  Conference  Statements ) . 

J.  L.  Nuelsen,  Ordination  im  Methodismus.  1935. 

E.  W.  Thompson,  Wesley:  Apostolic  Man.  1957. 

Wesley  Historical  See.  Proceedings,  xxx-xxxiii. 

C.  W.  Williams,  Wesley's  Theology  Today.  1960. 

A.  Raymond  Geohge 

MINNEAPOLIS,  MINNESOTA,  U.S.A.,  in  1970  had  a 
population  report  of  431,977.  Greater  Minneapolis  takes 
in  several  suburbs  of  considerable  size  and  increases  the 
population  to  more  than  one  million.  The  city  is  a  grain, 
flour  and  trades  center,  for  Minnesota  is  a  strong  agricul- 
tural grain  state.  The  State  University  of  Minnesota  is 
located  in  Minneapolis,  one  of  the  very  largest  in  the 
United  States.  Besides  the  University,  there  are  numerous 
business,  trades,  technical  and  other  training  schools  in  the 
city.  There  are  numerous  articles  and  machines  manu- 
factured in  Minneapolis;  and  many  of  the  Northwest  of- 
fices for  distributing  companies  are  located  in  the  down- 
town loop.  Minneapolis  is  known  as  the  City  of  Lakes  with 
its  scenic  drives  around  the  lakes,  along  the  Mississippi 
River  and  through  some  of  the  finest  residential  areas  in 
America. 

The  first  Methodist  Mission  was  located  at  St.  Anthony 
and   was  established   in    1849.   After   the   first   small   log 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MINNEAPOLIS,    MINNESOTA 


Structure  was  outgrown,  a  much  larger  stone  church  was 
erected  on  the  same  site,  and  in  1955  a  $500,000  addi- 
tion was  added  which  made  all  parts  of  this  historic  church 
up-to-date  and  beautiful  in  its  many  sei-viceable  parts. 
A  Wesley  Foundation  is  housed  here,  and  has  pretty 
well  taken  over  the  occupancy  of  the  entire  building. 
Whereas  this  used  to  be  a  strong  residential  church,  it  is 
now  used  by  students  at  the  University  of  Minnesota,  for 
it  is  centrally  located  on  the  campus. 

Wesley  Church  was  the  second  church  organization 
and  building  in  the  city.  It  is  located  at  Marquette  and 
Grant  Streets  and  is  now  considered  an  inner-city  church. 
In  the  past  fifteen  years,  the  membership  of  Wesley 
Church  has  decreased  to  its  present  membership  of  691 
(1970  Minutes).  There  is  a  large  office  building  built  by 
the  Wesley  Church  Corporation  located  next  to  this 
handsome,  red  stone  church  and  the  complex  is  known 
as  The  Wesley  Temple.  This  church  has  been  a  strong 
influence  in  the  building  of  Minneapolis,  its  government 
and  high  standards. 

Richfield  Church,  located  at  58th  and  Lyndale  Avenue, 
was  a  pioneer  Methodist  church  in  1854.  In  the  past 
twenty  years,  this  church  has  grown  to  2,579  members 
and  is  still  a  powerful  church  in  the  city's  life. 

North  Church,  located  on  the  north  side  of  Minne- 
apolis confronting  one  of  the  city's  beautiful  parks,  was 
another  early  church  with  its  history  beginning  in  1854. 
It  has  a  membership  of  754.  Their  building  has  been 
modernized  and  made  usable  for  worship,  educational 
programs,  social  relations,  office  facilities  and  many  ser- 
viceable contributions   to   people   in    North   Minneapolis. 

Aldersgate  in  St.  Louis  Park,  West  Minneapolis,  has 
a  membership  of  1,392,  a  fine  church  edifice  with  facilities 
for  worship.  Christian  education,  administrative  work  and 
a  beautiful  chapel. 

Brooklyn  Center  is  another  early  pioneering  church 
that  began  in  a  truck-farming  suburb  of  Minneapolis  in 
1854.  Like  these  other  churches  described,  this  one-time 
rural  church  has  been  modernized  and  made  into  one  of 
our  most  attractive  suburban  churches  with  a  member- 
ship of  1,213. 

Columbia  Heights  is  a  well  situated  church  in  North- 
east Minneapolis  that  has  grown  with  strides  to  860 
members  in  the  past  twenty  years. 

Hillcrest  Church,  likewise,  has  sprung  forward  in  leaps 
and  bounds  possessing  a  beautiful  church  property  which 
enables  them  to  serve  their  1,093  members  with  great 
efficiency  and  strong  leadership. 

Simpson  Church  is  another  inner-church  that  has  de- 
creased in  membership  to  413  members  after  an  illus- 
trious past  giving  strong  leadership  to  all  phases  of  the 
city's  life  and  growth. 

Hobart  Church  was  named  for  Chauncey  Hobart, 
who  was  appointed  the  first  district  superintendent  of  the 
Minneapolis  district  in  1853.  Hobart  is  known  as  the 
father  of  Minnesota  Methodism.  Hobart  Church  is  lo- 
cated in  a  fine  residential  part  of  Minneapolis  and  is  con- 
sidered one  of  the  finest  of  the  smaller  metropolitan 
churches.  Its  membership  is  445. 

Lake  Harriet  Church  is  another  larger  church  with  a 
membership  of  1,368.  It  has  a  church  property  of  great 
value  to  enable  it  to  carry  forward  the  best  type  of  Meth- 
odist church  program — which  it  is  doing. 

Hennepin  Avenue  Church  is  one  of  the  architectural 
and  religious  landmarks  of  the  city.  An  unusual  octagonal 
Gothic  structure,  with  its  slender  spire  rising  more  than 


200  feet  above  the  hillside  on  which  it  stands,  it  is  one  of 
the  commanding  religious  edifices  of  Minneapolis.  Mem- 
bers of  the  congregation  have  historically  been  active  in 
the  life  of  the  city,  giving  the  church  an  equally  impres- 
sive place  in  the  community. 

The  church  was  first  organized  in  1875.  It  was  formed 
as  a  Sunday  school,  organized  by  seventy-six  members  of 
an  already-existing  Methodist  church.  Apparently  there 
had  been  some  dissension  concerning  the  doctrine  of 
Sanctification. 

In  1911,  the  members  of  the  congregation  were  talking 
about  the  wisdom  of  relocating.  They  were  given  a  piece 
of  property  on  Lowry  Hill,  a  prominent  location  in  the 
growing  city,  but  very  close  to  Fowler  Methodist  Church, 
which  had  been  organized  in  1892.  The  two  congregations 
agreed  to  merge  and  build  a  new  structure  on  the  donated 
property.  The  present  buildings  were  dedicated  on  Oct. 
22,  1916,  and  a  modern  church  school  building  was 
added  in  1950. 

The  Walker  Art  Gallery  in  the  Hennepin  Avenue 
Church  is  a  renowned  assembly  of  religious  art  of  great 
value.  The  collection  was  presented  to  the  church  by  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  T.  B.  Walker  in  1914,  and  includes  a  series  of 
more  than  two  hundred  lithographs.  These  are  displayed 
on  the  stone  walls  and  corridors  and  rooms  of  the  church 
buildings,  and  are  said  to  be  the  only  set  in  America  of 
the  famous  engravings  of  the  Holy  Land,  Arabia,  Egypt, 
and  Nubia  done  by  Louis  Haghe  from  water  colors 
painted  in  1838-39  by  David  Roberts  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety. 

Families  of  the  church  have  been  active  in  instituting 
and  developing  such  Methodist  institutions  as  Walker 
Home  for  the  Aging,  the  Methodist  and  Asbury  Hospitals. 

Four  bishops  have  been  elected  from  among  its  pas- 
tors: Charles  Bayard  Mitchell,  Charles  Wesley' 
Burns,  Richard  C.  Raines  and  Dwight  E.  Loder. 

The  congregation  has  numbered  approximately  four 
thousand  for  more  than  a  quarter  century.  Its  member- 
ship is  inclusive  of  all  races,  particularly  since  1956  when 
members  of  the  Border  Methodist  Church  (Negro)  be- 
came members  of  this  congregation.  The  church  has  long 
been  numbered  among  the  denomination's  leaders  in 
World  Service  and  Advance  Specials  giving.  Member- 
ship in  1970  was  4,158.  Chester  A.  Pennington  has  been 
senior  pastor  since  1955. 

There  are  forty-three  United  Methodist  churches  in 
greater  Minneapolis  with  a  total  membership  of  22,293. 
Methodism  claims  a  strong  fifteen  percent  of  the  popula- 
tion of  greater  Minneapolis,  and,  with  the  population  gains 
through  the  years,  has  kept  pace.  Methodism  is  well 
thought  of  in  Minneapolis  by  people  in  all  walks  of  life 
and  from  its  beginning  has  given  strength  and  power  to 
the  religious  life  of  the  city. 

Walker  Methodist  Residence  and  Nursing  Home,  Inc., 
began  in  1945,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Minnesota 
Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church.  What  is  now 
known  as  the  "A  Building,"  a  three-story  brick  building 
conveniently  located  in  South  Minneapolis,  had  formerly 
served  as  a  maternity  home  and  hospital.  From  the  be- 
ginning of  this  Home,  it  was  decided  that  never  would  a 
lack  of  finances  be  a  deterrent  in  the  admission  of  any 
worthy  Methodist.  Consequently  the  financial  structure 
was  established  on  a  monthly  payment  basis,  with  a  mem- 
bership fee  of  $300.  Residents  were  encouraged  to  furnish 
their  own  rooms,  in  order  that  this  might  be  a  building  of 
many  homes.  There  were  only  a  few  double  rooms,  in- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


dicating  that  privacy  was  an  attribute  recognized  and 
appreciated  by  the  official  family. 

The  Administrator,  who  had  a  medical  casework  back- 
ground before  going  into  administration,  recognized  the 
need  for  a  Social  Service  Department  and  an  occupational 
therapy  progiam,  and  as  a  consequence  these  two  ancillary 
services  were  immediately  available  to  residents. 

li:  was  originally  requested  that  the  applicant  be  a 
member  of  a  Methodist  church  for  the  past  five  years, 
and  because  the  rate  was  set  at  $50  a  month,  the  recip- 
ients of  Old  Age  Assistance  were  able  to  enjoy  the  same 
benefits  and  privileges  as  those  of  greater  financial  re- 
sources. The  Elim  Home,  the  property  of  the  Norwegian- 
Swedish-Danish  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
was  closed,  and  its  occupants  became  the  first  residents  of 
the  Walker  Methodist  Residence.  A  waiting  list  developed 
immediately.  Consequently  in  1951  the  "B  Building," 
adding  one  hundred  beds,  each  with  an  individual  half 
bath,  was  erected.  At  this  time  a  recreational  director 
was  added  to  the  staff,  and  a  dietitian. 

In  1957  the  "C  Building,"  containing  nineteen  apart- 
ments for  gracious  Uving  (but  not  light  housekeeping), 
in  addition  to  sixty  private  rooms,  was  built  and  occupied. 

The  need  for  a  Health  Center  facility  was  recognized, 
and  so  in  1964  ground  was  broken  for  the  present  Health 
Care  Center,  which  was  occupied  for  the  first  time  as  of 
May  25,  1966.  Here  again  privacy  was  recognized  as  a 
form  of  therapy,  and  there  are  double  rooms  provided  for 
couples,  where  the  hale  spouse  may  occupy  the  room  with 
the  one  who  is  ill,  or  if  both  are  ill,  they  may  receive  care 
together.  Three  of  the  five  floors  are  carpeted,  and  there  is 
air  conditioning  on  these  floors  also. 

A  basic  premise  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  has  been  that 
those  who  have  attained  maturer  years  need  and  deserve 
recognition,  understanding  and  the  opportunity  for  cre- 
ative living.  The  Residence  has  participated  actively  in 
community  programs  in  the  geriatric  field,  and  has  served 
as  a  center  for  activities  for  older  people. 

E.  F.  Baumhofer,  Trails  in  Minnesota.  1966. 
Hennepin    Avenue    Methodist    Episcopal    Church,    Dedicatory 
Exercises  and  Historic  Statement.  1916.    Obval  Clay  Dittes 
Mrs.  Campbell  Keith 

MINNESOTA,  the  twelfth  largest  state  in  the  Union,  is 
located  in  the  north  central  section  of  the  United  States. 
It  is  bounded  by  Canada  on  the  north,  Lake  Superior  and 
Wisconsin  on  the  east,  Iowa  on  the  south,  and  South 
and  North  Dakota  on  the  west.  It  was  admitted  to  the 
Union  in  1858,  and  in  1970  its  population  was  over  3,760,- 
000.  Its  area  is  84,000  square  miles.  There  are  more  than 
10,000  lakes  and  thirty-four  major  parks  in  the  state.  Its 
sandy  soil  is  very  fertile.  While  primarily  an  agricultural 
state,  Minnesota  leads  the  nation  in  the  production  of  iron 
ore.  It  also  has  considerable  deposits  of  marble,  lime- 
stone, granite,  jasper,  sandstone,  mica,  feldspar,  travertine 
and  clay.  Among  its  most  important  industries  are  live- 
stock, meat  packing,  grain,  flour,  machinery,  printing  and 
publishing. 

Minnesota  was  originally  occupied  by  the  Ojibway 
and  Chippewa  Indian  tribes  in  the  north  and  by  the  Da- 
kota or  Sioux  tribes  in  the  south.  The  first  whites  to  enter 
the  region  were  Frenchmen,  P.  E.  Radisson  and  M.  Chou- 
art,  who  may  have  visited  the  territory  as  early  as  1655. 
In  1679  Father  Louis  Hennepin  accompanied  the  explorer 
Dulhut   (Duluth)   into  the  area  and  later  wrote  the  first 


published  book  describing  the  state.  In  1762  the  land 
was  ceded  by  France  to  Spain  in  a  secret  treaty,  but 
English  leaders  explored  the  eastern  section  where  they 
established  trading  posts.  The  British  ceded  the  territory 
to  the  United  States  after  the  Revolutionary  War,  al- 
though the  English  flag  flew  from  the  trading  posts  until 
after  the  War  of  1812.  In  1803  the  United  States  pur- 
chased the  western  section  of  the  country  from  France 
which  had  regained  the  territory  from  Spain. 

The  first  Methodist  mission  in  Minnesota  was  opened 
in  May,  1837  at  the  Sioux  village  of  Kaposia  (now  South 
St.  Paul)  by  Alfred  Brunson  of  the  Illinois  Confer- 
ence. Here  the  first  Methodist  society  in  Minnesota 
was  organized  in  1837  with  thirty-four  members.  One  of 
the  converts,  Jacob  Folstrom,  a  Swedish  fur  trader  whose 
wife  was  an  Indian,  was  said  to  be  worth  the  whole  cost  of 
the  mission.  Folstrom  became  a  local  preacher  and  proved 
to  be  an  invaluable  guide  and  interpreter  for  the  mis- 
sionaries. In  1838  a  mission  was  begun  among  the  Chip- 
pewa Indians  at  Elk  River  on  the  Upper  Mississippi  by 
G.  W.  Brown,  and  in  1839  and  1840  missions  were  opened 
at  Sandy  Lake  and  Fond  du  Lac  by  Samuel  Spates  and 
John  Johnson.  In  1853  missions  were  started  at  Millie 
Lac  and  other  places.  Though  these  missions  were  pro- 
ductive of  much  good  among  the  Indians,  all  were  even- 
tually abandoned. 

The  first  Methodist  work  among  the  whites  in  Minne- 
sota began  in  1844  when  the  Rock  River  Conference 
appointed  Joseph  Hurlburt  to  the  St.  Croix  Mission  which 
included  all  the  settlements  of  the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries  above  the  head  of  Lake  Pepin.  Hurlburt 
preached  at  Fort  SneUing,  Red  Rock,  Stillwater,  Marine, 
Osceola,  and  St.  Croix  Falls.  In  1846  Hurlburt  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Jonathan  W.  Putnam  who  added  Point 
Douglas  and  St.  Anthony  Falls  to  the  circuit.  Three  years 
later  Minnesota  became  a  district  in  the  Wisconsin  Con- 
ference, and  in  June,  1849  Chauncey  Hobart,  called 
the  "Father  of  Minnesota  Methodism,"  was  appointed  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  Minnesota  District  and  pastor  at  St. 
Paul.  Methodist  churches  were  organized  in  1849  at 
both  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis,  and  in  that  year  Hobart 
built  the  brick  Market  Street  Church  in  St.  Paul,  the  first 
Methodist  church  building  in  the  territory  of  Minnesota. 

In  1852,  a  treaty  with  the  Indians  opened  the  rich 
country  between  the  Mississippi  and  Minnesota  Rivers  for 
settlement,  and  thereafter  the  Minnesota  District  expanded 
rapidly.  In  1855  the  Minnesota  District  of  the  Wisconsin 
Conference  was  set  off  as  the  Minnesota  Conference. 
In  1856  the  Jackson  Street  Methodist  Church  was  erected 
in  St.  Paul.  Now  used  only  for  business,  it  is  the  oldest 
standing  Methodist  church  building  in  Minnesota.  The 
church  at  Montecello,  built  in  1857,  is  the  oldest  Meth- 
odist church  edifice  in  continuous  use  in  the  state. 

In  1894  the  Minnesota  Conference  was  divided  to  form 
the  Northern  Minnesota  Conference,  the  latter  com- 
prising about  two-thirds  of  the  state.  The  two  bodies  con- 
tinued separately  until  1948  when,  after  prolonged  study 
by  a  merger  commission,  they  united  to  form  again  the 
statewide  Minnesota  Confererence. 

In  1859  the  Minnesota  Conference  formed  a  Scandi- 
navian Mission  District,  but  as  time  passed  all  foreign 
language  work  was  assigned  to  foreign  language  annual 
conferences.  In  1877  the  Swedish  churches  became  a  part 
of  the  Northwest  Swedish  Conference  which  covered 
Illinois,   Iowa,  and  some  other  states.  This  conference 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MINNESOTA   CONFERENCE 


later  divided  to  form  several  Swedish  conferences,  one  of 
which,  the  Northern  Swedish  Conference,  was  fairly 
strong  in  Minnesota.  The  Northwest  Norwegian  Confer- 
ence, covering  Minnesota,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  other 
states,  was  formed  in  1880.  Five  years  later  it  became  the 
Norwegian  and  Danish  Conference  which  continued 
until  1943.  The  Northern  German  Conference,  includ- 
ing work  in  Minnesota  and  North  Dakota,  was  formed  in 
1886,  which  continued  until  1924. 

The  M.P.  Church  organized  a  Minnesota  Conference  in 
1858  with  five  ministers  and  four  laymen.  It  was  never 
strong;  in  1877  the  denomination  had  only  300  members 
in  the  state.  The  work  dissolved  after  1908.  The  Minne- 
sota Conference  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
was  organized  in  1859.  As  time  passed  the  conference  was 
unwilling  to  abide  by  the  denomination's  stand  on  secret 
societies.  About  1903  the  conference  dissolved,  and  the 
congregations  which  remained  loyal  to  the  denomination 
were  attached  to  the  Iowa  Conference.  The  Free 
Methodists  operate  in  the  state  through  their  Northern 
Iowa-Minnesota  Conference.  In  1970  the  conference  had 
ten  churches  in  Minnesota. 

The  United  Methodists  in  Minnesota  support  one  Meth- 
odist related  college,  Wesley  Foundations,  several  hos- 
pitals, homes  for  the  aged,  and  other  institutions.  United 
Methodism  is  the  largest  Protestant  denomination  in  the 
state.  In  1970  the  Minnesota  Conference  reported  eight 
districts,  505  ministers,  319  pastoral  charges,  139,224 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $79,469,636. 

E.  F.  Baumhofer,  Trails  in  Minnesota.  1966. 

T.  C.  Blegen,  Building  Minnesota.  1938. 

C.  Hobart,  Minnesota.   1887.  Earl  F.  Baumhofer 

MINNESOTA  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  organized  August 
7,  1856  in  Hamline  University  Chapel,  Red  Wing, 
Minn.,  with  Bishop  Matthew  Simpson  presiding.  At  the 
outset  the  conference  had  four  districts,  St.  Paul,  Min- 
nesota, Red  Wing,  and  Winona.  There  were  forty-seven 
itinerants,  forty-five  local  preachers,  fifty-three  charges 
(seven  in  Wisconsin),  and  1,761  members. 

Methodism  in  Minnesota  began  with  mission  work 
among  the  Indians  in  1837.  Work  among  the  whites 
started  in  1844  when  the  Rock  River  Conference  ap- 
pointed Joseph  Hurlburt  to  the  St.  Croix  Mission.  Five 
years  later  there  was  a  Minnesota  District  in  the  Wiscon- 
sin Conference. 

In  1850  there  was  Methodist  sentiment  in  favor  of 
establishing  a  school  or  seminary  in  Minnesota,  and  on 
March  3,  1854  Hamline  University  was  chartered  by  the 
legislature.  The  school  opened  with  139  students  at  Red 
Wing,  Goodhue  County,  in  November  1854.  Bishop  L.  L. 
Hamline,  for  whom  the  institution  was  named,  donated 
$25,000.  In  1855  a  brick  building  containing  a  chapel, 
school  room,  library,  reading  rooms,  laboratory,  recreation 
rooms,  and  dormitory  quarters  was  erected. 

By  1859  the  Minnesota  Conference  had  grown  to  seven 
districts.  The  next  year  it  lost  one  district  to  the  West 
Wisconsin  Conference  and  one  to  the  Detroit  Con- 
ference, but  at  the  same  time  it  added  a  Scandinavian 
Mission  District.  As  time  passed  Swedish,  German,  and 
Norwegian-Danish  annual  conferences  were  organized, 
though  none  was  limited  to  the  state  of  Minnesota  alone. 
(See  Minnesota,  and  the  Table  of  Methodist  Annual  Con- 
ferences) . 

In  1877  North  Dakota  was  attached  to  the  Minnesota 


Conference,  an  arrangement  which  continued  until  1884 
when  the  North  Dakota  Conference  was  organized. 
In  1894  the  Minnesota  Conference  was  divided  to  form 
the  Northern  Minnesota  Conference.  Fifty-three  years 
later  the  two  merged  to  form  again  the  state-wide  Minne- 
sota Conference.  At  the  time  of  the  merger  the  Minne- 
sota Conference  had  42,490  members  and  the  Northern 
body  47,481. 

Because  of  the  generosity  of  one  Mrs.  S.  H.  Knight, 
the  Minnesota  Conference  was  able  to  establish  Asbury 
Methodist  Hospital  and  the  Rebecca  M.  Harrison  Dea- 
coness Home  in  Minneapolis  in  1892. 

In  1968  Minnesota  Methodism  was  giving  support  to 
three  hospitals,  Asbury  in  Minneapolis,  Methodist  Hospital 
just  outside  Minneapolis,  and  the  Rochester  Methodist 
Hospital.  It  had  one  Methodist  related  college,  Hamline 
University  in  St.  Paul,  and  it  conducted  Wesley  Founda- 
tions at  the  University  of  Minnesota,  St.  Paul  College, 
St.  Cloud  Teacher's  College,  Duluth  College,  and  at  the 
state  teachers'  colleges  in  Bemidji,  Mankato,  and  Winona. 
The  conference  established  Walker  Home  for  the  aged  in 
Minneapolis,  the  Paul  Watkins  Memorial  Home  in 
Winona,  and  homes  at  Fairmont  and  Montevideo,  along 
with  the  Tourelotte  Memorial  Deaconess  Home  for  re- 
tired nurses.  In  addition,  the  Goodwill  Industries  in 
Duluth,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  and  St.  Cloud,  and  the 
Methodist  Girls  Club  in  St.  Paul  (a  home  for  working 
girls)  receive  support. 

Minnesota  Methodism  has  furnished  a  number  of  lead- 
ers for  the  church,  including  three  bishops,  Charles 
Wesley  Burns,  Richard  C.  Raines,  and  T.  Otto  Nall. 

In  1970  the  Minnesota  Conference  had  eight  districts, 
505  ministers,  319  pastoral  charges,  139,224  members, 
and  property  valued  at  $79,469,636. 

E.  F.  Baumhofer,  Trails  in  Minnesota.  1966. 
C.  Hobart,  Minnesota.  1887. 
Minutes  of  the  Minnesota  Conference. 

Earl  F.  Baumhofer 

MINNESOTA  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  had  its  origin  in  two 
conferences.  The  Minnesota  Conference  of  the  Church 
of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  was  organized  by 
Bishop  Lewis  Davis,  Aug.  5,  1857,  at  Marion,  near  the 
present  city  of  Rochester,  Minn.  One  year  later  a  mem- 
bership of  201  was  reported.  The  first  minister  was  Ed- 
mund Clow,  who  came  to  Winona  County  from  the  Rock 
River  Conference  in  the  fall  of  1854.  Two  years  later 
the  Home,  Frontier  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society  sent 
J.  W.  Fulkerson  from  Virginia,  who  became  presiding 
elder  when  the  Conference  was  organized. 

The  second  original  conference  is  the  Minnesota  Con- 
ference of  The  Evangelical  Association  of  North 
America.  It  was  organized  by  Bishop  J.  J.  Escher  on 
April  24,  1868,  in  Emmanuel's  Church,  Dakota  County, 
near  Farmington,  Minn.,  and  numbered  1,536  members. 
From  1856  to  1860,  the  Minnesota  congregations  had  been 
a  part  of  the  Wisconsin  Conference,  and  from  1861  to 
1868,  of  the  Iowa  Confernce.  The  first  minister  was 
Andrew  Tarnutzer,  who  came  to  Winona  County  in  the 
fall  of  1856  from  the  Wisconsin  Conference.  He  organized 
the  first  congregation  on  March  2,  1857,  in  what  is  now 
Inver  Grove  Heights.  The  second  building  of  this  con- 
gregation (1874)  still  stands  five  miles  south  of  the  State 
Capitol.  It  is  located,  with  the  cemetery,  on  Salem  Church 
Road  and  is  known  locally  as  Salem  Church   Memorial 


MINNIS,   JESSE   F. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Shrine.  Minnesota  ministers  established  congregations  in 
Dakota  Territory  between  1874  and  1884.  The  Dakota 
Conference  was  organized  in  1884  with  about  one  thou- 
sand members.  The  German  language  was  used  for  wor- 
ship ser\'ices  in  most  of  the  congregations  in  the  Dakota 
and  Minnesota  Conferences  until  1914. 

After  a  minority  group  from  the  Evangelical  Association 
formed  The  United  Evangelical  Church  in  1894,  con- 
gregations were  established  in  Minnesota  by  tlie  Des 
Moines  Conference  (UE).  In  1899,  these  were  placed  in 
the  newly  formed  Northwestern  Conference  (UE).  In 
1922,  The  United  Evangelical  Church  and  the  Evangelical 
Association  united  to  form  The  Evangelical  Church. 
At  the  session  of  the  Minnesota  Conference  in  1923,  nine 
fields  and  ten  ministers  from  the  Northwestern  Confer- 
ence became  a  part  of  the  Minnesota  Conference  of  The 
Evangelical  Church.  At  that  time  there  were  7,980  mem- 
bers. 

The  Minnesota  Confernce  of  the  E.U.B.  Church  was 
organized  in  Rochester,  May  2,  1951,  when  the  two 
original  conferences  united.  At  the  time  of  this  union 
there  were  14,485  members.  Of  these  2,235  were  former 
United  Brethren  and  12,250  were  former  Evangelical 
members.  At  the  beginning  of  1969  there  were  in  the 
Conference  15,286  members  in  eighty-three  congregations 
served  by  sixty-two  ordained  and  one  non-ordained  min- 
ister. Most  of  the  churches  are  located  in  the  southern  one- 
half  of  Minnesota  and  about  twenty-two  percent  of  the 
membership  lives  in  the  seven-county  Twin  City  metro- 
politan area  of  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul.  Union 
with  the  former  Methodist  conference  in  Minnesota  was 
effected  in  1969. 

Minutes  of  the  Minnesota  Conference  (UB),  1951. 
Albert   H.   Utzinger,   History  of  the   Minnesota   Conference  of 
The   Evangelical  Association,  1856  to   1922.   Cleveland,   1923. 

Roy  S.  HErrKE 

MINNIS,  JESSE  F.  (1895-  ),  American  M.  P.  Mission- 

ary to  India,  was  born  in  Orange  County,  N.  C,  on  June 
10,  1895.  He  was  educated  at  Elon  College  (B.A.), 
Westminster  Theological  Seminary  (B.D.),  Drew- 
University  (M.A.),  and  had  a  year  of  graduate  study  in 
Cornell  University.  He  married  Meryl  Stokes  of  Mary- 
land shortly  before  going  to  India  in  1922. 

His  first  appointment  was  as  superintendent  and  trea- 
surer of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Mission  at  Dhiilia,  West 
Khandesh  District,  Bombay  Province.  Except  when  on 
furlough,  he  remained  superintendent  of  the  mission  until 
it  was  united  with  the  Bombay  Annual  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Southern  Asia.  He  was  then 
named  superintendent  of  the  Dhulia-Puntamba  District. 

After  unification  his  appointments  included,  besides 
the  one  already  mentioned,  superintendent  of  the  Nagpur 
and  Bombay  districts,  and  supervisor  of  building  construc- 
tion in  the  Bombay  Annual  Conference.  He  wrote  a  book- 
let in  English  entitled  Financing  the  Rural  Church.  In 
1955  Mrs.  Minnis  became  ill,  and  physicians  ordered  the 
return  of  the  family  to  America.  Although  she  recovered, 
it  was  thought  inadvisable  for  them  to  try  again  to  work 
in  the  tropics.  Jesse  Minnis  joined  the  North  Carolina 
Conference  and  sei-ved  various  churches  as  pastor.  He 
retired  from  the  missionary  ranks  in  1961  and  from  the 
Annual  Conference  in  1963. 

Minutes  of  the  Bombay  and  North  Carolina  Conferences, 
1961-63.  J.    Waskom    Pickett 


MINOR  DISTRICT  SYNOD.  The  Wesleyan  Methodist  Con- 
ference of  1793  made  provision  for  a  court  of  appeal  for 
preachers  accused  of  immorality  or  at  odds  with  their 
colleagues.  This  consisted  of  two  preachers  chosen  by 
the  accused  and  two  chosen  by  the  accuser,  presided  over 
by  the  ChaiiTnan  of  the  District,  who  had  a  casting  vote. 
This  "Minor  District  Meeting"  was  empowered  to  act  on 
behalf  of  the  District  Meeting  comprising  all  the  preach- 
ers, either  by  suspending  the  preacher  accused  or  by 
arbitrating  in  the  dispute.  Any  preacher  thus  subject  to 
discipline  had  the  right  of  appeal  to  a  full  District  Meet- 
ing or  to  the  Conference  itself.  In  1894  the  court  was 
increased  to  six  (apart  from  the  chairman)  by  the  addi- 
tion of  two  preachers  nominated  by  the  Chairman  of  the 
District  or  (if  the  Chairman  himself  was  a  party  in  the 
dispute)  by  the  President  of  the  Conference. 

In  1835  the  principle  of  appointing  a  small  group  to 
adjudicate  disputes  between  preachers  was  extended  by 
the  Conference  to  lay  members  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Society  who  felt  that  they  had  been  unjustly  ex- 
pelled. They  also  were  empowered  to  nominate  two 
preachers  to  a  Minor  District  Committee  which  had  "the 
power  of  modifying,  reversing,  or  confirming  the  sen- 
tence." At  the  same  time  and  in  a  similar  manner  the 
Superintendent  Minister  was  also  given  the  right  of  appeal 
against  any  Leaders'  Meeting  which  he  felt  was  obstruct- 
ing his  work.  Because  these  provisions  were  sometimes 
misunderstood,  sometimes  abused,  the  Conference  of  1852 
provided  for  a  second  hearing  of  disciplinary  cases  within 
the  Circuit  itself  by  a  "special  circuit  meeting"  consisting 
of  not  more  than  twelve  lay  members  appointed  by  the 
Quarterly  Meeting,  to  be  presided  over  by  the  Chair- 
man of  the  District. 

The  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference  of  1892  officially 
altered  the  title  of  what  had  been  called  both  District 
Meetings  and  District  Committees  to  "District  Synods," 
and  as  a  consequence  the  Minor  District  Meeting  was 
renamed  a  Minor  District  Synod.  Under  this  designation 
the  court  has  been  continued  with  provisions  almost  un- 
altered into  the  Methodist  Church. 

Frank  Baker 

MINUTES  OF  CONFERENCE,  quite  often  termed  Journals 
in  connection  with  the  reporting  of  the  General  and  An- 
nual Conferences  in  American  Methodism,  have  always 
been  carefully  kept  by  a  Secretary  and  his  assistants  in 
each  Conference  involved. 

John  Wesley  called  the  first  Methodist  Conference 
in  1744  and  John  Bennet — then  a  lay  preacher — kept 
the  Minutes  of  this  gathering.  Willlam  Myles — one  of 
Wesley's  preachers  and  an  intimate  friend  of  the  founder 
of  Methodism — states,  "The  subjects  of  their  deliberations 
were  proposed  in  the  form  of  questions,  which  were 
amply  discussed,  and  with  the  answers,  written  down  and 
afterwards  printed  under  the  title  'Minutes  of  Several 
Conversations  Between  the  Reverend  Mr.  Wesley  and 
Others'  but  now  commonly  called  the  'Minutes  of  the 
Conference'".  (William  Myles,  Chronological  History  of 
the  Methodists,  London,  Third  Edition,  1803,  p.  23, 
quoted  by  Thomas  B.  Neeley,  History  of  the  Origin  and 
Development  of  the  Governing  Conference  in  Methodism, 
Cincinnati:  Cranston  &  Stowe,  New  York:  Hunt  and 
Eaton,  1892). 

John  Bennet's  Minutes  quoting  Mr.  Wesley  in  the  rec- 
ord of  the   1744   Conference  stated,  "It  is  desired  .   .   . 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MIRANDA,   LUDGERO   LUIZ   DE 


that  we  may  meet  with  a  single  eye  and  as  little  children 
who  have  everything  to  learn;  that  every  point  may  be 
examined  from  the  foundation;  that  every  person  may 
speak  freely  whatever  is  in  his  heart;  and  that  every  ques- 
tion proposed  may  be  fully  debated,  and  bolted  to  the 
bran."  This  last  expression  "bolted  to  the  bran"  was  the 
common  one  at  that  day,  and  referred  to  the  sifting  of 
wheat — bolting — until  nothing  but  bran  was  left. 

The  question  and  answer  pattern  of  the  Minutes  of 
1744  and  afterward  was  continued  until  this  became  fixed 
in  the  Large  Minutes,  and  eventually  in  the  Book  of 
Discipline  in  American  Methodism.  The  "minute  ques- 
tions" must  yet  be  called  and  answered  in  quarterly  and 
annual  conferences. 

The  minutes  of  all  Methodist  Conferences — as  in  all 
organized  bodies — are  kept  by  a  Secretary,  and  these 
Minutes  are  usually  read  and  approved  by  the  body  as 
a  whole  if  time  permits.  The  General  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church  usually  has  a  "Committee  on  the  Jour- 
nal" which  it  elects  and  holds  responsible  for  seeing  that 
the  Minutes  have  been  properly  kept  by  the  Secretary,  and 
reporting  that  fact  to  the  General  Conference  itself.  In 
the  case  of  the  Annual  Conference,  there  is  sometimes  a 
similar  Committee  on  Minutes,  though  when  time  allows, 
the  Minutes  of  the  preceding  session  are  publicly  read 
by  the  Secretary,  and  then  approved  by  the  Conference 
with  such  corrections  or  amendments  as  seem  needed, 
with  the  bishop  putting  the  question,  "Are  the  Minutes 
correct?"  If  he  hears  no  objection,  he  declares  them  ap- 
proved as  read. 

TTiis  is  also  the  procedure  in  District  and  Quarterly 
Conferences  though  quite  often  the  District  Superinten- 
dent after  holding  a  Quarterly  Conference,  will  adjourn 
that  body  stating  that  as  the  Secretary  has  not  had  time 
to  prepare  the  Minutes  of  the  particular  session,  these  will 
be  subject  to  approval  by  a  subsequent  conference  or  by 
a  Committee.  Occasionally  the  Conference  simply  agrees 
to  trust  the  secretary  for  completing  an  accurate  account. 

In  American  Methodism  it  has  been  the  custom  for 
many  years  to  publish  the  proceedings  of  the  General 
Conference  under  the  title  of  The  Journal  of  such  and 
such  Conference.  With  the  Annual  Conferences  the  same 
nomenclature  in  a  great  many  instances  is  followed  and 
thus  the  Minutes  become  the  Journal  of  the  Kentucky 
Conference,  or  Journal  of  the  New  York  Conference, 
etc.,  of  such  and  such  a  date. 

The  Journal  of  the  usual  Armual  Conference  carries 
beside  the  minutes,  the  conference  roll  or  directory;  the 
memoirs  of  the  deceased  preachers,  and  sometimes  wives 
of  preachers;  tables  of  statistics  and  reports  of  various 
kinds,  together  with  resolutions  and  reports  adopted;  and 
sometimes  of  speeches  or  addresses  which  the  Conference 
orders  to  be  printed  in  its  Minutes  or  its  Journal.  A  file 
of  the  Minutes  or  Journals  of  any  Annual  Conference  will 
provide  much  material  for  the  history  of  that  Conference, 
as  the  successive  Journals  of  the  General  Conference  also 
provide  a  history  of  the  undertaking  and  work  of  the 
general  Church. 

It  may  be  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  General 
Conference  and  the  Jurisdictional  Conferences  that  a  Daily 
Christian  Advocate  is  published  at  such  quadrennial  ses- 
sions, and  the  exact  record  of  everything  said  on  the  floor 
of  the  Conference,  as  well  as  all  actions  taken  is  min- 
utely transcribed  for  each  daily  issue.  (For  Minutes  in 
the  British  Methodist  Church,  see  Confebence,  Minutes 


OF;  see  also  Large  Minutes  for  the  general  pattern  of 
Methodist  Conference  procedures. ) 

Journals  of  successive  Annual  and  General  Conferences. 

N.  B.  H. 


MIRANDA,  BERNARDO  DE  (1863-1891),  pioneer  Bra- 
zilian preacher,  was  bom  in  Paranagua,  Province  of  Parana, 
Brazil.  Reared  a  Catholic,  he  was  converted  under  the 
preaching  of  J.  W.  Tarboux.  Miranda  bought  his  first 
Bible  in  1883,  and  became  one  of  four  founding  members 
of  the  Methodist  church  in  Sao  Paulo,  when  it  was 
organized  by  J.  W.  Koger.  Almost  immediately  he  began 
preaching  on  the  Sao  Paulo  Circuit.  In  1886,  he  received 
an  appointment  from  Bishop  Granbery  when  the  bishop 
organized  Brazil's  first  annual  conference.  Miranda  was 
admitted  as  a  local  preacher  on  July  14,  1887,  and  in 
December  1889,  he  helped  E.  A.  Tilly  organize  the  Meth- 
odist church  in  Taubate,  state  of  Sao  Paulo.  Miranda  was 
ordained  deacon  in  August  1890,  when  the  first  such 
ordination  took  place  in  Brazil. 

By  the  end  of  that  year,  however,  severe  illness  forced 
his  retirement,  and  he  died  of  yellow  fever  on  Feb.  13, 
1891 — the  first  Brazilian  preacher  to  die  in  the  service. 

J.  L.  Kennedy,  Metodismo  no  Brasil.  1928.       Isnard  Rocha 

MIRANDA,  LUDGERO  LUIZ  De  (1864-1892),  Brazihan 
Methodist  preacher,  was  born  in  what  was  then  the 
province  of  Sao  Paulo.  At  the  age  of  thirteen,  he  left 
home  to  work  in  Santos,  and  there  he  lived  for  three 
years.  In  a  short  autobiographical  sketch  written  in  1892, 
he  told  of  hearing  the  Gospel  for  the  first  time  in  August 
1884,  on  the  invitation  of  his  older  brother,  Bernardo 
de  Miranda.  He  was  converted  after  hearing  John  W. 
Tarboux 's  sermon  on  "The  Strait  and  Wide  Roads,"  and 
was  so  moved  that  he  at  once  resolved  to  become  a 
preacher  as  was  his  brother,  Bernardo.  He  went  to  Rio 
de  Janeiro  where  he  studied  some  months  under  J.  J. 
Ransom.  In  August  1886,  Ransom  sent  him  to  Juiz  de 
FoRA,  state  of  Minas  Gerais,  to  sell  Bibles  and  other 
books  in  anticipation  of  opening  Methodist  work  there. 

Ludgero  worked  in  two  or  three  small  stations  in  the 
state  of  Minas  Gerais,  one  being  Rio  Novo.  There  in 
August  1886,  as  he  preached  and  sold  Bibles  with  Felipe 
de  Carvalho,  another  young  preacher  as  companion,  both 
were  arrested,  marched  through  the  streets  like  common 
criminals,  and  ordered  to  leave  town  within  forty-eight 
hours.  But  James  L.  Kennedy,  coming  through  at  this 
time  with  Bishop  J.  O.  Granbery,  went  to  the  police 
authorities,  claimed  their  right  to  speak,  and  had  them 
freed  with  permission  to  continue  the  services.  In  1891, 
Miranda  was  ordained  deacon,  and  this,  he  wrote,  "was 
the  most  glorious  day  in  my  life." 

Tragedy,  however,  cut  short  his  career  in  the  ministry 
early  in  1892.  His  wife,  Herminia,  died  of  yellow  fever 
on  January  2;  his  little  girl  on  January  5;  and  Ludgero 
himself  died  on  January  17.  Thus,  within  a  period  of  two 
weeks,  a  whole  family  was  wiped  out  by  this  dread 
disease. 

Though  only  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  Ludgero  had 
won  many  to  Christ,  and  he  died  victoriously. 

J.  L.  Kennedy,  Metodismo  no  Brasil.  1928.      Isnard  Rocha 

1631 


MISSION    BOATS 

MISSION  BOATS,  or  Canadian  West  Coast  marine  mis- 
sions, began  in  the  year  1874  when  Thomas  Crosby  was 
sent  to  Port  Simpson  on  the  northwest  coast.  From  this 
center  he  traveled  some  three  thousand  miles  yearly  in 
dugout  canoes,  sailboats,  and  steamers,  bringing  the  Gos- 
pel to  isolated  Indian  villages. 

In  1883,  Crosby  went  East  and  managed  to  raise 
$7,000.  With  this  money  the  "Glad  Tidings"  was  built  in 
New  Westminster  by  a  recently  converted  shipwright  and 
seaman  called  William  Oliver.  A  wooden  vessel  of  forty 
tons,  she  was  seventy-one  feet  over-all  with  a  fourteen- 
foot  beam  and  a  depth  in  the  hold  of  eight  feet.  She  was 
fitted  in  Victoria  with  a  323  nominal  horsepower  steam 
engine.  When  the  "Glad  Tidings"  arrived  in  Port  Simpson 
in  the  winter  of  1884  on  her  maiden  voyage,  the  natives 
welcomed  her  by  firing  cannons,  raising  flags  at  every 
pole,  and  calling  out  the  brass  band.  Reputed  to  run  on 
"porridge  and  prayers,"  she  was  known  to  the  natives  as 
the  "Come-to-Jesus  Boat"  because  of  Crosby's  habit  of 
standing  on  the  bow  and  singing  the  hymn  with  these 
words  as  they  approached  a  village.  In  19  years  of  service 
the  "Glad  Tidings"  logged  78,041  miles.  She  carried  mis- 
sionaries, teachers,  and  medical  aid  to  countless  outposts, 
and  assisted  in  the  building  of  more  than  thirty  churches, 
schools,  and  mission  houses.  She  carried  mail  and  materials 
for  lighthouses,  remote  villages,  and  logging  camps;  but 
her  prime  cargo  was  the  Gospel  powerfully  preached  by 
Crosby,  assisted  by  Captain  William  Oliver.  The  "Glad 
Tidings"  was  blown  ashore  and  wrecked  in  1903.  She  had 
never  been  insured. 

The  "Udal,"  a  fifteen-ton,  forty-five-foot,  diesel-powered 
boat  was  built  by  Captain  Oliver  at  his  own  expense  and 
presented  to  the  church  in  1908.  Trimmed  with  fancy 
brass  fittings  from  Scotland,  the  "Udal"  (Haida  for  "The 
Dearest  Thing  I  Possess")  struck  the  shore  in  northern 
waters  and  sank  before  she  had  sailed  a  year. 

Following  the  loss  of  the  "Udal,"  a  forty-five-foot, 
gasoline-engined  boat  called  the  "Homespun"  was  pur- 
chased. Skippered  by  Captain  Oliver,  she  carried  on  tlie 
work  for  about  three  years. 

In  1912,  the  "Homespun"  was  sold  and  an  83-foot, 
166-ton  steamship  was  built  and  named  the  "Thomas 
Crosby."  During  the  First  World  War  she  was  com- 
mandeered by  the  government  to  do  patrol  work.  Then, 
following  the  war,  even  though  she  earned  $1,000  a  year 
by  dropping  off  mail  at  the  lighthouses,  she  was  found 
to  be  too  costly.  She  was  sold  in  1919  and  replaced  by 
three  smaller  boats:  the  "Iwyll,"  which  was  run  out  of 
Cape  Mudge  by  Captain  Robert  Scott;  the  "William 
Oliver,"  which  worked  out  of  Alert  Bay,  but  which  later 
was  moved  to  the  Queen  Charlotte  Islands;  and  the 
"Thomas  Crosby  II,"  which  was  blown  ashore  and 
wrecked  at  Sandspit  on  December  5,  1920.  The  "Iwyll" 
was  replaced  by  the  "Edward  White,"  which  eventually 
became  a  medical  launch  used  by  G.  E.  Dabby  at  Bella 
Bella.  In  1923,  the  "Thomas  Crosby  III"  was  built  by 
Captain  Oliver,  backed  by  the  home  mission  board. 
Powered  with  the  old  Miller  engine  from  the  wrecked 
"Crosby  II,"  this  boat  carried  on  the  work  around  the 
Queen  Charlotte  Islands  and  the  Northern  mainland  coast 
for  nearly  fifteen  years.  By  this  time  the  Methodist  Church 
had  been  incorporated  into  The  United  Church  of  Canada, 
which,  in  1966,  still  operated  a  fleet  of  boats  as  well  as 
one  seaplane. 

T.  Crosby,  Up  and  Down  the  North  Pacific  Coast.  Toronto; 
Methodist  Publishing  House,  1914. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

R.    C.    Scott,    My    Captain    Oliver.    Toronto:    United    Church 
Publishing  House,  1947. 

Mrs.   F.   C.   Stephenson,   Canadian   Methodist  Missions.   1924. 

Hugh  W.  McKervill 


MISSIONARY  BANDS  OF  THE  WORLD  was  formed  in 
1885  by  Vivian  A.  Dake,  a  minister  of  the  Free  Meth- 
odist Church,  as  a  society  for  missionary  recruitment  and 
fellowship  among  the  youth  of  his  charge.  It  was  originally 
called  the  Pentecost  Band.  Other  similar  groups  were 
formed,  and  after  a  short  time  they  declared  independence 
as  the  Pentecostal  Bands  of  the  World.  The  name  Mis- 
sionary Bands  of  the  World  was  adopted  in  1925.  In 
1958  they  merged  with  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church. 


Clark:  Small  Sects  in  America. 


J.  Gordon  Melton 


MISSIONARY  BISHOPS.  A  Missionary  Bishop  was  a  bish- 
op in  the  M.  E.  Church  elected  for  a  specified  foreign 
field  with  full  episcopal  powers  there,  but  with  his  episco- 
pal jurisdiction  limited  to  the  foreign  mission  field  for 
which  he  was  elected.  {Discipline,  1888,  Paragraph  166.) 

This  grade  of  bishop,  with  supervision  limited  to  a 
special  field,  was  somewhat  the  outgrowth  of  the  conten- 
tion regarding  the  episcopacy  which  was  maintained  by 
the  (Northern)  majority  of  the  General  Conference 
of  1844,  which  decided  that  the  office  of  bishop  was 
completely  under  the  control  of  the  General  Conference. 
(See  Plan  of  Separation.)  The  action  in  1844  (against 
which  the  Southern  delegates  contended  strongly)  in  ef- 
fect said  that  the  Methodist  bishop  had  no  constitutional 
status  but  only  a  statutory  one,  whose  powers  could  be 
fully  detemiined  by  the  majority  vote  of  a  General  Con- 
ference. 

It  seemed  good,  therefore,  to  the  M.  E.  Church,  as 
mission  fields  grew  and  there  was  need  of  episcopal 
supervision  there,  to  put  a  bishop  in  each  one  of  these 
lands,  but  to  avoid  giving  him  general  superintendency. 
"A  Missionary  Bishop  is  not,  in  the  meaning  of  the 
Discipline,  a  General  Superintendent."  (Paragraph  167, 
Discipline,  1888.)  The  legislation  creating  this  office,  how- 
ever, held  Missionary  Bishops  not  to  be  subordinate  to 
the  true  General  Superintendents,  but  co-ordinate  with 
them  in  authority  in  the  special  field  for  which  they  were 
elected,  and  each  one  was  amenable  for  his  conduct  to  the 
General  Conference,  just  as  were  the  General  Superinten- 
dents. It  was  further  provided  by  the  1888  General  Con- 
ference that  the  election  of  one  to  be  a  Missionary  Bishop 
carried  with  it  the  assignment  to  the  specified  foreign 
mission  field;  and  that  such  a  bishop  could  not  thereafter 
become  a  General  Superintendent  except  by  a  distinct 
election  to  that  ofiice. 

Missionary  Bishops  of  this  distinct  type  were  continued 
in  the  M.  E.  Church  up  until  the  time  of  Church  union 
in  1939.  The  Constitution  of  that  year  made  no  provision 
for  the  election  of  this  distinct  type  of  bishop.  When  such 
supervision  for  the  overseas  missions  fields  was  found  to 
be  needed  (as  was  the  case  after  Church  union  with 
Southern  Europe  and  a  large  part  of  the  African  work), 
the  General  Conference  requested  specific  Jurisdictions 
to  elect  bishops  whom  it  was  understood  would  be  full 
General  Superintendents,  and  assign  them  to  these  regions. 
Pursuant  to  this,  Bishop  Paul  N.  Career  was  elected  a 
General  Superintendent  by  the  Southeastern  Jurisdiction 
and  assigned  to  the  Geneva  Area  in  1948;  Bishop  Newell 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Booth  was  elected  a  bishop  by  the  Northeastern  Jurisdic- 
tion for  the  Congo  and  assigned  to  that  Area.  Both  these 
men  subsequently  were  brought  back  to  the  United  States 
and  placed  in  charge  of  Episcopal  Areas  in  their  respective 
Jurisdictions. 

The  Constitution  of  The  United  Methodist  Church 
made  no  provision  for  electing  this  distinct  t\'pe  of  bishop, 
though  statutory  legislation  in  the  Disciplines  of  The 
Metliodist  Church,  and  now  in  The  United  Methodist 
Church,  defines  the  office  and  powers  thereof.  However, 
upon  the  death  of  Bishop  Gowdy  and  the  other  missionaiy 
bishops  who  were  such  at  the  time  of  union  in  1939,  the 
office  had  seemingly  disappeared  from  life  in  The  Meth- 
odist and  The  United  Methodist  Church.  (See  also 
Episcopacy.  ) 

Disciplines. 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Organization.  1962. 

D.   Sherman,  Revisions  of  the  Discipline.    1890,        N.  B.  H. 

MISSIONARY  METHODIST  CHURCH,  THE,  was  formed  in 
1913  by  members  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Chuhch 
who  withdrew  in  a  dispute  over  a  number  of  mles  and 
regulations.  The  organization  of  the  church,  originally 
called  the  Holiness  Methodist  Church,  was  at  Forest  City, 
N.  C,  on  July  28.  Henry  Clay  Sisk,  Thomas  A.  Sisk, 
James  C.  Stafford,  and  J.  B.  Sisk  led  in  the  church's 
formation,  along  with  Miss  Lillie  Hardin,  the  first  secre- 
tary. The  doctrine  of  the  church  is  Wesleyan,  with  a 
strong  doctrine  of  Sanctification  and  Eschatology. 
Three  sacraments  are  observed,  baptism,  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and  foot  washing.  The  church's  go\ernment  is 
connectional,  with  property  held  jointly  by  the  local 
church  and  the  annual  conference.  The  pastor  is  called 
by  the  local  congregation.  Ministerial  education  is  by  a 
course  of  study,  an  annual  Bible  Institute,  and  a  cor- 
respondence course  given  by  Union  Bible  Seminary,  West- 
ville,  Ind. 

In  1970  the  sect  reported  twelve  churches,  being  served 
by  thirty-two  ministers,  with  1,200  members.  Mission 
work  is  earned  on  through  the  Oriental  Missionary 
Society. 

Discipline  of  the  Missionary  Metliodist  Church  of  America. 
1969.  J.  Gordon  Melton 

MISSIONARY  RECORD,  THE  (1885-1939),  was  the 
monthly  denominational  periodical  sponsored  first  as  The 
Woman's  Missionary  Record  by  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  of  the  M.P.  Church  and  after  1928 
by  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the  M.P.  Church.  It  was 
published  in  Baltimore,  Md.  Its  purpose  was  to  create 
a  missionary'  spirit  by  infoiTning  readers  of  the  mission 
work  of  the  denomination  and  its  needs.  It  contained 
news  of  both  home  and  foreign  missions,  colleges,  leader- 
ship training  schools  and  the  various  benevolent  interests 
of  the  M.P.  Church.  It  offered  constructive  program  ma- 
terials for  the  use  of  individual  church  auxiliaries,  and 
during  1938-1940  gave  infoiTnation  containing  the  mis- 
sionary implications  of  the  Methodist  union.  The  Mission- 
ary Record  was  an  outgrowth  of  The  Methodist  Mission- 
ary, published  by  T.  H.  Colholier,  who,  because  of  pas- 
toral duties,  was  forced  to  discontinue  the  publication.  It 
was  then  taken  up  by  C.  H.  Williams,  Corresponding 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  who  called  the  paper 


MISSIONS,    HOME 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Missionary.  At  the  meeting  of 
the  Executive  Board  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  in  1885  the  Board  of  Missions  offered  the  publica- 
tion to  the  society  to  be  used  as  its  official  organ.  The 
paper  was  adopted  and  its  name  changed  to  The  Woman's 
Missionary  Record.  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Miller,  the  first  editor, 
served  in  that  position  for  ten  years.  The  motto,  "I  can 
do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strengtheneth  me," 
was  adopted.  In  later  years  the  motto,  "Not  by  might  nor 
by  power,  but  by  My  Spirit  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,"  was 
used.  The  first  issue  of  The  Woman's  Missionary  Record 
appeared  in  July  1885.  Mrs.  F.  C.  Huling,  who  was  edi- 
tor from  1898-1903,  introduced  the  magazine  form  of  the 
periodical  that  was  used  thereafter.  Mrs.  J.  F.  McCulloch 
was  editor  for  some  twenty  years  beginning  in  1903  and 
her  husband  published  the  magazine  for  ten  years.  When 
the  periodical  became  the  official  organ  of  the  Board  of 
Missions  of  the  M.P.  Church  following  the  General 
Confere.nce  of  1928,  the  "Woman's"  was  dropped  from 
the  name.  Mrs.  Marie  W.  Thompson,  who  seized  as  editor 
of  The  Missionary  Record  for  five  years,  was  followed  by 
Miss  Bettie  S.  Brittingham,  formerly  Dean  of  Women 
at  Westminster  College,  Tehuacaua,  Texas,  who  served  as 
editor  from  1933  until  the  merger  of  The  Missionary  Rec- 
ord into  a  new  magazine.  The  Methodist  Woman,  in  Sep- 
tember 1940. 

Mrs.  E.  C.  Chandler,  History  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society,  1879-1919.  Pittsburgh,  1920. 
J.  Elwood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro,  1939. 
Scattered  issues  of  The  Missionary  Record  and  The  Woman's 
Missionary     Record.  Ralph    Hardee    Rives 

MISSIONARY  RULE  is  the  disciplinary  proviso  commonly 
referred  to  by  this  name  which  allows  persons  to  be  or- 
dained {Discipline,  TMC,  1964,  Paragraph  403.3)  as  a 
special  privilege  for  those  going  to  the  mission  field.  This 
obviates  the  necessity  of  sei"ving  as  deacons  imder  ap- 
pointment for  the  length  of  time  the  normal  minister  must 
before  ordination  in  the  homeland.  The  Board  of  Missions, 
however,  has  its  own  specifications  for  approving  carefully 
such  persons,  and  the  bishop  who  ordains  them  is  only 
empowered  to  conduct  such  ordination  when  it  is  certi- 
fied that  such  persons  will  be  under  appointment  immedi- 
ately for  foreign  work  by  the  Board.  Regulations  regarding 
this  matter  have  been  changed  in  minor  particulars 
through  subsequent  Disciplines  within  recent  years,  but 
the  missionary  rule  is  still  in  use. 

Discipline  of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  1968,  in  loc; 
see  Elders.  N.  B.  H. 

MISSIONARY  SOCIETIES,  Am.  (See  Women's  Society 
of  Christian  Service;  Woman's  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety; and  W'oman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society.) 

MISSIONS,  CENTRAL,  Br.  (See  Forw.^rd  Movement, 
Br.) 

MISSIONS,  DEPARTMENT  OF  OVERSEAS.  (See  Meth- 
odist Missionary  Society.) 


MISSIONS,  HOME,  Br.  (See  Home  xMissions,  Br.) 


1633 


MISSIONS   AND   BOARD   OF   MISSIONS   OF   THE    E.U  B.    CHURCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


MISSIONS  AND  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS  OF  THE  E.U.B. 
CHURCH.  History  of  Evangelical  Missions.  The  Eastern 
Conference  of  the  Evangelical  Assocl^tion  organized 
the  first  missionary  society  at  its  session  in  1838.  In  order 
to  broaden  the  scope  a  subsequent  meeting  was  held 
.March  1,  1839  near  New  Berhn,  Pa.  and  the  General 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Evangelical  Association  was 
formed  and  constitution  adopted.  The  General  Conference 
that  year  sanctioned  the  society  and  introduced  a  section 
into  the  Discipline  on  "support  of  missions."  The  first 
missionaries  assigned  under  the  Society  were  sent  out  in 
1839  to  the  Mohawk  Valley  in  New  York,  to  Ontario 
(Canada),  and  New  York  City. 

A  Board  of  Missions  was  created  by  the  General 
Conference  in  1859,  whereby  mission  work  assumed  by 
the  Society  was  managed  by  the  Board.  A  full-time  Mis- 
sionary Secretary  was  elected.  Earlier,  in  1850,  the  annual 
conferences  had  cooperated  in  establishing  a  Germany 
Mission,  although  the  Eastern  Conference  gave  more 
direct  support.  A  Japanese  mission  was  opened  in  1875, 
followed  in  1904  with  one  in  China. 

With  the  formation  of  The  United  Evangelical 
Church  in  1894  a  Missionary  Society  was  established, 
but  the  Church  did  not  elect  a  full-time  secretary  until  the 
General  Conference  of  1906.  A  mission  field  was  formed 
at  Changsha,  China  with  the  arrival  in  that  city  of  the  first 
missionary  couple,  Nov.  27,  1901. 

When  the  Evangelical  Association  and  The  United 
Evangelical  Church  united  in  1922,  the  Missionary  Soci- 
ety of  The  Evangelical  Church  became  the  legal  suc- 
cessor. It  later  added  work  in  Nigeria  to  the  foreign 
fields  already  established. 

United  Brethren  in  Christ.  In  1841  General  Conference 
established  the  "Parent  Missionary  Society  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ"  to  extend  the  Gospel  both  on  the 
frontier  and  in  foreign  lands.  In  1845  a  Board  of  Missions 
was  formed  to  supei-vise  the  work  of  the  Society.  Then  in 
1853  the  General  Conference  organized  the  Home,  Fron- 
tier, and  Foreign  Missionary  Society.  Two  missions  were 
located  (Southern  Missouri  and  Canada)  and  arrange- 
ments made  to  send  missionaries  to  Africa  in  that  same 
year.  Generally,  however,  home  mission  work  was  left  to 
the  management  of  the  self-supporting  annual  conferences. 
In  1905  Home  Missions  were  made  independent  and  a 
Home  Missionary  Society  was  formed.  In  1921  the  Home 
Mission  Board  and  the  Church  Erection  Board  were 
brought  together. 

Starting  with  work  in  Sierra  Leone,  West  Africa  in 
1853,  fields  were  opened  in  China  (1889),  Japan  (1895), 
Puerto  Rico  (1899),  and  the  Philippine  Islands 
(1901).  The  work  begun  in  Geimany  in  1869  was  turned 
over  to  the  M.E.  Church  in  1905.  Cooperative  work  was 
also  initiated  in  the  Dominican  Republic. 

Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church.  In  1946  the  Board 
of  Missions  was  established,  successor  to  the  several  mis- 
sionai"y  and  church  extension  societies  which  operated  in 
the  two  churches.  Then  the  Board  of  Missions  was  re- 
organized in  1966  with  the  following  Divisions:  World 
Missions;  National  Missions;  Women's  Service;  Missions 
Resources.  A  General  Secretary  was  elected  for  the  entire 
Board  with  executive  secretaries  for  each  Division.  One 
office  of  Treasurer  operated  for  the  entire  Board. 

At  die  time  of  the  formation  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church  mission  fields  were  being  conducted,  either  coop- 
eratively with  other  denominations  or  singly,  in  Nigeria, 
Sierra  Leone,  Brazil,  Ecuador,  Hong  Kong,  Japan,  In- 


donesia,   Sarawak,    the   Philippine    Islands,    and    Puerto 
Rico. 

Lois  Miller 


MISSIONS,  AND  ORGANIZED  METHODIST  MISSION- 
ARY WORK.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  Methodism  itself 
was  a  missionary  movement,  and  the  same  in  an  even 
larger  way  may  be  said  of  Christianity.  Certainly  the 
sense  of  mission  was  always  to  the  fore  in  all  the  move- 
ments of  tlie  first  Methodist  Societies,  and  afterward  in 
all  the  growth  and  organizational  work  of  the  various 
Methodist  branch  churches  as  they  came  to  be.  John 
Wesley  himself  came  to  America  as  a  missionary  in 
1735,  and  later  on  as  the  head  of  the  Methodist  move- 
ment he  sent  men  to  preach  in  various  places  who  were 
understood  to  be  not  only  preachers  but  missionaries  of 
gospel  light.  The  beginnings  of  Methodist  work  in  Amer- 
cia  has  been  told  in  other  places  in  this  Encyclopedia. 
The  M.E.  Church  in  America  was  organized  under  that 
name  in  December  1784,  and  immediately  began  expand- 
ing mission-wise  almost  in  parallel  with  the  expansion  of 
the  westward-growing  nation. 

The  expansion  of  American  Methodism  and  its  separate 
organizational  moves  can  best  be  told  under  the  following 
divisions: 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church   (undivided),   1784-1844. 

Methodist   Episcopal  Church    (separated),    1845-1939. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  1845-1939. 

Methodist  Protestant  Church,  1830-1939. 

The  Methodist  Church,  1939-1968. 

The  United  Methodist  Church,  1968- 
Note:  The  material  which  appears  herewith  is  in  large 
part  the  adaptation  of  an  article  on  Methodist  Missions 
taken  from  the  Encyclopedia  of  Modern  Christian  Mis- 
sions. The  general  editor  of  this  was  Burton  L.  Goddard, 
and  it  was  published  in  1967  by  Gordon  College  and 
Gordon  Divinity  School,  Thomas  Nelson  and  Sons  being 
the  publisher.  We  make  grateful  acknowledgment  to 
Thomas  Nelson  and  Sons  for  the  use  of  this  copyrighted 
material.  In  certain  instances  the  material  has  been 
adapted  and  edited  to  bring  it  up  to  date,  and  certain 
sections  of  the  original  article  have  been  omitted  since 
these  have  been  treated  under  the  respective  nations  and 
regions  where  Methodist  missions  were  carried  on.  Also, 
the  section  on  the  present  United  Methodist  Church  and 
its  Board  of  Missions  organization  has  been  added  to  the 
original  article,  as  The  United  Methodist  Church  under 
that  name  was  not  in  being  when  the  article  for  the 
Encyclopedia  of  Modern  Christian  Missions  was  written. 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  1784-1845 
One  year  after  the  Church  organized  at  the  Christ- 
mas Conference,  or  in  1785,  it  set  apart  Freeborn 
Garbettson  and  James  O.  Cromwell  to  go  to  Nova 
Scotia.  It  also  appointed  a  missionary  to  Antigua,  though 
he  died  before  leaving  for  that  field.  It  commenced  mis- 
sionary activity  in  Canada  in  1790  through  William 
LosEE.  The  Nova  Scotia  mission  ended  about  the  turn  of 
the  century  and  the  Canada  missions  divided  fonnally 
from  connection  with  the  M.E.  Church  in  1832,  the 
constituencies  of  these  tAvo  regions  becoming  affiliated 
with  British  Methodism. 

The  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E.  Church  was  orga- 
nized in  New  York  on  April  5,  1819,  and  became  an 
official    agency   of   the    Church    by    General    Conference 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MISSIONS  AND  ORGANIZED  METHODIST  MISSIONARY  WORK 


action  in  1820.  Its  first  full-time  executive  was  Nathan 
Bancs,  drafter  of  the  Society's  constitution,  who  was 
elected  in  1836.  The  original  purpose  of  the  organization 
was  "to  enable  the  several  annual  conferences  more  ef- 
fectually to  extend  their  missionary  labors  throughout 
the  United  States  and  elsewhere." 

The  first  mission  under  the  aegis  of  the  Missionary  So- 
ciety was  founded  in  Liberia  by  Melville  B.  Cox  in 
1833. 

Soon  afterwards,  representatives  of  the  Society  estab- 
lished English-speaking  missions  in  South  America: 
Fountain  E.  Pitts  in  Argentina  in  1835,  Justin  Spauld- 
ING  in  Brazil  in  1839.  The  Brazil  and  Uruguay  missions 
were  suspended  in  1842. 

Martin  Ruter  and  two  assistants  established  a  mis- 
sion in  the  independent  Republic  of  Texas  in  1837, 
following  sporadic  forays  by  Methodist  preachers  into  the 
territory  while  it  was  still  under  Spanish  and  Mexican 
jurisdiction. 

Two  splits  in  the  Church  reduced  the  Missionary  So- 
ciety's supporting  constituency.  A  reform  group  protesting 
against  the  e.xclusively  clerical  and  episcopal  control  of 
the  denomination  finally  withdrew,  and  in  1830,  after 
two  years'  organizing  activity,  formally  established  the 
Methodist  Protestant  Church.  The  other  and  much 
more  deep-seated  division  came  as  a  result  of  contro- 
versies centered  in  the  slavery  question  and  following  the 
Plan  of  Separation  in  1844,  resulted  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  in  1845-46.  The  three 
Methodist  denominations  remained  in  separation  until 
they  were  merged  in  1939  after  many  years  of  negotiation. 
We  give  now  the  development  of  organized  missionary 
activity  in  each  of  these  three  Churches. 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

(SEPARATED),  1845-1939 

The  Northern  section  of  the  newly  divided  church  re- 
tained the  name  and  status  of  the  M.E.  Church.  The 
Missionary  Society  remained  its  official  missionary  agency 
until  1907.  The  chief  cooperating  organizations  were  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  founded  in  1869; 
the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society,  founded  in 
1880;  and  the  Church  Extension  Society,  which  was 
established  in  1865  and  superseded  by  the  Board  of 
Church  Extension  in  1872.  During  most  of  this  period, 
the  Missionary  Society  administered  its  work  through  a 
Board  of  Managers  and  its  Corresponding  Secretaries,  sub- 
ject to  the  General  Missionary  Committee,  which  met 
annually  to  make  appropriations  and  to  establish  policy. 

In  1907,  the  Missionary  Society,  which  had  promoted 
both  foreign  and  domestic  missions,  was  replaced  in  a 
reorganization  of  the  Church's  benevolence  agencies.  A 
new  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  undertook  the  adminis- 
tration of  foreign  missions,  and  a  consolidated  Board  of 
Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension  assumed  direction 
of  domestic  missions.  The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  main- 
tained headquarters  in  New  York  City,  as  had  the  Mis- 
sionary Society. 

Among  the  more  notable  Corresponding  Secretaries  of 
the  Society  and  the  Board  were  John  P.  Durbin  (1850- 
72),  John  M.  Reid  (1872-88),  Adna  B.  Leonard  (1888- 
1912),  Henry  K.  Carroll  (1900-08),  Frank  Mason  North 
(1912-24),  S.  Earl  Taylor  (1912-20),  and  Ralph  E. 
Diffendorfer  (1924-39;  1939-49,  Executive  Secretary, 
Division  of  World  Missions,  The  Methodist  Church). 

From   $95,000  in   1845,   the  receipts  for  foreign   mis- 


sions slowly  increased  to  .$1,320,000  in  1907,  and  $2,216,- 
000  in  1918.  In  1919,  a  hundred  years  after  the  founding 
of  the  Missionary  Society,  the  Board,  cooperating  with 
other  Methodist  agencies,  conducted  an  intensive  financial 
drive  known  as  the  Centenary  campaign.  (See  Cente- 
nary Fund.  )  Its  immediate  aim  was  a  radical  increase  of 
giving  for  a  period  of  five  years.  Pursuing  the  central 
purpose  of  the  Centenary  Movement,  and  relying  on 
pledges  made,  the  Board  planned  major  extensions  and 
developments  in  foreign  work  based  on  estimated  total 
yearly  receipts  of  $10  million.  However,  payments  fell  far 
short  of  pledges;  total  receipts  were  forty-six  percent  be- 
low the  expected  income.  Corresponding  retrenchments 
had  to  be  made  in  the  planned  world  program;  results 
on  the  field  were  calamitous;  the  Board's  affairs  were  in 
severe  crisis.  Nevertheless,  total  receipts  for  the  Centenary 
period  (1919-23)  average  about  $5,500,000  a  year, 
compared  with  about  $2  million  from  1914  to  1918. 

By  1928,  the  year  before  the  economic  depression 
began,  receipts  had  dropped,  however,  to  about  $2,975,- 
000;  and  by  1939,  they  were  down  to  about  $1,417,000, 
yielding  planned  appropriations  for  the  field  that  were 
lower  than  those  made  in  1918. 

Until  1920,  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  conducted 
the  regular  financing  of  its  operations  independently  of 
other  denominational  agencies.  In  that  year,  the  Board 
came  under  limited  jurisdiction  of  a  commission  author- 
ized to  correlate  promotional  appeals,  unify  budgeting, 
and  maintain  a  central  appropriations  treasury  for  all 
benevolence  boards.  Foreign  missions  thus  became  a  part 
of  what  was  known,  from  1924,  as  the  denomination's 
World  Service  program. 

After  the  Separation  of  1845,  the  M.E.  Church  entered 
foreign  mission  fields  on  five  continents. 

In  Asia,  the  first  mission  was  established  in  China 
by  Judson  D.  Collins  and  Moses  C.  White,  who  arrived 
there  in  1847.  A  China  missionary,  Robert  S.  Maclay, 
was  influential  in  founding  a  mission  in  Japan  in  1873, 
becoming  its  first  superintendent.  Maclay  also  became  the 
first  superintendent  of  the  Korea  mission,  which  was 
organized  in  1885,  with  Henry  G.  Appenzeller  and 
William  B.  Scranton  as  the  Society's  missionaries,  and 
with  Scranton's  mother,  Mary  F.  Scranton,  serving  as  a 
W.F.M.S.  worker.  Work  was  started  in  Okinawa  in  1892 
as  part  of  the  Japan  mission,  and  continued  into  the 
period  of  World  War  II. 

By  expansion  from  the  India  mission,  which  was 
founded  in  1856  by  William  Butler,  another  group  of 
Asian  missions  was  developed.  The  first  entry  into  Indian 
territory,  later  to  become  part  of  Pakistan,  was  accom- 
plished by  the  founding  of  a  mission  in  Karachi  in  1873. 
James  M.  Thoburn,  superintendent  of  the  Calcutta  Dis- 
trict, organized  a  mission  in  Rangoon,  Burma,  in  1879, 
and  another  in  Singapore  in  1885,  with  William  F. 
Oldham,  a  native  of  India,  as  the  leader  of  the  latter 
enterprise.  The  mission  centered  in  Singapore  (the 
Malaysia  Mission)  reached  out,  in  turn,  into  the  (then) 
Federation  of  Malaya  by  establishing  work  in  Penang 
in  1891.  In  the  same  year,  it  projected  a  brief,  abortive 
mission  into  British  North  Borneo.  Thoburn,  by  virtue  of 
his  jurisdiction  over  the  Malaysia  Mission  Conference, 
inaugurated  a  mission  in  the  Philippine  Islands  in  1899. 
Bishop  Frank  W.  Warne,  in  1901,  organized  a  group  of 
Chinese  immigrants  to  Sar.\wak  into  a  circuit  of  the 
Singapore  District. 

Indonesia      (then   the  Netherlands   East   Indies)    also 


MISSIONS   AND   ORGANIZED   METHODIST   MISSIONARY   WORK 

was  entered  by  workers  from  the  Malaysia  jurisdiction — 
Sumatra  (1905)  by  Solomon  Pakianathan;  Java  (1905) 
bv  John  R.  Denyes;  W.  Borneo  (1906)  by  Charles  M. 
Worthington;  Bangka  (1911)  by  Mark  Freeman.  In  1928, 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  concentrated  the  work  in 
this  area  in  Sumatra,  withdrawing  from  Java  and  W.  Bor- 
neo, and  shortly  afterwards  cutting  its  ties  with  Bangka. 

The  Missionar\  Society  opened  evangelistic  work  in 
Europe  in  1849,  when  Ludwig  S.  Jacoby  arrived  in 
Germany  from  the  United  States  as  a  result  of  a  mis- 
sionary impulse  arising  among  German  immigrants  con- 
verted to  Methodism  in  America.  Preachers  from  Germany 
extended  the  work  to  Switzerland  in  1856.  The  North 
Germany  Conference  acquired  a  small  mission  in  Austria 
by  transfer  from  the  British  Wesleyans  in  1897.  The  fol- 
lowing year,  the  pastor  in  charge  in  Vienna  began  Meth- 
odist work  in  Hungary.  Most  of  it  was  in  the  southern 
area,  Backa,  which  became  a  part  of  Yugoslavia  when 
the  new  state  was  established  after  World  War  I. 

A  second  European  development  also  grew  out  of 
Methodist  foreign-language  missions  in  the  United  States. 
Ole  p.  Petersen,  converted  in  the  Bethel  Ship  mission 
in  New  York,  returned  to  Norway  as  a  missionary  in 
1853.  John  P.  Larsson,  a  Swedish  convert,  returned  to 
his  homeland  and  became  the  Society's  first  missionary  in 
Sweden  in  1854.  Christian  B.  Willerup,  superintendent 
of  the  new  Scandinavian  mission,  opened  work  in  Den- 
mark in  1858.  In  1881,  the  Sweden  Conference  incorpo- 
rated into  its  appointments  evangelistic  work  in  Finland 
already  begun  by  Methodist  emigrants  from  Sweden.  In 
1889,  a  mission  was  started  in  Russia  under  the  Finland 
District  of  the  Sweden  Conference. 

Methodism  reached  the  Baltic  States  by  extension 
from  European  missions.  A  German  pastor  from  Konigs- 
berg,  East  Prussia,  started  work  in  Kaunas,  Lithuania, 
in  1903.  The  Russian  District  of  the  Finland  and 
Russia  Mission  Conference  organized  a  mission  on  the 
island  of  Oesel,  Estonia,  in  1910,  and  in  Riga,  Latvia,  in 
1911. 

Four  other,  unrelated  missions  emerged  in  Europe — 
in  BuLG.ARiA  (1858),  Italy  (1873),  Fr.ance  (1907), 
and  Spain  (1919).  In  South  America,  the  M.E.  Church 
continued  the  Argentina  mission  started  before  the  Sepa- 
ration of  1844.  It  also  reopened  in  1868  and  1885  the  two 
suspended  pre-Separation  missions — Uruguay  and  Brazil, 
respectively.  (All  but  a  fragment  of  the  Brazil  work  was 
transferred  to  the  M.E.  Church,  South  in  1900.)  Thomas 
B.  Wood,  superintendent  of  the  South  America  mission, 
established  a  new  enterprise  in  Paraguay  in  1886,  which 
continued  until  1917.  Evangelistic  work  begun  in  Callao, 
Peru,  by  Francis  G.  Penzotti,  a  Methodist  employee  of 
the  American  Bible  Society,  became  a  Methodist  mis- 
sion in  1890.  In  the  same  year,  the  Church  acquired  a 
Chile  mission  when  the  Cincinnati  Annual  Confer- 
ence adopted  as  its  Chile  District  an  unofficial  Chile 
mission  enterprise  begun  in  1878  by  William  Taylor, 
the  free-lance  Methodist  founder  of  independent,  "self- 
supporting"  missions  in  South  America,  India,  and  Africa. 
For  a  dozen  years,  beginning  in  1898,  there  was  a  mis- 
sion in  Ecuador.  From  1900,  it  was  composed  chiefly 
of  teachers  supplied  by  the  Board  and  supported  by  the 
government  of  Ecuador.  Karl  G.  Beutelspacher  opened 
a  mission  in  Bolivia  in  1901. 

Elsewhere  in  Latin  America,  William  Butler,  founder 
of  the  India  work,  became  the  first  appointee  to  a  mis- 
sion in  Mexico  founded  in  1873  under  the  direction  of 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 

Bishop  Gilbert  Haven.  Bishop  Thomas  B.  Neely,  resi- 
dent in  Buenos  Aires,  organized  a  mission  in  Panama 
in  1905.  George  A.  Miller,  superintendent  in  Panama, 
extended  the  work  to  Costa  Rica  in  1917. 

In  Africa,  the  pre-Separation  mission  in  Liberia  re- 
mained in  operation  under  the  Northern  church.  In  1896, 
the  Missionary  Society  granted  oERcial  status  to  three 
independent  missions  established  earlier  by  William  Tay- 
lor, Missionary  Bishop  for  Africa — Angola  (1885), 
Congo  (1886),  and  Mozambique  (1893).  Methodism 
penetrated  Southern  Rhodesia  in  1898.  In  the  same  year, 
Bishop  Joseph  C.  Hartzell,  Taylor's  successor  as  Mis- 
sionary Bishop  for  Africa,  received  by  transfer  an  inde- 
pendent mission  on  the  island  of  Madeira,  which  was 
administered  with  Africa  work  until  Madeira  was  given 
up  in  the  1940's.  A  missionary  also  served  in  the  Cape 
Verde  Islands  for  part  of  1901.  North  Africa  was  entered 
in  1908,  when  missions  were  started  in  Algeria  and 
Tunisia.  The  Mozambique  mission  extended  its  evange- 
listic ministry  into  the  Union  of  South  Africa  in  1919, 
following  up  the  mine  workers  imported  from  Mozam- 
bique. 

Several  outposts  classified  as  domestic  missions  were 
developed  outside  the  United  States.  Work  in  Hawaii 
was  conducted  from  1855-62  in  association  with  the 
California  Annual  Conference,  and  was  reopened  in 
1888  among  emigrants  from  Japan  to  Hawaii.  Evange- 
listic effort  in  Alaska  began  in  1897.  Charles  W.  Drees 
established  a  mission  in  Puerto  Rico  in  1900,  and  Meth- 
odist work  began  in  the  Dominican  Republic  in  1921 
in  a  united  effort  with  the  mission  boards  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  (U.S.A.)  and  of  the  United  Brethren. 

Integration  of  the  foreign  fields  and  their  converts  and 
members  into  the  ecclesiastical  structure  of  the  Church 
based  in  the  United  States  early  became  the  practice — 
and  before  long,  the  fundamental  policy — of  the  M.E. 
Church.  Beginning  with  Liberia  (1836),  Germany 
(1856),  and  India  (1864),  Mission  Conferences  and  An- 
nual Conferences  were  gradually  established  by  General 
Conference  legislation,  until  by  1900  there  were  seven 
Mission  Conferences,  sixteen  full-fledged  Annual  Confer- 
ences, and  four  aflBliated  fonnal  Missions  in  Europe,  Asia, 
Africa,  and  Latin  America.  By  that  time,  the  denomina- 
tion was  well  on  the  way  to  making  itself  a  world  church. 

The  General  Conference  of  1884  provided  for  the 
organization  on  foreign  fields  of  what  were  called  "Cen- 
tral Conferences"  composed  of  Annual  Conferences, 
and  of  Missions  on  certain  larger  fields,  to  which  should 
be  given  autonomy  in  supervising  educational,  publish- 
ing, and  other  regional  connectional  interests.  Six  such 
Central  Conferences  were  organized;  Southern  Asia,  1885; 
Eastern  Asia,  1897;  Southeastern  Asia,  1923;  South 
Africa,  1921;  Latin  America,  1924;  Germany,  1936. 

The  first  two  Central  Conferences  (India  and  China 
were  the  two  peimanent  core  countries)  became  signifi- 
cant administrative  units;  and  according  to  some  com- 
mentators, their  existence  provided  sufficient  autonomy 
on  the  field  to  avert  Methodist  participation  in  church 
union  projects  insofar  as  those  movements  were  moti- 
vated b\'  the  desire  for  national  autonomy  in  church  life. 
The  legislation  providing  for  Central  Conferences  was 
originated  not  to  meet  demands  for  indigenization  of  the 
Church  on  the  foreign  field,  but  to  provide  relevant  and 
effective  supervision.  When  demands  for  indigenization 
emerged,  however  (as  in  India  in  the  1920's),  the  Central 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MISSIONS  AND  ORGANIZED  METHODIST  MISSIONARY  WORK 


Conference  apparatus  afforded  practical  expression  to  the 
movement  towards  those  goals. 

In  addition  to  its  pattern  of  Annual  Conferences,  the 
Church  extended  to  the  foreign  fields  its  system  of  epis- 
copal supervision.  The  practice  of  visitation  by  regular 
bishops  (General  Superintendents)  began  in  1853,  when 
Bishop  Levi  Scott  visited  Liberia.  In  1858,  Francis 
Burns,  a  member  of  the  Liberia  Conference,  was  con- 
secrated in  the  United  States  as  a  bishop  for  Liberia,  after 
his  election  by  his  Conference.  John  W.  Roberts  (like 
Burns,  an  American  Negio)  was  similarly  elected  and 
consecrated,  in  1866. 

In  1884,  the  General  Conference  began  electing  a  series 
of  Missionary  Bishops  with  jurisdiction  limited  to  specific 
fields,  almost  all  of  them  having  served  previously  as  mis- 
sionaries. To  Liberia  were  assigned  Isaiah  B.  Scott 
(1904-16)  and  Alexander  P.  Camphor  (1916-19),  both 
born  in  Negro  slavery  in  the  U.S.;  to  Africa  (general), 
William  Taylor  (1884-96),  Joseph  C.  Hartzell  (1896- 
1916),  and  Eben  S.  Johnson  (1916-20);  to  India  and 
Malaysia,  James  M.  Thoburn  (1888-1908),  Frank  W. 
Warn-e  (1900-20),  Edwin  W.  Parker  (1900-01), 
John  E.  Robinson  (1904-20),  William  F.  Oldham  (1904- 
12,  resident  in  Singapore),  John  W.  Robinson  (1912- 
20),  and  William  P.  Eveland  (1912-16,  resident  in 
Manila);  and  to  Japan  (1904-08)  and  Korea  (1908- 
12),  Merriman  C.  Harris. 

Between  1900  and  1920,  supervision  by  visiting  bishops 
and  by  Missionary  Bishops  was  supplemented — in  China, 
Europe,  and  Latin  America — by  the  assignment  of  Bish- 
ops of  the  category  of  General  Superintendent  to  resi- 
dence in  foreign  fields.  Most  notable  among  them  was 
James  W.  Bashford,  stationed  in  China  from  1904  to 
1919.  In  1920,  the  missionary  episcopacy  was  abolished 
in  favor  of  supervision  by  General  Superintendents  in 
foreign  residence.  This  policy,  which  removed  a  point  of 
distinction  between  the  Church  abroad  and  the  Church 
in  the  United  States,  was  later  modified  when  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  elected  Edwin  F.  Lee  Missionary  Bishop 
for  Southeast  Asia  in  1928,  and  John  M.  Springer  for 
Africa  in  19.36. 

In  1929  occurred  an  important  broadening  of  the  base 
of  the  episcopacy  and  of  the  power  of  Central  Confer- 
ences, when  by  Constitutional  amendment  it  became  pos- 
sible for  Central  Conferences  to  elect  Bishops  for  their 
own  jurisdictions.  The  Eastern  Asia  Central  Conference 
elected  (1930)  John  Gowdy,  a  Board  missionary  born  in 
Scotland,  and  Chih  Ping  Wang;  Southern  Asia  elected 
(1930),  Jashwant  R.  Chitambar;  Latin  America  elected 
(1932),  Juan  E.  Gattinoni,  an  Argentinian  born  in  Italy; 
Germany  elected  ( 1936),  F.  H.  Otto  Melle. 

Three  mission  constituencies  withdrew  from  the  M.E. 
Church  to  become  components  in  autonomous  Methodist 
churches.  In  1907,  the  two  Conferences  in  Japan  (5,000 
members)  joined  with  the  Japan  missions  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South  and  of  the  Canadian  Methodist  Church 
in  founding  the  Japan  Methodist  Church.  In  1930,  the 
Mexico  Conference  (5,000  members)  merged  with  the 
mission  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  to  found  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Mexico.  In  the  same  year,  the  Korea  Confer- 
ence (11,000  members)  united  with  the  Southern  Meth- 
odist mission  to  establish  the  Korean  Methodist  Church. 
The  Board  of  the  home  church,  however,  continued  send- 
ing funds  and  personnel  to  the  now  independent  churches. 

By  1939,  there  were  fifty-one  foreign  Annual  or  Mission 
Conferences,  with  352,000  full  members  of  the  Church. 


The  four  numerically  strongest  fields  had  half  the  Con- 
ferences and  seventy-two  percent  of  the  members — India, 
with  ten  Conferences  and  101,000  members;  China,  with 
eight  Conferences  and  63,000  members;  the  Philippine 
Islands,  with  two  Conferences  and  53,000  members;  Ger- 
many, with  five  Conferences  and  36,000  members.  (At 
this  time,  the  membership  of  the  Church  in  the  United 
States  was  4,443,000.)  The  Board  had  571  foreign  mis- 
sionaries; and  the  W.F.M.S.,  making  field  expenditures  of 
more  than  $900,000,  had  475  missionaries. 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  SOUTH 

1845-1939 

The  Louisville  Convention  of  1845,  composed  of 
representatives  of  the  Conferences  about  to  establish  the 
Southern  church,  designated  the  Missionary  Society  of  the 
M.E.  Church  in  the  City  of  Louisville  as  the  provisional 
central  missionary  agency  for  the  emerging  denomina- 
tion. The  first  General  Conference,  in  1846,  estab- 
lished the  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South 
to  facilitate  "missionary  labors  at  home  and  in  foreign 
countries." 

The  Society  maintained  headquarters  in  Louisville 
until  1856,  and  from  then  on,  permanently  and  almost 
continuously  in  Nashville.  In  1866,  the  Church  divided 
its  missionary  operations  between  a  Board  of  Domestic 
Missions  and  a  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  But  in  1870, 
the  entire  work  was  reunified,  under  a  general  Board  of 
Missions,  with  combined  financing  of  foreign  and  domestic 
projects.  The  General  Conference  of  1874  again  revised 
the  missions  system,  assigning  basic  responsibility  for 
domestic  missions  to  the  Annual  Conferences,  and  assign- 
ing the  operation  of  all  other  missions  to  the  General 
Board.  The  effect  of  this  change  was  to  make  foreign, 
bilingual,  and  frontier  missions  a  connectional  interest 
under  the  Board,  and  to  leave  the  support  of  underdevel- 
oped areas  within  the  established  Conferences  to  the 
efforts  of  the  Conferences  themselves. 

The  first  connectional  auxiliary  of  the  Board  was  the 
Woman's  Missionary  Society,  founded  in  1878  to  unite 
the  women  of  the  Church  "in  the  work  of  sending  the 
gospel  to  women  in  heathen  lands"  through  women  work- 
ers, and  renamed  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Soci- 
ety in  1894.  The  Board  of  Church  Extension  was  estab- 
lished in  1882.  In  1886,  it  organized  a  Woman's  Depart- 
ment, which  in  1890  began  home  missionary  work  as  the 
Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home  Missionary  Society.  This 
society,  renamed  the  Woman's  Home  Mission  Society, 
became  independent  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 
in  1898. 

The  General  Conference  of  1910  effected  a  major  re- 
organization of  the  Church's  missions  apparatus.  Separate 
departments  for  foreign  and  for  home  missions  were  estab- 
lished in  the  general  Board  of  Missions.  The  connectional 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  and  Woman's  Home 
Mission  Society  were  merged,  becoming  the  Woman's 
Missionai-y  Council,  whose  administrators  and  work  (for 
women  and  children)  were  integrated  into  the  structure 
of  the  Board.  The  Council  reached  its  auxiliary  home  and 
foreign  societies  through  its  own  Home  and  Foreign  De- 
partments. The  first  President  of  the  Woman's  Council 
(1910-22)  was  Belle  H.  Bennett,  who  earlier  (1898- 
1910)  had  been  President  of  the  Woman's  Home  Mission 
Society. 

In  1914,  promotion  of  evangelism  throughout  the  de- 
nomination was  added  to  the  major  functions  of  the  Board. 


MISSIONS   AND   ORGANIZED   METHODIST   MISSIONARY   WORK 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


The  executive  leadership  of  the  earher  Missionary  So- 
ciety and  of  the  Board  of  Missions  was  concentrated 
perennially  in  the  Secretary  (from  1910,  the  General 
Secretary).  Among  the  most  notable  incumbents  were 
Edmund  W.  Sehon  (1850-68),  John  B.  McFerrin 
( 1870-78;  also  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Domestic  Mis- 
sions, 1866-70),  Alpheus  W.  Wilson  (1878-82),  Isaac 
G.  John  (1886-94),  Walter  R.  Lambuth  (1894-1910), 
and  \ViLLL\M  W.  Pinson  (1910-22).  (Considering  his 
long  ministry  as  a  missionary,  a  Board  secretarv',  and  a 
bishop  in  charge  of  foreign  fields,  successively,  Lambuth 
was  the  outstanding  missionary  leader  of  the  Southern 
church.)  In  1922,  the  Board  was  reorganized  according 
to  a  pattern  that  dispersed  executive  responsibility  among 
eight  Administrative  Secretaries,  the  office  of  General 
Secretary  being  abolished.  The  General  Secretaiyship 
was  restored  in  1926,  and  Willard  G.  Cram,  who  had 
been  a  missionary  in  Korea,  served  in  that  office  from 
1926  to  1939. 

The  Southern  church  retained  no  foreign  mission  from 
the  pre-Separation  period,  but  carried  over  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  domestic  missions,  including  all  of  the  Negro 
work  and  most  of  the  American  Indian  work.  The  new 
denomination's  missionary  resources  were  devoted  chiefly 
to  domestic  fields  until  late  in  the  1870's. 

From  that  time  on,  current  contributions  to  the  Board 
for  foreign  work  gradually  rose  to  $721,000  in  1918  (not 
including  Woman's  Council  income).  Cooperating  with 
the  Northern  church  in  the  Centenary  Movement  of 
1919-23,  the  Board  radically  increased  its  income  during 
the  five-year  period.  New  foreign  fields  were  entered,  and 
appropriations  were  sharply  increased.  But  less  than  fifty 
percent  was  paid  on  the  total  Centenary  pledges  by  the 
end  of  the  fifth  fiscal  year.  At  the  close  of  1925,  the  total 
operations  of  the  Board  showed  a  deficit  of  more  than  a 
million  dollars.  Regular  contributions  for  foreign  missions 
in  that  year  were  more  than  a  third  lower  than  in  1918, 
and  were  appro.ximately  the  same  in  1939. 

The  Board's  first  foreign  venture  was  a  mission  to  China 
established  by  Charles  Taylor  and  Benjamin  Jenkins 
in  1848. 

Three  missions  were  established  in  Latin  America.  Bish- 
op John  C.  Keener  organized  one  in  Mexico  in  1873. 
The  Board  of  Missions  began  a  second,  in  Brazil,  by 
recognizing  as  a  missionary  (in  1875)  Junius  E.  Newman, 
who  was  already  resident  there,  and  by  sending  from  the 
United  States  John  J.  Ransom,  who  arrived  in  1876. 
Missionary  work  in  Cuba,  begun  in  1883,  grew  out  of  the 
interest  of  the  Florida  Conference  in  domestic  missions 
for  Cuban  immigrants,  and  developed  for  fifteen  years  in 
close  association  with  that  Conference,  receiving  a  fresh 
stimulus  in  1899,  after  being  brought  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Board,  following  the  Spanish-American  War 
and  liberation  of  Cuba. 

The  first  missionaries  to  Japan — James  W.  Lambuth, 
Walter  R.  Lambuth,  and  O.  A.  Dukes — began  their 
work  in  1886.  Ten  years  later,  Clarence  F.  Reid,  a  China 
missionary,  became  the  first  Southern  Methodist  mission- 
ary to  Korea.  Chiefly  to  reach  emigrants  across  the  north- 
ern borders  of  Korea,  a  Siberia  Korean  mission  was  begun 
in  1920.  It  developed  work  in  Manchuria  and  in  Siberian 
Russia.  A  decade  later,  the  work  in  Russian  territory  was 
given  up  because  of  difficulties  under  the  Soviet  regime. 
The  Manchurian  work  was  transferred  in  1930  to  the 
Korean  Methodist  Church. 

Bishop  Walter  R.  Lambuth  organized  a  mission  in  the 


Congo  in  1914,  with  Charles  C.  Bush,  D.  L.  Mumpower, 
and  J.  A.  Stockwell  as  the  first  missionaries. 

In  Europe,  permanent  missions  emerged  from  relief  and 
social  service  work  begun  in  Belgium,  Czechoslovakia, 
and  Poland  in  1920. 

Some  of  the  foreign  fields,  beginning  with  Mexico  in 
1885,  were  organized  into  regular  Annual  Conferences  of 
the  Southern  church.  Bishops  from  the  United  States 
made  supervisory  visits  abroad  from  time  to  time.  During 
part  of  the  quadrennium  beginning  in  1922,  four  bishops 
were  in  residence  abroad — in  Brussels,  Shanghai,  Sao 
Paulo  (Brazil),  and  Seoul.  In  1926,  bishops  were  as- 
signed to  Brussels  and  Shanghai  only;  and  in  1930,  such 
assignments  were  discontinued.  From  1934  to  1939,  for- 
eign administration  was  handled  mostly  by  a  single  bish- 
op, Arthur  J.  Moobe.  In  1906,  the  General  Conference 
foimalized  the  status  of  less  advanced  fields  by  consti- 
tuting them  Missions,  with  limited  supervisory  functions 
and  (after  1910)  limited  General  Conference  representa- 
tion. 

In  the  quadrennium  prior  to  1930,  three  supervisory 
Central  Conferences  were  organized — in  Mexico,  Europe, 
and  Brazil.  This  was  a  minor  development  compared  with 
the  emergence  of  the  Central  Conferences  in  the  Northern 
church. 

The  Japan  Conference  became  a  component  of  the 
autonomous  Japan  Methodist  Church  in  1907.  The  Board 
of  Missions  continued  work  in  Japan  both  through  the 
new  denomination  and  through  Board-controlled  supple- 
mentary activity.  In  1918,  the  latter  work  was  designated 
the  Japan  Mission.  In  1930,  the  Mexico  Conference  (3,700 
members)  and  the  Korea  Conference  (7,600  members) 
entered,  respectively,  the  Methodist  Church  of  Mexico 
and  the  Korean  Methodist  Church,  both  of  them  auton- 
omous. In  the  same  year,  the  three  Brazil  Conferences 
(15,000  members)  became  the  autonomous  Methodist 
Church  of  Brazil.  The  Board  continued  sending  funds  and 
personnel  to  the  three  churches  founded  in  1930. 

By  1939,  the  Belgian,  China,  Cuba,  and  Czechoslovakia 
Conferences  and  the  Congo  and  Polish  Missions  had  a 
total  of  29,000  church  members,  nearly  half  of  them  in 
China.  (The  membership  of  the  Church  in  tlie  United 
States  was  2,953,000.)  The  Board  was  maintaining, 
through  its  general  program.  111  foreign  missionaries 
(including  those  associated  with  autonomous  Methodist 
churches).  The  Section  of  Woman's  Work,  operating 
under  appropriations  of  over  $400,000,  had  169  foreign 
missionaries. 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT  CHURCH 

1828-1939 

The  first  General  Conference  (1834)  founded  a 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  with  headquarters  in  Balti- 
more, later  (1850)  in  Pittsburgh.  For  nearly  fifty  years, 
despite  its  name,  the  Board  concentrated  almost  entirely 
upon  domestic  missions. 

The  Pittsburgh  board  was  continued  from  1858  to 
1877  by  a  group  of  Conferences  in  the  North  and  West 
which  withdrew  after  failing  to  persuade  the  M.P.  Church 
to  ban  slaveholding  by  its  members  and  to  remove  the 
Constitutional  provision  restricting  church  suffrage  to 
whites.  The  seceded  group  merged  in  1866  with  certain 
Wesleyan  and  other  non-episcopal  Methodists,  to  form 
The  Methodist  Church.  The  Methodist  Church  and  the 
South  and  East  Conferences  of  the  original  M.P.  Church 
united  as  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  in   1877,  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MISSIONS  AND  ORGANIZED  METHODIST  MISSIONARY  WORK 


newly  united  Church  estabhshing  a  Board  of  Missions  as 
successor  to  the  Pittsburgh  board  (removed  at  times  to 
Springfield,  Ohio;  most  recently  in  1875). 

The  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
church  was  organized  in  Pittsburgh  in  1879,  and  was 
recognized  by  the  General  Conference  in  1880  as  a  perma- 
nent agency  of  the  denomination.  It  worked  autonomously, 
but  in  cooperation  with  the  Board  of  Missions. 

In  1888,  the  work  of  domestic  missions  was  assigned 
to  a  new  Board  of  Home  Missions,  the  earlier  board  being 
renamed  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  The  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  (later  sometimes  called  the 
Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions)  was  organized  in 
Bridgeton,  N.  J.,  in  1893,  and  was  recognized  by  the 
General  Conference  in  1896. 

The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  and  the  Woman's  For^ 
eign  Missionary  Society  were  merged  in  1924  as  the 
Union  Board  of  Foreign  Missionary  Administration,  with 
headquarters  in  Pittsburgh.  In  1928,  the  Union  Board, 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  and  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society  were  merged  in  a  Board  of  Missions. 

Among  the  Executive  Secretaries  for  foreign  missions 
were  Frank  T.  Tagg  (1884-92),  T.  J.  Ogburn  (1896- 
1908),  Frederick  C.  Klein  (1908-26),  and  George  W. 
Haddaway  (1928-1939). 

The  denomination  began  its  official  foreign  mission 
work  in  1880  in  Japan,  when  Harriet  G.  Brittain  opened 
a  school  for  girls  in  Yokohama.  After  some  years  of  in- 
formal work  in  China,  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  undertook  a  regular  mission  in  Kalgan,  North 
China,  with  the  cooperation  of  the  American  Board  (Con- 
gregational). Charles  S.  Heininger,  the  first  missionary, 
reached  his  post  in  1910.  The  Kalgan  project  came  under 
the  control  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  in  June, 
1919.  Two  years  earlier  the  Board  had  taken  over  an 
independent  mission  in  Dhulia,  India,  developed  by 
Florence  Williams  and  Mattie  Long,  who  went  to  India 
in  1903. 

The  M.P.  Church  erected  two  of  its  foreign  missions 
into  Mission  Annual  Conferences — Japan  (1892),  China 
(1919) — with  representation  in  the  General  Conference, 
and  with  administration  assigned  to  the  Foreign  Board. 

In  1939,  the  M.P.  Church,  which  numbered  about 
197,000  members  in  the  United  States,  had  6,000  mem- 
bers on  its  three  foreign  fields.  It  maintained  fourteen 
foreign  missionaries. 

THE  METHODIST  CHURCH 

1939-1968 

The  missionary  interests  (both  home  and  foreign,  both 
general  and  women's)  of  the  three  uniting  denominations 
were  merged  into  a  single  agency  organized  in  July  1939, 
as  the  Board  of  Missions  and  Church  Extension  of  The 
Methodist  Church.  The  name  was  changed  by  order 
of  the  General  Conference  of  1952  to  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions of  The  Methodist  Church. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Board  was  grounded  in  a 
Disciplinary  statement  of  the  aim  of  missions — 

The  supreme  aim  of  missions  is  to  make  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
known  to  all  peoples  in  all  lands  as  their  divine  Saviour,  to 
persuade  them  to  become  his  disciples,  and  to  gather  these 
disciples  into  Christian  churches;  to  enlist  them  in  the  build- 
ing of  the  Kingdom  of  God;  to  cooperate  with  these  churches; 
to  promote  world  Christian  fellowship;  and  to  bring  to  bear 
on  all  human  life  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Christ. 


The  Constitutional  functions  of  the  Board  included  the 
following — 

( I )  to  help  persons  come  to  a  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
Savior  and  Lord  of  individuals  and  society;  ( 2 )  to  seek, 
as  an  agency  of  the  Christian  Church,  to  respond  to  God's 
action  in  Christ  through  engaging  in  religious,  educational, 
social,  medical,  and  agricultural  work,  in  every  part  of  the 
world,  and  to  promote  and  support  all  phases  of  missionary 
and  church  extension  activity  in  the  United  States  and  in  other 
countries;  (3)  to  aid  persons  to  live  and  act  as  Christians  in 
personal  life  and  in  the  social  order  of  all  lands  and  among 
all  peoples;  (4)  to  foster,  strengthen,  and  promote  missionary 
understanding,  interest,  and  zeal  throughout  The  Methodist 
Church.  .  .  .  [Daily  Christian  Advocate  (1960),  191]. 

The  Board's  administrative  authority  resided  in  the 
Board  of  Managers — a  large  body  (nearly  150  persons) 
of  bishops,  ministers,  and  laymen  which  met  annually, 
and  whose  interim  powers  were  delegated  to  a  General 
Executive  Committee.  The  Board's  chief  officers  were  a 
president.  General  Secretary,  and  a  treasurer. 

The  major  activities  of  the  Board  were  conducted 
through  three  divisions — the  World  Division,  the  National 
Division,  the  Woman's  Division — and  through  a  Joint 
Commission  on  Education  and  Cultivation.  These  groups 
were  raised  from  among  the  Board  members,  were  formal- 
ly organized,  and  were  under  the  executive  leadership  of 
their  respective  Associate  General  Secretaries. 

Each  Annual  Conference  maintained  a  Board  of  Mis- 
sions auxiliary  to  the  General  Board,  and  each  local 
church  had  a  Commission  on  Missions  auxiliary  to  the 
General  and  the  Annual  Conference  boards.  Auxiliaries  of 
the  Woman's  Division  (Woman's  Societies  of  Chris- 
tian Service)  were  organized  in  the  respective  Jurisdic- 
tions, Annual  Conferences,  and  local  churches. 

The  foreign  missions  were  administered  by  the  World 
Division.  Until  reorganization  of  the  Board  in  1964,  the 
Department  of  Work  in  Foreign  Fields  of  the  Woman's 
Division  also  administered  foreign  missions.  The  basic 
financing  of  the  work  of  the  World  Division  was  derived 
from  a  budgeted  share  of  the  Church's  apportioned  gen- 
eral benevolences  (which  are  administered  by  the  Coun- 
cil on  World  Service  and  Finance)  and  from  special 
gifts.  The  latter,  commonly  called  Advance  Specials,  ac- 
count for  about  fifty-four  percent  of  the  Division's  cur- 
rent income.  The  basic  income  of  the  Woman's  Division 
was  derived  from  gifts  originating  in  local-church  Wom- 
an's Society  of  Christian  Service  units.  The  two  Divisions 
conducted  their  promotional  and  missionary  education 
activities  in  cooperation  with  the  National  Division 
through  the  Joint  Commission.  Missionary  recruitment 
was  conducted  by  the  Board's  Joint  Committee  on  Mis- 
sionary Personnel. 

The  Board  published  two  general  monthly  periodicals, 
which  included  presentations  of  the  world  missions  cause 
— World  Outlook  (Joint  Commission)  and  The  Methodist 
Woman  (Woman's  Division). 

Since  1940,  the  Methodist  Committee  for  Overseas 
Relief  (MCOR),  an  agency  including  members  repre- 
senting the  Board,  supplemented  the  Board's  continuing 
foreign  program  by  relief,  rehabilitation,  and  refugee  re- 
settlement activities.  Within  the  span  of  years  since  it 
came  into  being  it  resettled  15,000  refugees  in  the  U.S., 
and  distributed  more  than  $24  million  in  aid  abroad. 

The  World  Division  and  the  National  Division  were 
represented  on  the  Church's  Crusade  Scholarship  Com- 
mittee, which  provided  financial  assistance  to  train    (in 

1639 


MISSIONS   AND   ORGANIZED   METHODIST   MISSIONARY   WORK 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


the  U.S.  and  elsewhere)  future  leaders  of  churches  in 
mission  fields.  After  World  War  II,  and  up  to  1964, 
1,400  students  from  sixty  countries  were  beneficiaries  of 
the  program.  The  basic  financing  was  provided  by  the 
annual  One  Great  Hour  of  Sharing  offering. 

For  mission  work  in  the  several  countries  references 
must  be  had  to  the  general  articles  under  these  countries. 
It  will  be  understood  that  changes  are  rapidly  taking 
place,  not  only  due  to  the  reorganization  of  The  Method- 
ist Church  when  it  became  The  United  Methodist  Church, 
but  epochal  moves  into  autonomy  which  have  taken  place 
in  various  nations  and  are  yet  taking  place. 

The  work  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  Latin  America 
will  be  found  listed  under  the  various  nations.  Cuba, 
Brazil,  and  Mexico  have  now  autonomous  Churches,  and 
in  Puerto  Rico  and  the  Dominican  Republic  the  National 
Division  of  Missions  administers  work.  This  is  likewise 
true  of  Alaska  and  Hawaii.  Africa  and  the  various  mission 
fields  of  Africa  are  treated  under  such  centers  as  Algeria 
and  Tunisia,  Liberia,  the  Congo,  and  certain  of  the  new 
nations  which  have  arisen  within  recent  years.  The  Africa 
Central  Conference  has  two  bishops,  resident  in  Salis- 
buiy  and  in  Lubumbashi  (former  Elisabethville),  re- 
spectively, the  latter  being  a  bishop  of  the  Northeastern 
Jurisdiction. 

Field  Work.  The  patterns  of  field  work  done  by  Board 
missionaries  have  always  been  varied.  The  chief  cate- 
gories were  church  development,  educational,  medical, 
social-economic-industrial,  agricultural-rural,  literature  and 
communications,  and  administrative.  Some  of  the  mis- 
sionaries did  several  kinds  of  field  work;  many  were 
specialists.  Young  people  were  assigned  to  some  fields  for 
three-year  terms  prior  to  commissioning  as  regular  mis- 
sionaries. Nearly  1,500  missionaries  were  assigned  to 
overseas  service.  Under  The  Methodist  Church  until  1964, 
about  one-third  of  them  were  under  the  direction  of  the 
Woman's  Division. 

Institutions.  The  Methodist  Church  participated  in  over 
a  score  of  colleges  and  universities.  Among  those  of 
Methodist  origin  are  Aoyama  Gakuin  (Tokyo),  Ewha 
University  (Seoul),  Soochow  University  Law  School 
(Taipei),  Lucknow  Christian  College,  and  Isabella 
Thobubn  College  (Lucknow),  the  first  Christian  college 
for  women  in  Asia.  There  were  several  junior  colleges  in 
Asia  and  South  America,  Colecio  Ward  (Buenos  Aires) 
and  Santiago  College  (Chile)  being  among  those 
founded  by  the  Methodists.  The  Church  was  active  in 
twenty-four  interdenominational  theological  seminaries, 
and  maintained  several  Methodist  seminaries.  It  supported 
college-level  teachers'  colleges  and  normal  schools  in  India 
and  one  each  in  Japan,  Korea,  and  Pakistan.  It  participated 
in  interdenomination  vocational  colleges — Allahabad 
Agricultural  Institute,  Ludhiana  Medical  College 
(India),  Yonsei  University  Medical  College  (Seoul), 
Vellore  Christian  Medical  College,  and  the  nurses'  train- 
ing colleges  of  the  last  two  institutions. 

The  Methodist  enterprise  included  a  score  of  schools 
for  Christian  workers  below  seminary  level,  Deaconess 
training  schools,  teacher  training  schools  on  the  secondary 
level  or  below,  and  about  300  secondary  or  pre-secondary 
schools  or  school  districts  in  twenty-four  countries.  Almost 
all  of  these  were  solely  Methodist  in  operation. 

There  were  thirty-nine  Methodist-sponsored  hospitals 
(a  quarter  of  them  interdenominational)  located  in  Africa, 
Korea,  Okinawa,  the  Philippines,  Sarawak,  India,  Pakistan, 
Nepal,   Bolivia,    and    Mexico,   half   of   them    maintaining 


nurses'  training  schools.  Clara  Swain  Hospital  (Meth.), 
Bareilly,  India,  founded  in  1870,  was  the  first  hospital  in 
Asia  for  women  and  children.  There  were  also  chnics, 
dispensaries,  and  medical  centers,  and  colonies  for  leprosy 
patients  (two-thirds  were  non-denominational). 

Methodist  institutional  work  overseas  also  included 
urban  social  centers,  rural  center  projects,  and  a  dozen 
printing  and  publishing  enterprises.  Jheir  publications 
included  periodicals  in  more  than  a  dozen  languages. 

Cooperative  Activity.  The  Methodist  missionary  move- 
ment participated  extensively,  both  at  home  and  on  the 
foreign  field,  in  many  types  of  interdenominational  activity 
and  cooperation,  and  in  the  major  phases  of  interchurch 
endeavor  out  of  which  the  ecumenical  movement  has 
grown  and  continues  to  express  itself.  The  Methodist 
Church  was  a  charter  member  of  the  National  Council 
OF  Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  and  of  the  World 
Council  of  Churches;  its  missionary  agencies  cooperated 
with  the  relevant  agencies  of  these  councils.  The  United 
Methodist  Church  continues  this  cooperation. 

THE  UNITED  METHODIST  CHURCH 
1968- 

In  1968  when  The  United  Methodist  Church  was 
organized  and  took  over  the  work  of  the  former  Methodist 
and  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Churches,  an  en- 
larged new  organization  was  called  for.  This  follows 
rather  generally — and  in  the  main  rather  closely — the 
organization  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  The  Methodist 
Church  as  it  has  been  delineated  above.  As  the  correlation 
of  work  in  the  various  mission  fields  is  still  proceeding, 
the  Book  of  Discipline  must  be  referred  to  for  all  orga- 
nizational changes  and  for  future  ones  as  these  may  be 
called  for.  The  mission  work  is  organized  under  the  name 
of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  The  United  Methodist  Church, 
and  its  headquarters  remain  in  New  York,  and  represent 
an  enlargement  of  the  Board's  offices  there  as  these  were 
carried  on  for  The  Methodist  Church. 

The  name  of  the  Woman's  Division  has  been  changed 
to  Women's  Division  and  the  Methodist  Committee  for 
Overseas  Relief  to  the  United  Methodist  Committee  for 
Overseas  Relief.  The  entire  organization  of  this  Board, 
as  well  as  of  other  boards  of  the  Church,  is  presently  under 
study  and  structural  changes  may  be  anticipated  in  the 
next  and  future  General  Conferences.  The  correlation 
of  the  mission  work  of  the  E.U.B.  Church  and  that  of 
The  Methodist  Chuich  is  now  proceeding,  and  that  is 
causing  administrative  changes  especially  in  the  mission 
fields  overseas  from  the  United  States.  The  autonomous 
Methodist  churches  which  are  organizing  in  various  lands 
also  have  great  bearing  upon  missionary  activity,  though 
in  almost  all  instances  a  close  tie  is  kept  between  the 
autonomous  Methodist  churches  of  these  lands  and  the 
respective  boards  of  missions  which  formerly  sponsored 
and  supported  them. 

Annual  Reports  of  the  various  Missions  bodies. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1949-57. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

J.  Cannon,  Southern  Methodist  Missions.  1926. 

Disciplines  of  the  various  branches  of  Methodism. 

Journals  of  the  General  Conferences. 

B.  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 

Minutes  of  the  various  Conferences. 

Burton  L.   Goddard,   ed.,   Encyclopedia   of  Modern   Christian 

Missions.  New  York:  Thomas  Nelson  and  Sons,  1967. 

N.  B.  H. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MISSISSIPPI 


MISSISSIPPI,  sometimes  called  the  "Magnolia  State,"  is 
in  the  south  central  part  of  the  United  States.  Its  name 
is  derived  from  the  Mississippi  River,  which  means 
"Father  of  Waters."  The  state  is  bounded  by  Tennessee 
on  the  north,  Alabama  on  the  east,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
and  Louisiana  on  the  south,  and  Louisiana  on  the  west. 
Its  area  is  47,716  square  miles,  and  in  1970  its  population 
was  2,158,872. 

Originally  inhabited  by  three  strong  Indian  tribes,  the 
Natchez  in  the  southwest,  the  Choctaws  in  the  center 
and  southeast,  and  the  Chickasaws  in  the  north,  Missis- 
sippi was  partly  explored  in  1540  by  de  Soto,  a  Spaniard, 
and  in  1673  by  Jacques  Marquette  and  Louis  Joliet  of 
France.  In  1682  la  Salle  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River  and  claimed  for  France  all  the  territory  drained 
by  the  river.  He  called  it  Louisiana  for  Louis  XIV.  In 
1699  the  French  established  Biloxi,  the  first  white  settle- 
ment in  Mississippi. 

At  the  end  of  the  Seven  Years  War  in  1763,  France 
ceded  to  Great  Britain  its  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River  with  the  exception  of  New  Orleans,  which  with  the 
vast  Louisiana  territory  of  the  west  went  to  Spain.  Fol- 
lowing the  Revolutionary  War  England  relinquished  her 
part  of  that  region  to  the  United  States.  However,  Spain 
took  military  possession  of  the  land  in  1781  and  did  not 
withdraw  its  troops  until  1798.  The  Mississippi  Territory 
of  the  United  States  was  then  organized,  and  in  1804  it 
was  extended  to  the  state  of  Tennessee  on  the  north  and 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  south;  it  was  restricted  on 
the  east  by  the  creation  of  the  Alabama  Territory.  In 
1817  Mississippi  was  admitted  to  the  Union  as  a  state, 
and,  after  a  series  of  settlements  with  the  Indians  cul- 
minating in  1832,  the  entire  state  was  opened  to  settlers 
who  then  poured  into  the  area.  On  Jan.  9,  1861,  Mississip- 
pi became  the  second  state  to  secede  from  the  Union.  It 
suffered  great  losses  during  the  Civil  War.  The  fall  of  its 
important  stronghold  of  Vicksburg  on  July  4,  1863  was 
a  disaster  for  the  South  and  an  important  victoiy  for  the 
North. 

Methodism  began  in  Mississippi  in  1799  when  Tobias 
Gibson  traveled  the  hazardous  trail  from  his  home  in 
South  Carolina  to  preach  to  a  few  settlers  in  and 
around  Natchez.  In  the  village  of  Washington,  near 
Natchez,  Gibson  organized  the  first  Methodist  congrega- 
tion west  of  Georgia  and  south  of  Tennessee.  In  1813 
the  Mississippi  Conference  was  organized.  At  the  time  it 
included  all  of  Mississippi  below  the  Indian  settlements  in 
the  north,  a  part  of  western  Alabama,  and  the  main  por- 
tions of  Louisiana.  Elizabeth  Female  Academy,  op- 
erated under  the  direction  of  the  Mississippi  Methodists 
at  Washington  from  1818  until  1847,  may  have  been  the 
first  chartered  institution  exclusively  for  the  higher  edu- 
cation of  women  in  America.  In  1832  the  Alabama  portion 
of  the  Mississippi  Conference,  along  with  Mississippi's 
eastern  tier  of  counties,  was  placed  in  the  newly  formed 
Alabama  Conference.  From  1837  to  1839  all  Meth- 
odist work  in  Texas  came  under  the  direction  of  the 
Mississippi  Conference.  Following  the  division  of  the 
church  in  1844,  the  Mississippi  Conference  adhered  South. 
In  January,  1847  the  Louisiana  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South  was  organized.  However,  the  east  portion 
of  Louisiana,  except  New  Orleans  and  Baton  Rouge, 
remained  in  the  Mississippi  Conference  until  1894. 

Methodism  in  northern  Mississippi  began  in  1819  when 
Ebenezer  Hearn  was  appointed  by  the  Tennessee  Con- 


ference to  the  Buttahatchie  Circuit.  The  exact  bound- 
aries of  the  circuit  are  not  known,  but  it  covered  five 
counties  in  Alabama  and  extended  into  northeast  Missis- 
sippi. A  barrier  of  Indians  in  north  Mississippi  kept  the 
work  of  the  Mississippi  Conference  from  extending  farther 
northward  in  the  early  years.  Beginning  in  1821,  however, 
circuit  riders  from  the  Mississippi  Conference  penetrated 
the  northern  part  of  the  state.  In  1870  the  North  Missis- 
sippi Conference  (MES)  was  formed. 

After  the  Civil  War  the  M.E.  Church  followed  the 
occupation  forces  into  the  South,  forming  churches  among 
Negroes  and  among  some  of  the  whites.  In  1865  the 
Northern  church  organized  the  Mississippi  Mission  Con- 
ference, which  was  made  up  mostly  of  Negroes;  its  ter- 
ritory included  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas.  Four 
years  later  this  body  was  divided  to  form  the  Mississippi 
Conference  which  included  only  the  state  of  Mississippi. 
The  Negro  work  grew  rapidly,  and  in  1891  the  Mississippi 
Conference  itself  was  divided  to  form  the  Upper  Mis- 
sissippi Conference.  Both  conferences  were  continued 
in  the  Central  Jurisdiction  in  1939. 

In  1870,  the  year  the  C.M.E.  Church  was  organized, 
it  formed  a  conference  in  Mississippi.  Today  this  denomi- 
nation has  two  conferences  in  the  state — Mississippi  and 
Upper  Mississippi.  The  A. M.E.  Church  and  the  A. M.E. 
ZiON  Church  have  established  work  in  Mississippi.  Or- 
ganized in  the  north  in  1816  and  1820,  respectively,  these 
churches  moved  into  the  South  following  the  Civil  War 
and  vigorously  evangehzed  among  the  Negroes.  Today 
the  A. M.E.  Zion  Church  has  two  conferences  in  Missis- 
sippi— South  Mississippi,  and  West  Tennessee  and  Mis- 
sissippi. The  A. M.E.  Church  also  has  two  conferences 
in  the  state — North  Mississippi  and  Mississippi. 

Methodist  Protestantism  began  in  Mississippi  as 
early  as  1828,  and  it  organized  a  Mississippi  Conference 
in  1841  with  Elisha  Lott  as  president.  The  Texas  Con- 
ference was  set  off  from  the  Mississippi  Conference  in 
1848,  and  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  in  1854.  In 
1870  the  Mississippi  Conference  voted  to  unite  with  the 
Mississippi  Conference  (MES),  and  seven  M.P.  preach- 
ers were  received  as  itinerants  in  that  body.  The  next 
year  the  Mississippi  Conference  (MP)  started  over 
again  with  one  itinerant  and  four  laymen,  and  thereafter 
it  grew  steadily  if  slowly;  within  a  decade  it  had  about 
1,000  members  and  by  the  turn  of  the  century  about 
3,000.  The  two  conferences  continued  until  unification 
in  1939.  Shortly  before  unification,  the  North  Mississippi 
Conference  reported  eleven  charges,  twenty  churches,  and 
1,340  members.  The  Mississippi  Conference  had  fifty  min- 
isters, twenty-six  charges,  seventy-two  church  buildings, 
and  4,898  members.  However,  twenty-one  preachers  and 
sixteen  churches  chose  not  to  enter  The  Methodist 
Church. 

Today  the  Mississippi  and  the  North  Mississippi  Con- 
ferences of  The  United  Methodist  Church  divide  the  state 
between  them.  On  the  abolition  of  the  Central  Jurisdiction 
in  1968,  the  Mississippi  and  Upper  Mississippi  Confer- 
ences were  placed  temporarily  in  the  Jackson  Area  of  the 
Southeastern  Jurisdiction  pending  merger. 

Mississippi  Methodism  supports  three  colleges:  Mill- 
saps  at  Jackson,  Wood  Junior  College  at  Mathiston, 
and  Rust  at  Holly  Springs.  It  also  maintains  a  number  of 
hospitals,  homes,  camps,  and  Wesley  Foundations.  In 
1968  the  four  Mississippi  conferences  had  a  total  of 
twenty  districts,  671  charges,  and  approximately  219,618 


MISSISSIPPI    CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


members.  Their  church  property  including  parsonages  was 
valued  at  $81,287,316. 

J.  B.  Cain,  Mississippi  Conference.  1939. 
General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC. 
W.  L.  Hamrick,  Mississippi  Conference  (MP).  1957. 
J.  G.  Jones,  Mississippi.  1908 
W.  B.  Jones,  Mississippi  Conference.  1951. 
J.  A.  Lindsey,  Mississippi  Conference.  1964. 
G.  R.  Miller,  North  Mississippi.  1966. 

Minutes  of  the  Mississippi  and  North  Mississippi  Conferences. 

J.  B.  Cain 

MISSISSIPPI  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at  the  home 
of  Newit  Vick,  a  preacher  who  was  not  a  conference 
member  at  the  time,  on  Nov.  1,  1813.  The  location  was 
about  five  miles  southwest  of  Fayette  in  Jefferson  County. 
It  was  planned  that  either  Bishop  Asbury  or  Bishop 
McKendbee  would  come  from  the  Tennessee  Confer- 
ence, which  met  on  October  3,  and  preside  at  the  organi- 
zation of  the  new  conference  which  was  to  be  composed  of 
the  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  preachers,  but  because  of 
Indian  troubles  in  Alabama  and  Mississippi  the  brethren 
in  Tennessee  practically  forbade  the  bishops  to  risk  the 
journey.  Consequently  Samuel  Sellers  presided  at  the  first 
session  of  the  Mississippi  Conference  and  William 
Winans  acted  as  secretary.  Ten  preachers  were  present. 
As  it  turned  out,  due  to  the  War  of  1812  and  danger  from 
the  Indians,  no  bishop  attended  a  session  of  the  Mississippi 
Conference  until  Oct.  10,  1816  when  it  met  at  the  home 
of  William  Foster  on  Pine  Ridge  seven  miles  north  of 
Natchez,  with  Bishop  Robert  R.  Roberts  presiding.  Dur- 
ing those  first  three  years  conference  members  served  as 
president,  substituting  for  the  bishop  in  every  capacity 
except  the  ordination  of  preachers. 

When  Methodist  work  began  in  Mississippi  it  was  a  part 
of  the  Western  Conference.  Beginning  in  1806  there 
was  a  Mississippi  District  in  the  conference.  Learner 
Blackman  serving  as  the  first  presiding  elder.  In  1812 
the  Western  Conference  was  divided  to  form  the  Tennes- 
see Conference,  the  latter  to  include  the  Mississippi  Dis- 
trict and  several  other  districts  to  the  north.  In  creating 
the  Tennessee  Conference,  the  1812  General  Conference 
authorized  the  bishops  to  form  another  annual  conference 
"down  the  Mississippi"  any  time  during  the  next  four 
years  "if  they  find  it  to  be  necessary."  Such  was  the 
authority  for  the  formation  of  the  Mississippi  Conference 
in  1813. 

According  to  the  1816  Discipline,  the  Mississippi  Con- 
ference included  "all  the  state  of  Louisiana  south  of  the 
Arkansas  [River],  and  all  the  Mississippi  Territory  south  of 
the  Tennessee  River."  What  is  now  Alabama  was  a  part 
of  the  conference.  When  formed  in  1813  the  Mississippi 
Conference  reported  seven  charges  and  1,067  white  and 
240  colored  members.  The  total  membership  nearly 
doubled  the  next  year,  but  in  1816  the  figures  were  1,531 
white  and  410  colored  members. 

By  1819  the  Mississippi  Conference  had  grown  to  three 
districts,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Alabama,  and  it  re- 
ported 2,170  white  and  361  Negro  members.  In  1832 
the  Alabama  Conference  was  organized  to  include 
Alabama  south  of  the  Tennessee  River  and  the  eastern 
tier  of  counties  in  Mississippi.  In  1837  the  Mississippi 
Conference  was  enlarged  to  include  Texas  within  its 
bounds,  an  arrangement  which  continued  until  1840  when 
the  Texas  Conference  was   formed.  When  the   M.   E. 


Church  was  divided  in  1844  the  Mississippi  Conference  of 
course  adhered  South. 

In  December,  184.5,  the  districts  were  rearranged  and 
the  appointments  made  in  readiness  for  the  creation  of 
the  Louisiana  Conference  by  the  1846  General  Con- 
ference. Louisiana,  east  of  the  Mississippi  River,  except 
for  the  cities  of  New  Orleans  and  Baton  Rouge,  remained 
in  the  Mississippi  Conference  until  1894. 

In  1853  when  the  Mississippi  Conference  was  forty 
years  old  it  had  fifty-six  charges  and  14,258  white  and 
10,071  colored  members.  In  that  year  James  W.  Lambuth, 
father  of  Bishop  Walter  R.  Lambuth,  joined  the  con- 
ference, and  volunteered  as  a  missionary  for  China;  he 
did  pioneer  work  in  the  Orient  for  nearly  forty  years. 

The  M.  E.  Church,  South  began  publishing  the  New 
Orlear}s  Christian  Advocate  in  1851.  It  soon  became  the 
official  organ  of  the  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  Confer- 
ences and  continued  as  such  until  1946  when  the  Missis- 
sippi Conference  joined  the  North  Mississippi  (confer- 
ence in  publishing  the  Mississippi  Methodist  Advocate. 
Through  the  years  several  Mississippi  preachers  served  as 
editor  of  the  New  Orleans  paper,  among  them  Charles 
B.  Galloway  and  J.  Lloyd  Decell,  who  later  became 
bishops. 

The  Mississippi  Conference  was  interested  in  education, 
supporting  or  patronizing  through  the  years  prior  to  1870 
some  sixteen  academies  and  colleges.  Elizabeth  Female 
Academy  (1818-1847)  at  Washington  near  Natchez,  may 
have  been  the  first  school  in  America  chartered  exclusively 
for  the  higher  education  of  women.  In  recognition  of  the 
academy's  priority  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion have  placed  a  marker  on  its  original  site.  Port  Gibson 
Female  Academy  began  in  1826  and  continued  until  1929. 
Sharon  and  Madison  Colleges  flourished  before  the  Civil 
War.  Centenary  College,  now  at  Shrevepobt,  La.,  was 
started  by  the  Mississippi  Conference  at  Brandon  Springs, 
Miss.,  in  1841.  It  was  soon  moved  to  Jackson,  La.,  which 
was  within  the  bounds  of  the  Mississippi  Conference 
until  1894.  The  two  conferences  jointly  supported  Cen- 
tenary until  1892,  when  Mississippi  Methodism  estab- 
lished Millsaps  College.  The  Mississippi  Conference 
operated  Whitworth  College  for  women  at  Brookhaven 
from   1859  to  1938  when  it  was  merged  with  Millsaps. 

In  1888  the  Mississippi  Conference  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  confer  with  the  North  Mississippi  Conference 
on  establishing  a  Methodist  college  in  Mississippi.  Four 
years  later  the  school,  named  for  R.  W.  Millsaps,  whose 
liberal  donations  helped  to  launch  it,  opened  at  Jackson. 
Today  it  is  a  strong  Methodist  college.  Two  of  its  presi- 
dents, both  members  of  the  North  Mississippi  Confer- 
ence, have  been  elected  bishop,  W.  B.  Murrah  in  1910 
and  H.  Ellis  Finger,  Jr.  in  1964.  Another  president, 
A.  F.  Watkins,  was  secretary  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence from  1910  to  1926.  The  conference  has  given  sup- 
port to  Paine  College,  Augusta,  Ga. 

In  1913  at  the  end  of  its  first  century  the  Mississippi 
Conference  had  seven  districts,  160  charges,  568  churches, 
and  55,133  members.  At  unification  in  1939  there  were 
194  preachers,  161  charges,  521  churches,  and  81,470 
members.  These  joined  with  seventeen  preachers,  seventy- 
three  churches,  and  4,816  members  of  the  Mississippi 
Conference  (MP)  to  form  the  Mississippi  Conference  of 
The  Methodist  Church. 

Through  the  years  the  Mississippi  Conference  has  had 
a  number  of  able  leaders.  Prior  to  the  Civil  War  the  two 
outstanding  men  in  the  conference  were  William  Winans 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MISSISSIPPI    MISSION    CONFERENCE 


(1788-1857)  and  Benjamin  M.  Drake  (1800-1860). 
Drake  was  a  member  of  every  General  Conference  from 
1828  until  his  death.  He  worked  in  the  General  Confer- 
ence for  higher  educational  standards  for  the  Methodist 
ministry.  Charles  B.  Galloway,  elected  bishop  at  thirty- 
six,  was  the  premier  pulpit  orator  in  American  Methodism. 
J.  T.  Leggett,  presiding  elder  for  twenty-two  years,  and 
Bishop  J.  Lloyd  Decell  were  outstanding  conference 
leaders  in  the  twentieth  century.  Bishop  Nolan  B.  Har- 
mon, though  not  a  member  of  the  conference,  was  bom 
at  Meridian  and  graduated  from  Millsaps  College. 

At  the  present  time  the  conference  supports  Millsaps 
College  in  Jackson  and  Wood  Junior  College  at  Math- 
iston;  the  Methodist  Hospital  at  Hattiesburg  and  the  pro- 
posed Mississippi  Methodist  Hospital  at  Jackson;  the 
Methodist  Children's  Home  at  Jackson;  the  Seashore 
Methodist  Assembly  and  the  Seashore  Manor  on  the 
Gulf  coast;  Camp  Wesley  Pines;  and  Wesley  Founda- 
tions at  the  state  schools. 

In  1970  the  Mississippi  Conference  had  six  districts, 
Brookhaven,  Hattiesburg,  Jackson,  Meridian,  Seashore, 
and  Vicksburg.  It  reported  335  ministers,  302  charges, 
105,431  members,   and  property  valued  at  $44,750,264. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Mississippi  Conference. 

J.  G.  Jones,  Mississippi.  1908. 

J.  B.  Cain,  Mississippi  Conference.  1939.  J.  B.  Cain 

MISSISSIPPI  CONFERENCE  (ME,  1868)  was  created  by 
the  1868  General  Conference  by  dividing  the  Mis- 
sissippi Mission  Conference.  The  new  conference  was 
organized  at  Canton,  Miss.,  Jan.  7,  1869  with  Bishop 
Matthew  Simpson  presiding.  This  conference  is  not  to 
be  confused  with  the  Mississippi  Conference  which  was 
organized  in  1813  and  which  became  the  Mississippi 
Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  after  the  division 
in  1844. 

At  its  organization  in  1869,  the  Mississippi  Conference 
reported  two  districts — Jackson  and  Holly  Springs — 
twenty-seven  charges,  8,732  members,  2,219  probationers, 
and  sixteen  church  buildings  and  five  parsonages  valued 
at  $32,035.  By  1872  there  were  over  28,000  members 
including  probationers.  Thereafter  growth  was  moderate; 
in  1890  the  conference  reported  152  charges  and  a  total 
of  31,603  members.  The  next  year  the  conference  was 
divided  to  form  the  Upper  Mississippi  Co.nference.  The 
division  left  the  Mississippi  Conference  with  three  dis- 
tricts and  about  15,000  members. 

In  1939  the  Mississippi  Conference  became  a  part  of 
the  Central  Jurisdiction  of  The  Methodist  Church.  At  that 
time  it  had  five  districts,  102  charges,  and  21,981  mem- 
bers. The  conference  supports  Rust  College  at  Holly 
Springs.  In  1967  the  appropriation  for  the  college  from 
conference  funds  was  $975. 

Gulf  side  Assembly  at  Waveland,  Miss.,  is  within  the 
bounds  of  the  Mississippi  Conference.  Gulfside  has  served 
as  the  summer  assembly  of  the  Central  Jurisdiction.  It  is 
a  thirty-acre  tract  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  facility 
has  a  three-story  inn  with  dormitory  accommodations  and 
a  cafeteria,  a  two-story  hall,  two  lodges,  five  cottages,  a 
snack  shop,  and  an  auditorium  which  wiU  seat  1,000.  Also, 
there  is  an  administration  building  with  offices,  class 
rooms,  and  a  library.  All  of  this  property  was  badly 
damaged,  and  some  of  it  destroyed  by  the  great  hurricane 
of  the  late  summer  of  1969. 


In  1967  the  Mississippi  Conference  reported  four  dis- 
tricts, 69  ministers,  82  charges,  22,191  members  and 
property  valued  at  $3,357,404.  On  the  abolition  of  the 
Central  Jurisdiction  in  1968,  the  conference  was  placed 
in  the  Jackson  Area  of  the  Southeastern  Jurisdiction  pend- 
ing merger. 

General  Minutes,  ME  and  TMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Mississippi  Conference.  Frederick  E.  Maser 

MISSISSIPPI  METHODIST  ADVOCATE,  THE  a  sixteen- 
page  weekly  newspaper,  is  an  integral  part  of  Mississippi 
Methodism.  Published  in  Jackson,  Miss.,  it  is  the  official 
organ  of  the  Jackson  Area  composed  of  the  Mississippi 
and  North  Mississippi  Conferences. 

The  Advocate  is  used  by  the  bishop,  the  cabinets,  con- 
ference boards  and  commissions,  pastors,  laymen,  the 
Woman's  Society  and  the  Methodist  Youth  Fellow- 
ship for  promotion  of  the  work  of  the  church  in  Missis- 
sippi. It  gathers  news  of  Methodist  activities  from  all  over 
the  world  and  records  the  progress,  efforts  and  achieve- 
ments of  churches  at  home.  Through  its  pages,  the  aims, 
purposes,  needs  and  activities  of  Mississippi  Methodist 
institutions,  colleges,  hospitals  and  homes,  are  constantly 
kept  before  the  readers.  Church  school  teachers  gain  help 
through  the  lessons  prepared  by  ministers  from  the  area. 
The  paper  memorializes  the  honored  dead. 

The  Mississippi  Methodist  Advocate,  the  successor  to 
the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate,  which  sei"V'ed  Meth- 
odism in  the  South  for  more  than  one  hundred  years,  was 
established  in  June  1947.  C.  T.  Howell  of  Birmingham, 
Ala.,  was  the  first  editor  (1947-1955).  The  new  paper 
was  sixteen  pages  (44  x  60  picas)  and  published  by  Oliver 
Emmerick  of  McComb.  Later  the  printing  contract  was 
taken  over  by  Tombigbee  Printing  Company  of  Jackson. 
The  organ  struggled  under  financial  difficulties  during  its 
growing  years. 

In  1955,  Samuel  E.  Ashmore  of  the  North  Mississippi 
Conference  was  appointed  editor.  The  Advocate  office 
was  located  in  the  Science  building  at  Millsaps  College. 
In  1957  the  office  moved  to  the  new  Methodist  Building. 
Today  Thornton  Publishers  do  the  printing  and  mailing 
of  the  periodical  which  is  57  x  81  picas. 

."^NN  L.  Ashmore 


MISSISSIPPI  MISSION  CONFERENCE  (ME),  composed 
largely  of  colored  ministers  and  churches,  was  organized 
at  New  Orleans,  La.,  Dec.  25,  1865.  Its  territory  in- 
cluded Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas.  At  the  begin- 
ning the  conference  had  four  districts — New  Orleans, 
Opelousas,  Mississippi,  and  Texas — and  there  were  six- 
teen preachers,  2,692  members,  and  five  churches  \alued 
at  $47,000.  The  next  year  the  Texas  work  was  set  off  as 
the  Texas  Mission  Conference,  though  that  group  did  not 
meet  to  organize  until  January  1867. 

The  1868  General  Conference  divided  the  Missis- 
sippi Mission  Conference  to  form  the  Louisiana  and  Mis- 
sissippi Conferences  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  When  they  met 
for  organization  in  January  1869,  the  two  conferences  to- 
gether reported  a  total  of  more  than  23.500  members  in- 
cluding probationers,  an  indication  of  how  rapidly  the 
M.  E.  Church  grew  among  the  Negroes  in  tlie  South 
following  the  Civil  War. 


General  Minutes,   MEC. 


Frederick   E.    Maser 
1643 


MISSOULA,    MONTANA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


MISSOULA,  MONTANA,  U.S.A.  First  Church  was  one  of 

the  pioneer  churches  of  the  northwest.  The  first  Methodist 
minister  to  reach  Missoula  was  George  Comfort,  who  came 
in  1869;  and  his  successor  as  superintendent  was  J.  A. 
Van  Anda.  But  the  first  regularly  appointed  pastor  was 
Thomas  C.  Iliff,  in  1871.  He  served  three  years,  or- 
ganized a  church  for  the  one  or  two  hundred  whites  there, 
and  built  a  church  which  was  dedicated  on  Sept.  15, 
1872.  The  cost  was  $2,300;  and  $500  of  that  amount  was 
the  gift  of  the  pastor,  and  another  $500  was  borrowed 
from  the  Church  Extension  Society,  At  the  time,  it  was 
the  only  Protestant  church  building  between  Helena  and 
Walla  Walla.  Hugh  Duncan  was  the  next  pastor;  he 
stayed  only  one  year,  and  the  church  was  then  without  a 
pastor  for  a  period,  served  by  supply  pastors  from  time  to 
time;  among  them  Francis  Riggin  and  W.  W.  Van 
Orsdel  (Brother  Van), 

Brother  Van  reorganized  the  church  on  May  22,  1892. 
Only  one  of  the  original  members  was  there,  Mrs.  W.  H. 
H.  Dickinson.  She  lived  to  participate  in  the  semi-centen- 
nial celebration  in  1921.  She  was  the  first  school  teacher 
in  Missoula  county,  and  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Dickinson 
was  the  first  Protestant  marriage  ceremony  in  western 
Montana.  One  of  Missoula's  public  schools  is  named  for 
her. 

During  the  90's,  the  financial  crisis  nearly  ended  the 
life  of  the  church.  A  heavy  debt  finally  led  the  Church 
Extension  Society  to  vote  to  sell  the  property  to  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church;  but  Francis  Riggin  made 
the  trip  to  Philadelphia  at  his  own  expense  and  per- 
suaded the  Society  to  abandon  this  plan,  to  accept  one- 
half  of  the  amount  as  full  payment,  and  persuaded  the 
preachers  at  the  Conference  session  to  contribute  the 
money  to  pay  off  the  debt. 

J.  W.  Bennet  returned  to  Missoula  for  a  second  pastor- 
ate in  1910  and  pushed  through  a  plan  to  build  a  new 
church.  It  was  built  at  a  cost  of  $50,000  and  dedicated  by 
Thomas  C.  Iliff,  forty  years  after  he  had  built  the  first 
church.  At  the  time,  it  was  the  most  pretentious  structure 
yet  erected  by  Montana  Methodists.  It  was  an  Akron-plan 
structure,  and  served  the  congregation  until  1956.  Trinity 
M.  E.  Church,  South  was  merged  with  First  M.  E.  Church 
in  19.39;  and  at  about  the  same  time,  the  Wesley  Founda- 
tion at  the  University  of  Montana  was  organized  and  has 
continued  to  be  a  major  emphasis  of  the  church  program. 

In  1957,  a  new  sanctuary  was  built  at  the  same  site 
and  using  the  lots  foiTnerly  occupied  by  the  parsonage. 
The  cost  of  the  new  parsonage,  new  pipe  organ  and  re- 
modeled building  was  nearly  $400,000.  Eight  years  later 
the  present  plant  was  completed  by  the  erection  of  an 
educational  wing  at  the  cost  of  $1,000,000.  The  present 
membership  of  First  Church  is  1,455;  a  new  church,  St. 
John,  has  been  organized  by  Missoula  Methodists  and  is 
serving  a  growing  congregation  in  the  city. 

E.  L.  Mills,  Plains,  Peaks  and  Pioneers.  1947. 

Hugh  S.  Hehbeht 

MISSOURI  is  in  the  center  of  seventeen  states  located  in 
the  great  Mississippi  Valley.  The  state  takes  its  name  from 
its  largest  river  which  in  turn  was  named  for  a  tribe  of 
Indians  that  once  lived  near  the  river's  mouth.  The  state's 
area  is  69,674  square  miles,  and  in  1970  its  population  was 
over  4,630,000. 

The  first  white  settlers  in  Missouri  were  the  French. 
They  established  St.   Genevieve  in   1735  and  St.   Louis 


in  1764.  Spanish  rule  began  in  1771.  In  1800  the  region 
went  back  to  France,  and  the  United  States  acquired  it  in 
the  Louisiana  Purchase  of  1803. 

Missouri  became  a  territory  in  1812  and,  under  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise,  it  entered  the  Union  as  a  slave  state 
in  1821.  As  a  border  state  in  the  Civil  War,  about  50,000 
of  its  men  were  in  the  Southern  armies  and  some  100,000 
in  the  Northern  forces. 

Methodism  entered  Missouri  in  the  late  summer  of 
1798.  John  Clark,  a  Scotsman  who  came  to  Illinois 
via  Georgia,  preached  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in  Mis- 
souri near  Herculaneum  from  a  boat  tied  to  a  rock  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  River.  In  1805,  following  a 
camp  meeting  conducted  at  Spanish  Pond,  Clark  formed 
a  Methodist  class,  and  in  January  of  the  following  year 
he  organized  a  second  class  at  Patterson.  Clark  later  joined 
the  Baptists. 

In  1805,  William  McKendree,  presiding  elder  in  the 
Western  Conference,  sent  Joseph  Oglesby  into  Mis- 
souri on  a  reconnaisance  tour.  On  his  return  Oglesby 
reported  that  there  were  200  likely  prospects  for  Meth- 
odism in  the  region.  Encouraged  by  Oglesby's  report,  the 
Western  Conference  appointed  John  Travis  to  the  Missouri 
Circuit  in  1806.  After  a  year  of  work  Travis  reported  the 
establishment  of  two  circuits,  the  Missouri  and  the 
Meramec,  with  100  white  and  six  colored  members. 

The  first  Methodist  church  in  Missouri  was  organized 
in  1807  at  Coldwater  near  St.  Louis  by  William  McKen- 
dree, John  Travis,  and  Jesse  Walker.  There  were  thirty- 
nine  members,  most  of  them  coming  from  the  two  classes 
previously  formed  by  John  Clark.  Methodist  classes  were 
organized  at  Mt.  Zion  near  St.  Louis  in  1806,  Cape 
Girardeau  and  the  site  of  McKendree  Chapel  in  1809, 
New  Madrid  in  1810,  and  Fredericktown  in  1811.  New 
Madrid  and  Fredericktown  are  the  two  oldest  continuing 
Methodist  congregations  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
By  1811  there  were  five  Methodist  circuits  in  Missouri 
with  480  white  and  thirty-two  colored  members. 

Shiloh  Church,  the  first  Methodist  meetinghouse  west 
of  the  Mississippi  River,  was  built  between  1810  and  1814 
in  Bellevue  Valley  some  seventy-five  miles  south  of  St. 
Louis.  In  1819  McKendree  Chapel,  made  of  hewn  poplar 
logs,  was  erected  near  Jackson.  The  original  structure 
still  stands,  and  it  is  recognized  as  the  oldest  Protestant 
church  building  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  The  1960 
General  Conference  designated  it  as  a  national  Meth- 
odist Historic  Shrine. 

The  Missouri  Conference  was  organized  by  Bishop 
McKendree  at  Shiloh  Meetinghouse  near  Belleville,  111., 
in  1816.  At  the  time  the  conference  included  Missouri, 
Arkansas,  Illinois,  and  eastern  Indiana. 

The  early  circuit  riders  bypassed  St.  Louis  for  several 
reasons.  For  one  thing,  the  Protestant  immigrants,  the 
people  most  receptive  to  Methodism's  evangelistic  mes- 
sage, were  settling  mostly  on  farms  in  the  rural  areas,  and 
there  was  plenty  of  work  to  do  among  them.  Second,  the 
Methodist  preachers  of  that  day  felt  unprepared  educa- 
tionally or  otherwise  to  win  converts  and  establish 
churches  in  the  cities  generally.  Third,  the  prospects  in 
St.  Louis  were  particularly  discouraging  because  many  of 
its  citizens  were  Roman  Catholics  while  many  others  were 
godless  adventurers  given  to  vice  and  lawlessness.  To  as- 
sault such  a  citadel  of  wickedness  seemed  inadvisable  if 
not  foolish.  But  avoidance  of  St.  Louis  was  not  to  con- 
tinue indefinitely.  In  1811,  five  years  after  John  Travis 
had   been   appointed   as   the  first   Methodist   itinerant   in 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Missouri,  George  Colbert  preached  occasionally  in  St. 
Louis,  as  did  Jesse  Walker  in  the  years  immediately 
following.  Then  in  1817  John  Scripps  made  St.  Louis 
a  preaching  point  on  the  Coldwater  Circuit  which  he 
was  serving.  Finally,  in  1821  the  Missouri  Conference, 
deciding  that  it  was  time  to  make  a  serious  attempt  to 
establish  a  church  in  St.  Louis,  appointed  Jesse  Walker  as 
conference  missionary.  The  intrepid  Walker  organized  a 
congregation  and  erected  a  building  on  Fourth  Street 
in  1822,  the  first  Protestant  church  edifice  in  the  city. 
The  Missouri  Conference  met  in  St.  Louis  that  year  for  the 
first  time  in  its  history.  Walker  reported  ninety-five  white 
and  thirty-two  colored  members.  In  1839  the  Negroes 
built  their  own  church  in  St.  Louis,  probably  the  first 
Negro  Methodist  church  in  Missouri. 

In  1830  the  Missouri  Conference  organized  a  mission- 
ary society  and  sent  two  of  its  ablest  men,  Thomas  John- 
son and  his  brother  William,  as  missionaries  to  the 
Shawnee  and  the  Kansa  Indians,  thus  beginning  a  success- 
ful work  among  Indians  which  led  to  the  organization  of 
the  Indian  Mission  Conference  in  1844. 

After  the  division  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1844,  the 
Missouri  Conference  adhered  South.  For  the  time  being 
this  left  the  M.E.  Church  with  no  organized  work  in  the 
state.  In  1846  the  Missouri  Conference  (MES)  was  di- 
vided, the  area  south  of  the  Missouri  River  becoming  the 
St.  Louis  Conference.  In  1871  the  southwest  quarter  of 
the  state  was  set  off  as  the  West  St.  Louis  Conference,  the 
name  being  changed  to  the  Southwest  Missouri  Con- 
ference in  1874.  These  three  conferences  were  continued 
intact  until  Methodist  unification  in  1939. 

In  1848  the  M.E.  Church  re-entered  Missouri,  forming 
the  Missouri  Conference  which  included  Missouri, 
Arkansas,  and  territory  to  the  west.  In  1852  the  name  was 
changed  to  the  Missouri  and  Arkansas  Conference.  The 
ne.xt  year  this  body  was  divided  to  form  an  Arkansas 
Conference  and  a  Missouri  Conference,  the  latter  includ- 
ing most  of  Missouri,  and  Kansas  and  Nebr.\ska.  In  the 
next  few  years  several  changes  in  names  and  boundaries  of 
conferences  were  made.  Then  in  1869  the  work  in  north 
Missouri  was  designated  as  the  Missouri  Conference  and 
that  in  south  Missouri  and  Arkansas  as  the  St.  Louis  Con- 
ference. There  was  an  Arkansas  Conference  from  1873  to 
1920,  when  it  merged  with  the  St.  Louis  Conference. 
Then  from  1931  to  1939  the  Missouri  Conference  again 
included  all  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas.  In  1886  the  M.E. 
Church  organized  the  Central  Missouri  Conference  to  in- 
clude its  Negro  work  in  the  state.  In  1928  this  conference 
absorbed  a  part  of  the  Lincoln  Conference  (the  latter  had 
covered  several  states)  to  form  the  Central  West  Con- 
ference. 

The  M.E.  Church,  South  established  the  St.  Louis 
Christian  Advocate  in  1851.  An  influential  paper,  it  con- 
tinued until  1928.  The  Central  Christian  Advocate  began 
as  a  private  enterprise  in  1854  and  was  made  an  official 
organ  by  the  M.E.  Church  General  Conference  in 
1856.  It  continued  until  Methodist  unification. 

Other  branches  of  Methodism  had  work  in  Missouri. 
The  Methodist  Protestants  came  into  Missouri  as  early 
as  1836,  and  fonmed  in  1850  the  Missouri  Conference 
which  continued  until  unification  in  1939.  In  1852,  how- 
ever, the  M.P.  work  was  divided  to  form  the  Platte  Con- 
ference in  the  northwest  part  of  the  state.  In  1867  the 
Platte  Conference  was  superseded  by  the  North  Missouri 
Conference  which  in  1916  merged  with  the  Iowa  Con- 
ference to   form   the   Iowa-Missouri   Conference.    At   the 


time  of  unification  there  were  sixty  M.P.  churches  in 
Missouri  with  some  4,000  members. 

German  Methodism  began  in  Missouri  in  1841  when 
the  M.E.  Church  appointed  Ludwig  S.  Jacoby  as  a  mis- 
sionary among  the  Germans  of  St.  Louis.  In  spite  of  perse- 
cutions from  the  secular  Germans  of  the  city,  Jacoby 
organized  a  congregation  of  forty  and  soon  had  it  housed 
in  a  small  frame  church.  Opposed  to  slavery,  the  Germans 
adhered  North  after  the  division  of  1844.  Between  1845 
and  1850  German  work  in  Missouri  developed  rapidly. 
There  were  about  50,000  Germans  in  the  state,  and  Ger- 
man circuits  were  established  in  communities  along  the 
Mississippi  and  Missouri  Rivers.  In  later  years  St.  Louis 
became  an  important  center  of  German  Methodism. 

These  German  churches  were  in  the  English-speaking 
conferences  until  1864  when  the  General  Conference 
authorized  German  language  conferences.  In  1879  the 
St.  Louis  Germa.v  Conference,  including  east  Missouri, 
south  Illinois,  and  south  Iowa,  was  organized  by  dividing 
the  Southwest  German  Conference.  In  1925  the  St.  Louis 
GeiTTian  Conference  merged  with  the  overlying  confer- 
ences of  the  M.E.  Church. 

The  A. M.E.  Church,  the  A. M.E.  Zion  Church,  and 
the  C.M.E.  Church  began  work  in  Missouri  in  the  nine- 
teenth centuiy.  In  1840  the  A. M.E.  Church  organized  the 
Indiana  Conference  which  included  Missouri  and  several 
other  states  north  and  south  in  its  boundaries.  The  con- 
ference territory  was  too  vast  for  effective  work,  especially 
since  it  included  both  free  and  slave  states,  a  situation 
which  created  problems  for  free  ministers  appointed  to 
churches  in  the  South.  In  1852,  the  Missouri  Conference 
was  created  to  include  all  churches  of  the  denomination 
in  the  slave-holding  states  of  the  West  and  South.  The 
work  prospered  and  by  1956  there  were  three  A. M.E.  con- 
ferences operating  in  Missouri:  Missouri,  North  Missouri, 
and  Southwest  Missouri. 

The  A. M.E.  Zion  Church  organized  the  Missouri  Con- 
ference in  1890.  By  1906  it  had  eleven  churches  and 
1,765  members.  Ten  years  later  there  were  sixteen 
chuiches  and  over  4,000  members.  In  mid-century  the 
conference  had  about  twenty  churches  in  the  state  and 
a  vital  community  program  in  St.  Louis. 

The  C.M.E.  Church,  though  not  as  strong  as  either  of 
the  other  Negro  bodies,  is  active  in  Missouri.  Parts  of  two 
conferences,  the  Kansas-Missouri  and  the  Southwest  Il- 
linois, operate  in  the  state. 

In  1835  the  first  Methodist  college  in  Missouri  was 
established  at  St.  Charles.  After  a  long  career  of  service 
it  closed  in  1915.  From  1835  to  the  present  about  100 
academies,  schools,  and  colleges  have  been  established 
in  Missouri  under  Methodist  auspices.  Only  about  ten 
could  be  called  colleges.  Many  were  short  lived.  Cen- 
tral Methodist  College  in  Fayette,  founded  in  1855  by 
the  M.E.  Church,  South,  is  the  only  Methodist  college  in 
the  state  today.  The  institution  has  about  1,000  students, 
an  endowment  of  more  than  $4,250,000  and  buildings 
worth  over  $7,000,000. 

At  unification  in  1939,  the  five  conferences  in  Missouri 
were  reduced  to  three  which  conformed  to  the  boundaries 
of  the  three  conferences  of  the  foimer  Southern  church. 
In  1960  these  were  consolidated  into  the  Missouri  East 
and  Missouri  West  Conferences. 

Following  tlie  division  in  1844  and  until  long  after  the 
Civil  War,  ill  feeling  bet\veen  the  two  branches  of  Epis- 
copal Methodism  was  perhaps  more  intense  in  Missouri 
than  in  any  other  state.  This  was  due  in  part  to  the  fact 


MISSOURI    CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


that  Missouri  was  a  border  state.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  during  the  war,  civil,  social  and  rehgious  hfe  fell 
apart.  Churches  were  closed,  some  preachers  were  im- 
prisoned, and  some  were  exiled.  Methodists  on  both  sides 
suffered  indignities  of  various  kinds.  When  the  war  was 
over  immigration  brought  in  many  people  from  north 
and  east  who  enabled  the  M.E.  Church  to  grow  rapidly. 
As  a  result  the  two  branches  of  Methodism  built  altar 
against  altar  in  many  parts  of  the  state. 

After  the  report  of  the  C.\pe  May  Commission  in 
1876,  however,  prayer  and  tentative  efforts  on  behalf  of 
Methodist  unity  began  in  Missouri.  The  annual  confer- 
ences exchanged  fraternal  messengers;  competing 
churches  united  in  revivals  and  other  activities;  and  after 
1905  conference  committees  "exchanged  churches,"  a 
procedure  which  resulted,  in  many  places,  in  only  one 
Methodist  church  where  formerly  there  had  been  two  in 
competition.  From  1890  on  the  annual  conferences  of  both 
churches  in  Missouri  urged  their  General  Conferences  to 
prepare  plans  for  unification,  and  as  the  years  passed  they 
overwhelmingly  approved  each  proposal  which  was  pre- 
sented. The  final  plan  which  actually  brought  unification 
was  approved  almost  unanimously  in  Missouri.  When 
actual  unification  was  effected,  the  northern  and  southern 
branches  of  Methodism  in  Missouri  were  more  evenly 
divided — three  Southern  Methodists  to  two  Northern  ones 
— than  in  any  other  state.  Yet  it  is  claimed  that  nowhere 
else  in  American  Methodism  was  unification  more  smooth- 
ly arranged,  nor  as  the  years  passed  was  it  more  successful 
than  in  Missouri. 

In  1970  the  two  Missouri  conferences  supported  a 
children's  home  in  St.  Louis,  a  home  for  the  aged  in 
Marionville,  four  hospitals,  four  youth  camps,  and  Wes- 
ley Foundations  at  the  nine  state  schools.  Between  them 
the  conferences  had  664  charges,  805  ministers,  252,443 
members,  and  church  property  valued  at  $115,340,770. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  and  Disciplines  of  denominations  and  annual  confer- 
ences. 
F.  C.  Tucker,  Missouri.   1966.  Frank  C.  Tucker 

MISSOURI  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at  Shiloh  Church 
near  Belleville,  III.,  on  Sept.  13,  1816  with  Bishop  Wil- 
liam McKendree  presiding.  Its  territory  included  western 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouhi,  and  Arkansas,  an  area  so 
large  that  it  now  contains  more  than  a  dozen  conferences. 
The  first  session  of  the  conference  in  Missouri  was  held 
at  McKendree  Chapel  near  Jackson  in  September  1819. 
The  importance  of  McKendree  Chapel  in  the  early  years 
is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  conference  met  there  three 
more  times— 1821,  1826,  and  1831.  In  1817  the  con- 
ference reported  3,100  white  and  seventy-three  colored 
members.  (See  Missouri  for  beginnings  of  Methodism  in 
the  state.)  In  1824  the  conference  was  divided  to  form 
the  Illinois  Conference,  and  in  1836  the  Arkansas 
Conference  was  set  off  from  Missouri. 

The  first  missionary  endeavor  of  the  Missouri  Confer- 
ence was  in  1830  when  it  sent  Thomas  Johnson  and  his 
brother  William  as  missionaries  to  the  Shawnee  and  the 
Kansa  Indians.  In  1835  the  conference  established  St. 
Charles  College  which  continued  until  1915. 

In  1845  the  Missouri  Conference  reported  23,781  white 
and  2,529  colored  members.  The  church  having  divided, 
the  conference  voted  overwhelmingly  that  year  to  adhere 


South.  Since  there  was  some  northern  sentiment  in  the 
conference,  the  M.E.  Church  soon  organized  a  conference 
in  the  state  which  continued  until  unification  in  1939. 
(See  Missouri  Conference   [1848-1939].) 

In  1846  the  Mis.souri  Conference  (MES)  divided  to 
form  the  St.  Louis  Conference  which  included  the  part 
of  the  state  below  the  Missouri  River.  This  left  the  Missou- 
ri Conference  with  9,704  white  and  1,025  colored  mem- 
bers. By  1860  the  membership  had  more  than  doubled — 
17,717  white  and  2,006  colored  members.  The  Civil 
War  brought  disaster;  in  1866  the  conference  had  only 
11,551  white  and  346  colored  members.  However,  re- 
covery was  rapid;  in  1869  the  conference  reported  more 
than  19,000  members. 

In  1900  the  Missouri  Conference  had  170  charges,  498 
churches,  and  44,431  members.  In  the  next  thirty-nine 
years  the  membership  grew  a  little,  but  since  its  territory 
was  largely  rural  with  a  decreasing  farm  population,  the 
number  of  charges  and  churches  declined.  The  confer- 
ence came  to  unification  in  1939  with  136  charges,  340 
churches,  and  49,421  members. 

The  Missouri  Conference  owned  or  was  affiliated  with 
eight  educational  institutions  in  1900,  including  St. 
Charles  College,  Central  College  and  Howard-Payne 
College  at  Fayette,  and  Central  College  for  Women  at 
Lexington.  By  1920  the  number  of  schools  had  dropped 
to  three,  and  by  1930  to  one — Central  College  which, 
though  within  the  bounds  of  the  Missouri  Conference, 
was  supported  by  all  of  Southern  Methodism  in  Missouri. 

One  member  of  the  Missouri  Conference,  Eugene  R. 
Hendrix,  was  elected  bishop  in  1886  while  serving  as 
president  of  Central  College.  Two  other  men  who  attained 
the  episcopacy,  Enoch  M.  Marvin  and  William  F. 
McMuRRY,  began  their  ministry  in  the  Missouri  Confer- 
ence but  were  not  members  of  it  at  the  time  of  their 
election. 

After  unification  in  1939,  there  was  sentiment  in  Mis- 
souri Methodism  for  consolidating  the  three  conferences 
into  two  or  possibly  into  one.  Over  the  years  several  inter- 
conference  commissions  drafted  plans  which  proved  un- 
acceptable to  one  or  more  of  the  conferences.  Merging 
into  two  conferences  seemed  logical,  but  there  was  no 
agreement  on  how  to  divide  the  state.  As  the  "mother  con- 
ference," the  Missouri  body  was  reluctant  to  agree  to  any 
realignment  that  would  bisect  its  territory  or  do  away  with 
its  name.  But  in  the  end,  that  conference,  concluding  that 
the  other  two  would  agree  on  no  other  plan,  concurred, 
and  by  authority  of  the  1960  South  Central  Jurisdic- 
tional Conference,  the  three  conferences  were  con- 
solidated into  the  Missouri  East  and  Missouri  West 
Conferences,  effective  in  1961. 

At  its  last  session  in  1961,  the  Missouri  Conference 
reported  six  districts,  212  charges,  77,676  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $32,416,418. 


General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC. 
Minutes  of  the  Missouri  Conference. 
F.  C.   Tucker,   Missouri.    1966. 


Frederick   E.    Maser 


MISSOURI  CONFERENCE  (ME,  1848),  which  was  orga- 
nized in  1816,  adhered  South  in  1845  by  a  vote  of  eighty- 
six  to  fourteen.  According  to  the  1844  General  Con- 
ference Plan  of  Separation,  the  entire  conference  was 
obhgated  to  go  the  way  the  majority  voted.  But  the  1848 
Northern    General    Conference    repudiated    the    Plan    of 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Separation,  and  it  proceeded  to  establish  another  Missoiui 
Conference  that  year  which  included  Missouri  and 
Arkansas  and  territory  to  the  west.  This  Missouri  Con- 
ference was  organized  at  the  session  of  the  Illinois  Con- 
ference in  Belleville,  Sept.  13,  1848.  The  printed  minutes 
show  that  the  conference  had  two  districts  in  Missouri  and 
one  in  Arkansas,  twenty-two  charges,  and  a  total  of  1,538 
members.  The  next  year  the  conference  met  at  Ebenezer 
Church  in  St.  Louis,  a  congregation  of  140  members 
which  had  erected  a  church  building  in  1846.  Preachers 
from  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Texas,  Kansas,  and  Nebraska 
were  present  at  the  conference. 

In  1852  the  Missouri  Conference  was  divided  to  form 
the  Arkansas  Conference,  the  latter  to  include  the  southern 
part  of  Missouri  as  well  as  Arkansas.  Two  quadrenniums 
later  the  two  states  were  placed  together  again  as  the 
Missouri  and  Arkansas  Conference.  Then  in  1868  north 
Missouri  was  designated  as  the  Mis.souri  Conference, 
while  south  Missouri  and  Arkansas  formed  the  St.  Louis 
Conference.  Four  years  later  Arkansas  was  set  off  to  itself 
again  as  a  conference,  an  arrangement  which  continued 
until  1920  when  the  Arkansas  Conference  was  absorbed 
by  the  St.  Louis  Conference.  In  1925  the  absorption  of 
the  St.  Louis  German  Conference  brought  nearly  5,000 
members  into  the  two  Missouri  Conferences.  In  1932 
the  St.  Louis  Conference  was  merged  with  the  Missouri 
Conference,  an  arrangement  which  continued  until  unifi- 
cation in  1939. 

In  1869  the  St.  Louis  Conference  reported  six  districts, 
107  charges,  and  13,401  members.  In  1920,  the  year 
Arkansas  was  again  made  a  part  of  the  St.  Louis  Con- 
ference, it  reported  47,146  members.  In  its  last  year,  1931, 
the  St.  Louis  Conference  reported  52,845  members.  In 
1932,  when  all  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas  were  again  in- 
cluded in  the  Missouri  Conference,  the  statistics  were 
eleven  districts,  330  charges,  and  83,184  members. 

During  their  existence  the  Missouri  and  St.  Louis 
Conferences  established  and  supported  a  number  of 
schools.  Carleton  College  operated  at  Farmington  from 
about  1879  to  1924.  In  1871  the  St.  Louis  Conference 
accepted  a  school  at  Carthage  which  became  Ozark  Wes- 
leyan  College;  the  institution  closed  about  1932.  A  school 
started  at  Cameron  in  1883  became  Missouri  Wesleyan 
College  in  1897.  It  achieved  accreditation,  but  ultimately 
financial  difficulties  forced  its  closure  and  in  1930  all  of 
its  resources  were  merged  with  Baker  University  in 
Kansas.  A  training  school  which  in  time  became  N.\- 
TiONAL  College  was  started  by  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  Kansas  City, 
Kan.,  in  1899.  It  soon  moved  to  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  and 
later  offered  liberal  arts  courses.  Lacking  financial  support 
and  patronage  from  the  surrounding  annual  conferences. 
National  College  was  never  able  to  achieve  full  accredita- 
tion. The  college  closed  in  1964,  and  its  property  was 
acquired  by  and  became  the  campus  of  the  St.  P.\ul 
School  of  Theology,  Methodist. 

The  number  of  hospitals  and  homes  established  by  the 
M.E.  Church  in  Missouri  is  impressive.  The  following, 
with  date  of  establishment  and  location,  are  still  ser\ing 
as  Methodist  or  Metliodist  related  institutions:  Epworth 
School  for  disturbed  girls,  St.  Louis,  1909;  Missouri  Meth- 
odist Hospital,  St.  Joseph,  1897;  Freeman  Hospital,  Jop- 
lin,  1925;  Ozark  Manor  (Methodist  Home  for  the  Aged), 
Marionville,  1925;  and  Burge  Hospital,  Springfield,  1906. 

In  1939,  its  last  year,  the  Missouri  Conference  reported 


MISSOURI    EAST   CONFERENCE 

eight  districts    (one  of  them  in  Arkansas),   314  charges, 
92,362  members,  and  property  valued  at  $6,820,860. 

General  Minutes,  MEC. 

Minutes  of  the  Missouri  Conference. 

F.  C.  Tucker,  Missouri.   1966.  Frederick  E.   Maser 


MISSOURI  CONFERENCE  (EUB).  The  first  United 
Brethren  preaching  in  Missouri  was  in  the  southwestern 
corner  of  the  state  prior  to  1850  when  a  few  families  had 
arrived  from  the  east.  In  1851  the  Sandusky  Conference 
gave  Bishop  Glossbrenner  money  to  employ  a  suitable 
missionary  for  Missouri.  When  the  new  Missionary  Board 
was  formed  in  1853,  Josiah  Terrel  was  appointed  mis- 
sionary to  Missouri.  The  following  year,  Nov.  3,  1854, 
the  Missouri  Conference  was  organized  in  Jasper  County, 
with  five  mission  fields. 

Since  1847  the  Iowa  conferences  had  cultivated  work  in 
the  northern  tier  of  counties  in  Missouri.  These  were 
eventually  turned  over  to  the  Missouri  Conference,  where- 
as the  former  charges  in  the  southwest  were  united  with 
work  in  K.'VNSas.  Thus  an  old  conference  acquired  a  new 
constituency. 

In  1881  the  General  Conference  formed  the  South- 
western Missouri  Conference,  taking  from  the  Osage  Con- 
ference that  part  of  its  territory  in  Missouri,  south  of  the 
Missouri  River.  Four  tiers  of  counties  in  Arkansas  were 
added  in  1885  and  the  name  was  changed  to  Southern 
Missouri  Conference.  A  statewide  conference  was  consti- 
tuted in  1897  by  uniting  Southern  Missouri  and  Missouri 
Conferences.  Then  in  1921,  with  the  closing  of  the  Louisi- 
ana Conference,  the  few  remaining  churches  were  added 
to  Missouri  Conference. 

When  the  E.U.B.  Church  was  formed  in  1946,  there 
were  no  foimer  Evangelical  churches  within  the  three 
states  of  Louisiana,  Arkansas  and  Missouri.  Conference 
membership  in  1946  was  listed  at  4,152  persons.  Then 
when  The  United  Methodist  Church  was  established  in 
1968  there  were  2,787  members.  A  year  following  church 
union  the  congregations  of  the  conference  had  been  re- 
ceived into  those  former  Methodist  conferences  within 
the  several  states. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

MISSOURI  EAST  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at  Fayette, 
Mo.,  May  30,  1961  with  Bishop  Kenneth  W.  Copeland 
presiding.  The  conference  was  formed  by  merging  the 
St.  Louis  Conference  with  the  east  half  of  the  Missouri 
Conference  as  the  three  conferences  in  Missouri — the 
Southwest  Missouri  Conference  was  the  third  one — 
were  consolidated  into  two.  Its  territory  includes  the 
east  half  of  Missouri.  When  organized  the  conference 
had  eight  districts:  Cape  Girardeau-Farmington,  Han- 
nibal-Mexico, Jefferson  City,  Kirksville,  Poplar  Bluff,  Rolla, 
St.  Louis  North,  and  St.  Louis  South.  There  were  276 
ministers,  285  pastoral  charges,  117,216  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $51,523,300. 

WTien  the  Central  West  Conference  (CJ)  was 
merged  in  1966,  the  Missouri  East  Conference  received 
twenty-two  charges,  fifteen  ministers  and  5,281  members 
from  that  body. 

The  Missouri  East  Conference  supports  the  Methodist 
Children's  Home  in  St.  Louis.  It  maintains  a  chaplain  at 
Barnes  Hospital  and  directs  its  Golden  Cross  funds  to 
that  institution.  It  supports  the  summer  assembly  called 


MISSOURI   WEST   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Epworth  Among  the  Hills  at  Arcadia,  Blue  Mountain 
Camp  at  Arcadia,  and  Camp  Jo  Ota  at  Clarence.  The  con- 
ference in  cooperation  with  the  Missouri  West  Confer- 
ence supports  Ozark  Methodist  Manor  at  Marionville, 
Central  Methodist  College  at  Fayette,  St.  Paul 
School  of  Theology  Methodist  at  Kansas  City,  and 
Wesley  Foundations  at  nine  state  institutions  of  higher 
learning. 

The  Missouri  East  Conference  raised  nearly  $800,000 
in  capital  funds  for  St.  Paul  School  of  Theology  Methodist 
by  1963.  From  its  beginning  in  1961,  the  conference  has 
laid  an  apportionment  on  its  churches  each  year  for  higher 
education,  the  amount  raised  being  distributed  on  a  quota 
basis  to  Central  Methodist  College,  St.  Paul  School  of 
Theology  Methodist,  and  Philander  Smith  College  at 
Little  Rock,  Ark.  The  amount  collected  for  these  schools 
in  1968  was  $221,416. 

In  1967  the  two  Missouri  conferences  projected  the 
Missouri  Methodist  Foundation,  Inc.,  through  which  in- 
terested persons  may  donate  or  bequeath  money  to  the 
Methodist  Church  in  Missouri  for  the  support  of  its 
religious,  charitable,  and  educational  work. 

In  1970  the  Missouri  East  Conference  reported  seven 
districts,  352  ministers,  287  charges,  113,800  members, 
and  property'  valued  at  $58,533,466. 

Minutes  of  the  Missouri  East  Conference. 

F.  C.  Tucker,  Missouri.  1966.  A.  Sterling  Ward 

MISSOURI  WEST  CONFERENCE  was  organized  May  30, 
1961  at  Fayette,  Mo.,  with  Bishop  Eugene  M.  Frank 
presiding.  The  conference  was  formed  by  merging  the 
Southwest  Missouri  Conference  with  the  west  half  of 
the  Missouri  Conference  as  the  three  conferences  in 
Missouri — the  St.  Louis  Conference  was  the  third  one 
— were  consolidated  into  two.  Its  territory  includes  the 
west  half  of  Missouri.  The  conference  began  with  ten 
districts,  Chillicothe,  Fayette-Marshall,  Joplin,  Kansas 
City  North,  Kansas  City  South,  Maryville,  Nevada,  St. 
Joseph,  Sedalia,  and  Springfield.  In  1962  the  conference 
reported  368  pastoral  charges,  384  ministers,  144,609 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $43,885,095. 

When  the  Central  West  Conference  (CJ)  was 
merged  in  1966,  the  Missouri  West  Conference  received 
twelve  charges,  nine  ministers,  and  2,786  members  from 
that  body. 

The  St.  Paul  School  of  Theology  Methodist,  Kansas 
City,  is  within  the  bounds  of  the  Missouri  West  Con- 
ference. The  seminary,  founded  in  1957  by  authority  of 
the  General  Conference,  has  been  strongly  supported 
by  the  annual  conferences  in  Missouri,  Kansas,  and 
Nebraska;  in  the  first  few  years  they  raised  capital  funds 
for  the  institution  in  the  amount  of  nearly  $5,000,000, 
and  in  addition  they  contribute  annually  to  its  operating 
budget. 

The  Missouri  West  Conference  maintains  conference 
camps  at  Eldorado  Springs  and  Lawson.  It  supports  the 
Methodist  Hospital  at  St.  Joseph,  Cox  Medical  Center  at 
Springfield,  and  Freeman  Hospital  at  Joplin.  Jointly  with 
the  Missouri  East  Conference  it  contributes  to  Central 
Methodist  College  at  Fayette,  St.  Paul  School  of  The- 
ology Methodist  at  Kansas  City,  Ozark  Manor  at  Marion- 
ville, the  Methodist  Children's  Home  in  St.  Louis, 
and  the  Wesley  Foundations  at  nine  state  institutions 
of  higher  learning.  From  its  beginning  in  1961,  the  Mis- 
souri West  Conference  has  laid  an  apportionment  on  its 

1648 


churches  each  year  for  higher  education,  the  amount 
raised  being  distributed  on  a  quota  basis  to  Central 
Methodist  College,  St.  Paul  School  of  Theology  Meth- 
odist, and  Philander  Smith  College  at  Little  Rock, 
Ark.  The  amount  collected  for  these  schools  in  1968  was 
$279,183. 

In  1970  the  Missouri  West  Conference  reported  ten 
districts,  453  ministers,  377  charges,  138,643  members, 
and  property  valued  at  $56,807,304. 

General  Minutes,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Missouri  West  Conference. 

F.  C.  Tucker,  Missouri.   1966.  A.  Sterling  Ward 

MITCHELL,  BENNETT  (1832-1922),  American  pioneer 
preacher,  was  born  in  Monroe  County,  Ind.,  Feb.  18, 
1832.  After  two  years  at  Indiana  Asbury  College  he  moved 
to  Lucas  County,  Iowa,  where  he  joined  the  Iowa  Con- 
ference in  1855.  His  first  four  appointments  moved  him 
steadily  westward  across  Iowa.  The  Conference  was  di- 
vided in  1860  and  he  found  himself  a  member  of  the 
Western  Iowa  Conference,  which  in  1864  was  named  the 
Des  Moines  Conference.  In  1862  he  became  presiding 
elder  of  the  Council  Bluffs  District  at  the  western  bound- 
ary of  the  state.  In  1865  he  was  appointed  to  the  Chariton 
District.  In  1869  he  was  sent  northward  to  the  Sioux  City 
District,  which  comprised  ten  counties  in  northwest  Iowa 
and  all  of  the  Dakota  Territory.  There  was  only  a  handful 
of  churches  in  the  whole  district.  In  1872  the  Conference 
again  was  divided  and  then  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Northwest  Iowa  Conference.  He  belonged  in  all  to 
four  Conferences  yet  never  transferred.  In  1873  he  was 
appointed  to  the  Algona  District. 

In  1877  ended  this  unusual  record  of  four  consecutive 
terms  as  presiding  elder  in  four  different  districts.  He 
then  served  as  pastor  to  various  local  churches,  managed 
the  Conference  Claimants  Fund  for  a  year,  and  retired 
in  1903.  After  his  retirement  he  wrote  a  history  of  the 
Northwest  Iowa  Conference.  His  son,  Charles  B.,  became 
a  minister  of  this  Conference. 

Bennett  Mitchell  advanced  with  the  church  across  500 
miles  of  frontier,  founding  and  nurturing  scores  of 
churches.  He  helped  to  found  Simpson  and  Morning- 
side  Colleges  and  started  a  college  at  Algona  which  did 
not  survive.  He  was  elected  five  times  to  General  Con- 
ference and  was  a  director  of  the  National  Anti-Saloon 
League.  He  died  Aug.  12,  1922  and  is  buried  at  Sioux 
City,  Iowa. 

Minutes  of  the  Northwest  Iowa  Conference,  1922. 
B.  Mitchell,  Northwest  Iowa  Conference.  1904. 

Frank  G.  Bean 

MITCHELL,  CHARLES  BAYARD  (1857-1942),  American 
bishop,  was  bom  Aug.  27,  1857,  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  the 
son  of  Daniel  Patrick  and  Anna  Elizabeth  (Baker) 
Mitchell.  He  was  a  charter  member  of  the  Southwest 
Kansas  Conference  which  he  entered  in  1880. 

On  July  6,  1882,  he  married  Clara  Aull. 

In  1884  he  transferred  to  the  Kansas  Conference 
where  he  was  financial  secretary  for  a  few  years.  Transfers 
to  other  conferences  followed  as  it  was  evidently  his 
desiie  to  serve  but  one  church  in  an  annual  conference: 
1887,  Pittsburgh;  1888,  Newark;  1892,  St.  Louis;  1897, 
Minnesota  Northern;  1901,  East  Ohio;  1908,  Rock 
River. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MITCHELL,   HINCKLEY   GILBERT 


A  delegate  to  the  General  Conferences  of  1904, 
1908,  1912  (alternate),  and  1916,  the  latter  Conference 
elected  him  a  bishop  and  assigned  him  to  St.  Paul,  Minn., 
where  he  served  for  two  quadrennia.  In  1924  he  was 
assigned  to  the  Philippine  Islanm.  In  1928  he  retired 
from  the  episcopacy. 

While  at  St.  Paul,  he  instituted  a  campaign  for  $1,750,- 
000,  in  those  days  a  large  amount,  and  the  success  of  the 
campaign  materially  aided  the  several  Methodist  educa- 
cional  institutions  in  his  area;  Lawrence  College,  Ham- 
line  University,  Parker  College,  Dakota  Wesleyan, 
and  the  Wesley  Foundation  at  Madison,  Wis. 

A  graduate  of  Allegheny  College,  he  held  the  B.A., 
M.A.,  Ph.D.,  and  D.D.  degrees  from  that  institution. 
Baker  University  granted  him  the  LL.D.  He  was  the 
author  of  a  book  of  sermons.  The  Noblest  Quest,  and 
A  Little  Bundle  Of  Letters  from  Three  Continents. 

He  died  in  Pasadena,  Calif.,  Feb.  23,  1942,  and  was 
buried  in  Forest  Lawn,  Glendale. 

Journal  of  the  General  Conference,  1944. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948.      William  M.  Twiduv 

MITCHELL,    ERIC  A.    (1917-  ),   bishop,   was  bom   at 

Madras,  India,  July  7,  1917.  He  was  educated  at  Baldwin 
Boys'  School,  Bangalore,  and  Leonard  Theological  Col- 
lege, Jabalpur,  where  he  won  the  theological  diploma  in 
1942.  As  a  Crusade  Scholar  he  attended  Union  The- 
ological Seminary  in  New  York  where  he  was  awarded 
the  B.D.  and  S.T.M.  degrees,  the  latter  in  1957.  He 
served  as  pastor  at  Madras,  1937,  and  at  Asanol  in  the 
Bengal  Conference,  1942-49.  At  the  latter  place  he  was 
married  in  1946,  and  he  and  his  wife  have  one  son. 

Mitchell  was  chaplain  of  Vellore  Medical  College  at 
Madras,  1958,  and  from  1959  to  1969  he  was  pastor  of 
Taylor  Memorial  Church  at  Bomray  and  also  district 
superintendent.  He  has  attended  a  number  of  conferences 
and  consultations,  including  the  1964  and  1968  General 
Conferences  (TMC),  the  consultation  on  structure 
(COSMOS)  at  Green  Lake,  Wis.,  the  Assembly  of  the 
World  Council  of  Churches  at  Uppsala,  Sweden,  and 
the  World  Family  Life  Conference  at  London  in  1966, 
where  he  was  elected  vice-chairman  of  the  body.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Y.M.C.A.,  and 
vice-chairman  of  the  Bombay  Samaritans,  which  is  an 
organization  that  ministers  to  people  who  are  tempted  to 
commit  suicide.  Also,  he  is  a  leader  in  other  organizations 
which  help  working  boys  and  aged  spinsters. 

At  the  Central  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  in 
Southeast  Asia,  Mitchell  was  elected  bishop  on  Jan.  2, 
1969.  He  was  assigned  to  the  Hyderabad  Episcopal  Area 
which  includes  the  Hyderabad  and  South  India  Annual 
Conferences.  As  an  episcopal  leader  he  serves  as  chair- 
man of  the  Council  of  Evangelism,  the  Board  of  Missions, 
and  the  Commission  on  Courses  of  Study. 

Daily  Indian  Witness,  Bangalore,  India,  Jan.  3,  1969. 

Albea  Godbold 

MITCHELL,  HINCKLEY  GILBERT  (1846-1920),  American 
educator  and  theologian  whose  "trial"  for  heresy  became 
a  cause  celebre  in  the  M.  E.  Church,  was  born  on  Feb. 
22,  1846,  in  Lee,  N.  Y.,  to  James  and  Sarah  Gilbert 
(Thomas)  Mitchell.  His  educational  achievements  were 
many:  Falley  Seminary,  Fulton,  New  York,  1867;  Wes- 
leyan University,  A.B.,  1873,  A.M.,  1876,  and  D.D., 
1901;  Boston  University  School  of  Theology,  S.T.B., 


1876;  Leipzig  University,  Ph.D.,  1879;  and  Mt.  Union 
College,  D.D.,  1888.  He  married  Alice  Stanford  on  June 
29,  1880. 

Mitchell  served  as  Director  of  die  American  School  of 
Oriental  Besearch  in  Jerusalem,  1901-02;  member  of 
Alpha  Delta  Phi  fraternity;  member  of  20th  Century 
Club;  Secretary  of  the  Society  of  Bibhcal  Literature  and 
Exegesis  (editor  of  its  Journal,  1882-88);  member  of  the 
Harvard  Biblical  Club.  He  was  the  author  of:  Hebrew 
Lessons,  1885;  Amos — Essat/  in  Exegesis,  1893;  Theology 
of  the  Old  Testament  (trans.),  1893;  Isaiah  I-XII,  1897; 
The  World  Before  Abraham,  1901;  Genesis,  1909;  Tales 
Told  in  Palestine  (with  J.  E.  Hanauer),  1904;  "Haggai 
and  Zechariah,"  International  Commentary,  1912;  Ethics 
of  the  Old  Testament,  1912. 

He  became  pastor  of  the  Methodist  church  in  Beary- 
town  (or  Fayette)  of  the  Central  New  York  Confer- 
ence in  1879.  He  then  taught  Latin  and  Hebrew  at 
Wesleyan  University,  1880-83;  was  professor  of  Hebrew 
and  Old  Testament  exegesis,  at  Boston  University  School 
of  Theology,  1883-1905;  and  after  that  was  professor  of 
Hebrew  and  Old  Testament  exegesis  at  Tufts  College, 
1910  until  his  death. 

The  Mitchell  Case.  He  championed,  in  his  classes,  the 
higher  criticism  as  it  was  beginning  to  be  called,  especially 
in  the  study  of  the  Old  Testament.  In  1895  he  was 
charged  with  "Unitarian"  tendencies  on  account  of  his 
denial  of  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch.  He 
became  a  theological  storm  center  in  the  M.  E.  Church. 
A  collection  of  articles  edited  by  W.  W.  Shenk,  entitled 
Shall  Methodism  Remain  Wesleyan  in  Type,  and  Evan- 
gelical?, presented  many  accusations  directed  toward 
.Mitchell.  The  articles  were  addressed  to  the  bishops,  min- 
isters, and  members  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  to  present  "the 
departures  of  Professor  H.  G.  Mitchell  of  Boston  Uni- 
versity School  of  Theology,  as  set  forth  by  certain  men 
who  have  been  students  in  his  classroom  work."  The 
contributors  felt  Mitchell  ought  not  be  permitted  to  re- 
main in  the  seminary,  for  his  rationalistic  theology  en- 
couraged denial  of  authority  of  the  Word  of  God,  tended 
toward  Unitarianism,  and  sought  to  revolutionize  Meth- 
odist doctrine.  Mitchell's  idea  of  evolution,  they  said, 
denied  that  man  ever  had  a  fall,  contended  that  man  had 
inherent  in  himself  the  full  power  for  his  own  develop- 
ment, and  repudiated  God's  plan  for  Christ  to  die  that 
men  might  live. 

The  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  there- 
fore passed  a  resolution  in  1900  that  required,  as  a  condi- 
tion for  the  recognition  of  any  theological  school  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  that  its  professors  be  confirmed  by  a 
majority  vote  of  the  bishops  present  and  voting  at  any 
regular  meeting  of  their  Board.  Another  resolution  in  1904 
stated  that  when  specific  charges  of  misteaching  in  Meth- 
odist theological  schools  were  made  in  writing  by 
responsible  parties,  members  or  ministers  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  the  bishops  were  to  appoint  a  committee  from 
themselves  to  investigate  charges.  Their  subsequent  re- 
port, if  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Bishops,  was  to  be 
transmitted  to  the  trustees  of  the  theological  school  in- 
volved for  proper  action. 

Attempts  were  made  to  prevent  Mitchell's  confirmation 
in  1900,  but  failed.  In  1905,  when  Mitchell  was  again 
up  for  re-election,  he  was  attacked  for  "misteaching," 
based  mainly  on  his  book,  The  World  Before  Abraham. 
The  bishops'  committee  said  the  book  contained  state- 
ments about  the  historic  character  of  the  Book  of  Genesis 


MITCHELL,    ISAAC   GREEN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


that  seemed  unwarranted,  objectionable,  and  tended  to 
invalidate  the  authority  of  other  portions  of  Scripture. 
Mitchell's  view  of  the  fall  of  man  and  his  assertion  that 
the  deluge  was  local  were  declared  to  invalidate  Jesus' 
reference  to  Noah,  and  Paul's  reference  to  the  death  of  all 
in  Adam.  This,  they  felt,  destroyed  the  authority  of  Jesus 
and  the  inspired  writers  of  the  New  Testament.  Thus,  in 
1905,  charges  of  heresy  were  formally  brought  to  the 
bishops,  who  voted  not  to  confirm  Mitchell's  re-election 
to  Boston.  They  sent  their  reasons  and  decision  to  the 
trustees,  saying  they  had  examined  the  charges  made  by 
responsible  parties,  and  that  the  trustees  should  take  re- 
sponsible action. 

Six  months  later  the  trustees  asked  the  bishops  to  re- 
consider their  refusal  to  confirm.  The  bishops  refused, 
saying  the  trustees  had  not  taken,  or  made  known,  any 
"proper  action."  "There  had  been  no  explanation  from 
Professor  Mitchell,  much  less  modification  or  withdrawal 
of  the  statements  objected  to  by  the  bishops  and  which 
created  a  'reasonable  doubt.'  There  went  from  the  trustees, 
so  far  as  the  bishops  knew,  no  request  to  Professor  Mitchell 
even  to  consider  whether  the  paits  of  his  book  referred 
to  by  the  bishops  ought  to  be  reconsidered,  revised  or 
withdrawn."  {The  Independent,  Nov.  16,  1905,  p.  1179.) 

In  self  defense,  Mitchell  requested  that  he  be  tried 
by  the  Central  New  York  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
of  which  he  was  a  member.  The  Conference  appointed  a 
committee  to  investigate  the  case,  and  after  hearing  the 
committee's  report,  refused  to  institute  a  formal  trial. 
The  Conference  did,  however,  pass  a  resolution  of  censure 
for  teachings  which  were  contrary  to  the  Holy  Scriptures 
and  to  the  doctrinal  standards  of  Methodism.  A  trial  was 
refused,  because  Mitchell  no  longer  held  the  chair  at 
Boston,  and  because  a  trial  would  cause  too  great  a 
disturbance.  F.  J.  McConnell  (later  bishop)  demanded 
an  immediate  trial  for  Mitchell,  but  was  refused. 

The  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  General  Conference  of 
the  M.  E.  Church,  in  1908,  held  that  the  Central  New 
York  Conference  action  was  illegal.  They  ruled  that  there 
was  no  disciplinary  provision  for  the  report  of  the  in- 
vestigating committee,  or  for  the  action  of  the  Central 
New  York  Conference  in  adopting  the  committee's  report. 
The  report  of  the  committee  was  said  to  have  reflected 
upon  the  character  of  Mitchell,  and  it  was  therefore  the 
duty  of  the  Conference  to  have  granted  him  a  trial  upon 
his  demand,  or  to  have  struck  from  the  report  all  reflec- 
tions upon  his  character.  The  Conference  had  refused  or 
neglected  to  do  so,  and  therefore  the  action  of  the  com- 
mittee and  the  Conference  was  declared  null  and  void. 

The  Judiciary  Committee  of  this  General  Conference 
also  ruled  that  the  bishops  had  the  legal  right  to  investi- 
gate reported  charges  of  erroneous  teaching  in  the 
seminaries  of  the  M.  E.  Church. 

Mitchell  devoted  the  years  1906-08  to  literary 
work,  and  in  1909  traveled  in  Europe.  He  left  teaching 
in  the  M.  E.  Church  and  was  appointed  to  the  chair  of 
Hebrew  (and  after  1915,  New  Testament  also)  at  Tufts 
College  (a  Universalist  seminary)  in  1910,  where  he 
remained  until  his  death.  He  left  unfinished  an  auto- 
biography. For  the  Benefit  of  my  Creditors,  published 
after  his  death,  in  1922. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

George  Albert  Coe,  "A  Crisis  in   Methodism,"   The  Outlook. 

Dec.  16,  1905. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

1650 


The  Independent,  "Professor  Mitchell's  Case,"  Nov.  16,  1905. 

Minutes  of  the  Central  New  York  Conference,  1906-08. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Wlio  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

W.  W.  Shenk,  ed..  Shall  Methodism  Remain  Wesleyan  in  Type, 

and  Evangelical?  N.p.,  n.d. 

Reports  of  the  Committee  on  Judiciary,  ME,  1924. 

Who  Was  Who  in  America,  Vol.  1.  Stephen  G.  Cobb 

MITCHELL,  ISAAC  GREEN  (1810-1881),  American  pio- 
neer preacher,  was  bom  near  Madison  Springs,  Madison 
Co.,  Ca.,  on  May  27,  1810.  He  was  ordained  as  an  elder 
in  the  M.  P.  Church  on  Nov.  12,  1843.  He  is  credited 
with  having  officiated  at  the  first  wedding  ceremony  held 
in  Marthasville,  now  Atl.\nta,  Ga.  He  served  as  a  circuit 
rider  until  1856  when  he  moved  to  Atlanta.  When  a 
mortgage  foreclosed  on  the  property  of  the  M.  P.  Church 
located  at  the  corner  of  Garnett  and  Forsyth  Streets  in 
Atlanta,  Mitchell  purchased  it  for  $2,900  and  had  the 
portion  of  the  lot  occupied  by  the  church  building  deeded 
to  the  M.  P.  Church.  On  the  remaining  portion,  he  built 
a  home  where  he  resided  until  his  death. 

He  married  Mary  Anne  Dudley  on  Jan.  15,  1829;  she 
died  on  Feb.  12,  1856.  It  is  of  historic  interest  that 
Mitchell  was  the  great-grandfather  of  Margaret  Mitchell, 
author  of  Gone  With  the  Wind. 

Mitchell  is  buried  in  the  family  lot  at  Panola,  Rockdale 
Co.,  Ga.  Funeral  services  were  held  in  the  M.  P.  Church 
next  door  to  his  residence. 

The  Atlanta  Historical  Bulletin  (Margaret  Mitchell  Memorial 
Issue),    May    1950.  Ralph    Habdee    RrvES 

MITCHELL,  PAUL  DENNY  (1912-1946),  an  American  mis- 
sionary to  Cuba,  was  bom  in  Mangum,  Okla.,  Aug.  29, 
1912,  son  of  C.  F.  and  Anna  M.  Welch  Mitchell.  After 
attending  public  schools  in  his  home  state  he  attended 
Southern  Methodist  University,  where  he  received 
both  A.B.  and  B.D.  degrees.  For  one  year  he  served  as 
pastor  at  Duke,  Okla.,  and  in  1937  accepted  work  in  Cuba 
where  his  first  work  was  in  Camaguey. 

For  eight  years  he  was  teacher  and  director  of  the 
nascent  Methodist  Seminary  in  Havana.  During  these 
years  at  different  times  he  also  served  as  pastor  of  three 
congregations  in  and  around  Havana,  and  when  a  mis- 
sionary at  Holguin  became  sick  exchanged  work  for 
several  months. 

He  was  the  author  of  Grounds  for  Gratitude,  which 
was  translated  into  German;  Teepees  to  Towers;  Mision 
y  Comision  del  Metodismo;  and  Cuba  Calling.  He  gave 
the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  his  books  for  Christian  litera- 
ture in  Latin  America. 

Because  of  illness  in  his  home,  he  retired  from  Cuba 
and  accepted  appointments  at  Verden  and  Noble,  Okla. 
Taking  his  young  people  on  a  picnic  one  of  the  girls, 
Jeanette  Harris,  ten  years  of  age,  was  caught  in  the 
current  when  swimming.  He  was  a  good  swimmer  and 
attempted  to  rescue  her  but  both  were  drowned. 

When  only  a  youth  he  became  possessed  of  the  idea 
that  he  should  be  a  missionary,  and  veritably  to  the  min- 
isterial manor  he  was  called.  Wherever  he  went  he  was 
popular  and  at  the  same  time  quiet,  dignified  and  un- 
selfish. No  one  has  ever  excelled  his  record  in  learning 
the  Spanish  language  so  rapidly,  to  the  degree  that  he 
could  preach  with  power  in  both  Spanish  and  his  native 
tongue.  His  death  left  a  tragic  void. 

Garfield  Evans 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MOBILE,   ALABAMA 


MITCHELL,  THOMAS  (1726-1785),  British  itinerant,  was 
called  "the  poor  man's  preacher."  He  was  born  at  Bingley, 
Dec.  3,  1726,  to  godly  parents.  By  temperament  religious, 
by  trade  a  mason,  he  was  converted  under  John  Nelson's 
and  William  Ghimshaw's  ministry.  About  1747-48,  he 
became  itinerant;  and  Wesley  arranged  numerous  brief 
spells  for  him,  but  after  1768  Mitchell  kept  most  circuits 
for  two  years.  In  Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  and  Lincolnshire, 
he  was  frequently  mobbed — at  Wrangle  being  repeatedly 
ducked  and  painted.  Few  preachers  suffered  more.  In 
1760  he  and  others  caused  a  stir  by  administering  Holy 
Communion  at  Norwich.  He  became  supernumerary  in 
1784  and  died  in  1785. 

T.  Jackson,  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers.  1837-38. 

J.  W.  Laycock,  Methodist  Heroes.  1909.        George  Lawton 

MIYAMA,  KANICHI  (dates  uncertain),  the  first  Japanese 
Christian  convert  in  America.  In  Japan  during  the  1870's 
Miyama  sought  to  enroll  in  an  army  academy  but  failed 
the  entrance  exams.  Despondent  over  his  failure,  he  came 
to  the  United  States  in  1876  to  seek  new  hope  and  life. 
Providentially,  his  friend  in  Japan  had  given  him  a  letter 
of  introduction  to  Otis  Gibson,  a  missionary  to  China 
who  was  then  the  superintendent  of  the  Chinese  Mission 
in  San  Francisco.  From  Gibson  the  young  Miyama 
learned  not  only  the  English  language  but  also  about  God 
as  revealed  in  Christ.  He  was  baptized  in  1877,  thereby 
becoming  the  first  Japanese  Christian  convert  in  America. 
Subsequently  "The  Japanese  Gospel  Society"  was  orga- 
nized. This  group  gathered  regularly  in  the  Chinese  Mis- 
sion. Out  of  this  small  Christian  gathering  grew  the  San 
Francisco  Japanese  M.  E.  Church,  the  mother  church  of 
all  Protestant  churches  among  the  Japanese  people  in  the 
United  States. 

After  serving  eight  years  in  the  San  Francisco  Church, 
as  the  first  Japanese  Methodist  minister  in  America, 
Miyama  was  brought  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  Hawaii  and 
there  he  started  the  Methodist  work  among  the  Japanese 
people  in  the  islands.  One  of  the  Christian  fruits  gathered 
in  by  Miyama  was  the  conversion  of  Taro  Ando,  the 
Consul  General  of  the  Japanese  government  stationed  in 
Honolulu.  Ando  later  became  the  father  of  the  Christian 
Temperance  Movement  in  Japan. 


MOBILE,  ALABAMA,  U.S.A.,  a  port  city  in  the  south- 
eastern United  States,  is  located  near  one  of  the  deepest 
natural  harbors  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  present  site 
was  settled  by  the  French  in  1711.  Its  name  originates 
from  an  Indian  Tribe,  the  "Maubila,"  which  once  in- 
habited the  area. 

The  first  attempt  at  Methodist  beginnings  in  the  city 
was  in  1821  when  Alexander  TaUey  was  appointed  by  the 
Mississippi  Conference  as  a  "missionary  to  Pensacola, 
Mobile,  Blakely  and  adjoining  territory."  After  one  year 
of  disappointing  labor,  Talley  located.  The  Mississippi 
Conference  discontinued  the  appointment  for  the  next 
two  years. 

During  these  interim  years,  Nicholas  Mclntyre,  a  presid- 
ing elder,  secured  a  lot  for  a  Methodist  church  in  Mobile. 
The  deed  was  made  May  10,  1824,  to  five  Methodists  who 
were  members  of  congregations  on  the  Chickasawhay  Cir- 
cuit. 

In  1825  the  Mississippi  Conference  sent  Henry  P.  Cook 


to  serve  the  "Mobile  and  Pensacola  Mission."  Cook  had 
worked  in  Pensacola  (Florida)  the  previous  year,  but 
requested  that  Mobile  also  be  included  in  his  work.  A 
few  months  later  he  died  of  yellow  fever. 

Cook's  successor,  John  Russell  Lambuth,  reported  on 
Dec.  14,  1826,  a  membership  of  eighteen  white  and 
seventy-eight  Negro  members,  the  first  tangible  evidence 
of  Methodist  growth  in  Mobile.  During  1827  the  first 
Methodist  house  of  worship  was  completed.  Receiving  no 
pay  from  the  Methodists  in  Mobile,  Lambuth  supported 
himself  by  establishing  a  school. 

Although  the  first  Society  was  officially  listed  by  the 
Mississippi  Conference  as  the  Mobile  Mission,  local  citi- 
zens, observing  the  congregation's  zeal  and  activity,  re- 
ferred to  it  as  the  "Bee  Hive  "  church. 

In  1830  the  Mobile  Mission  reported  a  loss  in  mem- 
bership resulting  from  the  organization  of  the  M.  P. 
Church.  Following  the  leadership  of  Peyton  S.  Graves,  a 
sizeable  group  withdrew  from  the  mission. 

In  1832  Mobile  was  listed  as  an  appointment  within 
the  newly  organized  Alabam-\  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church.  R.  L.  Walker,  who  had  served  as  host-pastor 
of  the  organizational  conference  in  Tuscaloosa,  was  ap- 
pointed pastor  of  the  church  in  Mobile. 

From  1826  until  1841  there  was  only  one  Methodist 
church  in  Mobile.  At  the  annual  conference,  beginning 
Dec.  30,  1840,  Bishop  James  O.  Andrew  directed  Green- 
berry  Garrett,  presiding  elder  of  the  Mobile  District,  to 
enlarge  the  work.  As  a  result,  two  new  charges  were 
formed:  (1)  Second  Charge  and  (2)  Seaman's  Mission. 
The  "Bee  Hive"  Church  was  listed  as  First  Charge. 

In  1842,  First  Charge  was  renamed  Franklin  Street, 
and  the  following  year  Second  Charge  became  St.  Francis 
Street,  after  having  been  known  as  Jackson  Street  for  one 
year. 

Two  new  churches  were  organized  in  1843;  (1)  West 
Ward,  an  addition  to  the  Franklin  Street  appointment, 
and  (2)  Little  Zion,  later  named  the  Big  Zion  A.M.E. 
Zion  Church. 

Recognizing  serious  educational  needs,  Franklin  Street 
and  St.  Francis  Street  Churches  cooperated  in  the  for- 
mation and  support  of  a  free  school  that  continued  until 
Alabama  enacted  the  free  public  school  law. 

The  first  session  of  the  Alabama  Conference  following 
the  Plan  of  Separation  adopted  in  1844  was  held  in 
Mobile  during  February  1846.  Until  the  Plan  of  Union 
in  1939  most  of  the  Methodist  work  in  Mobile  continued 
under  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  and  the  various  Negro 
Methodist  churches.  Neither  the  M.  P.  Church  nor  the 
M.   E.  Church  were  ever  numerically  strong  in  Mobile. 

In  October  1845,  a  new  church,  forerunner  of  the 
Toulminville  Methodist  Church,  was  established.  A  one- 
room  frame  building  was  completed  in  1846,  and  was  used 
by  all  Protestant  denominations  in  the  area. 

Yellow  fever  claimed  a  terrible  toll  in  lives  throughout 
Mobile  in  1853.  Every  Methodist  preacher  in  the  city 
died  of  the  dread  disease  within  three  weeks'  time. 

The  Civil  War  years,  1861-1865,  were  difficult  years 
for  Methodism  in  Mobile.  Many  charges  were  left  "to 
be  supplied,"  others  were  served  by  supernumerary 
preachers.  In  1863  the  Mobile  District  itself  was  marked 
"to  be  supplied."  The  Alabama  Conference  divided  itself 
into  hvo  conferences,  the  Montgomery  and  the  Mobile, 
hoping  to  facilitate  the  work.  The  General  Conference 
(MES)  in  1866  countenanced  the  division,  and  it  con- 
tinued until  1870. 


MODEL   DEED 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


In  1874  an  outgrowth  of  a  Mobile  City  Mission  Circuit 
was  organized  as  the  Four  Mile  Post  Church.  A  one- 
room  frame  building  was  constructed  and  was  ready  for 
occupancy  by  1881.  After  being  known  as  the  Crichton 
Church  from  1898  until  1925,  its  name  was  changed  to 
the  Spring  Hill  Avenue  Church. 

During  the  pastorate  of  A.  J.  Lamar,  the  Franklin 
Street  Church,  Mobile's  oldest,  relocated.  In  1890  the 
new  building  was  completed  and  was  renamed  the 
Government  Street  Church. 

In  1896,  the  Alabama  Conference  met  in  the  new 
Government  Street  Church.  At  this  session  another  church, 
called  Oakdale  Mission,  was  formed,  making  the  fifth 
church  serving  within  the  city  limits  of  Mobile. 

Materials  from  a  saw  mill  shed  were  used  to  build  the 
first  Dauphin  Way  Church  in  1913.  Officially  organized 
a  year  later,  the  congregation  had  a  charter  membership  of 
twenty-six.  By  1965  its  membership  had  grown  to  2,155. 
During  twenty-five  years  of  this  remarkable  growth,  A. 
Carl  Akins  was  the  church's  pastor. 

The  churches  of  Mobile  had  difficulty  meeting  their 
"benevolent  apportionments"  during  the  depression  years 
of  early  1930's.  All  pastors,  serving  churches  not  having 
paid  these  apportionments,  were  required  to  make  a 
complete  canvass  of  every  member,  securing,  if  possible,  a 
pledge  to  benevolences. 

After  unification  in  1939  two  churches  in  Mobile  were 
members  of  the  Central  Jurisdiction:  Warren  Street  and 
Wesley. 

As  the  city  of  Mobile  grew,  suburbs  became  numerous 
around  the  city's  perimeter.  To  meet  this  challenge  twelve 
new  congregations  were  organized  between  1925  and 
1965.  Simultaneously,  shifting  populations  resulted  in  dif- 
ficult problems  for  the  inner  city.  Two  efforts  have  been 
undertaken,  moving  toward  a  confrontation  of  these  prob- 
lems: the  Inner  City  Mission,  an  effort  by  the  Church 
to  meet  the  pressing  needs  of  poverty;  and  the  Toulmin- 
ville — Warren  Street  Methodist  Parish,  a  cooperative 
effort  involving  a  Negro  church  and  an  Alab.wi.'V-West 
Florida  Conference  white  church. 

Big  Zion  A.  M.  E.  Zion  Chlirch  came  to  life  in  1842. 
The  growth  of  the  membership  of  a  white  Methodist 
church  located  at  the  corner  of  Franklin  and  St.  Michael 
Streets,  Mobile  County,  caused  the  members  of  this 
church  to  seek  a  way  to  relieve  a  growing  condition  of 
racial  contact. 

After  a  length  of  time,  the  white  church  placed  S.  H. 
Cox,  white,  in  charge  of  the  Negro  congregation  and  the 
services  were  held  in  a  little  house  on  the  southeast  corner 
of  Church  and  Dearborn  Streets. 

They  remained  in  this  place  free  of  charge  with  Cox 
as  pastor  until  1848,  when  they  decided  to  purchase  it 
with  funds  donated  them. 

Under  the  law  of  Alabama,  they  were  prohibited  from 
holding  property  under  their  own  names.  Therefore,  the 
property  was  deeded  to  the  following  white  trustees: 
Viz:  A.  H.  Ryland,  R.  S.  Baker  and  R.  L.  Watson. 

Local  preachers  at  this  time  were  Ferdinand  Smith, 
Charles  Lee,  and  Battas  Dayes.  They  were  permitted  to 
pray  during  services. 

Shortly  after  this  place  was  piu-chased,  it  was  bumed 
to  the  ground,  and  the  little  band  went  from  there  to  a 
carpenter's  shop  which  was  also  burned  down.  After  the 
burning  of  the  carpenter's  shop,  they  worshipped  in  the 
Burden's  Mill,  at  St.  Francis  and  Wilkinson  Streets.  From 
there  they  moved  to  the  Medical  College  on  St.  Anthony 


at  Lawrence  Street.  The  first  Quarterly  Conference  was 
held. 

Now  appeared  the  first  A.M.E.  Zion  bishop  to  come 
South — Bishop  J.  J.  Clinton,  who  brought  with  him 
Wilbur  G.  Strong,  who  persuaded  them  to  vote  to  transfer 
their  membership  from  the  .M.  E.  Church,  South,  to  the 
A.M.E.  Zion  connection.  The  property,  however,  remained 
under  the  ownership  of  white  trustees  until  1867. 

In  1860,  while  still  worshipping  in  the  Medical  College, 
the  members  of  the  Church  purchased  lots  on  the  north- 
west corner  of  Church  and  S.  Bayou  Streets  from  Henry 
Turner  and  constructed  a  shed  building  in  which  they  held 
their  sen'ices.  Charles  Lee,  a  local  preacher,  was  the 
pastor  while  worshipping  in  this  shed. 

In  1865  Ferdinand  Smith  was  ordained  by  Bishop  J.  J. 
Clinton  of  the  A.M.E.  Zion  connection.  He  was  the  first 
Negro  minister  to  be  ordained  by  a  Negro  bishop  in  the 
state  of  Alabama.  On  July  29  of  the  same  year  he  was 
authorized  to  take  charge  of  the  church.  He  was  pastor 
until  1867,  when  E.  D.  Taylor  succeeded  liim. 

Samuel  Wilson  served  until  1880;  William  Spencer, 
1880-1885;  A.  J,  Warner,  1885-1891;  H.  R.  Gaines  took 
charge  of  the  church  in  1891  and  served  until  1893; 
C.  H.  Smith  succeeded  Gaines  in  1893;  Richard  A.  Mor- 
risey,  1899-1904;  A.  J.  Rodgers,  1904-1908;  L.  W.  Kyles, 
1908-1914;  G.  W.  Johnson,  1914-1921;  J.  R.  White,  1921; 
F.  W.  Riley,  1925;  M.  F.  Gregory,  1931-1932;  A.  A. 
Garvin,  1933-1934;  R.  H.  Collins  Lee,  1934-1935;  William 
Bascom,  1935  through  1936;  D.  G.  Garland,  1936;  A.  E. 
Ellison,  1937-1941;  Felix  S.  Anderson,  1941- 

Dauphin  Way  Church  is  the  stately  mid-city  church 
of  the  port  city.  It  is  not  Methodism's  oldest  in  Mobile, 
but  it  is  the  largest  and  one  of  the  most  influential.  Like 
the  congregation  of  an  early  Christian  church,  Dauphin 
Way  had  its  beginning  in  the  homes  of  those  who  desired 
a  church  fellowship  in  this  new  area  of  the  city.  The  year 
was  1913.  A  site  was  given  and  an  old  sawmill  shed  was 
torn  down  and  rebuilt  to  house  this  fledgling  congrega- 
tion. In  1922  the  church  was  moved  several  blocks  and  in 
a  short  time  merged  with  St.  Stephens  Road  Church.  In 
1925  the  building  on  the  new  site  was  completed,  and 
this  facility  served  well  until  1957,  when  Dauphin  Way 
opened  its  new  sanctuary,  diagonally  across  Dauphin 
Street  from  the  old. 

Twenty  children  gathered  for  the  first  Sunday  school 
class  meeting  in  a  home  in  1913.  Fifty  years  later  over 
2,000  composed  the  fellowship  of  Dauphin  Way.  That 
number  continues  to  grow  year  by  year. 

The  beautiful  colonial  sanctuary,  dedicated  in  1964, 
is  one  of  the  most  impressive  church  structures  in  the 
Azalea  City.  It  seats  1,200  worshippers  and  provides  an 
atmosphere  of  stately  simplicity.  Its  cross,  high  above  the 
city,  brings  a  fitting  peak  to  its  tapering  spire,  calling 
all  who  pass  by  to  look  up  in  adoration. 

In  1970  Dauphin  Way  reported  a  membership  of  2,177, 
property  valued  at  $1,769,910,  and  $200,283  raised  for 
all  purposes. 

Journals  of  the  Alabama  Conference,  ME,  MES,  TMC. 
Journal  of  the  Alabama-West  Florida  Conference. 
M.  E.  Lazenby,  Alabama  and  West  Florida.  1960. 
A.  West,  Alabama.  1893.  Frank  Thomas  Hyles,  Jr. 

DAvm  H.  Bradley 
Joel  D.  McDavid 

MODEL  DEED.  ( See  Deeds,  Trust.  ) 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MOLING,    FRANCES 


MOFFATT,  ELBERT  MARSTON  (1884-1966),  was  born  in 
Le  Sueur,  Minn.,  and  graduated  from  Dartmouth.  He 
arrived  in  India,  Feb.  19,  1911,  as  a  Y.M.C.A.  secretary. 
He  served  first  as  business  secretary  at  headquarters  in 
Calcutta,  and  then  as  general  secretary  of  the  Y.M.C.A. 
in  Allahabad.  Returning  to  America  in  1916,  he  became 
secretary  of  the  Bowery  Y.M.C.A.  in  New  York. 

In  September  1920,  he  again  arrived  in  India,  but  as 
a  missionary  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  and  began  a  new 
career  in  which  he  achieved  distinction.  He  was  appointed 
manager  of  the  schoor  of  commerce  of  Lucknow  Chris- 
tian College.  The  ne.xt  year,  1921,  Lucknow  University 
invited  him  to  be  dean  of  commerce,  and  he  served  both 
institutions  until  1926  v/hen  he  took  furlough.  Subsequent 
appointments  included  treasurer  of  Lucknow  Christian 
Collepe,  1927-30;  superintendent,  Kumaun  and  Sitapur 
Districts,  1927-30;  secretary  of  the  executive  boaid, 
1931-46;  and  branch  treasurer  for  India,  Board  of  Mis- 
sions. He  was  the  originator  of  the  All-India  Provident 
Fund  for  ministers  and  other  employees  of  the  Methodist 
Church  and  its  agencies  in  India.  He  took  the  lead  in 
organizing  the  inter-mission  business  office  in  Bombay 
and  in  securing  the  participation  of  seventy-two  missions. 

He  left  India  on  furlough  in  1946  and  was  held  there  as 
a  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  working  on  a  study 
of  deeds  for  property  owned  by  the  board  in  various 
countries.  He  served  as  secretary  of  the  Geneb.\l  Con- 
ference Commission  on  the  Structure  of  Methodism 
Overseas  (COSMOS),  1946-50. 

In  the  autumn  of  that  year  he  returned  to  India  and 
became  agent  of  the  Lucknow  Publishing  House  and 
held  that  position  for  four  years.  He  represented  the 
Board  of  Missions  in  deputation  work  for  two  years  or 
more.  He  retired  in  1956,  but  in  retirement  was  called 
back  to  India  to  make  a  study  of  the  state  of  property 
records  and  to  devise  plans  for  the  transfer  of  properties 
owned  by  the  Board  of  Missions  to  the  church  in  India. 
He  died  in  October  1966. 

Minutes  of  the  North  India  Conference.    J.  Waskom  Pickett 

MOKITIMI,  SETH  MOLEFI  (1904-  ),  Methodist  min- 
ister in  South  Africa,  was  bom  at  Quthing,  Basutoland 


Seth  M.  MoKrriMi 


(now  Lesotho)  on  Jan.  15,  1904,  and  began  life  as  a  herd 
boy  on  the  hills  of  his  native  country.  He  later  attended 
school  and  then  proceeded  to  the  Healdtown  Missionary 
Institution  where  he  received  his  high  school  education 
and  qualified  as  a  teacher.  Candidating  for  the  ministry 
of  the  Methodist  Church  of  South  Africa,  he  was  trained 
in  theology  at  Wesley  House,  Fort  Hare  and  ordained  to 
the  work  of  the  ministry.  After  a  period  of  sei"vice  at 
Zastron  in  the  Orange  Free  State  he  was  appointed  chap- 
lain to  the  students  at  Healdtown.  Thereafter  he  served 
in  the  Transkeian  circuit  of  Osbom,  at  the  Bensonvale 
Missionary  Institution  in  the  Northern  Cape  as  Governor, 
and  at  Dloemfontein.  He  was  Secretary  of  the  Methodist 
Church's  Board  of  Examiners  (1941-62)  and  became 
General  Missionary  Secretary  in  1963.  After  being  runner- 
up  for  the  Presidency  of  the  Methodist  Conference  for 
five  years,  he  was  elected  as  President  of  the  1964  Con- 
ference, the  first  African  to  hold  this  position.  In  1966  he 
was  elected  President  of  the  Christian  Council  of  South 
Africa. 

S.  P.  Freeland 

MOLEMA,  son  of  the  Barolong  chief  Tauane,  gained  his 
Christian  experience  at  Thaba  'Nchu.  Tauane  died  in 
1850  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Montsioa  but  Molema 
became  the  spiritual  leader.  He  had  moved  with  the  tribe 
from  Thaba  'Nchu  back  to  their  homeland  in  the  vicinity 
of  Maquassie,  thence  to  Lotlakana  and  Moshaneng  and 
finally  to  Mafeking.  For  forty  years  he  was  their  leader 
and  preacher,  with  occasional  assistance  from  missionaries 
from  the  Kimberley  and  Bloemfontein  District.  In  Jan- 
uary 1882  Molema  died — just  ten  months  before  the 
Chairman  of  the  new  Transvaal  District  visited  Mafeking. 
The  ChaiiTnan  found  a  thriving  church  and  Sunday  school 
of  500  children  and  adults  led  by  Joshua,  Molema's  son. 
A  thousand  people  attended  the  services  held  under  a 
large  tree.  There  was  a  church  building  but  it  was  too 
small  for  the  congregation. 

Journal  of  the  Methodist  Historical  Society  of  South  Africa. 

Vol.  Ill,  No.  2  (October  1958). 

Minutes  of  South  African  Conference,  1939.      D.  C.  Veysie 

MOLING,  FRANCES  (1871-1945),  American  missionary 
to  Cuba,  was  born  in  Havana,  Mo.,  May  11,  1871.  A 
school  for  girls  had  been  started  in  Havana  with  Hattie 
G.  Carson,  who  had  been  transferred  from  Mexico,  1898, 
director;  and  another  school  in  Cienfuegos  in  1900,  with 
J.  D.  Lewis.  The  latter  began  with  five  pupils  and  Lewis 
worked  without  salary  for  ten  months.  The  two  schools 
were  united  and  setded  at  Cienfuegos. 

Fortunately,  in  1898  a  Mrs.  Dora  Bowman,  from  the 
North  Texas  Conference,  became  very  much  interested 
in  what  she  had  heard  of  the  needs  of  Cuban  children  and 
collected  $18,000  to  help  with  a  school  for  Cuban  chil- 
dren. Mrs.  Bowman  requested  that  the  school  be  named 
for  her  sister-in-law,  Eliza  Bowman. 

On  taking  charge  of  the  school  in  1902,  Miss  Moling 
secured  valuable  property  on  one  of  the  main  streets  in 
down-town  Cienfuegos,  where  for  more  than  twenty  years 
the  school  functioned  as  a  co-educational  day  school. 
With  her  wise  leadership  the  school  soon  grew  to  the 
capacity  of  its  class  rooms. 

About  1924  buildings  located  on  a  hill  in  the  highest 
point  in  town,  where  the  city  reservoir  had  been  previous- 


MOLTHER,    PHILIP   H. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


ly  located,  were  oflFered  for  sale.  Miss  Moling  bought 
them  and  added  a  commodious  class  room  building  and 
chapel.  The  small  space  for  dormitory  purposes  was  al- 
ways filled  to  capacity  and  buses  were  required  to  bring 
the  day  pupils  that  crowded  the  class  rooms. 

To  properly  evaluate  her  work  and  character  it  was 
said,  "one  needs  a  pen  of  gold  dipped  in  imperishable 
ink."  With  a  vision,  a  lover  of  the  beautiful,  a  tireless 
worker,  she  possessed  all  the  virtues  that  make  a  noble 
and  refined  person  and  at  the  same  time  a  quiet  sweetness 
and  patience. 

Not  only  was  she  an  excellent  business  administrator 
but  her  (juiet  sweet  disposition  affected  everyone  that 
(•\cr  knew  her.  She  retired  in  1937  and  died  March  28, 
1945. 


S.  A.  Neblett,  Methodism  in  Cuba, 


Garfield  Evans 


MOLTHER,  PHILIP  H.  (1714-1780),  Moravian,  was  born 
at  Burtweiler,  Alsace,  on  Dec.  26,  1714.  As  tutor  to  Count 
Zinzendorf's  son,  he  became  a  Moravian;  and  at  Fetter 
Lane  in  London  he  propounded  the  doctrine  of  "still- 
ness," which  asserted  that  those  who  believed  themselves 
converted  should  abstain  from  the  means  of  grace,  espe- 
cially from  the  Lord's  Supper,  until  all  their  doubts  were 
removed.  This  doctrine  and  Molther's  objections  to  the 
Methodist  "scenes"  were  largely  responsible  for  the  dis- 
ruption of  the  Fetter  Lane  group  and  the  formation  of  the 
first  Methodist  society  in  1740.  The  doctrine  of  "still- 
ness," though  supported  by  August  Spangenberg  and 
others  at  the  time,  was  soon  dropped.  Molther  died  at 
Bedford  on  Sept.  9,  1780. 

Daniel  Benham,  Memoirs  of  James  Hutton.  London:  Hamilton, 

Adams  &  Co.,  1856. 

C.  W.  Towlson,  Moravian  and  Methodist.  1957. 

C.   A.   Wauer,    The   Beginnings  of   the   Brethren's   Church    in 

England.  London,  1901. 

J.  Wesley,  Journal.  1909-16.  C.  W.  Towlson 


Shot  K.  Mondol 

MONDOL,  SHOT  KUMAR  (1896-  ),  Methodist  bish- 
op, was  born  in  Murshidabad,  West  Bengal,  India,  on 
Oct.  11,  1896.  His  father  was  an  ordained  Methodist 
minister  in  the  Bengal  Annual  Conference.  His  formal 
education  was  acquired  entirely  in  India.  He  studied  in 
the  Scottish  Churches  College  and  in  St.  Paul's  College, 
both  in  Calcutta,  and  was  graduated  with  a  B.A.  degree 

1654 


from  the  University  of  Calcutta.  His  theological  education 
was  obtained  through  the  Conference  course  of  studies. 

Early  he  acquired  a  reputation  as  an  instructive  and 
spiritually  helpful  preacher.  In  his  early  thirties  he  was 
appointed  the  first  Indian  superintendent  of  the  Calcutta 
District,  and  at  forty-four  years  of  age  became  the  second 
citizen  of  India  elected  to  the  Methodist  episcopacy.  For 
sixteen  years  he  supervised  the  Hyderabad  Area.  At  the 
end  of  1956,  he  was  transferred  to  the  Delhi  Area,  where 
he  remained  until  his  retirement  in  1965.  When  the  Cen- 
tral Conference  of  the  Philippines  asked  the  Council 
OF  Bishops  to  assign  one  of  their  number  to  the  .Manila 
Area  to  serve  until  that  Conference  elected  an  additional 
bishop,  his  colleagues  of  the  Council  unanimously  chose 
Bishop  Mondol. 

His  leadership  has  extended  far  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  his  own  church.  He  has  served  as  President  of  the 
National  Christian  Council  of  Indi.i,  1949-1956;  President 
of  the  National  Missionary  Society  of  India,  1943-1958; 
President  of  the  India  Sunday  Scliool  Union,  1948-1964; 
President  of  the  World  Council  of  Christian  Education 
and  World  Sunday  School  Association,  1958-1962;  Presi- 
dent, United  Mission  to  Nepal,  1958-1964;  President, 
North  West  Indian  Christian  Council,  1958-1962;  Presi- 
dent of  the  Delhi  Y.M.C.A.,  1960-1965;  Chairman  of  the 
Managing  Committee  of  the  Christian  Medical  College 
at  Vellore;  and  member  of  the  Executive  Committees  of 
the  Council  of  Bishops  of  The  Methodist  Church  and  of 
the  World  Methodist  Council.  He  participated  in  pub- 
lic affairs  often.  In  Asansol  he  was  a  municipal  commis- 
sioner and  in  Hyderabad  a  fellow  of  Osmania  University. 

He  maintained  cordial  relations  with  Prime  Minister 
Nehru  and  members  of  his  cabinet  and  with  Doctors 
Rajendra  Pra.sad  and  Radhakrishnan,  the  first  and  second 
Presidents  of  the  Republic  of  India. 

He  has  been  awarded  honorary  degrees  from  Amer- 
ican institutions  as  follows:  Asbury  Seminary,  D.D.; 
Bo-STON  University,  S.T.D.;  American  University, 
LL.D.;  Albion  College,  LL.D.;  and  Wiley  College, 
LL.D. 

Bishop  Mondol  married  Carolyn  Belle  Osburn,  a  mis- 
sionary of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society. 
Her  parents  were  also  missionaries  in  India.  Among  their 
children  is  one  son  who  is  a  member  of  the  Michigan 
Annual  Conference. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

MONMOUTH,  MAINE,  U.S.A.,  where  the  first  Methodist 
church  in  Maine  was  established.  In  1793  Jesse  Lee 
visited  in  Monmouth  and  came  again  on  Oct.  22,  1794 
after  he  had  been  made  presiding  elder  of  Massachu- 
setts, New  Hampshire  and  Maine.  That  year  Philip 
Wagner  had  been  appointed  to  Maine.  When  Lee  came  to 
Monmouth,  he  found  that  Wagner  had  gathered  a  group 
of  fifteen  people.  The  organization  of  tlie  class  on  Nov.  1, 
1794,  by  Philip  Wagner,  gives  Monmouth  the  distinction 
of  being  the  first  Methodist  church  established  in  Maine. 
December  25  of  that  year  Holy  Communion  was  observed 
for  the  first  time  in  Monmouth  at  Capt.  Peter  Hopkins 
tavern,  with  Jesse  Lee  presiding  and  preaching  on  the 
text  Isaiah  9:6. 

On  Oct.  28,  1795,  the  church  at  old  Meeting  House 
Comer  was  well  under  way.  Some  work  had  been  begun 
the    previous   year    on    land    donated    by    Major    David 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MONROE,   DAVID   SOLOMON 


Marston.  It  was  dedicated  on  May  31,  1796,  making  it 
the  second  chapel  in  Maine.  This  group  started  work  on 
their  church  earlier  than  the  work  at  (East)  Readfield, 
but  were  held  up  by  lack  of  funds.  This  building  burned 
in  1843.  The  new  church  was  erected  at  the  present  site 
in  1846.  The  steeple  was  dedicated  in  1866.  In  1930  the 
Congregational  Church  united  with  the  Methodist  Church, 
forming  what  is  called  the  Monmouth  United  Church. 
The  services  are  held  in  the  Methodist  church;  the  Con- 
gregational church  was  sold  to  the  Masonic  order. 

A  member  of  the  Monmouth  Church,  Harry  Cockrane 
(1860-1946),  an  artist,  mural  painter,  and  decorator  of 
churches  and  other  public  buildings,  painted  (about 
1924)  a  mural  of  Bishop  Asbury  fording  a  wilderness 
stream  and  holding  an  open  book  in  his  hand.  This  work, 
entitled  "The  Man  on  Horseback,"  was  reproduced  on 
the  cover  of  the  Methodist  magazine  Together  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  175th  Anniversary  of  Methodism  in  Amer- 
ica. The  painting  is  on  the  wall  of  the  Methodist  Church 
of  Monmouth  together  with  another  painting  by  Mr. 
Cochrane  of  St.  John  on  Patmos,  writing  on  a  tablet. 
The  inscription  is  "In  memory  of  the  First  Methodist  Class 
in  Maine,"  with  these  words  of  scripture:  "And  I  heard 
a  voice  from  Heaven  saying  unto  me  'Write  Blessed  are 
the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord'."  Mr.  Cochrane  was  a 
member  of  the  Monmouth  church  all  of  his  life  and  hon- 
ored as  a  saintly  man.  He  commemorated  in  art  the  his- 
torical fact  that  the  church  at  Monmouth  was  the  first 
Methodist  church  organized  in  Maine. 

The  minister  at  Monmouth  also  serves  the  church  at 
East  Monmouth.  The  Methodist  society  here  was  formed 
in  1794  and  joined  with  three  other  denominations  in 
building  a  meeting  house,  still  in  use,  about  1800.  It  was 
agreed  that  the  society  that  outlasted  the  others  was  finally 
to  own  the  property.  This  is  now  the  East  Monmouth 
Methodist  Church.  Visitors  today  admire  the  "punkin" 
pine  floor  boards,  oil  reflector  lamps,  forty-pane  windows, 
pews  with  hinged  doors,  old  balcony  and  Christian  cross 
doors.  Weekly  services  are  held  and  a  union  service  an- 
nually on  the  Sunday  afternoon  following  Thanksgiving 
Day  that  is  attended  by  people  from  a  large  area.  Jesse 
Lee  preached  in  East  Monmouth  on  Aug.  5,  1800,  but  it 
is  not  known  whether  this  church  had  then  been  built. 

Allen  and  Pilsbury,  Methodism  in  Maine.  1887. 

Alfred  G.  Hempstead 

MONROE,  ANDREW  (1792-1871),  American  pioneer 
preacher,  was  bom  in  Hampshire  County,  Va.,  Oct.  29, 
1792.  He  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  moving,  first 
to  TEN^fEssEE,  and  later  to  Ohio  where  he  grew  to  ma- 
turity. He  was  one  of  four  preachers  bom  to  his  parents. 
Monroe  was  hcensed  to  preach  by  the  Zanesville,  Ohio, 
Circuit  in  1815  and  was  admitted  on  trial  to  the  Ohio 
Conference  that  year.  He  served  appointments  there  and 
in  Kentucky,  and  transferred  to  the  Missouri  Confer- 
ence in  1824.  The  western  edge  of  the  American  frontier 
lay  in  Missouri  at  that  time.  After  two  pastorates  in  St. 
Louis  (1824-25;  1828-29),  Monroe's  decisive  leadership 
placed  him  repeatedly  in  the  presiding  eldership — a  total 
of  twenty  years — over  districts  that  were  expanding  west- 
ward with  an  ever  increasing  number  of  circuits.  He 
bought  and  operated  Prairie  Lawn  Seminary,  Danville, 
Mo.  (1831-38),  the  first  Methodist-related  school  in  Mis- 
souri. He  was  further  identified  with  educational  en- 
deavors by  sei-ving  as  Agent  for  St.   Charles  College  in 


whose  behalf  he  made  a  tour  of  eastern  conferences.  On 
the  eve  of  the  Civil  War  he  served  as  Agent  for  Central 
Methodist  College.  In  this  community  he  spent  the 
war  years  in  both  the  pastorate  and  the  presiding  elder- 
ship. 

At  division  of  the  Church,  Monroe  led  and  largely  in- 
fluenced the  Missouri  Conference  to  go  into  the  M.E. 
Church,  South.  The  Civil  War  in  Missouri  with  its  ac- 
companying disorders  prevented  the  bishops  of  the 
Church,  South  from  attending  the  sessions  of  the  Annual 
Conference.  Twice  Monroe  was  chosen  President  of  the 
Conference  and  virtually  became  "substitute  bishop."  The 
leadership  of  his  voice  and  pen  largely  prevented  the 
disintegration  of  the  Southern  Church  in  Missouri.  In 
1865  he  rallied  ministers  and  laymen  by  calling  a  Con- 
vention to  undertake  the  rebuilding  of  the  church.  From 
this  Convention  came  the  Palmyra  Manifesto,  a  decla- 
ration of  faith  in  the  future  which  was  widely  circulated 
in  the  Southern  Conferences  and  which  considerably  in- 
fluenced the  General  Conference  of  1866. 

Monroe  was  a  member  of  eleven  General  Conferences; 
five  of  the  undivided  M.E.  Chuich  and  six  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South.  He  knew  personally  the  leaders  in  both 
branches  of  the  church  who  gave  him  their  confidence 
and  esteem.  He  died  Nov.  17,  1871,  and  was  buried  in 
Mexico,  Mo. 

M.  L.  Gray,  Missouri  Metliodism.  1907. 

Andrew   Monroe,  "Recollections."   Typescript,   Commission  on 

Archives  and  History,  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  G. 

Frank  C.  Tucker 

MONROE,  DAVID  SOLOMON  (1833-1910),  American 
minister,  was  born  April  15,  1833,  in  Leesburg,  Va.  He 
was  educated  in  the  Baltimore  public  schools  and  in 
Baltimore  City  College. 

In  1854  he  was  admitted  into  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference of  the  M.E.  Church  and,  by  reason  of  boundary 
changes  and  its  division  at  the  time  and  following  the  Civil 
War,  was  subsequently  a  member  of  the  East  Baltimore 
and  Central  Pennsylvania  Conferences.  Upon  the  orga- 
nization of  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference  in  1869, 
he  was  elected  its  first  secretary  and  served  with  unique 
distinction  in  that  capacity  for  twenty-five  years,  resigning 
when  appointed  presiding  elder  of  the  Altoona  District. 

Elected  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of 
the  M.E.  Church  in  1876,  he  was  named  assistant  secre- 
tary of  that  body.  In  1880  he  was  first  assistant  secretary, 
and  in  1884  became  secretary.  He  held  this  office  of 
Secretary  of  the  General  Conference  until  1904,  when  he 
dechned  to  be  a  candidate,  having  been  a  member  of 
seven  General  Conferences. 

After  serving  for  fifty-seven  years  in  the  ministry,  he 
died  in  Altoona,  Pa.,  Nov.  15,  1910,  leaving  his  entire 
estate  to  the  church  he  loved.  His  body  is  interred  in 
Mount  Olivet  Cemetery,  Baltimore,  Md.,  where  Bishop 
Asbury  and  a  number  of  other  heroes  of  Methodism  also 
lie  at  rest. 

He  was  known  as  an  outstanding  pastor,  an  eloquent 
and  scholarly  preacher,  and  a  princely  giant  among  his 
brethren. 

The  Christian  Advocate  (New  York),  Dec.  1,  1910. 
Journal  oi  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference,  1911. 

Charles  F.  Berkheimer 

1655 


MONROE,    JOSHUA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


MONROE,  JOSHUA  (1786-1874),  American  preacher, 
was  bom  in  Allegany  County,  Md.,  and  spent  his  min- 
istry in  western  Pennsylvanl\  where  he  became  a  char- 
ter member  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  when  it  was 
formed  in  1825.  He  was  admitted  in  the  Baltimore 
Conference  in  1808.  He  served  as  a  presiding  elder  for 
thirteen  years.  One  of  the  founders  of  Beaver  College, 
he  served  as  president  of  its  Board  of  Trustees  for  many 
years.  He  was  a  delegate  from  the  Pittsburgh  Conference 
to  the  General  Conferences  of  1828,  1832,  and  1836. 
He  wrote  a  series  of  twenty-nine  articles  titled  Recollec- 
tions of  the  Past,  which  were  published  serially  in  the 
Pittsburgh  Christian  Advocate  from  Dec.  23,  1856  to 
Sept.  21,  1858.  They  are  autobiographical,  covering  the 
years  1791  to  1836,  and  run  to  a  total  of  over  thirty  thou- 
sand words. 

Pittsburgh  Christian  Advocate,  Dec.  2.3,  1856  to  Sept.  21,  18.58, 

and  July  17,  1869. 

W.  G.  Smeltzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzer 

MONROE,  SAMUEL  YORKE  (1816-1867),  American 
clergyxnan  and  church  extension  secretary,  was  born  at 
Mount  Holly,  N.  J.,  July  1,  1816.  Converted  in  youth  in 
Union  Church,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  under  the  labors  of 
Charles  Pitman,  he  was  admitted  to  the  New  Jersey 
Conference  on  trial  in  1843.  All  of  Monroe's  pastorates 
were  in  New  Jersey.  He  was  presiding  elder  two  terms 
in  the  New  Jersey  Conference.  His  last  pastorate  was 
Trinity  Church,  Jersey  City. 

Upon  the  organization  of  the  Church  Extension  Soci- 
ety in  1865,  Monroe  was  chosen  by  the  bishops  to  be  the 
first  Corresponding  Secretary.  Due  to  excessive  labors  over 
the  church  his  health  was  weakened.  During  the  first 
year  as  Corresponding  Secretary  he  raised  over  $60,000. 
He  was  elected  to  three  Gen-eral  Conferences — 1856, 
1860,  1864 — "at  the  last  of  which  he  received  a  very 
flattering  vote  for  Bishop."  Leaving  home  in  Camden, 
N.  J.,  to  attend  a  meeting  in  Sands  Street  Church, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  he  fell  or  was  thrown  from  the  rear 
platform  of  a  railway  car  near  Jersey  City,  and  was  thus 
dashed  against  the  rocks  and  instantly  killed.  He  was 
buried  in  Evergreen  Cemetery,  near  Camden,  N.  J.,  Feb. 
13,  1867. 

Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 
Minutes  of  the  Newark  Conference,  1867. 

Edgar  R.  Rohrbach 

MONROE,  LOUISIANA,  USA.,  Bartholomew  Church,  a 

frontier  meetinghouse,  is  located  in  Monroe  District, 
Louisiana  Conference,  on  the  present  Bastrop-Bonita 
highway,  Morehouse  Parish. 

Masons  and  Methodists  constructed  and  jointly  owned 
the  rectangular  frame  building  dedicated  June  25,  1835. 
Virgin  timber  sills  were  secured  by  wooden  pegs  to 
notched,  hand-hewn  tree  trunks  two  stories  high.  The  out- 
side boards  of  heart  pine  were  fastened  with  square  hand- 
forged  iron  nails.  The  upper  floor  housed  independent 
Masonic  lodge  meetings  until  Bartholomew  Lodge,  Free 
and  Accepted  Masons  #112,  operated  under  charter  from 
the  Louisiana  Grand  Lodge  (1853-1899).  The  lower 
floor  provided  a  candle  lighted  place  of  worship  for  both 
master  and  slave.  Membership  never  exceeded  150. 

Tombstones  in  the  thirteen-acre  cemetery  trace  pioneer 


hardships  through  exposure,  epidemics,  and  the  pestilence 
of  war.  Buried  in  1853,  as  yellow  fever  victims,  were  the 
pastor,  John  B.  Eddins,  his  wife  and  son.  The  Bev.  Samuel 
Haws  and  most  of  his  family  died  from  typhoid  in  1860. 

Since  organization  of  the  Louisiana  Annual  Conference 
(1847),  Bartholomew  Church  has  been  on  the  following 
circuits;  Bastrop,  Bonidee,  Colony  Mission,  Lind  Grove, 
Plantersville,  and  Washita. 

In  1958,  complete  renovation  preserved  the  archi- 
tectural style  of  the  church  but  included  modern  improve- 
ments. Sunday  school  rooms  replaced  the  early  lodge 
rooms.  The  congregation  continues  to  bear  Christian  wit- 
ness. 

Jourmils  of  the  Louisiana  Conference. 

Grand  Lodge  Archives,  New  Orleans,  La. 

Quarterly   Conference    Minutes.        Mildred    Nixon    Nolan 

MONTANA,  sometimes  called  "the  Treasure  State"  or  "the 
Land  of  the  Shining  Mountains,"  is  in  the  northwest  sec- 
tion of  the  United  States.  It  is  bounded  on  the  north  by 
Canada,  on  the  east  by  the  Dakotas,  on  the  south  by 
Idaho  and  Wyoming,  and  on  the  west  by  Idaho.  With 
145,878  square  miles,  it  is  fourth  in  size  among  the  fifty 
states.  Mountainous  in  the  west  and  southwest,  the  re- 
maining three-fifths  of  the  state  is  mostly  plains.  Orga- 
nized as  a  territorv  in  1864,  Montana  became  the  forty- 
first  state  in  1889.  In  1970  its  population  was  682,133. 

Partially  explored  by  Lewis  and  Clark  in  1805,  Mon- 
tana was  soon  afterward  settled  by  whites.  The  first  im- 
migration of  consequence,  however,  came  following  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  1858.  Bannock  was  founded  in  1862, 
Virginia  City  about  1863,  and  Helena  in  1864. 

Both  branches  of  Episcopal  Methodism  had  work  in 
Montana.  The  ministry  of  the  M.E.  Church  began  with  a 
sermon  delivered  Jan.  10,  1864  at  Bannock  by  a  preacher 
named  Craig.  During  the  same  winter  William  Florkey 
organized  a  Methodist  class  at  Virginia  City.  In  June 
1864  a  group  of  men  under  the  leadership  of  an  ordained 
local  preacher  named  William  James  built  a  church  in 
Junction  City,  about  three  miles  from  Virginia  City.  A 
church  costing  $1,500  was  erected  at  Virginia  City  that 
same  summer. 

The  M.E.  Church's  greatest  leader  in  Montana  in  the 
early  days  was  William  Wesley  Van  Orsdel,  known 
as  "Brother  Van."  He  preached  the  first  sermon  at  Fort 
Benton  in  north  Montana  June  30,  1872.  Van  Orsdel  did 
more  than  any  other  man  to  keep  alive  the  frontier 
churches  and  to  promote  the  institutions  of  his  denomina- 
tion in  the  region.  The  denomination  developed  two  con- 
ferences in  Montana — Montana  which  was  carved  out  of 
the  Rocky  Mountain  Conference  in  1876,  and  North 
Montana  which  was  formed  by  merging  the  Kalispell 
and  Montana  Missions  in  1907.  In  1924  the  two  united 
to  form  the  Montana  State  Conference. 

The  pioneer  preacher  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  in 
Montana  was  L.  B.  Stateler.  Accompanying  a  large 
number  of  emigrants  for  the  northwest,  Stateler  and  his 
family  arrived  in  Bozeman  July  7,  1864.  Stateler  first 
visited  Virginia  City  July  10,  but  for  lack  of  a  house  in 
which  a  congregation  could  gather  he  did  not  begin 
preaching  at  once.  About  the  middle  of  July  he  went  to 
Norwegian  Gulch  on  the  headwaters  of  Willow  Creek, 
some  thirty-five  miles  northeast  of  Virginia  City,  where  he 
met  a  Southern  Methodist  local  preacher  named  Hard- 
grove.  Assisted  by  laymen,  they  erected  an  arbor,  covered 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MONTANA   CONFERENCE 


it  with  brush,  and  began  preaching  services.  Later  Stateler 
preached  in  various  homes  to  which  he  was  invited.  He 
organized  the  first  Southern  Methodist  societ>'  in  the  home 
of  Richard  Reeves  in  January  1865.  Reeves  hved  near 
a  settlement  on  Willow  Creek  where  there  were  a  number 
of  church  members  from  Missouri.  Other  Southern  Meth- 
odist preachers  who  came  soon  after  Stateler  were  J.  H. 
Pritchett  and  B.  R.  Baxter.  The  one  began  preaching  at 
Helena  in  1865  and  the  other  a  year  later. 

The  Montana  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  South 
was  organized  and  held  its  first  session  at  Helena,  Sept. 
19-22,  1878  with  Bishop  W.  M.  Wightman  presiding. 
L.  B.  Stateler  was  secretary.  Prior  to  that  time  the  Mon- 
tana work  had  been  a  part  of  the  Denver  Conference. 
At  the  beginning  the  new  conference  had  two  districts, 
Helena  and  Deer  Lodge,  six  preachers,  ten  charges,  and 
232  members.  The  conference  grew  slowly,  and  in  1917 
when  it  had  969  members  and  thirteen  appointments,  it 
merged  with  the  Columbia  and  East  Columbia  Confer- 
ences to  form  the  Northwest  Conference.  In  that  year  the 
Montana  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  which  began 
in  1876  with  295  members,  reported  over  11,000. 

At  unification  in  1939,  all  of  Methodism  in  Montana 
became  the  Montana  Conference.  In  1964  Lehmi  Coun- 
ty, Idaho  was  added  to  the  conference. 

During  its  history  the  M.E.  Church  established  a  church 
paper,  a  college,  several  hospitals,  a  children's  home,  and 
a  school. 

In  1968  the  Montana  Conference  had  118  ministers, 
80  pastoral  charges,  26,831  church  members,  16,865 
church  school  pupils,  and  propertv  valued  at  $11,252,- 
500. 

In  1969  the  Big  Horn  Basin  of  Wyoming,  with  seven- 
teen churches,  was  added  to  the  Montana  Conference,  and 
the  name  was  changed  to  Yellowstone  Conference. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC. 
Minutes  of  the  Montana  Conference. 
E.  J.  Stanley,  Montana.  1884. 

Roberta  B.  West,  "How  Methodism  Came  to  North  Mon- 
tana," Methodist  History,  April  1967.  John  F.  Reagan 

MONTANA  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at  Missoula  in 
June  1939,  with  Bishop  Wilbur  Hammaker  presiding. 
It  included  the  churches  of  the  Montana  State  Confer- 
ence (ME)  and  the  Montana  churches  of  the  Northwest 
Conference  (MES).  At  the  time  of  organization  the 
conference  had  eighty-five  preachers,  144  churches,  and 
16,411  members.  (See  Montana  for  account  of  begin- 
nings of  Methodism  in  the  state. ) 

Originally  the  work  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  Montana 
was  administered  as  a  mission  and  was  centered  almost 
exclusively  in  the  southwest  comer  of  the  territory.  Early 
leaders  included  Hugh  Duncan,  F.  A.  Riggin,  J.  A.  Van 
Anda,  and  William  W.  Van  Orsdel,  who  was  known  as 
"Brother  Van."  Montana  with  Utah  formed  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Conference  in  1872,  but  in  1876  the  body 
was  divided  to  form  the  Montana  and  Utah  Conferences. 
Four  years  later  Montana  was  reduced  to  mission'  status 
again,  and  then  in  1887  it  became  once  more  a  conference. 

Methodism  was  estabhshed  in  north  Montana  by  Van 
Orsdel,  who  preached  his  first  sermon  at  Fort  Benton, 
June  30,  1872.  Also,  he  conducted  services  among  the 
Indians  at  the  Blackfoot  and  Piegan  Agency.  In  1890  a 
60,000  square  mile  section  of  north  Montana  became  the 
Great   Falls    District   of   the    Montana   Conference    with 


Van  Orsdel  as  presiding  elder.  Under  his  leadership  the 
work  progressed.  The  mission  had  twenty-three  preachers, 
thirty  churches,  and  1,191  members. 

In  1900  the  Kalispell  Mission  was  founded  in  what  was 
known  as  the  Flathead  Valley  in  northwest  Montana.  It 
had  nine  preachers,  fourteen  churches,  and  584  mem- 
bers. In  1907  the  Kalispell  and  North  Montana  Missions 
merged  to  form  the  North  Montana  Conference.  In  1924 
the  North  Montana  and  Montana  Conferences  merged  to 
make  the  Montana  State  Conference  which  continued 
until  unification  in  1939. 

Today  the  Montana  Conference  and  the  Presbyterian 
and  Congregational  churches  of  the  state  support  Rocky 
Mountain  College  at  Billings,  the  only  Protestant  in- 
stitution of  higher  learning  in  Montana.  Also,  they  main- 
tain hospitals  in  Billings,  Bozeman,  and  Great  Falls,  and 
a  Children's  Home  at  Helena.  The  conference  has  a  two- 
million  dollar  retirement  home,  Hillcrest  Retirement 
Apartments,  in  Bozeman.  A  mission  to  the  Blackfoot  In- 
dians has  been  maintained  for  many  years  at  Browning 
on  the  Blackfoot  Reservation. 

The  Montana  Conference  is  part  of  the  Denver  Area 
of  the  Western  Jurisdiction.  In  1968  the  conference  re- 
ported 118  ministers,  eighty  pastoral  charges,  26,831 
church  members,  16,865  church  school  pupils,  and  prop- 
erty valued  at  $11,252,500. 

By  action  of  the  1968  Western  Jurisdictional  Con- 
ference, effective  in  June,  1969,  the  Big  Horn  Basin  of 
Wyoming  with  seventeen  churches  was  to  be  added  to  the 
Montana  Conference  and  the  name  changed  to  Yellow- 
stone Conference. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC. 

Minutes  of  tlie  Montana  Conference. 

Roberta  B.  West,  "How  Methodism  Came  to  North  Montana," 

Methodist  History,  April  1967.  John  F.  Reagan 

MONTANA  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  brought  together  at 
its  founding  in  1948  two  separate  conferences  of  identical 
name  but  of  different  denominational  affiliation  prior  to 
this  date.  The  oldest  of  these  conferences  was  the  one  be- 
longing to  the  Church  of  The  United  Brethren  in 
Christ. 

The  congregation  at  Carlyle,  Mont.,  is  the  mother 
church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  in  the  Montana 
Conference.  It  originated  in  the  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Briley  Douglas,  who  organized  a  Sunday  school  of  eight 
members  on  May  6,  1907.  On  Sunday,  July  25,  1909, 
G.  W.  Emerson  completed  the  organization  of  the  church 
itself.  By  1919  the  conference  reported  twenty-six  orga- 
nized United  Brethren  churches.  Throughout  the  history 
of  the  conference,  there  have  been  sixty-five  different  pas- 
tors. The  average  length  of  pastorate  has  been  two  and 
one-half  years.  The  rapid  change  in  pastors  was  due  to 
the  low  salaries  and  the  smallness  of  the  conference,  which 
limited  the  opportunities  for  advancement. 

At  the  time  of  uniting  with  the  Montana  Conference  of 
The  Evangelical  Church  in  1948  there  were  nine  orga- 
nized congregations  with  a  total  property  value  of  $113,- 
300.  There  were  seven  ordained  ministers  and  a  total 
membership  of  776  persons.  Total  money  paid  for  all 
purposes  was  $35,627. 

Evangelical  work  in  Montana  was  started  almost  simul- 
taneously by  two  separate  conferences.  In  1908,  S.  B. 
Dillow,  presiding  elder  of  the  Platte  River  Conference 
(Nebraska)    came  to  visit  his  brother  near  Broadview. 


MONTERO,    BOLIVIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Bishop  W.  F.  Heil  announced  that  the  General  noard 
of  Missions  of  The  United  Evangelical  Church  was 
ready  to  give  support  on  that  field.  In  the  northwestern 
section  of  the  state,  two  years  later.  Presiding  Elder  Wil- 
liam Suckow  preached  in  the  home  of  his  brother;  and 
from  that  meeting  there  grew  what  later  became  known 
as  the  Inverness  Mission  of  the  Dakota  Conference  (Evan- 
gelical Association).  H.  A.  Ritter  was  assigned  to  the 
field  June  17,  1910. 

The  Montana  Mission  Conference  was  organized  June 
23,  1927,  at  Reedpoint,  with  John  Oehlerking,  presiding 
elder,  and  Bishop  John  F.  Dunlap,  Chairman.  There  were 
eight  ministers;  namely,  H.  S.  Tool,  W.  C.  Lasater, 
W.  Isley,  H.  A.  Thiele,  N.  A.  EUer,  E.  C.  Hicks,  O.  L. 
Peckenpaugh,  and  F.  R.  Witmer. 

At  the  time  of  uniting  with  the  Montana  Conference  of 
the  United  Brethren  in  1948,  there  were  fifteen  organized 
congregations  with  total  property  value  of  $185,300,  and 
fifteen  ordained  ministers. 

The  united  conference  covered  the  entire  state  of  Mon- 
tana, but  with  the  small  state  population  and  the  un- 
familiarity  of  the  population  to  The  E.U.B.  Church,  the 
growth  of  the  conference  was  quite  small. 

In  1967  membership  amounted  to  2,561  persons  in 
twenty-three  organized  congregations.  Total  giving  for  all 
purposes  was  $232,493.  Property  was  valued  at  $1,199,- 
567.  The  conference  owns  its  summer  camp  grounds. 

With  the  formation  of  The  United  Methodist  Church 
in  1968,  most  of  the  E.U.B.  congregations  refused  to  enter 
the  union.  Those  that  did  vote  to  unite  became  a  part  of 
the  Montana  Conference  of  the  former  Methodist  Church 
which  was  renamed  the  Yellowstone  Conference. 

Stine  O.  Douglas,  History  of  the  Montana  Conference  of  the 

United  Brethren  in  Christ  ( 1909-1945). 

Proceedings  of  the  Montana  Conference,  E.U.B.,  1968. 

Robert  E.  Strutz,  History  of  the  Montana  Conference  of  the 

Evangelical  Church,  1908-1954,  unpublished  manuscript. 

E.  J.  BOTT 

MONTERO,  Bolivia,  is  a  small,  growing  town  north  of 
Santa  Cruz,  the  center  of  an  extensive  and  very  rapid 


agricultural  development.  Considerable  Methodist  work 
is  centered  there.  The  Church  of  the  Sower,  organized 
in  1958,  maintains  four  of  the  preaching  places  in  out- 
lying communities.  This  has  been  served  by  missionary 
pastors  for  some  time. 

Medical  Work.  Montero  is  a  center  for  public-health 
work  in  a  lowland  jungle  area  of  eastern  Bolivia.  Lack 
of  medical  facilities  in  the  Montero  area  in  1955  gave 
concern;  and  two  nurses,  graduates  of  the  American  Clinic 
in  La  Paz,  at  first  held  daily  clinics  at  the  Rural  Institute 
and  made  weekly  visits  to  surrounding  villages.  In  1961 
Pablo  Monti,  Methodist  missionary  from  Argentina, 
took  over  the  clinical  medical  work  and  was  a  pioneer 
in  preventive  medicine.  James  Alley,  Methodist  missionary 
and  public-health  doctor,  who  had  received  a  Master  of 
Public  Health  degree  from  Harvard  in  1962,  came  in  1965. 

In  August  of  that  year  a  census  and  health  survey  was 
taken  in  Montero,  organized  by  Alley.  Students  from  Wes- 
ley Seminary  canvassed  the  homes  of  11,150  persons. 
From  the  census  were  discovered  such  statistics  as:  fifty- 
five  percent  of  the  houses  had  mud  floors;  seventy  percent 
did  not  have  running  water;  thirty-three  percent  had  no 
toilet  facilities;  more  than  half  of  the  population  was  under 
twenty  years  of  age;  only  2,392  persons  were  reported 
having  received  any  type  of  vaccination.  Within  a  year 
more  than  32,000  vaccinations  had  been  given.  The  census 
showed  a  need  for  a  basic  public-health  program  with 
emphasis  on  nutrition,  infectious  diseases,  and  environ- 
mental sanitation. 

Alley's  work  in  preventive  medicine  has  been  oriented 
on  a  community  rather  than  denominational  basis.  A 
public-health  board  composed  of  seven  Roman  Catholics 
and  four  Protestants  has  responsibility  for  administration 
of  the  local  hospital  (which  the  government  had  asked 
The  Methodist  Church  to  administer),  the  development 
of  an  educational  program  which  includes  a  public-health 
workers'  school  (inaugurated  in  1966  with  twenty-eight 
students),  and  provision  of  extension  service.  Four  health 
centers,  located  in  the  outlying  four  sectors  of  Montero, 
facilitate  attendance  by  persons  in  all  parts  of  the  town. 

The  public-health  project  carried  out  its  first  campaign 
in  November  and  December  of  1965  by  vaccinating  3,500 


Rural  Institute,  Montero,  BoLrviA 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MONTEVIDEO,    URUGUAY 


of  the  children  of  Montero  against  poho.  Later  there  was 
a  tuberculosis  control  jjrogram.  Of  about  12,000  persons 
tested,  twenty-one  percent  showed  positive  reaction  to  the 
tuberculosis  test. 

A  rehabilitation  center  is  presently  being  planned  for 
malnourished  children.  This  will  be  a  cooperative  project 
between   the  Roman   C'atholic  and   Methodist   Churches. 

This  health  project  in  1966  was  serving  some  18,000 
persons  living  within  fi\'e  miles  of  Montero.  By  extending 
aid  to  the  colonies  located  north  of  Montero,  probably 
between  40,000  and  50,000  may  be  reached. 

Rural  Institute,  a  school  and  base  for  community  devel- 
opment work  in  Santa  Cruz  Province  of  Bolivia,  began 
in  1958  in  Montero  under  a  palm-thatched  roof  with 
six  boys  and  one  girl.  About  that  time  Aymara  and 
Quechua  Indians  from  the  valleys  of  Cochabamba,  and  the 
high  plains  near  La  Paz  began  to  pour  into  the  area, 
and  within  eight  years  Montero  grew  from  3,000  to  a  busy 
city  of  12,000  persons. 

Methodist  leaders  foresaw  this  development  and 
planned  accordingly.  In  addition  to  the  vocational  high 
school  which  was  established  at  the  Rural  Institute,  medi- 
cal work  was  started  at  Montero,  and  in  1963  a  radio 
station  was  set  up.  A  broad  community  development 
program  in  the  zone  of  homesteading  settlers  became  one 
of  the  central  programs  .stemming  out  of  the  Rural  In- 
stitute. 

The  institute  provides  secondary  education  for  180 
boys  and  girls  in  a  six-year  vocational  program.  The  school 
farm  furnishes  quality  animals  for  distribution  to  local 
farmers.  There  are  also  programs  of  community  develop- 
ment and  public  health.  Close  cooperation  is  maintained 
with  government  officials  in  the  development  of  rural 
elementary  education,  and  opportunities  are  provided  for 
students  to  take  part  in  agricultural  extension  activities. 
The  real  focus  of  the  work  on  Montero  is  not  on  Montero 
itself,  but  on  the  pioneer  communities  and  on  the  local 
congregations  which  have  been  established  there. 

Robert  and  Rosa  Caufield  and  James  and  Evelyn  Pace 
were  pioneer  missionaries  in  Montero  area  work. 

Highlands  Echoes,  Sept.  10,  1962. 

B.  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 

Edwin  Maynard 
James  Pace 

MONTEVIDEO,  Uruguay,  situated  on  the  Rio  de  la  Plata 
at  its  mouth,  is  the  capital  and  metropolis  of  the  Republic 
of  Uruguay.  The  city  is  said  to  have  been  named  for 
an  explorer  who  saw,  or  thought  he  saw,  a  mountain  on 
that  part  of  the  lower  bay.  Argentina  and  Buenos  Aires 
have  traditionally  been  united  by  many  ties  with  Uruguay 
and  Montevideo,  and  these  two  countries  were  once  a  part 
of  the  Spanish  vice-royalty  of  Rio  de  la  Plata. 

Argentina  and  Uruguay  were  put  together  first  in  the 
Eastern  South  American  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
and  then  in  the  La  Plata  Conference  of  The  Methodist 
Church  in  1948.  In  1954  the  two  conferences  were 
separated  and  are  today  under  their  own  respective  names. 

There  are  nine  Methodist  churches  in  the  city,  including 
Central  Church,  and  other  institutions  such  as  Crandon 
Institute,  Evangelical  Hospital,  and  Goodwill  Indus- 
tries. 

Central  Church  is  the  piincipal  Methodist  congregation 
of  Uruguay.  In  a  profound  sense,  the  history  of  Central 
Church  is  the  history  of  Uruguayan  Methodism.  Earliest 


Methodist  efforts  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  Central, 
and  it  has  been  the  backbone  of  the  church  here  ever 
since.  It  is  sometimes  called  the  Protestant  Cathedral  of 
Uruguay. 

The  first  Methodist  missionary  to  Uruguay,  William 
H.  Norris,  arrived  Oct.  12,  1839,  and  was  authorized  to 
buy  a  lot  and  build  a  church  to  cost  not  more  than 
$12,000,  if  the  people  of  Montevideo  would  pay  half. 
It  took  two  years  to  get  a  building  permit,  and  then  only 
with  the  understanding  that  it  would  be  for  the  worship 
of  people  from  Sweden,  England,  and  the  United  States, 
and  as  a  school  for  their  children. 

Because  of  financial  difficulties  at  home  and  a  war 
between  Uruguay  and  Argentina,  the  Board  of  Missions 
in  New  York  recalled  Norris  in  1842.  Efforts  to  reopen 
the  mission  failed  until  1870,  when  John  Francis 
Thomson  was  sent  to  Uruguay  from  Argentina.  Between 
the  withdrawal  of  Norris  and  the  arrival  of  Thomson, 
some  work  was  carried  on  by  laymen,  and  several  mis- 
sionaries visited  the  area.  Thomson  himself  had  made 
regular  trips  from  Argentina  from  1868  on,  to  conduct 
worship  services  in  homes.  Uruguayan  Methodism  con- 
siders that  year  as  the  date  of  the  permanent  establishment 
of  its  work. 

The  first  contacts  had  been  with  foreign  elements,  but 
with  the  coming  of  Thomson  the  work  in  Spanish  was 
emphasized.  However,  for  many  years  an  English-speaking 
congregation  met  with  the  Uruguayan  group  and  used 
the  same  building.  It  was  an  important  factor  in  the  sup- 
port of  the  work  and  in  the  construction  of  what  is  now 
Central  Church. 

The  first  building  was  a  hall  purchased  on  Dec.  2, 
1869.  Thomson  remained  as  pastor  until  succeeded  by 
Thomas  B.  Wood  from  Argentina  in  May  1877.  In  that 
year  the  first  official  board  for  Central  Church  was  elected 
and  the  government  recognized  its  baptismal  certificates 
as  legal  documents. 

In  1883  Wood  bought  land  for  a  new  church  in  what 
was  called  the  new  city  (in  contrast  to  the  old  city, 
once  walled ) .  The  first  section  of  the  building  there  was 
completed  in  1905.  In  1910  Juan  E.  Gattinoni  (later 
bishop)  became  pastor.  The  present  church  building  was 
constructed,  and  at  its  completion  in  1913  it  was  one  of 
the  outstanding  buildings  in  Uruguay.  It  is  still  the  largest 
Protestant  church  in  the  country.  The  educational  plant 
was  completed  in  1925. 

Present  pastors  are  Miguel  A.  Bnjn  and  Lawson  Lee, 
who  share  equal  responsibility  for  direction  of  the  church 
under  the  group  ministry  plan.  Other  pastors  in  recent 
years  have  been  Enrique  C.  Balloch,  1921-32;  Daniel 
Hall,  1933-45;  Carlos  Gattinoni,  1946-57;  and  Emilio 
Castro,  1958-65.  These  last  two  were  elected  Bishops 
in  1969,  Gattinoni  for  the  new  autonomous  church  in 
Argentina;  Castro  for  that  in  Uruguay. 

Evangelical  Hospital  is  operated  by  an  interdenomina- 
tional group  with  large  Methodist  participation.  It  is  the 
only  hospital  of  its  kind  in  Uruguay.  It  was  inaugurated 
Sept.  14,  1964,  nearly  thirty  years  after  the  movement 
to  build  it  began.  The  hospital  has  forty  beds  on  two 
floors  to  care  for  general  surgery,  traumatology,  and 
maternity  cases.  It  offers  services  in  radiotherapy,  physio- 
therapy, orthodontics  and  dentistry,  and  has  a  blood  bank, 
most  of  whose  donors  are  members  of  Evangelical 
churches.  The  hospital  serves  a  large  number  of  out- 
patients, many  of  whom  are  members  of  one  of  the  several 
health  insurance  programs  which  the  hospital  offers. 


MONTGOMERY,   ALABAMA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


The  idea  of  erecting  a  hospital  which  would  emphasize 
the  Christian  witness  came  from  a  group  of  members  of 
The  Methodist  Church  and  was  later  supported  by  the 
VValdensian  Church.  Then  other  denominations  came  into 
the  movement.  Planning  began  in  the  1930's  under  a 
Methodist  physician,  R.^f.-vel  R.  Hill. 

The  first  offerings  were  collected  through  women's 
societies  of  the  churches,  and  a  person  of  humble  social 
position  left  her  small  house  as  a  legacy.  This  was  the 
first  sum  of  importance  that  the  hospital  received.  Then 
a  larger  legacy  made  it  possible  to  acquire  the  lot  of 
5,000  square  meters  where  the  hospital  now  is  located. 
The  cornerstone  was  laid  on  May  2,  1949,  in  a  ceremony 
presided  over  by  Methodist  Bishop  Sante  Uberto  Bar- 

BIERI. 

The  hospital  has  a  high  percentage  of  occupancy.  Its 
evangelistic  effort  comes  through  daily  contact  with  the 
sick  (and  those  who  accompany  them)  by  the  chaplain 
and  hospital  personnel.  Those  who  make  their  first  con- 
tact with  the  Christian  faith  here  receive  New  Testaments, 
Bibles,  and  other  Christian  literature.  On  the  teaching 
level,  its  mission  is  to  prepare  Christian  technicians  (doc- 
tors, nurses,  and  practical  nurses)  to  do  medical  work 
where  there  was  none,  or  where  it  had  been  poorly  done. 

Friendship  House  is  a  social  center  in  the  stockyards 
district.  The  work  grew  out  of  a  tiny  Sunday  school  in 
the  home  of  a  family  named  Sosa.  Several  missionaries  of 
the  Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  including 
Elizabeth  Hewett,  director  of  Crandon  Institute,  and  Stella 
Long,  broadened  the  program  to  include  English  and 
cultural  classes  with  occasional  preaching  services. 

In  1918  Arthur  F.  Wesley  was  appointed  pastor  of 
the  church  and  director  of  the  social  center,  which  he 
called  Pan-American  Institute.  The  program  was  enlarged 
to  include  charity  for  the  poor,  recreation  for  young  peo- 
ple, and  day  schools  for  the  children.  Six  schools  were  set 
up,  with  a  Sunday  school  in  connection  with  each. 

In  December  1924,  Earl  M.  Smith  was  appointed 
pastor  of  the  Cerro  Church  and  director  of  the  Pan- 
American  Institute,  which  was  soon  renamed  Friendship 
House.  As  public  schools  sprang  up,  the  mission  schools 
were  discontinued  and  effort  was  redirected  to  Christian 
education  and  social  services,  including  the  Goodwill 
Industries  and  social  casework.  The  program  was  en- 
larged to  include  a  daily  game  room,  sports,  free  public 
library.  Boy  Scouts,  dramatics,  camps,  gymnastics,  work 
camps,  vacation  Bible  schools,  and  evening  classes. 

In  1953  a  functional  new  Friendship  House  was  built. 
Now  under  Uruguayan  leadership,  the  institute  carries  on 
an  enlarging  religious,  social  and  cultural  program. 

Goodwill  Industries  of  Montevideo  are  the  first  Good- 
will Industries  outside  the  United  States.  The  work  was 
started  on  June  1,  1925,  as  a  part  of  the  social  service 
program  of  Friendship  House.  There  was  no  capital,  but 
a  room  eight  by  twenty  feet  was  available  between  Sun- 
days. The  Goodwill  bags  of  used  clothing  and  articles  for 
repair  were  brought  in  first  on  pony-back,  then  on  the 
platforms  of  street  cars. 

In  1931-32  Antonio  Loureiro  spent  five  months  with 
E.  L.  Helms  in  Boston,  studying  the  operation  of  the 
mother  Goodwill  Industries.  When  he  returned,  he  took 
over  management  of  the  Montevideo  Goodwill  Indus- 
tries. A  British  company  offered  part  of  an  abandoned 
packinghouse,  greatly  enlarging  the  quarters.  An  old  truck 
was  purchased,  and  Goodwill  in  Montevideo  was  on  its 
way.  A  great  boost  was  a  stand  in  the  National  Industries 


Exposition  of  1933,  where  2,000  Goodwill  bags  were 
distributed,  doubling  the  number  of  contributors.  In  1950 
a  new  truck  was  purchased.  In  1966  it  was  still  bringing 
in   bags,    though    a    second   truck    was    hired   frequently. 

The  1953  Week  of  Dedication  offering  in  the  United 
States  designated  $50,000  to  the  Montevideo  Goodwill 
Industries  for  a  new  building.  This  was  completed  and 
inaugurated  in  1959.  Thereafter  Goodwill  was  separate 
organically  from  Friendship  House. 

At  first  the  principal  purpose  of  Goodwill  in  Montevideo 
was  to  alleviate  suffering  from  the  seasonal  unemployment 
experienced  each  year  in  the  meat-packing  industry.  Un- 
employment insurance  and  other  social  legislation  has 
largely  eliminated  this  evil.  In  recent  years  the  purpose  of 
the  Goodwill  Industries  has  changed  to  that  common  in 
the  United  States:  work  and  wages  for  the  physically  and 
mentally  handicapped. 

About  thirty  persons  now  work  in  the  Montevideo 
Goodwill  Industries. 

Jourtuils  of  the  Uniguay  Conference. 

B.  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 

Lawson  Lee 
Earl  M.  Smith 

MONTGOMERY,  ALABAMA,  U.S.A.  The  first  Methodist 
Society  was  formed  in  Montgomery  in  late  1828  or  early 
1829.  The  Society  numbered  ten  people — nine  women 
and  one  man.  In  1970  there  were  12,138  members  of 
The  United  Methodist  Church  in  Montgomery,  seven- 
teen church  plants,  one  college  (Huntingdon),  with  a 
total  value  of  more  than  $10,000,000. 

During  the  early  years  of  the  little  village  of  Mont- 
gomery, so  named  in  honor  of  General  Richard  Mont- 
gomery, worship  services  were  conducted  by  circuit  riders, 
many  of  whom  were  Methodists.  James  King  of  North 
Carolina,  a  Methodist,  came  in  1819  and  was  the  first 
minister  to  visit  Montgomery.  James  Mellard  arrived  in 
1821.  Bishop  Enoch  George  of  the  M.  E.  Church  came 
through  Montgomery  in  January  1822,  enroute  to  preside 
over  the  Mississippi  Conference.  He  was  invited  to 
preach  at  the  Court  House,  and  inasmuch  as  this  was  the 
first  visit  of  a  high  church  dignitary,  the  entire  town 
turned  out  to  hear  him. 

Until  1825  the  only  house  of  worship  was  the  Old  Mills 
and  Westcott  Meeting  House  located  about  two  miles 
from  the  village.  In  1825  a  church  was  completed  on  a  lot 
provided  by  the  Alabama  Company,  dealers  in  real  estate. 
The  frame  building  was  forty-eight  by  twenty-four  feet. 
It  was  called  Union  Church  and  Methodists  used  it  along 
with  members  of  other  denominations.  In  1832  the  Ala- 
bama Company  Liquidated  its  assets.  The  Methodist 
church  was  given  option  to  buy  Union  Church,  but  the 
congregation  failed  to  raise  the  necessary  funds.  General 
John  Scott,  a  member  of  Alabama  Company,  whose  wife 
was  a  Methodist,  bought  the  property  for  $500  at  public 
auction  and  gave  it  to  the  Methodists.  It  was  named  Court 
Street  M.  E.  Church,  and  the  second  session  of  the  newly 
formed  Alabama  Conference  was  held  in  this  church, 
with  the  opening  service  for  the  Conference  on  Dec.  11, 
1833. 

Montgomery  became  a  station  Dec.  17,  1829,  when 
B.  A.  Houghton  was  appointed  pastor  by  the  Mississippi 
Conference.  At  the  end  of  the  Conference  year  1832, 
S.  B.  Sawyer  reported  237  members — 110  white,  127 
colored — for  Court  Street.  In  1835  a  larger  building — 
sixty  by  forty-five  feet — was  dedicated  under  the  pastorate 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MONTGOMERY,   ALABAMA 


of  Henry  W.  Hilliard.  This  building  served  until  1853 
when  a  large  brick  structure  was  erected.  This  building 
was  dedicated  March  3,  1856,  by  Bishop  George  F. 
Pierce.  The  Negro  members  took  the  materials  from  the 
frame  building  and  erected  their  own  church  on  Hol- 
combe  Street.  There  are  at  the  present  time  two  Negro 
Methodist  churches  in  Montgomery.  They  are  Metropolitan 
Church  and  St.  Paul  Church  with  a  total  membership  of 
194. 


(no  longer  in  existence)  was  founded  in  1858  by  some 
members  of  Court  Street.  Dexter  Avenue  Church  was 
founded  in  December  1886.  J.  P.  Roberts  was  appointed 
as  first  pastor.  Clayton  Street  Church,  now  Frazer  Me- 
morial, was  formed  in  1889,  and  a  Mr.  Howell,  a  local 
preacher,  was  placed  in  charge. 

Perry  Street  Church,  now  St.  Mark's,  began  with  a 
union  Sunday  school  in  1887,  and  became  a  Methodi.st 
congregation  in  1893.  Fifth  Avenue,  now  Burge  Memorial, 


First  Church,  Montgomery,  Alabama 


The  Court  Street  Church  served  for  a  century  until 
the  property  was  sold  in  1937  to  the  United  States 
Government  for  $120,000.  The  congregation  moved  to 
Cloverdale  Park,  and  became  First  Methodist  Church  of 
Montgomery.  It  presently  reports  a  membership  of  2,715. 

In  1842  the  M.  P.  Church  of  Montgomery  was  or- 
ganized. A.  A.  Lipscomb  was  the  first  pastor,  and  the 
first  building  was  dedicated  in  1844.  It  was  located  on 
the  corner  of  Bibb  and  Molton  Streets,  and  the  congrega- 
tion worshipped  at  that  location  until  a  new  building  was 
erected  in  1924.  The  new  location  was  on  Winona  and 
Florida  Streets,  and  the  name  became  Capitol  Heights 
M.  P.  Church.  Among  the  ministers  of  this  church  was 
T.  C.  Casaday,  who  served  as  pastor  for  eighteen  years. 
He  was  a  delegate  to  the  uniting  conference  which 
brought  the  three  branches  of  Methodism  together  in 
1939. 

Church  Extension  was  a  concern  of  Methodists  in 
Montgomery  from  the  beginning.  Herron  Street  Church 


resulted  from  the  efforts  of  the  Dexter  Avenue  congrega- 
tion, and  the  first  Quarterly  Conference  was  held  March 
13,  1899.  Forest  Avenue  resulted  from  action  taken  in 
a  Quarterly  Conference  at  Dexter  Avenue  in  January  of 
1903.  St.  Luke  organized  1938,  St.  James  1948,  Dalraida 
1949,  Whitfield  Memorial  1951,  Normandale  1954,  St. 
Paul  1954,  Asbury  1954,  Perry  Hill  1956,  and  Boylston 
1956. 

At  the  present  time  there  is  a  Montgomery  District 
Board  of  Missions  financed  by  regular  annual  income 
from  each  church.  The  primary  purpose  of  this  District 
Board  is  helping  to  estabhsh  and  maintain  new  congrega- 
tions of  The  United  Methodist  Church. 

Blan,  A  Brief  History  of  the  First  Methodist  Church.  N.d. 
Blue,  History  of  Montgomery,  Alabama.  N.d. 
M.  E.  Lazenby,  Alabama  and  West  Florida.  1960. 
Owen,  The  Methodist  Churches  of  Montgomery.  N.d. 

Wilbur  Latimer  Walton 


1661 


MONTI,    DANIEL   PABLO 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


MONTI,  DANIEL  PABLO   (1902-  ),  author  and  min- 

ister in  Argentina,  was  bom  in  Italy,  the  son  of  a  shoe- 
maker who  was  an  elder  in  a  Plymouth  Brethren  chureh. 
He  was  brought  by  his  family  to  Argentina,  arriving  Jan. 
1,  1905.  Young  Daniel  learned  to  read  and  write  and 
learned  his  father's  trade,  working  for  some  time  in  a  shoe 
factory  that  to  this  day  belongs  to  the  Monti  family. 

As  a  boy  he  began  attending  a  nearby  Methodist  church 
and  in  time  became  a  member.  He  entered  the  Buenos 
Aires  Methodist  Seminary  and  upon  graduation  entered 
the  ministry  of  the  Eastern  South  America  Annual  Con- 
ference. He  has  served  several  pastoral  charges,  including 
Bahia  Blanca,  Flores,  Rosario  Tala,  and  Liniers.  He  was 
a  district  superintendent  for  several  periods. 

Mr.  Monti  has  been  a  student  of  the  history  of  the 
churches  in  Latin  America  and  has  written  several  books. 
Among  them:  EI  pensamicnto  religioso  de  los  hombres  de 
Mayo  {The  Religious  Thinking  of  the  Men  of  May — 
meaning  the  Argentine  patriots  of  1810);  Historia  del 
Metodismo  Rioplatense  (History  of  River  Plate  Meth- 
odism, 1968);  and  Ast  brillc  vuestra  luz  (a  biography  of 
Carmen  Ch.\con,  a  young  lady  pioneer  in  the  educa- 
tional work  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  Brazil ) .  Among 
liis  other  books  are  Edelweiss,  Contrastes  (children's 
tales);  Entre  cielo  y  cuchillas  (Between  Sky  and  Hills, 
a  romance  from  the  Argentine  countryside);  Sal  de  la 
tierra  (Salt  of  the  Earth);  En  la  motitana  del  Maestro 
(On  the  Master's  Mountain,  studies  on  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount);  and  Voces  del  pasado  (Voices  of  the  Past, 
studies  on  the  Hebrew  prophets ) . 

He  married  Maria  de  Carlo,  daughter  of  a  staunch 
Methodist  layman.  Two  of  the  Montis'  four  children 
(Daniel  E.  and  Emilio)  are  pastors  in  the  Argentine 
Methodist  Church.  The  second  son,  Pablo,  is  a  medical 
doctor  and  has  worked  for  more  than  ten  years  as  a  mis- 
sionary doctor  to  Bolivia. 

Adam  F.  Sosa 


St.  James  Church,  Montreal 

MONTREAL,  Canada,   St.  James  Street  Church.   At   the 

beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Montreal  was  es- 
sentially a  French  community,  dominated  commercially 
and  socially  by  an  English  minority,  among  whom  the 
leading  figures  were  the  great  fur  traders.  In  this  in- 
hospitable environment  Methodist  services  were  held  as 
early  as  1802  by  missionaries  from  the  M.  E.  Church,  who 


found   in    the   city    former    .Methodists    from    New   York. 

Despite  their  American  background,  these  persons  ap- 
pear to  have  favored  Wesleyan  Methodism,  for  as  early 
as  1807  they  asked  Thomas  Coke  for  assistance.  The 
War  of  1812  completed  their  disenchantment  with  the 
American  Church,  and  in  1815  they  welcomed  John 
Strong  as  a  representative  of  the  English  Conference.  Six 
years  later,  a  new  chapel  was  built  on  St.  James  Street, 
at  the  instance  of  Robert  Lusher. 

The  first  St.  James  Street  Church  was  a  classical  build- 
ing which  would  seat  about  1,200  persons.  The  Society 
prospered  under  the  direction  of  such  men  as  Robert 
Alder,  Joseph  Stinson,  William  Harvard  and  Matthew 
RicHEY,  all  of  whom  achieved  wide  distinction  in  Cana- 
dian and  British  Methodism.  By  1844  there  were  770 
members  of  the  Society,  and  a  new  building  was  neces- 
sary. In  1845,  a  church  which  would  seat  3,000  people 
was  opened  in  the  presence  of  the  Covemor-General, 
Lord  Metcalfe.  Matthew  Richey  preached  at  this  first 
service. 

For  the  succeeding  forty  years,  the  St.  James  Street 
congregation  and  its  ministers  exerted  a  powerful  influence 
on  the  development  of  new  Methodist  congregations  and 
educational  institutions  in  Montreal.  As  in  the  past,  it 
attracted  some  of  the  most  outstanding  Canadian  Meth- 
odist orators,  including  William  Briggs,  George  Doug- 
las, and  John  Potts. 

In  the  1880's,  confronted  by  great  changes  in  the  city, 
the  St.  James  congregation  bought  a  new  site  fronting  on 
St.  Catherine  Street.  The  cornerstone  of  the  building  was 
laid  in  June  1887,  by  Senator  James  Ferrier,  who  had 
laid  the  stone  of  the  former  church.  In  June  1888,  the 
last  services  were  held  in  the  old  church;  a  year  later  the 
vast  and  imposing  new  St.  James  was  opened. 

Since  1888,  St.  James  Church  has  continued  in  being, 
as  a  Methodist  Church  until  1925;  and  since  that  date, 
as  a  United  Church  congregation.  Despite  the  gradual 
loss  of  its  people  to  the  suburbs,  it  has  been  a  site  of  great 
preaching  and  of  continuous  missionary  effort.  In  its  life 
and  its  history  are  mingled  the  streams  of  American, 
English,  and  Canadian  Methodism. 

Chronicles  of  the  St.  James  Street  Methodist  Church,  Montreal. 
Toronto,  1888. 

The  150th  Anniversary  of  St.  fames  United  Church,  1803-1953. 
Montreal,  1955.  G.  S.  French 

MOOD,  FRANCIS  ASBURY  (1830-1884),  American 
preacher  and  educator,  was  born  in  Charleston,  S.  C, 
June  23,  1830.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1849,  and 
joined  the  South  Carolina  Conference  and  graduated 
from  Charleston  College  the  following  year.  In  1854  he 
organized  a  conference  historical  society;  he  made  a  tour 
of  Europe  in  1857.  He  served  leading  appointments  and 
the  presiding  eldership,  and  was  elected  secretary  of  the 
conference.  During  the  Civil  War  he  served  as  chaplain 
in  the  Confederate  hospitals  in  Charleston.  At  the  close  of 
the  war,  since  the  impoverished  people  could  ill  support 
him  as  presiding  elder,  he  launched  a  weekly  family  news- 
paper. The  Record,  and  also  served  as  part-time  pastor 
in  a  Unitarian  church.  In  1868  he  was  offered  the  presi- 
dency of  Soule  University,  Chappell  Hill,  Texas,  a  strug- 
gling institution  which  he  soon  decided  must  be  super- 
seded by  a  stronger  one  in  a  better  location.  Mood  drew 
up  a  statesmanlike  proposal  for  a  central  university  for  the 
whole   of  Texas   Methodism,    and    personally    persuaded 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MOORE,   ARTHUR   JAMES 


each  of  the  five  Texas  conferences  to  adopt  it  in  1869. 
It  was  1874  before  the  new  institution  opened  its  doors  on 
October  6,  with  thirty-three  students,  under  the  title  of 
The  Texas  University.  In  1876  the  state  legislature  in- 
sisted that  the  name  Texas  University  be  used  only  by  a 
state  institution,  and  so  the  Methodist  school  became 
Southwestern  University.  Because  it  is  the  successor 
to  several  earHer  schools  it  can  rightfully  claim  to  be  the 
oldest  university  in  the  state.  Mood  served  as  regent  for 
twelve  years.  In  1881  he  was  appointed  as  a  delegate  to 
the  first  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  held  in 
London,  where  he  gave  an  address  on  "The  Higher  Edu- 
cation Demanded  by  the  Necessities  of  the  Church  in 
Our  Time."  He  died  on  Nov.  12,  1884,  at  Waco,  following 
the  session  of  his  annual  conference  there. 

Cody,  The  Life  and  Labors  of  Francis  Asbury  Mood.  New 
York:  Revell,  1886.  Walter  N.  Vernon 

MOODY,  GRANVILLE  (1812-1887),  versatile  American 
preacher  and  colorful  soldier,  was  bom  at  Portland,  Maine, 
Jan.  2,  1812,  the  son  of  William  Moody.  An  ancestor, 
William  Moody,  was  a  native  of  Scotland  and  settled 
in  Plymouth  Colony  in  1632.  Granville's  father,  a  graduate 
of  Dartmouth  College  in  1798,  moved  to  Baltimore 
when  Granville  was  four,  and  became  the  principal  of  the 
first  female  seminary  in  Baltimore  in  1816.  Educated  at 
Baltimore,  Granville  became  a  clerk  in  his  brother's  store 
in  Norwich,  Ohio  in  1831,  and  was  licensed  to  preach  in 
the  M.  E.  Church  on  June  15,  1833.  Received  into  the 
Ohio  Conference,  he  held  various  appointments  in  the 
state.  In  1860  he  was  pastor  of  Morris  Chapel  in  Cin- 
cinnati. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  he  was  invited  to 
take  command  of  the  74th  Ohio  regiment,  receiving  the 
cordial  approval  of  his  colleagues  who  called  it  provi- 
dential. He  resigned  his  pastorate  and  entered  the  military 
services.  He  had  a  burning  zeal  for  the  Union  and  served 
until  May  16,  1863,  when  illness  forced  him  to  resign. 
Colonel  Moody,  as  he  was  called,  assisted  the  regimental 
chaplain  and  preached  often,  baptizing  nine  soldiers  one 
evening. 

By  Moody's  bravery  at  Stones  River  he  won  the  title, 
"the  fighting  parson."  A  colorful  and  gallant  colonel,  he 
was  struck  four  times  with  bullets.  His  own  horse  was 
shot,  but  he  refused  to  leave  the  field.  On  recommendation 
of  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  U.  S.  Senate  conferred  upon 
him  the  rank  of  brigadier  general,  by  brevet,  March  13, 
1865,  for  distinguished  services  at  the  Stones  River  Battle. 

Moody  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference 
of  his  Church  in  1864.  After  his  retirement  from  the 
Army,  he  became  an  itinerant  again  and  served  with  ac- 
ceptance in  various  localities  until  1882,  when  ill  health 
caused  him  to  take  the  supernumerary  relation.  Moving 
to  his  farm  near  Jefferson,  Ohio,  he  resided  there  until 
his  death  on  June  4,  1887,  which  was  caused  by  an 
accident  while  he  was  on  his  way  to  preach  a  memorial 
sermon  before  a  part  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic 
at  Jefferson. 

Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography. 
E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 

MOORE,  ARTHUR  JAMES  (1888-  ),  American  bish- 
op, evangelist  and  long-time  president  of  the  Board  of 


Arthur  J.  Moore 

Missions  of  The  Methodist  Church,  was  born  at  Argyle, 
Ga.,  on  Dec.  26,  1888,  the  son  of  John  Spencer  and  Emma 
Victoria  (Cason)  Moore.  His  great  grandfather  early 
moved  to  Georgia,  and  his  grandfather,  a  Confederate 
soldier,  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Gaines  Mill,  1862. 

Arthur  Moore  was  a  student  at  Emory  College,  Oxford, 
Ga.,  for  a  time,  but  was  converted  in  his  twenty-first  year 
and  began  to  preach  at  once.  He  subsequently  received 
the  following  educational  degrees:  from  Emory  Univer- 
sity, D.D.,  1934;  Central  College,  Fayette,  Mo.,  D.D., 
1924;  Asbury  College,  Wilmore,  Ky.,  D.D.,  1922; 
Florida  Southern  College,  LL.D.,  1942;  Randolph- 
Macon,  LL.D.,  1939;  Southwestern  University, 
Georgetown,  Texas,  LL.D.,  1935;  and  Mercer  University, 
LL.D.,  1968. 

He  was  married  to  Mattie  T.  McDonald  of  Waycross, 
Ga.,  on  April  26,  1906.  Their  children  are  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Harry,  Wilbur  Wardlaw,  Dorothy  Emma  (deceased), 
Arthur  James,  Jr.  (the  present  editor  of  World  Outlook), 
and  Evelyn  Moore  Means.  Mrs.  Moore  died  in  1964. 

He  entered  the  South  Georgia  Conference  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South  in  1909,  was  ordained  deacon  in 
1912,  and  elder  in  1914.  He  was  a  general  evangelist  for 
eight  years,  1912-20;  and  then  became  minister  of  Travis 
Park  Methodist  Church,  San  Antonio,  Texas,  1920-26; 
and  of  First  Church,  Birmingham,  Ala.,  1926-30.  He  was 
elected  bishop  by  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South,  on  May  20,  1930,  and  assigned  to  the 
Pacific  Coast  Area,  which  he  served  until  1934.  From 
1934  until  1940  he  was  the  bishop  in  charge  of  mis- 
sionary activities  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  China, 
Japan,  Czechoslovakia,  Belgium  and  Belgian  Congo, 
Poland,  and  Korea.  ("I  have  three  continents  to  super- 
vise," he  remarked  genially. )  He  was  then  assigned  to  the 
Atlanta  Area  in  1940  by  the  Southeastern  Jurisdiction- 
al Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church.  From  1952- 
54,  he  also  supervised  the  Geneva  (Switzerland)  Area 
with  Conferences  in  Central  Europe  and  North  Africa. 

In  1937  Bishop  Moore  led  a  "Bishop's  Crusade"  which 
rekindled  missionary  spirit  and  cleared  the  Mission  Board 
(MES)  of  $7,000,000  debt.  He  was  given  a  certificate  of 
honor  by  the  Chinese  Government  in  1938  in  recognition 
of  distinguished  service  rendered  the  Chinese  nation  in 


MOORE,    DAVID   HASTINGS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


the  field  of  human  rehef.  At  the  1952  General  Conference 
he  was  presented  the  Korean  National  Medal  of  Honor 
from  President  Svncman  Rhee  in  recognition  of  his  ser- 
vice to  the  people  of  Korea.  He  delivered  the  Fondben 
Lectures  at  Southern  Methodist  University  in  1953, 
and  the  Jarrell  Lectures,  Emory  University,  1945. 

Since  1945,  Bishop  Moore  has  been  sent  by  the  Coun- 
cil OF  Bishops  on  five  emergency  missions  to  disturbed 
areas  of  the  world:  Korea,  1946;  Europe,  1948;  the  Orient, 
M.A.LAY.\,  Borneo  and  Burm.\,  1949-50;  Korea,  1951; 
Cermany,  1953.  He  represented  The  Methodist  Church 
at  the  Centennial  of  Methodism  in  India  in  1956. 

In  1941  he  was  interim  president  of  Wesleyan  Col- 
lege, Macon,  Ga.  From  1934-39  he  was  a  member  on  the 
committee  of  Interdenominational  Relations  and  Church 
Union.  He  was  president  of  the  Council  of  Bishops  of  The 
Methodist  Church,  1951-52.  Bishop  Moore  also  served 
as  a  member  of  the  Coordinating  Council,  the  Board  of 
Social  and  Economic  Relations,  the  Methodist  Com- 
mittee FOR  Overseas  Relief,  and  the  World  Meth- 
odist Council. 

He  is  or  has  been  a  trustee  of  Emory  University, 
Paine  College,  Wesleyan  College,  Andrew  College, 
Young  Harris  College,  American  University,  La- 
Grange  College,  Gammon  Theological  Seminary, 
Clark  College,  Reinhardt  College,  Scarritt  Col- 
lege, Warren  Candler  Hospital  (Savannah,  Ga.),  and 
the  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C,  Methodist  Assembly.  He 
was  chairman  of  the  Southeastern  Jurisdictional  Council 
of  The  Methodist  Church,  1940-60.  In  1940  he  became 
president  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  The  Methodist 
Church  in  which  commanding  position  he  served  until 
1960 — during  the  war  and  post-war  years  of  that  period. 

Bishop  Moore  is  the  author  of  The  Sound  of  the  Trum- 
pets, 1934;  Central  Certainties,  1943;  Christ  After  Chaos, 
1944;  Christ  and  Our  Country,  1945;  The  Mighty  Savior, 
1952;  Immortal  Tidings  in  Mortal  Hands,  1953;  and 
Fight  On!  Fear  Not,  1962. 

He  retired  as  an  active  bishop  in  1960,  but  at  once  took 
up  again  the  status  of  a  church-wide  evangelist,  and  con- 
tinues traveling  and  preaching  widely  over  the  whole 
connection.  He  has  a  residence  in  Atlanta,  and  also  one 
on  St.  Simons  Island,  Ga. 


Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


MOORE,  DAVID  HASTINGS  (1838-1915),  American 
bishop,  was  born  at  Athens,  Ohio,  Sept.  4,  1838.  A  son 
of  Congressman  Eliakim  Hastings  Moore,  David  Moore 
was  graduated  from  Ohio  University  in  1860,  A.B.;  A.M., 
1863;  honorary  D.D.  and  LL.D.  He  united  with  the 
Omo  Conference  in  1860,  having  been  converted  in 
1855. 

He  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  125th  Regiment, 
Ohio  Volunteer  Infantry,  in  the  Civil  War,  a  regiment 
which  was  dubbed  the  "Ohio  Tigers"  by  General  Thomas 
of  Chickamauga.  Having  been  wounded,  Moore  returned 
to  civilian  life  broken  in  health. 

His  appointments  (all  in  Ohio)  were:  Second  Street, 
Zanesville,  1855-68;  St.  Paul's,  Delaware,  1868-70;  Wes- 
ley Chapel,  Columbus,  1870-72;  Trinity,  Cincinnati, 
1872-75;  and  president  of  the  Cincinnati  Wesleyan  Fe- 
male Seminary,  1875-80. 

He  followed  Earl  Cranston  to  Colorado  to  become 
president  of  Colorado  Seminary  and  one  of  the  founders 
and  first  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Den\'er,  1880- 


89.  His  labors  there  are  among  the  treasures  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Conference's  traditions.  His  genius  for  friend- 
ship was  a  short  cut  to  the  hearts  of  the  plainsmen  and 
mountaineers  and  this  made  him  and  the  young  univer- 
sity a  power.  He  rode  the  buckboards  and  stages,  bumping 
through  canyons  of  Colorado  and  Wyoming,  a  builder  of 
a  civilization  of  strong  western  men. 

Moore  became  editor  of  the  Western  Christian  Advo- 
cate, 1889-1900,  and  his  editorials  rang  clear  and  strong. 
He  championed  the  rights  of  women  regarding  member- 
ship in  the  General  Conference  and  the  rights  of  the 
Freedmen.  There  was  never  "a  dull  line"  where  David 
Moore's  pen  had  wrought. 

Moore  was  elected  bishop  in  1900  and  assigned  to 
China,  Japan  and  Korea  for  four  years,  and  that  was  at 
the  time  of  the  Boxer  uprising.  He  wrote  a  vivid  descrip- 
tion of  the  war  between  Japan  and  Russia.  In  1915  he 
wrote  the  life  of  Bishop  John  Morgan  Walden.  His 
other  episcopal  areas  were:  Portland,  Ore.,  1904-08; 
Cincinnati,  1908-12,  when  he  retired. 

On  June  21,  1860,  Moore  married  Julia  Sophia  Car- 
penter of  Athens,  Ohio.  She  died  in  1911,  leaving  six 
children.  Bishop  Moore  died  on  a  train  going  to  Cincin- 
nati, Nov.  23,  1915.  His  body  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  quiet 
churchyard  at  Athens. 

A  man  of  great  strength  of  character,  David  Hastings 
Moore  had  a  vivid  imagination,  a  rich  and  copious  vocabu- 
lary, and  an  analytic  and  synthetic  mind.  He  was  an 
example  of  outspoken  loyalty  to  his  principles,  his  friends 
and  his  fellowmen  around  the  world. 


Central  Christian  Advocate,  Dec.  1,  1915. 
F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 
National  Cyclopedia  of  Arr^erican  Biography. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 


Jesse  A.  Earl 


Henry  Moore 

MOORE,  HENRY  (1751-1844),  British  Methodist,  was 
bom  near  Dublin  on  Dec.  21,  1751.  He  entered  the 
Methodist  itinerancy  in  1779.  In  1787  he  and  his  wife 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  a  mob  when  he  was  attempting  to 
hold  an  open-air  service  in  Dublin.  On  or  near  this  very 
site  was  erected  thirty-four  years  later  the  first  Abbey 
Street  Methodist  Church,  the  site  of  the  Dublin  Central 
Mission.  Moore  was  a  close  friend  of  John  Wesley,  who 
on  Feb.  27,  1789,  ordained  him  "a  presbyter  in  the  Church 
of  God,"  the  second  man  to  be  ordained  for  the  English 
work.  Wesley  made  him  one  of  the  three  custodians  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 

his  manuscripts,  and  with  Thomas  Coke  he  produced  in 
1792  a  Life  of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley.  Moore  was  in- 
volved in  the  controversy  over  the  administration  of  the 
Sacraments  by  the  itinerants  in  Bristol  in  1794;  he  op- 
posed the  concessions  made  to  the  laity  in  1797.  He  was 
elected  President  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in  1804, 
and  again  in  1823.  He  published  A  Discourse  .  .  .  Romans 
(1815);  Thoughts  on  the  Eternal  Sonship  (1817),  a  reply 
to  Adam  Clarke;  a  two  volume  Life  of  the  Rev.  John 
Wesley  (1824-25);  the  first  part  of  an  Autobiography, 
with  Sermons,  etc.    (1830).  He  died  on  April  27,   1844. 

R.  H.  Gallagher,  Pioneer  Preachers.  1965. 
F.  Jeffrey,  Irish  Methodism.  1964.  John  Kent 

Frederick  Jeffeby 

MOORE,  JOHN  H.  (  ?  -1957),  American  minister  and 
nineteenth  bishop  of  the  C.M.E.  Church,  was  born  in 
Alabama.  He  was  educated  at  Rust  College  in  Holly 
Springs,  Miss.  Bishop  Moore  sei-ved  as  pastor  and  presid- 
ing elder  and  was  elected  General  Secretary  of  Missions 
in  1914.  During  his  episcopacy,  he  was  known  as  a 
preacher,  fund  raiser,  and  church  builder.  He  had  a  strong 
interest  in  missions  and  helped  establish  a  mission  in  the 
British  West  Indies.  He  died  on  Jan.  27,  1957. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965. 

Tlie  Mirror,  General  Conference,  CME,  1958.    Ralph  G.  Gay 

MOORE,  JOHN  JAMISON  (1818-1883),  American  bish- 
op of  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  was  bom  in  Berkeley 
County,  W.  Va.,  of  slave  parents,  about  the  year  1818. 
His  mother  was  bom  free,  but  at  the  age  fifteen  years  was 
kidnapped  in  Maryland  and  sold  into  slavery  in  West 
Virginia,  where  she  married  John's  father,  a  slave.  Her 
maiden  name  was  Reidoubt  and  her  husband's  name  was 
Hodge,  but  a  change  of  owners  caused  him  to  adopt  the 
name  of  Moore.  When  John  Moore  was  si.\  years  old  his 
parents,  by  the  advice  and  assistance  of  friendly  Quakers, 
attempted  a  flight  from  slavery  with  their  six  children,  of 
whom  the  future  bishop  was  the  youngest.  They  were  re- 
captured, however,  and  the  oldest  four  children  were  sold 
South.  A  second  attempt  to  gain  their  liberty  was  success- 
ful, and  the  parents,  with  their  remaining  two  children, 
after  many  hardships  and  sufferings,  reached  Bedford 
County,  Pa.  Here  a  friendly  fanner  gave  them  employ- 
ment and  the  two  boys,  William  and  John,  were  bound 
out  for  a  term  to  his  son,  also  a  farmer.  Owing  to  the  pur- 
suit of  their  former  owner,  the  parents  were  obliged  to 
leave  the  settlement,  but  John  remained  secure  on  the 
farm.  He  was  taught  to  read  and  write  by  his  employer, 
and  acquired  a  knowledge  of  farming.  The  last  part  of 
his  apprenticeship  was  served  to  a  brother-in-law  of  his 
former  master,  who  exacted  six  months  over  the  proper 
time,  and  did  not  furnish  the  schooling  or  clothes  and 
the  cash  he  required  by  law  after  the  expiration  of  the 
term. 

After  leaving  his  ungenerous  master,  he  worked  for 
six  months  for  a  farmer  in  the  settlement  at  seven  dollars 
per  month.  Having  saved  about  fifteen  dollars,  he  con- 
cluded to  visit  Harrisburg,  and  walked  the  106  mUes 
to  that  place  in  two  days.  In  1833  he  became  religiously 
impressed  and  experienced  a  change  of  heart.  Leaving 
Harrisburg  he  visited  his  old  home  in  the  mountains  where 
he  remained  some  time,  having  obtained  employment  as 
a  porter  in  a  store.  He  was  licensed  as  an  exhorter  on 


MOORE,    JOHN    MONROE 

retuming  to  Harrisburg  in  1834  and  a  year  later  received 
his  license  to  preach.  He  joined  the  Philadelphia  Confer- 
ence (AMEZ)  in  1839.  John  Jamison  Moore  was  one  of 
the  great  pioneering  circuit  riders  of  his  denomination, 
serving  not  only  in  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  but  going  as 
far  west  as  San  Francisco,  where  he  established  a  Zion 
Church.  He  was  elevated  to  the  bishopric  in  1868  and 
died  in  1883. 

David  H.  Bradley 

MOORE,  JOHN  MONROE  (1867-1948),  strong  and  able 
bishop  in  The  Methodist  Church  and  leader  in  the  unifica- 
tion of  American  Methodism,  was  born  in  Morgantown, 
Ky.,  Jan.  27,  1867. 

The  son  of  Joseph  A.  and  Martha  Ann  Hampton  Moore, 
he  was  of  Virginian  and  English  ancestry.  Phases  of  his 
life  included  the  pastorate,  church  journalism,  education, 
missions,  episcopal  leadership  and  administration,  as  well 
as  authorship  of  books,  especially  on  Methodism. 

There  were  early  years  of  ample  and  painstaking  prep- 
aration, including  the  Morgantown,  Ky.,  public  schools; 
Lebanon  University,  Ohio;  Yale  University;  Leipzig  and 
Heidelberg,  Cermany.  Yale  University  conferred  on  him 
the  Ph.D.  degree  (1895)  and  also  the  honorary  D.D. 
degree;  Wesleyan  University  at  Middletown,  Conn., 
the  Litt.D.  (1935);  Southern  Methodist  University, 
the  LL.D.  degree  (1938);  Central  College  in  Arkansas  a 
D.D.  (1908),  and  Southwestern  University  at  George- 
town, Texas,  a  LL.D.  (1928). 

Moore's  pastoral  work  began  when  he  was  licensed  to 
preach  in  1887  by  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  ordained 
deacon  (1894),  elder  (1898).  His  pastorates  included 
Marvin  Church,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  (1895-1898);  Travis 
Park,  San  Antonio,  Texas,  (1898-1902);  First  Methodist, 
Dallas  (1902-1906).  He  was  pastor  of  St.  John's  Church, 
St.  Louis  (1909-1910);  Secretary  of  Home  Missions  of 
the  M.E.  Church,  South,  Nashville,  Tenn.  (1910-1918). 
He  was  elected  bishop  at  the  1918  General  Conference 
of  his  church.  While  pastor  of  the  church  in  San  Antonio, 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Bessie  Harris  of  that  city. 

When  he  was  elected  bishop  on  May  14,  1918,  he  was 
assigned  to  work  in  Brazil  (1918-1922),  following  which 
he  was  in  charge  of  conferences  in  Oklahoma  and  the 
east  half  of  Texas  ( 1922-1926) ;  in  charge  of  the  west  half 
of  Texas  and  New  Mexico  (1926-1930);  Georgia  and 
Florida  (1930-1934);  Missoubi  and  Ark.\nsas  (1934- 
1938) .  He  was  ofiRcially  retired  in  1938. 

Besides  his  episcopal  duties.  Bishop  Moore  had  various 
other  responsibilities,  such  as  Chairman  of  the  General 
Board  of  Missions;  Editor  of  the  Nashville  Christian 
Advocate  (1906-1909);  member  of  the  Joint  H>'mnal 
Commission  to  prepare  the  Methodist  Hymnal  (1904- 
1906);  and  also  twenty-five  years  later  a  member  again 
of  the  Joint  Hymnal  Commission  (1931-1934).  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Joint  Committee  on  Unification,  com- 
posed of  representatives  of  the  M.E.  Church,  the  M.E. 
Church,  South,  and  the  M.P.  Church.  Upon  the  death 
of  Bishop  MouzoN,  he  became  chairman  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South  representatives.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
World  Conference  on  Faith  and  Order  held  at  Lausanne, 
and  the  one  held  at  Edinburgh  (1937);  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  held  at 
Atlanta,  Ga.  in  1931. 

Bishop  Moore  was  Chairman  of  the  Department  of 
Schools  and  Colleges  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  (1934- 
1938);  and  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  South- 


MOORE,    JOHN   ZACHARIAH,    II 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


ern  Methodist  University  (1932-1938).  He  endowed  a 
Chair  for  a  Traveling  Fellowship  for  graduates  of  the 
Scliool  of  Theology  of  the  university. 

He  was  author  of  the  following  books:  Etchings  of 
the  East  (1909);  The  South  Today  (1916);  Brazil:  An 
Introductory  Study  (1920);  Making  the  World  Chrisiian 
(1922);  The  Long  Road  to  Methodist  Union  (1943); 
Methodism  in  Belief  and  Action  ( 1946) . 

Perhaps  his  most  noteworthy  contribution  to  Methodist 
histoiy  was  his  constructive  work  on  the  Unification  Com- 
mission. He  with  Bishop  E.  H.  Hughes  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  and  Bishop  James  H.  Straughn  of  the  M.P. 
Church,  formed  the  great  triumvirate  of  leaders  as  this 
momentous  work  came  to  completion. 

He  died  Aug.  1,  1948,  in  Dallas,  Texas,  and  was  buried 
there. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 
Journal  of  the  North  Te.\as  Conference,  1949. 

Mrs.  John  H.  Warnick 


John  Z.  Moore 

MOORE,  JOHN  ZACHARIAH,  II  (1874-1963),  American 
missionary  to  Korea,  was  bom  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  Jan. 
8,  1874.  Son  and  grandson  of  Methodist  ministers,  he 
alternatively  taught  school  and  attended  Scio  College  in 
eastern  Ohio,  and  then  entered  Drew  Seminary  where 
he  graduated  in  1903. 

With  characteristic  zeal  he  was  on  his  way  to  Korea 
and  even  being  ordained  by  Bishop  David  H.  Moore 
in  Seoul  before  commencement  time.  His  entire  mis- 
sionary career  was  centered  in  north  Korea  at  Pyengyang, 
so  that  he  could  call  most  of  the  Methodist  leaders  from 
north  Korea  his  "boys."  At  various  times  he  had  been 
presiding  elder  over  all  the  work  of  his  mission  in  north 
Korea  and  had  founded  scores  of  churches  and  primary 
schools  as  well  as  two  high  schools  and  two  Bible  schools. 

He  was  a  most  effective  speaker  in  the  Korean  language 
as  well  as  English.  His  talks  were  filled  with  anecdotes 
and  stories  gleaned  from  his  reading,  especially  of  Wes- 
ley, Lincoln,  and  Theodore  Roosevelt.  He  was  also  a 
prolific  writer  about  Korea,  pubhshing  numerous  articles 
in  magazines  and  newspapers.  During  forty  years'  work 
in  either  America  or  in  Korea,  he  helped  raise  approxi- 
mately half  a  million  dollars  for  the  work. 

He  was  cited  by  the  Japanese  government  in  1925  for 


his  efforts  in  promoting  educational  work,  and  later  by 
the  Korean  government  for  his  distinguished  missionary 
ser\'ice.  He  died  in  Los  Angeles,  Calif.,  Aug.  6,  1963. 
Inurnment  was  at  Richland  Cemetery,  near  St.  Clairsville, 
Ohio,  the  scene  of  his  boyhood  and  youth. 

Chables  a.  Sauer 

MOORE,  MORRIS  MARCELLUS  (18.56-1900),  American 
bishop  of  the  A. M.E.  Church,  was  bom  in  Quincy,  Fla., 
on  Nov.  15,  1856.  His  education  was  self-acquired.  He 
was  converted  in  1861,  licensed  in  1876,  and  admitted 
into  the  Florida  Annual  Conference  of  the  A. M.E.  Church 
in  1878.  He  was  ordained  deacon  in  1880  and  elder 
in  1881.  He  held  pastorates  from  1881  to  1896,  and  the 
General  Office  of  Financial  Secretary,  1896-1900.  In  1900 
he  was  elected  bishop.  He  died  in  1900  without  ever 
having  held  an  annual  conference. 

R.  R.  Wright,  The  Bishops.  1963.  Grant  S.  Shockley 


Noah  W.  Moore,  Jr. 

MOORE,  NOAH  WATSON,  JR.  (1902-  ),  American 
bishop,  was  born  March  28,  1902,  at  Newark,  N.  J.,  the 
son  of  Noah  Watson  and  Eliza  A.  (Boyce)  Moore.  He 
received  the  following  degrees:  Morgan  State  College, 
A.B.,  1926;  LL.D.,  1961;  Drew  University,  B.D.,  1931; 
Gammon  Theological  Seminary,  D.D.,  1951;  and 
Southern  Methodist  Unu'ersity,  D.D.,  1968.  On  Nov. 
27,  1926,  he  married  Carolyn  W.  Lee,  and  they  have 
one  daughter,  Carolyn  (Mrs.  Arthur  D.  Weddington). 

Noah  Moore  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Delaware 
Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1930,  and  ordained 
elder  in  1932. 

His  ministry  includes  in  the  Delaware  Conference: 
New  Rochelle,  N.  Y.,  1930-31;  Upper  Hill,  Md.,  1931-35; 
Fairmount  Circuit  and  Upper  Hill,  Md.,  1935-37; 
Camphor  Memorial,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  1937-41;  Zoar 
Church,  Philadelphia,  1941-43;  St.  Daniels  Church,  Ches- 
ter, Pa.,  1943-47;  superintendent  of  the  Easton  District, 
1947-49;  Tindley  Temple,  Philadelphia,  1949-60. 

He  was  elected  bishop  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on  July  14, 
1960,  by  the  Central  Jurisdictional  Conference  and 
consecrated  on  July  17,  1960.  This  conference  assigned 
him  to  its  New  Orleans  Area. 

Bishop  Moore  has  served  as  a  member  of  the  Council 
on  World  Service  and  Finance;  the  Committee  for 
Overseas  Relief;  vice-president  of  the  Morgan  Christian 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MOORE,   WALTER   HARVEY 


Center,  Morgan  College,  Baltimore,  Md.  He  is  a  trustee 
and  vice-president  of  the  Morgan  College  Corporation; 
on  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Christian  Street  Y.M.C.A. 
in  Philadelphia;  a  board  member  and  secretary-treasurer 
of  the  Philadelphia  Housing  Authority;  a  trustee  of  the 
United  Fund,  Philadelphia  and  vicinity;  on  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  Urban  League,  Philadelphia;  Health  and 
Welfare  Agency,  Southern  Area,  Philadelphia. 

He  is  presently  a  member  of  the  World  Methodist 
Council;  of  the  General  Board  of  Education;  the  Com- 
mission on  Worship;  and  on  the  Interboard  Committee  on 
Christian  Vocations  of  The  United  Methodist  Church.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Dillard  Univer- 
sity, Gammon  Theological  Seminary,  Huston-Tillotson 
College,  Morristown  College,  and  president  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  Wiley  College. 

Bishop  Moore  administered  the  Louisiana,  Texas,  and 
West  Texas  Annual  Conferences  of  the  Central  Juris- 
diction of  The  Methodist  Church  until  in  1968,  when 
with  the  dissolution  of  the  most  of  the  Central  Jurisdic- 
tion, he  was  by  the  South  Central  Jurisdiction  assigned 
to  the  superintendency  of  the  Nebraska  Area.  His  epis- 
copal residence  is  in  Lincoln,  Neb. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 


Thomas  A.  Moore 

MOORE,  THOMAS  ALBERT  (1860-1940),  Canadian  Meth- 
odist and  United  Church  of  Canada  minister,  was  bom 
in  Acton,  Canada,  West,  June  29,  1860.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Acton  public  school,  Georgetown  Academy,  and 
McGill  University.  In  1884,  he  was  ordained  in  the 
Methodist  ministry. 

Although  he  was  a  highly  successful  preacher,  he  had 
also  great  administrative  ability  and  a  very  keen  interest 
in  social  and  moral  reform.  For  several  years  he  was 
secretary    and   general   secretary    of   the   Ontario   Lord's 


Day  Alliance;  he  was  president  from  1910  to  1921.  In 
the  same  years  he  took  an  active  part  in  the  work  of  the 
Ontario  Temperance  Federation. 

From  1914  to  1925,  Moore  was  secretary  of  the  Joint 
Committee  on  Church  Union,  in  which  post  he  contrib- 
uted substantially  to  the  formation  of  The  United  Church 
of  Canada  (see  Canada).  Thus,  he  became  the  first  gen- 
eral secretary  of  the  new  church,  and  continued  in  office 
until  1936.  One  of  his  successors  has  said  that  "during 
the  critical  and  formative  time  just  after  Church  Union, 
he  did  much  to  shape  and  fashion  the  whole  legal  and 
administrative  structure  of  our  Church's  life.  .  .  .  But  he 
was  more  than  a  detached  executive  officer.  He  was  guide, 
philosopher  and  friend,  to  ministers  and  laymen  through- 
out the  whole  connexion."  (Hamilton  Conference,  Pro- 
ceedings. ) 

In  recognition  of  his  great  work,  Thomas  A.  Moore 
was  elected  Moderator  in  1932.  He  served  also  on  the 
Ecumenical  Methodist  Committee,  as  a  member  of  the 
World  Conference  on  Faith  and  Order,  and  president  of 
the  Canadian  Brotherhood  Federation.  Among  the  honors 
he  received  were  a  D.D.  from  Wesley  College,  and  an 
LL.D.  from  Mount  Allison  University. 

After  his  retirement,  Moore  devoted  himself  unceasingly 
to  his  first  love — preaching.  LInfortunately  he  was  stricken 
with  heart  disease,  and  after  1938  had  to  desist  from  this 
work.  He  died  in  Toronto,  March  31,  1940,  and  was 
buried  in  Acton  cemetery. 

G.  H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.  1903. 
Record  of  Proceedings,  Hamilton  Conference,  United  Church 
of  Canada,  1940.  G.  S.  French 

MOORE,  WALTER  HARVEY  (1886-1961),  American 
preacher  and  missionary  to  Brazil,  was  born  in  Foster, 
Ky.,  Oct.  18,  1886.  He  received  his  B.A.  in  science  and 
letters  and  a  B.D.  from  Wesleyan  College,  Winchester, 
Ky.;  and  a  second  B.D.  from  Candler  School  of  The- 
ology. He  married  Nell  Profitt,  a  teacher,  on  June  30, 
1919,  and  they  went  to  Brazil  as  missionaries  that  year. 
His  first  appointment  was  to  Instituto  Granbery,  Juiz 
DE  FoRA,  state  of  Minas  Gerais.  He  was  ordained  deacon 
in  September  1920,  by  Bishop  John  M.  Moore.  In  1922, 
he  was  named  Reitor  (principal)  of  Granbery  Institute, 
beginning  thus  a  career  that  made  him  one  of  the  most 
loved  and  influential  citizens  of  the  city.  He  remodeled 
the  establishment,  and  in  the  year  of  the  catastrophic 
flood  in  Juiz  de  Fora,  he  took  a  leading  part  in  the  work 
of  helping  its  victims,  sheltering  them  in  the  school. 

He  next  spent  several  years  away  from  Granbeiy,  di- 
recting the  Methodist  seminary  near  Sao  Paulo  City, 
during  what  was  a  most  difficult  period  in  that  institution's 
life.  When  he  returned  to  Granbery  in  1951,  many 
Roman  Catholic  leaders  were  among  those  who  met  and 
honored  him.  He  remained  there  until  retirement  in  1956, 
when  he  was  highly  honored  by  the  community.  A  street 
was  named  for  him  and  the  city  council  of  Juiz  de  Fora 
declared  him  an  honorary  citizen.  After  his  return  he 
travelled  to  Washington,  where  he  was  decorated,  at  the 
request  of  Brazilian  friends,  with  the  Order  of  the  South- 
em  Cross,  at  the  Brazilian  Embassy    (1957). 

Active,  energetic,  consecrated,  his  life  was  one  of  con- 
stant service,  of  purity,  and  of  love  for  his  neighbor.  To 
the  vigor  of  his  personality,  he  added  the  noble  qualities 
of  a  magnanimous  heart  and  a  fine  Christian  spirit.  That 
was  one  of  the  tributes  paid  to  Walter  Moore. 

1667 


MORADABAD   ANNUAL   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


He  died  suddenly  on  July  17,  1961,  His  wife  died  in 
1963.  Their  two  children  are  Emeline  Koppel  and  Walter 
Harvey,  Jr.,  a  sculptor  in  Washington. 

J.  B.  Panisset 

MORADABAD  ANNUAL  CONFERENCE  is  a  conference  of 
India  with  five  districts,  covering  the  area  of  about  4,000 
square  miles.  There  is  a  population  of  approximately 
3,000,000,  and  the  Christian  population  of  the  whole  con- 
ference is  53,835. 

The  conference  was  organized  in  1958,  when  the  North 
India  Conference  was  divided.  Its  districts  are  Bijnor, 
Chandausi,  Garhwal,  Moradabad,  and  Rampur. 

Moradabad,  the  city,  has  a  population  of  about  180,100. 
The  Parker  Intermediate  College  (enrollment,  844),  the 
Methodist  Girls  Higher  Secondary  School  (enrollment, 
about  600),  and  the  Titus  Elementary  School  (enroll- 
ment, 400),  are  located  here,  each  with  a  hostel  for  Chris- 
tian students.  There  are  two  self-supporting  churches  in 
the  city. 

Pauri  is  the  headquarters  of  the  Garhwal  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  district.  The  Messmore  Intermediate  College 
is  located  here.  It  has  recently  become  coeducational.  The 
enrollment  is  about  900.  Two  miles  away  from  the  college 
is  the  Mary  Ensign  Gill  coeducational  primary  and  junior 
high  school  with  156  students. 

Pauri  is  in  the  Himalayan  Mountains,  elevation  5,390 
feet.  Garhwal  District  borders  on  Nepal  and  was  a  part  of 
Nepal  until  ceded  to  British  India  in  1817.  It  was  one  of 
the  earliest  appointments  of  James  Mills  Thoburn,  who 
years  later  became  the  first  Methodist  bishop  in  India. 

Disciplines. 

Project  Handbook  Overseas  Missions,  The   United   Methodist 

Church.  New  York:  Board  of  Missions,  1969. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

MORAVIANS.  The  ultimate  ancestors  of  the  eighteenth- 
century  Moravians  were  the  Bohemian  Brethren  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  advocates  of  a  simplified  Christianity, 
who  eventually  aligned  themselves  with  the  Protestant 
Reformation.  Most  of  them  were  expelled  from  Bohemia 
and  Moravia  in  1621.  In  1722  Moravian  and  other  ref- 
ugees (some  of  them  of  Brethren  descent)  settled  at 
Herrnhut  under  the  patronage  of  Count  Zinzendorf. 
Zinzendorf  developed  the  group  into  a  complete  religious 
and  civil  community,  at  first  as  a  Pietist  Lutheran  society 
within  which  men  of  different  churches  could  live.  (He 
himself  was  both  a  Lutheran  minister  from  1734,  and  a 
Moravian  bishop  from  1737.)  Pressure  of  circumstances 
led  to  the  development  of  a  separate  church  which  in 
some  respects  was  a  revival  of  the  Bohemian  past.  The 
society  ideal  persisted  for  years,  however,  and  perhaps 
hindered  the  Moravian  influence,  although  they  quickly 
developed  overseas  Moravian  activity.  In  general,  Mora- 
vianism  marks  a  further  development  of  the  Pietist  type 
of  Lutheranism  begun  by  Spener  and  Francke  in  seven- 
teenth-century Germany  to  an  emphasis  on  conversion, 
and  a  personal  rehgious  experience  centered  (sometimes 
excessively)  on  a  childlike  devotion  to  Christ  and  his 
passion. 

Within  post-Reformation  Protestantism  as  a  whole, 
Moravianism  represents  a  kind  of  domestic  Protestant 
monasticism.  The  community  was  divided  into  "choirs" 
organized  according  to  sex,  age,  and  marital  status,  with 
a  variety  of  unusual  means  of  grace,  under  a  partriarchal 


discipline.  In  England,  Moravianism  was  one  element  in 
the  many-sided  Evangelical  Revival,  and  for  a  time 
promised  to  have  a  wide  influence — e.g.  through  societies 
taken  over  from  Benjamin  Ingham  in  Yorkshire  and  from 
John  Cennick  in  the  west  in  the  1740's.  They  were 
probably  hindered  by  vacillations  in  Zinzendorf's  policy 
and  by  overcentralization.  In  1749  they  achieved  Parha- 
mentary  recognition  as  an  episcopal  church;  and  in  1755 
were  organized  as  the  English  province  of  Moravianism. 

John  Wesley  first  met  Moravians  on  the  way  to  Geor- 
gia in  1735;  from  them  he  learned  about  Justification 
and  conversion  which  helped  toward  his  conversion  of 
1738;  he  visited  Hermhut  in  the  same  year.  But  in  1740 
he  and  his  followers  broke  with  the  Moravians,  and  dis- 
agreement was  sharpened  by  literary  controversy  and  the 
bad  reputation  of  the  Moravians  for  emotional  excesses 
in  the  1740's.  An  attempt  at  Methodist-Moravian  unity 
in  1785-86  by  Thomas  Coke  proved  abortive.  The  original 
break  was  precipitated  in  some  cases  by  the  "stillness" 
doctrine  of  the  Moravians  (i.e.,  the  belief  that  the  use 
of  the  means  of  grace  erodes  justification  by  faith  alone), 
and  aggravated,  it  is  alleged,  by  the  conflicting  ambitions 
of  John  Wesley  and  Zinzendorf  as  religous  leaders.  There 
were,  however,  clear  doctrinal  differences.  Wesley  accused 
the  Moravians  of  dwelling  exclusively  on  the  doctrine  of 
justification,  neglecting  the  law  and  zeal  for  Sanctifica- 
TiON.  The  Moravians  accused  Wesley  of  "having  mixed 
the  works  of  the  law  with  the  gospel  as  means  of  grace" 
(quoted  in  Renham,  Memoirs  of  James  Hutton,  1856, 
p.  47).  A  conversation  of  1741  between  Wesley  and 
Zinzendorf  makes  clear  the  latter's  Lutheran  views,  which 
underlay  the  controversy;  he  maintained  that  perfection 
along  with  justification  was  "imputed"  in  Christ  once  for 
all;  no  actual  and  growing  perfection  in  men  is  possible. 

Methodism  owed  a  good  deal  to  the  Moravians;  the 
initial  rediscovery  of  justification,  conversion,  and  As- 
surance, some  devices  for  the  cultivation  of  religious 
experience,  e.g.  love  feasts  and  watch  nights.  Yet 
equally  important  and  distinctive  Methodist  institutions 
(societies,  covenant  services,  field  preaching)  came  from 
other  sources.  Nor  was  the  "monastic"  organization  of 
Herrnhut  and  the  English  Fulneck  settlement  ever  a  fea- 
ture of  Methodism.  In  its  methods  of  extensive  itinerant 
evangehsm,  and  the  rapid  spread  of  self-supporting  yet 
connected  societies,  English  Methodism's  development 
was  strongly  contrasted  with  the  eventual  stagnation  of 
English  Moravianism. 

John  Kent 

MORE,  HANNAH  (1745-1833),  the  famous  evangelical 
Anglican  writer,  was  born  at  Stapleton  in  Gloucestershire, 
the  fourth  of  five  daughters  of  Jacob  More,  who  came 
from  a  Norfolk  family.  Removing  to  London  in  her  late 
twenties  (circa  1773),  she  became  associated  with  the 
literary  world  there,  and  was  fascinated  especially  by  the 
theatre.  She  came  under  the  influence  of  David  Garrick, 
as  is  shown  by  her  letters  to  her  family. 

The  pattern  of  her  life  began  to  change  about  1785, 
owing  to  the  possession  of  a  "growing  conviction  of  the 
unsatisfactoriness  of  all  enjoyments  which  are  not  in  ac- 
cordance with  scripture,  and  in  unison  with  prayer."  In 
consequence,  she  was  responsible  from  1789  for  the 
establishment  of  schools  for  the  poor  at  Cheddar,  and 
other  villages  in  Somerset,  where  there  were  soon  three 
hundred  children  under  her  care.  In  this  she  followed  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MORETON,    ROBERT   HAWKEY 


work  of  Robert  Raikes,  but  went  beyond  the  pioneer  in 
her  concern  that  the  newly  literate  should  have  worth- 
while reading  matter.  This  led  to  her  writing  a  series  of 
"Cheap  Repository  Tracts,"  the  first  of  which  was  entitled 
Village  Politics.  The  tracts  came  out  at  the  rate  of  three 
each  month  and  contained  stories,  ballads,  and  Sunday 
readings  written  in  a  popular  style.  Two  million  were 
produced  in  the  first  year;  and  they  were  vigorously  at- 
tacked, one  writer  urging  that  her  writings  should  be 
burned.  In  part  the  message  of  her  tracts  was  that  English- 
men should  not  follow  the  example  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. 

In  1802  she  moved  to  Barley  Wood,  and  now  began  the 
period  of  her  writing  of  books:  Hints  Towards  Forming 
the  Character  of  a  Young  Princess  (1805),  Coelebs  in 
Search  of  a  Wife  (1809),  Practical  Piety,  and  Christian 
Morals  (1811).  A  biographer  regarded  her  as  an  accom- 
plished conversationalist.  Her  religion  was  moral  in  char- 
acter, and  she  had  a  dislike  of  controversy.  She  had  no 
particular  contact  with  English  Methodism,  but  was  an 
e.xample  of  the  powerful  Anglican  Evangelical  world 
which  formed  another  contributing  stream  to  the  whole 
Evangelical  Revival  of  the  eighteenth  and  early  nine- 
teenth centuries. 

Ford  K.  Brown,  Fathers  of  the  Victorians:  The  Age  of  Wilber- 
force.  London:  Cambridge  University  Press,  1961. 
William  Roberts,  ed..  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Correspondence 
of  Mrs.  Hannah  More.  4  vols.;  London:  R.  B.  Seeley,  1834. 
Henry  Thompson,  The  Life  of  Hannah  More.  London,  1838. 

B.  J.  N.  Galliebs 

MORELAND,   JESSE   EARL    (1897-  ),   American   mis- 

sionary and  college  president,  was  bom  at  Commerce, 
Texas,  on  Oct.  2,  1897,  the  son  of  Royal  Bert  and  Mary 
Emma  (Long)  Moreland.  He  received  his  A.B.  degree 
from  Southern  Methodist  University  in  1918;  the  A.M. 
in  1921;  the  L.H.D.  causa  honoris  in  1950.  He  did  post- 
graduate work  at  Peabody  College,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in 
1927.  Other  honorary  degrees  which  came  to  him  were 
the  LL.D.  from  Morris  Harvey  College,  1941;  from 
Emory  and  Henry  College  in  1942;  from  the  Univer- 
sity OF  Chattanooga  in  1955;  and  from  the  University 
of  Richmond  in  1964.  The  Porto  Alegre  College  in 
Brazil  recorded  him  Dr.  Humanidades  in  1948. 

His  wife  was  Helen  Ehzabeth  Hardy  and  they  married 
on  Nov.  18,  1924.  Their  children  were  Jane  Long  (Mrs. 
Ben  Vaughan  Branscomb);  Helen  (Mrs.  Clare  Cotton, 
Jr.);  Mary  (Mrs.  Thomas  Ellison  Smith);  and  Frances 
(Mrs.  Lawrence  Fossett). 

Dr.  Moreland  went  as  educational  missionary  to  Porto 
Alegre  College,  Brazil,  1921-22;  was  professor  and  vice- 
president  there,  1922-26;  and  president  from  1927-34. 
Then  he  returned  to  America  and  became  the  vice- 
president  of  ScARRiTT  College,  1936-39.  In  1939  he  was 
elected  president  of  Randolph-Macon  College  in  Ash- 
land, Va.,  and  in  that  capacity  served  until  his  retirement 
in  1967. 

Dr.  Moreland  has  been  a  member  of  the  Southeastern 
Jurisdictional  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church, 
1940,  '44,  '48,  '52,  '60,  and  '64;  a  member  of  the  General 
Board  of  Education  of  that  Church  and  a  member  of  the 
General  Conferences  of  1944,  '52,  '56,  '60,  and  '64. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  first  Assembly  of  the  World 
Council  of  Churches  in  Amsterdam,  1948;  of  the  second 
and  third  Assemblies  at  Evanston,  Illinois,  1954,  and  in 


New  Delhi,  India,  1961;  a  member  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  World  Council  of  Churches,  1948-54.  He 
was  also  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Federal  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in  America, 
1940-50,  and  a  member  of  the  first  organizational  meet- 
ing of  the  National  Council  of  Churches  which  sup- 
planted that  organization.  He  has  been  president  of  the 
National  Association  of  Schools  and  Colleges  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church  and  was  the  recipient  of  the  St.  George's 
Award,  1962.  Also  he  received  the  Virginia  Award  from 
the  National  Conference  of  Christians  and  Jews,  1966.  As 
a  trustee  he  has  been  on  the  Board  of  Philander  Smith 
College,  Bennett  College,  Pennington  School;  is 
a  member  of  various  academic  and  learned  societies, 
and  has  served  as  a  Director  of  the  Hanover  National 
Bank,  Ashland,  since  1961.  Upon  retirement  in  1967,  he 
continued  to  live  in  Ashland,  Va. 


Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


MORELOCK,  GEORGE  L.  (1880-1967),  the  first  General 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Lay  Activities  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church  after  church  union,  was  born  in  Franklin, 
Tenn.,  on  Jan.  8,  1880,  the  son  of  William  L.  and  Tennes- 
see Adeline  ( Jackson  )Morelock.  He  married  Ruth  Murphy 
on  June  6,  1906,  and  their  children  are  Mrs.  W.  A.  Jen- 
kins, Elizabeth,  and  George  L.,  Jr.  He  was  educated  at  the 
University  of  the  South  (Sewanee),  receiving  the  A.B. 
degree  in  1913,  and  did  graduate  study  at  Stanford  Uni- 
versity, 1913-14.  MiLLSAPs  College  gave  him  the  LL.D. 
degree  in  1937. 

When  the  General  Board  of  Lay  Activities  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  organized  in  1922,  he  became  its  first 
General  Secretary,  serving  in  that  capacity  until  1940 
when  he  became  Executive  Secretary  for  the  entire  re- 
united Church.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Uniting  Con- 
ference in  1939  and  of  the  Jurisdictional  Conference 
of  1940.  He  served  on  the  Board  of  Evangelism  of 
The  Methodist  Church  and  on  the  Federal  Council 
OF  Churches  of  Christ  for  some  years.  He  was  delegate 
to  the  Oxford  World  Conference  on  Life  and  Work  in 
1937,  and  a  visitor  of  Lay  Work  to  Czechoslovakia,  to 
Belgium,  Brazil  and  Argentina  in  1937.  He  wrote  A 
Steward  in  The  Methodist  Church;  The  Board  of  Stew- 
ards; The  Way  to  Spiritual  Life;  The  Ideal  Layman; 
and  several  other  pamphlets  in  the  same  field.  He  retired 
in  1948  as  General  Secretary,  and  made  his  home  there- 
after in  Miami,  Fla.  He  died  in  Miami  on  Aug.  21,  1967. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945.  N.  B.  H. 

MORETON,  ROBERT  HAWKEY  (1844-1917),  British  min- 
ister and  missionary,  was  bom  in  Blienos  Aires,  Argen- 
tina, Jan.  10,  1844,  son  of  Robert  Moreton,  who  had 
emigrated  from  Comwall,  England,  some  time  before 
1830.  The  family  retumed  to  England  in  1861,  to  avoid 
military  service  for  Robert  Hawkey,  and  settled  in  Helston, 
Comwall.  Robert  Hawkey  began  to  study  medicine  at 
St.  Bartholemew's,  London,  but  hearing  a  call  to  the 
ministry  he  entered  Richmond  College,  London,  in  1864, 
and  after  three  years  there  was  appointed  first  to  Helston, 
and  then  to  St.  Colomb,  Isles  of  Scilly,  where  he  met  his 
future  wife,  Agnes  Banfield.  In  1870  his  offer  for  over- 
seas service  was  at  first  not  accepted,  but  later  that  year, 
in  November,  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionary 
Society  invited  him  to  take  up  work  in  Portugal  because 


MORGAN,   JAMES   HENRY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


of  his  knowledge  of  Spanish,  which  he  had  already  used 
in  tract  distributing  work  among  Spanish  sailors  in  the 
Thames  side  docks. 

He  arrived  in  Oporto,  Portugal,  on  Feb.  16,  1871,  with 
his  bride  whom  he  had  married  three  weeks  before.  Here 
he  ministered  until  his  death  in  1917,  forty-three  years  in 
the  active  ministry'  and  three  years  as  a  supernumerary 
minister.  He  knew  what  it  was  in  the  early  days  to  suffer 
persecution  at  the  hands  of  the  populace,  at  times  ar- 
riving home  from  some  attempt  at  preaching  "covered 
with  mud, "  but  he  outlived  this  phase  and  became  much 
respected  and  esteemed.  Through  the  years  his  gifts  as 
preacher,  teacher,  administrator  and  organizer  were  well 
exercised.  His  Methodism  was  of  the  classic  variety;  he 
built  on  the  basis  of  the  class  meeting,  and  only  ad- 
mitted into  membership  after  due,  and  sometimes  lengthy, 
trial  of  each  candidate;  class  tickets  in  his  own 
meticulous  hand  date  from  the  first  year  of  his  ministry  in 
Portugal.  His  preaching  and  pursuit  of  Christian  Perfec- 
tion attracted  many,  including  some  devout  Roman  Cath- 
olics who  were  looking  for  the  same  way. 

He  translated  a  number  of  hymns  into  Portuguese  and 
shared  in  the  compilation  of  a  succession  of  hymnaries;  he 
introduced  the  tonic-sol-fa  system  of  music  into  Portugal. 
He  also  translated  some  popular,  and  semi-polemical 
works,  such  as  The  Convent  Unmasked  by  an  ex-nun, 
Edith  O'Gorman,  and  Priest,  Woman  and  Confessional, 
by  an  ex-priest  Chiniquy.  He  wrote  several  articles  and 
treatises  of  a  controversial  nature.  For  four  years  he  edited 
and  produced  the  weekly,  A  Reforma.  His  son  Robert  was 
for  some  years  secretary  of  the  British  .\nd  Foreign 
Bible  Society  in  Lisbon,  and  a  grandson  was  a  Methodist 
minister,  dying  in  World  War  II.  Robert  Hawkey  Moreton 
is  buried,  with  his  wife,  in  the  British  Cemetery  of  St. 
James,  Oporto. 

Albert  Aspey 

MORGAN,  JAMES  HENRY  (1857-1939),  American  min- 
ister and  educator,  was  born  near  Concord,  Del.,  Jan.  21, 
1857.  He  was  educated  at  Rugby  Academy  and  Dickin- 
son College,  Carlisle,  Pa.  (A.B.,  1878).  He  taught  at 
Pennington  Seminary  and  Rugby  Academy  for  four  years, 
and  in  1882  he  was  elected  Principal  of  Dickinson  College 
Preparatory  School. 

In  1884  he  was  made  adjunct  professor  of  Greek  in 
Dickinson  College  and  in  1890,  full  professor,  continuing 
in  this  chair  until  1915.  In  1903  he  was  elected  Dean  of 
the  College;  in  1914  he  was  acting  president;  and  in  1915 
he  became  President.  His  administration  extended  to 
1928  when  he  retired,  although  he  was  pressed  back  into 
service  as  acting  president  for  two  more  brief  terms. 

His  administration  at  Dickinson  was  noteworthy.  When 
he  became  acting  president  in  1914,  the  trustees  were 
considering  liquidating  its  scanty  assets.  In  1928  when 
he  retired  the  college  was  free  of  debt,  the  endowment 
was  almost  $1,000,000,  and  a  limit  of  500  had  been 
placed  in  student  enrollment.  Educational  facilities,  admis- 
sion standards,  quality  of  faculty,  all  had  been  raised. 
For  sixty-five  years  he  poured  his  energy  into  Dickinson 
College. 

For  forty-five  years  he  jvas  a  pillar  of  the  Central 
Pennsylvania  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  serving 
as  a  trustee  from  1905  to  1926.  Joining  this  conference  in 
1893,  he  was  recognized  as  a  pre-eminent  leader  among 
its  members.  For  decades  he  was  active  in  the  training 


of  ministers  of  the  church,  serving  as  Chairman  of  the 
Board  of  Ministerial  Examiners.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
General  Conference  of  1916. 

He  was  a  force  in  the  Pennsylvania  Anti-Saloon  League 
for  many  years,  and  bore  heavy  responsibilities  unself- 
ishly in  the  field  of  moral  reform  and  in  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  affairs  of  the  Church. 

He  was  the  author  of  Dickinson  College  1783-1933, 
published  in  1933. 

Journal  of  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference,  1940. 
C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 
Who's  Who  in  America.  Charles   F.   Berkheimeh 

MORGAN,  JOHN  (1792-1872),  was  a  pioneer  British 
missionary  to  Gambia.  He  was  born  at  Torquay,  Devon- 
shire, on  May  13,  1820.  Appointed  to  begin  work  on  the 
Gambia  River,  West  Africa,  he  was  joined  by  John  Baker 
from  Sierra  Leone.  Two  attempts  to  establish  work  up 
the  river  were  defeated  by  the  unhealthy  climate,  and 
eventually  Morgan  established  a  station  at  St.  Mary's, 
ten  miles  from  the  river  mouth,  where  he  built  a  church 
and  school.  He  planned  work  at  McCarthy's  Island,  later 
to  become  the  main  base  in  Gambia,  but  had  to  return  to 
England  owing  to  ill  health.  His  Reminiscences  are  use- 
ful. He  died  on  June  14,  1872,  at  Teignmouth,  Devon- 
shire. 

Cyril  Davey 

MORGAN,  RICHARD  (Senior),  WILLIAM,  and  RICH- 
ARD (Junior),  British  Methodists.  Richard  Morgan,  Sr. 
(1679-1752),  held  a  post  in  the  Dublin  Court  of  Ex- 
chequer. His  son  William  (1712-32)  was  one  of  the  four 
original  members  of  the  Oxford  Holy  Club.  It  was  he 
who  led  the  Wesleys  to  visit  the  sick  and  prisoners.  His 
father  disapproved  of  his  association  with  "that  ridiculous 
society"  and  partly  blamed  it  for  the  illness  which  re- 
sulted in  Wilham's  early  death,  Aug.  26,  1732.  John 
Wesley's  reply,  which  allayed  the  father's  suspicions,  pro- 
vides a  valuable  account  of  the  Oxford  Methodists.  The 
younger  son,  Richard  (1714-85),  was  entrusted  to  Wes- 
ley's care.  He  succeeded  his  fatlier  in  Dublin  and  was 
visited  by  Wesley  as  late  as  1769.  It  is  uncertain  whether 
he  retained  any  vital  interest  in  Methodist  work. 

M.  Schmidt,  John  Wesley.  1966. 

L.  Tyerman,  Oxford  Methodists.  1873.  A.  S.  Wood 

MORGAN  STATE  COLLEGE  AND  THE  MORGAN  CHRIS- 
TIAN CENTER,  Baltimore,  Maryland.  The  Centenary  Bib- 
lical Institute  was  founded  in  Baltimore  in  1867,  under 
the  leadership  of  Bishop  Levi  Scott.  This  name  was  re- 
tained until  1890  when  it  was  changed  to  Morgan  College. 
In  1939  the  name  was  changed  for  the  third  time  to 
Morgan  State  College,  when  the  Trustees  agreed  to  trans- 
fer all  physical  holdings  to  the  State  of  Maryland. 

Bishop  Scott  called  a  meeting  of  interested  ministers 
and  laymen  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  on  Christmas 
Day,  1866.  The  Bishop  prepared  and  signed  a  draft  upon 
the  treasurer  of  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  for  $5,000.  At  a  second  meeting  on  Jan.  3,  1867, 
a  Board  of  Trustees,  thirteen  in  number,  was  named,  and 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  draft  a  charter.  Bishop 
Scott  offered  this  prayer  as  the  meeting  closed:  "May 
God  prosper  the  work  of  our  hands  and  enable  us  to 
do  something  that  shall  tell  favorably  and  powerfully  on 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MOROKA   INSTITUTION 


the  improvement  and  elevation  of  a  people  long  neglected 
and  oppressed." 

The  Charter  was  signed,  sealed  and  recorded  on  Nov. 
27,  1867,  the  Preamble  of  which  states: 

"Whereas,  Thomas  Kelso,  John  Lanahan,  Henry  W. 
Drakeley,  William  Harden,  Hugh  L.  Bond,  James  H. 
Brown,  William  B.  Hill,  Charles  A.  Reid,  William  Daniel, 
Isaac  P.  Cook,  Francis  A.  Crook,  Robert  Turner  and 
Samuel  Hindes  have  been  designated  by  the  Bishops  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America  as  Trustees  to  become  organized  into  a  body 
politic  and  corporate  for  the  education  of  such  pious 
young  men,  especially  colored,  for  the  ministry  of  the 
M.  E.  Church  as  shall  have  been  judged  by  a  Quarterly 
Conference  to  be  divinely  called  thereto." 

In  order  to  meet  the  demands  for  training  teachers,  the 
Trustees  added  a  normal  department  in  1874  and  admitted 
female  students.  The  demands  on  the  Institute  continued 
to  grow.  In  1890  the  Trustees  amended  the  Charter  so 
that  courses  of  study  on  the  college  level  could  be  of- 
fered, the  number  of  Trustees  was  increased  from  thirteen 
to  twenty-foiu'  and  the  name  was  changed  to  Morgan 
College,  which  honored  Lyttleton  F.  Morgan  of  the  Balti- 
more Conference  and  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

Again  the  Trustees  faced  the  need  for  expansion.  They 
sold  the  College  to  the  State  of  Maryland  in  November 
1939,  on  condition  that  the  name  Morgan  be  retained, 
that  all  previous  graduates  be  recognized,  that  the  State 
provide  adequate  budgets  and  construct  required  build- 
ings. The  Trustees  then  purchased  land  adjoining  the 
campus  on  which  they  constructed  a  commodious  build- 
ing, which  includes  a  chapel,  meeting  rooms,  recreation 
room  and  other  facilities.  The  Board,  known  as  the  Mor- 
gan College  Corporation,  sponsors  a  dynamic  religious 
program  on  campus  with  Chaplains  for  the  various  de- 
nominations and  employs  a  Methodist  minister  as  Director 
and  who  is  appointed  by  the  Bishop  of  the  Baltimore 
Conference. 

When  the  school  opened  in  1867,  it  had  nine  students 
and  two  part-time  instructors.  In  1967  its  enrollment  was 
4,140,  with  a  faculty  of  250. 

Edward  N.  Wilson 

MORLEY,  MABEL  (  ?  -1954),  New  Zealand  Methodist 
deaconess,  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  William  Morley. 
In  1907  she  was  appointed  a  deaconess  of  Durham  Street 
Church  and  Superintendent  of  the  Deaconess  House 
which  opened  in  the  same  year.  Six  years  later,  on  grounds 
of  health.  Sister  Mabel  had  to  retire  from  the  work,  but  in 
1914  she  was  appointed  the  first  matron  of  the  newly 
opened  South  Island  Children's  Home  in  Harewood  Road, 
Papanui.  This  position  she  held  for  fourteen  years.  During 
the  years  of  the  depression  in  the  1930's,  and  for  many 
more  years.  Sister  Mabel  spent  herself  in  the  service  of  the 
poor  and  needy  of  Christchurch.  She  was  a  valued  mem- 
ber of  the  mayor's  Coal  and  Blanket  Committee. 

Sister  Mabel  was  also  closely  involved  in  many  forms 
of  church  work,  serving  on  the  boards  of  the  orphanage 
and  of  the  deaconess  institution,  and  taking  a  leading  part 
in  the  Methodist  Women's  Missionary  Union. 

Her  last  years  were  spent  in  quiet  retirement,  until  in 
1954  she  passed  away,  one  of  the  most  dearly  loved 
women  of  New  Zealand  Methodism. 

New  Zealand  Methodist  Deaconess  Order  Records. 

William  T.  Blight 


MORLEY,  WILLIAM  (1842-1926),  New  Zealand  Methodist 
minister,  was  bom  at  Orston,  Nottinghamshire,  England. 
Converted  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  was  received  as  a 
candidate  for  the  ministry  when  he  was  twenty.  He  came 
to  New  Zealand  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  and  entered  the 
ministry  there,  serving  leading  pulpits  and  being  secre- 
tary of  the  Conference  on  four  occasions  and  president 
twice.  In  1894  he  was  president  of  the  historic  General 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Australasia  when 
it  was  agreed  to  give  to  the  Annual  Conferences  per- 
mission to  unite  the  various  branches  of  Methodism  in 
their  own  territories,  according  to  a  plan  of  union  laid 
down  by  the  General  Conference.  Morley  in  1891  was 
a  member  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference  in  Washington, 
D.  C. 

For  ten  years  he  was  secretary  of  a  committee  charged 
with  the  revision  of  the  Model  Deed,  and  thus  assisted 
in  securing  the  present  legal  basis  of  the  Australasian 
churches.  In  1902,  he  was  appointed  managing  treasurer 
of  the  Australasian  Supernumerary  Ministers'  and  Minis- 
ters' Widows'  Fund,  and  he  moved  to  Melbourne.  He 
held  the  position  for  twenty-one  years,  until  he  himself 
superannuated.  He  died  at  Kew,  Victoria,  on  May  24, 
1926. 

Bernard  Gadd,  William  Morley,  1842-1926  (Wesley  Historical 
Society,  New  Zealand,  1964).  Bernard  Gadd 

MORNINGSIDE  COLLEGE,  Sioux  City,  Iowa,  was  chartered 
as  the  University  of  the  Northwest  in  1889.  It  was  pur- 
chased by  the  North  Iowa  Annual  Conference  in  1894 
and  incorporated  under  the  present  name.  Wilson  Seeley 
Lewis,  the  second  president,  was  elected  a  bishop  of  the 
M.  E.  Church.  In  1914,  Charles  City  College,  an  institu- 
tion founded  by  German  Methodists,  merged  with  Mom- 
ingside. 

The  institution  has  been  one  to  which  the  Board  of 
Missions  of  The  Methodist  Church  has  sent  many  stu- 
dents from  Africa  for  work  in  higher  education.  Degrees 
offered  are  the  B.A.,  B.S.,  B.M.  (Music),  and  B.M.E. 
(Music  Education).  The  governing  board  has  thirty-six 
trustees  elected  by  the  North  Iowa  Conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

MOROKA  INSTITUTION,  Thaba  Nchu,  Orange  Free 
State,  South  Africa,  has  grown  up  on  a  Mission  with  a 
romantic  past.  In  October  1833  James  Archbell  and 
John  Edwards,  accompanied  by  Chief  Moroka  and  several 
thousand  Barolong,  trekked  from  Platberg  down  the  Mod- 
der  River  Valley  to  Thaba  'Nchu  (the  Black  Mountain) 
where,  on  Dec.  17,  1833,  they  obtained  a  grant  of  ap- 
proximately twenty-five  square  miles  from  Moshoeshoe, 
the  Basuto  "Moses,"  and  other  local  chiefs.  The  chiefs 
were  paid  nine  head  of  cattle  and  seventeen  head  of  sheep 
and  goats.  The  missionaries  regarded  the  contract  as  an 
outright  purchase,  whereas  Moshoeshoe  (in  accordance 
with  African  custom)  was  simply  granting  "a  place  to  sit." 
The  missionaries  erected  a  school  and  church  and 
launched  an  attack  on  Barolong  illiteracy.  By  1837  a  hand- 
operated  printing  press  in  the  church  vestry  was  producing 
catechisms,  scripture  passages,  school  lessons  and  a 
Tswana  Grammar. 

A  succession  of  faithful  missionaries  served  and  sacri- 
ficed to  meet  the  growing  educational  and  expanding 
evangelical  needs  of  the  people.  Thirty  primary  schools 


MORREIL,   THOMAS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


and  many  churches  were  established.  In  1937  a  gift  of 
land  from  Chief  Fenyang  and  Dr.  J.  S.  Moroka  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  Methodist  Church  for  the  purpose  of  estab- 
lishing an  Institution  with  High  School,  Teacher-Train- 
ing, Carpentry  and  Building  Courses.  During  the  first  six 
years  the  Wardens  were  H.  Greenwood,  C.  Crabtree  and 
T.  L.  Sadler,  and  for  the  ensuing  eighteen  years  W.  Ills- 
ley  filled  this  post.  The  present  Warden  (1961-  )  is 
L.  G.  S.  Griffiths.  The  average  number  of  students  (male 
and  female)  in  the  period  1962-66  was  500,  from  whom 
there  is  a  continuous  flow  of  candidates  for  the  ministry. 
In  1938  a  clinic  was  opened  and  an  African  nurse  em- 
ployed to  serve  the  students  and  local  community.  Within 
a  few  years,  with  government  assistance,  buildings  were 
erected  to  accommodate  sixty  in-patients.  Financial  assis- 
tance from  the  Orange  Free  State  Provincial  Administra- 
tion, generous  help  from  public  bodies  and  from  private 
individuals,  and  the  sacrificial  labors  of  medical,  nursing 
and  administrative  staffs  have  brought  the  hospital  bed- 
dage  to  134,  with  sixty-eight  nurses  in  training,  ten  Afri- 
can staff  nurses  and  two  African  Sisters,  both  trained  at 
Moroka.  Dr.  J.  G.  A.  Scott,  Miss  Doris  Tamblyn,  Miss 
Rosahe  Taylor,  Dr.  Prudence  Barrett  and  E.  F.  B.  Rose 
(the  present  Medical  Superintendent),  have  served  with 
distinction  and  devotion. 

W.  Illsley 
L.  G.  S.  Griffiths 

MORRELL,  THOMAS  (1747-1838),  pioneer  American 
preacher  and  Revolutionary  soldier,  was  bom  in  New 
York  City  on  Nov.  22,  1747.  His  father,  Jonathan  Morrell, 
was  converted  about  1765,  while  his  mother's  conversion 
was  under  the  preaching  of  Philip  Embury.  The  Morrells 
moved  to  Elizabethtovvn,  N.  J.,  in  1772,  where  the  elder 
Morrell  opened  a  store  in  which  Thomas  worked. 

Thomas  Morrell  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and 
after  the  battle  of  Lexington  in  Massachusetts  he  be- 
came a  captain  of  New  Jersey  militia  at  Elizabethtown. 
He  was  severely  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Long  Island  in 
1776,  and  was  taken  to  New  Providence,  N.  J.,  where  he 
was  nursed  back  to  health.  Thereafter  he  was  in  battles 
at  Brandywine,  Chadd's  Ford,  and  Germantown  (near 
Philadelphia),  where  he  was  again  wounded.  In  the  regu- 
lar Continental  Army  he  was  successively  Captain  and 
Major  of  the  4th  New  Jersey  Brigade. 

In  1785  he  was  converted  under  the  preaching  of  John 
Haggerty  in  Elizabethtown.  He  gave  up  his  business  and 
began  preaching  within  three  months  of  his  conversion.  He 
was  licensed  as  a  local  preacher  in  June  1786,  and 
in  1787  was  serving  a  circuit  with  Robert  Cloud.  Follow- 
ing his  ordination  as  an  elder  in  1789  at  New  York,  he 
was  assigned  to  that  city,  with  the  specific  charge  to  build 
a  second  Methodist  church  there.  He  organized  the  con- 
gregation which  became  the  Forsyth  Street  Church,  and 
erected  a  new  house  of  worship. 

Morrell  was  intimate  with  Asbury,  Coke  and  other 
leaders  and  frequently  corresponded  with  John  Wesley. 
On  June  1,  1789,  he  arranged  an  audience  with  George 
Washington,  who  had  just  been  inaugurated  as  President 
of  the  United  States,  in  order  that  Asbury  and  Coke  might 
present  a  congratulatory  address  which  had  been  adopted 
by  the  conference  then  in  session  in  New  York,  and  with 
John  Dickins  he  accompanied  the  two  superintendents  to 
present  it  personally  to  the  Chief  Executive.  Coke,  as  an 
Englishman,   was   criticized  for  his   action,   but   Asbury, 


also  an  Englishman,  was  so  identified  with  the  American 
cause  that  no  adverse  comment  was  directed  toward  him. 
The  Methodists  were  the  first  church  group  to  take  such 
action,  and  it  drew  favorable  comment  from  the  New 
York  press. 

Morrell  served  the  leading  churches  of  the  denomina- 
tion in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Charles- 
ton and  elsewhere.  He  was  in  New  York  nearly  five 
years  and  later  returned  to  that  appointment,  and  he 
alternated  with  Freeborn  Garrettson  in  Philadelphia. 
In  1804  he  was  assigned  to  his  home  town  of  Elizabeth. 
In  1806  he  located,  but  continued  preaching  on  a  circuit 
in  Union,  Essex  and  Morris  Counties. 

Major  Morrell  married  Lydia  Frazer  of  Westfield,  N.  J., 
in  1802,  Bishop  Abury  performing  the  ceremony.  One 
of  their  children  was  Francis  Asbury  Morrell,  who  became 
a  Methodist  preacher  and  joined  the  Newark  Confer- 
ence on  its  organization  in  1857,  but  transferred  to  the 
New  Jersey  Conference  the  next  year. 

Thomas  Morrell  died  in  Elizabethtown  on  Aug.  9, 
1838,  and  was  buried  there. 

V.  B.  Hampton,  Newark  Conference.  1957. 

J.  B.  Wakeley,  Lost  Chapters.  1858.        Vernon  B.  Hampton 

MORRIS,  BERT  JASPER  (1875-1959),  American  minister, 
educator  and  editor,  was  born  March  17,  1875.  His 
family  moved  from  Watseka,  111.  to  Salina,  Kan.,  in  1877. 
Morris  graduated  from  Kansas  Wesleyan  University 
in  1903,  and  married  a  classmate,  Delia  Pearl  Miller,  on 
Commencement  Day.  They  moved  to  Berkeley,  Calif., 
that  autumn,  where  Bert  enrolled  at  the  Pacific  School 
of  Religion.  With  a  B.D.  degree  he  returned  to  Harvard 
and  Boston  University,  receiving  a  M.A.  degree  at 
Harvard  and  a  Ph.D.  at  Boston. 

The  College  of  Pacific,  then  at  San  Jose,  Calif.,  en- 
gaged him  as  professor  of  philosophy.  For  eight  years  he 
served  as  Dean  of  students,  and  one  year  as  acting  presi- 
dent. In  World  War  I  Morris  served  for  two  years  at 
Harvard  in  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Vocational  Guidance. 
In  1920-25  he  directed  the  Wesley  Foundation  Center 
of  Trinity  Church,  Berkeley,  for  University  of  California 
students.  The  University  honored  him  with  membership  in 
the  Faculty  Club.  He  then  became  religious  editor  of  the 
Pacific  Rural  Press  for  seventeen  years. 

His  last  work  was  an  eight-year  pastorate  of  the  Por- 
tola  Church  in  the  Sierra  where  he  built  a  notable  struc- 
ture, "The  Cathedral  of  the  Mountains."  He  then  retired 
to  Berkeley,  where  he  died  on  April  29,  1959,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Oak  Knoll  Cemetery,  San  Jose. 

L.  L.  Loofbourow,  The  Cross  in  the  Sunset.  1961. 

Minutes  of  the  California  Conference.  Jom>i  W.  Winkley 

MORRIS,  CECIL  VAN  HORNE  (1897-  ),  American 
missionary  to  Cuba,  was  born  April  28,  1897,  at  Clifton 
Forge,  Va.,  the  son  of  William  Thomas  and  Minnie  May 
Morris.  He  was  educated  at  Randolph-Macon  College 
with  the  A.B.  degree  and  at  Princeton  Theological  Semi- 
nary with  the  B.Th.  degree. 

In  1920  he  went  to  Cuba  as  a  contract  teacher,  but 
joined  the  Annual  Conference  there  in  1924.  His  pas- 
torates covered  six  cities  in  addition  to  the  time  he  served 
as  district  superintendent  of  the  Central  District. 

While  president  of  Colegio  Pinson,  the  hurricane  of 
1932  crossed  over  the  island  and  over  Camaguey  where 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MORRIS,   THOMAS   ASBURY 


his  school  was  located.  He  had  married  Margaret  Fleming 
in  1924  and  they  always  worked  together  as  a  team.  In 
order  to  help  the  school  she  even  worked  in  the  kitchen. 
Their  two  sons,  Cecil  Lee  and  Richard,  were  both  bom 
in  Cuba. 

For  health  reasons  they  retired  from  the  field  in  1939, 
but  continued  to  be  active  where  he  served  as  supply 
pastor  and  officer  and  teacher  in  his  local  church.  They 
reside  in  Newport  News,  Va. 

Anuario  Cubana  de  la  Islesia  Metodista.  Garfield  Evans 

MORRIS,  DINAH,  a  character  in  George  Eliot's  novel 
Adam  Bede,  almost  certainly  based  on  a  real  female 
preacher,  George  Eliot's  aunt  by  marriage,  Elizabeth 
(Tomlinson)  Evans. 

Frank  Baker 


MORRIS,  JAMES  SAMUEL  (1848-1931),  South  African 
Wesleyan  Methodist  missionary,  was  bom  at  Fort  Beau- 
fort, Cape  Colony,  on  Aug.  31,  1848.  He  was  the  son  of 
1820  settlers  and  educated  at  Lovedale.  Converted  at 
Queenstown  under  Bishop  William  Taylor,  he  oflFered 
for  the  ministry  in  1872.  A  perfect  Xhosa  linguist,  he 
did  mission  work  in  the  Wodehouse  and  Tsomo  Circuits 
before  moving  to  Buntingville,  Western  Pondoland,  in 
1875.  Here  he  gained  the  confidence  of  the  Paramount 
Chief  Nqwiliso  and  helped  to  prevent  the  Mpondo  from 
siding  with  the  Mpondomise  in  their  1880  Rebellion.  In- 
stead, he  himself  led  a  column  of  400  Mpondo  warriors 
which  Nqwiliso  dispatched  at  his  suggestion  to  relieve  the 
Colonial  magistrate  at  Tsolo,  who  was  besieged  in  the 
local  gaol.  Grateful  for  his  advice,  the  Chief  and  his  people 
made  gifts  of  cattle  for  the  erection  of  the  New  Kilner 
Institute  at  Buntingville.  In  spite  of  previous  assurances, 
the  Cape  Government  refused  maintenance  grants  because 
Pondoland  was  outside  the  colony,  and  in  1887  Morris 
broke  down  under  the  resultant  strain.  He  then  spent 
fifteen  years  among  the  migrant  laborers  in  the  Diamond 
Fields  Compounds  at  Kimberley  and  a  short  but  worrying 
period  at  Edendale,  Natal,  before  returning  to  Western 
Pondoland.  After  four  years  at  Palmerton,  he  returned  in 
1909  to  Buntingville  where  the  Institution  had  been 
reopened  with  government  assistance  after  the  annexation 
of  Pondoland  to  the  Cape.  Morris  retired  in  1919  and  died 
in  East  London  on  Feb.  23,  1931.  He  was  revered  for  his 
personal  bravery,  wise  counsel,  administrative  talent,  prac- 
tical evangelical  preaching  and  deep  understanding  of 
the  African  people. 

E.  H.  HuTcombe,  For  God  and  the  Bantu   ( life  story  of  J.  S. 

Morris).  N.d. 

Minutes  of  South  African  Conference,  1931. 

J.  Whiteside,  South  Africa.  1906.  G.  Meahs 

MORRIS,  PERCY  F.  (1879-1943),  prominent  American  lay- 
man, was  born  in  Bloomington,  111.,  on  July  20,  1879.  He 
grew  up  on  a  ranch  in  California,  later  moving  to  San 
Francisco  where  he  eventually  owned  a  food  brokerage 
firm.  He  married  Lillie  Caddy  in  1910  and  they  had  two 
daughters  and  a  son. 

Percy  Morris  participated  in  nearly  every  phase  of 
church  work,  but  his  chief  interests  were  youth  and  mis- 
sions. He  was  a  founder  (1907)  and  early  president  of  the 
California  Conference  Epworth  League,  and  organized 


the  first  Epworth  League  Institute  in  California.  At  the 
Asilomar  Institute  of  1916,  he  took  a  leading  part  in 
raising  the  necessary  money  to  send  George  A.  Miller 
(later  bishop)  to  Panama  and  Costa  Rica.  His  continuing 
interest  led  to  his  chairmanship  of  the  Panama-Costa 
Rica  Cooperating  Council. 

He  served  on  numerous  California  Conference 
boards  and  commissions,  and  was  chairman  of  the  World 
Service  and  Finance  Commission.  He  was  a  lay  delegate 
to  the  General  Conference  in  1932,  and  to  the  Western 
Jurisdictional  Conference,  1940. 

As  a  Trustee  of  the  College  of  the  Pacific  for  many 
years,  he  recognized  the  need  for  a  chapel  there.  He 
made  the  initial  gift  and  was  Building  Committee  chair- 
man for  the  Gothic  chapel,  dedicated  in  1942,  which  today 
bears  his  name. 

He  died  in  Oakland  of  a  heart  attack  on  Nov.  22,  1943. 

L.  L.  Loofbourow,  Cross  in  the  Sunset.  1961. 

Who's  Who  in  Pan-Methodism.         Marjohie  Morris  Bayha 

MORRIS,  THOMAS  ASBURY  (1794-1874),  American  bish- 
op, was  bom  on  April  28,  1794,  in  Kanawha  County 
near  Charleston,  W.  Va.  He  was  reared  under  Baptist 
influence  and  was  converted  in  1813  and  made  a  Method- 
ist class  leader.  The  following  year  he  became  an  exhorter 
and  was  licensed  to  preach. 

In  1816  he  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Ohio  Confer- 
ence and  in  due  course  was  ordained  a  deacon  by  Bishop 
George  and  an  elder  by  Bishop  Roberts.  His  first  ap- 
pointment was  to  the  Marietta  circuit  where  he  remained 
two  years.  In  1818  and  in  1819  he  served  the  Zanesville 
circuit  and  in  1820  he  was  sent  to  Chillicothe  and  then  to 
Lancaster. 

In  1822  he  was  transferred  to  Kentucky  and  sent  to 
the  Christian  circuit,  which  covered  two  counties  and  parts 
of  five  others  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  He  was  then 
appointed  to  Hopkinsville  and  in  1824  he  sei'ved  the  Red 
River  circuit  in  Tennessee,  which  had  twenty-one  appoint- 
ments, the  nearest  being  twenty  miles  from  his  home.  In 
1825  he  was  made  presiding  elder  of  the  Green  River  dis- 
trict in  Kentucky,  where  he  served  two  years.  His  suc- 
ceeding appointments  were  Louisville,  Lebanon  circuit 
in  Ohio,  Columbus,  Cincinn.\ti,  and  presiding  elder  of 
the  Cincinnati  district.  In  1834  he  became  editor  of  the 
Western  Christian  Advocate. 

Morris  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of 
1824  and  all  of  the  succeeding  conferences  until  elected 
bishop  at  the  General  Conference  in  Cincinnati  in  1836. 

As  bishop  he  presided  over  conferences  in  Tennessee, 
Texas,  Arkansas  and  in  other  areas,  including  the  Indl^n 
Mission  in  Oklahoma.  He  adhered  to  the  North  when 
the  Church  was  divided  in  1844.  Morris  was  of  course 
a  bishop  during  the  tension  and  disruption  of  the  Church 
during  the  eighteen-forties.  There  is  evidence  that  he  en- 
deavored to  stand  between  the  two  irreconcilable  forces. 
He  attended  the  Louisville  Convention  called  by  the 
southern  delegates  in  1845  but  declined  to  preside  at  any 
session.  He  with  Bishop  Janes  expressed  a  desire  to  go 
and  hold  the  conferences  assigned  him  in  the  South  as 
the  plan  of  visitation  had  been  worked  out  by  the  bishops 
of  the  as  yet  undivided  Church.  However,  the  other  bish- 
ops did  not  agree  and  worked  up  another  plan  of  visitation 
in  which  Morris  and  Janes  were  excluded  from  any  south- 
ern conference  visitation.  At  one  time  he  was  charged  in 
the  press  with  having  married  a  woman  who  owned  slaves, 

1673 


MORRIS,   WILLIAM   EDWARD 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


but  this  was  not  the  case.  His  second  wife's  first  husband 
owned  slaves  but  on  his  death  they  became  the  property 
of  the  son  of  his  first  wife. 

In  1814  Morris  married  Miss  Abigail  Scales  of  Virginia. 
They  had  two  children  and  the  son,  Francis  Asbury  Mor- 
ris, became  a  member  of  the  Missouri  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South,  and  was  a  professor  in  St.  Charles 
College.  In  1844,  his  first  wife  having  died,  he  married 
Mrs.  Lucy  Merriwether  of  Louisville,  Ky. 

In  1853  Morris  published  a  book  called  Miscellany, 
Consistitig  of  Essays,  Biographical  Sketches,  and  Notes  of 
Travel;  and  in  1856  he  wrote  Discourses  on  Methodist 
Church  Polity. 

Bi.shop  Morris  died  on  Sept.  2,  1874,  at  Springfield, 
Ohio,  and  was  buried  in  the  Fern  Cliff  Cemetery  there. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

John  F.  Marlay,   The  Life  of  Rev.   Thomas  A.  Morris.   Cin- 
cinnati: Hitchcock  &  Walden,  1875. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Elmer  T.  Clark 


MORRIS  HARVEY  COLLEGE,  Charleston,  West  Virginia, 
was  founded  in  1888  in  Barboursville,  W.  Va.,  and  named 
for  Morris  Harvey,  its  chief  benefactor.  The  college  was 
related  to  the  Western  Virginia  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South.  Because  of  financial  difficulties,  the  college 
abandoned  its  first  location  and  moved  to  Charleston  in 
1939. 

After  the  union  of  the  three  branches  of  Methodism  in 
1939,  the  newly  organized  West  Virginia  Annual  Confer- 
ence of  The  Methodist  Church  asked  the  University 
Senate  to  make  a  study  of  the  educational  needs  of  the 
conference,  particularly  with  the  view  of  determining  the 
conference's  ability  to  support  two  institutions.  The  sen- 
ate, in  1941,  recommended  that  the  annual  conference 
concentrate  its  support  upon  one  college — West  Virginia 
Wesleyan  at  Buckhannon.  The  conference  released  the 
property  that  it  held,  and  Morris  Harvey  became  a  pri- 
vate college  of  liberal  arts.  It  continues  to  have  warm, 
friendly  relationships  with  West  Virginia  Methodists. 

John  O.  Gross 


MORRIS,  WILLIAM  EDWARD  (1876-1952),  American 
minister  and  long-time  conference  secretary,  was  bom  in 
Greensboro,  Ala.,  June  22,  1870,  the  son  of  Joseph  Terry 
and  Mattie  A.  Williams  Morris,  while  his  father  was  finish- 
ing his  education  in  old  Southern  University.  As  a  boy  he 
attended  the  public  schools  and  then  Oxford  College, 
Oxford,  Ala.  He  then  entered  Southern  University,  Greens- 
boro, Ala.,  graduating  with  a  B.S.  degree  in  1893,  plan- 
ning at  the  time  to  enter  the  medical  profession.  He 
attended  Mobile  Medical  College,  1893-94,  and  Birming- 
ham Medical  College,  1894-95.  However,  he  later  re- 
sponded to  the  call  to  preach  and  in  1895  was  admitted 
on  trial  into  the  North  Alabama  Conference.  Bishop 
Charles  B.  Galloway  ordained  him  deacon  in  1897. 
Bishop  Warren  A.  Candler  ordained  him  an  elder  in 
1899.  On  May  18,  1898  he  married  Miss  Fannie  Sheldon. 

From  his  very  entrance  into  the  Conference,  Morris 
was  asked  to  serve  at  the  secretary's  table.  From  1895 
to  1908  he  served  as  first  assistant  to  John  W.  Newman, 
long-time  secretary  of  the  Conference.  He  gave  up  his 
assistant's  place  when  he  was  appointed  to  the  Huntsville 
District  in  1908.  Upon  the  death  of  Newman  in  1913, 
Morris  was  elected  Conference  secretary,  which  ofiice  he 
held  till  his  retirement  in  1942.  He  served  as  presiding 
elder  of  Huntsville,  Birmingham,  and  Anniston  Districts. 
He  had  a  total  of  forty-seven  years  of  service  at  his  retire- 
ment, and  had  served  many  of  the  leading  churches  of 
the  conference.  He  was  greatly  loved  as  a  pastor. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conferences 
(MES)  of  1922,  1926,  1930,  and  to  the  Uniting  Confer- 
ence of  1939. 

In  1925  Birmingham-Southern  College  conferred 
upon  him  the  D.D.  degree.  Upon  his  retirement,  he  moved 
to  Birmingham  to  live  in  the  Norwood  community,  where 
he  had  served  the  Norwood  Church  so  effectively  some 
years  before.  He  died  Nov.  15,  1952.  Funeral  services 
were  conducted  at  the  Norwood  Church  and  his  body 
was  laid  to  rest  in  Elmwood  Cemetery,  Birmingham,  Ala. 

George  Frederick  Cooper 


MORRIS   BROWN   COLLEGE.    (See   Atlanta,   Georgl\, 

Morris  Brown  College. ) 


MORRISON,  HENRY  CLAY  (1842-1921),  American  bishop 
of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  was  bom  May  30,  1842,  in 
Montgomery  County,  Tenn.  He  states  in  his  autobiography 
that  he  was  bom  in  a  plain  small  cottage  five  miles  from 
the  town  of  Clarksville,  Tenn.  His  father  was  a  small 
farmer  with  a  large  family  and  it  was  necessary  for  his 
son  to  work  in  the  fields  in  order  to  support  the  family; 
therefore,  Henry  was  prevented  from  attending  school 
except  for  one  eight  month's  teim  in  a  small  country 
school.  He  professed  religion  in  the  Baker's  Camp  Meet- 
ing near  his  home  at  the  age  of  fourteen. 

In  1857  the  family  moved  to  Graves  County,  Ky.,  and 
here  despite  the  handicap  of  little  formal  education  he 
took  advantage  of  every  opportunity  to  learn  and  was 
licensed  to  teach  in  the  rural  schools.  During  this  time 
he  responded  to  the  call  to  the  ministry  and  was  licensed 
to  preach  in  April  1863,  at  Pleasant  Hill  Church  in  Ballard 
County.  He  began  his  ministry  on  the  Clinton  Circuit  of 
the  Memphis  Conference.  The  circuit  covered  150  miles 
and  had  twenty-seven  preaching  places.  From  here  he 
joined  the  Confederate  States  Army  and  served  both  as 
soldier  and  spiritual  advisor  to  the  troops.  After  peace  was 
declared  he  resumed  his  ministry  on  the  Ixigan  Circuit. 
He  joined  the  Louisville  Conference  in  1865,  and  was 
assigned  to  Millerstown.  His  reputation  as  a  preacher  soon 
brought  him  to  the  leading  pulpits  of  the  conference,  in- 
cluding four  quadrennia  in  Louisville,  Ky. 

In  1886  he  was  transferred  to  the  North  Georgia 
Conference  and  stationed  at  the  First  Methodist  Church, 
Atlanta.  At  the  General  Conference  of  1890  he  was 
elected  as  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Board  of  Missions, 
and  in  1894  became  its  Senior  Secretary.  Following  the 
panic  of  1893,  the  Board  found  itself  with  a  debt  of  $132,- 
000.  Morrison  accepted  the  challenge  of  this  indebtedness 
and  by  personal  solicitation  and  correspondence  raised 
$150,000.  He  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  in  1898.  In 
the  twenty  years  of  his  episcopal  supervision,  he  served 
forty-one  of  the  fifty-four  conferences  of  the  Southern 
church.  He  continued  to  raise  money  and  at  the  time  of 
his  retirement  in  1918,  it  was  estimated  that  he  had  raised 
$3,000,000  for  the  church.  After  retirement  he  made  his 
home  in  Leesburg,  Fla.,  until  his  death  on  Dec.  20,  1921. 
The  church  there  is  named  the  Morrison  Memorial. 

A  strong  forthright  leader,  not  in  the  least  afraid  of 


WORLD   METHODtSM 


MORRISTOWN,    NEW   JERSEY 


controversy,  he  belonged  among  those  awe-inspiring 
Southern  Methodist  bishops  whose  fiat  made  law  in  the 
conferences  over  which  they  presided;  and  who  had  no 
doubts  as  to  the  rectitude  of  their  convictions.  Withal  he 
was  fundamentally  a  kindhearted  minister,  and  the  editor 
of  this  Encyclopedia  states  that  he  has  always  been  proud 
to  have  been  ordained  by  H.  C.  Morrison. 

George  H.  Means,  ed.,  Autobiography  of  Bishop  Henry  Clay 
Morrison.  Nashville:  Publishing  House,  M.E.  Church,  Soutli, 
1917.  Habry  R.  Short 


H.  C.  Morrison 

MORRISON,  HENRY  CLAY  (1857-1942),  American  pastor, 
evangelist,  educator,  journalist,  was  born  on  March  10, 
1857,  at  Bedford,  Ky.  His  Baptist  father,  James  S.  Morri- 
son, died  when  Henry  was  four;  his  mother,  bom  Emily 
Durham,  died  when  he  was  two.  When  Henry  was  three 
weeks  old,  his  mother  dedicated  him  to  the  ministry  at  a 
Methodist  Quarterly  meeting. 

Educated  at  Ewing  Institute,  Perryville,  Ky.,  and  Van- 
DERBiLT  University  for  one  year,  he  passed  his  examina- 
tions in  all  but  one  subject.  However,  later  in  life  he  was 
given  an  honorary  D.D.  by  Vanderbilt.  Converted  at  the 
age  of  thirteen,  licensed  to  preach  in  1878,  admitted  on 
trial  in  the  Kentucky  M.  E.  South  Conference,  1881, 
he  was  ordained  deacon  in  1886  and  elder  in  1887.  He 
located  in  1890,  requesting  the  Conference  to  give  him  a 
local  relationship  in  order  to  give  full  time  to  evangelism. 

From  1879  to  1882  Morrison  served  four  circuits: 
Floydsburg,  Jacksonville  (both  as  junior  preacher).  West- 
port,  and  Concord.  From  1882  to  1890,  he  served  five  sta- 
tions: Stanford;  Eleventh  Street  Church,  Covington;  High- 
lands; Walnut  Street,  Danville,  and  Frankfort. 

An  evangelist  from  1890  to  1910,  his  oratorical  ability 
reached  pinnacles  of  greatness  while  preaching  to  audi- 
ences numbered  by  the  thousands.  However,  he  never 
became  what  was  sometimes  called  a  "commercial  evan- 
gelist." During  1908  he  preached  471  times.  It  is  estimated 
that  he  held  1,200  revivals,  preached  15.000  times,  trav- 
eled 500,000  miles,  and  had  thousands  of  converts  at  his 
altars.  Morrison's  evangelistic  zeal  in  camp  meetings  and 
revival  preaching  brought  him  into  conflict  with  the  au- 
thorities of  his  Church.  The  period  from   1896  through 


1904  was  a  stormy  one.  He  was  brought  to  trial  in  Septem- 
ber 1897,  in  the  Kentucky  Conference,  for  "contumacious 
conduct."  Upon  his  statement  that  he  had  "no  intent"  to 
violate  church  law  "he  was  restored  to  his  former  position 
in  the  church  and  the  case  was  closed."  The  church  sub- 
sequently elected  him  to  five  General  Conferences  and 
the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  in  London,  1921. 

Founder  of  the  Pentecostal  Herald  about  1890,  he  was 
its  editor  for  about  thirty-five  years,  stressing  holiness,  and 
aiding  and  promoting  Asbury'  College  and  Asbury  The- 
ological Seminary.  He  wrote  some  twenty-five  popular 
books,  though  he  was  not  a  scholarly  writer  or  preacher. 

Returning  from  a  tour  of  world  evangelism,  Morrison 
accepted  the  presidency  of  Asbury  College,  and  served 
from  1910-25.  He  served  again  as  president  from  1933-40, 
dominating  the  school  for  most  of  the  time.  He  was  made 
president  emeritus  and  continued  to  hold  this  title  until 
his  death.  He  founded  Asbury  Theological  Seminary  in 
1923.  He  was  its  first  president  and  his  administration 
continued  until  his  death. 

Dramatic,  picturesque,  magnificent  in  appearance,  Mor- 
rison was  considered  one  of  the  fifty  great  preachers  of 
America  by  The  Christian  Century.  He  was  also  held  to 
to  be  the  greatest  defender  in  Methodism  of  what  he 
thought  to  be  the  Wesleyan  teaching  of  Christian  Per- 
fection (Sanctification)  within  Methodism.  Roy  L. 
Smith  in  The  Christian  Advocate,  April  9,  1942,  said: 
"There  were  those  who  disagreed  with  him  on  matters  of 
theology,  but  no  man  surpassed  him  in  devotion  to  the 
Christian  evangel."  E.  Stanley  Jones  said;  "Morrison 
was  one  of  tlie  great  men  of  the  religious  life  of  America, 
the  last  of  the  old  Southern  orators." 

He  married  Laura  Bain  on  June  20,  1888,  and  they  had 
three  children.  Mrs.  Morrison  died  Nov.  29,  1893,  and  he 
married  Geneva  Pedlar  on  April  9,  1895.  They  had  five 
children.  She  died  on  March  23,  1914,  and  he  married 
Mrs.  Bettie  Whitehead  on  Feb.  17,  1916.  She  died  in 
1945. 

After  preaching  sixty-three  years,  Morrison  preached 
his  last  sermon  on  his  life  theme,  "How  to  win  sinners  to 
Christ."  The  next  day,  March  24,  1942,  he  died  at  Eliza- 
bethton,  Tenn.  Bishop  U.  V.  W.  Darlington  gave  a 
tribute  at  his  funeral  in  Asburv'  College  and  said:  "We 
shall  not  see  his  like  again.  He  was  just  about  the  last 
of  the  old  group  of  great  towering  preachers  who  do  not 
'water  down'  anything  but  just  plainly  preach  Christ, 
Savior  from  sin."  He  was  buried  at  Wilmore,  Ky. 

P.  A.  Wesche,  Henry  Clay  Morrison  "Crusader  Saint."  Nampa, 
Idaho:  n.p.,  1963. 
Who's  Who  in  America. 
Who's  Who  in  the  Clergy,  Vol.  1. 

C.  F.  Wimberly,  A  Biographical  Sketch  of  Henry  Clay  Mor- 
rison. Chicago,   1922.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

MORRISTOWN,  NEW  JERSEY,  U.S.A.,  Morrisfown 
Church  in  the  Northern  New  Jersey  (former  Newark) 
Conference  is  a  suburban  chiu-ch  with  a  historic  past — a 
church  which  "offers  a  dynamic  ministry  today  in  a  com- 
munity and  area  rich  in  .Methodist  tradition,  and  in  New 
Jersey  history."  Methodism  began  there  in  1811  when 
Bishop  Asbury  preached  in  the  Presbyterian  Church — 
the  Presbyterians,  then,  as  now,  being  strong  in  northern 
New  Jersey.  Preaching  by  circuit  riders  and  prayer  and 
class-meetings  organized  in  homes  eventually  led  to  the 
establishment  of  a  permanent  society.  A  New  York  Meth- 


MORRISTOWN   COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


odist  family,  the  Samuel  Bonsalls,  moved  to  Spring  Valley 
in  1813  and  opened  their  home  to  Methodist  circuit  riders 
twice  a  month.  This  link  which  Morristown  had  to  the  city 
of  New  York  proved  quite  beneficial,  and  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  a  Methodist  church  building  in  1827. 

The  first  church,  a  small  rectangular  red  brick  building, 
was  dedicated  on  Oct.  14,  1927.  On  that  occasion  the 
building  was  packed  three  times  by  neighboring  people, 
some  of  whom  had  walked  seven  miles  to  participate  in 
the  services.  An  1828  revival  added  200  members  to  the 
original  thirteen.  Nathaniel  Porter,  the  first  pastor,  was 
appointed  to  Morristown  in  1829  by  the  Philadelphi.\ 
Conference. 

The  congregation  outgrew  the  first  edifice  by  1841,  and 
a  second  building  was  erected,  this  time  "on  the  Green." 
The  new  building  was  a  white,  wooden,  colonial  structure 
and  is  being  used  today  by  the  A.M.E.  Church  congrega- 
tion, It  was  removed  to  its  present  site  by  a  team  of  white 
oxen,  after  the  present  building  had  been  erected  on 
property  given  by  George  T.  Cobb,  Mayor  of  Morristown. 

The  cornerstone  of  the  third  building  was  laid  in  1866 
by  Bishop  Janes,  who  returned  to  dedicate  it  four  years 
later  in  1870.  This  church  is  the  present  imposing  struc- 
ture located  on  the  east  side  of  the  Morristown  Green. 
It  is  a  stone  edifice,  of  solid  Norman  architecture.  The 
masonry  is  purple  puddingstone  trimmed  with  Maine 
granite.  The  spire  terminating  in  a  granite  cross  rises 
150  feet.  The  interior  is  trimmed  with  butternut  and  black 
walnut. 

Through  the  years  the  clock  in  the  spire  has  been  known 
by  all  in  the  community  as  the  "Town  Clock,"  and  at  one 
time  the  churchbell  was  used  as  the  town  fire  alarm.  In 
1964  the  Tucker  Memorial  Carillon  was  installed  in  the 
Tower  as  part  of  the  $450,000  modernization  program 
which  renovated  the  structure  and  added  a  three-floor 
matching  wing  of  educational,  office  and  social  facihties. 

The  first  session  of  the  Newark  Conference  was  held 
in  the  second  building  in  1858.  It  was  in  the  third  and 
present  handsome  structure  that  the  fourteenth  session  of 
the  Newark  Conference  convened  in  1871,  and  through 
the  century  outstanding  anniversary  sessions  have  been 
held  there  marking  the  thirty-fifth  (1892);  the  fiftieth 
(1907);  and  the  centennial  (1957)  sessions  of  the  Newark 
Conference. 

The  church  has  grown  consistently  through  the  years. 
It  has  been  served  by  some  of  the  great  preachers  and 
leaders  of  the  Northern  New  Jersey  (Newark)  Confer- 
ence, including  David  W.  Bartine,  Jonathan  Townley 
Crane,  Henry  A.  Buttz,  George  P.  Eckman,  Jesse  L. 
HuRLBUT,  Ralph  B.  Urmy,  J.  Edgar  Washabaugh,  Henry 
L.  Lambdin,  and  William  L.  Lancey. 

In  1970  it  reported  1,354  members,  property  valued  at 
$2,250,841,  and  $194,697  raised  for  all  purposes. 

M.  Eckman 
Vernon  B.  Hampton 

MORRISTOWN  COLLEGE,  Morristown,  Tennessee,  began 
in  1881  as  an  elementary  and  secondary  school  for  Ne- 
groes under  the  auspices  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society 
of  the  M.  E.  Church.  It  was  founded  by  Judson  S.  Hill, 
a  Methodist  minister  from  New  Jersey. 

The  school  was  started  in  a  one-story  frame  building 
which  had  served  previously  as  a  slave  mart.  One  of  the 
students  who  was  graduated  from  the  school  and  later 
served  for  fortv-four  vears  as  a  teacher  remembered  hav- 


ing been  sold  at  the  front  of  the  building  in  the  days  of 
slavery. 

Junior  college  instruction  began  in  1923.  In  1960  the 
name  was  changed  to  the  present  one.  The  college  was 
granted  full  accreditation  and  membership  in  the  Southern 
Association  of  Colleges  and  Schools  in  1961.  The  govern- 
ing board  has  thirty-three  members  elected  by  the  board. 
Ownership  of  the  college  properties  is  vested  with  the 
Board  of  Education  of  The  Methodist  Church. 

John  O.  Gross 


David  Morton 

MORTON,  DAVID  (1833-1898),  American  preacher  and 
executive,  was  born  June  4,  1833,  in  Russellville,  Ky.,  the 
son  of  Marmaduke  B.  and  Nancy  Caldwell  Morton.  He 
was  baptized  in  infancy  by  John  Littlejohn,  an  associate 
of  Francis  Asbury  in  the  early  days  of  American  Meth- 
odism. He  was  educated  at  Russellville  Academy  and  early 
entered  public  service  where  he  developed  outstanding 
executive  ability.  This  served  him  well  in  later  years  when 
he  became  the  first  Secretary  of  Church  Extension  of 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  He  early  felt  the  call  to  the 
ministry  and  in  1853  joined  the  Louisville  Conference 
(MES).  His  promotion  from  circuits  to  stations  was  rapid 
and  he  soon  became  one  of  the  most  popular  preachers  of 
his  conference.  During  the  trying  period  of  the  War 
Between  the  States,  1861-65,  David  Morton  had  a  part  in 
the  stormy  sessions  of  his  conference,  when  the  conference 
was  prevented  from  meeting  as  a  whole  and  held  its  sep- 
arate sessions  under  the  watchful  eyes  of  both  Confederate 
and  Union  soldiers. 

In  1867-68  he  was  instrumental  in  establishing  two 
colleges  in  his  conference — Logan  College  in  his  home 
town  of  Russellville  and  Warren  College  in  Bowling 
Green.  He  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference in  1870  and  re-elected  to  each  of  the  eight  suc- 
ceeding conferences.  His  death  occurred  just  prior  to  the 
meeting  of  the  General  Conference  of  1898  to  which  he 
had  been  elected. 

In  1876  he  was  sent  to  the  Pacific  Northwest  to  help 
strengthen  and  establish  churches.  He  visited  every  con- 
gregation of  Southern  Methodism  in  his  territory  and  as 
a  result  of  his  work,  the  need  of  funds  for  building 
churches  came  to  the  attention  of  the  General  Conference 


WORLD   METHODISM 

of  1882.  This  led  to  the  estabhshment  of  the  Board  of 
Church  Extension  and  Morton  was  selected  as  its  Corre- 
sponding Secretary.  For  sixteen  years  he  piloted  the  course 
of  this  new  board,  extended  its  services,  and  built  it  into 
one  of  the  most  efficient  agencies  of  the  Church.  He  con- 
tinued in  this  ofiRce  until  his  death.  During  this  time  3,817 
churches  were  aided,  nearly  a  million  dollars  was  rai.sed 
and  the  rate  of  church  building  averaged  nearly  one 
church  for  each  day  of  the  year. 

In  a  tribute  to  him  at  the  General  Conference  following 
his  death,  it  was  fitly  said,  "What  Church  Extension  is 
among  us,  he  made  it."  He  was  buried  in  Maple  Grove 
Cemetery  in  his  home  town  of  Russellville,  Ky.,  on  March 
15,  1898. 

Elijah  E.  Hoss,  David  Morton,  A  Biography.  Nashville:  Pub- 
lishing House,  M.E.  Church,  South,  1916. 
Journal  of  the  Louisville  Conference,  1898. 
J.  C.  Rawlings,  Century  of  Progress,  N.p.,   1946. 

Harry  R.  Short 


MOSES,  HORACE  AUGUSTUS  (1862-1947),  American 
Methodist  layman  and  philanthropist,  was  born  April  21, 
1862  on  a  farm  in  South  Ticonderoga,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of 
Henry  H.  and  Emily  (Rising)  Moses.  He  attended  local 
schools  and  the  two-year  commercial  course  at  Troy  Con- 
ference Academy  in  Poultney,  Vt.,  now  Green  Mountain 
Junior  College.  His  business  career  began  as  an  errand 
boy  in  the  Springfield,  Mass.,  paper  mills  where,  in  suc- 
cessive steps,  he  arose  to  manage.  Eventually  he  founded 
his  own  mill,  the  Strathmore  Paper  Co.,  which  became  in- 
ternationally known. 

Moses  was  a  "tither"  all  of  his  life.  His  many  benefac- 
tions included  the  Eastern  States  Farmers  Exchange;  the 
Junior  Achievement  Movement  which  he  conceived  and 
first  organized;  the  4-H  Clubs  which  he  helped  found  and 
supported;  the  Green  Mountain  Junior  College  in  Ver- 
mont; sixty-one  major  gifts  to  his  home  town  of  Ticon- 
deroga, N.  Y.;  eighty-five  gifts  to  educational  institutions, 
including  numerous  buildings,  permanent  scholarships  and 
endowed  academic  chairs;  the  Valley  View  Chapel  in 
Springfield,  Mass.,  one  of  America's  most  beautiful  Gothic 
cathedrals. 

He  died  on  April  22,  1947,  and  is  buried  in  Spring- 
field Cemetery.  His  wife,  Alice  (Elliot)  Moses,  died  in 
1962,  after  being  a  member  of  Trinity  Church  for  seventy- 
five  years.  Their  daughter,  Madeline  Moses,  presently  lives 
in  New  York  City. 

H.  Hughes  Wagner 

MOSSMAN,  FRANK  E.  (1873-1945),  American  college 
president,  a  builder  of  institutions  and  of  men  and  women, 
was  born  in  Urbana,  Iowa,  on  Aug.  26,  1873.  On  March 
27,  1895,  he  married  Zoa  Foster  and  they  were  the  parents 
of  four  children.  He  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  North- 
west Iowa  Conference  in  1899.  Frank  Mossman  gradu- 
ated from  MoRNiNGsiDE  College  in  1903  and  earned  an 
M.A.  there  in  1905.  He  received  honorary  doctorates  from 
Upper  Iowa  Universitv  and  Southwestern  College, 
Winfield,  Kan. 

Twice  he  was  president  of  Southwestern  College — 
1905-1918,  and  from  1931  until  he  became  president- 
emeritus  in  1942.  Between  these  two  terms  he  held  the 
presidency  of  his  alma  mater,  Momingside  College.  Dur- 
ing his  first  term  as  president  at  Southwestern  he  bought 


MOTT,   JOHN   RALEIGH 

back  the  campus  land  which  had  been  sold  during  the 
lean  years  and  built  Richardson  Hall,  the  chief  campus 
building.  When  he  returned  in  1931  he  was  the  dean  of 
college  presidents  of  Methodism.  Eight  times  he  was 
elected  a  delegate  to  General  Conference,  and  for 
many  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  University  Se.nate. 
He  died  on  June  12,  1945  and  was  buried  in  Winfield, 
Kan. 

Mossman's  abihty  to  read  the  faces  of  students  and  to 
discern  when  they  were  disturbed  by  financial  or  other 
problems,  as  well  as  his  wise  counsel  in  the  time  of  need, 
won  for  him  the  loyalty  of  students,  faculty  and  supporters 
of  the  college.  He  thus  molded  many  lives,  easily  but 
surely  bending  them  toward  a  higher  goal. 

Roy  L.  Smith,  the  editor  and  author,  who  was  always 
grateful  to  Mossman  for  encouraging  him  to  finish  college, 
characterized  "Prexy"  as  a  great  man  with  devotion,  faith, 
enthusiasm,  capacity  for  entering  into  the  lives  of  others, 
and  administrative  ability. 

Christian  Advocate,  June  18,  1942. 

B.  Mitchell,  Northwest  Iowa  Conference.  1904. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Ina  Turner  Gray 

MOTT,  JOHN  RALEIGH  (1865-1955),  American  church 
statesman  and  world-wide  leader  in  missionary  enterprises 
and  in  the  international  Y.M.C.A.,  was  born  May  25,  1865, 
at  Livingston  Manor,  N.  Y.  When  he  was  four  months  old 
the  family  moved  to  Postville,  Iowa.  At  the  age  of  sixteen 
Mott  entered  the  Upper  Iowa  College  at  Fayette,  Iowa. 
At  graduation  he  continued  his  work  at  Cornell  Univer- 
sity at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  because  he  thought  the  religious 
life  should  speak  more  to  the  mind.  In  his  junior  year  at 
Cornell,  Mott  became  President  of  the  Christian  associa- 
tion. He  came  to  the  attention  of  the  national  Y.M.C.A. 
leaders  when  he  succeeded  in  raising  the  money  for  a  new 
college  "Y"  building. 

His  life  of  service  in  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  on  international 
and  missionary  levels  was  launched  from  this  college  plat- 
form. In  the  winter  of  1886,  J.  Kynaston  Studd,  one  of 
the  "Cambridge  Seven,"  came  with  his  young  wife  to 
the  Cornell  campus.  Mott  heard  him  speak  and  found  his 
Christian    life,    begun    under    Iowa    Y.M.C.A.    auspices. 


John  R.  Mott 


MOULTON,    JAMES   HOPE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


directed  into  full-time  Christian  service.  In  the  same  year 
he  went  as  a  delegate  to  the  first  International  Christian 
Student  Conference,  held  under  the  eyes  of  Dvvight  L. 
Moody  at  Mount  Hermon,  Mass.  At  this  meeting,  he 
helped  organize  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement — 
whose  missionary  motto  became,  "The  world  for  Christ 
in  this  generation."  Mott  became  chairman  and  served  in 
this  capacity  for  thirty-two  years. 

Assigned  to  the  executive  committee  of  the  Student 
Volimteer  Movement  in  his  capacity  as  a  representative  of 
the  International  Committee  of  the  Y.M.C.A.,  he  became 
chaiiTOan  of  this  committee  also  and  served  for  thirty- 
three  years. 

From  these  two  relationships,  a  steadily  increasing  in- 
fluence in  the  world  movements  of  Christendom  charac- 
terized his  life.  From  1888  to  1915  he  was  General  Secre- 
tary of  the  Intercollegiate  Y.M.C.A.  movement  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  In  1895  he  became  General 
Secretary  of  the  World's  Student  Christian  Federation.  In 
1898  he  became  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Department  of 
the  International  Committee  of  Y.M.C.A.'s.  In  1901  he  was 
elected  Associate  General  Secretary  of  the  International 
Committee.  He  was  shortly  chairman  of  the  World's  Com- 
mittee of  Y.M.C.A.'s.  Several  of  these  posts  he  held  con- 
currently as  the  influence  of  both  the  Y.M.C.A.  and  the 
student  missionary  movement  extended  outsvard. 

It  was  logical,  therefore,  that  in  1910,  when  the  World 
Missionary  Conference  was  called  in  Edinburgh,  Mott 
should  be  chosen  chairman  of  Commission  I,  and  presiding 
officer  of  the  day  sessions.  Nearly  2,000  delegates  from 
159  societies  and  from  fifty-four  nations  gathered  to  set 
their  sights  upon  the  world  missionary  target.  As  the  ses- 
sion closed,  Mott  was  chosen  chairman  of  the  Continuation 
Committee.  He  was  therefore  central  to  the  leadership  of 
the  Jerusalem  Missionary  Council  in  1928  and  the  Madras 
Missionary  Council  in  1938. 

He  presided  at  the  Oxford  Conference  on  Life  and 
Work  in  1937  and  was  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the 
Edinburgh  Conference  of  Faith  and  Order  in  the  same 
year.  When  he  resigned  as  chairman  of  the  International 
Missionary  Council  in  1942,  he  continued  at  seventy-seven 
years  of  age  several  posts  of  outstanding  significance,  as 
president  of  the  World's  Alliance  of  the  Y.M.C.A.;  vice 
president  for  the  Western  Hemisphere  of  the  Provisional 
Committee  for  bringing  into  being  the  World  Council 
of  Churches,  and  several  other  offices.  When  the  World 
Council  of  Churches  came  into  being,  he  was  named  an 
honorary  president. 

During  this  extremely  active  and  global  life  of  service, 
Mott  made  four  round-the-world  trips,  served  in  seventy- 
three  countries,  was  decorated  by  sixteen  nations,  and 
received  honorary  degrees  from  eight  distinguished  uni- 
versities, including  Cornell,  Yale,  Princeton,  Edinburgh, 
and  Brown. 

Confidant  of  bishops,  statesmen,  wealthy  industrialists 
and  Christian  leaders  the  world  over,  Mott  found  time 
to  write  at  least  fifteen  volumes,  including  six  volumes  of 
Addresses  and  Papers  published  in  1946-47.  Three  presi- 
dents of  the  United  States — Roosevelt,  Taft  and  Wilson — 
called  upon  him  for  service.  During  World  War  I,  he  was 
chairman  of  the  United  War-Work  Committee  which 
sought  to  raise  $170,500,000  and  raised  more  than  $190,- 
000,000.  Three  times,  he  was  offered  the  ambassadorship 
of  China  by  President  Wilson,  who  described  him  as 
"certainly  one  of  the  most  nobly  useful  men  in  the 
world."  He  indeed  did  serve  the  President  as  a  member  of 


the  American  deputation  to  Mexico  and  as  one  of  Wilson's 
appointees  on  the  American  Mission  to  Russia, 

Such  was  the  life  of  one  who  in  his  early  twenties, 
preparing  for  a  legal  career,  heard  a  Cambridge  athlete 
speaking  for  Christ  put  the  challenge,  "Seekest  thou  great 
things  for  thyself?  Seek  them  not.  Seek  ye  first  the  King- 
dom of  God."  And  said  Mott,  "on  these  few  words  hinged 
my  life-investment  decisions." 

Mrs.  Mott  passed  away  in  the  early  1950's,  and  two 
years  later,  Mott  married  a  second  time.  In  1937,  he  had 
been  named  an  honorary  canon  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 
And,  although  a  life-long  Methodist  he  was,  upon  his 
death  on  Jan.  31,  1955,  interred  in  the  Washington  Ca- 
thedral, Washington,  D.  C. 

Among  his  fifteen  or  more  published  books,  are:  The 
Strategic  Points  in  the  World's  Conquest;  The  Evangeliza- 
tion of  the  World  in  this  Generation;  The  Pastor  and 
Modern  Missions;  The  Future  Leadership  of  the  Church; 
The  Present  World  Sitttation;  The  Decisive  Hour  of  Chris- 
tian Missions;  Addresses  and  Papers  of  J.  R.  Mott,  six 
vols. 

E.  M.  McBrier,  Reminiscences.  Private  Printing,  19.54. 
John  R.  Mott,  Addresses  and  Papers.  6  vols.  New  York:  Associa- 
tion  Press,    1946-47.  Gordon   E.   Michalson 

MOULTON,  JAMES  HOPE  (1863-1917),  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  and  distinguished  scholar,  was  bom  on  Oct. 
11,  1863,  at  Richmond,  Surrey.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
sixteen  boys  at  Leys  School,  Cambridge,  of  which  his  fa- 
ther was  headmaster.  He  entered  the  Wesleyan  ministry 
in  1886,  and  for  the  next  sixteen  years  was  himself  a 
master  at  the  Leys. 

In  1902  he  was  appointed  to  Didsbury  College,  Man- 
chester, and  later  became  professor  of  Hellenistic  Greek 
and  Greenwood  lecturer  in  the  Greek  Testament  at  the 
University  of  Manchester.  He  was  elected  to  the  Legal 
Hundred  in  1904.  In  1912  he  was  Hibbert  Lecturer  on 
Early  Zoroastrianism,  and  in  1913  Fernley  Lectxtrer  on 
Religions  and  Religion.  He  was  also  a  fellow  of  King's 
College,  Cambridge,  the  first  Wesleyan  minister  to  obtain 
a  fellowship  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  His  study  of  oriental 
languages  made  him  the  greatest  English  authority  of 
Zoroastrianism.  With  Deissmann  and  Milligan  he  was  con- 
cerned with  applying  the  new  evidence  from  the  papyri  to 
the  study  of  the  New  Testament,  and  with  Milligan  pub- 
lished A  Vocabularij  of  the  Greek  Testament,  Illustrated 
from  the  Papyri.  Also  he  published  Grammar  of  New  Tes- 
tament Greek  (1906,  1929),  and  From  Egyptian  Rubbish 
Heaps  (1914).  He  died  in  the  Mediterranean  through 
submarine  action  on  April  7,  1917. 

H. M.  Rattenbury 

MOULTON,  WILLIAM  FIDDIAN  (1835-1898),  British 
Wesleyan  Methodist  and  outstanding  scholar,  was  born  in 
Leek,  Staffordshire,  on  March  14,  1835.  After  a  brilliant 
career  at  London  University  he  entered  the  Wesleyan 
ministry  in  1858.  He  was  appointed  to  Richmond  College, 
Surrey,  first  as  assistant  and  then  as  classical  tutor,  until 
in  1874  he  was  made  the  first  headmaster  of  Leys  School, 
Cambridge.  In  1873  he  was  elected  to  the  Legal  Hun- 
dred, and  became  President  of  the  Conference  in  1890. 
In  1891,  with  J.  Scott  Ledgett,  he  founded  the  Bermond- 
sey  Settlement.  From  1870-81  he  was  secretary  of  one  of 
the  New  Testament  committees  for  the  Revised  Version  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MOUNT  ALLISON    UNIVERSITY 


W.  F.  MOULTON 

the  Bible.  His  publications  include  the  English  translation 
of  Winer's  Grammar  of  New  Testament  Greek  (1870) 
with  A.  S.  Geden,  Concordance  of  Greek  New  Testament 
(1897),  commentaries,  and  History  of  the  English  Bible 
(1878).  He  died  on  Feb.  5,  1898. 

G.  G.  Findlay,  W.  F.  Moulton,  the  Methodist  Scholar.  London, 

1910. 

W.  F.  Moultbn  (son),  Memoir.  1899. 

H.  MORLEY  R.4TTENBUHY 


Fawcett    Memorial    Hall,     Mount    Allison    UNrvERSirv 

MOUNT  ALLISON  UNIVERSITY  (SackviUe,  New  Bruns- 
wick). Methodists  in  Eastern  British  America  (now  the 
Maritime  Provinces  of  Canada)  waited  for  decades  for 
an  opportunity  to  start  a  program  of  higher  education. 
Other  denominations  had  their  institutions  of  learning, 
but  how  were  they  to  find  the  money  to  start  and  maintain 
one  of  their  own?  The  opening  came  in  a  letter  to  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  New  Brunswick  District  held  in  St. 
John  in  the  spring  of  1839.  It  was  written  by  Charles 
Frederick  Allison,  a  merchant  living  in  Sackville,  a  small 
town  almost  on  the  Nova  Scotia  border.  He  suggested  a 
school  "in  which  not  only  the  elementary,  but  higher 
branches  of  education  may  be  taught,"  and  "in  which  pure 
religion  is  not  only  taught,  but  constantly  brought  before 
the  youthful  mind,"  and  which  would  be  under  the  control 
of  the  Wesleyan  districts  of  New  Brunswick  and  Nova 


Scotia.  His  offer  to  purchase  a  site  in  Sackville,  to  erect 
a  suitable  building,  and  to  give  a  hundred  pounds  a  year 
toward  its  upkeep  was  gladly  accepted  by  the  District, 
and  was  ratified  quickly  by  the  Nova  Scotia  District.  In 
July,  1840,  Allison  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  the  Male 
Academy.  Until  his  death  in  1858  he  continued  to  interest 
himself  in  the  school  and  to  increase  his  donations. 

When  the  first  young  men  entered  in  January,  1843, 
they  were  greeted  by  the  first  principal,  Humphrey  Pick- 
ard,  a  native  of  New  Brunswick,  who  had  gone  to  the 
United  States  for  his  university  education.  Under  his 
guidance  the  student  body  rapidly  increased,  and  the 
range  of  work  offered  was  expanded  steadily.  In  1854 
a  "Female  Branch"  was  opened  in  a  second  building  some 
distance  from  the  first,  and  large  numbers  of  young  women 
came  to  take  classes  suited  to  their  needs.  In  1858,  by  act 
of  the  New  Brunswick  Legislature,  the  trustees  of  the 
Wesleyan  Academy  (Male  and  Female)  were  incorpo- 
rated, and  were  given  a  charter  conferring  full  degree- 
granting  power.  Thus  began  the  three  separate,  yet  inter- 
dependent, parts  of  Mount  Allison,  all  of  which  were 
under  the  presidency  of  Humphrey  Pickard. 

Mount  Allison  Academy  continued  until  1953.  A  board- 
ing school  leading  to  university  matriculation,  it  later  ac- 
quired a  coeducational  commercial  department.  Young 
men  whose  education  had  been  interrupted  could  here 
make  up  what  they  had  missed,  and  those  with  little 
money  in  their  pockets  were  accommodated  in  one  way  or 
another.  In  the  years  when  high  schools  were  remote  from 
large  sections  of  the  population,  it  was  a  haven  for  am- 
bitious adolescents;  its  discontinuance  came  only  when 
regional  high  schools  had  become  general.  Three  wooden 
buildings  in  which  the  academy  was  housed,  were  burned, 
and  the  fourth,  a  stone  structure,  is  now  a  university 
women's  residence. 

The  Ladies'  College  was  the  name  early  given  to  the 
Female  Branch.  Though  it  began  as  a  high  school,  the 
curriculum  was  broadened  to  include  many  subjects  then 
called  for  in  the  proper  education  of  a  young  lady.  In 
1890  the  cornerstone  of  the  Conservatory  of  Music  was 
laid,  and  within  twenty  years  ten  specialists  were  teaching 
in  this  department.  In  1893  John  Hammond  was  appointed 
director  of  art,  and  soon  paintings  from  the  collection  of 
John  Owens  of  Saint  John,  came  into  the  new  Owens 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  In  1904  the  School  of  Household 
Science,  equipped  by  Mrs.  Lillian  (Massey)  Treble  and 
named  after  her,  was  opened.  In  later  years  these  and 
other  departments  were  gradually  integrated  with  the 
university,  and  by  1936  the  school  was  reduced  to  a 
matriculation  course,  which  was  terminated  in  1946. 

The  university  has  grown  steadily  through  the  years. 
From  the  two  who  formed  the  first  graduating  class  in 
1862,  the  number  of  students  increased  to  some  Uvelve 
hundred  a  century  later,  and  it  is  becoming  increasingly 
difficult  to  hold  the  enrollment  at  that  figure.  From  its 
inception  Mount  Allison  has  been  favored  with  some 
excellent  teachers  who  could  not  be  drawn  away  to  posi- 
tions which  seemed  to  have  much  more  to  offer.  The  first 
university  degree  granted  a  woman  in  the  British  Empire 
was  a  bachelor  of  science,  conferred  upon  Grace  Annie 
Lockhart,  in  1875;  and  in  1884  Miss  Harriet  Starr  Stewart 
became  the  first  woman  to  win  a  bachelor  of  arts  degree 
from  any  Canadian  university. 

Instruction  in  theological  subjects  began  in  1860,  and 
in  1875  a  Faculty  of  Theology  was  formally  established 


MOUNT   BETHEL   ACADEMY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


with  Charles  Stewart  as  its  first  dean.  This  part  of  the 
university  moved  to  Halifax  in  1926,  when  it  was  amal- 
gamated with  the  Presbyterian  College  to  form  Pine  Hill 
Divinity  Hall,  a  seminary  of  the  newly  foiined  United 
Church  of  Canada.  Since  that  time  candidates  for  the 
United  Church  ministry  from  eastern  Canada  have  taken 
their  arts  at  Mount  Allison,  and  their  theological  studies 
at  Pine  Hill. 

In  1903  the  McClelan  School  of  Applied  Science  was 
opened.  From  this  developed  the  Engineering  Depart- 
ment, which  gives  a  three-year  course  leading  to  a  degree 
after  two  additional  years  at  a  technical  college.  In  con- 
trast, commerce  and  education  have  been  added  recently. 

The  Mount  Allison  crest  carries  the  words,  Litterac, 
Religio,  Scientia,  and  throughout  its  history  a  serious  at- 
tempt has  been  made  to  integrate  all  three  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  whole  man. 

Though  the  building  erected  in  18,54  to  house  the 
Female  Branch  still  stands  ( 1966),  most  of  the  early  struc- 
tures have  disappeared  and  have  been  replaced  by  many 
fine  new  buildings.  One  of  the  latest  is  a  chapel  in  the 
form  of  a  symmetrical  cross  in  the  center  of  the  campus. 
The  stained-glass  windows  are  unique  in  design,  and  of 
exceptional  quality. 

The  university  is  governed  by  a  board  of  regents, 
twenty  of  whom  are  appointed  by  The  United  Church  of 
Canada,  twenty  by  the  Federated  Alumni,  two  by  the  fac- 
ulty, and  four  by  the  board.  In  1960  the  first  chancellor, 
Ralph  Pickard  Bell,  was  installed.  The  presidents  have 
been:  Humphrey  Pickard,  1862-69;  David  Allison,  1869- 
78,  1891-11;  J.  R.  Inch,  1878-91;  B.  C.  Borden,  1911-23; 
G.  J.  Trueman,  1923-45;  W.  T.  R.  Flemington,  1945-62; 
and  L.  H.  Cragg,  1963- 

G.  S.  French,  Parsons  and  Politics.  1962. 

D.  W.  Johnson,  Eastern  British  America.  1924. 

T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1877,  1890. 

E.  Arthuh  Betts 

MOUNT  BETHEL  ACADEMY  (1794-1820)  was  an  early 
Methodist  school  located  in  Newberry  County,  S.  C, 
U.S.A.,  the  first  such  institution  of  the  Methodists  in  that 
state.  The  building,  erected  in  1794,  stood  on  thirty  acres 
of  land  given  by  Edward  Finch,  and  was  dedicated  by 
Bishop  FR.4NCIS  AsBURY  on  March  20,  1795.  It  was  twenty 
by  forty  feet  in  size,  divided  by  partitions,  with  chimneys 
at  each  end.  The  second  floor  was  a  dormitory  for  stu- 
dents, and  several  cabins  served  as  boarding  houses  and 
residences  for  the  teachers. 

Mark  Moore  was  the  principal  for  six  years,  being  suc- 
ceeded by  one  Mr.  Hammond.  The  school  was  largely 
patronized  by  students  from  Georgia  and  both  the 
Carolinas.  It  began  to  decline  in  the  second  decade  of 
the  nineteenth  century  and  closed  its  doors  about  1820, 
being  succeeded  by  the  Mount  Ariel  and  CoKESBimY 
Schools  in  that  section.  Nothing  remains  on  the  site. 

A.  D.  Betts,  South  Carolina.  1952. 

C.  F.  Deems,  Annals.  1856-58. 

A.  M.  Shipp,  South  Carolina.  1883.  Louise  L.  Queen 

MT.  GILEAD  CAMPGROUND,  located  at  Ben  Hill,  Near 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  U.S.A.,  is  the  offspring  of  the  oldest  Meth- 
odist church  in  Fulton  (originally  DeKalb)  County,  Ga. 
Mt.  Gilead  Church  was  planned  for  in  1824  in  the  home 
of  John  M.  Smith  by  several  families  from  Franklin  Coun- 


ty and  was  then  organized  by  William  J.  Parks,  pastor  of 
the  Lawrenceville  Circuit. 

A  newspaper  article  written  in  the  late  1800's,  "The 
Story  of  Old  Mt.  Gilead,"  records:  "The  first  Campground 
was  established  on  what  is  now  Jackson  St.,  then  Old 
Sandtown  Road.  Because  of  the  fact  that  it  was  located  on 
the  highway  leading  to  the  Sandtown  Ferry  on  the  Chat- 
tahoochee River,  connecting  the  Creek  and  Cherokee 
nations,  it  was  called  Sandtown  Campground.  Those  good 
old  Scotch-Irish  pioneers  held  annual  camp  meetings  here 
from  as  far  back  as  1824  until  1835.  In  that  year.  Rev. 
John  M.  Smith  and  Old  Father  Fain  cut  down  the  brushes 
for  the  'Old  Brush  Arbor.'  " 

P.  P.  Smith  (John  M.  Smith's  oldest  son)  wrote  for  the 
Southern  Christian  Advocate  in  October,  1860:  "I 
preached  the  first  sermon  at  the  new  Campground  on  the 
22nd  Oct.,  1835." 

Thus  the  beginnings  of  this  historic  place.  The  center 
of  the  campground  was  a  crude  pineboard  tabernacle  with 
brush  roof  (later  replaced  with  more  substantial  material), 
encircled  by  temporary  living  quarters  called  "tents.  "  So 
phenomenal  was  the  growth  that,  in  1860,  sixty  families 
with  their  livestock  encamped  there.  The  great  influence 
of  Aaron  and  James  Turner,  "Venerable  Fathers  in 
Israel,"  Jesse  and  Isaac  Boring,  George  F.  Pierce, 
Charles  Dowman,  and  others  was  renowned  throughout 
the  area. 

The  first  tabernacle,  destroyed  by  a  heavy  snow  in 
1880,  was  replaced  that  same  year  with  the  present 
tabernacle,  under  the  supervision  of  James  Barrett.  The 
spiritual  fervor  of  these  camp  meetings  climaxed  in  a 
great  revival  in  1900  under  the  preaching  of  W.  A.  Dodge. 
Preachers  of  that  day  vied  for  camp  meeting  preaching 
privileges,  and  often  the  "preachers'  tent"  had  twenty 
preachers  available  for  the  four  services  per  day.  Preach- 
ers of  a  later  day  were  S.  R.  Belk,  James  E.  Dickey,  the 
Jenkins  brothers,  and  the  Eakes  brothers. 

As  the  area  rapidly  became  urbanized,  the  campground 
lost  its  appeal  for  "tent  holders."  A  motel  was  erected  in 
1946;  deteriorated  tents  were  replaced  with  modem  cot- 
tages; a  new  water  system  and  other  improvements  were 
made  under  the  long  and  faithful  leadership  of  Erby 
McGee. 

Today  revival  preaching  by  distinguished  evangelists  is 
still  heard  here  the  first  two  weeks  in  August  each  year. 
Some  of  the  present  trustees  are  descendents  of  the  origi- 
nal trustees,  who  were:  J.  J.  Fain,  Lewis  Peacock,  Isaac 
Sevvell,  John  B.  Holbrook,  and  John  M.  Smith.  These 
grandsons  of  the  pioneers,  with  other  young  and  zealous 
leaders,  have  the  challenge  to  transform  "The  Old  Camp- 
ground" into  a  place  of  greater  influence  and  glory  for  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

Ruth  B.  Moody 

MOUNT  PLEASANT  GERMAN  COLLEGE,  Mount  Pleasant, 
Iowa  (1873-1909),  was  founded  in  1873  by  the  South- 
west German  Annual  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church 
under  Rudolph  J.  Havighorst  in  association  with  Iowa 
Wesleyan  University  under  President  John  Wheeler. 
It  offered  academy,  college  and  theological  courses  in 
the  German  language.  The  affiliation  with  Iowa  Wesleyan 
permitted  the  students  to  enroll  for  a  B.A.  degree  and 
many  collegiate  courses  were  not  offered  independently  by 
the  German  College.  The  professors  formed,  in  return,  the 
German  Department  of  Iowa  Wesleyan.  Associated  with 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MT.   SEQUOYAH,   ARKANSAS 


the  college  were  such  German-American  Methodist  schol- 
ars as  F.  WiLHELM  Balcke,  E.  Cabl  Magaret,  Fried- 
rich  MuNz,  Edwin  Stanton  Havighorst  and  Karl 
Stiefel.  Some  400-500  students  attended  the  college  and 
about  235  received  diplomas.  A  three  story  college  build- 
ing and  later  a  chapel  were  erected.  The  major  contribu- 
tion of  the  college  was  training  ministers  for  the  Gennan 
Methodist  Conferences.  In  1909,  the  college  was  merged 
with  Central  Wesleyan  College,  Warrenton,  Missouri  by 
the  sponsoring  conferences  of  both  schools,  the  St.  Louis 
German  and  the  West  German.  The  land,  the  buildings 
and  one  half  of  the  endowment  fund  reverted  to  Iowa 
Wesleyan.  The  Chapel  was  razed  in  1926  and  the  College 
Building  in  1961.  Bricks  and  the  inscribed  granite  lintel 
from  the  latter  building  were  turned  in  a  memorial  marker 
on  the  site.  The  archives,  originally  moved  to  Warrenton, 
are  now  the  core  of  the  Zwingli  F.  Meyer  Collection  of 
German-American  Methodism  at  Iowa  Wesleyan  College. 

P.  F.  Douglass,  German  Methodism.  1939. 

Louis   A.   Haselmayer,    The  History   and  Alumni   List   of   the 

Mt.  Pleasant  German  College.  N.d. 

Jubildumsbuch  der  St.  Louis  Deutschen  Konferenz. 

Methodist  History,  July  1964.  Louis  A.  Haselmayer 

MOUNT  ROYAL  COLLEGE,  Calgary,  Alberta,  was  founded 
in  1910  under  the  sponsorship  of  the  Board  of  Colleges  of 
the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada  and  through  the  efforts 
of  a  group  of  citizens  under  the  leadership  of  George 
W.  Kerry  of  Central  Methodist  Church  in  Calgary.  In 
December  1910,  the  college  was  incorporated  by  an  act 
of  the  provincial  legislature  to  provide  elementary  and 
secondary  education  for  both  sexes,  and  instruction  in 
music,  art,  speech,  drama,  journalism,  commercial  and 
business  courses,  technical  and  domestic  arts.  W.  H.  Gush- 
ing was  appointed  chairman  of  the  board  of  governors  and 
Kerby  the  first  principal. 

The  college  opened  in  September,  1911,  with  154  stu- 
dents emolled  in  all  departments.  By  1965  several  thou- 
sand students  were  enrolled  in  the  various  departments. 

In  1925,  Mount  Royal  College  came  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  Board  of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools  of 
The  United  Church  of  Canada,  and  Kerby  continued  as  its 
principal.  In  1931  a  university  department  was  established 
in  the  junior  college  division,  and  the  elementary  school 
program  was  discontinued.  The  university  department 
offered  the  first  two  years  of  the  arts  and  science  courses 
as  prescribed  by  the  University  of  Alberta. 

John  H.  Garden  succeeded  Kerby  as  principal  in  1942 
and  served  until  1959.  The  college  charter  was  amended 
in  1944  and  1950  to  provide  broader  base,  and  engineer- 
ing courses  were  begun  in  the  university  department.  The 
facilities  of  the  college  were  erJarged  with  the  erection 
of  the  Kerby  Memorial  Building  and  the  G.  D.  Stanley 
Gymnasium  in  1949.  In  the  fall  of  1956  a  business  admin- 
istration department  was  established. 

In  January,  1959,  W.  John  CoUett,  who  had  been  dean 
since  1948,  was  appointed  principal  on  the  retirement  of 
Garden.  The  college  continues  to  grow  and  fill  a  need 
for  high-school  and  post-high-school  education  as  a  com- 
munity college.  It  has  been  reorganized  as  a  cooperative 
community  junior  college  controlled  by  the  community 
and  financed  from  the  public  treasury. 

Massey    Foundation    Commission,    Report.    Toronto:     Massey 

Foundation,  1921. 

J.  H.  Riddell,  Middle  West.  1946.  J.  E.  Nrx 


MT.  SEQUOYAH,  ARKANSAS,  U.S.A.,  a  large  camp  and 
assembly  ground  near  Fayetteville,  is  maintained  by  the 
South  Central  Jurisdiction  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church,  and  is  officially  known  as  the  Western  Methodist 
Assembly.  It  began  in  1920  when  a  group  of  church  lead- 
ers met  at  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C,  and  decided  to  chal- 
lenge the  annual  conferences  west  of  the  Mississippi  River 
to  establish  an  Assembly  Ground.  East  Mountain,  at 
Fayetteville,  Arkansas  (later  called  Mt.  Sequoyah),  was 
selected  as  the  site.  Fifty  buildings  were  thereafter 
erected,  the  first  programs  being  given  in  the  summer  of 
1923.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  financial  situation  was  to 
prove  difficult,  and  so  lots  were  sold,  annuity  bonds  were 
arranged  for,  and  the  support  of  Methodist  people  earnest- 
ly solicited. 

Sam  Yancey  was  elected  superintendent  of  the  Assembly 
in  due  time  and  served  faithfully  and  well  for  twenty- 
three  years.  Other  buildings  were  erected  during  this  time, 
including  the  large  Clapp  Auditorium  which  seats  600 
persons  and  is  still  being  used.  A  cafeteria  was  also  built, 
unique  in  that  four  oak  trees  growing  where  it  was  built, 
were  "incorporated"  in  its  structure,  their  trunks  and  limbs 
spreading  through  and  beyond  the  roof. 

Elmer  H.  Hook  succeeded  Yancey  in  1949.  During  his 
tenure  as  superintendent,  all  the  cottages  were  modern- 
ized. Hook  himself  making  many  pieces  of  furniture  in 
his  wood-working  shop.  The  Paul  E.  and  Mildred  Martin 
building  (named  for  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Martin)  was  made 
possible  by  contributions  from  all  the  Conferences  of  the 
South  Central  Jurisdiction  and  by  gifts  from  the  T.  L. 
James  family  of  Ruston,  La.,  and  from  J.  J.  Perkins  of 
Dallas.  In  the  Martin  building  is  a  lovely  chapel,  as  well 
as  ten  large  classrooms,  including  an  audio-visual  room.  A 
gift  from  the  J.  M.  Willsons  of  Floydada,  Texas  made 
possible  a  small  infirmary. 

In  June  1959,  E.  H.  Hook  retired  to  be  succeeded  by 
E.  G.  Kaetzell,  who  like  Hook,  proved  to  be  a  builder 
as  well  as  an  administrator.  Under  his  leadership  the 
architectural  firm  of  Hare  &  Hare,  of  Kansas  City,  was 
employed  to  prepare  plans  for  the  rebuilding  and  con- 
struction of  all  needed  facilities  for  the  ongoing  of  the 
Assembly. 

Pursuant  to  these  and  other  plans,  a  financial  goal  was 
adopted  by  the  bishops  and  Jurisdictional  Council  and 
voted  into  effect  by  the  Annual  Conferences  of  the  Juris- 
diction. As  funds  were  provided,  two  new  ten-room  lodges 
were  built,  eleven  motel-type  units  were  erected,  and  a 
new  modern  cafeteria  designed  to  serve  and  seat  350  per- 
sons came  into  being.  The  Woman's  Building — built  early 
in  the  life  of  the  Assembly  by  the  contributions  of  inter- 
ested women,  and  owned  and  governed  by  them — was 
given  to  the  Assembly  in  1963,  so  that  every  building  on 
the  ground  might  be  owned  by  the  South  Central  Juris- 
diction. Approximately  400  people  can  presently  be 
housed  at  one  time. 

The  grounds  and  buildings  of  the  Mt.  Sequoyah  As- 
sembly are  now  worth  well  over  half  a  million  dollars,  and 
it  provides  an  attractive  meeting  place  for  groups  and 
leaders  in  all  phases  of  Methodist  work.  Attendance  has 
grown  to  4,000  per  year,  and  it  is  expected  that  this  will 
increase  as  more  heated  buildings  are  provided,  so  that 
sessions  may  be  held  in  winter  as  well  as  in  summer. 

A  governing  Board  of  Trustees  for  the  Assembly  meets 
once  each  year.  This  Board  is  composed  of  all  the  bishops 
of  the  Jurisdiction,  a  representative  from  each  Annual 
Conference,  the  Jurisdictional  president  of  the  W.S.C.S. 


MOUNT   UNION   COUECE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


and  the  District  Superintendent  of  the  Fayetteville  Dis- 
trict, as  well  as  the  Superintendent  of  the  Assembly. 

During  the  year  of  1965  a  new  house  was  built,  known 
as  the  Bishops'  Cottage.  This  was  made  possible  through 
the  efforts  of  the  resident  Bishop  of  Arkansas,  Paul  V. 
Galloway.  Contributions  were  made  by  Conferences  and 
by  a  number  of  individuals,  especially  in  Arkansas.  This 
house  is  available  to  any  bishop  and/or  his  family  who 
wants  to  come  to  the  mountain  at  any  time  during  the 
year. 

MOUNT  UNION  COLLEGE,  Alliance,  Ohio,  was  established 
in  1846,  and  tlie  Conservatory  of  Music  (now  the  music 
department)  in  1865.  Scio  College  merged  with  Mount 
Union  in  1911.  The  institution,  which  began  as  coeduca- 
tional, was  one  of  the  first  colleges  in  the  world  to  enroll 
both  men  and  women.  In  addition  to  having  the  patron- 
age of  the  two  Methodist  conferences  in  Ohio,  it  has 
had  the  support  of  the  Pittsburgh  Annual  Conference  since 
1864.  Degrees  offered  are  the  B.A.,  B.S.,  B.M.  (Music), 
B.M.E.  (Music  Education).  The  governing  board  has  fifty 
members,  twelve  elected  by  the  Northeast  Ohio  Confer- 
ence, three  by  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Conference, 
four  by  the  Ohio  Conference,  fifteen  by  the  board,  six 
by  alumni,  six  honorary;  the  three  bishops  and  the  presi- 
dent of  the  college,  ex  officio. 

John  O.  Gross 

MOURNER'S  BENCH,  which  was  also  called  the  "anxious 
bench,"  was  a  term  used  in  camp  meetings  and  early 
revivals  referring  to  a  certain  number  of  benches  directly 
in  front  of  the  speaker's  stand  or  pulpit,  which  were  en- 
closed by  low  rails  on  three  sides  (the  platfoirn  or  pulpit 
forming  the  fourth  side).  Persons  seeking  salvation  were 
invited  to  come  within  the  enclosure  to  kneel  by  or  sit 
on  the  benches  where  they  were  made  objects  of  prayer 
by  the  preacher  and  the  congregation.  Here  they 
"mourned"  for  their  sins  until  they  were  transformed  by 
the  "joy  of  salvation."  Sometimes  the  enclosed  space  was 
referred  to  as  the  "altar"  or,  by  the  irreverent,  as  "the 
pen."  B.  W.  Gorham  in  his  Camp  Meeting  Manual  sug- 
gests that  this  "altar"  or  "mourner's  bench"  "should  be  at 
least  25  feet  square,  with  an  aisle  between  the  benches 
and  with  entries  only  at  the  two  front  corners  by  the 
speaker's  stand."  The  men  were  usually  separated  from 
the  women  in  the  mourner's  benches  of  the  early  camp 
meetings. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  when  or  where  this  arrangement  or 
term  first  originated.  It  seems  to  have  been  used  very 
early  in  the  history  of  camp  meetings,  which  began  around 
1800.  It  was  used  with  dramatic  power,  however,  by  the 
evangelist  Charles  Finney  during  his  revivals  in  Rochester 
and  northern  New  York  1824-27.  He  writes  of  his  work 
in  Rochester,  "I  made  a  call,  I  think  for  the  first  time, 
upon  all  that  class  of  persons  whose  convictions  were  so 
ripe  that  they  v/ere  willing  to  renounce  their  sins  and 
give  themselves  to  God,  to  come  forward  to  certain  seats, 
which  I  requested  to  be  vacated,  while  we  made  them 
subjects  of  prayer."  Under  his  leadership  the  custom  came 
to  be  universally  used  for  a  time  at  revival  meetings  and 
the  term  "anxious  bench"  began  to  displace  the  term 
"mourner's  bench."  The  custom  of  inviting  people  forward 
in  this  way  was  also  referred  to  as  the  "altar  call." 

The  "mourner's  tent"  in  early  camp  meetings  was  an 


outgrowth  of  the  mourner's  bench.  It  was  a  tent  on  the 
grounds  provided  for  the  same  purpose  as  the  bench.  It 
was  kept  lighted  all  night  so  that  at  any  hour  of  the  day 
or  night  the  "mourners"  or  "anxious  ones"  might  come  in 
for  prayer.  A  curtain  was  hung  to  separate  the  men  from 
the  women. 

See:  W.  F.  P.  Noble,  A  Century  of  Gospel  Work,  Philadelphia: 
H.  C.  Watts  &  Co.,  1876,  p.  361,  where  the  above  quotation 
from  Finney  can  be  found; 

R.  Weiser,  The  Mourner's  Bench,  or  an  humble  Attempt  to 
Vindicate    New    Measures    (Bedford    about    1844),    pp.    1-4; 

B.  W.  Gorham,  Camp  Meeting  Manual  .  .  .  Boston:  H.  V. 
Degen,  1854; 

C.  A.  Johnson,  The  Frontier  Camp  Meeting  .  .  .  Dallas:  South- 
em  Methodist  University  Press,  1955.    Frederick  E.  Maser 

MOUZON,  EDWIN  DU  BOSE  (1869-1937),  American 
bishop,  was  born  in  Spartanburg,  S.  C,  May  19,  1869.  His 
parents,  Samuel  Cogswell  and  Harriet  Peurefoy  Mouzon, 
were  descendants  of  devout  Huguenot  families,  colonial 
day  settlers. 

All  of  his  formal  education  was  received  in  the  pubRc 
schools  of  Spartanburg,  and  in  Woffobd  College,  where 
he  received  the  A.B.  degree  in  1889.  From  early  youth 
to  the  end  of  his  life,  he  was  an  assiduous  student. 

In  1888  he  was  licensed  to  preach,  and  became  the 
fourth  minister  in  his  family  for  four  successive  genera- 
tions. After  graduating  from  college,  he  was  appointed 
supply  preacher  in  Bryan,  Texas.  In  1890  he  was  married 
to  Mary  Elizabeth  Mike.  There  were  three  daughters  and 
three  sons.  The  sons  have  attained  distinction  as  univer- 
sity teachers  and  authors. 

From  1889  to  1908,  Mouzon  served  pastorates  in 
Texas,  with  an  interim  of  three  years  in  Kansas  City, 
Mo.  In  1908  he  left  the  largest  church  in  the  then  West 
Texas  Conference,  Travis  Park  in  San  Antonio,  taking 
a  greatly  reduced  salary,  to  organize  a  theological  depart- 
ment at  SouTwwEsTERN  UNIVERSITY,  in  Order  to  help  pre- 
pare better  ministers.  After  he  was  elected  bishop  in  1910, 
he  gave  vigorous  leadership  in  helping  to  establish  South- 
ern Methodist  University  in  Dallas,  Texas.  His 
embryo  professorship  of  theology  at  Southwestern  Univer- 
sity, where  he  taught  Bible,  systematic  theology  and 
homiletics,  was  transferred  to  Southern  Methodist  Univer- 
sity, in  1915.  He  became  the  acting  dean  and  organizer  of 
what  is  now  Perkins  School  of  Theology. 

Bishop  Mouzon  presided  over  most  of  the  annual  con- 
ferences of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  from  1910  to  1937. 
In  1930  he  presided  over  the  organization  of  the  Brazil 
Methodist  Church,  and  turned  the  General  Conference 
there  over  to  the  native  officials.  He  also  held  the  Japa- 
nese, the  Korean  and  the  Cuban  Conferences. 

As  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Missions  and  also  of  the 
board  of  trustees  of  Scarritt  College  for  Christian 
Workers,  Mouzon  was  influential  in  the  transfer  of  that 
institution  from  Kansas  City  to  Nashville,  Tenn.  From 
1911  to  1931  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  decennial  Ecu- 
menical Methodist  Conferences.  In  1931  he  spoke  to 
this  body  on  "The  Basis  of  Confidence  in  Christian  Think- 
ing." He  delivered  the  Episcopal  Address  at  the  1930 
General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  when 
"fundamentalism"  and  union  with  the  two  other  American 
Methodist  Churches  were  featured  in  this  address. 

He  was  a  versatile  minister.  One  of  his  contemporaries 
called  him  "the  preacher  to  his  generation."  Another  de- 
clared that  "the  pulpit  was  his  throne."  In  1929  he  gave 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MOZAMBIQUE 


the  Yale  University  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  on  Preach- 
ing. His  title  was  "Preaching  with  Authority."  His  Fon- 
DREN  Lectures  at  Southern  Methodist  University  were 
"The  Missionary  Evangel,"  and  his  Cole  Lectures  at  Van- 
DERBILT  University  were  on  "The  Program  of  Jesus."  In 
these  last  two  lecture  treatises,  delivered  the  same  year, 
he  emphasized  the  unity  of  the  personal  and  the  social 
aspects  of  the  gospel.  In  1918,  following  a  series  of  four 
deaths  in  his  family,  including  his  wife,  he  published  Does 
God  Care?  as  his  theology  of  suflFering.  In  the  midst  of  the 
"fundamentalist"  discussions  in  1924,  he  wrote  The  Fun- 
damentals of  Methodism.  There  were  many  articles  in 
periodicals  from  his  pen,  as  specific  issues  arose.  Four 
universities  bestowed  honorary  degrees  on  him. 

As  a  conference  presiding  officer.  Bishop  John  M. 
Moore  said  of  Bishop  Mouzon  that  he  had  three  admira- 
ble qualities:  "(1)  He  was  never  hasty  in  making  deci- 
sions; (2)  he  was  sensitive  to  the  needs  of  his  ministers; 
(3)  he  never  uttered  a  bitter  word  towards  those  who 
differed  with  him." 

Bishop  Mouzon  was  chairman  of  the  Methodist  Com- 
mittee on  Unification  when  the  first  plan  was  rejected. 
He  wrote  to  Bishop  Earl  Cranston  of  the  M.  E,  Church, 
Jan.  20,  1925,  "We  will  not  stop.  The  unification  of  our 
two  churches  must  be.  The  men  who  are  vociferous  today 
cannot  speak  the  word  tomorrow.  There  is  a  higher  voice 
that  brings  peace  to  troubled  waters.  So  long  as  I  live 
I  shall  plead  this  cause." 

Bishop  Mouzon  died  suddenly  on  Feb.  10,  1937,  of  a 
heart  attack  in  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  where  he  then  resided 
in  charge  of  the  Charlotte  Area.  He  was  buried  in  Dallas, 
Texas. 

Journals  of  General  Conference,  MES,  1910-38. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Nashville  Christian  Advocate,  March  12,  1937;  Feb.  26,  1939. 

Edwin  R.  Spann,  "Biography  of  Edwin  D.  Mouzon."  Unpub. 

thesis,   Duke    University.  J.    Richard    Spann 

MOW  COP  is  the  summit  of  a  ridge  a  thousand  feet  high 
bordering  the  counties  of  Cheshire  and  Staffordshire,  En- 
gland, where  the  first  Primitfve  Methodist  camp  meet- 
ing was  held  on  May  31,  1807. 

The  name,  formerly  written  "Mole,"  may  be  the  slightly 
disguised  "meol"  or  "mel"  meaning  a  bare,  chalk  hill. 
More  probably  however,  the  name  is  derived  from  Anglo- 
Saxon  "mow"  meaning  "stack"  or  "heap,"  "cop"  being  the 
word  for  summit  or  top.  An  artificial  tower,  erected  in 
1754  as  a  landmark,  crowns  the  hill. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

MOZAMBIQUE  is  a  province  of  Portugal  in  southeast 
Africa,  the  name  applying  to  all  of  Portuguese  East  Africa. 
It  is  a  large  irregularly  shaped  region  extending  for  1,600 
miles  along  the  coast  between  Tanganyika  and  Natal 
(South  Africa).  The  area  is  297,659  square  miles,  and 
the  population  is  7,376,000.  The  capital  is  Lourenco 
Marques. 

The  European  history  of  Mozambique  began  in  1498 
when  Vasco  da  Gama  discovered  the  mouth  of  the  Zam- 
besi River.  Portuguese  colonization  followed  in  1505  at 
Sofala  where  there  was  a  flourishing  trade  in  gold  and 
slaves.  HostiUties  immediately  broke  out  with  the  Arabs 
who  for  centuries  had  dominated  the  coast  southward  to 
Sofala. 


During  the  third  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century 
Portuguese  traders  and  explorers  strove  to  establish  an 
east-west  corridor  from  Mozambique  to  Angola  on  the 
Atlantic.  This  was  frustrated  by  Cecil  Rhodes  in  bringing 
the  central  area  under  British  control. 

In  the  late  1870's,  Ndevu  Mashaba,  a  native  of  Lou- 
renco Marques,  was  converted  in  the  British  Wesleyan 
Mission  while  he  worked  in  the  mines  in  South  Africa.  He 
studied  at  the  Lovedale  Training  Institute  of  the  Free 
church  of  Scotland  Mission.  Returning  to  Mozambique 
in  1885,  Mashaba  established  a  school  at  Komatipoort 
close  to  the  Transvaal  border  west  of  Lourenco  Marques. 
Several  congregations  were  formed.  Working  in  the  Tonga 
dialect,  he  prepared  a  Tonga-English  vocabulary,  several 
school  readers,  a  hymnbook,  and  parts  of  Scripture. 

George  Weavind  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Mission  at 
Pretoria,  Transvaal,  superintended  Mashaba's  activity, 
occasionally  visiting  the  area.  The  work  grew,  despite 
difficulties  with  government  and  Mashaba's  imprisonment 
for  a  time  on  false  charges.  By  1893  a  chapel  stood  beside 
the  school  and  the  membership  was  200,  with  four  local 
preachers.  In  1904  there  were  850  members  and  other 
hundreds  on  probation.  H.  L.  Bishop  of  the  Wesleyan 
Mission  was  appointed  in  1906  to  reside  on  the  circuit, 
extending  from  the  Limpopo  River  to  the  Transvaal 
border.  Agreement  was  reached  with  the  adjacent  mission 
of  the  M.  E.  Church  that  the  Limpopo  River  should  be 
their  common  boundary.  The  membership  grew  to  1,500, 
with  a  community  of  5,000. 

The  American  Board  (Congregational)  had  entered 
Mozambique  in  1881,  but  by  the  end  of  the  decade  de- 
cided to  concentrate  elsewhere.  Bishop  William  Taylor 
of  the  M.  E.  Church  found  the  situation  ready-made  for 
his  "self-supporting  missions."  During  1888  to  1890  he 
secured  the  American  Board  stations  at  Chicuque 
(Gikuki)  overlooking  Inhambane  Bay,  and  Cambine 
(Kambini)  twenty  miles  northwest.  E.  H.  Richards,  for- 
merly of  the  American  Board,  remained  in  charge.  The 
work  progressed  under  Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell  who  fol- 
lowed Taylor.  The  Hartzell  School  at  Chicuque  and  the 
Leprosarium  and  hospitals  there  and  at  Cambine  are 
notable. 

Growing  from  a  District  in  the  Congo  Mission  (1888), 
this  work  emerged  as  the  Southeast  Africa  Mission  Con- 
ference (1920),  and  the  Southeast  Africa  Annual  Confer- 
ence ( 1954 ) ,  with  seven  districts,  fifty-three  circuits,  787 
places  of  worship,  6,100  members  and  25,000  in  constitu- 
ency. Forty-six  African  members  of  Conference  and 
thirty-one  supplies  with  twenty-three  members  on  trial 
constituted  the  native  ministry  as  of  1968. 

Cooperative  work  with  other  missions  appears  in  the 
Christian  Center  at  Lourenco  Marques,  the  Center  at 
Beira,  one  of  the  port  cities,  and  the  Union  Theological 
School  at  Ricatla.  At  Johannesburg,  Transvaal,  a  strong 
evangelistic  work  is  conducted  among  the  Mozambique 
men  working  in  the  mines.  The  Methodist  Central  Mis- 
sion Press  moved  from  Cambine  to  Johannesburg  in  1924, 
serves  several  missions  of  southeast  Africa. 

Free  Methodist  Church.  G.  Henry  Agnew,  pioneer  mis- 
sionary of  the  Free  Methodist  Church,  reached  Inham- 
bane in  1885.  With  the  help  of  E.  H.  Richards  of  the 
American  Board,  property  was  secured  at  Mabile  on  In- 
hambane Bay.  Agnew  served  in  Mozambique  for  eighteen 
years,  and  then  in  Transvaal  and  Natal.  This  station  was 
eventually  moved  southward  to  Inhamachafo,  a  short  dis- 
tance inland  from  Inharrime.  The  station  had  a  farm  of 


MUOCE,   ENOCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


825  acres,  with  extensive  agricultural  and  industrial  train- 
ing facilities,  a  school  for  pastors,  dispensary,  girls'  school, 
missionary  residences.  Christian  native  village  and  central 
church.  The  northern  center  is  at  Nhaloi,  140  miles  above 
Inhamachafo,  occupying  an  old  plantation.  A  new  hospital 
stands  there.  Intensive  work  developed  through  the  region 
between  Massinga  and  the  Rhodesia  boundary.  With  this 
territory  as  his  base,  Ralph  Jacobs  pushed  into  Southern 
Rhodesia  in  1938-39.  The  1969  report  indicated  the  Free 
Methodist  membership  as  7,500,  although  some  bush  cir- 
cuits were  unreported.  Cooperation  exists  with  The  United 
Methodist  Church  in  the  training  of  nurses  and  medical 
technicians. 

Findlay  and  Holdsworth,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Soc.  1921-24. 
Free  Methodist  World  Missions,  1962  Report. 
B.  S.  Lamson,  Free  Methodist  Missions.  1951. 
Project  Handbook,  Overseas  Missions,  1969. 
World  Methodist  Council,  Handbook.    Arthur  Bruce  Moss 

BvRON  S.  Lamson 

MUDGE,  ENOCH  (1776-1850),  American  minister,  was 
bom  at  Lynn,  Mass.,  on  June  28,  1776,  and  became  an 
itinerant  minister  in  1793.  From  that  date  until  1799 
he  traveled  on  various  appointments  in  Maine  until  the 
hardship  of  travel  affected  his  health,  and  he  settled  in 
Orrington,  Maine,  from  1799  to  1816.  During  this  period 
he  was  twice  chosen  State  Representative,  and  was  active 
in  the  passage  of  the  "Religious  Freedom  Bill."  Having 
resumed  the  itinerancy  in  1816,  he  was  stationed  at  Bos- 
ton, Lynn,  Portsmouth,  Newport  and  other  New  England 
appointments.  From  1832  until  his  retirement  from  active 
life  in  1844,  he  was  pastor  of  the  Seaman's  Chapel  at  New 
Bedford. 

Enoch  Mudge  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  1819.  He  wrote  Camp-Meeting  Hymn-Book, 
1818;  Notes  on  the  Parables,  1828;  a  poem,  Lynn,  1830; 
and  published  his  Lectures  to  Seamen  in  1836.  He  died  on 
April  2,  1850. 

Americana  Encyclopedia,  The,  Vol.  19,  New  York:   American 

Book-Stratford  Press,  Inc.,  1950. 

M.   Simpson,   Cyclopaedia.   1878.  N.  B.  H. 

MUDGE,  JAMES  (1844-1918),  American  minister  and 
author,  was  bom  in  West  Springfield,  Mass.,  on  April  5, 
1844.  His  great-grandfather,  Enoch  MtnjcE,  was  the  first 
member,  class  leader,  steward  and  local  preacher 
in  the  Methodist  Society  of  Lynn,  Mass.  His  grandfather, 
James  Mudge,  was  the  first  itinerant  preacher  raised  on 
New  England  soil;  his  father  James  was  also  a  Methodist 
minister. 

He  was  received  into  the  membership  of  the  Lynn 
Common  Church  on  his  thirteenth  birthday.  He  studied 
at  Lynn  High  School,  Wesleyan  University,  and  Boston 
University  School  of  Theology.  In  1868  he  joined  the 
New  England  Conference  on  trial  and  two  years  later 
was  received  into  full  connection.  During  the  course  of 
his  ministry  he  served  ten  churches.  From  1878  to  1883 
he  served  as  a  missionary  to  India;  from  1908  to  1912 
he  was  editor  of  Zion's  Herald.  He  was  secretary  of  the 
New  England  Conference  for  thirty  sessions — from  1889 
through  1918.  He  was  also  the  author  of  books  dealing 
with  Methodism,  notably:  History  of  the  New  England 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  1796- 
1910;  The  Doctrines  of  God's  Holy  Word  as  Held  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church;  and  Handbook  of  Method- 


ism. He  compiled  several  religious  anthologies,  including; 
Honey  From  Many  Hives;  Poems  With  Power  to  Strength- 
en The  Soul,  and  Spiritual  Songs. 

In  1913  Mudge  retired  from  active  ministry.  He  died 
on  May  7,  1918,  leaving  a  son  and  two  daughters.  Minutes 
of  the  New  England  Conference,  1917,  1919. 

Ernest  R.  Case 

MUELDER,  WALTER  GEORGE  (1907-  ),  American 
author  and  Dean  of  Boston  University  School  of 
Theology,  was  bom  at  Boody,  III.,  March  1,  1907,  son  of 
Epke  Hermann  and  Minnie  (Horlitz)  Muelder. 

He  was  graduated  with  the  B.S.  degree  from  Knox 
College  in  1927;  S.T.B.,  Boston  University,  1930;  Ph.D., 
1933;  D.H.L.,  West  Virginia  Wesleyan  College,  1960; 
L.H.D.,  Claflin  University,  1963. 

He  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  Chicago  Northwest 
Conference  in  1928,  received  in  full  connection  and  or- 
dained elder  in  1931.  He  was  a  professor  at  Berea  College, 
1934-40;  professor  of  Christian  Theology  and  Christian 
Ethics,  University  of  Southern  Califomia,  1940-45;  and 
since  1945  he  has  been  professor  of  Social  Ethics  and 
dean  of  Boston  University  School  of  Theology. 

He  was  a  consultant  at  the  Second  Assembly  of  the 
World  Council  of  Churches,  Evanston,  III.,  1954; 
delegate  to  the  Third  Assembly,  New  Delhi,  India,  1961; 
delegate.  World  Conference  on  Faith  and  Order,  Lund, 
Sweden,  1952;  North  American  Conference,  Oberlin, 
Ohio,  1957;  World  Conference,  Montreal,  Quebec,  1963; 
Protestant  Observer,  Second  Vatican  Council,  1964;  chair- 
man. Commission  on  Institutionalism,  Department  of  Faith 
and  Order,  World  Council  of  Churches,  1955-61;  chair- 
man of  the  Board  of  the  Ecumenical  Institute,  1961-68; 
and  delegate  to  the  Fourth  Assembly,  World  Council  of 
Churches,  Uppsala,  1968.  He  was  Lowell  Lecturer,  1951, 
and  lecturer,  Boston  University,  1954. 

His  membership  in  various  organizations  includes: 
American  Association  of  Theological  Schools,  Association 
of  United  Methodist  Theological  Schools,  American  Theo- 
logical Society,  National  Council  of  Churches  (Divi- 
sion of  Christian  Life  and  Work),  Massachusetts  Coimcil 
of  Churches,  Massachusetts  Civil  Liberties  Union,  Fellow, 
American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

He  is  the  author  (with  E.  S.  Brightman)  of  the  His- 
torical Outline  of  the  Bible,  1936;  (with  L.  Sears  and 
A.  V.  Schlabach)  The  Development  of  American  Philos- 
ophy, 1940,  revised  1960;  Beligion  and  Economic  Re- 
sponsibility, 1953;  In  Every  Place  a  Voice,  1957;  Founda- 
tions of  the  Responsible  Society,  1959;  Methodism  and 
Society  in  the  Twentieth  Century,  1961;  (with  N.  Ehren- 
strom)  Institutionalism  and  Christian  Unity,  1963;  Moral 
Law  in  Christian  Social  Ethics,  1966. 

On  June  28,  1934  he  was  married  to  Martha  Grotewohl. 
Their  children  are:  Sonja  Jane  (Mrs.  Paul  Devitt),  Helga 
Louise  (Mrs.  Kenneth  Wells),  Linda  Ruth  (Mrs.  William 
Schell). 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  J.  Marvin  Rast 

MUELLER,  CHRISTOPH  GOTTLOB  (1785-1858),  was  the 
founder  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  in  Germany.  He  emi- 
grated to  England  in  1806  to  escape  conscription  under 
Napoleon,  and  was  converted  in  London  under  Methodist 
preaching.    He   became    exhorter,    class    leader,    and 


WORLD  METHODISM 


MUMMART,   CURENCE   ALLEN 


CIRCUIT  LEADER,  and  CIRCUIT  STEWARD.  He  married  Anne 
Claridge  of  Finchley  in  1813.  In  that  same  year  he  visited 
his  aged  father  in  Winnenden  (Kingdom  of  Wiirttem- 
berg,  Germany),  and  in  a  Moravian  meeting  in  his 
father's  house  he  gave  a  testimony  of  his  experience  of 
personal  salvation  through  faith  in  Christ.  As  it  was  the 
time  of  rationalism  and  liberalism  in  European  thought, 
this  message  was  entirely  new  for  many  people  in  Ger- 
many. A  revival  started,  and  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Missionary  Society  (London)  was  asked  by  the  new 
converts  to  send  a  minister.  The  London  committee  hesi- 
tated but  finally  acceded  and  sent  Mueller  to  work  as  lay 
missionary  (1831).  He  regarded  his  meetings  in  and 
around  Winnenden  as  religious  societies  within  the 
Lutheran  State  Church.  Still  he  could  not  avoid  troubles 
and  persecutions.  He  was  partly  supported  by  the  London 
committee  (seventy  pounds  a  year)  and  partly  earned  his 
living  as  a  farmer.  Year  by  year  during  the  winter  Muel- 
ler went  on  big  preaching  tours  through  Wiirttemberg, 
like  Wesley  riding  on  horseback  or  walking.  At  his  death 
in  1858  the  Methodist  returns  for  that  year  showed  fifty- 
seven  preaching  places,  thirty-four  class  leaders  and  ex- 
horters,  and  1,040  members.  Ludwig  S.  Jacoby,  super- 
intendent of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Germany 
and  John  C.  Link,  pioneer  of  the  Evangelistic  Gemein- 
SCHAFT  in  Gennany,  E.U.B.  since  1851,  belonged  among 
his  friends. 

P.  N.  Garber,  Continental  Europe.  1949. 

J.  W.  E.  Sommer,  Christoph  Gottlob  Mueller  von  Winnenden. 

Bremen:  Verlag  des  Traktathauses,  n.d.         Lxniwic  F.  Rott 


Reuben  H.  Mueller 

MUELLER,  REUBEN  HERBERT  (1897-  ),  American 
E.U.B.  minister,  general  church  ofiBcer,  and  bishop,  was 
bom  in  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  June  2,  1897,  the  son  of  Reinhold 
Michael  and  Emma  (Bunse)  Mueller.  Seminary  and  col- 
lege trained,  he  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1916  by  the 
Evangelical  Association,  ordained  deacon  in  1922, 
and  elder  in  1924.  Pastorates  were  served  in  Minnesota 


and  Indiana  before  he  became  a  district  superintendent 
in  1937.  In  1943,  R.  H.  Mueller  was  chosen  executive 
secretary  of  the  Board  of  Christian  Education,  The  Evan- 
gelical Church,  and  later  of  the  E.U.B.  Church,  and 
in  1954  he  was  elected  bishop. 

Mueller  was  married  to  Magdalene  Stauffacher,  Dec. 
26,  1919.  A  daughter,  Margaret  (Mrs.  Armin  C.  Hoesch, 
missionary  to  Nigeria  for  thirteen  years),  was  bom  to  this 
union. 

In  addition  to  many  denominational  offices,  Bishop 
Mueller  has  served  as  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Managers 
of  the  World  Council  of  Christian  Education;  president  of 
the  National  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ;  member 
of  World  Council  of  Churches  Assembly  and  its  Cen- 
tral Committee;  chairman  of  Board  of  Bishops  (EUB); 
chairman  of  Commission  on  Church  Union  (EUB);  re- 
cipient of  The  Upper  Room  Citation  and  the  Distin- 
guished Alumni  Award,  North  Central  College,-  and 
honorary  degrees  from  Westmar  College  (D.D.),  North 
Central  College  (LL.D.),  Indiana  Central  College 
(L.H.D.),  Union  Theological  Seminary,  Tokyo  (D.D.), 
Indiana  University  (LL.D.),  Otterbein  College 
(S.T.D.),  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  (L.H.D.),  and 
West  Virginia  Wesleyan  University  (D.D). 

Bishop  Mueller  has  written  numerous  articles  and  books, 
the  latest  two  being  His  Church  and  The  Living  Word. 
In  The  United  Methodist  Church  he  was  assigned  to  the 
Induna  Area  in  1968  and  became  president  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Bishops  in  1969,  for  a  period  of  one  term. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

MUKERJEE,    H.    L.    (   ?     -1931),    and    NOLfN    KUMAR 

(  ?  -1943),  of  India,  were  father  and  son,  who  led 
unusual  careers.  H.  L.  Mukerjee  was  a  Bengali  Brahman, 
who  was  converted  and  radically  changed.  He  married  a 
daughter  of  Joel  Thomas  Janvier,  first  Indian  minister 
of  the  M.E.  Church,  and  entered  the  ministry.  In  1885, 
Mukerjee  became  an  instructor  in  Bareilly  Theological 
Seminary,  and  served  on  its  faculty  for  thirty-eight  years. 
He  deeply  influenced  an  entire  generation  of  seminary 
students.  He  died  Jan.  6,  1931,  and  was  buried  in  Bareilly. 

Nolin  Kumar,  his  elder  son,  became  a  leading  educator 
of  the  United  Provinces  and  principal  of  the  Government 
Teacher  Training  College  at  Lucknow.  He  was  later 
deputized  by  the  government  to  organize  and  direct  the 
teacher-training  college  at  the  Muslim  University,  Aligarh. 

Nolin  Kumar  Mukerjee  was  a  member  of  two  General 
Conferences  of  the  M.E.  Church  and  a  popular  and  ef- 
fective local  preacher.  He  died  in  Indore  in  1943,  and 
is  buried  there. 


J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956. 
J.  E.  Scott,  Southern  Asia.  1906. 


J.  Waskom  Pickett 


MUMMART,  CLARENCE  ALLEN  (1874-1959),  American 
United  Brethren  in  Christ  (Old  Constitution)  bishop  and 
educator,  was  bom  of  German  ancestry,  July  14,  1874 
near  Welsh  Run,  Franklin  County,  Pa.  Home  conditions 
were  such  that  as  a  boy  of  nine  or  ten  he  was  hired  out  to 
work  on  a  farm.  Schools  were  of  a  low  standard  and  an 
education  was  considered  unnecessary.  By  the  age  of 
seventeen  his  education  was  very  limited,  but  he  resolved 
that  he  would  be  ready  to  teach  school  by  the  time  he  was 
twenty.  He  received  his  first  contract  on  his  twentieth 


MUMPOWER,    DANIEL   LEEPER 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


birthday  and  taught  public  school  for  six  years.  He  was 
graduated  from  Huntington  College  with  the  A.B.  (1907) 
and  the  B.D.  (1908).  He  received  the  S.T.M.  from 
Northwestern  University  in  1925.  The  honorary  D.D. 
was  bestowed  by  Huntington  College  in  1912. 

In  his  early  life  he  had  been  associated  with  the  United 
Brethren  Church.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  working 
on  a  farm  near  Fairview,  Md.,  and  living  with  a  Lutheran 
family.  He  made  his  confession  of  faith  and  affiliated  with 
the  Lutheran  Church.  When  he  felt  called  to  the  ministry 
he  was  aware  of  the  Lutheran  demand  for  an  educated 
ministry,  which  came  into  conflict  with  his  early  training. 
He  returned  to  the  United  Brethren  Church  and  entered 
the  gospel  ministry  in  the  Pennsylvania  Conference  where 
he  was  a  member  for  nearly  sixty-four  years. 

He  was  married  to  a  United  Brethren  girl,  Lillie  Zim- 
merman, and  was  the  father  of  four  children,  one  son 
dying  in  infancy.  The  other  son  and  two  daughters  have 
been  engaged  in  educational  work. 

Mummart  served  as  a  pastor  for  a  total  of  thirty-two 
years  in  Pennsylvania,  Indiana  and  Ohio.  He  was  con- 
ference presiding  elder  for  five  years.  He  served  as  the 
first  general  secretary  of  tlie  United  Brethren  Christian 
Endeavor.  He  also  was  editor  of  the  Christian  Conservator 
for  five  years  on  two  different  occasions.  He  served  as 
bishop  two  different  terms  for  a  total  of  eight  years.  His 
educational  ser\'ice  to  the  church  was  as  head  of  and  pro- 
fessor in  the  theological  department  of  Huntington  Col- 
lege for  seventeen  years,  during  which  time  he  also  served 
as  president  for  ten  years  on  two  different  occasions. 

He  was  an  able  executive  and  was  always  interested  in 
the  best  interests  of  the  church.  He  had  abounding  energy 
and  frequently  served  the  church  in  a  dual  role.  Because 
of  his  early  background  he  was  sympathetic  to  those  who 
served  in  the  midst  of  hardships. 

His  death  occurred  at  Greencastle,  Pa.,  on  Dec.  2,  1959. 
Burial  was  in  the  cemetery  adjoining  the  Macedonia 
Church  near  Greencastle. 


Contact,  July  2,  1967. 

United  Brethren,  Dec.  16,  30,  1959. 


J.  Ralph  Pfisteb 


D.  L.  MuMPOWER 


MUMPOWER,  DANIEL  LEEPER  (1882-  ),  a  medical 
missionary  to  the  Congo  and  one  of  the  pioneers  in  that 
field  for  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  was  born  at  Fayette, 


Mo.,  on  Oct.  22,  1882,  the  son  of  Thomas  Gray  and 
.Mollie  Leeper  Mumpower.  He  received  the  B.A.  degree 
from  Central  College  (Fayette,  Mo.)  in  1902;  and 
M.A.  from  Yale  in  1903;  and  an  M.D.  from  Vander- 
bilt  in  1912.  He  resided  in  Doniphan,  Mo.,  from  1903-08, 
teaching  and  working  in  a  drugstore  to  get  a  pharmacist's 
license  in  order  to  work  his  way  through  Vanderbilt.  He 
and  his  wife,  Edith,  were  married  in  1911,  and  three 
children  were  bom  to  them. 

Dr.  Mumpower  went  to  the  Congo  in  1913  under  the 
Board  of  Missions  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  He  was 
appointed  superintendent  of  the  mission  there  by  Bishop 
Walter  Lambuth  even  before  he  left  the  United  States, 
and  was  stationed  at  Wembo  Nyama  the  whole  time  he 
was  in  Africa.  In  1920  he  arranged  for  the  building  of  a 
mission  boat,  named  the  "Texas,"  since  Texans  gave  the 
funds  for  this  river  steamer. 

Dr.  Mumpower  returned  to  the  United  States  in  1922 
because  of  the  illness  of  his  wife  and  settled  in  Nashville 
in  1923  where  he  continued  for  a  time  his  connection  with 
the  Board  of  Missions  of  his  Church,  or  until  1932.  He 
then  went  back  into  the  practice  of  medicine.  Illness 
forced  him  to  retire  on  Aug.  1,  1965,  and  he  had  to  be 
hospitalized  there  at  the  age  of  eighty-five. 

Bishop  Walter  Lambuth,  writing  in  the  Dec.  28,  1917, 
issue  of  the  Christian  Advocate  (Nashville),  said  of  Mum- 
power, "The  doctor  is  the  same  calm,  sensible,  earnest 
fellow.  .  .  .  Dr.  Mumpower  has  just  put  through  the  press 
at  Luebo  a  new  edition  for  a  school  book  in  the  Batetela 
language,  and  I  find  him  at  work  translating  the  gospel  of 
Matthew.  .  .  .  naturally.  Dr.  Mumpower's  medical  work 
has  been  limited  because  of  great  pressure  of  other  duties 
and  the  absence  of  a  trained  nurse."  With  other  pioneer 
missionaries,  D.  L.  Mumpower  left  the  mark  of  great 
accomplishment  in  the  heart  of  the  Congo. 

Bulletin,  Inglewood  Metliodist  Church,  Homecoming  Welcome 

Issue,  Nov.  29,  1964. 

Christian  Advocate  (Nashville),  Dec.  28,  1917. 

The  Epworth  Era,  January-April,   1915.  N.  B.  H. 

MUNCIE,  INDIANA,  U.S.A.  High  Street  Church  heard 
its  first  Methodist  sermon  in  1829  delivered  by  Charles 
Downey,  a  circuit  rider.  In  1836  the  first  Methodist  soci- 
ety was  organized,  becoming  a  part  of  the  Munceytown 
Circuit  with  preaching  in  the  homes.  The  members  of  the 
first  class  were:  Eli  C.  Green,  leader;  Mary  Green,  Hannali 
Watton,  John  and  Eleanor  Smith,  Samuel  W.  and  Juliette 
Harlan,  and  Matilda,  John,  and  Camelia  Beeks. 

On  Aug.  18,  1838,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Goldsmith  C.  Gilbert 
gave  tlie  Methodist  church  a  building  site.  The  first  church 
building  was  erected  in  1839,  costing  $450.  In  1851  the 
membership  had  grown  to  more  than  200.  A  new  two- 
story  brick  church  was  built  in  1856  and  that  fall  the 
annual  conference  met  there.  The  edifice  cost  $4,467  and 
Bishop  Ames  dedicated  it  on  July  20,  1857. 

The  discovery  of  natural  gas  in  Muncie  in  the  fall  of 
1886  resulted  in  an  industrial  boom  which  brought  many 
Methodists  to  the  town.  A  revival  in  the  winter  of  1886- 
87  added  about  300  new  members.  A  new  church  site 
was  purchased  on  High  Street  and  Adams.  The  new 
church  was  named  High  Street.  It  was  built  under  the 
pastoral  leadership  of  C.  U.  Wade  (father  of  Bishop  R.  J. 
Wade),  1886-91,  made  of  red  brick  with  sandstone  trim- 
ming, and  costing  $40,000.  C.  H.  Payne,  former  president 
of  Ohio  Wesleyan,  dedicated  the  church  on  June  2,  1889. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MUNSEY,   WILLIAM   ELBERT 


High  Street  Church  promoted  the  spread  of  Methodism 
in  Muncie.  Wade  organized  Avondale  Church  in  1891, 
and  it  was  dedicated  Nov.  8,  1891,  with  High  Street's 
assistant  pastor,  George  A.  Wilson,  in  charge. 

During  the  pastorate  of  L.  U.  Naftzger,  1897-1900, 
Fred  B.  Fisher,  then  a  high  school  student,  later  a  dis- 
tinguished Methodist  bishop,  was  converted.  In  1938  one- 
third  of  the  ashes  of  Bishop  Fisher  were  sealed  in  a  niche 
prepared  for  them  in  the  wall  of  the  new  sanctuary  near 
the  pulpit  he  had  occupied  on  various  occasions. 

H.  D.  Ketcham,  a  brother-in-law  of  Bishop  William 
Anderson,  was  pastor  of  High  Street  from  1921  to  1924. 
High  Street's  growing  congregation  in  time  needed  a  new 
sanctuary.  Claude  H.  King,  pastor,  1925-34,  served  during 
the  construction  of  the  new  church.  At  the  request  of  the 
church  and  with  his  consent,  King  was  sent  to  Europe  to 
study  church  architecture.  The  new  church  was  to  be 
Gothic,  made  of  Briar  Hill  sandstone,  with  imported  glass 
windows.  This  sanctuary,  a  thing  of  beauty,  was  dedicated 
Oct.  5,  1930,  and  cost  approximately  $400,000.  However, 
the  coming  of  the  depression  delayed  the  payment  of  a 
$220,000  debt  until  March  1,  1948.  This  amount  was  paid 
during  the  pastorate  of  A.  Wesley  Pugh,  1937-49.  On 
Oct.  10,  1948,  the  church  was  rededicated  by  Bishop 
Richard  Raines  and  the  mortgage  was  burned. 

In  1970  the  High  Street  Church  was  valued  at  almost 
$2,000,000,  and  had  2,158  members. 


General   Minutes. 


Jesse   A.   Eabl 


MUNHALL,  LEANDER  WHITCOMB  (1843-1934),  Amer- 
ican soldier,  evangelist,  and  conservative  editor,  was  born 
June  7,  1843,  at  Zanesville,  Ohio,  the  son  of  David  and 
Abigail  (Rice)  Munhall.  He  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  and  the  University  of  Chattanooga,  Tennessee, 
A.M.  In  August  1862,  he  enlisted  in  Company  C,  79th 
Indiana  Infantry.  Promoted  to  major  and  adjutant  of  the 
regiment,  he  took  part  in  over  a  score  engagements  of  the 
Civil  War,  mustering  out  June  7,  1865. 

While  a  local  deacon  in  the  Philadelphia  Conference, 
he  became  an  evangelist.  Beginning  in  1874,  he  preached 
for  more  than  fifty  years.  Munhall  carried  on  evangelistic 
campaigns  in  cities  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  He 
preached  to  Panama  Canal  workers  for  two  months.  He 
was  elected  to  six  General  Conferences  of  his  Church  from 
1904  to  1928.  He  wrote  these  books:  Lord's  Return  and 
Kindred  Truth;  Higher  Criticism  vs.  Higher  Critics;  Anti- 
Higher  Criticism,  or  Testimony  to  the  Infallibility  of  the 
Bible;  Breakers,  Methodism  Adrift;  A  Convert  and  His 
Relations.  Munhall  also  edited  Word  and  Work  for  three 
years,  besides  pamphlets  and  tracts. 

A  Methodist  bishop  said  of  Munhall;  "He  was  a  very 
conservative  Methodist  editor  who  was  anathema  to  the 
main  leadership  of  the  Church  whom  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  criticize  for  their  liberal  ideas,  especially  the  theologians 
whom  he  thought  were  leading  the  Church  astray." 

Munhall  married  Mary  E.  Thomas,  Sept.  21,  1871,  and 
diey  were  the  parents  of  five  children.  For  many  years 
Munhall's  home  was  in  Germantown,  Philadelphia.  He 
died  Jan.  7,  1934. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 
Who  Was  Who  in  America.  Jesse  A.   Earl 

MUNICH,  Germany,  the  historic  capital  of  Bavaria  and 
one  of  the  famous  and  influential  cities  of  Central  Europe, 


had  a  1968  population  of  1,300,000.  In  1873  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Missionary  Society  in  London  appointed  the 
first  minister,  P.  Beutenmueller,  to  Munich.  At  that  time 
the  city  was  predominantly  Roman  Catholic.  Thirty  years 
later  there  were  about  100  Methodists  in  Munich.  In  1915 
the  present  church  in  the  Frauenlobstrasse  was  dedicated 
by  Bishop  J.  L.  Nuelsen.  It  had  a  membership  of  500 
in  1968.  A  second  church,  Enhuberstrasse  (formerly  in- 
dependent), joined  the  Methodist  Church  in  1942.  Its 
membership  was  reported  at  800  in  1968.  A  third  church, 
Paul-Heyse-Strasse  (formerly  E.U.B.,  founded  in  1919) 
joined  The  United  Methodist  Church  (Evangelisch-meth- 
odistische  Kirche)  in  1968,  reporting  330  members. 

Four  ministers  and  two  deaconesses  are  doing  their 
work  in  the  city  at  present.  The  first  Methodist  deacon- 
ess station  (now  a  hospital)  was  opened  in  1889  (orga- 
nized by  the  Nuremberg  motherhouse  "Martha-Maria"). 
The  "Martha-Maria-Hospital"  Miinchen-Solln  until  1968 
had  some  100  beds  and  forty  nurses,  being  enlarged  to 
150  beds  in  1969.  Church  work  is  active,  and  church  at- 
tendance is  good,  though  it  is  difficult  to  gain  new  mem- 
bers, because  practically  everybody  belongs  to  one  church 
or  the  other;  it  is  not  easy  to  convince  Roman  Catholics, 
and  the  Protestant  minority  is  active  anyhow.  The  future 
depends  on  powerful  preaching,  a  tme  family  spirit  in  the 
churches,  and  intensive  pastoral  care. 

Hermann  Neef 

MUNOZ  Y  GALBAN,  JUAN  GUALBERTO  (1882-1966), 
a  Cuban  pastor,  was  born  in  Fomento,  Las  Villas  Province, 
July  12,  1882.  Married  in  1908  to  Rosa  Fernandez,  their 
children  were,  Elisa,  Alfredo,  Virginia,  Blanca  and  Evan- 
gelina. 

He  was  converted  in  1902  under  the  influence  of  W.  E. 
Sewell  at  a  service  "where  he  went  to  scoff  but  remained 
to  pray." 

Entering  the  ministry  in  1905,  he  served  sixteen  pastoral 
appointments  and  retired  in  1954  after  fifty  years  of  ser- 
vice. Although  retired  he  continued  to  work  until  a  few 
days  before  his  death. 

For  many  years  no  Annual  Conference  was  complete 
without  the  reading  of  the  Resolutions  Committee  report 
by  Juan  Murioz. 

His  fife  was  characterized  by  his  sense  of  humor,  un- 
selfish abnegation  and  humility.  These  were  manifested 
in  his  home  as  well  as  in  the  church  and  among  his  friends. 

Anuario  Cubano  de  la  Iglesia  Metodista.      Garfield  Evans 

MUNSEY,  WILLIAM  ELBERT  (1833-1877),  American  min- 
ister of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  who  while  introspective 
and  at  times  even  morbid,  was  a  brilliant  and  colorful 
preacher  whose  sermons  made  a  deep  impression  on  all 
who  heard  them.  He  was  born  in  Giles  (now  Bland) 
County,  Va.,  on  July  13,  1833,  the  son  of  David  Munsey 
and  grandson  of  Zachariah  Munsey,  the  latter  being  a  local 
preacher  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  that  part  of  Vibginl^. 
He  had  an  unusual  mother,  Mrs.  Parmeha  P.  Munsey, 
who  outlived  him  and  who  was  called,  by  Bishop  John 
C.  Keener,  "wise,  prudent  and  a  good  manager  of  home 
affairs."  William  Munsey  was  licensed  to  preach  on  Sept. 
1,  1855,  and  received  into  the  Holston  Conference 
(MES)  in  October  1856.  Thereafter  he  was  ordained 
deacon  in  1858  by  Bishop  Andrew,  an  elder  in   1860 


MUNZ,    FRIEDRICH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


by  Bishop  Paine.  He  was  married  to  Miss  Virginia  A. 
Blair  at  Jonesboro,  Tenn.,  on  May  17,  1860. 

After  serving  a  few  years  in  minor  charges  of  the 
Holston  Conference,  he  was  sent  to  Chattanooga  where 
he  served,  1858-59;  then  to  the  well-known  Church  Street 
Church  in  Knoxville,  in  1860;  to  Abingdon,  Va.,  in  1861; 
Chattanooga,  1862-63;  back  to  Abingdon  in  1864;  then 
to  Bristol  (Tenn.-Va.)  in  1865.  He  was  then  transferred  to 
the  Baltimore  Conference  and  stationed  at  Alexandria, 
Va.,  in  1866,  and  then  at  Central  Church,  Baltimore, 
in  1867-68. 

Munsey  was  made  secretary  of  Foreign  Missions  early 
in  1869,  which  post  he  held  for  a  few  months,  but  not 
liking  executive  work,  he  was  located  at  his  own  request 
and  removed  to  Jonesboro,  Tenn. 

By  this  time  he  had  become  well  known  as  a  lecturer 
and  preacher  and  being  admitted  to  the  Holston  Con- 
ference again  in  1875,  he  was  transferred  at  once  to  the 
Louisiana  Conference  and  stationed  at  the  St.  Charles 
Avenue  Church  (now  Rayne  Memorial),  in  New  Or- 
leans. In  this  church  he  made  a  great  name  for  himself 
as  he  did  everywhere  by  the  forceful,  unusual  and  electri- 
fying powers  of  his  delivery.  His  sermons  (as  may  be 
seen  in  their  printed  form  today)  were  florid  and  effulgent 
in  the  extreme  and  can  be  viewed  as  an  example  of  that 
type  of  oratory  which  was  then  much  admired  over  the 
South  and,  indeed,  the  nation.  Bishop  Keener  said  after 
hearing  him  preach  at  Asheville,  N.  C,  "The  impression 
made  upon  our  mind  at  the  time  was  that  of  the  constant 
surging  of  the  billows  of  an  ocean  of  light."  It  was  prob- 
ably after  hearing  him  preach  that  Bishop  Keener  brought 
him  to  New  Orleans  where  he  instantly  won  appreciation 
from  wide  audiences. 

Munsey's  sermons  on  Eternal  Death,  on  the  Resurrec- 
tion, on  the  Creation  and  such  themes  gave  him  an  op- 
portunity for  expanding  the  scope  of  his  particular  talent 
in  preaching.  "His  description  of  the  lost  soul  was  Mil- 
tonic,"  said  Bishop  Keener  after  hearing  that  sermon. 

Munsey  was  transferred  to  the  St.  Louis  Conference 
in  1876,  but  shortly  after  that,  fell  into  ill  health  and 
died  in  Jonesboro  on  Oct.  23,  1877. 

Describing  him  in  the  preface  to  the  volume  of  his 
published  sermons.  Bishop  Keener  said,  "As  he  plodded 
through  his  arguments,  one  could  but  admire  the  acute- 
ness  of  his  logic.  .  .  .  But  when  his  conclusions  had  been 
reached,  he  would  leave  premises  and  conclusions  behind, 
and  upon  the  wings  of  imagination,  would  dart  into 
illimitable  fields  of  beauty  and  grandeur.  He  careered 
through  the  universe  of  fancy  with  a  momentum  that  was 
positively  wonderful,  and  sometimes  even  terrific.  Wher- 
ever he  soared  and  carried  his  audience  with  him,  new 
worlds,  new  beauties,  new  sublimities,  new  horrors  sprang 
into  being  on  all  sides.  He  could  then  easily  descend 
from  his  flights,  fold  his  wings,  and  then  plod  through  his 
reasoning  process  as  patiently  as  if  he  were  totally  desti- 
tute of  imagination." 

Following  Munsey's  death,  his  sermons  were  collected 
and  published  in  a  volume  which  old  ministers  of  the 
Southern  Methodist  Church  continue  to  treasure.  From 
the  preface  and  introductory  articles  in  the  front  of  this 
book,  most  of  the  information  about  Munsey  can  be  ob- 
tained. 

William  Elbert  Munsey,  Sermon*  and  Lectures.  Nashville: 
Southern  Methodist  Publishing  House,  1882.  N.  B.  H. 


MUNZ,  FRIEDRICH  (1865-1916),  German-American  min- 
ister, professor  and  editor,  was  born  in  Heslach  near 
Stuttgart,  Germany,  on  March  24,  1865.  Educated  at 
Esslingen,  he  emigrated  to  Farmington,  Iowa  and  at- 
tended the  Mount  Pleasant  German  College.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  West  German  Annual  Conference  of  the 
M.E.  Church  and  served  churches  in  Nebraska  and 
Iowa  City,  Iowa.  In  1891  he  became  pastor  of  the  Ger- 
man Methodist  Church  in  Mount  Pleasant  and  president 
of  the  Mount  Pleasant  German  College  (1893-1897).  In 
the  latter  year  he  became  assistant  editor  and  in  1900 
editor  of  Haus  und  Herd,  a  popular  monthly  German 
Methodist  family  publication.  To  this  he  contributed  many 
devotional  and  historical  articles.  He  resigned  in  1912  and 
in  1914  became  professor  of  theology.  Central  Wes- 
leyan  College,  Warrenton,  Mo.  He  died  suddenly  on 
Sept.  14,  1916.  He  received  an  honorary  M.A.  from  Cen- 
tral Wesleyan  in  1892  and  a  D.D.  from  German  Wallace 
College,  Berea,  Ohio  in  1900.  He  edited  two  famous  Ger- 
man Methodist  hymnals.  Lobe  den  Herrn!  (1905)  and 
Die  Pilgerkldnge  (1907);  wrote  a  well  known  treatise  on 
preaching,  Homeletik  (1897),  books  on  Biblical  exegeSis 
and  translations  of  popular  religious  novels  into  German. 
He  was  a  major  intellectual  force  in  German-American 
Methodism. 

P.  F.  Douglass,  German  Methodism.  1939. 

Haselmayer,  The  History  and  Alumni  List  of  the  Mt.  Pleasant 

German  College. 

Jubildumsbnch  der  St.  Louis  Deutschen  Konferenz. 

Minutes  of  the  Annual  Conferences  1885-1916. 

Louis  A.  Haselmayer 

MURCHISON,  ELISHA  P.  (1907-  ),  twenty-ninth  bish- 

op of  the  C.M.E.  Church,  was  born  at  Fort  Worth,  Texas, 
on  June  18,  1907.  He  received  an  A.B.  degree  from  Clark 
College,  a  B.D.  degree  from  Gammon  Theological 
Seminary,  an  M.A.  degree  from  Boston  University, 
and  an  honorary  D.D.  degree  from  Paine  College.  He 
entered  the  ministry  in  1920  and  served  churches  in 
Georgia,  Texas,  Massachusetts,  and  Illinois.  From 
1932  to  1935,  he  was  a  professor  at  Texas  College  in  the 
department  of  religion,  and  from  1935  to  1938  was  di- 
rector of  Leadership  Education  of  the  C.M.E.  Church. 
He  was  editor  of  The  Christian  Index,  the  major  publica- 
tion of  his  denomination,  from  1946  to  1954.  He  was 
elected  to  the  office  of  bishop  in  1958.  At  the  first  as- 
sembly of  the  World  Council  of  Churches  in  Amster- 
dam, he  represented  his  Church,  and  he  has  also  worked 
as  a  missionary  in  Africa.  Presently,  he  is  chairman  of 
Public  Resolutions  of  the  C.M.E.  Church  in  addition  to 
serving  his  episcopal  area.  He  presently  resides  in  Birming- 
ham, Ala. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965. 

E.   L.    Williams,    Biographical  Directory  of  Negro   Ministers. 

1966.  Ralph  G.  Gay 

MURFREESBORO,  TENNESSEE,  U.S.A.,  First  Church  was 

organized  in  1820  as  a  result  of  a  camp  meeting  held 
at  Windrow's  Camp  Ground.  Soon  after  its  close  those 
who  lived  in  Murfreesboro  organized  a  church  with  ap- 
proximately forty  members.  Services  were  conducted  in 
a  residence  on  College  Street  until  a  house  of  worship 
could  be  erected.  The  Annual  Conference  was  held  in 
this  city  in  1828,  in  the  upper  room  of  the  Rutherford 
County  Court  House.  It  was  attended  by  a  large  group 
of  Cherokee  Indians  and  it  was  here  that  John  Berry 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MURPHY,   JOHN 


McFerrin  delivered  his  first  missionary  address.  This 
Conference  was  also  attended  by  Bishop  Joshua  Soule. 

Around  1840,  a  building  sixty  feet  long  and  thirty  feet 
wide  was  erected  on  Maple  Street — later  the  site  of  Soule 
Female  College.  To  the  south  of  this  building  was  the 
Methodist  graveyard.  Negroes  worshipped  in  the  church 
each  Sunday  afternoon  at  3  o'clock.  When  a  new  church 
was  erected  in  1843  just  across  the  street  from  the  present 
structure,  a  gallery  in  the  southern  end  was  given  over  to 
Negroes  for  preaching  and  Sunday  school.  They  con- 
tinued to  worship  there  until  1862  when  the  Northern 
Methodists  assisted  the  Negroes  in  building  a  church  on 
East  College,  known  as  Key  Memorial  Chapel. 

When  the  Union  army  came  to  Murfreesboro  in  1863, 
they  took  over  the  church  for  a  hospital  until  July  1865, 
when  it  was  turned  over  to  the  church  officials  by  order 
of  President  Andrew  Johnson.  The  third  church  building 
was  begun  in  1886  and  dedicated  three  years  later.  In 
1910  the  church  school  building  and  the  parish  house 
were  built  next  to  the  church.  The  parish  house  was 
razed  in  1954  in  order  that  a  new  educational  building 
could  be  constructed.  It  became  apparent  in  1960  that 
additional  space  for  the  church  school  was  imperative. 
The  original  building,  erected  in  1910,  was  razed  and  a 
three-story  structure  containing  class  rooms,  nursery,  scout, 
choir  and  additional  office  rooms  built  for  these  needs. 

The  Christian  influence  of  this  great  church  has  touched 
the  lives  of  nine  generations  of  Methodism  in  Murfrees- 
boro. Through  its  pulpit  have  passed  Bishop  Robert 
Paine,  its  first  minister;  John  B.  McFerrin,  leader  of  the 
Southern  Church  during  the  post-Civil  War  years,  and 
Bishop  Paul  B.  Kern.  It  stands  as  a  memorial  to  those 
who,  with  dedication  and  foresight,  devoted  themselves 
to  the  great  work  of  Methodism,  and  as  an  inspiration 
and  challenge  to  those  still  to  come. 

C.  T.  Carter,  Tennessee  Conference.  1948. 

O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  John  B.  McFerrin,  A  Biography.  Nashville: 

Publishing  House,  M.E.  Church,  South,  1888. 

News-Banner,  Murfreesboro,  Tenn.,  Oct.  16,  1928. 

Mrs.  Walter  Hughey  King 

MURLIN,  JOHN  (1722-1799),  British  itinerant,  emo- 
tional preacher  called  "the  weeping  prophet,"  was  bom 
at  St.  Stephen  Branwell,  Cornwall,  in  August  1722.  He 
prospered  in  business;  and  when  converted  in  1749,  under 
John  Downes'  ministry,  he  reluctantly  began  preaching. 
In  1754  Wesley  called  him  out,  placing  him  freqeuntly 
in  Bristol  and  London. 

A  man  of  fortune,  apt  to  dictate  his  station,  he  was, 
Wesley  acknowledged,  gifted  and  successful.  Murlin  was 
involved  in  the  sacramental  controversy  at  Norwich  and 
the  pulpit-angel  trouble  at  Halifax.  He  wrote  Sacred 
Hymns  (1781)  and  Elegy  on  Fletcher  (1788).  He  died 
in  retirement,  at  High  Wycombe,  on  July  7,  1799,  and 
shares  Wesley's  tomb. 

G.  Lawton 

MURLIN,  LEMUEL  HERBERT  (1861-1935),  American  min- 
ister, educator,  university  president,  was  bom  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Mendon,  Ohio.  His  father  was  an  itinerant  Meth- 
odist minister.  Being  a  supply  pastor,  the  father's  salary 
was  so  small  that  it  became  necessary  for  the  son,  even 
while  in  public  school,  to  get  part-time  work  to  augment 
the  family  income.  During  vacation  time,  he  "rode  the 
circuit"  with  his  father. 


Lemuel  entered  DePauw  University,  paying  his  way 
with  money  earned  as  a  supply  at  nearby  churches.  He 
was  graduated  from  DePauw  in  1891,  when  he  married 
Ermina  Fallass.  He  served  as  a  Methodist  pastor  for  three 
years,  and  then  was  elected  president  of  Baker  Univer- 
sity in  1894,  which  position  he  held  until  1911,  when  he 
was  elected  president  of  Boston  University.  He  carried 
the  burden  of  his  office  through  the  First  World  War. 

Failing  health  and  the  advice  of  his  doctor  caused 
Murlin  to  tender  his  resignation  to  the  Trustees  of  Boston 
University  in  1925.  On  invitation  from  DePauw,  he  ac- 
cepted its  presidency,  but  retired  at  the  end  of  three 
years.  Then  he  and  Mrs.  Murlin  traveled  abroad  until 
1935,  the  year  he  died. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Daniel  L.  Marsh 

MURPHY,  MRS.  ANN  (1731-1814),  pioneer  American 
church  leader,  moved  from  near  Elhcott's  Mill,  Md.,  the 
probable  place  of  her  birth,  and  settled  in  1780  near 
Uniontown,  Pa.  She  "was  possessed  of  some  means." 
Her  home  was  the  regular  stopping  place  of  the  early 
Methodist  itinerants.  During  eighteen  of  the  twenty  times 
Bishop  AsBURY  passed  through  the  Pittsburgh  Confer- 
ence territory,  he  stopped  at  or  preached  at  Uniontown. 
Robert  Ayres  on  the  Redstone  Circuit,  1786-87, 
stopped  at  Ann's  home  on  each  round  of  the  circuit.  The 
preachers  at  the  Quarterly  Conference  held  in  Uniontown 
in  1787  were  lodged  at  "Widow  Murphy's,"  as  also  at  the 
first  group  conference,  1788,  and  probably  in  1790  and 
1792. 

Jacob  Murphy,  son  of  Ann,  continued  the  devotion  of 
his  noble  mother.  He  was  a  tmstee  of  the  first  Uniontown 
church  and  served  as  a  local  preacher.  Asbury  preached 
in  Murphy's  bam  and  ordained  William  Page  as  elder 
and  Andrew  Hemphill  as  deacon  in  Murphy's  home  in 
1804.  Jacob  married  the  daughter  of  Colonel  Isaac 
Meason. 

As  a  personality,  Ann  Murphy  was  the  most  influential 
among  the  founders  of  Methodism  in  Uniontown,  a  strong- 
hold of  pioneer  and  present-day  Methodi.sm. 

F.  Asbury,  Jourruil  and  Letters.  1958. 

J.  S.  Payton,  Our  Fathers  Have  Told  Vs.  1938. 

W.  G.  Smeltzer,  Headwaters,  of  the  Ohio.  1951. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 

MURPHY,  JOHN  (1740-1813),  a  Presbyterian  layman  in 
Salem  County,  N.  J.,  who  later  became  active  in  Meth- 
odist work  in  southern  New  Jersey.  Murphy,  a  resident 
of  Friendship,  Salem  County,  was  an  Elder  of  the  Pitts- 
grove  Presbyterian  Church  at  Daretown  in  Salem  County. 
Being  attracted  by  the  spirit  of  the  Methodist  pioneer 
preacher,  Abraham  Whitworth,  Murphy  invited  him  to 
hold  meetings  at  his  house.  It  was  here  that  Whitworth 
preached  the  Word  which  ultimately  became  the  means 
of  Benjamin  Abbott's  conversion. 

Murphy's  interest  in  Methodism  grew  until  at  his  house 
was  formed  possibly  the  first  Methodist  Society  south  of 
Burhngton  (Friendship,  1773).  Later  it  was  Murphy  who 
gave  generously  to  build  the  first  place  of  worship  at 
Friendsfiip.  This  was  known  as  the  Murphy  Meeting 
House.  In  it  were  conducted  at  least  three  far-reaching 
revivals  of  religion  which  did  much  to  establish  Meth- 
odism in  southern  New  Jersey. 


MURRAH,   WILLIAM   BELTON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Both  Methodist  churches  in  Salem  have  their  roots  in 
the  Murphy  Meeting  House.  Murphy  was  also  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  Salem  in  1784,  and  is 
sjxiken  of  as  a  founder  of  Methodism  in  Fairton  and 
Bridgeton,  N.  J.  Affectionately  known  as  "Father  Murphy 
and  as  "the  venerable"  John  Murphy,  his  befriending  of 
the  Methodists  aided  their  cause  strategically  in  an  hour 
when  their  enemies  were  numerous  and  determined. 

He  died  in  1813  and  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of 
First  Methodist  Church,  Bridgeton,  N.  J. 

G.  A.  Raybold,  Reminiscences  of  Methodism  in  West  Jersey. 
New  York:  Lane  &  Scott,  1849. 

Howard  F.  Shipps,  "The  Forgotten  Apostle  of  Methodism." 
S.T.D.  Thesis,  Temple  University,  1955. 

Fhank  Bateman  Stancer 

MURRAH,  WILLIAM  BELTON  (1851-1925),  bishop,  was 
born  in  Pickensville,  Ala.,  in  May  1851.  He  was  educated 
at  Southern  University,  Centenary  College  and  Wof- 
FOHD  College.  He  joined  the  North  Mississippi  Con- 
ference of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in  1876,  and  served 
churches  in  Oxford,  Winona  and  Aberdeen.  He  was  vice 
president  of  Whitworth  College,  Brookhaven,  Miss.,  for 
four  years,  and  then  became  the  first  president  of  Mill- 
saps  College  at  Jackson,  Miss.,  chartered  in  1890,  with 
the  first  session  in  1892.  Murrah,  Bishop  Charles  B. 
Galloway  and  Major  Reuben  W.  Millsaps  are  usually 
credited  as  the  founders  of  this  college. 

Murrah  was  elected  bishop  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South, 
by  the  General  Conference  of  1910.  His  publications 
include  addresses,  lectures,  sermons,  and  contributions  to 
religious  periodicals.  A  large,  impressive-looking  man, 
W.  B.  Murrah  exerted  quite  an  influence  in  church  and 
educational  circles.  A  large  framed  likeness  of  Bishop 
Murrah,  with  the  other  Alabamans  who  have  been  elected 
bishop,  is  kept  in  the  episcopal  office  at  Birmingham, 
Ala.  Bishop  Murrah  died  on  March  5,  1925. 


Who  Was  Who  in  America. 


Elmer  T.  Clark 


MURRAY,  GRACE  (1718-1803),  who  became  a  Method- 
ist at  the  outset  of  the  revival,  served  as  a  band  leader 
at  the  Foundery,  London,  and  after  the  death  of  her 
husband,  Alexander  Murray,  returned  to  her  mother's 
home  in  Newcastle  upon  Tyne.  Here  she  was  appointed 
housekeeper  of  Wesley's  Orphan  House  headquarters, 
and  in  that  capacity  nursed  John  Bennet  through  a 
lengthy  illness  in  1746,  after  which  they  corresponded 
affectionately  with  each  other.  In  August  1748,  John 
Wesley  also  fell  ill  in  Newcastle  and  was  nursed  by 
Grace  Murray.  He  proposed  marriage  to  her,  took  her 
south  on  a  journey  with  him,  and  then  left  her  at  Chinley 
in  the  care  of  Bennet,  who  also  wooed  her,  being  assured 
that  she  had  no  commitment  to  Wesley.  During  the  spring 
and  early  summer  of  1749  she  travelled  with  Wesley  in 
Ireland,  and  in  Dublin  they  were  betrothed  by  a  con- 
tract de  praesenti.  After  their  return  to  England  in  July 
a  jealous  spasm  propelled  her  once  more  to  Bennet.  Wes- 
ley decided  to  let  John  Bennet  have  her,  though  he  had 
"a  piercing  conviction  of  his  irreparable  loss."  Grace  pro- 
tested, however,  that  she  loved  Wesley  "a  thousand  times 
better  than  [she]  ever  loved  John  Bennet."  She  pressed 
Wesley  for  a  public  ceremony,  but  after  a  renewal  of  the 
contract   de   praesenti,    this   time   in    the   presence   of   a 


Grace  Murray 

witness,  Christopher  Hopper,  Wesley  continued  his 
preaching  tour. 

Meantime  Wesley  wrote  to  his  brother  Charles  about 
Grace.  Charles,  apparendy  not  realizing  the  depth  of 
John's  commitment,  persuaded  Grace  and  John  Bennet 
to  marry,  only  too  late  to  discover  his  misunderstanding  of 
the  situation.  John  Wesley  forgave  Bennet  and  Grace, 
but  two  years  later  Bennet  left  Methodism,  and  then 
became  the  pastor  of  a  Calvinistic  church  at  Warburton. 
Grace  Bennet  continued  conducting  weekly  meetings  for 
prayer  and  fellowship  long  after  the  death  of  her  husband. 
Only  once  more,  in  their  old  age,  did  John  Wesley  and 
Grace  Bennet  meet.  She  died  in  her  eighty-fifth  year,  and 
her  biography  was  written  by  one  of  her  five  sons. 

Frank  Baker,  "John  Wesley's  First  Marriage,"  London  Quar- 
terly Review,  October  1967. 

William  Bennet,  Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Grace  Bennet,  Macclesfield: 
Bagley,  1803. 

J.  A.  Leger,  Wesley's  Last  Love.  1910. 
G.  E.  Harrison,  Son  to  Susanna.  1937. 

Maldwyn  L.  Edwards 

MURRAY,  JOHN  JACKSON  (1824-1905),  American  min- 
ister and  president  of  the  General  Conference  of  the 
M.  P.  Church  in  1867,  was  bom  in  Hagerstown,  Md.,  on 
May  8,  1824.  He  was  converted  in  1839  and  was  licensed 
to  preach  on  Dec.  25,  1841,  and  began  itinerating  on 
Queen  Anne's  Circuit  in  the  Maryland  Conference  in 
April  1842.  He  filled  all  the  prominent  appointments  in 
the  Maryland  Conference,  including  St.  John's  Church, 
Baltimore,  and  in  1873  was  loaned  to  the  Pittsburgh 
Conference.  He  served  on  the  committee  chosen  to 
compile  the  hymnbook  of  the  M.  P.  Church  published 
in  1859.  He  and  his  brother,  J.  T.  Murray,  conducted 
The  Methodist  Protestant  editorially  in  1870.  While  he 
was  pastor  of  the  M.  P.  Church  in  Philadelphia,  he 
organized  a  church  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  in  1859,  with  thirty- 
seven  members.  In   1860  he  was  appointed  to  serve  as 


WORLD   METHODISM 


the  first  regular  pastor  of  this  church,  a  position  he  held 
for  three  years.  He  served  as  president  of  the  General 
Conference  of  1867  which  met  in  Montgomery,  Ala.  In 
1872  he  was  fraternal  messenger  to  the  General  Con- 
ferences in  1858,  1862,  1866,  1870,  1874,  and  a  delegate 
to  the  historic  uniting  convention  of  May  1877.  At  the 
1866  General  Conference,  he  offered  a  resolution  which 
led  to  reunion  with  the  northern  branch  of  the  church 
which  had  split  over  slavery  in  1858.  The  resolution  was 
passed  by  the  conference. 

Murray  received  the  M.D.  degree  from  Washington 
University  in  Baltimore  in  March  1850. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1887. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

M.   Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.   1878.         Ralph   Hardee  Rives 

MURRAY,  THOMAS  HOLT  (1845-1916),  American  law- 
yer, orator  and  distinguished  Methodist  layman,  was  born 
April  5,  1845  in  Girard  Township,  Clearfield  Co.,  Pa. 
He  was  educated  at  the  common  schools  near  his  farm 
home  and  at  WOliamsport  Dickinson  Seminary,  from 
which  he  graduated  in  1867.  As  a  law  student  at  Dickin- 
son Seminary,  he  continued  his  education  for  this  pro- 
fession in  a  local  law  office  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
of  Clearfield  County  in  1869.  He  soon  became  not  only 
"the  unquestioned  leader  of  this  bar,"  but  the  most  sought 
after  trial  lawyer  of  western  Pennsylvania. 

His  maternal  great  grandfather,  Philip  Antes,  had  given 
the  land  for  the  first  Methodist  church  in  Clearfield 
County,  and  Thomas  H.  Murray  became  the  most  dis- 
tinguished layman  of  his  day  in  the  Central  Pennsyl- 
vania Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church.  He  was  elected 
to  eight  successive  General  Conferences  of  that  church 
(1888-1916),  and  to  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference of  1901.  One  of  the  most  eloquent  and  in- 
fluential laymen  on  the  floor  of  the  General  Conference,  he 
was  designated  by  that  body  to  be  its  spokesman  in  reply- 
ing to  the  welcome  to  Lincoln,  Neb.  in  1892,  given  by  the 
governor  of  the  state  and  the  mayor  of  the  city.  From 
1896  to  1906  he  was  a  member  of  the  Joint  Commission 
on  the  Federation  of  Methodism.  He  also  served  as  a 
member  of  the  Committee  on  Judiciary  of  the  General 
Conference  and  of  the  Book  Committee  for  a  time. 

Three  volumes  of  his  most  notable  addresses  on  various 
occasions,  both  civic  and  ecclesiastical,  have  been  pub- 
lished. He  was  a  member  of  Trinity  M.  E.  Church,  Clear- 
field, Pa.  He  died  Dec.  8,  1916  at  Clearfield. 

Christian  Advocate  (New  York),  Jan.  11  and  18,  1917. 
Journal  of  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference,  1917. 
The  Pennsylvania  Methodist,  June  30,  1904. 
The  Progress,  Clearfield,  Pa.,  Nov.  12,  1966. 

Charles  F.  Berkheimer 

MURRELLS  INLET,  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  U.S.A.,  Belin  Me- 
morial Church,  started  in  1836  as  Oatland  Methodist 
Church,  was  built  a  few  miles  from  its  present  site  by 
James  Lynch  Belin,  who  preached  there  about  twenty- 
three  years.  He  was  at  that  time  the  "missionary"  in 
charge  of  the  Waccamaw  Mission. 

In  1925  the  building  at  Oatland  was  torn  down,  taken 
to  MurreUs  Inlet  and  rebuilt  to  the  exact  specifications 
with  the  same  lumber,  and  given  the  name  of  Belin 
Memorial  Methodist  Church.  It  was  rebuilt  on  the  same 
property  as  the  old  "Cedar  Hill"   Mission  House  which 


was  used  as  a  home  for  James  Belin  for  twenty-three  years, 
and  then  by  other  ministers  until  1960.  At  that  time 
"Cedar  Hill"  was  made  into  the  educational  building  of  the 
church  and  a  new  parsonage  was  built. 

Thomas  Kemmerlin 

MUSGRAVE,  WALTER  EMMETT  (1880-1950),  American 
United  Brethren  in  Christ  (Old  Constitution)  bishop,  was 
bom  near  Stockport,  Ohio,  Sept.  7,  1880.  He  had  the 
advantage  of  a  common  school  education,  and  received 
the  equivalent  of  high  school  education  by  tutorial 
method.  He  made  theology  and  church  history  his 
specialty.  In  1928  he  was  awarded  the  D.D.  from  Hunt- 
ington College. 

He  was  married  to  Anna  Yamell  and  was  the  father 
of  two  sons  and  one  daughter.  One  son  died  in  infancy 
and  the  other,  Wilford  P.  Musgrave,  was  dean  of  Hunt- 
ington College  for  a  number  of  years. 

He  was  converted  at  the  age  of  nineteen  in  a  M.P. 
Church,  and  soon  received  an  exhorter's  license.  Since 
his  early  church  experience  had  been  United  Brethren, 
he  returned  to  that  and  joined  the  Scioto  Conference.  He 
served  fourteen  years  as  pastor  and  five  years  as  presiding 
elder.  During  his  ministry  he  was  especially  interested  in 
young  people,  and  organized  Christian  Endeavor  soci- 
eties in  his  churches.  He  was  a  successful  evangelist  and 
conducted  a  number  of  campaigns  in  the  United  States 
east  of  the  Mississippi  as  well  as  in  Ontario,  Canada. 
He  was  also  interested  in  the  temperance  cause  and  was 
associated  with  Daniel  A.  Poling  in  this  work  in  Ohio. 

The  General  Conference  of  1921  elected  Musgrave 
as  executive  secretary  of  the  Otterbein  Forward  Move- 
ment, and  he  moved  to  Huntington,  Ind.,  where  he  resided 
the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  was  elected  bishop  in  1925 
and  served  that  office  for  twenty-four  years.  While 
bishop  he  was  president  of  many  general  church  boards, 
but  was  especially  interested  in  education  and  missions. 
He  was  an  effective  fund  raiser  and  assisted  the  financial 
program  of  Huntington  College  many  times.  He  was  com- 
missioned by  the  1945  General  Conference  to  write  a 
history  of  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in 
Christ  (Old  Constitution).  A  preliminary  draft  was 
mimeographed  under  the  title,  "The  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ:  Its  Teachings  and  Progress."  He  was 
devoting  time  to  research  for  the  amplification  of  the 
history  at  the  time  of  his  death.  May  6,  1950,  at  Hun- 
tington, Ind.  The  memorial  service  was  held  at  College 
Park  Church  and  burial  at  Pilgrim's  Rest  Cemetery,  Hun- 
tington. 

Christian  Conservator,  May  31,  1950. 

Contact,   June   25,    1967.  J.    Ralph    Pfister 

MUSIC  in  American  Methodism.  The  study  of  Methodist 
music  before  1850  is  primarily  the  study  of  hymns,  par- 
ticularly Wesleyan  hymns.  One  writer  stated  in  1856  that 
even  hymn  singing  among  Methodists  ".  .  .  existed  only  in 
its  rude  and  uncultivated  state"  (Willis,  p.  41).  Another 
commented  in  1865  that  Methodists  have  been  attractive 
singers  but  poor  musicians,  fearful  of  "scientific  music" 
and  convinced  that  all  instruments  were  a  liability  in  the 
church. 

Early  Methodists  frowned  upon  the  use  of  anything 
other  than  the  human  voice.  The  playing  of  organs  was 
a  vanity,  and  the  violin  an  incarnation  of  the  devil.  How- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


ever,  during  the  1840's  writers  were  advocating  the  use 
of  the  organ.  By  1855  the  organ  was  gaining  considerable 
acceptance  and  in  1875  was  in  general  use  in  larger 
churches.  Smaller  churches  were  content  with  small  reed 
organs  or  melodeons.  In  a  few  instances  other  instruments, 
including  the  comet,  were  used  in  special  situations.  The 
prominence  of  instruments  is  shown  by  the  publication  of 
numerous  favorable  and  unfavorable  comments  about  their 
use. 

Methodist  choirs  came  into  existence  when  the  better 
singers  began  sitting  together,  perhaps  for  their  own 
enjoyment,  and,  incidentally,  to  lead  the  congregation.  In 
1850  a  number  of  city  churches  in  the  east  had  regular 
choirs  for  which  special  seating  was  provided.  An  1856 
floor  plan  for  a  Methodist  church  in  Pittsburgh  included 
a  special  area  for  choir  members. 

The  quality  of  congregational  music,  according  to 
writers  of  the  time,  was  generally  poor  except  in  the 
occasional  church  that  had  competent  leadership.  The 
M.  E.  Church  recognized  the  problem  and  appointed  an 
editor  to  take  charge  of  the  music  department  of  the 
Methodist  Book  Concern  during  the  late  1860's.  Hymnal 
introductions  and  numerous  articles  mentioned  the  need 
for  increased  emphasis  upon  the  congregation  and  less 
upon  the  choir.  Sunday  school  singing  during  the  last 
quarter  of  the  century  was  said  to  be  particularly  poor 
and  usually  unrelated  to  the  worship  service. 

Competition  between  choirs  and  congregations  devel- 
oped early.  Complaints  about  professionalism  in  church 
music  appeared  in  publications  of  the  late  fifties.  There 
were  those  who  believed  that  professional  singers  and 
organists  belonged  only  on  the  stage  and  never  in  church. 
An  organization  called  the  Associated  Choirs  of  New  York 
prepared  an  excellent  evaluation  of  the  place  of  musicians 
and  the  use  of  music  in  worship.  All  phases  of  vocal  and 
instrumental  music  in  the  church  and  Sunday  school  were 
included  in  the  study.  Activities  of  the  Association  were 
discussed  by  the  1864  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  work  with  the 
musicians. 

By  1875  almost  all  Methodist  churches  of  any  size  had 
choirs  of  sorts.  The  "quartette  choir"  had  also  made  its 
appearance  even  in  small  churches  and  was  attaining 
considerable  prominence.  The  M.  P.  Church  gave  atten- 
tion to  the  use  of  choirs  in  its  hymnal  of  1892  (a  re- 
publication with  little  change  of  a  private  collection  first 
published  in  1872).  A  large  part  of  the  long  Introduction 
is  entitled  "Choir  and  Congregational  Singing."  Mention 
is  made  of  methods,  materials  and  procedures  for  organists 
and  choirs,  including  children's  choirs.  The  mechanics  of 
worship  are  carefully  described. 

During  the  last  half  of  the  century  organ  builders 
concentrated  upon  producing  an  orchestral  rather  than  a 
church  instrument.  Organists  were  accused  of  being  con- 
cerned with  developing  concert  virtuosity  while  neglecting 
the  basic  purpose  of  their  playing — leading  the  congre- 
gation in  worship.  Considerable  antagonism  developed 
between  organists  and  ministers  as  a  result. 

The  American  Guild  of  Organists  was  established  in 
1896,  partially  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  down  this 
antagonism.  Occasional  articles  in  Methodist  and  other 
church  publications  discussed  the  proper  use  of  the  organ 
in  worship  but  the  situation  showed  httle  change  until 
well  into  the  twentieth  century. 

Prior  to  1850,  the  few  choirs  in  existence  had  one 
responsibility — to  lead  the  rest   of   the  congregation    in 


hymn  singing.  Choir  "specials"  were  a  gradual  develop- 
ment, but  by  1875  the  original  purpose  of  the  choir 
seemed  to  have  been  lost  since  little  attention  was  being 
given  to  the  singing  of  hymns.  Around  1900  certain  con- 
gregations were  asked  to  participate  "silently"  in  the  wor- 
ship service  in  order  that  nothing  should  detract  from 
the  singing  of  the  choirs. 

Between  1875  and  1920  choirs  changed  very  little. 
Many  churches  had  only  a  mixed  quartet,  often  well  paid, 
while  others  had  both  quartet  and  choir.  The  "perfect" 
choral  composition  of  the  period  included  a  solo  for  each 
member  of  the  quartet  and  several  "choruses"  which  could 
be  sung  by  the  quartet  or  by  the  supporting  choir  if  one 
were  maintained.  (Only  recently  has  the  paid  quartet 
within  the  choir  ceased  to  exist  to  a  significant  degree.) 
No  great  concern  was  shown  by  churchmen  for  the  devel- 
opment of  effective  music  in  the  church  and  Sunday 
school.  Some  excitement  was  engendered  by  the  publica- 
tion of  the  new  joint  Methodist  hymnal  in  1905,  but  this 
interest  was  of  brief  duration.  Writers  occasionally  dis- 
cussed the  place  of  the  choir  and  often  criticized  the 
concertizing  of  organists,  the  operatic  performances  of 
soloists,  and  the  annoying  brilliance  of  choral  groups  in 
general. 

The  situation  remained  stagnant  until  several  incidents 
of  great  importance  occurred  in  the  early  1920's:  (1) 
series  of  three  conferences  on  church  music  were  held, 
beginning  in  1921  at  Rushville,  Ind.;  (2)  the  Methodist 
Book  Concern  published  the  lectures  presented  at  these 
conferences  (1923);  (3)  numerous  thought-provoking 
articles  on  Methodist  music  appeared  in  church  maga- 
zines; (4)  consideration  was  given  to  the  concept  of  a 
Ministry  of  music;  (5)  a  Methodist  Commission  on  Music 
was  appointed  (1924);  (6)  a  highly  significant  book  on 
Methodist  music  and  worship  was  published  (1924),  ex- 
pressing many  concepts  not  generally  accepted  or  ap- 
plied for  another  thirty  years. 

By  1925  all  but  the  very  smallest  Methodist  churches 
had  some  sort  of  choir  and  an  organ  or  piano.  Some  had 
Sunday  school  orchestras.  The  quality  of  music  ranged 
from  excellent  to  very  poor.  Congregational  music  was 
frequently  neither  good  nor  meaningful.  Unfortunately, 
organ  construction  was  entering  a  period  when  that 
majestic  instrument  became  more  suited  for  the  funeral 
parlor  than  for  the  church.  A  few  choirs  wore  robes,  and 
some  participated  in  services  that  were  true  worship  ex- 
periences. 

The  twenties  were  a  time  of  great  activity.  Ministers 
and  musicians  examined  attitudes,  procedures,  methods 
and  materials.  The  place  of  music  in  worship  and  educa- 
tion was  debated,  often  with  considerable  heat.  Attempts 
were  made  to  develop  an  understanding  of  the  responsi- 
bilities of  all  who  were  concerned  with  and  affected  by  the 
music  of  the  church.  Conscientious  church  musicians 
showed  concern  for  the  poor  state  of  congregational  music 
and  were  eventually  to  provide  much  of  the  leadership 
that  brought  all  church  music  into  better  balance.  The 
organist/pianist  was  increasingly  accepted  as  the  person 
most  able  to  improve  hymn  singing.  The  emergence  of 
great  college  and  university  choral  organizations  inspired 
the  church  choir  to  seek  its  place  as  leader,  teacher,  and 
source  of  encouragement  for  better  congregational  singing. 

The  most  significant  result  of  this  time  of  enthusiasm 
was  The  Methodist  Hymnal  of  1935,  a  cooperative  venture 
of  the  three  principal  branches  of  Methodism.  Church 
union  which  followed  is  believed  by  many  to  have  been 


WORLD   METHODISM 


MUSIC 


Strongly  affected  by  the  joint  publication  of  a  successful 
hymnal. 

Another  important  development  was  the  growth  of 
interest  in  children's  and  youth  choirs  and  in  the  total 
program  of  music  in  Christian  education.  The  Sunday 
school  music  of  past  generations  was  under  careful 
scrutiny,  but  it  was  difficult  to  replace. 

The  movement  for  better  church  music  was  slowed  by 
the  depression  and  brought  to  a  halt  by  World  War  II. 
One  war-time  development — the  widespread  use  of  the 
electronic  organ — has  had  a  strong  and  lasting  effect. 
During  the  early  fifties  many  varieties  of  electronic  key- 
board instruments  appeared  and  some  have  made  a  signif- 
icant place  for  themselves,  especially  in  medium-sized  and 
smaller  churches. 

Despite  the  thousands  of  electronic  instruments  sold 
during  the  last  twenty  years,  pipe  organ  builders  are  un- 
able today  to  keep  up  with  the  demand  for  their  prod- 
ucts. There  has  been  a  return  to  the  construction  of  an 
organ  that  combines  the  best  features  of  the  preceding 
three  hundred  years  of  organ  building.  Organists,  too, 
have  a  better  understanding  of  their  opportunities  and 
responsibilities  in  the  church  and  Sunday  school. 

Present  trends  in  Methodist  music  are  a  direct  out- 
growth of  action  taken  in  1952  by  the  General  Conference 
at  which  the  Board  of  Education  of  The  Methodist 
Church  was  instructed  to  examine  the  music  of  the  church 
and  to  take  any  action  needed  to  promote  the  better  use 
of  music  in  worship  and  Christian  education.  To  imple- 
ment these  instructions  a  planning  conference  of  church 
musicians,  ministers  and  educators  was  held  at  Estes 
Park  in  1955.  The  National  Fellowship  of  Methodist 
MusicL\NS  (NaFOMM)  giew  out  of  the  conference  and 
was  chartered  the  following  year  at  Williams  Bay,  Wis. 

NaFOMM  had  much  to  do  with  the  progress  made  by 
Methodist  music  toward  attaining  its  proper  place  in  the 
church.  (For  an  account  of  this  organization  see  it  under 
Musicians,  Fellowship  of  United  Methodist.  The  Dis- 
cipline of  1968  directs  that  the  Division  of  the  Local 
Church  under  the  Board  of  Education  shall  cooperate 
with  this  organization  [Paragraph  1065.4].) 

Music  Ministry,  a  monthly  magazine,  was  first  pub- 
lished by  the  Editorial  Division  in  1960;  the  Publishing 
House  was  a  full-time  church  music  manager,  and  has 
published  many  books  on  music  in  worship  and  Christian 
education.  Biennial  convocations  are  held  by  NaFOMM 
and,  in  alternate  years,  by  each  jurisdiction;  dozens  of 
local,  district  and  conference  workshops  on  chuich  music 
are  held  each  year.  A  completely  new  approach  is  being 
made  to  music  in  the  church  school  with  emphasis  upon 
excellent  audio-visual  materials.  Theological  seminaries 
are  doing  a  more  effective  job  of  training  ministers  in  the 
use  of  music.  The  revised  Methodist  Hymnal  (1966)  is 
adding  its  great  influence. 

Oliver  S.  Baketel,  Concordance  of  the  Methodist  Hymnal.  New 

York:  Eaton  and  Mains,  1907. 

Charles  Newell  Boyd,  The  Organist  and  the  Choirmaster.  New 

York:  Abingdon  Press,  1936. 

B.  F.  Crawford,  Theological  Trends.  1939. 

D.  Creamer,  Methodist  Hymnology.  1848. 

Nathaniel   D.   Gould,   Church   Music   in   America.   Boston:    N. 

Johnson,  1853. 

Earl  Enyeart  Harper,  Church  Music  and  Worship.  New  York: 

Abingdon  Press,  1924. 


,  The  Methodist  Minister  and  the  Music  of  the 

Church.  Nashville:  Abingdon  Press,  1959. 

Stanley  Annstrong  Hunter,  The  Music  of  the  Gospel.  New 
York:  Abingdon  Press,  1932. 

James  T.  Lightwood,  Methodist  Music  of  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury. London:  Epworth  Press,  1927. 

,  Music  of  the  Methodist  Hymn-Book.  1950. 

,  Stories  of  Methodist  Music.  London:   Epworth 

Press,  1928. 

Austin  C.  Lovelace  and  William  C.  Rice,  Music  and  Worship 

in  the  Church.  Nashville:  Abingdon  Press,  1960. 

Robert  G.   McCutchan,   "A   Singing   Church,"   Methodism:   A 

Compendium.  Cincinnati:   Methodist  Publishing  House,   1947. 

,  Our  Hymnody.  1937. 

C.  S.  Nutter,  Hymn  Studies.  1884. 
Nutter  and  Tillett,  Hymns  and  Hymn  Writers.  1911. 
C.  F.  Price,  Music  and  Hymnody.  1911. 

William  C.  Rice,  "A  Century  of  Methodist  Music:  1850-1950." 
Unpublished  Ph.D.  dissertation.  State  University  of  Iowa,  1953. 
(Contains   a   bibliography  of  books,   articles,   etc.   on   church 
music:  339  items,  all  published  before  1950.) 
,  "The  Church  Musician's  Library,"  Music  Minis- 
try, Vol.  5   (August  1964),  p.  8.   (A  list  of  books  on  church 
music  published  between  1950  and  1964. ) 
W.  F.  Tillett,  Our  Hymns  and  Their  Authors.  1889. 
Erastus  Wentworth,  "Methodism  and  Music,"  Methodist  Quar- 
terly Review,  Vol.  47  ( 1865),  p.  359. 

Richard  Storrs  Willis,  Our  Church  Music.  New  York:  Dana  and 
Co.,  1855. 

Worship  in  Music,  Edwin  Holt  Hughes,  et  al..  New  York: 
Abingdon    Press,    1929.  William    G.    Rice 

MUSIC,  British  Methodist.  The  early  Methodists  in  En- 
gland inherited  the  tradition  of  metrical  psalms  which 
had  dominated  seventeenth  century  worship,  but  the 
varied  meters  adopted  by  Charles  Wesley  demanded 
tunes  outside  the  conventional  long  and  common  meters. 
John  Wesley's  first  tune  book.  The  Foundery  Collection 
(1742),  contained  tunes  of  several  types:  Psalm  tunes, 
German  chorales  (which  he  had  learned  from  the  Mora- 
vians), adaptations  from  popular  melodies,  and  a  few 
tunes  specially  written.  Hymn  singing  became  character- 
istic of  Methodist  worship,  and  was  so  effective  as  to 
arouse  the  envy  of  Anglicans. 

At  first  the  singing  was  unaccompanied,  though  occa- 
sionally the  bass  was  reinforced  by  a  bass  viol.  Later, 
orchestras  became  common,  sometimes  to  the  annoyance 
of  the  preachers.  Anthems  were  popular,  especially  Ed- 
ward Harwood's  "Vital  Spark,"  of  which  John  Wesley 
spoke  with  admiration.  Late  in  the  century  hymn  singing 
became  overomamented,  with  graces,  trills,  passing  notes, 
repeats,  and  choruses.  Against  this  practice  John  Wesley 
protested,  but  with  little  effect. 

Organ  music  was  introduced  much  later,  new  installa- 
tions being  forbidden  by  Conference  until  1820.  The 
split  in  English  Methodism  through  the  introduction  of  a 
large  organ  in  Brunswick  Chapel,  Leeds,  was  more  a  mat- 
ter of  disputed  authority  than  of  musical  propriety.  There 
was  no  organ  in  Wesley's  chapel  on  City  Road,  London, 
until  the  1880's;  for  a  long  time  there,  as  still  in  the  Meth- 
odist Conference,  the  singing  was  led  by  a  precentor. 

The  Anglican  chant  was  never  widely  used  in  Method- 
ism, except  in  the  Canticles.  There  was,  however,  a  revival 
in  its  use,  and  the  influence  of  the  Methodist  Church 
Music  Society  encouraged  the  adoption  of  speech  rhythm. 
Hymns,  however,  four  or  five  in  each  service,  have  re- 
mained the  staple  diet  of  British  Methodist  worship; 
though  anthems,  and  choral  works  at  special  seasons,  are 


MUSIC   SOCIETY,    METHODIST   CHURCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


frequently  given,  sometimes  by  combined  choirs  (see 
Hymnody). 

A.  S.  Gregory,  Praises  with  Understanding.  1936. 
James  T.  Lightwood,  Methodist  Music  of  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury. London:  Epworth  Press,  1927. 
,  Music  of  the  Methodist  Hymn-Book.  1935. 

C.  W.  TOWLSON 

MUSIC  SOCIETY,  METHODIST  CHURCH  (British),  arose 
from  a  meeting  of  British  Methodist  musicians  and  min- 
isters in  January  1934,  to  e.xplore  the  new  Methodist 
Hymn  Book  of  December,  1933.  Since  then  the  society, 
formed  in  1935,  has  widened  its  purview  "to  foster  and 
develop  all  the  musical  resources  of  Methodism  for  Public 
Worship  and  Evangelism."  It  reports  to  Conference,  and 
holds  an  Annual  Conference  and  local  conferences  and 
supports  local  Festivals  of  Praise. 

C.  W.  ToWLSON 


MUSICIANS,    FELLOWSHIP    OF     UNITED    METHODIST 

(known  until  August,  1969  as  the  National  Fellowship 
of  Methodist  Musicians — NaFOMM),  is  an  organization 
sponsored  by  the  Division  of  the  Local  Church,  General 
Bo.\RD  OF  Education  of  The  United  Methodist  Church. 
Its  membership  is  open  to  all  persons  who  are  working 
through  music  in  the  church. 

This  organization  began  in  1955  with  an  invitation  to 
Methodist  musicians  to  come  together  to  discuss  how  The 
Methodist  Church  could  better  communicate  the  role  of 
music  in  Christian  education.  Walter  Towner  gave  leader- 
ship here  and  the  idea  of  a  fellowship  was  born.  There 
were  two  significant  ideas:  to  have  a  national  Methodist 
music  publication;  and  to  set  up  standards  for  proper 
certification.  NaFOMM,  as  it  was  at  first  called,  was  orga- 
nized on  July  13,  1956  at  Williams  Bay,  Wis.,  with  110 
persons  signing  its  constitution.  Walter  Towner  served  as 
interim  executive  secretary  until  Bliss  Wiant  was  ap- 
pointed on  May  1,  1957.  Four  years  later,  Wiant  retired 
and  Cecil  E.  Lapo,  who  had  been  the  first  president  of 
NaFOMM,  became  its  executive  secretary.  The  organiza- 
tion presently  has  over  3,000  members. 

Its  objectives  and  goals  may  be  stated  as  follows: 

To  make  more  positive  the  role  of  music  in  Christian 
nurture,  worship  and  witness;  to  create  among  church 
musicians  a  fellowship  of  service  to  the  church;  to  stress 
the  importance  of  each  Christian  musician  being  a 
"churchman";  to  encourage  the  composition  of  new  music; 
to  encourage  and  counsel  educational  institutions,  par- 
ticularly the  seminaries,  to  plan  greater  emphasis  on  the 
training  in,  and  appreciation  of,  great  church  music;  to 
assist  students  interested  in  the  ministry  of  music  to  be- 
come educated  for  full  time  Christian  service  in  this  field; 
to  cooperate  with  Annual  Conference  Boards  of  Educa- 
tion, Commissions  on  Worship  and  other  similar  groups  in 
establishing  workshops,  institutes,  conferences  and  study 
courses. 

Publications:  FOUMM  News  Notes  is  published  bi- 
monthly and  there  is  extensive  cooperation  with  Music 
Ministry,  the  music  magazine  of  the  Editorial  Division  of 
the  General  Board  of  Education.  Periodic  pamphlets  ap- 
pear aimed  at  informative  help  for  the  local  church  in  the 
field  of  vocational  guidance  and  use  of  The  Methodist 
Hymnal. 

NaFOMM    had    a    representative    on    the    Methodist 


Hymnal  Commission  during  the  1960-64  quadrennium, 
and  enjoyed  reciprocal  representation  on  the  General 
Commission  on  Worship.  All  bishops  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church  are  members  of  the  Fellowship.  Particular 
guidance  in  the  formative  years  was  given  by  Bishop 
Earl  Ledden.  The  Fellowship  is  governed  by  an  Execu- 
tive Council  consisting  of  current  officers,  and  there  are 
representatives  from  each  Jurisdiction  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church,  as  well  as  consultative  members  in- 
cluding the  editor  of  Music  Ministry.  The  organization 
meets  biennially  for  educational  exchange,  fellowship  and 
enrichment  of  ideas. 

Journal  of  Church  Music,  Vol.  10,  No.  10,  November  1968. 
Music  Ministry,  Vol.  6,  No.  11,  July  1965. 

William  C.  Rice,  A  Concise  History  of  Church  Music.  Nash- 
ville:   Abingdon  Press,   1964.  William   K.   Burns 

MUSKEGON,  MICHIGAN,  U.S.A.,  Central  Church,  is  a 

strong  church  in  the  Michigan  Conference  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church.  The  first  organized  Protestant 
society  in  Muskegon  became  in  time  the  present  Central 
Church.  In  1843,  six  years  after  the  first  sawmill  was  built 
on  Muskegon  Lake,  a  Protestant  religious  service  was  held 
in  the  Martin  Ryerson  boarding  house  with  a  "large"  at- 
tendance and  a  collection  of  $7.50.  A  flourishing  Method- 
ist group  at  White  Lake  then  began  early  to  include 
Muskegon  as  a  mission  station.  By  1855  regular  services 
were  being  held  in  the  public  school  house.  The  White 
River  circuit  was  organized  in  September  1855,  with  L.  M. 
Bennett  in  charge.  Bermett  came  to  preach  in  Muskegon 
every  two  or  four  weeks,  walking  along  the  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan  from  his  White  Lake  home.  Morning  preach- 
ing at  the  school  house  was  followed  by  afternoon  services 
at  the  new  lighthouse  at  the  entrance  to  Muskegon  Har- 
bor. 

In  November  1856,  the  church  was  formally  organized 
as  a  member  of  the  Michigan  Conference  and  John  M. 
Pratt  was  named  first  resident  minister.  When  the  school 
house  was  no  longer  available  for  services  a  drive  was 
initiated  early  in  1857  to  raise  funds  for  a  church  building. 
To  this  the  community  responded  with  gifts  of  money, 
labor  and  material.  Dedication  was  held  in  June  1859. 

The  Civil  War  years  were  years  of  crisis  for  Muskegon's 
Methodists.  The  membership  dropped  to  thirteen  persons. 
For  twenty-eight  years  the  first  structure  served  well  the 
church  and  community.  It  was  replaced  in  1888.  In  De- 
cember 1923,  a  move  was  designed  to  seek  a  location 
some  distance  from  the  center  of  the  city,  property  was 
purchased,  and  a  new  building  started  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Raymond  Johns.  On  March  16,  1930  the  new 
sanctuary  was  ready  for  use.  The  present  edifice  is  of 
Gothic  style  and  is  built  of  Indiana  limestone. 

Central  Methodist  has  sponsored  the  other  Methodist 
churches  in  the  community.  One  pastor,  D.  Stanley 
CooHS,  was  elevated  to  the  episcopacy.  At  present  Central 
has  a  membership  of  1,700  and  serves  the  community 
well  from  its  mid-town  location. 

Central's  Centennial  in  Christian  Service,  1956. 

Mrs.  Isabel  Hobsley 

MUSKINGUM    CONFERENCE.    (See   Ohio    Conference 

(MP).) 

MUSKOGEE,  OKLAHOMA,  U.S.A.   First  Church  had  its 

beginning   when    Sam    Checote,    principal    chief    of    the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Creek  Indian  tribe  and  presiding  elder  of  the  Methodist 
Indian  Mission  Conference,  in  1877  secured  land  from 
his  tribe  to  give  to  the  conference  on  which  to  build  a 
church  in  the  village  of  Muskogee  (population  400). 
The  Mission  Board  at  Nash\'Ille  (MES)  and  the  people 
(partly  in  work)  gave  $500  each.  Young  Theodore  F. 
Brewer,  teaching  in  the  Asbury  Training  School  at  Eu- 
faula,  was  appointed  the  first  pastor  in  1878  and  remained 
until  1886.  He  came  over  to  preach  once  a  month  until 
a  parsonage  was  built  in  Muskogee,  when  he  moved  in. 

Theodore  F.  Brewer  organized  the  church  in  1878  and 
built  the  original  "Rock  Church"  the  same  year.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  church  was  organized,  a  Sunday  school 
was  started.  (This  school  was  destined  to  be  served  as 
Sunday  school  superintendent  by  A.  E.  Bonnel!  for  thirty- 
five  years.)  Brewer  also  established  a  school,  Harrell  In- 
stitute, which  met  in  the  church  until  it  grew  so  large  that 
it  had  to  build  its  own  building. 

In  1903  the  church  was  destroyed  by  fire  and  the  bishop 
ordered  the  church  divided  (money  and  property).  Those 
living  east  of  the  "Katy"  railroad  were  to  form  one  con- 
gregation, and  those  living  west  of  it  another  congregation. 
First  Church  acquired  land  six  blocks  east  of  the  Rock 
Church,  and  this  became  the  location  of  present  First 
Church. 

The  second  building  was  erected  in  1904  under  M.  L. 
Buder,  pastor,  and  was  called  First  M.E.  Church,  South. 
In  1950  a  new  educational  building  was  erected.  Finis 
Crutchfield  being  pastor.  Later,  in  1958,  D.  Wesley  Doak, 
pastor,  led  in  the  construction  of  the  present  sanctuary 
at  a  cost  of  about  $300,000.  Presently  the  church  plans 
to  build  another  educational  unit,  estimated  to  cost  $200,- 
000.  Jack  S.  Wilkes,  pastor,  1950-54,  was  elected  president 
of  Oklahoma  City  University,  which  he  served  from 
1957-63. 

First  Church  is  the  "Mother  of  Methodism  in  Musko- 
gee." St.  Paul  Church  with  2,473  members,  gi-ew  out  of 
First  Church.  The  other  four  churches  of  the  community 
were  helped  by  First  Church.  Three  laymen  have  served 
the  general  Church:  H.  E.  Newton  on  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions for  some  thirty  years;  Jim  Egan,  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion; and  R.  B.  Lazenby,  the  Board  of  Evangelism. 

During  First  Church's  ninety  years  of  history  more 
than  thirty  young  men  and  women  have  entered  the  min- 
istry and  gone  to  mission  fields.  In  1970  First  Church 
had  property  valued  at  $872,150  and  2,348  members. 

The  story  of  First  Church  and  its  relation  to  the  In- 
dians, other  city  churches,  and  education,  together  with 
recruiting  more  than  thirty  persons  for  the  ministry  and 
mission  field,  and  the  services  of  many  distinguished  lay- 
men, provides  a  remarkable  and  relevant  account  of  Meth- 
odist advance. 

St.  Paul  Church  was  organized  in  1903.  It  moved  into 
its  first  permanent  home,  a  structure  at  Seventh  and  Bos- 
ton, in  1906.  The  work  prospered  and  St.  Paul's  became 
one  of  the  leading  churches  in  the  Conference. 

In  1929  fire  destroyed  the  entire  building.  The  congre- 
gation was  undecided  whether  to  rebuild  on  the  same 
location  or  move  farther  west.  When  two  lots  at  the  comer 
of  23rd  and  Okmulgee  were  donated,  the  congregation 
agreed  to  build  there.  A  beautiful  and  adequate  building 
was  erected  in  1930.  As  the  west  side  of  Muskogee  de- 
veloped, St.  Paul  grew  also. 

In  1960  the  Rowsey  Memorial  Chapel  was  built  at  the 
other  end  of  the  block.  All  the  residential  property  on  this 
large  block  was  purchased.  In  1962  an  educational  unit 


was  built,  uniting  the  original  building  and  the  chapel. 
The  entire  area  was  cleared  to  provide  adequate  parking. 
Today  St.  Paul's  has  one  of  the  commanding  church  prop- 
erties in  Oklahoma.  Membership  presently  (1970)  stands 
at  2,473  and  with  property  valued  at  $1,316,894,  the 
church  considers  itself  challenged  to  carry  on  a  well- 
rounded  program  of  activities. 

General  Minutes. 

Our   First   Methodist   Church,   Its   First   Seventy-Five   Years. 

Brochure,  October  1953.  Jesse  A.  Eabl 

MUTO,  TAKESHI    (1893-  ),  Japanese  educator,   pas- 

tor, and  church  leader,  received  his  early  education  in 
Aomori  Prefecture  in  northern  Japan,  where  he  was  bap- 
tized at  the  age  of  ten  in  a  Methodist  church.  After  gradu- 
ation from  the  Theological  Department  of  Aoyama 
Gakuin  in  Tokyo,  he  did  three  years  of  study  in  the 
Tokyo  Imperial  University,  specializing  in  ethics.  This 
was  followed  by  a  year  at  Northwestern  University 
in  the  United  States,  where  he  majored  in  philosophy 
and  received  an  M.A.  degree  in  1923.  From  1924  to  1936 
he  was  teaching  at  his  alma  mater,  Aoyama  Gakuin.  He 
began  preaching  in  1934,  and  in  1936  became  pastor  of 
Chuo  Kaido  (Central  Methodist  Church)  in  Tokyo.  He 
has  held  this  pastorate  ever  since  except  for  a  period  of 
about  four  years  (1942-1946)  when  he  was  president  of 
Kwassui  Girls  College,  a  Methodist  school  in  Nagasaki. 
In  1954  he  was  elected  Moderator  of  the  United  Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan  (the  church  into  which  the  Japan 
Methodist  Church  had  merged  in  1941).  After  his  first 
two-year  term,  he  was  reelected  for  a  second  term.  While 
Moderator  he  represented  the  Japanese  Church  at  the 
Methodist  General  Conference  in  Minneapolis  in 
1956.  In  1959  he  was  elected  Chairman  of  the  National 
Christian  Council  of  Japan. 

John  B.  Cobb,  Sb. 

MUTUAL  RIGHTS  was  a  pubUcation  (1824-1834)  with 
the  Methodist  Protestant  Reformers.  (See  Methodist 
Protestant  Recorder.) 

MUTTAYYA  and  MUNAYYA  (dates  uncertain),  were  pio- 
neer converts  in  the  Bidar  District  of  the  South  India 
Annual  Conference.  They  were  baptized  by  Joseph 
Henry  Garden  on  January  1,  1892.  Muttayya  was  a  re- 
tired soldier  and  pensioner.  He  had  worked  under  Wil- 
liam Marrett,  an  engineer  and  a  local  preacher  of  the  En- 
glish church  in  Hyderabad.  By  caste  Muttayya  was  a 
Madiga.  He  and  his  entire  family  developed  Christian 
faith  and  earnestly  desired  to  be  recognized  as  Christians 
and  admitted  to  fellowship.  Consultations  between  British 
and  American  Methodist  missionaries  led  to  an  agreement 
that  the  Americans  would  work  in  Bidar  and  the  adjoining 
territory  in  which  this  family  lived.  Munayya  was  a 
grandson  of  Muttayya  and  fully  shared  the  old  man's 
eagerness  for  Christian  fellowship. 

These  men  guided  Garden  and  others  to  groups  of 
their  relatives,  and  many  of  them  were  converted.  This 
launched  a  revival  that  has  occasionally  slowed  but  has 
never  stopped.  These  two  were  no  less  responsible  than 
the  ordained  ministers  for  the  beginning  of  the  strong 
church  in  Bidar  District. 


B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 


J.  Waskom  Pickett 


1695 


MUZOREWA,   ABEL   TENDEKAYI 


MUZOREWA,  ABEL  TENDEKAYI  (1925-  ),  bishop  of 
The  United  Methodist  Church  in  the  Rhodesia  Area,  was 
born  on  April  14,  1925,  at  Old  UmtaH  Methodist  Centre 
in  Rhodesia,  the  son  of  Philemon  Hadi  and  Hilda 
(Munangatire)  Muzorevva.  He  studied  at  the  Old  Umtali 
Methodist  Centre,  1950-52,  and  then  came  to  America 
where  he  received  an  A.B.  degree  from  Central  Col- 
lege in  Fayette,  Mo.,  in  1962.  He  was  given  the  M.A. 
by  ScARRiTT  College,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  1963.  On  Aug. 
11,  1951,  he  married  Maggie  Chigodora,  and  their  chil- 
dren are  Blessing  Tendekayi,  Philemon  Dairayl,  Wesley 
Tanyaradzwa,  Scarriter  Charles  Chido.  He  taught  in  pri- 
mary schools,  1944-47,  and  was  a  lay  preacher,  1948-59. 
He  was  received  on  trial  in  the  Rhodesia  Conference  in 
1953,  and  into  full  connection  with  his  elder's  ordination 
in  1955.  He  was  associate  conference  evangeUst,  1952- 
55,  and  then  became  the  pastor  of  the  Chiduku  North 
Circuit  in  Rhodesia,  1955-58.  He  was  pastor  of  the  Old 
Umtali  Methodist  Centre,  Umtali,  1963-64,  and  then  be- 
came the  conference  director  of  youth  work  at  Umtali, 
1965.  He  was  in  1966  the  youth  secretary  of  the  Student 
Movement  and  the  traveling  secretary  of  the  Christian 
Council  of  Rhodesia. 

At  the  African  Central  Conference  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church  held  Aug.  24-31,  1968,  at  Gaberones,  Bots- 
wana, Abel  Muzorewa  was  elected  a  bishop  to  succeed 


Bishop  Ralph  Dodge,  who  at  that  Conference  announced 
his  retirement.  Bishop  Muzorewa  at  forty-three  years  of 
age  became  one  of  the  youngest  Methodist  bishops  ever  to 
be  elected.  His  election  came  on  the  sixth  ballot  and  he 
was  assigned  to  the  Rhodesia  Area  (presently  comprising 
28,661  members  and  181  churches). 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

MYLES,  WILLIAM  (1756-1828),  was  an  Irish  Methodist, 
bom  in  Limerick,  on  July  9,  1756.  He  heard  Wesley 
preach  there  in  1773.  He  itinerated  in  Ireland,  1777-82, 
at  his  own  expense,  and  became  the  first  Irishman  to  be 
received  into  fuU  connexion  (1782).  Thereafter  his  cir- 
cuits were  almost  entirely  English  until  1823-24,  when  he 
became  a  supernumerary. 

Myles  was  a  self-taught  linguist.  As  a  student  of  the- 
ological controversy,  he  was  the  first  historian  proper  of 
Methodism,  his  Chronological  History  appearing  in  1798 
(enlarged  in  1803  and  1812).  He  pubhshed  sermons, 
tracts,  and  an  account  of  William  Grimshaw.  He  was 
named  in  Wesley's  Deed  of  Declaration  and  in  the  deed 
for  Batli.  William  Myles  died  at  Liverpool  on  April  17, 
1828. 

C.  H.  Crookshank,  Methodism  in  Ireland.  1885-88. 
Methodist  Magazine,  1797,  1828,  1831.        George  Lawton 


Stephen  T.   Nacbe 

NAGBE,  STEPHEN  TROWEN,  SR.  (1933-1973),  resident 
bishop  of  the  Monrovia  Area  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church,  was  bom  on  Oct.  23,  1933,  in  Betu,  Sinoe 
County,  Liberia. 

He  received  his  early  schooling  in  Ghana,  returning  to 
Liberia  to  complete  elementary  school  in  Barclayville. 
He  attended  the  College  of  West  Africa  where  he 
graduated  in  1951.  His  undergraduate  work  was  done  at 
Cuttington  College  and  Divinity  School.  In  1958  he  was 
ordained  elder  by  Bishop  Prince  A.  Taylor,  Jr.  That 
same  year  he  married  Melvena  Morris  and  the  Nagbes 
proceeded  to  the  United  States  for  further  theological 
study. 

He  received  the  B.D.  degree  from  Gammon  Theologi- 
cal School  in  Atlanta  in  1961  and  returned  to  Liberia 
where  he  served  in  the  pastorate  until  the  summer  of 
1964.  At  that  time  he  returned  to  the  United  States  where 
he  studied  and  received  the  S.T.M.  degree  from  Boston 
University  School  of  Theology  in  1965. 

On  Dec.  10,  1965,  he  was  elected  by  the  first  session 
of  the  Liberia  Central  Conference  as  the  Methodist  bishop 
to  be  elected  and  consecrated  in  Liberia  on  December 
12,  Harper,  Cape  Palmas.  He  was  the  first  native  Liberian 
ever  elected  as  bishop  of  The  Methodist  Church. 

He  died  Feb.  2,  1973,  in  Liberia,  after  a  six-month 
illness. 

N.  B.  H. 


NAGORI,  "TUAN"  (Musa  Manurung)  (P-1927), 
Malaysian  Christian  leader,  was  born  near  the  close  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  As  a  village  chief,  one  of  seven  rajas, 
he  lived  in  the  heart  of  the  jungles  of  Asahan,  Sumatra, 
Indonesia.  The  beginning  and  the  establishment  of  the 
Christian  faith  here  centered  definitely  around  him.  He  it 
was  who  issued  the  "Macedonian  Call"  for  Christian  mis- 
sionaries to  enter  this  Perdembanan  jungle  area  where  no 
one  could  even  read  or  write.  His  first  encounter  with 
Batak  Christian  evangelists  in  1907  was  characterized  by 
disdain.  He  was  haughty  and  conceited,  being  the  son 
of  the  Raja  of  all  that  region.  He  turned  away  from 
animism  and  took  up  with  a  hybrid  religion  called  "Per- 
malim."  He  even  added  the  use  of  opium  to  his  other 
vices.  He  later  on  embraced  Islam.  However,  in  spite  of 
himself,  he  had  been  impressed  by  the  humility  and 
patience  of  the  Batak  evangelists  who  had  visited  him. 

Later  on  he  made  the  long  journey  on  foot  to  the  shores 
of  Lake  Toba  to  visit  the  old  "Grandfather"  Lutheran 
missionary,  Nommenson.  He  tried  to  persuade  him  to  send 
a  teacher  to  his  people,  but  there  was  none  to  spare.  In 
1912  he  learned  about  the  American  Methodist  Mission 
in  Malaysia  through  a  relative  of  Lamsana  L.  Tobing,  an 
ordained  Methodist  minister  from  the  West  Coast  of 
Sumatra  then  serving  on  the  island  of  Java.  Lamsana  on 
furlough  visited  the  village.  Eight  years  later,  under  the 
superintendency  of  Leonard  Oechsli,  Tobing  was  ap- 
pointed in  1921  to  Asahan.  It  was  not  until  July  17, 
1921,  that  the  baptismal  service  of  Tuan  Nagori  and 
family  was  arranged,  even  though  Tuan  Nagori  had  him- 
self baptized  his  own  mother  before  she  died,  there  being 
no  other  professing  Christian  there  to  do  so. 

During  the  years  that  followed,  even  to  the  time  of  his 
death  on  Dec.  13,  1927,  Tuan  Nagori  continued  his  per- 
sonal witnessing.  As  the  first  resident  Methodist  missionary 
in  Asalian  from  America,  this  writer  walked  hundreds  of 
miles  with  Tuan  Nagori  visiting  people  and  villages  in  the 
Asahan  jungles.  Always  he  was  found  to  be  like  the 
Apostle  Paul,  speaking  a  word  for  his  Lord  wherever 
opportunity  afforded.  A  son,  Djaleb;  a  daughter,  Soulima; 
and  a  nephew,  Philemon  Sirait,  are  missionaries  in 
Sarawak;  and  a  grandson,  Hasaoetan,  is  preaching  in 
Sumatra. 

Minutes  of  North  Sumatra  Mission,  1923-24. 
Stephanus  L.  Tobing,  Toean  Nagori  Moesa  Manoeroeng.  N.d. 
Newton  T.  Gottschall 

NALL,  TORNEY  OTTO,  JR.,  (1900-  ),  American  editor 

and  bishop,  was  born  in  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  on  May  23, 
1900,  the  son  of  Tomey  Otto  and  Alta  Mae  (Stokes) 
Nail.  While  still  a  boy  he  moved  with  his  family  to  St. 
Paul,  Minn.  He  attended  Hamline  University,  receiving 
the  A.B.  degree  in  1921,  did  graduate  work  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Minnesota  in  1921-22,  and  studied  journalism  at 
Northwestern  University,  1923-24.  From  Garrett,  he 
received  the  B.D.  in  1925,  and  received  the  D.D.  degree 

1697 


NANCE,    WALTER   B. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


from  Garrett  and  Hamline  in  1936  and  1939  respectivel>'. 
Adrian  College  awarded  him  the  Litt.D.  in  1943,  as 
did  Union  College,  1949,  and  American  University, 
1950,  and  Illinois  Wesleyan  University  honored  him 
with  the  LL.D.  in  1951. 

He  was  united  in  marriage  to  Frances  Marie  MahaflRe 
on  Feb.  2,  1929,  who  has  worked  closely  and  efficiently 
with  him  in  both  his  editorial  and  episcopal  assignments. 

During  the  first  World  War,  Otto  Nail  served  with  the 
United  States  Army.  His  editorial  career  began  with  The 
Epworth  Herald  in  1922,  and  he  wrote  also  for  The 
Classmate  and  youth  publications  of  several  denomina- 
tions. He  became  managing  editor  of  The  Christian 
Advocate  in  1940.  Methodist  unification  had  then  brought 
about  the  merger  of  seven  regional  Advocates  into  one 
official  weekly,  with  Roy  L.  Smith  elected  editor.  Otto 
Nail,  on  the  retirement  of  Roy  Smith,  became  acting 
editor.  He  was  elected  by  the  Board  of  Publication  to  the 
editorship  of  The  New  Christian  Advocate  in  1946  when 
this  publication  became  specifically  a  "trade  paper"  for 
ministers.  He  has  continued  as  one  of  the  columnists  for 
Together,  writing  answers  on  'Tour  Faith  and  Your 
Church."  He  served  as  president  of  the  Methodist  Press 
Association  from  1944-48,  and  as  president  of  the  Inter- 
denominational Associated  Church  Press  from  1945  to 
1947. 

T.  O.  Nail  was  ordained  in  the  ministry  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  in  the  Minnesota  Conference,  1924.  He  was 
elected  a  bishop  at  the  North  Central  Jurisdictional  Con- 
ference, Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  in  July  1960,  and  was 
assigned  to  the  Minnesota  Area  where  he  served  until 
1968,  when  he  was  continued  as  an  active  bishop  and 
assigned  to  the  Hong  Kong-Tafvvan  Area. 

Bishop  Nail  was  chairman  of  the  Association  of  Meth- 
odist Historical  Societies  (1964-68),  which  sponsored 
the  Encyclopedia  of  World  Methodism.  In  1958  he  made 
a  trip  into  Russia,  studying  the  status  of  religion  there. 
In  1962-63,  he  made  a  three-month  study  trip  to  India, 
Nepal,  and  Pakistan  for  the  Council  of  Bishops.  He 
had  a  civilian  assignment  in  Africa  in  1966.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference, 
Oxford,  England,  1951;  that  at  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C, 
in  1956;  and  in  Oslo,  Norway,  1961.  He  is  a  trustee  of 
Hamline  University  and  of  Evanston  Institute  Ecumenical 
Studies. 

Bishop  Nail  is  the  author  of  several  books,  including 
Youth's  Work  in  the  New  World,  1936;  New  Occupation 
for  Youth,  1938;  Move  On,  Youth,  1940;  Jobs  for  Today's 
Youth,  1941;  Young  Christians  at  Work,  1949;  Making 
Good  As  Young  Couples,  1953;  The  Bible  When  You 
Need  It  Most,  1957 — a  paperback  in  the  popular  Reflec- 
tion Series.  He  was  editor  of  Vital  Religion,  1938;  and  of 
These  Prophetic  Voices,  1941.  His  present  residence  is  in 
Clearwater,  Fla. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

NANCE,  WALTER  B.  (1868-1964),  American  missionary 
to  China,  was  bom  at  Comersville,  Marshall  Co.,  Tenn., 
April  16,  1868,  the  son  of  James  Washington  and  Mary 
Frances  Amis  Nance.  He  received  his  secondary  education 
at  Webb  School,  Bell  Buckle,  Tenn.  He  graduated  with 
honors  in  arts  and  theology  at  Vanderbilt  University 
and  later  took  graduate  work  at  the  University  of  Chicago. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Tennessee  Conference  in  1895 


W.  B.  Nance 

and  was  sent  as  a  missionary  to  China  in  1896.  In  1898 
he  was  joined  by  Florence  Rush  Heiser,  a  Vanderbilt 
graduate  whom  he  married  in  Kobe,  Japan. 

He  soon  became  involved  in  the  organization  of 
Soochow  University,  which  was  started  in  1901.  His  early 
years  in  China  were  spent  in  the  mastery  of  the  Chinese 
language  and  classics,  which  led  to  his  being  recognized 
as  pre-eminent  among  American  students  of  the  Chinese 
language.  He  was  professor  of  ethics  and  philosophy  in 
the  University  which  he  helped  to  found  and  was  its 
president,  1922-27,  when  he  resigned  in  favor  of  a  Chinese 
president. 

He  was  interned  by  the  Japanese  during  World  War 
II,  repatriated  in  1943  and  later  retired  by  the  Board  of 
Missions. 

At  the  insistent  demand  of  the  university  alumni,  he 
was  sent  back  to  China  in  1946  to  rehabilitate  the  univer- 
sity devastated  in  the  war,  a  task  which  was  interrupted 
by  the  Communists  who  took  over  in  1949.  From  1949 
until  his  death  at  the  age  of  ninety-six,  he  lived  with  his 
son  in  Oak  Ridge,  Tenn. 

He  was  the  author  of  Soochow  University,  published 
by  United  Board  for  Christian  Colleges  in  China,  1956. 
In  the  1920's  he  established  a  language  school  where 
newly  arrived  missionaries  of  all  denominations  were 
taught  the  dialect  of  East  China.  Hundreds  learned  the 
language  through  the  phonetic  system  he  pioneered. 

His  greatest  contribution  to  the  missionary  enterprise 
was  his  conviction  that  if  China  was  to  be  won  for  Christ, 
it  would  have  to  be  through  higher  education  with  the 
melding  of  the  best  of  classical  oriental  thought  into 
modern  Christian  theology. 

Dana  W.  Nance 

NANEZ,  ALFREDO  (1902-  ),  American  clergyman  and 

educator,  was  bom  Feb.  28,  1902  in  Monclova,  Coahuila, 
Mexico.  He  received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Southwestern 
University-,  Georgetown,  Texas  (1930);  B.D.  degree 
from  Southern  Methodist  Unfversity  (1932);  and  was 
given  a  D.D.  by  Southwestem  University  (1950).  He 
served  as  pastor,  district  superintendent   (eleven  years), 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NASH,   GEORGE 


and  executive  secretary  of  the  Rio  Grande  Conference 
Board  of  Education  (twenty  years)  before  assuming  his 
present  position  as  president  of  Lydia  Patterson  Insti- 
tute, El  Paso,  Texas,  in  1966.  He  has  edited  a  Spanish 
edition  of  The  Methodist  Hymnal  and  of  the  Methodist 
Ritual.  He  has  served  as  a  member  of  churchwide  boards, 
including  Board  of  Missions,  1934-38,  and  Methodist 
Committee  on  Overseas  Relief,  1956-68.  He  has  been 
a  delegate  to  general  and  jurisdictional  conferences,  a 
member  of  the  Texas  Methodist  Foundation  since  1960, 
and  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Southern  Methodist 
University,  1960-68.  He  is  married  to  the  former  Clotilde 
Falcon,  and  they  have  three  children. 

Walter  N.  Vernon 

NANTUCKET  ISLAND,  MASSACHUSETTS,  U.S.A.,  has  its 
antecedents  in  an  eighteen-day  preaching  mission  of  Jesse 
Lee  in  April  1797.  The  following  year  Joseph  Snelling, 
stationed  in  Martha's  Vineyard,  visited  Nantucket  and 
conducted  open-air  meetings  on  Mill  Hill.  On  July  25, 
1799,  the  first  Methodist  Society  was  organized  by  Wil- 
liam Beauchamp.  When  the  congregation's  original 
building,  completed  on  Fair  Street  in  1800,  became  in- 
adequate, the  present  structure,  with  a  seating  capacity  of 
1,000,  was  erected  in  1823. 

With  gable  roof  and  six  Ionic  pillars  under  the  portico 
added  in  1840,  the  imposing  edifice  suggests  the  sturdy 
character  of  the  nineteenth-century  seafaring  people  who 
built  it.  The  ceiling,  supported  by  12  x  12  timbers  sixty 
feet  long,  the  paneled  balconies,  and  the  historic  Appelton 
pipe  organ  create  within  the  structure  a  distinctive,  early 
American  atmosphere. 

Two  pastors  of  the  Nantucket  congregation,  Joshua 
Soule  (1803)  and  Elijah  Hedding  (1812),  later  became 
bishops.  Two  sessions  (1820  and  1837)  of  the  New 
England  Conference,  and  one  session  (1842)  of  the 
Providence  Conference  (later  called  the  New  England 
Southern  Conference)  were  held  here.  An  ordination 
service  was  held  in  this  church  on  Sept.  18,  1966,  by 
Bishop  James  K.  Mathews — the  first  such  service  on 
Nantucket  Island  for  more  than  a  hundred  years. 

Bulletin  1966,  Centre  Street  Methodist  Church,  Nantucket. 
R.  C.  Miller,  New  England  Southern  Conference.  1898. 
Minutes  of  the  New  England  Southern  Conference,  1966. 

Ernest  R.  Case 

NAPERVILLE,     ILLINOIS,     U.S.A.,     Community     Church 

(First  EUB  Church)  in  1962  celebrated  125  years  of 
continuous  existence.  This  began  in  1837  but  not  until 
1841  were  the  sturdy  German  pioneers  at  Naperville  able 
to  build  a  small  church  home  for  themselves.  In  1858-59 
they  erected  a  substantial  building  on  the  corner  of 
Franklin  and  Center  Streets  where  the  present  church 
now  stands. 

There  has  always  been  a  warm  relationship  between 
this  church  and  North  Central  College  even  before 
the  union  in  1910  of  the  College  Chapel  Church  with  this 
"Zion  Church,"  as  it  was  called  for  many  years.  The 
quality  of  the  church's  music  became  gready  enriched 
when  a  gifted  music  professor  took  over  the  direction  of 
the  church  choir,  composed  almost  entirely  of  college 
students.  He  also  played  the  new  pipe  organ,  the  organ 
being  an  innovation  in  the  church  in  1912.  The  sanctuary 
soon  began  to  be  used  as  a  concert  hall  by  the  college. 


To  this  day  the  same  collaboration  continues  and  marks 
Community  Church  as  outstanding  in  the  field  of  music. 

The  personnel  of  the  membership  was  also  affected  by 
the  close  association  of  these  two  organizations  and  that 
of  the  Evangelical  Theological  Seminary.  There  have 
always  been  many  more  students,  professors,  college  and 
seminary  presidents — and  even  more  bishops — than  are 
to  be  found  in  the  usual  congregation.  Naturally  the 
church  has  been  a  leader  in  the  cultural  life  of  the  com- 
munity. 

Through  the  years  of  the  depression  and  the  second 
World  War,  and  subsequent  years,  this  church  partici- 
pated in  countless  projects  of  mercy.  Carloads  of  food  and 
clothing  were  packed  and  shipped  under  the  personal 
supervision  of  the  pastor  and  church  leaders.  From  1945- 
1948  the  church  raised  a  total  of  $11,628  for  relief  work 
overseas.  Paul  Washburn,  elected  a  bishop  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church  at  the  Uniting  Conference  in 
1968,  was  pastor  of  Naperville  1952-1964.  The  church's 
emphasis  upon  social  concern  and  action  has  been  in- 
creasingly sustained  through  the  years. 

Four  sessions  of  the  General  Conference  have  been 
held  in  Naperville:  1859,  1871,  1927  and  1942.  At  each 
time  some  very  important  church  policy  was  uppermost 
on  the  agenda.  In  1942  it  was  the  proposal  for  the  union 
of  The  Evangelical  Church  and  the  United  Brethren 
Church.  The  church  today  manifests  a  consciousness  of 
good  heritage  and  hard  labor,  has  a  continually  increasing 
enrollment  of  over  1,100,  and  expresses  a  dynamic  dedica- 
tion to  social  action  and  to  faith  and  beauty  in  its  worship 
services. 

Elizabeth  Wiley 

NASCIMENTO,  NATANAEL  INOCENCIO  Do  (1910-  ), 
a  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Brazil,  was  bom  on 
July  12,  1910,  in  Cordeiro,  Minas  Cerais,  Brazil.  He  re- 
ceived his  secondary  education  at  the  Instituto  Gran- 
bery  (Juiz  de  Fora,  Minas  Cerais),  the  University  of 
Sao  Paulo,  and  the  theological  seminary  then  at  Granbery. 

He  was  ordained  deacon  in  1938  and  elder  in  1940. 
He  has  served  as  pastor;  as  district  superintendent  for 
thirteen  years;  as  professor  for  twelve  years  at  the  theo- 
logical seminary  in  Rudge  Ramos,  Sao  Paulo,  and  as  its 
Reitor  (principal)  for  seven  years.  From  1950  to  1960, 
he  was  president  of  the  General  Board  of  Missions  of 
the  Methodist  Church  of  Brazil.  He  was  among  the  first 
to  draw  up  a  plan  for  ministers'  pensions. 

He  married  Eunice  Patricio,  and  they  had  four  daugh- 
ters. He  was  elected  bishop  in  July  1965,  and  his  region 
comprised  the  states  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Guanabara 
(the  former  Federal  District).  He  retired  at  the  General 
Conference  in  July  1970. 

Eula  K.  Long 

NASH,  GEORGE    (1905-  ),  Australian  minister,   and 

president  of  Queensland  Conference,  1964.  He  has 
been  superintendent  of  the  Central  Missions,  Brisbane, 
since  1952,  during  which  time  its  activities  have  been 
considerably  developed.  He  established  a  hospital  for  the 
chronic  ill  and  inaugurated  Methodism's  only  mission  to 
urban-dwelling  Aborigines.  He  was  chairman  of  the 
Queensland  Council  of  Churches,  chairman  of  the  Presby- 
terian and  Methodist  Schools  Association,  Chairman  of  the 
Billy  Graham  Crusade,  and  has  been  active  in  the  leader- 


NASH,    RICHARD   "BEAU" 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


ship  of  many  conference  committees.  He  is  widely  known 
for  his  work  in  both  church  and  community  life.  He  served 
for  five  years  as  chaplain  in  the  Royal  Australian  Air 
Force  in  the  second  VVorld  War  in  New  Guinea,  Britain, 
and  the  United  States. 

NASH,  RICHARD  "BEAU"  (1674-?),  was  born  at  Car- 
marthen on  Oct.  18,  1674,  the  son  of  a  glass  manufacturer. 
Having  been  sent  down  from  Jesus  College,  Oxford,  for 
riotous  behavior,  he  became  a  professional  gambler  and 
Master  of  Ceremonies  at  the  fashionable  health  resort  of 
Bath  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  He 
dressed  splendidly,  and  drove  around  Bath  in  semi-royal 
state  in  a  post-chaise  drawn  by  six  grey  horses,  honored 
with  outriders,  footmen,  and  French  horns. 

There  was  a  celebrated  confrontation  between  Nash 
and  John  Wesley  when  the  latter  preached  at  Bath  on 
June  5,  1739.  Wesley's  Journal  notes;  "There  was  great 
expectation  at  Bath  of  what  a  noted  man  was  to  do  to 
me  there;  and  I  was  much  entreated  not  to  preach,  be- 
cause no  one  knew  what  might  happen.  By  this  I  report 
I  also  gained  a  much  larger  audience,  among  whom  were 
many  of  the  rich  and  the  great.  I  told  them  plainly  the 
Scripture  had  concluded  them  all  under  sin — high  and 
low,  rich  and  poor,  one  with  another.  Many  of  them 
seemed  to  be  a  little  surprised,  and  were  sinking  apace 
into  seriousness,  when  their  champion  appeared,  and, 
coming  close  to  me,  asked  by  what  authority  I  did  these 
things,  I  replied,  'By  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ,  con- 
veyed to  me  by  the  (now)  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
when  he  laid  hands  upon  me,  and  said,  "Take  thou  author- 
ity to  preach  the  gospel." '  He  said,  'This  is  contrary  to 
Act  of  Parliament:  this  is  a  conventicle.'  I  answered,  'Sir, 
the  conventicles  mentioned  in  that  Act  (as  the  preamble 
shows)  are  seditious  meetings;  but  this  is  not  such;  here 
is  no  shadow  of  sedition;  therefore  it  is  not  contrary  to  that 
Act.'  He  replied,  'I  say  it  is;  and,  beside,  your  preaching 
frightens  people  out  of  their  wits.'  'Sir,  did  you  ever 
hear  me  preach?'  'No.'  'How,  then,  can  you  judge  of  what 
you  never  heard?'  'Sir,  by  common  report.'  'Common  re- 
port is  not  enough.  Give  me  leave,  sir,  to  ask.  Is  not  your 
name  Nash?"  'My  name  is  Nash.'  'Sir,  I  dare  not  judge  of 
you  by  common  report:  I  think  it  not  enough  to  judge 
by.'  Here  he  paused  a  while,  and,  having  recovered  him- 
self, said,  'I  desire  to  know  what  this  people  comes  here 
for':  on  which  one  replied,  'Sir,  leave  him  to  me;  let  an 
old  woman  answer  him.  You,  Mr.  Nash,  take  care  of  your 
body;  we  take  care  of  our  souls:  and  for  the  food  of  our 
souls  we  come  here."  He  replied  not  a  word,  but  walked 
away."  (Journal,  Vol.  2,  pp.  211-213). 

Though  worsted  in  this  verbal  duel,  Nash  retained  his 
dignity,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  his  concern  for  law 
and  order  was  genuine,  for  his  code  of  Rules — applied 
as  impartially  as  Wesley's — had  long  served  to  curb  the 
boisterous  society  of  Bath.  "He  enforced  his  rules  with 
equal  impartiality  on  the  duchess  or  the  farmer's  wife 
and  he  made  Bath  an  agreeable  city  to  live  in.  He  in- 
troduced music,  turned  dances  into  balls,  abolished 
swords,  riding  boots  and  aprons,  cleaned  up  the  pump 
room,  made  special  privileges  for  invalids,  secured  de- 
cency and  good  order,  yet  .  .  .  preserved  considerable 
freedom.  Gambling  and  intrigue  still  flourished  but  dis- 
creetly and  subject  to  convention."  (J.  H.  Plumb,  Men 
and  Places,  p.  120).  G.  M.  Trevelyan's  encomium  might 
seem  to  place  Nash  in  the  same  bracket  as  Wesley — "Nash 


did  perhaps  as  much  as  any  other  person  even  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century  to  civilize  the  neglected  manners  of 
mankind"  (English  Social  History,  p.  316) — and  no  doubt 
rebellious  bucks  trembled  at  Nash's  appearing  as  much  as 
recalcitrant  society  stewards  did  at  Wesley's. 

John  Newton 

NASHVILLE,  TENNESSEE,  U.S.A.,  sometimes  called  "The 
Capital  of  Southern  Methodism,"  had  several  significant 
names.  From  an  unrecorded  date,  it  was  known  as  "Salt 
Lick,"  near  present-day  Sulphur  Dell  ball  park.  Monsieur 
Charleville,  a  French  trader  and  explorer  from  New 
Orleans  in  1714,  seems  to  have  been  the  first  white  man 
to  settle  at  Salt  Lick.  Therefore,  Salt  Lick  was  changed 
to  "French  Lick"  in  honor  of  the  explorer.  In  1769,  Uriah 
Stone,  Gasper  Mansker,  and  Isaac  Bledsoe,  who  were 
explorers  and  hunters  from  Virginia,  made  French  Lick 
their  base  of  operation  in  Middle  Tennessee,  Jan.  1,  1780, 
James  Robertson,  seven  whites  and  one  Negro  from 
Watauga  settlement,  arrived  at  French  Lick.  The  other 
part  of  the  settlers  came  by  boats  down  the  Tennessee, 
up  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Cumberland  Rivers,  arriving  at 
French  Lick,  April  24,  1780.  After  the  arrival  of  the 
Robertson  and  Donelson  settlers,  the  name  French  Lick 
was  changed  to  the  "Bluffs."  With  the  increase  of  popula- 
tion, the  name  Bluffs  was  changed  to  the  "Cumberland 
Settlement,"  which  name  was  kept  until  the  Revolutionary 
War. 

General  Nash  was  killed  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 
Soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Cumberland  Settle- 
ment was  changed  to  Nashborough,  in  honor  of  General 
Nash.  "Borough"  being  an  English  word  and  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  making  British  nomenclature  unpopular,  the 
Legislature  of  North  Carolina  in  1784  changed  the 
name  Nashborough  to  Nashville.  It  is  a  city  of  many 
universities,  colleges,  private  and  professional  schools,  and 
is  affectionately  called  the  "Athens  of  the  South." 

The  Kentucky  Circuit  (in  the  newly  organized  M.E. 
Church)  was  organized  in  1786.  After  one  year,  1787,  the 
circuit  was  divided  into  the  Kentucky  and  Cumberland 
Circuits.  Benjamin  Ogden  was  appointed  by  Bishop  As- 
BURY  to  the  newly  organized  circuit.  It  included  Middle 
and  West  Tennessee,  Logan,  Warren  and  Simpson  Coun- 
ties in  southern  Kentucky.  The  new  pastor  made  Nash- 
ville his  headquarters. 

It  is  not  known  how  many  Methodist  churches  Ben- 
jamin Ogden  organized  in  his  new  circuit  in  1787.  Two 
churches  are  in  operation  today  that  are  known  to  have 
been  organized  by  him  that  year — McKendree  on  Church 
Street  in  Nashville,  and  Walkers  Chapel  on  Walkers  Creek 
four  miles  northwest  of  present  day  Goodlettsville,  Tenn. 
The  building  that  finally  became  McKendree  in  1839, 
was  erected  on  the  public  square  in  Nashville  in  1790 
or  1791.  Bishop  Asbury  described  this  building  upon  his 
first  visit  to  Nashville,  Oct.  20,  1800,  in  company  with 
Bishop  Whatcoat  and  the  presiding  elder,  William 
McKendree,  as  follows:  "Not  less  than  a  thousand  people 
were  in  and  out  of  the  stone  church,  which  if  floored, 
ceiled  and  glazed,  would  be  a  grand  house." 

The  General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South, 
in  1854,  recognized  the  strategic  location  of  Nashville 
and  located  the  first  Methodist  Publishing  House  of 
that  Church  in  this  rapidly  growing  city.  The  original 
location  was  on  the  northeast  corner  of  the  public  square 
where   it   remained   until    1906.   The   second    Pubhshing 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NASHVILLE,  TENNESSEE 


House  was  erected  at  810  Broadway  in  1906.  The  third 
and  present  Publishing  House  was  erected  at  201  Eighth 
Avenue,  South.  First  an  enlarged  printing  plant  had  been 
placed  there  in  1924;  a  present  office  building  was  erected 
in  1957;  and  the  present  printing  plant  building  greatly 
enlarged  to  its  present  size  in  1961. 

With  the  coming  of  unification  in  1939,  the  Board 
OF  Education,  the  Commission  (now  Board)  of  Evange- 
lism of  The  Methodist  Church  (and  of  course  the  Pub- 
lishing House)  were  placed  in  or  remained  in  Nashville. 
Subsequently,  enlarged  headquarters  buildings  were 
erected  by  the  Board  of  Education  and  the  Board  of 
Evangelism.  The  Television,  Radio  and  Film  Commis- 
sion has  also  been  established  there.  The  chapel  of  The 
Upper  Room,  housed  in  the  Board  of  Evangelism's  build- 
ing, is  a  show-place  of  the  city.  Vanderbilt  University, 
ScARRiTT  College,  and  Meharry  Medical  College  are 
among  the  educational  institutions  located  in  Nashville. 
The  city  has  been  the  seat  of  an  episcopal  area  and  of- 
ficially designated  as  such  from  1940  to  the  present. 

Nashville  is  not  only  a  Methodist  headquarters  but 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  has  its  printing  plant 
and  pubhshing  house  there  and  many  interests  of  other 
denominations  are  centered  there. 

The  two  Nashville  districts  (UMC)  in  1970  reported 
52,080  members  and  list  104  churches — all  of  which  are 
in  the  city  or  very  close  by.  The  largest  of  these  is 
Belmont,  2,621;  West  End,  2,512;  McKendree,  2,201; 
with  Calvary  reporting  1,835,  Belle  Meade,  1,904;  and 
Andrew  Price  Memorial,  1,991. 


ELMONT    ChiRCH,    \aSH\IILE,    TENNESSEE 


Belmont  Church,  on  Twenty-first  Avenue,  South,  at 
Acklen  Avenue,  is  on  the  southern  edge  of  the  University 
Center  area  involving  George  Peabody  College,  Scarritt 
College  for  Christian  Workers,  and  Vanderbilt  University 
and  draws  on  the  faculty  and  students  of  these  schools  for 
some  of  its  leadership.  Founded  July  10,  1910,  with 
thirty-four  members,  the  church  now  has  2,621;  and  its 
facilities  have  expanded  from  a  small  frame  structure  to 
four  commodious  units  extending  a  full  block  on  Acklen 
Avenue.  The  sanctuary,  completed  in  1929  and  seating 
approximately  1,200,  is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  impres- 
sive in  the  city.  The  other  units,  added  1951-55,  contain 
a  chapel  seating  175,  with  reception  facilities,  offices,  a 
library,  classrooms,  and  a  youth  center  which  includes  a 
gymnasium. 

With  the  growth  of  Nashville  many  Belmont  members 
now  live  in  surburban  areas  around  the  southern  rim  of 
the  city  and  drive  many  miles  to  participate  in  the  full 
and  varied  program  of  a  larger  church.  Special  emphasis 


is  given  to  missions.  Christian  education,  and  music. 
Belmont  partially  supports  two  missionary  couples  who 
went  from  its  own  membership  into  overseas  service,  and 
also  the  pastor  of  a  mission  church  in  the  city;  and  in- 
dividuals and  groups  give  time  as  well  as  money  to  other 
local  mission  causes.  Leadership  from  the  faculties  of  the 
nearby  colleges  and  from  the  general  agencies  of  the 
church  has  made  possible  training  for  almost  all  of  the 
teachers  of  children  and  youth  in  the  church  school,  and 
for  the  director  and  teachers  of  the  weekday  kindergarten. 
The  adult  classes  also  enjoy  professional  participation. 
Regular  programs  for  retired  adults  and  for  handicapped 
persons  are  among  the  weekday  activities. 

Youth  and  adult  choirs  provide  music  in  the  two  regular 
Sunday  morning  worship  services.  Graded  choirs  for 
younger  ages,  beginning  with  the  kindergarten,  meet 
weekly  and  present  several  programs  each  year.  Youth  and 
adult  handbell  ringers  play  with  the  choirs  on  festival 
occasions,  as  do  guest  instrumental  soloists.  The  forty- 
six-rank  organ,  installed  in  1961,  is  one  of  the  largest 
in  the  city  and  makes  possible  bringing  guest  organists  of 
national  reputation  for  concerts  two  or  more  times  a  year. 

Pastors  of  Belmont  have  included  Bachman  G.  Hodge 
(1935-39),  later  a  bishop,  John  L.  Ferguson  (1939-50), 
John  W.  Rustin  (1950-59),  Faris  F.  Moore  (1959-69), 
and  C.  Glenn  Mingledorff  ( 1969-  ) . 

McKendree  Church,  the  historic  downtown  church  and 
long-time  citadel  of  Nashville  Methodism,  is  a  civic  land- 
mark of  Nashville.  It  was  begun  as  early  as  1787  when 
a  group  of  Nashville's  pioneers  banded  together  in  the 
first  Methodist  society  in  the  then  new  settlement.  They 
erected  a  small  church  on  what  is  now  known  as  "the 
Public  Square." 

In  1812  the  society  moved  to  the  site  now  occupied  by 
the  Hume  Fogg  High  School,  and  erected  a  building 
which  for  some  time  served  as  a  meeting  place  of  the 
Tennessee  Conference  and  also  of  the  Tennessee  Legis- 
lature. 

The  congregation  in  time  decided  that  this  church 
building  was  too  far  from  the  center  of  town,  so  in  1818 
a  new  structure  was  erected  on  Spring  Street  where  the 
Noel  Hotel  Garage  now  stands.  Nashville's  first  church- 
related  Sunday  school  was  started  at  the  Spring  Street 
Church. 

Later  there  came  a  need  for  more  space  and  this  neces- 
sitated the  purchase  of  the  present  location,  on  Church 
Street,  Nashville.  A  stately  sanctuary  was  raised  there  in 
1833  and  was  dedicated  by — and  named  for — Bishop 
William  McKendree  in  1834.  New  buildings  were  erected 
on  this  property  in  1879  and  1882,  but  both  were  de- 
stroyed by  fire.  The  present  McKendree  Church  was  com- 
pleted in  1910,  and  to  it  has  been  added  through  the 
years  an  educational  plant.  The  church  has  recently  con- 
structed new  educational  facilities  and  a  sub-building 
under  its  own  famous  lawn  in  the  heart  of  downtown 
Nashville  in  order  to  get  more  space  for  its  present  day 
requirements. 

Among  the  vicissitudes  of  life  in  McKendree  have  been 
the  two  fires  and  the  seizure  of  the  McKendree  edifice  by 
federal  troops  during  the  Civil  War.  As  to  the  fires,  of 
course  the  complete  destruction  of  the  buildings  consti- 
tuted crises  in  the  lives  of  the  congregations.  The  turmoil 
incident  to  the  Civil  War  was  a  challenge  to  faith. 

A  list  of  pastors  who  have  served  this  church  reads  like 
a  Who's  Who  of  Southern  Methodism  in  the  United 
States.  Among  them  have  been  Jacob  Young,   1806-07; 


NAST,   WILHELM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Robert  Paine,  1824-25;  A.  L.  P.  Green,  1832-33;  Foun- 
tain E.  Pitts,  1833-34;  J.  B.  McFerrin,  1835-36;  J.  W. 
Manner,  1839-40;  D.  C.  Kelley,  1869-72;  R.  K.  Har- 
grove, 1872-74;  Walter  R.  Lambuth  (assistant  pastor), 
1876;  J.  D.  Barbee,  1882-86;  Warren  A.  Candler, 
1886-87;  S.  A.  Steel,  1889-92;  John  Mathews,  1897- 
1901;  E.  B.  Chappell,  1901-06;  Collins  Denny  (acting 
pastor),  1906;  J.  S.  French,  1910-14;  O.  E.  Goddard 
(associate  pastor),  1919-22;  H.  B.  Trimble,  1922-28. 

Five  of  the  above  were  elected  bishops  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South,  namely,  Robert  Paine,  R.  K.  Hargrove, 
Wairen  A.  Candler,  Collins  Denny  and  Walter  Lambuth. 

McKendree  is  as  much  a  part  of  Nashville  as  the  famous 
Capitol,  or  the  Cumberland  River  itself,  and  is  so  recog- 
nized by  the  people  of  Tennessee.  The  church  presently 
(1970)  numbers  2,201  members  and  employs  three  pas- 
tors. 

West  End  Church  is  on  West  End  Avenue  facing  the 
campus  of  Vanderbilt  University,  beyond  which  are  Scar- 
ritt  College  for  Christian  Workers  and  George  Peabody 
College  for  Teachers.  The  church  fellowship  is  enriched 
by  the  participation  of  faculty  members  and  students  from 
all  three  schools  in  its  life  and  worship.  For  a  time  before 
completion  of  the  present  sanctuary — a  time  which  be- 
cause of  the  depression  stretched  to  over  ten  years  ( 1929- 
40) — the  congregation  worshipped  in  Neely  Auditorium 
on  the  Vanderbilt  campus.  The  church  has  2,512  mem- 
bers, with  property  occupying  a  city  block  and  valued 
at  well  over  $2,000,000. 

In  1868  members  of  McKendree  Church,  "the  mother 
church  of  Nashville  Methodism,"  began  a  mission  Sunday 
school  on  Church  Street  at  Fifteenth  Avenue,  in  a  build- 
ing so  dilapidated  that  the  coming  of  cold  weather 
brought  the  project  to  a  stop.  The  next  year  it  was  re- 
activated and  organized  as  a  mission  church,  called  the 
West  Nashville  Mission  and  later  West  End  Mission.  The 
church  became  self-supporting  in  1873  and  worked  toward 
a  building,  which  was  erected  on  Broadway  at  Sixteenth 
Avenue  and  opened  for  worship  Feb.  9,  1875.  Fifteen 
years  later  the  congregation  occupied  a  large  new  brick 
building  on  the  same  site,  which  was  used  until  the  move 
into  the  first  section  of  the  present  educational  building 
on  Oct.  27,  1929.  The  present  sanctuary  was  opened  for 
worship  March  10,  1940.  On  Sept.  15,  1968,  occurred  the 
formal  opening  of  a  five-story  addition  containing  educa- 
tional, social,  and  recreational  facilities,  including  a  gym- 
nasium, which  make  possible  for  the  church  a  full  program 
of  worship,  education,  fellowship,  and  service. 

West  End  has  many  historic  associations.  Tablets  and 
stained-glass  windows  reveal  its  close  relation  with  the 
leaders  of  Methodism  staHoned  in  Nashville  for  a  century. 
The  church  has  yielded  two  successive  pastors  to  the 
episcopacy:  Costen  J.  Harrell  (1944)  and  James  W. 
Henley  (1960). 

Cullen   T.    Carter,   ed..    History   of    Methodist    Churches   and 
Institutions  in  Middle  Tennessee,  1787-1956.  Tennessee  Con- 
ference Historical  Society,  1956. 
General  Minutes. 

Cullen  T.  Carter 
Paris  F.  Moore 

Gordon  B.  Duncan 

C.  A.  BOWEN 

NAST,  WILHELM  (1807-1889),  founder  of  German  Meth- 
odism, was  bom  in  Stuttgart,  Germany  on  June  15, 
1807.  His  father  and  mother  died  in  his  early  youth  but  he 


William  Nast 

was  reared  in  a  good  family  atmosphere  by  an  older  sister. 
In  his  later  youth  he  enrolled  in  Blauberen  Seminary  to 
prepare  for  the  Lutheran  ministry.  His  roommate  chanced 
to  be  the  well  known  radical  materialist,  David  Frederick 
Straus,  whose  effect  upon  him  was  to  produce  mental 
doubts  and  weakened  convictions.  However  Wilham 
Nast's  serious  nature  and  scholarly  disposition  served  to 
hold  him  steady  as  he  matured. 

In  1828,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  while  in  this  restless 
state  of  mind,  he  came  to  America,  and  there  continued 
to  seek  a  well  founded  faith.  He  found  for  a  time  employ- 
ment as  private  instructor  in  an  English  family  near  Harris- 
burg,  Pa.  Next  he  served  as  hbrarian  and  professor  of 
German  at  West  Point,  the  United  States  Military  Acad- 
emy. He  then  went  to  the  Lutheran  College  at  Gettysburg, 
Pa.  Here  Bishop  Mcllvaine  proved  a  friend  to  him  by 
securing  for  him  a  professorship  of  Greek  and  Hebrew  in 
Kenyon  College,  Gambier,  Ohio. 

Nast  formed  a  friendship  with  a  shoemaker  named 
John  Smith  whose  faith  impressed  him,  and  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  coming  of  the  Methodist  presiding  elder, 
Adam  Poe — afterward  Book  Agent  at  Cincinnati — Nast 
went  at  Smith's  invitation  to  meet  the  visitor.  Poe  was 
favorably  impressed  with  young  Nast  and  encouraged 
him  in  his  pursuit  for  spiritual  certainty.  It  is  thereafter 
recorded  that  on  Jan.  11,  1835,  at  Danville,  Ohio,  he 
came  into  a  satisfying  experience,  one  characteristic  of 
the  evangelistic  and  missionary  happenings  then  in  Ger- 
man Methodism. 

On  Aug.  18,  1835,  at  Springfield,  Poe  proposed  to  the 
Ohio  Conference  that  William  Nast  be  received  on 
trial.  His  appointment  was  then  announced,  "Missionary 
among  the  German  immigrants  in  and  near  Cincinnati." 
Nast  at  once  began  his  work,  preaching  his  first  sermon  in 
Wesley  Chapel  to  a  congregation  of  twenty-four  Germans 
and  twelve  English  hearers.  He  made  extensive  contacts 
with  German-spealdng  groups,  but  at  the  next  session  of 
the  Conference  results  seemed  meager  since  only  three 
persons  had  been  converted.  However  one  of  these  was 
John  Zwahlen,  later  to  be  founder  of  Central  (German) 
congregation  in  Wheeling,  W.  Va.  The  one  and  only 
German  church  in  the  West  Virginia  Conference  has 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NATCHEZ,   MISSISSIPPI 


been  in  the  Pittsburgh,  Ohio,  and  West  Virginia  Con- 
ferences. 

On  Aug.  1,  1836,  he  married  Margaret  McDowell  and 
they  had  five  children.  One  daughter,  Fanny  Nast  Gam- 
ble, established  a  "Nast  Theological  Professorship" 
(1899),  which  expanded,  in  1902,  into  Nast  Theological 
Seminary. 

In  1836-1837  Nast  served  on  the  Columbus  District, 
consisting  of  twenty-two  appointments.  In  every  direction 
the  German  Mission  established  contacts  with  German- 
speaking  groups  throughout  much  of  the  nation.  Nast  sent 
John  Zwahlen  to  Wheeling  to  take  subscriptions  for  the 
German  publication  "Christliche  Apologete,"  and  to  in- 
vestigate the  possibility  of  organizing  a  class  there.  Cin- 
cinnati deserves  the  high  honor  of  having  the  "Mother 
Church  of  German  Methodism,"  but  the  congregation  of 
the  Central  Church  in  Wheeling  erected  and  dedicated 
there  the  first  German  Methodist  church  building  in  the 
world.  Nast  dedicated  it  March  22,  1840,  the  climax  of 
John  Zwahlen's  leadership  over  the  Christmas  season  of 
1838,  Zwahlen  then  serving  as  the  first  of  a  series  of 
forty-two  German  pastors.  Almost  a  hundred  years  later, 
in  1934,  Central  Church  transferred  to  the  West  Virginia 
Conference. 

Nast  traveled  widely  in  his  evangelistic  efforts  among 
immigrant  Germans.  He  spread  the  work  of  German  Meth- 
odism to  Missouri,  Kentucky,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and 
Iowa.  He  won  thousands  of  converts  and  organized  them 
into  churches. 

In  1839  he  became  editor  of  Der  Christliche  Apologete, 
a  position  he  held  for  fifty-three  years.  The  General 
Conference,  after  adopting  this  as  an  official  organ  of 
the  church,  elected  Nast  again  and  again.  In  addition  to 
editorial  duties,  he  engaged  in  translating,  writing,  dis- 
tributing tracts,  and  preaching.  He  helE>ed  establish  Ger- 
man Wallace  College,  Berea,  Ohio  (see  Baldwin- Wal- 
lace College),  and  became  its  first  president.  He  made 
several  European  journeys  and  founded  a  successful  Meth- 
odist mission  in  Germany.  Wilhelm  Nast's  important  publi- 
cations include  Das  Leben  und  Wirken  des  Johannes 
Wesley  und  Seiner  Haupt-mitarbeiter  (1852)  and  Die 
Aufgabe  der  Christlichen  Kirche  im  neunzehnten  Jahr- 
hundert  (1857).  He  died  May  6,  1889,  at  Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1949-57. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

P.  F.  Douglass,  German  Methodism.  1939. 

Martin  L.  Greer 
Ottis  Rymer  Snodgbass 

NATCHEZ,  MISSISSIPPI,  U.S.A.  The  word  "Natchez"  in 
early  records  meant  not  a  city  but  an  area,  sometimes 
called  the  "Natchez  country."  Methodism  had  been  in  the 
area  a  good  number  of  years  before  any  definite  Methodist 
activity  had  taken  place  in  the  city  itself.  It  is  assumed 
that  Tobias  Gibson,  who  came  from  South  Carolina 
in  1799  and  landed  at  Natchez,  must  have  preached  in 
the  city,  but  there  is  no  record  of  it.  Lorenzo  Dow  men- 
tions preaching  there  a  few  years  later,  but  reports  httle 
interest  and  spiritual  concern. 

The  first  churches  in  the  Natchez  area  were  organized 
in  small  towns  and  rural  communities.  The  earliest  and 
oldest  is  the  church  at  Washington,  organized  in  1799 
with  eight  members:  William  and  Mary  Foster,  Randal 
and  Harriett  Gibson,  Edna  Bullen,  Caleb  Worley,  and  a 
colored  man  and  his  wife.  The  second  congregation  was 


organized  at  Kingston,  sixteen  miles  southeast,  in  1800; 
it  was  here  that  Lorenzo  Dow  sold  his  watch  and  bought 
a  lot  on  which  to  build  a  Methodist  church,  the  first  Meth- 
odist property  in  the  Mississippi  Territory.  The  Methodists 
at  Kingston  have  had  three  church  buildings — a  small 
building  on  the  Dow  lot,  a  brick  building  erected  some 
years  later,  and  the  present  building  constructed  in  1855- 
56  and  dedicated  on  the  first  Sunday  in  May  1856.  The 
church  at  Washington  worshipped  first  in  a  schoolhouse, 
then  in  a  union  building  on  College  Street,  then  in  the 
building  inside  the  Jefferson  College  campus  in  which  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1817  was  held,  and  since 
1828  in  the  present  building,  which  is  the  second  oldest 
building  in  Mississippi  and  houses  the  oldest  congrega- 
tion. The  oldest  building  is  at  Woodville,  built  in  1824. 

No  one  knows  when  the  first  Methodist  congregation 
was  organized  in  the  city  of  Natchez  itself.  The  first 
church  property  in  Natchez  was  acquired  on  March  25, 
1807,  a  lot  on  Union  Street  north  of  Main,  for  the  sum 
of  $150.  Since  the  Board  of  Trustees  named  in  the  deed 
were  mainly  nonresidents  of  Natchez,  it  seems  probable 
that  no  organization  had  as  yet  taken  place.  Nor  is  it 
known  just  when  a  church  was  erected  on  this  lot.  It 
lasted  a  dozen  years  or  more,  when  it  was  replaced  by  a 
new  church  on  a  different  location  and  soon  after  the  Civil 
War  by  the  present  Jefferson  Street  Church,  which  is  at 
the  present  time  the  oldest  building  in  use  by  Methodists 
in  the  major  cities  of  the  state. 

Methodism  in  the  Natchez  area  has  had  a  long  and 
honorable  history.  The  first  Sunday  school  in  the  south- 
west was  established  in  Natchez  by  Richard  Abbey  and 
Miss  Eliza  Lowe,  and  the  first  organization  of  women  in 
Mississippi  took  place  in  the  Washington  Methodist 
Church  on  July  23,  1823,  with  Mrs.  John  C.  Burruss  as 
president  and  Mrs.  Caroline  Matilda  Thayer  as  corre- 
sponding secretary. 

Elizabeth  Academy  at  Washington  opened  in  1818 
and  was  chartered  by  the  legislature  in  1819  to  give  de- 
grees to  women,  and  is  said  by  many  to  have  been  the 
first  chartered  institution  in  the  world  to  give  degrees  to 
women. 

Other  Methodist  congregations  in  the  immediate  vicin- 
ity of  Natchez,  in  addition  to  Washington  and  Kingston, 
have  been  Pine  Ridge,  Bethel,  Sandy  Creek,  Selsertown, 
Locust  Grove,  and  Pine  Grove;  while  in  Natchez  Wesley 
Chapel,  Pearl  Street,  Maple  Street,  Wesley,  Grace,  and 
Lovely  Lane  Churches  have  served  the  Methodist  people. 

Jefferson  Street  Church.  Tobias  Gibson  came  to 
Natchez  as  a  missionary  from  South  Carolina  around  1800 
and  organized  churches  in  the  Natchez  area.  It  is  not 
known  when  the  Methodist  congregation  in  Natchez  was 
formally  organized.  On  March  25,  1807,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Learner  Blackman,  the  first  lot  was  obtained 
for  the  building  of  a  church.  It  was  called  Cokesbury 
Chapel  and  was  in  use  until  1823,  when  a  new  church 
was  built  on  Union  Street.  This  was  sold  in  1866  and  the 
present  church  lot,  bought  in  1857,  was  not  in  use  until 
1872,  when  the  first  service  was  held  in  the  present  build- 
ing on  August  30.  A  parsonage  was  secured  in  1850  and 
the  church  has  had  a  parsonage  since  that  time. 

The  first  Sunday  school  southwest  of  Philadelphia 
was  organized  in  Natchez  before  1829,  and  a  missionary 
organization  of  the  women  of  the  Natchez  and  Wash- 
ington churches  was  in  existence  before  that  time.  Four- 
teen sessions  of  the  annual  conference  have  been  held  in 
the  Natchez  church. 

1703 


NATIONAL   CHILDREN'S   HOME   AND   ORPHANAGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Grace  Church  and  Lovely  Lane  Church  share  with  the 
original  Jefferson  Street  congregation  the  responsibility 
of  Methodism  in  Natchez. 

Henry   G.   Hawkins,   Methodism   in   Natchez.   Jackson,    Miss.: 

The  Hawkins  Foundation,  1937. 

J.  G.  Jones,  Mississippi  Conference.  1908.  J.  B.  Cain 

NATIONAL    CHILDREN'S    HOME    AND    ORPHANAGE, 

Great  Britain,  was  founded  by  Thomas  Bowman  Ste- 
phenson, a  Wesleyan  Methodist  minister,  in  1869.  Ste- 
phenson received  two  boys  in  a  house  he  had  rented  in 
Church  Street,  Lambeth,  London,  and  these  were  fore- 
runners of  some  43,000  children  who  have  subsequently 
come  under  the  care  of  the  home.  The  home's  purpose 
has  from  the  earliest  days  been  to  minister  to  all  cate- 
gories of  children  in  need;  and  the  home's  policy  was, 
and  is,  to  create  substitute  homes  which  approximate  as 
nearly  as  possible  a  child's  own  home. 

The  home,  which  has  some  forty  branches  in  England, 
Wales,  Scotland,  and  the  Isle  of  Man,  also  has  a  program 
of  foster  care,  adoption,  and  family  aid.  Its  child-care 
staff  includes  an  Order  of  Deaconesses,  or  sisters,  who  are 
trained  and  ordained  for  their  special  tasks. 

Though  the  home  is  a  Methodist  foundation,  it  receives 
children  from  all  Protestant  denominations,  and  many 
from  none.  The  home  furthermore  is  supported  by  the 
general  public,  to  which  it  makes  national  appeals  of 
various  kinds. 

The  scope  of  the  service  rendered  by  the  home  to  its 
three  thousand  children  in  care  is  very  wide,  including 
schools  for  backward,  physically  handicapped,  and  de- 
linquent youngsters.  For  senior  boys  there  is  a  very  well 
equipped  Printing  Technical  School.  The  Staff  Training 
College,  Stephenson  Hall,  is  in  London. 

The  National  Children's  Home  is  one  of  the  most 
significant  and  widespread  undertakings  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Great  Britain.  Its  headquarters  are  at  High- 
bury Park,  London,  N.  5,  and  the  present  principal  is  the 
Rev.  John  Waterhouse,  O.B.E. 

John  Waterhouse 

NATIONAL  COLLEGE,  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  began  as 
a  deaconess  training  school  in  1899  with  special  emphasis 
on  biblical  studies  and  social  work.  In  1946  the  liberal  arts 
program  leading  to  a  B.A.  degree  was  adopted,  and  in 
1954  it  became  a  coeducational  college.  Plans  were  com- 
pleted in  1964  for  it  to  discontinue  its  work  as  a  liberal 
arts  college  and  merge  with  the  Saint  Paul  School 
OF  Theology.  This  merger  made  possible  a  larger  empha- 
sis upon  graduate  work  in  religious  education. 

From  1899  until  1939  National  was  under  the  control 
of  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  and  after  Unification,  of  the  Woman's  Division 
of  Christian  Service  of  the  Board  of  Missions.  Its  last  year 
of  academic  work  was  1963-64.  In  1965  Saint  Paul 
School  of  Theology  moved  to  the  campus. 

John  O.  Gross 


NATIONAL  COUNCIL  OF  THE  CHURCHES  OF  CHRIST 
IN  THE  U.S.A.,  with  headquarters  at  475  Riverside  Drive, 
New  York  City,  is  a  cooperative  agency  of  thirty  Protestant 
and  Orthodox  churches  who  propose  "to  show  forth  their 
unity  and  mission  in  specific  ways  and  to  bring  them  into 


living  contact  with  one  another  for  fellowship,  study,  and 
cooperative  action."  Four  American  Methodist  church 
bodies  are  among  the  thirty  "constituents"  (or  denomina- 
tions) that  comprise  the  Council:  The  United  Method- 
ist Church,  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church,  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
and  the  Christian  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  The 
cooperative  work  of  the  churches  through  councils  in 
states,  cities,  and  counties  (in  which  Methodism  generally 
has  an  important  share)  is  represented  on  the  Council's 
divisions,  departments,  and  committees. 

The  National  Council  of  Churches  grew  out  of  and 
continues  the  mission,  witness,  and  service  of  twelve  his- 
torical interdenominational  bodies  which  began  their 
united  service  and  study  early  in  the  century.  The  "core" 
of  this  united  ministry  was  the  Federal  Council  of 
Churches  in  the  early  organization  and  maintenance  of 
which  Methodism  was  a  major  factor.  Among  the  Meth- 
odists who  were  presidents  of  the  Federal  Council  before 
its  merger  into  the  National  Council  were:  Bishop  E.  R. 
Hendrix,  Frank  Mason  North,  S.  Parkes  Cadman  (a 
local  preacher  of  British  Methodism),  Bishop  Francis 
J.  McConnell,  Bishop  Ivan  Lee  Holt,  Bishop  G.  Brom- 
ley OxNAM.  Two  Methodists  who  have  served  as  presi- 
dents of  the  National  Council  are  Bishop  William  C. 
Martin  and  Arthur  S.  Fleming. 

The  thirty  denominations  in  the  National  Council  have 
a  total  membership  of  42,000,000  persons.  But,  says  the 
Council,  "whereas  the  Council  does  not  speak  for  its  mem- 
ber churches,  the  churches  through  the  Council  do  speak 
to  one  another  and  to  the  general  public.  What  is  said 
through  the  Council  is  determined  altogether  by  the 
elected  representatives  of  the  churches." 

The  Council  is  governed  by  a  General  Assembly  of 
875  people,  meeting  once  in  three  years,  chosen  by  mem- 
ber communions.  The  General  Assembly  elects  a  General 
Board  of  275  of  its  members;  and  this  Board,  meeting 
three  times  a  year,  is  charged  with  the  program  and  ad- 
ministration of  the  CounciL  On  behalf  of  the  churches 
and  participating  organizations,  the  Council  currently 
carries  on  some  seventy-five  cooperative  projects  in  the 
United  States  and  overseas.  These  are  the  concerns  of 
four  divisions.  In  the  Division  of  Christian  Life  and  Work 
are  departments  promoting  parish  and  community  life, 
evangelism,  stewardship,  concern  for  race  relations,  reli- 
gious liberty,  economics,  international  affairs,  and  min- 
istries to  areas  of  special  need — American  Indians,  migrant 
farm  workers,  etc.  The  Division  of  Christian  Education 
is  concerned  with  educational  institutions  and  ministries, 
the  pastoral  ministry,  vocation,  and  the  development  of 
the  lay  ministry.  The  Division  of  Overseas  Ministries 
helps  in  the  cooperation  of  all  mission  agencies  of  the 
churches  in  lands  outside  the  United  States — continuing 
the  earlier  services  of  the  Foreign  Missions  Conference 
of  North  America — and  has  as  its  special  charge  the  work 
of  Church  World  Service  in  concern  for  relief,  rehabilita- 
tion and  reconstruction  in  war-torn  and  disaster  areas, 
and  in  social  and  economic  development.  It  also  has  a 
number  of  specialized  ministries — literacy,  literature, 
radio,  medical,  union  churches,  rural  missions,  military 
service  personnel,  etc. — in  some  forty  countries.  The 
Division  of  Christian  Unity  works  for  "ecumenical  re- 
sponse" in  the  U.S.A.  by  study,  organization  of  local 
councils  of  churches,  promotion  of  dialogue,  and  the  ser- 
vices of  United  Church  Men,  United  Church  Women, 
and  Youth  Ministry. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEBLER,  STERLING  AUGUSTUS 


The  United  Methodist  Church  contributes  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  National  Council  and  to  the  activities  of  its 
divisions  and  agencies  largely  through  an  appropriation 
made  by  the  General  Conference. 


NAUVOO,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A.  Methodism  was  established 
in  Nauvoo  shortly  after  the  departure  of  the  Mormons, 
following  the  assassination  of  their  leader,  Joseph  Smith, 
and  his  brother  Hyrum  in  the  jail  at  Carthage  on  June 
27,  1844.  In  October  1846,  G.  G.  Worthington  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  Knoxville  circuit  in  Rock  Rher  Con- 
ference to  begin  work  in  Nauvoo.  A  few  days  after  his 
arrival  on  October  20  he  preached  the  first  Methodist  ser- 
mon in  Nauvoo  in  the  recently  abandoned  Mormon  Tem- 
ple. 

"The  desolate  appearance  of  the  'City  of  the  Saints'," 
he  wrote  in  his  report  to  the  Missionary  Society  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  1847,  "and  the  country  around  for  five 
miles,  at  least,  beggars  all  description,  and  can  never  be 
erased  from  my  mind.  The  'troubles'  war,  and  strife,  were 
just  over,  and  a  remnant  of  the  'regulators"  left  by  the 
Anti-Mormon  party  still  lingered  in  the  great  Mormon 
Temple,  with  the  mouths  of  three  great  guns  in  the  portico 
of  the  Temple,  looking  down  upon  those  remaining  in  the 
deserted  city." 

With  the  arrival  of  troops  under  Governor  Ford  order 
was  restored  in  the  city,  and  Worthington  began  rounding 
up  a  few  Methodist  families.  After  the  first  Sunday  ser- 
vices were  held  in  the  Music  Hall  nearby  the  Temple.  This 
hall  was  purchased  from  the  Mormons  at  a  great  loss  to  the 
latter.  A  church  building  was  erected  in  1853,  which 
served  until  merger  with  the  Geiman  Methodist  congrega- 
tion in  1904. 

German  Methodist  work  dates  also  from  1846,  when 
Jacob  Haas  was  appointed  minister.  A  building  was  pro- 
vided in  1855,  and  the  charge  was  related  later  to  the 
St.  Louis  German  Conference. 

When  the  two  Methodist  congregations  merged  in  1904, 
the  "English"  building  was  sold  and  the  German  build- 
ing was  transferred  to  the  Central  Illinois  Confer- 
ence. In  1913  this  building  was  razed,  and  the  present 
frame  structure  was  erected.  A  membership  of  148  was 
reported  in  1970. 

Frederick  A.  Norwood 
Henry  J.  Nylin 

NAVAJO  METHODIST  MISSION,  Farmington,  New  Mex 
ICO,  was  founded  in  1891  by  two  missionaries — Mrs. 
Eldridge  and  Miss  Raymond — who  gave  up  positions  in 
Government  Schools  in  Lawrence,  Kansas,  to  teach  the 
gospel  to  the  Indians. 

The  first  mission  was  built  at  Jewett,  about  twenty  miles 
west  of  Farmington,  but  in  1911  this  mission  was  com- 
pletely destroyed  by  flood. 

In  1912  the  present  mission  was  established  on  thirty 
acres  of  land  two  miles  from  Farmington.  More  buildings 
have  been  added  through  the  years,  and  the  present  value 
is  estimated  at  $1,000,000  with  an  enrollment  of  thirty 
day  students  and  205  boarding  students.  This  mission  has 
classes  from  the  first  through  the  twelfth  grades.  There 
are  church  services,  a  Sunday  school,  a  Methodist  Youth 
Fellowship,  and  regular  medical  care  for  the  Indians. 

Mrs.  D.  W.  Thornbubc 


NAWAB,  PHILIP  ANDREW,  was  an  early  convert  from 
Islam  in  Lucknow.  He  was  descended  from  the  royal 
family  of  Oudh.  The  aura  of  royalty  never  forsook  him. 
He  was  soundly  converted,  and  spoke  with  an  eloquence 
and  winsomeness  that  commanded  attention  whether  in 
church  worship  services,  the  drawing  room  of  the  elite, 
or  the  crowded  bazaars.  He  began  his  ministry  in  the 
1880's  and  continued  it  into  the  early  years  of  the  twen- 
tieth century. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

NAYLOR,  GEORGE  DENT  (1880-1959),  American  mis- 
sionary to  Cuba,  was  bom  Nov.  15,  1880  in  Maryland, 
where  he  joined  the  Baltimore  Conference.  Graduating 
from  Vanderbilt  University,  where  he  belonged  to  a 
group  of  Student  Volunteers,  he  was  accepted  as  a 
missionary  to  Cuba  in  1915.  His  first  appointment  was  to 
the  Isle  of  Pines,  Havana  Province.  On  occasional  visits 
to  Havana  he  met  and  married  the  talented  Effie  Wright 
Chastain,  who  had  been  born  in  Mexico,  the  daughter 
of  a  Baptist  missionary. 

Their  children  were  George  Dent,  Jr.,  Mary  Jean, 
Kathleen  Wright,  William  Chastain,  Marguerite,  and 
Annie  Lee.  Knowing  Spanish  from  childhood,  Mrs.  Naylor 
became  a  prodigious  writer  and  translator  in  Spanish. 
Her  pen  produced  many  translations,  original  plays,  and 
for  many  years  the  children's  page  in  church  publications. 

At  every  pastoral  charge  they  were  particularly  loved, 
and  their  home  and  congregations  knew  no  boundary  of 
color.  Also  several  homeless  young  people  found  a  haven 
in  their  home. 

After  leaving  the  field  in  1932,  George  Naylor  served 
various  appointments  in  the  Baltimore  Conference  until 
his  retirement  in  1953.  But  after  retirement,  and  with  his 
wife  in  poor  health,  they  returned  to  Cuba  serving  as  sub- 
stitute pastor  in  Guantanamo  and  Holguin  until  the 
political  situation  made  it  impractical  to  remain.  They 
both  died  within  a  few  weeks  of  each  other  in  1959. 

Garfield  Evans 

NAZREY,  WILLIS  (1808-1875),  American  bishop  of  the 
A. M.E.  Church,  was  bom  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  Virginia, 
on  March  5,  1808.  His  education  was  self-acquired.  He 
was  converted  and  licensed  in  1837  and  admitted  into 
the  New  York  Annual  Conference  in  1840.  He  was  or- 
dained DEACON  in  1841  and  elder  in  1843.  He  held  pas- 
torates in  Lewiston  County,  Pa.;  Philadelphia,  Pa.;  and 
New  Jersey.  He  was  elected  bishop  in  1852.  He  with- 
drew from  the  A. M.E.  Church  to  become  first  bishop  of 
the  British  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  (the  A.M.E. 
churches  in  Canada  and  the  B.W.I.,  etc.),  which  fonned 
a  separate  denomination  until  a  reunion  in  1884.  Nazrey 
died  in  1875. 


R.  R.  Wright,  The  Bishops.  1963. 


Grant  S.  Shockley 


NEBLETT,  STERLING  AUGUSTUS  (1873-1969),  American 
missionary  to  Cuba,  was  bom  in  Union  City,  Tenn.,  on 
Sept.  11,  1873.  In  1894  he  became  the  first  graduate  of 
the  American  Temperance  University,  Harriman,  Tenn. 
While  working  as  an  accountant  for  the  Southern  Express 
Company  he  had  an  experience  of  conversion  and  one 
year  later  (1900),  he  felt  called  for  foreign  missionary 
service.  He  arrived  in  Cuba  in   1902  and  became  prin- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


S.  A.   Neblett 

cipal  of  a  Methodist  school  in  Cienfuegos,  working  with 
two  teachers  and  fifty  students. 

In  1903  he  was  appointed  by  Bishop  W.  A.  Candler 
to  Matanzas,  the  first  of  an  impressive  hst  of  pastoral 
charges  which  he  filled.  In  1905  he  helped  organize  and 
became  chairman  of  "The  Protestant  Conference,"  the 
first  interdenominational  body  in  Cuba.  He  was  also  one 
of  the  main  inspiring  forces  behind  the  founding  of  the 
periodical  El  Evangelista  Citbano  and  of  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary  in  Cuba. 

He  was  married  to  Lillian  Richards,  June  22,  1898,  and 
their  children  were  William,  John  and  Lucy.  After  the 
death  of  his  wife  he  married  Myrtle  Hargon,  who  was 
teaching  in  Cuba,  and  their  children  were  Robert,  Mary 
Frances  and  Samuel. 

In  the  late  1920's  his  health  began  to  fail  and  after 
doctors  advised  a  change  of  climate,  the  Board  of  Mis- 
.siONs  sent  him  to  conduct  training  schools  for  leaders  in 
Europe.  Later,  his  health  having  improved,  he  returned 
to  Cuba. 

For  a  period  of  fifty  years  he  was  a  part  of  almost  every 
forward  movement  of  the  church,  both  in  his  own  de- 
nomination and  in  interdenominational  activities.  In  the 
Council  of  Evangelical  Churches  he  was  one  of  the  first 
vice-presidents.  Every  Methodist  book  of  Discipline  for 
many  years  was  Neblett's  translation  into  Spanish.  He 
also  translated  into  Spanish  hymn  books  and  other  related 
material  for  the  church  schools.  Over  a  long  period  he 
directed  an  evangelical  book  depository  in  Havana.  As  the 
organizer  of  the  Conference  Board  of  Christian  Educa- 
tion he  was  called  on  to  visit  other  countries  and  to  consult 
with  the  parent  boards  in  the  States.  As  a  result  of  his 
leadership  Cuba  led  all  the  Latin  American  countries  in 
Christian  education. 

After  retiring  he  remained  in  Cuba  for  several  years 


continuing  to  teach  in  leadership  schools.  When  he  finally 
left  Cuba  he  continued  to  translate  Christian  literature 
into  Spanish  while  living  in  Nashville,  Tenn.  He  then 
moved  to  Southport,  Fla.,  where  he  died  Nov.  9,  1969. 

S.  A.  Neblett,  Methodism  in  Cuba.  1966. 

JusTO  L.  Gonzalez 
Garfield  Evans 

NEBRASKA  is  located  in  the  north  central  part  of  the 
United  States.  Its  name  comes  from  the  Indian  words 
"Ni,"  meaning  water,  and  "Bthaska,"  meaning  flat.  It  is 
bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Missouri  River,  on  the  west 
by  the  states  of  Wyoming  and  Colorado,  on  the  north 
by  South  Dakota  and  on  the  south  by  Kansas.  With 
76,522  square  miles,  Nebraska  had  a  population  of  1,468,- 
101  in  1970.  It  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  March  I, 
1867.  The  Platte  River  crosses  the  state  from  west  to  east. 
A  part  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  Nebraska  was  also  a 
part  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Territory  until  1861  when 
Kansas  entered  the  Union.  Following  the  Civil  War,  im- 
migrants pushed  into  Nebraska  seeking  land  in  accordance 
with  the  Homestead  Act  of  1862.  The  population  of  the 
state  grew  rapidly  after  the  coming  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway  in  1869.  Cattle,  hogs,  and  grain  are  among  chief 
products  of  the  state.  Industries  include  the  manufacture 
of  farm  implements,  parts  for  motors,  airplanes,  and  tele- 
phone and  electronic  equipment.  Also,  Nebraska  has  a 
large  cement  industry  made  possible  by  large  limestone 
deposits.  The  Strategic  Air  Command  Base  south  of 
Omah.\  controls  American  military  defense  operations  all 
over  the  world. 

The  first  Methodist  sermon  in  Nebraska  was  preached 
by  Harrison  Presson  in  what  is  now  Omaha  on  April  12, 
1850  to  members  of  his  wagon  train  and  some  local 
Indians.  In  1854  a  Kansas  and  Nebraska  Mission  District 
was  organized  and  attached  to  the  Missouri  Confer- 
ence,- William  H.  Goode  who  came  from  Richmond, 
Ind.,  served  as  presiding  elder.  Goode  appointed  William 
D.  Gage  to  Nebraska  City  where  he  organized  the  first 
Methodist  congregation  and  built  the  first  Methodist 
church  in  Nebraska.  Gage  later  became  the  first  chaplain 
of  the  Nebraska  Territorial  Legislature. 

The  Kansas  and  Nebraska  Conference  was  organized 
in  1856  at  Lawrence,  Kan.,  and  in  1861  Nebraska  became 
a  separate  conference.  In  1880  the  West  Nebraska  Mis- 
sion was  formed,  comprising  the  territory  west  of  Grand 
Island.  In  1881  the  Nebraska  Conference  was  divided 
to  form  the  North  Nebraska  Conference  which  was 
comprised  of  the  territory  north  of  the  Platte  River  and 
east  of  the  West  Nebraska  Mission.  In  1885  the  West 
Nebraska  Conference  superseded  the  West  Nebraska 
Mission,  and  in  1893  this  conference  was  divided  to  create 
the  Northwest  Nebraska  Conference. 

With  the  passage  of  time  and  the  development  of 
swifter  means  of  communication  and  travel,  there  were  no 
impelling  reasons  for  four  Methodist  conferences  in  Ne- 
braska, and  they  began  to  merge.  In  1913  the  North  and 
West  Nebraska  Conferences  were  absorbed  by  the  Nebras- 
ka Conference,  and  in  1924  the  Northwest  Nebraska 
Conference  was  included.  Thereafter  there  was  one  con- 
ference covering  the  whole  state. 

The  German  Methodists,  the  Swedish  Methodists,  and 
the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  operated  in  Nebras- 
ka. In  1864  the  General  Conference  established  a  sys- 
tem of  German  Conferences,  and  in  1879  the  West  Ger- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEELY,   THOMAS   BENJAMIN 


man  Conference  was  organized  at  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  to 
include  churches  in  Missouri,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Colo- 
rado. This  conference  continued  until  1922  when  the 
German  churches  in  Nebraska  were  absorbed  by  the 
appropriate  English-speaking  conferences. 

The  Swedish  Methodist  churches  in  Nebraska  were  part 
of  the  Western  Swedish  Conference  which  was  organized 
in  Omaha  in  1894  to  include  the  Swedish  work  in  Ne- 
braska and  several  surrounding  states.  In  1928  this  con- 
ference merged  with  two  other  Swedish  conferences  to 
form  the  Central  Northwest  Conference  (Swedish) 
which  continued  until  1942  when  the  Swedish  churches 
and  ministers  were  absorbed  in  the  appropriate  English- 
speaking  conferences.  There  were  ten  Swedish  pastoral 
appointments  in  Nebraska  in  1927  and  five  in  1941. 

The  Methodist  Protestants  organized  a  small  Nebraska 
Conference  in  1860.  For  some  years  the  conference  re- 
ceived aid  from  the  denominational  board  of  missions. 
In  1866  the  group  felt  strong  enough  to  establish  Lan- 
caster Seminary  at  what  is  now  Lincoln,  but  after  a  few 
years  the  institution  was  sold  to  Lincoln  for  its  first  public 
school.  The  conference  was  strong  enough  to  send  dele- 
gates to  the  General  Conferences  during  the  last  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  the  Methodist  Protestant 
work  in  the  state  was  dissolved  in  1908. 

As  time  passed,  Nebraska  Methodism  came  to  support 
one  college,  Nebrasic\  Wesleyan  at  Lincoln;  three  hos- 
pitals; three  retirement  homes;  and  four  youth  camps. 

In  1970  the  Nebraska  Conference  had  480  ministers, 
290  pastoral  charges,  and  property  valued  at  $53,797,267. 

E.  E.  Jackman,  Nebraska.  1954. 

D.  Marquette,  Nebraska.  1904.  E.  E.  Jackman 

NEBRASKA  CONFERENCE  was  organized  in  Nebraska 
City,  April  4,  1861  with  Bishop  Thomas  A.  Morris 
presiding.  (See  Nebraska  for  beginnings  of  Methodism 
in  Nebraska.)  At  the  time  it  had  twenty-one  preachers  in- 
cluding seven  on  trial,  twenty  pastoral  appointments,  four 
churches,  and  948  members.  There  were  two  districts, 
Omaha  and  Nebraska  City.  During  its  history  the  Nebras- 
ka Conference  divided  several  times  to  form  other  con- 
ferences in  the  state  but  by  1927  all  of  Nebraska  Meth- 
odism had  been  incorporated  again  in  the  Nebraska  Con- 
ference. At  that  time  it  had  464  charges  and  101,593 
members. 

Nebraska  Methodism  has  always  been  interested  in 
schools  and  colleges.  The  first  attempt  to  found  an  educa- 
tional institution  preceded  the  formation  of  the  conference. 
In  1853  Cass  County  University  was  organized  at  Ore- 
apolis,  but  it  survived  only  three  years.  In  1879  J.  H. 
Fleharty  founded  Nebraska  Wesleyan  University  in 
Osceola,  and  Edward  Thompson  started  York  Seminary 
at  York.  In  1884  North  Central  Methodist  College  was 
opened  in  Central  City.  In  1886  Mallalieu  University  was 
launched  in  the  town  of  Bartley,  and  Orleans  College 
opened  in  Orleans.  The  two  latter  institutions  survived 
about  three  years,  but  the  others  continued  longer. 

After  five  years  in  Osceola,  Nebraska  Wesleyan  was 
moved  to  Fullerton,  and  three  years  later  to  York.  Irj  1887 
York  Seminary  and  North  Central  College  were  absorbed 
by  Nebraska  Wesleyan,  and  the  next  year  the  institution 
moved  to  University  Place,  a  suburb  of  Lincoln,  where 
a  forty-acre  campus  was  available  and  where  the  school 
is  still  located. 

The  conference  supports  three  large  hospitals — Nebras- 


ka Methodist,  Omaha,  which  opened  in  1891;  Bryan 
Memorial,  Lincoln,  which  was  established  in  1924  and 
named  in  honor  of  its  chief  contributor,  William  Jennings 
Bryan;  and  West  Nebraska  General,  Scottsbluff,  founded 
in  1924. 

Epworth  Village,  a  children's  home  at  York,  was 
founded  in  1896.  Retirement  homes  include  Crowell  Me- 
morial at  Blair  (1906)  named  in  honor  of  the  C.  C. 
Crowell's  who  gave  the  land;  the  Sarah  Anne  Hester 
Home,  Benkelman  (1944),  named  in  honor  of  the  mother 
of  the  chief  contributor,  E.  E.  Hester;  and  Memorial 
Homes,  Incorporated,  Holdredge,  a  former  community 
project  which  was  purchased  by  the  Methodists  in  1956. 
The  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  organized  the 
Omaha  City  Mission  in  1876,  and  it  continues  to  serve 
as  the  Wesley  Community  House.  The  conference  sup- 
ports four  youth  camps — Fontanelle  near  Fremont; 
Comeca  near  Cozad;  Norwesca  near  Chadron;  and  River- 
side near  Milford. 

In  the  groupings  of  conferences  and  states  required  by 
unification  in  1939,  the  Nebraska  Conference  though 
"northern,"  became  a  part  of  the  eight-state  South  Central 
Jurisdiction  which  was  overwhelmingly  "southern."  At 
first  Nebraska  with  Kansas  formed  an  episcopal  area,  but 
in  1952  Nebraska  alone  became  an  area  with  the  episcopal 
residence  in  Lincoln. 

In  1970  the  Nebraska  Conference  reported  480  min- 
isters, 147,900  members,  290  charges,  and  property  valued 
at  $53,797,267. 

E.  E.  Jackman,  Nebraska.  19.54. 

Journats  of  the  Nebraska  Conference. 

D.  Marquette,  Nebraska.  1904.  E.  E.  Jackman 

NEBRASKA  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY,  Lincoln,  Nebraska, 
was  established  in  1886  when  a  commission  appointed 
by  the  several  Nebraska  annual  conferences  merged  three 
small  colleges  then  in  existence  within  the  state.  Since 
it  was  chartered  on  Januaiy  20,  1887,  this  date  has  been 
fixed  in  the  college's  calendar  as  Founders'  Day.  The  col- 
lege opened  in  September,  1888. 

The  schools  that  were  merged  into  Nebraska  Wesleyan 
were  York  College,  York,  Nebraska;  Nebraska  Central 
College,  Central  City;  and  Mallalieu  LIniversity,  Bartley. 
York  was  founded  in  1879  by  the  Nebraska  Conference. 
Nebraska  Central  College  was  the  product  in  1884  of  the 
North  Nebraska  Conference.  Mallalieu's  founding  date  is 
unknown.  It  was  considered  a  product  of  the  West  Ne- 
braska Conference,  though  never  officially  adopted  by 
that  conference.  Degrees  offered  are  the  B.A.,  B.S.,  B.S. 
in  Education,  B.M.   (Music),  B.M.E.  (Music  Education). 

The  governing  board  has  sixteen  persons  elected  to  the 
Board  of  Governors  by  the  Board  of  Trustees;  three  Meth- 
odist ministers,  a  representative  of  the  alumni  association, 
eleven  other  persons,  and  the  resident  bishop  of  the 
Nebraska  Area  as  an  ex  officio  member  with  vote.  All  must 
be  members  of  the  board  of  trustees.  The  board  of  trustees 
has  fifty-six  persons  including  the  resident  bishop  of  the 
Nebraska  Area,  twenty  persons  elected  by  the  Nebraska 
Annual  Conference,  fifteen  persons  elected  by  the 
alumni  association,  t\venty  elected  by  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  Nebraska  Wesleyan  University. 

John  O.  Gross 

NEELY,  THOMAS  BENJAMIN  (1841-1925),  .American 
bishop,  was  bom  at  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  on  June  12,  1841. 


NEGRO   METHODISM   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


T.  B.  Neely 

A  fifth-generation  Methodist,  he  was  the  son  of  Thomas 
and  Frances  (Armstrong)  Neely.  He  was  educated  at 
Dickinson  Seminary  and  Dickinson  College,  receiving 
the  honorary  A.M.  in  1875  and  also  the  D.D.  and  LL.D. 

Joining  the  Philadelphia  Conference  in  1865,  Neely 
rose  rapidly  in  the  Conference.  He  held  thirteen  pastorates 
chiefly  in  Philadelphia  and  vicinity  and  was  presiding 
elder,  1889-94.  In  March  1882,  he  married  Elizabeth 
Cheney  Hickman. 

Elected  to  General  Conference  in  1884,  his  delibera- 
tive talents  were  conspicuous.  He  was  subsequently  re- 
elected to  five  other  General  Conferences.  His  years  of 
hard  study  of  the  history,  law,  constitution,  and  underlying 
principles  of  the  Methodist  Church,  made  Thomas  Neely 
admittedly  the  greatest  parlimentarian  and  expositor  of 
church  law  in  the  M.E.  Church. 

He  was  a  conservative  and  his  caution  increased  with 
the  years.  In  1900  he  was  made  Secretary  of  the  Sunday 
School  Union  and  Tract  Society  which  included  editor- 
ship. His  travels  and  writings  showed  that  he  was  an 
intelligent  and  robust  executive.  In  1904  Neely  was 
elected  bishop  and  assigned  to  Buenos  Aires,  Argentina. 
He  also  opened  a  new  mission  in  Panama  and  Bolivia. 
He  held  that  the  episcopacy  was  an  office  and  not  an 
order.  His  bishopric  was  a  troubled  one,  partly  due  to 
altitude,  climate,  travels,  age,  and  his  unequivocal  as- 
sertion of  authority.  His  transfer  to  New  Orleans,  La., 
in  1908,  did  not  help  much,  for  the  climate  there  probably 
hastened  the  death  of  his  wife  in  1912. 

While  Neely  was  a  powerful  champion  of  the  idea  that 
episcopacy  is  an  office  not  an  order,  his  uncompromising 
assertion  of  episcopal  authority  in  its  appointing  power  in 
certain  northern  conferences  added  to  dissatisfaction  with 
him  as  bishop.  Against  his  bitter  protest  but  according 
to  his  own  interpretation  of  the  law  in  maintaining  the 
supremacy  of  the  General  Conference  over  the  episcopacy, 


Bishop  Neely  was  retired  by  the  1912  General  Confer- 
ence. One  of  the  historic  and  most  dramatic  and  touching 
scenes  of  any  General  Conference  took  place  when  Bish- 
op Neely  rose  from  his  sick  bed  and  made  his  protest  and 
last  address  to  an  unsympathetic  Conference  which  never- 
theless gave  him  a  lordly  welcome.  His  voice  almost 
utterly  failed  but  silently  for  an  hour  the  overcrowded 
auditorium  listened  while  only  about  one-fifth  of  those 
present  could  understand  a  word.  It  was  a  perfect  tribute 
to  a  good  man  and  great  leader  who  did  not  know  his  own 
episcopal  weaknesses.  However,  the  vote  was  496  to  297 
to  retire  him,  "no  reason  being  formally  stated."  Ironically, 
it  was  noted  that  he  had  published  in  1892,  The  Govern- 
ing Conference  in  Methodifmi,  .  .  .  Especially  the  Ceneral 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

During  retirement  he  studied  and  wrote.  He  opposed 
the  League  of  Nations,  the  Centenary  Missionary  Pro- 
gram, and  Unification.  He  was  an  acute  parlimentarian 
and  learned  historian  and  wrote  twenty-one  books  dealing 
largely  with  Methodist  history,  doctrine,  law,  episcopacy, 
and  the  itinerancy.  Among  these  were:  The  Evolution  of 
Episcopacy  and  Organic  Methodism;  Parliamentary  Prac- 
tice; Young  Workers  in  the  Church.  In  1911  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Fourth  Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference. He  died  in  Philadelphia,  on  Sept.  4,  1925,  and 
was  buried  in  West  Laurel  Hill,  Philadelphia. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

F.  D.  Leete.  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

NEGRO  METHODISM  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  (With 
special  reference  to  The  Methodist  Church  and  its  former 
Central  Jurisdiction. ) 

Previous  to  1939.  To  properly  appraise  the  Central 
Jurisdiction  in  The  Methodist  Church,  the  structural  ar- 
rangement set  up  in  1939  to  accommodate  the  300,000 
Negro  Methodists  of  The  Methodist  Church,  it  must  be 
seen  as  a  symbol  of  the  past  and  present  history  of  the 
Negro  in  the  Methodist  Church  during  the  nearly  two 
centuries  of  its  existence  in  America;  but  more  important 
still,  as  a  practical  demonstration  of  the  efforts  of  a  close- 
knit  ecclesiastical  organization,  under  most  difficult  social 
and  political  conditions,  to  include  in  its  membership  the 
most  diverse  racial  groups. 

The  Methodist  movement,  from  its  beginning,  made  a 
special  appeal  to  people  in  the  lowest  brackets  of  society. 
When  its  leaders,  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  and  their 
associates  were  excluded  from  the  pulpits  in  London 
and  other  cities  in  England,  they  took  to  the  open  fields 
and  preached  to  the  colliers  and  peasants  in  Kingswood 
and  New  Castle,  and  other  mining  communities  in  En- 
gland. Their  message  was  to  the  lowly  and  neglected 
classes.  It  was  this  same  type  in  America  to  whom  they 
made  their  greatest  appeal. 

To  no  group  could  their  message  have  evoked  a  more 
enthusiastic  response  than  among  the  African  slaves.  These 
people  joined  the  movement  in  large  numbers  and  were 
cordially  welcomed,  at  least  at  first,  by  the  leaders  of  the 
movement. 

The  missionaries  sent  by  Wesley  to  America  spoke 
appreciatively  of  the  presence  of  the  slaves  in  their  meet- 
ings. In  a  letter  to  Wesley  dated  Nov.  4,  1769,  Richard 
Boardman  writes:  "The  number  of  the  blacks  that  attend 
the  preaching  affects  me  much." 

In  his  Journal  of  Nov.  17,  1771,  Francis  Asbury  wrote: 


WORLD  METHODISM 


NEGRO  METHODISM   IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 


"To  see  the  poor  Negroes  so  afFected  is  pleasing,  to  see 
their  sable  countenances  in  our  assemblies  and  to  hear 
them  sing  with  cheerful  melody  their  dear  Redeemer's 
praise,  affected  me  much,  and  made  me  ready  to  say, 
'of  a  truth  I  perceive  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons.'  " 

At  the  Chhistmas  Conference  in  Baltimore  in  1784, 
of  the  fifty-one  churches  which  gave  reports  of  their 
membership,  all  but  fifteen  reported  Negro  members. 
From  the  beginning  of  its  history,  therefore,  Negroes 
were  a  part  of  the  Methodist  movement.  According  to 
Wade  Crawford  Barclay,  the  historian  of  Methodist  Mis- 
sions, the  Negro  membership  in  the  church  in  1786  num- 
bered 11,280;  in  1810-11,  34,724;  in  1825-26,  47,433; 
and  in  1844-45,  150,120. 

Interracial  Relations  in  Early  Methodism.  Despite  the 
fact  that  Negroes  were  given  what  amounted  to  a  "token" 
welcome  into  the  movement,  it  soon  became  evident  that 
they  would  be  subject  to  caste  distinctions  and  indignities. 
This  was,  doubtless,  inevitable  due  to  their  status  as  slaves, 
but  was  also  due  to  the  social  attitudes  which  prevailed 
in  all  the  Colonies  relative  to  class  and  social  status.  Seat- 
ing in  the  churches,  in  some  of  the  Colonies,  was  based 
on  wealth  and  social  prestige.  The  fact  that  Negroes, 
whether  slaves  or  "free,"  were  in  the  lowest  bracket,  meant 
that  even  when,  and  if,  they  were  permitted  to  come  into 
the  churches  for  worship,  they  were  given  scant  considera- 
tion as  to  seating.  "They  either  sat  on  benches  in  the  rear, 
or  in  an  'African  corner.'  " 

The  Methodists,  because  of  their  own  relatively  low 
social  status  at  that  time,  could  not  hold  the  same  degree 
of  caste  distinction  as  did  the  older  and  more  exclusive 
churches  of  New  England  and  the  Atlantic  Seaboard. 
Nevertheless,  they  too,  soon  began  to  make  distinctions 
where  Negroes  were  concerned.  Barclay  quotes  from 
letters  found  in  the  Journal  of  one  of  Wesley's  missionaries, 
Joseph  Pilmore,  in  which  he  spoke  of  forming  "a  separate 
class  for  Negroes,"  and  "after  preaching,  meeting  with  the 
Negroes  apart."  This  trend  was  also  evident  early  in  As- 
bury's  experience  in  America.  In  his  Journal  of  Dec.  8, 
1772,  Asbury  writes:  "In  the  evening  the  Negroes  were 
collected  and  I  spoke  to  them  in  exhortation." 

While  the  membership  of  the  John  Street  Church 
was  interracial  from  the  first,  in  the  lists  of  membership 
published  in  1787  whites  and  Negroes  were  listed  sep- 
arately. The  St.  George's  Church  in  Philadelphia  also 
had  separate  hsting.  In  addition  to  the  separate  seating 
arrangements,  discrimination  was  shown  in  other  ways. 
Barclay  quotes  from  a  letter  by  Pilmore  dated  Aug.  9, 
1772,  relative  to  a  service  where  the  church  was  not 
large  enough  to  accommodate  all  who  desired  to  attend. 

"As  the  ground  was  wet  they  persuaded  me  to  try  to 
preach  within,  and  appointed  men  to  stand  at  the  doors 
to  keep  all  the  Negroes  out  until  the  white  persons  were 
got  in,  but  the  house  would  not  hold  them."  (Barclay, 
Vol.  II,  p.  55.) 

In  the  southern  section  of  the  church,  the  problem 
was  accentuated  by  fear  of  revolt  on  the  part  of  the 
slaves.  It  was  therefore  deemed  advisable,  in  some  areas, 
to  disallow  religious  services  to  the  slaves;  or  where  it  was 
permitted,  to  provide  a  separate  section  for  the  Negro 
worshipers.  There  still  exist,  in  many  of  the  older  churches 
of  the  South,  balconies,  where  the  slaves  were  seated 
during  religious  services. 

In  the  light  of  these  conditions,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
there  should  have  developed  a  feeling  of  unrest,  especially 


among  free  Negroes  in  the  northern  section  of  the  church, 
and  a  desire  to  have  more  freedom  of  expression.  This  was 
primarily  responsible  for  the  rise  of  the  independent  Negro 
Methodist  denominations,  and  a  great  deal  of  credit  de- 
servedly belongs  to  men  like  Richard  Allen  who  led 
their  people  in  setting  up  first,  independent  local  con- 
gregations, and  finally,  independent  Churches.  (See 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church  listings.) 

In  our  appreciation  of  these  men,  however,  we  should 
not  forget  the  leaders  of  the  lowly  Negro  group  who  re- 
mained with  the  "Mother  Church,"  and  rendered  yeomen 
service.  One  thinks  especially  of  two  such  men;  Harry 
Hosier,  better  known  as  "Black  Harry,"  and  John  Stew- 
art. "Black  Harry"  accompanied  both  Asbury  and  Thomas 
Coke  on  a  number  of  their  preaching  tours,  and  preached 
acceptably  to  both  white  and  Negro  audiences. 

Stewart  was  converted  at  a  camp  meeting  on  the 
Marietta  Circuit  near  Marietta,  Ohio,  sometime  behveen 
1814  and  1816,  and  became  a  missionary  to  the  Indians. 

There  were  other  Negro  leaders  in  every  section  of  the 
church  who  were  helping  to  carry  the  Word  of  God  to 
their  benighted  fellowmen  whose  names  never  reached 
the  public  print,  but  nevertheless,  are  written  in  the  "Book 
of  Life." 

In  Episcopal  Methodism  (North  and  South)  from  the 
Division  (1844)  to  Unification  (1939).  One  of  the  very 
strange  and  interesting  developments  which  followed  the 
division  of  1844  was  the  passionate  interest  shown  by  the 
Southern  Church  in  the  evangelization  of  the  slaves.  This 
is  especially  true  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  imme- 
diate occasion  for  the  Division  of  the  Church  in  1884  was 
the  question  of  the  ownership  of  slaves  by  one  of  the 
bishops  from  the  southern  section  of  the  church.  However, 
it  was  the  Southern  Church  which  showed  the  greatest 
zeal  for  the  evangelization  of  the  slaves,  from  1844  to  the 
beginning  of  the  Civil  War  in  1861.  This  movement  was 
led  by  William  Capers  (later  a  bishop  in  the  Church) 
from  South  Carolina.  "He  developed  a  type  of  organiza- 
tion," writes  Willis  J.  Weatherford,  "for  serving  the  slaves, 
which  swept  over  the  entire  South."  (Weatherford,  p. 
91.) 

In  1847,  the  church  in  the  South  reported  124,961 
Negro  members;  in  1848,  127,241;  in  1853,  146,949;  in 
1860,  171,857.  The  figures  on  this  score  are  impressive 
and  prove  that  the  leaders  of  the  church.  South,  showed 
a  real  evangehstic  interest  in  the  slaves. 

The  situation,  however,  changed  with  the  Civil  War. 
The  change  in  the  status  of  the  Negro,  following  the 
Civil  War,  and  the  inability  of  the  former  masters  to  ac- 
cept the  new  status  of  their  former  slaves,  plus  the  activity 
of  the  independent  Negro  denominations  in  recruiting 
them  into  their  churches,  resulted  in  a  rapid  decline  in 
the  membership  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  during  the 
war  years.  By  1866  the  Negro  membership  had  shrunk 
to  78,742. 

At  the  General  Conference  of  that  church  in  1866, 
a  resolution  was  adopted  which  made  possible  the  setting 
up  of  its  Negro  ministry  and  membership  as  an  inde- 
pendent church.  In  1870,  this  action,  which  had  also 
the  sanction  of  the  Negro  membership  of  that  church, 
was  taken.  From  that  time  until  1939,  the  two  groups 
maintained  close  fraternal  relations,  but  as  distinctively 
separate  denominations.  During  this  period,  the  Southern 
Church   made   annual  contributions  to  the   new   church 


NEGRO   METHODISM   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


(first  named  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
— later  changed  to  the  Christian  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church) — from  its  benevolence  budget;  and  took  major 
responsibility  for  the  support  of  Paine  College,  in  Augus- 
ta, Ga.,  maintained  for  the  training  of  Negro  students. 
This  was  the  situation  in  1939  when  the  unification  of  the 
three  Methodist  denominations  was  effected. 

In  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  We  now  turn  to 
the  situation  in  the  M.E.  Church — the  northern  branch 
of  the  Methodist  Church — which,  of  course,  is  our  major 
interest  since  the  ministers  and  members  of  what  became 
the  Central  Jurisdiction  are  now,  and  always  have  been, 
members  of  that  branch  of  the  church. 

The  division  of  the  Church  after  1844  did  not  have  the 
same  challenging  effect  in  the  north  as  in  the  South,  at 
least  not  immediately.  Despite  their  espousal  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  slaves,  local  attitudes  against  the  admission  of 
the  Negroes  into  the  churches  changed  slowly;  and  in  a 
number  of  cases  Negroes  were  encouraged  to  set  up  their 
own  local  congregations,  even  to  join  the  independent 
Negro  denominations.  There  was  the  added  fact  that  the 
Negro  population  in  most  Northern  cities  was,  in  the 
early  days,  both  small  and  economically  insecure;  and 
many  joined  the  independent  denominations  on  the  basis 
of  the  racial  appeal. 

By  1850  (the  last  year  of  keeping  separate  lists  of 
white  and  Negro  members  in  the  Annual  Conferences  of 
the  Church)  the  total  enrollment  of  Negroes  in  the  M.E. 
Church  was  26,309  which,  as  we  have  noted,  was  in 
great  contrast  to  the  Negro  membership  of  the  Southern 
Church  in  the  same  period.  The  Civil  War,  however, 
brought  a  greatly  increased  interest  in  the  development  of 
work  among  Negroes  by  the  Northern  Church.  The  pas- 
sionate loyalty  with  which  the  Methodists  of  that  Church 
had  supported  the  Federal  Government  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  War,  and  their  basic  evangelistic  and  educa- 
tional interest  in  the  uplift  of  the  underprivileged,  made 
them  the  logical  leaders,  following  the  War,  in  "the 
fight  to  really  make  these  people  free."  Thus  the  General 
Conference  of  1864  authorized  the  organization  of  one 
or  more  Negro  Mission  Conferences.  Under  this  provision, 
two  Negro  Mission  Conferences  were  organized  immedi- 
ately following  that  General  Conference:  The  Delaware, 
July  38.  1864;  the  Washington,  Oct.  27,  1864.  Also  the 
Mississippi  Mission  Conference,  composed  of  both  white 
and  Negro  ministers,  was  organized  in  New  Orleans, 
La.,  Dec.  25,  1865,  with  four  districts:  One  for  Mississippi, 
two  in  Louisiana,  and  one  in  Texas. 

In  the  Episcopal  Address  at  the  General  Conference 
of  1868,  the  bishops  reported  that  nine  Conferences  had 
been  organized  in  territory  not  previously  included  in 
Annual  Conferences.  These  had  a  membership  in  1871, 
as  follows:  Travelling  Preachers,  630  (260  whites,  370 
Negroes);  Lay  members,  135,000  (47,000  whites;  88,000 
Negroes ) . 

In  1868  the  General  Conference  changed  the  status  of 
the  Conferences.  Previously  authorized  as  "Mission  Con- 
ferences," they  were  then  made  full-fledged  Annual  Con- 
ferences with  all  the  rights  and  privileges  usual  to  Annual 
Conferences.  Negroes  elected  by  two  of  these  "Mission 
Conferences"  sat  for  the  first  time  as  delegates  in  the 
1868  General  Conference.  The  1868  General  Conference 
also  authorized  the  bishops  to  organize  new  Annual  Con- 
ferences in  the  South.  By  the  close  of  the  1872-76  quad- 
rennium,  twenty  Conferences — white,  Negro,  or  mixed — 


had  been  organized  on  the  border  and  in  the  South. 
Three — Delaware,  Washington,  and  Lexington — were  all 
Negro;  one,  Kentucky,  white;  six — Holston,  St.  Louis, 
Arkansas,  Virginia,  West  Virginia,  and  Missouri — pre- 
dominantly white;  six — South  Carolina,  Florida,  Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana,  Texas  and  North  Carolina — predominant- 
ly Negro;  three — Alabama,  Georgia,  and  Tennessee — 
about  equally  divided  between  white  and  Negro  members; 
and  one.  West  Texas,  bi-racial. 

Racial  Composition  of  Annual  Conferences  and  Epis- 
copal Leadership  of  the  Negro  Membership.  As  early  as 
1869,  the  division  of  Annual  Conferences  on  racial  lines 
was  advocated.  This  agitation  was  begun  in  Georgia  when 
a  resolution  was  introduced  by  nine  Negro  preachers 
asking  that  the  Negro  Churches  be  formed  into  separate 
Negro  districts  imder  Negro  presiding  elders.  A  step  in 
that  direction  was  made  by  the  setting  up  of  one  ex- 
clusively Negro  district.  A  memorial  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1872  requested  the  formation  of  a  separate 
Annual  Conference  for  the  Negro  membership.  No  ac- 
tion was  taken  on  this  proposal  at  the  General  Conference 
of  1872,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Negro  delegates  were 
not  unanimously  in  favor  of  setting  up  Annual  Confer- 
ences on  a  racial  basis.  But  the  agitation  for  such  action 
continued,  led  in  some  Conferences  by  whites;  in  others 
by  Negroes.  Thus  it  came  about  that  at  the  General 
Conference  of  1876,  it  was  voted  that  where  a  majority 
of  both  whites  and  Negroes  requested  division,  the  presid- 
ing bishop  was  authorized  to  organize  the  new  Confer- 
ence, or  Conferences. 

By  1895,  mixed  Annual  Conferences,  composed  of 
both  white  and  Negro  ministers,  no  longer  existed  in  the 
Methodist  Church.  As  Barclay  observes,  "By  1895  the 
developing  process  of  segregation,  first  given  official  sanc- 
tion by  the  General  Conference  of  1864,  was  complete." 
(Barclay,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  321.) 

Another  issue  which  emerged  rather  early  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  work  among  Negroes  was  that  of  episcopal 
leadership  for  this  particular  group.  Some  critics  (mainly 
outside  the  Church)  asserted  that  the  Church  would  never 
elect  a  Negro  to  the  bishopric.  A  partial  answer  to  this 
was  given  when  the  General  Conference  of  1856  made 
provision  for  the  election  of  a  Liberian  as  Missionary  bish- 
op (a  distinct  status)  of  that  country.  This  provision  was 
put  into  effect  with  the  election  of  Francis  Burns  of 
Liberia  (in  1858);  this  policy  was  continued  in  the  selec- 
tion of  his  successor,  J.  W.  Roberts  in  1866.  But  since 
both  of  these  men  were  citizens  of  Liberia,  and  their 
sei"vice  was  limited  to  that  particular  field,  this  action 
did  not  and  could  not  satisfy  the  demands  in  the  home 
field. 

In  1904,  an  American  Negro,  Isaiah  B.  Scott,  was 
elected  a  missionary  bishop  for  service  in  Liberia.  He  had 
the  same  limitations  as  to  the  scope  of  this  area  of  service, 
as  did  his  predecessors  in  the  office  of  "Missionary 
bishop." 

It  was  not  until  1920,  that  two  full-fledged  General 
Superintendents,  equal  in  rank,  official  responsibility,  and 
salary  (including  other  financial  perquisites)  were  elected 
in  the  M.  E.  General  Conference.  The  fact  that  it  was 
necessary  at  that  late  date  to  elect  them  on  a  separate 
ballot,  is  evidence  that  the  Church  had  not  completely 
overcome  the  barrier  of  color. 

The  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  and  Its  Successors.  One 
of  the  most  constructive  steps  taken  by  the  M.  E.  Church, 


WORLD  METHODISM 


NEGRO   METHODISM    IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 


following  the  Civil  War,  was  the  setting  up  of  schools 
for  the  training  of  leaders  among  the  Freedmen,  both  for 
special  leadership  in  the  work  of  the  Church  and  nation, 
and  for  the  responsibilities  involved  in  the  newly-attained 
citizenship  in  a  democratic  nation. 

The  program  for  this  type  of  work  was  first  begun 
as  a  cooperative  venture  among  several  of  the  major 
denominational  groups,  but  there  soon  developed  a  ten- 
dency on  the  part  of  the  several  church  bodies  to  set  up 
their  own  denominational  Boards.  In  line  with  this  trend, 
a  group  of  Methodist  leaders,  ministers  and  Ia>Tnen,  met 
in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  Aug.  7-8,  1866,  to  determine  a  pro- 
gram for  the  Methodist  Church.  The  meeting  resulted 
in  the  organization  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  with 
the  objective  "to  labor  for  the  relief  and  education  of  the 
freedmen,  especially  in  cooperation  with  the  missionary 
and  Church  Extension  Societies  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church."  (Barclay,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  322.) 

The  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  began  its  operations  in 
the  South  in  the  Fall  of  1866.  In  the  veiy  first  year  schools 
were  set  up  in  Georgia,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Kentucky,  Louisiana,  West  Virginia,  Virginia,  and  Florida. 
Three  thousand  pupils  were  enrolled  the  first  year,  under 
the  tutelage  of  forty  teachers.  The  Society,  while  autho- 
rized by  the  General  Conference  of  1868,  was  not  given 
the  status  of  a  General  Conference  organization.  By  1872 
the  Society  was  given  full  official  approval  and  annual 
conference  apportionments  were  sent  down  to  the  local 
churches  for  the  support  of  the  Society.  In  1880  the 
General  Conference  directed  the  Society  to  aid  the  schools 
for  whites  in  the  South,  and  in  1888  the  name  of  the 
Society  was  changed  to  the  Freedmen's  Aid  and  Southern 
Education  Society,  to  more  fully  express  the  work  of  the 
Church  among  both  races  in  the  South. 

By  1895  educational  institutions  under  tlie  patronage 
of  the  Society  numbered  forty-four,  including,  for  Negroes 
a  theological  school,  ten  colleges  and  universities,  and 
eleven  academies,  and  for  whites,  three  collegiate  institu- 
tions and  nineteen  academies. 

Early  in  its  history  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  had 
set  a  policy  of  inclusiveness  of  all  its  schools,  regardless 
of  color,  but  the  steady  pressure  for  segregation  in  both 
the  Churches  and  schools  in  the  South  resulted  finally 
in  a  complete  separation  of  the  two  racial  groups  in  the 
schools  operated  by  the  Society. 

In  1924,  the  name  of  the  Society  was  changed  to  the 
Board  of  Education  for  Negroes.  Still  later  it  was  set  up 
as  one  of  the  divisions  of  the  general  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, with  the  name,  the  Division  of  Negro  Institutions.  In 
The  Methodist  Church  after  1939  it  continued  its  work 
under  the  title,  "Negro  Higher  Education  in  the  Division 
of  Educational  Institutions."  But  by  whatever  name  it 
has  been  called,  this  Society  has,  for  more  than  a  century, 
rendered  great  service  to  the  cause  of  Negro  education  in 
the  Church  and  nation. 

Negro  Membership  an  Issue  in  Methodist  Unification. 
The  vigorous  educational  and  evangelistic  program  carried 
forward  by  the  Methodist  Church,  among  the  Negroes, 
expecially  in  the  South,  from  the  close  of  the  Civil  War, 
until  1939,  when  the  Plan  of  Union  was  adopted,  had  both 
its  advantages  and  disadvantages  to  those  interested  in 
Methodist  Unification.  To  those  who  had  believed  in  the 
possibility  of  the  evangelization  of  people  of  all  racial 
and  national  origins,  and  their  inclusion  in  one  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  plan  of  the  Northern  Church,  while 
not  ideal,  had  proven   that  the  idea   could   be  made  to 


work.  For  those  with  the  other  point  of  view,  namely  that 
the  two  racial  groups  should  remain  in  separate  denomina- 
tions, on  the  basis  of  race,  the  Negro  membership  in  the 
M.  E.  Church  was  a  definite  obstacle  to  Methodist  Unifica- 
tion. The  fact  that  the  Negro  membership  in  the  Church 
numbered  more  than  300,000  did  not  make  the  problem 
any  easier.  It  became  evident  that  one  of  the  major  issues 
in  the  negotiations  on  Methodist  Unification  from  1916, 
when  the  active  discussions  on  the  subject  began,  until 
1939,  when  the  Plan  of  Union  was  adopted,  was  the  status 
of  the  Negro  membership  in  the  re-organized  Church. 

To  appreciate  the  total  problem,  we  must  see  the  issue 
from  the  standpoint  of  all  the  groups  concerned:  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  the  white  membership  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  (Northern  Branch),  and  the  Negro  membership 
of  the  M.  E.  Church. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  Southern  Church,  with  its 
history  and  social  background  since  the  Division  in  1844, 
and  its  definititive  action  of  1870,  in  which  it  set  up  its 
Negro  membership  into  an  independent  denomination,  the 
logical  status  of  the  Negro  in  any  plan  for  the  re-organized 
Church,  seemed  to  be  the  establishment  of  the  Negro 
group  into  a  separate  denomination,  either  alone,  or  with 
other  Negro  church  groups,  with  no  organic  relation  to  the 
white  membership  of  the  Church.  Leaders  of  the  Southern 
Church  argued  for  that  position  for  many  years  during 
the  period  of  negotiations. 

In  the  case  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  whatever  might  have 
been  the  individual  preferences  and  even  the  practices  of 
many  of  its  members  and  local  congregations,  the  Church 
officially  had  a  long  tradition  in  welcoming,  theoretically 
at  least,  all  groups  into  its  fellowship.  Further,  there  were 
still  fresh  memories  among  the  older  members  of  the 
Church  of  the  vigorous  educational  and  evangelistic  pro- 
grams which  had  been  carried  forward  among  the  freemen 
since  the  Civil  War.  Thousands  of  Methodists  were  com- 
mitted to  that  program.  Also  there  was  the  legal  fact  that 
the  Negro  membership  was  as  definitely  a  part  of  the 
Church  as  was  any  other  group,  and  could  not  be  elimi- 
nated from  its  membership  except  by  their  own  choice. 
And  finally,  the  Negro  membership,  although  a  minority 
group  botli  numerically  and  in  standing  in  the  Church, 
was  nevertheless  conscious  of  its  rights  and  prerogatives 
in  the  Church,  and  was  not  disposed  to  relinquish  those 
prerogatives. 

More  important  to  them,  however,  than  rights  and  pre- 
rogatives was  the  instinctive  conviction,  evident  from  their 
earliest  connection  with  the  people  called  "Methodists," 
that  this  Fellowship  represented  a  communion  that  was 
seriously  seeking  to  build  a  brotherhood  among  all  men. 
They  believed  that  their  membership  in  such  a  Fellow- 
ship would  help  in  the  achievement  of  world  brotherhood. 

It  was  these  varying  \iews  which  o\er  the  period  of 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  negotiations,  had  to  be 
resolved  before  a  Plan  of  Union  satisfactory  to  a  majority 
of  Methodists  could  be  agreed  upon. 

This  meant  compromises  on  all  sides.  For  the  Southern 
section  of  the  new  church,  it  meant  giving  up  the  insis- 
tence on  a  separate  and  independent  church  for  the  Negro 
membership,  and  accepting  an  arrangement  which  would 
leave  them  full-fledged  members,  albeit  in  a  separate  racial 
jurisdiction. 

For  the  M.  E.  Church,  it  meant  giving  up  the  concept 
of  a  strongly  centrafized  General  Conference  and  accept- 
ing a  regionally  structured  church. 


NEGRO   METHODIST   UNION   NEGOTIATIONS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


For  the  Negro  membership  it  meant  accepting  an  ar- 
rangement by  which  the  Annual  Conferences  of  the  Negro 
group  would  be  set  up  as  a  regional  group,  or  Jurisdic- 
tion, known  as  the  "Central  Jurisdiction,"  and  based  on  a 
racial  basis  rather  than  geographical,  as  was  true  of  the 
Jurisdictions  for  the  white  membership. 

The  Central  Jurisdiction  was  by  definition  composed  of 
the  "Negro  Annual  Conferences,  the  Negro  Mission  Con- 
ferences and  Missions  in  the  United  States  of  America." 
(Constitution  of  The  Methodist  Church,  Section  VIII, 
Article  I.)  This  obvious  racial  distinction  was  never  popu- 
lar among  the  vast  majority  of  Negroes  in  the  church  and 
ultimately  had  to  end.  However,  the  Central  Jurisdiction 
did  function  as  a  coordinate  Jurisdiction  of  the  Church 
from  1939  until  1968  when  it  was  dissolved  into  the 
five  geographic  jurisdictions  under  the  United  Methodist 
Church  Constitution. 

The  Central  Jurisdiction  held  sessions  quadrennially 
(see  record  of  these  under  JiirtiSDicTioN.^L  Conferences), 
elected  bishops  and  Board  members,  and  functioned  exact- 
ly as  other  Jurisdictions.  It  was,  however,  a  separate  racial 
structure  and  wrote  into  the  Constitution  of  a  Christian 
denomination  a  definite  segregated  arrangement.  Its  exis- 
tence proved  to  be  an  embarrassment  to  the  whole 
Church,  and  feelings  ran  high  over  the  very  existence  of 
this  Jurisdiction  at  successive  General  Conferences. 
Amendment  IX  of  the  Constitution  of  The  Methodist 
Church  was  passed  by  the  General  Conference  and 
adopted  by  the  Church  as  a  whole  during  the  1956-60 
quadrennium,  in  the  effort  to  make  easier  the  transition  by 
local  churches  and  annual  conferences  across  and  into  the 
geographic  jurisdictions.  Such  transfers  proved  desultory 
and  hard  to  arrange,  and  posed  great  difficulties  upon  all 
Conferences  involved.  The  General  Conference  of  1964 
in  passing  the  Plan  of  Union  with  the  E.U.B.  Church 
requested  that  the  Central  Jurisdiction  be  not  mentioned, 
or  allowed  for,  in  the  then  pending  plan  of  union.  Pursuant 
to  this,  the  Plan  of  Union  set  before  the  Church  and 
adopted  by  the  called  General  Conference  of  1966,  made 
no  mention  of  the  Central  Jurisdiction,  and  it  was  under- 
stood on  all  sides  that  when  this  Constitution  should  be 
put  into  effect  in  1968,  the  separate  Negro  Annual  Con- 
ferences would  go  into  their  respective  geographic  juris- 
dictions. Some  Conferences  had  already  made  this  type 
of  transfer  (under  Amendment  IX),  some  conferences  had 
completely  merged,  but  the  Constitution  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church  effectually  did  away  with  the  Central 
Jurisdiction  as  such.  Its  last  session  was  held  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  Aug.  18-19,  1967. 

There  were  bitter  debates  in  the  Negro  Conferences  and 
among  Negro  church  leaders  prior  to  the  adoption  of  the 
Plan  of  Union  in  1939,  and,  indeed,  that  Plan  failed  to 
carry  in  the  majority  of  Negro  Annual  Conferences.  It  was, 
however,  adopted  by  a  majority  of  those  present  and  vot- 
ing in  the  white  Conferences,  both  in  the  North  and  South, 
and  as  is  stated  above,  became  part  of  the  constitutional 
structure  of  the  Church. 

Admittedly,  the  plan  did  have  certain  advantages,  such 
as  proportionate  representation  on  all  of  the  Boards  of  the 
Church;  membership  in  its  highest  Councils,  with  mem- 
bers of  its  group  being  eligible  to  hold  the  highest  posts 
in  the  Church,  without  discrimination  as  to  salaries  and 
other  perquisites. 

More  impyortant  than  these  material  benefits  was  the 
fact  that  the  Central  Jurisdiction  made  possible  the  be- 
ginning of  the  full-fledged  brotherhood  which  has  since 


been  evolving,  not  only  in  The  Methodist  Church,  but 
among  Christians  of  every  denominational  persuasion, 
both  Protestants  and  Catholics.  Dr.  M.  S.  D.wace  repre- 
senting the  Negro  Conferences  at  the  Uniting  Conference 
in  1939,  made  a  declaration  which  The  Methodist  Church 
has  not  forgotten.  "We  want  to  be  in  a  Church  which  em- 
braces all  mankind,  and  is  big  enough  for  God." 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.   1958. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1949-57. 

Daily  Christian  Advocate,  Central  Jurisdiction,  1967. 

J.  B.  F.  Shaw,  The  Negro.  1954. 

Willis   J.    Weatherford,   American   Churches   and   the   Negro. 

Boston:  Christopher  Publishing  House,  1957.    Willis  J.  King 

NEGRO  METHODIST  UNION  NEGOTIATIONS  (USA). 

During  the  past  150-year  histoiy  of  the  three  major  Negro 
Methodist  denominations  in  America — African  Method- 
ist Episcopal,  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  and 
Christian  Methodist  Episcopal  (formerly  Colored 
Methodist  Episcopal) — there  have  been  many  attempts  at 
union  or  merger. 

In  1864  the  A.M.E.  General  Conference  sent  a  delega- 
tion to  the  A.M.E.  Zion  General  Conference  suggesting 
that  a  commission  on  union  be  foimed  and  empowered 
to  call  a  convention  and  draw  up  articles  of  consolidation. 
The  Zion  connection  favored  this  proposal  and  a  conven- 
tion was  held  in  Philadelphia  on  June  14-16,  1864.  A 
platform  and  articles  of  agreement  were  foiTned  which 
were  then  to  be  sent  to  the  annual  conferences  of  each 
denomination  for  vote.  If  a  favorable  vote  was  received, 
the  union  would  then  be  the  order  of  business  for  the 
1868  General  Conferences.  However,  confusion  arose  as 
to  whether  or  not  the  A.M.E.  church  had  indeed  sent  the 
proposal  to  all  local  churches  and  annual  conferences  for  a 
vote,  and  as  a  result,  the  Zion  connection  refused  to  con- 
sider this  or  any  other  proposal  at  their  General  Confer- 
ence in  1868. 

In  1885  union  negotiations  were  revived.  A  joint  com- 
mission of  the  A.M.E.  and  A.M.E.  Zion  Churches  met  in 
Washington,  D.C.,  on  July  15-17.  A  new  name  was  pro- 
posed. First  United  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and 
fourteen  other  articles  of  agreement.  Disagreements  arose 
over  the  proposed  new  name  and  the  article  concerning 
the  episcopacy,  however,  and  when  only  one  bishop  from 
the  Zion  connection  was  present  at  a  scheduled  meeting 
at  Atlantic  City,  N.J.,  in  August  1887,  negotiations  were 
postponed  indefinitely.  The  next  serious  attempt  at  union 
occurred  in  1892,  but  again  a  joint  commission  became 
deadlocked  over  the  name  to  be  given  the  new  church. 

On  Feb.  16-17,  1918,  a  Tri-Council  of  bishops  met  at 
Louisville,  Ky.,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  draw  up 
a  plan  of  union.  The  committee  met  in  Birmingham, 
Ala.,  on  April  3,  1918,  and  in  one  day  drew  up  a  plan 
to  be  presented  to  the  General  Conferences  of  the  three 
denominations.  The  so-called  "Birmingham  Plan"  became 
a  bone  of  contention,  especially  within  the  C.M.E.  church. 
Though  the  plan  was  adopted  at  their  General  Conference 
in  1918,  it  was  overwhelmingly  defeated  by  the  local  con- 
gregations and  annual  conferences  of  that  church,  so  that 
the  A.M.E.  and  A.M.E.  Zion  General  Conferences  meeting 
in  1920  had  nothing  to  consider. 

A  General  Commission  on  Union  was  organized  again 
in  1965.  This  Commission  is  committed  to  meeting  at 
least  twice  a  year  and  has  set  1972  as  a  target  date  for 
merger  among  themselves,  and  1980  as  a  target  date  for 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEITZ,   SOLOMON 


merger  with  The  United  Methodist  Church.  At  this  time, 
the  Negro  Methodist  denominations  are  also  involved  in 
union  talks  with  the  Consultation  on  Church  Union, 
an  ecumenical  body. 

D.  H.  Bradley,  A.M.E.  Zion  Church.  1956. 
J.  T.  Jenifer,  Centennial  Retrospect.  1916. 

C.  H.  Phillips,  History  (CME).  1898. 

D.  A.  Payne,  History  (AME).  1891. 

J.  B.  F.  Shaw,  The  Negro.  1954.  Rov  W.  Trueblood 

NEIDIG,  JOHN,  SR.  (1765-1844),  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  United  Bbethben  Church  at  Oberlin,  Pa.,  was  an 
associate  of  Otterbein  and  Boehm  beginning  about  1791. 

The  son  of  Abraham  and  Elizabeth  Neidig,  immigrants 
from  Switzerland,  John  Neidig  was  bom  in  Berks  County, 
Pa.,  April  10,  1765.  When  he  was  about  five  years  old, 
his  family  moved  to  Dauphin  County,  where  they  had 
close  fellowship  with  the  Mennonites.  Despite  the  fact 
that  his  family  had  originally  been  Geiman  Reformed, 
John  was  chosen  to  be  a  preacher  among  the  Mennonites 
when  he  was  about  twenty-five;  but  about  a  year  later,  he 
began  his  fellowship  with  the  group  of  preachers  who 
were  to  form  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ. 

Those  neighbors  and  friends  who  became  associated 
with  John  Neidig  in  the  Highspire — Oberlin  (then  called 
Churchville)  area  became  known  as  Neidig's  Leute 
(Neidig's  People);  and  in  1793  they  erected  their  first 
church  building  on  the  spot  where  the  present  Neidig 
Memorial  Church  stands. 

The  home  of  John  Neidig  had  a  reputation  for  its  deep 
spirituality  and  was  a  frequent  stopping  place  for  Chris- 
tian Newcomer,  who  records  twenty-four  visits  there  in 
his  Journal.  The  six  sons  and  two  daughters  of  John  and 
Mary  (Bear)  Neidig  grew  up  to  give  notable  leadership 
to  the  church  of  their  youth  in  Cumberland  and  Dauphin 
Counties  of  Pennsylvani.\,  Frederick  County,  Md.,  and 
the  area  around  Muscatine,  Iowa. 

John  Neidig  himself  was  faithful  to  the  doctrine  and 
practices  of  Otterbein  and  his  followers  and  was  a  regular 
attender  at  the  sessions  of  his  conference.  In  1812,  1820, 
and  1826,  he  was  assigned  an  "overseer"  of  the  work  east 
of  the  Susquehanna  River;  and  at  camp  meetings  and 
worship  services,  he  was  in  demand  as  a  powerful  preach- 
er. He  was  named  to  the  pastorate  of  Old  Otterbein 
Church,  Baltimore,  Md.,  in  1828  and  remained  there 
until  1831. 

John  Neidig,  Sr.,  died  at  his  home  near  Highspire,  Jan. 
11,  1844,  and  is  buried  in  the  Highspire  General  Ceme- 
tery, located  near  the  Harrisburg  East  Exit  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Turnpike. 

P.   B.  Cibble,  Easf  Pennstjlvania  Conference    (UB).    1951. 

Bruce  C.  Souders 

NEIGHBORS,  WILLIAM  SAMUEL  (1860-1957),  American 
minister,  was  born  in  Clay  County,  Ala.,  March  5,  1860. 
One  of  twelve  children,  his  boyhood  was  a  time  of  hard- 
ship, but  his  family  worked  together  to  see  that  he  went 
to  college.  When  he  got  off  the  train  at  Sweetwater,  Tenn., 
he  walked  the  nine  miles  to  Hfvvassee  College  with  his 
trunk  on  his  shoulder.  From  the  moment  he  set  foot  on 
the  campus  of  Hiwassee,  he  knew  he  was  to  be  a  Method- 
ist preacher.  He  joined  the  church  at  Hillobee  Camp- 
ground in  September  1875.  Four  years  later  he  was 
licensed  to  preach  at  Notasulga,  Ala.  He  was  admitted  on 
trial  to  the  Holston  Conference  Oct.  17,  1887,  ordained 


a  deacon  in  1889,  and  elder  in  1891.  He  graduated  from 
Emory  and  Henry  College  in  1887. 

He  served  as  pastor  of  nearly  every  important  church 
in  the  Holston  Conference.  He  also  was  pastor  of  Greene 
Memorial  Church,  Roanoke,  Va.,  and  First  Church,  Bal- 
timore, Md. 

He  was  presiding  elder  three  times  of  Holston  Confer- 
ence districts,  and  was  for  some  time  president  of  Sullins 
College,  Bristol,  Va.  He  led  in  the  Centenary  Fund 
promotion  and  contributed  much  to  the  success  of  the 
1899  financial  campaign  for  Emory  and  Henry  College, 
which  college  awarded  him  an  honorary  D.D.  degree  in 
1898.  He  was  a  delegate  to  four  General  Conferences 
(MES). 

Neighbors  was  an  able  preacher  and  wise  counselor. 
Reporting  to  the  Holston  Conference  at  a  session  in  the 
early  1950's,  a  young  minister  said,  "I've  got  Dr.  Neigh- 
bors to  preach  for  me  next  Sunday."  "Well,"  replied  Bish- 
op Paul  B.  Kern,  who  was  presiding  at  that  session, 
"They'll  get  one  good  sermon." 

It  had  been  generally  agreed  that  in  the  annals  of 
Holston  Conference  no  name  ever  stood  higher  as  a 
preacher  and  man  of  God  than  that  of  William  Samuel 
Neighbors.  He  died  May  23,  1957,  and  was  buried  in 
Forest  Hills  Cemetery,  Chattanooga,  Tenn. 


Journal  of  the  Holston  Conference,  1958. 


L.  W.  Pierce 


NEILL,  JOHN  LAMBERT  (1882-1972),  American  preacher, 
missionary  to  Central  Europe,  and  conference  leader,  was 
born  at  Montrose,  Miss.,  on  Jan.  17,  1882.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  MiLLSAPS  College,  receiving  the  B.S.  in  1906. 
In  1908  he  married  Edith  Reed  (deceased  April  1953). 
To  them  was  born  a  daughter,  Nellie  (Mrs.  Frank  McKen- 
zie  Cross).  J.  L.  Neill  became  first  secretary  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.  which  was  established  at  the  Georgia  Institute 
of  Technology  in  1906.  The  following  year  he  joined  the 
Mississippi  Conference,  and  thereafter  served  as  pastor 
in  Pass  Christian,  1907-08;  Magee,  1909;  Lorman,  1910; 
Hattiesburg,  1911-13;  and  Laurel,  1913-15.  Upon  the  call 
of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  then  beginning  its  work  in 
middle  Europe,  he  became  superintendent  of  the  Method- 
ist work  in  Prague,  Czechoslovakia,  shortly  after  the  first 
World  War.  He  served  in  that  capacity  from  1922-25, 
and  acted  also  as  president  of  the  Biblical  Seminary  in 
Prague  during  the  same  time.  Upon  his  return  to  America, 
he  became  pastor  of  Yazoo  City.  1926-27;  Vicksbltrg, 
Crawford  Street,  1928-31;  Gulfport,  1932-33;  Meridian, 
1933-34;  Brookhaven,  1936-39,  Natchez,  1940-41;  super- 
intendent of  the  Meridian  district,  1942-43;  of  the  Sea- 
shore District,  1944-47;  pastor  of  First  Church,  Philadel- 
phia, Miss.,  1948-54;  retiring  in  that  year.  He  also  served 
as  president  of  the  Mississippi  Anti-Saloon  League  from 
1937  to  19,50.  After  retirement,  he  lived  in  Decatur,  Miss., 
where  he  died  in  1972. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

NEITZ,  SOLOMON  (1821-1885),  American  Evangelical 
minister  and  renowned  pulpit  orator,  was  bom  .April  2, 
1821,  in  South  Whitehall  Township,  Lehigh  Co.,  Pa.  He 
became  a  member  of  the  East  Pennsylvania  Conference, 
Evangelical  Association  in  1840  and  held  many  official 
positions  in  annual  and  general  conferences.  He  wrote 
the  Life  and  Labors  of  John  Seybert,  the  first  bishop  of 
the  Evangelical  Association.   Solomon   Neitz'  visit  to  the 


NELIES,    SAMUEL   SOBIESKI 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


mission  field  in  Germany  (1863),  added  much  to  the 
status  of  the  work,  since  large  state  churches  were  opened 
to  him  and  overflowing  audiences  gave  him  rapt  attention. 
Philip  SchafF  declared  "There  are  only  two  such  German 
orators  in  the  world,  Krumacher  in  Germany,  and  Neitz 
in  America." 

With  no  training  beyond  three  months  in  a  common 
country  school,  his  preparation  had  to  be  through  personal 
application.  This  was  possible,  for  he  was  richly  endowed 
with  unusual  native  talents,  a  craving  for  knowledge,  and 
a  will  to  use  every  spare  moment  for  self-improvement. 
Furthermore,  studying  the  Bible  and  catechism,  with  regu- 
lar attendance  at  prayer-meeting,  and  worship  services  (at 
his  father's  insistence)  laid  a  firm  foundation  of  religious 
faith,  resulting  in  an  epochal  conversion  at  age  fourteen. 

Contemporaries  wrote  of  his  magnetic  personality,  pro- 
nounced convictions,  and  ability  to  inspire  vast  audiences, 
not  only  with  his  skill  in  drawing  word  pictures,  but  by 
the  unctuous  power  that  characterized  them.  He  died 
of  apoplexy.  May  11,  1885,  in  Reading,  Pa. 

Das  Evangelische  Magazin,  Vol.  18,  1886. 
The  Evangelical  Messenger,  Vol.  16,  1863. 
Journal  of  the  General  Conference,  EA,  1887. 
The  Living  Epistle,  March  1886. 
A.  Stapleton,  Evangelical  Association.  1896. 

Flashlights.  1908. 

R.  K.  Schwab,  Christian  Perfection  in  the  Evangelical  Associa- 
tion. 1922. 
R.  Yeakel,  Evangelical  Association.  1896.  Roy  B.  Leedy 

NELLES,  SAMUEL  SOBIESKI  (1823-1887),  Canadian 
minister  and  educator,  was  bom  at  Mount  Pleasant,  Upper 
Canada,  Oct.  17,  1823.  He  was  educated  at  Lewiston 
Academy  and  the  Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary  in  New 
York,  Victoria  College,  and  Wesleyan  University 
(Connecticut),  from  which  latter  institution  he  graduated 
with  the  B.A.  in  1846. 

Samuel  Nelles  was  taken  on  trial  in  1847,  but  in  1850 
he  was  appointed  principal  and  professor  of  classics  at 
Victoria  College.  Four  years  later  he  became  president 
and  held  this  office  until  his  death  in  1887. 

The  years  during  which  Nelles  presided  over  Victoria's 
destinies  were  crucial  ones.  When  he  took  office,  the  col- 
lege was  seemingly  on  its  last  legs,  having  few  students, 
no  staff,  and  no  money.  Under  his  skillful  and  tenacious 
leadership,  the  college  gradually  increased  its  enrollment; 
new  faculties  were  added;  the  debts  were  paid;  and  a 
modest  endowment  was  accumulated.  All  this  was  accom- 
plished in  the  face  of  great  uncertainty  about  the  college's 
future,  generated  by  the  intermittent  efforts  to  establish 
a  satisafctory  working  relationship  between  the  University 
of  Toronto  and  the  various  church  colleges. 

Throughout  his  career.  President  Nelles  had  two  great 
aspirations — to  make  Victoria  a  great  Christian  university, 
and  to  assist  in  building  a  great  provincial  university  in 
which  each  college  would  presei"ve  its  distinctive  tradi- 
tions. It  may  be  said  that  he  accomplished  the  first  to 
such  a  degree  that  the  second  became  possible  under  his 
successor,  Nathaneal  Burwash. 

Although  he  was  devoted  to  his  duties  as  Victoria's  pres- 
ident, Nelles  was  equally  concerned  for  the  welfare  of  his 
church.  As  was  customary,  he  preached  regularly  in  col- 
lege and  elsewhere.  He  was  not  a  great  orator,  but  his 
sermons  were  characteristically  thoughtful,  philosophical, 
and  well-illustrated  from  literature  and  science.  On  occa- 
sion, "in  a  certain  giant  majesty  of  movement,  he  reached 


an  altitude  and  amplitude  of  power  that  placed  him  side 
by  side  with  the  noblest  of  his  time." 

Nelles  was  keenly  interested  in  missions  and  in  church 
union,  to  both  of  which  he  contributed  his  breadth  of 
judgment,  his  insight,  and  his  zeal.  For  these  and  other 
services  he  was  given  a  D.D.  by  Queen's  University,  and 
an  LL.D.  by  Victoria. 

At  his  death,  Oct.  17,  1887,  he  was  described  as  one 
whose 

broad  and  generous  sympathies  gave  him  a  loving  nearness  to 
everybody.  He  saw  good  in  everything.  Inspiration  flowed  with 
his  kindness,  which  lifted  the  troubled  into  peace.  Indeed,  the 
keen  insight  which  he  had  of  tnith,  and  that  hush  of  spirit, 
as  if  the  unseen  was  upon  him,  is  the  best  evidence  that  his 
mind  was  habitually  fixed  upon  high  and  sacred  things. 

He  requested  that  his  tombstone  should  bear  these  words: 
"Now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly." 

G.  H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.  1881. 
Minutes  of  the  Bay  of  Quinte  Methodist  Conference,  1888. 
C.  B.  Sissons,  Victoria  University.  1952.  G.  S.  French- 


NELSON,  JOHN  (1707-1774),  British  preacher,  was  born 
in  BiRSTALL,  Yorkshire,  in  October  1707,  and  brought  up 
to  be  a  stone  mason  like  his  father.  From  the  age  of  ten 
he  was  hypersensitive  about  his  sins,  and  he  regarded  the 
fatal  illness  of  his  father  when  he  was  sixteen  as  God's 
punishment  upon  himself.  At  nineteen  he  sought  marriage 
largely  as  an  antidote  to  sexual  temptation,  but  continued 
to  be  fitfully  unhappy  because  he  "loved  pleasure  more 
than  God."  He  was  especially  addicted  to  hunting,  but 
rather  than  destroy  his  gun  he  left  home  to  follow  his 
trade  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  London  proved  a 
constant  magnet  to  him.  A  few  years'  residence  there, 
however,  proved  detrimental  to  the  health  of  his  wife  and 
children,  so  that  they  returned  to  Birstall.  Nelson  himself, 
however,  stayed  on,  being  convinced — as  he  told  those 
who  reproved  him  for  not  returning  home — "I  have  some- 
thing to  learn  that  I  have  not  yet  learned."  In  London 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NELSON,   REUBEN 


he  went  from  church  to  church,  denomination  to  denomi- 
nation, seeking  spiritual  peace.  He  was  greatly  impressed 
by  Whitefield's  open  air  preaching  in  May  1739,  but 
even  more  so  with  Wesley's  first  sermon  in  Moorfields 
on  June  17,  1739.  He  became  a  constant  hearer  of  the 
Wesleys,  and  in  October  experienced  conversion,  mainly 
through  the  influence  of  John  Wesley  and  one  of  his 
soldier  converts.  He  immersed  himself  in  devotional  read- 
ing, fasted  every  week-end,  and  urged  others  to  be  reli- 
gious, even  paying  one  of  his  fellow-workers  to  go  and 
hear  Wesley. 

Meanwhile  Nelson  was  happy  to  hear  that  some  of  his 
relations  in  Birstall  were  attending  the  preaching  of 
Benjamin  Ingham,  the  Wesleys'  colleague  in  Oxford 
and  Georgia.  In  the  winter  of  1740  he  returned  home 
expecting  to  find  them  also  sharing  his  own  radiant  joy 
in  a  personal  religious  experience,  but  found  them  spiritu- 
ally lifeless.  He  began  to  speak  of  his  own  far  different 
experience,  of  knowing  that  his  sins  were  forgiven.  In- 
creasingly large  groups  gathered  in  his  home,  some  to 
listen  sympathetically,  some  to  dispute.  Within  a  few  days 
his  brother  was  converted,  then  six  of  his  neighbors,  and 
eventually  his  wife  Martha.  Within  three  weeks  the  num- 
ber of  converts  had  increased  to  seventeen.  It  became 
clear  that  a  rival  fellowship  was  being  created,  owing 
allegiance  to  Nelson  and  through  him  to  the  Wesleys. 
Ingham  sought  unavailingly  to  restrain  his  enthusiastic 
preaching,  although  for  some  time  they  worked  together 
in  a  group  of  societies  many  of  which  became  Moravian. 

In  May  1742,  John  and  Charles  Wesley  stayed  with 
Nelson  in  Birstall  for  a  week,  and  from  that  time  he  un- 
hesitatingly gave  his  full  allegiance  to  them.  He  intro- 
duced Methodism  into  many  towns  and  villages  in  York- 
shire and  Lincolnshire,  continuing  to  support  himself  and 
his  family  by  intermittent  labors  as  a  stone  mason,  often 
hewing  stone  during  the  day  and  preaching  in  the  evening. 
On  May  4,  1744,  a  long-hatched  plot  to  press  him  for  a 
soldier  succeeded,  and  he  was  sent  north  for  mihtary 
training,  though  he  continued  to  preach  to  his  captors  and 
the  jeering  populace,  often  with  remarkable  success.  After 
nearly  three  months  he  was  set  free,  largely  through  the 
intervention  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  urged  on 
by  the  Wesleys.  Shortly  afterwards  John  Wesley  employed 
Nelson  fully  as  a  regular  itinerant  preacher,  and  in  that 
capacity  he  travelled  for  almost  thirty  years  in  many  parts 
of  the  counti-y,  often  as  Assistant  in  charge  of  a  Circuit. 
He  spent  much  time  in  the  circuits  of  Bristol,  Man- 
chester, and  Leeds,  in  addition  to  his  native  town  of 
Birstall.  Indeed  he  seems  to  have  been  especially  success- 
ful in  the  areas  most  affected  by  the  Industrial  Revolution, 
where  his  direct  homely  preaching  continued  to  make  a 
great  impression  upon  working  people.  His  last  circuit 
was  Leeds,  where  he  had  introduced  Methodism  a  genera- 
tion earlier.  Here  he  died  of  apoplexy  on  July  18,  1774. 
Thousands  of  admirers  accompanied  his  coffin  through  the 
streets  of  Leeds,  singing  or  weeping,  as  he  was  taken  for 
burial  in  his  native  Birstall. 

Nelson's  homespun  narrative  of  his  arrest  by  the  press- 
gang,  and  of  his  brief  sojourn  in  the  army,  proved  to  be 
rousing  material  for  Methodist  gatherings.  Charles  Wesley 
read  a  manuscript  copy  of  this  aloud  to  the  Bristol  society 
in  September  1744,  and  John  Wesley  prepared  it  for  pub- 
lication the  following  month.  It  was  entitled  The  Case  of 
John  Nelson,  sold  for  threepence,  and  was  snapped  up  so 
rapidly  that  a  second  edition  was  called  for  during  that 
same  month  of  October,  and  two  more  before  the  end  of 


the  year.  In  1767  Nelson  himself  published  a  much  larger 
work,  in  effect  an  expansion  of  this  earlier  one,  for  it 
took  his  story  no  further  than  April  1745.  This  was 
entitled  An  Extract  from  John  Nelson's  Journal,  and  be- 
came a  best-seller,  especially  as  edited  and  slightly 
abridged  by  John  Wesley.  Indeed  this  is  probably  the  best 
known  of  the  many  autobiographies  of  Wesley's  preachers, 
and  has  largely  served  to  make  Nelson  Wesley's  best 
known  lay  preacher. 

F.  Baker,  William  Gri/iishaw.  1963. 

T.  Jackson,  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers.  1837-38. 

Frank  Baker 

NELSON,  JUSTUS  H.  (1851-1937),  American  preacher 
and  missionary  to  Brazil,  was  born  in  1851,  probably  in 
Wisconsin.  He  studied  at  Lawrence  University  at  Ap- 
pleton.  Wis.,  and  at  the  Boston  University  School  of 
Theology,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1879.  In  1880, 
he  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Providence,  later  New 
England  Southern  Conference. 

By  this  time,  William  Taylor  had  made  his  last  voy- 
age to  South  America  (1877-78),  and  had  returned  to  the 
United  States  to  recruit  missionaries  who  were  to  serve  on 
a  self-supporting  basis.  Nelson  was  one  of  his  recruits. 

While  awaiting  his  appointment.  Nelson  studied  a  year 
at  Boston  University,  taking  an  "electic  Course  in  Medi- 
cine." This,  plus  a  course  in  practical  nursing  taken  after 
going  to  Brazil  (in  Belem,  province  of  Parana),  enabled 
him  to  be  of  great  usefulness  in  administering  simple  treat- 
ments to  the  poor. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Nelson  with  William  Taylor  arrived  in 
Belem  on  June  19,  1880,  Taylor  remaining  only  long 
enough  to  get  a  school  successfully  started.  This  school 
prospered  and  new  recruits  were  sent  out,  including 
Justus'  brother.  But  when  yellow  fever  took  the  lives  of 
two  recruits  and  fire  destroyed  the  school  building,  Nelson 
was  forced  to  close  it.  He  remained  on  the  field,  however, 
supporting  himself  and  family  by  teaching  English,  Ger- 
man, and  Portuguese. 

When  on  his  first  furlough,  leaving  George  Nind  in 
charge  of  his  work.  Nelson  asked  that  Brazil  be  organized 
into  a  district  of  the  Providence  Annual  Conference,  which 
was  so  done,  with  Nelson  named  presiding  elder.  He  con- 
tinued in  this  capacity  until  the  Brazil  Mission  was  orga- 
nized into  the  South  American  Annual  Conference  (ME), 
to  which  he  was  then  transferred. 

Nelson  organized  the  first  Methodist  church  in  Belem 
on  July  1,  1883.  In  addition  to  pastoral  work,  he  edited 
a  religious  publication  which  he  called  O  Apologisia 
Cristdo  Brasilerio  (The  Brazilian  Christian  Apologist).  For 
this,  he  translated  many  hymns  by  Wesley  and  others.  In 
one  issue,  he  referred  to  the  "idolatry  prevalent  in  Bra- 
zil," and  for  this  was  sentenced  to  jail  for  "4  months,  two 
days  and  12  hours,  being  released  April  8,  1893." 

Nelson  had  hoped  to  stay  in  Brazil  fifty  years,  working 
mainly  in  the  Amazon  region.  But  a  depression  forced  his 
retirement  in  1926,  after  forty-six  years.  He  returned  to 
the  United  States  that  year  and  died  in  1937.  He  was  sur- 
vived by  one  son,  Luther  T.  Nelson. 

\V.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1949-57. 

Annual  Report,  Board  of  Missions  (  ME  ),  1893.      D.  A.  Reily 

NELSON,  REUBEN  (1818-1879),  American  minister,  edu- 
cator and  publisher,  was  bom  in  Andes,  N.  Y.,  Dec.  16, 


NELSON,   WILLIAM   HAMILTON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


1818.  One  of  twelve  children  of  Abraham  and  Huldah 
Nelson,  he  became  a  Christian  at  fifteen,  a  local  preacher 
at  eighteen  and  joined  the  Oneida  Conference  at  twenty- 
one,  becoming  a  fully  ordained  member  in  due  course. 
Meantime  he  served  as  third  preacher  on  the  Otsego  and 
Westford  circuits.  He  also  was  principal  of  Otsego  Acad- 
emy, Cooperstown,  N.  Y.  In  his  youth  he  lost  his  lower 
right  ami  in  a  woolen  mill.  Because  of  a  throat  affection 
he  stepped  aside  temporarily  in  1843.  He  married  Jane 
Scott  Eddv,  daughter  of  Col.  and  Mrs.  Asa  Eddy  of 
Milford,  N.Y.,  in  1842. 

In  1844  the  Oneida  Conference  established  Wyoming 
Seminary,  in  Kingston,  Pa.,  naming  Reuben  Nelson  its 
first  president,  a  position  he  held  twenty-eight  years,  ex- 
cepting two  years  (1862-63  and  1863-64),  when  he  was 
presiding  elder  of  Wyoming  district.  In  1868-69  he  filled 
both  responsibilities.  Becoming  a  member  of  the  Wyoming 
Conference  in  1852,  Nelson  was  elected  to  the  quadren- 
nial General  Conference  five  times,  beginning  with 
1860.  In  1876  he  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Episcopacy.  In  1872  and  1876  the  General  Conference 
elected  him  senior  Agent  of  the  Methodist  Book  Concern, 
with  offices  in  New  York.  His  second  election  was  by  ac- 
clamation in  recognition  of  his  successful  administration  at 
a  time  when  many  business  enterprises  were  being  ruined. 
He  also  was  made  treasurer  of  the  church's  Missionary 
Society.  He  held  honorary  degrees  from  Union  College 
and  Dickinson  College. 

Nelson  was  an  able  preacher,  educator  and  business 
man.  He  died  in  New  York  City,  Feb.  20,  1879,  and  was 
buried  at  Forty  Fort,  Pa. 

A.  F.  Chaffee,  Wyoming  Conference.  1904. 
Dictionanj  of  American  Biography. 
Journal  of  tlie  General  Conference,  1880. 
Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  October  1879. 

Louis  D.  Palmer 


NELSON,  WILLIAM  HAMILTON  (1878-1956);  American 
minister,  author,  and  editor,  was  born  at  New  Orleans, 
La.,  on  April  6,  1878.  He  was  educated  at  Centenary 
College,  now  at  Shreveport,  La.,  Southwestern  Uni- 
versity, and  the  LIniversity  of  Chicago.  He  joined  the 
West  Texas  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South, 
in  1902.  He  served  churches  in  San  Antonio,  1902; 
Palacios,  1903;  Port  Lavaca,  1907.  In  the  Texas  Confer- 
ence he  was  appointed  to  Angleton,  1908;  Houston, 
1909;  President,  Chapel  Hill  Female  College,  1910.  He 
transferred  to  the  Pacific  Conference  (MES)  in  1911 
and  was  appointed  to  Santa  Rosa.  In  1913  he  became 
superintendent  of  the  Children's  Home  of  California. 
In  1915  he  went  to  the  Cartwright  Church  in  Phoenix, 
Ariz.,  in  the  Los  Angeles  Conference.  As  a  member  of  the 
Pacific  Conference  in  1916,  he  sei-ved  Chico  and  Yuba 
City.  From  1918  to  1934,  he  edited  the  Pacific  Methodist 
Advocate  in  San  Francisco,  traveling  extensively  over 
the  Western  States  until  publication  ceased.  He  served 
Woodland,  Calif.,  from  1935  until  1939  when  he  retired 
in  the  newly  formed  California  Conference.  He  was 
Western  agent,  correspondent  and  general  representative 
of  the  Christiar}  Advocate  of  Nashville  from  1934  to 
1939,  and  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conference 
of  his  church  in  1922. 

In  1931,  Nelson  wrote  a  history  of  Centenary  College, 
entitled  Burning  Torch  and  Flaming  Fire.  His  Alluring 
Arizona  appeared  in  1927.  Seven  other  volumes  were  pub- 


lished over  a  period  of  sixteen  years:  Tinker  and  Thinker 
— John  Bumjan  and  Blood  and  Fire,  William  Booth  were 
biographies.  Nelson  was  a  master  of  picturesque  and  pun- 
gent phrase. 

After  retirement  he  supplied  several  churches  including 
Knight's  Landing  and  Boulder  Creek.  He  resided  most- 
ly at  San  Francisco,  San  Diego,  and  Santa  Barbara,  where 
he  died  Nov.  1,  1956,  and  was  buried  there. 

Journal  of  tlie  California-Nevada  Conference,  1957. 
The  Pacific  Conference  Annual,  MES,  1939. 

Maurice  B.  Cheek 

NELSON,  New  Zealand,  St.  John's  Church,  the  central 
Methodist  Church,  began  its  history  when  Samuel  Iron- 
side conducted  the  first  Methodist  services  in  the  open 
air  before  a  congregation  of  newly  arrived  settlers.  The 
first  services  organized  by  the  settlers  themselves  were 
held  in  1842  in  a  house  built  after  the  Maori  manner,  a 
local  preacher  conducting  worship. 

In  1843,  John  Aldred  found  the  Wesleyans  meeting  in 
a  place  of  worship  built  by  public  subscription  for  use  by 
all  denominations.  It  was  called  Ebenezer. 

Later,  a  large  brick  schoolroom  was  built,  and  the  Wes- 
leyans moved  there  for  their  services  and  meetings. 

In  1845,  a  brick  church,  forty-seven  feet,  costing  £260 
was  opened.  It  seated  two  hundred  persons,  and  was 
opened  free  of  debt. 

During  the  eloquent  ministiy  of  John  Warren  (1855- 
59),  the  church  became  too  small.  An  acre  of  land  was 
bought  in  Hiudy  Street,  and  the  old  church,  with  the 
land  on  which  it  was  built,  was  sold.  A  new  church  was 
built  on  the  new  site  and  was  opened  in  June,  1858,  with 
a  debt  of  only  £145.  A  new  parsonage  was  added  later, 
then  a  gallery  across  the  end  of  the  church.  By  this  time 
William  Kirk  was  the  minister,  and  there  was  perpetual 
revival. 

About  thirty  years  later  it  was  found  that  there  were 
signs  of  decay  in  the  church  building.  A  new  church  to 
seat  550  people  was  opened  in  1890.  The  cost  of  this 
building  was  £2,250,  the  minister  at  the  time  being  Wil- 
liam C.  Oliver. 

In  1899,  during  the  ministry  of  J.  S.  Smalley,  the  par- 
sonage, which  had  served  for  forty  years,  was  replaced 
with  a  new  one,  toward  the  cost  of  which  the  congrega- 
tion raised  £1,144  in  1900. 

Further  buildings,  a  Sunday  school  hall  and  an  infant 
school,  were  opened  in  1912,  J.  J.  Lewis  being  the  minis- 
ter. Bible  class  rooms  followed  in  1924,  these  being  added 
to  the  old  church  building  which  had  been  shifted  to  the 
rear  of  the  church  site  and  was  doing  excellent  sei-vice  as 
a  gymnasium.  Youth  work  was  flourishing  at  this  time. 

The  membership  of  the  circuit  of  which  St.  John's  is  the 
"mother  church"  was  482  in  1966. 

Spring  Grove  Church  was  originally  in  the  Nelson  Cir- 
cuit. It  was  built  on  a  site  of  three  acres,  and  was  opened 
on  April  18,  1858,  P.  Calder,  D.  Dolamore,  and  John 
Warren  conducting  the  services.  The  building  had  cob 
walls  consisting  of  an  earthen  formation.  For  many  years 
there  was  a  flourishing  rural  work,  but  with  the  changing 
character  of  the  community,  the  work  gradually  declined, 
and  for  a  number  of  years  the  building  was  not  used. 
Shortly  after  centennial  celebrations  in  1958,  the  building 
was  demolished. 

The  following  entiy  in  its  baptismal  register  is  of  in- 
terest: "Ernest  Rutherford,  bom  30th  August,  1871,  bap- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


tized  5th  August,  1873.  Son  of  James  and  Martha  Ruther- 
ford, Wheelwright.  Minister,  Rev.  VV.  Cannell." 

Ernest  Rutherford  later  became  the  first  Baron  Ruther- 
ford, eminent  British  chemist  and  physicist.  Lord  Ruther- 
ford won  the  Nobel  Prize  in  chemistry  in  1908.  Later  he 
effected  the  splitting  and  transmutation  of  the  atom.  He 
was  made  a  peer  in  1931  and  died  in  1937. 

M.\TTHE\v  Alexander  McDowell 


rhrito:    .Alexander   Turnhull    Library 

Ta.m.\ti  W.\ka  Xene  ( 1780-1871 ),  famous  Maori 

CHIEFTAIN,  and  FRIEND  AND  PROTECTOR  OF  EARLY 
MISSION .\RIES  TO  NeW  ZEALAND. 

NENE,  TAMATI  WAKA  (1780-1871),  New  Zealand 
Methodist  layman  and  Maori  chieftain  and  warrior,  with 
his  brother  Patuone  protected  early  Wesleyan  missionaries 
from  hostile  attacks.  When  the  brothers  became  Chris- 
tians, Nene  was  baptized  by  a  Wesleyan  missionary  and 
took  the  name  of  Tamati  Waka  (Thomas  Walker).  Patu- 
one was  baptized  by  an  Anglican  missionary  and  took  the 
name  of  Eruera  Maihi  (Edward  Marsh). 

Nene  was  a  good  friend  to  the  government  as  well  as 
to  the  missionaries,  and  was  one  of  the  most  convincing 
supporters  of  the  Treaty  of  Waitangi,  signed  in  1840,  by 
which  sovereignty  over  New  Zealand  was  ceded  to  the 
British  Crov\Ti. 

His  services  were  recognized  by  the  government,  and 
he  was  granted  a  pension  of  £100  per  year.  In  his  later 
years  he  was  greatly  respected  both  by  Maoris  and  Euro- 
peans. A  government  memorial  erected  in  the  Russell  An- 
glican churchyard  in  his  honor  describes  Nene  as  "the 
first  to  welcome  the  Queen's  sovereignty  to  New  Zealand: 
a  consistent  supporter  of  the  Pakeha  (white  man ) ." 

G.  H.  Scholefield,  ed.,  Dictionary  of  New  Zealand  Biography. 
New  Zealand  Department  of  Internal  Affairs,  1940. 

L.  R.  M.  GiLMORE 


NEPAL  is  an  independent  constitutional  monarchy  in  south 
central  Asia,  the  world's  only  Hindu  kingdom.  It  became 
a  member  of  the  United  Nations  in  1955.  Nepal  stands  as 
a  geographical  and  political  buffer  between  the  Republic 
of  India  and  Tibet,  which  is  controlled  by  Communist 
Chin.\.  The  area  is  over  54,000  square  miles,  the  contour 
being  a  rectangle  525  miles  long,  averaging  120  miles 
wide,  oriented  northwest-southeast.  The  population  is  10,- 
294,000.  The  capital  is  Katmandu,  population,   195,260. 

Until  1960,  the  Himalayas,  constituting  Nepal's  north- 
em  border,  were  considered  impassable.  However,  the 
Communist  Chinese,  conquerors  of  Tibet,  have  thrust  two 
effective  roads  across  the  vast  massif  to  Nepal's  border. 

In  the  mid  1700's  the  land  was  conquered  by  hardy 
Hindu  Gurkhas  forced  northwards  from  India  by  over- 
powering Moslems.  Treaties  were  undertaken  with  Great 
Britain,  commercial  in  1791,  political  in  1801.  A  British 
Resident  was  admitted,  to  advise  government.  Britain  also 
secured  the  privilege  of  recruiting  a  certain  number  of 
Gurkhas  for  the  British  Army  in  India.  The  Gurkha  units 
remained  loyal  to  Britain  in  die  Sepoy  Mutiny,  1857,  and 
were  the  focal  forces  in  overcoming  that  uprising.  The 
valor  of  the  Gurkha  regiments  in  both  World  Wars  was 
notable.  The  Republic  of  India  inherited  these  units  and 
the  right  of  recruiting.  The  Gurkha  battalion  in  the  United 
Nations  Force  in  the  Congo,  1962-63,  proved  very  effec- 
tive. 

King  Mahendra  ascended  the  throne  of  Nepal  in  1956, 
being  markedly  liberal  in  attitude.  The  country  is  gov- 
erned under  a  democratic  constitution  promulgated  in 
1959,  adapting  to  Nepal  the  Panehayat  form  of  village 
government  in  Hindu  India.  Britain  has  provided  special- 
ists for  advice  in  forestry  and  agriculture.  United  States 
governmental  aid  has  been  directed  to  roads  and  com- 
munications, irrigation,  and  simple  industries. 


A  Royal  palace  was  provided  by  the  King  of 

Nepal  to  house  the  first  hospital,  called 

Shanta  Bhawan,  at  Katmantju. 

United  Mission  to  Nepal.  With  thirty  denominational 
groups  now  affiliated.  The  United  Mission  to  Nepal  was 
actually  organized  as  a  Methodist  project  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Bishop  J.  Waskom  Pickett  in  1953.  The  following 
year  medical  services  were  begun  under  the  direction  of 

Dr.  Bethel  Fleming.  In  1955  two  additional  doctors, 
Edgar  and  Elizabeth  Miller,  were  sent  out  by  the  Method- 
ist Board  of  Missions.  A  palace  belonging  to  the  royal 
family  was  given  to  the  mission  for  its  hospital  and  has 
been  in  use  since  1954  operating  as  Shanta  Bhawan  Hos- 
pital. 


NESBITT,   SAMUEL   H. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


The  United  Mission  operates  four  basic  sei-vices:  an 
educational  program  involving  some  2,000  people;  a  tech- 
nical institute  for  training  skilled  workmen;  field  hospitals; 
and  dispensaries. 

Nepal  is  dominated  religiously  by  the  Buddhists  and 
Hindus,  but  there  are  increasing  numbers  of  Christians 
throughout  the  country  and  they  organize  themselves 
ecumenically  for  work  and  worship.  They  may  not  legally 
seek  converts  to  their  Christian  fellowships. 

An  indication  of  the  growth  and  importance  of  this 
program  is  the  appreciative  recognition  given  by  the  King 
of  Nepal  to  both  the  Flemings  and  the  Millers.  Their 
work  began  with  eight  staff  members,  ten  hospital  beds, 
and  no  nurses;  the  United  Mission  now  has  nearly  200 
workers  in  the  various  aspects  of  the  program.  Nepal, 
until  a  change  of  regime  in  1951,  had  been  closed  to  all 
mission  efforts.  Some  Roman  Catholic  mission  work  was 
begun  in  1662,  but  this  was  expelled  100  years  later.  The 
remarkable  and  rapid  development  since  1953  by  the 
United  Mission  has  been  the  result  of  a  progressive  atti- 
tude on  the  part  of  the  government  and  the  willingness 
of  Christian  workers  from  thirty  denominations  to  work 
together  without  denominational  labels.  The  very  difficult 
travel  problems  in  Nepal  have  made  it  necessary  to  estab- 
lish field  sei'vice  both  for  teaching  public  health  and  for 
actual  medical  treatment.  A  twenty-bed  hospital  has  been 
built  in  Bhatgaon,  east  of  Katmandu,  where  tuberculosis 
is  their  chief  concern,  but  general  medical  care  is  also 
provided.  A  fifty-five-bed  hospital  has  been  built  in 
Tansen. 

There  are  now  nine  mission-managed  schools,  plus  the 
technical  and  agricultural  training  centers.  Increasingly  the 
Nepalese  are  being  trained  to  become  leaders  of  these 
various  programs.  Natives  are  eventually  to  be  in  full 
charge.  Nurses  and  doctors  are  being  trained  and  exten- 
sive plans  are  under  way  for  a  very  much  enlarged  cen- 
tral hospital  and  United  Mission  headquarters  to  be  built 
in  Katmandu. 

Eleanor  Preston  Clarkson,  Medics  in  the  Mountains:  The  Story 

of  Edgar  and  Elizabeth   Miller.   New  York:   Friendship  Press, 

1968. 

Grace  Neis   Fletcher,   The  Fabtdotts  Flemings  of  Nepal.   New 

York:  E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.,  1964. 

J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956. 

Edgar  R.  Miller,  Medical  Mission  in  Nepal.  Board  of  Missions 

of  The  Methodist  Church.  N.d. 

Minutes  of  tlie  United  Mission  to  Napel. 

World  Outlook,  August  1962;  April  1963. 

Arthur  Bruce  Moss 
Emory  Stevens  Bucke 

NESBITT,  SAMUEL  H.  (1821-1891),  was  an  important 
American  leader  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  of  the 
M.E.  Church  during  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Born  in  Butler  County,  Pa.,  of  Seceder  parentage, 
Sept.  30,  1821,  he  died  at  the  Methodist  Parsonage  at 
New  Brighton,  Pa.,  April  5,  1891.  His  early  life  was  passed 
in  Pittsburgh  where  he  learned  and  followed  the  trade 
of  a  nailer.  Converted  in  1842,  he  entered  Allegheny 
College.  Graduating  with  honors  in  three  years,  in  1847 
he  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Pittsburgh  Conference.  He 
was  principal  of  the  Wellsburg  Female  Seminary  1853- 
1856,  and  President  of  Richmond  College  1857-1859. 
From  1859  until  1872  he  was  the  editor  of  The  Pitts- 
burgh Christian  Advocate.  He  served  as  presiding  elder 
on  two  distiicts  for  six  years.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the 


Cener.^l  Conferences  of  1864,  1868,  1872,  and  1876, 
leading  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  delegation  each  time. 
A  book  from  his  pen,  The  Sabbath  of  the  Bible,  was 
published  in  1890. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzer 

NESS,  JOHN  HARRISON  (1891-  ),  American  E.U.B. 

pastor,  conference  superintendent,  and  denominational 
executive,  was  born  Oct.  23,  1891  in  Yoe,  York  County, 
Pa.,  to  John  Jefferson  and  Elizabeth  Snyder  Ness.  He 
prepared  for  the  ministry  in  Lebanon  Valley  College 
(A.B.  1915)  and  continued  his  schooling  in  Princeton 
Theological  Seminary,  completing  his  work  in  1919.  Grad- 
uate studies  in  history  and  philosophy  were  taken  in  Johns 
Hopkins  University.  In  1925  Lebanon  Valley  College 
honored  him  with  the  D.D.  degree. 

In  1918  Dr.  Ness  was  married  to  Miss  Myra  Grace 
Kiracofe,  a  college  class-mate.  To  their  union  two  sons 
were  born:   John  Herbert  and  Robert  Kiracofe  Ness. 

John  Harrison  Ness  entered  the  Pennsylvania  Annual 
Conference,  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in 
Christ,  in  1911,  and  was  ordained  in  1919.  Following 
several  student  pastorates,  he  was  appointed  to  First 
Church,  York,  Pa.,  in  1919,  serving  there  until  elected  to 
the  superintendency  of  the  conference  in  1931.  Many 
times  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of  his 
church.  Dr.  Ness  sewed  on  numerous  important  boards 
and  commissions.  He  was  elected  publisher  by  the  1945 
General  Conference,  which  position  he  declined  in  order 
to  remain  in  the  superintendency.  Later  he  did  accept 
an  election  to  serve  his  Church  as  Associate  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Pensions  (1948-1957),  and  Executive  Sec- 
retary of  the  Board  of  Pensions  ( 1957-1963) . 

Following  retirement  in  1963,  Dr.  Ness  rendered  spe- 
cial ministries  to  the  United  Church,  Ponce,  Puerto  Rico; 
the  Ybor  City  Mission,  Tampa,  Florida;  the  Red  Bird 
Mission  in  Kentucky;  and  the  Otterbein  Home  near  Leb- 
anon, Ohio. 

Dr.  Ness  served  on  the  central  committee  that  prepared 
the  details  for  the  union  of  The  Evangelical  Church 
and  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  to  form 
the  E.U.B.  Church  in  1946. 

In  The  United  Methodist  Church  he  holds  his  member- 
ship with  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference.  He 
makes  his  home  in  Dayton,  Ohio. 

Journal  of  the  General  Conference,  UB,  EUB. 
Minutes  of  the  Pennsylvania  Conference,  UB. 

Paul  E.  Holdcraft 

NESS,  JOHN  H.,  JR.  (1919-  ),  American  E.U.B.  min- 

ister, was  bom  in  Hagerstown,  Md.,  Sept.  29,  1919,  to 
Myra  Kiracofe  Ness  and  John  Harrison  Ness.  John,  Jr.  re- 
ceived his  quarterly  conference  license  from  First  United 
Brethren  Church,  York,  Pa.,  in  1936;  annual  conference 
license  from  Pennsylvania  Conference,  Church  of  the 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  Oct.  8,  1940;  and  was  or- 
dained by  the  same  conference,  Oct.  3,  1944.  Appoint- 
ments were  filled  in  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  for 
fourteen  years  until  he  was  elected  the  administrative 
leader  of  The  Historical  Society  of  The  E.U.B.  Church, 
Dayton,  Ohio,  in  September  1958.  He  held  this  position 
at  the  time  of  the  formation  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church  (1968).  He  married  Lucille  Hull,  Feb.  26,  1944, 
and  they  had  three  children. 

The  following  institutions  conferred  degrees  upon  him: 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW   BERN,   NORTH   CAROirNA 


Lebanon  Valley  College,  Annville,  Pa.,  A.B.  (1940), 
and  L.H.D.  (1964);  University  of  Pennsylvania,  M.A. 
(1942);  and  Bonebiake  (now  United)  Theological 
Seminary,  B.D.  (1945).  He  also  received  certificates 
from  the  18th  Institute  of  Modern  Archival  Administra- 
tion, American  University,  1964,  and  the  Institute  of 
Archival  Administration,  University  of  Denver,  1967. 
His  book.  One  Hundred  Fifty  Years,  a  history  of  publish- 
ing in  The  E.U.B.  Church,  was  issued  in  1966.  Since  1963 
Ness  has  served  on  the  Church  Records  Committee,  So- 
ciety of  American  Archivists. 

With  the  union  of  Tlie  Historical  Society  and  the  As- 
sociation OF  Methodist  Historical  Societies  in  1968, 
Dr.  Ness  became  the  executive  secretary  of  the  Commis- 
sion ON  Archives  and  History  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church.  He  retains  his  membership  in  the  Central 
Pennsylvania  Conference. 

Harold  S.  Brown 

NEVADA,  called  both  the  "Silver  State"  and  the  "Sage- 
brush State,"  is  in  the  western  part  of  the  United  States. 
Its  Spanish  name  means  "snow-clad."  It  is  bounded  by 
Oregon  and  Idaho  on  the  north,  Utah  and  Arizona  on 
the  east,  and  by  California  on  the  south  and  west.  With 
an  area  of  110,540  square  miles,  it  is  seventh  in  size 
among  the  states.  Its  population  in  1970  was  481,893. 

A  large  part  of  Nevada  is  called  the  Great  Basin,  a 
tableland  4,000  to  5,000  feet  above  sea  level.  Much  of 
the  state  is  arid,  its  rivers  ending  in  "sinks"  where  the 
water  is  absorbed  by  the  dry  air  or  seeps  into  the  ground. 

Among  the  early  pioneers  who  explored  parts  of  Nevada 
was  the  young  Methodist  trader  Jedediah  S.  Smith  who 
in  1827  crossed  the  state  from  west  to  east.  In  1848,  at 
the  end  of  the  war  with  Mexico,  Nevada,  then  known  as 
the  Washoe  Territory  of  Cahfornia,  became  a  United 
States  possession.  In  1850  it  became  part  of  Utah  Terri- 
tory. In  1861  Utah  was  divided  and  the  western  part  was 
called  Nevada.  In  1863  Nevada  was  admitted  into  the 
Union. 

Permanent  settlement  in  Nevada  began  in  1859  with 
the  discovery  of  the  Comstock  Lode.  Thousands  of  people 
then  flocked  to  what  proved  to  be  one  of  the  richest 
deposits  of  precious  metals  ever  found.  By  1881  the  origi- 
nal mines  were  exhausted,  and  while  other  deposits  were 
discovered  they  too  were  soon  depleted.  By  1920  the 
mining  industry  had  lost  its  original  importance.  As  time 
passed,  some  agriculture  and  cattle  ranching  developed; 
irrigation  made  the  valleys  very  productive.  Tourism  is  a 
large  source  of  income  for  the  state. 

Gambling  was  legalized  in  Nevada  in  1931,  and  the 
residence  requirement  for  divorce  was  reduced  to  six 
weeks.  Nevada  has  since  become  a  resort  center  for  gam- 
bling, and  for  marriage  and  divorce.  Under  the  circum- 
stances, church  life  has  not  flourished,  and  church  mem- 
bership among  the  population  is  about  one-half  what  it 
is  in  the  rest  of  the  country. 

The  first  Methodist  preacher  to  come  to  Nevada  was 
Jesse  L.  Bennett.  Ordained  in  1829  in  Illinois,  he  went 
to  California  with  the  gold  rush.  By  1858  he  was  preach- 
ing in  Virginia  City,  Nev.,  and  the  communities  in  Car- 
son Valley.  Among  others  who  came  to  Nevada  was  War- 
ren Nims;  he  built  four  churches  and  six  parsonages.  The 
first  deed  for  a  religious  meetinghouse  was  recorded  by  the 
Methodists,  Aug.  13,  1860,  for  a  church  building  in  Vir- 
ginia City.  One  of  the  men  involved  in   the  transaction 


was  a  Methodist  layman,  Henry  G.  Blasdel,  who  became 
the  first  governor  of  the  state. 

The  churches  in  Nevada  were  organized  into  a  con- 
ference at  Virginia  City,  Sept.  7,  1865  with  Bishop  Calvin 
Kingsley  presiding.  The  conference  had  two  districts — 
Washoe  and  Humboldt,  eleven  preachers,  seventeen  pas- 
toral appointments,  four  church  buildings,  and  267  mem- 
bers. In  1884  the  Nevada  Mission  superseded  the  Nevada 
Conference.  In  1917  the  mission  was  abolished,  and  the 
Nevada  work  was  divided  between  the  two  California 
Conferences  (MEG). 

Today  White  Pine  County,  Nev.,  is  a  part  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  Conference.  The  part  of  the  state  below  the 
thirty-seventh  parallel  (chiefly  Clark  County  and  Las 
Vegas)  is  in  the  Southern  California-Arizona  Confer- 
ence. The  remaining  and  larger  portion  of  Nevada  is 
in  the  California-Nevada  Conference. 

Since  1920  Nevada's  population  has  grown,  and 
Methodism's  increase  in  the  state  has  been  proportionate. 
In  1968  about  2.5  per  cent  of  Nevadans  were  members 
of  The  Methodist  Church.  Methodism  has  built  new 
churches  in  the  RENO-Lake  Tahoe  area,  and  in  Las  Vegas 
the  denomination  has  been  especially  vigorous  in  expan- 
sion and  building  programs. 

In  1970  The  United  Methodist  Church  had  twenty-one 
pastoral  appointments,  6,622  church  members,  and  prop- 
erty valued  at  $4,906,795  in  Nevada.  The  distribution 
of  appointments,  members,  and  property  among  the  three 
conferences  serving  the  state  was  as  follows: 
California-Nevada  13     2,842     $2,150,769 

Rocky    Mountain  1        254  95,576 

Sou.  Calif. -Ariz.  7     3,526       2,660,450 

L.  L.   Loofbourow,  Steeples  Among  the  Sage.  1964. 
Journals  of  the  California-Nevada,  South.ern  California-Arizona, 
and  Rocky  Mountain  Conferences. 
General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC,  UMC.     Leon  L.  Loofbourow 

NEW  BEDFORD,  MASSACHUSETTS,  U.S.A.,  located  fifty 
miles  south  of  Boston  on  the  west  side  of  Buzzards  Bay 
with  a  population  (1970)  of  101,262  has,  since  its  found- 
ing in  1652,  been  known  as  one  of  the  foremost  Atlantic 
seaports.  Its  federal  period  whaling,  well  known  through 
Herman  Melville's  Mohij  Dick,  has  given  way  to  twentieth 
century  diversified  industries. 

Jesse  Lee  preached  there  on  Jan.  30,  1795,  but  a 
number  of  years  elapsed  before  a  strong  Methodist  society 
was  formed.  Originally  attached  to  the  Warren  circuit  in 
the  state  of  Rhode  Island,  a  Methodist  congregation  with 
thirty  members  and  Epaphras  Kibby  as  pastor  was 
founded  in  New  Bedford  in  1807.  Fifty  years  later  there 
were  five  congregations  with  715  members  and  509  Sun- 
day school  students.  Today  there  are  three  churches  in 
New  Bedford;  in  order  of  present  size  they  are:  St. 
Paul's,  Trinity,  and  Wesley.  These  churches  have  an  ag- 
gregate of  1,214  members  and  461  church  school  students 
(1970). 

Encyclopedia  Americana. 

General  Minutes,  UMC,  1970. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Ernest  R.  Case 

NEW  BERN,  NORTH  CAROLINA,  U.S.A.  The  city  of  New 
Bern  has  long  been  a  center  of  Methodist  activity  in  the 
state  of  North  Carolina  and  its  "Mother  Church," 
Centenary,  was  cited  in  1966  as  the  oldest  Methodist 
Church   in   continuous  service   in   the    North  Carolina 


NEW   CASTLE,    PENNSYLVANIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Conference.  The  earliest  mention  of  Methodism  in  New 
Bern  is  found  in  a  1760  letter  from  James  Reed,  Anglican 
missionary  for  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  who  noted  the  great  number  of  dissenters  in  his 
parish,  among  whom  were  some  Methodists  whom  he 
described  as  "ignorant,  censorious  and  uncharitable." 
Later,  Reed  recorded  a  visit  by  George  Whitefield  to 
New  Bern  and  quoted  him  as  saying  that  the  Methodists 
previously  referred  to  were  not  "regular  Methodists,"  as 
none  were  Methodists  who  did  not  follow  either  John 
Wesley  or  himself. 

In  the  closing  days  of  1772,  Joseph  Pilmohe,  who 
was  sent  by  John  Wesley  to  the  American  colonies, 
preached  in  New  Bern  and  observed:  "In  all  my  travels 
through  the  world  I  have  met  with  none  like  the  people  of 
New  Bern."  Bishop  Francis  Asbury  visited  New  Bern  on 
several  occasions,  as  recorded  in  his  Journal:  On  earlier 
visits  he  was  obliged  to  preach  in  the  local  Episcopal 
Church,  but  he  noted  in  an  entry  on  Feb.  20,  1804:  "We 
moved  a  subscription  to  raise  one  thousand  dollars  to 
enlarge  and  finish  the  chapel;  we  have  obtained  six  hun- 
dred dollars.  Brother  M'Caine  preached,  and  there  was 
something  of  a  shout."  Lorenzo  Dow  visited  New  Bern 
in  1804. 

The  Methodist  Society  at  New  Bern  was  originally  a 
part  of  the  Carolina  and  Tar  River  Circuits  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Conference.  In  1786  the  appointment  was  called 
"New  Bern,  New  River  and  Wilmington."  In  1796  the 
New  Bern  Society,  including  both  whites  and  Negroes, 
consisted  of  some  100  members.  The  New  Bern  Method- 
ists were  organized  into  a  congregation  in  1802  and  soon 
thereafter  purchased  a  lot  on  the  corner  of  what  is  now 
Hancock  Street  and  Church  Alley.  The  plain  wooden 
structure  was  called  "Andrew's  Chapel."  M.  S.  Bulchard 
was  assigned  to  serve  the  charge  prior  to  1800,  but  there 
is  no  record  of  the  New  Bern  station  until  the  visit  of 
Bishop  Asbury  in  1803  when  he  made  plans  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  permanent  church. 

Following  a  twenty-day  revival  conducted  by  John  Ed- 
wards, the  membership  of  Andrew's  Chapel  grew  so 
rapidly  that  a  larger  church  building  became  necessary. 
In  1843-1844  a  new  church  was  constructed  on  the  south 
side  of  New  Street  between  Hancock  and  Metcalf  Streets, 
and  the  name  was  changed  to  "Centenary."  The  third 
and  present  building,  located  on  the  corner  of  New  and 
Middle  Streets,  was  completed  in  1904.  Though  an  exten- 
sive fire  on  Sept.  15,  1935,  destroyed  much  of  the  struc- 
ture, it  was  soon  rebuilt.  The  eight  German  stained  glass 
windows  in  the  sanctuary  are  valued  at  $30,000  each. 
The  Centenary  Church  Sunday  school  became,  in  1920, 
the  first  one  in  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South,  to  be  organized  into  departments  so  as 
to  more  adequately  meet  the  needs  of  all  ages.  The  John 
A.  Russell  Christian  Education  Building,  named  in  honor 
of  the  minister  who  guided  the  building  program  and 
supervised  its  construction,  is  valued  at  nearly  $200,000.  It 
was  completed  in  1956;  and  ten  years  later  a  major  reno- 
vation project  for  the  church  was  undertaken. 

When,  in  1802,  the  M.  E.  Church  was  further  divided 
into  conferences.  New  Bern  became  the  center  of  the  New 
Bern  District  of  the  Virginia  Conference;  it  is  today  the 
headquarters  of  the  New  Bern  District  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina Conference  of  The  United  Methodist  Church.  The 
North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  orga- 
nized in  1838,  held  its  third  session  in  New  Bern  in 
January  1840.  Following  the  establishment  of  the  North 


Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  its  an- 
nual sessions  were  held  in  New  Bern  in  1846,  1858,  1888, 
1900,  1907,  1921,  1936.  The  North  Carolina  Conference 
of  The  Methodist  Church  met  in  New  Bern  in  1957. 

There  are  four  .Methodist  churches  in  New  Bern  to- 
day: Centenary,  Garber,  Riverside  and  Trinity  Churches. 
Trinity  Church  developed  as  a  result  of  the  establishment 
of  the  U.S.  Marine  Corps  Air  Station  at  Cherry  Point 
near  New  Bern,  and  by  the  expansion  of  the  city  limits. 
It  was  chartered  with  forty-one  members  on  Sept.  13, 
1953.  A  cornerstone-laying  service  was  held  in  September 

1964,  and  the  new  sanctuary  was  first  used  on  Feb.  14, 

1965.  Trinity  Church  has  512  members  and  a  plant  valued 
at  $189,500.  Garber  Church  was  organized  in  November 
1959.  Its  first  unit  was  constmcted  in  January  1961,  and 
in  1970  it  had  a  membership  of  199.  It  was  named  in 
honor  of  Bishop  Paul  N.  Career.  The  Riverside  Church 
has  a  membership  of  441.  The  Centenary  Church  has  a 
membership  of  1,376. 

Crady  L.  E.  Carroll.  Francis  Asbiiry  in  North  Carolina.  Nash- 
ville: 1964. 

George  H.  Jones.  The  Methodist  Tourist  Guidebook.  Nashville: 
Tidings,  1960. 

Journal  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Conference,  1967. 
Eleanor  Marshall  Nelson  and  W.  R.  Stevens.  Centenary  Meth- 
odist Church.  1964.  Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

NEW  CASTLE,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.,  located  forty- 
three  miles  southwest  of  Pittsburgh  at  the  point  where 
the  Shenango  and  Mohoning  Rivers  meet  to  form  the 
Beaver,  has  a  population  (1970)  of  38,457.  The  commu- 
nity, settled  in  1798,  is  situated  in  an  area  of  abundant 
natural  resources — coal  and  limestone. 

Although  the  first  Methodist  meetings  were  held  four 
miles  north  of  the  city  by  exhorter  William  Richard  in 
1804,  services  during  the  same  year  were  also  held  in 
the  city  itself.  James  Watts  in  1810  brought  together  a 
class  of  ten  persons.  Five  years  later  the  first  structure,  a 
log  building,  to  house  a  Methodist  congregation  in  New 
Castle  was  erected;  the  following  year,  1821,  New  Castle 
appears  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Church  as  a  distinct  appoint- 
ment with  S.  R.  Brockunier  as  pastor.  In  1836  a  frame 
building  replaced  the  log  structure;  later  a  brick  building 
was  constructed. 

Another  Methodist  society  was  organized  in  1847  with 
a  building  erected  in  1850.  Thereafter,  Methodism  con- 
tinued to  grow.  According  to  the  General  Minutes  of  1970 
there  are  eight  Methodist  churches  in  New  Castle  with  a 
total  membership  of  3,223  persons,  and  a  total  church 
school  enrollment  of  1,637  students. 


Encyclopedia  Americana. 
General  Minutes,  UMC,  1970. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 


Ernest  R.  Case 


NEW    CONGREGATIONAL    METHODIST    CHURCH    was 

formed  in  1881  by  members  of  the  Waresboro  Mission 
and  others  involved  in  a  rural  church  consolidation  en- 
forced by  the  Board  of  Domestic  Missions  of  the  Geor- 
gia Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  In  protest 
of  the  consolidation,  the  group  withdrew  and  formed  the 
new  body  at  Waycross,  Ga.,  using  the  Constitution  of  the 
Congregational  Methodist  Church  as  their  model. 
They  adopted  a  loosely  connectional  system,  rejecting 
particularly  the  system  of  annual  conference  assessments. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW   ENGLAND    SOUTHERN    CONFERENCE 


They  also  baptized  by  immersion  and  allowed  foot  wash- 
ing at  communion. 

An  early  growth  was  stopped  by  the  death  of  several 
leaders  and  the  withdrawal  of  a  number  of  congregations 
who  joined  the  Congregational  Methodist  Church.  At  the 
present  time,  they  have  thirteen  congregations,  seven  in 
Georgia  and  six  in  Florida.  They  have  no  connections 
with  any  ecumenical  bodies. 

J.  Gordon  Melton 

NEW  ENGLAND  CONFERENCE  originally  included  all  of 
the  New  England  states  and  a  portion  of  Canada.  It 
was  one  of  the  six  original  conferences  with  definite 
boundaries  created  by  the  1796  General  Conference. 
The  first  session  of  the  New  England  Conference  was 
held  at  Wilbraham,  Mass.,  Sept.  19,  1797. 

As  time  passed  other  conferences  were  carved  out  of 
New  England  Conference  territory  as  follows:  the  New 
York  Conference  in  1800,  the  Maine  Conference  in 
1825,  the  New  HAMPSHraE  and  Vermont  Conference  in 
1830,  and  the  Providence  Conference  in  1840.  The 
setting  off  of  these  conferences  finally  reduced  the  New 
England  Conference  to  those  sections  of  Massachlisetts 
surrounding  the  district  centers  of  Springfield,  Worcester, 
Lynn,  and  Boston.  In  1962,  however,  the  churches  in 
extreme  western  Massachusess  which  had  been  linked  with 
the  Troy  Conference  and  the  New  York  Conference 
were  returned  to  the  New  England  Conference. 

Though  reduced  in  size  geographically  as  time  passed, 
the  influence  and  service  of  the  New  England  Conference 
increased.  Between  1830  and  1840  some  150  men  were 
received  on  trial  in  the  conference.  Wilbraham  Academy, 
Wesleyan  University,  and  the  Methodist  Biblical  Insti- 
tute (forerunner  of  Boston  University)  came  into  being 
before  1840.  At  Tremont  Street  Church,  Boston,  the 
Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  was  organized 
in  1869.  In  1913  there  were  thirty-eight  deaconesses  work- 
ing in  Boston.  These  women  organized  associations  that 
brought  into  being  the  New  England  Deaconess  Hospital 
and  the  retirement  homes  at  Concord  and  Magnolia.  With- 
in the  New  England  Conference  the  Goodwill  Indus- 
tries which  now  encircle  the  globe  were  organized  in 
1912. 

Urbanization  and  changes  in  population  and  transporta- 
tion have  altered  the  structure  and  strategy  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  New  England  Conference.  Between  1900 
and  1960  only  three  new  Methodist  churches  were  orga- 
nized within  the  conference,  while  in  the  same  period 
forty-three  churches  were  closed,  sixteen  of  them  in  Bos- 
ton. However,  fourteen  federated  parishes  came  into  being 
and  twenty-four  merged  congregations  formed  "new" 
churches.  Corporate  ministries,  inner  city  work  in  Spring- 
field and  Boston,  as  well  as  an  ad  hoc  Boston  Metropolitan 
Methodist  Planning  Commission,  are  seeking  to  grapple 
with  contemporary  problems. 

The  New  England  Conference  Commission  on  Archives 
and  History  is  one  of  the  strongest  in  the  denomination. 
In  cooperation  with  the  Boston  University  School  of 
Theology  Library,  it  maintains  a  good  collection  on  Meth- 
odist history. 

In  1970  the  New  England  Conference  had  201  charges, 
289  ministers,  31,247  Church  school  pupils,  71,643  church 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $60,093,539. 

In  1970  the  New  England  Conference  and  the  New 


England  Southern  Conference  merged  to  form  the 
Southern  New  England  Conference. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  New  England  Conference. 

J.  Mudge,  New  England  Conference.  1910.     Ernest  R.  Case 

NEW  ENGLAND  SOUTHERN  CONFERENCE  was  organized 
at  Fall  River,  Mass.,  April  13,  1881  with  Bishop  Jesse  T. 
Peck  presiding.  It  superseded  the  Providence  Confer- 
ence in  accordance  with  an  enabling  act  adopted  by  the 
1880  General  Conference  permitting  that  conference  to 
change  its  name.  The  territory  of  the  New  England  South- 
em  Conference  was  the  part  of  Connecticut  lying  east 
of  the  Connecticut  River,  Rhode  Island,  and  southeastern 
Massachusetts.  In  1881  the  conference  reported  three 
districts.  Providence,  Providence  North,  and  New  Bedford. 
There  were  186  charges  and  22,564  members.  The  con- 
ference came  to  unification  in  1939  with  three  districts, 
172  charges  and  34,374  members. 

Among  the  earliest  churches  organized  within  the 
bounds  of  what  came  to  be  the  New  England  Southern 
Conference  were:  Tolland,  Thompson,  Manchester,  and 
New  London  in  Connecticut;  Acushnet,  Scituate,  Somer- 
set, and  Truro  in  Massachusetts;  and  East  Greenwich 
and  Portsmouth  in  Rhode  Island.  The  first  Methodist  so- 
ciety in  Rhode  Island  was  organized  at  Warren  in  1791. 
The  first  session  of  an  annual  conference  in  the  region, 
and  indeed  in  all  New  England,  was  held  at  Tolland, 
Conn,  in  1793.  The  first  Methodist  parsonage  in  Connecti- 
cut, and  possibly  the  first  in  New  England,  was  built  at 
Square  Pond  (now  Crystal  Lake)  in  1795.  During  the 
celebration  of  the  Bicentennial  of  American  Method- 
ism in  1966,  plans  were  projected  for  restoring  the  old 
parsonage.  One  of  the  first  camp  meetings  in  New  En- 
gland was  conducted  at  Square  Pond  in  1806.  Other  camp 
meetings  were  held  at  different  times  in  Willimantic,  Yar- 
mouth, and  Oak  Bluffs  on  Martha's  Vineyard. 

During  its  history  the  New  England  Southern  Confer- 
ence developed  service  institutions.  Deaconesses  began 
work  among  needy  children  in  Fall  River,  Mass.,  in  1893, 
and  about  the  same  time  a  home  for  working  girls  was 
established  in  Providence.  Fleidner  Hall,  a  boarding  home 
for  young  women,  was  built  in  Pawtucket  in  1911.  A  home 
for  the  aged  was  projected  in  East  Providence  in  1966. 
East  Greenwich  Academy  (see  Rhode  Island)  was  main- 
tained by  the  conference.  In  1945  Camp  Aldersgate  was 
established  on  a  one  hundred-acre  tract  at  Glocester, 
Rhode  Island.  An  administrative  oEBce  for  the  conference 
was  set  up  in  Providence  in  1956. 

In  1970  the  New  England  Southern  Conference  re- 
ported three  districts,  Connecticut,  New  Bedford,  and 
Providence.  There  were  114  charges,  159  ministers,  147 
congregations,  35,097  church  members,  17,035  Church 
school  pupils,  and  property  valued  at  $29,734,075. 

In  1970  the  New  England  Southern  Conference  and  the 
New  England  Conference  merged  to  form  the  Southern 
New  England  Conference. 

Camp  Aldersgate,  Scituate,  Mass.,  is  a  camp  originally 
owned  by  the  New  England  Southern  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church.  Purchased  from  Grace  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  in  1944  for  $13,000,  it 
consisted  of  100  acres  of  land,  containing  houses  and  an 
artificial,  spring-fed  lake  covering  seventeen  acres  of  the 
land.  In  addition  to  its  use  as  a  children's  camp,  youth 
institutes  and  assemblies  were  held  during  the  early  years. 


NEW   GUINEA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Sponsored  by  both  the  New  England  Southern  and  the 
New  England  Conferences  and  directed  by  the  executive 
secretary  of  the  Boards  of  Education  of  both  Conferences, 
the  program  moved  from  an  emphasis  upon  institute  and 
assembly  programs,  to  a  stress  on  the  significance  of  out- 
door camping  and  small-group  living  as  a  means  for  Chris- 
tian nurture.  Camp  Aldersgate  is  presently  used  for  a 
twelve-week  summer  camping  program  designed  for  whole 
families,  children,  junior  high  and  high  school  youth.  By 
purchase  or  legacy,  the  camp  now  owns  more  than  250 
acres  of  woodland.  It  is  now  under  the  reorganized  New 
England  Conference  of  The  United  Methodist  church. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  New  England  Soutliern  Conference. 
Howard  E.  Tower,  Brief  History  of  Camp  Aldersgate.  1965. 

David  Carter 
Mabel  E.  Waring 

NEW  GUINEA  is,  next  to  Australia  itself,  the  largest 
island  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere.  The  western  half, 
West  Irian,  now  controlled  by  Indonesia,  is  not  the 
responsibility  of  Australian  Methodism.  The  eastern  half 
is  divided  into  two  sections  although  these  are  controlled 
jointly  by  Australia. 

In  this  eastern  half  the  northern  section  was  German 
territory  from  1884  to  1914  and  is  now  an  Australian 
Trust  Territory.  The  southern  section  has  been  a  direct 
Australian  Government  responsibility  since  1884;  it  is 
this  section  which  is  called  Papua. 

The  islands  of  New  Britain,  New  Zealand,  and  smaller 
islands  to  the  east  of  the  mainland  of  New  Guinea  are 
part  of  the  Trust  Territory  of  New  Guinea. 

These  regions  comprise  people  of  many  types,  mainly 
Melanesian,  with  about  500  different  languages.  For  the 
organization  of  the  work  in  these  islands  into  one  admin- 
istrative body  see  United  Church  of  Papua,  New 
Guinea  and  the  Solomon  Islands. 

Highlands  Challenge:  Nov.  28,  1950  was  the  official 
opening  of  the  first  mission  station  in  the  New  Guinea 
Highlands.  In  a  completely  new,  unevangelized  area,  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Australasia  is  at  work  among  people 
whose  existence  was  unknown  to  the  world  before  World 
War  II.  Estimates  of  their  numbers  vary  up  to  one  million 
people.  Mendi  was  the  first  area  chosen  for  the  pioneer 
missionaries  and  because  of  the  aggressive  nature  of  the 
inhabitants,  no  women  were  allowed  to  accompany  them 
for  the  first  twelve  months.  The  great  barrier  proved  to 
be  language  and  many  varied  dialects  were  identified. 

It  was  eleven  years  before  the  first  conversions  and 
baptisms  were  recorded  but  since  then,  the  gospel  has 
spread  vigorously  through  the  villages.  New  circuits  at 
Tari  and  Nipa  have  been  opened.  Native  pastors  and 
local  preaches  have  been  trained  and  are  transported  by 
helicopter,  over  the  mountains,  to  speak  to  their  own  peo- 
ple in  nearby  valleys.  Churches,  schools,  hospitals  have 
been  established  and  agricultural  guidance  given  to  these 
primitive  people.  Language  translation  work,  both  for 
school  books  and  scriptures,  is  being  undertaken.  Maternal 
and  infant  welfare  work  and  the  Hansenide  Centre  estab- 
lished at  Tari  have  been  received  gratefully  by  the  people 
in  this  newest  twentieth  century  mission. 

Malmaluan  Youth  Training  Centre,  established  in 
1964  was  constructed  by  a  work  party  of  voluntary  assis- 
tants from  Australia  in  1963.  It  provides  one  Long  Course 
per  year  for  up  to  sixty  students  from  all  denominations  in 


the  Territory  desiring  to  participate.  In  addition.  Short 
Courses,  Student  Conferences,  Weekend  and  Weeklong 
Conferences  are  conducted  for  up  to  300  students.  Courses 
are  provided  in  Christian  Education  for  all  ages.  Youth 
Leadership,  Group  Dynamics  and  Community  Develop- 
ment from  the  Christian  View.  Guest  lecturers  from  over- 
seas are  invited. 

Malmaluan  is  the  first  lay  or  youth  leadership  center 
in  New  Guinea  with  a  full-time  director,  the  Rev.  John 
Mavor,  and  two  lay  assistants.  It  serves  the  whole  of 
Papua,  New  Guinea  and  the  Solomon  Islands.  During  each 
year,  thousands  gather  at  the  center  for  its  special  services, 
at  Easter,  Pentecost,  etc. 

The  director  also  travels  around  the  islands  for  a  part 
of  each  year,  conducting  regional  courses  in  all  fields  of 
Christian  Education.  Malmaluan  (a  New  Guinea  name 
meaning  "Deep  Peace")  Training  Centre  is  a  liaison  point 
between  parent  churches  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand 
and  the  younger  Pacific  Churches. 

Missionary  Martyrs:  The  heaviest  blow  received  to  the 
work  of  the  Australian  Methodist  Overseas  Missions  came 
when  ten  of  their  finest  missionaries,  including  eight  min- 
isters, were  killed  in  1942.  As  prisoners  of  war  they  were 
herded  together  on  a  Japanese  freighter  which  was  sunk 
by  an  allied  submarine. 

They  had  been  stationed  together  in  New  Britain,  but 
as  the  enemy  thrust  came  further  south  towards  Australia 
and  the  territory,  the  danger  drew  nearer  and  all  women 
and  children  from  the  missionary  homes  throughout  New 
Guinea  were  recalled  home.  However,  the  men  chose  to 
remain  with  the  people  they  were  serving  and  were  con- 
sequently trapped  by  the  Japanese  advance  to  disappear 
into  prisoner  of  war  camps.  For  three  years  there  was 
complete  silence  about  their  fate.  Only  after  the  cessa- 
tion of  hostilities  were  the  facts  learned  concerning  one 
Sunday  in  June  1942,  when  they  were  crowded  with  hun- 
dreds of  soldiers  and  civilians  on  to  the  "Montevideo 
Maru"  to  be  transferred  to  a  prison  camp  in  Japan.  Some 
time  between  June  22  and  July  1,  the  vessel  was  torpe- 
doed off  the  coast  of  Luzon  in  the  Philippines.  There 
were  no  survivors.  When  the  news  reached  Australia  in 
1945,  a  Sei-vice  of  Remembrance  was  held  in  Wesley 
Chapel,  Sydney  and  at  this  service,  four  of  the  wives  of 
the  men  killed,  announced  their  intention  of  going  back 
to  New  Guinea  as  soon  as  possible. 

The  names  of  those  who  perished  were:  L.  A.  Mac- 
arthur,  W.  L.  I.  Lingood,  W.  D.  Oakes,  H.  J.  Pearson, 
J.  W.  Poole,  H.  B.  Shelton,  T.  N.  Simpson,  J.  Trevitt, 
S.  C.  Beazley,  and  E.  W.  Pearse. 

G.  Brown,  Autobiography.  1908. 

J.  W.  Burton,  Call  of  the  Pacific.  1912. 

Benjamin  Danks,  In  Wild  New  Britain.  1933. 

A.  Harold  Wood 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  a  New  England  state  and  one  of  the 
original  thirteen  colonies,  was  named  after  Hampshire, 
England.  Called  the  "granite  state,"  New  Hampshire  has 
182  mountains  over  3,000  feet  high,  including  Mt.  Wash- 
ington (6,288  feet),  the  highest  mountain  in  the  northeast. 
New  Hampshire  ratified  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States  on  June  21,  1788,  being  the  ninth  and  deciding 
state  to  do  so.  Forty-fourth  among  the  states  in  size,  New 
Hampshire  has  9,304  square  miles,  about  eighty-four  per 
cent  of  it  covered  by  forests. 

Among  the  early  explorers  who  visited  New  Hampshire 


WORLD  METHODISM 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE   CONFERENCE 


were  Martin  Pring  (1603),  Samuel  de  Champlain  (1605), 
and  Captain  John  Smith  (1614).  In  1641-79,  1689-92, 
and  1699-1741,  New  Hampshire  was  joined  to  the  Massa- 
CHussETTS  Colony,  but  during  the  intervening  years  and 
until  1775,  it  was  under  royal  governors.  A  provisional 
government  was  formed  in  1776  and  a  state  constitution 
was  adopted  in  1784. 

The  earliest  authenticated  Methodist  service  in  New 
Hampshire  was  held  at  the  home  of  James  Robertson  in 
Chesterfield  in  1772.  At  the  request  of  Robertson,  Philip 
Embury  preached  on  that  occasion.  In  the  next  eighteen 
years  there  were  were  numerous  unsuccessful  attempts  to 
establish  Methodism  in  New  Hampshire.  Then  in  1790, 
Jesse  Lee  was  appointed  to  New  England.  On  his  first 
trip  to  Boston  in  that  year,  Lee  went  as  far  north  as 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.  In  the  following  year  he  visited  the 
state  again  and  wrote,  "We  had  a  meeting  in  a  private 
house.  At  Mr.  Lindsay's  request  I  preached  on  Psalm  1:6. 
I  found  it  to  be  a  time  of  much  life  and  love  and  some  of 
the  people  appeared  to  be  much  affected.  When  the  ser- 
vice was  ended  some  of  the  people  blessed  God  for  our 
meeting;  all  seemed  friendly."  In  1794  Lee  became  presid- 
ing elder  in  New  England,  and  John  Hill  was  appointed 
to  New  Hampshire  under  him. 

Presumably  John  Hill  gave  attention  to  Chesterfield,  be- 
cause it  had  sixty-eight  members  in  1796  and  the  Chester- 
field Circuit  was  formed  that  year.  Lee  wrote  of  Chester- 
field, "It  lay  in  the  southwest  corner  of  the  State,  near 
the  Connecticut  River.  .  .  .  The  first  society  formed  in  the 
State  was  in  Chesterfield,  some  time  in  1795,  at  which 
time  there  were  but  a  few  that  felt  the  freedom  to  unite 
with  us.  After  some  time  a  few  more  cast  in  their  lots, 
and  other  societies  were  soon  formed  in  other  places. 
The  circuit  was  entered  upon  the  annual  minutes  in  the 
year  1796.  Some  time  after  this  there  was  a  circuit  formed 
higher  up  in  the  State  called  Landaff,  and  in  that  place 
religion  prospered  very  much."  The  records  confirm  Lee's 
statement.  By  1799  Chesterfield  had  131  members. 

In  1804  the  New  Hampshire  District  was  formed,  and 
John  Brodhead  was  appointed  presiding  elder.  In  1809 
when  Martin  Ruter  was  appointed  to  succeed  Brod- 
head, there  were  1,673  members  in  New  Hampshire. 

The  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  Conference  (New 
Hampshire  Conference  after  1831)  was  organized  on 
June  19,  1829  at  Portsmouth.  The  next  year  the  confer- 
ence reported  11,757  members,  of  whom  7,750  were  in 
New  Hampshire.  In  1844,  the  New  Hampshire  Conference 
was  divided  to  form  the  Vermont  Conference. 

The  first  Methodist  seminary  (secondary  school)  in 
New  England  was  located  in  that  part  of  Newmarket 
which  is  now  Newfields,  opening  on  Sept.  1,  1817.  New- 
market was  the  first  permanent  educational  institution 
founded  by  the  Methodists  in  America.  Soon  a  branch  of 
the  academy  was  located  in  Kingston,  but  because  of  con- 
tinual financial  deficits,  it  was  transferred  to  Wilbraham, 
Mass.,  and  in  that  location  it  was  the  beginning  of  Meth- 
odism's Wilbraham  Academy.  Another  Methodist  academy 
was  started  at  Franklin,  but  soon  afterward  it  was  merged 
with  the  seminary  at  Tilton.  The  first  meeting  of  the 
board  of  trustees  of  the  Tilton  School  was  held  in  May, 
1845.  The  institution  was  chartered  by  the  General  Court 
in  1852.  Supported  by  the  New  Hampshire  Conference, 
the  Tilton  School  continues  to  serve  as  a  junior  college. 
It  dedicated  a  new  chapel  in  1966.  The  Wesleyan  Bibli- 
cal Institute  was  started  in  Newbury,  Vt.,  and  was  re- 
located in  Concord,  N.  H.  in  1847  and  was  incorporated 


as  the  Methodist  General  Biblical  Institute.  In  1868  it  was 
moved  to  Boston  where  it  later  became  the  School  of 
Theology  of  Boston  University. 

New  Hampshire  Methodism  has  furnished  two  men  for 
the  episcopacy,  Osmon  C.  Baker  and  Edgar  Blake. 
Many  of  its  ministers  have  served  as  chaplains  in  the 
armed  service  of  the  nation,  in  hospitals,  homes,  the  state 
legislature,  and  state  prisons,  and  as  campus  ministers  and 
missionaries  abroad  and  at  home.  In  1967,  several  were 
serving  in  Africa,  Japan,  and  Malaya. 

Since  1844  the  boundaries  of  the  New  Hampshire  Con- 
ference have  changed  little.  Today  it  includes  all  of  the 
churches  in  New  Hampshire,  ten  in  Massachusetts,  and 
one  in  Vermont.  In  1968,  it  had  two  districts,  97  minis- 
ters, and  19,272  members. 


Cole  and  Baketel,  New  Hampshire  Conference.  1929. 
Journals  of  the  New  Hampshire  and  New  England  Conferences. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.       G.  Bennett  Van  Buskirk 

William  J.  Davis 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE  CONFERENCE  began  as  the  New  Ham- 
shire  and  Vermont  Conference  in  1829.  In  1831  it  was 
incorporated  by  the  state  legislature  as  the  New  Hamp- 
shire Conference.  Formed  by  dividing  the  New  England 
Conference,  the  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  Confer- 
ence was  organized  on  June  19,  1829  at  Portsmouth  dur- 
ing the  regular  session  of  the  parent  conference,  Bishop 
Elijah  Hedding  presiding. 

As  one  of  the  original  conferences,  the  New  England 
body  dates  from  1796.  At  the  beginning  it  included  the 
state  of  New  York.  In  1800  the  New  England  Conference 
was  divided  to  form  the  New  York  Conference,  and  at 
the  outset  the  latter  body  included  all  of  Connecticut 
and  parts  of  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Ver- 
mont. In  1804  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  were  placed 
in  the  New  England  Conference  where  they  remained 
until  the  formation  of  the  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont 
Conference  in  1829. 

The  first  .session  of  the  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont 
Conference  following  organization  was  held  at  Barre,  Vt., 
in  June,  1830.  Becoming  the  New  Hampshire  Conference 
in  1831,  the  body  met  alternately  in  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont  until  1844  when  it  was  divided  to  form  the  Ver- 
mont Conference. 

The  first  authenticated  Methodist  preaching  service  in 
New  Hampshire  was  held  at  Chesterfield  in  the  home 
of  James  Robertson  who  had  come  from  Scotland  in 
1762.  At  his  request  Philip  Embury  came  and  preached 
in  his  house  in  1772  and  organized  a  class  of  five  mem- 
bers. The  religious  zeal  of  those  members  gave  the  road 
through  the  town  the  name  of  "Christian  Street"  which 
it  still  bears.  Jesse  Lee  preached  in  Chesterfield  in  1793, 
and  on  June  20,  1803,  Bishop  Asbury  came  and  delivered 
a  sermon  in  Robertson's  house.  In  1796  Chesterfield  had 
sixty-eight  members,  and  at  the  conference  that  year 
Philip  Wager  was  appointed  to  the  Chesterfield  Circuit. 

At  its  session  in  1830,  the  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont 
Conference  had  three  districts,  forty-two  ministers,  fifty- 
four  appointments,  and  11,757  members,  some  7,750  of 
them  in  New  Hampshire.  In  1845,  the  year  following  the 
formation  of  the  Vermont  Conference,  the  New  Hamp- 
shire Conference  had  10,621  members. 

There  have  been  few  changes  in  the  boundaries  of  the 
New  Hampshire  Conference  since  the  Vermont  Confer- 


NEW   HAVEN,    CONNECTICUT 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


ence  was  set  off  from  it  in  1844.  The  conference  now 
includes  all  of  the  churches  in  New  Hampshire,  ten  in 
Massachusetts,  and  one  in  Vermont. 

In  1970,  the  New  Hampshire  Conference  had  two  dis- 
tricts— Northern  and  Southern — ninety-seven  ministers, 
seventy  pastoral  charges,  19,272  church  members,  and 
churches,  parsonages  and  other  property  valued  at 
$12,405,347. 

Cole  and  Baketel,  New  Hampshire  Conference.  1929. 
Journals  of  the  New  Hampshire  and  New  England  Conferences. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.     G.  Bennett  Van  Buskirk 

William  J.  Davis 

NEW  HAVEN,  CONNECTICUT,  U.S.A.,  population  133,- 
543  (1970),  is  situated  at  the  mouths  of  the  Quinnipiac, 
Mill  and  West  Rivers,  and  at  the  head  of  New  Haven 
Harbor.  The  city  was  settled  on  April  10,  1638,  by  im- 
migrant Puritans.  It  is  the  seat  of  Yale  University  and  has 
over  1,000  large  and  small  manufacturing  concerns.  Indus- 
trial development  was  begun  on  a  large  scale  in  1798 
when  Eli  Whitney,  inventor  of  the  cotton  gin,  returned 
from  Georgia  and  started  a  gun  factory. 

Jesse  Lee  visited  New  Haven  and  preached  the  first 
Methodist  sermon  on  June  21,  1789,  in  the  court  house. 
The  president  of  Yale  and  many  students  were  present. 
Lee  returned  on  July  5,  1789  and  was  allowed  to  preach 
in  the  Congregational  Church.  "Some  told  me  they  were 
much  pleased  with  the  discourse,"  he  said,  "but  no  man 
asked  me  home  with  him."  However,  a  gentleman  later 
came  to  Lee's  hotel  and  invited  him  to  his  home. 

In  1790  New  Haven  Circuit  was  formed  and  e.\tended 
from  Milford  to  Hartford.  John  Lee  was  the  first  pastor 
and  formed  a  class  of  nine  people.  The  city  was  con- 
nected with  surrounding  churches  until  1814  when  it 
became  a  station.  In  1800  a  house  was  bought  and  used 
until  1807  when  a  building  was  erected  on  Temple  Street. 
In  1820  a  larger  building  was  erected  on  the  public 
green,  and  in  1848  the  church  moved  to  its  present  loca- 
tion on  the  corner  of  Elm  and  College  Streets. 

Congregationalism  had  a  strong  foothold  in  New  Haven, 
and  it  was  difficult  for  Methodism  to  grow.  However,  East 
Pearl  Street  Church  was  established  in  1833  and  St. 
Andrews  in  1883.  In  1954  Grace  merged  with  the  Howard 
Avenue  Church  to  form  Wesley;  and  Summerfield  and 
Hope  were  put  on  a  two  point  charge  in  1965.  Park 
Church  remained  a  station  church. 

After  the  War  between  the  States,  immigration  in- 
creased from  the  Roman  Catholic  countries  of  Europe, 
and  all  Protestant  groups  were  vastly  outnumbered  in 
New  Haven.  Moreover,  there  has  been  the  tendency  as 
the  city  becomes  more  industrialized,  for  the  older  settled 
families  to  move  to  the  suburbs  and  affiliate  with  churches 
there.  However,  the  Negro  migration  from  the  South  to 
the  Northern  cities  has  greatly  increased  the  membership 
of  the  Negro  branches  of  Methodism.  Several  old  Negro 
Methodist  churches  are  located  in  New  Haven.  Varick 
A.M.E.  ZiON  was  begun  in  1818.  Bethel  A.M.E.  Church 
was  begun  in  1837,  and  St.  Paul's  U. A.M.E.  Church  was 
estabhshed  in  1849.  Evers  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  has 
flourished,  and  Scott  Tabernacle  was  organized  in  1965. 

Encyclopedia  Americana. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Donald  J.  West 

NEW  JERSEY,  one  of  the  thirteen  original  states,  is  lo- 
cated between  Philadelphia   and   New  York,   two  im- 


portant population  and  business  centers  since  colonial 
times.  With  7,836  square  miles  and  a  population  of 
7,084,992  (1970  census),  the  state  ranks  forty-sixth  in 
size  and  eighth  in  population.  New  Jersey  was  settled  by 
the  Dutch  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  it  was 
the  scene  of  much  action  in  the  American  Revolution. 
The  state  has  vast  shipping  facilities,  and  it  has  a  heavy 
concentration  of  factories,  highways,  railroads,  and  farms. 
It  ranks  first  in  the  value  of  chemical  products,  and  is 
a  leader  in  many  other  fields.  Princeton  and  Rutgers  are 
outstanding  universities. 

New  Jersey  has  been  identified  with  Methodism  since  its 
beginning  in  America.  In  1739-40  George  Whitefield 
preached  in  ten  places  in  New  Jersey  and  also  on  Staten 
Island,  New  York,  which  was  long  associated  with  New 
Jersey  Methodism.  John  Early,  a  lay  preacher,  arrived 
from  Ireland  in  1764  and  settled  at  Penny  Hill  (now 
Wrightstown ) .  After  Whitefield,  Early  was  the  first  Meth- 
odist preacher  in  New  Jersey.  John  and  William  Wright 
gave  a  tract  of  land  to  the  Methodists  at  Penny  Hill  in 
1761,  and  there,  though  the  exact  date  is  not  known,  one 
of  the  earhest  Methodist  meetinghouses  was  erected.  The 
first  edifice  was  replaced  by  a  larger  one  in  1795. 
Francis  Asbury  preached  at  Penny  Hill  in  1782,  1784, 
and  1795. 

Captain  Thomas  Webb  organized  the  first  Methodist 
class  or  society  in  New  Jersey.  He  went  from  New  York 
to  Philadelphia  in  1767  or  1768  and  preached  at  New 
Mills,  Trenton,  and  Burlington  en  route.  Afterward  he 
visited  those  places  several  times,  and  he  formed  a  class 
at  Burlington  in  1770  with  Joseph  Toy,  his  first  convert, 
as  the  leader.  It  is  beheved  that  Webb  organized  classes 
at  New  Mills  and  Trenton  about  the  same  time.  Joseph 
Pilmore  and  Richard  Boardman,  who  came  as  John 
Wesley's  first  official  missionaries  to  America  in  1769, 
traveled  extensively  across  New  Jersey. 

Asbury  made  eighty-six  recorded  tours  of  New  Jersey, 
and  he  and  his  compeers  developed  scores  of  Methodist 
societies.  Asbury  preached  first  at  Burlington  on  Nov.  6, 
1771,  a  few  days  after  his  arrival  in  America;  thence  he 
crossed  the  province  to  Staten  Island,  N.  Y.  by  the  Perth 
Amboy  ferry  and  preached  at  Peter  Van  Pelt's  house  on 
November  9  and  10,  his  first  sermons  in  the  province  of 
New  York,  In  the  early  years  New  Jersey  Methodists  also 
heard  Jesse  Lee,  Richard  Whatcoat,  William  Mc- 
Kendree,  Ezekiel  Cooper  and  scores  of  other  preachers. 

Thomas  Rankin  conducted  the  first  Methodist  con- 
ference in  America  at  Philadelphia  in  July  1773.  Of  the 
1,160  Methodist  members  in  America  at  that  time,  200 
were  in  New  Jersey.  At  that  conference  ten  preachers  were 
assigned  to  six  circuits,  one  of  the  circuits  being  New 
Jersey  and  Staten  Island.  From  1781  to  1786  there  were 
two  circuits  in  New  Jersey — West  Jersey  and  East  Jersey. 
Trenton  was  added  as  a  circuit  in  1786.  In  1794  there 
were  2,439  Methodists  in  the  state.  The  Philadelphia  Con- 
ference dates  from  1788,  and  New  Jersey  was  a  district 
in  that  conference.  A  presiding  elder  and  fifteen  preachers 
were  assigned  to  the  New  Jersey  District  in  1801.  In 
1803  the  Jersey  District  reported  eight  appointments, 
fifteen  preachers,  and  4,463  members.  In  1811  the  East 
Jersey  and  West  Jersey  Districts  reported  together  6,980 
members  with  twenty-four  preachers  assigned  to  fifteen 
appointments.  In  1829  the  East  Jersey,  West  Jersey,  and 
Asbury  Districts,  representing  the  entire  state,  had  thirty- 
three  appointments,  fifty-one  preachers,  and  12,669  mem- 
bers. 


WORLD  METHODISM 


NEW   LONDON,   CONNECTICUT 


In  1836  the  New  Jersey  Conference  was  formed  by 
dividing  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  At  the  time  the 
new  conference  included  New  Jersey,  Staten  Island,  and 
some  adjacent  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  territory.  The 
1856  General  Conference  created  the  Newark  Con- 
ference by  dividing  the  New  Jersey  Conference.  At  the 
beginning  the  Newark  Conference  included  the  northern 
part  of  New  Jersey,  Staten  Island,  and  parts  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York.  With  some  changes  in  boundaries 
these  conferences  have  continued,  but  in  1965  their  names 
were  changed  to  Southern  New  Jersey  and  Northern 
New  Jersey. 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Church  had  work  in  New 
Jersey.  At  the  beginning  in  1830,  Methodist  Protestantism 
in  New  Jersey  was  divided  between  the  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  Conferences  of  the  denomination.  In  1838 
the  General  Conference  designated  the  part  of  New  Jersey 
that  had  been  attached  to  Pennsylvania  as  the  New  Jersey 
Conference,  but  the  journals  of  the  New  Jersey  Con- 
ference say  it  was  not  organized  until  1841.  Apparently 
all  of  Methodist  Protestantism  in  New  Jersey  considered 
itself  a  part  of  the  New  York  Conference  from  1838  to 
1841.  In  1877  the  New  Jersey  Conference  reported 
twenty-one  preachers  and  2,121  members.  This  confer- 
ence continued  until  October  1912,  when  it  was  merged 
with  the  Eastern  Conference.  At  the  time  of  the  merger 
the  New  Jersey  Conference  had  thirty-six  preachers, 
thirty-six  charges,  and  4,284  members.  The  New  Jersey 
part  of  the  Eastern  Conference  merged  with  the  Newark 
and  New  Jersey  Conferences  of  The  Methodist  Church 
at  unification  in  1939. 

The  A.M.E.,  A.M.E.  Zion,  and  C.M.E.  Churches  have 
work  in  New  Jersey.  The  first  is  represented  by  two 
annual  conferences.  New  Jersey  and  South  Jersey;  the 
second  has  a  New  Jersey  Conference,  while  the  New 
Jersey  work  of  the  third  is  a  part  of  its  New  York- 
Washington  Conference. 

New  Jersey  Methodism  has  contributed  leaders  to  the 
church.  Thomas  Ware,  Thomas  Morrell,  and  Jeremiah 
Lambert  stood  out  in  the  early  days.  Six  men  have  been 
elected  bishops  while  serving  as  members  of  the  Newark 
Conference:  Isaac  W.  Wiley  (1872),  John  F.  Hurst 
(1880),  James  N.  Fitzgerald  (1888),  Henry  Spell- 
meyer  (1904),  John  Wesley  Lord  (1948),  and  Fred 
G.  Holloway  (1960).  Six  bishops  served  part  of  their 
ministry  in  New  Jersey,  but  were  conference  members 
elsewhere  when  elected:  Edmund  S.  Janes  (1844),  John 
H.  Vincent  (1888),  Charles  B.  Mitchell  (1916), 
Charles  L.  Mead  (1920),  W.  Earl  Ledden  (1944),  and 
Lloyd  C.  Wicke  (1948).  Two  bishops  were  born  in 
New  Jersey,  but  served  no  part  of  their  ministry  there 
prior  to  their  election:  Theodore  H.  Henderson  (1912), 
and  Fred  P.  Corson  (1944).  One  could  compile  a  long 
list  of  prominent  preachers  and  leading  laymen  who  have 
served  Methodism  in  New  Jersey. 

In  1840  the  New  Jersey  Conference  appointed  a  visit- 
ing committee  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Male  Seminary, 
now  Pennington  School,  at  Pennington.  In  the  same 
year  the  conference  agreed  to  pay  $500  to  Dickinson 
College  from  the  conference  education  fund,  and  re- 
quested each  preacher  to  raise  $5  during  the  year  to 
reimburse  the  fund.  Centenary  (junior)  College  for 
Women  was  estabhshed  at  Hackettstown  in  1867.  Drew- 
Theological  Seminary  began  in  1866. 

Today  there  are  Methodist  Homes  for  the  Aged  at 
Ocean   Grove,   Ocean   City,   Branchville,    and   Collings- 


wood,  as  well  as  the  Bancroft-Taylor  Rest  Home  at  Ocean 
Grove  for  deaconesses  and  missionaries,  and  another  Dea- 
coness Home  at  Camden.  Also,  in  New  Jersey  are  the 
famous  religious  resort  at  Ocean  Grove  and  the  Pitman 
Grove  Camp  Meeting  in  Gloucester  County  not  far  from 
Philadelphia. 

The  ratio  of  the  total  membership  of  the  two  New 
Jersey  Conferences  to  the  population  of  the  state  in  1810, 
1840,  and  1967  is  shown  in  the  table  below.  Percentage- 
wise 1840  was  the  peak  year.  The  reader  will  remember 
that  in  the  early  years  parts  of  Pennsylvania  and  New 
York  were  in  the  New  Jersey  Conference  and  that  a  small 
portion  of  New  York  is  still  attached  to  the  Northern 
New  Jersey  Conference. 

Total  Membership  of  New  Jersey  Methodist 

Year  N.J.  Conferences  Population  Percentage 

1810  6,839  245,562  2.8 

1840  23,275  373,306  6.2 

1967  204,853  7,004,000   (est.)  2.9 

In  1970  the  two  New  Jersey  Conferences  reported 
eight  districts,  538  charges,  about  654  ministers,  197,693 
members,  property  valued  at  $158,654,875,  and  a  total 
of  $13,947,895  raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  UMC. 

V.  B.  Hampton,  Newark  Conference.  1957. 

Minutes  of  the  New  Jersey  Conference. 

F.  B.  Stanger,  New  Jersey.  1961.  Vernon  B.  Hampton 

NEW  JERSEY  CONFERENCE.  (See  Southern  New  Jersey 
Conference.) 

NEW  LONDON,  CONNECTICUT,  U.S.A.  Jesse  Lee 
preached  at  the  Court  House  at  New  London  on  Sept.  2, 
1789,  as  he  was  making  his  first  visit  to  the  towns  along 
the  shores  of  Southern  New  England.  Bishop  Asbury 
followed  him  in  1791.  In  1793,  a  circuit  was  formed,  in- 
cluding Windham,  Hebron,  Glastonbury,  Lyme,  and  into 
Rhode  Island,  with  George  Roberts  the  first  presiding 
elder.  Organizing  as  a  church  in  1793,  the  people  held 
services  in  the  Court  House  at  the  head  of  the  main 
street.  The  first  church  building  was  erected  in  1798 
with  both  Jesse  Lee  and  Francis  Asbury  present.  This  was 
the  church  home  of  Epaphras  Kibby,  who  served  sixty- 
seven  years  in  the  ministry.  Bishop  Asbury  held  Annual 
Conference  here  on  July  5,  1795  with  nineteen  preachers 
present.  On  April  17,  1808  Conference  assembled  here 
for  the  second  time  with  fifty  preachers  present,  and  held 
ordination  services  in  the  Congregational  Church.  The 
second  church  building  was  dedicated  in  1817.  Bishop 
Asbury  wrote  his  last  will  and  testament  at  New  London 
in  1813,  which  contains  the  words  "I  will  give  it  all  to  the 
Book  Concern."  In  1840  many  members  withdrew  to  orga- 
nize a  Wesleyan  Methodist  Chubch,  but  they  were 
granted  the  use  of  the  same  church  building.  However, 
in  1842,  a  new  church  building  was  erected  by  the  re- 
maining Methodists.  In  1925  a  new  church  building  was 
constructed.  A  Wesley  Foundation  for  students  at  near- 
by colleges,  and  for  servicemen  at  the  U.S.  Coast  Guard 
Academy  and  U.S.  Submarine  Base,  is  an  important  part 
of  the  life  of  this  church. 

R.  C.  Miller,  New  England  Southern  Conference.  1898. 

New  London  Telegram,  Oct.  30,  1893.  David  Carter 


NEW   MADRID,    MISSOURI 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


NEW  MADRID,  MISSOURI,  U.S.A.,  the  site  of  the  oldest 

active  Methodist  church  in  the  United  States  west  of 
the  Mississippi  River,  was  first  known  as  an  Indian  setde- 
ment  in  1786.  Twelve  white  men  joined  the  Indians  in 
1787.  The  settlers  were  mostly  Frenchmen  but  the  terri- 
tory was  Spanish  and  in  1788  a  grant  was  secured  from 
Spain,  and  then  about  sixty  others  joined  the  inhabitants 
and  the  New  Madrid  name  was  adopted  from  the  Spanish 
capital.  The  area  passed  into  French  hands  and  the  name 
became  Louisiana  and  New  Madrid  was  the  capital.  It 
was  Roman  Catholic  by  law. 

In  March,  1810,  after  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  Jesse 
Walker  and  John  Scripps  crossed  the  Big  Swamp  and 
formed  a  Methodist  Society  as  a  part  of  the  Cape 
GiRAHDEAi'  Circuit.  Two  years  later  it  became  a  circuit 
under  its  own  name  and  since  that  date  has  never  lost  its 
identity.  The  church  today  is  small  but  loyal  and  devoted. 

The  town  was  the  center  of  the  New  Madrid  earth- 
quake of  1811-1812,  one  of  the  worst  recorded  and  the 
greatest  ever  known  on  the  American  continent.  It  was 
felt  over  an  area  of  60,000  square  miles,  sank  6,000 
square  miles  from  three  to  nine  feet,  changed  the  course 
of  the  Mi.ssissippi  River,  damaged  hou.ses  in  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  400  miles  away,  and  formed  Reelfoot  Lake  in 
Tennessee. 

Elmer  T.  Clark,  One  Hundred  Years  of  New  Madrid  Method- 
ism. New  Madrid:  the  author,  1912. 

Louis  Houck,  A  History  of  Missouri.  ...  3  vols.  Cape  Girar- 
deau, Mo.:  the  author,  1908.  Elmer  T.  Clark 

NEW  MEXICO  (population  998,257  in  1970),  is  one  of 
the  mountain  group  states.  It  is  west  of  Texas  and  north 
of  Mexico,  and  it  is  a  part  of  the  land  ceded  by  Mexico 
in  1848.  Santa  Fe  is  its  capital,  so  designated  by  the 
Spanish  governor  de  Peralta  in  1610.  The  state  was  under 
Spain  until  1821,  then  under  Mexico  until  the  war  of 
1846.  Many  citizens  are  of  Spanish-Mexican  descent. 
Among  the  non-Spanish  Americans  are  certain  Indian 
tribes.  Large  areas  of  New  Mexico's  121,666  square  miles 
have  been  made  fertile  by  irrigation  with  dams  and 
reservoirs  on  the  Rio  Grande,  Pecos,  Canadian,  and  other 
rivers.  The  climate  is  dry  and  invigorating.  Albuquerque, 
the  location  of  the  state  university,  is  the  largest  city. 
New  Mexico,  including  what  is  now  Arizona  until  1863, 
became  a  territory  in  1850,  and  it  was  admitted  as  a  state 
in  1912.  Among  its  products  are  uranium,  oil,  potash, 
copper,  lead,  and  gold.  The  Federal  government's  nuclear 
and  space  research  projects  at  Los  Alamos,  White  Sands, 
and  Albuquerque  have  contributed  gready  to  the  state's 
growth  since  1945. 

Both  the  M.E.  Church  and  the  M.E.  Church,  South 
pushed  into  New  Mexico  with  mission  work  after  it  be- 
came a  territory.  In  1876  the  Northern  Church  organized 
the  New  Mexico  Mission,  and  in  1881  the  Denver  Con- 
ference (MES)  organized  a  New  Mexico  District  with 
eight  charges. 

The  New  Mexico  Mission  (ME)  had  a  checkered  his- 
tory. It  began  with  sixteen  charges  and  319  members.  In 
1885  it  was  divided  to  form  the  New  Mexico  Mission 
and  the  New  Mexico  Spanish  Mission.  The  latter  became 
the  New  Mexico  Spanish  Mission  Conference  in  1892. 
In  1915  the  New  Mexico  Enghsh  Mission  and  the  New 
Mexico  Spanish  Mission  Conference  were  merged  to  form 
the  New  Mexico  Conference.  In  1928  the  conference 
became  again  the  New  Mexico  Mission  which  merged  at 


unification  in  1939.  When  the  New  Mexico  Conference 
(ME)  was  formed  in  1915  it  had  fifty-four  charges  and 
4,073  members.  In  1939  the  New  Mexico  Mission  brought 
twenty-four  charges  and  5,630  members  into  the  New 
Mexico  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church. 

The  M.E.  Church,  South  organized  the  New  Mexico 
Conference  in  1890.  In  1893  it  reported  seventeen  charges 
and  868  members.  In  1915  there  were  fifty-one  charges 
and  8,128  members.  Thereafter  the  conference  grew 
rapidly,  coming  to  miification  in  1939  with  24,253  mem- 
bers. 

Thomas  M.  Harwood  established  a  school  for  boys  in 
Albuquerque  in  1887  with  the  aim  of  preparing  Mexican 
youths  for  ministering  to  Spanish-speaking  people.  The 
school  continued  until  1931.  Also,  in  1887  the  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  (ME)  established  the  Har- 
wood School  for  Girls  in  Albuquerque,  and  in  1891  the 
society  projected  the  Navajo  Methodist  Missio.n  School 
at  Farmington.  Both  institutions  are  still  operating.  The 
same  society  started  the  Houchen  Settlement  House  in 
1893,  the  Freeman  Clinic  in  1920,  and  the  Newark  Meth- 
odist Hospital  in  1921,  all  of  them  in  El  Paso,  Texas.  In 
1911  the  society  established  a  sanitorium  in  Albuquerque 
which  in  1952  became  the  Bataan  Memorial  Methodist 
Hospital.  On  October  31,  the  hospital  was  transferred  to 
the  Lovelace  Foundation  for  Medical  Research.  The  M.E. 
Church,  South  established  Lydia  Patterson  Institute 
at  El  Paso  in  1914  to  educate  Mexican  young  people 
fleeing  to  the  United  States  during  the  revolution  in  their 
country.  Receiving  strong  support  from  the  South  Central 
Jurisdiction,  the  institute  continues  its  ministry  to 
Spanish-speaking  students. 

The  New  Mexico  Mission  (ME)  and  the  New  Mexico 
Conference  (MES)  merged  at  unification  in  1939  to  form 
the  New  Mexico  Conference  (TMC).  New  Mexico  Meth- 
odism grew  rapidly  with  the  state  after  the  second  World 
War.  In  1944  The  Methodist  Church  had  approximately 
16,000  members  in  the  state  of  New  Mexico.  In  1968  the 
number  of  members  was  about  62,000. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC. 

T.  Harwood,  New  Mexico.  1908,  1910. 

Minutes  of  the  New  Mexico  missions  and  conferences. 

Ira  E.  Williams,  Jr. 

NEW  MEXICO  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at  El  Paso, 
Texas,  Oct.  20,  1939  with  Bishop  Ivan  Lee  Holt  pre- 
siding. The  conference  was  formed  by  merging  the  New 
Mexico  Mission  of  the  M.E.  Church  which  began  in  1880, 
and  the  New  Mexico  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South  which  was  organized  in  1890.  The  territory  of  the 
conference  includes  the  state  of  New  Mexico  and  extreme 
west  Texas  through  the  counties  of  Winkler,  Ector,  Crane, 
Pecos,  Terrell,  and  Val  Verde  (part).  Prior  to  unification 
the  New  Mexico  Conference  (MES)  included  twelve 
charges  in  Colorado  with  some  2,600  members.  These 
churches  with  their  pastors  were  transferred  to  the  Colo- 
rado Conference  (TMC)  in  1939.  When  organized,  the 
New  Mexico  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  had 
four  districts,  Albuquerque,  Clovis,  El  Paso,  and  Roswell. 
In  1941  there  were  eighty-nine  charges  and  25,464  mem- 
bers. (See  New  Mexico  for  beginning  of  Methodism  in 
the  state  and  for  accounts  of  the  New  Mexico  Mission 
(ME)  and  the  New  Mexico  Conference  (MES).) 

The  New  Mexico  Conference  was  in  the  Dallas  Area, 
1939-44,  and  in  the  Oklahoma  City  Area,  1944-68.  In 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW  ORLEANS,   LOUISIANA 


1968  the  conference  became  a  part  of  the  Northwest 
Texas-New  Mexico  Area  with  the  episcopal  residence  in 
Albuquerque.  While  in  the  Oklahoma  City  Area  the  con- 
ference was  under  the  supervision  of  Bishop  W.  Angie 
Smith. 

During  and  following  the  second  world  war,  the  Fed- 
eral government  built  nuclear  and  space  research  and 
testing  plants  and  facilities  at  Los  Alamos,  White  Sands, 
Holloman,  Kirdand,  and  Sandia  in  New  Mexico.  These 
developments  greatly  accelerated  the  growth  of  the  state's 
economy  and  its  population.  The  1940  population  was 
532,000;  it  had  grown  to  998,257  in  1970.  The  Methodist 
Church  grew  even  more  rapidly  than  the  population  in 
this  period.  Between  1944  and  1968  the  number  of 
preaching  places  in  the  New  Mexico  Conference  rose  from 
121  to  152,  the  pension  annuity  rate  from  $16  to  $72, 
contributions  to  world  service  and  conference  benevo- 
lences from  $44,305  to  $216,184,  property  value  from 
$1,858,358  to  $25,149,761,  and  church  membership  from 
25,815  to  92,932. 

The  New  Mexico  Conference  supports  a  number  of 
institutions.  Fifteen  of  its  ministers  and  laymen  serve  as 
trustees  of  McMurry  College  at  Abilene.  Along  with 
Texas  Methodism  the  conference  contributes  to  the  Meth- 
odist Children's  Home  at  Waco.  Methodist  institutions  in 
El  Paso  are  L\T)Ia  Patterson  Institute,  Newark  Meth- 
odist Hospital,  and  Houchen  Community  Center.  Bataan 
Memorial  Methodist  Hospital  and  the  Harwood  School 
for  Girls  are  in  Albuquerque.  The  Navajo  Methodist 
Mission  School  is  at  Farmington  and  the  Landsun  Manor 
(for  the  aged)  at  Carlsbad.  The  conference  supports  eight 
Wesley  Foundations  within  its  bounds,  maintaining  full 
time  directors  at  five  of  them.  Conference  camps  are  main- 
tained at  Sacramento  and  Glorieta.  The  conference  estab- 
lished the  New  Mexico  Methodist  in  1966,  placing  upon 
its  board  of  education  the  responsibility  for  publishing 
and  promoting  the  paper. 

In  1970  the  New  Mexico  Conference  reported  four 
districts,  Albuquerque,  Carlsbad,  Clovis,  and  El  Paso.  It 
had  166  ministers,  122  charges,  81,446  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $31,537,795. 

N.  B.  H. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  LOUISIANA,  U.S.A.  In  1718  New  Or- 
leans was  founded  by  the  French  explorer  Bienville,  and 
the  first  efforts  at  teaching  in  this  community  were  carried 
on  by  the  Ursuhne  nuns  for  girls  and  a  priest  for  boys. 
When  the  city  was  deeded  to  Spain  in  1763,  its  exclusive- 
ness  towards  Roman  Catholicism  was  intensified.  With 
the  Lousiaina  Purchase  in  1803,  Americans  came  to  the 
territory,  and  for  the  first  time,  Protestant  clergymen 
entered  the  once  forbidden  land. 

In  1805  Bishop  Asbury  sent  Elisha  W.  Bowman  to  New 
Orleans.  A  modest  amount  of  money  was  given  to  him  to 
sustain  him  until  he  could  get  a  work  going  which  could 
help  care  for  his  needs  and  those  of  the  Church.  The 
conditions  he  found,  however,  were  so  bad  that  he  was 
defeated  on  every  hand.  After  repeated  attempts  at  finding 
a  place  to  preach  and  being  promised  the  use  of  the 
Capitol  building  only  to  find  that  someone  had  arranged 
to  have  it  locked  when  he  arrived,  he  finally  gave  up  the 
effort.  He  wrote  to  friends  back  in  Kentucky  on  Jan.  29, 
1806,  "I  shook  off  the  dust  of  my  feet  against  this  ungodly 
city  of  New  Orleans." 

Jacob  Young,  presiding  elder  of  the   Mississippi  Dis- 


trict, then  made  sincere  efforts  at  establishing  the  work. 
By  1810  forty-three  members  were  reported;  and  in  1811 
Miles  Harper  was  appointed  the  first  regular  Methodist 
pastor  to  the  city  of  New  Orleans. 

In  1813  William  Winans  came  to  the  city  as  a  mis- 
sionary. It  was  very  difficult  to  find  a  place  for  a  meeting, 
but  he  managed  to  secure  facilities  in  the  home  of  Meth- 
odists, Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jacob  Knobb,  which  he  could  use 
for  living  quarters.  In  this  he  ran  a  school  during  the 
week  and  preached  on  Sunday. 

The  Church  lacked  both  money  and  missionaries.  It 
was  several  years  later  that  a  building  was  secured.  The 
next  Methodist  preaching  place  was  in  the  loft  of  a  flour 
inspector's  office  at  the  comer  of  Poydras  and  Carondelet 
Streets.  Through  the  generosity  and  effort  of  a  great 
Methodist  layman.  Judge  Edward  McGehee  of  Missis- 
sippi, this  crude  place  was  converted  into  a  usable  sanc- 
tuary. Out  of  this  beginning  came  the  first  real  church  in 
1825,  a  frame  building  on  Gravier  Street  between  Baronne 
and  Carondelet.  This  is  the  predecessor  to  the  great  First 
Church  now  located  on  Canal  Street. 

While  progress  in  New  Orleans  has  never  been  as  easy 
for  Methodism  as  in  some  other  cities,  still  by  comparison 
the  Church  was  having  better  times.  In  a  few  years  it 
became  necessary  to  build  both  a  larger  and  more  im- 
posing building.  In  the  year  1836,  Bishop  Andrew 
preached  the  dedicatory  sermon  for  a  splendid  edifice  on 
the  corner  of  Carondelet  and  Poydras  Streets. 

During  the  next  dozen  years,  new  names  appeared  as 
chuiches  and  preaching  places  and  Sunday  schools:  the 
Good  Hope  Sunday  School,  later  Algiers  Methodist 
Church;  Seaman's  Bethel;  Moreau  Street  Church,  later  to 
combine  with  the  Krapp  Street  Church  to  form  the  present 
Second  Methodist  Church;  the  Lafayette  Mission;  Mc- 
Donaughville  Church;  and  others. 

When  the  division  of  the  Church  occurred  in  1845 
New  Orleans,  along  with  the  Louisiana  Conference, 
adhered  to  the  Church,  South,  and  it  so  remained  until 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  At  that  time  the  M.E.  Church 
reorganized,  chiefly  under  the  superin tendency  of  J.  P. 
Newman.  Three  Northern  Churches  remained  until  Unifi- 
cation in  1939;  Napoleon  Avenue,  a  leading  Church  to- 
day; Eighth  Street,  no  longer  present;  and  Church  of  the 
Redeemer,  an  Italian  mission  on  Esplanade  Street  in  the 
Vieux  Carre. 

It  was  in  New  Orleans  that  the  M.E.  Church,  South 
practically  reorganized  in  April  1866,  after  the  Civil  War. 
The  city  was  then  occupied  by  Northern  troops,  and  for 
a  time  it  was  doubtful  whether  the  Southern  Methodists 
could  get  hold  of  a  church  in  which  to  hold  their  Gen- 
eral Conference  called  to  meet  there.  However,  the 
General  Conference  was  held — the  first  time  in  eight 
years — and  "the  peeled  and  scattered  hosts,"  as  Bishop 
McTyeibe  puts  it,  "discouraged  and  confused  by  adver- 
sities and  adverse  rumors,  rallied:  ....  and  never  did  dele- 
gates meet  in  general  conference  from  centers  and  re- 
motest posts  more  enthusiastically;  of  153  elected,  149 
were  present."  This  epochal  New  Orleans  Conference 
adopted  lay  representation,  and  elected  four  bishops, 
William  M.  Wightman,  Enoch  M.  Marvin,  David  S. 
Doggett,  and  Holland  N.  McTyeihe,  the  last  having 
been  for  a  time  a  pastor  in  New  Orleans. 

As  early  as  1842  there  were  several  strong  Negro 
Methodist  churches  in  existence.  Soule  Chapel  was  built 
on  Marais   Street  between  Bienville  and  Conti   Streets; 


NEW   ORLEANS,    LOUISIANA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Wesley  Chapel,  located  on  Gravier  Street,  was  also  a 
strong  colored  church.  In  1868  a  literary  institution  was 
founded,  which  is  now  Dillard  University. 

Serious  epidemics  of  yellow  fever  occurred  with  terrify- 
ing frequency  between  1810  and  1909.  In  these  epidemics 
the  Methodist  Church  suffered  a  loss  of  twenty  percent 
of  its  members.  Highest  praise  and  appreciation  are  due 
the  faithful  ministers  who  stood  steadfast  in  all  such  times 
of  hardships  and  danger,  ministering  alike  to  the  spiritual 
and  physical  needs  of  a  distressed  and  discouraged  peo- 
ple. 

Gambling  has  always  been  a  problem  in  New  Orleans. 
It  had  been  used  as  a  source  of  funds  for  many  things, 
including  religion.  It  reached  its  height  in  the  Louisiana 
Lottery,  which  became  so  entrenched  late  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  that  the  State  looked  to  this  as  one  of  its 
chief  means  of  support.  The  united  and  determined  efiFort 
of  Protestant  clergymen  and  laymen  went  far  toward 
breaking  the  back  of  this  legalized  gambling.  Despite 
the  offer  by  the  lottery  company  of  a  million  and  a  quarter 
dollars  a  year  to  the  State,  an  act  prohibiting  the  sale  of 
tickets  was  passed  in  1894. 

New  Orleans  Mediodism  has  produced  many  able  min- 
isters. At  one  time  four  future  bishops  answered  the  roll 
of  the  Louisiana  Conference  from  this  area — Linus 
Parker,  Charles  B.  Galloway,  J.  C.  Keener,  and  H.  N. 
McTyeire.  Franklin  N.  Parker,  who  always  claimed 
New  Orleans  as  his  city,  was  one  of  the  few  men  who 
declined  the  office  of  bishop.  John  B.  Matthews,  John 
Hannon,  and  William  E.  Munsey  were  among  the  great 
leaders  of  the  New  Orleans  churches. 

Other  strong  early  Southern  churches  must  be  named 
to  make  this  study  accurate.  Rayne  Memorial  Church 
located  on  St.  Charles  Avenue  is  still  a  leading  Church. 
Felicity,  one  of  the  earliest  and  greatest,  lives  now  largely 
on  sentiment  regarding  its  noble  past;  Louisiana  Avenue 
was  once  a  beautiful  building  on  Louisiana  and  Maga- 
zine, but  gave  way  when  its  membership  moved  out  of  the 
declining  neighborhood. 

Now  there  are  over  20,000  Methodists  in  forty  churches 
in  Greater  New  Orleans,  and  the  future  is  limited  only 
by  the  manpower  and  financial  resources  available  to 
develop  this  great  and  growing  area. 

Carondelet  Street  Church  (whose  successor  is  now 
First  Methodist  Church),  one  of  the  oldest  churches  in 
the  city,  occupied  a  building  on  Gravier  Street  near 
Carondelet  from  1824  until  1835,  when  the  financial 
assistance  of  Judge  Edward  McGehee  enabled  the  con- 
gregation to  build  a  church  at  Carondelet  and  Poydras 
Streets.  On  Jan.  18,  1851,  sparks  from  a  fire  which  de- 
stroyed the  St.  Charles  Hotel  ignited  the  church  and  it 
was  damaged  beyond  repair.  Undaunted,  the  member- 
ship purchased  ground  on  Carondelet  between  Girod 
and  Lafayette  Streets,  where  a  fine  church  building  was 
erected,  which  was  to  serve  the  Methodists  of  New  Or- 
leans for  fifty-three  years. 

In  1906,  it  was  decided  to  move  to  a  new  location  on 
St.  Charles  Avenue  near  Lee  Circle,  and  the  name  was 
changed  to  the  First  Methodist  Church.  The  Grand  Con- 
sistory (A.F.  &  A.M.)  of  Louisiana  purchased  the  Caron- 
delet Street  property,  and  it  is  now  known  as  the  Scottish 
Rite  Cathedral.  In  the  years  that  followed,  two  of  the 
pastors  of  the  church  became  bishops,  Linus  Parker  and 
John  C.  Keener. 

In  1956,  First  Church  found  itself  in  the  path  of  the 


new  bridge  to  be  built  over  the  Mississippi  River,  and 
merged  with  Canal  Street  Church  to  purchase  a  site  at 
Canal  Street  and  Jefferson  Davis  Parkway.  There  the 
congregation  moved  into  a  new  church  plant  in  October 
1960,  and  a  great  church  has  come  into  being.  First 
United  Methodist  is  now  meeting  the  challenge  of  a  grow- 
ing and  changing  city.  Its  ministry  reaches  over  a  twenty- 
mile  radius,  and  shut-ins  and  a  bi-state  area  are  served 
through  a  television  ministry  once  a  month.  The  church 
has  two  services  each  Sunday  morning  and  is  largely 
visited  by  travelers  and  visitors  who  are  in  New  Orleans 
on  Sunday.  Present  membership  is  1,115. 

Felicity  Church  enjoys  the  distinction  of  having  had 
three  of  its  former  pastors  elected  to  the  episcopacy.  Bish- 
op Holland  Nimmons  McTyeire,  eminent  historian  of 
Methodism,  was  the  church's  founder  and  first  pastor. 
Bishop  Linus  Parker  served  as  the  second  pastor,  and 
while  there  lost  his  bride  of  three  months  as  a  victim  of 
yellow  fever.  Bishop  John  Christian  Keener,  strong  leader 
of  Methodism  in  Louisiana,  filled  the  pulpit  just  prior  to 
the  American  Civil  War. 

It  was  in  December  1848  that  Holland  N.  McTyeire 
was  sent  from  the  Alabama  Conference,  M.E.  Church, 
South,  to  effect  the  union  of  three  struggling  mission  sta- 
tions in  New  Orleans  from  which  Felicity  was  bom. 
These  were  Andrew  Chapel,  whose  pastor  was  killed  en 
route  to  his  charge  with  the  burning  of  the  steamboat  on 
which  he  was  a  passenger;  Elijah  Steele  Chapel,  known 
as  the  "flatboat"  church  because  it  was  built  of  lumber 
from  dismantled  Mississippi  river  flatboats;  and  the  St. 
Mary  Street  Church. 

On  Christmas  Day,  1850,  the  fifth  session  of  the  Louisi- 
ana Conference  and  the  first  to  be  held  in  New  Orleans, 
was  convened  in  the  new  red  brick  Felicity  church.  Bishop 
William  Capers  dedicated  the  building. 

This  first  building  was  destroyed  by  fire  on  Saturday 
afternoon,  April  16,  1887.  A  new  building,  valued  at 
$50,000,  was  erected  on  the  original  foundation  and  was 
dedicated  by  Bishop  Keener  June  3,  1888.  Felicity  is  the 
oldest  Methodist  church  in  New  Orleans  remaining  on  its 
original  site.  At  one  time  in  its  history  it  ranked  as  one 
of  the  most  important  churches  in  Louisiana  Methodism. 
The  conference  Journal  for  1874  indicates  that  the  pastor's 
salary  was  $300  per  annum,  the  second  largest  salary 
reported  for  the  conference.  The  first  Epworth  League 
chapter  in  Louisiana  was  organized  at  Felicity  on  Jan. 
11,  1891. 

Franklin  N.  Parker,  son  of  Bishop  Linus  Parker,  was 
licensed  to  preach  by  the  Quarterly  Conference  of  Felicity, 
and  the  father  of  Bishop  Nolan  B.  Harmon,  editor  of  this 
Encyclopedia,  was  converted  there.  Parker  was  twice 
elected  bishop  by  the  General  Conference,  but  declined 
the  honor  in  order  to  continue  his  service  to  the  church  as 
a  teacher  of  young  ministers  at  Emory  University. 

FeLcity  was  harassed  by  deadly  epidemics  of  yellow 
fever,  by  fire,  and  by  hurricane.  Two  of  the  most  dev- 
astating hurricanes  ever  to  strike  New  Orleans  were  those 
of  1915  and  1965,  botli  of  which  left  their  angry  marks 
upon  the  church.  Battered  and  weather  worn  by  time  and 
the  elements,  the  building  has  once  more  been  renewed 
and,  on  Sunday,  Oct.  9,  1966,  Bishop  Aubrey  G.  Wal- 
ton rededicated  the  sanctuary. 

Felicity  is  now  one  of  five  churches  comprising  the 
New  Orleans  Inner  City  Methodist  Parish.  Church  school 
and  worship  sei"vices  are  held  every  Sunday  morning  and 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW   ORLEANS,   LOUISIANA 


a  special  ministry  is  provided  for  Cuban  refugees  by  its 
bi-lingual  pastor. 


Rayne  Memorial  Church,  New  Orleans,  Louisiana 

Rayne  Memorial  Church,  formerly  the  St.  Charles  Ave- 
nue Church  and  now  popularly  known  as  the  "Church 
of  the  Lighted  Steeple,"  is  a  stately,  impressive  building 
and  "the  Cathedral  of  New  Orleans  Methodism."  It  was 
erected  in  1875  and  its  Tudor-Gothic  sanctuary  was 
erected  and  cleared  of  indebtedness  before  the  church 
itself  was  officially  organized. 

The  generous  gifts  of  Robert  W.  Rayne,  a  local  preach- 
er, made  the  building  possible.  Rayne  was  bom  in  Sunder- 
land, England,  in  1808.  His  parents  were  members  of  the 
Methodist  society,  and  he  embraced  religion  and  united 
with  the  church  in  1824.  He  immediately  became  an 
active  worker  in  visiting  the  poor  in  work-houses;  and 
was  a  visitor  for  the  Benevolent  Strangers'  Friend  Society, 
dispensing  alms,  and  holding  prayer-meetings  on  Sunday 
evenings  among  the  poor  in  their  dwellings.  He  was 
shortly  afterwards  hcensed  to  exhort  and  preach.  In  1832 
he  emigrated  to  the  United  States,  and,  after  a  short 
residence  in  New  York  and  Philadelphl\,  settled  in 
Cincinnati,  where,  at  the  invitation  of  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Church,  he  accepted  an  appointment  in  the 
ministry.  In  1835  failing  health  compelled  him  to  locate, 
and  business  arrangements  led  him  for  a  short  time  to 
Massachusetts.  In  1842  he  removed  to  New  Orleans, 
and  united  with  the  M.E.  Church.  At  the  separation  he 
adhered  to  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  He  continued  in 
mercantile  business  till  the  breaking  out  of  the  war.  At 
its  close  he  returned  to  the  city,  and  was  an  active  and 
consistent  member  of  the  M.E.  Church  South,  living  in 
harmony  and  fellowship  with  all  denominations. 

The  first  services  were  held  in  the  completed  sanctuaiy 
on  the  morning  of  Jan.  2,  1876,  with  Bishop  John  C. 
Keener  presiding,  and  W.  E.  Munsey  appointed  its  first 
pastor.  In  the  afternoon  the  church  was  organized  with 


108  members,  and  in  the  evening  Munsey,  a  gifted  orator, 
preached  a  notable  sermon  on  "Elijah."  The  church  was 
named  the  St.  Charles  Avenue  Methodist  Church.  Follow- 
ing the  death  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rayne,  the  name  was 
changed  on  May  2,  1877,  to  Rayne  Memorial  Methodist 
Church  and  dedicated  as  a  memorial  to  Rayne's  son, 
William,  who  was  fatally  wounded  at  Chancellorsville  in 
the  War  Between  the  States. 

The  Church  has  the  further  distinction  of  having  a 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  organized  in  it 
on  April  26,  1877,  with  Mrs.  Robert  W.  Rayne  as  its 
first  president.  This  antedates  the  organization  by  the 
General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  of  a 
Woman's  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  by  more  than  a  year. 

In  1925  an  educational  building  and  fellowship  hall 
were  erected,  and  a  modem  children's  building  was  built 
in  1962.  The  Rayne  Memorial  Organ  Series  annually 
presents  from  two  to  four  organists  of  world  fame  in  con- 
certs. Its  C.  I.  Jones  Memorial  Lectures  attract  visitors 
from  across  the  Southland,  and  annually  present  well 
known  lecturers. 

Rayne  Memorial  has  always  been  missionary-minded. 
Its  first  local  preacher,  James  D.  Parker,  organized  a 
church  on  Nashville  Avenue  within  the  city,  later  named 
Parker  Memorial  Church.  It  also  purchased  and  donated 
the  lots  upon  which  the  Carrollton  Avenue  Church  is 
located,  and  it  assisted  in  the  organization  of  that  con- 
gregation. It  participated  in  the  great  missionary  confer- 
ence of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  held  in  Tulane  Hall  in 
April  1901.  The  worship  services  and  several  committee 
meetings  of  that  Conference  were  held  in  its  sanctuary. 
Young  J.  Allen  preached  at  Rayne  Memorial  on  April  28 
on  the  subject,  "Come  Over  Into  Macedonia  and  Help  Us." 

On  Dec.  22,  1968  Hannah  Chapel  of  Rayne  Memorial 
was  dedicated  with  appropriate  ceremonies  presided  over 
by  Bishop  Aubrey  G.  Walton.  The  Chapel  was  named  for 
Hannah  Graham  Lehde,  wife  of  Pendleton  E.  Lehde,  long 
time  member  of  the  church.  The  windows  on  the  front 
of  the  building  are  of  faceted  red-yellow  glass  with  eight 
side  windows  of  stained  glass  with  Christian  religious 
symbols. 

Rayne  Memorial  has  traditionally  been  the  church  home 
of  the  families  of  the  presiding  bishop  of  Louisiana  and 
the  New  Orleans  district  superintendent.  Among  its  out- 
standing pastors  have  been  W.  E.  Munsey,  John  Hannon, 
John  Matthews,  J.  B.  Walker,  Franklin  N.  Parker,  John  A. 
Rice,  Felix  R.  Hill,  W.  L.  Duren,  W.  W.  Holmes,  H.  L. 
Johns,  B.  C.  Taylor,  and  Adrian  M.  Serex.  Its  tall  and 
stately  lighted-steeple,  clearly  visible  to  visitors  arriving 
by  riverboat  or  automobile,  is  an  inspiration  to  the  city; 
and  despite  the  damaging  hurricanes  of  1915  and  1965, 
it  points  the  Methodists  of  New  Orleans  godward. 

St.  James  A. M.E.  Church.  Jordan  W.  Early  was  the 
founder  of  African  Methodism  in  New  Orleans.  He  estab- 
hshed  a  mission  there  as  early  as  1842.  Permission  to 
organize  a  Negro  church  in  this  city  required  an  act  of 
the  Legislature.  Early  accomplished  this  through  his 
Masonic  contacts,  and  the  charter,  which  was  granted, 
named  the  church  the  "African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church."  Later,  a  lot  on  Roman  Street  was  purchased,  a 
church  erected  and  dedicated  as  "St.  James  Chapel."  In 
1848  St.  James  requested  a  pastor  from  the  Indiana 
Conference.  Charles  Doughty,  one  of  their  own  members, 
was  ordained  and  returned  as  the  pastor.  In  1858  all 
Negro  churches  in  New  Orleans  were  closed  by  the  civil 
authorities.  Following  the  Civil  War  this  ban  was  lifted 


NEW  ORLEANS  CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


and  St.  James  eventually  became  a  leading  appointment 
in  the  state. 

Robert  Alan   Cross,    The  History  of  Southern   Methodism  in 
New  Orleans.  N.p.,  n.d. 
R.  H.  Harper,  Louisiana.  1949. 
The  Louisiana  Methodist,  Dec.  19,  1968. 

Minutes    of    Board    of    Trustees,    The    Elijah    Steele    Church 
(Felicity  Street  M.E.  Church,  South),  1848-1918. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

C.  S.  Smith,  History  (AME).  1922.  Jolly  B.  Harper 

Clyde  S.  Clark 

Mrs.  Arthur  C.  Kerr 

Benedict  A.  Galloway 

Grant  S.  Shockley 

NEW  ORLEANS  CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE  was  published 
in  New  Orleans,  La.,  from  1852  until  its  publication  was 
discontinued  in  1946.  When  the  General  Conference 
met  in  St.  Louis  in  1850,  a  resolution  was  presented  to 
that  body  by  Jefferson  Hamilton  and  B.  M.  Drake: 
"Resolved  that  the  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  and 
Arkansas  Conferences  establish  a  paper  at  such  point  as 
they  may  select  and  that  the  bishop  presiding  in  said 
Conferences  appoint  an  editor  when  requested  to  do  so." 
The  General  Conference  adjourned  the  following  day 
without  taking  any  action  on  the  resolution.  However,  on 
their  return  journey,  which  began  on  May  14,  1850,  on 
the  steamer  James  Hewitt,  a  meeting  was  held  of  the 
delegates  from  these  four  Conferences,  at  which  meeting 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  consult  upon  the  establish- 
ment of  a  church  paper.  The  committee,  Willl^m 
WiNANS  being  chairman  and  Jefferson  Hamilton  secre- 
tary, reported  favorably  upon  the  enterprise  and  it  was 
provided  that  a  paper  should  be  published  as  soon  as 
3,000  subscribers  and  a  suitable  editor  could  be  obtained. 
It  may  be  correctly  said  that  the  New  Orleans  Advocate, 
like  many  worthy  pioneers,  was  bom  on  a  Mississippi 
River  steamboat! 

On  July  10,  1850,  the  committee  issued  a  specimen 
number  from  New  Orleans,  with  B.  M.  Drake  serving 
as  editor;  it  can  be  said  that  he  was  the  first  editor,  though 
his  term  of  office  ran  through  only  one  edition.  Copies  of 
this  publication  were  evidently  mailed  to  all  the  preach- 
ers in  the  four  Conferences. 

The  first  regular  edition  of  the  Advocate  appeared  on 
Feb.  8,  1851,  with  Holland  N.  McTvEraE  as  editor  in 
addition  to  his  duties  as  pastor  of  Felicity  Street  Church 
in  New  Orleans.  The  publication  was  issued  by  a  joint 
committee  of  the  Louisl\na  and  Alabama  Conferences, 
consisting  of  Richard  H.  Rivers,  WiUiam  E.  Doty,  and 
John  C.  Keener  of  Louisiana,  and  JeflFerson  Hamilton, 
William  Murrah,  and  T.  W.  Dorman  of  Alabama. 
Neither  the  Arkansas  nor  Mississippi  Conferences  were 
oflBcial  sponsors  of  the  project.  The  Arkansas  Conference 
never  did  participate  and  the  Mississippi  Conference  did 
not  assume  any  responsibility  until  1858,  seven  years 
later,  though  many  people  in  both  states  subscribed  for 
the  paper.  One  suspects  that  leaders  of  Mississippi  Meth- 
odism looked  with  disfavor  on  the  dominance  of  the  paper 
by  the  New  Orleans  triumvirate,  H.  N.  McTyeire,  J.  C. 
Keener,  and  Linus  Parker.  The  Alabama  Conference 
continued  as  one  of  the  supporting  Conferences  until 
1880,  and  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  began 
its  oflRcial  support  in  1883. 

When  McTyeire  was  elected  editor  of  the  Nashville 
Christian  Advocate  in   1858,  his  successor  at  New  Or- 


leans was  Clayton  C.  Gillespie.  He  came  from  the  editor- 
ship of  the  Texas  Christian  Advocate,  though  his  early 
ministry  was  spent  in  the  Alabama  Conference,  where  he 
was  associated  with  Keener  and  McTyeire,  now  both  in 
New  Orleans.  Gillespie  edited  an  excellent  paper  until 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  There  are  no  files  of  the 
Advocate  for  the  pre-war  period  in  1860,  though  it  is 
generally  assumed  that  publication  was  continued  until 
some  time  in  1861,  when  the  situation  made  it  impossible 
to  continue.  There  is  a  tradition  that  Gillespie  went  into 
the  Confederate  Army,  but  after  the  war  his  name  ap- 
pears no  more  in  the  records. 

After  the  war  the  Advocate  resumed  publication  in 
1866  under  the  editorship  of  John  Christian  Keener,  who 
brought  the  paper  through  its  post-war  difficulties  and 
up  to  its  former  standard.  He  continued  in  that  position 
until  his  election  to  the  episcopacy  in  1870.  His  predeces- 
sor, H.  N.  McTyeire,  had  been  elected  bishop  four  years 
earlier  at  the  General  Conference  of  1866. 

Then  Linus  Parker  served  for  twelve  years  as  editor  of 
the  Advocate  and  continued  the  excellent  character  of 
the  paper  as  it  had  been  under  his  predecessors.  This 
was  in  spite  of  some  difficulties  occasioned  by  the  period 
of  reconstruction  in  the  South,  and  particularly  in  Louisi- 
ana. After  twelve  years  of  splendid  leadership,  Parker 
was  himself  elected  a  bishop,  but  died  soon  after  taking 
over  that  responsibility. 

When  Linus  Parker  was  elected  a  bishop  his  successor 
at  New  Orleans  was  the  youthful  Charles  B.  Galloway 
of  the  Mississippi  Conference,  only  a  little  more  than 
thirty  years  of  age,  and  the  first  Mississippian  to  serve 
as  editor.  He  was  not  able  to  give  full  time  to  the  work, 
since  he  served  as  pastor  in  Jackson  and  Brookhaven 
during  the  four  years  he  was  editor.  In  the  first  issue 
after  taking  over  the  editorship,  Galloway  quoted  a  writer 
who  said  that  the  New  Orleans  Advocate  was  "a  training 
school  for  the  episcopacy,"  to  which  the  new  editor  mod- 
estly replied  that  "all  episcopal  material  had  been  used 
already."  Nevertheless,  Galloway  himself  was  elected  bish- 
op in  1886 — the  youngest  bishop  in  Methodism — and 
once  more  the  editorial  chair  had  to  be  filled. 

His  successor  was  Charles  W.  Carter  of  the  Louisiana 
Conference.  He  held  the  office  a  number  of  years,  giving 
it  up  without  notice  in  the  early  1890's  because  of  the 
financial  situation  and  the  failure  to  have  his  salary  paid 
and  the  paper  supported.  J.  M.  Beard,  chairman  of  the 
Publishing  Committee,  then  took  over  the  editorship  and 
business  management  of  the  paper  for  four  months,  during 
which  time  he  succeeded  in  solving  a  number  of  problems 
and  in  turning  over  the  paper  to  his  successor  in  much 
better  financial  shape. 

Warren  C.  Black,  a  native  Mississippian,  and  for  many 
years  a  popular  pastor  and  pulpit  orator,  served  as  editor 
from  1894  until  1900,  with  his  son,  M.  M.  Black,  as  his 
assistant  for  part  of  that  time.  In  July  1900  the  Advocate 
observed  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its  establishment.  At 
the  close  of  the  year,  Black  resigned  and  was  succeeded 
by  John  W.  Boswell,  who  held  the  position  until  the  latter 
part  of  1909,  though  he  had  resigned  in  1907.  Then  T.  B. 
Holloman  was  elected  editor,  and  at  his  refusal  to  accept 
the  office,  Boswell  was  persuaded  to  continue  for  two 
more  years.  He  was  a  brilliant  and  scholarly  man  and 
served  for  a  number  of  years  as  associate  editor  of  the 
general  church  organ,  the  Nashville  Advocate. 

R.  A.  Meek  of  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  suc- 
ceeded Boswell  and  continued  until  June  1918,  when  he 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW   SOUTH   WALES   CONFERENCE 


resigned.  Meek  was  vigorous  and  aggressive  in  his  edi- 
torial policies,  and  never  failed  to  take  sides  in  any  issue 
before  the  church.  He  was  particularly  involved  in  the 
controversy  over  Vanderbilt  University  and  also  the 
question  of  unification  of  the  divided  branches  of  Meth- 
odism, which  he  greatly  opposed. 

The  Publishing  Committee  in  June  1918  elected  Henry 
T.  Carley,  a  native  Mississippian  but  a  member  of  the 
Louisiana  Conference  and  a  teacher  at  Centenary  Col- 
lege, as  editor  to  fill  the  vacancy  until  the  committee  met 
again  in  October.  At  this  later  meeting  he  was  foimally 
elected  editor  and  continued  in  that  office  for  ten  years. 
Carley  was  a  scholarly  man  and  piloted  the  Advocate 
through  difficult  years.  He  was  progressive  in  his  thinking 
and  held  the  confidence  and  respect  of  those  who  did  not 
agree  with  him  on  such  issues  as  unification  of  Methodism. 
Later  he  served  as  associate  editor  under  W.  L.  Duren. 

R.  H.  Harper,  a  lifelong  member  of  the  Louisiana  Con- 
ference and  an  honor  graduate  of  Centenary  College, 
succeeded  Carley  as  editor.  Unfortunately  he  came  into 
the  office  just  at  the  beginning  of  the  depression,  which 
affected  the  financial  stabihty  no  little.  Harper  was  a 
brilliant  and  capable  editor,  but  he  found  the  financial 
responsibility  irksome,  in  spite  of  the  outstanding  service 
of  C.  O.  Chalmers,  for  a  long  time  the  paper's  business 
manager,  and  Harper  resigned  as  editor  after  not  more 
than  two  years  in  that  responsibility.  J.  Llomj  Decell, 
then  presiding  elder  of  the  Brookhaven  District  in  Missis- 
sippi, assumed  the  responsibility  of  the  editorship  in  con- 
nection with  his  duties  on  the  district,  commuting,  as 
Bishop  Galloway  had  done,  from  Brookhaven  to  New 
Orleans.  Decell  served  only  one  year,  1930-31,  after 
which  he  went  to  the  pastorate  of  Galloway  Memorial 
Church,  Jackson,  from  which  he  was  elected  to  the  epis- 
copacy, the  fifth  editor  of  the  Advocate  to  be  elected  to 
that  oflBce  after  serving  as  editor. 

Daniel  B.  Rauhns,  a  native  Mississippian  but  a  member 
of  the  Louisiana  Conference,  served  as  editor  for  several 
years.  His  service  was  significant  and  appreciated.  After 
some  three  years,  Raulins  returned  to  the  pastorate  until 
his  death. 

Following  Raulins,  the  final  duties  of  editing  this  his- 
toric publication  fell  into  the  worthy  hands  of  VV.  L. 
Duren,  then  of  the  Louisiana  Conference  but  a  former 
member  of  the  North  Mississippi  and  North  Georgia 
Conferences.  He  spent  twelve  years  as  editor,  through  all 
of  which  he  earned  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the 
readers  of  the  paper.  Part  of  the  time  he  had  as  associate 
editor  H.  T.  Carley,  and  for  a  period  of  time  he  had  an 
associate  from  each  of  the  three  supporting  Conferences: 
Carley  from  Louisiana,  A.  P.  Hamilton  from  the  Missis- 
sippi Conference,  and  Hugh  Clayton  and  B.  P.  Brooks 
from  the  North  Mississippi.  Milton  Chalmers  succeeded 
his  father  as  business  manager. 

Significant  changes  took  place  during  Duren's  editor- 
ship, all  of  which  he  viewed  with  calmness  and  discern- 
ment. The  long-discussed  union  of  the  churches  took 
place  in  1939,  and  the  Advocate's  territory  was  then  di- 
vided, the  Louisiana  Conference  being  placed  in  the 
South  Central  Jurisdiction  and  the  Mississippi  and 
North  Mississippi  Conferences  in  the  Southeastern  Juris- 
diction. This  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  There  had 
been  a  persistent  effort  for  many  years  to  establish  a 
Methodist  paper  in  Jackson  or  Meridian,  Miss.,  and  at 
least  one  or  two  efforts  in  that  direction  had  come  to 
naught.  Duren  had  served  twelve  years  with  fidelity  and 


effectiveness,  and  on  Nov.  28,  1946,  the  last  issue  of  the 
New  Orleans  Advocate  came  from  the  press.  The  Missis- 
sippi Methodist  Advocate  for  the  Mississippi  Conferences 
and  the  Louisiana  Methodist  for  Louisiana  have  since  been 
published  in  its  place. 

The  files  of  the  Advocate,  with  the  exception  of  a  very 
few  years,  have  been  placed  in  the  Methodist  Room  at 
MiLLSAPS  College.  A  joint  committee  from  the  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  and  North  Mississippi  Conferences  supewise 
their  use. 

J.  B.  Cain 

NEW  PLYMOUTH,  New  Zealand,  Whiteley  Memorial 
Church  was  built  as  a  memorial  to  John  Whiteley,  who 
was  killed  by  Maori  warriors  at  the  White  Cliffs, 
Pukearuhe,  on  Feb.  13,  1869,  and  whose  death  virtually 
brought  an  end  to  the  Maori  Wars.  The  church  which  it 
replaced  had  been  occupied  by  the  congregation  since 
1856. 

The  decision  to  build  a  Whiteley  Church  was  made  in 
1897,  during  the  ministry  of  C.  H.  Garland.  The  idea  of 
a  memorial  caught  the  imagination  of  the  community,  and 
a  church  designed  to  seat  500  people  was  completed 
within  a  year.  An  exceptionally  beautiful  pipe  organ  was 
later  installed,  as  a  memorial  to  Methodists  serving  in  the 
First  World  War.  This  historic  edifice,  the  mother  church 
and  cathedral  of  Taranaki  Methodism,  whose  foundation 
stone  had  been  laid  by  the  governor  of  New  Zealand, 
the  Earl  of  Ranfurly,  was  completely  destroyed  by  fire 
on  Feb.  18,  1959,  while  repairs  and  renovations  were  in 
progress. 

It  was  rebuilt  imder  the  superintendency  of  W.  H. 
Greenslade  as  a  noble  stone  building,  modem  ecclesiastical 
in  appearance,  chaste  in  design  and  most  convenient  in 
appointments.  Its  lofty  tower  and  illuminated  cross  domi- 
nate the  surroundings. 

R.  Laurie  Cooper 

NEW  PROVIDENCE,  NEW  JERSEY,  U.S.A.,  first  called 
Turkey  or  Turkey  Hills,  was  first  visited  by  Bishop  As- 
BURY  in  July  1806,  who  referred  to  it  in  his  Journal.  Long 
before  the  camp  meeting  era,  it  was  a  prominent  preach- 
ing place  of  the  Methodists,  and  from  it  Methodism 
spread  throughout  the  area.  Ezekiel  Cooper  preached 
there  in  1786  and  Thomas  Morrell  was  there  the  follow- 
ing year. 

The  first  Society  was  organized  in  1789  by  Johnny 
Robertson.  Meetings  were  held  at  the  home  of  Waters 
Burrows,  Sr.  The  first  meeting  house  was  erected  in  1803 
on  a  lot  donated  by  George  Corey.  Lorenzo  Dow  in 
1802  and  Bishop  Asbury  in  1806  preached  in  this  chapel. 
Asbury  missed  the  first  camp  meeting  at  Turkey  Hills  in 
August  1806,  but  he  was  again  at  New  Providence  in 
1811,  always  being  entertained  by  Stephen  Day.  In  1816, 
Lorenzo  Dow  preached  there  six  times.  The  original 
chapel  at  Turkey  was  replaced  by  a  larger  edifice  in 
1857  and  a  new  educational  building  was  added  in  1954. 

V.  B.  Hampton,  Newark  Conference.  1957. 

Vernon  B.  Hampton 

NEW  SOUTH  WALES  CONFERENCE,  Austrafia.  There  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  first  class  meeting  in  New  South 
Wales  was  held  in  the  residence  of  one  Thomas  Bowden, 
headmaster  of   the   Male   Orphan   Institute,    Sydney,   on 


NEW   SOUTH   WALES   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


March  6,  1812.  It  is  believed  that  two  classes  were  formed, 
the  second  supervised  by  John  Hosking,  headmaster  of 
the  Females'  Orphan  School.  It  is  known  that  at  Windsor, 
thirty-SL\  miles  northwest  from  Sydney,  one  Edward 
Eagar,  who  had  been  sentenced  to  transportation  for 
forgery,   regularly   held   a   class   meeting   early   in    1812. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Preachers  and  Members  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Methodist  Mission.\by  Society  (British 
Conference)  dated  April  3,  1812,  Bowden  and  Hosking 
addressed  a  strong  and  telling  appeal  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  "single  legally  qualified  Preacher."  Consequent- 
ly Samuel  Leigh  arrived  in  Sydney,  New  South  Wales, 
in  the  Hebe  on  Aug.  10,  1815. 

In  an  "Address  of  the  Methodist  Societies  in  New 
South  Wales  to  the  Committee,"  dated  March  2,  1816, 
Edward  Eagar,  Steward;  Thomas  Bowden,  James  Scott 
and  John  Hosking,  Leaders,  stated  that  Leigh  was  "kindly 
received  by  our  excellent  Governor,  General  Macquarie, 
as  well  as  by  the  Rev.  Chaplains  of  the  Colony."  They 
stressed  the  need  of  an  additional  appointment,  "but 
we  are  under  the  painful  necessity  of  stating  that  our 
present  circumstances  will  not  enable  us  to  support  two 
preachers  unassisted  by  the  Committee  .  .  .  and  what 
adds  to  our  difficulties  ...  is  the  total  impossibility  of 
borrowing  money  in  this  Colony  on  any  interest  or  security 
whatever." 

Services  in  Sydney  were  first  held  in  a  house,  but 
Leigh  was  encouraged  when  through  the  generosity  of 
John  Lees,  a  retired  soldier,  the  first  Wesleyan  Chapel  at 
Castlereagh,  on  the  Nepean  River,  was  dedicated  on 
March  7,  1819. 

By  1826  the  first  New  South  Wales  District  Meeting 
reported  eleven  churches  and  one  in  Tasmania.  The 
first  New  South  Wales  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Australasia  was  held  in  1902.  The  Centenary 
of  Australasian  Methodism  was  celebrated  in  August  1915. 
The  Bi-Centenary  of  John  Wesley's  conversion  was  cele- 
brated in  1938.  The  150th  Anniversary  of  the  founding 
of  Methodism  was  celebrated  in  1962. 

When  the  "Nineteenth  Annual"  District  meeting  met 
in  Sydney  in  January  1839,  the  following  were  the  sta- 
tions and  appointments:  Sydney,  John  McKenny,  Super- 
intendent and  James  Watkin,  Secretary;  Parramatta, 
Daniel  Draper;  Lower  Hawkesbury,  William  Schofield; 
Windsor,  Samuel  Wilkinson;  and  Bathurst,  Frederick 
Lewis. 

"The  Missions  in  Australia,  Van  Diemen's  Land,  the 
Friendly  Islands  and  Feejee"  were  constituted  by  the 
British  Conference  of  1854,  "a  distinct  Connexion  to  be 
denominated  the  Australasian  Wesleyan-Methodist  Con- 
nexion" with  "an  annual  Conference  affiliated  to  the  Parent 
English  Conference."  The  first  Australasian  Conference 
was  held  in  Sydney  in  January  1855,  and  in  an  address 
to  the  parent  Conference  said,  "We  have  to  rejoice  in  the 
gradually  increasing  prosperity  of  the  work  of  God,  both 
in  the  colonies  and  in  the  missions  .  .  .  We  have  now 
in  connection  with  us  116  Ministers  besides  a  number  of 
Native  Assistant  Missionaries,  nearly  800  chapels,  19,897 
Church  members,  and  1,958  on  Trial." 

In  1873  a  scheme  of  Annual  and  General  Conferences 
was  determined  upon  and  in  the  following  year  the  first 
New  South  Wales  and  Queensland  Conference  was  held. 
The  setting  apart  of  the  Queensland  District  into  a  sepa- 
rate Conference  was  carried  out  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1890.  The  first  New  South  Wales  Conference 
was  held  in  1893. 


The  first  Primitive  Methodist  Annual  Assembly  in 
New  South  Wales  was  held  in  1859  and  that  of  the 
United  Methodist  Free  Churches  in  1890.  By  a  Plan 
of  Union  agreed  upon  after  lengthy  negotiations,  the 
various  branches  of  Methodism  united  as  part  of  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Australasia  in  1902. 

At  the  General  Conference  held  in  Perth,  Western 
Australia,  May  1966,  the  following  statistics  were  re- 
corded: Ministers  in  Active  work,  1,231;  Supernumeraries, 
286;  Probationers,  186;  Students  in  Training,  256;  The- 
ological Colleges,  10;  Home  Missionaries,  779;  Deacon- 
esses, 66;  Local  Preachers,  12,892;  Class  Leaders,  15,691; 
Confirmed  Members,  250,010;  Members  under  Nurture 
for  Confirmation,  243,600.  Number  of  Sunday  Schools, 
4,465;  Teachers,  37,492;  Scholars,  285,554;  Membership 
in  Youth  Organizations,  102,609;  Churches,  4,912;  School 
Halls,  1,844;  Parsonages,  1,274;  Colleges,  65;  Book  De- 
pots, 11;  Publishing  Houses,  4;  Hospitals,  25. 

Methodism  in  Australasia  is  indebted  to  the  pioneers 
of  the  nineteenth  century  who  in  an  environment  never 
made  easy  by  officialdom  established  and  consolidated 
in  these  lands  the  cause  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Several  departments  of  the  work  of  the  Methodist 
Church  have  assumed  considerable  social  and  religious 
significance  and  the  most  important  of  these  are  as  fol- 
lows : 

Department  of  Christian  Citizenship.  This  Department 
has  grown  from  a  staff  of  one  in  1948  to  a  functioning 
instrument  of  the  church  employing  over  fifty  people.  It 
has  developed  homes,  schools,  and  other  services  designed 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  people. 

Homes.  The  special  work  being  done  at  the  girls'  home 
is  to  be  expanded.  A  second  home  is  being  opened  for 
particular  work  in  cooperation  with  the  New  South 
Wales  University.  This  represents  a  tremendous  forward 
move  in  this  highly  important  work  with  problem  girls 
in  the  fifteen  to  eighteen  year  age  bracket. 

The  boys'  home  is  actually  a  mansion  set  on  a  farm  of 
800  acres.  This  particular  venture,  undertaken  twelve 
years  ago,  has  seen  over  200  boys  pass  through  its  doors. 
Most  of  them  have  been  helped  to  resolve  the  difficulties 
which  they  brought  to  the  home.  A  maximum  of  twenty 
boys  are  taken  at  any  one  time  and  they  and  the  staff  live 
in  one  massive  home.  Most  of  the  cost  for  running  this 
place  is  derived  from  the  varied  activities  on  the  farm, 
sheep,  wheat,  dairy,  pigs  and  poultry. 

Schools.  Three  years  ago  the  Department  opened  the 
first  school  in  this  country  for  mildly  mentally  handi- 
capped girls.  One  hundred  girls  can  be  accommodated  at 
the  delightfully  situated  school  eighty  miles  south  of 
Sydney.  The  aim  is  to  train  each  girl  to  the  maximum 
of  her  capacity  and  then  find  her  employment  in  the 
community.  This  school  caters  for  girls  over  sixteen  years 
of  age  who  previously  have  not  had  this  opportunity. 
Already  some  girls  have  been  placed  in  employment. 

Children's  Courts.  In  addition  to  conducting  these  spe- 
cial homes  and  school,  the  day  to  day  operation  of  the 
Department  involves  attendance  at  the  Children's  Courts. 
A  qualified  social  worker  makes  contact  there,  not  only 
with  the  boys  and  girls  before  the  court,  but  with  the 
families.  We  deal  with  over  300  such  children  and  families 
each  year. 

Family  Needs.  From  this  particular  work  and  the  in- 
sights derived  from  twenty  years  work  in  the  Marriage 
Guidance  field,  plus  the  understanding  gained  through 
the  Chaplaincy  work  mentioned  above,  we  are  convinced 


WORLD  METHODISM 


NEW  SOUTH  WALES  CONFERENCE 


that  the  family  and  not  just  one  member  contacted  in 
these  special  areas,  needs  our  service.  As  society  becomes 
more  and  more  industrialized  and  population  density  rises 
steeply,  the  family  must  be  given  top  priority  if  we  are 
to  prevent  personal  and  group  maladjustment. 

Team  Work.  The  Department  has  already  begun  to 
move  in  on  this  important  front.  In  doing  so,  we  do  not 
"go  it  alone."  We  work  with  the  State  Health  Department 
and  other  community  organizations  to  discover  how  we 
can  cooperate  to  meet  the  real  needs  of  given  communi- 
ties. The  action  programmes  that  emerge  are  consequent- 
ly different  but  they  are  meaningful  to  the  people  in  the 
area  where  we  operate. 

This  particular  approach  to  our  work  has  special  sig- 
nificance for  church  congregations.  They  are  being  helped 
to  see  their  mission  to  the  local  community.  Through 
training  and  this  kind  of  practical  involvement,  they  are 
having  their  gaze  turned  outwards  from  the  church  build- 
ing to  the  people  who  must  always  be  the  first  concern  of 
the  Christian. 


Wayside   Chapel,    New   South   Wales   Conference 

Counselling.  While  heavily  engaged  in  these  special 
areas  of  work,  the  Department  has  always  been  deeply 
involved  in  counselling  a  wide  range  of  disturbed  in- 
dividuals. Neurotics,  psychotics,  drug  takers,  alcoholics; 
the  inadequates  have  always  been  our  concern  and  in 
dealing  with  them,  we  have  had  the  fullest  support  from 
the  medical  profession  in  all  branches,  the  legal  fraternity 
and  other  specialist  groups. 

Pioneers.  All  of  this  work  has  been  undertaken  not 
in  any  mood  of  monopoly  but  that  the  Department  might 
demonstrate  how  missions  and  local  churches  can  and 
must  come  to  grips  with  the  real  problems  of  people.  It  is 
one  of  the  true  roles  of  church  departments  to  pioneer 
ways  of  contacting  and  serving  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  people  and  tlien  to  leave  it  to  local  churches  to  get  on 
with  the  job  while  it  does  more  pioneering  and  discover- 
ing. 

Rehabilitation  of  ex-Prisoners.  The  Department  helped 
inaugurate  the  Civil  Rehabilitation  organization  in  this 
state  which  works  in  the  difficult  area  of  attempting  to 
rehabilitate  persons  released  from  prison. 

National  and  International  Affairs.  Wider  affairs  of  the 
nation  and  of  international  concern  are  additional  items 
on  our  charter.  The  vexed  question  of  peace  and  war, 
the  population  explosion,  the  food  problem  of  the  world, 
the  use  of  nuclear  power  for  peaceful  purposes,  and  race 


relations  are  big  issues  that  are  constantly  being  studied. 
From  the  Department  material  is  distributed  to  the  church 
across  the  state.  In  addition  the  Director  has  been  the 
national  leader  in  efforts  which  have  raised  millions  of 
dollars  for  United  Nations  Children's  Fund,  Refugees 
and  Freedom  From  Hunger  projects. 

Church  at  Mission.  Through  this  Department  the 
church  is  at  mission  in  the  community  in  a  host  of  ways. 
We  are  always  prepared  to  experiment  in  new  methods 
of  work.  We  never  settle  back  content  or  think  we  have 
found  all  the  answers.  We  move  into  each  day  prepared 
to  serve  the  living  God  who  we  believe  is  as  modern  as 
the  task  he  asks  us  to  undertake  with  Him  for  the  sake  of 
people.  Enthusiastically  we  daily  apply  ourselves  to  work 
with  people  and  their  problems. 

Department  of  Christian  Education.  The  Department 
of  christian  Education  had  its  beginnings  in  1904  when 
the  Conference  of  that  year  established  the  Sunday  School 
Department.  The  first  General  Secretary,  Harold  Wheen, 
was  appointed  in  1912. 

At  the  same  time,  beside  the  Sunday  schools,  the 
participation  of  young  people  in  the  worshipping  life  of 
the  church  was  receiving  attention,  and  in  1914  the 
Young  Worshippers'  League  was  established.  This  orga- 
nization provided  some  incentives  for  young  people  to 
attend  worship  to  provide  a  record  of  their  attendance 
and  text  cards. 

The  next  development  was  that  of  youth  organizations. 
This  began  in  1915  when  a  Methodist  Boys'  Group,  later 
to  grow  into  the  Methodist  Order  of  Knights,  was  started 
at  Hurstville,  a  suburb  of  Sydney,  by  Alec  Bray.  Two 
years  later  the  Christian  Endeavour  Society  became  an 
integral  part  of  the  Sunday  School  Department,  and  the 
same  year  saw  the  Methodist  Order  of  Knights  sponsored 
officially  by  the  Department,  and  a  sister  organization. 
The  Methodist  Girls'  Comradeship,  formed.  As  a  result  of 
these  developments  the  name  of  the  Department  was 
changed  in  1917  to  the  Young  People's  Department.  This 
name  was  retained  for  the  next  forty-seven  years.  In 
1920  Australian  Sunday  school  lessons  were  produced  and 
in  1923  Methodist  Sunday  schools  were  linked  with  the 
Presbyterian  and  Congregational  churches  with  the  intro- 
duction of  Graded  Lessons  prepared  jointly  by  these 
churches. 

In  1924  the  Mail  Bag  Sunday  School  was  initiated  to 
serve  children  living  in  distant  parts  of  the  state  and  un- 
able to  attend  a  Sunday  school. 

The  Harold  Wheen  Kindergarten  was  opened  in  1929 
in  Redfern,  a  depressed  suburban  area  of  Sydney.  This 
was  a  free  kindergarten  to  serve  the  children  of  this 
area  and  is  still  currently  operating.  The  same  year  saw 
the  development  of  another  new  movement,  that  of 
camping,  with  the  holding  of  the  first  Methodist  Crusader 
Camp  at  Camden  about  thirty  miles  out  of  Sydney.  The 
Crusader  Movement  as  a  camping  organization  quickly 
grew  to  cover  metropolitan  and  country  districts  conduct- 
ing camps  regularly  on  holiday  weekends,  and  currently 
conducting  up  to  twenty  camps  per  year. 

In  1930  there  began  a  move  to  include  in  the  life  of 
the  church  mixed  clubs  for  young  people.  Some  years 
later  the  Methodist  clubs  received  their  constitution  and 
later  in  1958  they  were  incorporated  in  the  Methodist 
Youth  Fellowship  established  that  year. 

A  sub-department  of  Religious  Instruction  in  Schools 
was  developed  in  1939.  Stan  Barrett  was  appointed  to  this 
sub-department  to  assist  ministers  in  their  task  of  giving 


NEW   SOUTH    WALES   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


religious  instruction  in  day  schools  across  the  state.  Ten 
years  later  this  sub-department  became  a  full  department 
for  Religious  Instruction  in  Schools. 

In  the  early  1950's  there  developed  a  movement  to 
establish  a  Methodist  Bible  College.  In  1955  an  evening 
college  was  established  and  in  1959  the  Department  pur- 
chased a  residence  at  North  Sydney  as  the  center  for  a 
regular  Bible  College. 

In  1957  Sir  Frederick  and  Lady  Stewart  donated  a  gift 
of  twenty  acres  of  land  on  the  near  north  of  Sydney  as  a 
Methodist  campsite.  This  was  developed  as  the  Methodist 
Youth  War  Memorial  Conference  Center.  In  the  same 
year  the  Department  purchased  a  property  next  door  to 
Gowanlea  to  be  used  as  a  Methodist  girls'  hostel.  In  1958 
a  Pacific  Island  Scholarship  in  memory  of  John  Dixon 
was  inaugurated  to  bring  students  from  Papua  New 
Guinea  and  the  Pacific  Islands  to  train  in  Austraha.  In 
the  same  year  the  M.Y.F.  constitution  was  approved  and 
this  youth  organization  was  established  across  the  state. 
In  1959  the  Young  People's  Department  undertook  super- 
vision of  the  North  Sydney  circuit  as  a  part  of  its  work  in 
conjunction  with  the  Methodist  Bible  College  established 
there. 

In  1964  tlie  N.S.W.  Conference  decided  to  bring  to- 
gether the  Young  People's  Department  and  the  Depart- 
ment of  Religious  Instruction  in  Schools  to  form  the 
Department  of  Christian  Education. 

With  the  development  of  this  new  department  the 
whole  range  of  Christian  Education  work  among  children, 
youth  and  adults  within  the  home  and  local  church  and 
the  public  school  was  incorporated.  The  Department  has 
functioned  in  this  way  to  the  present  time;  in  1968  the 
Conference  approved  a  new  policy  providing  for  a  gen- 
eral director  of  tlie  Department  with  an  Associate  Director 
for  each  of  three  divisions  namely.  Schools  and  Sunday 
Schools  work.  Youth  Work,  and  Adult  Work. 

Alongside  the  Department's  work  has  been  the  develop- 
ment of  camping  properties  owned  by  youth  organizations 
or  district  synods  of  the  church.  The  Methodist  Christian 
Endeavour  Association,  Methodist  Order  of  Knights  each 
have  their  own  site  in  Sydney  and  in  addition  there  are 
district  sites  established  at  Kilaben  Bay  at  Newcastle, 
at  Bonny  Hills  near  Port  Macquarie  and  Ballina  on  the 
far  North  Coast.  Further  campsites  will  be  developed  as 
camping  becomes  a  more  important  activity  in  the  life 
of  the  church. 

The  Methodist  Bible  College  has  remained  a  small 
college  which  at  present  has  no  resident  student  body, 
maintaining  only  an  evening  college  and  correspondence 
division. 

Connexional  Journal.  The  Methodist,  traditionally  de- 
scribed as  the  Conne.xional  Journal,  has  now  entered  upon 
its  111th  year  of  continuous  pubhcation,  the  centenary 
having  been  fittingly  celebrated  in  July  1958. 

Originally  known  as  The  Christian  Advocate,  it  first 
saw  the  light  of  day  in  July  1858,  and  in  its  original  and 
present  forms  has  not  failed  to  appear  (except  for  a  brief 
period  of  industrial  upheaval)  on  the  date  of  publication. 
It  also  has  the  distinction  of  being  the  oldest  religious 
journal  in  Australia,  a  distinction  of  which  the  Church  has 
some  cause  for  pride. 

Editorial  policy  has  sought  to  bring  before  readers  a 
balanced  coverage  of  news  from  at  home  and  abroad  to- 
gether with  feature  articles  from  any  sources  including 
the  Australian  Methodist  Press  Association.  An  editorial 
pobcy    which    reflects    the    mission    and    witness    of    the 


Church  in  the  whole  world  in  this  ecumenical  age  is  one 
that  commends  itself  to  thoughtful  readers. 

Department  of  Home  Missions.  The  relationship  of 
the  Church  in  Australia  to  the  British  Methodist  Con- 
ference in  1855  eventually  brought  to  birth  the  New 
South  Wales  Department  of  Home  Missions.  In  1858 
there  were  nineteen  circuits  in  the  New  South  Wales 
District,  with  thirty  ministers,  four  supernumeraries  and 
four  Home  Missionaries.  The  contributions  of  the  circuits 
to  the  funds  amounted  to  £359.  This  meagre  amount 
was  too  small  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  rapidly  growing 
Church  in  a  young  and  flourishing  country.  At  a  District 
meeting  in  1857,  permission  was  sought  to  form  a  Sus- 
tentation  and  Extension  Fund,  "after  the  model  of  the 
Missionary  Society,"  to  take  over  the  work  and  objectives 
of  the  Church  Extension  and  Chapel  Fund.  At  an  historic 
Conference  which  met  at  York  Street,  Sydney,  on  Jan. 
20,  1859,  it  was  resolved  "that  permission  be  given  to  the 
New  South  Wales  District  to  form  the  proposed  society, 
and  that  its  constitution  be  approved."  The  Society  was 
formed  officially  at  a  general  meeting  of  Wesleyan  Church 
officers  in  the  school  room  at  the  Centenary  Chapel  on 
March  21,  1859. 

The  minutes  of  the  first  Annual  Meeting  of  this  new 
Society  in  1859,  reveal  the  critical  process  through  which 
the  Church  was  passing.  The  financial  report  indicates 
that  in  the  first  year  die  sum  of  £1,243.8.7  was  raised 
from  circuits,  and  a  Government  Grant  of  £670.  was  ac- 
cepted and  a  deficiency  was  incurred  of  £52.19.6.  The 
Society  included  in  its  objectives  the  following: 

To  defray  the  current  working  expenses,  of  the  Society,  and  the 
ordinary  necessary  connexional  expenses  which  belong  to  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in  New  South  Wales. 
To  assist  in  sustaining  ministers  in  neglected  or  scattered  popu- 
lations where  the  full  support  of  a  minister  cannot  be  obtained. 
To  grants  in  aid  of  die  erection  of  new  Chapels,  ministers'  resi- 
dences and  school  rooms,  and  towards  liquidation  of  debt  on 
such  Methodist  property  as  may  have  been  already  acquired. 

The  first  grants  amounting  to  £530  was  paid  by  way  of 
grants  to  circuits  as  far  apart  as  Camden,  Newtown, 
Newcastle  and  Brisbane,  which  is  now  the  capital  city  of 
Queensland. 

Evangelism.  The  early  documents  describe  the  primary 
task  of  the  Church  as  laeing  that  of  evangehsm  and  the 
development  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  colony.  The 
following  quotation  reveals  the  mind  of  the  Department 
in  its  early  history: 

The  committee  have  learned  from  various  sources  that 
much  spiritual  destitution  exists  in  many  parts  of  the 
colony,  and  as  a  consequence  of  this,  much  darkness  of 
mind,  and  immorality  of  life  unhappily  afflict  the  peo- 
ple. Thousands  of  our  fellow  colonists  never  hear  a 
Gospel  sermon,  or  frequent  the  house  of  prayer. 

Between    Singletown    and    Warwick    a    distance    of 
about  400  miles  on  the  Great  Northern  Road,  on  which 
are  situated  some  15  or  16  townships.  ...  no  Wesleyan 
Methodist  ordinances  exist,  and  in  many  of  them  there 
is  an  utter  dearth  of  evangelical  ministrations. 
The  records  which  follow  indicate  an  enthusiastic  con- 
cern for  the  evangelization  of  diis  early  colony.  So  much 
has  happened  since  1859.  New  South  Wales  has  devel- 
oped into  one  of  the  most  prosperous  States  in  the  South- 
em  Hemisphere.  Today  the  capital,  Sydney,  is  a  booming 
city  of  near  three  million  people;  Newcastle  is  the  indus- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


trial  metropolis  of  Austraba,  and  rich  rural  areas  have 
developed  on  the  coast  and  western  plains.  The  whole 
atmosphere  is  one  pulsings  with  life  and  vigorous  plans 
are  developed  to  match  the  population  growth  which  now 
nears  twelve  and  a  half  million. 

Expansion.  The  first  Home  Missionary,  W.  H.  Thomp- 
son, was  appointed  to  Tweed  River  Station  on  the  Queens- 
land border,  in  1889.  In  1968  the  Home  Mission  Depart- 
ment in  this  State  appointed  twenty-five  Home  Mission- 
aries, supported  lay  agents  in  circuits,  made  progressive 
loans  for  properties,  had  formed  the  Far  West  and  Inland 
Missions,  developed  the  Women's  Home  Mission  League, 
the  Woohiough  Sites  and  Church  Extension  Fund,  a  Dea- 
coness Order,  a  Methodist  Nursing  Sei-vice,  a  Department 
of  Church  Development,  a  Division  of  Mission  and  Evan- 
gelism, employed  full  time  Hospital  Chaplains,  undertook 
the  development  of  Stewardship  throughout  the  Church 
and  staffed  a  Division  of  Immigration.  Methodism  in  New 
South  Wales  is  the  story  of  a  young  Church  staking  a 
claim  for  the  Faith  and  meeting  every  opportunity  with 
a  dedication  and  zeal,  representative  of  that  authentic 
missionary  faith  so  clearly  defined  in  the  best  pages  of 
Christian  history,  and  in  the  spirit  of  New  Testament 
Missionary  outreach. 

The  progress  of  the  Home  Missions  Department  has 
been  undertaken  by  the  Church  across  the  State,  working 
as  a  Conference  unit.  Conference  has  given  to  some  of 
the  Church's  most  able  ministers  the  task  of  leading  and 
planning  the  ministry  of  this  Department.  General  Secre- 
taries have  been:  W.' Hessell,  1859-61;  G.  Hurst,  1861-64; 
1866-68;  1869-80;  B.  Chapman,  1864,  1868;  J.  Oram, 
1865;  G.  Woolnough,  1880-82;  G.  Lane,  1882-88;  G. 
Sellors,  1888-96;  J.  Woolnough,  1896-1915;  J.  G.  M. 
Taylor,  1915-23;  W.  H.  Jones,  1923-40;  R.  H.  Campbell, 
1940-49;  A.  G.  Manefield,  1949-62;  W.  Whitbread,  1962- 
69;  R.  R.  Smith,  1969. 

Over  the  past  three  years  the  Department  has  imder- 
taken  vigorous  research  into  the  place  and  relevance  of 
this  Department  in  a  time  of  rapid  change.  In  1970  the 
Department  moved  to  a  suburban  regional  center  at 
Chatswood,  where  new  forms  of  ministry  and  renewal 
will  be  undertaken  as  a  pilot  project  for  the  whole  State. 

Deaconess  Order.  The  N.S.W.  Department  of  Home 
Missions,  under  the  far-seeing  Superintendency  of  the 
late  A.  G.  Manefield,  brought  into  being  this  Ministry 
in  1945,  conscious  of  the  leading  of  God.  Four  candidates 
entered  into  training,  two  of  these  being  multi-certificated 
nurses.  The  latter  went  at  the  close  of  the  year  to  their 
first  appointment  at  Brewarrina,  in  far  west  of  the  State, 
to  minister  to  farmer  families  and  the  native  people  that 
were  attached  thereto. 

The  college  period  for  other  than  nurses  was  set  at 
two  years;  and  the  probation  for  both  types  of  Deacon- 
esses, at  five  years,  followed  by  ordination.  Some  appli- 
cants have  been  received  in  full  connection  as  Deacon- 
esses without  the  prescribed  formal  training  owing  to 
particular  experience  or  educational  qualifications. 

The  Leigh  Ministerial  Theological  College,  En- 
field, Sydney  was  the  first  place  of  this  resident  training 
of  up  to  eight  students  per  year.  The  onerous  project 
here  was  wisely  and  kindly  shepherded  by  the  Principal, 
S.  R.  Bowyer-Hayward. 

Within  a  few  years,  because  of  the  influx  of  post-war 
men  students,  the  Deaconesses  were  trained  at  the  All 
Saints  College,  Haberfield,  Sydney,  run  conjointly  by  the 
Methodist,    Presbyterian    and    Congregational    Churches, 


primarily  for  the  purpose  of  Overseas  Missionary  Students 
—  (previously  it  was  the  George  Brown  Methodist  Mis- 
sionary Training  College).  Later,  the  Deaconess  College 
had  its  own  building  in  Leichhardt,  Sydney  until  1967, 
then  the  students  were  transferred,  joining  the  Methodist 
Bible  College,  Brisbane  in  1968,  where  students  in  train- 
ing for  various  spheres  of  influence  in  the  Church  num- 
bered up  to  seventy. 

In  N.S.W.,  lecturers  were  drawn  from  Leigh  College, 
from  among  senior  ministers  and  ministers  with  relevant 
scholastic  advantage.  The  subjects  studied  included  Bible, 
Theology,  Psychology,  Sociology,  English,  Homiletics, 
Church  History,  Ethics,  Teaching  Methods. 

The  N.S.W.  Women's  Home  Mission  League  continue, 
as  at  first,  to  identify  themselves  with  the  work  and  per- 
sonnel of  the  Deaconesses;  constantly  with  fellowship, 
labor  and  finance. 

Deaconesses  serve  in  the  State's  city  missions,  ordinary 
circuits,  and  in  the  far  "outback"  with  those  of  the  Meth- 
odist Nursing  Service.  Deaconesses  have  been  appointed 
to  the  chaplaincy  of  hospitals  and  the  Methodist  Ladies' 
College,  Burwood,  Sydney.  A  deaconess  has  served  a 
term  as  Home  Missionary.  In  1968  sixteen  deaconesses 
were  in  appointments,  and  that  same  year  the  Third 
General  Convocation  of  the  Order  was  held  in  Sydney,  to 
which  forty  ordained  deaconesses  from  all  parts  of  Austra- 
lia came.  The  first  woman  to  be  accepted  as  a  candidate 
for  the  Methodist  ministry  was  Deaconess  Kay  Edwards. 
She  was  accepted  at  the  1969  Conference. 

First  Australian  Mission.  This  amazingly  enUghtened 
venture  which  began  in  Sydney  in  1821,  is  linked  forever 
with  the  name  of  William  Walker  (1800-1857).  He 
sailed  from  England  with  Samuel  Leigh  and  the  Rev. 
and  Mrs.  William  Horton  and  arrived  in  Sydney  on  Sept. 
16,  1821.  In  October  in  company  with  Joseph  Hassall  he 
visited  aborigines  at  Blacktown,  after  which  he  wrote, 
"all  they  require  is  a  few  clothes,  agiicultural  implements 
and  a  supply  of  food  until  their  crops  be  reaped  ...  I 
left  them  with  a  consciousness  of  having  never  been 
favoured  with  a  more  profitable  or  serious  season  during 
my  ministerial  career."  On  another  occasion  he  wrote, 
"they  are  idle  and  vagrant  and  the  colonists  too  often 
encourage  their  vices.  If  they  cut  wood  or  do  any  other 
trifling  work  they  are  rewarded  with  a  mixture  of  spir- 
itous  liquors  .  .  .  quarrelling  ensues,  and  if  ever  incarnate 
devils  appeared  in  this  world,  surely  the  natives  are  at 
such  times  their  representatives." 

In  1823  the  Wesleyan  missionaries  of  New  South  Wales 
met  in  Conference  and  decided  to  recommend  to  the 
overseas  General  Committee  that  an  institution  for  ab- 
origines be  set  up  under  the  superintendence  of  a  local 
committee  consisting  of  all  the  missionaries  in  the  colony 
and  twelve  laymen  to  be  elected  annually  by  the  District 
Meeting. 

Statistics  for  the  New  South  Wales  Conference  as  of 
May  1969,  are  as  follows:  Ministers  in  active  work,  271; 
churches,  739;  members,  52,404. 

Australian  Editobial  CoMMrrrEE 

NEW  YORK,  the  "Empire  State,"  has  an  area  of  49,576 
square  miles  and  a  population  of  17,979,712  (1970). 
Called  New  Netherlands  by  the  Dutch  who  setded  it, 
the  British  renamed  it  in  honor  of  James  Stuart,  Duke  of 
York,  when  they  seized  it  in  1664.  One  of  the  original 
thirteen  states.  New  York  is   noted   today   for   industry. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


commerce,  education,  agriculture,  and  the  arts.  It  is  the 
leading  manufacturing  state,  and  New  York  is  the  nation's 
largest  city  and  port  as  well  as  the  headquarters  of  the 
United  Nations,  and  the  location  of  the  head  offices  of 
many  of  the  greatest  national  corporations  and  insurance 
companies.  The  state  has  207  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing which  enroll  over  645,000  students. 

Methodism  was  brought  to  New  York  City  in  the  1760's 
by  the  Irish  immigrants  Philip  Embury  and  Barbara 
Heck.  Impetus  was  given  the  cause  by  Captain  Thomas 
Webb.  With  his  encouragement  and  financial  help,  a 
Methodist  meetinghouse,  Wesley  Chapel,  was  constructed 
in  1768  and  later  renamed  John  Street  Church.  The 
church,  still  active  at  the  same  location  after  200  years, 
is  one  of  the  national  historic  Shrines  of  American  Meth- 
odism. Francis  Asbury  opened  up  work  on  Staten 
Island  in  1771,  and  a  visit  to  New  Rochelle  in  the  same 
year  by  Joseph  Pilmore  (who  with  Richard  Boardman 
was  sent  by  John  Wesley  as  a  missionary  team  to  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  in  1769)  resulted  in  a  society  of 
thirteen  members  in  1774.  After  the  arrival  of  Boardman 
in  New  York,  Embury  moved  upstate  to  Camden  in 
Washington  County  and  organized  the  Ashgrove  Church 
in  1770.  When  the  first  Methodist  conference  in  America 
was  held  at  Philadelphia  in  1773,  New  York  reported 
180  members,  and  the  number  was  222  in  1774. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War  the  Methodist  movement 
in  New  York  was  retarded,  but  after  1788,  as  Freeborn 
Garrettson  led  in  opening  the  Hudson  River  Valley  to 
Wesleyan  influence,  Methodism  advanced.  The  move- 
ment then  spread  north  and  west  following  the  river  route 
of  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk,  as  well  as  the  lake  system — 
Lake  Champlain  to  the  east,  the  Finger  Lakes  in  the  cen- 
tral section,  and  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  north  and  west. 
Methodist  societies  or  churches  were  organized  in  the 
following  places  or  regions  in  the  years  indicated:  New- 
burgh,  1789;  Albany,  1790;  Wyoming  Valley,  extending 
into  Pennsylvania  as  well  as  Otsego  and  Saratoga  coun- 
ties, 1791;  Herkimer  County,  1793;  Delaware  County, 
1794;  Seneca  County,  1796;  Mohawk  and  Oneida  Coun- 
ties, 1799;  and  Cayuga  County,  1800.  The  expansion  of 
Methodism  over  New  York  state  in  so  short  a  period  of 
time  was  phenomenal.  By  1855  the  Methodist  Church 
was  the  largest  Protestant  denomination  in  the  state. 

When  the  1796  General  Conference  designated  six 
annual  conferences  with  geographical  boundaries,  the 
part  of  New  York  east  of  the  Hudson  River  was  placed 
in  the  New  England  Conference  and  the  remainder 
of  the  state  in  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  Then  in 
1800  the  New  York  Conference  was  formed  by  dividing 
the  New  England  Conference.  At  the  beginning  the  New 
York  Conference  included  the  part  of  the  state  east  of  the 
Hudson  River,  the  state  of  Connecticut,  and  parts  of 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont.  The 
boundaries  were  soon  extended  west  to  include  more  of 
New  York.  In  1810  the  bishops  formed  the  Genesee 
Conference  from  parts  of  the  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia Conferences.  The  Canada  Conference  was  formed 
in  1824  by  dividing  the  Genesee  Conference.  In  1828 
the  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  Conference  was  set 
oflF  from  the  New  York  Conference.  In  1829  came  the 
Oneida  Conference  which  included  central  New  York 
and  a  part  of  Pennsylvania.  It  was  formed  by  dividing  the 
Genesee  Conference.  In  1833  the  New  York  Conference 
was  again  divided  to  form  the  Troy  Conference  which 
included  northern  New  York  and  a  part  of  Vermont.  In 


1836  the  Black  River  Conference  in  northern  New 
York  was  carved  out  of  the  Oneida  Conference.  In  1848 
the  Genesee  Conference  was  divided  to  form  the  East 
Genesee  Conference  in  western  New  York  and  northern 
Pennsylvania.  The  1848  General  Conference  divided  the 
New  York  Conference  again  to  form  the  New  York 
East  Conference  which  included  Long  Island,  part  of 
Connecticut,  and  a  part  of  New  York  City.  In  1852  the 
Oneida  Conference  was  divided  again  to  fonn  the  Wyo- 
ming Conference.  The  1868  General  Conference  created 
the  Central  New  York  Conference  from  parts  of  the 
Oneida  and  Black  River  Conferences.  In  1872  the  North- 
ern New  York  Conference  superseded  the  Black  River 
Conference,  and  the  Western  New  York  Conference 
was  created  by  merging  all  of  the  Genesee  Conference 
and  part  of  the  East  Genesee  Conference.  Unhappy  be- 
cause their  conference  was  abolished  in  1872,  the  preach- 
ers from  what  had  been  the  East  Genesee  Conference 
asked  the  1876  General  Conference  to  re-create  the  body. 
The  General  Conference  complied,  but  the  new  East 
Genesee  Conference  which  it  decreed  did  not  include  all 
of  the  old  territory.  Whereupon,  in  the  fall  of  1876,  in- 
stead of  organizing  as  the  East  Genesee  Conference, 
the  preachers,  with  the  consent  of  the  bishops,  approached 
the  Western  New  York  Conference  about  a  merger,  and 
the  two  bodies  immediately  united  to  form  a  new  Genesee 
Conference. 

Beginning  in  1876  the  M.E.  Church  had  seven  En- 
glish-speaking conferences  in  New  York:  Central  New 
York,  Genesee,  New  York,  Northern  New  York,  New 
York  East,  Troy,  and  Wyoming.  The  latter  three  con- 
tained more  or  less  territory  from  surrounding  states. 
There  was  not  another  change  in  the  names  of  these  seven 
conferences  until  1964  when  the  New  York  Conference 
absorbed  the  New  York  East  Conference,  and  the  Genesee 
Conference  again  became  the  Western  New  York  Con- 
ference. 

Methodism  had  foreign  language  work  in  New  York. 
In  1866  the  East  German  Conference  (called  Eastern 
Genman  Conference  for  the  first  two  years)  was  formed. 
Including  all  of  the  German  work  east  of  the  Allegheny 
Mountains,  it  continued  until  1943  and  was  the  last  of 
the  German  language  conferences  in  the  denomination 
to  be  absorbed.  The  Eastern  Swedish  Conference  was 
formed  in  1901  to  include  all  of  the  Swedish  work  in  the 
northeastern  states.  It  continued  until  1941  before  being 
absorbed.  In  1908  the  General  Conference  created  the 
Italian  Mission  to  include  all  Italian  work  east  of  a  merid- 
ian drawn  through  IndianapoUs.  The  Italian  language 
work  continued  until  1916. 

The  Methodist  Protestants  had  work  in  New  York 
from  the  begirming.  Before  the  M.P.  denomination  was 
organized,  a  secedent  group  in  northern  New  York  called 
itself  the  Rochester  Conference.  In  February  1830,  the 
name  was  changed  to  the  Genesee  Conference.  At  the 
time  it  had  about  442  members.  The  conference  continued 
until  1908  when  it  was  absorbed  by  the  Onondaga  Con- 
ference (MP).  The  Onondaga  Conference,  which  then 
included  western,  central,  and  northern  New  York,  con- 
tinued until  unification  in  1939.  In  1936  it  reported  forty- 
four  churches,  twenty-five  preachers,  and  2,135  members. 
On  April  21,  1830  the  New  York  Conference  (MP)  was 
organized  in  New  York  City  with  a  total  of  ten  itinerants 
and  local  preachers.  Never  a  strong  conference,  it  merged 
with  the  Pennsylvania  Conference  in   1911   to  form   the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW  YORK  CITY 


Eastern  Conference.  At  that  time  the  New  York  Con- 
ference had  2,133  members. 

The  work  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in 
New  York  is  divided  between  its  Champlain,  Middle 
Atlantic,  and  Rochester  Conferences,  while  that  of  the 
Free  Methodist  Church  is  included  in  its  Genesee,  New 
York,  and  Susquehanna  Conferences.  The  A.M.E.  Church 
has  a  New  York  Conference,  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church 
has  a  New  York  and  a  Western  New  York  Conference, 
while  the  New  York  work  of  the  C.M.E.  Church  is  in- 
cluded in  its  New  York-Washington  Conference. 

In  the  early  years  all  of  the  New  York  conferences  of 
the  M.E.  Church  supported  schools  and  colleges.  Nearly 
all  of  them  had  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  a  "confer- 
ence seminary"  or  academy.  The  Genesee  Wesleyan  Semi- 
nary continued  for  more  than  100  years.  Such  institutions 
as  Wesleyan  University,  Syracuse  University,  and 
the  Boston  and  Drew  Theological  Seminaries  were 
commended  and  supported  as  they  came  into  existence. 
In  more  recent  years  the  conferences  have  been  contribut- 
ing substantial  sums  for  the  support  of  Wesley  Founda- 
tions and  campus  ministries  at  many  state  institutions  of 
higher  learning.  In  1968  Syracuse  University  was  the 
only  Methodist  institution  of  higher  learning  in  the  state, 
though  the  Troy  Conference  was  giving  support  to  Meth- 
odist related  Green  Mountain  and  Vermont  (junior) 
Colleges  in  Vermont. 

New  York  Methodism  has  furnished  leadership  for  the 
larger  church.  Eighteen  members  of  New  York  annual 
conferences  have  been  elected  bishops:  Beverly  Waugh 
(1836),  Edmund  S.  Janes  (1844),  Jesse  T.  Peck  and 
Edward  G.  Andrews  (1872),  Cyrus  D.  Foss  and  Eras- 
Tus  O.  Haven  (1880),  Daniel  A.  Goodsell  (1888), 
Charles  C.  McCabe  (1896),  William  F.  Anderson 
(1908),  Theodore  S.  Henderson  (1912),  Ernest  G. 
Richardson  and  Frederick  T.  Keeney  (1920),  Wal- 
lace E.  Brown  (1924),  Ralph  S.  Cushman  (1928), 
Charles  W.  Flint  (1936),  W.  Earl  Ledden  (1944), 
and  Frederick  B.  Newell  (1952)  and  Roy  C.  Nichols 
(1968).  Six  men  who  served  as  members  of  the  New 
York  Conference  at  sometime  in  their  career  were  not 
members  of  that  conference  or  any  other  in  New  York 
at  the  time  they  were  elevated  to  the  episcopacy:  Elijah 
Hedding,  Joshua  Soule,  John  Emory,  Davis  W.  Clark, 
Randolph  S.  Foster,  and  Lorenzo  H.  King.  Sixteen 
other  men  were  either  born  in  New  York,  or  began  their 
ministry  there,  but  were  serving  elsewhere  when  elevated 
to  the  episcopacy:  Henry  B.  Bascom,  Francis  Burns, 
Calvin  Kingsley,  Linus  Parker,  William  X.  Ninde, 
John  P.  Newman,  Burton  R.  Jones,  Henry  Spellmeyer, 
Frank  M.  Bristol,  Wilson  S.  Lewis,  Richard  J.  Cooke, 
Frederick  D.  Leete,  Herbert  Welch,  Ernest  L.  Wal- 
dorf, Fred  P.  Corson,  and  Dwight  E.  Loder.  Two  of 
the  men  in  the  latter  list,  Henry  B.  Bascom  and  Linus 
Parker,  were  elected  bishops  in  the  M.E.  Church,  South. 
Six  bishops  of  the  Free  Methodist  Church  and  two  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Canada  were  born 
in  New  York.  In  addition  to  bishops.  New  York  Methodism 
has  furnished  many  leaders  in  other  areas  of  the  work  of 
the  church. 

A  number  of  service  institutions  in  New  York  State 
bear  witness  to  the  outreach  of  Methodism's  influence. 
Homes  for  the  aged  include  Bethany  Methodist  Home, 
Brooklyn;  Bethel  Methodist  Home,  Ossining;  Blocher 
Homes,  Williamsville;  Elizabeth  Church  Manor,  Endwell; 
Folts  Home,  Herkeimer;  Frontier  Methodist  Home,  Niag- 


ara; Methodist  Church  Home  of  New  York,  Bronx;  Meth- 
odist Church  Home,  West  Haven,  Conn.;  Methodist 
Home,  Rochester;  Methodist  Retirement  Center,  Shelton, 
Conn.;  and  New  York  Deaconess  Home,  1175  Park  Ave- 
nue, New  York  City.  Homes  for  children  and  young  peo- 
ple include  Methodist  Home,  Wilhamsville;  St.  Chris- 
topher's School,  Dobbs  Ferry;  and  Alma  Mathews  House 
for  young  women,  273  West  11th  Street,  New  York  City. 
Methodism  has  three  hospitals  in  the  state:  Bethany  Dea- 
coness Hospital,  and  Methodist  Hospital  in  Brooklyn; 
and  the  hospital  at  the  University  of  Syracuse.  The  Meth- 
odist Hospital  in  Brooklyn  is  the  oldest  Methodist  hospital 
in  America.  John  H.  Vincent,  later  bishop,  led  in  estab- 
lishing the  Chautauqua  Institute  at  Lake  Chautauqua  in 
1874.  Chautauqua  and  a  number  of  camps  and  conference 
centers  are  in  operation  every  summer.  An  Indian  Mission 
is  maintained  at  Hogansburg. 

In  1939  the  Central  New  York,  Genesee,  New  York, 
Northern  New  York,  New  York  East,  Troy,  and  Wyoming 
Conferences  had  a  total  of  27  districts,  1,773  charges, 
458,635  members,  and  property  valued  at   $79,707,369. 

In  1970  the  Central  New  York,  Northern  New  York, 
Western  New  York,  New  York,  Troy,  Erie,  and  Wyoming 
Conferences  reported  28  districts,  1,459  charges,  1,989 
ministers,  593,724  members,  property  valued  at  $396,- 
789,444,  and  a  total  of  $38,288,712  raised  for  all  pur- 
poses during  the  year.  These  totals  are  not  the  exact 
statistics  for  Methodism  in  the  state  of  New  York.  About 
one-half  of  the  Wyoming  Conference  is  in  Pennsylvania; 
the  New  York  Conference  includes  a  part  of  Connecticut; 
the  Troy  Conference  includes  all  of  Vermont;  and  the 
Northern  New  Jersey  Conference  takes  in  a  small  part  of 
the  state  of  New  York. 

The  Methodist  Church  had  approximately  480,000 
members  in  the  state  of  New  York  in  1968. 

Ray  Allen,  History  of  the  East  Genesee  Annual  Conference. 
Rochester:  Hart  Brothers  Printing  Co.,  1908. 
E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 
General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MC. 
Minutes  of  tjie  New  York  Conferences. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Ernest  R.  Case 

Albea  Godbold 

NEW  YORK  CITY,  U.S.A.  At  the  suggestion  of  Mrs. 
Barbara  Heck  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in  New  York 
was  preached  in  September  1766  by  Philip  Embury  in 
his  home  on  what  was  then  known  as  Barracks  Street. 
A  growing  congregation  moved  successively  to  an  upper 
room  ten  doors  from  the  barracks,  the  famed  Rigging 
Loft  on  Horse  and  Cart  Street  in  1767  and,  with  the 
assistance  of  Captain  Thomas  Webb,  into  a  chapel  of  its 
own  on  John  Street  Oct.  30,  1768.  During  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  the  membership  dwindled  from  200  to  sixty. 
Seven  annual  conferences  were  held  with  no  appointment 
made  to  John  Street  Church,  which  was  isolated  from 
the  rest  of  American  Methodism  by  the  military  situation. 
John  Mann,  converted  under  the  ministry  of  Boardman, 
occupied  the  pulpit  through  the  war.  In  1783  John  Dick- 
ins  was  appointed  and  gathered  the  fragments  together. 
The  first  session  of  the  annual  conference  held  in  New 
York  was  in  1788. 

As  the  membership  of  John  Street  grew,  and  as  the 
population  of  Manhattan  moved  north,  John  Street  Church 
began  to  establish  new  places  of  worship  on  the  city's 
frontier.  The  first  such  was  the  Forsyth  Street  Church 
dedicated  Nov.  8,  1789.  During  the  next  few  years,  the 


NEW   YORK   CITY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


following  additional  Manhattan  churches  were  erected: 
Willett  Street,  Allen  Street,  Second  Street,  Bowery  Village 
(Seventh  Street),  Twentieth  Street  (18th  Street),  Bed- 
ford Street,  Greene  Street,  Duane  Street. 

In  1832,  when  Methodist  membership  in  New  York 
was  5,433,  an  administrative  decision  to  divide  the 
churches  into  an  East  Circuit  and  a  West  Circuit  was 
made.  Prior  to  that,  appointments  had  been  made  to  John 
Street  with  its  ministers  rotating  among  the  churches. 
Now  there  were  two  appointments  and  two  quarterly 
conferences.  A  further  division  took  place  in  1836,  when 
each  church  became  a  separate  charge. 

Growth  in  the  city.  With  the  abandonment  of  the  cir- 
cuit system  and  the  deeding  of  property  to  local  churches, 
it  was  inevitable  that  each  newly  independent  church 
would  be  preoccupied  with  its  development  to  the  neglect 
of  other  areas  of  the  city.  Established  churches  flourished. 
Churches  at  Allen  Street,  Willett  Street  and  Second  Street 
were  overcrowded,  but  several  years  elapsed  before  any 
new  churches  were  established. 

Church  extension  responsibilities  were  engaged  in  by 
the  churches  cooperatively  through  special  organizations 
created  for  that  purpose.  Several  years  earlier,  about  1820, 
the  "Sunday  School  Society"  had  been  established.  It 
appears  to  have  been  reorganized  as  The  New  York  City 
Sunday  School  Society  about  1838.  About  1842  the  "As- 
bury  Society"  was  organized  "for  the  purpose  of  increasing 
the  number  of  churches  where  they  were  most  needed." 

The  Asbury  Society  established  the  Asbury  Church  in 
Norfolk  Street  in  1843  and  later  the  Asbury  Church  on 
Jane  Street  in  1844.  It  also  was  instrumental  in  establish- 
ing a  floating  chapel — "Bethelship  John  Wesley" — in 
1845  which  ministered  to  Scandinavian  seamen  and  immi- 
grants, and  became  the  mother  church  of  all  Scandinavian 
Methodism  in  America  and  in  Europe. 

In  1844  the  Ladies  Missionary  Society  was  founded. 
This  organization  established  "Drydock  Mission"  on 
Ninth  Street,  now  Eleventh  Street,  "Second  German 
Church"  on  40th  Street,  and  Five  Points  Mission. 

Gradually  church  extension  interests  were  consolidated 
with  the  New  York  City  Sunday  School  Society.  The 
constitution  and  by-laws  which  had  been  adopted  in  1838 
were  amended  in  1864  to  include  missionary  as  well  as 
Sunday  School  work,  and  its  name  changed  to  "The  New 
York  City  Sunday  School  and  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church."  Under  this  name  it  was 
incorporated  by  act  of  the  legislature  in  1866.  In  1871 
the  name  was  changed  to  "The  New  York  City  Church 
Extension  and  Missionary  Society  of  The  Methodist 
Church." 

The  Brooklyn  Church  Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church  was 
incorporated  on  May  28,  1878  to  "aid  churches,  to  give 
on  church  indebtedness,  incumbrances  on  property,  loca- 
tion of  churches  and  church  buildings,  and  to  promote 
Sunday  schools  and  missions  in  the  city  of  Brooklyn  and 
the  vicinity."  In  1917  its  charter  was  amended  to  include 
Long  Island. 

North  New  York.  The  establishment  of  Methodist 
churches  to  the  north,  including  Yorkville,  Harlem,  Bronx, 
Riverdale,  began  modestly  about  1830  and  accelerated  in 
the  period  1850  to  1870.  The  "Harlem  Mission"  first  ap- 
pears in  the  conference  minutes  in  1830,  and  includes  all 
of  Manhattan  Island  north  of  23rd  Street.  Prior  to  this 
more  than  half  of  Manhattan  Island  was  without  regular 
Methodist  preaching.  The  Seventh  Street  Church,  and  the 
Eighteenth  Street  Church,  were  on  the  frontier.  The  area 


above  23rd  Street  was  served  by  only  two  Dutch  Re- 
formed churches  and  perhaps  four  Protestant  Episcopal 
churches.  Here,  however,  Methodism  developed  some  of 
its  strongest  churches  among  which  were  St.  Paul,  St. 
Andrews,  Madison  Avenue  (now  Christ  Church)  and 
Park  Avenue. 

The  first  Methodist  church  established  in  the  area  now 
known  as  Harlem  was  St.  James,  about  1830.  After  wor- 
shipping in  several  buildings,  the  present  location  on 
Madison  Avenue  at  126th  Street  was  obtained  in  1869. 
A  strong  Negro  congregation  continues  a  noble  tradition 
in  this  building  under  the  name  Metropolitan  Community 
Church.  Negro  people  have  held  an  important  place  in 
New  York  Methodism  since  the  first  meeting  of  the  small 
group  of  five  to  which  Philip  Embury  preached  in  the 
autumn  of  1766.  One  of  the  five  was  a  woman  identified 
only  as  Betty,  an  African  servant.  The  conference  journal 
for  1786  reports  178  whites  and  twenty-five  colored  mem- 
bers in  New  York.  In  1871  the  most  successful  Methodist 
church  for  Negroes,  St.  Mark's,  was  established  on  Broad- 
way, between  36th  and  37th  Streets.  It  was  later  relocated 
to  St.  Nicholas  Avenue  and  137th  Street,  Harlem,  and 
shares  with  Salem  Church  in  Harlem  the  honor  of  being 
the  strongest  churches  of  New  York  Methodism. 

Even  before  the  Harlem  Mission,  and  the  early  spread 
of  Methodism  through  the  northern  half  of  Manhattan 
Island,  a  Methodist  church  appears  to  have  been  estab- 
lished in  Kingsbridge,  north  of  the  Harlem  River,  in  1826. 
It  was  known  by  various  names:  South  Yonkers,  Kings- 
bridge,  North  New  York  Mission,  and  in  1876,  became 
St.  Stephen's  Church. 

In  the  period  between  1850  and  1865  several  churches 
were  established  in  the  Bronx — Morrisania  1850,  Ford- 
ham  1854,  Tremont  1855,  and  Willis  Avenue  1865. 

Brooklyn.  Attention  was  given  Brooklyn  early  in  Meth- 
odist history.  Captain  Webb,  while  riding  the  Long  Island 
circuit  in  1768,  had  occasionally  preached  a  sermon  in  the 
home  of  a  friend  in  Brooklyn.  Prior  to  the  revolution  the 
few  Methodists  living  in  Brooklyn  ferried  to  Manhattan 
to  attend  services  first  at  the  Rigging  Loft  and  later  at 
Wesley  Chapel.  Francis  Asbury  records  a  visit  to  Flat- 
bush,  a  part  of  Brooklyn,  Sept.  7,  1774,  when  he  "heard 
Mr.  Peabody  preach."  Woolman  Hickson,  who  was  as- 
signed to  New  York  in  1787,  and  who  died  in  1788, 
preached  his  first  sermon  in  Brooklyn  in  the  open  air, 
standing  upon  a  table  in  Sands  Street,  at  the  location  upon 
which  the  Sands  Street  Church  was  later  built.  Peter 
Cannon  accepted  Hickson's  invitation  to  make  a  regular 
meeting  place  available.  This  was  his  coopers  shop.  A 
class  was  soon  formed,  the  first  in  Brooklyn,  and  Nicholas 
Snethen  was  the  first  leader. 

By  1790  Brooklyn  had  become  a  regular  preaching  ap- 
pointment, and  was  attached  to  the  Long  Island  circuit. 
This  circuit  was  served  by  two  preachers.  They  alternated 
preaching  a  month  in  Brooklyn  and  a  month  elsewhere  on 
Long  Island.  Those  serving  during  the  early  years  were 
Jacob  Brush,  John  Eagan,  James  Boyd,  Joseph  Totten, 
and  George  Straveck. 

Formal  organization  took  place  in  the  home  of  Peter 
Cannon  on  May  19,  1794.  Property  on  Sands  Street  was 
purchased  and  a  church  erected  and  dedicated  by 
Joseph  Totten  on  June  1,  1794  as  the  "First  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  town  of  Brooklyn,  Kings  County, 
Nassau  Island."  Brooklyn  became  a  separate  station  in 
1795  and  Joseph  Totten  became  the  first  station  preacher 
with  thirty-five  members. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW   YORK   CITY 


Methodism  was  first  established  in  the  Borough  and 
County  of  Queens,  in  New  York  City,  with  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  church  in  Newtown  (now  Middle  Village)  in 
1784.  It  was  then  the  western  point  on  a  Long  Island 
circuit  with  Commack  the  eastern  point.  These  two  ac- 
counted for  twenty-four  Methodists.  Sixteen  years  ear- 
lier, 1768,  Captain  Thomas  Webb  first  conducted  Meth- 
odist services  in  this  community  at  the  home  of  James 
Harper,  whose  sons  founded  the  publishing  firm  of 
H.\RPER  &  Company.  Meetings  were  held  in  the  kitchen 
of  his  home  in  what  is  now  Metropolitan  Avenue.  Later 
Newtown  was  a  stop  on  the  "circuit  riding  route"  of 
Joseph  Pilmore  (1769-71)  and  Francis  Asbury  (1771- 
73 ) .  The  first  frame  church  was  erected  in  1785  at  the 
comer  of  Dry  Harbour  and  Junifer  Roads. 

Early  Methodism  in  Jamaica  is  also  associated  with 
Captain  Webb.  The  kindred  of  his  wife  lived  in  Jamaica. 
When  retirement  offered  more  leisure  for  travel  'lie  went 
thither,  hired  a  house  and  preached  in  it,  and  twenty- 
four  persons  received  justifying  grace."  However,  it  was 
not  until  1807  that  a  church  was  organized.  It  was  a  part 
of  a  circuit  until  1843  when  Joseph  Ensign  became  its 
first  resident  pastor. 

The  old  Long  Island  circuit  was  divided  into  two 
circuits  in  1810 — one  in  Suffolk  County,  on  the  east, 
and  the  other  the  Jamaica  circuit  on  the  west.  This  ar- 
rangement lasted  until  the  Flushing  circuit  was  organized 
in  1824. 

Staten  Island.  The  first  sermon  Francis  Asbury 
preached  in  the  State  of  New  York  was  on  Staten  Island. 
His  diary  notation  for  Nov.  6,  1771  states:  "In  the  way 
from  thence  [Philadelphia  and  Burlington]  to  New  York 
I  met  with  one,  Peter  Van  Pelt,  who  had  heard  me  preach 
at  Philadelphia.  After  some  conversation,  he  invited  me  to 
his  house  on  Staten  Island;  and  as  I  was  not  engaged  to 
be  at  New  York  on  any  particular  day,  I  went  with  him 
and  preached  in  his  house."  Peter  Van  Pelt's  family 
settled  on  Staten  Island  in  1687.  He  was  a  prominent 
citizen  and  a  Methodist.  His  house  was  on  Wood  Road, 
about  one  half  mile  from  the  place  where  the  Wood  Road 
Church  was  built  in  1787. 

On  Nov.  10,  1771,  Asbury  again  preached  at  the  home 
of  Van  Pelt,  and  in  the  evening  a  large  congregation  had 
gathered  at  the  home  of  Justice  Hezekiah  Wright.  He  was 
Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  of  the  Province  of 
New  York,  and  a  prominent  citizen  who  operated  a  fleet 
of  vessels  in  coastal  trade.  Obviously,  the  seeds  of  Meth- 
odism had  been  sown  on  Staten  Island  earlier.  Pilmore, 
Williams,  and  probably  Boardman  and  Webb,  had  pre- 
ceded Asbury  in  preaching  on  this  Island.  The  Woodrow 
Church  was  organized  May  5,  1787  in  the  home  of 
Abraham  Cole.  The  frame  church  was  built  and  dedicated 
that  year.  Thomas  Morrell  was  assigned  as  the  first  settled 
minister.  The  present  Colonial  church  was  dedicated  Dec. 
25,  1842 — the  earlier  church  having  been  destroyed  by 
lightning. 

The  second  Methodist  church  to  have  been  established 
on  Staten  Island  was  Asbury  in  1803  on  what  is  now  Rich- 
mond Avenue,  New  Springfield.  Until  1806  it  was  known 
as  both  North  End  and  Bold  Neck  Church.  The  present 
church  was  built  on  the  same  site  in  1849.  Henry  Boehm 
was  the  first  settled  minister,  1802-3. 

The  Kingsley  Church  in  Stapleton  was  organized  in 
1835.  It  was  located  at  a  private  home  until  a  frame 
church  was  dedicated  Sept.  1,  1838  on  the  site  of  the 
present  church. 


Those  three  churches  established  outposts  which  was 
the  pattern  by  which  Methodism  spread  on  Staten  Is- 
land. Woodrow  Church  established  Bethel  Mission  in 
Tottenville  in  1822,  St.  John's  Chapel  at  Rossville  in  1854 
and  Pleasant  Plains  Church  in  1854  (originally  a  class  in 
1837). 

Asbury  started  Mariners  Harbour  Church  in  1839, 
Dickinson  Church  in  1842,  and  Bloomfield  Church  in 
1884.  Kingsley  established  Quarantine  Mission  in  1840 
and  took  on  St.  James  of  Rosebank  as  a  mission  as  late  as 
1910. 

Bethel  A.M.E.  Church.  In  the  fall  of  1817  Bishop 
Richard  Allen,  desiring  to  establish  work  in  New  York 
City  where  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  had  already  made 
substantial  progress,  commissioned  William  Lambert,  a 
member  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference,  to  go  to  New 
York  City  as  an  A.M.E.  missionary.  After  arriving  in  New 
York  Lambert  secured  the  use  of  a  school  room  on  Mott 
Street  in  which  he  held  services  often,  consecrating  it  for 
that  purpose.  Later  in  that  same  year  (1818),  Henry 
Harden  was  appointed  to  New  York  City.  The  young 
society  remained  at  the  Mott  Street  location  until  1827 
and  continued  to  grow  under  Harden's  leadership.  Be- 
tween 1827  and  1836  Bethel  moved  to  locations  on 
Orange  Street,  Centre  Street,  Elizabeth  Street  and  Second 
Street,  where  they  remained  until  about  1860.  In  1860 
Betliel  moved  to  Sullivan  Street  where  it  grew  to  be- 
come one  of  the  largest  and  most  influential  churches  in 
the  city.  Between  the  First  and  Second  World  Wars  it 
followed  the  Negro  population  of  the  city  to  its  present 
uptown  location. 

Christ  Church,  Methodist,  at  Park  Avenue  and  Si.\tieth 
Street,  is  the  denomination's  central  and  leading  church 
in  America's  metropolis.  Standing  at  the  heart  of  New- 
York  City  and  at  "the  gateway  of  the  continent"  it  ap- 
proximates in  aim  and  influence  John  Wesley's  concept, 
"the  world  is  my  parish." 

It  had  its  beginning  in  1881  as  the  Madison  Avenue 
M.E.  Church.  It  was  organized  by  a  group  of  Methodists 
who  wished  to  provide  a  Christian  ministry  for  the  in- 
creasing number  of  families  who  were  establishing  homes 
on  the  east  side  of  Central  Park,  then  a  newly  occupied 
part  of  the  city. 

From  1882  to  1917  the  church  had  eight  pastors:  O.  H. 
Tiffany,  Charles  Putnam  Masden,  Ensign  McChesney, 
Sylvester  F.  Jones,  Andrew  Longacre,  Wallace  MacMul- 
len,  Charles  L.  Mead  (later  bishop),  and  Worth  M. 
Tippy.  In  1915  Ralph  W.  Sockman  joined  the  staff  and 
became  pastor  in  1917. 

Sockman's  fifty-year  record  of  active  service  in  the 
single  metropolitan  parish  is  unique  in  the  annals  of  the 
ministiy:  lay  member,  1911-13;  student  assistant,  1913- 
15;  associate  minister,  1915-17;  senior  minister,  1917-61. 
Under  his  guidance  and  radio  ministry  Christ  Church  be- 
came known  throughout  the  Christian  world.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded as  senior  pastor  by  Harold  A.  Bosley. 

The  new  church  building  located  at  Park  Avenue  and 
Sixtieth  Street  was  planned  in  1929.  Meanwhile,  the 
present  name,  Christ  Church,  Methodist,  had  been 
adopted.  The  cornerstone  was  laid  in  November  1931, 
and  the  building  was  dedicated  Nov.  26,  1933.  Effective 
Nov.  15,  1933  the  East  Sixty-First  M.E.  Church  was 
consolidated  with  Christ  Church.  This  was  pursuant  to 
agreement  and  the  order  of  Bishop  Francis  J.  McCon- 
NELL  with   Sockman   and   Benjamin   F.   Saxon,   who  had 


NEW   YORK    CITY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


been  pastor  of  the  East  Sixty-First  Church  since  1909, 
as  associate  pastors. 

The  desire  to  build  a  beautiful  sanctuary,  as  well  as 
a  structure  adequate  to  its  program,  led  to  the  selection 
of  Ralph  Adams  Cram  as  architect,  and  his  design  was 
strongly  influenced  by  the  older  Byzantine  and  Roman- 
esque churches  of  the  Mediterranean  area.  He  recognized 
the  limitation  of  the  site  in  a  mid-city  area  and  created  a 
church  building  with  a  restrained  and  well-proportioned 
exterior.  Within  he  gave  maximum  space  to  the  sanctuary, 
using  glittering  mosaic  and  rich  marble  for  heightened 
color,  with  Christ  as  the  central  figure.  Today  the  mosaics 
in  Christ  Church  are  regarded  as  among  the  best  in  Amer- 
ica. The  cost  of  land  and  building  was  over  $3,000,000 
in  the  1930's,  and  the  value  has  been  greatly  enhanced  by 
the  growth  of  the  city. 

In  its  physical  form  the  church  blends  the  East  and  the 
West.  In  its  ministry  and  its  work,  it  seeks  to  transcend 
man-made  boundaries.  Its  membership  includes  leaders  in 
the  professional,  economic  and  political  life  of  the  city,  a 
large  number  of  business  and  professional  women  and 
many  students.  Because  of  its  pulpit,  its  beauty,  and  its 
centra]  location,  Christ  Church  attracts  many  week-day 
visitors  as  well  as  Sunday  worshippers. 

The  Church  Center  for  the  United  Nations  is  a  twelve- 
story  edifice  on  the  U.  N.  Plaza — directly  opposite  the 
U.  N.  Headquarters  Building — in  New  York  City.  It  is  an 
ecumenical  building  for  the  programs  and  services  of 
interdenominational  and  denominational  agencies  con- 
cerned with  humanitarian,  peace,  and  social  welfare  in- 
terests. The  edifice  was  erected  by  the  Board  of  Missions 
and  by  the  Bo.\rd  of  Christian  Social  Concerns  of 
The  Methodist  Church — both  boards  combining  their 
programs  of  seminars  and  study  of  subjects  and  projects 
related  to  the  U.  N.  Other  organizations  have  headquar- 
ters in  the  building.  It  was  opened  for  occupancy  in  May 
1963,  and  consecrated  the  September  following. 

Notable  in  the  Center  are  the  Walter  Van  Kirk  Memo- 
rial Library,  the  Dag  Hammarskjold  Memorial  Lounge, 
the  Charles  F.  Boss  Conference  Room,  and  the  Sadie  Wil- 
son Tillman  Chapel. 

Interchurch  Center,  the  principal  center  of  united 
Protestant  and  Orthodox  witness  and  outreach  in  the 
U.S.A.,  is  a  modern  nineteen-story  edifice  in  New  York 
City,  bearing  the  address  "475  Riverside  Drive,"  and 
facing  onto  the  Hudson  River  in  upper  Manhattan  Island. 
It  is  in  the  area  known  as  the  City's  cultural  "Acropolis" 
which  includes  Columbia  University  and  related  institu- 
tions. 

The  site  was  donated  by  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  and 
many  church  organizations  and  individuals  contributed  to 
the  erection  of  the  edifice.  The  cornerstone  was  laid  by 
President  Eisenhower  on  Oct.  12,  1958,  and  the  dedica- 
tion was  on  May  29,  1960. 

The  Interchurch  Center  houses  many  tenant  organiza- 
tions, and  these  employ  about  2,200  persons.  About  30,- 
000  persons  "sight-see"  the  Center  each  year;  and  many 
more  thousands  visit  for  church  and  related  business.  Be- 
sides denominational  offices,  exhibits,  etc.,  visitors  are 
interested  in  the  Chapel  and  its  sculptured  ceiling,  the 
Orthodox  Room  and  its  display  of  ancient  icons,  the 
Treasure  Room  which  has  many  rare  manuscripts  of 
hymns  and  church  music,  and  the  original  manuscript  of 
the  RSV  Bible;  and  throughout  the  building  tablets  and 
other  memorials  to  church  leaders  of  recent  years — men 
who  contributed  to  the  ecumenical  movement. 


The  Board  of  Missions  of  the  United  Methodist  Church 
occupies  three  floors  in  the  Interchurch  Center.  Other 
Methodist  agencies,  presently  housed  there  include:  the 
A.M.E.  Church;  the  Foreign  Missions  Department  of  the 
A.M.E.  Zion  Church;  the  Interboard  Committee  for  Chris- 
tian Work  in  Japan,  Okinawa,  the  Philippines;  the 
Methodist  Committee  for  Overseas  Relief;  the  New 
York  City  Society;  the  Brooklyn  and  Long  Island  Church 
Society;  the  New  York  Area  Episcopal  Office;  the  Tele- 
vision, Radio,  and  Film  Commission;  the  New  York 
Area  Planning  Commission. 

Interdenominational  and  ecumenical  organizations  there 
with  which  the  United  Methodist  Church  works  closely  in- 
clude: Agricultural  Missions,  Inc.;  the  Hymn  Society  of 
America;  the  Japan  International  Christian  University 
Foundation;  the  Congo  Protestant  Relief  Agency;  Ludhi- 
ana  Christian  Medical  College  Board;  the  John  Milton 
Society;  the  National  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ; 
the  Protestant  Council  of  the  City  of  New  York;  the 
World  Council  of  Churches;  the  World  Council  of 
Religious  Education;  Vellore  Christian  Medical  College 
Board;  and  the  United  Board  for  Christian  Higher  Edu- 
cation in  Asia. 

John  Street  Church  (See  John  Street). 

St.  Mark's  Church,  in  upper  Manhattan,  is  one  of  the 
largest  churches  in  the  United  Methodist  connection, 
having  presently  approximately  4,700  members.  It  was 
organized  on  June  12,  1871,  but  moved  to  the  present 
site  on  Nov.  22,  1920.  The  building  is  a  stately  one  and 
acts  as  a  center  for  the  community  about,  serving  many 
of  its  needs.  It  has  an  unusually  active  youth  program, 
and  is  a  member  of  the  Harlem  Interfaith  Housing  Corpo- 
ration— a  non-profit  organization  for  the  development  of 
housing  for  community  residents  in  that  part  of  New 
York.  A  staff  of  four  ministers  serves  St.  Mark's. 

Salem  Church  is  a  large  church  far  up  on  Seventh 
Avenue,  which  ministers  to  a  congregation  of  2,600  mem- 
bers in  the  heart  of  Harlem.  It  was  begun  in  April  of  1902 
in  a  storefront  at  250  St.  Nicholas  Avenue  as  a  mission  of 
St.  Mark's  Church  under  the  ministry  of  Williams  H. 
Brooks.  F.  A.  Cullen  of  the  Del.wvare  Conference  was 
appointed  to  develop  the  new  work.  In  August  that  year 
Salem  moved  to  232  West  124th  Street  in  a  private  home 
previously  used  as  a  club  and  gambling  center.  In  Febru- 
ary of  1904  fire  destroyed  the  worship  area  of  Salem. 
With  the  help  of  the  New  York  City  Society,  Frank 
M.^ON  North,  Secretary,  six  houses  were  purchased  in 
1911  at  133rd  Street  and  Lenox  Avenue.  In  1908,  Salem 
became  an  independent  charge,  and  its  rapid  growth  con- 
tinued. In  1924  when  Old  Calvary  M.E.  Church,  on 
Seventh  Avenue  and  192th  street  decided  to  relocate, 
Salem  was  ready  to  occupy  the  2,000  seat  sanctuary. 

Dr.  Cullen  led  Salem  Church  for  forty-two  years.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Charles  Y.  Trigg  whose  thirteen  years 
of  distinguished  service  witnessed  a  major  renovation  and 
won  the  fight  that  saved  the  facilities  from  threatened 
demolition  to  make  way  for  city  housing.  Dr.  Trigg  re- 
tired in  1955,  and  is  presently  Minister  Emeritus.  In 
1955  Joshua  O.  Williams  became  pastor  of  Salem  until 
his  death  in  1963.  During  his  pastorate  major  plans  for 
an  exterior  renovation  and  a  new  community  center  were 
made.  Samuel  Sweeney  served  as  interim  pastor  until 
June,  1964.  In  July  Dr.  Roy  C.  Nichols  became  pastor 
and  by  November  1967  the  new  community  center  had 
been  completed  and  exterior  renovation  reahzed  at  a  cost 
of  over  $800,000.  The  complete  plant  of  Salem  is  valued 


WORLD   METHODISM 

at  $1.3  million.  Salem  continued  its  outreach  and  service 
to  the  Harlem  community.  In  July  1968,  at  the  North- 
eastern Jurisdictional  Conference,  Dr.  Nichols  was 
elected  bishop.  F.  Herbert  Skeete  was  thereupon  ap- 
pointed as  pastor  in  August  1968. 

Salem  was  the  first  Negro  work  organized  in  Harlem 
by  a  major  denomination.  Other  older  churches  moved  to 
Harlem  from  downtown  in  later  years.  The  outstanding 
ministry  of  Salem  to  the  social  problems  of  its  people 
continues  with  faithful  support  given  the  National  Asso- 
ciation for  Advancement  of  Colored  People  and  the  New 
York  Urban  League.  The  latter  was  organized  in  Salem's 
dining  room  on  133rd  Street. 

Salem  is  located  in  the  midst  of  St.  Nicholas  Housing 
project,  and  eighty  percent  of  its  membership  live  in 
Central  Harlem.  This  cross-section  congregation  combines 
enthusiastic  worship  with  twenty-eight  John  Wesley  t\'pe 
classes,  and  these  classes  have  accounted  for  the  warmth 
and  vigor  of  Salem  from  it  inception.  Six  choirs  serve 
the  musical  needs  of  Salem,  with  five  directors  and  240 
members.  Three  ministers  ser\'e  the  pastoral  needs  of 
Salem  and  its  community. 

Paul    Blakeney,    The    95th    Anniversary    Journal    (St.    Mark's 

Church),  October  1966. 

Frederick  A.  Cullen,  Barefoot  Totvn  to  Jerusalem.  New  York: 

n.p.,  n.d. 

J.  T.  Jenifer,  Centennial  Retrospect  (AME).  1916. 

D.  A.  Payne,  History  (AME).  1891. 

S.  A.  Seaman,  New  York.  1892. 

A.  Stevens,  Memorials  of  Introduction.  1848. 

Henry  C.  Whym.^n 

Grant  S.  Shockley 

W.  W.  Reid 

F.  Herbert  Skeete 

\.  B.  H. 

NEW  YORK  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  created  in  1800 
by  dividing  the  New  England  Conference,  Its  territory 
at  the  outset  was  New  York  east  of  the  Hudson  River,  the 
state  of  Connecticut,  and  parts  of  Massachusetts,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Vermont.  The  conference  was  organized 
at  New  York  City,  June  19,  1800  with  Bishop  Asbury 
presiding.  Forty  preachers  attended,  and  appointments 
were  made  to  twenty-eight  charges.  In  1803  the  confer- 
ence reported  11,458  white  and  391  colored  members. 

As  the  years  passed  the  boundaries  of  the  New  York 
Conference  were  altered  many  times.  The  most  important 
boundary  changes  occurred  when  other  conferences  were 
carved  from  it  or  merged  with  it.  The  following  confer- 
ences were  set  off  from  New  York  Conference  territory  in 
the  years  indicated:  Genesee,  1810;  New  Hampshire 
and  Vermont,  1828;  Troy,  1833;  and  New  York  East, 
1849.  The  latter  merged  with  the  New  York  Conference 
in  1964,  thereby  making  the  new  New  York  Conference 
one  of  the  strongest  in  the  denomination.  After  the  division 
into  two  conferences  in  1849,  the  New  York  Conference 
was  left  with  about  25,000  members.  When  the  hvo  con- 
ferences merged  in  1964,  the  total  membership  was  about 
198,000. 

Credit  is  due  I*hilip  Embury,  Barbara  Heck,  Rich- 
ard BoARDMAN,  Joseph  Pilmore,  and  Francis  Asbur>- 
for  establishing  Methodism  in  New  York  City  and  its 
immediate  environs.  (See  New  York.)  In  1788  Free- 
born Gabrettson  began  work  as  presiding  elder  in  the 
region  that  stretches  from  New  York  City  to  Canada 
and  from   Connecticut  to  Utica,   and   in  the  next  thirty 


NEW   YORK   CONFERENCE 

years  he  more  than  any  other  man  was  responsible  for 
estabhshing  Methodism  in  that  area.  At  Rhinebeck  up 
the  Hudson  is  the  house  in  which  Garrettson  and 
his  wife,  Catherine  Livingstone,  lived  until  he  died  in 
1827.  In  that  year  the  New  York  Conference  reported 
30,223  members. 

In  1841  a  mission  to  German-speaking  people  was 
founded  in  New  York  City.  In  time  there  were  two  Ger- 
man districts  in  the  conference,  and  in  1866  the  East 
German  Conference  was  organized. 

Responding  to  the  directive  of  the  1820  General 
Conference  that  annual  conferences  found  colleges,  the 
New  York  Conference  established  Wesleyan  University 
at  Middletown,  Conn.,  in  1831.  It  is  the  second  oldest 
peiTnanent  college  in  America  founded  by  the  Methodists. 
Wesleyan  received  strong  support  from  the  New  York 
Conference  and  other  surrounding  conferences  for  more 
than  a  century  until  it  ceased  to  be  a  Methodist  related 
institution.  A  number  of  secondary  schools  which  con- 
tinued for  longer  or  shorter  periods  were  established 
throughout  the  New  York  Conference,  the  more  promi- 
nent ones  being  Charlotteville  Seminaiy  at  Charlotteville, 
Amenia  Seminary  at  Amenia.  Hedding  Literary  Institute 
at  Ashland,  Hudson  River  Institute  at  Claverack,  and 
Drew  Seminary  for  Young  Women  at  Carmel. 

In  1881  the  Methodist  Hospit.\l  in  Brooklyn, 
the  oldest  Methodist  related  hospital  in  America,  was 
established  in  response  to  a  challenging  editorial  in  the 
Christian  Advocate  by  the  editor,  James  M.  Buckley. 
George  I.  Seney,  the  son  of  a  Methodist  minister,  read 
the  editorial  which  asked,  "Is  it  not  time  that  somewhere 
we  built  a  hospital?"  Seney  then  gave  property  and  cash 
totaling  $410,000  for  launching  the  hospital.  The  institu- 
tion started  a  school  for  training  nurses  in  1888.  The 
hospital  now  covers  a  city  block  and  there  are  plans  for 
its  further  enlargement. 

Other  service  institutions  within  the  bounds  of  the 
New  York  Conference  are:  St.  Christopher's  Home  for 
Children,  Dobbs  Ferry;  Bethany  Deaconess  Hospital, 
Brooklyn;  Bethel  Methodist  Home,  Ossining;  Methodist 
Church  Home  of  New  York,  Bronx;  xMethodist  Church 
Home,  West  Haven,  Conn.;  Bethany  Methodist  Home, 
Brooklyn;  New  York  Deaconess  Association  Home,  1175 
Park  Ave.,  New  York  City;  Methodist  Retirement  Center, 
Shelton,  Conn.;  and  the  Alma  Mathews  House  for  young 
women,  273  West  11th  Street,  New  York  City. 

The  New  York  Conference  Center  and  Business  Offices 
are  located  on  a  twenty-acre  tract  at  Rye,  N.  Y.  The 
Board  of  Missions  of  The  L'nited  Methodist  Church  is 
domiciled  at  the  Interchurch  Center,  475  Riverside  Drive, 
and  the  Church  Center  for  the  United  Nations  is  at  777 
L^nited  Nations  Plaza  in  New  York  City. 

The  New  York  Conference  operates  four  camps  for 
children,  youth,  and  adults;  Quinipet  at  Shelter  Island, 
Long  Island;  Sessions  Woods  at  Bristol,  Conn.;  Epworth 
at  High  Falls;  and  Kingswood  at  Hancock. 

Throughout  its  history  the  New  York  Conference  has 
been  affected  by,  and  has  endeavored  to  wield  some  in- 
fluence on,  the  large  number  of  immigrants  entering  the 
L^nited  States  through  New  York.  Starting  with  the  Ger- 
man-speaking people  in  1841  there  have  been  ethnic 
churches  down  to  the  present.  (See  East  German  and 
Eastern  Swedish  Conferences,  and  Italian  Mission).  In 
recent  years  Negroes  from  the  South  and  Spanish-speak- 
ing people  from  Puerto  Rico  have  come  to  New  York  in 
large  numbers.  Much  of  the  conference's  effort  to  minister 


NEW   YORK   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


to  ethnic  groups  in  the  inner  city  is  channeled  through  the 
New  York  City,  Brooklyn,  and  Long  Island  Methodist 
Societies.  These  societies  join  with  the  National  Board  of 
Missions  and  with  other  denominations  in  the  work.  In 
recent  years  the  New  York  Conference  has  raised  $5,000,- 
000  to  strengthen  its  ministry  in  the  inner  city,  the  sub- 
urbs, and  the  rural  areas  of  the  conference.  The  New  York 
Conference  has  had  some  Negro  members  in  its  churches 
from  the  beginning,  and  it  has  had  some  large  Negro 
congregations  in  New  York  City  for  many  years.  In  1959 
Bishop  Frederick  B.  Newell  appointed  a  Negro  minister 
to  the  church  at  Modena,  New  York,  and  beginning  in 
1962  the  conference  has  had  at  least  one  Negro  district 
superintendent  in  the  bishop's  cabinet.  In  1968  Roy  C. 
Nichols  of  the  New  York  Conference  was  elected  a  bish- 
op by  the  Northeastern  Jurisdictional  Conference,  the 
first  Negro  ever  elevated  to  the  Methodist  episcopacy 
"without  regard  to  race"  by  a  white  Jurisdictional  or 
General  Conference. 

Over  the  years  the  New  York  Conference  has  provided 
the  larger  church  with  a  number  of  bishops,  missionaries, 
educators,  theologians,  editors,  and  other  leaders.  (See 
New  York  for  a  partial  list  of  the  bishops. ) 

The  New  York  Conference  came  to  unification  in  1939 
with  four  districts,  218  charges,  65,165  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $18,592,899.  In  1963  the  conference 
had  185  charges,  and  74,129  members. 

In  1968  the  New  York  Conference  reported  eight  dis- 
tricts, 441  charges,  709  ministers,  201,257  members,  prop- 
erty valued  at  $165,637,374,  and  a  total  of  $16,061,871 
raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

Fred  H.   Deming,  ed..  The  Onward  Way,  Story  of  the  New 

York  Annual  Conference.  Saugerties,  N.  Y.:  Catskill  Mountain 

Publishing  Corp.,  1949. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  New  York  Conference. 

C.  Wesley  Chbistman,  Jr. 

NEW  YORK  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  traces  its  origin  to 
1812,  when  the  Evangelical  Associ.\tion  first  gained 
a  foothold  in  New  York  State.  Although  this  mission 
failed.  Christian  Wolf  then  was  sent  into  the  state  where 
he  worked  patiently  around  Fayette,  Seneca  County, 
N.  Y.,  until  he  had  established  a  nucleus  for  the  denomi- 
nation. Help  arrived  later  and  a  circuit  was  formed.  While 
Jacob  Kleinfelter  served  the  field,  John  Dbeisbach  made 
regular  visits  as  presiding  elder.  The  work  became  orga- 
nized as  the  "Seneca  Circuit"  and  was  a  part  of  the  Wil- 
liamsport.  Pa.,  District.  The  "Mohawk  Circuit"  was  estab- 
lished in  1833  to  minister  to  the  Mohawk-Gennan  people 
along  the  Mohawk  and  Canajoharie  Valleys. 

The  General  Conference  meeting  at  New  Berlin,  Pa., 
Sept.  29,  1847,  decided  that  the  work  in  New  York  and 
Canada  should  be  formed  into  a  conference.  The  follow- 
ing February,  at  the  session  of  the  East  Pennsylvania 
Conference,  the  New  York  Conference  was  formally  orga- 
nized with  Bishop  John  Seybebt  presiding.  This  confer- 
ence brought  the  missionary  efforts  of  the  Canada,  Buf- 
falo, Rochester,  Syracuse,  and  Albany  Districts  into  one 
body  with  eleven  circuits  and  1,856  members.  The  first 
separate  session  was  held  in  Buffalo  on  April  25,  1849. 
The  work  in  Canada  was  separated  from  the  New  York 
Conference  in  1865  and  continued  as  the  Canada  Con- 
ference until  January  1968,  when  it  merged  with  the 
United  Church  of  Canada. 


Following  favorable  votes  for  conference  union,  the 
New  York  Conference  churches  were  united  with  former 
Methodist  conferences,  Sept.  14,  1968.  Eleven  congrega- 
tions were  received  into  their  respective  conferences  by 
the  Troy,  Wyoming,  Northern  New  York,  and  Central 
New  York  Conferences.  The  remaining  twenty-two 
churches  united  with  the  Western  New  York  Confer- 
ence. 

In  1966  there  were  thirty  elders  with  thirty-four  orga- 
nized congregations  and  6,929  members.  Total  money 
raised  for  all  purposes  that  year  amounted  to  $599,546, 
while  congregational  property  was  valued  at  $3,886,996. 

R.  W.  Albright,  Evangelical  Church.  1942. 

Journals  of  the  New  York  Conference. 

William  Wagner,  History  of  the  New  York  Conference  of  the 

Evangelical  Church.  1948.  Clarence  C.  Van 

NEW  YORK  CONFERENCE  SEMINARY  AND  COLLEGIATE 
INSTITUTE  was  a  co-educational  school,  located  in  Char- 
lotteville,  Schoharie  Co.,  N.Y.,  established  in  1850. 
Though  financed  by  private  funds,  it  was  endorsed  by  the 
New  York  Conference.  Under  the  principalship  of  Alon- 
zo  Flack  success  was  almost  immediate,  necessitating  the 
addition  in  1852  of  two  wings  attached  to  the  main 
building.  Students  by  1854  had  increased  to  1,253. 

It  was  in  1854  that  the  original  Seminary  building  was 
completely  destroyed  by  fire.  A  single  building  had  been 
in  the  meantime  erected  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away, 
designed  to  house  the  collegiate  portion  of  the  institution. 
Into  this  building  the  Seminary  moved. 

The  original  intent  of  the  founders  had  been  to  operate 
the  Seminary  in  conjunction  with  a  collegiate  department 
and  also  with  a  university,  located  in  Troy,  N.Y.,  and 
known  as  Troy  University.  This  latter  institution  was 
built  and  operated  long  enough  to  graduate  one  class,  but 
financial  reverses  faced  by  the  promoters  of  this  enter- 
prise brought  about  failure,  and  the  property  was  sold 
to  one  of  the  Roman  Catholic  orders. 

A  second  fire,  in  1867,  reduced  the  Seminary  to  ashes, 
yet  the  trustees  and  faculty  persisted  in  endeavoring  to 
continue  the  life  of  the  school.  A  large  hotel  in  the  com- 
munity was  purchased  and  fitted  for  school  purposes, 
under  the  management  of  Solomon  Sias,  the  son  of  the 
Rev.  Solomon  Sias,  associate  of  Asbury  and  later  pub- 
lisher of  Zion's  Herald.  Charlotteville  Seminary  closed 
some  time  in  1875  and  was  not  revived. 

The  significance  of  this  Seminary  is  not  to  be  measured 
in  teiTOs  of  its  disasters,  not  the  least  of  which  was  the 
decimation  of  much  of  the  male  portion  of  the  students 
by  the  Civil  War.  The  school  offered  an  impressive  cur- 
riculum. Literally  hundreds  of  teachers  went  out  from 
this  school  and  an  uncounted  number  of  Methodist  preach- 
ers received  formal  training  there.  Academically,  Char- 
lotteville Seminary  rated  among  the  best. 

New  York  State  Education  Department  markers  have 
been  placed  to  mark  the  site  of  the  Seminary,  beside  the 
country  road  passing  through  Charlotteville. 

William  R.  Phinney 

NEW  YORK  EAST  CONFERENCE  (ME).  The  1848  Gen- 
eral Conference  created  the  New  York  East  Conference 
by  dividing  the  New  York  Conference.  A  list  of  ap- 
pointments for  the  New  York  East  Conference  was  read 
out  at   the    1848   session   of  the   New   York   Conference 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW   ZEALAND 


which  was  held  in  the  Washington  Street  Church,  Brook- 
lyn, beginning  June  14.  However,  the  New  York  East 
Conference  did  not  hold  its  first  separate  session  until 
May  30,  1849  when  it  met  at  Middletown,  Conn.,  with 
Bishop  Thomas  A.  Morris  presiding.  The  conference 
began  with  four  districts.  New  York  East,  Long  Island, 
New  Haven,  and  Hartford.  It  had  114  charges  and  21,485 
members.  At  the  beginning  the  territory  of  the  conference 
was  a  part  of  New  York  City,  Long  Island,  and  the  part 
of  Connecticut  west  of  the  Connecticut  River,  and  its 
boundaries  remained  essentially  the  same  throughout  the 
conference's  1 15-year  history. 

The  New  York  East  Conference  came  to  unification  in 
1939  with  four  districts,  259  charges,  96,874  members, 
and  property  valued  at  $20,265,241. 

In  1964  the  New  York  East  Conference  merged  with 
the  New  York  Conference  to  form  again  the  larger  New 
York  Conference.  In  its  last  year  the  New  York  East  Con- 
ference reported  four  districts — Brooklyn  North,  Brooklyn 
South,  New  Haven,  and  New  York — 262  charges,  390 
ministers,  124,090  members,  property  valued  at  $74,553,- 
701,  and  a  total  of  $8,791,480  raised  for  all  purposes  dur- 
ing the  year. 

Minutes  of  the  New  York  East  Conference. 

General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MC.  Albea  Godbold 

NEW  ZEALAND.  This  favored  land  consists  of  eight  is- 
lands in  the  South  Western  Pacific,  1,200  miles  across 
the  Tasman  Sea  from  the  east  coast  of  Australia.  The 
two  main  islands,  the  North  and  the  South,  are  separated 
by  the  narrow  Cook  Strait  (fourteen  miles  across  at  its 
narrowest  part),  and  are  inhabited  by  2,808,590  people 
(1970).  Though  the  South  Island  is  the  larger,  two  thirds 
of  the  people  live  in  the  North  Island. 

The  large  majority  are  Europeans,  or  "Pakehas"  as 
they  are  often  called  to  distinguish  them  from  the  Maoris. 
The  latter  number  about  160,000,  and  were  here  before 
the  Europeans.  They  claim  that  the  islands  were  fished 
up  out  of  the  sea  by  Maui,  the  god-man.  The  geologists 
offer  a  similar  explanation.  Three  hundred  million  years 
ago  the  land  rose  out  of  the  sea,  and  since  then  has  sunk 
beneath  the  waves  again  and  again.  This  claim  is  sup- 
ported by  the  rocks  of  the  Southern  Alps,  the  mighty  back- 
bone of  the  South  Island,  by  the  petrified  forests  on  the 
coast  line,  and  by  fossil  remains  in  many  places. 

Present-day  Maoris  trace  their  descent  from  those  who 
came  to  New  Zealand  by  canoe  during  the  fourteenth 
century.  They  mark  the  southern  limit  of  the  Polynesian 
advance  in  the  Pacific,  the  northern  limit  of  which  is 
Hawaii.  After  reaching  New  Zealand,  the  Maoris  multi- 
plied here  until  there  were,  perhaps,  200,000  in  all. 

They  are  a  noble  people,  and  evolved  an  impressive 
culture,  though  they  possessed  only  bone  and  stone  im- 
plements. Sinclair,  in  A  History  of  New  Zealand,  says  of 
them: 

In  some  of  their  crafts  they  produced  objects  not  yet  sur- 
passed in  beauty  of  design  or  decoration  by  the  works  of  their 
successors.  They  excelled  in  carving  in  wood,  on  their  canoes, 
on  their  ornate  meeting  houses,  on  their  boxes  and  tattooing 
funnels,  and  in  stone,  (p.  19) 

The  Maori  recognised  vast  numbers  of  gods:  but  some  rec- 
ognised a  supreme  God  who  created  the  other  gods  and  the 
universe.  His  name  was  lo;  lo  the  parentless,  lo  of  the  hidden 
face,  lo  the  giver  of  life.   (pp.  20-21) 

Religion  pervaded  the  life  of  the  Maoris.   Debate  and  war 


were  the  great  excitements  of  the  Maori  public,  and  tlie 
greater  of  these  was  war.  The  Maoris  were  the  greatest  of 
the  Polynesian  peoples,    (p.   24) 

In  1642,  the  Dutchman  Abel  Tasman  sailed  down 
the  west  coast  of  New  Zealand.  In  1769,  Captain  James 
Cook  sighted  the  east  coast  of  the  North  Island,  and 
sailed  right  round  the  two  islands.  In  1773  for  the  second 
time,  and  in  1777  for  the  third  time  he  visited  the  land. 
Many  other  explorers  followed  Cook,  and  then  the  seal- 
ers, missionaries,  whalers,  and  traders  appeared,  much  in 
that  order. 

Christian  Mission.  In  1814,  Samuel  Marsden,  an  Angli- 
can clergyman  from  Sydney,  New  South  Wales, 
preached  the  first  Christian  sermon,  and  in  1822  Samuel 
Leigh,  the  first  Methodist  missionary  in  the  same  state, 
came  to  New  Zealand,  and  began  work  at  Kaeo  in  the 
far  north  of  the  North  Island.  In  1827,  the  station  (Wes- 
leydale)  was  destroyed  by  a  Maori  war  party,  and  the 
missionaries  narrowly  escaped  with  their  lives.  The  fol- 
lowing year  they  began  again  on  the  opposite,  or  west, 
coast  of  the  far  north,  at  Mangungu  on  the  Hokianga 
Harbor.  It  proved  a  successful  venture,  and  by  1840 
there  were  fifteen  to  twenty  missionaries  throughout  the 
two  islands. 

The  Maoris  were  most  responsive  to  the  Christian  mes- 
sage. One  missionary  declared  at  that  time  that  ninety 
percent  of  the  people  were  disciples  of  Christ. 

In  1840  the  Treaty  of  Waitangi  was  signed.  In  this. 
Queen  Victoria  extended  her  protection  to  the  Maori 
people,  and  reserved  to  them  their  fishing  and  other 
rights.  Thus,  without  bloodshed.  New  Zealand  passed 
under  the  control  of  Britain.  The  treaty  played,  and  still 
plays,  an  important  part  in  the  development  of  the  land. 
Without  the  influence  of  the  missionaries,  this  treaty 
would  probably  not  have  been  signed.  This  applies  espe- 
cially to  the  Anglican  and  Wesleyan  missionaries.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Bishop  Pompallier  and  his  French  priests 
were  present;  they  played  no  leading  part  in  persuading 
the  chiefs  to  sign. 

At  this  time  the  Methodists  had  eight  stations,  two  of 
them  in  the  South  Island:  fifteen  missionaries,  with  1,300 
members,  and  there  were  good  working  arrangements 
with  the  Anglican  mission  to  prevent  overlapping. 

Unfortunately,  the  growing  influence  of  the  Pakehas 
and  disputes  regarding  land  led  to  fighting  between  the 
two  peoples.  The  Maori  Wars,  as  they  were  called,  lasted 
sporadically  from  1845  to  1869,  and  with  one  exception, 
they  gravely  affected  the  Methodist  mission.  One  of  the 
missionaries,  John  Whiteley,  was  killed  in  1869  by  the 
Maoris,  and  his  death  so  shocked  them  that  they  would 
fight  no  longer. 

Until  the  turn  of  the  century  it  was  thought  that  the 
Maoris  were  a  dying  people,  but  then  there  was  a  renais- 
sance under  Maori  leadership,  and  ever  since,  the  Maoris 
have  increased,  so  that  today  their  birth  rate  is  much 
higher  than  that  of  the  Europeans.  The  Methodist  mis- 
sion has  not  prospered  to  the  extent  that  seemed  likely 
in  the  early  days,  largely  through  resistance  on  the  part 
of  the  Maori  people — an  unhappy  legacy  of  bitterness 
from  the  Maori  Wars.  According  to  the  1970  census, 
there  are  today  225,435  Maoris  and  about  TA  percent  of 
the  Maori  population  claim  to  be  Methodists. 

There  has  been  a  revival  of  nationalism  among  the 
Maori  people.  Movements  have  combined  old  Maori  pagan 
beliefs,  a  blend  or  mixture  of  Old  Testament   and  New 


NEW   ZEALAND 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


.^m 


Photo:   Alexander  Turnbull   IJbrary 

The  Missionary  Ship  "Tbitox"  which  brought 

STRONG  REINFORCEMENTS  TO  NeW  ZEALAND  IN  1840. 


Testament  teaching,  and  a  strong  national  sentiment.  "Ra- 
tana"  is  the  strongest  of  these  movements,  and  it  ranks  as 
the  third  largest  Maori  denomination  and  the  eighth 
largest  in  the  country.  The  Methodists  have  privileges  in 
Ratana  Pa  and  among  the  children  granted  to  no  other 
church.  This  is  due  to  the  foresight  and  devotion  of  some 
of  the  missionaries  thirty  and  more  years  ago. 

The  great  majority  of  the  Maoris  today  are  under 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  There  is  a  gradual  fusion  of  the 
two  peoples.  Not  a  great  many  full-blooded  Maoris  are 
left  even  now. 

Nowadays,  Maori  ministers  are  being  trained  in  the 
same  theological  classes  as  European  students,  and  some  of 
them  have  won  university  degrees.  Deaconesses  are  doing 
a  splendid  work  among  the  women  and  children.  Other 
denominations  and  sects  are  now  at  work  among  the 
Maoris,  and  some  of  them  are  right  up  alongside  the  Meth- 
odist stations.  Others  are   in   hitherto  unoccupied  areas. 

Figures  for  other  denominations  in  the  1961  census 
were:  Anglican,  51,000;  Roman  Catholic,  28,500;  Ratana, 
22,000;  Methodist,  12,611;  and  Mormon,  12,000. 

The  Methodist  mission  to  New  Zealand  has  been  a 
noteworthy  one.  At  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Waitangi, 
Methodist  chiefs  played  a  leading  part  in  persuading  the 
other  chiefs  to  sign.  In  large  areas  Methodist  influence 
prepared  the  way  for  the  white  settler.  In  Otago,  for  in- 
stance, when  the  pioneers  from  Southland  began  negotia- 
tions with  the  Maoris  for  the  purchase  of  land,  the  Maoris 
opened  proceedings  each  day  with  prayer.  These  are  some 
of  the  indications  of  the  value  of  the  mission  to  New 
Zealand  at  large. 

The  European  Mission.  Gradually  the  emphasis  of  the 
work  changed  from  the  Maori  to  the  European.  At  first 
the  work  was  administered  from  England.  It  was  financed 
largely  by  the  mission  committee  in  London,  both  by  di- 
rect grants  and  by  providing  the  missionaries  with  articles 
for  barter.  From  first  to  last  over  £200,000  was  devoted  to 


the  mission.  In  1844  the  grants  began  to  grow  smaller, 
though  the  needs  were  greater.  During  these  years  the 
missionaries  were  poor.  They  lived  in  homes  meanly  fur- 
nished. At  times  they  were  severely  handicapped  in  their 
work  by  the  shortage  of  money. 

In  1854  New  Zealand  was  transferred  to  the  Austra- 
lasian Conference.  In  1869  the  grants  from  England 
ceased  altogether,  and  the  New  Zealand  circuits  took  over 
the  cost  of  the  Maori  work,  as  well  as  paying  their  own 
expenses.  Ever  since,  the  home  and  Maori  missions  have 
been  closely  linked. 

As  for  barter,  the  mission  society  in  London  sent  out 
articles  like  axes  and  tobacco  to  be  paid  to  the  Maoris  for 
seivices  rendered,  or  in  return  for  food  bought  from  them. 
It  was  a  cumbersome  system,  for  the  missionaries  had  to 
provide  storerooms,  often  costly  to  build.  Moreover,  the 
extravagance  of  some  missionaries  encouraged  idleness 
among  the  Maori  lads,  who,  as  one  missionary  wrote, 
"share  no  little  of  the  property." 

In  1873  New  Zealand  became  a  separate  conference  in 
the  Australasian  church,  and  sent  representatives  every 
three  years  to  a  General  Conference.  In  1896,  the  United 
Methodist  Free  Chitbches  and  the  Bible  Christian 
Church  in  New  Zealand  joined  with  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odists. On  Jan.  I,  1913,  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
in  New  Zealand  separated  from  the  General  Conference 
of  Australasia,  and  on  the  following  February  6,  the 
Primitive  Methodists  joined  the  Wesleyans  to  form 
"The  Methodist  Church  of  New  Zealand,"  the  first  Con- 
ference of  which  met  at  once  in  Wellington. 

Until  1869,  every  minister  in  the  Methodist  churches  of 
New  Zealand  had  been  born  overseas.  Slowly  the  propor- 
tion of  New  Zealand-bom  men  began  to  increase,  until, 
by  the  tuni  of  the  century,  nearly  all  the  candidates  for 
the  ministry  were  New  Zealanders.  It  is  probable  that 
Methodists  would  have  been  a  stronger  church  had  they 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEW   ZEAUND 


continued  to  receive  a  larger  number  of  overseas  men 
into  the  ministry. 

The  training  of  the  men  for  the  work  was  inadequate 
in  those  early  years.  Not  until  1912  did  Methodists  possess 
a  theological  college  proper  (Dunholme),  and  then  it 
was  a  rented  building.  In  1929,  a  worthy  college  with  a 
hostel  for  students  (university  and  other)  attached,  was 
opened  in  Auckland  (Trinity),  and  since  then  the  stan- 
dard of  training  has  consistently  risen,  until  today  that 
standard  is  high. 

Much  of  the  pioneering  work  of  the  earlier  years  was 
carried  out  by  consecrated  home  missionaries,  who  took 
the  message  into  every  comer  of  the  land,  and  laid  the 
foundations  of  what  are  today  the  circuits.  For  example, 
in  1913  Methodists  had  forty-four  home  missionaries,  all 
untrained,  but  their  witness  was  most  effective.  In  1966. 
there  were  only  two  home  missionaries  and  four  home 
missionary  "supplies."  It  is  now  the  policy  of  the  Con- 
ference to  man  the  stations  either  with  ministers  or  sup- 
phes,  the  idea  of  offering  men  a  life  service  as  home  mis- 
sionaries having  been  abandoned.  The  country  is  still 
developing,  and  "supply"  appointments  will  still  be  needed 
for  some  time  to  come. 

Education.  The  early  missionaries  attached  great  im- 
portance to  their  Maori  schools.  There  were,  of  course, 
no  other  schools.  The  government  began  to  make  grants 
to  the  schools  of  different  denominations,  the  Methodist 
share  being,  all  told,  about  £20,000.  The  missionary  soci- 
ety expended  about  an  equal  amount.  In  1853,  there 
were  88  day  schools,  188  Sabbath  schools,  and  5,846 
scholars. 

Some  of  the  schools  were  boarding  schools,  but  through 
the  Maori  Wars  they  were  closed.  In  1877,  the  govern- 
ment began  to  establish  state  schools,  but  even  then  the 
day  schools  had  been  closed.  The  Methodist  missionaries 
were  convinced  that  the  work  of  educating  should  be  left 
to  the  state. 

Meanwhile  the  missionaries  in  the  South  Pacific  had 
established  a  school  for  their  own  children  in  Auckland, 
Wesley  College  and  Seminary,  which  later  became  Prince 
Albert  College,  but  in  1906  even  this  college  was  closed. 

There  were  also  some  Wesleyan  schools  for  European 
children,  but  one  by  one  they  were  all  closed.  Then  in 
1876,  the  work  of  the  former  Wesleyan  Native  Institution 
was  resumed  under  the  name  of  Wesley  College  at  Three 
Kings  (an  Auckland  suburb),  and  the  training  of  the 
ministers  began  there.  Gradually  it  built  up  a  roll  of 
scholars,  and  today,  as  Wesley  College,  Paerata,  thirty 
miles  south  at  Auckland,  with  an  enrollment  of  two  hun- 
dred boys,  it  is  the  one  secondary  school. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Methodism  is  weaker  today 
than  it  should  be  because  its  record  in  education  is  poor. 


Ranciatea  Maori  Girls'  School  Hostel, 
Spotswood,   New  Plymouth 


"Te  Rahui  Tane,"  Hostel  for  Maori  Boys, 
Hamilton,  New  Zealand 

Sons  and  daughters  of  Methodist  faimers  and  professional 
men  have  been  lost  to  the  schools  and  colleges  of  other 
denominations.  JVIethodists  do  not  have  their  proportion 
of  leaders  in  the  professions.  Despite  these  facts,  there  is 
still  solid  support  among  Methodist  people  that  education 
should  be  left  to  the  state,  because  of  its  greater  resources 
in  men  and  money,  and  that  the  churches  should  have  the 
right  to  enter  the  schools,  through  their  ministers  and 
others,  to  teach  the  story  told  in  the  Bible. 

Missions.  Until  1913,  the  year  of  union  with  the  Prim- 
itive Methodists,  New  Zealand  Methodists  were  sharing 
with  Australian  Methodists  the  work  in  the  South  Seas: 
Tonga,  Fiji,  New  Guinea,  and  Samoa,  to  name  the 
chief  fields. 

When  New  Zealand  became  an  independent  Conference 
New  Zealanders  asked  to  have  their  own  field,  and  in 
1912  accepted  responsibility  for  the  Western  Solomons. 
Here  a  vigorous  mission  has  been  carried  on,  and  in  1966 
ministered  to  22,000  people.  The  depression  years  in  the 
mid-nineteen-thirties,  when  it  was  necessary  to  withdraw 
some  of  the  staff,  and  the  years  of  the  Second  World  War, 
when  the  Japanese  occupied  the  islands,  meant  temporary 
setbacks.  Today  New  Zealand  Methodists  have  joined 
forces  with  the  Australian  Methodists  in  an  additional 
mission  to  the  highlands  of  New  Guinea.  These  missions 
have  become  a  precious  part  of  the  interests,  and  their 
reflex  influence  upon  the  Church  in  New  Zealand  has 
been  most  valuable. 

Of  late  years  New  Zealanders  have  found  themselves 
part  of  the  Southeast  Asian  group  of  nations,  and  there 
is  a  growing  interest  in  the  Christian  witness  in  these 
lands. 

Missionary  interests  are  shared  by  the  Solomon  Island- 
ers themselves,  for  they  have  sent  eighteen  workers  to 
the  New  Guinea  Highlands,  proving  the  genuineness  of 
their  own  Christian  experience. 

Publication.  The  Methodist  Board  of  Publications,  car- 
ries on  the  work  of  a  Publications  Committee,  set  up 
in  1940  to  issue  pamphlets  "setting  out  in  popular  form 
the  teaching  of  the  Methodist  Church."  At  the  beginning, 
its  policy  was  somewhat  timid,  largely  through  lack  of 
funds. 

A  bolder  frame  of  mind  emerged  with  the  constitution 
of  the  Board  of  Publications  in  1946,  pledged  "to  carry 
through  a  vigorous  policy  of  publications."  It  was  planned 
to  have  a  full-time  director  of  publications  who  would  also 
edit  The  Methodist  Times.  Widespread  advertising  in 
1947  failed  to  attract  a  suitable  candidate  and  the  editor- 


NEW   ZEALAND 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


manager  policy  has  been  in  abeyance  ever  since.  An  ap- 
peal for  £5000  in  1951  failed  to  receive  adequate  support, 
and  this  left  the  board  hampered  for  lack  of  capital.  In 
spite  of  this  a  useful  supply  of  instructional  and  devotional 
material  has  been  issued. 

With  the  commencement  of  a  widely  circulating,  free, 
fortnightly  newspaper.  The  New  Zealand  Methodist,  1966, 
with  Alun  Richards  as  editor,  the  editor-manager  policy 
still  awaits  realization,  and  the  board  continues  with  a 
part-time  director. 

Social  Concerns.  The  Methodist  Social  Services  As- 
sociation was  established  in  1950  and  succeeded  in  co- 
ordinating the  various  social  services  in  New  Zealand 
Methodism.  This  department  surveys  and  makes  recom- 
mendations annually  on  a  nationwide  level  to  the  Con- 
ference and  gives  publicity  to,  and  administers  funds  for, 
social  service  work.  Its  members  consist  of  city  missions, 
orphanages,  eventide  homes,  hospitals,  hostels  and  Maori 
Mission  relief  work. 

Statistics.  These  tell  their  own  story,  which,  probably 
runs  parallel  to  the  Methodist  story  in  other  lands.  The 
following  figures  are  taken  from  government  census  re- 
turns: 


1896 
New  Zealand  population  703,360 
Anglican  40.11% 

Presbyterian  22.83% 

Roman  Catholic  14.23% 

Metliodist  11.1% 


1926  1961 

1,334,469  2,414,984 

43.45%  34.6% 

25.93%  22.3% 

13.60%  14.4% 

7.94%  7.2% 


1.  During  these  years  an  increasing  percentage  of  peo- 
ple have  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  of  "ob- 
jecting to  state  their  religious  beliefs."  The  law  allows 
them  to  do  so.  In  1926  there  were  62,567,  about  four 
percent  of  the  population.  In  1956  there  were  173,569: 
roughly  eight  percent.  This  exercises  no  little  effect  upon 
the  figures  in  the  above  table,  though  one  would  suppose 
that  the  Methodist  figures  were  not  greatly  affected. 

2.  It  appears  from  these  figures  that,  like  the  other 
Protestant  churches,  the  Methodists  have  not  kept  their 
proportionate  place  in  the  community.  It  also  appears  that 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  in  the  period  1896-1926, 
declined,  while  the  two  largest  Protestant  churches  in- 
creased. In  the  1926-61  period,  the  reverse  was  the  case. 
Over  the  last  sixty  years  the  Roman  Catholic  proportion 
has  not  altered  significantly. 

3.  If  to  the  table  above  we  add  some  figures  for  Meth- 
odism, taken  from  the  Minutes  of  the  annual  conferences, 
we  learn  that  the  year  1914  marked  a  high-water  mark, 
that  is,  proportionately.  Wesleyan  and  Primitive  Meth- 
odists had  just  united:  and  in  1914  the  First  World  War 
broke  out,  and  hundreds  of  young  men  went  overseas. 


Churches 

Other  preaching  places 

Ministers  in  active  work 

Home  missionaries  in  active  work 

Total  agents  in  active  work 

Members 


1914 

1944 

1966 

442 

437 

445 

487 

380 

213 

163 

176 

248 

47 

32 

6 

210 

208 

254 

2,226 

25,315 

32,496 

Sunday  school  scholars 


30,191        18,913        21,458 


In  1914,  81,713  attendants  to  public  worship  were  re- 
ported. This  figure  was  the  largest  ever  returned.  By  1931 
it  had  dropped  by  13,000,  and  the  column  was  eliminated 
from  the  Minutes. 


It  would  appear  that  Methodist  Union  was  followed, 
whatever  the  reason,  by  a  falling  away.  This  was  un- 
doubtedly due  in  some  measure  to  the  impact  of  war. 
In  1939  war  again  weakened  the  church  (this  time  by 
slowing  up  considerably  the  rate  of  increase),  and  only 
lately  have  Methodists  begun  to  resume  something  of 
the  earlier  rate  of  advance.  In  the  thirty  years,  1914-44, 
the  membership  increased  only  3,089.  In  the  next  six- 
teen years  it  grew  almost  6,000. 

But  in  thirty  years  (1880-1914)  the  membership  grew 
from  3,542  to  22,226.  The  conditions  now  are  different 
from  those  of  the  young  pioneering  days;  but,  by  careful 
training  of  our  ministers,  and  by  keeping  the  evangelistic 
note  in  its  proper  place,  and  by  avoiding  another  global 
war,  the  Methodist  witness  will  fully  justify  itself  in  the 
life  of  New  Zealand. 

Trust  Board.  The  Methodist  General  Purposes  Trust 
Board  is  incorporated  under  the  provisions  of  the  Chari- 
table and  Educational  Trusts  Act,  1908.  Its  objects  are 
to  hold  and  administer  any  real  or  personal  property 
transferred,  devised,  or  bequeathed  to  the  board,  or  in 
any  other  manner  vested  in  the  Board  for  special  ptfT- 
poses  or  trusts  in  connection  with  any  Methodist  Church 
in  New  Zealand,  or  any  church  trust,  organization,  or 
department  of  the  church.  The  personnel  of  the  board  is 
identical  with  that  of  the  Supernumerary  Fund. 

In  1966  over  a  hundred  different  trusts  and  accounts 
were  being  administered,  covering  funds  amounting  to 
some  £140,000 — evidence  of  the  growing  importance  of 
this  fund  in  the  general  work  of  the  church. 

Other  Methodist  Bodies:  Bible  Christian  Church. 
Bible  Christian  work  in  New  Zealand  was  started  in 
1841  at  New  Plymouth,  with  the  arrival  of  a  local 
preacher,  Henry  Gilbert.  A  small  church  was  built  and  the 
Bible  Christian  Conference  was  asked  to  send  a  preacher. 
A  long-delayed  favorable  reply  came  too  late — the  little 
congregation  joined  with  the  Primitive  Methodists.  A 
second  beginning  was  made  at  Christchurch  in  1877  by 
Edward  Reed,  a  local  preacher,  who  opened  several 
preaching  places.  The  first  minister,  W.  H.  Keast,  arrived 
during  the  following  year.  With  passing  years,  churches 
were  built  in  Palmerston  North,  Wellington,  Christchurch, 
Dunedin,  and  several  smaller  places.  The  two  outstand- 
ing ministers  of  the  connection  were  John  Orchard 
(superintendent,  1886-95)  and  William  Ready,  whose 
work  in  Dunedin  was  a  spectacular  success.  Like  the 
United  Methodist  Free  Churches,  the  Bible  Christians 
were  too  small  to  survive  for  long  as  a  separate  denomina- 
tion, and  they  united  with  Free  Methodists  and  Wesleyans 
in  1896.  In  the  yeai-  of  the  union  there  were  eleven  or- 
dained ministers  and  609  members  in  full  connexion. 

Primitive  Methodist  Church  began  its  work  in  New 
Zealand  when  Robert  Ward  arrived  at  New  Plymouth 
from  England  in  1844.  He  visited  from  door  to  door, 
began  to  preach  in  the  open  air,  and  formed  a  society 
class  of  four  members.  A  small  congregation  of  Bible 
Christians  joined  with  him,  and  the  denomination  was 
off  to  a  good  start.  The  work  continued  until  1913.  Then 
the  church  united  with  the  Methodist  Church  of  Austral- 
asia in  New  Zealand  to  form  the  Methodist  Church  of 
New  Zealand.  By  that  time  the  Primitives  were  at  work 
in  every  city  and  large  center  in  New  Zealand,  and  its 
laymen  were  playing  a  worthy  part  in  the  development 
of  the  country.  Primitive  Methodist  statistics  at  the  time 
of  Union  were:  Members,  3,291;  ministers  and  proba- 
tioners,   43;    churches,    81;    other   preaching   places,    91; 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEWCOMER,    CHRISTIAN 


home  missionaries  and  deaconesses,  5,  and  local  preachers, 
208. 

Scandinavian  Mission  was  formed  in  1872  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  Pastor  Edward  Nielsen,  a  probationer  of  the 
M.  E.  Church  of  Norway,  who  came  to  New  Zealand 
to  minister  to  a  large  community  of  his  fellow  countrymen 
who  had  immigrated  to  New  Zealand.  This  mission 
covered  an  area  in  Southern  Hawkes  Bay  and  Manawatu. 
It  was  continued  with  the  appointment  of  other  workers 
(among  whom  was  Otter  Christoflersen )  until  1893, 
when  the  work  was  merged  with  the  neighboring  cir- 
cuits. 

United  Methodist  Free  Churches  in  New  Zealand  began 
effectively  in  1868  with  the  arrival  of  Matthew  Baxter 
in  the  South  Island  city  of  Christchurch.  He  gathered 
some  others  about  him,  and  churches  were  soon  built  at 
St.  Asaph  Street  and  the  suburb  of  Addington.  Six  years 
later  his  health  failed,  and  the  virtual  leadership  of  the 
young  connection  passed  to  Samuel  Macfarlane,  who  be- 
came connectional  secretary.  In  the  years  that  followed, 
churches  were  founded  in  various  places,  notably  in 
Auckland,  Wellington,  Napier,  Westport,  and  Rangiora. 
From  the  beginning  Free  Methodism  was  hampered  by 
lack  of  finance  and  manpower,  but  the  real  difficulty  in 
the  path  of  progress  was  that  it  could  not  compete  with 
the  larger  Wesley  an  Methodist  body,  from  which  it  dif- 
fered only  by  inclining  to  a  congregational  form  of  polity. 
Union  between  Wesleyans,  Bible  Christians,  and  Free 
Methodists  was  effected  in  1896.  At  that  time  the  United 
Methodist  Free  Churches  reported  23  churches;  six  other 
preaching  places;  fourteen  ministers;  34  local  preachers; 
941  church  members;  208  Sunday  school  teachers;  1,880 
Sunday  school  scholars;  and  2,143  attendants  at  worship. 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church.  Organized  Methodism  in 
Australasia  began  in  1815  with  the  appointment  of  Samuel 
Leigh  to  New  South  Wales  by  the  British  Conference. 
Seven  years  later  Leigh  pioneered  the  Wesleyan  Mission 
in  New  Zealand.  At  first  work  was  chiefly  among  the 
Maori  people,  but  from  1840  on,  churches  mainly  for 
Europeans  sprang  up  in  the  larger  centers.  When  the 
direct  link  with  the  British  Conference  was  severed  in 
1854,  New  Zealand  continued  to  be  administered  as  a 
district  of  the  Australasian  Wesleyan  Methodist  Confer- 
ence. From  1874  onward.  New  Zealand  had  its  own  an- 
nual conference,  but  continued  to  send  representatives  to 
the  triennial  General  Conference  in  Australia. 

Union  with  two  small  Methodist  bodies — the  Bible 
Christians  and  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches — was 
consummated  in  1896.  Primitive  Methodism  stood  aloof 
pending  separation  from  Australia,  and  the  name  of  the 
church  was  changed  to  the  Methodist  Church  of  Aus- 
tralasia. The  direct  link  with  Australia  was  severed  in 
1913,  except  for  partnership  in  overseas  mission  enter- 
prise, which  continued  until  1922,  when  the  Solomon 
Islands  field  became  a  distinct  New  Zealand  responsibility. 
Separation  from  Australia  removed  Primitive  Methodist 
objections,  and  union  with  that  body  was  consummated 
in  1913.  Thus  was  the  Methodist  Church  of  New  Zealand 
born. 

At  the  time  of  the  1913  Union,  the  statistics  of  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Australasia  in  New  Zealand  were: 
19,753  members,  including  2,052  Maori  members;  min- 
isters and  probationers,  146;  Maori  ministers  and  proba- 
tioners, 10;  churches,  372;  schoolrooms  and  other  preach- 
ing places,  239;  home  missionaries  and  deaconesses,  57. 

Church    Union.   New  Zealand   Methodism   has   always 


been  well  to  the  fore  in  church  union  discussions.  In 
1900,  union  sentiment  was  so  strong  that  for  ten  years  the 
Presbyterian,  Methodist,  and  Congregational  churches 
combined  their  denominational  newspapers.  However,  no 
enduring  and  positive  action  resulted  at  that  time. 

Conversations  continued  sporadically  "between  the 
Wars,"  and  then  in  1942  and  1948  two  successive  votes 
were  taken  on  a  basis  of  union.  These  resulted  in  a 
majority  declaring  for  church  union.  However,  it  was 
agreed  by  the  negotiating  churches  that  on  neither  oc- 
casion was  the  majority  large  enough  to  warrant  proceed- 
ing with  organic  union  at  that  stage. 

In  1953  the  joint  committee  of  the  three  churches  took 
the  initiative  in  inviting  interested  churches  to  join  in 
fresh  conversations.  The  Associated  Churches  of  Christ 
responded  favorably,  and  later,  in  1964,  the  Anglican 
Church  joined  the  negotiations. 

In  1966  a  joint  Declaration  of  Faith  was  given  general 
approval  by  all  five  churches,  and  progress  was  made 
toward  a  basis  of  union.  Meanwhile  the  five  negotiating 
churches  were  conducting  many  local  experiments  in  co- 
operative working — reciprocal  membership,  union  par- 
ishes, and  joint  use  of  buildings. 

L.  R.  M.  Gilinore,  The  Bible  Christian  Church  in  New  Zealand. 

Wesley  Historical  Society,  New  Zealand,  1947. 

Guy  and  Potter.  Primitive  Methodism  in  New  Zealand.  1893. 

G.  I.  Laurenson,  The  Scandanavian  Mission  in  New  Zealand. 

Wesley  Historical  Society,  New  Zealand,  1955. 

S.  G.   Macfarlane,  Free  Methodism   in   New  Zealand.  Wesley 

Historical  Society,  New  Zealand,  1958. 

Minutes  of  the  New  Zealand  Methodist  Conferences. 

W.  Morley,  New  Zealand.  1900. 

Keith  Sinclair,  A  History  of  New  Zealand.  London:   Penguin 

Books,  1959. 

W.  J.  Williams,  New  Zealand.  1922.  William  T.  Blight 

L.  R.   M.  GlLMOBE 

A.  EvEBiL  Obr 

Hebbert  L.  Fiebig 

George  I.  Laurenson 

NEWARK,  Hokianga,  New  Zealand,  was  the  site  of  a 
mission  station  at  Pakanae,  near  the  Hokianga  Heads. 
The  station  was  founded  in  1836,  by  John  Whiteley, 
who  named  it  Newark  after  the  town  in  England  from 
which  he  came  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry.  It  was 
never  a  large  station  because  it  was  only  a  few  miles  from 
the  head  station  at  Mangungu.  The  site  is  still  marked  by 
several  lofty  Norfolk  pines  planted  by  Whiteley. 


W.  Morley,  New  Zealand.   1900. 


L.  R.  M.  Gilmore 


NEWARK   CONFERENCE.    (See  Northern   New  Jersey 

C;ONFERENCE.) 

NEWCOMER,  CHRISTIAN  (1749-1830),  pioneer  bishop 
of  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  was 
born  in  a  Mennonite  home,  nine  miles  from  Lancaster, 
Pa.  In  the  spring  of  1775,  Newcomer  married  and  moved 
to  Beaver  Creek,  near  Hagerstown,  Md.  He  came  under 
the  influence  of  Philip  William  Otterbein  and  George 
Adam  Geeting.  He  then  joined  one  of  the  little  groups 
of  Otterbein  people,  who  were  referred  to  as  "Dutch 
.Methodists." 

In  1777,  Newcomer  began  to  preach.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  first  conference  of  the  United  Brethren,  which 
met  in  Otterbein's  parsonage,  Baltimore,  Md.,  1789.  He 
was  elected  bishop  in  1813  and  served  until  his  death. 


NEWELL,    FREDERICK    BUCKLEY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


He  was  the  foremost  organizer  of  the  United  Brethren, 
bringing  life  and  organization  to  the  young  church.  Not 
satisfied  merely  to  convert  people.  Newcomer  insisted 
upon  organizing  classes  and  keeping  records. 

A  half-century  was  spent  as  a  circuit  rider.  Newcomer 
travelling  as  far  west  as  Indian.\  and  Kentucky,  and 
north  into  C/\nada.  He  crossed  the  Allegheny  Mountains 
thirt\-eight  times  on  horseback,  the  last  trip  at  the  age 
of  eighty-one.  A  faithful  record  of  his  last  thirty-five 
years  was  kept  and  this  Journal  was  published  following 
his  death.  He  died  at  his  home,  March  12,  1830  as  the 
result  of  a  fall,  and  was  buried  in  Beaver  Creek  Cemetery, 
near  Hagerstown. 

Christian  Newcomer  constantly  urged  union  of  the 
United  Brethren  with  the  Evangelicals  and  the  Meth- 
odists, His  references  to  the  Methodists  appear  more  than 
125  times  in  his  Journal.  The  United  Methodist  Church 
of  the  present  can  look  back  upon  Christian  Newcomer 
as  one  of  its  true  fathers, 

John  Hildt,  trans..  Life  and  Journal  of  the  Rev.  Christian  New- 
comer.  Hagerstown,   Md.:    F,   G,   W.   Kapp,    1834. 

D.  Homer  Kendall 


Frederick  B.  Newell 

NEWELL,  FREDERICK  BUCKLEY  (1890-  ),  American 
bishop,  was  born  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  on  March  11,  1890, 
the  son  of  William  Henry  and  Ellen  L.  (Brewer)  Newell. 
He  received  the  following  degrees:  B.A,  from  Wesleyan 
University,  1913,  and  the  D,D,  in  1936;  M,A,  from 
Columbia  University,  1916;  B.D.,  Union  Theological 
Seminary  (New  York)  in  1916;  D,D,  from  Mount  Union 
College,  1931;  LL,D.  from  the  American  University, 
1955,  Syracuse  University,  1957,  and  D,D.  from  West 
ViRGiNL\  Wesleyan  College,  1968.  On  Jan.   15,  1919, 


he  married  Emily  Louise  Lewis  of  Jersey  City,  N.  J. 
Their  children  are  Eleanor  L.  (Mrs.  Kenneth  W.  Steere) 
and  Frederick  Buckley. 

Frederick  Buckley  Newell  was  admitted  on  trial  and 
ordained  deacon  in  the  New  York  E.\st  Conference 
in  1917;  full  connection,  1920;  and  elder  in  1922.  He  has 
been  pastor  of  the  People's  Home  Church  and  Settlement, 
New  York  City,  1917-20;  assistant  executive  secretary, 
New  York  City  Society  of  Methodist  Churches,  1920-30; 
and  executive  secretary,  1930-52.  He  was  elected  bishop 
in  1952  and  served  the  New  York  Area,  retiring  in  1960. 
On  the  death  of  Bishop  Middleton  in  1965,  he  was 
put  back  into  active  service  by  the  Council  of  Bishops 
and  put  in  charge  of  the  Pittsburgh  Area  for  the  rest 
of  the  quadrennium. 

Bishop  Newell  has  served  as  a  member  of  the  executive 
committee  on  the  Board  of  Managers  of  Church  World 
Service  since  1960,  acting  executive  director,  1961;  and 
a  trustee  and  member  of  the  Curriculum  Committee  of 
Wesleyan  University.  Since  1945  he  has  been  director 
of  the  LInion  Theological  Seminary,  and  has  been  also 
a  director  of  Charlton  Industrial  Farm  School,  He  is 'a 
trustee  of  Wesleyan  University,  of  Drew  University, 
and  Centenary  College  for  Women;  a  trustee  and 
member  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  John  Street  Church; 
trustee  and  member  of  the  Executive  Committee,  a  mem- 
ber and  on  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  American 
Bible  Society  since  1952,  and  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  New  York  City  Society  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church, 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966,  N.  B.  H, 

NEWMAN,  JOHN  PHILIP  (1826-1899),  American  pastor, 
church  organizer,  chaplain,  bishop,  was  born  in  New 
York,  N,  Y,.  Sept.  1,  1826.  John  Philip's  father  died  when 
he  was  only  eight  years  of  age  leaving  his  wife,  Mary 
D'Orfey  Allen,  a  vivacious  and  richly  intelligent  woman 
of  Huguenot  ancestry,  with  seven  children. 

At  sixteen  John  Philip  was  converted  and,  after  a  few 
terms  in  Cazenovia,  N.  Y.,  Seminary,  began  to  preach 
with  rustic  eloquence  in  country  churches.  He  did  not 
take  a  college  course,  and  entered  the  Oneida  Conference 
in  1849. 

At  Fort  Plain,  N.  Y.,  a  blunt  schoolmaster  told  him  that 
his  grammar  and  pronunciation  were  abominable.  Im- 
mediately he  began  zealously  to  remedy  these  and  other 
faults.  He  married  Angeline  Ensign,  an  inspiring  com- 
panion, in  1855.  After  filling  a  number  of  appointments, 
he  was  transferred  in  1855  to  the  Troy  Conference. 
Beginning  to  write  out  and  memorize  his  sermons,  his 
rich  musical  voice  and  imagination  attracted  the  attention 
and  admiration  of  the  Governor  of  New  York  when  New- 
man was  stationed  in  Albany.  In  a  short  time  he  was 
transferred  to  the  New  York  Conference  where  he 
crowded  the  largest  churches  in  New  York  City-Bedford 
Street  Church  in  1859,  and  Washington  Square,  1862- 
64. 

In  1860  he  made  an  extensive  tour  of  Europe  and  of  the 
East  which  resulted  in  a  book.  From  Dan  to  Becnheba, 
1864.  He  published  six  other  books  and  some  smaller 
booklets.  From  1864  to  1869  he  was  responsible  for  estab- 
lishing the  M.  E.  Church  in  the  South.  He  was  stationed 
in  New  Orleans,  La.,  and  succeeded  in  building  a  fine 
church  in  that  city,  opening  a  seminary  and  an  orphanage, 
and  starting  a  paper. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NEWPORT   NEWS.   VIRGINIA 


In  1869  Newman  was  appointed  to  the  new  Metropoli- 
tan Church,  Washington,  D.C.  President  Grant,  Vice- 
President  Colfax,  Chief  Justice  Chase,  Major-General 
Logan,  and  other  notables,  were  members,  as  was  later 
President  McKinley.  Newman  was  chaplain  of  the  U.S. 
Senate  three  terms.  President  Grant  made  him  Inspector 
of  U.  S.  Consulates  in  Asia,  1874-76,  and  by  Grant's 
appointment,  he  made  a  trip  around  the  world.  His  report 
was  valuable  and  he  published  Thrones  and  Palaces  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh.  Newman  served  Metropolitan 
Church  a  second  time,  1876-79.  His  next  pastorate,  1879- 
82,  was  Central  Church,  New  York  City,  of  which  Grant 
became  a  trustee.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  and  second 
Ecumenical  Methodist  Conferences.  For  the  third 
time  he  was  appointed  to  the  Metropolitan  Church. 

A  delegate  to  several  General  Conferences,  Newman 
was  elected  bishop  in  1888.  His  episcopal  residences  were 
Omaha  (Nebraska),  1888-96,  and  San  Francisco  (Cali- 
fornia), 1896-99.  Bishop  Newman  made  visits  to  Japan, 
South  America  and  Mexico. 

Bishop  Newman  was  not  a  distinguished  administrator 
but  his  fine  spirit  and  broad  sympathy  redeemed  some  of 
his  weaknesses.  His  rehearsed  gestures  and  literary  il- 
lustrations pleased  the  prevailing  taste  of  his  day.  The 
friend  of  Grant,  Bishop  Newman  watched  by  his  hero's 
bedside  and  pronounced  the  official  eulogy. 

Childless  himself,  he  and  Mrs.  Newman  educated  scores 
of  young  men.  He  died  at  Saratoga,  N.  Y.,  his  summer 
residence,  July  5,  1899,  and  was  buried  in  Mechanicville, 
N.  Y.  His  estate  was  divided  between  Drew-  Theological 
Seminary,  New  Jersey,  and  a  school  in  Jerusalem. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

NEWMAN,  JUNIUS  E.  (1819-1895),  American  preacher 
and  founder  of  permanent  Methodist  work  in  Brazil,  was 
bom  near  Point  Pleasant,  W.  Va.,  on  Oct.  16.  1819.  He 
was  licensed  to  preach  in  1843,  and  in  January  1848  was 
received  in  full  connection  into  the  Alabama  Confer- 
ence. Until  1867,  Newman  worked  mainly  in  eastern 
Mississippi.  Having  lost  most  of  his  moderate  fortune  in 
the  War  Between  the  States,  he  decided  to  follow  many 
of  his  Southern  friends  who  were  leaving  the  Reconstruc- 
tion South  for  Brazil.  He  was  therefore  regularly  ac- 
credited and  appointed  by  Bishop  W.  M.  Wightman 
for  missionary  work  in  Central  America  or  Brazil. 

Paying  his  own  way,  he  arrived  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  on 
Aug.  5,  1867,  lived  there  for  a  period  and  then  moved 
into  the  then  province  of  Sao  Paulo,  where  many  of  his 
countrymen  had  settled,  and  bought  a  farm  which  served 
as  a  means  of  livelihood.  He  preached  regularly  to  these 
transplanted  North  Americans;  and  on  Aug.  17,  1871, 
organized  a  church  with  nine  members,  all  Americans,  in 
the  community  around  Santa  Barbara  do  Oeste,  Sao  Paulo. 
Until  1879,  he  served  as  superintendent  of  this  mission. 
Finally,  broken  in  health,  he  returned  to  the  United  States 
in  the  fall  of  1889. 

Newman's  was  the  only  voice  raised  for  Methodism  dur- 
ing the  twenty-five-year  silence  that  followed  the  Spauld- 
ing-Kidder  Mission  (1836-1845).  He  not  only  organized  a 
work  that  became  permanent;  but  his  letters  to  the  Nash- 
ville and  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocates,  addressed 
to  the  bishops  and  others  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South, 
presented  the  urgent  need  of  Brazifians,  and  resulted  in 


the  definite  and  official  founding  of  the  Brazil  Mission, 
by  act  of  the  General  Conference  of  1874.  In  1876, 
John  James  Ransom  was  sent  to  initiate  this  work. 

Junius  Newman's  two  daughters,  Mary  Phillips  and 
Annie  Ayres,  founded  the  Newman  School  in  Piracicaba, 
province  of  Sao  Paulo,  in  1879.  Because  of  Mary's  illness 
and  Annie's  marriage  to  J.  J.  Ransom,  the  school  was 
closed.  But  it  became  the  precursor  of  the  Colegio 
Piracicabano,  later  called  Instituto  Educational  (see 
Piracicabano),  opened  in  September  1881,  by  Martha 
H.  Watts — the  oldest  Methodist  educational  institution  in 
Brazil. 

J.  E.  Newman  died  in  Point  Pleasant,  W.  Va.,  in  May 
1895. 

J.  L.  Kennedy,  Metodismo  no  Brasil.   1928.         D.  A.  Reily 

NEWPORT,  RHODE  ISLAND,  U.S.A.  Before  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  of  1775,  Newport  was  one  of  the  largest 
cities  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  having  grown  rich  with  trade 
in  molasses,  rum,  and  slaves.  It  was  the  capitol  of  the 
State  until  1900,  and  has  long  been  a  favorite  watering 
place  of  the  wealthy  as  well  as  a  strategic  naval  station. 
Jesse  Lee  preached  there,  soon  after  the  Revolution,  in 
1790.  It  was  included  in  the  Greenwich  circuit,  and  Joshua 
Hall  was  appointed  in  1800,  and  the  society  organized 
as  the  First  Methodist  Church.  The  church  building, 
of  colonial  architecture,  erected  in  1806  was  still  being 
used  in  1966,  and  is  said  to  be  the  first  Methodist  church 
in  the  world  with  a  steeple  and  a  bell. 

Bishop  AsBUHY  preached  in  this  building,  and  frowned 
upon  the  church  having  a  steeple.  His  journal  records, 
"we  crossed  Narragansett  Bay  on  Friday,  May  28,  1809, 
and  came  into  Newport — grand  house,  steeple,  pews;  by 
lottery;  the  end  is  to  sanctify  the  means.  Ah,  what  pli- 
ability to  evil."  Actually,  the  lottery  never  worked  out, 
and  the  money  was  returned  to  the  people.  Bishop  Coke 
was  in  Newport  in  1804.  The  present  church  is  the  mother 
of  the  Thames  St.  Church  (1856-1923)  which  reunited 
with  First  Church  in  1923  to  form  St.  Paul's.  The  church 
building  was  partially  burned  in  1881,  and  renovated 
in  1882.  In  1910  the  building  was  enlarged,  and  in  1960 
an  educational  unit  was  added. 

Methodism  in  adjacent  Middletown  on  Newport's 
Aquidneck  Island  at  Portsrhouth  began  in  1790  with  Jesse 
Lee,  and  is  the  oldest  church  on  the  island,  the  society 
being  organized  in  1793  with  Bishop  Asbury  preaching. 

Lucius  D.  Davis,  History  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  Newport,  R.  I.  1882. 

R.  C.  Miller,  New  England  Southern  Conference.  1897. 
Zion's   Herald,    August    1960.  David   Carter 

NEWPORT  NEWS,  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.,  on  the  Virgina 
Peninsula,  has  a  good  harbor  and  is  a  foreign  and  coast- 
wise shipping  point.  The  Newport  News  Shipbuilding  and 
Dry  Dock  Company  plant  covers  150  acres  and  is  one 
of  the  largest  in  the  world.  The  city  was  laid  out  in  1882 
and  incorporated  in  1896.  The  population  in  1970  was 
137,348.  The  Civil  War  engagement  between  the  Monitor 
and  the  Merrimac,  March  9,  1862,  off  Newport  News, 
was  the  first  ironclad  naval  engagement  in  history. 

Trinity  Methodist  Church  was  organized  Dec.  8,  1886, 
with  ten  members  under  the  first  pastor,  J.  T.  Bosman, 
who  served  1886-88.  The  first  services  were  held  in  the 
Union  Chapel,  and  the  first  building  was  erected  on  Wash- 


NEWSPAPERS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


ington  Avenue  in  1887.  The  name  was  changed  from 
Washington  Avenue  to  Trinity  in  1900  when  a  new  build- 
ing was  constructed.  During  the  pastorate  of  W.  W.  Mc- 
Intyre,  1945-49,  the  membership  was  1,429.  In  1970  the 
membership  was  901  and  the  property  valued  at  $680,000. 

First  Church  is  the  largest  Methodist  church  on  the 
Virginia  Peninsula.  It  was  designed  originally  to  serve 
Hilton  Village,  an  early  experiment  in  suburban  living 
during  World  War  I.  The  Village  was  built  far  away  from 
the  city  of  Newport  News,  contact  was  made  by  street- 
car. Since  that  time  the  city  has  surrounded  the  village, 
and  First  Church  has  become  a  central  church  for  the 
city. 

Started  in  1920,  its  first  buildings  were  of  stucco  design, 
but  with  the  rapid  growth  during  World  War  II,  these 
buildings  were  demolished  and  replaced  with  buildings 
of  modern  colonial  design.  It  now  has  a  membership  of 
2,129,  and  a  church  school  membership  of  1,344. 

The  last  church  organized  in  the  city  was  Asbury,  which 
was  established  in  1961  in  an  area  adjacent  to  Fort  Eustis. 
There  are  plans  for  immediate  establishment  of  two  more 
Methodist  churches. 

In  1905  St.  James  Church  was  established  by  Negro 
Methodists.  In  1970  St.  James  reported  seventy-si,x  mem- 
bers. There  are  two  other  Negro  churches  here:  Walter's 
Temple  A.M.E.  Zion  and  St.  Paul's  A.M.E. 

The  twelve  United  Methodist  churches  in  the  city  had 
7,774  members  in  1970,  and  property  valued  at 
$4,059,220. 


Collier's  Encyclopedia. 
General  Minutes. 


R.  Bevebly  Watkins 


NEWSPAPERS,  British  Methodist  (see  under  Magazines 
AND  Newspapers,  Br. ) .  For  American  Newspapers,  see 
under  Advocate,  Christian,  and  Methodist  Publish- 
ing House  for  treatment  of  the  general  church  publica- 
tions. Certain  significant  American  publications  will  be 
found  treated  under  their  own  names,  as  Zion.s  Herald, 
The  Methodist  Protestant,  Star  of  Zion,  etc. 

NEWTON,  MINNIE  E.  ( 1878-1944 ) ,  was  an  eminently  suc- 
cessful educational  missionary  in  Gujarat  State,  India. 
She  was  born  in  East  Aurora,  N.  Y.,  Sept.  14,  1878, 
graduated  from  the  New  York  State  College  for  Teachers 
and  later  from  Columbia  University,  earning  the  B.S.  and 
M.A.  degrees. 

She  went  to  India  as  a  M.E.  missionary  in  1912.  Her 
first  appointment  was  to  a  small  girls'  school  in  Godhra, 
Panch  Mahals  District,  which  had  been  opened  in  1900 
to  care  for  orphans  saved  from  the  terrible  famine  of  that 
year.  Out  of  that  unpromising  beginning  she  developed  a 
highly  successful  junior-high  school  and  a  training  school 
for  women  teachers  of  primary  classes. 

Her  services  were  appreciated  by  her  own  and  other 
churches  and  missions,  and  by  the  educational  department 
of  the  Government  of  Bombay  State,  with  which  Gujarat 
was  then  associated.  She  was  appointed  chairman  of  the 
government  school  board  for  Panch  Mahals  District.  It 
has  been  said  that  she  trained  more  women  teachers  for 
service  in  India  than  anyone  else  had  ever  done. 

Miss  Newton  died  at  Godhra,  where  she  had  served 
during  most  of  her  thirty-two  years  in  India.  She  is  buried 
in  Godhra. 


J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956. 
1750 


J.  Waskom  Pickett 


Robert  Newton 

NEWTON,  ROBERT  (1780-1854),  British  Methodist,  was 
born  at  Roxby,  North  Yorkshire,  April  8,  1780,  the  son 
of  a  farmer.  Converted  in  1798,  he  began  to  itinerate 
almost  immediately,  and  was  received  into  full  connexion 
in  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry  in  1803.  He  was  a 
famous  preacher  and  advocate  of  overseas  missions.  He 
was  elected  president  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in 
1824,  1832,  1840,  and  1848;  between  1821  and  1847  he 
was  secretary  of  the  Conference  on  nineteen  occasions. 
In  1840  he  was  fraternal  delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Balti- 
more. 

Newton  was  prominent  in  all  the  internal  Methodist 
controversies  of  his  lifetime;  as  chairman  of  the  Man- 
chester District  in  1833-35,  he  had  to  cope  with  both 
J.  R.  Stephens  and  Samuel  Warren.  After  Jabez  Bunt- 
ing he  was  the  most  distinguished  of  the  conservative 
Wesleyans,  and  as  such  he  was  one  of  the  chief  targets 
of  the  Fly  Sheets.  He  superannuated  in  1852  and  died 
at  Easingwold  on  April  30,  1854. 

T.  Jackson,  Robert  Newton.  1855. 

Dinsdale  Young,  Robert  Newton,  The  Eloquent  Divine.  cl910. 

John  Kent 

NGAROPI,  HAMIORA  (1809-1887),  was  a  pioneer  Meth- 
odist Maori  minister  of  New  Zealand.  Little  is  known  of 
this  man  except  that  he  became  a  Christian  in  1835  and 
entered  the  ministry  in  1856.  His  work  is  commemorated, 
along  with  others,  on  a  granite  monument  on  the  site 
of  the  Mangungu  Mission  Station.  The  inscription  con- 
cerning him  reads:  "Hamiora  Ngaropi,  who  laboured 
among  the  Waikato  tribes,  he  being  the  first  Maori  to  be 
ordained  to  the  ministry." 

C.    H.    Laws,    First    Years    at    Hokianga    ( Wesley    Historical 

Society,  New  Zealand,  1945). 

New  Zealand  Methodist,  July  23,  1887.         L.  R.  M.  Gilmore 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  NEW  YORK,  U.S.A.,  a  large  city  and  a 
tourist  resort  on  the  Niagara  River,  is  surrounded  by  the 
Niagara  fruit  belt.  The  present  city  includes  three  former 
villages — Niagara  Falls,  Niagara  City  and  La  Salle,  which 
was  annexed  in  1927. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NICHOLS,   DECATUR  WARD 


The  Scenic  Gateway  to  America,  Niagara  Falls  has  the 
Niagara  Falls  Museum,  and  the  Peace  Memorial,  honor- 
ing John  the  Baptist,  John  the  Evangelist,  Pope  John 
and  John  Kennedy. 

Methodist  missionaries  preached  throughout  the  Niag- 
ara Frontier  in  1788.  George  Neal  seems  to  have  been 
the  first  of  these  circuit  riders,  followed  by  William 
LosEE  in  1791;  Capt.  Webb,  Nathan  Bangs,  Joseph 
Sawyer,  James  Coleman,  1794;  Andrew  Prindle,  1810; 
Joseph  Gatchell  and  Elder  Loring  Grant,  1811.  Each  of 
these  men  traveled  about  300  miles  in  a  circuit,  touching 
each  spot  only  about  once  a  month. 

They  left  class  leaders  in  their  wake  and  held  meet- 
ings in  the  private  homes.  The  earliest  of  these  class 
leaders  at  Niagara  was  known  as  Brother  Post.  Regular 
circuits  followed  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Some  seventy-seven  circuit  riders  traveled  the  local 
circuit  which  at  one   time   included   a  part   of   Canada. 

In  1815  Methodism  was  organized  in  the  village  of 
Niagara  Falls.  (This  was  the  beginning  of  present  St. 
Paul's  Methodist  Church.)  The  first  house  of  worship  was 
purchased  in  1824  by  civic-minded  citizens  and  it  sewed 
all  denominations  as  Union  Chapel  until  1839  and  later 
as  Methodist  Chapel.  In  1839  the  first  Methodist  Sunday 
school  was  organized  with  seventy-eight  pupils,  and  the 
society  was  incorporated  as  First  Society  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  of  Niagara  Falls  Village. 

The  Methodists  purchased  the  frame  Presbyterian  build- 
ing in  1849.  It  was  used  until  1865  when  a  new  building 
was  planned  and  completed  in  1872,  dedicated  bv  Bishop 
Peck  Oct.  2,  1872. 

In  July  1865  the  corporate  name  of  this  old  church 
in  Niagara  Falls  was  changed  to  St.  Paul's  M.  E.  Church. 
The  old  St.  Paul's  building  was  in  continuous  use  until 
July  1919,  when  it  was  sold.  During  the  two  and  a  half 
years  of  construction,  the  Y.W.C.A.  edifice  was  used. 

St.  Paul's  new  church  cost  $276,764.  The  church  was 
dedicated  Aug.  12,  1923.  The  mortgage  was  not  burned 
until  Nov.  7,  1948.  At  this  celebration.  Bishop  F.  J. 
McCoNNELL  delivered  the  morning  sermon  and  William 
L.  Stidger,  the  evening  sermon. 

From  1943  to  1965,  St.  Paul's  had  sixty-four  Lenten 
speakers,  all  outstanding  clergymen  of  different  denomi- 
nations. The  first  was  Merton  S.  Rice.  This  was  his  last 
service.  The  following  Sunday  he  died  of  a  heart  attack. 
The  speakers  included  Charles  R.  Brown,  Henry  Hitt 
Crane,  Bishop  G.  Bromley  Oxnam,  and  Martin  Niemoel- 
ler. 

First  Church  was  organized  in  September  1855,  in  the 
La  Salle  section  of  the  city.  This  became  a  part  of  Niagara 
Falls  in  1927.  A  church  was  dedicated  in  February  1856, 
on  the  River  Road  (Buffalo  Avenue).  Several  renovations 
were  made  in  the  original  building  prior  to  its  being  razed 
in  1916  to  make  room  for  a  Community  Hall.  The  present 
church  building  and  parsonage  were  dedicated  on  July 
1,  1924. 

Although  the  church  had  been  called  First  Methodist 
for  many  years,  the  legal  change  to  First  Church  from 
La  Salle  was  not  made  until  1939.  A  new  educational 
facility  was  dedicated  in  March  1953. 

St.  James  Church  first  met  Dec.  25,  1892,  in  a  small 
wooden  structure  and  was  organized  March  13,  1893. 
In  1913  a  much  larger  new  brick  church  was  erected  and 
dedicated  in  June.  The  church  moved  to  a  new  location 
in  an  educational  building  in  the  late  1950's  which  was 
dedicated  in  1963. 


Wesley  Church  was  started  as  a  Sunday  school  in  1929 
and  assigned  a  supply  pastor  in  1941  as  a  mission  post  of 
First  Church  of  La  Salle.  Officially  organized  in  March 
1948,  and  with  help  from  other  local  churches  and  the 
conference,  a  modern  church  was  dedicated  Oct.  15, 
1961. 

The  membership  of  the  four  Methodist  churches  in  the 
city  in  1970  totaled  2,516  and  property  was  appraised  at 
$2,316,1.53. 

Encyclopedia  Americana,  1962. 
General  Minutes,  1970. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 

NICENE  CREED.   (See  Confession  of  Faith.) 

NICHOLAS,  WILLIAM  (1838-1912),  Irish  minister,  was 
born  at  Wexford,  and  graduated  at  Trinity  College, 
Dublin.  He  travelled  some  of  the  most  important  cir- 
cuits in  Irish  Methodism,  including  three  terms  in  Porta- 
down,  and  was  twice  Vice-President  of  the  Conference 
(1894  and  1903),  the  highest  office  in  the  Church.  In 
1893  he  delivered  the  Fernley  Lecture  of  the  British 
Conference,  on  the  subject  "Christianity  and  Socialism," 
and  in  1895  became  President  (Principal)  of  the  Meth- 
odist College,  Belfast.  He  was  Secretary  of  the  Educa- 
tion Fund  for  many  years,  and  had  a  special  interest  in 
candidates  for  the  ministry  and  in  junior  ministers.  His 
personal  friendship  for  these  young  men  meant  much  to 
them  in  later  life. 

Frederick  Jeffery 

NICHOLLS,  MARGARET  WAIATA  (1894-  ),  New 
Zealand  deaconess,  was  born  at  Normanby,  Taranaki, 
and  brought  up  in  Te  Kuiti.  Many  gracious  influences  of 
home  and  church  which  surrounded  her  in  childhood  and 
youth  led  her  to  enter  the  Methodist  Deaconess  Order  in 
1920.  Her  whole  life  was  then  spent  in  the  service  of  the 
Maori  people,  in  the  Waikato,  King  Country,  and  Auck- 
land circuits. 

She  made  a  special  study  of  Maori  religions,  language, 
and  customs,  and  was  active  in  promoting  social,  educa- 
tional, and  religious  welfare  among  the  Maori  people. 
Her  outstanding  service  was  recognized  when  she  was 
made  a  Member  of  the  Order  of  the  British  Empire  in 
1962. 

It  was  largely  through  her  influence  that  the  famous 
Maori  leader,  the  late  Maharaia  Winiata,  entered  the 
service  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

Though  interested  in  a  wide  variety  of  activities.  Sister 
Nicholls  claims  that  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
remains  the  most  important  factor  in  her  life.  She  retired 
in  1967,  after  forty-six  years'  service. 

L.  R.  M.  GiLMORE 

NICHOLS,     DECATUR     WARD     (1900-  ),    American 

bishop  of  the  A.M.E.  Church,  was  born  in  Charleston, 
S.  C,  on  Oct.  15,  1900.  He  earned  the  A.B.  degree  from 
Howard  University  in  1923  and  the  B.D.  degree  from 
Drew  Theological  School  in  1926.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  New  Jersey  Annual  Conference  in  1925,  ordained 
deacon  in  1926  and  elder  in  1927.  He  held  pastorates  in 
Rhode  Island  and  New  York  having  served  also  in  the 
metropolitan  New  York  Area.  Several  A.M.E.  colleges 
granted  him  the  D.D.  degree  and  Wilberforce  granted 


NICHOLS,    FLORENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


D.  Ward  Nichols 

him  the  LL.D.  He  was  elected  bishop  in  1940.  Bishop 
Nichols  was  instrumental  in  the  organization  of  the  Pen- 
sion Department  of  the  denomination. 

R.  R.  Wright,  The  Bishops.  196.3.  Grant  S.  Shockley 

NICHOLS,  FLORENCE  (1865-1958),  American  mission- 
ary who  was  twice  principal  of  the  Is.\bella  Thoburn 
College  at  Lucknow,  Indl^.  She  was  appointed  to  Luck- 
now  in  1894  to  assist  Miss  Thoburn  in  her  effort  to  estab- 
lish the  pioneer  Christian  Woman's  College  in  Asia.  She 
was  highly  qualified,  holding  B.A.  and  M.A.  degrees 
from  Boston  University  and  having  been  trained  for 
Christian  service  in  the  Deaconess  Training  School  in 
Boston. 

Persistent  health  problems  interrupted  her  service.  The 
doctors  urged  her  to  return  to  America  in  1898.  She 
went  reluctantly,  but  less  than  a  year  later  returned  and 
was  able  to  resume  a  heavy  schedule  of  teaching  and 
administration.  In  the  emergency  created  by  the  tragic 
death  of  Miss  Thoburn  from  cholera,  Sept.  1,  1901,  Miss 
Nichols  became  principal,  and  met  the  exacting  need 
with  great  courage  and  ability.  In  1908,  health  problems 
again  made  her  departure  from  India  necessary. 

In  another  emergency  in  1921,  when  the  college  had 
grown  so  that  its  separation  from  the  high  school  and  lo- 
cation in  a  new  site  was  necessary,  she  accepted  the  call 
to  leadership;  and  in  the  next  four  years,  she  put  the 
college  firmly  in  a  position  to  achieve  growth  in  service 
to  the  church  and  the  nation.  During  her  second  principal- 
ship  the  college  became  an  integral  but  semi-independent 
part  of  the  new  University  of  Lucknow,  acquired  a 
choice  location,  had  excellent  buildings  constructed,  and 
extended  its  service  into  many  new  fields  of  education. 

Miss  Nichols  was  bom  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  Oct.  27,  1865. 
Throughout  her  life,  Boston  and  its  suburbs  were  the  cen- 
ter of  her  America.  On  retirement  in  1925,  she  returned 
to  the  environs  of  her  youth  and  continued  both  her  Chris- 


tian witness  and  her  advocacy  of  educational  opportunity 
for  the  youth  of  India.  She  died  on  Feb.  4,  1958. 

M.  A.  Dinimitt,  Isabella  Thoburn  College.  1963. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

NICHOLS,  MILTON  HAROLD  (1872-1958),  American 
pastor  of  the  Arch  Street  Church,  Philadelphia,  for 
twenty-one  years,  was  born  in  Vineland,  N.  J.  He  was 
educated  at  Dickinson  College  and  joined  the  Phila- 
DELPHi.\  Annual  Conference.  He  served  various  pas- 
torates, but  his  greatest  work  began  in  1933  at  Arch 
Street  Church,  which  he  molded  into  one  of  the  command- 
ing churches  of  the  East.  During  his  first  year  as  pastor 
he  began  one  of  the  first,  regular  religious  radio  broad- 
casts in  the  city;  during  his  second  year,  he  began  Noon- 
day Lenten  Services,  for  which  the  church  became  noted, 
as  well  as  the  three-hour  Good  Friday  services.  Under  his 
leadership  the  church  became  the  virtual  headquarters 
of  the  Philadelphia  Conference,  which  began  holding  the 
annual  sessions  of  the  Conference  in  its  spacious  sanc- 
tuary. An  orator  noted  for  his  poetic  style  in  preaching, 
and  for  his  simple  presentation  of  profound  theological 
truths,  M.  H.  Nichols  attracted  large  congregations.  Dur- 
ing World  War  II  he  brought  an  especially  helpful  min- 
istry to  the  youth  in  the  Armed  Forces.  He  died  May  12, 
1958. 

Minutes  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference,  1958. 

Frederick  E.  Maser 

NICHOLS,   RAYMOND    HOWARD    (1888-  ),   Ameri- 

can newspaper  editor  and  lay  leader  in  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  and  later  in  The  Methodist  Church,  was  born  in 
Lampasas,  Texas,  on  Oct.  6,  1888.  His  wife  was  Ethal 
Rhoads,  whom  he  married  on  Jan.  29,  1914.  He  joined 
the  Methodist  Church  in  1902,  serving  on  the  official 
board  of  his  local  church  and  then  becoming  district  lay 
leader,  1932-34,  a  member  of  the  World  Service  Com- 
mission of  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference,  1960, 
and  lay  leader  of  that  Conference,  1934-60. 

He  has  been  a  member  of  every  General  Conference 
from  1938  to  1970,  the  president  of  the  General  Board 
of  Lay  Acitivities  (TMC),  1944-60,  a  member  of  the 
General  Board  of  Publication,  1960-68.  In  national 
life,  Mr.  Nichols  was  director  and  vice  president  of  the 
U.S.  Chamber  of  Commerce,  1953-62,  and  a  member  of 
the  National  Labor-Management  Manpower  Policy  Com- 
mittee, 1952-60.  He  is  a  trustee  of  Soutitwestern  Uni- 
versity, Georgetov\'n,  Texas,  elected  to  that  position  in 
1950;  also  a  member  and  past  president  of  the  Texas 
Press  Association. 

At  the  1952  General  Conference  in  San  Francisco 
when  the  reorganization  of  the  various  agencies  of  the 
Church  was  under  consideration,  Nichols  was  named  as 
one  of  a  six-member  committee  to  consider  and  report 
back  recommendations  concerning  the  proposals  which 
had  come  in  deahng  with  the  Church's  reorganization. 
The  General  Conference  accepted  practically  all  the  rec- 
ommendations of  his  committee.  He  resides  in  Vernon, 
Texas. 


Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.H. 


NICHOLS,   ROY   CALVIN    (1918-         ),   American   bish- 
op, was  bom  in  Hurlock,  Md.,  on  March  19,   1918.  He 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NICHOLSON,   EVELYN   RILEY 


Roy  Nichols 

was  educated  in  the  schools  of  Philadelphia  and  re- 
ceived his  B.A.  degree  from  Lincoln  University;  the  B.D. 
from  the  Pacific  School  of  Religion;  and  an  honorary  D.D. 
degree  from  the  same  school  in  1964,  and  also  one  in 
1959  from  the  University  of  the  Pacific.  His  wife  was 
Ruth  Richardson,  and  they  have  three  children,  Melisande, 
Allegra,  and  Nathan. 

He  began  his  pastorate  in  Berkeley,  Calif.,  serving  the 
Downs  Church.  A  member  of  the  Berkeley  Board  of 
Education,  he  served  as  its  president  in  1964.  For  seven 
years  while  minister  of  Downs  Church,  he  was  a  radio 
pastor  of  "The  Christian  Answer"  broadcast  in  Berkeley 
and  in  Oakland.  He  was  the  organizing  pastor  of  South 
Berkeley  Community  Church  (one  of  the  first  interracial 
churches  with  biracial  co-pastors  in  the  nation),  1943-46. 
In  1964  he  was  transferred  to  New  York  City  to  assume 
the  pastorate  of  Salem  Church,  a  2,800-member  Negro 
church.  This  church  became  deeply  involved  in  direct 
services  to  the  Central  Harlem  Community  under  Dr. 
Nichols'  leadership,  constructing  an  $800,000  community 
center,  which  presently  includes  in  its  program  all  manner 
of  helpful  counselling  and  vocational  interests. 

Dr.  Nichols  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  General 
Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1960,  '64,  '66, 
and  '68,  and  at  the  1968  session  of  the  Northeastern 
Jurisdictional  Conference,  he  was  elected  a  bishop  of 
The  United  Methodist  Church,  assigned  to  supervise  the 
Pittsburgh  Area. 

He  is  presently  chairman  of  the  Section  on  Project 
Development  of  the  Board  of  Evangelism  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church;  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Managers, 
Methodist  Hospital  of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  1964- 
68;  vice-chairman.  Advisory  Board,  Harlem  Hospital, 
New  York  City,  1966-68;  and  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  New  York  City  Society  of  the  New  York  Con- 
ference, 1968.  He  is  a  member  of  the  World  Council 
OF  Churches,  on  its  Executive  Committee  and  Central 
Committee.  He  was  the  lecturer  at  the  Convocation  on 
Medicine  and  Theology,  1967,  and  the  Frank  S.  Hick- 
man lecturer  on  the  Ministry  at  Duke  University,  in 
1968.  He  is  the  first  Negro  to  be  elected  a  bishop  by  a 
Jurisdiction  other  than  the  Central  in  which  he  served  for 
a  time  but  which  now  is  no  longer  in  existence. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  N.  B.  H. 


NICHOLS,    SIDNEY    R.    (1921-  ),   American   layman, 

son  of  Sidney  A.  and  Lucy  (Beach)  Nichols,  was  bom  in 
Merrill,  Wis.,  Aug.  16,  1921.  He  was  married  to  Miss 
Vivian  Helen  West,  June  14,  1942,  and  they  have  three 
children. 

Enrolling  at  the  University  of  Buffalo  in  1941,  he  en- 
listed in  the  United  States  Air  Force  serving  in  the  Euro- 
pean Theatre  of  War.  Upon  his  return  to  college  he  grad- 
uated from  the  University  of  Buffalo  with  B.A.,  cum  laude, 
1948  and  M.A.,  1952.  Special  studies  were  also  taken  at 
Northwestern  University. 

From  1948-52  Mr.  Nichols  was  Associate  Mathema- 
tician for  Cornell  Aeronautical  Laboratory,  Buffalo,  and 
from  1952-63  he  was  Chief  Engineer  and  Technical  Mar- 
keting Advisor  for  Firewel  Co.,  Buffalo,  a  division  of 
ARO,  Inc.  In  1963,  he  was  appointed  Associate  Executive 
Secretary,  Men's  Work,  General  Board  of  Lay'  Activities 
for  The  Methodist  Church.  With  the  1968  union  he  be- 
came Associate  General  Secretary,  Division  of  Lay  Life 
and  Work,  General  Board  of  the  Laity. 

Mr.  Nichols  is  a  past  president  of  the  East  Aurora,  New 
York  Association  of  Churches,  a  former  trustee  of  the 
Silver  Lake  Institute,  and  has  been  a  member  of  the 
Western  New  York  Conference  Board  of  Laity  as 
well  as  dean  of  the  annual  conference  Lay  Retreat. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 


Mrs.  Thomas  Nicholson 

NICHOLSON,  EVELYN  RILEY  (1873-1967),  wife  of  Amer- 
ican bishop  Thomas  Nicholson  and  a  leader  in  women's 
work  in  the  United  States  and  in  international  causes.  She 
was  president  of  the  Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Soci- 
ety of  the  M.E.  Church  for  nineteen  years,  1921-1940. 
She  became  widely  known  for  her  interest  in  the  World 
Federation  of  Methodist  Women,  and  in  the  cause  of 
world  peace. 

Bom  Evelyn  Riley  in  a  parsonage  in  Jackson,  Minn., 
on  June  30,    1873,   she  received  her   A.B.   degree  from 


NICHOLSON,    ROY   S. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


DePauvv  Univebsity  in  1897,  and  the  next  year  a  Mas- 
ter's degree  from  the  same  school.  Later  she  received  three 
honorary  doctorate  degrees  in  1928  and  1939.  After  col- 
lege Mrs.  Nicholson  taught  Latin  in  Florid,\  and  Indian.^ 
high  schools,  and  then  became  Professor  of  Latin  at 
Cornell  College,  Mt.  Vernon,  Iowa,  from  1901-17, 
when  she  married  Bishop  Thomas  Nicholson,  a  widower 
who  had  been  elected  bishop  in  1916.  During  this  period 
of  teaching  she  spent  one  year  in  Rome  at  Crandon  Insti- 
tute, 1903-04. 

Helen  Kim  of  Korea  suggested  in  1923  that  the 
Christian  women  of  the  world  should  unite  to  work  for 
peace  and  the  betterment  of  all  mankind.  Mrs.  Nicholson 
joined  with  Dr.  Kim  in  this  idea  and  in  1939  the  World 
Federation  of  Methodist  Women  was  founded.  Mrs.  Nich- 
olson became  the  first  president,  1939-44.  Today  this 
organization  has  over  six  million  members  in  fifty-five 
countries. 

Mrs.  Nicholson  became  active  in  other  international 
organizations  also  and  was  a  member  of  the  Interna- 
tional Missionary  Council,  and  World  Alliance  for 
International  Friendship  through  the  Churches.  She  at- 
tended many  international  conferences,  such  as:  Confer- 
ence on  Cause  and  Cure  of  War,  and  the  International 
Conference  at  Oxford  (1923),  at  Budapest  (1927),  and 
at  Jerusalem  (1928).  She  was  a  delegate  to  General 
Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1928  and  1936,  and 
of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1940.  Her  book.  The  Waij  to 
a  Warless  World,  was  placed  in  the  cornerstone  of  The 
Church  Peace  Center  at  the  United  Nations  Plaza,  New 
York.  Upon  retirement  Mrs.  Nicholson  lived  in  Chicago 
until  her  death  on  Feb.  15,  1967. 

Frances  Nall 


NICHOLSON,  ROY  S.  (1903-  ),  American  Wesley- 
AN  Methodist  minister,  was  bom  July  12,  1903  in  Wal- 
halla,  S.C.  He  was  ordained  by  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference (W.M.C.  )  in  1925  and  was  a  pastor  in  it  eleven 
years.  He  served  the  denomination  as  general  secretary 
of  Wesleyan  Youth  (1924-1935),  editor  of  Sunday  school 
literature  (1935-1939),  secretary  of  Home  Missions 
(1939-1943),  editor  of  The  Wesleyan  Methodist  (1943- 
1947),  first  supervising  president  of  the  denomination 
(1947-1959),  and  delegate  to  the  World  Methodist 
Council/Conference  (1956).  He  served  on  the  boards 
of  the  National  Hohness  Association  and  of  the  National 
Association  of  Evangelicals.  He  is  the  author  of  Wesleyan 
Methodism  in  the  South,  History  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church  (two  revised  editions),  Notes  on  True  Holi- 
ness (also  translated  and  published  in  Korean  and  Japa- 
nese languages),  and  Studies  in  Church  Doctrine,  as  well 
as  of  numerous  articles  for  religious  periodicals.  He  has 
been  evangelist  and  special  lecturer  at  camp  meetings, 
conferences,  seminaries  and  colleges.  He  was  a  member 
of  a  number  of  Church  Commissions,  such  as  the  Hymnal 
Commission  and  the  Commissions  on  Church  Merger 
with  the  Free  Methodist  and  Pilgrim  Holiness 
Churches.  He  was  honored  by  his  election  as  General 
Conference  President  Emeritus  in  1959,  after  serving  in 
that  ofiBce  for  twelve  years.  He  continues  to  serve  his 
Church  as  Chairman  of  the  Department  of  Religion  at 
Central  Wesleyan  College. 


Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 


George  E.  Failing 


Thomas   Nicholson 

NICHOLSON,  THOMAS  (1862-1944),  American  edu- 
cator and  bishop,  was  born  at  Woodburn,  Ontario,  Can- 
ada, on  Jan.  27,  1862,  the  son  of  James,  a  farmer,  and 
Hannah  (Burkholder)  Nicholson.  He  was  educated  at 
Toronto  Normal,  Northwestern  University  (A.B., 
1893,  A.M.,  1895);  Garrett  Seminary  (B.D.,  1892; 
and  later  honorary  D.D.  and  LL.D. ).  He  married  first 
Jane  Boothroyd,  on  Aug.  20,  1885  (who  died  on  May 
10,  1915),  and  they  had  two  daughters.  He  married 
Evelyn  Riley  on  June  19,  1917. 

He  joined  the  Michigan  Conference  in  1884.  After 
teaching  high  school  in  Canada,  1878-83,  he  served  vari- 
ous charges  in  Michigan  until  1889;  pastor  Big  Rapids, 
1893-4;  principal  and  professor.  Philosophy  and  Biblical 
Literature,  Academy  of  Cornell  College,  Iowa,  1894- 
03;  president  and  professor  of  Philosophy,  Dakota  Wes- 
leyan University,  1903-08;  secretary  of  the  General 
Board  of  Education  (M.E.  Church),  1908-16  (New 
York  City). 

Under  Nicholson,  the  Jubilee  Educational  Movement 
raised  $35,000,000  for  educational  purposes.  He  was 
elected  bishop  in  1916,  and  served  the  Chicago  area, 
1916-24,  and  the  Detroit  area,  1924-32,  when  he  re- 
tired. 

Bishop  Nicholson  supervised  the  building  of  Boulevard 
Temple  Church,  Detroit,  and  took  a  leading  part  in  na- 
tional and  international  affairs.  In  1912  he  was  chairman 
of  an  association  of  Board  Secretaries  out  of  which  was 
developed  the  World  Service  Commission.  He  was  the 
founder  and  first  president  of  the  Council  of  Church 
Boards  of  Education.  In  1920  he  was  chairman  of  the 
reorganization  Committee  of  the  Interchurch  World  Move- 
ment and  President  of  the  Board  of  Sunday  Schools, 
Board  of  Hospitals  and  Homes  and  Deaconness  Work, 
1924-28. 

A  delegate  to  three  General  Conferences,  1908-16; 
the  fourth  Ecumenical  Conference,  1911;  and  fraternal 
delegate  to  Irish  and  British  Wesleyan  Conferences,  1923, 
he  attended  many  international  conferences  officially.  A 
Bible  lecturer  in  many  states,  he  was  president  of  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  America,  1921-32;  staunch  supporter  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


the  18th  Amendment  and  a  "great  leader  in  the  cause  of 
temperance."  In  opposition  to  the  election  of  Alfred  A. 
Smith  to  the  presidency  of  the  United  States,  in  the  bitter 
campaign  of  1928,  Bishop  Nicholson  with  Bishop  James 
Cannon  of  Virginia,  was  considered  a  strong  leader  of  the 
dry  forces. 

Physical  affliction  compelled  Bishop  Nicholson's  retire- 
ment in  1932,  but  he  was  mentally  alert  until  his  death  in 
Mt.  Vernon,  Iowa,  on  March  7,  1944,  where  he  was 
buried. 

F.  D.  Leete:  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

National  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography,  The. 

Who's  VV/io  in  the  Clergy.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

NIEBEL,  HENRY  (1784-1877),  American  Evangelical  min-_ 
ister,  was  one  of  the  early  and  influential  leaders  of  the 
EvANGELiscHE  Gemeinschaft.  Hc  was  born  in  Berks 
County,  Pa.,  March  16,  1784  and  died  near  Sycamore, 
Ohio,  May  2,  1877. 

The  family  in  his  early  youth  moved  from  Berks  Coun- 
ty to  Diy  Valley,  Union  County,  Pa.  By  1806  he  had  be- 
come a  public  school  teacher  at  Winfield  in  the  Susque- 
hana  valley  where  the  influences  of  the  emerging  Evange- 
lische  Gemeinschaft  were  rapidly  expanding  in  the  area. 
He  considered  the  ministry  in  the  Reformed  Church,  but 
was  dissatisfied  with  what  he  felt  was  a  spiritual  dearth 
in  that  fellowship.  Making  his  home  with  the  Abraham 
Eyer  family,  he  there  met  and  heard  Jacob  Albright 
and  his  associates  in  their  inteipretation  of  the  Christian 
faith,  had  a  new  religious  e.xperience  and  became  a 
charter  member  of  the  Eyer  Class  in  1808. 

At  the  second  conference  of  the  emerging  church  in 
1809,  held  in  the  home  of  George  Miller  at  Albany, 
Berks  County,  Niebel  was  granted  credentials  as  a  min- 
ister on  probation.  At  that  time  the  church  numbered  but 
426  members  served  by  six  itinerant  ministers. 

Early  appointments  served  by  the  young  Niebel  in- 
cluded the  following:  1809-10  (with  another  assistant,  M. 
Betz.  under  John  Dreisbach),  the  Schuylkill  Circuit; 
1810-11,  the  Schuylkill-Lancaster  circuit  with  John- 
Walter  in  charge.  In  1811  he  was  ordained  deacon  and 
with  M.  Becker,  another  assistant,  they  served  the  York 
Circuit  with  John  Dreisbach  in  charge;  1812-13,  he  trav- 
eled the  Schuylkill  circuit;  in  1813  he  was  ordained  elder 
and  assigned  to  the  Franklin  circuit.  In  1815  he  was 
elected  the  second  presiding  elder  of  the  emerging  church. 
During  the  years  1815-21,  he  presided  over  two  Con- 
ference sessions  of  the  church,  and  served  seven  sessions 
as  secretary.  He  was  elected  secretary  of  the  General 
Conference  of  1816. 

In  1821  Henry  Niebel  for  health  reasons  found  it  nec- 
essary to  relinquish  for  a  time  the  active  work  of  the 
ministry.  In  1829,  however,  he  re-entered  active  work  with 
the  Western  conference.  At  a  critical  time  of  need  in 
1833,  he  was  sent  to  Ohio  and  elected  a  presiding  elder 
to  replace  Joseph  Long  who  had  been  supervising  the 
work  in  that  state.  Niebel  served  in  this  capacity  until 
1843.  The  trip  from  Pennsylvania  to  Ohio  was  made  by 
covered  wagon  with  his  wife  and  seven  children,  the 
youngest  at  that  time  being  but  four  months  of  age.  Mrs. 
Niebel  was  the  former  Mary  Eyer  from  Pennsylvania. 
Niebel  was  a  brother-in-law  of  John  Dreisbach,  with  whom 
he  shared  many  responsibilities  in  the  early  church. 

Niebel  made  definite  contributions  in  the  early  literar\' 
and  liturgical  fields  of  the  church.  In  1816  he  sei-ved  as 


assistant  publisher  of  the  first  printing  establishment  of 
the  church  at  New  Berlin,  Pa.  In  1816  he  and  John 
Dreisbach  were  appointed  by  the  church  to  prepare  a 
suitable  hymn  book  and  to  amend  the  Discipline  which 
had  been  previously  compiled  by  George  Miller.  It  was 
the  first  hymn  book  (German)  of  the  church  and  served 
many  years  as  the  only  such  hymnal  of  the  denomination. 
It  was  named  "Das  Geistliche  Saitenspiel." 

Henry  Niebel  was  superannuated  in  1848.  He  died  at 
the  home  of  his  son  Enos,  near  Sycamore,  Ohio,  May 
2,  1877,  his  wife  having  preceded  him  in  death.  Nine 
children,  afl  worthy  supporters  of  the  church,  survived 
their  father.  He  was  buried  at  Bibler  Cemetery,  a  few 
miles  south  of  McCutchenville,  Ohio. 

R.  W.  Albright,  Evangelical  Church.  1942. 

R.  B.  Leedy,  Evangelical  Church  in  Ohio.  1959. 

William  C.  F.  Hayes 

NIGERIA  is  a  country  of  West  Central  Africa  located  at 
the  eastern  end  of  the  Gulf  of  Guinea.  It  is  a  member 
of  the  United  Nations  and  the  British  Commonwealth  of 
Nations.  The  coastline  is  approximately  400  miles,  from 
Badagry  (west)  to  Calabar  (east)  where  the  African  coast 
makes  a  90°  turn  from  east-west  to  north-south.  The  area 
is  356.669  square  miles,  and  the  population  is  61,450,000 
(UN  1967  estimate),  making  Nigeria  the  most  populous 
nation  of  Africa.  The  capital  is  Lagos,  on  an  island  of  the 
same  name,  separated  from  the  mainland  by  a  superb 
harbor. 

Portuguese  navigators  were  the  first  Europeans  to  report 
contact  with  this  sector  of  the  African  coast,  sailing  as 
far  as  the  Niger  Delta  in  the  late  1400's.  French,  British 
and  others  also  came  and  went.  By  the  close  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  the  British  had  displaced  others  as  traders 
and  pioneers  from  Lagos  to  beyond  the  Delta.  Mungo 
Park,  noted  explorer  and  geographer,  died  on  the  upper 
Niger  River  in  1805. 

Lagos  and  the  adjacent  mainland,  annexed  by  Britain 
in  1861,  was  first  administered  from  Sierra  Leone.  In 
1874  control  passed  to  the  Gold  Coast  colony,  and  a  Pro- 
tectorate was  established  in  1896.  Meanwhile,  in  1886, 
the  Royal  Niger  Company  had  been  chartered  to  govern 
the  older  Oil  Rivers  Protectorate  at  the  Niger  Delta,  as 
well  as  other  areas.  In  1900,  that  enterprise  surrendered 
its  rights  and  properties  to  the  Crown.  The  countiy  was 
then  reorganized  as  The  Protectorate  of  Northern  and 
Southern  Nigeria.  In  1914,  these  jurisdictions  were  amal- 
gamated as  the  Crown  Colony  of  Nigeria.  An  elected 
Council  was  estabhshed  in  1923,  a  long  step  towards  self- 
government.  Independence  was  granted  in  1960,  Nigeria 
then  entering  the  tfnited  Nations  and  the  British  Common- 
wealth. The  adjacent  narrow  strip  of  British  territory  in 
Cameroons,  under  the  United  Nations,  joined  indepen- 
dent Nigeria  by  virtue  of  a  plebiscite  in  1961.  In  1966, 
a  military  government  assumed  power  in  the  North  and 
West,  but  was  not  recognized  by  the  military  governor 
of  the  East.  The  Eastern  Region  declared  itself  an  in- 
dependent republic,  and  from  1967  to  1970,  there  was 
civil  war. 

In  1838,  several  Africans  who  had  been  wrenched  from 
this  area  as  slaves  were  freed  and  taken  to  the  British 
depot  for  free  Negroes  at  Sierra  Leone.  They  made  their 
way  to  Lagos,  recognizing  it  as  the  port  from  which  the 
slave-runners  had  taken  them.  Venturing  up  the  Ogun 
River,   they  came  to  Abeokuta,   a   town   of  the   Yoruba 


NILES,    DANIEL   THAMBYRAJAH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


people,  where  they  were  reunited  with  their  famihes. 
Returning  to  Sierra  Leone,  they  organized  a  company 
of  other  Yoruba  recaptives,  securing  permission  to  leave 
for  Abeokuta.  Among  these  were  several  Methodists  of 
Sierra  Leone,  these  being  the  first  Methodists  of  whom  we 
have  knowledge  to  settle  in  the  Lagos-Niger  territory. 
They  reported  arrival  and  begged  for  mission  assistance. 


FiBST  MISSION  STATION  AT  BaDACRY 

In  September  1842,  Thomas  Birch  Freeman,  pioneer 
Wesleyan  Methodist  missionary,  left  his  port  in  the  Gold 
Coast,  landing  at  Badagry  near  Lagos.  He  proceeded  to 
Abeokuta,  receiving  hearty  welcome  from  the  chief,  Sho- 
deke,  the  entire  city,  and  the  Methodists  he  had  known. 
Freeman  established  stations  at  Abeokuta  and   Badagry. 

At  first  the  work  was  administered  from  the  Gold  Coast. 
Under  the  leadership  of  John  Milum  such  gain  was  made 
as  to  warrant  setting  Lagos  apart  as  a  separate  District 
in  1878,  the  membership  approximating  1,000.  In  1913, 
the  Centenary  year  of  West  Africa  Methodism,  the  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  community  included  eleven  missionaries, 
twenty-two  African  ministers,  eighty-six  catechists,  and 
over  6,000  members  on  the  District.  By  1919,  the  mem- 
bership had  risen  to  9,000.  Meanwhile,  Primitive  Meth- 
odism had  entered  Eastern  Nigeria,  and  developed  cen- 
ters at  Umuahia,  Oron  and  Chewhee. 

Steady  growth  marked  Nigerian  Methodism,  with  con- 
stant emphasis  on  Biblical  instruction  and  personal  reli- 
gious experience.  The  school  program  is  integrated  into 
the  government's  system  of  education.  Medical  work  is  of 
a  high  standard,  the  church  superintending  the  outstand- 
ing government  supported  leper  settlement  in  the  Uzua- 
koli  area. 

In  July  1962,  the  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
Nigeria,  was  inaugurated,  under  the  leadership  of  its 
Nigerian  president,  Joseph  Soremekun.  The  Conference 
consisted  in  1968  of  seven  districts,  on  both  sides  of  the 
division  caused  by  civil  war.  It  had  1,540  places  of  wor- 
ship, 54,332  full  members  and  a  total  constituency  of 
146,640.  The  Conference  had  under  its  care  fifteen  med- 
ical institutions,  including  hospitals  at  Ilesha  and  Ituk 
Mbang,  522  primary  schools  with  121,482  pupils;  eighteen 
secondary  schools  with  3,412  students.  Ministers  are 
trained  in  joint  theological  colleges:  Immanuel  College, 
Ibadan  and  Trinity  College,  Umuahia.  Church  union 
negotiations  between  the  Anglican,  Presbyterian  and 
Methodist  churches  broke  down  in  1965.  Civil  war,  be- 
ginning in  1967,  caused  serious  disruption  to  the  life  of 
the  nation.  The  Nigerian  Methodist  Conference  met  with- 


out Biafran  representatives,  while  in  Biafra,  a  Methodist 
Assembly  was  constituted  to  carry  on  essential  business. 

American  Methodism  is  represented  in  Nigeria  by  the 
small  mission  of  the  A.M.E.  Church. 

E.U.B.  Church.  In  1904  the  principal  free  churches  of 
Nigeria  united  to  form  the  Sudan  United  Mission.  The 
first  Evangelical  member  to  work  in  this  mission  was  Miss 
Rose  Doehning,  a  deaconess  from  Illinois,  Miss  Boehning 
sailed  for  Africa  in  1905  to  work  in  industrial  missions. 
In  1906,  Rev.  C.  W.  Guinter,  a  member  of  the  Central 
Pennsylvania  Conference  (United  Evangelical)  went  to 
Africa  to  work  among  the  Jukin  and  Chamba  tribes.  It 
was  not  until  1922  that  the  merged  Evangelical  churches 
assumed  a  mission  support  work  in  Africa.  At  that  time 
Rev.  and  Mrs.  I.  E.  McBride  of  the  Platte  River  Confer- 
ence (Nebraska)  joined  the  Guinters  in  Nigeria. 

With  Guinter  as  teacher,  a  primary  school  was  opened 
in  Bambur  in  1925.  Other  schools  were  started  in  sur- 
rounding areas.  Since  there  were  no  reading  books,  the 
mission  sponsored  the  pubhcation  of  a  Hausa  Grammar. 

At  about  the  same  time,  temporary  chapels  were  being 
constructed  in  the  area.  The  first  church  building  was 
dedicated  in  1925  in  Bambur. 

It  was  not  until  1932  that  medical  work  was  begun  in 
a  mud-wall  dispensary.  In  this  humble  building  African 
young  people  were  trained  to  carry  on  dispensary  work 
among  their  people.  Other  dispensaries  were  soon  to  be 
erected  in  strategic  places.  Because  there  were  no  doctors 
on  the  field  every  missionary  was  required  to  have  six 
months'  training  in  tropical  diseases. 

In  1965  there  were  131  preaching  places  with  nineteen 
organized  congregations,  128  evangelists,  and  ten  ordained 
ministers.  There  were  eleven  primary  schools  and  one 
secondary  school,  one  hospital  with  110  beds  (dedicated 
in  1951)  and  nineteen  dispensaries. 

The  major  emphasis  in  Nigeria  has  always  been  at 
the  point  of  developing  national  leadership  through  train- 
ing schools  for  evangelists,  dispensary  training,  and  teach- 
er training. 


J.  F.  A.  Ajayi,  Christian  Missions  in  Nigeria,  1841-1891:  The 
Making  of  a  New  Elite.  London:  Longmans,  1965. 
F.  W.  Dodds,  Out  Nigerian  Field.  London:  Hammond,  n.d. 
Findlay  and  Holdswort^,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Soc.  1922. 
A.   J.   Fox,   Uziiakoli:  A  Short  History.   Ibadan   and  London: 
Oxford  University  Press,  1964. 

A.  E.  Southon,  Ilesha  and  Beyond.  London:  Cargate,  n.d. 
F.  D.  Walker,  A  Hundred  Years  in  Nigeria.  London:  Cargate, 
n.d. 

W.  J.  Ward,  In  and  Around  the  Oron  Country.  London:  Ham- 
mond, n.d. 

World  Outlook,  December  1962.  Arthur  Bruce  Moss 

Lois  Miller 


NILES,  DANIEL  THAMBYRAJAH  (1908-1970),  Asian  min- 
ister, author  and  ecumenist,  was  born  near  Jaffna,  North 
Ceylon.  He  was  educated  at  the  United  Theological  Col- 
lege, Bangalore,  India,  and  the  University  of  London. 

Before  coming  to  the  position  as  President  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church  in  Ceylon,  Niles  held  various  Methodist  and 
ecumenical  positions.  He  was  chairman  of  the  North  Dis- 
trict of  his  Church,  served  for  many  years  as  the  general 
secretary  of  the  East  Asian  Christian  Conference,  and 
at  his  death  was  President  of  the  Conference. 

He  also  served  as  principal  of  Jaffna  Central  College; 
pastor  of  St.  Peter's  Church  in  Jaffna;  chairman,  World's 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NINDE,   WILLIAM   XAVIER 


D.  T.  NiLES 

Student  Christian  Federation;  and  secretary,  Department 
of  Studies  in  Evangelism  of  the  World  Couxcil  of 
Churches. 

Niles  delivered  many  lectureships,  among  which  are 
the  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  on  Preaching  at  Yale  Uni- 
versity Divinity  School;  and  lectureships  at  Northw"est- 
ERN  University,  as  well  as  in  colleges  and  universities  in 
ScoTLAxVD  and  Australia, 

He  was  the  preacher  at  the  opening  service  of  the 
World  Council  of  Churches  at  its  organizing  session  in 
Amsterdam  in  1948,  as  well  as  the  preacher  for  the  open- 
ing session  of  the  1968  Assembly  in  Uppsala,  Sweden. 
He  also  was  a  speaker  at  the  1954  and  1961  Assemblies. 
In  1968  he  was  elected  one  of  the  six  Presidents  of  the 
World  Council  of  Churches. 

D.  T.  Niles  made  one  of  the  principal  addresses  at  the 
World  Methodist  Conference  in  London  in  1966  and 
led  in  a  movement  for  the  restructuring  of  the  World 
Methodist  Council  of  which  he  became  a  Vice-President. 
He  was  a  prolific  author  and  among  his  most  recent 
volumes  are  Buddhism  and  the  Claims  of  Christ  and 
Who  Is  This  Jesus? 

He  died  very  suddenly  in  Velore,  India,  on  July  17, 
1970,  while  at  the  height  of  his  power  and  influence. 
"Though  he  became  known  as  a  symbol  of  Christian 
unity,"  the  New  York  Times  said  of  him,  "both  within  his 
native  Ceylon  and  on  the  international  level.  Dr.  Niles 
always  remained  essentially  a  preacher  with  strong  evan- 
gelical convictions." 


New  York  Times,  July  18,  1970. 


Lee  F.  Tuttle 


NIND,  GEORGE  BENJAMIN  (1860-1932),  American  lay 
preacher  and  missionary  to  Brazil  and  to  Portuguese- 
speaking  people,  was  bom  in  St.  Charles,  Mo.,  on  Nov. 
23,  1860,  of  devout  Christian  parents.  He  received  his 
education  at  Northwestern  University  and  went  to 
Brazil  through  the  influence  of  William  Taylor,  later 
bishop,  who  had  opened  work  there  in  1880,  with  the 
plan   of  enlisting   self-supporting   missionaries.    Nind   ar- 


rived in  Recife,  capital  of  the  then  province  of  Pernam- 
buco,  in  1880. 

Nind  made  a  living  by  teaching  music  but  held  preach- 
ing services  in  his  house  and  on  city  streets,  even  organiz- 
ing a  congregation.  Licensed  only  as  an  exhorter,  he 
repeatedly  appealed  for  an  ordained  minister  to  come  and 
take  charge  of  the  work,  but  Bishop  John  H.  Vincent 
in  the  States  refused  to  send  any  on  the  grounds  that  they 
were  needed  at  home. 

Nind  remained  in  Recife  twelve  years  until  in  Septem- 
ber 1892,  the  illness  of  his  wife  forced  a  return  to  the 
United  States.  Here  he  was  asked  to  take  the  place  of 
a  missionary  who  had  been  working  with  the  Portuguese 
in  New  Bedford,  Mass.  About  a  year  later,  Nind  was 
asked  to  go  to  the  Cape  Verde  Islands.  From  there  he 
went  in  1900  to  the  island  of  Madeira,  where  he  served 
about  nineteen  years  as  pastor  and  as  editor  and  publisher 
of  a  religious  paper,  A  Voz  dc  Madeira  (The  Voice  of 
Madeira).  Authorized  by  Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell,  he  com- 
piled a  book  of  hymns  in  Portuguese,  some  of  his  own 
authorship,  some  translated  by  himself  or  by  Justus  H. 
Nelson,  his  brother-in-law.  These  were  published  to- 
gether with  a  Manual  of  Doctrine  and  Worship  for 
Portuguese  Methodists. 

After  his  first  wife  died  he  was  married  to  Mary  Eliza- 
beth Foley. 

When  he  finally  returned  to  the  L'nited  States,  Nind 
edited  for  eight  years  a  paper  called  Aurora  (Dav\'n), 
designed  to  spread  the  Gospel  among  the  Portuguese  in 
the  United  States.  He  also  taught  Portuguese  in  Boston 
University  and  in  the  Kennedy  School  of  Missions  in 
Hartford,  Conn. 

Nind  died  after  a  brief  illness  on  June  1,  1932.  He 
was  survived  by  his  wife  and  a  daughter,  Gretchen,  a 
trained  nurse. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 
Journal  of  the  New  England  Southern  Conference. 

D.  A.  Reily 

NINDE,  WILLIAM  XAVIER  (1832-1901),  American  bishop, 
was  born  at  Cortlandville  (Cortland),  N.  Y.,  on  June  1, 
1832.  He  was  the  oldest  son  of  the  Rev.  William  Ward 
Ninde,  who  was  the  oldest  son  of  the  Rev.  William  Ninde. 
This  apostolic  succession  in  the  Ninde  family  goes  back 
to  a  lay  preacher  mentioned  with  esteem  in  John  Wes- 
ley's Journal,  James  Nind.  This  man  came  to  America  to 
sei"ve  with  Bishop  Asbury. 

William  Xavier  Ninde  was  only  twelve  years  old  when 
his  preacher  father  died.  The  son  united  with  the  Black 
River  Conference  in  1856.  In  time  he  ministered  to  the 
church  at  Adams,  N.  Y.,  where  his  father  had  served 
before  him.  He  was  appointed  to  Rome,  N.  Y.,  and  twice 
to  Central  Church,  Detroit,  Mich.,  before  he  accepted 
the  presidency  of  Garrett  Biblical  iNSTnxTXE.  He  was 
known  for  his  regular  habits  of  study  and  for  his  depen- 
dence on  prayer.  In  preaching  he  always  used  the  right 
word  in  the  right  place,  and  careless  phraseology  "caused 
him  positive  pain."  He  brought  great  comfort  to  the  sick. 

He  was  elected  bishop  in  1884  and  assigned  residence 
at  Topeka,  Kan.  He  lavished  on  the  whole  church  the 
same  patient  love  for  which  he  had  become  noted  in  his 
relation  to  his  own  children  and  to  the  people  in  the  local 
churches.  He  became  knovvTi  as  "The  Saint  John  of  the 
Episcopacy." 

Among  Bishop  Ninde's  writings  we  note  his  "Report 


NIPPERT,    LOUIS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


on  the  great  cities  of  South  America,"  and  his  authorship 
of  introductions  to  various  books  such  as  O.  J.  Perrin's 
Manual  of  Christian  Ethics.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first 
and  second  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conferences  in 
1881  and  1891. 

He  travelled  extensively  throughout  the  church.  He 
spent  almost  five  months  in  India  and  visited  Japan  and 
Korea;  and  his  daughter's  work  in  China  won  his  heart 
to  that  land.  Many  costumes,  curios  and  gifts  which  he 
received  from  overseas  were  presented  to  the  Chicago  Art 
Museum.  His  noted  daughter,  Mary  Ninde  Gamewell, 
represented  the  Church  in  Christian  mission  work  in 
China,  and  wrote  interdenominational  mission  study  books. 
She  is  author  of  the  biography  of  her  father,  entitled, 
William  Xavier  Ninde  ...  a  Memorial.  The  bishop  also 
rejoiced  in  the  ordination  and  work  of  his  preacher  son, 
Edward  S.  Ninde. 

Bishop  Ninde  died  in  his  sleep,  Jan.  .3,  1901.  Memorial 
addresses  were  given  and  published  by  Bishops  Andrews, 
Joyce  and  Walden.  Burial  was  in  Woodland  Cemetery, 
Detroit,  Mich. 

Mary  Ninde  Gamewell,  William  Xavier  Ninde  ...  a  Memorial. 

Privately  printed,  1902. 

The  Methodist  Review,  1903. 

Henry  S.  Ninde,  The  Ninde-Ward  Families.  1929. 

Charles  W.  Brashares 

NIPPERT,  LOUIS  (1825-1894),  missionary  and  Methodist 
educator  in  Germany,  was  born  on  March  23,  1825,  in 
France  (Alsace).  In  1830  the  family  emigrated  to 
America  and  settled  in  Belmont  County,  Ohio.  They  were 
converted  under  the  preaching  of  two  German-speaking 
ministers  and  joined  the  German  Methodist  church  there. 
In  early  1840  Nippert  became  a  printer's  apprentice  in 
the  Methodist  Book  Concern  at  Cincinnati.  After  some 
years  of  service  as  a  lay  preacher,  he  became  a  minister 
and  joined  the  Ohio  Conference  in  1846.  His  first  in- 
dependent task  was  to  found  a  mission  among  German 
immigrants  in  Indianapolis.  After  various  other  appoint- 
ments, he  was  sent  to  Germany  in  1850.  One  year  later 
he  started  work  at  Heilbronn  in  the  south  and  moved 
to  Frankfurt  the  succeeding  year  to  supervise  the  total 
work  in  the  south  and  the  southwest.  After  a  brief  appoint- 
ment to  Bremen,  including  a  provisional  half  year  as  dean 
of  the  new  seminary,  he  went  to  Berlin,  where  he  founded 
the  first  Methodist  church  in  that  city  (1858).  After  be- 
ginning Methodist  work  at  Basel,  Switzerland,  he  moved 
to  Zurich  in  1862  as  a  presiding  elder,  from  where  he 
returned  to  Heilbronn  (1866-68).  His  essential  contribu- 
tion proved  to  be  in  his  service  as  dean  of  the  Frankfurt 
Theological  Seminary  (Predigerseminar)  from  1868  to 
1886.  The  seminary  had  just  moved  from  Bremen  to 
Frankfurt.  Nippert  was  a  great  educator  and  the  author 
of  many  valuable  books — among  them  an  outline  of 
doctrine,  lives  of  Francis  Asbury  and  John  W.  Fletcher, 
and  the  superb  Homiletics  and  Pastoral  Theology.  After 
thirty-six  years  of  service  in  Germany,  Nippert  returned  to 
America,  where  he  worked  in  several  circuits  before  his 
death  on  Aug.  17,  1894. 

C.  Ernst  Sommer 


Seminary,  Osaka  in  1928,  he  migrated  to  Brazil  in  1929, 
supporting  himself  by  teaching  in  public  schools  and  later 
by  establishing  his  own  Christian  school  in  S.aIo  Paulo. 
He  pursued  advanced  studies  in  the  Methodist  and  Pres- 
byterian seminaries  of  Brazil. 

He  married  Miss  Yoshie  Fugita  in  1931.  He  organized 
the  first  Free  Methodist  Church  in  Brazil,  Oct.  1,  1936. 
He  visited  the  United  States  in  1938,  was  ordained  elder 
and  was  made  the  superintendent  for  Brazil. 

The  first  American  missionaries  arrived  in  June  1946. 
Nishizumi  met  with  a  fatal  accident,  June  26,  1946.  A 
strong  church  has  developed  in  Brazil  on  the  foundations 
he  laid. 

B.  S.  Lamson,  Free  Methodist  Missions.  1951. 

^^issionary  Tidings,  September  1946.  Byron  S.  Lamson 

NITSCHMANN,  DAVID  (1696-1772),  was  one  of  three 
Moravians  of  the  same  name.  He  was  born  at  Zauchenthal, 
Moravia,  on  Dec.  27,  1696.  With  Leonard  Dober  he  was 
a  pioneer  missionary  to  St.  Thomas.  He  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  Moravian  settlers  in  Savannah,  and  ac- 
companied John  Wesley  on  his  journey  to  Georgia  in 
1736,  where  he  protested  against  Wesley's  determination 
to  admit  Mrs.  Hawkins  to  Holy  Communion.  Wesley  con- 
sulted him  about  his  proposal  to  many  Sophia  Hopkey. 
Nitschmann  became  a  bishop  in  1735,  and  died  at  Bethle- 
hem, Pa.,  on  Oct.  8,  1772. 

D.  Cranz,  The  Ancient  and  Modern  History  of  the  Brethren, 

B.  La  Trobe,  trans.,  1825. 

J.  E.  Hutton,  A  History  of  Moravian  Missions.  London,  1922. 
A.  J.  Lewis,  Zinzendorf.  1962. 

C.  W.  Towlson,  Moravian  and  Methodist.  1957. 

C.  W.  Towlson 

NOBLE,  FRED  B.   (1883-  ),  American  lawyer,  promi- 

nent lay  leader  and  Judicial  Council  member,  was  bom 
at  Preston,  Md.,  April  17,  1883.  He  was  the  son  of  Isaac 
L.  and  Mary  Elizabeth  (Corkran)  Noble.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Washington  College,  A.B.  in  1902;  LL.D.  in 
1953;  a  student  at  the  University  of  Maryland,  1904- 
05;  Harvard,  LL.B.  in  1907.  He  married  Eva  L.  Wyand 
on  May  20,  1910,  and  they  have  one  daughter,  Mary. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Maryland  Bar  in  1907,  to  the 
Florida  Bar  in  1908,  and  thereafter  practiced  law  in 
Jacksonville,  Fla.  He  has  held  various  responsible  posi- 
tions in  the  State.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Uniting 
Conference  in  1939,  as  a  representative  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  of  the  then  St.  John's  Biver  Conference.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church  in  1936,  and  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  '40, 
'48,  '52,  '60,  '64;  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education 
from  1936-48;  of  the  General  Board  of  Lay  Activities, 
1948-52;  and  a  lay  leader  of  the  Florida  Conference, 
1940-52,  and  1952-56.  He  became  a  member  of  the 
Judicial  Council  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1952  and 
was  automatically  retired  from  the  Council  in  time  to 
serve  on  the  Jurisdictional  Conference  (SEJ)  of  1956. 
His  activities  in  his  local  church  have  continued  as  he 
continues  to  reside  in  Jacksonville. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 


NISHIZUMI,  DANIEL  M.  (1901-1946),  pioneer  Japanese 
Free  Methodist  missionary  to  Brazil,  was  born  in  Osaka, 
Japan,  Dec.  22,   1901.  Graduated  from  Free  Methodist 


NOBLE,  WALTER  JAMES  (1879-1962),  British  missionary 
leader,  was  bom  at  Darlington,  trained  at  Didsbury  Col- 
lege and  entered  the  Wesleyan  ministry  in    1900,  when 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NODAL  Y   RUEDA,   AGUSTIN 


W.  J.  Noble 

he  sailed  for  Ceylon.  He  remained  there  until  1922,  when 
he  became  a  secretary  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Mis- 
sionary Society;  after  1932  he  remained  a  secretary  of 
the  Methodist  Missionary  Society  until  1947.  He  was 
President  of  the  Methodist  Conference  in  1942.  He  died 
on  Feb.  21,  1962. 

John  Kent 

NOBLE,  WILLIAM  ARTHUR  (1866-1945),  pioneer  mis- 
sionary to  KoRE.-v,  was  born  in  Springdale,  Pa.,  on  Sept. 
13,  1866.  He  entered  the  Wyoming  Conference  in  1892 
after  studying  at  Wyoming  Seminary  and  graduating  from 
Drew  Seminary,  and  then  set  out  for  Korea,  where  he 
arrived  with  his  bride  of  three  months  in  October  of  that 
year. 

For  three  years  he  taught  in  Pai  Chai  College  in  Seoul, 
and  then  was  assigned  to  take  up  the  work  of  the  newly 
opened  Pyengyang  mission  station  to  succeed  William 
James  Hall.  After  fifteen  years  he  was  transferred  to  Seoul 
where  he  remained  until  final  retirement  twenty-four  years 
later. 

He  was  an  outstanding  administrator  with  an  amazing 
capacity  for  constant  work.  He  served  as  mission  superin- 
tendent for  two  years  and  for  forty  years  was  a  district 
superintendent,  often  over  more  than  one  district.  For 
three  years  he  served  the  Pyengyang  and  Seoul  districts 
(1908-1910)  comprising  more  than  half  of  his  mission 
area  and  seventy  percent  of  its  Korean  membership.  He 
had  travelled  over  the  entire  mission  area  and  at  one 
time  or  another  had  been  district  superintendent  of  ninety 
percent  of  the  districts.  In  his  forty-two  years  he  saw  his 
Korean  church  grow  from  fifty  full  members  centered  in 
Seoul  to  an  autonomous  Methodist  Church  with  a  mem- 
bership of  over  20,000. 

He  did  considerable  writing  for  the  Korea  Repository 
and  the  Korea  Review  and  wrote  one  novel,  Ewa,  A  Tale 
of  Korea.  He  was  oflBcially  retired  in  March  1933,  but 
continued  in  service  in  Seoul  to  December  1934.  He  died 
at  Stockton,  Calif.,  Jan.  6,  1945. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Chakles  a.  Saueb 


Agustin  Nodal 

NODAL  Y  RUEDA,  AGUSTIN  (1882-  ),  a  Cuban  pas- 

tor, the  oldest  of  a  family  of  eleven  brothers  and  sisters, 
was  born  Aug.  28,  1882,  in  Remedios,  Las  Villas  province, 
Cuba.  At  an  early  age  he  lost  his  father,  mother  and  sister 
from  tuberculosis  due  to  his  father  having  been  held  as  a 
prisoner  in  Spanish  concentration  camps.  With  only  a  few 
months  of  formal  education,  he  learned  to  fend  for  him- 
self and  became  an  expert  in  the  sale  and  manufacture 
of  tobacco  products.  With  his  brother  he  became  the 
owner  of  a  cigar  factory  in  San  Juan  de  los  Yeras,  where 
Manuel  Deulofeu  was  pastor  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

Nodal  considered  himself  an  atheist  and  would  not 
allow  his  workmen  to  discuss  religion  in  the  factory, 
and  put  up  signs  to  that  effect.  Observing  the  quiet 
fortitude  of  Deulofeu  as  he  continued  to  witness  his  faith 
while  lying  on  his  death  bed.  Nodal  attended  Deulofeu's 
funeral  and  memorial  service.  As  a  result  he  was  miracu- 
lously converted  and  asked  for  license  to  preach,   1913. 

The  same  year  he  joined  the  Annual  Conference  and  was 
assigned  to  Aguado  de  Pasajeros.  At  first  his  wife  thought 
he  had  lost  his  mind  when  he  professed  conversion,  but 
was  soon  reconciled.  They  were  married  in  1908  and  had 
eight  children. 

In  an  active  ministry  of  forty-seven  years,  he  served 
twenty  different  pastoral  charges  and  never  missed  a  roll 
call  at  Annual  Conference,  although  at  one  session  he 
went  with  a  high  fever.  For  many  years  the  government 
gave  him  a  special  permit  for  preaching  in  any  jail  and 
on  the  streets  of  any  city  in  the  island.  As  a  result  of 
his  preaching  several  outstanding  Christian  leaders  were 
converted. 

Serving  some  of  the  most  difficult  places,  he  often  had 
to  be  away  from  his  family  for  weeks  at  a  time,  yet  he 
never  complained.  Twice  he  served  as  District  Super- 
intendent of  the  Oriental  District.  Because  of  his  evange- 
listic fervor  he  was  often  called  on  to  hold  revival  services 
in  opening  work  in  new  areas. 

A  Mason,  he  was  instructor  in  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Cuba  and  was  sought  after  for  masonic  lectures.  One  of 
his  outstanding  lectures  was   "Masonry   and  the   Bible." 


NOLLEY,    RICHMOND 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


He  was  unsurpassed  as  a  story  teller  and  many  of  his 
stories  appear  in  his  book.  Para  los  Pequenos  y  Para  los 
Mayorcs.  Although  he  had  retired  officially  he  continued 
to  work  in  three  different  places  before  the  communist 
regime  forced  him  to  leave  Cuba.  Retiring  to  Miami  he 
was  active  among  the  Cuban  refugees  until  he  was  past 
eighty  years  of  age. 

Annuario  Cuhano  de  la  Iglesia  Metodistci.       Garfield  Evans 

NOLLEY,  RICHMOND  (1785-1815),  pioneer  American 
preacher,  was  bom  in  Brunswick  County,  Va.  Left  an 
oiphan  soon  after  birth,  he  was  reared  in  Sparta,  Ca., 
by  a  Methodist  merchant  named  Captain  Lucas.  After 
a  dramatic  and  enduring  conversion  experience  in  1806, 
he  decided  to  become  a  Methodist  minister,  and  in  1807 
was  received  into  the  traveling  connection.  He  was  sent 
to  the  Edisto  Circuit  in  the  South  Carolina  Confer- 
ence. For  five  years  he  served  in  North  Carolina  and 
South  Carolina.  He  was  long  remembered  there  for  his 
patience,  and  especially  for  his  diligence.  He  was  a 
wonderful  pastor,  ministering  to  the  sick  and  the  aged, 
and  his  work  in  training  the  children  under  his  care 
put  him  far  ahead  of  his  time.  He  also  ministered  to  the 
slaves  and  taught  their  children. 

In  1812  NoUey  and  three  other  young  missionaries  were 
sent  to  the  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  territories,  which 
had  scarcely  been  opened  to  Methodism.  Amid  Indian 
insurrections,  NoUey  moved  from  fort  to  fort,  preaching 
and  teaching  the  people  on  the  Tombigbee  Mission. 

He  was  appointed  in  1814  to  Attakapas  and  Opelousas 
in  Lousiana,  where  he  established  Methodism  in  a  field  as 
difficult  as  any  in  the  wilderness  country.  This  was  not 
only  because  of  the  problems  of  nature,  but  by  reason  of 
a  hostile  Roman  Catholic  community  of  French  and  Span- 
ish descent.  Returning  from  his  annual  conference  in  late 
November  of  1815,  with  the  entire  southern  portion  of 
what  is  now  the  Louisiana  Conference  as  his  charge,  he 
attempted  to  cross  flooded  Hemphill  Creek  near  the  town 
of  Jena,  La.  He  was  washed  from  his  horse  but  managed 
to  reach  the  other  shore  by  clinging  to  overhanging 
branches.  He  started  up  a  country  trail  to  the  home  of 
Methodists  nearby,  but  died  on  the  way.  The  next  day  a 
friendly  Indian  found  his  body  along  the  trail,  his  knee 
prints  in  the  soft  wet  mud,  and  his  hymn  book  opened  to  a 
familiar  hymn.  Methodist  friends  buried  him  nearby. 

In  1856  the  Louisiana  Conference  erected  over  his 
grave  a  small  monument,  which  later  was  carried  to  the 
Jena  church,  and  the  location  of  the  untended  grave  site 
was  then  almost  forgotten.  In  1956  it  was  decided  to 
rebury  his  remains  on  the  lawn  of  the  church  in  Jena 
named  for  him,  the  Nolley  Memorial  Church.  Traveling 
the  lonely  trail  Nolley  had  traversed  from  the  creek  to  the 
place  his  body  had  been  found,  people  from  throughout 
the  state  participated  in  a  commemorative  service,  led  by 
Bishop  Paul  E.  Martin  and  District  Superintendent  Jolly 
B.  Harper.  A  suitable  marker  slab  on  the  lawn  of  the 
church  now  tells  the  story. 

H.  N.  McTyeire,  History  of  Methodism.  1884. 
T.  O.  Summers,  Biographical  Sketches.  1858. 

Jolly  B.  Harper 

NORFOLK,  NEBRASKA,  U.S.A.  First  Church  is  the  princi- 
pal downtown  Protestant  church  in  a  town  of  16,500  pop- 
ulation. Its  chimes  ring  out  over  the  downtown  business 


district  at  regular  intervals  from  a  Gothic  spire  which 
rises  nearly  a  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  street. 
The  present  edifice  was  planned  during  the  pastorate  of 
Harry  E.  Hess  in  1943.  The  educational  building  was 
erected  in  1953  during  the  pastorate  of  Everett  E.  Jack- 
man,  and  the  sanctuary  during  the  pastorate  of  Melvon 
L.  Ireland  in  1959. 

Methodism  came  to  Norfolk  with  the  circuit  riders  in 
the  years  following  the  Civil  War.  A  surge  of  immigration 
then  brought  many  homeseekers  to  the  rolling  hills  and 
valleys  of  northeastern  Nebraska.  Courageous  and  hardy 
settlers  sui-vived  drought,  insect  plagues  and  floods  to  es- 
tablish a  permanent  community.  In  1871  the  first  circuit 
rider,  S.  B.  York,  preached  in  Norfolk  and  a  class  was 
soon  organized.  He  rode  a  wide  circuit  stretching  across 
northeastern  Nebraska  to  the  Dakotas,  a  distance  of  more 
than  fifty  miles  and  covering  a  territory  of  10,000  square 
miles.  His  visits  were  at  intervals  of  a  fortnight  or  longer. 
Norfolk  became  a  station  in  1882. 

The  first  permanent  home  for  the  little  congregation  was 
erected  during  the  pastorate  of  Charles  F.  Heywood,  who 
before  entering  the  Methodist  ministry  had  practiced  law 
and  served  a  term  in  the  Nebraska  legislature.  Tlie  mem- 
bership enjoyed  a  remarkable  growth  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Jesse  W.  Jennings,  1889-93,  and  this  necessitated 
the  building  of  a  larger  church  edifice  under  the  able 
leadership  of  William  Gorst,  1896.  This  served  the  needs 
of  the  congregation  until  the  building  of  the  present 
structure. 

During  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  large 
evangelistic  camp  meetings  were  held  in  the  vicinity  of 
Norfolk,  and  these  profoundly  shaped  the  moral  and  reli- 
gious character  of  the  community.  To  this  day  the  Meth- 
odist congregation  counts  among  its  members  many  people 
of  stature  and  leadership  in  the  community,  and  these 
account  for  the  strength  of  the  church  as  a  significant 
force  in  the  city. 

In  the  main  stream  of  the  population  explosion  and 
urban  growth  of  the  twentieth  century,  Norfolk  found  it- 
self a  center  of  trade,  industry  and  education  for  north- 
eastern Nebraska.  The  Methodist  Church  rose  to  the  chal- 
lege  with  a  new  and  larger  ministry,  multiple  services,  a 
staff  of  professionally  trained  workers,  and  a  broadened 
vision  of  its  mission  to  the  world.  In  1970  First  Church 
had  a  membership  of  1,686. 

Harry  E.  Hess,  Methodism  in  Norfolk — A  History.  1945. 

J.  Graydon  Wilson 

NORFOLK,  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.,  one  of  the  great  ports  of 
the  United  States,  is  also  one  of  the  most  historic  cities 
of  the  nation.  In  the  Colonial,  Revolutionary,  Civil  War 
and  both  World  War  periods,  Norfolk  was  of  prime  im- 
portance. Its  present  population  is  listed  as  268,331. 

The  credit  of  organizing  the  first  Methodist  Society  in 
Norfolk  has  been  generally  accorded  Robert  Williams. 
However,  the  Journal  of  Joseph  Pilmore  states,  under 
date  of  Nov.  16,  1772,  "Having  proposed  to  form  a  soci- 
ety in  Norfolk,  I  went  to  the  preaching  house,  a  playhouse, 
and  gave  an  exhortation  on  the  nature  and  necessity  of 
meeting  together,  to  help  and  build  up  each  other  in  the 
faith  of  the  gospel.  I  then  withdrew  to  Captain  Carson's, 
where  I  laid  the  foundation  of  a  society  by  joining  to- 
gether twenty-six  of  them."  According  to  this  account,  it 
would  appear  that  the  first  society  in  Norfolk  was  formed 
by  Pilmore  and   not  Williams.   Two  days   later   Pilmore 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORFOLK,   VIRGINIA 


wrote,  "I  went  over  the  water,  to  Portsmouth,  with  Mr. 
Williams  and  Mr.  Watters,  who  arrived  here  today,  to 
meet  the  society." 

Robert  Williams  is,  however,  universally  called  the 
pioneer  and  apostle  of  Methodism  in  VmciNiA  and  the 
south.  He  was  the  first  Methodist  minister  to  come  to 
Virginia,  and  for  the  time  his  active  ministry  lasted,  the 
most  successful.  Robert  Williams  kept  no  journal  or  rec- 
ords of  his  work.  When  he  first  arrived  in  Norfolk,  he 
is  thought  to  have  preached  from  the  court  house  steps. 
His  preaching  was  new  and  strange,  sometimes  with 
strong  language,  which  aroused  the  curiosity  and  opposi- 
tion of  the  people.  At  first  he  was  treated  with  incivility 
and  unkindness,  but  later,  as  he  became  better  under- 
stood, some  willingly  received  him  into  their  homes. 

Norfolk  first  appears  in  the  minutes  of  the  Annual  Con- 
ference for  1773,  and  for  several  years  thereafter  as  a  cir- 
cuit of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth.  From  1776  to  1782, 
this  circuit  was  omitted  from  the  lists  of  appointments. 
The  conflict  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country 
and  the  burning  of  Norfolk  in  1776  very  nearly  extin- 
guished Methodism  for  a  few  years.  Asbuby  left  the  cir- 
cuit because  of  these  conditions  in  1775.  When  the  cir- 
cuit was  reestablished,  James  Morris  was  the  preacher. 
Norfolk  was  a  circuit  until  1805,  when  it  was  permanently 
made  a  station. 

When  Asbury  took  charge  of  the  society,  he  found 
about  thirty  members,  no  plan  of  regular  class  meetings, 
and  the  meeting  house  an  old  shattered  building  which 
had  been  a  playhouse.  He  attempted  to  take  subscriptions 
for  a  building.  Only  about  thirty  pounds,  or  about  $170 
was  pledged,  but  with  the  war  coming  on  the  undertaking 
was  abandoned  until  about  1792. 

When  Asbury  returned  in  1791  and  again  in  1792,  he 
found  the  state  of  religion  among  the  Methodists  en- 
couraging. He  writes,  "The  seeds  which  I  have  been 
sowing  for  twenty  years,  begin  to  spring  up.  Norfolk 
flourishes." 

In  1793,  although  the  society  numbered  only  about 
fifty  members,  most  of  them  poor,  they  were  determined 
to  have  a  house  of  their  own,  even  though  on  the  plainest 
and  cheapest  scale.  A  lot  on  Fenchurch  Street,  adjoining 
the  Academy  lot,  was  leased  for  sixty  years,  at  the  price  of 
"ten  pounds  in  specie."  The  property  was  conveyed  to 
"Francis  Asbury,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  to  each  minister  and  member  of  the  said 
church  in  the  United  States,  individually  and  collectively." 

The  small  wooden  building  erected  on  the  lot  was  very 
plain  and  rude  in  form  and  finish,  and  was  used  by  the 
society  for  six  years.  This  was  the  second  place  of  worship 
to  have  been  erected  in  Norfolk,  the  first  being  St.  Paul's 
Episcopal  Church.  It  was  the  first  one  to  be  built  by 
private  or  voluntary  contributions. 

Land  was  purchased  in  1800  on  Cumberland  Street  for 
the  second  church  building,  which  was  first  occupied  in 
March  1803.  Bishop  Asbury  in  his  Journal  under  that  date 
says,  "I  preached  in  the  new  house,  the  best  in  Virginia 
belonging  to  our  society."  This  was  the  first  Methodist 
church  to  be  built  on  Cumberland  Street,  from  which  it 
derived  its  name.  It  was  the  scene  of  some  of  the  grandest 
triumphs  the  gospel  ever  achieved  in  the  city  of  Norfolk. 

The  second  church  built  on  the  Cumberland  Street  site 
was  dedicated  in  1834.  The  building  was  destroyed  by 
fire  in  1848.  In  less  than  one  year  the  third  church  was 
ready  for  the  congregation,  and  served  the  Methodists 
until  about  1900.  The  fourth  and  last  church  erected  on 


Cumberland  Street  was  only  about  two  blocks  from  the 
original  site  and  was  used  until  1922,  when  the  congrega- 
tion again  decided  to  build  and  in  another  section  of  the 
city.  This  was  erected  in  three  units  and  was  completed 
about  ten  years  ago. 

The  "Cumberland  Street  Church"  had  remained  as  such 
for  about  118  years  but  it  is  now  known  as  the  First 
Church  and  is  the  Mother  Church  of  Methodism  in  Nor- 
folk. 

A  notable  event  occurred  on  Cumberland  Street  when 
on  Sunday,  Feb.  27,  1848,  at  the  11  o'clock  service,  two 
volunteer  foreign  missionaries,  Benjamin  Jenkins  and 
Charles  Taylor,  of  the  South  Carolina  Conference, 
were  ordained  as  elders  for  the  China  mission.  This  was 
the  last  service  held  in  that  church  building  before  it  was 
destroyed  by  fire. 

In  1848,  William  A.  Smith,  minister,  advocated  the 
building  of  another  Methodist  church  as  the  congregation 
had  become  too  large  to  be  served  by  one  minister.  Subse- 
quently, in  1850,  the  Granby  Street  Station  was  built  and 
used  for  the  first  time  in  December  1850.  The  minister, 
John  E.  Edwards,  who  was  then  serving  Cumberland 
Street  Church,  transferred  to  Granby  Street.  This  second 
church  in  Norfolk  is  now  known  as  Epworth  Church. 

Sometime  prior  to  the  year  1854,  the  A.M.E.  Church 
was  organized  in  Norfolk.  Details  are  missing.  The  preach- 
er of  this  church  was  a  member  of  Cumberland  Street 
Church  and  was  recorded  in  a  membership  ledger  as  a 
Chapter  Leader.  It  is  thought  that  the  minister  of  this 
congregation  was  white. 

In  May  1892,  the  Union  Mission  was  organized  in 
Cumberland  Street  Church  by  S.  Q.  Collins,  who  in  all 
probability  was  a  member  of  the  church.  The  Mission, 
which  is  still  active,  was  to  serve  needy  families  of  the 
city. 

In  1970  there  were  seventeen  United  Methodist 
Churches  within  the  city,  with  a  total  membership  of  17,- 
788.  There  is  a  Norfolk  District  in  the  conference  which 
lists  33,157  members. 

Epworth  Church  occupies  a  physical  position  in  this 
seaport  city  that  is  not  excelled  by  any  other  church.  At 
the  heart  of  the  great  business  and  seaport  metropolis, 
Epworth  is  easily  accessible  to  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
mihtary  and  naval  personnel  who  pass  through  its  life 
and  program  each  year. 

In  an  era  when  other  downtown  churches  have  closed 
their  doors  or  moved  to  residential  areas,  Epworth  main- 
tains a  unique  position,  with  net  increases  in  church 
school  and  church  enrollment  and  attendance,  a  varied 
program  of  activities  for  all  age  groups,  an  evangelical 
ministry,  and  a  missionary  program  that  touches  the  far- 
away places  of  the  world. 

Epworth  directs  to  the  men  and  women  of  the  Armed 
Forces  and  related  groups  a  large  portion  of  its  annual 
budget,  and  a  vast  segment  of  its  program.  It  has  become 
a  city-center  for  worship  and  recreation  to  the  military 
representatives  of  many  nations. 

Epworth  Church,  dating  from  1850,  is  also  known  for 
the  twenty-two  stained  glass  windows  in  the  sanctuary, 
which  rank  among  the  finest  examples  of  art-glass  in  the 
country.  In  equipment  and  properties,  the  church  claims 
to  be  able  to  meet  the  variant  needs  of  a  changing,  con- 
temporary, urban  generation  of  members  and  constituents. 
There  is  a  membership  of  2,279  people  who  are  scattered 
throughout  the  Tidewater  city-complex  of  Norfolk,  Ports- 
mouth, Chesapeake,  and  Virginia  Beach.  The  "Y's,"  the 


NORMAL,    ILLINOIS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Epvvorth  Church,  Norfolk,  Virginia 

hotels,  and  high-rise  apartments  that  surround  the  church, 
are  said  to  find  a  renewal  spiritual  oasis  in  its  multi- 
faceted  ministry. 

Mites  Memorial  Church  was  organized  in  the  year  1910 
and  was  a  part  of  the  circuit  then  known  as  Bethel  Pine 
Beach  and  Ocean  View.  In  the  year  1911  Pine  Beach 
was  dropped  and  in  1912  Ocean  View  was  estabhshed  as 
a  station.  The  little  church  on  the  corner  of  Cherry  and 
First  View  Streets  was  started  in  1911  and  the  cornerstone 
was  laid  in  1911  with  Ma.sonic  and  church  ceremonies. 

Because  of  the  rapid  growth  in  population  and  after 
World  War  I,  the  congregation  outgrew  the  small  church 
and  the  Ocean  View  School  was  once  more  used  as  a 
Sunday  school.  Then  in  1923,  under  the  leadership  of 
L.  T.  Hitt,  a  two-story  building  was  constructed  next  door 
for  educational  puiposes.  In  1930  the  large  social  hall  on 
the  first  floor  was  converted  into  a  worship  sanctuary  and 
remained  as  such  until  March  19,  1950.  With  the  continual 
growth  of  Ocean  View  as  a  residential  area,  the  church 
facilities  became  inadequate.  The  church  received  526 
members  into  its  fellowship  in  1956,  setting  a  record  for 
accessions  in  one  church  in  one  year. 

Ground  breaking  ceremonies  for  the  erection  of  a  new 
church  home  at  9450  Granby  Street  was  Easter  Sunday, 
1949.  Rufus  A.  Miles,  after  whom  the  church  was  named, 
is  credited  with  full  support  for  his  financial  aid.  An  addi- 
tional educational  building  was  erected  in  1955.  This 
great  plant  has  an  evaluation  of  $732,531.  The  present 
membership  of  Miles  Memorial  is  2,170.  Two  ministers 
and  one  missionary  to  Costa  Rica  have  gone  out  from 
this  church.  The  church  has  a  unique  ministry  to  the  re- 
tired ministers  of  the  Virginia  Conference.  Many  homes 
for  the  retired  brethren  are  located  on  Selby  Place  behind 
the  church. 

Park  Place  Church  is  an  influential  mid-town  church. 


with  a  large  percentage  of  its  members  residing  beyond 
the  radius  of  five  miles. 

The  church  was  organized  in  1902  near  the  outer  limits 
of  the  city  in  a  public  school  building,  with  thirty-seven 
members,  under  Daniel  T.  Merritt.  During  the  year  they 
purchased  a  site  and  started  their  first  building,  to  which 
they  soon  added.  Their  religious  success  in  the  new 
community  of  "Park  Place"  warranted  the  procurement  of 
a  larger  site  to  provide  for  even  greater  expansion;  there- 
fore, the  corner-stone  of  the  present  church  was  laid  by 
Ruth  Lodge  of  Masons  in  1916,  and  it  was  dedicated  in 
1917  by  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrk.  The  church  burned  in 
February  1923,  causing  complete  loss  of  the  sanctuary, 
which  was  rebuilt  to  a  larger  capacity  and  rededicated 
in  October  1923.  It  sufi^ered  another  fire  in  1949,  with 
major  loss  to  the  sanctuary  and  extensive  spoilage  to  the 
Sunday  school  facility.  Then  the  entire  institution  was 
modernized,  making  it  a  more  practical  facility  for  church 
activities,  and  dedicated  finally  by  Bishop  William 
Walter  Peele  and  R.  Orman  Bryant,  Pastor. 

Great  emphasis  is  placed  upon  religious  education  and 
character  building  and  the  training  in  the  field  of  music 
in  this  church  has  been  of  importance  to  both  the  youth 
and  adult  talent.  Park  Place  is  among  the  top  ten  Meth- 
odist churches  in  the  country  in  supporting  mission;  it 
plays  an  important  part  in  the  spiritual  lives  of  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  personnel  stationed  in  Tidewater;  and 
eleven  of  its  men  are  serving  as  ordained  ministers  of  the 
Gospel,  three  of  whom  are  in  other  denominations.  On 
July  15,  1960,  Bishop  Walter  C.  Gum  was  elected  to 
the  episcopacy  from  this  pastorate. 

The  religious  influence  of  Park  Place  has  permeated 
into  state,  city,  civic  and  fraternal  affairs,  many  of  the 
members  being  chosen  or  elected  to  high  offices  of  re- 
sponsibility and  recognition.  Present  membership  of  the 
church  is  2,230. 

General  Minutes. 

Peter  A.  Peterson,  "History  of  Cumberland  Street  M.E.  Church, 
South,"  Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  Nov.  15,  1915. 
Thomas  J.  Wertenbaker,  Norfolk,  Historic  Southern  Port.  Dur- 
ham, N.  C:  Duke  University  Press,  1931. 

Claudia  E.  Lambert 
Galelma  J.  Butcher 

NORMAL,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A.  First  Church  was  organized 
by  a  small  group  of  Methodists  in  1865,  eight  years  after 
the  founding  of  Illinois  State  Normal  University  (now 
Illinois  State  University),  the  second  teacher's  college  to 
be  established  west  of  the  AUeghenies.  The  church  and 
the  university,  neighbors  for  more  than  a  century,  have 
experienced  a  mutual  growth.  By  its  centennial  year  First 
Church  had  grown  to  a  church  with  a  resident  member- 
ship of  more  than  2,500  and  an  average  worship  atten- 
dance of  more  than  900.  The  church's  peculiar  responsi- 
bility to  students  has  been  recognized  from  the  beginning. 
The  original  church  was  built  only  a  block  from  the 
campus.  When  it  became  necessary  to  build  a  new  edifice, 
the  site  chosen  was  even  closer.  The  new  building  erected 
included  separate  quarters  for  the  Wesley  Foundation 
program.  It  appears  that  within  ten  years  the  church  will 
be  completely  surrounded  by  a  university  with  an  enroll- 
ment of  20,000  students. 

The  new  church  and  educational  building,  completed  in 
1957,  is  of  contemporary  design.  A  cross  thirty-eight  feet 
high,  extends  above  the  stone  tower  at  the  entrance  to  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTH,   ERIC   MCCOY 


sanctuary.  The  bell,  which  was  brought  from  the  old 
church,  calls  resident  members  and  students  to  three 
morning  worship  services.  The  sanctuary  windows,  made 
of  imported  French  slab  glass,  one  inch  thick  and  set  in 
concrete,  are  placed  in  large  panels  on  either  side  of  the 
nave.  The  symbolism  in  the  windows  is  a  richly  colorful 
reminder  of  the  Christian  debt  to  the  Jewish  faith,  and  of 
the  most  significant  experiences  in  the  life  of  Christ.  Hun- 
dreds of  students,  both  from  Illinois  State  University  and 
from  nearby  Illinois  Wesleyan  Universffy,  regularly 
join  the  resident  members  in  Sunday  worship.  In  1970 
the  membership  was  2,739. 

The  Baby  Fold  is  an  institution  founded  to  care  for 
the  following  multiple  services:  (1)  adoption  of  infants 
and  pre-school  children;  (2)  counseling  for  unmarried 
parents,  including  provision  for  prenatal  care;  medical 
and  legal  services,  financial  aid  if  needed — all  under  case- 
work direction;  (3)  residential  treatment  center  for  emo- 
tionally disturbed  pre-school  children,  living  in  a  con- 
trolled setting  with  houseparents,  daily  medical  attention, 
psychiatric  counsel  and  continuing  casework  supervision; 
(4)  interim  care  and  training  for  mentally  retarded  in- 
fants, from  birth  to  three  years  of  age,  including  casework 
counseling  with  parents  and  long-range  planning  for  the 
child's  continuing  care;  (5)  foster  home  placement  and 
supervision  for  children  uprooted  from  natural  homes  but 
not  legally  available  for  adoption. 

The  Baby  Fold  was  founded  in  1902  and  is  a  non- 
profit corporation,  sponsored  by  the  Central  Illinois 
Conference  of  The  United  Methodist  Church.  Its  Board 
of  Trustees  consists  of  thirty  members — fifteen  clergy  and 
fifteen  lay.  The  Illinois  Department  of  Children  and  Fam- 
ily Services  license  it  as  a  child  care  facility  and  a  child 
placement  facility  and  it  is  certified  by  the  Board  of  Hos- 
pitals and  Homes. 

Gordon  B.  White 
William  A.  HAMMrrr 

NORMAN,  OKLAHOMA,  U.S.A.,  McFarlin  Memorial 
Church.  In  1921,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  McFarlin  asked 
for  the  privilege  of  building  a  church  as  a  memorial  to 
their  son,  Robert  B.  McFarhn,  who  died  at  the  age  of  two 
years  on  July  28,  1893.  Thousands  of  lives  have  been 
touched  through  this  House  of  God  which  bears  the  name 
of  this  brief  life. 

The  Church  was  built  during  the  years  1923  and  1924 
and  dedicated  on  Dec.  7,  1924.  It  covers  a  floor  space  of 
130  X  180  feet  and  cost  in  excess  of  $700,000.  It  is  of 
Gothic  style  architecture  and  is  built  of  Indian  Lithic 
Limestone.  It  took  some  seventy  cars  of  stone  for  the 
construction  of  the  ninety -plus  rooms.  The  church  tower  is 
a  landmark  for  the  community;  it  is  112  feet  above  the 
ground  and  can  be  seen  at  a  distance  from  all  high- 
ways leading  to  the  city. 

In  the  early  years  the  University  of  Oklahoma  used 
the  modem  dining  room  and  kitchen  facilities  as  these 
were  the  only  adequate  accommodations  for  large  meet- 
ing and  dining  groups. 

The  seating  capacity  of  the  sanctuary  is  1,700,  with 
accommodations  for  an  additional  hundred  at  the  rear  of 
the  sanctuary.  The  classrooms  were  originally  built  to 
accommodate  an  enrollment  of  1,700  in  the  Sunday  school 
— currently,  McFarlin  has  an  enrollment  of  1,933  in 
Sunday  school,  out  of  a  total  membership  of  3,522.  This 
has,  of  course,  necessitated  the  remodeling  of  many  areas. 


The  first  Sunday  school  enrollment  was  a  total  of  441  in 
twenty-two  classes  in  1924.  The  present  program  is  guided 
by  216  ofiBcers  and  teachers  with  an  average  attendance 
of  1,000.  Many  of  the  charter  members  are  still  active 
in  the  life  of  the  Church. 

A  bronze  memorial  tablet  in  the  sanctuary  expresses 
the  love  and  spirit  of  this  memorial  which  states:  "This 
House  of  Worship  is  built  for  the  youth  of  Oklahoma  and 
the  people  of  Norman,  and  whomsoever  may  find  it  in  his 
heart  to  worship  here." 

General  Minutes. 

NORRIS,  WILLIAM  H.  (1801-1878),  a  pioneer  missionary 
to  Uruguay  and  Argentina,  was  bom  in  Maine.  He 
was  admitted  on  trial  to  the  New  York  Conference 
in  1825,  transferring  to  the  Maine  Conference  a  year 
later. 

In  1839,  in  response  to  a  request  by  John  Dempster, 
he  was  appointed  as  a  missionary  to  Montevideo,  Uru- 
guay, the  first  permanent  Methodist  missionary  appoint- 
ment for  that  country.  Because  of  unsettled  conditions  and 
war  between  Uruguay  and  Argentina,  he  was  unsuccessful 
in  erecting  a  church  building,  although  he  did  organize  a 
congregation  and  hold  services  for  two  years.  He  returned 
home  in  1842,  but  later  the  same  year  was  reassigned  to 
Buenos  Aires,  Argentina,  where  he  worked  with  John 
Dempster.  There  he  ministered  primarily  to  the  Enghsh- 
speaking  community,  which  was  broken  up  by  civil  war 
and  a  blockade  of  the  port  by  British  and  French  war- 
ships. He  returned  to  the  United  States  in  1847. 

In  1847  he  visited  Mexico  as  a  Bible  agent,  going  to 
Vera  Cruz  with  United  States  troops  engaged  in  the 
Mexican  War.  During  the  mihtary  occupation  he  placed 
Bibles  in  thousands  of  homes  in  Vera  Cmz,  Jalapa,  Puebla, 
and  Mexico  City.  He  then  began  to  fill  a  series  of  ap- 
pointments in  the  New  York  East  Annual  Conference. 

Norris  then  served  in  that  conference  until  1863,  when 
he  became  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society  in 
Panama  and  Central  America.  A  year  later  he  returned 
to  Buenos  Aires  to  assist  in  raising  funds  and  in  super- 
intending the  building  of  a  new  Methodist  church  and 
school. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

Edwin  H.  Maynard 

NORTH,  CHRISTOPHER  RICHARD  (1888-  ).  British 
scholar,  was  bom  in  1888.  He  became  a  Methodist  in 
1904,  offered  for  the  Wesleyan  ministry  in  1908;  he  served 
as  a  missionry  in  Lucknow,  1918-20.  In  1925  he  went  to 
Handsworth  College,  Birmingham,  as  Old  Testament 
tutor,  and  remained  there  until  the  college  closed  during 
the  Second  World  War.  After  five  years  in  circuit  he 
became  professor  of  Hebrew  at  Bangor,  where  he  was 
also  dean  of  the  faculty  of  theology  from  1948  until  his 
retirement  in  1953.  He  was  secretary  of  the  Society  for 
Old  Testament  Studies  (1928-48),  president  in  1949, 
and  treasurer  (1952-57).  His  writings  include  The  Old 
Testament  Interpretation  of  History,  which  was  the 
Fernley-Hartley  Lecture  for  1946,  The  Suffering  Ser- 
vant in  Deutero  Isaiah  (1948),  and  Isaiah  40-55  (1952). 

Peter  Stephens 

NORTH,  ERIC  McCOY  ( 1888-  ),  American  minister, 
teacher,  and  executive  secretary  of  the  American  Bible 


NORTH,    FRANK   MASON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Society,  (1928-56),  was  born  in  Middletown,  Conn,  on 
June  22,  1888,  the  son  of  Frank  Mason  and  Louise  J. 
(McCoy)  North.  He  was  educated  at  Wesleyan 
University,  receiving  the  B.A.  in  1909,  the  M.A.  in 
1910,  and  the  D.D.  in  1931.  He  received  the  Ph.D. 
degree  from  Columbia  University  in  1914,  and  is  also 
a  graduate  of  Union  Theological  Seminary.  He  married 
Gladys  Haven,  daughter  of  William  I.  Haven,  on  April 
17,  1920,  and  their  children  are  Theodora,  Louise  Ha\en 
and  William  Haven.  He  became  assistant  professor  of 
the  history  of  Christianity  at  Ohio  Wesleyan,  1915-17. 
At  intervals,  1917-24,  he  was  an  associate  editor  of  Meth- 
odist Sunday-school  publications.  He  was  ordained  a 
minister  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1918,  and  served  as  a 
departmental  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  that  Church  from  1919  to  1924.  He  lectured  at  Drew 
Theological  Seminary,  1919-1924.  He  was  executive 
secretary  of  the  China  Union  Universities,  1924-27; 
associate  secretary  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  1927- 
28;  and  general  secretary  from  1928-56.  He  served  as 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  General  Wartime  Commission 
of  the  Churches,  1918,  and  as  Chaplain  in  the  U.  S. 
Aimy,  1918-19.  He  was  many  years  a  trustee  of  the 
United  Board  for  Christian  Higher  Education  in  Asia,  the 
Haivard-Yenching  Institute,  and  Drew  University.  He 
was  decorated  with  the  order  of  Orange-Nassau  by  the 
Netherlands.  He  has  written  Early  Methodist  Philan- 
thropy, 1915;  Organization  and  Administration  of  the 
Sunday  School  (with  J.  L.  Cuninggim)  in  1917;  The 
Kingdom  and  the  Nations,  1921;  The  Worker  and  His 
Church  (with  Louise  M.  North),  1921.  When  he  was 
general  secretary  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  he  edited 
The  Book  of  a  Thousand  Tongues,  1939.  He  resides  in 
Chatham,  N.  J.,  and  continues  as  a  consultant  of  the 
American  Bible  Society. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34.  N.  B.  H. 

NORTH,  FRANK  MASON  (1850-1935),  author  of  the 
hymn,  "Where  Cross  the  Crowded  Ways  of  Life,"  was 
an  American  pastor  and  administrator,  an  ecumenical 
statesman.  Born  in  New  York  City  on  Dec.  3,  1850,  he 
received  a  total  of  four  degrees  from  Wesley.\n  Universi- 
ty: B.A.  (1872,  with  high  honors  and  Phi  Beta  Kappa). 
M.A,  (1875),  D.D.  (1894),  LL.D.  (1918).  He  had  two 
sons  by  his  first  wife,  who  died  in  1878.  In  1885  he 
married  Louise  McCoy,  daughter  of  a  Congregational 
minister,  and  they  had  one  son,  Eric  McCoy  North, 
long-time  general  secretary  of  the  American  Bible 
Society. 

North  served  six  pastorates  in  the  New  York  Con- 
ference between  1873  and  1887,  then  transferred  to 
Middletown,  Conn.,  in  the  New  York  East  Conference. 
From  1892  until  1912,  as  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
New  York  City  Church  Extension  and  Missionary  Society 
(later  New  York  City  Society),  he  supervised  a  network 
of  urban  parishes,  immigrant  congregations,  and  inter- 
racial centers,  including  the  Church  of  All  Nations.  During 
this  period  he  also  directed  the  National  City  Evange- 
lization Union  and  edited  The  Christian  City. 

After  administering  Methodist  work  in  New  York  City, 
he  turned  his  talents  to  Methodism  around  the  world, 
as  corresponding  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sioNs  from  1912  to  1924.  North  was  a  delegate  to  the 
General  Conferences  of  1908,  1916,  1920,  1924,  and 
1928;  to  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conferences  of 


1901,  1911,  1921,  and  1931;  and  to  the  World  Mis- 
sionary Conference  at  Edinburgh  in  1910.  He  served 
on  the  Methodist  Committee  on  Unification  from  1920 
until  1928,  and  on  the  International  Missionary  Coun- 
cil from  its  formation  in  1921  until  1928. 

As  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Methodist  Federation 
for  Socl\l  Service,  he  shared  in  the  drafting  of  the 
Social  Creed  adopted  by  the  General  Conference  of 
1908.  That  same  year  he  helped  to  organize  the  Federal 
Council  of  Churches  and,  as  chairman  of  its  Committee 
on  the  Church  and  Modern  Industry',  secured  the  adop- 
tion of  the  modified  Methodist  Social  Creed  as  "The  Social 
Creed  of  the  Churches."  As  chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Federal  Council  (1912-16)  and  as  its 
president  (1916-20),  he  represented  the  American 
churches  in  several  missions  of  reconciliation  and  relief 
during  the  war  years.  For  these  services  he  was  decorated 
by  the  French  and  Greek  governments. 

Besides  his  famous  "Where  Cross  the  Crowded  Ways  of 
Life,"  Nortli's  poems  include  "O  Master  of  the  Waking 
World"  and  "The  World's  Astir!"  in  The  Methodist 
Hymnal,  as  well  as  in  many  others. 

C.  Lacy,  Frank  Mason  North.  1967. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Creighton   Lacy 


NORTH  AFRICA  PROVISIONAL  ANNUAL  CONFERENCE. 

This  is  a  Conference  organized  of  the  Methodist  work  in 
Algeria  and  Tunisia.  The  beginnings  of  Methodist  work 
in  North  Africa  and  its  growth  into  a  Provisional  Annual 
Conference  are  outlined  under  Algeria  with  certain  of 
the  general  centers  noted.  The  work  in  these  may  be 
briefly  described  as  follows : 

Algiers  with  a  population  of  about  1,000,000,  counting 
its  outlying  suburbs,  is  the  principal  city,  seaport,  and 
educational  center  of  Algeria.  It  began  as  a  trading  post  of 
the  Phoenicians.  The  church  there  began  to  meet  in  a 
rented  hall,  but  now  meets  at  a  new  center  at  El-Biar,  a 
suburb  now  part  of  the  city  of  Algiers.  The  Methodist 
congregation  is  composed  of  both  European  Christians 
and  certain  converts  from  Islam.  A  new  chapel  has  been 
erected  at  La  Palmeraie  in  El-Biar.  Algiers  also  has  a 
Youth  Club,  a  Young  Women's  Hostel  (Villa  Elisabeth), 
a  Social-evangelistic  Center  at  El-Biar,  where  a  visiting 
nurse  ministers  to  numerous  families,  a  Sewing  School 
with  sLxty  students,  while  other  missionaries  work  with 
women  and  girls  through  various  group  activities.  There 
is  also  a  Christian  Social  Center  at  El-Biar,  which  includes 
a  chapel  for  the  Algiers  congregation.  A  trained  Algerian 
social  worker  is  appointed  to  social  service  there.  The 
Christian  Center  of  Maghrebin  Studies  in  which  The 
Methodist  Church  has  a  part,  is  located  at  Le  Polmeioit. 
Merston  Speight,  a  Methodist  minister,  is  one  of  the  two 
men  in  charge  of  the  Center.  The  C.C.E.M.  offers  train- 
ing in  Islamics  to  members  of  all  churches  and  tries  to 
conduct  a  dialogue  with  Moslems. 

Constantine  is  one  of  the  largest  cities  of  eastern  Al- 
geria, about  280  miles  east  of  Algiers.  There  are  about 
200,000  inhabitants,  most  of  whom  are  Arabic-speaking 
Muslims.  It  is  a  very  ancient  city,  formerly  a  fortress  con- 
sidered impregnable  because  of  its  situation. 

The  church  in  Constantine  worshipped  in  a  girls'  home 
chapel  until  a  new  church  building  was  erected.  There 
is  a  Constantine  Boys'  Home,  a  Frances  Nast  Gamble 
Memorial  Home,  which  is  for  Muslim  girls  as  well  as  for 
girls    who    attend   certain    governmental    and    vocational 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTH   ALABAMA   CONFERENCE 


schools.  There  is  also  a  Hannah  Bradley  Goodall  Memorial 
EvangeUstic  Center,  supported  by  the  Women's  Division 
of  Christian  Service,  which  ministers  to  Arabic-speaking 
girls  who  attend  classes  and  clubs  and  use  the  library. 

Fort  Natianal  is  a  strongly  fortified  village  up  in  the 
mountains  of  Great  Kabylia,  eighty  miles  east  of  Algiers. 
Fortifications  here  were  built  by  the  French  in  1857. 
Evangelistic  work  has  been  part  of  the  program  of  both 
Divisions  of  the  General  Board  of  Missions  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church  through  the  past  years.  A  Home  for  Boys 
was  the  outstanding  feature  of  the  Division  of  World 
Missions  and  still  is.  The  home  is  now  under  the  direction 
of  a  Kabyle  Christian. 

Les  Ouadhias  is  a  growing  market  center  thirty  miles 
from  Fort  National,  named  for  a  tribe  of  Kabyles  in  Great 
Kabylia.  A  number  of  governmental  administrative  units 
were  for  a  time  installed  there,  and  many  Kabyles  from 
surrounding  villages  have  settled  at  this  center,  which 
has  a  dispensary  as  well  as  an  evangelistic  center  in  this 
location.  There  are  also  a  library  for  the  men  in  the  vil- 
lage, a  new  athletic  field  for  basketball,  volleyball,  and 
handball,  and  handicrafts  for  women. 

Il-Malen  is  a  Kabyle  village  where  there  is  a  station 
of  The  Methodist  Church.  It  is  located  four  miles  from 
the  railway  and  150  miles  east  of  Algiers,  overlooking 
the  Souman  Valley.  Provision  is  made  to  do  evangelistic 
work,  carry  on  a  dispensary,  as  well  as  a  social  and  recre- 
ational program  for  the  young  men.  Since  1963  there  is 
a  surgeon  at  Il-Maten,  and  a  very  well  equipped  hospital 
was  built  in  1966.  Now  there  are  fifty  beds  and  two  op- 
erating rooms. 

Oran  is  the  capital  city  of  western  Algeria,  and  a  very 
important  seaport  almost  400  miles  west  of  Algiers.  Its 
population  is  something  over  400,000  with  380,000  of 
these  registered  as  Muslims.  The  Methodist  Church  sup- 
ports there  a  small  congregation  composed  mostly  of 
European  Christians  who  worship  in  the  local  church. 
There  is  also  a  weekly  church  school. 

Tunis,  which  is  the  capital  of  Tunisia,  has  an  Arab 
population.  It  is  situated  about  ten  miles  from  ancient 
Carthage  and  is  a  sizeable  seaport  and  the  site  of  a  large 
Muslim  university  and  several  other  important  schools. 

A  small  congregation  worships  in  one  of  the  halls  of 
the  Methodist  Center  at  Tunis,  which  is  jointly  supported 
by  the  Women's  Division  of  Christian  Service  and  the 
Division  of  World  Missions.  The  missionaries  conduct 
evangelistic  meetings  and  visit  in  the  Muslim  homes  and 
work  shops,  taking  advantage  of  everj'  occasion  to  share 
the  gospel  with  the  people.  There  is  also  a  young  men's 
center  and  a  Christian  Social  Center  in  Tunis.  A  center 
for  women  and  girls  was  opened  in  1954. 

Bizerte.  In  this  city  about  forty  miles  away  a  weekly 
worship  is  conducted  as  well  as  meetings  with  young 
people.  Methodist  missionaries  cooperate  closely  with 
Swedish  lady  missionaries  whose  work  is  mostly  with 
women  and  girls. 

North  Africa  Provisional  Annual  Conference  is  part  of 
the  Central  and  Southern  Europe  Central  Confer- 
ence and  is  administered  from  Zurich  with  Bishop  Franz 
Schafer  as  the  present  presiding  bishop.  Rev.  Paul  Bres, 
district  superintendent,  oversees  all  this  area  in  his  one 
district. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 

Project  Handbook,  Overseas  Missions,  1969.  N.  B.  H. 


NORTH  ALABAMA  CONFERENCE  was  created  in  1870. 
Prior  to  that  date,  parts  of  the  territory  which  comprised 
it  had  been  included  at  one  time  or  another  in  the  follow- 
ing conferences;  Western,  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Ala- 
bama (ME),  and  Alabama  (MES). 

Following  treaties  signed  with  the  Chickasaw  Indians 
on  July  23,  1805  and  the  Cherokee  Indians  on  Jan.  7, 
1806,  ratified  on  May  22,  1807  and  Dec.  13,  1808,  respec- 
tively, people  of  wealth  and  culture  poured  into  Madison 
County,  constituted  in  1808.  According  to  Anson  West, 
"The  first  white  people  who  touched  the  soil  of  North 
Alabama  were  Methodist,  and  Methodist  services  were 
held  before  a  preacher  was  assigned.  Joshua  Boucher,  a 
class  leader  and  exhorter,  came  in  1808.  Methodist  So- 
cieties were  organized,  leaders  appointed,  exhorters  li- 
censed. As  early  as  1811  Methodist  Quarterly  Conferences 
were  being  held." 

The  first  Methodist  preacher  appointed  to  the  part  of 
Alabama  now  included  in  the  North  Alabama  Conference 
was  James  Gwin.  A  member  of  the  Western  Conference, 
Gwin  was  appointed  as  "a  missionary  to  go  to  that  section 
in  the  great  bend  of  the  Tennessee  River  and  to  any  con- 
tiguous territory  where  he  might  find  the  opportunity  to 
hoist  the  banner  of  Methodism."  A  year  later  Gwin  re- 
ported to  the  conference  that  the  Fhnt  Circuit  had  been 
organized  with  179  members,  four  of  whom  were  Ne- 
groes. The  Flint  Circuit  had  many  preaching  places, 
among  them  State  Line,  Ford's  Chapel,  Shiloh,  Blue 
Springs,  Lebanon,  and  Hunt  Springs.  Such  was  the  be- 
ginning of  Methodism  in  North  Alabama. 

When  Alabama  became  a  state  in  1819,  there  were 
some  1,600  white  and  206  Negro  Methodists  in  the  area 
which  later  comprised  the  North  Alabama  Conference. 
In  1832,  when  the  Alabama  Conference  was  created,  it 
had  8,196  white  and  2,770  Negro  members.  Whites  and 
colored  usually  worshiped  together,  but  in  some  places, 
particularly  in  Tuscaloosa,  separate  services  were  held.  By 
1830  Alabama  Methodism  had  won  1,028  Indian  mem- 
bers. Five  Indians  were  ordained  as  Methodist  preachers. 
In  the  part  of  Alabama  which  belonged  at  that  time  to 
the  Tennessee  Conference,  there  were  3,607  white,  653 
Negro,  and  260  Indian  members. 

Apparently  the  Methodist  Protestants  formed  the 
first  regular  Methodist  annual  conference  in  Alabama. 
Lyman  Davis  (Democratic  Methodism  in  America,  p. 
239)  says  the  organization  "was  a  process  rather  than  a 
clear-cut  beginning  on  any  single  date."  There  was  a  pre- 
liminary organization  on  May  1,  1829.  A  second  meeting 
in  September  of  the  same  year  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
the  Alabama  Conference  of  the  M.  P.  Church.  Many  of 
the  outstanding  members  of  the  old  church  became  Meth- 
odist Protestants. 

Alabama  Methodists,  like  those  in  other  Southern  states, 
were  involved  in  the  controversy  over  slavery.  Some  Meth- 
odist slave  owners  sought  to  minister  to  the  spiritual  well 
being  of  their  slaves.  Two  colored  missions  were  estab- 
lished in  North  Alabama.  The  wives  and  daughters  of 
some  white  masters  taught  Negroes  in  Sunday  schools. 
But  the  efi^orts  to  ameliorate  the  lot  of  the  slaves  did  not 
satisfy  northern  Methodists,  and  the  M.  E.  Church  divided 
over  slavery  at  the  General  Conference  of  1844.  In 
1845,  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  was  organized,  and  the 
Alabama  Conference  adhered  South. 

Methodism  in  North  Alabama  suffered  from  the  rav- 
ages of  the  Civil  War.  LaGrange  College,  the  oldest 


NORTH    ALABAMA    CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


institution  of  higher  learning  in  the  state,  was  burned  by 
Federal  troops.  The  college  was  founded  in  1829  by  the 
Methodists,  antedating  Randolph-Macon  College  (char- 
tered in  1830),  which  today  has  the  distinction  of  being 
the  oldest  Methodist  college  still  in  existence.  Before  it 
was  destroyed  LaGrange  College  had  served  Alabama 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  and  during  that  time  it 
was  regarded  as  one  of  the  strong  colleges  in  the  United 
States.  The  loss  of  the  school  was  a  great  blow  to  North 
Alabama  Methodists,  Generally  the  destruction  of  property 
in  the  sections  of  Alabama  overrun  by  Federal  troops  was 
great.  Vagabonds  connected  with  the  northern  army  com- 
mitted outrages. 

In  1867,  the  M.  E.  Church  officially  re-entered  Ala- 
bama. Many  Alabamians  regarded  that  church  as  a  politi- 
cal organization  under  the  dominance  of  radical 
politicians.  But  it  is  fair  to  say  that  many  good  Alabamians 
believed  that  the  M.  E.  Church  could  "more  perfectly 
serve  an  important  and  respectable  minority  to  whom  the 
Southern  Church  would  not  be  acceptable."  (Lazenby, 
p.  365).  Thus  there  came  about  the  two  branches  of 
episcopal  Methodism  in  the  state,  and  each  had  an  Ala- 
bama Conference.  It  should  be  said  that  in  spite  of  South- 
ern antipathy  the  Alabama  Conference  (ME)  rendered 
sincere  and  honorable  service. 

At  its  first  session  in  1870,  the  North  Alabama  Con- 
ference had  almost  100  ministers  whose  membership  had 
been  in  other  annual  conferences  serving  the  area,  along 
with  seventeen  others  who  were  admitted  on  trial.  The 
new  conference  had  261  Sunday  schools  with  1,-386  teach- 
ers and  9,952  pupils.  There  were  seven  districts  and 
eighty-si.x  appointments,  including  three  in  college  presi- 
dencies— W.  H.  Anderson,  Florence  Wesleyan  University; 
J.  G.  Wilson,  Huntsville  Female  College;  and  B.  F.  Far- 
rabee,  Tuscaloosa  Female  College.  The  conference 
claimed  Athens  Female  College  which  was  founded  in 
1842,  and  it  held  a  half  interest  in  Southern  University  at 
Greensboro.  At  the  time  of  organization  the  conference 
had  22,648  members,  188  of  them  Negroes. 

In  1872,  the  districts  of  the  conference  were  rear- 
ranged, and  for  the  first  time  there  was  a  Birmingham 
District.  However,  it  contained  only  one  appointment  in 
the  city  of  Birmingham — Birmingham-Elyton  Station. 

On  May  25,  1881,  the  first  issue  of  the  Alabavia  Chris- 
tian Advocate  appeared;  the  paper  was  sponsored  jointly 
with  the  Alabama  Conference.  The  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  was  organized  at  Tuscaloosa  in 
1879.  In  1886,  the  conference  Minutes  carried  the  names 
of  the  officers  of  "the  Woman's  Department  of  the  Board 
of  Church  Extension."  The  Conference  Parsonage  and 
Home  Mission  Society  came  in  1897;  a  year  later  the 
name  was  changed  to  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society. 

Methodism  grew  rapidly  in  the  Binningham  area.  The 
1887  Minutes  included  the  Bessemer  District  with  twelve 
pastoral  charges. 

In  the  field  of  education,  the  conference  emphasized 
the  maintenance  of  both  colleges  and  high  schools.  By 
1892,  there  was  sentiment  in  favor  of  a  "North  Alabama 
Conference  College  for  Men"  to  be  located  in  Birming- 
ham. The  institution  was  opened  under  that  name  in  1898. 

By  the  turn  of  the  century,  the  North  Alabama  Con- 
ference had  made  considerable  progress.  There  were  217 
preachers  (nineteen  retired  and  four  supernumerary), 
617    Sunday    schools    with    3,903    teachers    and    36,407 


pupils,  802  congregations,  670  houses  of  worship  valued 
at  $715,802,  and  161  parsonages. 

Succeeding  years  brought  advances  along  many  lines. 
The  laymen,  led  by  J.  E.  Morris  of  Saganaw,  began  a 
movement  to  provide  homes  for  superannuated  ministers. 
A  board  was  set  up  to  raise  a  fund  for  conference  claim- 
ants, and  a  conference  agency  on  superannuate  homes 
with  a  director  in  charge  was  established. 

The  Wesley  Foundation  movement  was  launched  in 
1904  at  the  Alabama  State  College  for  Girls  at  Monte- 
vallo,  with  the  Methodist  church  in  that  community  minis- 
tering to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  students.  In  1912, 
the  conference  established  a  committee  to  consider  plans 
for  improving  the  temporal,  moral,  and  religious  condi- 
tions of  the  Negro  population.  An  offering  was  taken 
for  Miles  College  in  Birmingham.  In  1913,  seven  mis- 
sionaries were  sent  to  the  foreign  field.  In  the  same  year, 
John  Wesley  Gilbert,  president  of  Miles  College,  ac- 
companied Bishop  Walter  R.  Lambuth  as  he  established 
a  new  mission  at  Wembo-Nyama,  Africa.  Gilbert  urged 
Alabama  Methodists  to  support  the  new  mission. 

In  1917,  Southern  University  and  Birmingham  College 
were  consolidated  to  form  Birmingham-Southern 
College.  In  the  same  year  the  conference  enthusiastical- 
ly endorsed  the  Methodist  Centenary  Movement, 
accepted  its  quota  of  $1,249,083,  and  two  years  later 
reported  it  had  been  oversubscribed. 

In  1929,  the  conference  cast  a  majority  vote  against 
the  proposed  plan  for  the  union  of  American  Methodism, 
the  laymen  being  more  opposed  to  it  than  the  ministers. 
Twelve  years  later  the  vote  for  union  was  344  to  100. 

The  North  Alabama  Conference  went  into  The  Method- 
ist Church  in  1939  with  344  ministers  and  89,297  church 
members.  The  Methodist  Protestant  conference,  after  110 
years  in  the  state,  had  thirty-four  pastoral  appointments 
and  property  valued  at  some  $250,000.  The  Alabama 
Conference  (ME)  had  156  preaching  places,  136  church 
buildings,  and  property  valued  at  $371,481. 

The  first  session  of  the  North  Alabama  Conference  of 
The  Methodist  Church  was  held  at  Woodlawn  Church, 
Binningham  in  November  1939,  with  Bishop  J.  L.  Decell 
in  charge.  Bishop  Wallace  Brown,  who  had  presided  at 
the  final  session  of  the  Alabama  Conference  (ME),  and 
J.  S.  Eddins,  substituting  for  Bishop  James  H.  Straughn 
from  the  former  M.  P.  Church  who  arrived  late,  partici- 
pated in  the  formal  service  recognizing  union.  The  united 
conference  had  eleven  districts,  340  pastoral  charges, 
957  organized  congregations,  and  165,667  church  mem- 
bers. 

The  North  Alabama  Conference  has  grown  with  the 
state.  In  addition  to  the  metropolis  of  Birmingham,  the 
conference  has  within  its  boundaries  such  strong  cities  as 
Anniston,  Bessemer,  Decatur,  Gadsden,  Florence, 
Huntsville,  Jasper,  and  Tuscaloosa.  The  conference  has 
magnified  the  program  of  the  rural  church,  and  it  has 
established  Camp  Sumatanga.  The  two  Alabama  con- 
ferences have  greatly  enlarged  the  Methodist  Hospital  in 
Birmingham,  and  they  joined  in  building  Fair  Haven  Home 
for  the  Aging  in  the  same  city  in  1961.  In  1970,  the 
North  Alabama  Conference  reported  517  pastoral 
charges  and  195,301  members. 

General  Minutes,  UMC. 
Journal  of  the  North  Alabama  Conference. 
M.  E.  Lazenby,  Alaharrui  and  West  Florida.  1960. 
A.  West,  Alabama.  1893.  G.  Fred  Cooper 

Foster  K.  Gamble 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTH   CAROLINA 


NORTH  ANDOVER,  MASSACHUSETTS,  USA.  Rolling 
Ridge,  Methodist  Center  for  church-related  activities,  lo- 
cated at  660  Great  Pond  Road,  was  purchased  in  1948 
through  the  initiative  of  laymen,  and  is  controlled  by  the 
New  England  Conference  and  its  Board  of  Education. 
This  thirty-eight  acre  estate,  twenty-five  miles  north  of 
Boston,  can  accommodate  125  people  in  a  campus-type 
setting  of  buildings  and  spacious  grounds  on  a  lakeside 
location.  Originally  designed  for  summer  youth  programs, 
the  facility  is  now  operated  year  round  for  seminars,  in- 
stitutes, and  week-end  retreats  for  all  age  groups  under 
the  administration  of  a  bishop-appointed  "Dean-Director" 
and  a  small  staff. 

Minutes  of  the  New  England  Conference,  1966. 

Ernest  R.  Case 

NORTH  ARKANSAS  CONFERENCE  was  formed  in  1914 
by  merging  the  Arkansas  and  White  River  Conferences. 
(See  Arkansas  for  dates  of  predecessor  conferences  and 
early  history. )  The  territory  included  in  the  new  confer- 
ence was  identical  with  that  of  the  Arkansas  Conference 
before  it  was  divided  in  1870  to  form  the  White  River 
Conference. 

The  two  conferences  were  consolidated  in  1914  for 
practical  reasons.  As  matters  stood,  they  were  too  small 
in  men  and  resources  for  economy  of  administration  and 
for  the  appropriate  appointment  of  the  preachers  to  the 
churches.  Moreover,  by  1914  improved  means  of  travel 
made  it  possible  for  preachers  to  gather  for  annual  con- 
ference sessions  from  over  a  wider  geographical  area.  The 
new  body  was  called  the  North  Arkansas  Conference  be- 
cause the  name  properly  identified  its  location  in  the 
state. 

The  North  Arkansas  Conference  includes  the  fertile 
farming  territory  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  state, 
locally  called  the  "bottom,"  and  the  Ozark  Mountain  re- 
gion in  the  northwest  which  is  referred  to  as  the  "hill 
country." 

The  Western  Methodist  Assembly,  established  by  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South,  in  1923,  is  at  Mount  Sequoyah, 
Fayetteville.  Traditionally  the  superintendent  has  been  a 
minister  from  the  North  Arkansas  Conference.  Hendbix 
College,  since  1934  the  only  Methodist  institution  of 
higher  learning  in  Arkansas,  is  within  the  bounds  of  the 
conference  at  Conway.  The  conference  works  cordially 
with  the  Little  Rock  Conference  in  support  of  many 
area-wide  and  denominational  causes. 

When  organized  in  1914,  the  North  Arkansas  Confer- 
ence had  180  pastoral  charges  and  58,163  members.  In 
1970,  there  were  six  districts,  213  pastoral  charges,  and 
98,880  members.  The  churches,  parsonages,  and  other 
property  belonging  to  the  conference  were  valued  at  more 
than  $37,000,000. 

J.  A.  Anderson,  Arkansas  Methodism.  1935. 

H.  Jewell,  Arkamas.  1892. 

Minutes  of  the  Nortli  Arkansas  Conference.  R.  E.  L.  Beabden 

NORTH  CAROLINA  is  one  of  the  thirteen  original  states, 
lying  between  Virginu  and  South  Carolina  and  border- 
ing on  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  first  permanent  settlement 
in  North  Carolina  was  made  in  1660.  The  land  area  of  the 
state  is  approximately  50,000  square  miles,  and  its  popula- 
tion in  1970  was  4,961,832. 

North  Carolina's  wide  coastal  plain  is  well  suited   to 


farming,  and  though  the  region  has  some  industry,  it  is 
primarily  agricultural,  growing  cotton  and  tobacco;  it 
leads  the  nation  in  the  production  of  the  latter.  The  pied- 
mont section  has  become  highly  industrialized  and  urban- 
ized, making  North  Carohna  the  foremost  state  in  the 
production  of  textiles,  tobacco,  brick,  and  household  fur- 
niture. The  scenic  Blue  Ridge  and  Great  Smoky  Moun- 
tains in  the  west  make  tourism  an  important  industry. 
More  than  125,000  students  are  enrolled  in  seventy  senior 
and  junior  colleges  and  universities  in  the  state,  Duke 
and  the  University  of  North  Carolina  being  the  strongest 
educational  institutions. 

Peculiar  to  the  geography  of  North  Carolina  and  domi- 
nating its  history  more  than  any  other  factor  are  the  Caro- 
lina Banks — long  sandbar-like  islands  along  the  coast 
which  block  the  rivers  of  the  piedmont  and  cause  them 
to  flow  for  the  most  part  into  large  bodies  of  shallow 
water  called  sounds.  These  banks  have  left  the  state  with- 
out a  single  outstanding  port  for  oceangoing  ships,  and 
they  account  for  the  fact  that  until  recently  North  Carolina 
was  a  state  of  small  farms  without  large  cities  or  towns. 

The  lack  of  a  port  tended,  through  much  of  North 
Carolina's  history,  to  tie  the  northern  part  of  the  state 
economically  to  Virginia  and  the  southern  part  to  South 
Carolina,  while  the  mountain  region  developed  close  ties 
with  Tennessee.  As  a  result,  sectionalism  became  more 
dominant  in  the  political  and  religious  life  of  North  Caro- 
lina than  in  most  states.  Sectionalism  in  the  state  became 
more  pronounced  because  the  settlement  of  the  western 
piedmont  was  not  effected  by  a  westward  movement  of 
people  from  the  coastal  plain,  but  rather  by  a  sudden 
influx  of  immigrants  who  came  down  the  valley  of  Vir- 
ginia, turned  east  through  the  gaps  in  the  Blue  Ridge, 
and  spread  over  the  piedmont.  Later  they  were  joined  by 
Marylanders  and  Virginians  moving  west  and  turning 
south  when  they  reached  the  Blue  Ridge.  Prominent 
among  those  who  came  from  Pennsylvania  were  the 
Scotch-Irish  and  the  Germans. 

Organized  Methodism  entered  North  Carolina  from 
Virginia  about  the  beginning  of  the  American  Revolution. 
To  be  sure,  George  Whitefield  made  several  trips 
across  the  colony  between  1738  and  1770,  and  in  late 
1772  Joseph  Pilmore  preached  in  the  sound  region  en 
route  to  Charleston,  but  the  impact  of  those  two  men 
was  not  enduring.  The  first  permanent  foothold  of  Meth- 
odism in  the  colony  was  in  the  western  coastal  plain  and 
eastern  piedmont  just  below  Brunswick  County,  Va.  It 
was  made  possible  by  the  preaching  of  Robert  Williams 
there  in  1774.  By  1776  there  was  a  North  Carolina  Circuit 
with  683  members.  From  that  time  forward  Methodism 
spread  rapidly  in  North  Carolina.  By  1779  there  were 
three  circuits  with  1,467  members  totally  within  the 
state.  These  circuits  extended  from  the  Virginia  line  down 
past  the  center  of  the  state,  while  at  the  same  time  Vir- 
ginia's Pittsylvania  Circuit  was  extending  into  the  western 
piedmont  and  the  upper  Yadkin  valley. 

The  Yadkin  Circuit,  organized  in  1780  by  Andrew  Year- 
gan,  spread  Methodism  around  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
into  upper  South  Carolina.  The  Salisbury  Circuit  began 
the  spread  of  Methodism  down  the  Yadkin  and  Pee  Dee 
Rivers  under  the  leadership  of  Beverly  Allen  in  1783, 
and  the  large  Bertie  Circuit  formed  in  the  same  year  was 
indicative  of  the  spread  of  Methodism  eastward.  In  1787 
a  Bladen  Circuit  was  formed  for  the  lower  Cape  Fear 
region,  and  in  1789  Daniel  Asbury  organized  a  group  of 
Virginia  Methodists  who  had  moved  to  the  lower  Catawba 


NORTH   CAROLINA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


River.  In  1793  Samuel  Edney  was  sent  across  the  moun- 
tains to  organize  the  Swannanoa  Circuit.  Thus  except  for 
a  few  areas,  Methodism  succeeded  in  covering  the  entire 
state  of  North  Carolina  in  a  little  less  than  two  decades. 

The  spread  of  Methodism  in  the  piedmont  was  most 
successful  among  the  Marylanders  and  Virginians,  many 
of  whom  were  already  Methodists  when  they  moved 
south.  Some  of  the  Scotch-Irish  people  had  been  influ- 
enced in  Pennsylvania  by  the  preaching  of  George  White- 
field  and  Jonathan  Edwards  and  were  therefore  ready  to 
join  the  Methodists,  especially  during  the  great  revival  of 
1801-02.  There  were  some  followers  of  Philip  William 
Otterbein  among  the  Germans  in  North  Carohna,  but 
the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  which 
he  organized  did  not  appear  in  the  state  as  a  separate 
organization. 

During  the  spread  of  Methodism  over  North  Carolina, 
Francis  Asbury  often  traveled  through  the  central  and 
eastern  sections  holding  important  conferences.  The  first 
annual  conference  in  America,  following  the  Christmas 
Conference  at  Baltimore,  was  conducted  by  Bishops 
Asbury  and  Coke  at  the  home  of  Major  Green  Hill  near 
Louisburg,  April  20,  1785.  The  house  is  now  one  of  the 
historic  shrines  of  American  Methodism.  Asbury  held  a 
conference  at  Salisbury  in  1786  and  conducted  three  at 
the  home  of  George  McKnight  near  Salem — 1789,  1790, 
and  1791.  With  the  development  of  conferences  on  the 
frontier  across  the  mountains,  the  center  for  Methodism  in 
the  state  shifted  eastward,  and  conferences  were  again 
held  at  the  home  of  Green  Hill  in  1792  and  1793,  the 
last  to  be  conducted  in  the  state  during  the  eighteenth 
century. 

When  the  1796  General  Conference  created  con- 
ferences with  fixed  geographical  boundaries.  North  Caro- 
lina was  divided  between  the  Virginia  and  South  Carolina 
Conferences.  Then  when  the  Holston  Conference  was 
formed  in  1824,  the  section  of  North  Carolina  across  the 
Blue  Ridge  went  with  that  body.  In  1836  the  North 
Carolina  Conference  was  formed  by  dividing  the  Vir- 
ginia Conference,  thus  beginning  a  long  drawn  out  pro- 
cess whereby  all  of  North  Carolina  Methodism  was  finally 
placed  in  annual  conferences  which  were  wholly  within 
the  state.  Over  much  opposition  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference acquired  the  churches  in  the  Cape  Fear  Valley 
in  southeastern  North  Carolina  from  the  South  Carohna 
Conference  in  1850,  and  it  got  the  work  around  Char- 
lotte and  west  of  the  Catawba  River  from  the  same  con- 
ference in  1870.  During  the  1850's  there  was  a  strong 
movement  in  the  North  Carolina  Conference  for  indepen- 
dence from  Virginia.  The  goal  was  achieved  when  the 
North  Carolina  Conference  withdrew  support  from  Ran- 
dolph-Macon College  and  the  Richmond  Christian  Ad- 
vocate, the  two  institutions  which  the  two  conferences  had 
held  in  common  up  to  that  time.  By  the  end  of  the  decade 
the  North  Carolina  Conference  had  established  the  North 
Carolina  Christian  Advocate,  and  Trinity  College  near 
High  Point  (later  moved  to  Durham),  the  forerunner  of 
Duke  University.  During  the  same  period  the  state  line 
from  the  sounds  to  the  mountains  became  the  boundary 
between  the  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  Conferences. 
When  the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference  was 
formed  in  1890  it  included  the  mountain  section  of  the 
state  which  had  been  in  the  Holston  Conference  since 
1824,  and  in  1894  the  four  counties  in  the  extreme  north- 
eastern section  of  North  Carolina  were  taken  from  the 
Virginia  Conference   and  placed   in   the   North  Carolina 


Conference.  This  completed  the  process  of  unifying  North 
Carolina  Methodism  in  annual  conferences  wholly  within 
the  state. 

Another  factor  which  complicated  the  growth  of  Meth- 
odism in  North  Carolina  was  the  demand  for  democracy  in 
the  church.  It  was  first  felt  when  James  O'Kelly  and  his 
associates  walked  out  of  the  1792  General  Conference. 
O'Kelly  had  a  strong  following  in  the  northern  piedmont 
section  of  North  Carolina  which  resulted  in  the  formation 
of  the  Christian  Church  (now  a  part  of  the  United  Church 
of  Christ).  O'Kelly's  followers  established  Elon  College 
near  Burlington,  N.  C,  which  still  survives  as  an  A-grade 
college. 

Of  course,  the  Methodist  Protestant  schism  in  the 
1820's  was  a  more  important  result  of  the  demand  for 
democracy  in  the  church.  On  Dec.  19,  1828  a  group  of 
preachers  and  lavTnen  met  at  Whitaker's  Chapel  in  Hali- 
fax County,  N.  C,  and  organized  the  first  M.  P.  Confer- 
ence in  the  land.  The  movement  spread  to  Guilford 
County  the  next  year,  and  by  the  time  of  the  Civil  War 
there  were  Methodist  Protestants  in  most  of  the  rural 
sections  of  the  state.  As  time  passed  the  North  Caro- 
lina Conference  became  one  of  the  stronger  M.  P.  con- 
ferences in  the  United  States. 

While  the  North  Carolina  Conference  and  all  others 
which  included  parts  of  the  state  within  their  boundaries 
adhered  South  after  the  division  in  1844,  there  was  some 
dissatisfaction  with  that  action.  Several  congregations  in 
the  old  Quaker  section  of  Guilford  and  surrounding  coun- 
ties affiliated  with  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
and  sustained  a  precarious  relationship  with  that  body 
until  they  were  driven  underground  or  out  of  the  state 
during  the  Civil  War.  In  1870  the  group  reorganized  at 
Colfax,  Guilford  County,  and  in  1879  they  formed  a  North 
Carolina  Conference  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
with  three  circuits.  Gro\vth  was  slow  until  the  turn  of  the 
century  when  their  emphasis  on  holiness  drew  many  who 
thought  the  older  churches  were  surrendering  an  impor- 
tant emphasis.  In  1965  the  conference  had  two  districts, 
ninety-four  preaching  places,  4,639  members  (a  few  of 
them  in  South  Carolina),  and  a  campground  and  central 
meeting  place  at  Colfax. 

Following  the  Civil  War  the  M.  E.  Church  reentered 
North  Carolina,  and  in  1867  some  of  the  mountain  con- 
gregations were  received  into  the  Holston  Conference 
(ME)  which  had  been  organized  in  1865.  The  Northern 
Church  formed  a  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  Mission 
Conference  in  1867  which  was  composed  of  both  white 
and  Negro  ministers  and  churches.  Two  years  later  the 
mission  conference  was  divided  to  form  the  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina  Conferences.  In  1879  the  white  ministers 
and  churches  were  set  off  from  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference into  a  conference  which  became  the  Blue  Ridge 
Conference.  In  1896  the  Blue  Ridge  Conference  was 
divided  to  form  the  Atlantic  Mission  Conference  in  eastern 
North  Carolina,  but  in  1912  the  two  were  merged  to 
form  the  Blue  Ridge-Atlantic  Conference  which  con- 
tinued until  unification  in  1939.  The  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference continued  as  a  Negro  body  until  unification  when 
it  became  a  conference  in  the  Central  Jurisdiction. 
Then  in  1964  it  was  merged  with  the  Virginia  churches 
of  the  Washington  Conference  ( CJ )  to  become  the  North 
Carolina- Virginia  Conference.  The  latter  was  merged 
with  the  overlying  conferences  of  the  Southeastern 
Jurisdiction  in  1968. 

Following  the  Civil  War,  many  of  the  M.  P.  congrega- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTH    CAROLINA   CHRISTIAN   ADVOCATE 


tions  in  North  Carolina  joined  "the  Methodist  Church" 
(1866-77)  which  was  made  up  of  the  northern  confer- 
ences of  the  M.  P.  Church.  Shortly  before  the  two 
branches  reunited  in  1877  as  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church,  the  "Methodist  Church"  reported  an  East  North 
Carolina  and  a  Western  North  Carolina  Conference.  There 
was  friction  between  these  two  bodies  and  the  North 
Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.  P.  Church,  and  the  latter 
conference,  while  voting  for  the  reunion  of  the  northern 
and  southern  branches  of  Methodist  Protestantism  in  1877, 
seemed  determined  not  to  receive  some  of  the  preachers 
and  churches  of  the  East  and  Western  North  Carolina 
Conferences.  As  a  result,  some  of  the  members  of  the 
East  and  Western  North  Carolina  Conferences  formed  the 
Deep  River  Conference  in  1878  which  continued  until 
1891  and  then  disintegrated  with  most  of  its  congregations 
going  into  the  Blue  Ridge  Conference  (MEC). 

While  the  M.  E.  Church  succeeded  in  gathering  many 
Negro  members  from  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  into  its 
fold  immediately  following  the  Civil  War,  many  more 
were  attracted  to  the  Negro  Methodist  denominations. 
Soon  after  the  Federal  troops  occupied  the  sound  region 
of  North  Carolina,  J.  W.  Hood  began  to  organize  the 
A.M.E.  ZiON  Chubch  there.  The  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence of  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  was  organized  in  1868. 
Today  it  is  the  strongest  Negro  Methodist  church  in  the 
state,  with  seven  conferences  and  Livingstone  College 
at  Salisbury.  A  North  Carolina  A.M.E.  conference  was 
organized  at  Wilmington  in  1868,  and  that  church  now 
has  two  conferences  in  the  state.  By  1873  the  C.M.E. 
Church,  fostered  by  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  had  a 
North  Carolina  Conference.  In  1965  it  had  9,200  members 
in  the  state. 

When  American  Methodists  considered  union  in  1925, 
the  Blue  Ridge-Atlantic  Conference  (ME)  and  the  North 
Carolina  M.  P.  Conference  almost  unanimously  favored 
the  move,  while  the  two  Southern  Methodist  conferences 
failed  to  ratify  it.  By  1938,  however,  when  another  plan 
for  unification  was  presented,  the  vote  against  it  in  the 
two  Southern  conferences  was  negligible.  In  the  merger, 
the  boundaries  of  the  two  conferences  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South  became  the  boundaries  of  the  conferences 
of  The  Methodist  Church  in  the  state.  The  five  North 
Carolina  annual  conferences — two  MES,  two  ME,  and 
one  MP — brought  into  The  Methodist  Church  in  1939  a 
total  of  767  charges  and  358,265  members. 

The  Lake  Junaluska  Methodist  Assembly,  Inc.  near 
AsHEviLLE,  which  now  belongs  to  the  Southeastern  Jur- 
isdiction, is  within  the  bounds  of  the  Western  North  Caro- 
lina Conference.  With  some  2,500  acres.  Lake  Junaluska 
is  the  largest  summer  assembly  in  the  church.  It  has  a 
250-acre  lake,  a  large  number  of  lodges,  and  some  500 
private  homes.  The  World  Methodist  Building  at  Lake 
Junaluska  is  headquarters  for  the  World  Methodist 
Council,  the  Commission  on  Archives  and  History  of 
The  United  Methodist  Church,  and  the  International 
Methodist  Historical  Society. 

Seven  men  have  been  elected  bishop  from  conferences 
in  North  Carolina:  James  Atkins  (1906),  John  C.  Kilgo 
(1910),  Robert  E.  Jones  (1920),  William  Walter 
Peele  (1938),  Robert  N.  Brooks  and  Paul  N.  Career 
(1944),  and  W.  Kenneth  Goodson    (1964). 

North  Carolina  Methodism  owns  and  controls,  or  is 
affiiliated  with,  eight  strong  educational  institutions:  Duke 
University  and  the  Duke  Divinity  School;  Bennett 
College  at  Greensboro;   Brevard  Junior  College  at 


Brevard;  Greensboro  College  which  is  the  second  oldest 
permanent  college  for  women  in  the  United  States;  High 
Point  College,  which  was  founded  by  the  former  M.  P. 
Church;  Methodist  College  at  Fayetteville;  North 
Carolina  Wesleyan  College  at  Rocky  Mount;  and  Pfeif- 
FER  College  at  Misenheimer.  The  total  enrollment  in 
the  eight  institutions  in  1968  was  more  than  12,000. 

In  1970  North  Carolina  Methodism  had  two  episcopal 
areas  (Charlotte  and  Raleigh),  two  annual  conferences, 
twenty-five  districts,  1,209  charges,  1,580  ministers,  494,- 
094  members,  and  property  valued  at  $271,610,462. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  conferences  in  North  Carolina. 

A.   M.   Chreitzberg,   Early  Methodism   in  the  Carolinas.    1897. 

E.  T.  Clark,  Western  North  Carolina.  1966. 

W.  L.  Grissoni,  North  Carolina.  1905.  Homer  Keever 

NORTH  CAROLINA  CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE  was  started 
at  a  session  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  (MES) 
held  at  Pittsboro,  N.  C,  in  1855.  At  that  conference  a 
resolution  was  passed  approving  the  establishment  of  a 
book  store  and  a  religious  newspaper. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  carry  out  the  proposal, 
and  the  first  issue  was  produced  at  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  in 
January  of  1856  under  the  editorship  of  R.  T.  Heflin.  He 
continued  as  editor  until  1861,  when  W.  E.  Pell  took 
over.  However,  in  the  same  year,  the  young  paper  sus- 
pended publication  on  account  of  the  Civil  War.  It  was 
revived  in  the  next  year  and  continued  under  great  diffi- 
culty until  March,  1865,  when  the  prostrate  economic 
condition  of  the  state  compelled  a  second  shut-down. 

The  determination  to  have  a  Methodist  publication  in 
North  Carolina  persisted,  and  a  semi-official  journal 
called  the  Enterprise,  and  later  the  Methodic  Enterprise, 
came  into  being  also  at  Raleigh  in  1865.  It  was  published 
by  L.  Branson,  a  Methodist  local  preacher,  who  had  the 
active  and  able  assistance  of  H.  T.  Hudson,  then  pastor  of 
Edenton  Street  Church  in  Raleigh. 

The  next  year  the  North  Carolina  Conference  voted 
approval  of  a  direct  successor  to  the  defunct  North  Caro- 
lina Christian  Advocate  which  was  to  be  called  The  Epis- 
copal Methodist  and  to  be  edited  by  Hudson. 

Within  a  few  months,  however,  the  name  Advocate 
returned  to  the  masthead,  with  variations  thereafter  be- 
tween the  name  Christian  Advocate  and  Raleigh  Christian 
Advocate.  J.  B.  Bobbitt  took  over  editorial  duties  in  1868 
and  continued  in  this  capacity  until  1878. 

From  1868  until  1894  there  was  a  rapid  succession  of 
editors  and  publishers.  Upon  formation  of  the  Western 
North  Carolina  Conference  in  1890  the  offices  of  the 
paper  were  moved  to  Greensboro,  under  sponsorship  of 
both  conferences.  The  original  name.  North  Carolina 
Christian  Advocate,  came  back  into  use  in  1896,  but 
three  years  later  the  North  Carolina  Conference  withdrew 
support  and  established  the  Raleigh  Christian  Advocate, 
with  T.  N.  Ivey  as  editor.  Eight  years  later  he  left  this 
position  to  become  editor  of  the  church's  general  organ, 
the  Nashville  Christian  Advocate. 

Both  publications,  the  Raleigh  Christian  Advocate  and 
the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate,  continued  on 
parallel  courses  until  efforts  to  merge  the  two  into  one 
publication  finally  met  with  success  in  1919.  The  two 
editors,  L.  S.  Massey  of  the  Raleigh  Cliristian  Advocate 
and  H.  M.  Blair  of  the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advo- 
cate, became  co-editors,  with  the  latter  name  being  re- 


NORTH   CAROLINA   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


tained  for  the  publication.  The  next  year  Gilbert  T. 
RowE  was  named  editor,  only  to  leave  within  a  year  to 
become  Book  Editor  in  Nashville. 

Thereupon  A.  W.  Plyler  of  the  Western  North  Caro- 
lina Conference  assumed  the  editor.ship  and  began  a  long 
and  fruitful  service  which  extended  for  over  twenty  years. 
His  twin  brother,  M.  T.  Plyler,  was  elected  co-editor  in 
1927.  The  two  of  them  formed  a  remarkable  journalistic 
team,  which  did  not  terminate  until  their  retirement  in 
1945. 

In  1927  the  presendy  occupied  building  was  erected 
in  Greensboro.  During  the  twenty  years  thereafter  the 
paper  made  steady  advances  in  circulation  and  influence. 

Its  editorial  voice  was  heard  widely  over  the  Church, 
and  it  came  to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  leading  reli- 
gious journals  in  the  United  States.  Perhaps  the  most 
significant  achievement  of  the  remarkable  Plyler  twins 
was  in  resolving  the  inter-conference  problems  and  the 
financial  stresses  which  had  hampered  the  paper's  progress 
in  past  years. 

Since  1945,  the  editorial  chair  has  been  filled  by  a 
series  of  able  writers  and  interpreters  of  church  affairs. 
Henry  C.  Sprinkle,  Jr.,  served  from  1945  to  1949  when  he 
left  to  become  editor  of  The  World  Outlook.  Thereupon, 
Cecil  W.  Robbins  took  the  editorial  helm  until  his  resig- 
nation in  19.55  to  become  president  of  Louisburg  Col- 
lege. The  next  ten  years  were  divided  equally  between 
R.  P.  Marshall  and  S.  J.  Starnes,  each  of  whom  served 
with  distinction.  The  present  editor,  James  C.  Stokes,  as- 
sumed the  position  in  June  1966. 

The  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate  continues  as 
the  official  publication  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference 
and  the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church  and  these  conferences  control 
its  operation  through  a  Methodist  Board  of  Publication, 
Inc.  In  addition  to  publishing  the  weekly  religious  journal, 
the  enterprise  also  does  job  printing  under  the  trade  name 
The  Piedmont  Press.  The  total  assets  of  the  corporation  at 
present  are  valued  at  close  to  half  a  million  dollars. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  CONFERENCE  (MP)  was  organized 
at  Whit.^ker's  Chapel,  near  Enfield,  N.  C,  Dec.  19, 
1828,  with  Eli  B.  Whitaker,  a  preacher,  presiding.  It  was 
the  first  Methodist  Protestant  annual  conference,  even 
antedating  the  organization  of  the  M.  P.  General  Con- 
ference. Because  of  the  conference's  priority  and  because 
of  the  location  of  its  organizing  session,  Whitaker's  Chapel 
was  regarded  through  the  years  as  the  historic  Shrine 
of  democratic  Methodism  in  America.  The  organizing  ses- 
sion of  the  conference  was  composed  of  nine  preachers, 
five  local  preachers,  and  twelve  laymen. 

For  more  than  sixty  years  the  M.  P.  Church  in  North 
Carolina  was  predominantly  a  rural  denomination.  All  of 
the  earlier  churches  were  in  the  open  country.  Attempts 
to  establish  congregations  in  the  cities  failed  until  around 
1890.  By  1896  the  conference  had  organized  societies  and 
built  churches  in  nine  cities,  including  Greensboro,  Ashe- 
boro,  and  High  Point. 

For  the  first  half  century  there  was  sentiment  in  favor 
of  dividing  the  conference  into  eastern  and  western 
branches.  "The  division  was  effected  at  the  session  at  Yad- 
kin College  in  1878.  The  division  left  the  North  Carolina 
Conference  with  nine  charges  and  2,500  members,  and 
the  new  Western  North  Carolina  Conference  with  twenty- 
one  charges  and  8,500  members.  At  Tabernacle  Church, 


Guilford  County,  in  1880,  the  two  conferences  merged  to 
form  again  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 

The  North  Carolina  Conference  was  typically  southern 
in  its  attitude  toward  slavery.  Its  delegates  to  the  1838 
General  Conference  were  instructed  to  say,  if  the  subject 
of  slavery  was  broached,  that  the  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence did  "not  consider  that  a  debatable  subject." 

In  1866  when  the  northern  conferences  of  the  M.  P. 
Church  withdrew  and  formed  "the  Methodist  Church," 
some  M.  P.  ministers  and  churches  in  North  Carolina  an- 
nounced that  they  had  suffered  for  their  anti-slavery  views 
and  asked  for  affiliation  with  the  new  denomination.  The 
Methodist  Church  then  recognized  the  small  group  as  the 
North  Carolina  Conference.  In  1875  this  North  Carolina 
Conference  divided  to  form  the  East  North  Carolina  and 
the  Western  Noith  Carolina  Conferences  which  officially 
came  back  into  the  M.  P.  Church  two  years  later  when 
the  Methodist  Church  merged  with  it.  However,  a  few- 
ministers  and  churches  of  the  East  North  Carolina  and 
Western  North  Carolina  Conferences  either  felt  unwel- 
come in  or  were  unwilling  to  return  to  the  M.  P.  Church, 
and  they  proceeded  to  fonn  the  Deep  River  Conference. 
The  Deep  River  Conference  continued  until  about  1891 
when  it  dissolved  and  most  of  its  churches  entered  the 
Blue  Ridge  Conference  (ME). 

As  time  passed,  the  North  Carolina  Conference  was  the 
only  one  in  the  M.  P.  Church  to  maintain  its  own  official 
paper.  It  published  a  paper  called  the  Watchman  and 
Harbinger  from  1862  to  the  end  of  the  Civil  War.  Then  in 
1873  it  maintained  the  Central  Protestant  for  eighteen 
years.  From  1894  to  1939  Our  Church  Record  (Method- 
ist Protestant  Herald  after  1910),  a  weekly,  was  published 
in  Greensboro.  J.  F.  McCulloch,  former  president  of 
Adrian  College,  Michigan,  was  the  able  editor  of  the 
paper  for  forty  years.  His  proclaimed  purpose  in  becoming 
editor  was  to  educate  the  people  to  the  need  of  a  M.  P. 
College  in  North  Carolina,  and  after  thirty  years  he 
achieved  his  goal.  The  paper  merged  with  the  North 
Carolina  Christian  Advocate  at  unification  in  1939. 

The  North  Carolina  Conference  gave  much  attention  to 
education.  During  the  early  years  it  officially  approved 
schools  in  other  states  which  had  M.  P.  connections.  Be- 
tween 1855  and  1860  the  conference  projected  James- 
town Female  College,  but  unfortunately  it  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire  in  1861.  Yadkin  College,  ten  miles  west 
of  Lexington,  began  as  an  academy  about  1853  and  was 
chartered  as  a  college  in  1861.  At  the  time  it  had  about 
eighty  boarding  students.  When  the  war  began  sixty  stu- 
dents entered  the  Confederate  Army.  After  the  war  the 
school  resumed  operations,  and  in  spite  of  debts  and 
difficulties  it  carried  on  until  1924. 

In  1921  High  Point  gave  eighty  acres  of  land  and 
$100,000  in  money  for  a  M.  P.  college.  Robert  M.  An- 
drews, a  member  of  the  conference,  led  in  raising  addi- 
tional funds,  and  was  then  chosen  as  the  first  president  of 
High  Point  College  which  opened  in  1924.  The  college 
proved  to  be  an  asset  to  the  conference.  In  1938  it  was 
said  that  practically  every  young  man  entering  the  con- 
ference in  recent  years  had  been  educated  at  High  Point 
College.  Today  High  Point  College  is  supported  by  the 
Western  North  Carolina  and  North  Carolina  Con- 
ferences. It  has  an  endowment  of  more  than  $2,000,000, 
a  plant  valued  at  about  $6,000,000,  and  over  1,200  stu- 
dents. 

Largely  through  the  efforts  of  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference, 


WORLD   METHODISM 

the  Methodist  Protestant  Children's  Home  was  opened  at 
Denton,  N.  C,  in  1910,  and  moved  to  High  Point  in  1913. 
It  was  the  only  such  institution  in  the  M.  P.  Church.  At 
unification  in  1939  arrangements  were  made  to  close  the 
home  and  transfer  its  ninety-seven  children  to  the  homes 
of  the  two  North  Carolina  Conferences  of  The  Methodist 
Church  at  Winston-Salem  and  Raleigh. 

William  H.  Wills,  an  outstanding  minister,  served  the 
North  Carolina  Conference  both  as  secretary  and  presi- 
dent (several  times),  and  in  1867  was  elected  president 
of  the  M.  P.  General  Conference. 

In  1937  the  North  Carolina  Conference  reported  224 
churches,  80  ministers,  30,604  members,  and  churches  and 
parsonages  valued  at  $1,775,900.  At  the  time  of  unifica- 
tion it  was  one  of  the  largest  conferences  in  the  Methodist 
Protestant  connection. 

Minutes  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 
].  E.  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Confer- 
ence,  Methodist   Protestant   Church.    Greensboro:    McCulloch 
and  Swain,  1939. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church. 
1898.  Albea   Godbold 

NORTH  CAROLINA  CONFERENCE  was  created  by  the 
1836  General  Conference.  It  was  set  off  from  the  Vir- 
ginia Conference  at  the  meeting  of  the  latter  in  Peters- 
burg, Va.,  in  January  1837,  and  was  organized  at  that 
time  with  Bishop  Beverly  Waugh  presiding.  The  ap- 
pointments of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  were  made 
separately  from  those  of  the  Virginia  Conference  at  the 
Petersburg  session.  The  new  conference  began  with  five 
districts,  Raleigh,  Newbern,  Roanoke,  Danville,  and  Salis- 
bury; forty-four  charges,  and  15,062  white  and  3,666 
colored  members.  In  January  1838,  the  conference  met  at 
Greensboro,  N.  C,  with  Bishop  Thomas  A.  Morbis  pre- 
siding. The  territory  of  the  conference  was  North  Carolina 
east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains,  except  the  extreme 
northeastern  counties  which  continued  in  the  Virginia 
Conference  until  1894,  and  the  southern  segment  of  the 
state  including  Wilmington,  Charlotte,  and  Lincolnton, 
part  of  which  continued  in  the  South  Carolina  Con- 
ference until  1850,  and  the  remainder  until  1870. 

Though  the  North  Carolina  Conference  was  not  orga- 
ized  until  forty  years  after  the  General  Conference  created 
annual  conferences  with  definite  geographical  boundaries, 
the  first  conference  of  Methodist  preachers  following  the 
organization  of  the  M.  E.  Church  at  the  Christmas  Con- 
ference was  conducted  by  Bishops  Asbury  and  Coke  in 
April  1785,  at  the  home  of  Major  Green  Hill  near 
Louisburg  within  the  bounds  of  what  is  now  the  North 
Carolina  Conference.  (See  North  Carolina  for  begin- 
nings of  Methodism  in  the  state.)  The  Hill  House  is  now 
a  national  Methodist  Historic  Shrine.  There  were  Method- 
ist societies  near  the  Virginia  line  in  eastern  North  Caro- 
lina as  early  as  1774,  and  there  was  a  North  Carolina 
Circuit  by  1776.  By  the  time  the  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence was  formed  in  1837  there  were  nearly  30,000  white 
and  about  12,000  colored  members  of  the  M.  E.  Church 
in  the  state. 

From  its  beginning  the  North  Carolina  Conference  co- 
operated with  the  Virginia  Conference  in  supporting  the 
Richmond  Christian  Advocate  and  Randolph-Macon 
College  (chartered  in  1830).  A  few  years  later  when 
Greensboro  College  was  opened  (1846),  the  two  con- 
ferences joined  in  its  support.  But  in  time  the  North  Caro- 


NORTH   CAROLINA   CONFERENCE 

lina  Conference  took  steps  to  make  itself  independent  of 
Virginia.  In  1855  the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate 
was  launched.  Then  in  1856  when  relations  between  the 
two  conferences  had  become  strained  over  a  bitter  quarrel 
between  W.  A.  Smith,  president  of  Randolph-Macon  Col- 
lege, and  Charles  F.  Deems,  a  professor  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  North  Carolina,  the  North  Carolina  Conference 
withdrew  support  from  Randolph-Macon  and  accepted 
Normal  College  (Trinity)  near  High  Point  as  its  college 
for  men,  and  the  Virigina  Conference  dropped  Greensboro 
College. 

The  North  Carolina  Conference  adhered  South  after  the 
division  of  1844,  and  thereafter  it  grew  steadily.  In  1860 
it  reported  28,822  white  and  12,043  colored  members.  In 
1890  the  conference  was  divided  to  form  the  Western 
North  Carolina  Conference.  In  the  preceding  year  the 
North  Carolina  Conference  had  reported  fourteen  districts, 
212  charges,  and  91,975  members. 

Throughout  its  history  education  has  been  a  major  con- 
cern of  the  North  Carolina  Conference.  In  the  1890's  re- 
ports of  the  conference  board  of  education  urged  assess- 
ments on  the  churches  to  support  the  current  budget  of 
Trinity  College  which  moved  to  Durham  in  1892.  In 
1889  the  conference  had  voted  to  transfer  the  college  to 
Raleigh,  but  in  the  end  Durham  outbid  the  capital  city. 
Julian  S.  Carr  gave  sixty  acres  in  Durham  for  a  campus, 
and  Washington  Duke  donated  $85,000  in  cash.  In  1896 
Duke  contributed  an  additional  $100,000  to  the  college  on 
condition  that  it  open  its  doors  to  women  as  well  as  men. 
A  committee  of  ladies  appointed  by  Trinity  College  alumni 
in  the  conference  then  drew  up  a  resolution  commending 
Duke  for  recognizing  "womanhood  in  her  influence  and 
possibilities"  and  honoring  "her  by  proposing  to  open  to 
her  the  equal  opportunities  of  advancement  in  education 
and  distinction  with  man."  In  the  same  year,  on  recom- 
mendation of  a  group  which  included  John  C.  Kilgo, 
president  of  Trinity,  the  conference  adopted  a  resolution 
objecting  to  free  tuition  at  the  state  university  on  the 
grounds  that  it  was  ta>dng  the  many  to  educate  the  few. 

Among  the  schools  which  had  either  the  support  or 
commendation  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  before 
the  turn  of  the  century  were  Littleton  Female  Col- 
lege, Wesleyan  Female  College  at  Murfreesboro,  Louis- 
burg Female  College,  and  academies  at  Burlington  and 
Jonesboro. 

In  1924  James  B.  Duke,  son  of  Washington,  gave  $40,- 
000,000  to  Trinity  College  with  the  understanding  that  it 
would  become  Duke  University,  whereupon  a  new 
5,600-acre  campus,  dominated  by  a  magnificant  Gothic 
style  chapel,  was  developed.  Today  Duke,  with  a  plant 
valued  at  $126,000,000,  an  annual  budget  of  $70,000,000, 
an  endowment  of  $60,000,000,  a  library  of  2,000,000  vol- 
umes, about  1,000  professors,  8,000  students,  and  a  strong 
Divinity  School  that  offers  graduate  as  well  as  seminary 
degrees,  is  one  of  the  great  universities  of  the  land. 

In  the  1950's  the  North  Carolina  Conference  established 
two  new  educational  institutions  within  its  bounds,  Meth- 
odist College  at  Fayetteville  and  North  Carolina  Wes- 
leyan College  at  Rocky  Mount,  laying  assessments  o! 
some  $5,000,000  on  the  churches  to  launch  them.  Meth- 
odist College  now  has  a  plant  valued  at  about  $7,000,000, 
an  endowment  of  about  $500,000,  and  1,000  students, 
while  the  corresponding  figures  for  the  other  school  are 
$6,000,000,  $210,000,  and  700  students. 

In  recent  years  the  North  Carolina  Conference  has 
apportioned  annually  some  $500,000  to  be  raised  for  its 


NORTH   CAROLINA   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


college  sustaining  fund.  The  money  is  distributed  to  Duke 
Divinity  School,  and  Bennett,  Greensboro,  High  Point, 
Louisburg,  Methodist,  and  North  Carolina  Wesleyan  Col- 
leges. The  conference  helps  to  maintain  Wesley  Foun- 
dations at  eighteen  educational  institutions  in  the  state. 

In  1899  the  North  Carolina  Conference  established  an 
orphanage  at  Raleigh.  Now  called  the  Methodist  Home 
for  Children,  it  has  a  plant  valued  at  $2,000,000  and  is 
ministering  to  more  than  200  children  per  year.  The  con- 
ference maintains  a  Methodist  Retirement  Home  at  Dur- 
ham with  a  capacity  of  about  200. 

One  member  of  the  conference  has  been  elected  bish- 
op, JohnC.  Kilgo  (1910). 

The  North  Carolina  Conference  came  to  unification  in 
1939  with  seven  districts,  226  charges,  132,735  mem- 
bers, and  churches  and  parsonages  valued  at  $9,268,- 
655.  The  conference  merged  with  parts  of  the  Blue 
Ridge-Atlantic  Conference  (ME)  and  the  North  Car- 
olina Conference  (MP)  in  1939  to  form  the  North  Car- 
olina Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church.  Some  of  the 
ministers  and  churches  of  the  North  Carolina- Virginia 
Conference  (CJ)  were  received  into  the  North  Carolina 
Conference  in  1968  as  the  former  was  merged  with  the 
overlying  conferences  of  the  Southeastern  Jurisdiction. 

In  1970  the  North  Carolina  Conference  reported 
eleven  districts,  522  pastoral  charges,  619  ministers, 
211,089  members,  and  property  valued  at  $96,889,398. 

General  Minutes,  MECS  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference. 

W.  L.  Grissom,  North  Carolina.  1905.  Albea  Godbold 

NORTH  CAROLINA  CONFERENCE  (CJ)  was  organized 
at  Union  Chapel,  Alexander  County,  not  far  from  States- 
ville,  N.  C,  on  Jan.  14,  1869,  with  Bishop  Edward  F. 
Ames  presiding.  The  conference  was  formed  by  dividing 
the  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  Mission  Conference 
which  had  been  organized  at  Portsmouth,  Va.,  Jan.  3, 
1867  with  Bishop  Levi  Scott  presiding.  The  territory  of 
the  new  conference  was  the  state  of  North  Carolina. 
The  conference  at  the  outset  included  both  Negro  and 
white  ministers  and  churches.  It  began  with  one  district, 
twelve  charges,  and  2,859  members.  At  its  first  session 
appointments  were  made  to  sixteen  charges.  In  1879  the 
white  work  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  was  merged 
with  the  Asheville  District  of  the  Holston  Conference 
to  form  the  Southern  Central  Conference  (called  Blue 
Ridge  Conference  beginning  in  1881).  By  1900  the  North 
Carolina  Conference  had  four  districts,  Greensboro,  West- 
ern, Wilmington,  and  Winston;  68  charges,  and  10,289 
members. 

The  North  Carolina  Conference  emphasized  education. 
In  1909  each  district  superintendent  in  his  report  to  the 
conference  declared  that  he  had  stressed  the  need  of  edu- 
cation and  the  importance  of  patronizing  Methodist 
schools.  They  praised  Bennett  College  and  urged  the 
conference  to  support  it.  The  conference  also  supported 
Gammon  Theological  Seminary  in  Atlanta. 

On  reentering  North  Carolina  after  the  Civil  War,  the 
M.  E.  Church  started  several  schools  for  Negroes  (see 
Blue  Ridge-Atlantic  Conference  for  white  schools), 
two  of  which  have  survived — Allen  High  School  in  Ashe- 
ville and  Bennett  College  in  Greensboro.  Bennett  College 
was  founded  in  1873  by  Negro  leaders  during  the  time 
that  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  was  giving  assistance. 
The  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  denomi- 


nation built  homes  for  girls  on  the  campus,  and  in  1926 
the  school  was  reorganized  as  a  college  for  women.  Ben- 
nett has  become  an  outstanding  institution  with  full 
accreditation.  Today  it  has  a  plant  valued  at  more  than 
$4,000,000,  an  endowment  of  $2,000,000,  and  nearly  700 
students. 

An  interested  couple  from  New  York  started  a  primary 
school  for  Negroes  in  Asheville  about  1885.  The  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  became  interested  in  it  and  in 
time  the  school  was  accredited  by  the  state.  In  1945  the 
name  was  changed  to  Allen  High  School.  Today  it  has  a 
modern  plant  and  its  enrollment  of  130  is  drawn  from 
several  states  and  from  Africa. 

The  North  Carolina  Conference  entered  the  Central 
Jurisdiction  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1939  with  four 
districts,  sixty-three  charges,  and  13,994  members.  At  its 
last  session  in  1964,  the  conference  reported  four  dis- 
tricts, 93  charges,  63  ministers,  14,750  members,  churches 
and  parsonages  valued  at  $3,989,407,  and  $634,072  raised 
for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

In  1955  the  East  Tennessee  Conference  (CJ)  requested 
the  North  Carolina  Conference  to  consider  merging  the 
two  bodies,  but  nothing  came  of  the  proposal.  In  1964 
when  the  Washington  Conference  (CJ)  was  being  ab- 
sorbed by  the  overlying  conferences  of  the  Northeastern 
Jurisdiction,  the  Virginia  churches  of  that  conference  were 
attached  to  the  North  Carolina  Conference  (CJ),  and  the 
name  of  the  latter  was  changed  to  the  North  Carolina- 
Virginia  Conference.  The  territory  of  the  enlarged  con- 
ference included  North  Carolina  and  all  of  Virginia  except 
the  southwestern  counties  which  remained  in  the  East 
Tennessee  Conference  (CJ).  The  North  Carolina- Virginia 
Conference  was  organized  at  Greensboro,  N.  C,  Aug.  11, 
1964  with  Bishop  Charles  F.  Golden  presiding.  The 
next  year  the  conference  reported  five  districts,  129 
charges,  19,025  members,  and  property  valued  at  $7,- 
137,112. 

In  1968  the  North  Carolina-Virginia  Conference  was 
merged  with  the  overlying  conferences  of  the  Southeastern 
Jurisdiction  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  In  its  last 
year  the  North  Carolina-Virginia  Conference  reported  four 
districts.  Central,  Eastern,  Virginia,  and  Western;  98 
charges,  88  ministers,  18,706  members,  property  valued  at 
$7,637,698,  and  $670,216  raised  for  all  purposes  during 
the  year. 

General  Minutes,  MEG,  and  MC. 

^^inutes  of   the    North    Carolina    Conference   and    the    North 

Garolina- Virginia  Conference. 

E.  T.  Clark,  Western  North  Carolina.  1966.     Albea  Godbold 

NORTH  CAROLINA-VIRGINIA  CONFERENCE  (CJ).  (See 
North  Carolina  Conference   (CJ).) 

NORTH  CAROLINA  WESLEYAN  COLLEGE,  Rocky  Mount, 
N.  C,  is  the  result  of  a  movement  initiated  in  the  North 
Carolina  conferences  to  build  two  new  senior  colleges 
during  the  last  part  of  the  twentieth  century.  The  proposal 
of  Rocky  Mount  citizens  to  raise  $2,000,000  and  to  pro- 
vide a  campus  and  $50,000  annually  for  operating  ex- 
penses to  match  similar  amounts  from  the  North  Caro- 
lina Conference  was  accepted  by  the  conference  in  May 
1956.  The  college  was  chartered  on  Oct.  25,  1956,  and 
construction  of  the  new  campus  started  in  1959.  The 
college  was  admitted  to  membership  in  the  Southern  As- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTH    DAKOTA   CONFERENCE 


sociation  of  Schools  and  Colleges  in  1966  and  accredited 
by  the  University  Senate  of  The  Methodist  Church  in 
1967.  Degrees  offered  are  the  B.A.  and  B.S.  The  govern- 
ing board  has  twenty-four  trustees  recommended  by  the 
board,  nominated  by  the  conference  Board  of  Education, 
and  confinned  by  the  conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

NORTH  CENTRAL  COLLEGE,  Naperville,  Illinois,  U.S.A., 
began  as  Plainfield  College  in  Plainfield,  111.,  founded  in 
1861  by  the  Evangelic.'VL  Association.  The  college 
moved  to  its  present  site  in  Naperville  in  1870  when  resi- 
dents of  the  town  raised  $25,000  and  donated  eight  acres 
of  land. 

On  May  17,  1870,  the  cornerstone  of  the  present  Old 
Main  Building  was  laid,  and  the  following  fall  120  stu- 
dents and  si.\  faculty  members  began  classes.  After  moving 
to  Naperville,  the  school  became  known  as  North  Western 
College  and  continued  under  that  name  until  1926,  when 
the  present  name  of  North  Central  was  adopted. 

In  1967  the  campus  encompassed  fifty-three  acres,  fif- 
teen buildings,  and  had  an  endowment  of  $3  million  and 
total  assets  of  nearly  $9  million. 

The  college  grants  the  degrees  of  B.A.,  B.M.,  and 
B.M.E.  The  course  of  study  is  in  the  liberal  arts  with 
majors  developed  in  twenty-two  departments.  A  Mid- 
Winter  Study  and  Besearch  Term,  freeing  the  month  of 
January  from  the  routine  of  classroom  study,  and  a  core 
curriculum  are  special  study  programs. 

North  Central  College  has  a  governing  board  of  thirty 
trustees,  one-third  of  whom  are  elected  from  annual  con- 
ferences, three  from  the  alumni  association  and  the  re- 
mainder at  large. 

The  College  and  Seminary  Library  has  100,000  vol- 
umes. The  present  student  enrollment  is  865  students  with 
sixty-eight  faculty  members.  Its  alumni  have  contributed 
in  all  areas  of  life — in  business,  industry,  education,  reli- 
gion, military,  government  service,  medicine,  law,  journal- 
ism and  social  services. 

Ablo  L.  Schilling 

NORTH  DAKOTA,  population  610,648  in  1970,  is  in  the 
central  part  of  the  nation  and  is  bounded  by  Canada  on 
the  north,  Minn-esota  on  the  east.  South  Dakota  on  the 
south,  and  Montana  on  the  west.  It  was  a  part  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  in  1803.  Its  70,665  square  miles  con- 
tain no  mountains  or  forests.  Frenchmen  from  Canada  were 
the  first  white  people  in  the  region.  In  1804-05  Lewis 
and  Clark  wintered  at  Fort  Madan  in  what  is  now  North 
Dakota.  American  settlers  began  moving  into  the  area 
about  1850.  At  first  they  had  trouble  with  the  Indians, 
but  by  1864  the  Bed  men  had  been  driven  to  the  Bad 
Lands  west  of  the  Missouri  Biver.  In  1861  Dakota  Terri- 
tory (including  both  North  and  South  Dakota)  was 
formed.  In  1880  the  Great  Northern  Bailway  entered  the 
state  and  in  time  it  was  extended  to  the  west  coast.  Set- 
tlers then  came  in  large  numbers,  and  in  1889  North 
Dakota  was  admitted  to  the  Union  as  a  state.  Ninety  per 
cent  of  the  state  is  farm  land,  and  wheat  is  the  chief  crop. 
The  state  now  produces  oil,  and  with  the  development  of 
water  power  manufacturing  has  become  a  part  of  its 
economy. 

The  1860  General  Conference,  alert  to  Methodism's 


opportunity,  made  Dakota  Territory  a  part  of  the  Upper 
Iowa  Conference.  In  the  same  year  the  Iowa  body  sent 
S.  W.  Ingham  as  missionary  into  what  is  now  South 
Dakota.  In  1871  the  same  conference  sent  James  Gurley 
to  the  North  Pacific  Mission  which  included  North  Dakota 
and  part  of  Minnesota.  At  Fargo  in  that  year  Gurley  con- 
ducted the  first  Methodist  service  in  North  Dakota.  The 
next  year  John  Webb,  Gurley's  successor  on  the  mission, 
organized  a  Methodist  society  in  Fargo,  and  in  1874  the 
first  Methodist  church  building  was  erected  at  a  cost  of 
$1,200,  the  site  for  the  edifice  being  donated  by  the 
Northern  Pacific  Bailroad.  A  second  Methodist  society  was 
organized  at  Grand  Forks  in  1873,  and  by  1876  it  had 
erected  a  church. 

In  1877  the  North  Dakota  work  was  attached  to  the 
Red  River  District  of  the  Minnesota  Conference  with 
Joseph  B.  Staikey  as  presiding  elder.  Starkey  made  Fargo 
his  headquarters,  and  under  his  leadership  the  work  ex- 
panded rapidly.  In  1884  the  North  Dakota  Mission  was 
formed  by  dividing  the  Minnesota  Conference,  and  in 
1886  the  mission  was  elevated  to  the  status  of  an  annual 
conference.  In  the  next  thirty  years  the  work  grew  rapid- 
ly.  (See  North  Dakota  Conference.) 

In  1876  Methodist  work  among  the  Germans  in  North 
Dakota  was  begun  by  the  Northwest  German  Conference. 
Many  of  the  German  missions  and  churches  were  short- 
lived, and  in  1924  when  the  Northern  German  Con- 
ference (to  which  the  North  Dakota  churches  then  be- 
longed) was  merged,  there  were  only  two  German  charges 
in  the  state  to  be  received  into  the  North  Dakota  Confer- 
ence. Several  Norwegian  Methodist  churches  were  also 
organized  in  North  Dakota,  the  most  prominent  being 
what  is  now  Wesley  Church  in  Hillsboro  which  made  the 
first  contribution  ($2,000)  to  the  Norwegian  Methodist 
theological  seminary,  Evanston,  111.  (See  Norwegian  and 
Danish  Conference.)  When  the  Norwegian  and  Danish 
Conference  was  merged  with  the  overlying  English-speak- 
ing conferences  in  1943,  it  had  five  charges  in  the  state 
which  entered  the  North  Dakota  Conference. 

In  1892  North  Dakota  Methodism  projected  Red  River 
Valley  University  at  Wahpeton.  In  1906  the  school  was 
moved  to  Grand  Forks  adjacent  to  the  state  university 
and  was  called  Wesley  College.  The  conference  gradually 
severed  connection  with  the  college,  but  it  still  elects 
trustees  to  the  Wesley  Center  of  Religion  at  the  univer- 
sity. Today  there  is  no  Methodist  college  in  North  Dakota. 
The  conference  supports  Kenmare  Deaconess  Hospital  at 
Kenmare,  Wesley  Camp  near  Valley  City,  and  Wesley 
Foundations  at  the  several  state  institutions  of  higher 
learning. 

In  1970  The  United  Methodist  Church  had  ninety-three 
pastoral  charges,  141  ministers,  25,219  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $12,156,312  in  North  Dakota. 

C.  A.  Armstrong,  North  Dakota.  1946. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  North  Dakota  Conference.      E.  O.  Crunstead 

NORTH  DAKOTA  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at  Grand 
Forks  on  Oct.  14.  1886  with  Bishop  Willl^m  L.  Harris 
presiding.  The  conference  superseded  the  North  Dakota 
Mission  which  had  been  formed  at  F.\rgo  on  Oct.  2,  1884. 
The  boundaries  of  the  conference  included  only  North 
Dakota.  At  the  beginning  the  conference  had  hvo  dis- 
tricts, Fargo  and  Grand  Forks,  and  there  were  forty-seven 
charges  and  2,341  members.   (See  North  Dakota  for  an 


NORTH   GEORGIA   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


account  of  the  beginning  of  Methodism  in  the  state.)  By 
1888  some  eighteen  new  churches  had  been  organized. 
In  the  ne.xt  three  decades  aid  from  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  built  many  churches.  In  1910  the  conference 
had  four  districts,  150  charges,  and  9,535  members.  There- 
after the  membership  grew  a  little,  but  the  number  of  dis- 
tricts and  pastoral  charges  decreased.  In  1939  there  were 
three  districts,  seventy-seven  charges  and  16,065  members. 

About  1900  there  was  a  schism  in  the  North  Dakota 
Conference  over  the  doctrine  of  holiness.  J.  G.  Morrison, 
leader  of  the  holiness  group,  finally  joined  the  Church 
OF  THE  Nazabene  taking  with  him  a  few  pastors  and 
local  preachers.  A  Laymen's  Holiness  Association  which 
had  been  organized  also  went  to  the  Nazarene  Church.  By 
1940  the  Nazarenes  had  thirty-two  churches  in  the  state 
with  a  membership  of  1,127,  many  of  them  former  Meth- 
odists. 

Interested  in  education  from  the  beginning,  the  North 
Dakota  Conference  projected  a  college  in  1892,  but  it  was 
short-lived.  While  there  is  no  Methodist  college  in  the 
state  today,  the  conference  commends  Dakota  Wesleyan 
University,  at  Mitchell,  S.  D.  to  its  people,  and  it  sup- 
ports the  Wesley  Center  of  Religion  at  the  University  of 
North  Dakota  in  Grand  Forks.  Also,  it  maintains  a  strong 
Wesley  Foundation  program  at  the  university,  at  North 
Dakota  State  University  at  Fargo,  and  at  other  colleges. 

In  1920  the  conference  assumed  responsibihty  for  a 
hospital  at  Mandan,  which  in  1926  was  named  the  Meth- 
odist Deaconess  Hospital.  In  1958  the  nurses  home  at  the 
hospital  was  remodeled  and  became  the  North  Dakota 
Methodist  Home  for  the  Aged.  In  1964  the  hospital  and 
home  were  sold  to  the  Heartview  Foundation,  and  they 
have  now  become  a  center  for  treatment  of  alcoholism. 
A  hospital  at  Kenmare  was  purchased  in  1923,  and  it  is 
now  known  as  the  Kenmare  Deaconess  Hospital.  In  1951 
the  conference  established  Wesley  Acres  Camp  on  what 
is  called  Lake  Ashtabula  near  Valley  City. 

Long  a  part  of  an  episcopal  area  composed  of  Minne- 
sota and  the  two  Dakotas,  the  Dakota  Methodists  peti- 
tioned the  1952  General  Conference  of  The  Method- 
ist Church  for  an  area  made  up  of  the  two  Dakota  Con- 
ferences, and  it  was  so  ordered.  The  episcopal  residence 
is  in  Aberdeen,  S.  D. 

In  regard  to  total  membership.  North  Dakota  Method- 
ism has  fared  better  than  the  state  population.  Between 
1930  and  1950  the  state  population  decreased  ten  per- 
cent, but  in  that  time  the  membership  of  the  North  Dakota 
Conference  increased  from  14,032  to  15,067.  Between 
1950  and  1960  the  population  of  the  state  increased  two 
percent,  while  the  Methodist  membership  grew  to  20,317, 
an  increase  of  thirty-five  percent. 

Following  merger  of  the  E.U.B.  and  Methodist  Con- 
ferences, the  North  Dakota  Conference  reported  three 
districts  in  1970,  ninety-three  charges,  141  ministers,  25,- 
219  members,  property  valued  at  $12,156,312,  and  a 
total  amount  raised  for  all  purposes  of  $2,119,994. 

Wesley  Acres  Camp  is  situated  on  Bald  Hill  Creek, 
about  twenty  miles  northwest  of  Valley  City,  N.  D.  It 
was  started  in  1951  on  forty  acres,  an  oasis  of  American 
elm  and  other  trees  in  a  prairie  valley.  The  camp  has 
facilities  for  housing  and  feeding  over  200,  a  large  cen- 
tral assembly,  small  prayer  chapel,  facilities  for  groups  of 
forty  to  fifty  in  the  winterized  section,  modem  plumbing, 
heated  swimming  pool.  Open  the  year  round,  Wesley 
Acres  serves  the  North  Dakota  Conference  and  area  for 


youth  camps,  school  of  missions,  pastor's  school,  family 
camp,  ashram  site,  and  retreats. 

C.  A.  Armstrong,  North  Dakota.  1960. 
General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC,  UMC. 

Journals  of  the  North  Dakota  Conference.     David  F.  Knecht 

Wayne  M.  McKirdy 


NORTH  GEORGIA  CONFERENCE  (MES)  was  created 
during  the  session  of  the  Georgia  Conference  at  Ameri- 
cus,  Nov.  28  to  Dec.  5,  1866,  Bishop  Holland  N.  Mc- 
Tyeire  presiding.  The  1866  General  Conference 
authorized  the  division  of  Georgia  Methodism  into  two 
conferences,  provided  the  Georgia  Conference  could  agree 
on  a  dividing  line.  After  prolonged  debate  the  brethren 
voted  for  a  dividing  line  that  ran  generally  east  and  west 
a  little  north  of  Macon.  The  division  put  nearly  two-thirds 
of  the  state  in  the  South  Georgia  Conference,  and  al- 
most exactly  two-thirds  of  the  church  members  in  the 
North  Georgia  Conference.  At  the  close  of  the  1866  ses- 
sion of  the  Georgia  Conference,  Bishop  McTyeire  read 
out  the  appointments  to  the  North  Georgia  and  South 
Georgia  Conferences.  The  next  year  North  Georgia  met 
in  Atlanta  and  South  Georgia  in  Savannah.  At  that 
time  the  one  reported  38,211  members  and  the  other 
19,626.  (See  Georgia  for  beginnings  of  Methodism  in  the 
state  and  an  account  of  the  Georgia  Conference. ) 

The  North  Georgia  Conference  grew  rapidly.  By  1875 
it  had  58,520  members  and  by  1900  some  98,622.  Growth 
was  due  in  part  to  aggressive  missionary  work  within  the 
bounds  of  the  conference.  In  1886  the  conference  had 
twenty-four  missions,  laying  assessments  on  the  churches 
for  their  support. 

In  1871  the  Methodist  Children's  Home  was  established 
at  Norcross  and  was  later  moved  to  Decatur.  The  confer- 
ence cooperated  with  the  South  Georgia  Conference  in 
supporting  the  Wesletjan  Christian  Advocate  and  Wes- 
leyan College  at  Macon.  The  journals  show  that  as  the 
years  passed  the  North  Georgia  Conference  commended 
or  gave  support  to  a  number  of  schools  and  colleges  within 
its  bounds  which  existed  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  of 
time.  However,  its  principal  institutions  of  learning  were 
Emory  College  which  was  established  at  Oxford  in  1836 
and  LaGrange  College  for  women  (now  coeducational) 
which  began  as  an  academy  in  1831. 

In  1910  the  Conference  expressed  regret  over  the  mis- 
understanding between  the  church  and  the  board  of 
trustees  of  Vanderbilt  University  and  the  legal  battle 
being  waged  for  its  control.  After  losing  Vanderbilt,  the 
M.E.  Church,  South  voted  to  establish  two  universities, 
one  east  and  one  west  of  the  Mississippi.  In  1915  Emoiy 
College  was  moved  to  Atlanta  and  became  the  nucleus 
of  Emory  University,  while  the  conference  continued 
with  an  Emory  (junior)  College  at  Oxford.  The  Candler 
School  of  Theology  was  inaugurated  in  connection 
with  Emory  University.  Today  Emory,  with  a  total  en- 
dowment in  excess  of  $110,000,000,  a  plant  valued  at 
$60,000,000,  a  strong  medical  school,  and  Crawford  W. 
Long  Hospital,  is  an  outstanding  university. 

Two  junior  colleges  survived  and  continued  to  receive 
support  from  the  North  Georgia  Conference.  Young  Har- 
ris College  was  established  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
state  near  the  North  Carolina  line  in  1882,  and  Rein- 
hardt  College  began  at  Waleska  in  1883.  Paine  Col- 
lege, which  belongs  in  part  to  the  C.M.E.  Church, 
was  launched  at  Augusta  in  1882  with  the  help  of  such 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTH   INDIANA  CONFERENCE 


Southern  Methodist  leaders  as  Bishop  George  F.  Pierce, 
Atticus  G.  Haygood,  and  Warren  A.  Candler.  Paine 
College  has  received  some  assistance  from  North  Georgia 
Methodists. 

The  North  Georgia  Conference  came  to  unification  in 
1939  with  ten  districts,  289  charges,  377  ministers,  156,- 
400  members,  and  churches  and  parsonages  valued  at 
$8,232,995.  Merging  with  parts  of  the  Georgia  Confer- 
ences of  the  M.E.  and  M.P.  Churches,  it  then  became  the 
North  Georgia  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church. 

In  more  recent  years  the  North  Georgia  Conference 
has  developed,  in  addition  to  the  educational  and  other 
institutions  already  mentioned,  a  camp  called  Glisson  and 
the  Wesley  Woods  Retirement  Community  in  Atlanta.  The 
conference  raised  $251,000  in  1968  for  higher  education, 
using  part  of  it  to  help  maintain  nine  Wesley  Founda- 
tions at  educational  institutions. 

In  1970  the  North  Georgia  Conference  reported  eleven 
districts,  505  charges,  656  ministers,  216,940  members, 
property  valued  at  $130,559,033,  and  $19,988,148  raised 
for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

General  Minutes,  MECS  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  North  Georgia  Conference. 

A.  M.  Pierce,  Methodism  in  Georgia.  1956.      Albea  Godbold 

NORTH  INDIA  CONFERENCE  borders  on  Nepal  and 
Tibet  and  comprises  much  of  the  section  of  Uttar  Pradesh 
east  and  north  of  the  Ganges.  The  conference  covers 
32,938  square  miles  and  has  a  population  of  over  55,000,- 
000. 

Methodist  work  was  begun  at  Bareilly,  a  principal 
city  of  the  conference,  by  the  Rev.  and  Mrs.  William 
Butler  in  1856.  After  the  mutiny  of  1857,  work  was 
started  quickly  in  other  nearby  centers — in  Budaun, 
Moradabad,  Shahjahanpur,  and  Bijnor.  William  Butler 
was  assisted  by  able  co-workers,  including  James  L. 
Humphrey,  James  M.  Thoburn,  James  W.  Waugh, 
James  H.  Messmore,  E.  W.  Parker,  and  Clara  Swain. 
These  founded  some  of  the  earliest  Methodist  institutions 
in  India,  among  them  the  Parker  Intermediate  College  at 
Moradabad,  and  the  Messmore  Intermediate  College  at 
Pauri,  as  well  as  the  Lodhipur  School  and  orphanage  at 
Shahjahanpur.  The  Bareilly  Theological  Seminary  is  the 
oldest  theological  college  started  by  any  agency  in  India. 

A  missionary  conference  was  organized  in  1864,  and 
this  became  an  annual  conference  in  1874.  There  are 
presently  57,884  on  the  conference  roll  and  forty-five 
ordained  pastors  and  seventy-three  other  workers  are 
reported.  The  conference  has  fourteen  schools  with  268 
teachers.  Its  districts  are:  Bareilly,  Badaun,  Kumaun, 
Shahjahanpur.  Bareilly,  where  Methodist  work  in  this 
region  began,  now  has  a  population  above  254,409.  Kau- 
maun,  on  the  southern  edge  of  the  Himalayas,  is  an  impor- 
tant summer  resort  area  to  which  many  people  flee  in  May 
and  June  when  the  heat  on  the  plains  becomes  most  in- 
tense. During  British  rule  Naini  Tal  was  the  summer 
capital  of  the  United  Provinces,  now  called  Uttar  Pradesh. 
The  Methodist  Church  maintained  there  quaUty  high 
schools  for  many  years,  Wellesley  for  girls  and  Philander 
Smith  for  boys,  but  sold  them  to  the  government  after 
independence.  Almora  in  the  Kumaun  District  is  now  the 
chief  Methodist  center  in  the  Himalayas  with  an  inter- 
mediate college  (Ramsey)  and  a  higher  secondary  school 
for  girls  (Adams),  a  leprosarium,  the  oldest  in  India, 
and  with  a  self-supporting  church  of  about  a  thousand 


members,  full  and  preparatory.  There  are  also  Methodist 
Intermediate  Colleges  in  Ranikhet  and  Dwarahat  and 
Pithoragarh  in  Bidaun  District. 

The  Budaun  District  and  Shahjahanpur  are  the  other 
two  Districts  of  the  Conference.  Shahjahanpur  is  head- 
quarters of  the  civil  district  of  that  name  and  a  railroad 
junction  768  miles  from  Calcutta,  and  987  from  Bom- 
bay. It  was  founded  during  the  reign  of  Shah  Jahan,  who 
built  the  Taj  Mahal  at  Agra,  and  for  whom  the  city  is 
named. 

The  Lodhipur  Institute,  in  the  suburb  by  that  name,  is 
a  school  of  technology  sponsored  by  the  Division  of 
World  Missions.  It  has  been  subsidized  by  the  Ford 
Foundation.  Sitapur,  headquarters  of  a  civil  district  and  a 
railway  junction,  has  a  primary  boys  boarding  school  and 
a  girls  junior  high  school. 

Discipline,  UMC,  1968,  P.  1901. 

Project  Handbook  Overseas  Missions.  1969. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

NORTH  INDIANA  CONFERENCE  was  the  result  of  the 
first  division  of  Methodism  in  the  state  of  Indiana  into 
two  conferences.  The  northern  half  of  the  state  had  be- 
longed to  the  missionary  district  in  1832  when  the  Indi- 
ana Conference  was  organized,  but  by  1844  it  had 
grown  to  six  districts  with  a  combined  membership  of 
27,563. 

Thus  the  North  Indiana  Conference  was  organized  at 
Fort  Wayne  (where  the  Maumee  Mission  had  been  estab- 
lished only  fourteen  years  before)  on  Sept.  24,  1844. 
Bishop  Beverly  Waugh  presided,  and  Bishop  L.  L. 
Hamline  was  present.  The  new  conference  consisted  of 
105  ministers  (eighty-nine  under  direction  of  eight  pre- 
siding elders,  with  four  under  special  appointment  and 
four  superannuated)  and  more  than  27,500  members, 
and  was  defined  on  the  south  boundary  by  the  National 
Road  through  Indianapolis. 

With  Methodism  continuing  to  grow,  another  division 
of  the  annual  conferences  was  made  in  1852.  The  North- 
west Indiana  Conference  comprised  the  northwest 
quadrant  of  the  state  and  the  new  North  Indiana  Con- 
ference consisted  of  the  northeast  section.  The  new  bound- 
ary of  the  North  Indiana  Conference  "included  all  of 
northeastern  Indiana,  bounded  north  by  Michigan,  east 
by  Ohio,  south  by  the  National  Road  and  west  by  the 
Michigan  Road  as  far  north  as  South  Bend,  thence  down 
the  St.  Joseph  River  to  the  Michigan  state  line,  also  the 
town  of  Logansport,  all  the  towns  on  the  National  Road 
east  of  Indianapolis,  and  so  much  of  the  city  of  India- 
napolis as  lies  north  of  Market  Street  and  east  of  Meridian 
Street."  The  only  major  boundary  change,  from  1844 
until  1968,  occurred  in  1868  when  Indianapolis  and  its 
vicinity  became  part  of  the  South  East  Indiana  Conference 
and  the  Marion  County  line  became  part  of  the  southern 
boundary. 

Several  men  were  prominent  in  early  North  Indiana 
history.  Allen  Wiley,  though  not  a  member  of  the 
conference  assisted  Bishop  Waugh  in  making  appoint- 
ments at  the  first  session  in  1844,  and  the  North  Indiana 
Conference  took  special  note  of  his  death  five  years  later. 
Joseph  Tarkington,  S.  R.  Brenton  and  S.  C.  Cooper  gave 
noted  service  at  various  tasks  and  appointments  in  the 
early  years  of  the  conference.  Thomas  Bowman  first  be- 
came a  member  of  the  annual  conference  in  1864,  several 
years  after  he  was  elected  president  of  Indiana  Asbury 


NORTH    IOWA   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


University,  and  was  a  leader  of  the  conference  until  his 
election  to  the  episcopacy  in  1872. 

Though  Indiana  Asbury  University  was  the  major  edu- 
cational concern  for  the  entire  state,  it  had  close  identifi- 
cation with  the  North  Indiana  Conference  via  the  presi- 
dency and  various  faculty  members  who  were  members 
of  this  annual  conference.  Other  schools  were  encouraged 
by  the  annual  conference.  Fort  Wayne  College  had  great 
support  and  encouragement  from  the  conference  as  it 
struggled  to  gain  academic  status  and  financial  solvency, 
but  it  finally  transferred  its  debt  and  property  to  Taylor 
University,  an  institution  founded  by  the  Local  Preachers' 
Association  of  the  M.E.  Church.  In  1893  the  school  was 
rechartered  and  moved  to  its  present  location  in  Upland. 
Although  Taylor  University  has  never  had  any  official 
relationship  to  The  Methodist  Church,  the  conference  has 
recognized  and  commended  it  from  time  to  time. 

A  similar  enterprise,  named  Whitewater  Female  Col- 
lege and  Academy,  was  undertaken  at  Centerville  in 
1848.  In  1851  it  was  made  co-educational  and  was  sup- 
ported by  the  Indiana  Conference  as  well.  With  a  spotted 
history  of  educational  and  financial  success,  it  disappeared 
from  the  academic  scene  by  the  mid  1860's. 

Women  in  the  North  Indiana  Conference  were  quick 
to  take  advantage  of  the  inception  of  the  Woman's  For- 
eign Missionary  Society  and  the  later  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society.  A  year  after  its  organization  in 
1869,  there  was  a  W.F.M.S.  in  Goshen.  It  was  in  1882, 
two  years  after  national  organization  had  occurred,  that 
the  W.H.M.S.  was  organized  in  the  Annual  Conference. 
When  the  Woman's  Society  of  Christian  Service  orga- 
nized in  1940,  the  merged  women's  work  consisted  of 
440  societies  and  21,000  charter  members.  Much  of  the 
leadership  for  the  work  of  the  North  Central  Jurisdiction 
has  come  from  women  of  the  North  Indiana  Conference. 
Three  have  been  presidents  of  the  Jurisdiction — Mrs.  Julia 
Parr  Naftzgar,  Mrs.  J.  N.  Rodeheaver,  and  Mrs.  D.  G. 
Woolpert.  By  1968  the  conference  reported  391  Woman's 
Societies  and  sixty-one  Wesleyan  Service  Guilds  with  a 
combined  membership  of  22,688. 

Within  two  months  of  its  creation  in  Cleveland  in  1889, 
an  Epwobth  League  charter  was  requested  for  the  Ft. 
Wayne  district,  and  in  two  years  all  districts  of  the  con- 
ference had  such  organizations.  Youth  work,  through  the 
Epworth  League  and  its  successor,  the  Methodist  Fel- 
lowship, has  shown  a  record  of  increased  youth  participa- 
tion throughout  its  history.  Of  monumental  influence  is  the 
Epworth  Forest  Institute  grounds  at  Lake  Webster,  begun 
in  1924,  where  "thousands,  whether  youth  or  sage,  have 
found  a  station  on  the  way  of  their  eternal  pilgrimage." 
Thousands  of  youth  over  the  almost  half-century  of  its 
existence  have  been  influenced  by  it,  and  the  annual 
conference  has  invested  time,  energy,  and  repeated  finan- 
cial resources  to  perfect  this  contribution  to  youth  minis- 
try. Though  open  to  a  variety  of  programs  and  opportu- 
nities for  all  ages,  it  remains  a  stable  setting  along  the 
lakeshore  where  young  men  and  young  women  (as  well 
as  others)  may  find  the  challenge  of  Christian  commit- 
ment. 

North  Indiana  Methodism  has  viewed  with  pride  the 
growth  of  Parkview  Memorial  Hospital  in  Fort  Wayne, 
the  Methodist  Memorial  Home  for  the  Aged  at  Warren 
and  the  Bashor  Children's  Home  at  Goshen.  Each  has  had 
a  distinctive  ministry  to  offer.  Also,  Neighborhood  House 
in  Fort  Wavne  and  Goodwill  Industries  in  the  same  com- 


munity dealt  with  Metropolitan  concerns  and  were  related 
to  the  Annual  Conference. 

At  the  time  of  union  in  1968  the  North  Indiana  Con- 
ference numbered  372  ministers,  408  charges  and  117,047 
members,  with  property  valued  at  $62,962,341. 

James  J.  Babbitt 

NORTH  IOWA  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at  Ced.\b 
Rapids,  June  22,  1949  with  Bishop  Charles  W. 
Brashares  presiding.  It  was  formed  by  merging  the 
Upper  Iowa  and  Northwest  Iowa  Conferences.  Its 
territory  included  approximately  the  north  half  of  the 
state.  Since  the  Northwest  Iowa  Conference  appeared  in 
1872,  while  the  Upper  Iowa  body  was  created  in  1856, 
the  North  Iowa  Conference  claimed  historical  continuity 
from  1856.  The  new  conference  began  with  eight  dis- 
tricts— Algona,  Cedar  Rapids,  Davenport,  Dubuque,  Fort 
Dodge,  Sheldon,  Sioux  City,  and  Waterloo.  It  had  120,- 
368  members  in  429  churches. 

The  North  Iowa  Conference  supported  two  strong 
colleges,  Cornell  at  Mt.  Vernon  and  Morningside  at 
Sioux  City.  It  had  two  hospitals,  St.  Luke's  Methodist  at 
Cedar  Rapids  and  Methodist  at  Sioux  City.  The  latter 
coordinated  its  work  with  the  Lutheran  Hospital  in  Sioux 
City  in  1966  to  form  the  St.  Luke's  Medical  Center,  the 
conference  giving  approval  and  support.  The  conference 
had  three  retirement  homes.  Friendship  Haven  at  Fort 
Dodge,  Methodist  Manor  at  Storm  Lake,  and  Meth-wick 
Manor  at  Cedar  Rapids. 

For  some  years  the  North  and  South  Iowa  Conferences 
supported  Hillcrest  Children's  Services  at  Cedar  Rapids 
and  the  Iowa  Methodist  Services  to  Youth  at  Des  Moines. 
In  1968  the  two  organizations  coordinated  their  services 
under  the  direction  of  one  board  of  directors,  the  new 
name  to  be  Hillcrest  Services  to  Children  and  Youth. 
The  work  was  to  be  directed  from  new  headquarters  at 
Dubuque.  The  conference  maintains  three  camps  for 
youth. 

The  North  Iowa  Conference  supported  jointly  with  the 
South  Iowa  Conference  Wesley  Found.\tions  at  Drake 
University  and  the  three  state  universities.  The  Hawkeye, 
a  monthly  publication  for  Methodists  in  the  Iowa  Area, 
was  published  jointly  by  the  two  conferences.  In  1968 
the  paper  had  a  circulation  of  33,000. 

In  1968  the  North  Iowa  Conference  had  418  ministers, 
277  pastoral  charges,  152,082  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $61,717,202.  In  that  year  the  North  Central 
Jurisdictional  Conference  voted  that  in  June  1969,  the 
conferences  in  Iowa  should  merge  into  one  conference 
to  be  known  as  the  Iowa  Conference. 

Ruth    A.    Gallaher,    A    Century    of   Methodism    in    Iowa.    Mt. 

Vernon,  Iowa:  Inter-Conference  Commission,  1944. 

Minutes  of  the  North  Iowa  Conference.  F.  E.  Maser 

NORTH  MISSISSIPPI  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at 
Water  Valley,  Miss.,  Nov.  30,  1870  with  Bishop  David 
S.  DoGGETT  presiding.  It  was  formed  by  merging  portions 
of  the  Memphis,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi  Conferences. 
At  the  beginning  the  conference  had  twelve  districts, 
ninety  charges,  and  21,757  white  and  fifty-eight  colored 
members. 

Organized  Methodism  first  entered  North  Mississippi 
in  1819  when  the  Tennessee  Conference  appointed 
Ebenezer  Hearn  to  the  Buttahatchie  Circuit  which  ex- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTH  OHIO  CONFERENCE 


tended  into  Mississippi  from  Alabama.  Hearn  preached 
in  Columbus,  Miss.,  as  early  as  1820,  and  the  first  Meth- 
odist society  with  about  ten  members  was  organized  there 
in  1823  by  Wiley  Ledbetter.  In  1820  the  name  of  the 
work  was  changed  to  the  Marion  Circuit,  and  it  became 
an  appointment  in  the  Mississippi  Conference.  In  the 
next  ten  years  the  Marion  Circuit  grew  from  seventy-two 
to  469  white  plus  fifty-two  Negro  members. 

In  1832  the  Alabama  Conference  was  carved  out  of  the 
Mississippi  Conference,  its  territory  including  Alabama, 
West  Florida,  and  the  eastern  tier  of  counties  in  Missis- 
sippi. In  the  same  year  a  series  of  government  settlements 
with  the  Indians  was  concluded,  and  all  of  northern  Mis- 
sissippi was  then  opened  to  settlers.  Thereafter  Methodist 
work  in  the  region  grew  rapidly.  In  1840  the  General 
Conference  created  the  Memphis  Conference  which  in- 
cluded a  large  part  of  north  Mississippi.  This  meant  that 
three  annual  conferences  then  had  parts  of  what  is  now 
the  North  Mississippi  Conference  within  their  boundaries. 
In  establishing  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  in  1870, 
the  General  Conference  was  seeking  to  make  conference 
boundaries  confonm  to  state  lines  in  so  far  as  possible. 
Since  1870  Mississippi  has  been  divided  between  the 
North  Mississippi  and  the  Mississippi  Conferences. 

From  the  beginning  the  North  Mississippi  Conference 
was  interested  in  education  and  it  rendered  service  to 
the  people  of  its  region  in  a  period  when  public  education 
was  inadequate.  The  minutes  refer  to  a  dozen  or  more 
academies  and  colleges  in  the  early  years  which  were  ei- 
ther owned  or  patronized  by  the  conference.  For  a  time 
the  conference  favored  the  position  taken  in  the  Epis- 
copal Address  of  1874  that  the  denomination  seek  to 
establish  a  whole  system  of  schools.  At  its  first  session  in 
1870  the  conference  commended  several  academies  as 
worthy  of  Methodist  patronage  and  it  accepted  Verona 
Female  College  as  a  conference  institution.  In  1879  the 
conference  accepted  a  school  at  Grenada  which  was  char- 
tered in  1882  as  Grenada  Collegiate  Institute.  After  1890 
the  conference  resolutions  and  reports  on  education  refer 
only  to  the  support  of  institutions  of  higher  learning. 

The  North  Mississippi  Conference  supported  Vander- 
BiLT  University  which  was  established  in  1875,  the 
minutes  proudly  noting  that  two  of  its  ministers  and  two 
of  its  well  known  laymen  were  sewing  as  Vanderbilt 
trustees.  The  conference  joined  the  Mississippi  Conference 
in  1888  in  projecting  a  first-rate  Methodist  college  in  the 
state,  the  plan  being  realized  when  Mfllsaps  College 
in  Jackson  was  chartered  in  1890.  Two  North  Mississippi 
Conference  preachers  who  served  as  presidents  of  Millsaps 
have  been  elevated  to  the  episcopacy — William  B.  Mur- 
RAH  in  I9I0  and  H.  Ellis  Finger,  Jr.  in  1964. 

In  1875  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  had  394 
churches;  in  1900  there  were  525.  Between  1880  and 
1900  the  conference  had  a  membership  gain  of  fifty-five 
percent,  though  the  population  of  its  area  increased  only 
twenty-nine  percent  during  that  time.  In  1870  there  were 
only  fourteen  parsonages  in  the  entire  conference.  A  few 
years  later  the  women  in  the  churches  organized  the 
Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home  Mission  Society  and  by 
1900  there  were  121  parsonages  in  the  conference.  From 
1875  to  1900,  the  giving  to  foreign  missions  increased 
from  less  than  $1,500  to  over  $9,000  per  year. 

In  1867  a  plan  to  merge  the  M.P.  Church  with  the 
M.E.  Church,  South  failed,  but  the  next  year  twenty-two 
ministers  and  1,300  members  of  the  former  church  in 
north  Mississippi  joined  the  Memphis  Conference  of  the 


latter  church.  Even  so  Methodist  Protestantism  survived 
in  the  region  and  at  unification  in  1939  about  eight  M.P. 
churches  came  into  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  of 
The  Methodist  Church.  The  North  Mississippi  Conference 
brought  six  districts,  163  charges,  and  75,137  members 
to  the  merger  in  1939. 

Today  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  supports  a 
number  of  institutions  both  inside  and  outside  its  bound- 
aries, such  as  the  Methodist  Hospital  in  Memphis,  the 
Methodist  Home  and  Hospital  in  New  Orleans,  the 
Methodist  Children's  Home  in  Jackson,  the  North  Missis- 
sippi Methodist  Agency  for  the  Betarded,  Lake  Stephens 
Methodist  Camp  near  Oxford,  and  Traceway  Manor  Home 
for  the  aged  which  was  established  at  Tupelo  in  1967.  It 
joins  the  Mississippi  Conference  in  strong  support  of 
Millsaps  College  and  the  Mississippi  Methodist  Advocate 
which  is  published  in  Jackson. 

In  1970  the  North  Mississippi  Conference  had  six  dis- 
tricts, Cleveland,  Greenwood,  New  Albany,  Sardis,  Stark- 
ville,  and  Tupelo.  There  were  243  ministers,  220  charges, 
77,361  members,  and  property  valued  at  $34,456,337. 

Minutes  of  the  North  Mississippi  Conference. 

General  Minutes,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South  and  The 

Methodist  Church. 

G.  R.  Miller,  North  Mississippi.  1966.    Gene  Ramsey  Miller 

NORTH  NEBRASKA  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  organized 
at  Fremont,  Neb.,  Sept.  14,  1881  with  Bishop  Bandolph 
S.  Foster  presiding.  It  was  formed  by  dividing  the 
Nebrask.\  Conference.  Its  territory  included  northeast 
Nebraska;  the  Platte  Biver  was  the  southern  boundary. 
Since  Omaha  was  north  of  the  river,  it  fell  in  the  North 
Nebraska  Conefrence.  This  caused  ill  feeling  because 
many  felt  that  Omaha  as  the  state's  largest  city  should 
have  remained  in  the  Nebraska  Conference.  At  the  outset 
the  new  conference  had  two  districts,  Omaha  and  Norfolk, 
thirty-six  charges  and  2,065  members. 

In  1913  the  North  Nebraska  Conference  was  absorbed 
by  the  Nebraska  Conference.  At  its  last  session  in  1912 
the  conference  reported  four  districts.  Grand  Island, 
Neligh,  Norfolk,  and  Omaha;  127  charges,  169  churches, 
and  15,987  members. 


E.  E.  Jackman,  Nebraska.  1954. 
General  Minutes,  ME. 


E.  E.  Jackman 


NORTH  OHIO  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  organized  at 
Norwalk  on  Sept.  30,  1840  with  Bishop  Elijah  Hedding 
presiding.  The  conference  was  formed  by  dividing  the 
Michigan  Conference.  The  territory  of  the  North  Ohio 
Conference  at  the  beginning  was  north  central  and  north- 
west Ohio.  The  conference  began  with  six  districts,  fifty- 
four  charges,  and  24,148  members. 

In  1856  the  North  Ohio  Conference  was  divided,  the 
northwest  part  of  the  state  then  being  designated  as  the 
Delaware  Conference.  This  reduced  the  membership 
of  the  North  Ohio  Conference  from  29,093  to  14,820.  The 
conference  then  continued  intact  until  1912  when  it  was 
merged  with  the  East  Ohio  Conference  to  form  the 
North-East  Ohio  Conference. 

In  1853  the  North  Ohio  Conference  was  supporting 
Ohio  Wesleyan  University  and  Baldwin  Institute.  It 
voted  that  year  to  accept  ownership  and  control  of  Ohio 
Wesleyan  Female  College,  and  it  agreed  to  accept  Mans- 
field Female  Collegiate  Institute,  provided  the  conference 


NORTH    SHIELDS   CHAPEL   DISPUTE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


would  not  be  required  to  raise  any  part  of  the  funds 
necessary  to  purchase  the  premises  or  to  erect  buildings. 
At  the  conference  session  that  year  the  members  pledged 
over  $1,300  for  the  Metropolitan  Church  in  Washington, 
DC. 

In  1873  the  North  Ohio  Conference  voted  to  join  the 
Central  Ohio  Conference  in  supporting  the  "Lakeside 
Camp  meeting  grounds"  (see  Lakeside),  and  elected  ten 
trustees  to  serve  with  a  like  number  from  the  other  con- 
ference to  control  the  property  and  direct  the  activities. 

In  1910  the  conference  journal  showed  that  St.  Luke's 
Hospital  had  been  rendering  service  in  Cleveland  for  two 
years,  that  the  Old  Ladies'  Home  at  Elyria  had  had  a 
good  year,  and  that  Ohio  Methodism  wished  to  establish 
an  orphanage. 

In  1911  the  North  Ohio  Conference  reported  five  dis- 
tricts, 168  charges,  40,436  members,  and  property  valued 
at  $2,491,900. 

The  North  Ohio  Conference  merged  with  the  East  Ohio 
Conference  in  1912  to  form  the  North-East  Ohio  Con- 
ference. 


General  Minutes,  MEC. 

Minutes  of  the  Nortli  Ohio  Conference. 

John  M.  Versteeg,  Ohio  Area.   1962. 


Albea  Codbold 


NORTH  SHIELDS  CHAPEL  DISPUTE  was  an  important 
incident  in  the  development  of  the  connectional  principle 
in  British  Methodism.  In  1783  the  lease  of  the  old  chapel 
in  North  Shields,  Northumberland,  ran  out,  and  the  ques- 
tion of  a  new  site  led  to  the  formation  of  two  strongly 
opposed  parties.  Each  group  secured  a  site  and  proceeded 
to  the  erection  of  a  chapel.  One  was  known  as  the  Mil- 
bourn  Place  or  Upper  Chapel,  and  the  other  as  the  Bank 
or  Lower  Chapel.  The  issue,  which  was  the  settlement 
of  both  chapels  on  the  Conference  Plan,  came  before  the 
1787  and  subsequent  conferences.  Wesley's  idea  was 
that  both  chapels  being  secured  to  the  Conference  should 
be  served,  one  by  the  preachers  from  the  Newcastle  Cir- 
cuit, and  the  other  from  the  Sunderland  Circuit.  In  1788 
Wesley  preached  in  the  morning  in  the  Lower  Chapel  and 
in  the  evening  in  the  Upper  Chapel.  The  dispute  con- 
tinued, however,  with  bitter  correspondence  turning  upon 
the  refusal  of  the  Milboum  Place  trustees  to  settle  the 
building  on  the  Model  Deed,  or  Conference  Plan,  as  it 
was  called.  Ultimately,  in  April,  1789,  Wesley  wrote  to 
the  three  preachers  of  the  Newcastle  Circuit  with  which 
the  Upper  Chapel  was  associated,  instructing  them  that 
failing  a  satisfactory  answer  concerning  the  legal  settle- 
ment of  the  chapel,  they  must  cease  to  recognize  it.  A 
letter  from  Wesley  to  Edward  Coates,  the  leader  of  this 
group,  three  weeks  later,  indicates  their  final  refusal  and 
the  detachment  of  the  Milboum  Place  Chapel  and  those 
associated  with  it  from  the  Conference.  The  Bank  or 
Lower  Chapel  was  settled  in  the  approved  way  and  con- 
tinued in  association  with  the  Sunderland  Circuit. 

E.  Benson  Perkins 

NORTH  TEXAS  CONFERENCE  began  as  the  Trinity  Con- 
ference (ME)  which  was  carved  out  of  the  East  Texas 
Conference  in  1867.  The  name  was  changed  to  the 
North  Texas  Conference  in  1874.  The  Trinity  Conference 
was  organized  Oct.  9,  1867  at  Sulphur  Springs  with  Rich- 
ard Lane  presiding  in  the  absence  of  Bishop  Holland 
N.    McTyeire,    who    arrived    later.    Its    boundaries    in- 


cluded all  of  the  present  conference  territory  plus  the 
remainder  of  northeast  Texas  lying  above  the  Te.xas  and 
Pacific  Railroad  from  Texarkana  to  Dallas.  Among  the 
forty-three  preachers  in  1867  were  several  who  were 
well  known  or  would  become  so:  J.  W.  P.  McKenzie, 
missionary  to  the  Indians  in  Oklahoma  before  crossing  to 
Texas;  William  F.  Bates,  pioneer  in  the  western  area; 
John  H.  McLean,  educator  and  church  statesman;  and 
William  H.  Hughes,  a  pioneer  in  Dallas  County.  The 
conference  began  with  7,495  white  and  588  colored  mem- 
bers, 128  local  preachers,  sixty-seven  churches  valued  at 
$73,850,  and  fifty-five  Sunday  schools  with  2,080  pupils. 
When  the  name  was  changed  to  North  Texas  in  1874,  the 
conference  met  at  Denton,  Nov.  4-10,  with  Bishop  Mc- 
Tyeire presiding.  It  reported  fifty  pastoral  charges  and 
18,229  members. 

The  North  Texas  Conference  established  a  number  of 
schools  which  served  well  in  their  day  but  none  have 
survived.  McKenzie  College  at  Clarksville  (1848-1868) 
was  in  its  day  one  of  the  best  colleges  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  The  Paris  Female  Institute  began  in  the 
1850's  and  operated  for  twenty  years  or  more.  Central 
College  at  Sulphur  Springs  began  in  1883  and  operated 
about  ten  years.  Kidd-Key  College  at  Sherman  had  its 
beginning  as  a  high  school.  An  outstanding  institution 
for  several  decades,  it  became  a  casualty  of  the  economic 
depression  in  1935.  Wesley  College  began  at  Terrell  about 
1909,  was  moved  to  Greenville,  and  closed  in  1934. 

Today  the  North  Texas  Conference  has  a  share  in  the 
ownership  of  Southern  Methodist  University  (it  is 
owned  by  the  South  Central  Jurisdiction  of  the  church ) . 
Southern  Methodist  is  the  greatest  church  institution  of 
higher  learning  in  the  southwest  and  the  only  one  with 
the  word  Methodist  in  its  name.  Its  Perkins  School 
OF  Theology,  named  for  its  benefactors  J.  J.  Perkins 
and  his  wife  Lois  C.  Perkins,  is  a  strong  theological 
seminary  with  an  endowment  of  more  than  $9,000,000. 

Six  members  of  the  North  Texas  Conference  have  been 
elected  bishops:  John  M.  Moore  (1918),  Charles  C. 
Selecman  and  Willl\m  C.  Martin  (1938),  W.  Angie 
Smith  and  Paul  E.  Martin  (1944),  and  Alsie  H.  Carle- 
ton  (1968).  Five  other  bishops  were  members  of  the 
North  Texas  Conference  at  some  time  in  their  career 
though  not  at  the  time  they  were  elevated  to  the 
episcopacy:  Samuel  R.  Hay  (1922),  A.  Frank  Smith 
and  Paul  B.  Kern  (1930),  Kenneth  W.  Copeland 
(1960),  and  Lance  Were  (1964). 

Dallas,  the  largest  city  in  the  North  Texas  Conference, 
is  one  of  the  strongest  Methodist  centers  in  the  United 
States.  In  1964  when  the  two  Dallas  districts  were  limited 
to  Greater  Dallas,  they  had  a  total  of  87,188  members. 
The  Highland  Park  Church  in  Dallas,  with  9,202  members 
in  1968,  is  the  largest  congregation  in  the  denomination 
if  not  the  largest  Methodist  church  in  the  world.  In  Dallas 
are  to  be  found  the  offices  of  The  Texas  Methodist,  a 
Cokesbury  Regional  Center,  the  residence  of  the  bishop 
of  the  area,  the  Methodist  Hospital,  the  Methodist  Mission 
Home,  the  C.  C.  Young-Blanton  Gardens  retirement  home, 
and  Southern  Methodist  University  and  Perkins  School 
of  Theology.  Southern  Methodist,  which  opened  in  1915, 
is  becoming  a  great  university.  Its  plant  is  valued  at  more 
than  $50,000,000,  and  it  has  an  endowment  of  $21,000,- 
000,  a  library  of  1,000,000  volumes,  and  a  total  enroll- 
ment of  14,000  students. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTHERN    GERMAN   CONFERENCE 


In  1968  the  North  Texas  Conference  contributed  $150,- 
000  to  the  Texas  Methodist  College  Association  and 
$85,000  for  Wesley  Foundation  work  in  the  state.  In 
1970  the  conference  had  seven  districts,  239  pastoral 
charges,  382  ministers,  151,632  members,  and  property 
valued  at  68,187,075.  The  conference  raised  for  all  pur- 
poses that  year  $12,374,597. 

General  Minutes,  MECS  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  North  Texas  Conference. 

W.  N.  Vernon,  North  Texas.  1967.  Walter  N.  Vernon 

NORTHCOTT,  HARRY  CLIFFORD  (1890-  ),  American 

bishop,  was  bom  in  Exeter,  Ontario,  Canada,  Oct.  16, 
1890,  the  son  of  James  Harvey  and  Emily  (Patey)  North- 
cott.  In  1919  he  received  his  B.A.  degree  from  North- 
western University  and  in  1921,  his  M.A.  from  the  same 
institution.  In  1952,  Northwestern  awarded  him  the  S.T.D. 
He  did  graduate  work  at  the  University  of  Chicago  and, 
in  1921  received  the  B.D.  degree  from  Garrett  Biblical 
Institute.  He  received  D.D.  degrees  from  Garrett  in 
1941  and  from  Illinois  Wesleyan  University  in  1929. 
In  1953  Illinois  Wesleyan  awarded  him  the  LL.D.  degree. 

He  was  married  on  June  14,  1917  to  Florence  M.  Engle. 
They  have  one  child. 

He  was  ordained  in  the  Rock  River  Annual  Confer- 
ence in  1918.  He  was  pastor  of  the  Adriel  Church 
(Chicvgo)  1917-19  and,  in  1919  served  as  chaplain  in 
the  U.S.  Army.  Other  Chicago  pastorates  were:  Parkside, 
1921-23;  Euclid  Avenue,  Oak  Park,  1923-28.  From  1928 
until  1948  he  sei-ved  as  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Cham- 
paign, 111,  This  pastorate  was  concluded  in  July  1948, 
when  he  was  elected  bishop  at  the  North  Central  Juris- 
dictional Conference  and  assigned  to  the  Wisconsin 
Area. 

He  has  served  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Missions, 
the  Board  of  Evangelism,  the  Commission  on  Chaplains, 
the  Commission  on  Promotion  and  Cultivation  (Executive 
Committee),  and  the  Commission  on  Deaconess  Work 
(Chairman). 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  1936,  1944  and  1948  Gen- 
eral Conferences  and  to  the  1940,  1944  and  1948 
Jurisdictional  Conferences. 

Bishop  Northcott  has  served  as  trustee  of  Northwestern 
University,  Lawrence  University,  Methodist  Hospital 
Madison,  Wis.,  and  Bellin  Memorial  Hospital,  Green  Bay, 
Wis. 

In  1950  he  made  a  four-month  official  visitation  of 
Africa  and  Europe,  upon  request  of  the  Council  of  Bish- 
ops. He  also  made  an  official  visitation  of  Southeast  Asia 
in  1953  and,  in  1957  was  assigned  to  visit  Latin  America. 

When  the  Council  of  Bishops  visited  the  White  House 
during  their  April  meeting  of  1959,  Bishop  Northcott  re- 
ceived an  especially  warm  greeting  from  President  Eisen- 
hower, who  reminded  him  of  the  fact  that  he  and 
Mrs.  Northcott  had  been  schoolmates  during  their  school 
days  in  Abilene,  Kan.  Mrs.  Northcott  was  then  Florence 
M.  Engle. 

Among  Bishop  Northcott's  writings  was  an  article  en- 
titled: "If  My  Daughter  Should  Want  to  Marry  a  Catho- 
lic" which  was  printed  in  1945  in  the  Christian  Advocate, 
in  Together,  and,  later,  in  pamphlet  form.  Fifty  thousand 
reprints  of  this  article  were  sold  out  very  shortly  after 
they  were  off  the  press. 

In  1959  Bishop  Northcott  announced  that  he  would 
retire  in  1960  because  of  ill  health.  He  presently  resides 


in  Evanston,  111.,  and  usually  answers  the  roll  call  at  the 
stated  meetings  of  the  Council  of  Bishops. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

Mary  French  Caldwell 

NORTH-EAST  OHIO  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at 
Epworth  Memorial  Church,  Cleveland,  Sept.  17,  1912 
with  Bishop  William  F.  Anderson  presiding.  It  was 
formed  by  merging  the  North  Ohio  and  East  Ohio 
Conferences.  Comprising  a  little  more  than  one-third 
of  the  state's  area,  it  was  at  the  time  geographically  the 
largest  annual  conference  in  Ohio,  and  incidentally  the 
largest  numerically  in  the  M.  E.  Church.  The  conference 
began  with  twelve  districts,  426  charges,  131,062  mem- 
bers, and  property  valued  at  $8,092,500. 

When  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference  was  formed 
it  had  two  colleges — Baldwin-Wallace  and  Mt.  Union 
— and  several  service  institutions  within  its  bounds,  while 
at  the  same  time  it  was  committed  to  assist  in  the  support 
of  others  in  the  state.  Baldwin-Wallace  College,  founded 
at  Berea  in  1845,  now  has  a  plant  valued  at  more  than 
$17,000,000,  an  endowment  exceeding  $4,000,000,  and 
some  2,600  students.  Mt.  Union  College,  founded  at  Al- 
liance in  1846,  has  an  endowment  of  about  $3,350,000,  a 
plant  valued  at  some  $10,000,000,  and  about  1,300  stu- 
dents. The  conference  in  1914  pledged  "earnest  support 
and  prayers"  for  American  University  which  opened 
that  year  in  W.\shington,  D.  C,  and  it  commended  the 
work  of  Boston,  Drew,  and  Garrett  seminaries.  The  con- 
ference supports  the  Wesley  Foundations  in  the  state. 

At  the  beginning  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference  had 
the  St.  Luke's  Hospital  in  Cleveland  and  the  Methodist 
Home  at  Elyria  which  was  then  called  the  Elyria  Old 
Ladies'  Home.  The  conference  has  since  established  or 
acquired  Cope  Methodist  Home  at  Sebring,  Healthaven 
Nursing  Home  near  Akron,  and  the  Berea  Methodist 
Children's  Home. 

The  North-East  Ohio  Conference  came  to  unification 
in  1939  with  eight  districts,  412  charges,  202,998  mem- 
bers, and  property  valued  at  $20,475,784.  At  that  time 
it  was  merged  with  thirty-one  charges  representing  about 
9,000  members  of  the  Ohio  Conference  (MP)  to  form 
the  North-East  Ohio  Conference  of  The  Methodist 
Church. 

In  1964  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference  was  desig- 
nated as  an  episcopal  area  with  the  bishop's  residence  in 
Canton.  Francis  E.  Kearns  was  named  as  the  presiding 
bishop. 

In  1968  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference  reported  eight 
districts,  545  pastoral  charges,  641  ministers,  273,959 
members,  property  valued  at  $138,870,434,  and  $18,220,- 
224  raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year.  When  Meth- 
odist-E.U.B.  merger  was  fully  effected  in  Ohio  in  1970, 
the  name  of  the  conference  became  East  Ohio  Annual 
Conference. 

General  Minutes,  MEG  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference. 

J.  M.  Versteeg,  Ohio  Area.  1962. 

W.  Guy  Smeitzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951.     N.  B.  H. 

NORTHERN  GERMAN  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at 
Sleepy  Eye,  Minn.,  Sept.  27,  1888  with  Bishop  John 
F.  Hubst  presiding.  It  superseded  the  North  German 
Conference  which  began  in  1886. 


NORTHERN    ILLINOIS   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


American  Methodism's  ministry  to  German  immigrants 
in  their  own  language  began  in  1835  when  William 
Nast  was  appointed  by  the  Ohio  Conference  as  a 
missionary  to  the  German-speaking  people  within  its 
bounds.  By  1860  nine  conferences  had  a  total  of  eighteen 
German  districts.  The  1864  General  Conference  autho- 
rized the  organization  of  German-speaking  annual  con- 
ferences and  immediately  established  three — Central 
German,  Northwestern  German,  and  Southwestern  Ger- 
man. The  first  included  Ohio,  Indiana,  western  Pennsyl- 
vania, West  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee.  The 
second  took  in  northern  Illinois,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin, 
and  part  of  Iowa,  and  the  third  covered  central  and 
southern   Illinois,   Kansas,   Missouri,   and  part  of  Iowa. 

The  Northwestern  German  Conference  held  its  first 
session  in  Galena,  111.,  Sept.  7-10,  1864  with  Bishop 
Levi  Scott  presiding.  It  began  with  five  districts,  sixty- 
three  charges,  and  5,495  members,  including  probationers. 
In  1868  the  name  was  changed  to  Northwest  German 
Conference,  and  it  continued  as  such  until  it  was  absorbed 
by  the  English-speaking  conferences  in  1923. 

The  North  German  Conference,  whose  territory  in- 
cluded Minnesota,  North  Dakota,  and  Montana,  was 
carved  out  of  the  North  German  Conference  in  1886. 
The  name  was  changed  to  Northern  German  Conference 
in  1888,  as  indicated  above,  and  it  so  continued  until 
1924  when  it  was  absorbed  by  the  English-speaking  con- 
ferences. 

When  organized  in  1886  the  North  German  Confer- 
ence had  three  districts,  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul,  and 
South  Minnesota.  There  were  forty-three  charges,  and 
3,758  members  including  probationers.  When  designated 
as  the  Northern  German  Conference  in  1888  there  were 
4,693  members.  As  the  years  passed,  some  ministers  and 
churches  transferred  to  the  English-speaking  conferences. 
In  1924,  its  last  year,  the  Northern  German  Conference 
had  only  one  district,  Minneapolis,  about  twenty-five 
itinerants,  thirty-one  charges,  4,115  members,  and  prop- 
erty valued  at  $408,000. 

P.  F.  Douglass,  German  Methodism.   1939. 

General   Minutes    (ME).  F.    E.    Maseb 

NORTHERN  ILLINOIS  CONFERENCE  dates  from  1840 
when  the  Rock  River  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church 
was  separated  from  the  Illinois  Conference.  At  that  time 
the  Rock  River  Conference  included  Iowa,  Wisconsin, 
and  Minnesota.  Iowa  was  separated  in  1844;  Wisconsin 
and  Minnesota  in  1848.  In  1856  the  Peoria  Conference 
(later  Central  Illinois)  was  taken  from  it.  It  presently 
covers  the  northern  third  of  the  state  of  Illinois. 

Jesse  Walker  was  the  first  Methodist  preacher  in 
northern  Illinois.  In  1823  he  began  work  as  a  missionary 
to  the  Pottawatomie  Indians  north  of  Peoria.  The  first 
appointment  to  the  region  was  in  1828,  when  John  Dew 
was  assigned  to  the  Galena  Mission. 

The  United  Brethren  also  organized  a  Rock  River 
Conference  in  1853.  In  1867,  it  united  with  the  Central 
Illinois  Conference  to  form  the  Northern  Illinois  Con- 
ference. The  Evangelical  Church  had  work  in  north- 
eastern Illinois  from  1834.  The  conference  was  organized 
in  1845.  In  1946  the  Northern  Illinois  Conference  of  the 
E.U.B.  Church  was  formed  by  the  merger  of  these  two 
conferences. 

Significant  in  the  advancement  of  Methodism  in  north- 
ern Illinois  was  the  growth  of  Chicago  to  become  one  of 


the  largest  metropolitan  areas  in  the  United  States.  The 
primacy  of  this  area  for  the  growth  of  Methodism  is  seen 
in  the  location  of  significant  national,  regional  and  con- 
ference institutions  in  the  metropolis.  In  1852  an  office 
of  the  Book  Concern  (ME)  was  opened  and  publication 
of  the  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate  began  the  follow- 
ing year.  Also  in  the  1850's  Northwestern  University 
and  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  (now  Garrett  Theologi- 
cal Seminary)  were  founded  in  Evanston.  At  Naper- 
ville  the  Evangelical  Church  founded  North  Central 
College  (originally  Plainfield  College)  in  1861  and 
Evangelical  Theological  Seminary  (originally  Union 
Biblical  Institute)  in  1875.  The  Chicago  Training  School 
was  opened  under  the  leadership  of  Lucy  Rider  Meyer 
in  1885  for  the  training  of  women  in  foreign  and  home 
mission  work.  From  the  work  at  the  school,  Mrs.  Meyer 
developed  some  forty  institutions  serving  Chicago  Meth- 
odism, including  Wesley  Memorial  Hospital  (of  which 
she  was  the  first  resident  M.D.),  the  Chicago  Deaconess 
Home,  and  the  Chicago  Methodist  Old  People's  Home. 
In  1934  Chicago  Training  School  affiliated  with  Garrett 
Biblical  Institute. 

Besides  the  above.  Northern  Illinois  is  served  by  a 
number  of  other  institutions:  Goodwill  Industries,  Lake 
Bluff  Chicago  Homes  for  Children,  The  Methodist  Home 
(Evanston),  Rosecrance  Memorial  Home  for  Boys  (Rock- 
ford),  Kendall  College  (Evanston),  Bethany  Home  and 
Hospital  (Chicago),  Newberry  Center  (Chicago),  and 
Foster  Street  Home  (Chicago).  The  Methodist  Building 
in  Evanston  houses  offices  of  several  General  Confer- 
ence agencies,  and  the  Publishing  House  maintains  a 
book  depository  in  Park  Ridge.  Tlie  Christian  Advocate 
and  Together  editorial  offices  are  also  located  at  Park 
Ridge. 

Mergers  in  1932,  1939,  1942,  and  1943  created  the 
Rock  River  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church.  Making 
up  the  new  conference  were  parts  of  the  Central  North- 
west Conference  (Swedish),  the  Norwegian-Danish 
Conference,  the  Chicago  German  Conference,  the 
Illinois  Conference  of  the  M.P.  Church,  and  the  Rock 
River  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church.  In  1969  the  Rock 
River  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  united  with 
the  Northern  Illinois  Conference  of  the  E.U.B.  Church 
to  form  the  Northern  Illinois  Conference  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church. 

The  Conference  publishes  a  newspaper,  the  Rock  River 
Methodist.  In  1970  Northern  Illinois  reported  201,833 
members  in  393  pastoral  charges  being  served  by  688 
ministers. 

Journal  of  the  Northern  Illinois  Conference. 

Aimer   M.   Pennewell,   The   Methodist  Movement   in   Northern 

Illinois.  Sycamore,  111.:  Sycamore  Tribune,  1942. 

John   G.   Schwab,   History   of   the  Illinois  Conference   of  the 

Evangelical  Church,   1837-1937.   Harrisburg,   Pa.:    Evangelical 

Press,  1937.  J.  Gordon  Melton 

NORTHERN  MINNESOTA  CONFERENCE  was  formed  by 
dividing  the  Minnesota  Conference  at  its  session  in 
Duluth,  Oct.  3-9,  1894.  The  first  session  of  the  new  con- 
ference was  held  Oct.  2-6,  1895  in  Minneapolis  with 
Bishop  Charles  H.  Fowler  presiding.  The  boundaries 
were  so  drawn  as  to  include  Minneapolis  in  the  Northern 
Conference  and  leave  St.  Paul  in  the  Minnesota  Con- 
ference. The  -new  conference  began  with  four  districts, 
Duluth,  Minneapolis,  St.  Cloud,  and  Willmar.  There  were 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTHERN   NEW   JERSEY   CONFERENCE 


136  preachers,  131  charges,  and  10,912  members.  The 
division  left  the  Minnesota  Conference  with  the  southern 
one-third  of  the  state  and  some  13,000  members. 

The  Northern  Minnesota  Conference  grew  steadily  and 
in  1925  it  reported  about  32,000  members.  The  Asbury 
Hospital,  started  in  1892  in  Minneapolis,  was  supported 
by  the  Northern  Minnesota  Conference.  The  institution 
was  the  outgrowth  of  the  Methodist  De.^vconess  move- 
ment in  Minnesota  and  the  generosity  of  one  Mrs.  S.  H. 
Knight.  Mrs.  Knight's  purpose  was  to  establish  a  hospital 
to  which  a  deaconess  could  bring  the  sick  and  needy  for 
care.  Beginning  with  thirty-four  beds,  the  hospital  ex- 
perienced difficulties  and  changes  as  time  passed,  but 
it  continues  and  is  still  supported  by  Minnesota  Method- 
ism. Through  the  generosity  of  another  woman,  Mrs. 
Thomas  B.  Walker,  the  Walker  Methodist  Home  for  the 
aged  was  established  in  Minneapolis  in  1875.  It  was 
supported  by  the  Northern  Minnesota  Conference,  and  it 
continues  as  an  institution  of  Minnesota  Methodism.  The 
conference  gave  strong  support  to  Hamline  Uxiversity 
in  St.  Paul.  As  early  as  1921  the  two  Minnesota  confer- 
ences established  a  Wesley  Found.'^tion  at  the  University 
of  Minnesota. 

A  commission  to  study  the  possible  merger  of  the  two 
Minnesota  conferences  was  set  up  in  1941.  After  pro- 
longed deliberation  the  merger  was  effected  in  1948  and 
there  was  again  a  state-wide  Minnesota  Conference.  The 
Northern  Minnesota  Conference  brought  47,481  members 
to  the  merger.  In  its  last  year  the  conference  had  four 
districts — Duluth,  Fergus  Falls,  Litchfield,  and  Minne- 
apolis,  143  charges,  and  property  valued  at  $6,653,034. 

\finutes  of  the  Northern  Minnesota  Conference. 
C.  N.  Pace,  Our  Fathers  Built,  A  Century  of  Minnesota  Meth- 
odism.  N.d.  F.   E.   Maser 

NORTHERN  NEW  JERSEY  CONFERENCE  was  authorized 
by  the  1964  Northeastern  Jubisdictional  Conference 
at  the  time  New  Jersey  was  designated  as  an  episcopal 
area.  The  Jurisdictional  Conference  recommended  that 
the  Newark  and  New  Jersey  Conferences  change 
their  names  to  Northern  New  Jersey  and  Southern  New 
Jersey.  Both  conferences  concurred,  effective  in  1965. 
The  new  name  was  adopted  by  the  Newark  Conference 
in  session  at  Madison,  N.  J.,  on  June  17,  1965  with 
Bishop  Prince  A.  Taylor  presiding.  At  the  time  the  con- 
ference had  four  districts,  267  charges,  322  preachers, 
92,253  members,  and  property  valued  at  $61,596,893. 

The  1856  General  Conference  had  created  the 
Newark  Conference  by  then  dividing  the  New  Jersey  Con- 
ference. The  new  conference  embraced  northern  New 
Jersey  and  parts  of  New  York  and  northeastern  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  inclusion  of  the  adjacent  areas  of  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  in  the  Newark  Conference  reflected  the 
preaching  stations  in  those  states  which  were  cultivated  by 
Bishop  Asbury  and  other  traveling  preachers  as  part  of 
the  New  Jersey  itinerary. 

In  April  1856,  when  the  New  Jersey  Conference  re- 
quested the  General  Conference  to  divide  it  into  two 
conferences,  it  asked  that  the  two  bodies  be  permitted  to 
meet  together  in  1857.  Permission  was  granted.  But  no 
sooner  had  the  preachers  convened  at  Trenton  in  April, 
1857  than  the  question  arose  as  to  whether  the  gathering 
was  "the  New  Jersey  Conference"  or  "the  New  Jersey- 
and-Newark  Conferences"  meeting  in  joint  session.  Bishop 
Levi  Scott,  the  presiding  officer,  ruled  that  it  was  the 


New  Jersey  Conference  until  the  close  of  the  session, 
at  which  time  he  read  out  one  list  of  appointments  for  the 
Newark  Conference  and  another  for  the  New  Jersey  Con- 
ference. Thus  the  Newark  Conference  dates  from  April 
17,  1857. 

The  first  separate  session  of  the  Newark  Conference 
was  held  at  Morristown,  N.  J.,  March  31  to  April  5,  1858 
with  Bishop  E.  R.  Ames  presiding.  At  that  time  the 
conference  reported  four  districts,  119  charges,  132 
preachers,  and  16,373  members.  The  records  show  that 
there  were  substantial  increases  during  that  first  year  in 
church  membership,  Sunday  school  enrolment,  and 
finances.  Thus  in  its  initial  year  the  Newark  Conference 
set  a  trend  of  growth  that  was  to  continue  for  many 
years. 

In  its  1858  session  the  Newark  Conference  voted  that 
"in  view  of  its  geographical  position"  it  would  not  sus- 
tain "the  formal  position  of  a  patronizing  conference"  for 
Dickinson  College.  At  the  same  time  the  conference 
pledged  support  to  the  I*ennington  School  in  the  New 
Jersey  Conference.  Centenary  College  for  Women  was 
established  at  Hackettstown  in  1867.  Today  Centenary  is 
a  strong  Methodist  junior  college  with  a  plant  valued  at 
$8,000,000,  an  endowment  of  $250,000,  and  some  660 
students.  Before  1900  the  Newark  Conference  accepted 
Morristown  College,  a  Negro  school  in  Tennessee,  as 
a  part  of  its  benevolent  responsibility  and  the  conference 
continues  to  give  it  some  support.  The  conference  co- 
operates with  the  Southern  New  Jersey  Conference  in 
Wesley  Foundations  at  Princeton  and  Rutgers  and  in 
campus  ministries  at  many  of  the  state  institutions  of 
higher  learning. 

The  Newark  Conference  came  to  unification  in  1939 
with  284  charges  and  69,357  members.  At  that  time  a 
part  of  the  Eastern  Conference  (MP)  was  merged  with  it. 
In  1940  the  conference  reported  70,914  members. 

Through  the  years  the  Newark  Conference  developed 
many  leaders  (see  New  Jersey),  and  it  was  in  the  fore- 
front in  promoting  lay  representation,  adequate  support 
for  ministers,  church  extension,  advances  in  denomina- 
tional administration,  foreign  missions,  an  adequate  min- 
istry in  the  cities,  education,  and  solutions  to  ethnic  and 
racial  issues. 

In  1907,  1932,  and  1957  the  fiftieth,  seventy-fifth,  and 
one  hundredth  sessions  of  the  Newark  Conference  were 
held  at  Morristown,  N.  J.,  the  scene  of  the  first  session. 
The  conference  centennial  commission,  headed  by  the 
writer  of  this  article,  prepared  a  special  program  for 
1957  in  which  four  bishops  participated. 

From  1857  to  1965  the  boundaries  of  the  Newark 
Conference  were  not  changed,  but  on  Jan.  12,  1965,  by 
order  of  the  Northeastern  Jurisdictional  Conference,  the 
twelve  churches  (some  3,800  members)  on  Staten  Island 
were  transferred  to  the  New  York  Conference.  This 
transfer  of  churches  terminated  a  close  association  be- 
tween Staten  Island  and  New  Jersey  Methodism  which 
dated  back  to  1771  when  Francis  Asbury  preached  in 
New  Jersey  and  on  Staten  Island  and  developed  his  first 
circuit  in  America.  The  transfer  of  the  twelve  churches 
was  formally  observed  in  a  service  at  Trinity  Church, 
Staten  Island,  in  which  the  bishops  of  the  New  Jersey 
and  New  York  Areas  participated. 

The  Northern  New  Jersey  Conference  helps  to  maintain 
a  number  of  service  agencies  and  institutions.  Goodwill 
Industries  serves  125  people  daily.  The  Aldersgate  Camp 
reaches  many  young  people.  The  conference  gives  support 


NORTHERN    NEW   YORK   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


to  the  Methodist  Hospital  in  Brooklyn,  the  oldest 
Methodist  related  hospital  in  America.  The  conference 
joins  the  Southern  New  Jersey  Conference  in  maintaining 
Methodist  Homes  in  New  Jersey  with  branches  in  Ocean 
Grove,  Ocean  City,  Branchville,  and  Collingswood. 

In  1964  and  1965  the  conference  received  six  ministers 
and  some  churches  from  the  Delaware  Conference 
as  that  body  merged  with  the  overlying  conferences  of  the 
Northeastern  Jurisdiction. 

At  its  1968  session  the  Northern  New  Jersey  Confer- 
ence projected  a  four-year  Total  Mission  Crusade  for 
urban  renewal,  world-wide  reconciliation,  and  support  of 
Camp  Aldersgate.  Asked  for  $1,1,55,000,  the  churches  of 
the  conference  pledged  $1,240,000. 

In  1970  the  Northern  New  Jersey  Conference  reported 
four  districts,  227  charges,  332  ministers,  88,022  members, 
property  valued  at  $79,760,680,  and  $8,465,216  raised  for 
all  puposes  during  the  year. 

General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  Newark  and  Northern  New  Jersey  Conferences. 

V.  B.  Hampton,  Newark  Conference.  1957. 

,  Francis  Asbury  on  Staten  Island.  1947. 

,  Methodist  Heritage  and  Promise  in  Staten  Island, 

1965.  Vernon  B.  Hampton 

NORTHERN  NEW  YORK  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at 
Utica,  April  16,  1873  with  Bishop  Jesse  T.  Peck  presid- 
ing. The  1872  General  Co.nference  created  the  con- 
ference by  merging  the  Black  River  Conference  with 
a  part  of  the  Central  New  York  Conference.  The 
conference  began  with  eight  districts,  179  charges,  237 
preachers,  and  24,963  members. 

Originally  what  is  now  the  Northern  New  York  Con- 
ference was  a  part  of  the  Genesee  District  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Conference.  It  descended  through  the  Gene- 
see Conference  (formed  in  1810),  the  Oneida  Confer- 
ence (formed  in  1829),  and  the  Black  River  Conference 
(formed  in  1836). 

The  church  at  Sauquoit,  N.  Y.,  established  in  1788, 
is  regarded  as  the  oldest  continuing  congregation  in  the 
conference.  From  its  beginning  the  Northern  New  York 
Conference  demonstrated  interest  in  evangelism,  missions, 
higher  education,  church  publication,  and  established  two 
schools  which  continued  for  some  years:  Ives  Seminary 
and  Antwerp  Liberal  Institute;  and  it  gave  support  to 
Cazenovia  Seminary,  Syracuse  University,  and  Amer- 
ican University.  In  more  recent  years  the  conference 
has  supported  Bethune-Cookman  College  in  Florida, 
and  has  helped  to  establish  the  Ledden  Chair  in  Christian 
Education  at  Syracuse.  It  has  joined  other  conferences 
and  denominations  in  an  ecumenical  approach  to  campus 
ministries  at  state  institutions  of  higher  learning. 

The  Northern  New  York  Conference  joins  in  supporting 
the  Methodist  Home  for  Children  (Gateway)  at  Wil- 
liamsville;  the  Folts  Home  (Aged)  at  Herkimer;  and 
the  Charlton  School  for  Girls  at  Burnt  Hills.  Camp  Aiders- 
gate,  in  the  foothills  of  the  Adirondack  Mountains  is  the 
site  of  a  varied  camping  program  serving  all  ages  and 
interests  from  May  until  October  each  year.  Conference 
offices  are  in  the  Methodist  Center  in  Watertovm,  estab- 
lished in  1960. 

The  Black  River  and  Northern  New  York  Conferences 
have  furnished  leaders  in  the  larger  church.  Bishops  who 
were  bom  in  the  region  or  served  in  the  conference  are: 
Jesse  T.  Peck,  Linus  Parker,  William  X.   Nfnde,  and 


Frederick  D.  Leete.  Peck  led  in  founding  Syracuse 
University  in  1870.  John  De.mpsteh,  who  served  as  a 
missionary  to  Buenos  Aires  and  was  influential  in  the 
founding  of  both  the  Boston  School  of  Theology  and 
G.\rrett  Biblical  Institute,  served  as  pastor  in  Water- 
town,  New  York. 

The  Northern  New  York  Conference  came  to  unifica- 
tion in  1939  with  four  districts,  267  charges,  35,729 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $4,841,874.  At  that 
time  it  received  a  few  ministers  and  churches  from  the 
Onondaga  Conference  of  the  M.P.  Church. 

In  1970  the  Northern  New  York  Conference  reported 
three  districts,  136  charges,  152  ministers,  47,051  mem- 
bers, property  valued  at  $24,494,712,  and  $2,738,417 
raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC,  UMC. 

Journal  of  the  Northern  New  York  Conference. 

John  J.  Kelly 

NORTHERN  SWEDISH  CONFERENCE  was  organized  at 
Calumet,  Mich.,  Sept.  6,  1900  with  Bishop  Charles  C. 
McCabe  presiding.  It  superseded  the  Northern  Swedish 
Mission  Conference. 

Until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were 
only  a  few  Swedes  in  the  North  Central  states,  but  there- 
after they  came  in  rapidly  increasing  numbers.  Swedish 
Methodist  work  in  that  region  was  linked  to  earlier  be- 
ginnings on  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  A  Swede  by  the  name 
of  Peter  Bergner  came  to  America  as  mate  on  a  Swedish 
ship  in  1822.  An  accident  hospitalized  him  in  New  York, 
and  while  there  he  was  converted.  Interested  in  the  spir- 
itual welfare  of  his  fellow-countrymen  who  as  sailors 
came  by  the  thousands  to  this  country  every  year,  he 
appealed  to  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E.  Church 
for  help.  In  time  Olaf  G.  Hedstrom,  a  preacher  of 
Swedish  descent  in  the  New  York  Conference,  as- 
sisted Bergner  in  organizing  work  among  the  Swedes.  In 
1845  a  group  of  Swedes  in  New  York  incorporated  under 
the  name  of  "The  First  North  River  Bethel  Society  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church."  In  1846  a  brother  of  Hed- 
strom organized  a  Swedish  Methodist  Church  in  Victoria, 
111. 

In  1859  the  Minnesota  Conference  organized  a 
Scandi.navian  Mission  District  with  ten  appointments. 
The  next  year  the  mission  district  reported  385  members, 
including  probationers.  In  1861  it  was  designated  as  the 
Scandinavian  District.  In  1872  the  Scandinavian  District 
was  divided  to  form  the  Swedish  District  and  the  Nor- 
wegian District.  In  1877  the  Swedish  churches  in  the 
Minnesota  Conference  became  a  part  of  the  newly  orga- 
nized Northwest  Swedish  Conference,  the  first  Swedish 
conference  to  be  organized  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  The  1880  Discipline  says  that  the  Northwest 
Swedish  Conference  was  to  include  all  Swedish  churches 
in  the  west  and  northwest  along  with  those  in  the  Erie 
Conference  in  New  York.  By  1893  the  Northwest  Swed- 
ish Conference  had  churches  in  twelve  states  from  New 
York  to  Minnesota,  and  it  reported  nearly  10,000  mem- 
bers, including  probationers.  The  conference  had  more 
churches  in  Illinois  than  in  any  other  one  state. 

The  Northern  Swedish  Mission  Conference,  mentioned 
above,  was  carved  out  of  the  Northwest  Swedish  Con- 
ference. The  Mission  Conference  held  its  first  session  in 
Minneapolis,  Sept.  6-10,  1894.  Its  territory  was  Minne- 
sota, Michigan,  and  Wisconsin.  It  had  more  churches  in 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTHWEST  CANADA  CONFERENCE 


Minnesota  than  in  either  of  the  other  two  states.  The 
Mission  Conference  began  with  three  districts,  forty-two 
charges,  and  2,607  members,  including  probationers. 
When  raised  to  the  status  of  a  full  conference  in  1900,  it 
still  had  only  three  districts,  forty-five  charges,  and  2,749 
members. 

In  1927  the  Northern  Swedish  Conference  merged  with 
the  Central  Swedish  and  Western  Swedish  Conferences 
to  form  the  Central  Northwest  Conference.  The 
latter  continued  as  a  Swedish  Conference  until  1942  when 
its  ministers  and  churches  were  received  into  the  English- 
speaking  conferences  in  which  they  happened  to  be  lo- 
cated. At  its  last  session  in  1927,  the  Northern  Swedish 
Conference  reported  two  districts,  fifty-one  charges,  2,729 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $380,900. 

F.  E.  Maser 


William  L.  Northridge 


Memorial  Chiirch,  Kaeo,  Northland,  New  Zealand 

NORTHLAND,  New  Zealand,  Kaeo  Memorial  Church,  was 

erected  and  opened  in  1923,  near  the  site  of  the  original 
pioneer  Maori  mission  station  of  Wesleydale.  The  laying 
of  the  foundation  stone  of  the  building  formed  part  of 
the  centenary  celebrations  the  previous  year.  It  stands  as 
a  memorial  to  the  pioneer  missionaries  and  their  wives, 
and  to  the  first  Maori  ministers  of  the  mission,  their  names 
being  inscribed  on  a  handsome  roll  of  honor.  Rita  F. 
Snowden,  the  famous  Methodist  writer,  says: 

In  our  Memorial  Church,  there  stands  a  chaste  baptismal  font 
— fashioned,  we  think,  to  represent  more  closely  than  a  plaque 
could  do,  the  spirit  and  interest  of  these  women  [i.e.,  the  mis- 
sionary wives].  On  a  silver  strip  affixed  are  these  words:  "Their 
richest  gifts  they  offered  gladly."  ( The  Ladies  of  Wesleydale, 
London:  Epworth  Press,  1957,  pp.  5-6.) 

George  L.  Lauhenson 

NORTHRIDGE,  WILLIAM  LOVELL  (1886-1966),  Irish 
minister  and  scholar.  He  was  born  at  BaUineen,  County 
Cork,  and  entered  the  ministry  in  1910.  Included  in  his 
early  circuit  career  were  four  years  at  the  Belfast 
Central  Mission.  In  1926  he  was  appointed  tutor  at 
Edgehill  College  at  Belfast  for  theological  training,  and 
in  1943  he  became  principal.  For  many  years  from  1923 
he  was  chiefly  responsible  for  the  editorial  policy  of  the 
Irish  Christian  Advocate.   Publications  include  books  on 


the  Old  Testament  and  on  Pastoral  Psychology,  on  which 
subject  he  has  lectured  in  the  United  States  on  many 
occasions.  He  retired  in  1957,  but  on  the  sudden  death  of 
his  successor,  R.  Ernest  Ker,  he  took  over  the  guidance  of 
Edgehill  College  for  the  year  1961-62.  His  high  qualifica- 
tions in  psychology  made  him  much  in  demand  for  advice 
and  guidance. 

Frederick  Jeffery 

NORTHWEST  CANADA  CONFERENCE,  E.U.B,,  came  into 
being  because  of  the  persistence  of  members  of  The 
Evangelical  Church  in  eastern  Canada.  Early  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  a  number  of  Evangelical  families 
moved  from  the  state  of  Pennsylvania  to  Ontario,  Can- 
ada. In  1816,  John  Dreisbach  preached  among  them  but 
was  unable  to  establish  an  organized  work.  Later,  in  1839, 
two  missions  were  formed,  one  at  Waterloo  and  one  at 
Black  Creek.  During  the  same  year  a  camp  meeting,  at 
which  Bishop  John  Seybert  preached,  resulted  in  the 
organization  of  two  other  congregations,  one  at  Berlin 
and  the  other  in  the  surrounding  neighborhood.  Other 
advances  followed;  and  in  1863,  the  work  in  Ontario  was 
formed  into  a  separate  annual  conference  known  as  the 
Canada  Conference. 

In  1876,  the  Canada  Conference  sent  a  special  dele- 
gation to  the  west  under  the  leadership  of  Superintendent 
Peter  Alles  to  investigate  the  possibility  of  missionary 
work.  Their  report  was  discouraging.  The  delegation  saw 
no  opportunity  for  church  work  in  an  area  that  was 
swampy  and  sparsely  settled.  However,  the  west  did  open 
and  among  the  early  settlers  were  members  from  Evangel- 
ical churches  in  the  United  States  and  Ontario.  At  first, 
the  Dakota  Conference  responded  to  the  appeal  of 
these  people  and  sent  missionaries  to  Western  Canada, 
but  due  to  pressing  needs  at  home,  the  conference  soon 
withdrew  this  assistance. 

In  1899  the  Canada  Conference,  after  much  investiga- 
tion, deliberation  and  prayer,  took  up  this  work.  W.  E. 
Beese  was  assigned  as  the  first  missionary  to  the  west  with 
appointment  to  both  Winnipeg  and  Grenfell.  He  preached 
his  first  sermon  in  the  J.  J.  Niebergall  home  fifteen  miles 
north  of  GrenfeU.  In  1900,  A.  W.  Sauer  was  appointed 
to  Rosthern,  Saskatchewan;  and  in  1901,  C.  G.  Kaatz 
was  sent  to  Didsbury,  Alberta.  In  1908,  L.  H.  Wagner 
became  the  first  resident  superintendent  of  the  work  in 
Western  Canada. 


1783 


NORTHWEST   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


After  twenty-eight  years  of  missionary  work  in  the 
Canadian  West,  upon  petition  of  the  Canada  Confer- 
ence, the  General  Conference  granted  permission  to 
organize  the  Northwest  Canada  Conference  of  The  Evan- 
gelical Church.  This  organization  took  place  in  June 
1927,  at  Didsbury,  Alberta;  and  in  1928  the  Dominion 
Government  granted  a  charter  to  the  new  conference. 
W.  W.  Krueger  was  appointed  superintendent  by  the 
General  Board  of  Missions,  in  which  capacity  he  served 
for  twenty  years. 

At  the  time  of  organization  the  membership  of  the 
conference  was  1,433.  By  1968  this  membership  had 
grown  to  over  3,600.  There  were  fifty-three  organized 
congregations,  thirty-seven  ministers  under  appointment 
as  pastors,  and  four  under  appointment  to  the  Hillcrest 
Christian  College.  There  were  fifty-two  churches  in  the 
conference,  valued  at  $1,249,000.  Additional  property 
owned  by  the  conference  included  the  Hillcrest  Christian 
College,  valued  at  $375,000,  and  three  camp  grounds 
with  assets  of  $75,000.  Nearly  1,500  miles  separated  the 
eastern  and  western  boundaries  of  this  conference. 

In  The  United  Methodist  Church  the  Northwest  Can- 
ada Conference  was  granted  pemiission  to  operate  under 
the  procedures  of  the  Commission  on  the  Structure 
OF  Methodism  Overseas. 

F.  E.  VOHRATH 


NORTHWEST  CONFERENCE  (MES)  was  organized  at 
Milton,  Ore.,  Aug.  29,  1918  with  Bishop  H.  M.  DuBose 
presiding.  It  was  formed  by  merging  the  Columbia,  East 
Columbia,  and  Montana  Conferences.  (See  Oregon  and 
Montana  for  accounts  of  these  conferences.)  Its  territory 
embraced  Oregon,  Washington,  Idaho,  and  Montana. 
The  conference  began  with  three  districts,  Portland,  In- 
land, and  Montana,  and  it  had  forty-five  charges  and 
4,916  members.  In  the  twenty-one  years  prior  to  Meth- 
odist unification  the  Northwest  Conference  did  not 
flourish.  In  1939  it  reported  two  districts,  Portland  and 
Spokane,  and  there  were  thirty-four  charges  and  3,647 
members. 

F.  E.  Maser 

NORTHWEST  INDIANA  CONFERENCE  covered  less  than 
one-fourth  of  the  state  of  Indiana,  but  it  was  blessed  with 
a  diversification  marked  by  metropolitan  and  rural  areas, 
industrialization  and  agriculture.  Prompted  in  its  creation 
by  the  growth  of  Methodism  in  northern  Indiana  from 
1844  until  1852,  it  was  authorized  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1852  upon  request  of  the  existing  North 
Indl\na  Conference.  Meeting  in  Terre  Haute,  the  new 
conference  encompassed  forty-eight  circuits  (consisting 
of  fifty-nine  churches)  with  11,488  members,  and  there 
were  sixty-five  ministers.  The  conference  included  all  the 
Methodist  work  west  of  the  Michigan  Road  from  Indl\- 
NAPOLis  north  to  the  St.  Joseph  River  at  South  Bend 
(with  the  exception  of  Logansport),  thence  north  to  the 
Michigan  state  line.  On  the  south  it  included  the  north- 
west portion  of  Indianapolis  (west  of  Meridian  Street 
and  north  of  Market  Street)  and  followed  the  National 
Road  west  from  the  capitol  to  the  Illinois  state  line. 
The  states  of  Illinois  and  Michigan  supplied  the  other 
two  boundary  lines.  The  conferences  maintained  these 
boundaries  until  unification  with  the  North  Indiana  and 
the  Indiana  North  (EUB)  conferences  in  1968. 

1784 


The  venerable  James  Armstrong  had  worked  in  the 
area  of  northwestern  Indiana  as  early  as  1825  along  with 
his  assistant,  Hackaliah  Vredenburg,  and  continued  until 
his  death  to  organize  new  congregations  in  the  area.  John 
Daniel,  John  Marsee  and  John  L.  Smith  were  early  lead- 
ers of  the  conference — all  three  carrying  presiding  elder 
responsibilities  into  the  new  conference  from  the  older 
one.  Joseph  C.  Reed,  Hilary  A.  Gobin,  and  Aaron  Wood 
soon  assumed  memorable  leadership  for  the  smallest  of 
the  Indiana  conferences. 

With  Indiana  Asbury  University  located  within  the 
bounds  of  the  conference,  the  new  Northwest  Indiana 
Conference  had  added  incentive  in  its  educational  work. 
At  its  first  session  the  conference  elected  trustees  and 
visitors  to  the  Greencastle  school  and  representatives  to 
inspect  other  Methodist  educational  efforts  in  the  state, 
but  Indiana  Asbury  remained  its  favorite  and  imminent 
project.  Repeatedly,  the  home  conference  of  the  Meth- 
odist University  (renamed  DePauw  University  in  1884) 
responded  to  its  need.  To  augment  the  educational  work 
at  Greencastle,  the  Conference  cooperated  with  the  local 
congregation  in  1926  in  the  building  of  a  new  Methodfst 
church,  the  Gobin  Memorial  Church,  adjacent  to  the 
campus. 

Recognizing  the  growth  of  state  colleges  and  univer- 
sities, the  Northwest  Conference  created  one  of  the  early 
Wesley  Foundation  units  in  the  United  States  at  Purdue 
University  in  1917.  Its  pioneering  work  helped  set  the 
tempo  for  Methodist  campus  ministry  everywhere.  It  has 
been  a  leader  in  innovative  ministry  and  responsible 
stewardship  to  the  campus  for  fifty  years. 

Early  in  the  Conference's  history,  private  academies 
were  developed  and  maintained  (with  varying  degrees  of 
success)  until  public  school  education  became  stabilized 
in  this  rapidly  growing  area  of  the  state.  A  few  became 
"feeder-lines"  to  the  Methodist  University  at  Greencastle, 
though  most  were  short-lived.  The  Monnett  School  for 
Girls  at  Rensselaer  was  the  last — struggling  for  survival 
against  the  twin  floods  of  expanding  public  welfare  de- 
partments and  depleted  support  from  the  annual  con- 
ference. By  the  end  of  the  depression  in  1934,  the  school 
had  closed. 

The  churches  of  the  Northwest  Indiana  Conference 
were  fruits  of  early  missions,  and  only  their  material 
means  (never  their  Methodist  spirit)  limited  the  confer- 
ence's missionary  response.  Three  members  of  the  con- 
ference in  1852  declared  themselves  ready  to  enter  the 
mission  field.  Both  home  and  foreign  missions  commanded 
their  response.  The  missionary  zeal  transformed  the  shift 
of  the  conference  from  a  primarily  rural  setting  to  a  highly 
industrialized  one,  with  all  of  its  accompanying  problems, 
to  a  challenge  rather  than  a  burden.  This  was  to  express 
itself  in  increased  involvement  in  community  affairs. 

Epworth  Hospital  in  South  Bend  was  founded  under  the 
benevolent  guidance  of  Methodist  women  and  main- 
tained a  quasi-official  relationship  with  the  conference  for 
several  years.  The  conference  cooperated  with  the  other 
Indiana  conferences  in  establishing  the  Methodist  Hos- 
pital at  Indianapolis,  and  after  1919  took  exclusive  con- 
trol of  the  hospital  in  Gaiy.  Likewise,  an  orphanage  was 
begun  at  Greencastle  in  the  early  1920's  and  moved 
to  Lebanon  in  1924  because  of  better  facilities.  The  Indi- 
ana Methodist  Children's  Home  at  Lebanon  has  an  illus- 
trious history  of  almost  one-half  century  of  service.  A 
residency  for  older  people  was  established  in  Frankfort 
(Wesley  Manor),  and  as  imion  of  the  conferences  ap- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORTHWEST   TEXAS   CONFERENCE 


proached  in  1968  the  home  absorbed  the  assets  and 
liabilities  of  an  independent  home  in  Greencastle  and 
renamed  it  Asbury  Towers. 

The  missionary  zeal  was  to  find  worthy  supporters 
among  the  women  of  the  conference.  During  the  organiza- 
tional period  of  1884-85,  49  auxiliaries  of  the  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  were  formed  with  1,153 
women  enlisted.  A  decade  earlier  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  was  firmly  entrenched  and  by  1877 
was  donating  one-fourth  of  all  the  missionary  giving  of 
the  conference.  After  the  union  of  the  women's  groups 
in  1941,  a  tremendous  increase  in  missionary  giving  was 
realized  and  women's  work  made  another  surge  forward. 

The  youth  were  quick  to  rally  to  the  old  Epworth 
League.  By  1893  there  were  a  total  of  4,912  youth  en- 
listed in  ninety-one  youth  groups  in  the  conference.  The 
Battle  Ground  Campground  began  development  in  1874 
and  was  the  scene  of  many  successful  camp  meetings. 
It  was  also  to  become  the  scene  of  Junior  and  Senior 
Youth  training  conferences.  A  wilderness  camp  was  de- 
veloped in  the  early  1960's  at  Pine  Creek. 

With  the  union  of  The  Methodist  and  E.U.B.  Churches, 
the  Northwest  Indiana  Conference  was  absorbed  into 
the  new  North  Indiana  and  South  Indiana  Confer- 
ences. The  Northwest  Indiana  Conference  brought  253 
ministers,  267  charges,  96,238  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $44,445,219  to  the  union. 

James  J.  BABBrrr 

NORTHWEST  IOWA  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  organized 
Sept.  18,  1872  at  Fort  Dodge,  Iowa  with  Bishop  Edward 
G.  Andrews  presiding.  It  was  formed  by  dividing  the 
Des  Moines  Conference,  and  its  territory  included  the 
northwest  quarter  of  Iowa  and  Dakota  Territory.  At  the 
beginning  it  had  three  districts.  Fort  Dodge,  Sioux  City, 
and  Algona;  twenty-three  preachers,  nine  churches,  and 
3,392  members. 

In  1875  the  conference  petitioned  the  General  Con- 
ference to  organize  the  Dakota  territory  into  a  separate 
annual  conference,  but  nothing  was  done  about  that  until 
1880. 

Soon  after  its  organization  the  conference  gave  sup- 
port to  Algona  Seminary,  but  the  school  failed  about 
1880.  The  conference  supported  Cornell  College  until 
1894  when  it  projected  Morningside  College  at  Sioux 
City  by  buying  for  some  $25,000  the  buildings  of  the 
University  of  the  Northwest.  It  gave  excellent  patronage 
and  support  to  Morningside,  and  today  it  is  a  strong 
Methodist  college. 

The  Northwest  Iowa  Conference  continued  until  1948 
when  it  merged  with  the  Upper  Iowa  Conference  to  form 
the  North  Iowa  Conference.  In  its  last  year  the  conference 
reported  200  ministers,  205  churches,  and  54,884  mem- 
bers. 

B.  Mitchell,  Northwest  Iowa  Conference.  1904. 

Minutes  of  the  Northwest  Iowa  Conference.         F.  E.  Maser 

NORTHWEST  KANSAS  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  orga- 
nized March  9,  1882  at  Abilene  with  Bishop  H.  W.  War- 
ren presiding.  It  was  formed  by  dividing  the  Kansas 
Conference,  and  its  boundaries  included  all  that  "part 
of  the  state  of  Kansas  north  of  the  south  line  of  township 
sixteen  and  west  of  the  sixth  principal  meridian,  yet  so 


as  to  include  the  Solomon  City  Circuit."  This  meant  that 
the  boundaries  included  approximately  the  west  two-thirds 
of  the  north  half  of  the  state.  When  organized  the  con- 
ference had  three  districts — Beloit,  Kirwin,  and  Salina. 
In  1883  the  conference  reported  seventy-four  charges  and 
5,991  members. 

At  the  outset  the  Northwest  Kansas  Conference  pledged 
support  to  Baker  University  at  Baldwin,  but  at  the 
same  time  it  felt  the  need  of  a  college  within  its  own 
bounds.  As  a  result  of  that  sentiment,  Kansas  Wesleyan 
University  was  opened  at  Salina  in  the  fall  of  1886. 
Through  the  years  the  school  experienced  many  difficul- 
ties, but  it  survived.  In  1968  it  had  in  round  numbers  an 
endowment  of  $1,000,000,  a  plant  valued  at  $6,000,000, 
and  an  enrolment  of  900. 

During  its  history  the  conference  established  three  hos- 
pitals— Boothray  Memorial  at  Goodland,  Asbury  at  Salina, 
and  Hays  Protestant  at  Hays.  It  joined  other  conferences 
in  the  state  in  supporting  Methodist  institutions. 

In  1939  the  Northwest  Kansas  Conference  merged  with 
the  Southwest  Kansas  Conference  to  form  the  Cen- 
tral Conference.  The  Northwest  Conference  brought 
to  the  merger  128  charges  and  26,144  members. 

D.  W.  Holter,  Fire  on  the  Prairie.  1969. 

Minutes  of  the  Northwest  Kansas  Conference.      F.  E.  Maseb 

NORTHWEST  NEBRASKA  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  orga- 
nized at  Kearney,  Neb.,  during  a  session  of  the  West 
Nebraska  Conference,  Sept.  28-Oct.  3,  1892,  with 
Bishop  H.  W.  Warren  presiding.  It  was  formed  by  di- 
viding the  West  Nebraska  Conference.  The  conference 
was  located  in  northwest  Nebraska  and  it  included  less 
than  one-fourth  of  the  state.  It  had  one  district,  Chadron, 
some  twenty-six  charges,  and  1,417  members  at  the  be- 
ginning. 

Northwest  Nebraska  continued  as  a  separate  confer- 
ence through  1924  and  was  then  absorbed  by  the 
Nebraska  Conference.  At  its  last  session  in  1924  the 
conference  reported  one  district.  United,  forty-three 
charges,  and  9,258  members. 

E.  E.  Jackman,  Nebraska  Methodist  History.  1954. 
General  Minutes,  MEC.  E.  E.  Jackman 

NORTHWEST  TEXAS  CONFERENCE  (MES)  was  orga- 
nized at  Waxahachie,  Sept.  26,  1866,  with  Bishop  Enoch 
M.  Marvin  presiding.  The  conference  was  formed  by 
merging  the  northern  parts  of  the  Texas  and  the  Rio 
Grande  Conferences.  At  the  beginning  the  Northwest 
Texas  Conference  included  all  the  territory  in  the  present 
Central  Texas  and  Northwest  Texas  Conferences.  (The 
Central  Texas  Conference  was  set  off  from  the  Northwest 
Texas  Conference  in  1910.)  When  organized  the  North- 
west Texas  Conference  had  four  districts,  thirty-two 
charges,  and  3,890  white  and  526  colored  members. 

Though  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference  had  thirty-two 
charges  in  1866,  none  of  them  was  within  the  bounds  of 
the  present  Northwest  Texas  Conference.  Moreover,  not 
any  of  the  counties  in  the  present  Northwest  Texas  Con- 
ference were  organized  before  1870.  In  1876  the  Texas 
Legislature  created  fifty-four  counties  in  northwest  Texas, 
but  even  so  it  was  ten  to  fifteen  years  before  many  of 
them  had  enough  population  to  organize  a  county  govern- 
ment. However,  once  a  county  was  organized,  one  or 
more  Methodist  churches  soon  appeared  within  its  bounds. 


NORTHWESTERN   UNIVERSITY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Probably  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in  the  present 
Northwest  Texas  Conference  territory  was  delivered  a 
little  before  1870  by  one  Milton  Jones  at  Fort  Griffin,  a 
United  States  military  post  established  in  1867.  Fort 
Griffin  was  listed  in  the  conference  appointments  in  1875. 

Around  1880,  the  Texas  and  Pacific  and  the  Fort  Worth 
and  Denver  Railroads  came  into  northwest  Texas  and 
immigration  soon  followed.  Also,  Methodist  activity  soon 
greatly  accelerated.  Methodism  felt  strong  enough  to  start 
Belle  Plain  College  in  the  Abilene  District  in  1881,  but 
it  closed  after  seven  years,  probably  because  of  unprece- 
dented drought  in  the  region.  By  1900  the  conference  had 
nearly  67,000  members,  fully  five-sLxths  of  them  in  the 
area  that  was  to  become  the  Central  Texas  Conference. 
By  1910  when  the  division  into  two  conferences  took 
place,  there  were  nearly  116,000  members  in  the  con- 
ference, two-thirds  of  them  in  the  region  being  set  off 
as  the  Central  Texas  Conference. 

On  Nov.  9,  1910  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference, 
having  given  one-third  of  its  territory  and  two-thirds  of 
its  membership  to  the  newly  created  Central  Texas  Con- 
ference, met  at  Clarendon  with  Bishop  James  Atkins 
presiding.  The  conference  started  its  new  era  with  six 
districts,  148  charges,  179  preachers,  and  39,009  mem- 
bers. The  Central  Texas  Conference  met  a  week  later  at 
Waxahachie  with  the  same  bishop  in  the  chair. 

The  Northwest  Texas  Conference  had  a  net  increase  in 
membership  between  1910  and  1920  of  only  2,718,  but 
in  the  next  decade  the  net  advance  was  18,237  members, 
representing  a  growth  of  about  twenty-eight  percent. 
The  conference  came  to  unification  in  1939  with  nine 
districts,  217  charges,  73,182  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $4,523,987.  It  raised  for  all  purposes  that  year 
$836,080. 

When  limited  to  its  present  boundaries  in  1910,  the 
Northwest  Texas  Conference  had  three  junior  colleges: 
Clarendon  College  at  Clarendon,  Stamford  College  at 
Stamford,  and  Seth  Ward  College  at  Plainview.  Between 
1916  and  1918  both  Seth  Ward  and  Stamford  closed  be- 
cause of  disastrous  fires.  Clarendon  College  closed  in 
1927.  A  movement  led  by  J.  W.  Hunt,  last  president  of 
Stamford,  brought  about  the  establishment  of  McMubry 
College  at  Abilene  in  1923.  With  good  administrative 
leadership  and  support  from  the  conference,  the  college 
has  grown.  Today  it  has  an  endowment  of  more  than 
$2,500,000,  a  plant  valued  at  $7,000,000  and  an  enroll- 
ment of  more  than  2,000. 

Since  unification  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference  has 
increased  in  membership  about  forty-five  percent.  It  sup- 
ports the  Methodist  Hospital  at  Lubbock,  two  retirement 
nursing  homes  (King's  Manor  at  Hereford  and  Sears 
Memorial  Methodist  Center  at  Abilene),  two  youth  camps, 
and  several  Wesley  Foundations.  It  joins  the  other 
Texas  Conferences  in  support  of  the  Methodist  Children's 
Home  at  Waco,  The  Texas  Methodist  at  Dallas,  and 
some  other  causes.  The  conference  raised  $201,428  for 
higher  education  in  1968,  and  it  projected  a  fiftieth  anni- 
versary campaign  for  $3,500,000  for  McMurry  College. 

In  1968  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference  reported 
eight  districts,  237  charges,  338  ministers,  106,515  mem- 
bers, and  property  valued  at  $49,981,691.  It  raised  for 
all  purposes  that  year  $8,241,712. 

General  Minutes,  MECS  and  MC. 

Minute*  of  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference.  Albea  Godbold 


NORTHWESTERN  UNIVERSITY,  Evanston,  Illinois,  was 
established  in  1851.  The  city  in  which  it  is  located  per- 
petuates the  name  of  its  principal  founder,  John  Evans. 
The  city  also  has  streets  named  for  Bishops  Foster  and 
Matthew  Simpson  and  for  early  university  presidents, 
Noyes  and  Hinman.  Orrington  Lunt  and  John  Evans 
located  the  university  immediately  north  of  Chicago  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan.  Evans  himself  carried 
through  the  purchase  of  the  original  379  acres  for  $25,000. 

The  founders,  reflecting  Methodist  antipathy  to  in- 
toxicating liquors,  placed  an  amendment  in  the  charter 
forbidding  their  sale  within  four  miles  of  the  university. 
The  university's  charter  contains  a  tax-exemption  clause 
that  grants  freedom  from  taxation  in  perpetuity.  This 
was  upheld  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
in  1879. 

Though  today  a  nondenominational,  coeducational 
school.  Northwestern  University,  as  its  catalog  states, 
"is  historically  a  Methodist-related  institution."  Its  first 
five  presidents  were  clergymen,  graduates  of  Methodist 
schools.  The  sixth  president,  Henry  Wade  Rogers,  was 
a  layman,  and  with  the  exception  of  a  one-year  intei^val 
the  presidents  since  1890  have  been  laymen.  Three  of  the 
early  presidents  of  Northwestern  were  elected  bishops. 
The  short  terms  of  clergyman  presidents  and  their  ten- 
dency to  give  preference  to  ecclesiastical  offices  may  ac- 
count for  the  shift  to  laymen. 

The  close  orientation  of  Northwestern  University  to 
The  Methodist  Church  in  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  is  reflected  in  the  concern  of  President  Cummings 
to  get  young  Methodists  to  attend  college.  In  1884,  he 
noted  that  there  was  only  one  Methodist  student  to  every 
1,000  members  in  the  nation.  The  Congregationalists  had 
one  to  every  413  members. 

Northwestern  University  was  founded  with  the  vision 
of  a  Methodist  university  fed  by  a  network  of  Methodist 
colleges.  In  addition,  it  was  deeply  concerned  for  the 
religious  needs  of  students  in  its  professional  schools. 
President  Edmund  J.  James  believed  that  a  student  of 
medicine  should  not  be  less  a  Christian  than  a  student 
in  liberal  arts. 

The  schools  are  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 
Business,  Dentistry,  Education,  Music,  Graduate,  Techno- 
logical Institute,  Journalism,  Law,  Medicine,  Speech, 
Evening  Divisions.  The  university  has  a  cooperative 
academic  arrangement  with  Garrett  Theological  Sem- 
inary. Northwestern  also  has  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  chapter. 
The  governing  board  has  fifty-nine  trustees  eight  of  whom 
are  elected  from  Rock  River,  Central  Illinois,  Michi- 
gan, and  Detroit  Annual  Conferences  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church. 

John  O.  Gross 

NORWAY  is  the  northernmost  part  of  the  continent  of 
Europe;  and  Hammerfest,  the  northernmost  town  in  the 
world,  is  in  the  very  north  of  Norway.  It  is  a  country  of 
mountains,  fjords,  and  deep  valleys.  There  are  many 
islands  along  the  west  coast,  and  there  are  also  a  number 
of  large  and  small  rivers  and  lakes.  The  shape  of  the 
country  is  long  and  narrow;  the  distance  from  the  south- 
ernmost point  to  the  northernmost  point  is  1,100  miles. 
It  covers  an  area  of  125,064  square  miles.  The  Spitsbergen 
group  of  islands  is  a  Norwegian  possession.  According  to 
the   latest   population   figures    (1970)    the   population    is 


WORLD   METHODISM 


3,867,400.    Oslo,    the    capital,    has    about    500,000    in- 
habitants. 

The  most  important  economic  activities  are  shipping, 
agriculture,  forestry,  fisheries,  industry,  and  tourism.  Nor- 
way has  the  fourth  largest  merchant  navy  in  the  world. 
Some  Norwegians  have  become  famous  far  beyond  the 
frontiers  of  their  own  country,  e.g.  the  polar  explorers 
Fridtjof  Nansen  and  Roald  Amundsen;  in  the  world  of 
letters,  Henrik  Ibsen  and  Bjomstjerne  Bjornsen;  and  the 
novelists  Knut  Hamsun  and  Sigrid  Undset,  both  of  whom 
were  awarded  the  Nobel  Prize  for  literature;  the  sculptor 
Gustav  Vigeland;  the  painters  Edvard  Munch  and  Henrik 
Sorensen;  the  composer  Edvard  Grieg.  Trygve  Lie,  the 
first  Secretary  General  of  the  United  Nations,  was  also 
a  Norwegian. 


O.  P.  Petersen 

The  Founder.  The  Methodist  Church  in  Norway  grew 
out  of  a  spiritual  revival  movement.  The  one  chosen  to 
realize  this  revival  was  a  Norwegian  seaman,  Ole  Peter 
Petersen  (1822-1901),  and  the  story  of  Norwegian  Meth- 
odism during  its  formative  years  is  really  the  story  of  this 
one  man.  He  was  born  at  Fredrickstad  on  April  28,  1822. 
His  father,  who  was  a  ship's  carpenter,  lost  his  life  at 
sea  when  young  Ole  was  only  four  years  old.  When  Ole 
was  six,  his  mother  died  also.  He  was  confirmed  at  the 
age  of  fourteen.  In  the  church  register,  the  entry  against 
his  name  says:  "Very  good  knowledge,  exemplary  con- 
duct." 

Ole  was  a  quiet  and  thoughtful  boy.  His  thoughts  were 
often  concerned  with  God  and  God's  word.  His  wish  was 
to  become  a  minister  of  the  church,  but  he  abandoned 
that  idea  and  became  a  seaman,  as  his  father  had  been 
before  him,  sailing  along  the  coast  of  America  for  many 
years.  When  in  New  York,  he  frequently  used  to  visit  the 
Bethel    Ship    Mission.    This    had    been   started    by    the 


American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  largely  for  the 
benefit  of  seamen  from  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark. 

At  a  meeting  of  a  small  group,  the  pastor  asked  him: 
"Is  your  soul  saved?"  Petersen  answered  very  solemnly: 
"I  apologize  for  having  taken  the  liberty  of  coming  to 
this  meeting.  I  am  not  fit  to  be  here,  I  am  only  a  poor 
sinner  in  search  of  God  if  He  will  have  mercy  on  me." 
The  pastor  talked  with  him  about  God,  and  the  young 
seaman  went  his  way. 

One  night,  Petersen,  who  was  on  watch,  paced  the 
deck  thinking  about  God.  And  it  was  then  that  he  clearly 
heard  tlie  words,  "Rejoice,  my  son."  And  his  soul  was 
filled  with  indescribable  bliss. 


Methodist  CmjRCH,  Stavanger,  Norway 

The  Beginnings  of  Methodism  in  Norway — First  Hun- 
dred Years.  Ole  Peter  Petersen  sailed  along  the  coast 
of  America  for  several  years.  In  a  letter  to  his  fiancee, 
Anne  Marie  Amundsen,  in  Fredrickstad,  his  native  town, 
he  described  what  the  Lord  had  done  for  him.  The  letter 
was  of  such  a  nature  that  she  allowed  her  own  family  to 
read  it.  After  that  it  was  passed  from  house  to  house 
until  it  was  almost  in  shreds.  All  who  read  it  were  deeply 
moved  by  the  contents  and  by  the  profound  seriousness 
that  characterized  it.  The  outcome  was  that  Petersen's 
fiancee  wrote  to  him  on  behalf  of  all  those  who  had  read 
the  letter,  and  urgently  asked  him  to  come  home  to  guide 
them  onto  the  road  to  God  which  he  himself  had  found. 

Petersen  had  not  been  considering  such  an  early  return 
home,  but  the  request  made  him  restless,  so  he  decided 
to  go  and  to  bear  witness  of  what  God  had  done  for  him. 
On  June  30,  1849,  he  arrived  at  Fredrikstad  and  saw  his 
fiancee.  Her  aunt  wanted  to  celebrate  Petersen's  home- 
coming with  a  glass  of  wine,  but  he  replied:  "1  have  not 
come  back  to  be  with  you  for  such  occasions,  but  to 
tell  you  what  the  Lord  has  done  for  my  salvation."  This 
set  the  tone  for  his  stay  in  Norway.  It  was  the  beginning 
of  a  revival  movement  of  great  consequence.  People  began 
beseeching  him  to  hold  public  meetings,  but  he  replied: 
"I  am  not  a  minister  of  the  church,  nor  do  I  know  if  the 
law  of  the  land  permits  me  to  hold  public  meetings." 
But  the  revival  movement  continued. 

One  day  he  visited  the  minister  of  the  Norwegian 
Lutheran  state  church  to  ask  if  he  was  permitted  to  hold 
public  meetings  if  people  asked  him   to  do  so.   At  first 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


the  minister  answered  noncommittally,  and  said  that,  after 
all,  p>eople  could  go  to  the  services  in  the  state  church. 
But  having  talked  with  Petersen  for  a  while,  the  minister 
said  that  there  was  freedom  of  religion  in  Norway,  adding 
fortunately:  "You  are  fully  within  your  rights  to  follow 
God's  word  and  your  own  conscience." 

So  Petersen  started  to  hold  public  meetings.  He  had 
not  intended  to  stay  in  Norway  for  long,  and  made  prep- 
arations for  returning  to  America  with  a  view  to  sailing 
on  coastal  vessels  again.  But  the  newly  converted  asked 
him  so  urgently  to  stay  on  at  home  that  he  did  not  dare 
to  refuse.  In  addition  to  his  work  at  Fredrikstad,  he  had 
also  visited  many  of  the  surrounding  districts. 

On  one  occasion,  Petersen  went  to  see  a  well-known 
layman  within  the  Norwegian  State  Church.  When  they 
parted,  this  man  said  to  Petersen:  "May  God  bless  you. 
I  could  wish  that  you  would  stay  on  here  among  us.  We 
need  men  like  you  in  Norway." 

Early  in  the  winter  of  1849,  he  married  Annie  Marie 
Amundsen,  and  on  April  24,  1850,  he  and  his  bride  sailed 
for  America.  Before  leaving  for  Norway  in  1849,  he  had 
joined  the  Bethel  Ship  Misssion.  Some  time  after  his  return 
to  America  he  was  asked  to  take  up  the  appointment  of 
assistant  with  the  Bethel  Ship  Mission.  His  work  was  to 
be  the  visiting  of  lodging  houses,  hospitals,  and  of  Nor- 
wegian, Swedish,  and  Danish  families.  On  June  10,  1851, 
he  received  authorization  as  local  preacher. 

In  the  autumn  of  1851  he  was  asked  to  go  to  Iowa  in 
order  to  work  among  the  Norwegian  pioneers  there.  He 
did  so,  and  as  a  result  became  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Norwegian-Danish  Annual  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America. 

Simultaneously  he  pursued  intensive  studies  for  the 
ministry;  and  on  July  1,  1853,  he  was  ordained  deacon 
and  ELDER  by  Bishop  Beverly  Waugh.  Concerning  him 
the  bishop  said:  "He  is  one  of  the  most  humble,  self- 
sacrificing,  faithful,  and  self-denying  men  I  have  ever 
known.  He  is  gentle,  loving,  zealous,  pure,  conscientious." 

Those  who  had  been  converted  to  God  in  1849-50 
during  Petersen's  visit  to  Norway  sent  several  letters  to 
the  church  in  America  asking  for  Petersen  to  return  home 
to  Norway  again.  And  eventually  the  M.E.  Church  in 
America,  of  which  he  was  now  a  minister,  decided  that 
he  should  go  to  Norway. 

On  Dec.  3,  1853,  he  arrived  in  Oslo,  and  immediately 
continued  to  his  native  town  of  Fredrikstad,  where  he 
started  the  activities  which  were  to  lead  to  the  foundation 
of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Norway.  The  revival  move- 
ment began  to  flourish  again. 

After  the  first  Methodist  congregation  in  Norway  had 
been  organized  at  Sarpsborg  on  Sept.  11,  1856,  by  Ole 
Peter  Petersen,  he  continued  his  activities  by  visiting  many 
other  places.  Another  congregation  was  organized  by 
Christian  Willerup  at  Halden,  then  called  Fredrikshald, 
on  November  3  of  the  same  year,  and  activity  continued 
to  expand  steadily. 

In  1859,  and  at  his  own  request,  Petersen  was  appointed 
to  a  position  in  America.  For  three  years  he  was  the 
leader  of  the  work  on  Bethel  Ship,  and  in  1863  he  was 
appointed  superintendent  of  the  Norwegian  Mission  Dis- 
trict in  the  West  Wisconsin  Annual  Conference.  Dur- 
ing that  time  he  worked  tenaciously  for  the  church,  taking 
up  work  among  the  many  Norwegians  and  Danes  who  had 
settled  in  Chicago.  Chicago  itself  was  of  course  beyond 
his  district,  but  he  nevertheless  felt  that  it  was  up  to  him 
to  take  the  initiative.  And  in  June,  1868,  the  first  Nor- 


wegian-Danish Methodist  congregation  was  founded  in 
Chicago. 

After  serving  six  years  as  district  superintendent  in 
Wisconsin,  Petersen  received  a  pressing  request  to  return 
to  Norway  to  take  up  the  position  of  superintendent  of 
the  work  of  the  church  in  Norway.  He  accepted,  on 
condition  that  the  appointment  should  be  for  two  years 
only.  Those  two  years  were  years  of  progress — several 
new  congregations  were  founded,  and  activities  expanded 
to  many  new  places.  Under  Petersen's  leadership  the 
preachers  came  together  for  an  annual  meeting  in  1870, 
where  one  of  the  decisions  was  to  publish  a  catechism, 
a  hymnbook,  and  a  church  monthly  magazine.  On  April 
28,  1871,  he  preached  his  valedictory  sermon  in  Oslo 
prior  to  going  back  to  America,  where  he  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  the  Norwegian-Danish  church  in  Chicago. 

In  1874  he  was  given  an  appointment  in  Brooklyn, 
where  he  organized  a  Norwegian-Danish  Methodist  con- 
gregation. The  Scandinavian  Mission  to  Seamen  in  New 
York,  including  the  Bethel  Ship,  was  incorporated  within 
the  field  of  activities  of  the  new  congregation. 

In  1878  Petersen  became  superintendent  of  the  Mil- 
waukee Norwegian  District  and  subsequently  of  the 
Chicago  Norwegian  District.  During  his  later  years  he 
officiated  as  pastor  at  Racine;  Maplewood  Avenue, 
Chicago;  and  Minneapolis. 

As  late  as  1901,  Ole  Petersen,  who  by  then  had  reached 
the  age  of  seventy-nine,  accepted  an  appointment  in 
Brooklyn.  He  threw  himself  into  the  work  with  his 
customary  energy,  and  founded  yet  another  Norwegian- 
Danish  congregation.  He  died  in  Brooklyn  on  Dec.  20, 
1901,  and  was  buried  in  Milwaukee,  where  his  wife  had 
found  her  last  place  of  rest  almost  twenty  years  earlier. 

Petersen  was  a  man  of  utterly  consistent  character, 
willing  and  ready  at  all  times  to  give  advice,  guidance, 
and  consolation.  He  had  an  unshakeable  sense  of  justice, 
which  was  a  prominent  feature  of  his  character.  He  loved 
children  and  young  people,  and  was  filled  with  a  fiery 
and  untiring  energy.  He  was  a  keen  and  discerning  theo- 
logian. He  wrote  a  number  of  books,  articles  for  maga- 
zines, periodicals,  and  pamphlets.  His  most  important 
work  is  Betraktninger  over  Bibelens  hovedlerdommer.  His 
hymns  and  chorales  and  translations  are  used  in  church 
to  this  day.  They  express  a  humble  adoration  of  God,  and 
a  deeply  felt  desire  to  lead  a  life  of  sanctity  for  him. 

Ole  Petersen  has  been  honored  in  his  native  town  of 
Fredrikstad  with  a  bust  in  one  of  the  public  parks,  and 
by  naming  a  street  in  the  center  of  the  town  after  him. 

Development  of  Norwegian  Methodism.  As  soon  as  the 
Methodist  Church  in  Norway  had  become  organized,  new 
Methodist  congregations  were  founded,  one  after  the 
other.  Sunday  schools  and  youth  work  were  started.  In 
fact,  work  with  Sunday  schools  had  already  begun  in 
February,  1855,  that  is  to  say  before  the  Church  had 
become  organized.  Youth  work  was  organized  in  1889. 
Also  choirs,  brass  bands  (with  choirs),  women's  societies, 
etc.,  were  founded,  and  foreign  and  home  mission  work 
was  started. 

By  and  by,  the  number  of  preachers  increased,  and 
preachers'  meetings  were  held  at  suitable  intervals,  until 
a  regular  Norwegian  Annual  Conference  (now  the  Norway 
Conference)  was  organized  in  Oslo  in  1876,  under  the 
leadership  of  Bishop  E.  G.  Andrews. 

In  1953,  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Norway, 
Odd  Hagen,  was  elected  Bishop  of  Northern  Europe; 
and  in  1964  a  Norwegian  missionary,  Harry  P.  Andreas- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NORWEGIAN   AND   DANISH   CONFERENCE 


SEN,  was  elected  Bishop  of  Angola  (Africa).  In  1961, 
the  World  Methodist  Conference  was  held  in  Oslo. 
In  1966  the  Norwegian  bishop,  Odd  Hagen,  was  elected 
president  of  the  World  Methodist  Council. 

The  development  of  the  work  done  by  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Norway  resulted  in  the  foundation  of  several 
institutions. 

Publishing.  As  early  as  1856 — the  year  in  which  the 
Methodist  Church  in  Norway  was  founded — the  first  book 
was  pubhshed.  It  was  on  church  disciphne.  On  May  21, 
1867,  a  preachers'  meeting  took  place,  at  which  eight 
preachers  were  present.  One  of  the  subjects  for  discussion 
was  the  setting  up  of  a  company  for  the  dissemination 
of  Christian  literature.  That  was  the  beginning  of  the 
pubhshing  house,  still  in  existence,  of  the  Methodist 
church  in  Norway;  Norsk  Forlagsselskap.  The  first  maga- 
zine to  be  published  was  a  Sunday  school  magazine, 
which  started  in  1871.  The  present  title  of  this  magazine 
is  Barnevennen.  On  Jan.  28,  1872,  the  first  issue  of  the 
oflScial  church  paper  came  out,  which  is  now  published 
under  the  name  of  Kristelig  Tidende.  The  publications 
by  Norsk  Forlagsselskap  include  textbooks,  scientific 
works,  historical  works,  collections  of  sermons,  books  of 
chorales,  fiction,  and  literature  for  edification,  etc. 

Social  work  began  with  a  children's  home,  which  was 
opened  in  Oslo  in  1892.  In  1922  a  further  children's  home 
was  opened  in  Oslo,  and  a  children's  home  for  northern 
Norway  was  opened  at  Finnsnes  in  1923.  An  old-people's 
home  was  opened  at  Vadso  in  northern  Norway  in  1924, 
another  one  in  Oslo  in  1925,  and  a  third  one  in  Bergen 
in  1954. 

A  home  for  young  men  was  opened  at  Fredrikstad  in 
1960.  Altogether  these  homes  have  places  for  forty-four 
children,  twelve  young  men,  and  ninety  old  people. 

Hospitals  and  deaconess  work  were  started  in  Oslo  in 
1897,  and  continued  in  Bergen  in  1904,  and  in  Skien  in 
1939.  These  hospitals  are  called  "Betanien"  (Bethany 
houses),  and  at  the  Betanien  hospitals  there  are  now  a 
total  number  of  358  beds.  The  institutions  have  531 
deaconesses,  who  serve  in  hospitals  run  by  the  Church, 
and  also  in  state  and  local  authority  hospitals. 

A  theological  school  was  started  on  May  27,  1873,  in 
Oslo.  In  1924  the  Methodist  Churches  in  Scandinavia 
(Sweden,  Denmark,  Finland,  Norway)  came  together 
to  establish  the  Union  Scandinavian  Theological 
School,  and  a  piece  of  property  was  acquired  for  that 
purpose  at  Gothenburg,  Sweden.  It  has  had  a  great  in- 
fluence throughout  all  Scandinavia. 

A  Bible  school  was  established  in  Oslo  in  1941.  This 
provides  Bible  courses  and  local  courses  for  the  congre- 
gations, and  also  arranges  for  instruction  by  correspon- 
dence. 

Missionary  work  was  properly  organized  at  the  Annual 
Conference  in  1907,  Southern  Rhodesia  being  chosen  as 
the  first  field  for  Norway  missions.  The  Methodist 
Women's  Society  was  established  in  1931.  The  local 
congregations,  the  Youth  Fellowship,  and  the  Methodist 
Women's  Society  in  Norway  all  now  work  together,  and 
maintain  missionaries  at  the  following  places:  Indla,  Hong 
Kong,  Malaya,  Rhodesia,  Congo,  Angola,  Liberia, 
Algeru  and  Tunisia,  a  present  total  of  thirty-three  mis- 
sionaries. 

Present  (1967)  statistics  of  Norwegian  Methodism: 
Number  of  churches,  89;  other  places  of  worship,  90; 
ministers,  85;  missionaries,  33;  local  preachers,  107;  num- 


ber of  Methodists  in  Norway,  22,000;  number  of  children 
attending  Sunday  school,  6,900;  youth  work,  5,500. 

Eilert  Bernhardt,  "The  Beginnings  of  Methodism  in  Norway," 
World  Outlook,  August  1956. 

,  Metodistkirken.  Opprinnelse.  Laere,  Organisasjon. 

Oslo:  Norsk  Forlagsselskap,  1933. 

og  Aage  Hardy,  Metodistkirken  i  Norge — J  00  ar. 

Oslo:  Norsk  Forlagsselskap,  1956. 

A.   Haagensen,   Den   norsk-danske  Metodistkirkes  historie — pa 

begge  sider  av  havet.  Chicago:   Den  norsk-danske  Boghandels 

officin,  1894. 

Aage    Hardy,   O.   P.    Petersen,   Metodistkirkens  grunnlegger  i 

Norge.  Oslo:  Norsk  Forlagsselskap,  1953. 

O.  P.  Petersen,  Betrektninger  over  Bibelens  hovedlserdommer. 

Chicago:  Den  norsk-danske  Boghandels  Trykkeri,  1900. 

J.  Thorkildsen,  Den  norske  metodistkirkes  historie.  Oslo:  Norsk 

Forlagsselskap,     1926.  Eilert    Bernhardt 

NORWEGIAN  AND  DANISH  CONFERENCE  in  the  United 
States  was  organized  at  Cambridge,  Wis.,  Sept.  10,  1885 
with  Bishop  Thomas  Bowman  presiding.  It  superseded 
the  Northwest  Norwegian  Conference  which  was  orga- 
nized at  Racine,  Wis.  in  September  1880. 

The  responsibility  of  the  Norwegian  and  Danish  Con- 
ference was  all  of  the  Norwegian  and  Danish  work  be- 
tween the  Allegheny  and  Rocky  Mountains,  though  the 
conference  minutes  show  that  practically  all  of  its  charges 
were  in  seven  states — Illinois,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Minne- 
sota, Wisconsin,  and  the  Dakotas. 

This  conference  is  not  to  be  confused  with  the  Nor- 
wegian and  Danish  work  in  the  Pacific  northwest  which 
began  as  the  Northwest  Norwegian-Danish  Mission  in 
1888,  became  the  Western  Norwegian-Danish  Con- 
ference in  1896,  and  continued  as  such  until  unification 
in  1939. 

Norwegians  and  Danes  began  emigrating  to  America 
in  appreciable  numbers  in  the  1840's  and  1850's.  In  1856 
the  Wisconsin  Conference  formed  a  Norwegian  Mission 
District  with  eight  circuits  located  in  the  states  of  Wis- 
consin, Minnesota,  and  Iowa.  In  1859  the  Minnesota 
Conference  organized  a  Scandinavian  Mission  District. 
In  1872  both  conferences  separated  their  work  into 
Swedish  and  Norwegian  Districts.  The  1880  General 
Conference  authorized  the  formation  of  a  Norwegian 
Annual  Conference,  and  that  fall,  as  indicated  above,  the 
Northwest  Norwegian  Conference  was  organized.  The 
conference  began  with  four  districts,  Chicago,  Milwaukee, 
Minnesota,  and  Iowa.  There  were  thirty-one  charges  and 
2,640  members.  In  1885  when  the  name  of  the  conference 
was  changed  there  were  forty-five  charges  and  3,380  mem- 
bers. 

The  Norwegians  and  Danes  proposed  the  establishment 
of  a  school  as  early  as  1866,  and  in  1870  a  Norwegian- 
Danish  seminary  opened  in  Evanston,  111.  However,  it 
was  1886  before  classes  were  conducted  regularly.  The 
institution  continued  until  1934  when  it  merged  with  a 
Swedish  school  which  in  1950  became  Kendall  Col- 
lege, an  accredited  Methodist  junior  college.  The  con- 
ference established  the  Elim  Old  People's  Home  in 
Minneapolis  in  1914;  the  home  and  its  assets  were  valued 
at  $54,000  at  the  time  of  merger  in  1943. 

The  Norwegian  and  Danish  Conference  was  the  last 
of  all  the  language  conferences  in  Methodism  to  be  ab- 
sorbed by  the  English-speaking  conferences.  The  confer- 
ence disbanded  May  30,  1943.  At  the  time  its  boundaries 
included  all  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 


NORWEGIAN   METHODISM    IN   THE   U.S.A. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


tains.  In  its  last  year  the  Norwegian  and  Danish  Confer- 
ence had  two  districts — Chicago  and  MinneapoHs — and  it 
reported  forty-eight  charges,  4,737  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $710,088. 

General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MC. 

C.  N.  Pace,  Our  Fathers  Built,  A  Centunj  of  Minnesota  Meth- 
odism. N.d. 
E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

F.  E.  Maser 

NORWEGIAN  METHODISM  IN  THE  U.S.A.  In  1851  Ole 
P.  Petersen  (see  Norway),  a  native  Norwegian,  was  sent 
by  the  M.  E.  Church  as  preacher  to  the  Norwegian 
settlers  in  northeastern  Iowa.  As  a  result  of  his  work  in 
that  district  the  first  Methodist  congregation  among  Nor- 
wegians in  the  United  States  was  established  at  Washing- 
ton Prairie,  Winneshiek  County,  Iowa,  in  April,  1852. 
Methodist  activity  among  Norwegian  immigrants  spread 
to  more  and  more  places.  In  1856  it  was  decided  that  all 
Norwegian  missions  in  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota 
were  to  be  united  into  one  district,  the  Norwegian 
Mission  District.  From  the  register  of  appointments 
for  1857  it  appears  that  mission  work  was  done  at  the 
following  places:  Cambridge,  Racine,  Hart  Prairie,  Prim- 
rose, Viroqua,  and  Richland,  Wis.;  Upper  Iowa,  Winne- 
shiek County;  St.  Paul  and  Chisago  Lake,  Minn. 

In  1863  the  Danish  brethren  in  Wisconsin  were  in- 
corporated into  the  Norwegian  District. 

In  1870  the  Norwegian-Danish  District  made  an  agree- 
ment with  Northwestern  University  at  Evanston,  III., 
for  the  organization  of  a  department  for  Norwegian  and 
Danish  students.  A  class  was  started  the  same  year.  On 
July  3,  1875,  the  Noi-wegian  and  Danish  Educational 
Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church  was  incorporated. 

In  1879  the  Minnesota  Annual  Conference  was  held 
at  Winona,  Oct.  1-6,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Bishop 
Jesse  T.  Peck.  This  Annual  Conference  passed  a  resolu- 
tion, or  memorial,  addressed  to  the  coming  General  Con- 
ference; the  closing  paragraph  reads  as  follows: 

Although  the  relationship  between  the  Norwegian  and  the 
American  brethren  at  this  Conference  has  for  many  years  been 
as  harmonious  and  brotherly  as  could  be  desired,  we  are  never- 
theless of  tlie  opinion  that  work  amongst  the  Norwegians  will 
be  furthered  to  the  best  advantage  if  the  Norwegians  were  to 
establish  their  own  separate  Annual  Conference;  and  we  would 
therefore  humbly  request  this  General  Conference  which  is 
about  to  take  place  to  consider  the  suitability  of  establishing 
such  a  separate  organization. 

Pursuant  to  this  in  1880  the  Norwegian  and  Danish 
preachers  in  the  United  States  all  met  together  in  an 
Annual  Conference  of  their  own  for  the  first  time.  At 
that  date  the  connection  with  American  Methodism  had 
been  in  existence  for  twenty-nine  years.  This  Annual  Con- 
ference took  place  at  Racine,  Wis.,  Sept.  9-13,  under  the 
chairmanship  of  Bishop  W.  L.  Harris.  The  Norwegian- 
Danish  Conference  had  then  2,266  members,  with  a 
further  274  on  probation,  and  there  were  forty-three 
churches. 

At  the  annual  Conference  of  1883,  at  Racine,  Wis.,  it 
was  decided  to  establish  a  Norwegian-Danish  School  of 
Theology,  and  the  session  the  following  year  decided  that 
this  school  was  to  be  at  Evanston,  111.  In  1890  the  founda- 
tion for  publishing  activities  was  laid  in  the  Norwegian- 
Danish  Publishing  Society.  This  enterprise  was  merged 
with  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  in  1914. 


On  Dec.  23,  1896,  the  Norwegian  and  Danish  Meth- 
odist Preachers'  Aid  Society  was  established,  and  on  Aug. 
20,  1914,  a  home  for  elderly  members  was  opened  in 
Chicago.  This  bore  the  name  of  "Elim  Home." 

The  Norwegian-Danish  congregations  thereafter 
steadily  continued  their  work.  But  in  consequence  of  the 
steady  decrease  in  the  number  of  immigrants  coming  from 
Norway  and  Denmark,  and  the  fact  that  the  early  im- 
migrants and  their  descendants  had  become  Americanized, 
the  number  of  Norwegian-Danish  congregations  grew 
smaller,  until  they  were  eventually  all  merged  into  Ameri- 
can Methodism,  according  to  a  decision  adopted  by  the 
Uniting  Conference  in  1939.  The  last  Norwegian-Danish 
Conference  convened  in  Trinity  Church,  Racine,  Wis.,  on 
May  26,  1943,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Bishop  E.  L. 
Waldorf. 

EiLEBT  Bernhardt 

NORWICH,  Norfolk,  England,  has  always  been  an  impor- 
tant agricultural  and  manufacturing  center  in  East  Anglia. 
In  the  eighteenth  century  it  was,  as  it  is  now,  a  city  of 
churches  and  a  stronghold  of  nonconformity.  It  was  the 
third  city  in  the  country,  and  therefore  it  was  natural 
that  John  Wesley's  visits  should  be  frequent.  On  his 
first  visit,  in  July  1754,  he  was  accompanied  by  his  brother 
Charles,  their  host  being  Captain  (later  Colonel)  Gal- 
latin, in  whose  house  the  first  recognized  Methodist  service 
was  held.  As  John  was  far  from  well,  Charles  was  the 
preacher;  and  it  was  he  who  a  few  days  later  took  a 
seven-years'  lease  on  an  old  brew  house,  on  the  site  of  a 
former  bell  foundry  near  the  castle,  in  which  building, 
known  as  the  Foundery,  the  first  regular  society  of  eigh- 
teen members  was  formed.  Services  were  held  there  for 
about  seven  years,  and  the  society  seems  to  have  had  a 
fairly  steady  existence,  apart  from  some  violent  persecu- 
tion by  the  Hell-Fire  Club,  composed  of  papists.  Non- 
jurors, Jacobites  and  others. 

In  1758  Wesley  negotiated  a  seven-years'  lease  on  the 
"Tabernacle,"  a  fine  meetinghouse  designed  by  the  famous 
Norwich  architect  Thomas  Ivory  and  opened  in  1753  by 
George  Whitefield  for  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon's 
connection.  Here  it  was  that  the  notorious  Calvinistic 
Methodist  preacher  James  Wheatley  officiated.  After  his 
expulsion  from  Wesleyan  Methodism  in  1749  for  im- 
morality, he  had  established  himself  in  Norwich,  though 
also  persecuted  by  the  Hell-Fire  Club,  until  misconduct 
again  led  to  his  disappearance.  It  is  not  surprising  that  at 
the  Tabernacle  Wesley  found  a  congregation  whose  in- 
stability (many  were  Antinomians  or  Sandemanians) 
nearly  drove  him  to  despair,  evoking  such  comments  as: 
"I  told  them  they  were  the  most  ignorant,  self-conceited, 
self-willed,  fickle,  intractable,  disorderly,  disjointed 
Society  in  the  three  kingdoms"  {Journal,  iv,  351,  Sept. 
9,  1759);  or  "I  have  had  more  trouble  with  this  Society 
than  with  half  the  Societies  in  England  put  together" 
(Journal,  v,  36,  Oct.  11,  1763).  This  state  of  things  was 
reflected  in  the  membership,  which  shrank  from  about 
330  to  170  when  the  Tabernacle  was  vacated  at  the 
expiration  of  the  lease. 

In  1766  the  society  rented  from  the  General  Baptists 
a  chapel  in  St.  James'  Parish  and  continued  to  worship 
there  until  1769,  when  the  members  realized  their  long- 
cherished  ambition  to  have  a  building  of  their  own.  The 
stigma  caused  by  Wheatley 's  behavior  had  made  it  dif- 
ficult for  them  to  purchase  a  plot  of  ground,  but  eventually 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NOTTINGHAM,   ENGLAND 


a  site  was  procured  in  Cherry  Lane,  and  the  new  chapel, 
to  which  Wesley  contributed  £270,  was  opened  by  him  in 
October  1769.  Here  the  Norwich  Wesleyans  worshiped 
for  forty-two  years;  the  cause  prospered,  the  membership 
increasing  from  160  to  250,  the  congregation  rising  to 
500.  This  was  partly  due  to  preachers  like  George  Shad- 
ford,  Joseph  Pilmore,  Richard  Whatcoat  (the  Ameri- 
can Methodist  pioneer),  and  Adam  Clarke,  who  were 
all  stationed  in  Norwich  in  this  period.  John  Wesley's 
last  sermon  in  Norwich  was  preached  in  Cherry  Lane 
in  1790,  when  he  was  eighty-seven.  He  wrote:  "But 
the  house  would  in  no  wise  hold  the  congregation.  How 
wonderfully  is  the  tide  turned.  I  am  become  an  honourable 
man  at  Norwich." 

By  1809  the  problem  of  increasing  numbers  made  a  new 
place  of  worship  necessary.  A  convenient  site  was  found 
in  nearby  Calvert  Street,  and  in  June  1811  a  capacious 
chapel  was  opened  by  Thomas  Coke.  This  building  is 
still  used  for  Methodist  worship.  A  second  chapel  was 
soon  needed,  and  in  October  1824,  St.  Peter's  Chapel,  in 
Lady-Lane,  was  opened  by  Robert  Newton,  then  presi- 
dent of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference.  For  some 
years  it  was  said  that  no  less  than  two  thousand  people 
attended  Methodist  services  every  Sunday;  a  third  chapel, 
"New  City,"  was  opened  in  1839,  seating  six  hundred,  in 
a  populous  district  near  St.  Peter's.  As  a  result,  however, 
of  the  disastrous  events  of  1849  the  Norwich  Circuit  was 
torn  asunder.  The  excommunicated  rebels,  the  Wesleyan 
Reformers,  made  the  Calvert  Street  Chapel  their  head- 
quarters, taking  over  New  City  as  well.  Among  their 
leaders  were  W.  H.  Cozens-Hardy,  Robert  Daws,  and 
John  Clarke,  who  left  their  mark  on  the  public  and  re- 
ligious life  of  Norwich. 

The  Primitive  Methodist  connection  had  entered  Nor- 
wich as  far  back  as  1821;  outstanding  among  them  were 
Robert  Key  and  the  woman  travehng  preacher  Eliza- 
beth Bultitude.  The  Primitive  Methodists  divided  the 
city  among  themselves,  and  in  1932  there  were  three 
separate  circuits  in  Norwich. 

From  1868  the  Wesleyan  Reform  Union,  set  up  in 
1859  by  the  Reformers  who  would  not  enter  the  United 
Methodist  Free  Churches  in  the  union  of  1857,  has 
had  a  strong  branch  in  the  city. 

Each  section  of  Norwich  Methodism  for  long  had 
powerful  Sunday  schools.  After  the  Union  of  1932  there 
was  a  steady  movement  toward  consolidation  of  Method- 
ism in  the  city;  the  Primitive  Methodist  circuits  disap- 
peared as  separate  entities,  and  in  1966  there  were  only 
two  circuits,  the  Calvert  Street  and  St.  Peter's  Circuits, 
with  sixteen  and  eighteen  societies  respectively.  Norwich 
was  a  good  example  of  the  crippling  effect  which  the  mid- 
nineteenth  century  divisions  had  on  the  progress  of  Meth- 
odism; a  new  start  has  been  made,  however,  since  1945. 

W.  A.  Green 

NORWOOD,  FREDERICK  ABBOTT  ( 1914-  ) ,  American 
minister,  educator,  and  historian,  was  born  in  San  Diego, 
Calif.,  on  July  11,  1914,  the  son  of  Frederick  A.  and 
Florence  (Abbott)  Norwood.  He  received  the  B.A.  de- 
gree from  Ohio  Wesleyan  in  1936;  the  B.D.  from  Yale 
in  1939;  and  a  Ph.D.  there  in  1941.  His  wife,  whom  he 
married  on  June  14,  1943,  was  Florence  Louise  Corbett, 
and  their  children  are  Mary  Beth  and  Pamela  Zoe. 
Dr.  Norwood  joined  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference 
in  1941,  was  ordained  a  deacon  in  1943,  and  came  into 


full  connection  in  1944.  He  served  for  a  time  as  a  min- 
ister in  Ohio,  1942-46,  and  then  became  the  professor 
of  history  at  Baldwin-Wallace  College,  Berea,  Ohio. 
1946-52.  He  took  the  chair  of  church  history  at  Garrett 
Theological  Seminary  in  Evanston,  111.,  in  1952,  and 
continues  in  that  position. 

He  has  been  a  member  of  the  General  Commission  for 
the  Methodist  Bicentennial,  a  Guggenheim  Fellow, 
American  Association  of  Theological  Schools  Fellow,  and 
is  the  author  of  The  Reformation  Refugees  as  an  Economic 
Force,  1942;  The  Development  of  Modern  Christianity, 
1956;  History  of  the  North  Indiana  Conference,  1917- 
1956,  1957;  Church  Membership  in  the  Methodist  Tradi- 
tion, 1958;  Great  Moments  in  Church  History,  1962, 
and  Strangers  and  Exiles,  a  history  of  Religious  Refugees, 
2  vols.  1969.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Editorial  Board  of 
The  History  of  American  Methodism  and  of  Methodist 
History.  He  contributed  the  general  article  Methodism 
to  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  and  numerous  articles  to 
professional  Journals.  He  is  upon  the  editorial  board  and 
supervisory  committee  of  the  Encyclopedia  of  World 
Methodism. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

NOTSON,  GARY  THOMPSON  (1865-1956),  American 
M.E.  minister  and  hospital  administrator,  was  bom  near 
Lamoni,  Decatur  County,  Iowa  on  Sept.  19,  1865.  Edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools,  he  was  active  in  the  printing 
business  until  1891  when  he  entered  the  ministry  in  the 
Des  Moines  Annual  Conference.  In  1893  he  trans- 
ferred to  the  Dakota  Annual  Conference  where  he 
served  churches  at  Flandreau,  Sioux  Falls,  Elk  Point, 
Centerville,  Pierre  and  Alexandria  until  1910.  In  that 
year  he  was  appointed  district  superintendent  of  the 
Huron  District,  a  position  which  he  held  until  1914. 

Notson  was  active  in  the  Church  Federation  of  Dakota, 
the  South  Dakota  Historical  Society  and  as  a  trustee 
of  Dakota  Wesleyan  University.  His  achievements  were 
recognized  in  1913  when  Dakota  Wesleyan  conferred 
upon  him  an  honorary  D.D.  In  1914  he  became  executive 
secretary  for  the  newly  organized  Methodist  State  Hospi- 
tal, Mitchell,  S.D.,  and  completed  two  financial  campaigns 
for  $100,000  and  $80,000  so  that  the  hospital  was  dedi- 
cated on  Feb.  10,  1918.  He  continued  in  this  position 
until  1920  when  he  transferred  to  the  Northwest  Iowa 
Annual  Conference  as  superintendent  of  the  Methodist 
Hospital,  Sioux  City.  Here  he  raised  some  $500,000  for 
the  work  and  remained  in  the  post  until  1938  when  he 
accepted  a  retired  relationship.  In  1939  he  returned  to 
South  Dakota  as  director  of  the  Sanatorium  and  Hospital, 
a  city  institution  in  Chamberlain.  He  died  on  Dec.  2, 
1956  in  Sioux  City,  Iowa. 

A  Century  of  Methodism  in  South  Dakota,  1860-1960.   (Dia- 
mond Jubilee  Booklet.  Conference  Historical  Committee,  1960. ) 
M.  D.  Smith,  Circuit  Riders  of  the  Middle  Border.  1965. 
C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 
Minutes  of   the   North   Iowa   Annual   Conference,    1957,   pp. 
259-260.  Louis  A.   Haselmayer 

NOTTINGHAM,  England.  One  of  England's  smaller  in- 
dustrial towns,  situated  in  the  Midlands,  Nottingham  grew 
rapidly  as  a  result  of  the  eighteenth-century  industrial 
expansion.  The  earliest  record  of  Methodist  activity  there 
centers  round  a  Mr.  Howe,  who  preached  at  Nottingham 


NOVA   SCOTIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Cross  and  later  at  the  house  of  Matthew  Bagshaw  in 
Crossland  Yard,  Narrow  Marsh.  The  house  had  to  be 
modified  by  removing  the  ceiling  from  the  living  room 
and  allowing  the  men  to  sit  upstairs  and  the  ladies  down, 
with  the  preacher  perched  on  a  chair  on  a  table  in  the 
middle  of  the  downstairs  room. 

John  Wesley  came  himself  to  Nottingham  in  1741, 
and  though  most  accounts  of  that  visit  record  his  favorable 
impression  of  the  countryside,  few  recall  his  observation 
made  of  the  early  Methodists  in  Nottingham:  "I  could 
not  but  observe  .  .  .  that  when  I  began  to  pray  there 
appeared  to  be  a  general  surprise,  none  once  offering  to 
kneel  down,  and  those  who  stood,  choosing  the  most  easy 
indolent  posture  which  they  conveniently  could."  How- 
ever, Methodism  grew  considerably  in  the  next  twenty 
years  and  heard  many  of  the  well-known  preachers,  in- 
cluding John  Nelson  and  Thomas  Coke.  In  July,  1757, 
John  Wesley  remarked  that  what  was  needed  most  was 
a  larger  house.  In  1764  the  Octagon,  or  Tabernacle,  was 
opened  at  a  cost  of  £124.  Nottingham  at  that  time  was 
under  the  Methodist  direction  of  Derby.  In  1776  a  sepa- 
rate Nottingham  circuit  was  established.  In  1777  there 
were  700  members;  1787,  800;  1791,  1,000;  1797,  1,400. 

In  1783  the  Tabernacle  was  sold  to  the  General  Bap- 
tists, and  a  new  church  at  Hockley  was  opened.  Linked  to 
the  opening  of  this  church,  which  was  to  become  the 
center  of  much  controversy,  is  the  name  of  a  famous 
preacher  in  Nottingham,  Thomas  Tatham.  Meanwhile,  in 
1796,  Alexander  Kilham  was  expelled  from  the  Wes- 
leyan  connection  for  his  publications  regarding  ecclesias- 
tical polity.  In  1797  the  members  of  the  Hockley  church 
voted  by  320  to  280  to  follow  him,  and  the  trustees  being 
in  the  majority  group  refused  to  receive  preachers  desig- 
nated by  the  old  connection.  In  a  lengthy  discussion 
between  the  friends  of  the  Methodist  New  Connexion 
and  the  friends  of  the  old,  the  main  object  of  the  action 
taken  by  the  trustees  of  the  Hockley  Church  was  to  force 
the  itinerant  preachers  to  admit  the  People  into  the  yearly 
Assembly.  In  spite  of  the  threat  of  litigation,  the  Methodist 
New  Connexion  retained  the  use  of  Hockley  Chapel,  and 
the  Wesleyan  Methodists  were  obliged  to  meet  tempo- 
rarily at  Beck  Bam,  and  in  1799  to  open  a  new  church  at 
Halifax  place  (thanks  to  Thomas  Tatham).  The  two  Meth- 
odist groups  indulged  in  a  great  deal  of  wordy  polemic 
through  the  next  generation,  but  they  thrived  on  it.  In 
1804  the  new  church  at  Halifax  Place  had  to  be  enlarged; 
in  1816  the  New  Connexion  built  a  new  church  in  Parlia- 
ment Street,  and  in  1818  Hockley  was  returned  to  the 
Wesleyans.  In  1826  Parliament  Street  had  to  be  enlarged, 
and  in  1839  Wesley  Chapel,  Broad  Street,  was  built. 
The  controversial  church  at  Hockley  was  then  sold  to 
the  Primitive  Methodists,  who  had  entered  Nottingham 
in  1815. 

Sarah  Kirkland,  a  famous  woman  evangelist,  had 
first  come  to  Nottingham  to  conduct  open-air  services  in 
the  forest.  Camp  meetings  were  held  in  Nottingham 
Forest  (also  known  for  its  associations  with  Robin  Hood), 
being  led  in  by  Hugh  Bourne  and  in  1818  by  William 
Clowes.  Room  for  the  Primitive  Methodists  was  found 
at  the  Old  Factory,  Broad  Marsh  (a  room  above  a  dis- 
used smithy);  and  there  preparatory  meetings  were  held 
before  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  was  constituted 
formally  in  Nottingham  in  1819.  Nottingham  remained 
a  center  of  Primitive  evangelism,  William  Clowes  being 
sent  from  Hull  to  work  there.   In   1823  Canaan   Street 


Chapel  was  opened  to  seat  nine  hundred  persons,  built 
in  what  one  commentator  called  the  "barnic  style."  In 
1839  they  bought  Hockley  and  created  the  second  Not- 
tingham circuit;  Nottingham's  third  and  fourth  were  cre- 
ated in  1877  (Forest  Road),  and  1889  (Mayfield  Road), 
respectively,  and  by  the  time  of  Methodist  Union  in 
1932  there  were  six  Primitive  Methodist  circuits  in  and 
around  the  city. 

In  1907,  the  Methodist  New  Connexion  in  Nottingham 
found  added  strength  in  union  with  the  United  Meth- 
odist Free  Churches,  which  was  fairly  strong  in  the 
area.  Perhaps  the  most  important  fact  in  their  Notting- 
ham history,  however,  was  their  loss,  in  the  mid-nineteenth 
century,  of  the  services  of  a  young  minister  called  Wil- 
liam Booth,  who,  either  from  inability  to  come  to  terms 
with  the  administration  of  the  church,  or  through  fear  of 
being  expelled  from  the  connection  as  had  been  his  former 
minister  and  friend,  Samuel  Dunn,  resigned,  and  later 
became  famous  as  General  Booth,  the  founder  of  the 
Salvation  Army. 

By  1932  both  the  Wesleyans  and  the  United  Meth- 
odist Church  had  four  circuits  in  Nottingham,  making 
fourteen  in  all  with  the  Primitive  Methodists.  There  were 
many  small  chapels  that  had  been  sponsored  by  business- 
men for  their  employees;  and  though  in  1935  the  number 
of  circuits  was  reduced  to  six,  there  still  remained  a  prob- 
lem of  redundancy.  None  of  the  chapels  existing  today  is 
of  great  age,  and  those  with  the  longest  history  have  been 
rebuilt  since  they  were  founded.  Many  have  known  a  peri- 
od of  success  when  the  seating  was  not  adequate,  and 
observers  in  the  nineteenth  century  noted  other  inade- 
quacies— for  example,  the  ventilation:  "What  streams  of 
condensed  vapour,  unable  to  escape  into  the  common 
sewer  of  the  open  firmament,  have  been  seen  running 
down  the  chapel  walls."  The  desire  for  greater  comfort  as 
the  churches  became  more  middle  class — and  in  one  case 
for  "more  commodious  family  pews" — led  to  the  frequent 
modification  and  sometimes  the  demolition  and  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  buildings.  In  1902  the  Wesleyan  Methodists, 
moved  by  the  Forward  Movement,  bought  the  Albert 
Hall  to  set  up  a  Central  Mission.  Unfortunately,  the  build- 
ing caught  fire  just  after  the  purchase,  and  the  project 
was  almost  dropped.  However,  money  was  found  to  re- 
store the  building  and  the  hall  finally  opened  in  1909. 

Of  all  the  churches  in  Nottingham  the  Albert  Hall  is 
now  the  best  known.  In  1956  a  further  improvement  was 
the  opening  of  Methodist  International  House  to  care 
especially  for  overseas  students.  The  Methodist  Confer- 
ence was  held  in  Nottingham  in  1945  and  1957.  The 
famous  Faith  and  Order  Conference — "Unity  begins  at 
Home" — which  set  before  all  the  British  churches  the 
target  of  unification  by  1980,  was  held  at  Nottingham  in 
1964. 


Samuel  Dunn,  Thomas  Tatham.  1847. 
G.   H.   Harwood,  Nottingham.   1872. 

NOVA  SCOTIA.  (See  Canada.) 


John  Dolling 


NOYES,  HENRY  SANBORN  (1822-1872),  American 
scholar  and  University  president,  was  born  in  LandafI, 
N.  H.,  Dec.  24,  1822.  While  preparing  for  college  at 
Newbury  Seminary,  Newbury,  Vt.,  he  served  as  assistant 
instructor  in  mathematics  and  Latin  in  1845  and  1846. 
He  graduated  from  Wesleyan  Unxversity,  Middletown, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


NUREMBERG,   GERMANY 


Conn.,  in  1848,  at  which  time  he  also  was  instructor  at 
Springfield  Wesleyan  Seminary,  Springfield,  Vt.  He  re- 
turned to  Newbury  in  1850  to  teach  mathematics,  Greek 
and  German.  In  1854  he  became  principal  of  Newbury 
Seminary  and  continued  teaching  Greek  and  moral  philos- 
ophy. Henry  Noyes  and  Harriet  Verback,  a  student  in  the 
Seminary,  were  married  Feb.  16,  1849.  Mrs.  Noyes  sub- 
sequently became  preceptress  during  her  husband's  ad- 
ministration. 

Noyes  was  elected  professor  of  mathematics  at  North- 
western University,  Evanston,  111.,  in  June  1854,  but 
did  not  move  to  Evanston  until  June  1855.  Noyes  be- 
came the  president  of  the  University  and  held  the  post 
as  manager,  promoter  and  central  figure  of  that  institution 
for  ten  years.  He  died  May  24,  1872. 

As  a  scholar  Henry  Noyes  was  at  home  in  several 
languages.  He  could  recite  long  passages  from  Homer  from 
memory,  and  it  is  said  that  at  one  time,  while  in  Evanston, 
he  heard  a  mathematics  class  in  Greek.  It  was  his  custom 
to  award  diplomas  to  the  graduating  classes  in  Latin. 


M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.   1878. 


Eldon  H.   Martin 


NUELSEN,  JOHN  LOUIS  (1867-1946),  bishop,  scholar 
and  ecumenist,  was  the  son  of  an  American  Methodist 
minister,  Heinrich  Nuelsen,  who  had  emigrated  from 
Germany  in  1842  and  served  in  Europe  as  a  pastor 
from  1851-89.  John  Louis  was  bom  in  Zurich,  Switzer- 
land, on  Jan.  19,  1867.  He  shared  in  the  itinerancy  of  the 
family  and  went  to  high  school  and  junior  college 
(Gymnasium)  in  Karlsruhe  and  Bremen,  Germany.  On 
the  return  to  America,  John  Nuelsen  started  his  studies  at 
Drew  Univebsity,  where  he  obtained  his  B.D.  degree. 
After  further  academic  training  in  the  States,  he  pursued 
his  study  of  theology  at  the  German  Universities  of  Berlin 
and  Halle.  There  followed  a  period  of  ministerial  work  at 
Sedalia,  Miss.,  after  which  he  taught  classical  languages 
at  the  Methodist  College  in  Saint  Paul,  Minn.  Then  for 
five  years  he  taught  exegetical  theology  at  Central 
Wesleyan  College,  Warrenton,  Miss.  In  1899  he  be- 
came theological  professor  at  the  Nast  Theological  Semi- 
nary in  Berea,  Ohio,  where  he  taught  both  in  German  and 
in  Enghsh  for  nine  years,  using  both  languages  in  his 
writings.  Between  1896  and  1908  he  published  five  books 
in  German,  and  two  in  English — significantly  one  on 
Luther,  and  one,  in  1908,  on  Some  Recent  Phases  of 
German  Theology. 

By  this  time  he  had  become  widely  known  also  through 
his  addresses  at  Sunday  school  and  youth  conventions 
and  his  Bible  studies  at  camp  meetings.  This  may  par- 
tially explain,  why,  at  the  age  of  forty-one,  he  was  in 
1908  elected  bishop,  being  given  episcopal  supervision  of 
the  Omaha  Area. 

He  proved  to  be  an  excellent  administrator  and  par- 
liamentarian. In  1912  he  was  sent  to  Europe  to  succeed 
Bishop  William  Burt.  With  his  ofiRce  in  Zurich  he 
supervised  the  whole  of  Methodism  in  Europe  and  North 
Africa  from  that  point.  Two  years  later,  World  War  I 
broke  out  and  made  work  very  difficult  for  him.  He  al- 
ways regarded  nationalism  as  a  very  real  danger  to  Chris- 
tianity. Even  when  he  no  longer  had  access  to  certain 
countries,  he  planned  ahead  what  should  be  done  after 
the  war.  It  was  then  that  his  name  became  "known  from 
Paris  to  Moscow,  from  Rome  to  Stockholm."  His  relief 
work,  particularly  for  the  children  of  the  European  coun- 


tries, proved  a  magnificent  contribution.  This  as  well  as 
his  scholarly  interpretation  of  the  two  continents  each  to 
the  other,  and  his  ecumenical  spirit  were  the  reasons  why 
the  University  of  Berlin  conferred  upon  him  the  honorary 
degree  of  a  theological  doctor,  through  the  hands  of  its 
famous  dean  and  New  Testament  scholar.  Professor  Adolf 
Deissmann.  This  was  a  singular  thing  to  happen  to  a 
Methodist  and  was  the  beginning  of  ecumenical  accep- 
tance. After  the  reorganization  of  Continental  Methodism, 
Nuelsen  became  the  bishop  of  the  Central  European 
Central  Conference,  which  first  met  in  1925. 

John  Nuelsen  was  called  a  "Bridge  builder"  between 
Germany  and  America  and  a  true  ecumenist.  In  addition 
to  his  heavy  load  of  administration  and  the  traveling  it 
demanded  it  is  surprising  how  many  books  he  published 
from  1920  onward.  To  a  significant  extent  he  wrote  of 
Methodism  and  its  role  as  a  free  church.  But  historical 
research  engrossed  him  more  and  more.  He  edited  and  to 
a  great  degree  himself  wrote  a  fine  volume  in  German 
on  the  history  of  Methodism  (2  editions).  Also  valuable 
are  his  contributions  on  John  Wesley  and  the  German 
hymns;  and  on  John  William  Fletcher  (1929).  His 
book  on  the  ordination  in  Methodism  (1935),  suggested 
as  a  subject  by  J.  W.  E.  Sommer,  became  influential  in 
molding  German  and  European  thought  on  the  theology 
of  ordination,  and  the  concept  of  one  ordination  only. 
It  is  due  to  him  and  J.  W.  E.  Sommer  that  the  Germany 
Central  Conference  knows  only  one  ordination  (since 
1948).  As  an  ecumenist  Nuelsen  contributed  largely  to 
overcome  state  church  prejudice  against  what  had  been 
called  "sectarian"  Methodism.  As  an  excellent  theologian, 
an  aristocratic  leader  of  people  and  a  tireless  pastor  of 
pastors  he  possessed  profile  and  gained  admiration  and 
affection.  He  retired  in  May,  1939,  after  the  Uniting 
Conference  held  in  Kansas  City.  Four  years  after  he 
retired  he  died  in  Bethesda  Hospital,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

F.  Wunderlich,  Methodists  Linking  Two  Continents.   1960. 

C.  Ernst  Sommer 

NUREMBERG,  Germany,  is  one  of  the  old  historic  cities 
of  Europe.  The  circuits  established  there  are  in  the  South 
Germany  Annual  Conference.  British  Wesleyan  and  the 
Episcopal  Methodism  of  the  United  States  both  started 
work  about  the  same  time  in  Nuremberg.  In  1875  the 
Wesleyan  ministers,  Beutenmueller  from  Munich,  and 
Boettcher  from  Kirchberg/Jagst,  visited  Nuremberg  to  give 
religious  addresses.  On  Jan.  1,  1877,  J.  J.  Sommer  took 
over  the  Wesleyan  mission,  and  a  month  and  a  half 
later  founded  a  local  church  with  seven  members. 

The  M.E.  Church  (U.S.A.),  after  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1876,  sent  J.  Zipperer  to  Nuremberg  in  order 
to  find  out  whether  the  city  was  suitable  for  missionary 
enterprise.  On  Nov.  2,  1876,  J.  Kaufmann  took  over;  and 
in  February  1877,  a  church  was  founded  and  four  people 
were  received  as  members.  At  the  Annual  Conference  of 
1877,  eighteen  probationary  members  were  reported.  This 
evangelistic  work  radiated  to  many  small  towns  and  vil- 
lages, but  owing  to  state  church  opposition,  only  a  few 
congregations  were  gathered. 

The  Wesleyan  Church  dedicated  St.  Paul's  Chapel  on 
Feb.  9,  1890,  the  first  Methodist  church  building  in 
Bavaria.  It  was  within  the  bounds  of  this  circuit  that 
J.  G.  Ekert  in  1889  founded  the  deaconess  mother-house, 
Martha-Maria.  The  Zion's  Church  of  the  Episcopal  Meth- 


NUHALL,    EZRA 


Mabtha  Mary  Hospital,  Nuremberg,  Germany 


odist  branch  was  dedicated  in  1893.  Both  churches  and 
the  deaconess  mother-house  were  destroyed  during  the 
Second  World  War  on  Jan.  2,  1945.  The  deaconess 
mother-house  was  rebuilt  as  Bavaria's  most  modern  hospi- 
tal (350  beds)  from  1950-1969. 

A  new  Zion's  Church  was  dedicated  on  Nov.  5,  1950; 
a  new  St.  Paul's  Church  on  Jan.  31,  1954.  The  Evange- 
LiscHE  Gemeinschaft  (EUB)  also  founded  a  congre- 
gation in  Nuremberg.  Members  were  looked  after  by  the 
minister  of  Aalen  from  1931  to  1948,  and  after  1948 
by  the  minister  of  Munich.  In  February  1951,  a  con- 
gregation was  founded  by  R.  Kohlenbrenner  and  in  1956 
a  sanctuary  was  built  at  Humboldtstrasse.  The  congrega- 
tion grew  up  to  100  members  counting  adherents.  In 
connection  with  the  union  resulting  in  the  United  Meth- 
odist Church,  this  group  became  part  of  St.  Paul's  con- 
gregation. Both  circuits  are  missionary  minded,  and  at 
present  have  a  total  constituency  of  over  1,600. 

Martha-Maria  Deaconess  Hospital  (Mutter-haus 
Diakonie)  at  Nuremberg,  is  a  well-equipped  and  well- 
staffed  hospital  and  nursing  home,  situated  on  spacious 
grounds  a  little  way  out  of  the  city.  It  has  an  excellent 
nursing  corps  and  has  quarters  in  its  impressive  main 
building  for  retired  deaconesses  as  well  as  for  those  who 
give  their  lives  in  active  service  for  their  ministry  of 
health    and    healing.    Martha-Maria    enjoys    a    deserved 


prestige  both  in  its  own  community  and  all  over  Germany 
wherever  its  work  has  come  to  be  known. 

Paul  Ernst  Hammer 
N.  B.  H. 

NUTTALL,  EZRA  (1850-1915),  South  African  Wesleyan 
missionary  was  bom  in  England  on  Nov.  4,  1850.  His 
family  was  Anglican  and  a  brother,  Enos,  became  Arch- 
bishop of  the  West  Indies.  Ezra  Nuttall  entered  the  min- 
istry in  1871  and  came  to  South  Africa  in  1875.  He 
established  a  teachers'  training  and  industrial  institution 
for  Africans  at  Edendale  near  Pietermaritzburg  in  Natal 
(which  later  became  known  by  his  name)  and  served  in 
white  circuits  in  Durban,  Cape  Town  and  East  London. 
He  was  chairman  in  succession  of  the  Natal,  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  and  Queenstown  districts,  secretary  of  the 
South  African  Conference  from  1901  to  1903,  president 
of  the  Conference  in  1895  and  1904,  and  was  elected 
to  be  president  of  the  Conference  in  1916,  the  centenary 
year  of  South  African  Methodism,  but  died  before  as- 
suming office  on  November  23,  1915.  He  was  a  powerful 
preacher,  an  able  administrator  and  faithful  friend  of  the 
African  and  Coloured  peoples  of  South  Africa. 

Minutes  of  the  South  African  Conference,  1916. 

E.  Lynn  Cracc 


OAK  RIDGE  INSTITUTE,  Oak  Ridge,  N.  C,  though  not 
a  denominational  school,  was  for  many  years  closely  as- 
sociated and  identified  with  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference of  the  M.P.  Church.  From  1884  until  1915  it 
was  owned  and  operated  by  Professors  John  Allen  Holt 
and  Martin  Hicks  Holt,  brothers  who  were  prominent 
Methodist  Protestants.  Most  of  the  families  in  the  Oak 
Ridge  community  were  members  of  the  Methodist  Protes- 
tant faith  and  in  1889  a  M.P.  church  was  built  on  the 
grounds  of  the  school. 

The  Institute  was  established  in  1852  and  prior  to  the 
War  Between  the  States  its  course  of  study  was  largely 
oriented  around  the  preparation  of  students  for  advanced 
classes  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina.  In  1879  John 
Allen  Holt  was  joined  by  Martin  Hicks  Holt,  and  not  long 
afterward  the  trustees  leased  the  school  to  the  two 
brothers.  In  1884  the  Holts  bought  the  school  and  in  the 
same  year  a  chapel  and  Literary  Society  Halls  were  built. 
In  1892  Holt  Hall,  with  classrooms,  a  library,  gymnasium, 
YMCA  room  and  museum,  was  built.  Benbow  Hall  for 
boarding  students  was  built  in  1905. 

In  1889  there  were  253  students  of  both  sexes  from 
several  states  and  in  1908  there  were  nearly  300  students 
from  many  states  and  several  foreign  countries.  The  school 
was  considered  to  be  one  of  the  best  preparatory  schools 
in  the  South  and  in  1898  was  referred  to  as  "the  largest 
and  best  equipped  Fitting  School  in  the  South."  It  trained 
hundreds  of  teachers  for  the  public  schools  during  the 
late  nineteenth  and  early  twentieth  centuries,  and  there 
was  a  standing  offer  of  free  tuition  to  ministerial  students 
of  the  M.P.  denomination. 

On  Jan.  17,  1914,  the  Oak  Ridge  Chapel  and  many  of 
the  main  buildings  were  burned.  Following  the  deaths  of 
Professor  Martin  Hicks  Holt  on  Nov.  26,  1914,  and  Pro- 
fessor John  Allen  Holt  on  June  15,  1915,  the  alumni  of 
Oak  Ridge  Institute  rebuilt  the  school  with  each  donor 
receiving  a  share  or  more  of  stock  in  a  private  corporation. 
The  present-day  institution,  known  as  "Oak  Ridge  Military 
Institute,"  is  governed  by  a  board  of  trustees  and  its 
assets  are  operated  through  a  nonprofit  Oak  Ridge  Foun- 
dation. 

J.  Elwood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro,  1939. 
Journal  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  MP,  1906,  1910, 
1915. 

Our  Church  Record,  June  23,  1898. 
The  Rocky  Mount  (N.  C.)  Telegram,  Sept.  1,  1966. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

OAKLAND,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.,  population  358,486, 
was  established  in  1852,  as  a  major  port  and  transporta- 
tion center  at  the  east  end  of  the  San  Francisco  Bay 
Bridge.  Contiguous  cities  are  Berkeley  and  Richmond  to 
the  north,  Alameda,  San  Leandro  and  Hayward  to  the 
south.   The  first   Methodist  services   were   held   in    1856 


and  the  first  Methodist  church  was  organized  in  1862  by 
C.  E.  Rich. 

California  College,  established  by  Congregationalists 
and  Presbyterians,  became  the  University  of  California  in 
1868  under  Oliver  Fitzgerald,  Methodist  minister  and  state 
superintendent  of  public  instruction.  The  East  Oakland 
Church  originated  out  of  First  Church  in  1874  but  was 
reunited  in  1959  as  First  Church  and  became  "one  church 
with  two  locations"  (913  members). 

Southern  Methodism  came  in  fairly  early  and  had  one 
church.  The  fifteen  Methodist  churches  extant  in  1970 
(5,034  members)  include  Chinese,  Korean,  Japanese, 
Filipino  and  two  Negro  congregations.  Taylor  Memorial 
(Negro)  is  largest  in  membership  (1,342),  Down's  Me- 
morial (Negro)  is  third  in  size  (660).  Neither  was  ever  in 
the  Central  Jurisdiction.  Former  Portuguese,  German  and 
Norwegian-Danish  congregations  became  the  base  for 
Good  Shepherd,  Montclair  and  Lake  Park  churches.  Fred 
Finch  Children's  Home,  seventy-five  years  old,  is  now 
serving  disturbed  teenagers.  Two  retirement  homes  are 
operated:  Beulah  and  the  new  Lake  Park.  In  1863  the 
A.M.E.  Church  purchased  a  former  site  of  First  Church. 
The  Negro  population  was  quite  small  until  World  War 
II  but  is  now  large  and  growing.  There  are  two  A.M.E., 
one  C.M.E.,  one  A.M.E.  Zion  churches.  Forty  percent  of 
the  city's  population  is  composed  of  minority  groups. 
There  are  no  Free  Methodists  or  Wesleyans  at  present. 

Fred  Finch  Children's  Home  is  a  child  care  agency  of 
the  California-Nevada  Conference  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church. 

Captain  and  Mrs.  Duncan  Finch,  active  members  of 
First  Church,  Oakland,  gave  the  acreage  on  which  it  is 
built,  known  as  the  Brooklyn  Fruit  Ranch,  in  memory  of 
their  son,  Fred.  On  Sept.  10,  1891,  the  California  Con- 
ference and  Lay  Association  of  the  M.E.  Church  of- 
ficially received  the  gift  and  authorized  the  establishing 
of  the  Fred  Finch  Orphanage. 

This  agency  of  the  Church  has  a  distinctive  record  of 
changing  services  to  keep  pace  with  each  transitional  need 
of  society.  In  1936  the  name  was  properly  changed  to 
the  Fred  Finch  Children's  Home.  In  1961  the  agency 
established  a  residential,  psychiatric  treatment  facility  for 
the  emotionally  disturbed  adolescent,  with  consultation 
and  therapy  to  the  families  of  youth  in  residence. 

Charles  Edwin  Lord 
Harold  R.  Barnes 

OBERLIN,  PENNSYLVANIA,  USA  Neidig  Memorial 
Church  is  the  oldest  congregation  of  the  former  E.U.B. 
Church  east  of  the  Susquehanna,  and  one  of  the  oldest 
in  the  entire  denomination. 

It  is  not  exactly  known  when  the  people  who  were 
to  be  referred  to  as  Neidig's  Leute  (Neidig's  People) 
first  gathered  together  in  one  another's  homes  for  worship. 
Presumably  this  was  about  1790,  when  John  Neidig,  Sr., 


O'BRYAN,    WILLIAM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


was  chosen  by  lot  to  be  a  preacher  among  the  Mennonites. 
They  erected  their  first  house  of  worship  in  1793,  as 
documents  prepared  by  Neidig  himself  record  both  the 
cost  of  the  building  and  the  subscriptions  secured  to  pay 
for  the  building.  However,  the  record  of  the  transaction 
which  secured  their  land  from  John  Roop  for  five  shillings 
was  not  filed  in  the  Recorder's  Office  of  Dauphin  County 
until  Aug.  4,  1803. 

The  building  erected  in  1793  was  constructed  of  stone 
and  measured  about  thirty  by  forty  feet.  The  interior  was 
plain  and  contained  only  a  table  along  one  wall,  and 
chairs  for  the  members  of  the  congregation.  It  is  said 
that  as  the  building  was  going  up,  a  cynical  bystander 
remarked  that  "a  house  about  the  size  of  a  corn  crib 
would  accommodate  them  for  all  time  to  come."  It  really 
appeared  that  this  cynical  remark  might  be  fulfilled  for 
as  late  as  1852  the  Quarterly  Conference  minutes  listed 
only  twenty-four  members  in  the  class,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  a  larger  frame  building  had  been  erected  in 
1850  to  replace  the  original  building.  However,  by  1887 
the  situation  had  changed.  What  had  once  been  open 
country  was  now  a  small  town,  and  a  new  and  larger 
building  was  erected  in  1887.  This  has  been  added  to  on 
several  occasions  since  then.  The  most  recent  addition  is 
the  education  unit  and  children's  chapel  constructed  in 
1961.  In  1970  Neidig  Church  had  a  membership  of  381. 

P.  B.  Gibble,  East  Pennsylvania  Conference,  UB.  1951. 

Bruce  C.  Soudehs 

O'BRYAN,  WILLIAM  (1778-1868),  British  founder  of 
Bible  Christians  was  bom  Feb.  6,  1778,  at  Gunwen, 
Luxulian,  Cornwall.  He  became  a  Wesleyan  local 
PREACHER  in  1802.  His  preaching  was  attended  by  extraor- 
dinary outpourings  of  spiritual  power,  and  he  estab- 
lished many  causes.  In  1814  he  relinquished  his  business 
to  devote  himself  entirely  to  preaching,  and  evangelized 
much  of  North  Devon  and  Cornwall.  Twice  expelled 
from  Methodism  for  excessive  zeal,  in  October  1815,  he 
formed  an  independent  society  thus  founding  the  Bible 
Christian  connection.  In  time,  however,  his  authoritarian 
rule  as  president  of  the  Conference  aroused  resistance, 
though  he  continued  to  be  loved  and  revered.  Leaving 
the  connection,  he  went  to  America  in  1831  and  served 
in  New  York  and  Canada.  He  paid  six  visits  to  England, 
the  last  in  1861,  when  he  preached  in  many  Bible  Chris- 
tian chapels.  He  died  Jan.  8,  1868,  and  was  buried  in 
Greenwood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

A.  W.  G.  Court 

OCALA,  FLORIDA,  U.S.A.  First  Church  probably  origi- 
nated in  the  work  of  John  L.  Jerry,  who  was  sent  in  1827 
to  serve  St.  Augustine  and  Alachua  Mission.  This  was  the 
official  beginning  of  Methodist  work  in  north  central 
Florida.  The  southern  point  of  this  circuit  "250  miles 
around"  was  Fort  King,  which  had  been  established  in 
1825  as  an  Indian  agency,  and  became  in  1827  a  military 
post. 

A  post  office  was  established  in  Marion  County  in  1845, 
and  was  designated  Ocala  in  1847.  The  Camp  King  Mis- 
sion was  set  up  by  the  Georgia  Conference  in  1844, 
in  the  Newnansville  District.  The  Board  of  Managers  of 
the  Missionary  Society  of  the  Florida  Conference  re- 
ported on  April  4,  1845:  "Camp  King  Mission:  This  mis- 
sion was  under  the  pastoral  care  of  Rev.  E.  L.  T.  Blake; 


has  74  white  and  18  colored  members,  and  promises  much 
good." 

The  Ocala  Circuit  and  Marion  Mission  were  placed  in 
the  newly  created  Tampa  District  in  1852.  In  1867  the 
Ocala  District  was  organized,  and  maintained  for  two 
years.  In  1880,  during  the  second  year  of  the  pastorate 
of  H.  E.  Partridge,  the  Ocala  church  became  a  station 
appointment,  with  forty-nine  members.  This  was  increased 
to  seventy-nine  at  the  close  of  1881. 

The  first  church  building  was  erected  in  1850  to  be 
replaced  by  a  rather  large  church  edifice  in  1890.  This 
served  until  the  present  sanctuary  was  erected  in  1952, 
under  the  pastorate  of  George  A.  Foster.  The  Mabel 
Rich  Educational  Building  was  added  in  1967,  while 
Bruce  F.  Gannaway  served  as  pastor. 

First  Church  has  grown  to  a  membership  of  2,308 
with  property  valued  at  almost  $1,000,000.  It  is  credited 
with  advance  gifts  of  close  to  $25,000,  including  full 
support  of  a  missionary  couple. 

Bruce  F.  Gannaway 

OCEAN  CITY,  NEW  JERSEY,  U.S.A.,  a  resort  town  in 
Cape  May  County,  was  founded  on  Sept.  10,  1879,  by  a 
group  of  Methodists  interested  in  establishing  "a  Christian 
Seaside  Resort."  On  Oct.  20,  1879,  the  Ocean  City  As- 
sociation was  incorporated.  The  following  year  the  Ocean 
City  Tabernacle  Association,  a  permanent  organization 
which  is  still  active,  was  estabhshed  to  preserve  the 
"ideals  of  the  founders." 

In  the  same  year,  1880,  the  present  First  Church,  Ocean 
City,  first  called  St.  Peter's  M.E.  Church,  was  organized. 

Church  services  were  held  from  1880  to  1883  in  a 
hall,  and  later  in  the  local  school  building.  The  corner- 
stone of  the  original  frame  church  building  was  laid  on 
Aug.  20,  1880.  This  building  was  replaced  in  1908  by  a 
stone  structure  which  is  still  in  use.  Since  1956  a  new 
educational  building  has  been  erected  and  the  sanctuary 
greatly  enlarged  and  renovated. 

Through  the  years  of  Ocean  City's  history  there  has 
been  a  sincere  attempt  to  retain  the  Christian  atmosphere 
which  characterized  the  original  founding  of  the  city. 
Moderate  Sunday  closing  laws  have  been  consistently 
maintained,  though  not  without  struggle  and  effort.  The 
sale  of  alcoholic  beverages  has  never  been  permitted  with- 
in the  city  limits.  Special  religious  services  flourish  during 
the  summer  season.  Both  the  Ocean  City  Tabernacle  As- 
sociation and  First  Methodist  Church  sponsor  services  in 
Boardwalk  Theatres  on  Sunday  evening.  The  Tabernacle 
Association  also  holds  two  Sunday  morning  services  in  its 
own  building  and  sponsors  a  week-long  "camp  meeting." 

Since  1942  the  New  Jersey  Annual  Conference  has 
held  its  annual  sessions  in  Ocean  City.  In  1944  Ocean 
City  was  the  site  of  the  Northeastern  Jurisdictional 
Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church. 

F.  B.  Stanger,  New  Jersey.  1961. 

J.  Ellis  Voss,  Ocean  City.  A.  Dhor  Company,  1941. 

Frank  Bateman  Stanger 

OCEAN  GROVE,  NEW  JERSEY,  U.S.A.,  was  founded  in 
1869  and  obtained  a  charter  from  the  New  Jersey 
legislature  as  the  Ocean  Grove  Camp  Meeting  Association 
of  The  M.E.  Church.  That  charter  empowered  the 
original  twenty-six  trustees  and  their  successors  (thirteen 
ministers   and  thirteen  laymen)    to  acquire   land,   build, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OFFICIAL   BOARD 


and  establish  a  "convenient  and  permanent"  Christian 
seaside  resort  and  camp  meeting. 

From  early  June  until  after  Labor  Day,  the  Ocean 
Grove  program  embraces  youth  meetings,  Bible  classes, 
preaching  missions,  Sunday  school  classes,  religious  and 
cultural  movies,  concerts,  organ  recitals,  religious  drama, 
and  twice  every  Sunday  worship  services  in  the  great 
auditorium.  The  season  is  climaxed  by  what  has  become 
famous  as  the  Ocean  Grove  camp  meeting — a  ten  day 
evangehc  program,  concluding  Labor  Day  Sunday. 

Many  religious  conferences  hold  their  annual  sessions 
here.  One  thing  for  which  Ocean  Grove  is  particularly  well 
known  is  the  Sunday  rules.  These  include  a  rule  barring 
traffic  and  all  automobiles  must  be  off  the  streets  before 
midnight  Saturday  and  until  midnight  Sunday  so  that  on 
the  Sabbath  the  twenty  miles  of  Ocean  Grove  streets  are 
devoid  of  cars.  The  calm  and  quiet  are  almost  unimagi- 
nable! Most  persons  park  their  cars  in  the  perimeter  park- 
ing lots. 

The  title  to  all  property  within  the  limits  of  Ocean 
Grove  remains  with  the  Association.  It  does  not  sell 
property  outright,  but  it  does  lease  home  lots  to  indivi- 
duals under  99-year  renewable  contracts.  These  leases 
cannot  be  assigned  except  to  persons  vouched  for  as  to 
good  moral  character  and  in  sympathy  with  Ocean 
Grove's  purposes.  As  a  result.  Ocean  Grove  reserves  its 
lands  for  its  chartered  purposes — Christian  experience. 

V.  B.  Hampton,  Newark  Conference.  1957. 

Mrs.  W.  B.  Osbom,  Pioneer  Days  of  Ocean  Grove.  New  York; 

Methodist   Book   Concern,    n.d.  Kinsey    N.    MERBrrx 

ODA,  KANEO  (1902-1965),  first  bishop  of  the  Japan- 
Free  Methodist  Church,  was  converted  to  Christianity 
while  in  high  school.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  felt  called 
to  the  ministry.  He  graduated  from  Osaka  Seminary, 
studied  in  Seattle  Pacific  College,  and  completed 
work  for  his  doctorate  at  San  Francisco  Theological 
Seminary. 

Appointed  a  missionary  to  China  by  the  Japan  Free 
Methodist  Church  in  1939,  he  established  a  thriving  con- 
gregation in  Peking.  Repatriated  in  1946,  he  was  elected 
superintendent  of  the  Japan  Conference. 

Conference  superintendent  and  bishop,  professor  and 
college  president,  evangelist,  able  interpreter  and  trans- 
lator, Oda  made  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  Free  Meth- 
odist Church  and  the  Christian  movement  in  Japan.  He 
was  one  of  the  first  to  propose  a  world-wide  organization 
of  Free  Methodist  churches.  He  served  on  the  planning 
committees  and  was  the  first  vice-president  of  the  Free 
Methodist  World  Fellowship  which  was  organized  Jan. 
12,  1962.  He  died  in  Osaka,  Japan,  Feb.  28,  196.5. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

ODELL,  DONALD  A.  (See  Judicial  Council.) 

ODESSA,  TEXAS,  U.S.A.  First  Church  has  grown  to  be- 
come one  of  the  greatest  churches  among  the  plains  cities 
of  western  Texas.  In  September  of  1900,  a  group  of 
Methodists  began  holding  services  in  a  little  Baptist 
church  building  in  Odessa.  The  First  Methodist  Church 
was  formally  organized  in  January  of  1901,  with  thirty- 
eight  charter  members,  during  the  pastorate  of  T.  L. 
Lallance.  For  a  time  services  were  held  in  the  Ector 
County  Courthouse,  and  then  the  members  returned  to 


the  Baptist  church  building,  where  services  were  held 
until  the  first  Methodist  building  was  erected  on  its  pres- 
ent site  in  1908.  A  new  brick  structure  was  erected  in 
1938,  and  an  educational  building  added  in  1948.  In 
1949  a  new  sanctuary  was  built  at  a  cost  of  $150,000, 
and  educational  facihties  expanded  in  1962. 

On  Nov.  12,  1965,  the  entire  church  plant  was  com- 
pletely destroyed  by  fire.  The  congregation  banded  to- 
gether to  meet  the  challenge  of  the  days  of  hardship 
caused  by  the  fire,  have  completed  what  they  feel  to  be 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  serviceable  churches  in 
the  southwest.  The  church  listed  2,390  members  in  1970. 

General  Minutes. 

OESCHGER,  OLIN  EMERSON  (1906-  ),  church  ad- 
ministrator and  General  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Hospi- 
tals AND  Homes  of  The  Methodist  Church,  was  born  on 
April  19,  1906,  in  Bay  Port,  Mich.  He  was  educated  at 
North  Central  College  (A.B.,  1927);  University  of 
Michigan  (M.A.,  1928);  Illinois  Wesleyan  University 
(L.H.D.,  1958).  He  married  Marie  M.  Finkbeiner  in 
1932,  and  they  have  one  daughter.  He  was  for  a  time  in 
the  business  oERce  of  the  University  of  Michigan  Hospi- 
tal at  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.  Then  he  became  the  administra- 
tive assistant  and  personnel  director  of  the  Board  of 
Hospitals  and  Homes  of  The  Methodist  Church  from 
1945-56,  when  he  was  elected  General  Secretary  of  that 
Board.  He  served  on  many  important  committees  of  his 
church  and  was  chairman  of  the  Joint  Committee  on 
Hospitals  and  Homes  of  The  Methodist  Church,  and  of 
the  E.U.B.  Church;  on  the  Committee  of  Aging  of  the 
National  Social  Welfare  Assembly;  on  the  Association  of 
Church  Social  Workers  (former  treasurer);  American 
Hospital  Association,  and  American  Protestant  Hospital 
Association. 

As  General  Secretary  Dr.  Oeschger  was  responsible  for 
administering  the  work  of  this  coordinating,  standardizing 
and  consultative  agency  for  more  than  280  affiliated  hos- 
pitals and  homes  located  in  forty-one  states.  He  retired 
on  March  31,  1969. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

OFFICIAL  BOARD.  This  was  the  name  of  the  administra- 
tive agency  in  each  local  church  in  the  later  years  of 
American  Methodism.  It  was  composed  of  the  stewards, 
trustees,  and  other  church  officials,  and  met  apart  from 
the  Quarterly  Conference  and  at  more  regular  times 
— usually  monthly.  It  was  really  the  executive  arm  of  the 
Quarterly  Conference,  and  that  Conference  was  counted 
on  to  approve  actions  of  the  Board  that  might  need 
overall  authority,  since  the  members  of  the  official  board 
largely  comprised  the  Quarterly  Conference  also. 

In  time,  the  Quarterly  Conference  was  allowed  to 
delegate  some  of  its  elective  power  to  the  Oflficial  Board, 
and  in  the  latter  days  of  The  Methodist  Church, 
the  various  commissions  of  the  Church  created  by  the 
Quarterly  Conference  were  directed  to  report  to  the  Of- 
ficial Board. 

The  name  Official  Board  was  done  away  in  the  Dis- 
cipline of  1968 — the  term  Administrative  Board  being 
adopted  by  The  United  Methodist  Church.  But  the  term 
"official  board"  is  still  freely  used.  Methodist  bodies  other 
than  The  United  Methodist  Church  continue  to  use  the 


OFFICIAL   FORMS   AND    RECORDS,    COMMITTEE   ON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


name  Official   Board  for  the  same  type  of  local  church 
agency. 


Disciplines. 


N.  B.  H. 


OFFICIAL  FORMS  AND  RECORDS,  COMMITTEE  ON,  an 

office  created  within  The  Methodist  Church  in  1940  in 
order  to  correlate  and  produce  a  unifomi  system  of  rec- 
ords for  reporting  church  statistics.  Since  1952  it  has 
been  a  committee  of  the  Council  on  World  Service 
AND  Finance.  The  membership  has  varied  from  five  to  the 
present  eleven  and  includes  a  bishop,  six  Council  mem- 
bers, an  Annual  Conference  secretary,  treasurer  and  stat- 
istician, and  a  district  superintendent,  with  additional 
consultants.  The  initial  work  of  the  committee  was  cor- 
relating the  different  systems  of  records  and  forms  of  the 
churches  forming  The  Methodist  Church.  The  Committee 
meets  annually,  with  an  extended  meeting  at  the  begin- 
ning of  each  quardrennium  to  make  major  changes  which 
may  be  necessary  in  report  forms  for  the  quadrennium. 
The  Committee  cooperates  with  the  General  Agencies 
of  the  church  in  determining  the  contents  of  various  re- 
ports, but  final  determination  of  the  reports  is  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  committee.  This  is  true  of  all  official 
reports  except  those  in  use  in  the  local  church  school 
and  by  the  Woman's  Division.  Official  forms  and  records 
include  quarterly  conference  reports,  pastors'  reports  to 
the  Annual  Conference,  local  church  financial  and  mem- 
bership records  and  other  forms  helpful  to  pastors  and 
bishops.  The  Methodist  Publishing  House  prints  all 
official  forms  and  records. 

OGDEN,  BENJAMIN  (1764-1834),  American  pioneer 
preacher  of  Kentucky  and  the  Cumberland  Valley,  was 
born  in  New  Jersey,  April,  1764.  At  an  early  age  he  was 
a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  embraced  religion 
in  1784,  the  year  the  M.E.  Church  was  organized.  In 
1786  he  was  one  of  the  first  two  preachers  appointed 
to  Kentucky  (both  the  same  year).  In  1787  he  formed  the 
Cumberland  Circuit  in  the  wilderness,  the  first  preacher 
appointed  there.  At  the  end  of  the  year  he  reported  sixty- 
three  members.  The  early  Cumberland  Circuit  included 
Nashville  and  all  the  forts  and  settlements  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Cumberland  River,  in  the  area  between  what 
later  was  Gallatin  on  the  east  and  Clarksville  on  the  west; 
it  included  some  preaching  points  in  adjoining  sections 
of  Kentucky. 

In  1788  Ogden  married  Nancy  Puckett  of  Mercer 
County,  Ky.,  and  went  to  Virginia.  He  returned  to  the 
West  in  1790  and  continued  to  live  there.  For  a  while 
he  withdrew  from  the  Methodists. 

However,  he  was  again  licensed  to  preach,  re-admitted 
to  the  Kentucky  Conference,  and  appointed  in  1816 
to  Henderson  Circuit.  In  1817  he  was  again  found  in  the 
traveling  connection,  but  he  soon  sank  a  second  time 
under  the  pressure  of  ill  health  but  again  reappeared  in 
active  service  in  1824.  For  three  years  he  did  effective 
work  on  the  Tennessee  Mission,  the  Christian,  and  the 
Yellow  Banks  Circuits.  In  1827  he  took  his  place  upon 
the  superannuated  list  where  he  remained  until  his  death. 

Benjamin  Ogden  died,  a  member  of  the  conference, 
at  the  residence  of  his  son  near  Princeton,  N.  J.,  Nov. 
20,  1834.  Dying  in  peace  after  a  life  of  suffering,  he  was 
buried  near  Princeton. 


A  plain,  strong,  effective  preacher,  Ogden  did  much  to 
establish  the  Kentucky  Conference.  He  engaged  in  mis- 
sionary labors,  and  endured  great  hardship  in  preaching 
the  gospel  throughout  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  to  some 
of  the  Indian  tribes. 

The  Kentucky  Historical  Society  on  Sept.  14,  1969, 
erected  a  highway  marker  to  Benjamin  Ogden.  Harry  R. 
Short,  historian  of  the  Louisville  Conference  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church,  provided  a  brochure  to  be 
used  on  that  occasion.  The  marker  is  as  follows: 

BENJAMIN    OGDEN 

Methodism's  First  Western  Cavalier 

1764-1834 

First  Methodist  Preacher 

Sent  To  Kentucky 

1786 

"No   man  should  be  sent  to   this   field 

who  is  afraid  to  die." 

W.  E.  Arnold,  Kentucky.  1935-36. 
E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 
Conference  Minutes,  1836,  p.  405. 

Benjamin  Ogden,  Methodism's  First  Western  Cavalier,  1764- 
1834.  (Brochure,  written  to  be  read  at  the  unveiling  of  a  high- 
way marker  erected  by  the  Kentucky  Historical  Society,  Sep- 
tember 14,  1969,  Harry  R.  Short,  Historian  of  the  Louisville 
Conferenc3. ) 
M.   Simpson,   Cyclopaedia.    1878.  Jesse  A.   Earl 

OGLESBY,  JOSEPH  (1782-1852),  American  pioneer 
preacher,  was  born  in  Virginia.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
Western  Conference  on  trial  in  1803  and  was  appointed 
with  John  Sale  that  year  to  the  Miami  Circuit  in  Ohio. 
In  1804  he  was  assigned  to  Illinois  Circuit.  While  on 
this  circuit,  he  crossed  into  Missouri  and  preached  in  the 
Murphy  Settlement,  now  Farmington,  Mo.  He  "recon- 
noitred the  Missouri  country  to  the  extremity  of  the 
settlements  and  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  mighty 
hunter,  Daniel  Boone." 

In  1806  the  Whitewater  Valley  was  organized  into  a 
circuit  called  the  Whitewater  Circuit.  Oglesby  was  ap- 
pointed to  that  newly  formed  circuit  in  the  Ohio  District. 

Located  in  1809  on  account  of  his  poor  health,  Oglesby, 
a  man  of  superior  talent,  reentered  the  conference  in 
1811  and  located  again  in  1815.  Readmitted  to  the 
Indiana  Conference  in  1832,  he  was  appointed  presiding 
elder  of  the  Bloomington  District  in  1834,  serving  for 
two  years.  Very  popular  among  the  early  inhabitants, 
Joseph  Oglesby  traveled  extensively  through  Indiana, 
Illinois  and  Missouri.  An  able  administrator,  acute  thinker 
and  effective  preacher,  he  died  in  1852. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

M.   Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.    1878.  Jesse   A.   Earl 

OGLETHORPE,  JAMES  EDWARD  (1696-1785),  British 
philanthropist,  prison  reformer,  and  founder  and  first 
governor  (1732-33)  of  the  colony  of  Georgia  in  North 
America,  approached  John  Wesley  in  1735  to  go  as 
Anglican  minister  to  the  new  colony.  Wesley  went  as 
a  missionary  for  the  Society  for  Propagation  of  the  Gospel, 
while  Charles  Wesley  accompanied  him  as  Secretary 
for  Indian  Affairs  and  personal  secretary  to  Oglethorpe. 
During  their  stay  in  Georgia   (1736-37)  the  Wesleys  be- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


came  personally  unpopular  with  the  colonists  and  their 
relationship  with  Oglethoipe  was  often  strained. 


OHIO  is  a  north  central  state  which  is  bounded  on  the 
north  by  Michigan  and  Lake  Erie,  on  the  east  by 
Pennsylvania  and  West  Virginia,  on  the  south  by  West 
Virginia  and  Kentucky,  and  on  the  west  by  Indiana. 
Its  area  is  41,222  square  miles  and  its  population  is 
10,542,000  (1970).  Ohio  is  the  nation's  third  greatest 
industrial  state,  with  countless  industries  which  manu- 
facture products  that  touch  almost  every  American  house- 
hold. It  leads  in  the  production  of  tires,  machine  tools, 
business  machines,  glassware,  and  other  items.  It  pro- 
duces much  steel,  lime,  coal,  and  coke.  Also,  Ohio  is  one 
of  the  wealthier  agricultural  states;  its  farm  products  are 
valued  at  more  than  $1,200,000,000  per  year.  The  state 
has  100  institutions  of  higher  learning,  including  four 
Methodist  schools.  Admitted  to  the  Union  in  1803,  Ohio 
was  the  first  state  to  be  carved  out  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  which  was  formed  by  Congress  in  1787. 

The  first  large  scale  settlement  in  Ohio  was  developed 
prior  to  1785  in  what  was  then  Indian  territory.  Located 
near  Martins  Ferry,  the  village  was  declared  illegal  by  the 
national  government  and  the  people  were  ordered  to 
vacate  the  place.  The  settlers  refused  to  leave;  their  situa- 
tion was  relieved  when  the  Northwest  Territory  was 
formed. 

The  first  Methodist  sermon  in  Ohio  was  delivered  by 
George  Callahan  in  September,  1787.  Callahan  was  one 
of  the  preachers  on  the  Ohio  Circuit  located  in  Virginia 
(now  West  Virginia)  between  Wheeling  and  Pittsburgh, 
By  invitation  he  preached  in  a  log  blockhouse  at  a  place 
then  called  Carpenter's  Station  in  Jefferson  County,  Ohio. 
Backwoodsmen  armed  with  rifles,  tomahawks,  and  scalp- 
ing knives  stood  guard  against  a  possible  Indian  attack 
while  Callahan  preached.  Callahan  promised  to  return. 
In  1793,  Francis  Clark,  a  local  Methodist  preacher  who 
had  served  in  Kentucky,  preached  to  a  few  people  at 
Fort  Washington  where  Cincinnati  now  stands. 

The  first  Methodist  society  in  Ohio  was  organized  by 
Francis  McCormick  at  Milford  near  what  is  now  Cincin- 
nati in  1797  or  early  1798.  Beginning  with  ten  members, 
by  fall  the  society  grew  to  thirty-two;  later  it  included  the 
famous  Philip  Gatch  and  several  of  his  family.  McCor- 
mick held  services  in  different  places  and  soon  organized 
two  more  classes.  He  appealed  to  the  Kentucky  preachers 
for  help,  but  they  had  no  ministers  to  spare.  In  1798 
Bishop  AsBURY  appointed  John  Kobler  as  presiding  elder 
in  Kentucky  with  instructions  to  go  and  form  a  circuit  in 
Ohio.  Kobler  labored  nine  months  and  established  a  circuit 
up  the  two  Miami  Rivers  toward  Dayton.  In  1799  Lewis 
Hunt  was  appointed  to  the  Miami  Circuit,  but  his  health 
failed  and  he  was  succeeded  by  Henry  Smith  whose  name 
appears  in  the  General  Minutes  as  the  first  appointment 
in  Ohio.  Smith  formed  the  Scioto  Circuit  some  400  miles 
in  extent,  and  in  1800  he  led  in  erecting  the  first  Method- 
ist church  building  in  Ohio,  a  structure  twenty-four  feet 
square,  located  on  Scioto  Brush  Creek  in  Adams  County. 
The  building  was  used  for  20  years.  The  renowned  Peter 
Cartwright  was  appointed  to  the  Scioto  Circuit  in  1805, 
and  to  the  Marietta  Circuit  in  1806.  Appointed  to  a  charge 
in  Kentucky  in  1807,  he  did  not  serve  in  Ohio  again. 

The  Deerfield  church  in  the  Western  Reserve,  organized 
in  1801,  is  probably  the  oldest  continuing  Methodist  con- 


gregation in  Ohio.  It  was  organized  by  Henry  Shewell, 
a  blind  local  preacher. 

From  the  time  Methodism  began  in  Ohio  down  to  1812, 
the  work  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state  was  attached  to 
the  Baltimore  Conference,  while  that  in  the  west  was 
included  in  the  Western  Conference.  The  1812  Gen- 
eral Conference  created  the  Ohio  Conference  to  in- 
clude Ohio  and  eastern  Kentucky.  The  first  session  of  the 
Ohio  Conference  was  held  in  October  of  that  year  at 
Chillicothe  with  Bishops  Asbury  and  McKendree  in 
charge.  The  conference  began  with  sixty-one  preachers 
and  23,644  members. 

In  1816  the  Salt  River  District  of  the  Ohio  Conference 
went  to  the  Tennessee  Conference.  In  1820  the  Ken- 
tucky Conference  was  formed.  When  the  Pittsburgh 
Conference  was  created  in  1824  it  included  the  part 
of  Ohio  east  of  the  Muskingum  and  Tuscarawas  Rivers. 
In  1836  the  Ohio  Conference  was  divided  to  form  the 
Michigan  Conference,  the  latter  including  a  part  of 
northern  Ohio  as  well  as  Michigan.  In  that  same  year 
extreme  northeastern  Ohio  was  taken  from  the  Pittsburgh 
Conference  and  placed  in  the  newly  created  Erie  Con- 
ference. In  1840  the  Michigan  Conference  was  divided 
to  form  the  North  Ohio  Conference. 

In  1852  the  Ohio  Conference  was  again  divided  to 
form  the  Cincinnati  Conference  which  included  south- 
west Ohio  and  such  work  as  the  M.E.  Church  then  had  in 
Kentucky.  In  1856  the  North  Ohio  Conference  was 
divided  to  form  the  Delaware  Conference,  the  territory 
of  the  new  body  being  northwest  Ohio.  After  four  years 
the  name  of  the  Delaware  Conference  was  changed  to  the 
Central  Ohio  Conference. 

The  next  change  in  boundaries  came  in  1876  when  the 
Ohio  parts  of  the  Erie  and  Pittsburgh  Conferences  were 
detached  and  merged  to  form  the  East  Ohio  Confer- 
ence. In  1912  the  East  Ohio  and  North  Ohio  Conferences 
merged  to  form  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference.  In 
1913  the  Central  Ohio  and  the  Cincinnati  Conferences 
merged  to  form  the  West  Ohio  Conference.  Then  in  1928 
the  West  Ohio  Conference  was  absorbed  by  the  Ohio 
Conference.  The  Ohio  and  North-East  Ohio  Conferences 
continued  in  The  Methodist  Church  in  1939. 

In  1940  the  two  Ohio  conferences  became  an  episcopal 
area  with  the  bishop's  residence  at  Columbus.  Then  in 
1964  the  North  Central  Jurisdictional  Conference  des- 
ignated each  Ohio  conference  as  an  episcopal  area,  calling 
them  the  Ohio  East  and  Ohio  West  Areas,  with  the  epis- 
copal residences  in  Canton  and  Columbus.  In  1964  the 
Ohio  Conferences  received  some  ministers  and  churches 
from  the  Lexington  Conference  (CJ)  as  that  body  (ex- 
cepting its  Kentucky  work)  was  absorbed  by  the  over- 
lying conferences  of  the  North  Central  Jurisdiction. 

The  organization  of  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E. 
Church  in  1819  grew  out  of  missionary  endeavor  in 
Ohio.  In  1816  John  Stewart,  a  free  Negro  from  Virginia, 
felt  impelled  to  go  and  preach  to  the  Indians.  Through  an 
interpreter  he  preached  to  the  Wyandot  Indians  in  Upper 
Sandusky.  His  work  was  so  successful  that  it  aroused  in- 
terest in  missions  and  led  to  the  organization  of  the 
Missionary  Society.  The  little  church  which  the  Wyandot 
Indians  left  when  they  were  moved  west  in  the  1840's  is 
now  a  national  Methodist  historic  Shrine. 

The  work  of  the  M.E.  Church  among  the  Germans 
began  in  Ohio.  In  January,  1835  Willl^m  Nast,  the 
"Father  of  German  Methodism,"  was  converted  in  a  re- 
vival meeting  in  Danville,  Ohio.  At  the  meeting  of  the 


OHIO   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Ohio  Conference  in  August  of  that  year  Nast  was  ap- 
pointed a  missionary  to  the  Germans.  The  German  work 
soon  spread  to  other  states,  and  in  1864  the  General 
Conference  authorized  a  system  of  German-speaking  an- 
nual conferences  which  continued  for  about  sixty  years. 

Ohio  Methodism  was  in  the  forefront  in  establishing 
institutions  of  higher  learning.  Before  the  rise  of  public 
high  schools,  the  church  operated  academies  as  well  as 
colleges.  Prior  to  1884  the  M.E.  Church  in  Ohio  owned 
and  controlled  eleven  academies  and  was  related  to  nine 
others.  In  1968  Ohio  Methodism  had  four  colleges,  three 
of  them  over  100  years  old.  Omo  Wesleyan  University 
was  founded  at  Delaware  in  1842,  and  Baldwin-Wal- 
lace College  began  at  Berea  in  1845.  Mount  Union 
College  at  Alliance  opened  in  1846.  Ohio  Northern 
University  was  established  at  Ada  in  1871.  The  Ohio 
conferences  now  maintain  Wesley  Foundations  at  six 
state  supported  schools.  The  1956  General  Conference 
authorized  the  building  of  two  new  theological  seminaries, 
and  the  Methodist  Theological  School  in  Ohio  opened 
at  Delaware  in  the  fall  of  1960.  Ohio  Methodists  con- 
tributed more  than  $4,000,000  to  help  launch  the  institu- 
tion. Then  in  1965  the  Ohio  churches  gave  $7,000,000 
more  for  the  four  Methodist  colleges  and  the  six  Wesley 
Foundations  in  the  state. 

The  Western  Edition  of  the  Christian  Advocate  was 
published  in  Cincinnati  from  1834  to  1940.  Beginning 
with  Thomas  A.  Morris  in  1836,  several  of  its  editors 
were  elected  bishops. 

Ohio  Methodism  owns,  operates,  or  is  related  to  a 
number  of  service  institutions.  There  are  seven  homes  for 
the  aged:  Bethesda  Home,  Wesley  Home  on  College  Hill, 
and  Wesley  Hall  in  Cincinnati;  Crestview  at  Sylvania; 
Elyria  Methodist  Home;  Wesley  Glen  at  Columbus;  Cope 
Methodist  Home  at  Sabring;  and  Healthaven  Nursing 
Home  near  Akron.  The  conferences  are  related  to  six 
hospitals:  Bethesda  and  the  Christ  Hospital  in  Cincin- 
nati, Flower  Hospital  at  Toledo,  Lake  Park  Hospital  at 
Sylvania,  Riverside  Hospital  at  Columbus,  and  St.  Luke's 
Hospital  at  Cleveland.  Two  homes  for  children  are  main- 
tained: Berea  Methodist  Children's  Home,  and  the  Meth- 
odist Home  for  Children  in  Worthington. 

The  Mill  Men's  Hostel  in  Steubenville  is  an  unconven- 
tional means  of  evangelism.  The  hostel  serves  both  labor 
and  management  at  the  entrance  to  a  large  steel  company. 
Steelworkers  come  in  to  read,  chat,  or  seek  counseling 
from  the  minister-director. 

Ohio  Methodism  supports  Lakeside  on  Lake  Erie,  one 
of  the  largest  summer  assembly  grounds  in  the  church. 
Dating  back  to  an  old  time  camp  meeting  in  1842,  Lake- 
side continues  its  tradition  of  combining  religion,  educa- 
tion, culture,  and  recreation  in  its  program. 

Ohio  Methodism  has  furnished  leadership  for  the  larger 
church.  Sixteen  members  of  the  Ohio  conferences  have 
been  elected  bishop:  Thomas  A.  Morris  (1836),  Leonidas 
L.  Hamline  (1844),  Edward  Thomson  (1864),  Ste- 
phen M.  Merrill  and  William  L.  Harris  1874),  John 
M.  Walden  (1884),  Isaac  W.  Joyce  (1888),  William 
F.  McDowell  (1904),  Wilbur  P.  Thirkield  (1912), 
Herbert  Welch  (1916),  E.  L.  Waldorf  (1920),  Wil- 
bur E.  Hammaker  (1936),  Schuyler  E.  Garth  (1944), 
Hazen  G.  Werner  (1948),  F.  Gerald  Ensley  (1952), 
and  Lance  Webb  (1964).  Nineteen  other  men  who  were 
born  in  Ohio  have  been  elevated  to  the  episcopacy  while 
serving  as  members  of  conferences  in  other  states  or  on  the 
mission    field:    Matthew    Simpson,    Edward    R.    Ames, 


Randolph  S.  Foster,  James  M.  Thoburn,  Earl  Cran- 
ston, Charles  C.  McCabe,  David  H.  Moore,  Mebriman 
C.  Harris,  Naphtali  Luccock,  Francis  J.  McConnell, 
Adna  W.  Leonard,  Franklin  E.  C.  Hamilton,  Lauress 
J.  BiRNEY,  Ralph  A.  Ward,  Bruce  R.  Baxter,  Charles 
W.  Brashares,  Hobart  B.  Amstutz,  Lloyd  C.  Wicke, 
and  Ralph  T.  Alton. 

Ohio  Methodism  produced  such  able  leaders  as  Ralph 
E.  Diffendorfer,  missionary  executive,  and  Ernest 
Fremont  Tittle  and  Ralph  W.  Sockman,  outstanding 
preachers. 

Several  important  Methodist  movements  originated  in 
Ohio.  The  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  was  organized  in 
Cincinnati  in  1866,  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society  in  the  same  city  in  1880,  and  the  Epworth 
League  in  Cleveland  in  1889. 

Methodist  Protestantism  was  relatively  strong  in 
Ohio.  The  Ohio  Conference  was  organized  Oct.  15, 
1829  at  Cincinnati  with  Asa  Shinn  as  president.  Appoint- 
ments were  made  to  twenty-two  charges  at  the  first  ses- 
sion. At  the  outset  the  conference  comprised  the  entire 
west  in  its  territory  and  it  was  thus  the  nucleus  of  a 
number  of  M.P,  conferences.  In  1833  the  Ohio  Conference 
reported  10,348  members,  and  at  that  time  it  was  divided 
to  form  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  which  included 
Ohio  east  of  the  Scioto  and  Sandusky  Rivers.  In  1842  the 
Ohio  part  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  (MP)  was  des- 
ignated as  the  Muskingum  Conference  which  continued 
until  1918  when  it  was  absorbed  by  the  Ohio  Conference 
(MP).  The  Ohio  Conference  came  to  unification  in  1939 
with  seventy-four  charges,  eighty-six  ministers,  21,464 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $1,130,350. 

Beginning  in  1876  when  the  Ohio  parts  of  the  Pitts- 
burgh and  Erie  Conferences  were  merged  to  form  the 
East  Ohio  Conference,  all  of  Ohio  Methodism  except  the 
churches  in  the  Lexington  Conference  was  then  embraced 
in  five  annual  conferences  wholly  within  the  state.  That 
year  the  five  conferences  reported  157,317  members.  The 
five  conferences  were  reduced  to  three  in  1912  and  to 
two  in  1928,  and  they  came  to  unification  in  1939  with 
454,665   members  and  property   valued   at   $42,441,285. 

In  1968  the  two  Ohio  conferences  reported  nineteen 
districts,  1,247  charges,  1,561  ministers,  619,116  members, 
property  valued  at  $294,930,229,  and  a  total  of  $42,960,- 
776  raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

By  authority  of  the  1968  North  Central  Jurisdictional 
Conference,  the  two  Methodist  and  four  E.U.B.  annual 
conferences  in  Ohio  voted  to  merge  into  two  conferences 
to  be  known  as  the  East  Ohio  and  West  Ohio  Confer- 
ences. In  1970  the  Ohio  Conferences  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church  reported  737,643  members,  1,703  charges, 
2,310  ministers,  and  property  valued  at  $409,746,225. 

J.  M.  Barker,  Ohio  Methodism.  1898. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Ohio  Conference. 

J.  M.  Versteeg,  Ohio  Area.  1962.         DeWayne  S.  Woodhing 

OHIO  CONFERENCE  (ME),  was  organized  Oct.  1,  1812, 
at  Chillicothe  with  Bishops  Asbury  and  McKendree  in 
charge.  Incidentally  it  was  at  this  session  that  the  presid- 
ing elders  were  first  asked  to  assist  the  bishops  in  making 
the  appointments,  thus  constituting  what  today  is  called 
the  bishop's  cabinet.  The  conference  was  formed  by 
dividing  the  Western  Conference.  According  to  the 
Discipline,  when  created  the  Ohio  Conference  included 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OHIO   CONFERENCE 


the  "Ohio,  Muskingum,  Miami,  Kentucky  and  Salt  River 
Districts."  Those  districts  covered  Ohio,  eastern  Kentucky 
eastern  Indiana,  and  a  part  of  present  day  West 
Virginia.  The  conference  began  with  sixty-one  preachers 
and  23,644  members.  (See  Ohio  for  beginnings  of  Meth- 
odism and  for  the  creation  of  other  conferences  in  the 
state. ) 

The  Ohio  Conference  has  continued  to  the  present  day, 
but  through  the  years  its  boundaries  have  changed  a  num- 
ber of  times.  It  gave  up  territory  to  the  Tennessee  Con- 
ference in  1816,  to  the  Kentucky  Conference  in  1820, 
to  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  in  1824,  to  the  Michigan 
Conference  in  1836,  and  to  the  Cincinnati  Confer- 
ence in  1852.  After  1852  there  was  no  major  change  in  its 
boundaries  until  1928  when  it  absorbed  the  West  Ohio 
Conference.  The  membership  of  the  Ohio  Conference 
after  each  of  the  territorial  alterations  mentioned  above 
was:  1816,  22,278;  1820,  34,178;  1824,  28,505;  1836, 
47,874;  1852,  30,943;  and  1928,  229,650. 

From  the  beginning  the  Ohio  Conference  was  interested 
in  education.  In  1822  it  joined  the  Kentucky  Conference 
in  projecting  Augusta  College,  Augusta,  Ky.,  on  the 
Ohio  River.  The  school  flourished  for  twenty-two  years. 
As  time  passed  a  number  of  academies  were  launched, 
some  under  the  control  of  the  conferences  and  some  con- 
ducted in  the  interest  of  the  church  under  private  owner- 
ship. In  1968  the  Ohio  Conference  had  two  strong  in- 
stitutions of  higher  learning:  Ohio  Wesleyan  University 
at  Delaware,  founded  in  1842,  which  has  an  endowment 
of  $20,000,000,  a  plant  valued  at  $8,000,0000,  and  over 
2,500  students;  and  Ohio  Northern  University  at  Ada, 
founded  in  1871,  which  has  some  2,400  students,  a  plant 
valued  at  $12,000,000  and  an  endowment  of  over  $3,000,- 
000.  Six  Wesley  Foundations  in  the  state  are  supported 
jointly  by  the  two  annual  conferences. 

The  Methodist  Home  for  Children  was  established  in 
Worthington  in  1911.  The  Bethesda  Home,  first  Meth- 
odist home  for  the  aged  in  Ohio,  was  established  in  Cin- 
cinnati in  1899  with  the  cooperation  of  all  the  confer- 
ences in  the  state.  Other  Methodist  homes  for  the  aged 
within  the  bounds  of  the  conference  are:  Crestview  at 
Sylvania;  Methodist  Home  on  College  Hill,  and  Wesley 
Hall  in  Cincinnati;  and  Wesley  Glen  at  Columbus.  The 
Ohio  Conference  is  related  to  Bethesda  and  the  Christ 
Hospitals  in  Cincinnati,  Flower  Hospital  at  Toledo,  and 
Riverside  Hospital  at  Columbus. 

The  Ohio  Conference  came  to  unification  in  1939  with 
eleven  districts,  539  charges,  251,667  members,  and  prop- 
erty valued  at  $21,965,501.  At  that  time  it  merged  with 
forty-three  charges  (about  12,000  members)  of  the  Ohio 
Conference  (MP)  to  form  the  Ohio  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church.  In  1964  when  the  Lexington  Confer- 
ence (CJ)  was  merged  with  the  overlying  conferences  of 
the  North  Central  Jurisdiction,  the  Ohio  Conference 
received  the  work  of  that  conference  which  was  within 
its  bounds. 

In  1964  the  Ohio  Conference  was  designated  as  an 
episcopal  area  with  the  bishop's  residence  at  Columbus. 
F.  Gerald  Ensley  was  named  as  the  resident   bishop. 

In  1968  the  Ohio  Conference  reported  eleven  districts, 
702  charges,  920  ministers,  345,157  members,  property 
valued  at  $156,059,795,  and  $24,740,552  raised  for  all 
purposes  during  the  year.  At  the  time  it  was  the  second 


largest  conference  in  the  connection.  In  1970  when  Meth- 
odist-E.U.B.  merger  was  fully  efiFected,  the  name  of  the 
conference  became  the  West  Ohio   Annual   Conference. 

J.  M.  Barker,  Ohio  Methodism.  1898. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Ohio  Conference. 

J.  M.  Versteeg,  Ohio  Area.  1962.  N.  B.  H. 

OHIO  CONFERENCE  (EUB).  Among  the  progressive 
measures  of  the  ninth  conference  session  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Association  in  the  historic  year  of  1816,  was  the 
appointment  of  Adam  Henney  and  Frederick  Shower  to 
form  circuits  in  the  new  state  of  Ohio.  Shower  abandoned 
his  field  but  Henney  established  Canton  Circuit,  embrac- 
ing eight  or  ten  counties  and  a  round  of  400  miles.  Mean- 
while the  church  fathers  in  Pennsylvania  held  the  first 
session  of  a  General  Conference  and  adopted  a  per- 
manent church  name.  Die  Evangelische  Gemeinschaft 
(Evangelical  Association).  Henney  gave  the  first  report 
of  the  work  in  Ohio  in  1817:  eight  converts,  thirty-three 
accessions,  and  a  membership  of  fifty-five. 

At  this  time  Ohio  was  called  "The  Far  Western 
Country."  However,  for  eleven  years  (1816-27),  thirty 
preachers  made  one  or  more  long  tedious  trips  on  horse- 
back over  the  Allegheny  Mountains,  traveling  an  average 
of  approximately  800  miles  to  Ohio  and  return  for  the 
annual  conference  sessions. 

In  1823,  the  western  field  was  separated  from  Salem 
District  of  the  Mother  Conference  and  named  the  Ohio 
District.  In  1826,  it  was  constituted  the  Western  Con- 
ference, and  this  conference  saw  a  remarkable  expansion 
from  1822  to  1839.  From  four  circuits  and  five  preachers 
on  one  district,  it  grew  to  thirty-nine  men,  twenty  fields, 
and  four  districts;  and  its  membership  increased  from 
523  to  3,653.  Operations  by  1839  had  extended  over 
western  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  southern  Michigan,  Indiana, 
northern  Illinois,  and  into  Wisconsin, 

The  General  Conference  of  1839  reformed  the  two 
conferences  into  the  East  Pennsylvania,  West  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Ohio. 

Editor  W.  W.  Orwig,  commenting  on  the  remarkable 
extension  of  the  Ohio  Conference  bounds  in  these  years, 
with  five  districts  reaching  into  five  states,  declared, 
"This  conference  is  now  the  largest  in  the  Evangelical 
Association,  both  in  the  number  of  members  and  min- 
isters, and  the  bounds  of  its  territory."  A  change  came 
in  1844,  when  the  Ohio  Conference  session  at  Red  Haw, 
Ohio,  organized  the  Illinois  Conference  out  of  the  Indiana 
and  Illinois  Districts. 

Out  of  territory  in  western  Pennsylvania  developed  by 
the  Ohio  men,  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  was  orga- 
nized in  1851.  The  mission  work  in  Michigan,  carried  on 
for  nineteen  years,  was  organized  into  the  Michigan 
Conference  at  the  1864  session  of  the  Ohio  Conference. 

After  the  Ohio  Conference  changed  to  the  use  of  En- 
glish, the  German  congregations  in  the  region  of  Lake 
Erie,  still  being  replenished  by  new  immigrants  from 
Germany,  were  formed  into  a  conference  in  1876,  called 
the  Erie  Conference.  Many  strong  churches  were  devel- 
oped by  this  conference  but  by  1923  they  also  had  become 
English  and  were  reunited  with  the  Ohio  Conference. 

The  Ohio  United  Conference  (United  Evangelical 
Church)  was  organized  in  1892  by  a  group  which  had 
withdrawn  from  the  Evangelical  Association.  After  thirty 
years  of  growth  and  eff^ective  service  a  happy  reunion  was 
effected  with  the  Ohio  Conference  in  1924. 


OHIO   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


In  1951,  after  135  years  of  notable  history,  the  Ohio 
Conference,  with  126  ministers  and  160  churches,  was 
dissolved  and  a  membership  of  over  26,000  was  trans- 
ferred to  three  former  United  Brethren  conferences: 
Ohio  East,  Ohio  Southeast,  and  Ohio  Sandusky  Con- 
ferences of  the  E.U.B.  Church. 

Der  Christliche  Botschafter,  1839,  p.  28;   1842,  p.  22;   1874, 

p.  28. 

R.  B.  Leedy,  Evangelical  Church  in  Ohio.  1959. 

Original  Conference  Book,  EA,  1800-58. 

A.  Stapleton,  Evangelical  Association.  1896. 

Western  and  Ohio  Conference  Record  Books.     Roy  B.  Leedy 

OHIO  CONFERENCE  (MP)  was  organized  at  Cincin- 
nati on  Oct.  15,  1829  with  Asa  Shinn  as  president.  The 
conference  included  most  of  the  territory  west  of  the 
Allegheny  Mountains.  The  majority  of  the  ministers  who 
attended  had  been  local  preachers  in  the  M.E.  Church. 
At  its  first  session  the  conference  ordained  two  deacons 
and  twelve  elders,  and  it  stationed  twenty-two  men.  Most 
of  the  preachers  were  appointed  to  localities  with  the 
hope  that  they  would  be  able  to  form  circuits,  because  at 
the  time  only  a  few  circuits  and  stations  of  the  M.E. 
Church  had  cast  their  lot  with  the  new  denomination. 
In  1830  the  conference  reported  3,791  members.  In  the 
next  three  years  between  fifteen  and  twenty  preachers 
were  added  to  the  itineracy,  and  in  1833  the  conference 
reported  10,348  members. 

In  1833  the  Ohio  Conference  was  divided  to  form  the 
Pittsburgh  Conference,  the  Sandusky  and  Scioto  Rivers 
to  be  the  dividing  line.  In  1836  and  1839  the  Illinois 
Conference,  and  the  Indiana  Conference,  respectively, 
were  set  off  from  the  Ohio  Conference.  Then  in  1842 
the  Ohio  part  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference,  save  the 
extreme  northeastern  segment  of  the  state,  was  designated 
as  the  Muskingum  Conference.  The  Muskingum  Confer- 
ence was  organized  in  September,  1843. 

Methodist  Protestantism  became  relatively  strong  in 
Ohio,  and  the  fourth  (1846)  and  sixth  (1854)  General 
Conferences  of  the  denomination  met  in  Cincinnati  and 
Steubenville,  respectively.  Other  General  Conferences  con- 
vened in  the  state  in  later  years.  In  1846  the  Ohio  Con- 
ference had  4,509  members  and  the  Muskingum  Confer- 
ence 7,244.  In  1896  the  statistics  were  14,586  for  Muskin- 
gum and  6,099  for  the  Ohio  Conference.  In  1918  the 
Muskingum  and  Ohio  Conferences  united  as  the  Ohio 
Conference.  In  the  preceding  year  the  Ohio  Conference 
reported  34  charges,  34  preachers,  and  7,875  members  to 
54  charges,  58  preachers,  and  15,706  members  for  the 
Muskingum  Conference. 

Beginning  in  1850,  Ohio  Methodist  Protestants  made 
several  unsuccessful  efforts  to  establish  a  school.  Finally 
in  1900  the  Muskingum  Conference  launched  West  La- 
fayette College  which  continued  for  sixteen  years,  and 
then  by  order  of  the  General  Conference  the  school  was 
merged  with  Adrian  College  in  Michigan. 

The  Ohio  Conference  came  to  unification  in  1939  with 
74  charges,  86  ministers,  21,464  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $1,130,350.  As  the  merger  was  effected,  forty- 
three  of  the  charges  fell  within  the  Ohio  Conference  and 
thirty-one  in  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1877. 

Mimttes  of  the  Ohio  Conference,  MP,  1939. 

J.  M.  Versteeg,  Ohio  Area.  1962. 

Yearbook  of  the  M.  P.  Church,  1918.  Albea  Codbold 


OHIO  EAST  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  came  into  existence 
in  1951;  but  it  traces  its  beginning  back  to  June  2,  1817, 
when  the  first  of  its  predecessor  conferences  was  orga- 
nized by  the  General  Conference  of  the  Church  of  the 
Brethben  in  Christ  in  session  at  Mt.  Pleasant,  Pa.  The 
Muskingum  Conference,  as  the  new  conference  was 
called,  embraced  all  of  the  territory  lying  east  and  north 
of  the  Muskingum  River  as  well  as  several  counties  in 
western  Pennsylvania.  The  first  session  was  held  at  Joseph 
Naftzgar's  in  Harrison  County,  Ohio,  on  June  1,  1818. 
Bishops  Christian  Newcomer  and  Andrew  Zeller 
presided;  six  ministers  and  three  visitors  attended.  From 
this  beginning,  the  conference  grew  in  strength  until 
1853  when  it  was  divided  and  the  Erie  Conference 
was  formed. 

On  Sept.  7,  1886,  the  Western  Reserve  Conference, 
which  had  been  split  away  from  the  Erie  Conference  in 
1861  and  had  its  eastern  boundary  established  at  the 
Pennsylvania  line  in  1877,  and  the  Muskingum  Conference 
were  reunited  at  Massillon,  Ohio,  to  form  the  East  Ohio 
Conference. 

At  the  outset  the  East  Ohio  Conference  had  8,000 
members,  139  organized  churches,  and  eighty-nine  minis- 
ters. The  forty  charges  in  the  Conference  were  divided 
into  three  districts,  each  under  the  supei'vision  of  a  presid- 
ing elder.  When  the  East  Ohio  Conference  closed  its 
record  (1951),  there  were  sixty-four  charges,  100  orga- 
nized churches,  and  21,322  members. 

Following  the  denominational  merger  in  1946,  the  state 
of  Ohio  was  divided  into  four  conferences.  On  Sept.  7, 
1951,  at  Canton  Ohio,  Bishop  Fred  L.  Dennis  presided  at 
the  uniting  session  that  dissolved  the  East  Ohio  (UB)  and 
the  Ohio  (Evangelical)  and  officially  created  the  Ohio 
East  Conference.  Bounded  on  the  north  by  Lake  Erie,  on 
the  east  by  the  Pennsylvania  State  Line,  on  the  south  by 
the  Ohio  Southeast  Conference,  the  territory  falling 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  Ohio  East  Conference  com- 
prised about  one-fourth  of  the  geographical  area  of  the 
state  of  Ohio. 

The  Ohio  East  Conference  was  divided  into  two  dis- 
tricts, north  and  south,  each  under  the  supervision  of  a 
conference  superintendent.  Its  37,495  members  worshiped 
in  142  churches  and  the  conference  was  served  by  123 
active  elders  and  seven  probationers  (1967).  The  total 
value  of  local  church  property  amounted  to  $22,187,820 
while  the  average  per  member  contribution  for  all  pur- 
poses was  $92.47  (1967). 

In  1969,  the  conference  joined  with  the  Northeast  Ohio 
of  the  former  Methodist  Church  and  a  number  of  congre- 
gations from  the  Ohio  Southeast  and  Ohio  Sandusky  Con- 
ferences to  form  the  East  Ohio  Conference. 

B.   S.  Arnold,  History  of  the  East  Ohio  Conference,   United 

Brethren  in  Christ.  1965. 

D.  Berger,  History  of  UB.  1897. 

A.  W.  Dniry,  History  of  the  UB.  1924. 

Journal  of  the  Ohio  East  Conference,  1951,  1967. 

L.  R.  Carothebs 

OHIO  GERMAN  CONFERENCE  (UB)  was  organized  at 
Geimantown,  Ohio,  Oct.  20,  1853,  with  Bishop  David 
Edwards  presiding,  and  concluded  its  work  on  Sept.  28, 
1930  in  the  session  held  at  Zanesville,  Ohio.  Entirely 
German  in  its  beginning,  the  church  had  become  pre- 
dominantly English  by  1930.  In  the  mid-nineteenth  cen- 
tury,  the  need   for  a   separate   German   Conference   was 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OHIO   NORTHERN    UNIVERSITY 


keenly  felt.  The  United  Brethren  General  Conference 
of  1853  authorized  the  formation  of  the  Ohio  Conference. 
This  conference  was  given  the  responsibility  of  organiz- 
ing GeiTnan  churches  wherever  such  work  was  feasible. 
Mission  churches  were  therefore  established  in  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  and  Nebraska.  The  Wo- 
men's Missionary  Association  of  this  conference  was 
organized  in  1868,  antedating  the  national  women's 
organization  by  several  years.  The  Old  Otterbein 
Church  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  was  for  many  years  an 
affiliate  member  of  this  conference.  Numerous  denomina- 
tional leaders  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  members 
of  the  Ohio  German  Conference:  WiUiam  Mittendorf, 
Ezekiel  Light,  Edward  Lorenz,  G.  Fritz,  A.  Schmidt, 
and  Caspar  Striech. 

With  the  advent  of  World  War  I,  the  German  language 
ceased  to  be  popular  and  many  of  the  formerly  strong 
Gei-man  churches  became  English-speaking  and  affiliated 
with  the  English  conference  in  whose  boundary  they  were 
located. 

During  the  last  twelve  years  of  its  history  this  con- 
ference was  ably  guided  by  E.  F.  Wegner  as  superinten- 
dent. At  the  conclusion  of  the  work  of  this  conference 
the  remaining  churches  affiliated  with  the  Illinois,  Indi- 
ana, Miami,  and  East  Ohio  Conferences  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ. 


D.  Berger,  History  of  UB.  1897. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  UB.   1924. 


Louis  O.  Odon 


OHIO  MIAMI  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  was  the  successor 
to  the  Miami  Conference  of  the  Church  of  the 
Brethren  in  Christ.  The  change  of  name  followed  the 
union  of  the  Evangelical  and  United  Brethren  denomina- 
tions in  1946.  The  churches  of  the  Ohio  Conference  of 
the  Evangelical  Church  were  transferred  to  the  four 
United  Brethren  Conferences  and  the  name  Ohio  was 
added  to  each  fonner  United  Brethren  Conference  name. 

The  Ohio  Miami  conference  covered  all  or  parts  of  the 
following  counties:  Darke,  Preble,  Butler,  Hamilton,  Cler- 
mont, Brown,  Highland,  Warren,  Montgomery,  Miami, 
Champaign,  Clarke,  Greene  and  Clinton  Counties.  Har- 
rison in  Indiana,  Newport  in  Kentucky,  and  Wrightsville 
and  Liberty  Chapel  in  Adams  County  were  also  in  the 
Ohio  Miami  Conference,  but  outside  the  above  bound- 
aries. The  Ohio  Sandusky  Conference  bordered  Ohio 
Miami  on  the  north  and  the  Ohio  Southeast  on  the  east. 

United  Brethren  work  began  in  Ohio  with  the  coming 
of  German-speaking  preachers  from  Pennsylvania  and 
Maryland  in  1804  and  1805.  The  first  English-speaking 
preacher,  John  McNamar,  arrived  in  1813.  The  first 
church  was  organized  in  1806  at  Germantown.  The  Miami 
Conference  was  formed  in  1810,  when  Christian  New- 
comer met  with  fifteen  preachers  at  Michael  Kreider's 
in  Ross  County.  Among  those  present  were  Andrew 
Zeller  and  Daniel  Troyer,  who  became  prominent  lead- 
ers in  the  new  movement. 

In  the  first  years  the  conference  included  most  of  Ohio 
and  Indiana.  At  successive  General  Conferences,  the 
area  was  reduced  with  the  formation  of  other  conferences. 
However,  little  change  was  made  after  1830. 

As  the  use  of  the  German  language  became  less  common 
in  the  Miami  Conference,  German-speaking  churches  in 
Ohio  and  Indiana  organized  the  Ohio  German  Con- 
ference at  Germantown  in  1853  with  Bishop  David 
Edwards  presiding.  This  conference  continued  until  1930, 


when  it  was  dissolved.  Each  of  its  congregations  joined 
with   the   conference  in   which   territory   it  was   located. 

The  conference  has  had  periods  of  rapid  growth,  while 
in  some  years  it  has  recorded  losses.  At  the  end  of  1967, 
it  had  111  organized  churches  and  35,286  members. 
Elders  numbered  123.  Of  these,  93  were  under  appoint- 
ment. The  value  of  church  and  parsonage  properties 
was  $17,463,240.  The  total  paid  for  all  purposes  was 
$2,766,303. 

The  City  of  Dayton,  near  the  geogiaphical  center  of 
the  conference,  has  been  the  location  of  several  denom- 
inational institutions.  The  denominational  headquarters 
have  been  located  here.  The  foimer  U.B.  Building  was 
for  some  time  the  largest  office  building  in  the  city.  Here 
also  was  located  The  Otterbein  Press,  the  only  pub- 
lishing house  of  the  United  Brethren  Church.  Its  only 
seminary  has  been  continuously  in  Dayton,  since  its  or- 
ganization in  1871.  The  name  of  this  school  was  changed 
from  Bonebrake  Theological  Seminary  to  United  Theo- 
logical Seminary  when  it  merged  with  the  Evangelical 
School  of  Theology  from  Reading,  Pa.,  in  1954.  The 
Otterbein  Home,  formerly  a  home  for  children  and  the 
aged  and  now  only  caring  for  older  people,  is  located  in 
the  former  Shaker  property  near  Lebanon,  Ohio. 

The  denominational  Woman's  Missionary  Assocation  of 
the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  was  organized  in  the  Sum- 
mit Street  Church  of  the  Miami  Conference  in  1872. 
Earlier  than  this.  The  Sisters  Missionary  Society  was 
organized  in  the  Ohio  German  Conference.  The  first  three 
missionaries  sent  to  a  foreign  country  by  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ  were  members  of  the  Miami  Con- 
ference: W.  J.  Shltey,  D.  C.  Kumler,  and  D.  K. 
Flickinger,  all  of  whom  went  to  Sierra  Leone  in  West 
Africa  in  1855. 

When  the  camping  movement  became  prominent,  the 
conference  purchased  the  property  of  the  former  Miami 
Military  Institute  in  Germantown  in  1945. 

The  area  of  the  Ohio  Miami  Conference  has  been  in  a 
section  of  the  state  which  became  rapidly  urbanized. 
Within  the  conference  area,  six  cities  of  more  than  42,000 
population  in  1960  accounted  for  a  total  population  of 
1,016,536.  This  change  from  rural  to  urban  has  been  a 
problem  for  which  the  churches  were  slow  to  find  a 
solution.  In  1970  the  conference  united  with  the  Ohio, 
Ohio  Sandusky  and  part  of  the  Ohio  Southeast  Confer- 
ences to  form  the  West  Ohio  Conference  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  UB.  1924. 

Roy   D.    Miller,    The   Miami   Conference    (now    Ohio    Miami) 
The  EvangeUcal  United  Brethren  Church,  1810-1860. 
Miami   Conference   Minutes.  Roy    D.    Miller 

OHIO  NORTHERN  UNIVERSITY,  Ada,  Ohio,  is  an  under- 
graduate university  with  colleges  of  liberal  arts,  engineer- 
ing, law,  and  pharmacy.  Throughout  its  history  this  in- 
stitution has  emphasized  professional  education  including 
teacher  training  along  with  liberal  arts.  Established  in 
1871  as  Northeastern  Ohio  Normal,  it  was  purchased  by 
the  Central  Ohio  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in 
1898.  Its  present  name  was  assumed  in  1914.  Theodore 
Presser,  who  founded  the  Presser  Foundation,  which  has 
assisted  in  erecting  "Presser  Halls"  for  the  instruction  of 
music  on  many  college  campuses  in  the  United  States, 
began  his  work  as  a  music  teacher  in  Ohio  Northern 
Universitv  in  1871. 


OHIO   SANDUSKY   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Degrees  granted  are  the  B.A.,  B.S.,  B.S.  in  Education, 
B.S.  in  Pharmacy,  B.S.  in  Civil  Engineering,  B.S.  in 
Mechanical  Engineering,  B.S.  in  Electrical  Engineering, 
LL.B.,  J.D.  (Doctor  of  Jurisprudence).  The  governing 
board  has  forty-two  members,  half  of  whom  are  elected 
by  the  two  Methodist  annual  conferences  in  Ohio. 

John  O.  Gross 

OHIO  SANDUSKY  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  was  composed 
of  territory  in  the  northwest  quarter  of  the  state  of  Ohio. 
Its  boundaries  were  Lake  Erie  on  the  north,  Sidney,  Ohio 
on  the  south,  the  Indiana  state  line  on  the  west  and  the 
western  limits  of  Mansfield,  Ohio  on  the  east. 

The  Ohio  Sandusky  Conference  was  one  of  the  largest 
conferences  of  The  Evangelical  United  Brethren 
Church,  having  176  elders  and  172  charges  in  1967.  The 
value  of  local  church  property  and  the  annual  conference 
holdings,  which  included  Camp  St.  Marys,  near  St.  Marys, 
Ohio,  and  Camp  Sebroske,  near  Oak  Harbor,  Ohio,  was 
in  excess  of  20  million  dollars  (1968).  The  conference 
membership  was  42,720,  and  the  average  giving  per 
member  for  missions  and  benevolences  was  $16.00.  The 
total   giving   for   all   purposes   was   $87.00   per   member. 

The  Sandusky  Conference  of  the  United  Brethren 
in  Christ  had  its  beginning  when  Jacob  Baulus  moved 
from  Maryland  in  1822  and  settled  in  the  lower 
Sandusky  area  near  the  present  city  of  Fremont,  Ohio. 
He  immediately  began  to  evangelize  the  area  and  fonned 
several  classes.  In  1829  Baulus  reported  to  the  Muskingum 
Conference  for  the  Sandusky  Circuit.  In  1831  the  Scioto 
Conference  formed  the  Marion  Circuit  which  extended 
into  the  Sandusky  area,  while  the  Miami  Conference  was 
developing  the  Maumee  mission  which  was  located  in 
the  area  south  of  Lake  Erie.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
eventual  territory  of  the  Sandusky  Conference  included 
some  of  the  Muskingum,  Scioto,  and  Miami  Conferences. 

The  first  session  of  the  Sandusky  Conference  was  held 
on  May  12,  1834,  in  Seneca  County,  Ohio.  At  first  the 
field  of  labor  extended  into  Indiana  and  Michigan,  but 
by  1845  Sandusky  had  lost  the  Indiana  territory  with  the 
formation  of  the  St.  Joseph  Conference.  In  1853,  the 
Maumee  work  attained  the  status  of  a  conference  and 
continued  under  this  name  until  the  year  1857,  when 
it  became  known  as  the  Auglaize  Conference.  The  year 
of  1853  also  saw  the  rise  of  another  conference,  the 
Michigan,  which  later  became  the  North  Ohio  Conference. 
Both  the  North  Ohio  and  the  Auglaize  Conferences  af- 
fected the  course  and  growth  of  the  Sandusky  Conference, 
when  in  1861  the  Maumee  district  in  Ohio  was  removed. 
This  territory  was  regained  for  Sandusky  forty  years  later 
when  North  Ohio  and  Auglaize  Conferences  were  dis- 
solved. The  Sandusky  Conference  maintained  rather  stable 
territorial  boundaries  and  growth  for  the  next  fifty  years. 

In  1951,  following  the  merger  of  The  Evangelical 
Church  and  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  the  Sandusky 
Conference  of  the  former  United  Brethren  Church  merged 
with  the  western  district  churches  of  the  Ohio  Conference 
of  the  former  Evangelical  Church.  The  Ohio  Sandusky 
Conference  of  The  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church 
was  formed. 

The  Flat  Rock  Children's  Home  was  located  within  the 
bounds  of  the  Ohio  Sandusky  Conference,  but  it  received 
its  support  from  additional  conferences  of  the  denomina- 
tion. The  Home  was  established  in  1866  at  Flat  Rock, 
Ohio,  to  care  for  Civil  War  orphans.  Since  its  founding. 


more  than  two  thousand  children  of  elementary  school 
age  have  been  cared  for. 

In  1969  the  conference  joined  with  five  other  confer- 
ences of  The  United  Methodist  Church  in  Ohio  to  form  the 
West  Ohio  and  East  Ohio  Conferences. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  UB.  1924. 

J.    L.    Luttrell,    History   of  the  Auglaize  Annual   Conference. 

Dayton:  U.  B.  Publishing  House,  1892. 

Journal  of  the  Ohio  Sandusky  Conference,  1951,  1968. 

C.  David  Wright 

OHIO  SOUTHEAST  CONFERENCE  (EUB).  The  first  con- 
ference in  Ohio  of  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren 
IN  Christ  was  the  Miami  Conference,  formed  in  1810. 
Although  it  was  state-wide  in  scope,  most  of  the  churches 
were  located  in  the  southern  section  of  the  state.  As 
settlers  came  into  the  northeastern  sector,  the  Muskingum 
Conference  was  created  in  1818.  Then  in  1825  Scioto 
Conference  was  fonned  from  the  southeastern  portion  of 
the  state,  receiving  its  congregations  from  the  Miami  Con- 
ference. Expansion  of  the  Scioto  Conference  was  steady 
so  that  in  1873  there  were  8,036  members. 

In  1878  The  General  Conference  established  a  Cen- 
tral Ohio  Conference,  taking  most  of  its  members  from 
the  Scioto  Conference.  A  large  portion  of  this  conference 
was  re-united  with  the  Scioto  Conference  in  1901,  when 
the  Southeast  Ohio  Conference  was  formed  with  13,534 
members.  By  the  time  of  union  with  The  Evangelical 
Church  the  conference  had  grown  to  a  membership  of 
23,975  persons. 

In  1951  the  only  former  Evangelical  conference  in 
Ohio,  known  as  the  Ohio  Conference,  was  divided  so 
that  its  churches  went  into  each  of  the  former  United 
Brethren  conferences  in  the  state.  The  name  of  the  con- 
ference fonned  by  the  churches  in  the  southeastern  por- 
tion of  Ohio  was  Ohio  Southeast  Conference. 

Following  the  formation  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church,  conference  unions  took  place  in  1970.  Two  con- 
ferences. East  Ohio  and  West  Ohio,  were  formed  from 
the  six  conferences  of  the  two  former  denominations.  Most 
of  the  27,523  members  of  the  former  Ohio  Southeast 
Conference  were  received  into  the  new  West  Ohio  Con- 
ference. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

OHIO  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY,  Delaware,  Ohio,  was 
founded  by  Methodist  pioneers  in  1841  and  was  granted 
its  charter  in  1842.  In  1877,  Ohio  Wesleyan  became 
coeducational  when  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  Female  College, 
an  independent  institution  established  in  Delaware  in 
1853,  merged  with  the  university. 

Ohio  Wesleyan  has  educated  many  of  Methodism's  fore- 
most leaders,  including  twenty-two  bishops.  In  the  early 
part  of  this  century  the  university  ranked  so  high  in  the 
training  of  missionaries  that  John  R.  Mott  once  said 
that  Ohio  Wesleyan  was  second  only  to  Oxford  in  the 
number  of  missionaries  sent  into  foreign  fields.  Today  the 
tradition  of  Christian  responsibility  and  service  established 
by  the  missionaries  of  earlier  years  is  continued  by  large 
numbers  of  students  preparing  for  service  careers  and  by 
hundreds  of  alumni  holding  service-oriented  positions  at 
home  and  abroad. 

The  university's  curriculum  emphasizes  liberal  arts  and 
sciences  and  preprofessional  courses.   Its  chapter  of  Phi 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Beta  Kappa  was  chartered  in  1907.  Degrees  granted  are 
the  B.A.,  B.M.  (Music),  B.F.A.  (Fine  Arts),  and  the  M.A. 
The  governing  board  has  forty-two  members:  twenty 
elected  by  two  Ohio  annual  conferences,  nine  by  alumni, 
ten  at  large;  bishops  of  the  Ohio  areas  and  the  president, 
ex  officio. 

John  O.  Gboss 

O'KELLY,  JAMES  (1757-1826),  American  preacher,  was 
born  in  Ireland  but  emigrated  to  America  in  1778.  He 
began  his  ministerial  work  during  the  Revolution  which 
was  then  raging  and  in  that  same  year,  1778,  was  admitted 
into  the  traveling  connection.  The  Christm.\s  Confer- 
EiVCE  voted  him  orders,  and  he  was  ordained  elder  at  the 
organization  of  the  M.  E.  Church  (1784)  at  that  time. 
For  several  years  he  was  presiding  elder  of  the  South 
V^iRGiNiA  District,  and  was  a  member  of  the  ill-fated 
Council  which  Asbury  tried  to  set  up  in  place  of  frequent 
General  Conferences,  but  which  withered  away  al- 
most immediately. 

He  was  early  a  champion  of  those  who  opposed  the 
authority  of  the  bishop,  and  while  some  judged  that  there 
was  a  personal  antipathy  against  Asbury  on  his  part, 
others  saw  him  as  a  champion  of  the  independent  spirit 
of  the  American  preachers.  In  the  1792  General  Con- 
ference, O'Kelly  offered  a  motion  which  became  historic 
and  about  whose  intent  Methodists  have  never  ceased  to 
divide.  His  motion  stated,  "After  the  bishop  appoints  the 
preachers  at  conference  to  their  several  circuits,  if  any 
one  thinks  himself  injured  by  the  appointment,  he  shall 
have  liberty  to  appeal  to  the  conference  and  state  his 
objections;  and  if  the  conference  approve  his  objections, 
the  bishop  shall  appoint  him  to  another  circuit."  (History 
of  American  Methodism,  Vol.  I.,  p.  436). 

Upon  the  defeat  of  the  motion,  O'Kelly  resigned  from 
the  Church  with  a  few  of  the  brethren  joining  him,  even 
William  McKendree  himself  who  was  destined  after 
Asbury  to  become  the  greatest  champion  of  the  strong 
episcopacy. 

For  his  part,  Asbury  endeavored  to  treat  O'Kelly  kindly, 
and  as  he  knew  that  he  was  advancing  in  years,  proposed 
that  O'Kelly  should  receive  forty  pounds;  but  meanwhile 
O'Kelly  withdrew  and  organized  a  Church  giving  it  the 
name  of  the  Republican  Methodist  Church,  the  name 
being  suggested  by  the  prevalence  of  Republican  senti- 
ments in  Virginia.  In  this  Church  all  the  preachers  accord- 
ing to  their  order  were  to  stand  on  an  equal  footing,  there 
were  to  be  no  degrees  in  the  ministry,  and  greater  freedom 
was  promised  to  the  people  than  they  enjoyed  in  the  M.  E. 
Church. 

The  influence  of  O'Kelly  became  rather  strong  in  the 
border  counties  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and 
the  Minutes  show  from  1792  to  1798  a  loss  of  about  8,000 
persons,  some  of  which  can  be  attributed  to  O'Kelly's 
agitation.  O'Kelly  gave  forth  a  pamphlet  explaining  his 
reasons  for  protesting  against  the  M.  E.  Church.  Nicholas 
Snethen,  whom  Asbury  called  his  "silver  trumpet,"  an- 
swered O'Kelly,  though  Snethen  himself  was  destined  to 
become  a  Methodist  Protestant  leader  a  few  years 
later. 

The  controversy  raged  quite  heatedK-  and  James 
O'Kelly  himself  ordained  such  preachers  as  came  to  him, 
but  it  is  said  he  was  greatly  disappointed  in  the  number 
of  those  who  did  join  his  ranks.  In  1801  he  changed  the 
name  of  the  church  to  the  Christian  Church,  and  di\isions 


and  subdivisions  followed  until  it  gradually  dwindled 
away.  However,  the  writer  of  these  lines  heard  Bishop 
Collins  Denny  say  as  late  as  1934  that  he  was  surprised 
to  find  that  there  were  still  some  Republican  Methodist 
Churches  belonging  to  the  O'Kellyites  here  and  there 
in  isolated  portions  of  Virginia.  (Eventually  the  remnants 
of  O'Kelly's  Church  merged  with  the  Congregationalists 
in  the  Congregational  Christian  Church.) 

James  O'Kelly  seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  strong 
opinionated  men  who  do  not  fit  into  an  organization  where 
someone  else  must  definitely  lead,  and  they  must  as  defi- 
nitely follow.  He  died  in  North  Carolina,  Oct.  16,  1826. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

J.  M.  Buckley,  Constitutional  and  Parliamentary  History.  1912. 

C.  F.  Kilgore,  James  O'Kelly  Schism.  1963. 

Life  of  the  Reverend  James  O'Kelly,  written  by  himself,  N.d. 

F.  A.  Norwood,  "James  O'Kelly,  Methodist  Maverick,"  Method- 
ist History,  April  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

OKINAWA  is  the  central  and  most  important  island  of 
the  Ryukyu  archipelago,  which  extends  400  miles  south- 
westward  from  Kyushu  island  (Japan)  to  include  the 
Yaegama  group  close  to  the  northeast  point  of  Taiwan. 
Naha  is  the  capital.  The  Ryukyus,  often  called  Loo  Choo, 
form  a  chain  of  reefs  and  islets  separating  the  Pacific 
Ocean  from  the  East  China  Sea.  The  land  area  is  921 
square  miles,  of  which  Okinawa  holds  500.  The  Ryukyu 
population  is  833,000,  of  which  nearly  800,000  live  on 
Okinawa.  Resettlement  from  that  overpopulated  island 
is  being  carried  out  in  the  Amami  group  to  the  northeast, 
and  in  the  Miyako  and  Yaegama  groups  to  the  southwest. 

For  long  centuries  Okinawa  and  the  other  islands  paid 
occasional  tribute  to  Chinese  overlords.  Commander  Mat- 
thew Perry's  fleet  wintered  at  Okinawa  while  awaiting 
Japan's  reply  to  his  demands  for  commercial  and  political 
relations  with  the  United  States.  At  the  time  of  the  Sino- 
Japanese  War,  Japan  annexed  the  archipelago.  American 
forces  captured  Okinawa  in  the  final  phase  of  World  War 
II.  By  virtue  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Francisco  in  September 
1951,  the  United  States  assumed  authority  over  the 
archipelago,  under  trusteeship  of  temporary  character 
regularized  by  the  United  Nations,  although  Japanese 
"residual  sovereignty"  is  recognized  in  the  Treaty. 

The  M.  E.  Church  entered  the  Loo  Choo  islands 
(Ryukyus)  in  1904,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
H.  B.   Schwartz.  A  vigorous  circuit  was  developed,   fre- 


Kaneshi  Church,  Okinaw  a 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


quently  visited  by  the  missionaries  stationed  at  Nagasaki, 
Japan.  When  the  United  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  was 
organized  in  1941,  before  the  outbreak  of  World  War 
II,  Methodist  work  in  Okinawa  became  a  part  of  Japanese 
Methodism. 

In  1946,  following  World  War  II,  the  Okinawa-Ryukyu 
church  became  the  United  Church  of  Christ  of  Okinawa 
( Okinawa  Kirisuto  Kijodan ) . 

Evangelistic  work  centers  in  the  churches  in  Naha- 
Shuri,  Ishikawa  (close  to  the  U.S.  Naval  and  Marine 
base),  Taira  (north)  and  Ishigaki  (southern  Yaeyama 
group).  From  these  centers,  educational,  agricultural  and 
medical  work  moves  out,  particularly  into  areas  of  re- 
settlement. The  Okinawa  Christian  Institute,  junior-college 
level,  interdenominational,  located  close  to  University  of 
the  Ryukyus,  erected  new  buildings  and  equipment  to 
train  indigenous  leadership  for  the  church;  the  enrollment 
approached  100.  Membership  of  the  Okinawa  Kyodan  is 
over  1,500,  of  which  the  Methodists  are  the  largest  group. 
There  are  twenty-five  organized  churches  with  numerous 
other  preaching  places,  under  the  direction  of  twenty 
ordained  pastors  and  other  workers  in  training.  The  Divi- 
sion of  World  Missions  of  The  United  Methodist  Church 
(U.S.A.)  provides  seven  married  missionary  couples,  and 
Philippine  Island  Methodism  supports  a  woman  mission- 
ary. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 

Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 

Arthur  Bruce  Moss 

OKLAHOMA,  population  2,498,378  in  1970,  is  in  the 
southwest  section  of  the  U.S.A.  Acquired  in  the  Louisi- 
ana Purchase  of  1803,  the  United  States  set  the  territory 
apart  in  1834  for  the  Indian  tribes  that  were  being  moved 
from  east  of  the  Mississippi  River.  In  1889  the  central 
section  of  the  territory  was  purchased  from  the  Indians 
for  white  settlement  and  20,000  whites  immediately 
rushed  in  to  establish  homes.  In  1960  there  were  still 
65,000  Indians  in  the  state.  Oklahoma  was  admitted  to 
the  Union  in  1907. 

The  first  Methodist  and  the  first  Protestant  sermon  in 
what  is  now  Oklahoma  was  delivered  by  William 
Ste\enson,  a  member  of  the  Missouri  Conference,  at 
Pecan  Point  in  1818  while  he  was  establishing  Methodism 
in  southwest  Arkansas.  Pecan  Point  became  a  charge  in 
the  Missouri  Conference. 

The  main  thrust  of  Methodism  in  what  is  now  Okla- 
homa grew  out  of  missionary  work  among  the  Indians. 
Ministry  to  the  Indians  was  started  by  southern  confer- 
ences of  the  M.  E.  Church  before  the  tribes  were  moved 
west  by  the  government  in  the  decade  1829-39.  As  a 
result  of  the  missionary  endeavor  there  were  several 
thousand  Methodist  converts  among  the  Indians  before 
they  were  moved  west.  Some  missionaries  accompanied 
the  Indians  en  route  west  while  some  went  ahead  to  be 
ready  to  minister  to  them  when  they  arrived,  Alexander 
Talley  from  the  Mississippi  Conference  being  one  of  the 
latter.  In  1831  the  Mississippi  Conference  appointed  Tal- 
ley as  superintendent  of  the  Choctaw  Mission,  and  about 
the  same  time  the  Missouri  and  Tennessee  Conferences 
also  sent  missionaries  into  Indian  Territory.  In  1836  when 
the  Arkansas  Conference  was  organized,  it  had  a  district 
in  Indian  Territory  which  took  over  the  Indian  mission 
work  from  the  other  conferences.  By  1844  the  Arkansas 
Conference    had    twelve    white    preachers,    three    Indian 


preachers,  twenty-one  local  Indian  preachers,  and  over 
3,000  members  in  Indian  Territory. 

The  1844  General  Conference  created  the  Indian 
Mission  Conference.  The  next  year  the  conference  ad- 
hered South,  and  it  continued  as  the  Indian  Mission  Con- 
ference until  1906  when  it  was  superseded  by  the 
Oklahoma  Conference  (MES). 

After  the  Indian  Mission  Conference  adhered  South  in 
1845,  the  M.  E.  Church  had  no  work  in  Oklahoma  until 
the  Wyandotte  Indians  moved  to  Indian  Territory.  The 
Ohio  Conference  established  a  mission  among  the 
Wyandottes  in  1819.  In  1843  the  Wyandottes  moved  from 
Ohio  to  Kansas  and  from  there  to  Indian  Territory  in 
1871.  Gradually  the  evangelizing  work  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  spread  in  Indian  Territory,  and  in  1880  the 
denomination  established  the  Indian  Mission.  The  mission 
became  the  Indian  Mission  Conference  in  1889,  and  three 
years  later  it  was  designated  as  the  Oklahoma  Con- 
ference. 

The  Methodist  Protestants  established  an  Indian 
Mission  in  what  is  now  Oklahoma  in  1887.  In  1896  they 
formed  the  Chickasaw  Mission  Conference  on  two  Indian 
Reservations,  and  the  same  year  they  organized  the  Okla- 
homa Mission  Conference  in  Oklahoma  Territory  by 
dividing  the  Fort  Smith  Mission.  In  1900  they  set  up  the 
Southwest  Oklahoma  Mission  among  the  Indians,  and 
four  years  later  they  formed  the  Choctaw  Indian  Con- 
ference. In  1908  all  of  these  M.  P.  missions  and  confer- 
ences were  either  absorbed  or  superseded  by  the  denom- 
ination's Oklahoma  Conference  which  itself  merged  in 
1916  to  make  the  Fort  Smith-Oklahoma  Conference.  The 
latter  conference  continued  until  1939. 

With  the  coming  of  white  settlers  into  Oklahoma,  the 
three  major  branches  of  Methodism  organized  churches 
and  conferences  for  them  which  were  soon  stronger  than 
the  Indian  churches  and  missions  or  mission  conferences. 
In  1906  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  therefore  changed  the 
name  of  its  Indian  Mission  Conference  to  the  Okla- 
homa Conference.  The  white  work  grew  rapidly,  and  in 
1911  the  Oklahoma  Conference  was  divided  to  form  the 
East  Oklahoma  and  West  Oklahoma  Conferences.  Then 
in  1919  the  Indian  work  was  separated  from  the  white 
to  fomi  the  Indian  Mission  (MES)  which  continued  in 
The  Methodist  Church  in  1939.  In  1930  the  East  and 
West  Oklahoma  Conferences  of  the  Southern  Church 
merged  to  form  the  Oklahoma  Conference  which  con- 
tinued until  1939. 

By  1892  the  Indian  Mission  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  included  many  white  ministers  and  churches,  and 
its  name  was  changed  to  the  Oklahoma  Conference  which 
continued  until  unification  in  1939.  In  1904  the  denomin- 
ation separated  the  Indian  work  from  the  Oklahoma  Con- 
ference and  designated  it  as  the  Indian  Territory  Mission, 
changing  the  name  to  the  East  Oklahoma  Mission  two 
years  later.  In  1911  the  mission  was  absorbed  by  the 
Oklahoma  Conference. 

In  1902  the  M.  E.  Church  organized  the  Okaneb  Con- 
ference, a  body  that  included  all  of  the  denomination's 
Negro  work  in  Oklahoma,  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Nebras- 
ka, changing  the  name  one  year  later  to  the  Lincoln 
Conference.  In  1928  this  conference  was  merged,  part 
of  it  going  with  the  Little  Rock  Conference  to  form  the 
Southwest  Conference,  and  the  remainder  going  with 
the  Central  Missouri  Conference  to  form  the  Central 
West  Conference,  all  of  them  being  Negro  conferences. 

At  unification  in   1939  the  East  and  West  Oklahoma 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OKLAHOMA   CITY,   OKLAHOMA 


Conferences  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  had  a  total  of 
91,795  members,  the  Oklahoma  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church  had  58,704,  and  the  Oklahoma  part  of  the  M.  P. 
Fort  Smith-Oklahoma  Conference  had  2,000,  making  a 
total  of  152,499.  The  work  of  the  three  conferences  was 
merged  to  form  the  East  and  West  Oklahoma  Conferences 
of  The  Methodist  Church.  In  1954  the  East  and  West 
Conferences  were  combined  to  form  the  Oklahoma  Con- 
ference. 

In  1939  the  Indian  Mission  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South  and  the  Southwest  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church 
continued  in  The  Methodist  Church,  the  one  in  the  South 
Central  Jurisdiction  and  the  other  in  the  Central  Juris- 
diction. The  Indian  Mission  became  the  Oklahoma  Indian 
Mission  Conference  in  1959. 

In  1970  the  Oklahoma  Indian  Mission  Conference,  the 
Oklahoma  Conference,  and  the  Oklahoma  District  of  the 
Southwest  Conference  reported  a  total  of  534  pastoral 
charges,  575  ministers,  274,474  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $100,000,000. 

Babcock  and  Brvce,  Oklahoma.  1937. 

H.  E.  Brill,  Oklahoma.  1939. 

Clegg  and  Oden,  Oklahoma.  1968. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC,  UMC.      Oscar  Fontaine 

OKLAHOMA  CITY,  OKLAHOMA,  U.S.A.  (population 
363,225),  is  the  capital  of  the  state  and  its  largest  city. 
Methodism  began  in  Oklahoma  City  the  veiy  week  the 
city  began.  When  on  April  22,  1889,  the  teiTitory  was 
thrown  open  to  white  settlement  and  Oklahoma  City  be- 
came a  city  of  several  thousand  overnight,  Methodist 
services  were  held  in  a  tent  the  very  next  Sunday.  A 
Sunday  school  was  organized  and  the  church  at  once 
began  her  work. 

Today  there  are  seventy  Methodist  churches  in  the 
area,  and  growing  at  the  rate  of  one  new  church  each  year. 
St.  Luke's  Church  is  one  of  the  show  places  of  the  city. 
Oklahoma  City  University  enrolls  four  thousand  stu- 
dents. The  city  is  the  episcopal  residence  of  the  bishop, 
who  presently  administers  the  work  of  Methodism  over 
the  entire  state  including  the  Indian  Mission  Conference. 
The  South  Central  Jurisdictional  Conference  of  1968 
was  held  in  Oklahoma  City,  and  Bishop  Alsie  Carleton, 
elected  at  that  conference,  was  consecrated  in  St.  Luke's. 

Deaconess  Hospital  (Free  Methodist),  organized  in 
1900  in  Guthrie,  Okla.,  moved  to  its  present  location  in 
1910.  A  general  hospital  sei"vice  is  maintained.  The  unwed 
mother  program  known  as  "Home  of  Redeeming  Love" 
has  served  more  than  8,000  girl  patients.  The  main 
hospital  building  has  recently  been  greatly  enlarged. 
Several  auxiliary  buildings  are  located  on  the  twenty-acre 
campus.  It  is  an  accredited  institution  of  the  Free  Meth- 
odist Church. 

St.  Luke's  Methodist  Church  was  born  with  the  "Okla- 
homa Run"  which  opened  this  former  Indian  Territory 
for  white  settlers  officially  April  22,  1889.  By  nightfall 
on  this  turbulent  Monday,  an  estimated  10,000  settlers 
(more  modest  reports  say  3,000)  had  converged  on  the 
City's  site  and  set  about  putting  homes  and  businesses 
on  the  premises  to  which  they  had  staked  claims. 

Varying  accounts  from  the  several  churches  which  claim 
descent  from  the  first  Sunday  of  the  City's  birth  indicate 
the  likelihood  that  several  religious  services  were  held  on 
the  first  Sunday,  April  28,  1889.  The  one  to  which  St. 
Luke's  attaches  her  ancestry,  was  held  under  a  white  flag 


.St.  Luke's  Church,  Oklahoma  City,  Oklahoma 

on  what  became  Third  Street,  between  present  North 
Broadway  and  North  Robinson  Streets,  by  a  Methodist 
preacher,  James  Murry.  St.  Luke's  has  a  portion  of  this 
historic  flag  under  glass  in  her  church  halls. 

The  church  which  foiTned  on  this  original  site  continued 
to  meet  at  this  spot,  known  locally  as  "Tabernacle  (M.  E., 
South)  Church." 

In  June,  Bishop  Eugene  Hendfix  authorized  the  trans- 
fer of  I.  L.  Burrows  from  the  Arkansas  Conference 
to  become  pastor  of  the  First  M.  E.  Church,  South,  in 
Oklahoma  City,  and  promised  $750  from  the  General 
Board  of  Missions  to  purchase  the  three  lots  on  which  the 
church  had  been  meeting.  Despite  the  City's  rapid  growth, 
competition  of  other  churches  and  commercial  enterprise 
were  strong  in  the  new  community.  Fifty  people  were  re- 
lated to  the  congregation  at  this  time.  Stalwart  Christian 
people  were  among  the  membership  that  saw  the  church 
through  successive  stages  of  growth:  enclosure  of  the 
tabernacle  before  winter  of  1889;  a  brick  sanctuary  added 
in  1903;  a  change  of  name  to  St.  Luke's  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  in  1904;  the  purchase  of  lots  for  a  new  building  at 
Eighth  and  North  Robinson  in  1905;  the  erection  of  a 
$90,000  building  at  the  new  site,  completed  in  1908;  addi- 
tion of  a  $75,000  Sunday  School  building  (cir.  1923);  pur- 
chase of  lots  for  a  new  stiiicture  at  Fifteenth  and  North 
Robinson  in  1946;  erection  of  the  first  unit  for  the  new 
building  in  1951;  completion  of  the  new  sanctuary  in 
March  of  1957;  periodic  purchase  and  development  of 
off^-street  parking  lots,  1950-62,  quarter  million  dollar  ex- 
pansion of  facilities  in  1961,  providing  new  offices,  class- 
rooms, nursery,  library,  bride's  room,  and  reception  room. 

Overcoming  the  severe  struggles  of  the  early  years, 
including  the  panic  of  1893,  the  growth  and  influence  of 
St.  Luke's  have  experienced  a  steady  rise.  Located  close 
to  the  center  of  the  originally  compact  City  and  chal- 
lenging strong  leadership  from  the  community  since  its 
beginning,  St.  Luke's  has  become  an  increasingly  impor- 
tant part  of  the  City's  life.  Her  membership  (1970)  stood 
at  7,292;  her  staff  of  thirty-three  continues  to  grow  and 
her  budget  for  the  coming  year  is  $525,000. 

From  the  earliest  days,  St.  Luke's  has  been  served  by 
a  very  high  calibre  of  ministerial  leadership.  The  noted 
P.  R.  Knickerbocker  became  pastor  (1906-1910).  He  was 
followed  by  E.  C.  McVoyl;  Robert  E.  Goodrich;  Frank 
Barrett;  and  Forney  Hutchinson  (1918-32). 

Dr.  Hutchinson's  pastorate,  with  his  warm,  outgoing 
spirit,  his  constant  pastoral  ministr\-,  his  interest  in  the 


OKLAHOMA   CITY   UNIVERSITY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


life  of  the  entire  community  brought  this  thriving,  growing 
church  to  flower.  After  more  than  thirty-five  years,  his 
stamp  of  Christian  love  is  still  upon  the  character  of  St. 
Luke's  and  the  memory  of  the  City. 

There  followed  Dr.  Hutchinson,  other  distinguished  pas- 
tors: Paul  W.  Quillian  (1932-36);  Clovis  Chappell 
(1936-41);  W.  B.  Selah  (1941-45);  William  H.  Wallace, 
Jr.  (1945-51);  W.  McFerrin  Stowe  (1951-64)  (now 
bishop);  and  J.  Chess  Lovern,  the  present  pastor,  who 
followed  Bishop  Stowe  in  1964. 

Village  Church,  located  in  suburban  Oklahoma  City, 
was  organized  in  1951  and  has  grown  to  a  membership 
of  2,750  (1970).  The  Oklahoma  City  District  Board  of 
Missions  and  Wesley  Church  were  the  original  sponsors 
of  the  new  church.  The  first  meetings  were  conducted  in 
Wiley  Post  Airport.  With  window  curtains  made  of  para- 
chutes, airplanes  coming  and  going,  a  pilot's  room  for  a 
nursery,  and  the  balcony  for  a  place  of  worship,  the  young 
congregation  began  holding  Sunday  school  and  worship 
services.  Richard  Gibbens  was  appointed  the  first  pastor. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  had  grown  up  in  the 
sponsoring  Wesley  Church. 

The  sanctuary  is  contemporary  in  design  with  large 
wooden  arches  supporting  the  ceiling,  and  will  seat  650 
people.  It  was  completed  in  1963,  twelve  years  from  the 
date  of  the  first  ground  breaking  for  the  first  unit. 

Village  Church  has  had  a  phenomenal  growth  in  mem- 
bership. In  order  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  congregation, 
two  Sunday  school  sessions  are  conducted  each  Sunday 
and  two  worship  services  are  conducted. 

Wesley  Church,  a  stately  English  Gothic  sanctuary,  to- 
day stands  in  the  exact  population  center  of  the  metropol- 
itan city.  In  October  1910,  F.  A.  Colwell  was  appointed 
by  Bishop  William  A.  Quayle  to  the  task  of  organizing 
a  church  in  the  far  northwest  section  of  Oklahoma  City. 

A  hastily  constructed  tabernacle  was  built  at  Military 
and  32nd  Streets  and  when  Bishop  Quayle  preached  the 
first  sermon  on  Christmas  Day,  1910,  the  furnishings  con- 
sisted of  a  floor  of  sawdust,  some  donated  chairs,  and  a 
square  piano.  In  the  spring  of  1911  the  tabernacle  was 
moved  to  the  comer  of  25th  and  Douglas,  the  site  of 
the  present  building.  Wesley  closed  its  first  conference 
year  with  136  members. 

The  present  sanctuary  was  dedicated  May  20,  1928,  the 
membership  then  being  771.  Depression  years  brought 
a  crisis  to  Wesley,  but  church  members  managed  interest 
payments  on  a  towering  mortgage  by  proceeds  from 
doughnut  sales.  Church  women  spent  long  hours  turning 
out  thousands  of  doughnuts. 

Wesley  is  located  near  the  Methodist  Oklahoma  City 
University  and  is  called  the  University  Church.  One  of 
its  pastors  went  from  the  church  to  the  presidency  of  the 
University,  and  one  of  the  University's  presidents  came 
to  Wesley  as  minister.  Since  its  beginning  twenty  minsters 
have  sei^ved  it,  and  the  membership  today  is  3,282. 

General  Minutes. 

History  and  Roster,  St.  Luke's  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South.  Printed  by  tlie  church,  1926. 

Betli  Prim  Howell,  St.  Luke's:  A  Living  History  of  a   Unique 
Church — First  75  Years.  Oklalioma  City,  1964. 
Look  Magazine,  1957. 

Together,  February  1958.  Oscab  Fontaine 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

Joseph  T.  Shackford 

William  R.  Henry 

Mrs.  Charles  R.  Thigpen 


OKLAHOMA  CITY  UNIVERSITY,  Oklahoma  City,  Okla- 
homa, was  established  as  Epworth  University  in  1904 
at  Oklahoma  City  by  the  M.  E.  Church  and  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South.  It  was  moved  to  Guthrie,  Okla.  in 
1911,  and  the  name  was  changed  to  Oklahoma  Methodist 
University.  The  college  was  moved  back  to  Oklahoma 
City  in  1919,  and  the  name  was  altered  first  to  Oklahoma 
City  College  and  then,  in  1924,  to  Oklahoma  City  Univer- 
sity. The  educational  program  includes  arts  and  sciences, 
music,  business,  and  law. 

Its  large  growth  and  expansion  came  after  1940.  In 
1960  a  program  for  creating  a  regional  center  of  excellence 
was  begun  with  the  consultative  assistance  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Institute  of  Technology.  A  $2,000,000  grant 
from  the  Ford  Foundation  was  made  to  the  university  in 
1962,  to  be  matched  by  $4,000,000. 

Degrees  granted  are  the  B.A.,  B.M.  (Music),  B.S.  in 
Business,  B.I. A.  (Industrial  Arts),  LL.B.,  M.A.T.  (Teach- 
ing), M.B.E.  (Business  Education),  J.D.  (Doctor  of  Ju- 
risprudence). The  governing  board  has  forty-seven  trust- 
ees, thirty-two  members  elected  by  the  Oklahoma  An- 
nual Conference,  fourteen  district  superintendents  of 
that  conference,  and  the  resident  bishop. 

John  O.  Gross 

OKLAHOMA  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  organized  at 
Oklahoma  City,  Dec.  14,  1892  with  Bishop  Daniel  A. 
GoODSELL  presiding.  It  superseded  the  Indian  Mission 
Conference  which  included  many  white  churches  that 
had  been  organized  after  the  territory  was  opened  to 
white  settlers  in  1889. 

When  the  Oklahoma  Conference  was  created,  the 
Indian  work  continued  as  a  part  of  it.  However,  in  1904 
the  Indian  charges  were  set  off  as  the  Indian  Territory 
Mission,  the  name  being  changed  to  the  East  Oklahoma 
Mission  in  1906.  The  mission  began  in  1904  with  27 
charges  and  about  1,275  members,  but  as  time  passed 
it  did  not  flourish.  The  Indians  were  poor,  the  pastors' 
salaries  were  low,  and  the  churches  had  to  contend  with 
the  hostility  of  the  unconverted  and  the  competition  of 
the  Church,  South.  By  1911  the  prospects  for  the  work 
were  so  discouraging  that  the  mission  asked  the  General 
Conference  to  make  it  a  part  of  the  Oklahoma  Con- 
ference, and  it  was  so  ordered.  Some  Indian  work  con- 
tinued in  the  Oklahoma  Conference,  but  after  1912  it 
was  largely  neglected  until  unification  in  1939. 

The  Oklahoma  Conference  began  in  1892  with  four 
districts,  Ardmore,  Eastern,  Northern,  and  Southern;  94 
charges,  35  preachers,  60  local  preachers,  and  3,129  mem- 
bers. The  conference  grew  rapidly,  reporting  nearly 
15,000  members  in  1903. 

At  its  first  session  in  1892  the  Oklahoma  Conference 
took  a  strong  stand  for  the  establishment  of  a  college. 
Several  .schools  were  launched  over  the  years,  but  in  the 
end  the  only  college  to  survive  was  what  is  now  Okla- 
homa City  University.  The  two  Episcopal  Methodisms 
started  Epworth  University  in  Oklahoma  City  in  1901, 
but  it  failed  in  1911  when  the  Northern  Church  withdrew 
support  to  start  a  college  in  Guthrie.  Eight  years  later 
the  institution  at  Guthrie  was  closed,  and  the  denomin- 
ational college  was  opened  in  Oklahoma  City.  In  1928 
the  Southern  Church  joined  in  its  support,  and  Oklahoma 
City  University  was  able  to  weather  the  depression  years 
to  become  a  strong  Methodist  college. 

The  Oklahoma  Conference  was  merged  in  1939  to  help 
form  the  East  and  West  Oklahoma  Conferences  of  The 


1808 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OKLAHOMA-TEXAS   CONFERENCE 


Methodist  Church.  At  that  time  the  conference  reported 
246  charges,  209  ministers,  58,704  members,  and  property 
vakied  at  $675,314. 

H.  E.  Brill,  Oklahoma.  1939. 

Clegg  and  Oden,  Oklahoma.  1968. 

General  Minutes,  ME. 

Minutes  of  the  Oklahoma  Conference.      Frederick  E.  Maser 

OKLAHOMA  CONFERENCE  (MES)  was  organized  at 
Tulsa,  Nov.  14,  1906  with  Bishop  John  J.  Tigeft  pre- 
siding. It  superseded  the  Indian  Mission  Conference 
which  had  become  ovenvhelmingly  a  body  of  white  min- 
isters and  churches.  The  Indian  preachers  and  churches 
continued  in  the  Oklahoma  Conference  and  its  successor 
conferences  until  1918  when  they  were  set  off  as  the 
Indian  Mission. 

The  Oklahoma  Conference  began  with  twelve  districts, 
237  charges,  and  38,529  members.  In  1910  there  were 
fifteen  districts,  295  charges,  and  52,267  members,  and 
the  body  divided  to  form  the  East  and  West  Oklahoma 
Conferences.  At  that  time  practically  all  of  the  Indian 
work  was  placed  in  the  East  Conference.  The  next  year 
the  East  Conference  reported  27,901  members  and  the 
West  Conference  28,177.  At  Tulsa  on  Oct.  29,  1930  the 
two  conferences  merged  to  form  again  the  Oklahoma  Con- 
ference with  twelve  districts  and  76,665  members,  an 
arrangement   which   continued   until   unification    in    1939. 

Southern  Methodism  in  Oklahoma  was  interested  in 
schools  and  other  agencies,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  Federal 
government  and  the  Indian  Councils,  the  Indian  Mission 
Conference  built  a  number  of  schools  for  the  Indians. 
The  Methvin  Institute  at  Anadarko  (1890-1906)  was  the 
Southern  Church's  last  school  for  Indians.  As  the  confer- 
ence became  predominantly  white,  schools  for  the  whites 
were  established.  When  the  Oklahoma  Conference  began 
in  1906  it  had  four  colleges:  Epworth  University  at 
Oklahoma  City,  Spaulding  College  at  Muskogee,  Willie 
Halsell  College  at  Vinita,  and  Hargrove  College  at  Ard- 
more.  All  failed  within  the  next  ten  years.  Finally  in  1928 
the  Southern  Church  joined  the  Northern  Church  in  sup- 
port of  the  college  in  Oklahoma  City  which  became 
Oklahoma  City  University,  a  strong  Methodist  college 
today. 

In  1919  the  two  Oklahoma  Conferences  started  an 
orphanage  at  Oklahoma  City  and  invited  the  Indian  Mis- 
sion, then  one  year  old,  to  elect  two  members  to  the 
institution's  governing  board.  Moved  to  Tahlequah  about 
twenty  years  later,  the  Oklahoma  Methodist  Home  for 
Children  has  become  an  outstanding  institution  of  its 
kind. 

In  1882  the  Indian  Mission  Conference  began  publish- 
ing a  paper  in  Muskogee  entitled  Our  Brother  in  Red. 
Between  1905  and  1920  Oklahoma  Methodism  joined  first 
with  Arkansas  Methodism  and  then  with  Texas  Meth- 
odism in  publishing  papers.  In  the  latter  year  the  Okla- 
homa Methodist  began,  flourished  for  ten  years,  and  was 
then  merged  with  the  Texas  Christian  Advocate  to  form 
the  Southwestern  Christian  Advocate. 

In  1939  the  Oklahoma  Conference  approached  unifica- 
tion with  ten  districts,  257  charges,  364  churches,  91,795 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $7,583,752. 
Babcock  and  Bryce,  Oklahoma.  1935. 
Clegg  and  Oden,  Oklalwma.  1968. 
General  Minutes,  MES. 
Minutes  of  the  Oklahoma  Conferences,  MES. 

Albea  Godbold 


OKLAHOMA  CONFERENCE  (MC)  was  organized  at 
Tulsa,  May  24,  1954  with  Bishop  W.  Angie  Smith 
presiding.  It  was  foimed  by  merging  the  East  and  West 
Oklahoma  Conferences.  The  latter  two  conferences  were 
created  at  unification  in  1939  when  the  Oklahoma  Con- 
ference (MEC),  the  Oklahoma  Conference  (MECS),  and 
the  Oklahoma  part  of  the  Fort  Smith-Oklahoma  Confer- 
ence (MP)  were  merged.  (See  Oklahoma,  Indian  Mis- 
sion, and  Oklahoma  Conferences  MEC  and  MECS  for 
accounts  of  Oklahoma  Methodism  prior  to  1939.) 

The  East  Oklahoma  Conference  began  in  1939  with 
six  districts  and  214  charges,  while  the  West  Conference 
had  seven  districts  and  279  charges.  The  next  year  the 
one  reported  57,313  members  and  the  other  69,902.  When 
they  merged  in  1954  to  form  the  Oklahoma  Conference, 
the  East  Conference  had  222  charges  and  90,028  mem- 
bers, and  the  West  Conference  288  charges  and  115,259 
members  making  a  total  of  205,287  members  in  the  Okla- 
homa Conference  as  it  began.  This  represented  an  increase 
of  sixty-one  per  cent  in  the  total  membership  of  the  two 
conferences  between  1940  and  1954. 

Three  Oklahoma  pastors  have  been  elected  bishop;  H. 
Bascom  Watts  and  Paul  V.  Galloway  from  the  pastor- 
ate of  Boston  Avenue  Church,  Tulsa,  the  one  in  1952,  the 
other  in  1960;  and  W.  McFerrin  Stowe  from  St.  Luke's 
Church,  Oklahoma  City,  in  1964.  Bishops  Dana  Daw- 
son and  Kenneth  W.  Copeland  served  as  pastors  in 
Oklahoma  and  were  elevated  to  the  episcopacy  after 
moving  elsewhere. 

The  Oklahoma  Conference  supports  Oklahoma  City 
University  which  has  over  2,000  students,  a  fourteen- 
million  dollar  plant,  and  an  endowment  of  $2,000,000. 
The  churches  take  offerings  for  Philander  Smith  Col- 
lege in  Little  Rock.  Fifteen  Wesley  Foundations  are 
maintained  with  five  full  time  campus  ministers.  The 
Oklahoma  Methodist  reaches  nearly  half  the  families  in 
the  conference. 

The  conference  also  supports  the  following  institutions 
and  sei-vice  agencies:  the  Oklahoma  Methodist  Manor  for 
the  aged  and  the  Frances  E.  Willard  Home  for  Girls  in 
Tulsa;  the  400-acre  Boy's  Ranch  near  Gore;  the  Methodist 
Home  for  Children  at  Tahlequah;  two  nursing  homes,  one 
at  Enid  and  one  at  Clinton;  Camp  Canyon  near  Hinton; 
Lake  Texoma  Camp  near  Kingston;  and  Camp  Egan  near 
Tahlequah. 

In  1970  the  Oklahoma  Conference  reported  14  districts, 
468  charges,  549  ministers,  259,812  members,  and  proper- 
ty valued  at  $97,408,269.  The  total  amount  of  money 
raised  for  all  purposes  that  year  was  $9,454,322. 

Clegg  and  Oden,  Oklahoma.  1968. 

General  Minutes,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Oklahoma  Conference.      Frederick  E.  Maser 

OKLAHOMA-TEXAS  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  consisted  of 
two  foiTner  annual  conferences  in  Oklahoma  and  Texas 
plus  two  groups  of  churches  previously  belonging  to  two 
other  annual  conferences.  The  Oklahoma  and  Texas  Con- 
ferences were  united  in  1956.  A  group  of  five  United 
Brethren  Churches  in  the  Oklahoma  Panhandle  were 
added  to  the  Oklahoma  United  Brethren  Conference  when 
the  North  Texas  United  Brethren  Conference  was  dis- 
solved in  1913.  Seven  E.U.B.  churches  in  Oklahoma  be- 
longing to  the  Kansas  Conference  became  a  part  of  the 
Oklahoma-Texas  Conference  in  1960. 

The  Evangelical  Association  began   work  in  Texas 


OLD   STONE   CHURCH    SITE   AND   CEMETERY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


in  1879.  Bishop  J.  J.  Esiren  of  the  Evangehcal  Association 
was  the  man  most  instrumental  in  getting  approval  of  his 
mission  board  to  send  men  to  preach  the  gospel  in  Gennan 
in  Galveston  and  San  Antonio. 

The  first  congregation  was  organized  in  San  Antonio  in 
1879.  Between  1880  and  1887,  J.  M.  Gomer,  who  was  in 
charge  of  the  work  at  Galveston,  made  visits  to  the  interior 
of  Texas  to  seek  opportunities  for  expanding  the  work 
among  German-speaking  Evangelicals  who  had  migrated 
to  Texas  from  nortliern  states.  The  first  session  of  the 
Texas  Conference  was  held  at  Temple  in  October  1887. 
From  1894  to  1899,  the  conference  existed  as  two 
Districts,  "north"  and  "south."  The  conference  continued 
as  a  single  district  from  1899  onward. 

The  membership  of  the  seven  charges  comprising  the 
Texas  Conference  at  its  beginning  was  253.  The  greatest 
number  of  ministers  for  any  one  year  was  sixteen,  in  1912, 
and  these  men  ser\ed  seventeen  appointments. 

The  organizing  Conference  of  the  Oklahoma  United 
Brethren  Church  was  held  at  the  Eden  Chapel  Church, 
ten  miles  southeast  of  Stillwater,  in  February  1898. 
Twenty-four  ministers  and  twenty  lay  delegates  made  up 
the  official  membership. 

The  twenty-five  charges  totaling  1,500  members  had 
been  a  part  of  the  Arkansas  Valley  Conference  preceding 
1898.  United  Brethren  people  had  been  among  those  set- 
tlers securing  property  in  the  opening  of  the  "Unassigned 
Lands"  in  1889,  and  other  openings  of  Indian  lands  in 
1890's.  By  1907,  when  Oklahoma  became  a  state,  the  con- 
ference counted  seventy-five  churches,  twenty-seven 
preachers,  and  2,836  church  members. 

The  Oklahoma  Conference  was  principally  an  organiza- 
tion of  rural  churches.  In  1900,  the  twenty-four  churches 
averaged  sixty-six  members  each;  and  in  1950,  the  average 
number  of  members  in  the  thirty-one  churches  reporting 
was  130. 

The  North  Texas  Conference  of  the  United  Brethren 
Church  existed  from  1908  to  1913.  At  their  final  session 
in  1913,  five  churches  in  the  Oklahoma  Panhandle  were 
transferred  to  the  Oklahoma  Conference. 

The  Texas  Conference  and  Oklahoma  Conference  were 
united  on  May  29,  1956.  Texas  brought  eight  churches, 
1,376  members,  and  eight  pastors  to  the  Union;  Oklahoma 
brought  twenty-two  churches,  3,343  members,  and  nine- 
teen pastors. 

The  Student  Aid  Society  of  the  Texas  Conference  was 
continued  in  the  united  conference.  Its  purpose  was  to 
give  financial  assistance  to  ministerial  students  while  at- 
tending Seminary. 

Since  Oklahoma-Texas  union  one  mission  church  was 
begun — Cathedral  Church  now  called  Regency  Park 
Church  at  Moore,  Okla. — in  1963.  Finances  for  the  new 
church  came  largely  from  the  Forward  Fellowship  pro- 
gram begun  in  1959. 

In  1960  the  seven  Kansas  Conference  churches  located 
in  Oklahoma  were  joined  to  the  Oklahoma-Texas  Confer- 
ence and  seven  Itinerant  Elders  of  the  Kansas  Conference 
transferred  their  credentials  to  the  Oklahoma-Texas  Con- 
ference. 

From  1964  through  1967,  Camp  Redlands  was  leased 
by  the  conference  from  Oklahoma  State  University  at 
Stillwater  and  was  used  chiefly  as  a  site  for  Christian 
Education  groups. 

In  1968  churches  in  Texas  joined  foimer  Methodist 
Conferences  in  that  state  and  the  twenty-five  churches  in 


Oklahoma  became  one  with  the  former  Oklahoma  Method- 
ist Conference. 

Marvin  M.  Polson 

OLD  STONE  CHURCH  SITE  AND  CEMETERY,  Leesburg, 
Va.,  is  a  national  historic  shrine  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church.  (See  Leesburg,  Virginia.) 

OLDHAM,  WILLIAM  FITZJAMES  ( 1854-1937),  missionary 
bishop  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  Southern  Asia  1904-12; 
secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  New  York,  1912-16; 
bishop  (general  superintendent).  South  America,  1916-28. 
He  was  born  at  Bangalore,  India,  Dec.  15,  1854.  His  fa- 
ther was  an  officer  of  the  army  of  the  East  India  Company. 
He  married  Marie  Mulligan,  born  in  Poona.  Both  were 
of  British  and  Indian  ancestry. 

Oldham  was  employed  as  a  government  surveyor,  when 
in  1873  he  heard  D.  O.  Fox,  an  associate  of  William 
Taylor,  preach.  He  was  converted  and  joined  the  Meth- 
odist Church,  and  a  little  later  he  went  to  America  and 
entered  Allegheny  College.  He  joined  the  MichigXn 
Annual  Conference.  In  1884,  he  was  accepted  as  a 
missionary  of  the  Board  of  Missions  and  .sent  to  India. 

Bishop  Thobur.n'  was  looking  for  a  man  to  open  Meth- 
odist work  in  Singapore.  He  chose  Oldham,  whom  he 
ordained  as  an  elder  on  Jan.  11,  1885,  and  the  next  day 
appointed  him  to  organize  and  superintend  a  mission  in 
Singapore.  Thoburn  and  Oldham  went  together  and  held 
evangelistic  sen'ices  in  the  town  hall.  They  quickly  orga- 
nized the  first  Methodist  Church,  with  seventeen  members, 
all  British  and  Eurasians.  A  few  days  later  a  Chinese  gen- 
tleman joined. 

Oldham's  work  in  Singapore  was  dramatically  success- 
ful. He  developed  strong  influence  among  the  multi-racial 
people  of  the  city,  organizing  congregations  using  Indian 
and  Chinese  languages  as  well  as  English.  He  opened 
schools  and  obtained  support  from  well-to-do  people  of 
all  races.  At  first,  the  Malaysia  field  was  included  in  the 
Bengal  Annual  Conference,  but  on  April  1,  1893,  the 
M.\LAYsiA  Mission  Conference  was  formed. 

Having  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Church  in  Malaysia, 
Oldham  returned  to  America  and  first  entered  the  pastor- 
ate and  then  became  professor  of  missions  and  compara- 
tive religions  at  Ohio  Wesleyan  University.  Bishop 
Bashford  wrote  of  Oldham  in  this  period,  "I  have  won- 
dered whether  any  pastor  in  Methodism  ever  accom- 
plished a  greater  work  than  did  Dr.  Oldham  in  the  last 
two  years." 

In  1904,  he  was  elected  missionary  bishop  for  Southern 
Asia  with  residence  in  Singapore.  In  1912,  he  was  elected 
one  of  three  co-ordinate  secretaries  of  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions and  was  in  constant  demand  as  a  speaker  and  writer. 
But  the  1916  General  Conference  elected  him  a  regular 
bishop  (general  superintendent)  and  assigned  him  to 
South  America  with  residence  in  Buenos  Aires.  He  suc- 
ceeded Bishop  Stuntz  as  the  second  resident  bishop  in 
Latin  America.  He  came  to  Buenos  Aires  in  1917  and 
stood  until  1928,  when  in  turn  he  was  succeeded  by  Bish- 
op Miller. 

Bishop  Oldham  worked  for  an  active  cooperation 
among  the  Protestant  denominations  in  the  River  Plate 
region.  During  his  term  of  office  the  M.  E.  Church  entered 
a  cooperative  agreement  with  the  Disciples  of  Christ  to 
work  together  in  Colegio  Ward  and  Union  Seminary.  Mrs. 
Mary  Oldham,  his  wife,  was  a  pious  lady  who  was  very 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OLIN,   STEPHEN 


much  appreciated.  Until  today  the  Pastors'  Wives  Associ- 
ation of  the  Argentine  Conference  bears  her  name. 

When  Oldham  was  bishop  in  South  America,  he  had 
to  cross  the  Andes  Mountains  in  the  late  fall  with  the 
last  bank  of  muleteers  to  go  before  winter  set  in,  an  alti- 
tude of  18,000  feet  and  winter  near.  When  the  mule 
drivers  arrived  in  late  evening  at  an  inn  over  the  crest  of 
the  mountains,  the  bishop's  mule  was  there  but  no  Old- 
ham. The  men  hurried  back  and  found  the  bishop  on  the 
road  unconscious,  his  clothes  frozen  to  the  ground.  He  is 
yet  remembered  in  South  America  with  admiration  and 
affection.  He  retired  in  1928,  made  his  home  then  for 
several  years  in  India  before  returning  at  last  to  the  United 
States.  He  died  in  Glendale,  Calif.,  March  27,  1937,  and 
is  buried  in  Forest  Lawn.  Among  his  writings  are  a  sketch 
of  Thoburn  in  The  Picket  Line  of  Missions,  The  Study  of 
Missions  in  Colleges;  Malaysia:  Nature's  Wonderland;  The 
Crucial  Hour  of  Missioiis;  India,  Malaysia  and  the  Philip- 
pines, and  Thoburn — Called  of  God. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 
F.  J.  McConnell,  Autobiography.  1952. 
National  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

OLDROYD,  ROXANNA  (1881-  )  is  a  notable  pioneer 

in  teaching  science  subjects  to  women  college  students  in 
India.  She  was  born  in  Shreve,  Ohio,  Nov.  25,  1881.  She 
was  awarded  B.S.  and  M.A.  degrees  by  Kansas  State 
University  in  1904  and  1908. 

In  the  summer  of  1909,  she  went  to  India  as  a  mission- 
ary appointed  to  teach  science  subjects  in  Isabella  Tho- 
burn College.  At  that  time  very  few  Indian  men  or 
women  cared  to  study  science.  Their  interests  were  con- 
centrated upon  languages  and  philosophy.  Miss  Oldroyd 
taught  physics,  chemistry,  and  biology,  but  initially  had 
fewer  than  a  dozen  students  in  college  classes. 

On  furloughs,  she  pursued  postgraduate  studies  in 
science  subjects  at  the  University  of  Chicago  and  in  theol- 
ogy at  Garrett  Biblical  Institute.  Gradually  but 
steadily,  enrollment  in  her  science  classes  grew,  and  many 
of  her  students  became  science  teachers  in  other  institu- 
tions. Many  others  developed  an  interest  in  medicine  as  a 
profession  and  eventually  became  physicians  or  surgeons. 
Of  her  many  students  who  went  on  to  distinguished 
achievements  one,  Evangeline  Thillyampalam,  became  the 
principal  of  the  college.  Miss  Oldroyd  had  a  missionary 
career  of  almost  forty  years  at  Isabella  Thoburn  College. 

M.  A.  Dinimitt,  Isabella  Thoburn  College.  1963. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

OLDS,  EDWIN  THOMAS  (1890-1966),  New  Zealand 
Methodist  minister,  was  born  in  South  Canterbury,  New 
Zealand,  on  Aug.  1,  1890,  one  of  a  large  family  in  a  hum- 
ble Methodist  home.  He  was  educated  at  Oainaiu  and 
Christchurch.  Accepted  for  training  for  the  Methodist  min- 
istry, he  spent  the  years  1912  to  1914  at  the  theological 
college  in  Dunholme. 

In  1915,  during  the  First  World  War,  he  enlisted  in 
the  New  Zealand  Rifle  Brigade  and  saw  active  service  in 
France.  He  was  given  an  officer's  commission  in  the  field. 
After  being  severely  wounded  in  1918,  he  was  invalided 
home  to  New  Zealand. 

In  1919  he  was  ordained.  His  most  important  appoint- 
ments were  Napier,  where  he  was  sent  in  1931  to  help 


restore  confidence  after  a  disastrous  earthquake,  and  Pitt 
Street,  the  historic  Auckland  church,  where  he  built  up 
a  crowded  congregation,  ministering  from  1935  to  1950. 
He  was  also  chairman  of  the  Auckland  District  from  1943 
to  1949,  and  president  of  Conference  in  1948.  "Tom" 
Olds  was  an  evangelist  and  a  prophet  of  inspiration  and 
hope.  The  young  responded  to  his  ardor,  and  the  old 
found  new  courage.  In  the  closing  years  of  his  life  he 
suffered  much  weakness  and  pain,  but  his  faith  never 
wavered.  He  died  in  Auckland  on  Aug.  28,  1966. 

yew  Zealand  Methodist  Conference  Minutes,  1966. 

Eric  W.  Hames 

OLIN,  JULIA  M.  (  -1879),  American  editor  and  writer 

and  wife  of  Stephen  Olin,  whom  she  married  in  1843 
when  he  was  president  of  Wesleyan  University.  She 
was  born  Julia  M.  Lynch,  her  father  a  person  of  conse- 
quence, in  New  York.  Olin  had  come  to  Wesleyan  as  its 
president  in  1842,  and  the  next  year  married  Julia  Lynch, 
who  was  his  second  wife. 

After  his  death,  in  1851,  she  lived  with  her  only  sur- 
viving son,  Henry.  She  decided  to  edit  Olin's  work,  and 
being  aided  in  this  by  some  literary  friends,  she  brought 
out  in  1853,  his  Life  and  Letters,  and  his  Greece  and  the 
Golden  Horn  in  1854.  With  the  proceeds  brought  in  by 
these  writings  she  established  a  prize  in  the  Wesleyan 
University. 

Mrs.  Olin  herself  wrote  chiefly  poems  and  certain 
material  for  daily  devotions.  She  contributed  to  The 
Ladies  Repository,  Western  Christian  Advocate,  and  the 
Methodist  Quarterly  Review.  It  is  said  that  she  was  a 
Sunday  school  teacher  all  her  life  from  the  age  of  seven- 
teen. She  also  is  connected  with  the  Five  Points  Mission 
built  on  the  site  of  the  "old  Brewery"  in  New  York,  and 
served  as  treasurer,  directress  or  corresponding  secretary 
for  twenty-si.\  years.  She  died  in  New  York  in  1879. 


M.   Simpson,   Cyclopaedia.    1878. 


N.  B.  H. 


Stephen  Olix 

OLIN,  STEPHEN  (1797-1851),  American  intellectual  lead- 
er and  college  president,  who  e.xerted  great  influence  dur- 
ing the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  was  bom 
in  Leicester,  Vt.,  on  March  7,  1797,  and  was  graduated  at 
Middlebury  College,  taking  honors  of  his  class.  His  health 
being  impaired,  he  went  to  the  South  and  accepted  the 


OLIN,    WILLIAM   H. 


ENCrCLOPEDIA   OF 


position  of  principal  of  an  almost  nondescript  Tabernacle 
Academy  near  Abbeville,  S.  C.  The  new  teacher  boarded 
in  the  family  of  a  local  preacher  by  the  name  of  James  E. 
Glenn.  After  Mrs.  Glenn  asked  him  whether  or  not  he 
opened  his  school  with  prayer,  he  was  induced  to  begin 
doing  so,  and  this  resulted  in  his  conversion. 

Having  become  converted,  he  applied  for  license  to 
preach,  but  the  presiding  elder,  Joseph  Travis,  was  in 
great  doubt  about  him,  and  while  he  trusted  Glenn's  good 
judgment,  would  not  look  favorably  upon  Olin  until  he 
"put  him  up"  to  preach.  The  sermon  was  so  good  that 
Travis  judged  it  to  be  a  plagiari.sm.  He  was  again  put  up 
and  preached  a  better  sermon  than  the  first.  A  third  time 
he  was  tried,  and  his  effort  excelled  both  of  the  others. 
Finally,  on  Sunday,  before  an  immense  congregation,  he 
preached  on  the  daughter  of  Herodias  dancing  before 
Herod  and  "swept  the  field."  The  presiding  elder  gave  in 
and  licensed  him  to  preach.  Two  or  three  years  later  he 
entered  the  South  Carolin.4  Conference,  but  in  1826 
went  to  the  University  of  Georgia,  where  he  taught  En- 
glish literature  for  seven  years.  While  there  he  married  a 
Miss  Bostick  of  Milledgeville,  Ga.,  who  was  his  devoted 
companion  for  twelve  years.  She  died  in  Naples,  Italy, 
while  they  were  on  an  e.xtended  journey  in  Europe. 

In  1834  he  accepted  the  presidency  of  Randolph- 
Macon  College,  then  at  Boydton,  Va.,  and  then  for  a 
time,  from  1837-41,  he  traveled  in  Europe  and  the  East, 
publishing  a  volume  having  to  do  with  his  travels.  In 
1842  he  was  elected  president  of  Wesleyan  University 
at  Middletown,  Conn.,  upon  the  death  of  Wilbur  Fisk. 
There  had  been  a  brief  presidency  there  by  Nathan- 
Bangs  who  resigned  in  order  that  Olin  might  take  over. 

In  1843  he  married  again,  this  time  Julia  M.  Lynch 
who  accompanied  him  in  his  travels  and  especially  to  the 
first  meeting  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  London  in 
1846. 

Olin  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1844,  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  great 
debate  which  divided  that  body.  Knowing  the  South,  as 
well  as  the  North,  he  attempted  to  reconcile  the  insur- 
mountable differences  between  the  two  sections,  and  in 
a  speech  to  the  body  seconded  the  motion  of  William 
Capers  of  South  Carolina,  calling  for  a  committee  to 
see  what  plan  might  be  worked  out  for  the  pacification  of 
the  Church. 

Olin,  however,  voted  with  the  majority  of  the  Confer- 
ence and  was  appointed  one  of  the  committee  to  draw  up 
a  "reply  to  the  Protest"  in  order  to  answer  the  "protest" 
which  had  been  formally  put  in  by  the  southern  delega- 
tions. However,  when  ne.xt  year  the  M.  E.  Church  began 
to  repudiate  the  Plan  of  Separation,  Olin  joined  Nathan 
Bangs  in  saying  that  the  "honor  of  the  Church  was  at 
stake"  and  that  the  commitment  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence with  regard  to  the  Plan  of  Separation  should  be 
kept. 

As  president  of  Wesleyan  (which  became  the  strongest 
institution  of  learning  of  the  M.  E.  Church  during  the 
years  of  the  presidency  of  Wilbur  Fisk  and  Stephen  Olin), 
Olin  entered  the  field  of  theological  discussion  and  became 
a  champion  of  the  Methodist  viewpoint.  He  held  that  the 
great  lack  in  the  theology  of  Methodism  was  "the  reduc- 
tion of  its  tenets  to  a  scientific  system."  It  is  said  that  many 
Methodists  hoped  that  Olin  himself  would  commit  the 
Wesleyan  motifs  to  such  treatment,  but  his  demands  as 
an  administrator  in  charge  of  Wesleyan,  and  more  particu- 
larly the  desperate   situation  of  his  health    (bad  health 


plagued  him  all  his  life),  kept  him  from  doing  so.  Even- 
tually his  nenous  power  gave  way,  and  he  died  in 
Middletown  on  Aug.  16,  1851.  His  wife  edited  his  writings 
after  his  death  and  pubhshed  also  his  Life  and  Letters. 
His  was  one  of  the  rare  minds  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

A.  M.  Chreitzberg,  Methodixm  in  the  Carolinas.  1897. 

Encydopcdia  Americana. 

H.  N.  McTyeire,  History  of  Methodism.  1884. 

.\1.   Simpson,   Cyclopaedia.    1881.  N.  B.  H. 

OLIN,  WILLIAM  H.  (1821-1889),  American  minister  and 
publicist,  was  born  Jan.  5,  1821,  in  Laurens,  Otsego  Co., 
N.  Y.  He  studied  at  Cazenovia  Seminary,  and  afterward 
studied  law,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  opened  a  law 
office  in  Oneonta,  N.  Y. 

During  revival  meetings  Olin  heard  A.  B.  Earle  preach 
on  "The  Power  of  Prayer."  Immediately  he  skeptically 
challenged  the  pastor  to  try  prayer  on  him,  but  declined 
to  cooperate  by  going  forward.  However,  the  minister 
urged  people  to  pray  for  the  young  lawyer.  A  few  nights 
later  Olin  yielded,  was  thoroughly  converted  and  joined 
the  church.  Having  been  suggested  as  a  candidate  for 
Congress,  and  having  been  invited  to  enter  partnership 
with  a  prosperous  law  finn  in  New  York  City,  he  de- 
clined. Instead,  he  entered  the  Methodist  ministry  and 
became  a  member  of  the  Oneida  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church  in  1851.  With  changes  in  district  and  conference 
boundaries  he  became  a  member  of  the  Central  New 
York  Conference,  and  then  in  1869  of  the  Wyoming 
Conference. 

Olin  was  a  presiding  elder  seventeen  and  a  half  years, 
and  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  eight  times, 
1860-1888.  While  presiding  elder  of  the  Binghamton  dis- 
trict (1884-87),  he  represented  Broome  County  one  teim 
in  the  State  Assembly,  having  been  nominated  by  the 
Prohibition  party  and  endorsed  by  the  Republican.  Wes- 
leyan University  conferred  upon  him  the  M.A.  degree, 
and  Syracuse  University  the  D.D.  degree.  He  was  mar- 
ried twice;  first  to  Emily  A.  Reed,  and  in  1857  to  Melissa 
E.  Walker,  both  of  Oneonta. 

Olin  had  a  striking  personality,  was  an  eloquent  speaker 
and  a  contender  for  righteousness.  He  died  in  Dexter, 
Mich.,  on  Sept.   16,    1889,   and  was  buried   in  Oneonta. 

A.  F.  Chaffee,  Wyoming  Conference.  1904. 
Minutes  of  the  Wyoming  Conference,  1890. 

Louis  D.  Palmer 

OLIVER,  (CAPTAIN)  WILLIAM  (1849-1937),  Canadian 
Methodist  lay  missionary,  was  bom  March  19,  1849,  at 
Bishoptown-on-Clyde,  Scotland.  His  father  was  a  farmer 
and  tile-maker,  his  mother  a  servant  girl  who  took  William, 
strapped  to  her  back,  when  she  went  reaping  with  a  sickle 
in  the  fields.  William  went  to  work  at  the  incredibly 
early  age  of  five,  driving  the  blind  horse  that  powered  the 
mill  for  crushing  tile  clay.  At  seven  he  was  a  rivet  boy 
at  Denny's  shipyards.  By  going  to  night  school,  for  which 
he  paid  a  penny  a  week,  he  learned  to  write  by  the  age 
of  fourteen. 

At  twenty,  William  Oliver  went  to  sea  as  ship's  car- 
penter on  the  Norwegian  sailing  ship  "Ebenezer,"  and 
for  the  next  twelve  years  he  sailed  all  over  the  world  on  a 
number  of  vessels.  Once,  when  their  sailing  ship  was 
caught  in  the  doldrums  crossing  the  Atlantic,  he  saved 
himself  and  the  crew  from  starvation  by  scraping  filthy 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OLSON,    OSCAR   THOMAS 


grain  off  the  keelson,  washing  it,  and  grinding  it  up  for 
porridge. 

At  the  age  of  thirty-two,  and  in  an  advanced  stage  of 
alcoholism,  he  arrived  in  Victoria,  Vancouver  Island, 
where  he  left  the  ship  and  went  to  work  in  the  shipyards, 
transferring  a  year  later  to  New  Westminster  on  the 
Fraser,  It  was  here  in  the  year  1883,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
four,  that  he  was  dramatically  converted. 

Not  long  after  his  religious  experience  he  met  Thomas 
Crosby,  who  raised  money  in  the  East  to  purchase  or 
build  a  mission  boat  for  the  West  Coast  work.  William 
Oliver  offered  his  services.  Working  for  mere  room  and 
board,  he  built  the  first  Methodist  mission  boat  on  the 
West  Coast,  "The  Glad  Tidings."  When  she  was  launched 
he  accompanied  Crosby  as  engineer,  later  as  skipper. 
After  "The  Glad  Tidings"  was  wrecked,  Oliver  entered  the 
fish-oil  manufacturing  business  on  the  Queen  Charlotte 
Islands,  but  five  years  later  he  sold  out,  and  using  his 
own  money,  he  built  the  "Udal,"  which  he  presented  to 
the  church  with  the  stipulation  that  he  be  allowed  to 
navigate  her.  In  the  closing  years  of  his  life  he  designed 
and  built  two  more  mission  vessels,  the  "Thomas  Crosby," 
and  the  "Melvin  Swartout."  At  the  age  of  eighty  he  re- 
tired from  sailing  and  took  the  job  of  supervising  the 
building,  equipment,  and  maintenance  of  the  marine  mis- 
sion fleet  for  The  United  Church  of  Canada. 

Captain  Oliver  was  a  daring  navigator,  a  master  crafts- 
man, and  a  fearless  personal  evangelist,  whose  reputation 
was  unsurpassed  along  the  coast  from  Vancouver  to 
Alaska.  He  was  for  years  the  companion  and  friend  of  the 
renowned  Thomas  Crosby,  and  though  intensely  devout 
he  was  at  home  with  loggers,  fishermen,  trappers,  and 
lighthouse-keepers  wherever  he  went. 

In  April,  1896,  Oliver  married  Agnes  Calder,  the 
daughter  of  one  of  the  first  converts  among  the  Haida 
people  of  Queen  Charlotte  Islands.  They  had  no  children 
of  their  own,  but  adopted  one  boy,  Robert.  Captain  Oliver 
died  Jan.  3,  1937,  after  fifty  years  of  sei-vice  on  the 
coast. 

W.  H.  Morris,  Captain  William  Oliver:  A  Fisher  of  Men.  Peru: 
N.p.,  1941. 

R.  C.  Scott,  My  Captain  Oliver.  Toronto:  United  Church  Pub- 
lishing   House,    1947.  H.    W.    McKebvill 

OLIVERS,  THOMAS  (1725-1799),  British  itinerant— shoe- 
maker, musician,  poet,  hymn  writer,  controversialist — 
was  born  at  Tregynon,  Montgomeryshire,  and  baptized 
Sept.  8,  1725.  Converted  at  Bristol  under  Whitefield, 
joining  the  Methodists  at  Bradford-on-Avon,  Olivers  began 
preaching  about  1744.  Associated  with  Wesley  from 
1753,  he  traveled  until  1772  in  Lancashire,  Yorkshire, 
Scotland,  Ireland  and  London.  After  1777  he  resided 
in  London,  where  he  lent  £600  toward  Wesley's  Chapel, 
and  subedited  (badly)  Methodist  publications.  In  digni- 
fied, well-reasoned,  sometimes  caustic  writings  he  cham- 
pioned Wesley's  Methodism  against  Augustus  Toplady, 
Rowland  and  Richard  Hill,  and  Theophilus  Evans.  He 
wrote  the  hymn.  The  God  of  Abraham  Praise,  which  yet 
remains  in  Methodist  hymnals.  He  died  at  Hoxton,  March 
7,  1799. 

George  Lawton 

OLMSTEAD,  B.  L.  (1886-1960),  an  ordained  elder  of  the 
Free  Methodist  Church,  was  editor  of  Arnold's  Com- 


mentary (Free  Methodist)  for  twenty-nine  years.  He  held 
the  degrees  A.B.  and  A.M.,  Wheaton  College,  Illinois; 
B.D.,  McCormick  Theological  Seminary.  He  pursued 
graduate  studies  at  Glasgow,  Scotland  on  the  Bernadine 
Orme  Smith  Fellowship.  He  was  pastor  of  Free  Meth- 
odist churches  in  Michigan,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  He 
served  as  Dean  of  Theology,  Greenville  College  ( 1922- 
31).  He  then  became  editor  of  Free  Methodist  Sunday 
school  literature,  continuing  until  his  death  in  1960.  He 
was  a  reverent  scholar,  clear  writer,  persuasive  preacher. 
He  died  at  Winona  Lake,  Ind. 

Bybon  S.  Lamson 

OLMSTEAD,  WILLIAM  B.  (1862-1941),  an  ordained  elder 
of  the  California  Conference  of  the  Free  Methodist 
Church,  was  General  Missionary  Secretary.  He  attended 
Spring  Arbor  Seminary.  He  was  pastor  and  superintendent 
in  Ohio  and  Michigan,  and  was  elected  editor  of  Sunday 
school  literature  in  1898  and  General  Sunday  School 
Secretary  in  1907.  While  President  of  Wessington  Springs 
Junior  College,  he  was  elected  General  Missionary  Secre- 
tary serving  from  1919  to  1933.  He  was  a  pastor  in  the 
California  Conference  until  his  death,  Sept.  22,  1941.  He 
was  a  capable  administrator,  clear  writer,  forceful  preacher 
and  a  great  missionary  statesman.  His  death  occurred  at 
San  Jose,  Calif. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 


OLSON,  OSCAR  THOMAS  (1887-1964),  American  pastor, 
ecumenist,  liturgist  and  authority  on  the  Methodist  ritual, 
was  born  at  Chicago,  111.,  Jan.  2,  1887,  the  son  of  Oliver 
W.  and  Hannah  T.  Olson.  He  received  his  A.B.  from 
Albion  College  in  1911,  his  M.A.  from  Columbia  Uni- 
versity and  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  1913.  He  held 
several  honorary  degrees. 

He  married  Edith  Margaret  Ketcham  in  1912,  and  one 
of  their  three  sons  was  John  Frederic  Olson,  president  of 
Oklahoma  City  University.  His  pastorates  included 
Trinity  Church,  Detroit,  Mich.;  historic  Mount  Vernon 
Place  Church,  Baltimore,  Md.,  where  he  exerted  con- 
siderable influence  in  that  city;  Wilmette  Parish  Church, 
Wilmette,  111.,  and  from  1924  until  his  retirement  in  1959, 
he  sei-ved  Epworth-Euclid  Church,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Olson  early  obtained  a  name  for  himself  in  the  field 
of  liturgies,  and  was  a  pioneer  in  calling  the  attention  of 
Methodism  to  the  proper  use  of  forms  of  worship.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Joint  Hymnal  Commission  of  the  Meth- 
odist Churches,  which  brought  out  the  Methodist  Hymnal 
in  1935,  and  on  its  sub-committee  which  drew  up  the 
Responsive  Readings  published  in  that  Hymnal.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  Commission  on  Rituals  and  Worship  of 
the  M.  E.  Church,  and  served  as  secretary  and  editor 
for  the  commission  that  published  the  Book  of  Worship 
in  1944.  He  also  became  chairman  of  the  Commission  on 
Worship  of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  1940-48. 
He  was  a  delegate  from  the  Baltimore  Conference 
to  the  M.  E.  General  Conference  of  1932,  the  Uniting 
Conference  of  1939,  and  to  the  General  Conference  of 
The  Methodist  Church  in  1940,  1948,  1952,  1956,  and 
1960.  In  the  last  named  quadrennia,  he  was  a  delegate 
from  the  North-East  Ohio  Conference.  He  was  put  in 
strong  nominations  for  the  episcopacy  several  times  by  his 
conference  brethren. 

In  1947,  he  was  made  secretary  of  tlie  Ecumenical 


OMAHA,   NEBRASKA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Methodist  Council,  Western  Section;  in  1951  at  the 
World  Methodist  Council  in  Oxford,  England,  he  was 
elected  President  of  the  American  Section;  in  1956  at 
the  World  Methodist  Conference  at  Lake  Junaluska,  he 
became  Vice-President  of  the  World  Methodist  Council. 
He  died  Nov.  23,  1964  and  was  buried  in  Forest  Hill 
Cemetery,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 
Yearbook  of  die  Nortli-East  Ohio  Conference,  1965. 

RoBEHT  H.  Courtney 

OMAHA,  NEBRASKA,  U.S.A.,  known  as  "the  Gateway 
City,"  is  on  the  Missouri  River  opposite  Council  Bluffs, 
Iowa,  and  is  the  industrial  and  commercial  center  of 
Nebraska.  An  important  grain,  livestock  and  meatpack- 
ing market,  Omaha's  major  industry  is  food  processing. 
Among  other  things,  it  manufactures  farm  machinery, 
fertilizer  and  insecticides.  It  has  the  nationally  known 
"Boys  Town,"  a  famous  symphony  orchestra,  Joselyn 
Museum,  and  Momion  Cemetery. 

The  site  of  a  licen,sed  Indian  trading  post  in  1825, 
Omaha  was  founded  in  1854  and  incorporated  in  1857. 
It  is  the  seat  of  the  Municipal  University  of  Omaha, 
Creighton  University,  Duchesne  College,  the  College  of 
St.  Mary,  and  of  Nebraska's  School  for  the  Deaf. 

Methodism  was  introduced  into  the  Omaha  region  about 
1851  when  William  Simpson  was  sent  to  Council  Bluffs 
from  the  Iowa  Conference.  Omaha  first  appears  on  the 
M.  E.  Church  records  in  1854.  It  was  listed  (1855)  in 
connection  with  the  Missouri  Conference.  The  next  year 
it  was  included  in  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  Conference. 
In  1861  it  reported  eighty-one  members  with  property 
valued  at  $6,000,  and  then  came  to  be  in  the  Nebraska 
Conference  which  was  organized  in  1860. 

Omaha  had  three  churches  in  1876  with  359  members, 
not  including  an  A.  M.  E.  Church  with  thirty-seven 
members.  First  Church  then  had  252  members. 

Omaha  was  for  many  years  Headquarters  of  the  Omaha 
Area  in  the  M.  E.  Church,  including  Iowa  and  Nebraska. 
After  1939  the  Jurisdictional  system  separated  these 
states,  and  though  Omaha  continued  as  headquarters  for 
a  time,  it  served  various  territories — Kansas,  indeed,  being 
added  for  one  quadrennium.  Lincoln,  Neb.,  is  at  present 
headquarters  for  the  Nebraska  Area  as  well  as  for  the 
Nebraska  Annual  Conference.  In  1891  the  Nebraska  Meth- 
odist Hospital  (now  the  Omaha  Methodist  Hospital)  was 
established.  It  is  presently  in  process  of  moving  to  new 
and  adequate  modern  facilities  in  the  western  suburbs  of 
Omaha.  Goodwill  Industries  came  to  Omaha  in  1934 
from  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  with  Ross  Wesley  Adair  at  the  head. 

E.  E.  Hosman  guided  its  development  until  his  retirement 
when  it  moved  to  very  modem  facilities  in  a  strategic 
location  on  South  42nd  Street. 

Stragetic  Air  Command  headquarters  to  the  south  of 
the  city  offers  special  opportunities  for  Methodism  to 
touch  the  lives  of  a  select  group  of  U.S.  Airmen  and 
their  families.  The  Omaha  Campus  Ministry,  an  ecumeni- 
cal project,  has  been  directed  by  Leonard  S.  Barry,  under 
Nebraska  Conference  appointment  since  1963.  He  minis- 
ters to  colleges  and  graduate  schools  of  the  city.  Benjamin 

F.  Schwartz  also  serves  as  Assistant  Protestant  chaplain 
of  the  Veterans  Administration  Hospital  in  Omaha.  There 
are  four  congregations  of  the  A.M.E.  Church,  and  one 
each  of  the  Free  Methodist,  Wesleyan  Methodist,  and 
C.M.E.  Churches. 


In  1970  there  were  seventeen  United  Methodist 
churches  in  Omaha  with  a  total  membership  of  14,508, 
and  property  .Valued  at  $7,476,595. 

First  Church  was  the  first  church  of  any  denomination  to 
be  organized  in  Omaha.  The  first  Methodist  sermon  ever 
preached  in  Nebraska  was  delivered  by  Hiurison  Presson 
on  April  21,  1850  to  members  of  the  wagon  train  with 
which  he  was  traveling.  Returning  later,  Presson  was  a 
member  of  the  Nebraska  Conference  for  many  years. 
Omaha  first  appeared  on  the  records  of  the  M.  E.  Church 
in  1854. 

On  Aug.  13,  1854,  Peter  Cooper  preached  at  the 
Snowden  residence.  In  September  1855,  Isaac  F.  Collins 
of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  organized  First  Methodist  Church 
in  the  Territorial  Capitol  Building  with  six  members — 
twelve  years  before  statehood.  Omaha  reported  twenty- 
six  members  in  1855;  eighty-one  in  1861;  and  232  in  1876. 

Early  in  1856  the  first  building  was  erected  on  the 
site  given  to  the  church  by  the  Ferry  Boat  Company, 
whose  president  was  William  B.  Brown,  a  true  pioneer 
of  Omaha  and  a  Methodist.  The  Ferry  Boat  Company 
gave  two  lots.  One  was  sold  for  $1,500  and  the  money 
was  used  in  building  the  first  sanctuary  at  a  cost  of 
$4,500.  It  was  dedicated  in  1856  by  Moses  Shinn,  presid- 
ing elder. 

In  1876  a  frame  church  was  constructed  and  occupied 
until  June  8,  1890,  when  the  basement  of  the  third  build- 
ing was  first  occupied.  The  imposing  edifice  was  of  stone 
and  brick,  and  seated  1,200  people.  It  cost  approximately 
$100,000  and  was  dedicated  May  24,  1890.  This  church 
was  completely  destroyed  by  fire  on  Jan.  11,  1954. 

After  the  fire  the  present  church  was  built  at  69th 
and  Cass  Streets.  The  first  service  was  held  in  it  June  2, 
1957.  It  is  located  on  twelve  acres  of  land.  In  1970  First 
Church  reported  3,796  members. 

Omaha  City  Mission  Society,  as  it  is  now  constitued,  is 
an  agency  of  the  Women's  Society  of  Christian  Service 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  and  is  a  new  organiza- 
tion, having  been  incorporated  in  January,  1959.  However, 
the  present  organization  is  the  successor  to  the  oldest 
social  agency  in  the  state  of  Nebraska,  the  Christian 
Workers  Association,  which  was  founded  Oct.  27,  1872, 
by  a  group  of  laymen  of  the  First  Methodist  Church  of 
the  city  of  Omaha.  In  1922  the  Women's  Home  Mission- 
ary Society  of  The  M.  E.  Church  became  interested  in 
sponsoring  the  work  of  "The  Mission,"  and  soon  assumed 
the  responsibility  for  its  operation. 

The  work  of  the  Agencv  was  originally  that  of  relief 
to  the  poor,  a  shelter  for  the  homeless,  day  care  for 
children,  and  a  dormitory  for  women  and  girls.  The 
growth  of  the  city  and  the  changing  of  neighborhoods 
made  the  location  at  1204  Pacific  unsuited  for  the  program 
of  the  Agency  by  the  late  twenties.  The  building  was 
sold  and  the  Agency  moved  in  1934  to  a  rented  property 
at  2201  Cass  Street.  The  new  location  and  a  new  approach 
to  human  needs  caused  the  program  of  the  Agency  to 
be  that  of  a  community  or  "settlement  house"  center. 
The  building  became  known  as  Neighborhood  House  and 
sei-ved  with  great  success  for  twenty-four  years  in  a  very 
needy  section  of  the  Near-North  Side  of  Omaha. 

A  new  modern  community  center  called  "Wesley 
House"  at  2001  North  35th  Street  was  erected  in  1958-59. 
Wesley  House  is  located  in  the  center  of  an  area  of  16,000 
persons  in  which  there  are  no  churches  of  major  denomi- 
nations, no  recreation  or  community  service  facilities  ex- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ONDERDONK,   FRANK   SCOVILL 


cept  a  public  grade  school.  It  is  an  area  in  which  there 
is  an  increasing  number  of  minority  peoples.  The  neigh- 
borhood shows  some  signs  of  change  and  deterioration, 
but  is  not  past  reclamation.  A  third  community  center 
program  was  begun  at  30th  and  Grant  Streets  in  the 
property  of  the  Municipal  Housing  Authority  in  the  city 
of  Omaha  in  the  summer  of  1959. 

Before  Wesley  House  building  plans  were  approved, 
a  re-study  was  made  of  the  services  and  the  type  program 
to  be  carried  on  by  the  Agency.  The  purposes  of  Omaha 
City  Mission  Society  were  set  forth  in  the  new  constitu- 
tion to  be: 

To  provide  Christian  neighborhood  centers  which  shall  work 
cooperatively  witli  the  communities,  schools,  churches,  and 
other  religious  and  social  welfare  agencies  to  determine  and 
meet  the  spiritual,  intellectual,  physical,  moral  and  civic  needs 
of  tlie  conmiunities  irrespective  of  race,  color,  or  creed.  This 
purpose  shall  be  achieved  tlirough  tlie  provision  for  religious 
instruction,  and  services,  recreation,  group  work,  and  educa- 
tion. 

A  professionally  trained,  dedicated  staff  of  Christian 
workers  is  now  actively  engaged  in  fulfilling  this  purpose 
through  the  various  groups,  programs  and  activities  of 
the  Agency  in  three  centers  in  three  distinct  communities. 
Those  centers  are:  Wesley  House,  2001  North  35th 
Street;  Neighborhood  House,  724  North  22nd  Street; 
and  Hilltop  Homes,  3012  Grant  Street. 

St.  Paul  Church  is  a  church  situated  midway  between 
an  inner-city  situation  and  the  suburbs  and  continues  to 
demonstrate  a  deep  concern  for  church  extension.  In- 
volved in  a  building  program  and  an  enlarging  local 
program,  St.  Paul  has  managed  to  invest  significantly  in 
the  development  of  five  new  churches  in  the  Omaha  area 
during  the  past  ten  years. 

St.  Paul  is  the  result  of  a  merger  of  three  churches — 
Centenary,  Walnut  Hill,  and  Benson  Methodist  churches, 
as  these  were  during  the  days  of  economic  depression. 
Their  merger  was  accomplished  in  1930  when  the  respec- 
tive properties  were  transferred  to  the  St.  Paul  M.E. 
Church.  A  new  site  was  purchased — its  present  location — 
at  the  intersection  of  Country  Club  Avenue  and  Corby 
Street. 

During  tlie  period  since  this  merger  the  church  has 
grown  approximately  four  times  its  original  membership. 
Its  leadership  is  characterized  by  laymen  and  ministers 
who  are  concerned  to  identify  the  efforts  of  the  church 
both  with  the  community  and  with  the  larger  reaches  of 
world  responsibility.  The  aim  is  to  balance  its  local  pro- 
gram with  the  investment  of  both  money  and  personnel 
in  new  churches,  and  in  world  mission  projects. 

Throughout  its  history  the  church  has  emphasized  a 
strong  Christian  education  program.  Wherever  possible 
its  program  has  also  had  a  strong  family  emphasis,  but 
the  church  has  provided  also  for  persons  whose  experi- 
ences are  found  mostly  outside  the  family  setting.  The 
time  of  one  staff  member  is  devoted  to  programs  reaching 
persons  who  do  not  feel  at  home  in  the  traditional  couple, 
or  family-centered  type  of  church  life.  Having  been  a 
pioneer  in  Omaha  in  the  development  of  a  program  char- 
acterized by  multiple-services  and  a  staff  ministry,  St. 
Paul  looks  forward  to  continuing  opportunities  for  im- 
provements. 

In    1970   St.    Paul    Church    reported    3,205    members. 


property  valued  at  $1,120,455,  and  a  total  of  $213,952 
raised  for  all  purposes. 

General  Minutes,  UMC. 
M.  Simp.son,  Cyclopaedia.  1881. 

G.  A.  Steinlieimer,  Centennial  Bulletin,  First  Church  History, 
1S67-1967.  Benjamin  F.  Schwartz 

Jesse  A.  Earl 

Harold  G.  Grume 

Alva  H.  Clark 


Isamo  Omura 

OMURA,    ISAMU     (1901-  ),    Japanese    pastor    and 

church  leader,  was  born  in  Yamanashi  Prefecture  in  cen- 
tral Japan,  and  was  baptized  as  an  infant  in  the  Methodist 
Church.  He  graduated  from  the  Theological  Department 
of  AoYAMA  Gakuin,  Tokyo,  in  1928.  After  sen'ing  for 
three  years  as  a  pastor,  he  came  to  Boston  University, 
where  he  received  the  S.T.B.  degree  in  1933,  and  S.T.M. 
in  1934. 

On  returning  to  Japan  he  became  pastor  of  the  Asagaya 
Methodist  Church  in  Tokyo,  and  at  the  same  time  began 
teaching  in  the  Theological  Department  of  Aoyama 
Gakuin.  He  gave  up  his  pastorate  when  he  was  made 
Dean  of  the  Theological  Department  in  1937,  but,  when 
he  resigned  as  Dean  in  1940,  he  returned  to  the  same 
church,  of  which  he  is  still  pastor.  He  has  been  active 
in  the  work  of  the  United  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan, 
in  which  the  Japan  Methodist  Church  merged  in  1941. 
He  has  represented  the  church  in  various  international 
meetings,  including  the  General  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church  in  Denver  in  1960.  At  that  time  he 
was  serving  as  vice-moderator.  In  1962  he  was  elected 
moderator  of  the  United  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  and 
was  re-elected  in  1964. 

John  B.  Cobb,  Sr. 

ONDERDONK,  FRANK  SCOVILL  (1871-1936),  American 
missionaiy  and  leader  in  missionary  work  in  Mexico, 
was  bom  in  Mission  Valley,  Texas.  Educated  at  South- 
western Una'srsity-,  Georgetown,  Texas,  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  West  Texas  Conference,  and  then  went 
to  Mexico  in  1897  and  was  an  active  leader  in  the  Cen- 
tral Mexico  Mission.  He  was  District  Superintendent  in 
San  Luis  Potosi  (1897-1901).  and  in  Mexico  City  (1901- 


ONEIDA   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


03);  principal  of  the  Colegio  Wesleyan  in  Guadalajara 
(1903-07);  and  in  San  Luis  Potosi  (1907-14). 

A  large,  genial,  optimistic,  and  energetic  man,  he  earned 
the  affection  as  well  as  the  support  of  those  who  knew  him 
both  in  Mexico  and  in  the  missionary  promotional  visits 
he  frequently  made  back  to  Texas  and  into  other  states, 
where  he  addressed  large  assemblies  of  Southern  Meth- 
odists. In  1910,  when  the  Mexican  revolution  started, 
Onderdonk  went  back  to  Texas  to  take  charge  of  the  work 
there.  He  wrote  one  book  A  Glimpse  at  Mexico. 

Bodas  de  Diamante  del  Metodismo  en  Mexico,  1873-1928. 
Gustavo  A.  Velasco  G. 

ONEIDA  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  organized  at  Caze- 
novia,  N.  Y.,  in  June  1829.  It  was  formed  by  dividing  the 
Genesee  Conference.  The  1828  General  Conferenc:e 
voted  to  peiTnit  the  Genesee  Gonference  to  divide  into 
two  bodies  if  it  so  desired.  At  its  session  in  Ithaca,  be- 
ginning July  24,  1828,  the  conference  voted  to  divide, 
designated  the  part  of  its  territory  east  of  Cayuga  Lake 
as  the  Oneida  Gonference  and  agreed  to  meet  as  separate 
conferences  in  1829.  The  territory  of  the  Oneida  Gon- 
ference included  a  part  of  central  New  York  and  a  small 
part  of  northern  Pennsylvania.  The  conference  began 
with  six  districts — Black  River,  Cayuga,  Chenango, 
Oneida,  Pottsdam,  and  Susquehanna.  There  were  fifty- 
nine  charges  and  19,320  members. 

At  its  1835  session  the  Oneida  Gonference  voted  to 
ask  the  General  Gonference  to  divide  it  into  two  con- 
ferences. At  that  time  the  conference  had  nine  districts, 
119  charges,  and  34,763  members.  The  next  year  the 
northern  part  of  the  conference  territory  was  set  off  as  the 
Black  River  Conference.  This  left  the  Oneida  Confer- 
ence with  six  districts — Berkshire,  Cayuga,  Chenango, 
Cortland,  Oneida,  and  Susquehanna — sixty-seven  charges, 
and  19,164  members. 

In  1851  the  Oneida  Conference  had  eight  districts  and 
30,484  members.  The  next  year  three  of  those  districts — 
Newark,  Susquehanna,  and  Wyoming — were  set  off  as  the 
Wyoming  Conference.  This  left  the  Oneida  Gonference 
with  19,207  members. 

The  1868  General  Conference  abolished  the  Oneida 
Conference.  Its  territory  was  divided  between  the  Wyo- 
ming Conference  and  the  newly  created  Central  New 
York  Conference.  The  Chenango  and  Otsego  Districts 
went  to  the  Wyoming  Conference,  and  the  Auburn, 
Cazenovia,  Cortland,  and  Oneida  Districts  to  the  Central 
New  York  body.  The  latter  is  regarded  as  the  legal  and 
historical  successor  of  the  Oneida  Conference. 

In  1868,  its  last  year,  the  Oneida  Conference  reported 
146  charges,  19,467  members,  and  propertv  valued  at 
$840,600. 

F.   W.   Conable,   History  of   the  Genesee  Annual   Conference. 

New  York:  Nelson  and  Phillips,  1876. 

CfCneral  Minutes,  MEG.  Albea  Godbold 

ONTARIO  LADIES'  COLLEGE,  founded  in  1874,  is  located 
in  Whitby,  Ontario,  Canada.  The  original  structure,  built 
by  Sheriff  Nelson  G.  Reynolds  in  1859  and  known  as 
"Trafalgar  Castle,"  is  reputed  to  have  been  the  finest 
private  residence  in  Canada  in  its  day.  When  it  was 
learned  that  the  palatial  dwelling  would  have  to  be 
sold,  a  small  group  of  men  in  the  Whitby  area  acted 
swiftly  to  secure  the  building  and  its  100  acres  of  property 


from  the  sheriff  as  a  school  for  girls,  in  the  name  of  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church.  J.  E.  Sanderson  was  ap- 
pointed moral  governor  and  J.  J.  Hare  principal.  In  1878, 
an  extension  known  as  Ryerson  Hall,  in  honor  of  Ecerton 
Ryerson,  was  erected  to  provide  for  the  increasing  enroll- 
ment. In  1895  another  extension,  known  as  Frances  Hall, 
in  honor  of  Lillian  Frances  Massey  Treble,  a  generous 
benefactress  of  the  school,  was  built.  Between  1911  and 
1913  further  extensions  to  the  main  structure  were  made, 
as  there  were  in  1955. 

The  college  has  been  administered  by  a  board  of  di- 
rectors, incorporated  in  1878  as  a  private  company  with 
share  capital  under  the  statutes  of  the  Province  of  Ontario. 
In  1961  this  charter  was  amended  to  provide  for  a  com- 
pany without  share  capital. 

The  college  has  always  maintained  close  ties  with  the 
church.  At  the  time  of  church  union  in  Canada  in  1925, 
this  relationship  was  substantially  strengthened.  The 
school  is  now  classified  as  a  secondary  school  operating 
under  the  Board  of  Colleges  of  The  United  Church  of 
Canada,  which  makes  an  annual  grant. 

The  first  principal  remained  at  his  post  forty-two  yeats 
and  was  succeeded  in  1915  by  Francis  L.  Farewell.  At 
his  death  in  1928,  Charles  R.  Carscallen  was  appointed. 
Stanley  L.  Osborne  became  principal  in  1948  and  was 
succeeded  in  1968  by  R.  G.  Davis. 

When  the  school  was  founded,  it  was  primarily  a 
finishing  school.  Today  the  curriculum  embraces  the  five- 
year  program  of  the  arts  and  science  branch  of  the  de- 
partment of  education  of  the  Province  of  Ontario,  and 
offers  English,  history,  geography,  mathematics,  science, 
Latin,  French,  German,  and  home  economics.  In  the 
residence  125  students  can  be  accommodated. 

M.    Macrae   and  A,    Adamson,    The   Ancestral   Roof.   Toronto: 

Clarke  Irwin,  196.3. 

J.  E.  Sanderson,  First  Century  in  Canada.  1908-10. 

S.  L.  Osborne 

ORANGE,  New  South  Wales,  Australia.  Wolaroi  College 

for  boys  is  200  miles  west  of  Sydney.  It  was  establi.shed 
as  a  Methodist  school  in  1926,  being  acquired  from  private 
interests,  and  has  twenty-seven  acres  of  land. 

From  1950  modern  buildings  have  been  erected,  such  as 
Manual  Arts,  Classrooms  and  Junior  School.  The  .school 
has  an  agricultural  trend,  but  also  directs  to  University 
Entrance  in  all  fields — Arts,  Sciences,  and  Commerce. 

Enrolment  is  132,  of  whom  112  are  boarders. 

Australian  EorrORiAL  Committee 


ORANGEBURG,  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  USA.,  Methodist 
Home  for  the  Aging.  On  Nov.  2,  1953  the  Board  of  Hos- 
pitals and  Homes  of  the  South  Carolina  Conference 
purchased  113  acres  of  land  east  of  Orangeburg  on  which 
there  were  ten  buildings,  properly  equipped  to  take  care 
of  aging  people.  The  Home  thus  purchased  was  opened  on 
Jan.  6,  1954  with  ten  residents.  The  property  had  formerly 
served  as  a  training  school  for  air  cadets  during  World 
War  II. 

In  1956  the  Costen  Harrell  Building  was  opened.  In 
1958  a  modern  infirmary  was  opened  and  in  1961  Harmon 
Hall  opened.  In  1963  extensive  renovation  was  made  to 
Gapers  Hall  and  a  superintendent's  residence  was  built. 
In  1964  there  was  a  tenth  anniversary  celebration  and  a 
new  wing  was  added  to  the  infirmary.  A  new  residence 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ORDINATION 


hall  was  opened  the  next  year  and  the  business  manager's 
residence  renovated.  The  infirmary  has  a  capacity  of 
fifty-one.  The  residence  capacity,  including  the  infirmary, 
is  200.  The  present  value  of  property  is  $110,000  and  that 
of  buildings  and  equipment  is  $485,000.  There  is  very 
little  indebtedness. 

Trinity  Church  is  a  church  of  the  former  Central  Juris- 
diction and  is  a  haven  of  worship  for  a  cross-section  of  the 
Orangeburg  community,  as  well  as  for  students  and  facul- 
ties of  two  colleges,  Claflin  College,  a  Methodist  in- 
stitution, and  the  South  Carolina  State  College.  Trinity 
has  served  people  of  all  stations  of  life  since  T.  Willard 
Lewis,  presiding  elder  of  the  Charleston  District,  and 
Thomas  Phillips  organized  the  church  the  first  Sunday  in 
January  1866,  in  a  schoolhouse  built  by  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau.  The  present  edifice,  located  on  Boulevard,  is  the 
third  shucture  built  since  the  church  was  organized.  Its 
three  levels  house  a  sanctuary,  parish  hall,  nine  class- 
rooms, a  pastor's  office,  a  fully-equipped  kitchen,  weekday 
kindergarten  department,  mid-week  service  chapel, 
lounges,  scout  room  and  utility  compartments.  Also  facing 
Boulevard,  directly  across  from  the  two  colleges,  is  the 
parsonage,  a  brick  structure  erected  in  1949. 

Trinity  Church  provided  conference  lay  leadership  for 
periods  longer  than  any  church  in  the  conference,  and  has 
a  church  school  and  Sunday  attendance  record  greater 
than  any  church  in  the  conference. 

Over  the  years  Trinity  has  sei"ved  as  a  center  for  spir- 
itual, civic,  political,  and  educational  activity.  The  Cen- 
tennial Celebration  was  observed  the  month  of  January, 
1966. 

Pierce  Embree  Cook 

ORCHARD,  JOHN  (1838-1907),  New  Zealand  minister, 
was  born  in  Devonshire,  England.  In  1861  he  became 
a  probationer  of  the  Bible  Christian  Church.  Two 
years  later  he  was  transferred  to  Victoria.  In  1886  he 
came  to  Chhistchurch,  New  Zealand,  where  he  served 
for  nine  years.  Three  years  after  coming  to  New  Zealand 
he  was  appointed  General  Superintendent  of  the  Church 
in  the  Colony,  and  in  1899  was  president  of  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church,  three  years  after  the  union  of  the 
Wesleyans,  the  Free  Methodists,  and  the  Bible  Christians. 
He  was  prominent  in  many  public  movements  and  was, 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  a  member  of  the  City  Council,  of 
the  Licensing  Bench,  of  the  Charitable  Aid  Board,  and 
was  a  governor  of  the  technical  college.  He  died  on  Jan. 
6,  1907. 

L.  R.  M.  Gilniore,  The  Bible  Christian  Church  in  New  Zealand. 
(Wesley  Historical  Society,  New  Zealand,  1947). 

L.  R.  M.  Gilmore 

ORDER  OF  CALEB  is  the  organization  and  continuous  roll, 
past  and  present,  of  Methodist  ministers  who  have  served 
twenty  or  more  years  in  Montana.  It  was  instituted  dur- 
ing the  1912  session  of  the  North  Montana  Conference  by 
Bishop  LuccocK,  Aug.  16,  1912,  at  the  Grand  Union 
Hotel,  Fort  Benton,  at  a  Pioneer  Banquet  given  to  mark 
the  fortieth  anniversary  of  Brother  Van's  (Van  Orsdel) 
arrival  there  in  1872.  Brother  Van  refused  to  be  honored 
alone  and  suggested  that  those  who  had  served  twenty 
years  in  Montana  also  be  honored.  This  became  the  basis 
of  membership,  and  the  motto  selected  was  Numbers 
13:30.   ("And  Caleb  stilled  the  people  before  Moses  and 


said.  Let  us  go  up  at  once,  and  possess  it,  for  we  are 
well  able  to  overcome  it.")  Following  Brother  Van,  the 
Montana  Methodists  have  honored  a  distinguished  list  of 
their  veteran  preachers. 

E.  L.  Mills,  Plains,  Peaks  and  Pioneers.  1947. 

Minutes  of  the  Montana  Conference. 

E.  J.  Stanley,  L.  B.  Stateler.  1916.  Roberta  Baub  West 

ORDER  OF  ST.  LUKE,  originally  named  the  Brotherhood 
of  St.  Luke,  was  organized  in  the  American  Methodist 
Church  in  1946  by  R.  P.  Marshall  and  William  Esler 
Slocum,  as  a  liturgical  and  pastoral  fellowship,  composed 
of  Methodist  ministers,  seminary  students  and  lay  asso- 
ciates. It  is  not  an  Order  in  the  strict  sense,  but  a  fellow- 
ship; however  it  does  have  a  Rule  of  Life  and  Service 
which  centers  around  the  devotional  life  of  the  members, 
and  an  emphasis  upon  worship  and  the  study  of  liturgy. 
Very  similar  to  the  Sacramental  Fellowship  in  English 
Methodism,  it  maintains  fraternal  relations  with  this  group, 
and  some  members  hold  membership  in  both. 

The  Order  publishes  a  quarterly  review.  Work  Wor- 
ship,  devoted  to  studies  in  the  field  of  liturgy  and  ecu- 
menical action.  Yearly  convocations  are  held  in  various 
Methodist  seminaries,  and  the  members  have  been  active 
in  the  ecumenical  movement,  the  president-emeritus, 
Romey  P.  Marshall,  having  been  one  of  the  organizers  of 
the  World  Center  for  Liturgical  Studies  at  Boca  Raton, 
Fla.  Chapters  are  organized  in  various  conferences  in  the 
U.S.A. 

R.  P.  Marshall 

ORDERS  OF  WORSHIP,  U.S.A.  (See  Worship  in  Amer- 
ican Methodism.) 

ORDINATION.  This  is  the  name  for  the  solemn  act  where- 
by men  are  set  apart  for  office  in  the  Christian  ministry. 
The  Lord  Himself  chose  His  apostles,  and  sent  them 
forth  endowed  with  special  gifts.  The  rite  of  ordination 
goes  back  in  principle  into  the  Old  Testament,  and  was 
applied  to  the  priests,  Levites,  and  kings  (Numbers  viii: 
10),  anointing  with  oil  being  the  practice.  The  "laying 
on  of  hands"  was  also  a  frequent  practice  in  ancient 
days,  and  the  communication  of  special  spiritual  endow- 
ment was  cormected  with  it  (see  Imposition  of  Hands). 
Moses  adopted  this  ceremony  when  he  set  apart  Joshua 
as  his  successor  (Numbers  xxvii:  18;  Deuteronomy  xxxiv: 
9).  In  the  New  Testament  accounts  are  given  of  the 
selection  of  church  officers  (Acts  xiv:  21-3;  vi:  1-7;  xiii: 
1-4).  The  form  of  ordination  in  New  Testament  life  came 
always  to  be  the  imposition  of  hands  with  prayer.  When 
the  apostles  set  apart  the  seven  deacons,  as  told  in  Acts 
vi,  they  laid  their  hands  upon  them  "and  prayed." 

In  reaction  against  the  Roman  position  making  ordina- 
tion a  sacrament,  many  of  the  evangelical  churches  laid 
the  chief  emphasis  upon  the  vocation,  or  divine  call, 
rather  than  upon  an  outward  ordination.  Martin  Luther 
appealed  to  the  credentials  of  St.  Paul  when  he  exclaimed 
that  "He  who  is  called,  he  is  consecrated,  and  may  preach 
Him  who  gave  the  call.  That  is  our  Lord's  consecration, 
that  is  the  proper  chrism."  However,  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession in  Article  14  states,  "No  one  may  teach  publicly 
in  the  Church,  or  administer  the  sacraments  except  he  be 
rightly  called."  Ordination  is  regarded  as  the  church's 
solemn  approval  and  public  attestation  of  such   inward 


ORDINATION 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


call.  This  attitude  has  been  continued  in  Methodist 
Churches.  (See  Ministerial  Call.) 

Just  when  the  various  "orders"  of  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  originated  has  been  a  matter  of  debate.  It  is 
generally  admitted  that  there  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
New  Testament  an  order  of  clergy  in  the  modern  sense 
of  the  term.  After  a  time,  however,  there  came  to  be 
recognized  an  order — not  simply  an  office — of  deacons, 
and  the  origin  of  this  is  to  be  found,  as  stated  above,  in 
Acts  vi:  17.  There  was  also  in  early  days  a  definite  order 
of  "presbyter-bishops"  (Acts  xiv  23;  xx  17,  28),  which 
order  later  divided  into  presbyters  (priests;  see  Elder) 
and  bishops  (see  Episcopacy).  Thus  there  came  to  be 
in  the  universal  Church  from  an  early  time  the  three 
traditional  orders  of  the  ministry,  namely,  bishops,  priests, 
and  deacons,  which  orders  have  continued  into  the  Church 
of  England  and  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the 
United  States.  John-  Wesley,  who  sent  to  American  Meth- 
odism three  forms  for  ordination  in  the  Sunday  Service, 
chose  the  name  "elder"  in  place  of  "priest,"  and  "super- 
intendent" in  place  of  "bishop." 

At  an  early  date  the  bishop  took  the  power  of  ordina- 
tion into  his  own  hands,  and  was  able  to  initiate  persons 
into  the  diaconate,  or  priesthood  (eldership),  and  also 
into  the  episcopate.  One  opinion  is  that  "very  early  some 
of  these  episcopi  were  assigned  the  appointment  and 
ordination  of  the  new  elders  but  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  rule  about  it;  e.g.  in  Egypt  up  to  the  first 
quarter  of  the  third  century,  the  presbyteries  ordained 
without  episcopal  supervision"  ( Mejer-Jacobson  quoted  in 
Rites  and  Ritual  of  Episcopal  Methodism,  Harmon,  p. 
312). 

Eventually  bishops  alone  came  to  have  the  right  to 
ordain  (in  association  with  the  presbyters),  as  they  now 
do  in  the  Church  of  England,  the  Protestant  Episcopal, 
and  United  Methodist  Churches.  In  the  United  Methodist 
Church  under  certain  circumstances  district  superinten- 
dents can  do  everything  a  bishop  can  do  except  ordain. 

Ordination  and  John  Wesley.  Until  well  after  his 
evangelical  conversion,  which  itself  made  little  difference 
to  his  views  on  ordination  and  the  ministry,  John  Wesley 
held  the  Anglican  beliefs  of  his  day,  stating  that  "bishops, 
priests  and  deacons  were  of  Divine  appointment"  and 
that  Episcopal  ordination  was  necessary  for  valid  sacra- 
ments. His  field  preaching — and  more  important  in  this 
context,  his  employment  of  lay  preachers — constituted 
irregularities  of  practice.  His  reading  in  1746  of  Lord 
Peter  King's  Primitive  Church,  and,  by  1755,  of  Edw.ird 
Stillingffeet's  Irenicon  convinced  him  that  the  orders  of 
bishops  and  priests  respectively  were  essentially  the  same, 
though  they  performed  different  functions,  and  that  no 
particular  form  of  church  government  was  prescribed  by 
Christ  or  the  Scriptures,  and  therefore  none  could  be 
perpetually  binding.  As  an  ordained  presbyter,  Wesley 
accordingly  claimed  the  right  to  ordain,  but  for  a  time 
refused  to  do  so  guarding  against  separation  from  the 
Church  of  England;  another  factor  was  undoubtedly  the 
influence  of  his  brother  Charles,  who  did  not  share  his 
new  beliefs  as  to  presbyterial  powers. 

John  Wesley  emphasized  the  distinction  between  the 
preaching  and  the  sacramental  ofiRce,  maintaining  def- 
initely that  ordination  was  required  for  the  latter.  In  order 
to  provide  the  Sacraments  for  his  people,  Wesley  tried, 
but  with  little  success,  to  secure  regular  ordination  for 
some  of  his  preachers  from  Anglican  bishops,  and,  in  one 
instance,  illegal  though  his  action  strictly  speaking  was. 


obtained  ordination  from  Erasmus,  a  vagrant  Greek  bish- 
op, for  one  preacher.  In  1775,  in  consultation  with  John 
Fletcher  and  Joseph  Benson,  he  drew  up  a  scheme  for 
the  greater  efficiency  of  the  lay  preachers,  including  pro- 
posals for  ordination,  but  these  proved  abortive. 

However,  in  America,  where  according  to  statistics 
Methodism  had  expanded  rapidly,  there  were  few  Angli- 
can priests  (and  no  bishops)  from  whom  the  Methodists 
could  obtain  the  Sacraments.  He  appealed  in  vain  to 
Lowth,  Bishop  of  London,  under  whose  jurisdiction  An- 
glican work  in  America  lay,  to  ordain  one  of  his  preachers 
for  Methodist  work  there.  Possibly  influenced  by  a 
schismatic  step  in  1783,  when  two  of  Selina,  Countess 
OF  Huntingdon's  chaplains  separated  from  the  Church 
of  England  and  proceeded  to  ordain  laymen,  Wesley, 
on  Wednesday,  Sept.  1,  1784,  "appointed  Mr.  Whatcoat 
and  Mr.  Vasey  to  go  and  serve  the  desolate  sheep  in 
America."  On  the  next  day,  Thursday,  he  says  he  added 
three  more,  though  no  names  are  given.  His  Diary  for 
Sept.  2  records  that  he  "ordained  Dr.  Coke  as  a  Super- 
intendent by  imposition  of  hands  and  prayer."  Thomas 
Coke  was  already  a  priest  of  the  Established  Church  and 
therefore,  according  to  Wesley's  revised  beliefs,  required 
no  further  ordination  to  become  a  bishop  or  superinten- 
dent. The  Diary  has  the  word  "ordained";  the  Journal 
says  "appointed";  and  the  certificate  issued  by  Wesley 
has  the  words  "set  apart."  {Journal,  Standard  Ed.  vii; 
15-16.)  This  "setting  apart"  seems  to  have  been  due 
as  much  to  Coke's  persuasion  as  to  Wesley's  own  wishes — 
Coke  and  the  Methodists  in  America  interpreted  it  as 
episcopal  consecration,  though  it  is  held  by  some  that 
Wesley  simply  intended  by  this  act  to  delegate  his  per- 
sonal authority  to  Coke  while  in  America,  and  also  as  a 
blessing  upon  his  work  of  superintendence. 

Ordinations  for  Scotland,  and  for  missionary  work 
overseas  successively  followed.  A  complete  list  of  those 
ordinations  of  which  actual  evidence  exists  may  be  found 
in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Wesley  Historical  Society 
(xxxiii,  118-19).  This  includes  details  of  names,  times  of 
ordination,  and  respective  orders. 

Wesley's  justification  for  these  further  ordinations  was 
that  these  regions  were  outside  the  legal  jurisdiction  of 
the  Anglican  Church.  This  was  a  frail  excuse  based  on  a 
wrong  assumption,  as  the  Church  of  England  had  its 
representatives  in  these  countries.  Inevitably,  ordinations 
for  the  English  work  followed.  Pressure  was  brought  to 
bear  on  Wesley  by  people  and  preachers  alike,  while 
some  of  the  latter  had  taken  upon  themselves  the  right 
to  administer  the  Sacraments  without  any  authority  deriv- 
ing from  Wesley  at  all.  As  his  brother  Charles,  who  had 
been  the  greatest  restraint  upon  these  moves,  was  now 
dead,  John  Wesley  ordained  the  first  of  three  men  for 
England,  Alexander  Mather,  deacon  and  presbyter  on 
Aug.  6  and  7,  1788,  respectively.  Henry  Moore  and 
Tho\l\s  Rankin  were  similarly  ordained  on  Feb.  26  and 
27,  1789. 

Together  with  the  appointment  of  Coke,  Wesley  pub- 
lished his  Sunday  Service  for  the  American  Methodists, 
which  was  a  revision  of  the  Anglican  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  The  ordination  services  he  prescribed  therein 
were  for  the  orders  of  deacon,  elder,  and  superintendent, 
indicating  his  preference  for  the  threefold  order  of  min- 
istry. After  John  Wesley's  death,  his  followers  in  England 
placed  litde  value  on  his  opinions  on  this  subject;  the  rite 
of  ordination  was  for  the  meantime  abandoned  (apart 
from  the  ordination  of  men  destined  for  service  overseas), 


WORLD   METHODISM 


O'REAR,    EDWARD   CLAY 


and  when  the  laying  on  of  hands  was  resumed  in  1836, 
ordination  was  simply  to  the  "office  and  work  of  a  Chris- 
tian minister" — a  forai  unknown  to  Wesley. 

The  final  attitude  of  Wesley  to  his  ordinations,  and 
related  questions,  is  clearly  that  of  a  man  with  a  mind 
deeply  and  painfully  divided.  He  had  set  his  heart  upon 
preventing  separation  from  the  Church  of  England,  yet 
in  his  old  age  he  knew  that  his  purpose  was  defeated, 
and  that  the  cumulation  of  his  own  actions  involved 
virtual  separation.  So  in  the  Journal  for  July  27,  1786 
he  can  register  the  determination  of  the  British  Con- 
ference not  to  separate  "at  least  till  1  am  removed  into 
a  better  world"  (cf.  May  16,  1788).  Yet  on  July  29, 
1788  the  Journal  can  still  rehearse  the  "variations"  from 
the  Church  of  England  as  not  involving  separation.  So 
also  in  his  celebrated  last  bitter  letter  to  Asbury  of  Sept. 
20,  1788:  "But  in  one  point,  my  dear  brother,  I  am  a 
little  afraid  both  the  Doctor  [Coke]  and  you  differ  from 
me.  I  study  to  be  little;  you  study  to  be  great. — How 
can  you,  how  dare  you,  suffer  yourself  to  be  called  Bishop? 
I  shudder,  I  start  at  the  very  thought."  Wesley  was  not 
declaring  regret  that  he  set  up  an  authoritative  con- 
nexional  Church  govemment  in  America,  exercising 
episcope  under  "General  Superintendents."  It  was  simply 
that  he  did  not  like  the  word  "bishop,"  which  for  him 
had  traditionalist  and  Anglican  connotations  it  did  not 
carry  for  most  of  his  American  followers.  In  summarizing 
the  evidence  that  the  aged  Wesley  had  mixed  feelings 
about  his  ordinations  (John  Wesley  and  Christian  Min- 
istry, pp.  172-3),  the  present  writer  states  his  judgment: 
Wesley  "does  regret,  not  so  much  the  ordinations,  as  the 
circumstances  necessitating  them  and  the  results  of  them." 

Ordination  in  American  Methodism.  John  Wesley  for 
forty  years  after  he  held  his  first  Methodist  Conference 
in  1744,  would  let  none  of  his  preachers  administer  the 
Sacraments  while  they  were  unordained,  although  he 
licensed  and  directed  them  in  preaching.  Nor  did  Francis 
Asbury  in  America  allow — when  he  could  help  it — any 
of  the  American  preachers,  unordained  as  they  then  were, 
to  administer  the  Sacraments,  although  Robert  Straw- 
bridge  and  one  or  two  others  acted  on  their  own.  How- 
ever, in  1784,  Wesley  sent  over  to  America  with  Thomas 
Coke  forms  for  ordination  in  the  Prayer  Book  or  Sunday 
Service  which  he  had  prepared,  and  which  the  Christmas 
Conference  adopted.  From  that  day  to  this  in  American 
Methodism  the  three  respective  forms  of  ordination  which 
Wesley  sent  have  been  used  to  induct  men  into  the 
diaconate,  the  eldership,  and  the  episcopate.  Preliminary 
to  this  move,  as  is  narrated  above,  John  Wesley  himself 
had  ordained  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Vasey  as 
elders,  and  had  ordained  Thomas  Coke  a  superintendent 
(see  Christmas  Conference,  Sund.\y  Service,  Thomas 
Coke,  Francis  Asbuhy). 

The  ordination  forms  of  the  American  Methodist  Ritual 
— which  were  taken  from  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
almost  litteratirn — may  be  studied  for  the  vows  which  the 
respective  ordinands  take,  and  the  authority  given  to 
each  person  in  these  three  separate  investitures.  In  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Churches,  the  "ordination  of  a  bish- 
op" was  definitely  changed  by  the  General  Confer- 
ences of  the  respective  Churches  to  "the  consecration 
of  a  bishop,"  with  the  intention  of  indicating  the  teach- 
ing of  these  Churches,  and  that  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church,  that  the  bishop  is  not  a  higher  order  than  that 
of  the  elder.  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  and  the 
Church  of  England  hold  that  there  is  an  order  of  bishops 


and  another  order  of  priests,  but  in  episcopal  Methodism 
the  bishop  is  regarded  simply  as  an  elder  who  has  been 
set  apart  by  a  special  rite  for  an  office  of  high  administra- 
tion. However,  the  M.E.  Church,  South  always  contended 
— and  a  strong  opinion  in  present  Methodist  life  contends 
— that  "once  a  bishop  always  a  bishop,"  and  that  men 
who  have  been  inducted  into  this  office  have  the  right 
to  ordain  as  long  as  they  live.  This  right  has  recently 
been  challenged  by  those  Methodist  bodies  which  elect 
a  bishop  for  a  stated  teiTn  only,  especially  the  Central 
Conferences  of  the  now  United  Methodist  Church. 

At  the  General  Conference  of  1964  (TMC)  a  strong 
effort  was  made  to  do  away  with  the  ordination  of 
deacons,  and  make  this  simply  consecration  to  an  office 
rather  than  to  an  order.  The  same  idea,  namely,  that 
there  is  but  one  ordination,  was  furthered  by  the  E.U.B. 
Church,  when  it  came  into  union  with  The  Methodist 
Church. 

The  EvANGELicvL  branch  of  the  E.U.B.  Church  had 
traditionally  observed  a  dual  ordination  of  deacons  and 
elders  while  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  had  only 
one  ordination  (elder)  e.xcept  for  a  few  years  (1818-25) 
in  its  early  history.  With  the  formation  of  the  E.U.B. 
Church  in  1946,  one  ordination  was  adopted — that  for 
an  elder. 

However,  at  the  1968  Conference  uniting  The  Meth- 
odist Church  and  tlie  E.U.B.  connection,  there  was  a 
report  of  a  quadrennial  committee  which  had  been 
directed  in  1964  to  study  the  ministry  in  The  Methodist 
Church.  This  committee  in  turn  consulted  with  the  E.U.B. 
representatives  and  there  was  general  agreement  that 
there  should  be  a  recommendation  that  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church  keep  tlie  diaconate  as  a  separate  order  as 
it  has  been  in  Methodism  since  the  time  of  Wesley  and 
the  Christmas  Conference.  This  was  done  and  so  the  two 
orders  remain  in  The  United  Methodist  Church.  (See  also, 
Deacon,  Elder,  Episcopacy.  ) 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Rites  and  Ritual.  1926. 
J.  H.  S.  Kent,  Age  of  Disunity.  1966. 
A.  B.  Lawson,  John  Wesley.  1963. 

J.  J.  Tigert,  Constitutional  History.  1894.  A.  B.  Lawson 

N.  B.  H. 

O'REAR,  EDWARD  CLAY  (1863-?),  American  jurist,  who 
represented  the  M.E.  Church,  South  in  important  litiga- 
tion for  many  years,  was  bom  on  Feb.  2,  1863,  in 
Montgomery  County,  Ky.  He  was  educated  at  the  public 
schools  of  that  state.  Judge  O'Rear,  as  he  was  usually 
called,  was  elected  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  his  Church  in  1910,  and  became  chairman  of  the 
Vanderbilt  Commission  created  by  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1906  and  asked  to  determine  the  relation  of 
Vanderbilt  University  to  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  He, 
as  attorney,  represented  the  Church  in  the  ensuing  ligita- 
tion.  He  became  a  judge  in  Montgomery  County,  Ky., 
and  later  became  judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of 
Kentucky.  He  was  the  Republican  nominee  for  the 
governor  of  Kentucky  in  1911.  Judge  O'Rear  was  a  well- 
known  figure  in  the  general  councils  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South  and  earned  the  gratitude  of  that  Church  for  his 
efforts  in  its  behalf. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

N.  B.  H. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


OREGON,  population  2,056,171  in  1970  is  in  the  Pacific 
northwest.  The  area  of  the  state  is  96,981  square  miles. 
Oregon  was  made  a  territory  in  1848,  and  in  1859  it 
was  admitted  to  the  Union.  In  1853  Washington  Terri- 
tory was  carved  out  of  Oregon  Territory. 

The  first  Methodist  and  the  first  American  missionaries 
in  Oregon  were  Jason  Lee  and  his  associates  who  in 
1834  settled  on  the  Willamette  River  between  present 
day  Oregon  City  and  Salem.  In  1843  Lee  was  replaced 
by  George  Gary  as  superintendent  of  the  mission,  and 
Gary  in  turn  was  superseded  by  William  Roberts  in 
1847. 

The  Oregon  and  California  Mission  Conference,  which 
also  included  the  present  states  of  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
Washington,  and  Idaho,  was  created  in  1849.  The  1852 
General  Conference  authorized  the  division  of  the 
Oregon  and  California  Mission  Conference  so  as  to  form 
the  Oregon  Conference  and  this  then  included  Oregon, 
Washington  and  Idaho,  and  was  organized  in  March, 
1853.  The  1872  General  Conference  authorized  the  forma- 
tion of  a  conference  in  east  Oregon.  In  1873  the  bishop  in 
charge  of  the  Oregon  Conference  appointed  preachers 
to  three  districts  in  the  newly  formed  East  Oregon  and 
Washington  Conference,  so  named  because  it  included 
the  work  in  east  Washington  also.  In  1876  the  name 
was  changed  to  the  Columbia  River  Conference.  The 
Oregon  Conference  lost  the  west  Washington  work  in 
1884  when  the  Puget  Sound  Conference  was  organized. 

The  M.  E.  Church  had  foreign  language  work  (Ger- 
man, Norwegian,  and  Danish)  in  Oregon  and  the  sur- 
rounding states.  ( See  Washington.  ) 

The  M.E.  Church,  South  began  work  in  Oregon  in 
1858,  and  in  1866  the  Pacific  Conference  (MES)  was 
divided  to  form  the  Columbia  Conference.  The  latter 
included  Oregon,  Washington,  and  the  northern  part  of 
California.  The  first  session  of  the  Oregon  Confer- 
ence was  held  at  Corvallis,  Ore.,  Oct.  26-30,  1866  with 
Bishop  H.  H.  Kavanaugh  presiding.  It  reported  twelve 
charges,  fourteen  preachers,  and  526  members.  The  South- 
ern Church  persevered  in  the  northwest,  but  it  did  not 
have  as  great  success  as  the  Northern  Church.  In  1890 
the  Columbia  Conference  was  divided  to  form  the  East 
Columbia  Conference,  but  prior  to  the  division  the  con- 
ference had  only  thirty-five  charges  and  1,963  members. 
In  the  same  year  the  Oregon  and  Puget  Sound  Confer- 
ences of  the  M.E.  Church  reported  a  total  of  nearly 
15,000  members.  Both  the  Columbia  and  East  Columbia 
Conferences  continued  until  1917  when  they  merged  with 
the  Montana  Conference  to  form  the  Northwest  Con- 
ference wliich  continued  until  unification  in  1939.  In 
1917  the  Columbia,  East  Columbia,  and  Montana  Con- 
ferences reported  1,905,  2,010,  and  969  members  re- 
spectively. The  Southern  Church  estabhshed  two  schools 
which  operated  twenty  years  or  more  before  closing — 
Corvallis  College  at  Corvallis  and  Columbia  College  at 
Pendleton. 

The  M.P.  Church  hsted  conferences  or  missions  in 
Oregon  from  1850  to  tlie  turn  of  the  century,  but  it  had 
no  appreciable  strength  in  the  state.  In  1968  the  Free 
Methodist  Church  had  some  110  congregations  and  over 
8,000  members  in  Oregon.  Each  of  the  three  major  Negro 
Methodist  denominations  has  one  or  two  churches  in  the 
state. 

The  M.E.  Church  projected  ten  or  more  academies  and 
colleges  in  Oregon,  but  only  one,  Willamette  Univer- 
sity,  has  survived.   Today   the  Oregon   Conference   also 


supports  a  number  of  other  service  agencies  and  institu- 
tions. 

The  Idaho  Conference  which  began  in  1884  has  al- 
ways included  within  its  bounds  several  counties  in  eastern 
Oregon.  In  1968  the  Idaho  Conference  had  thirteen 
charges  and  about  2,770  members  in  Oregon. 

In  1968  the  Oregon  and  Idaho  Conferences  merged  to 
form  the  Oregon-Idaho  Conference.  At  that  time  The 
Methodist  Church  had  158  pastoral  charges  and  ap- 
pro.ximately  55,000  members  in  the  state  of  Oregon. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Oregon  and  the  Idaho  Conferences. 

T.  D.  Yarnes,  Oregon.  1957.  Eble  Howell 

OREGON  CITY,  OREGON,  U.S.A.  First  Church.  The  first 
pastor  at  Willamette  Falls,  later  Oregon  City,  was  Alvin 
F.  Waller,  assigned  by  Jason  Lee  in  1840.  The  work  was 
to  be  solely  among  the  Indians.  By  1842  the  Indians  were 
disappearing  and  whites  beginning  to  arrive.  More  came 
in  1843.  That  year  the  Methodists  erected  in  Oregon 
City  the  first  Protestant  church  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  The 
church  was  dedicated  in  1844  by  Gustavus  Hines  who 
succeeded  Waller  that  year.  By  1848  David  Leslie  was 
pastor  and  mission  superintendent,  and  William  Roberts 
took  up  his  residence  at  the  place.  That  year  Oregon 
City  and  Clackamas,  attached  to  the  circuit,  reported 
forty-seven  members.  The  following  year,  James  Harvey 
Wilbur  and  J.  L.  Parrish  were  appointed  to  Oregon  City 
and  Portland. 

In  1855,  the  Oregon  City  Seminary,  originally  set  up 
as  an  interdenominational  school  in  1849,  was  sold  to  the 
Methodists.  The  original  sponsors,  headed  by  Congrega- 
tional pastor  George  H.  Atkinson,  were  unable  to  finance 
the  school.  The  Methodists  leased  it  to  the  City  Council 
in  1860  and  sold  it  in  1867. 

George  Abernethy,  first  Governor  of  Oregon,  was  a 
member  of  this  church,  a  trustee  and  largest  contributor. 
In  1846,  the  Territorial  Fourth  of  July  celebration  was 
held  in  the  church,  and  the  Provisional  legislature  met 
there  in  1847-48.  In  1855  the  Oregon  Annual  Confer- 
ence met  in  this  church,  with  Bishop  O.  C.  Baker 
presiding. 

In  1856  the  building  was  moved  to  Seventh  and  Main 
Streets,  and  replaced  by  a  new  structure  in  1890.  In  1903 
the  building  was  raised  and  a  store  constructed  under  it. 
In  1919  the  plant  was  destroyed  by  fire.  The  next  building, 
a  remodeled  home,  was  dedicated  by  Bishop  William 
O.  Shepard,  March  20,  1921,  while  Melville  T.  Wire 
was  pastor.  The  cornerstone  for  a  new  building  was  laid, 
Aug.  6,  1950  and  the  structure  was  dedicated  Feb.  17, 
1957. 

C.  J.  Brosnan,  Jason  Lee.  1932. 
Clackamas  County  Historical  Annual,  1959. 
H.  K.  Hines,  Pacific  Northwest.  1899. 


T.  D.  Yames,  Oregon.  1958. 


Erle  Howell 


OREGON  CONFERENCE  (MC),  grew  out  of  the  mission 
established  by  Jason  Lee  and  his  associates  on  the  Wil- 
lamette River  in  September  1834.  The  group  f aimed, 
preached,  and  conducted  a  Sunday  school  and  a  day 
school.  Additional  personnel,  including  a  physician  and 
several  women,  arrived  in  1837.  In  1838  a  branch  was 
opened  at  The  Dalles  on  the  Columbia  River,  and  in  1839 
Lee    returned   east   to   ask   for   more   help.    He   brought 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OREGON   MISSION 


fifty-one  men,  women  and  children  to  Oregon.  Stations 
were  then  opened  in  several  more  places.  Meantime,  ad- 
verse reports  on  Lee's  management  of  the  mission  caused 
the  Missionary  Society  in  New  York  to  send  out  George 
Gary  in  1843  to  replace  him  as  superintendent.  The 
original  purpose  of  the  mission  was  to  minister  to  the 
Indians,  but  it  soon  became  largely  a  ministry  to  the 
white  settlers.  William  Roberts,  an  able  leader,  suc- 
ceeded Gary  as  superintendent  in  1847.  By  1848  there 
were  seven  circuits  in  Oregon  with  443  members,  and 
on  Sept.  5,  1849  Roberts  presided  at  the  organization  of 
the  Oregon  and  California  Mission  Conference  which  had 
been  authorized  by  the  1848  General  Conference. 

In  1852  the  Oregon  and  California  Mission  Conference 
was  divided  to  form  the  Oregon  Conference  which  at  the 
time  included  all  of  what  are  now  Oregon,  Washington, 
and  Idaho,  and  part  of  Montana.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
year  the  conference  reported  eleven  charges  and  706 
members.  As  time  passed  new  conferences  were  formed 
in  the  region  (see  Oregon),  and  finally  in  1928  tlie 
boundaries  of  the  Oregon  Conference  (ME)  were  limited 
to  the  state,  except  for  six  eastern  counties  which  con- 
tinued in  the  Idaho  Conference.  In  1929  the  Oregon 
Conference  had  29,694  members.  It  came  to  unification 
in  1939  with  144  charges  and  34,729  members.  The 
Portland  District  of  the  Northwest  Conference  (MES) 
brought  thirteen  charges  and  1,835  members  into  the 
Oregon  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1939. 

Jason  Lee  and  his  associates  started  the  Oregon  Institute 
in  1842,  the  forerunner  of  Willamette  University  at 
Salem.  Through  the  years  the  Oregon  Conference 
fostered  a  number  of  other  academies  and  colleges  which 
lived  and  served  for  longer  or  shorter  periods,  but  Wil- 
lamette is  the  only  Methodist  institution  of  higher  learning 
in  Oregon  which  has  survived.  With  an  endowment  of 
nearly  $9,000,000,  a  plant  valued  at  $10,000,000,  a 
faculty  of  more  than  100,  and  a  student  body  of  1,500, 
Willamette  rates  high  academically.  It  claims  to  be  the 
oldest  United  States  university  west  of  Missouri. 

The  Pacific  Christian  Advocate  of  the  M.E.  Church  was 
founded  in  1855  at  Salem,  Ore.,  moved  to  Portland 
in  1857,  and  continued  publication  for  more  than  sixty 
years. 

The  Oregon  Conference  supported  Willamette  Meth- 
odist Hospital,  Willamette  View  Manor,  the  Methodist 
Home  in  Salem,  five  Wesley  Foundations,  and  several 
Goodwill  Industries  in  the  state.  It  joined  the  American 
Baptists  in  supporting  Rose  Villa  at  Milwaukie,  and  it 
cooperated  with  the  Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians  in 
maintaining  Rogue  Valley  Manor  at  Medford. 

One  member  of  the  Oregon  Conference,  Bruce  Baxter, 
was  elected  bishop  in  1940. 

In  1968  the  Oregon  Conference  had  four  districts,  145 
pastoral  charges,  213  ministers,  51,717  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $24,807,197.  By  authority  of  the  West- 
ern Jurisdictional  Conference,  in  1968  both  the 
Oregon  Conference  and  the  Idaho  Conference  voted 
unanimously  to  merge  in  1969  to  form  the  Oregon-Idaho 
Conference. 


General  Minutes,  MEC,  MECS,  and  MC. 
Minutes  of  the  Oregon  Conference. 
T.  D.  Yames,  Oregon.  1957. 


Eble  Howell 


OREGON  MISSION.  The  Methodist  mission  to  the  Indians 
of  Oregon  under  the  leadership  of  Jason  Lee  was  one 


of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  early  history  of  such  work. 
While  it  seemed  to  fail  in  the  end,  it  did  have  certain 
enduring  results. 

The  trigger  that  sent  Lee  to  Oregon  was  the  report  of 
a  plea  in  1831  by  four  Indians  in  St.  Louis  for  Christian 
missionaries  who  would  interpret  to  their  people  "the 
white  man's  God."  Lee  was  a  young  member  of  an  old 
New  England  family.  He  was  recruited  by  Wilbur  Fisk, 
president  of  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn. 
Lee's  nephew,  Daniel,  agreed  to  go  out  as  associate  to 
Jason  in  the  enterprise.  Lee  also  recruited  Cyrus  Shepard 
as  a  teacher,  and  employed  two  lay  assistants. 

They  went  by  boat  to  St.  Louis  and  from  there  set  out 
in  April,  1834,  with  another  party  that  invited  them  along. 
Altogether  there  were  sixty  men,  200  mules  and  horses, 
and  twenty  head  of  cattle.  Lee  soon  discovered  that  the 
Indians  were  not  waiting  for  the  gospel  with  open  aiTns 
or  open  minds.  He  also  found  the  traders  less  than 
enthusiastic  about  missionary  work.  The  travellers'  route 
took  them  from  Independence,  Mo.,  to  the  Platte  River, 
to  Wyoming,  to  Fort  Hall,  Idaho,  to  Fort  Walla  Walla, 
Wash.,  to  Fort  Vancouver,  and  finally  to  the  Willamette 
Valley. 

Soon  they  had  a  mission  house  built — and  three  Indian 
orphans  to  care  for.  Lee  began  with  a  school  and  .sought 
to  train  the  Indians  as  farmers  so  as  to  encourage  a  settled 
way  of  life.  The  school  made  slow  progress;  the  Indians 
were  lukewarm  toward  it;  the  climate  was  hard  on  the 
New  Englanders;  Daniel  Lee  had  to  leave  to  recuperate 
and  Cyrus  Shepard  had  a  leg  amputated  in  1839  and 
died  in  a  few  months. 

To  strengthen  the  work  the  supporting  Board  sent  out 
reinforcements:  a  doctor  (with  a  wife,  daughter,  and  son), 
and  a  ship's  carpenter,  plus  a  large  quantity  of  supplies. 
A  few  months  later  another  group  of  missionaries  arrived; 
a  single  minister,  a  minister  with  a  wife  and  three  children, 
and  a  woman  teacher.  Jason  Lee  married  one  of  the  new 
teachers. 

In  1838  Lee  decided  to  make  a  trip  back  to  New 
England  to  enlist  support  for  an  expanded  mission.  He 
aroused  great  response:  "never  before  had  the  Methodist 
Church  experienced  a  missionary  campaign  equalling  that 
led  by  Jason  Lee  between  the  early  part  of  November, 
1838  and  May,  1839,"  writes  Wade  Crawford  Barclay. 
A  budget  of  $30,000.00  was  appropriated,  and  plans  made 
for  nine  mission  stations,  with  farmers,  mechanics,  teach- 
ers, and  physicians  as  well  as  ministers.  A  boat  was 
chartered  to  carry  to  Oregon  the  fifty-one  persons  who  had 
been  recruited. 

With  more  personnel  and  a  larger  budget  the  work 
expanded  rapidly,  with  a  total  of  six  mission  stations  soon 
in  operation.  But  some  locations  were  poorly  chosen,  some 
of  the  new  missionaries  (or  their  wives)  not  fully  com- 
mitted to  the  work,  and  the  Indians  began  to  lose  their 
first  enthusiasm  for  the  gospel.  Some  of  the  new  staff 
wrote  back  to  New  England  criticizing  Jason  Lee's  leader- 
ship; the  Board  back  home  felt  it  was  not  getting  as 
frequent  reports  as  it  should,  and  money  for  the  Oregon 
mission  (and  for  all  mission  work)  was  increasingly  hard 
to  secure. 

The  Board's  Oregon  committee  first  considered  sending 
out  a  special  agent  to  try  to  evaluate  the  situation,  but 
finally  sent  out  George  Gary  to  take  over  the  work  from 
Jason  Lee  with  orders  to  liquidate  virtually  all  "non- 
religious"  work,  and  to  cut  down  on  personnel  as  rapidly 
as  possible.  Gary  went  to  work  with  a  vengeance  on  his 


OREILIY,   WINSTON   DARCY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


arrival  at  the  mission  on  June  1,  1844,  and  by  September 
1847,  the  whole  enterprise  had  been  liquidated — five  of 
the  stations  being  closed  down  and  the  sixth  one  given  to 
the  American  Board  (Congregational)  representative  in 
Oregon,  Marcus  Whitman. 

Jason  Lee,  in  the  meantime,  had  gone  back  to  New 
England  to  defend  his  policies  and  was  able  to  vindicate 
his  actions.  But  his  health  failed  and  he  died  in  1845, 
only  two  years  before  the  promising  enterprise  to  which 
he  had  given  his  life  came  to  an  inglorious  end.  There 
were,  however,  some  enduring  achievements:  the  begin- 
nings of  a  school  that  eventually  became  Willamette 
University,  and  the  laying  of  foundations  for  the  settling 
of  Oregon  as  a  state. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions,  ii,  1950. 

Walteb  N.  Vebnon 

O'REILLY,    WINSTON    DARCY    (1913-  ),    Australian 

church  official  was  born  at  Roseville,  New  South  Wales, 
on  April  27,  1913.  In  1939  he  married  Botha  Doreen 
Doyle.  He  has  held  the  following  appointments  within 
the  Church;  Croydon,  two  years;  Coonamble,  four  years; 
Peak  Hill,  three  years;  Home  Missions  Department  (As- 
sistant Secretary),  four  years;  Leigh  Theological  Col- 
lege, twelve  years,  assistant  Principal;  Methodist 
Ladies'  College,  Burwood,  five  years  as  Principal;  Con- 
nexional  Secretary,  Methodist  Conference,  five  years;  Sec- 
retary of  Conference  1968-69;  president  1969-70. 

In  addition  he  has  given  the  following  leadership  to  the 
Methodist  Church:  Convenor  of  the  Board  of  Finance, 
New  South  Wales;  Member  of  the  management  of  the 
Property  Department;  Department  of  Christian  Educa- 
tion; Home  Missions  Department;  president  of  the  War 
Memorial  Hospital  Board;  editor  of  The  Methodist;  Mem- 
ber of  the  Australasian  General  Conference  Standing 
Committee;  General  Conference  Board  of  Finance;  Laws 
Committee;  and  member  of  the  Joint  Constitution  Com- 
mission for  the  Uniting  Church  in  Australia. 

At  other  times  W.  D.  O'Reilly  has  had  active  engage- 
ment in  the  affairs  of  Good  Neighbor  Council;  New  South 
Wales  Society  for  Health;  Australian  Council  of  Churches, 
and  Council  of  Churches  in  New  South  Wales,  of  which 
he  became  president  in  1967.  He  was  also  responsible 
for  the  establishment  of  chaplaincy  services  to  the  Mental 
Hospitals  in  New  South  Wales. 

Australian  Edftorial  Committee 

ORIGINAL  SIN.  The  Wesleyan  Doctrine.  Included  in 
Wesley's  abridgement  of  the  Church  of  England's 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  is  the  following  version  of  the  Article 
on  "original  or  birth  sin"  (the  passages  omitted  being 
indicated  by  brackets):  "Original  sin  standeth  not  in  the 
following  of  Adam  [As  the  Pelagians  do  vainly  talk],  but 
it  is  the  [fault  and]  corruption  of  the  nature  of  every  man, 
that  naturally  is  engendered  of  the  offspring  of  Adam; 
whereby  man  is  very  far  gone  from  original  righteousness, 
and  is  of  his  own  nature  inclined  to  evil,  and  that  con- 
tinually, [so  that  the  flesh  lusteth  always  contrary  to  the 
Spirit,  and  therefore  in  every  person  born  into  this  world 
it  deserveth  Cod's  wrath  and  damnation.  And  this  infec- 
tion of  nature  doth  remain,  yea,  in  them  that  are  re- 
generated]." Although  Wesley's  abridgement  clearly  rep- 
resents a  full  acceptance  of  man's  chronic,  calculable  in- 
volvement in  sin,  his  excisions  also  suggest  concern  over 


the  difficulties  presented  by  the  notions  of  original  guilt 
and  indwelling  sin  which  were  to  prove  so  preoccupying 
to  subsequent  Methodist  theologians. 

The  persistent,  repetitious  nature  of  man's  inclination 
to  evil — and  the  universal  misery  associated  therewith — 
were,  to  Wesley,  pragmatic  evidence  of  universal  moral 
corruption.  Of  this  there  was  no  question.  His  own  Doc- 
trine of  Original  Sin,  according  to  Scripture,  Reason,  and 
Experience  ( 1757 )  was  directed  against  the  writings  of 
John  Taylor,  whose  interpretations  were  considered  by 
Wesley  to  compromise  the  view  that  the  natural  condi- 
tion of  man  is  diseased,  corrupt,  fallen,  and  "devilish" — 
and  thus  to  cancel  out  the  very  essence  of  the  plan  of 
salvation  itself.  Through  Adam,  its  federal  head,  mankind 
suffered  not  only  the  loss  of  "original  righteousness"  (the 
knowledge  and  love  of  God,  its  moral  image),  but  a 
corruption  in  understanding,  will,  and  liberty  (the  so- 
called  "natural"  image  of  God)  as  a  consequence  of 
Adam's  alienation  from  vital  fellowship  with  God  (Sermon 
V,  i,  1-9).  Although  Wesley  denied  (until  clear  Scriptural 
proof  could  be  brought)  that  any  man  is  liable  to  eternal 
punishment  for  Adam's  sin  alone,  he  held  that  the  depra- 
vation attending  mankind's  collective  participation  in 
Adam's  sin  included  the  proper  implications  of  guilt, 
except  as  graciously  resolved  through  the  universal  im- 
pact of  Christ's  atoning  grace  (Romans  v:18,  often  being 
cited  at  this  point).  The  question  of  man's  condition  of 
guilt  could  not  be  discussed,  insisted  Wesley,  apart  from 
the  integral  acceptance  of  the  universally-enlivening 
"prevenient"  consequences  of  redemptive  grace.  As  a 
doctrinal  corollary  to  this,  in  definitive  Wesleyanism,  the 
baptism  of  infants  remained  an  acknowledgement  of  the 
covenant  of  grace  which  had  blessed,  and  continued  to 
enhghten,  universal  men. 

Wesley,  of  course,  did  distinguish  between  "original" 
(or  "inbred,"  "indwelling")  and  "actual"  sin  (or  sin  prop- 
erly so-called),  thus  indicating  his  own  practical  emphasis 
on  associating  guilt  with  direct,  volitional  involvement 
(eg.  Sermon  XV,  The  Privilege  of  those  that  are  Born  of 
God,  ii,  2 ) .  However  to  place  the  Wesleyan  doctrine  of 
original  sin  more  completely  in  its  proper  context  one 
must  also  see  the  doctrine  of  entire  sanctification  as  an- 
other direct  corollary.  Indeed,  for  Wesley  the  phenomenon 
of  the  reception  of  perfect  love  (as  a  gracious  gift)  con- 
stituted a  restoration  to  that  responsive  communion  with 
the  divine  will  which  defined  holiness;  there  was  release 
here,  from  man's  "root"  condition  of  unrighteousness. 
( See  Christian  Perfection.  ) 

[So  Charles  Wesley  can  sing  from  2  Corinthians 
v:17. 

The  original  offence 
Out  of  my  soul  erase. 
Enter  Thyself  and  drive  it  hence. 

And  take  up  all  the  place   ( Works,  xiii,  49. ) 

and 

Take  away  the  power  of  sinning. 
Alpha  and  Omega  be; 
End  of  faith  as  its  beginning 

Set  our  hearts  at  liberty.  (Works,  iv,  219.) 

(cf.  St.  Augustine,  De  Civitate  Dei,  xxii,  30.) 

J.  L.] 

Early  American  Methodism.  Methodist  preachers  and 
authors   in   the  early   American   period    (late   eighteenth 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ORIGINAL   SIN 


and  early  to  mid-nineteenth  centuries)  continued,  for  the 
most  part,  to  sustain  the  Wesleyan  position  on  the  uni- 
versal moral  corruption  of  "natural  man" — a  condition 
whose  properly-attendant  guilt  had  been  resolved,  and 
whose  deep  depravity  had  been  mitigated,  through  the 
universal  efficacy  of  Christ's  atonement.  It  was  such  a 
continuing  doctrinal  heritage  which  led  the  American 
Wesleyans  to  reject  the  moralisms  of  the  Deists  and 
Unitarians  which  they  encountered.  Indeed,  it  was  such 
an  emphasis  on  man's  moral  impotency  (apart  from 
gracious  restoration)  which  led  Nathan  Bancs,  Amer- 
ican Methodism's  great  theological  editor  in  the  early 
nineteenth  centur\',  to  disavow  the  term  "Arminian"  as 
adequately  designating  that  doctrinal  position  character- 
istic of  Methodists  (acknowledging  that  many  "who  have 
been  denominated  Arwjmian.s,  have  not  always  oiled  their 
doctrine  sufficiently  with  divine  grace" ) . 

In  his  extended  exchanges  with  Professor  E.  T.  Fitch 
of  Yale  College  (published  in  1837  as  Cahinisfic  Con- 
troversy), President  Wilbur  Fisk  of  the  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity felt  that  the  conflict  between  Calvinism's  "new 
divinity"  and  the  Wesleyan  stance  came  to  a  head  in  this 
very  matter  of  the  moral  corruption  characteristic  of 
"natural  man."  The  question,  Fisk  concluded,  was  simply 
this;  "Has  fallen  man,  on  the  whole,  the  power  to  make 
a  right  choice,  or  has  he  not?  We  say  without  grace  he 
has  not.  And  therefore  fallen  man  is  not,  in  the  re.sponsible 
sense  of  that  term,  a  free  agent  without  grace." 

There  was  tension,  howe\'er,  within  early  American 
Methodism  as  to  the  continued  utilization  of  such  a  doc- 
trine of  "natural  man's"  moral  corruption.  Writing  in 
The  Methodist  Magazine  for  1820,  one  Methodist  author 
anonymously  expressed  his  concern  over  this  ambiguity: 
"We  have  been  warring  against  fatality  and  some  other 
doctrines  connected  with  it,  until  we  have  been  driven, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  into  extremes  on  the  other  side,"  such 
as  the  concept  that  "the  most  vicious  disposition  [may  be] 
reformed  ...  by  illuminating  and  directing  it,  in  the  free 
and  proper  exercise  of  its  natural  faculties  and  powers." 
"This  language,"  continued  this  critic,  "certainly  con- 
tains the  very  marrow  of  Pelagianism.  By  adopting  it, 
we  fly  into  the  face  of  the  eighth  article  of  our  faith 
[Of  Free  Will];  and  thereby,  we  deny  the  first  and  most 
important  doctrine  of  revealed  religion — the  utter  moral 
depravit\'  of  man  through  the  fall,  by  which  he  is  natural- 
ly rendered  absolutely  incapable  of  any  liberty  in  the 
actions  of  his  mind,  respecting  a  choice  of  good  in  prefer- 
ence to  evil." 

Subsequent  Transitions.  Certainly  the  most  important 
development  in  mid-nineteenth  century  American  Meth- 
odist theological  history  occurred,  not  so  much  at  the 
point  feared  in  the  article  just  cited,  but  in  the  consid- 
eration of  the  implications  of  "original  guilt"  (even  as 
resolved  by  grace).  Asa  Shinn  in  his  Essay  on  the  Plan 
of  Salvation  (1813)  had  sharply  rejected  any  penal  conse- 
quences associated  with  the  mere  possession  of  "original 
corruption";  to  hold  otherwise  was  to  deny  one  of  the 
inescapable  "first  principles  of  morals,"  namely,  that  "no 
person  is  accountable  for  what  is  not  his  power."  This 
type  of  concern  was  to  be  most  influentially  championed, 
in  the  theological  mind  of  mid-centur>'  American  Meth- 
odism, by  Daniel  D.  Whedon.  Whedon,  who  served  as 
editor  of  the  Methodist  Quarterly  Review  from  1856  to 
1884,  was  convinced  that  the  unique  position  of  Meth- 
odism, theologically  speaking,  lay  in  the  clear  affirmation 


of  man's  freedom  of  contrary  choice  over  against  the 
"necessitarianism"  of  traditional  Calvinism.  This  position 
led  Whedon  to  be  quite  openly  critical  of  what  he  took 
to  be  the  carelessness  of  such  British  Methodist  theolo- 
gians as  Richard  Watson  and  William  Burt  Pope.  The 
issue  centered  on  the  propriety  of  assessing  universal 
guilt  (except  "presumptively")  in  relation  to  the  condition 
of  natural  man  prior  to  his  own  accountable  action. 
Whedon  cited,  with  approval,  the  statement  of  Wilbur 
Fisk  that  guilt  "is  not  imputed  until,  by  a  voluntary  re- 
jection of  the  Gospel,  man  makes  the  depravity  of  his 
nature  the  object  of  his  owm  choice. "  Here,  insisted 
Whedon,  there  was  no  "hereditary  guilt,"  only  "a  heredi- 
tary nature  personally  made  guilty."  Such  a  position  was 
simply  contradicted,  according  to  Whedon,  by  W.  B. 
Pope's  statement  (in  his  Compendium  of  Christian  The- 
ology, 1875)  that  the  true  doctrine  of  original  sin  is  op- 
posed "to  every  account  of  sin  which  insists  that  it  can- 
not be  reckoned  such  by  a  righteous  God  save  where  the 
will  actively  consents;  and  that  none  can  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  any  state  of  soul  or  action  of  life  which  is 
not  the  result  of  the  will  at  the  time.  There  is  an  offending 
character  behind  the  offending  will."  (2nd.  ed.,  1880,  Vol. 
II.  pp.  83-4.) 

Thomas  O.  Summers  and  John  J.  Tigert,  influential 
theologians  in  the  M.E.  Church,  South  (and  related  to 
Vanderbilt  U.viversity  in  the  1880's),  proved  supportive 
of  the  tradition  suggested  by  Pope  which  upheld  uni- 
versal man's  "realistic"  involvement  in  Adamic  guilt  and 
the  expiation  of  Christ's  atonement.  Whedon's  influence, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  to  be  seen  in  the  statement  by  Pro- 
fessor Miner  Raymo.nd  (Garrett  Biblical  Institute, 
in  his  Systematic  Theology,  1877)  that  the  real  tragedy 
consequent  upon  Adam's  offense  is  not  condemnation 
but  the  inheritance  "by  the  natural  law  of  propagation"  of 
a  cormpted  nature. 

Whedon's  emphases  were  to  be  further  elaborated, 
late  in  the  nineteenth  century,  in  the  systematic  concerns 
of  Professor  John  Miley  (Drew  Theological  Semi- 
nary, New  Jersey)  for  a  "consistent  Aiminianism"  within 
American  Methodist  thought.  Miley  proved  quite  critical 
of  the  ambiguities  regarding  the  nature  of  culpability- 
associated  with  Wesley's  doctrine  of  original  sin.  He  in- 
sisted that  the  denial  of  original  guilt,  "native  demerit," 
was  the  definitive  theological  contribution  of  Arminianism; 
indeed.  Wesleyan  interpretations  should  be  clarified  ac- 
cordingly. The  issue  of  injustice  in  the  Divine  economy — 
as  related  to  a  doctrine  of  universal  Adamic  guilt — was 
simply  not  relieved  by  any  compensatory  provisions  of 
grace. 

A  somewhat  different  representation  of  the  Wesleyan 
tradition,  within  mid  and  late-nineteenth  century  Amer- 
ican Methodism,  is  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Wil- 
liam Fairfield  Warren,  who  became  the  first  presi- 
dent of  Methodism's  Boston  UNn-EBsm-.  In  his  Introduc- 
tion to  the  study  of  systematic  theology  (Einleitung, 
Systematische  Theologie  einheitlich  behandelt,  published 
in  1865  while  Warren  was  professor  in  the  Methodist 
seminary  at  Bremen,  Germany),  Warren  reiterated  the 
traditional  Wesleyan  doctrine  of  the  transformation  of 
man's  initial  status  and  condition  through  atoning  grace; 
none  of  Adam's  descendants  were  held  guilt\-  (i.e.,  under 
actual  condemnation)  until  they  rejected  the  grace  of 
Christ.  Nevertheless,  Warren  was  quite  critical  of  any 
phraseology  such  as  "infant  justification,"  or  the  restoration 


ORIGINAL   SIN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


of  "gracious  ability,"  which  might  suggest  some  element 
of  condemnation  prior — at  least,  logically — to  the  restora- 
tive intervention  of  grace.  Rather,  insisted  Warren,  it 
was  the  teaching  of  "consistent  Methodism"  that  the 
graciously-unconditional  benefits  of  the  atonement  were 
initially  constitutive  of  man's  moral  condition;  "the  child 
stands  on  a  level  with  every  other  new  created  being,  a 
natural  and  equal  object  of  divine  care."  Rather  than 
abstracting  the  moral  individual  from  the  prevenience 
of  redemptive  grace,  as  was  the  tendency  in  Whedon  and 
in  Miley,  Warren's  theological  anthropology  often  was 
characterized  by  an  unacknowledged  incoiporation  of  the 
effects  of  prevenient  grace  into  the  descriptions  of  man's 
moral  nature. 

The  Twentieth  Century.  The  early  twentieth  century, 
in  American  Methodism,  was  to  provide  clear  evidences 
that  the  consensus  had  by  then  swung  away  from  the 
language  and  implications  of  inherited  moral  corruption 
and  attendant  guilt  {resolved  by  universally-efficacious 
atoning  grace)  to  the  clear  affirmation  of  natural  man's 
given  condition  as  simply  being  that  of  proper  and  im- 
mediate moral  accountability.  American  Methodist  hym- 
nody  and  ritual  saw  less  of  the  language  of  man's  sinful 
corruption  (or  of  its  specific  theological  corollary,  the 
prevenient  grace  consequent  upon  universal  atonement). 
The  emergent  influence  of  critical-historical  Biblical 
scholarship,  with  its  reassessment  of  some  of  the  tradi- 
tional literalisms  that  had  become  associated  with  the  story 
of  Adam,  contributed  to  the  disenchantment  with  the 
language  of  "original  sin,"  and  its  implications  regarding 
mankind's  Adamic  involvement.  Prominent  Methodist  the- 
ologians such  as  Albert  Knudson  (at  Boston  Univer- 
sity School  of  Theology  for  over  three  decades  follow- 
ing 1906)  emphatically  concluded  that  there  is  "no  such 
thing  as  inherited  guilt  or  an  mherited  moral  depravity"; 
only  the  free  activity  of  the  will  originated  sin  (cited  in 
Robert  Chiles'  important  study  of  Theological  Transition 
in  American  Methodism,  1965).  Bishop  Francis  Mc- 
CoNNELL,  whose  John  Wesley  was  published  in  1939, 
was  frankly  relieved  to  relegate  the  idea  of  "original  sin" 
to  an  eighteenth-century  frame  of  reference;  rather,  com- 
mented McConnell,  man's  nature  and  character  is  "the 
result  of  forces — physical  and  psychological — which  have 
been  at  work  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years." 

The  reevaluation  of  the  traditional  doctrines  of  original 
sin  and  original  guilt — together  with  the  acceptance  of  the 
myth  form  for  mankind's  "Adamic"  involvement — was, 
however,  to  prove  part  of  the  effect  within  Methodism 
of  the  psycho-theological  reassessment  of  man's  nature 
associated  subsequently  in  this  century  with  the  emergent 
influence  of  Kierkegaard's  existential  critiques,  Freud's 
depth  psychology.  Earth's  Biblical  theology,  and  the  re- 
examination of  historical  theology.  The  problem  of  man- 
kind's chronic  perversity — and  the  compensatory  given- 
ness  of  redemptive  grace — received  new  emphasis  in  the 
studies  of  Methodist  scholars  such  as  George  Cell,  David 
Shipley,  Albert  Outler,  Harold  Lindstrom,  Colin  Wil- 
liams, and  others.  Williams'  summary  of  the  contemporary, 
"existential"  relevance  of  Wesley's  doctrine  of  original  sin, 
for  instance  (in  John  Wesley's  Theology  Today,  1960), 
insisted  that  "its  restatement  in  terms  of  modem  Biblical 
understanding"  left  Wesley's  essential  position  untouched: 
".  .  .  in  the  light  of  prevenient  grace  we  can  speak  of 
every  man  being  his  own  Adam,  so  that  we  become  aware 
of  our  separation  from  God  as  incurring  guilt,  because 
of  the  possibility  of  the  repair  of  that  relationship  con- 


stantly offered  by  God."  However,  continued  William's 
restatement,  the  truth  that  every  man  is  his  own  Adam 
must  not  be  stressed  "to  the  point  where  the  fallenness  of 
the  race  for  which  the  symbol  of  the  First  Adam  stands 
is  lost.  It  is  only  in  the  light  of  God's  offer  of  a  restored 
relationship  (through  prevenient  grace)  that  every  man 
becomes  his  own  Adam." 

It  must  also  be  added  that  mid-twentieth  century  Meth- 
odist literature  generally  continued  to  be  marked  by  a 
now-recognizable  ambiguity  as  touching  the  ground  of 
man's  moral  accountability — whether  it  was  a  continuing 
provision  of  the  natural  order  or  a  gift  of  gracious  restora- 
tion. The  ambiguity  itself  seemed  to  be  a  repetitious  ele- 
ment in  the  theological  anthropology  of  Metliodism. 

Developments  in  British  Methodism.  It  is  perhaps 
characteristic  that  in  1875,  when  as  observed  above,  D.  D. 
Whedon  was  in  America  assailing  the  notion  of  "original 
guilt,"  W.  B.  Pope,  the  most  influential  systematic  the- 
ologian of  British  Methodism  at  that  period,  should  be 
offering  a  learned  defence  of  the  traditional  system. 
Since  that  time  responsible  British  Methodist  thought  ap- 
pears to  have  moved  much  more  conservatively  in  rela- 
tion to  this  matter  than  that  of  America,  and  therefore 
has  remained  much  closer  to  Wesley,  though  serious  ac- 
count has  been  taken  of  the  findings  of  natural  science 
regarding  the  physical  evolution  of  the  human  race. 

Somewhat  naturally,  the  prevailing  tone  has  been  set 
by  the  scholarship  of  the  Church  of  England.  Possibly 
the  most  constructive  theological  event  was  the  publica- 
tion in  1889,  by  a  group  of  Oxford  scholars  coming  out 
of  the  Anglo-Catholic  tradition,  of  Lux  Mundi,  a  set  of 
powerfully  argued  essays  which  sought  to  vindicate  the 
proposition  that  on  the  one  hand  the  findings  of  natural 
science  and  of  sober  biblical  criticism  could  be  candidly 
accepted,  and  that  on  the  other  hand  all  the  essential 
intention  of  traditional  Christian  doctrine  could  be  main- 
tained. This  volume  says  little  directly  on  the  subject  of 
Original  Sin,  but  tliis  approach  was  pursued  in  the  most 
influential  British  books  on  this  subject  by  F.  R.  Tennant, 
The  Origin  and  Propagation  of  Sin  (1901),  and  The  Fall 
and  Original  Sin  (1903).  Here  the  case  is  argued  for  an 
"evolutionary  theory  of  the  origin  of  sin."  During  the 
moral  probation  of  the  evolving  human  race,  in  its  first 
days,  there  was  occasion  for  an  event  spiritually  and 
morally  analogous  to  the  event  described  in  mythological 
terms  in  the  Genesis  Fall-story.  Thus  evolutionary  biology 
as  an  account  of  the  physical  origin  of  the  race  can  be 
combined  with  the  doctrine  in  theology  of  the  fallen 
and  sinful  condition  of  the  race. 

The  resultant  attitude  of  "non-fundamentalist  ortho- 
doxy" is  characteristic  of  most  responsible  Methodist  the- 
ological thought  in  Britain  at  the  present  time.  This  atti- 
tude has  been  confirmed  by  various  findings  of  modem 
New  Testament  exegesis.  Thus  it  would  be  widely  ac- 
cepted that  in  such  a  text  as  1  Corinthians  xv:22,  "as  in 
Adam  all  die"  St.  Paul's  essential  thought  is  that  of  Adam 
as  the  spiritual  "type"  of  the  race,  and  is  by  no  means  en- 
tirely dependent  upon  an  understanding  of  Adam  as  the 
physical  ancestor  of  the  whole  race.  So  the  Pauline  the- 
ology can  well  survive  the  understanding  of  the  Genesis 
FaU-story  as  an  unhistorical  myth.  So  also  it  is  realized 
that  the  New  Testament  "wrath  of  God"  is  not  so  much 
the  personal  attitude  of  a  punishing  divine  Judge  to  in- 
dividual men,  as  a  principle  of  divine  nemesis  in  human 
affairs.  So  the  traditional  Christian  doctrine  that  the  whole 
fallen  and  guilty  race  is  collectively  under  "the  wrath" 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ORPHAN   HOUSE 


can  be  well  maintained  but  without  the  morally  dubious 
proposition  that  God  will  hold  personally  responsible  for 
sin  individuals  who  are  not  yet  old  enough  or  experienced 
enough  to  have  made  a  voluntary  and  personally  account- 
able choice. 

The  general  consensus  of  British  Methodist  thought 
today,  therefore,  would  be  to  allow  the  legendary  char- 
acter of  the  Genesis  Fall-story,  to  dismiss  the  notion  of 
"original  guilt,"  yet  to  affirm  the  collective  and  individual 
moral  and  spiritual  bondage  of  the  race,  together  with  the 
utter  impossibility  that  man  should  save  himself  by 
self-improvement  and  education,  apart  from  the  saving 
grace  of  God. 

W.  B.  Pope,  Compendium  of  Christian  Theology.  1889. 

F.  R.  Tennant,  The  Fall  and  Original  Sin.  Cambridge,  1903. 

,  The  Origin  and  Propagation  of  Sin.  Cambridge, 

1901. 

R.  Watson,  Theological  Institutes.  1832.  John  Lawson 

Leland  Scott 


First  Church,  Orlando,  Florida 

ORLANDO,  FLORIDA,  U.S.A.  First  Church  had  its  begin- 
ning when  the  amiual  conference  meeting  at  Jackson- 
ville, Fla.,  in  January  1874,  appointed  O.  W.  Ransome 
to  the  Orlando  Circuit.  At  that  time  Orlando  was  a  village 
of  450  people.  Since  there  was  no  chmch  building,  ser- 
vices were  held  in  the  court  house.  A  camp  meeting 
near  Zellwood  in  1878  greatly  strengthened  the  Methodist 
work  in  Orlando.  In  1881-82  Orlando  became  a  half- 
station  served  by  Anderson  Peeler,  M.D.  During  this  time 
a  church  building  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  $1,000  on  a  site 
purchased  for  $200.  Under  C.  E.  Pelot  a  larger  building 
was  erected  in  1888.  The  building  was  not  finished,  but 
it  accommodated  the  Annual  Conference  session  in  Janu- 
ary 1886.  Existing  records  of  the  church  date  from  January 
1885.  The  building  was  remodeled  in  1904-05,  during  the 
pastorate  of  R.  V.  Atkisson,  at  a  cost  of  several  thousand 
dollars. 

Plans   for  a  modem   building  were  made   during   the 


pastorate  of  Dr.  Chapman,  and  the  building  was  erected 
during  the  pastorate  of  Dr.  Wray  at  a  cost  of  $50,000.  This 
structure  served  as  the  sanctuary  until  1963.  In  1924 
during  the  pastorate  of  W.  A.  Cooper,  Wesley  Hall  was 
built,  and  it  serves  as  a  part  of  the  educational  faciUty 
at  the  present  time.  In  1872  the  church  had  a  membership 
of  75;  in  1938,  1,878;  in  1944,  2,918;  and  1970  the 
membership  totalled  4,758  and  it  is  the  largest  church  in 
the  Florida  Conference.  Many  of  the  twenty-two  other 
Metliodist  churches  of  Orlando  have  been  sponsored  by 
this  church.  It  was  listed  as  one  of  the  "Ten  Great 
Churches  of  America"  by  the  Christian  Century  magazine 
in  1950.  Each  year  it  is  listed  as  one  of  the  ten  Methodist 
churches  giving  most  to  missions.  Two  pastors  of  the 
church  have  been  elected  to  the  episcopacy  while  serving 
here:  John  W.  Branscomb  in  1952  and  E.  J.  Pendergrass 
in  1964. 

General  Minutes,  UMC. 

John  B.  Ley,  Souvenir  and  Year  Book.  Orlando,  Fla.,   1916. 
Frank  A.  Smith,  History  of  First  Methodist  Church,  Orlando, 
Florida,  1859-1944.  Florida  Metliodist  Centennial  Edition. 
A.  Fred  Turner,  Program  for  the  Eightieth  Anniversary  Home- 
coming and  Founders  Day  of  First  Methodist  Church  of  Or- 
lando.   1938.  Millard   C.    Cleveland 

ORMSTON,  MARK  D.  (1890-1960),  American  Free 
Methodist  minister,  was  bom  Dec.  17,  1890,  at  St. 
Johns,  Mich.  Converted  at  age  fifteen,  he  early  became  a 
thorough  student  of  the  Bible  and  his  hfe  was  a  reflection 
of  its  message.  He  was  a  student  at  Greenville  Col- 
lege. He  entered  the  ministry  of  the  East  Michigan  Con- 
ference of  the  Free  Methodist  Church,  where  he  served 
as  pastor  and  superintendent  until  1936.  He  was  a  bishop, 
1936-58;  bishop  emeritus,  1958-60.  During  his  term  as 
bishop,  Ormston  was  also  chairman  of  the  Commission  on 
Missions.  He  led  a  successful  debt  elimination  campaign 
and  placed  the  missionary  program  on  a  sound  financial 
base.  Bishop  Ormston  was  an  able  administrator,  a  wise 
counsellor  and  trusted  friend.  He  excelled  as  an  eloquent, 
spirit-filled  preacher.  Great  congregations  were  stirred  to 
action  by  his  prayers  and  sermons.  He  died  at  Jackson, 
Mich.,  June  23,  1960. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

ORPHAN  HOUSE,  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  England,  was 
built  in  1743  to  house  the  first  Wesleyan  society  to  be 
gathered  in  the  town.  It  was  intended  to  be  an  orphanage 
for  forty  poor  children — hence  its  name — but  this  scheme 
was  not  carried  out.  Instead,  it  became  a  hostel  for  the 
Wesleyan  itinerants  in  the  north  of  England,  a  library, 
a  preaching  house,  and  the  place  where  John  Wesley 
himself  lived  when  in  the  area.  Grace  Mlibray  was 
matron  for  some  time.  The  Orphan  House  was  outside 
the  walls  of  the  town,  and  in  the  1745  rebellion  was 
thought  to  be  in  danger  from  the  invading  army.  Wesley 
held  an  impressive  service  in  the  House  on  Sept.  29, 
1745,  asking  for  divine  help  for  King  George  of  England. 
Charles  Atmore  started  a  Sunday  school  at  the  Or- 
phanage in  1790.  It  remained  the  center  of  Wesleyan 
worship  until  1821,  when  the  Brunswick  Chapel  was 
built  on  a  neighboring  site,  when  the  Orphan  House 
ceased  to  function  as  a  place  of  worship.  In  1856  the 
Orphan  House  Wesleyan  Day  School  was  erected  on  the 
same  site;  this  was  demolished  in  1957;  a  memorial  plaque 
was   attached    to    the   building   which    replaced    it.    The 


ORTON,    JOSEPH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Orphan  House  is  remembered,  not  only  because  of  its 
link  with  Grace  Murray,  but  also  because  in  the  eighteenth 
centur\'  it  was  for  long  the  headquarters  of  Wesleyan 
Methodism  in  the  north. 

VV.  W.  Stamp,  Orphan- House  of  Wesley.  1863.       John  Kent 

ORTON,  JOSEPH  (P-1842),  British  missionary  pioneer 
to  AuSTR.ALiA.  The  first  notice  of  him  that  exists  is  his 
appointment  in  1826  as  a  Wesleyan  probationer  to  Fal- 
mouth and  Montego  Circuits,  Jamaica.  Here  he  suffered 
violent  persecution  in  the  immediate  pre-emancipation 
days,  and  was  imprisoned  with  Isaac  Whitehouse,  an- 
other preacher,  in  the  common  jail  for  fourteen  days, 
being  released  only  on  direct  orders  from  the  chief  justice. 
Apparently  broken  in  health  he  returned  to  England  in 
1828. 

In  1831  he  was  sent  to  Australia,  where  Methodism 
was  at  its  lowest  ebb.  He  was  made  chaiiTnan  of  the  New 
South  Wales  District,  with  a  staff  of  five  ministers.  A 
strong,  gracious,  and  far-sighted  administrator,  his  ap- 
pointment coincided  with  the  beginnings  of  nonconvict 
immigration.  Having  brought  new  life  to  New  South 
Wales,  he  was  made  chairman  of  the  new  Van  Diemen's 
Land  (Tasmania)  District  in  1835,  from  which  he  visited 
what  was  to  become  the  state  of  Victoria.  Then  he  in- 
terested the  government  in  the  support  of  a  mission  at 
Port  Phillip,  later  to  be  the  city  of  Melbourne.  Australian 
Methodism  owes  a  great  debt  to  his  leadership  and  coura- 
geous planning.  He  died  at  sea  April  30,  1842. 

Cyril  Davey 

ORWIG,  WILLIAM  W.  (1810-1889),  American  pathfinder- 
churchman  of  the  Evangelical  Association,  was  born 
to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Abraham  Orwig,  Sept.  25,  1810,  near 
Orwigsburg,  Pa.  On  May  24,  1832  he  married  Susanna 
Rischel;  to  them  were  bom  ten  children. 

He  was  received  into  the  itinerancy  of  the  Eastern 
Conference  (EA)  in  1828;  he  was  presiding  elder  in 
his  mother  conference  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  and  just 
before  retirement  was  presiding  elder  of  Erie  Confer- 
ence; elected  bishop  in  1859,  his  poor  health  prevented 
his  re-election  in  1863. 

He  pioneered  in  publishing.  Elected  book  agent  and 
editor  in  1836,  he  promptly  bought  the  second  printing 
press  for  the  denomination  and  edited  Der  Christliche 
Botschafter,  the  first  general  periodical  of  the  denomina- 
tion. His  Geschichtc  der  Evangclischcn  Gemeinschaft, 
1857,  put  into  Enghsh  in  1858,  was  so  well  done  that 
all  subsequent  histories  have  been  indebted  to  it. 

The  range  of  his  theological  concerns  is  reflected  some- 
what in  his  book  titles:  Katechismtts  (a  catechism  for 
youth),  1847;  Die  Heilsftille  (The  Fullness  of  Salvation), 
1873;  and  Pasforal-Theologie,  1877. 

Other  pioneering  activities  included  his  leadership  in 
founding  the  Missionary  Society,  his  advocacy  of  the 
Sunday  school,  and  his  bold  fostering  of  higher  education 
in  the  founding  of  Union  Seminary  at  New  Berlin,  Pa.,  in 
1856. 

He  contributed  much  toward  the  later  development  of 
his  church  before  his  death  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on  May 
29,  1889. 

R.  W.  Albright,  Evangelical  Church.  1942. 

David  Koss,  "Bishops  of  the  Evangelical  Association,   United 


Evangelical  and  Evangelical  Churches."  B.D.  thesis.  Evangeli- 
cal Theological  Seminary,  1959. 
R.  M.  Veh.  Evangelical  Bishops.  1939.         Arthur  C.  Core 


George  Osborn 

OSBORN,  GEORGE  (1808-1891),  British  minister,  was 
bom  in  Rochester  on  March  29,  1808.  He  entered  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry  in  1828.  He  took  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  internal  controversies  of  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odism between  1830  and  1857.  He  was  a  strong  opponent 
of  change  in  the  Wesleyan  system,  and  especially  of  the 
admission  of  lay  representatives  into  the  Conference;  he 
was  a  vehement  supporter  of  Jabez  Bunting.  In  1847 
he  persuaded  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference  to 
peiTnit  him  to  "test"  the  loyalty  of  Wesleyan  ministers  to 
the  status  quo  by  asking  them  to  sign  a  document  in 
which  they  affirmed  that  they  had  not  contributed  to  the 
Fly  Sheets.  More  than  a  thousand  ministers  signed,  but 
the  number  who  refused  to  do  so  was  sufficient  to  rob 
the  "test"  of  its  effectiveness.  He  was  elected  to  the  Legal 
Hundred  at  the  Conference  of  1849,  at  which  he  played 
a  large  part  in  the  expulsion  of  the  ministers  accused  of 
having  written  the  Fly  Sheets.  In  later  years  Osborn  con- 
tinued to  maintain  the  consei^vative  position,  and  he  be- 
came increasingly  isolated.  He  became  one  of  the  secre- 
taries for  Foreign  Missions  in  1851,  retaining  the  post  until 
1867;  he  then  was  appointed  as  a  Theological  Tutor  at 
Richmond  College,  London  (see  Theological  Col- 
leges), remaining  there  until  retirement  in  1884.  He  was 
twice  president — in  1863  and  1881.  When  the  Ecumeni- 
cal Methodist  Conference  met  in  London  in  1881 
he  gave  the  opening  and  closing  addresses,  and  it  was 
at  this  Conference  that  he  met  William  Griffith  again 
for  the  first  time  since  1849.  Griffith  received  the  com- 
munion from  Osborn 's  hands  (standing,  as  he  objected  in 
the  true  Puritan  tradition,  to  kneeling).  Among  Osborn 's 
literary  works  was  The  Poetical  Works  of  John  and  Charles 
Wesley  (xiii  vols.,  London,  1868-1872),  though  this  was 
not  a  definitive  edition.  He  also  published  Outlines  of 
Methodisi  Bibliographtj  (1869).  Osborn  enjoyed  great 
prominence  in  nineteenth  century  Methodism,  but 
achieved  very  little. 


B.  Gregory,  Sidelights.  1898. 


John  Nevtton 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OSLO,    NORWAY 


OSBORN,  THOMAS  GEORGE  (1844-1910),  British  Meth- 
odist educator,  was  the  son  of  Thomas  Osborn  of  Ro- 
chester and  a  nephew  of  the  well-known  George  Osbobn. 
He  was  educated  at  Wesley  College,  Sheffield,  and  Trinity 
Hall,  Cambridge,  where  he  became  a  Fellow.  Although 
studying  for  the  Bar,  in  1866  he  was  persuaded  to  accept 
a  temporary  emergency  appointment  as  Headmaster  of 
KiNGSwoOD  School — where  he  remained  for  nearly 
twenty  years.  During  that  time  he  successfully  introduced 
the  best  current  public  school  practice  to  Wesley's  founda- 
tion, and  left  it  immeasurably  stronger.  During  much  of 
this  period  Woodhouse  Grove  served  as  a  preparatory 
school  for  Kingswood,  so  that  Osbom  was  in  charge  of 
both  institutions,  seeking  to  ensure  for  them  a  true  family 
spirit  as  well  as  high  academic  standards  and  religious 
culture.  Upon  his  resignation  in  1885  (partly  because  of 
pressure  to  have  a  minister  instead  of  a  layman  as  head- 
master), he  founded  Rydal  School  in  Colwyn  Bay.  He 
remained  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  influential  lay- 
men in  Wesleyan  Methodism,  for  long  a  member  of  every 
Conference  from  the  first  admission  of  laymen.  At  the 
centenary  of  Wesley's  death  in  1891,  he  delivered  an 
address  at  Wesley's  Chapel,  City  Road,  London,  in  which 
he  called  for  a  Ladies'  College  for  British  Methodism.  He 
did  not  marry  until  1896,  and  died  April  8,  1910. 

Frank  Baker 

OSBORNE,  DENNIS  (1828-1902),  was  an  Anglo-Indian 
who  was  soundly  converted  in  Lucknow  in  1871  under 
the  preaching  of  William  Taylor.  At  the  time  he  was 
superintendent  of  the  chief  engineer's  office.  One  Sunday 
when  the  pastor  was  ill,  Osborne  was  called  upon  to 
preach.  That  first  sermon  established  his  reputation  as  a 
preacher.  Osborne  and  another  layman  held  meetings  in 
Allahabad  and  organized  a  church.  When  the  church  fell 
into  trouble,  having  no  pastor,  Osborne  went  again  for 
meetings,  and  this  time  remained  as  pastor,  resigning  his 
coveted  post  and  accepting  an  uncertain  salary  of  less 
than  one-third  of  what  the  government  had  been  paying 
him.  He  joined  the  Annual  Conference  in  1874.  He  and 
James  Mills  Thobubn  started  annual  meetings  in  Luck- 
now  at  the  time  of  the  Dasehra  Festival.  People  came  from 
as  far  away  as  Calcutta,  Bombay,  Madras,  and  Ceylon. 
The  meetings  were  held  annually  for  more  than  fifty 
years. 

Osborne  went  to  the  General  Conference  in  1884. 
His  speeches  in  America  generated  so  much  interest  in 
missions  that  he  returned  with  funds  to  open  a  boys' 
school,  the  Philander  Smith  Institute  at  Mullingar,  Mus- 
soorie.  He  became  superintendent  of  the  Allahabad  Dis- 
trict, and  organized  English  language  congregations  in 
Agra,  Roorkee,  Mussoorie,  Meerut,  and  Ajmer.  He  was 
at  the  time  of  his  death  superintendent  of  the  Bombay 
District.  Osborne  sponsored  Phoebe  Rovra,  the  Anglo- 
Indian  woman  evangelist. 

The  Lucknow  Witness,  Sept.  5,  1873.     J.  Waskom  Pickett 

OSHKOSH,  WISCONSIN,  U.S.A.  Evergreen  Manor,  Inc., 

is  a  church  operated  home  for  the  aged,  owned  and  oper- 
ated by  the  Wisconsin  Conference  of  the  United  Meth- 
odist Church.  Construction  was  completed  in  1967  at  a 
total  cost  of  $1,750,000,  which  includes  land,  furnishings, 
and  construction. 

Evergreen  Manor  has  a  Health   Center  of  forty-eight 


beds,  licensed  by  "he  Boards  of  Health  of  the  State  of 
Wisconsin  and  the  city  of  Oshkosh,  which  gives  skilled 
nursing  care  to  the  residents.  The  Health  Center  is  Medi- 
care certified. 

Evergreen  Manor  is  operated  under  a  corporation  of 
twenty-one  directors,  elected  by  the  Wisconsin  Confer- 
ence. The  functional  operation  of  Evergreen  Manor  has  as 
its  one  task  the  care  of  aging  men  and  women.  Adequate 
resident  activities  make  homelife  challenging.  Evergreen 
Manor  allows  no  discrimination  on  the  basis  of  race,  color 
or  national  origin. 

Evergreen  Manor  is  a  member  of  the  Wisconsin  Meth- 
odist Homes  Association  and  is  currently  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Executive  Director  of  the  Association,  George 
H.  Palmer. 

OSLO  is  the  capital  of  Norway.  It  was  founded  about 
1050  A.D.  The  number  of  inhabitants  (in  1966)  is  about 
500,000. 

The  revivalist  movement,  which  was  started  at  Fred- 
rikstad  in  1849  by  Ole  P.  Petersen  (see  Norway),  and 
which  was  preliminary  to  the  first  Methodist  congregation 
being  organized  at  Sarpsborg  in  1856,  spread  to  Oslo 
as  early  as  1857.  Carl  Nilsson  Osterlund,  who  was  a 
bricklayer  by  trade,  and  who  had  been  saved  at  the  time 
when  Christian  Willerup  and  Petersen  were  active  in 
Halden,  came  to  live  in  Oslo.  He  immediately  began  to 
hold  meetings,  and  founded  a  Sunday  school  in  Oslo 
seven  years  prior  to  the  organization  of  a  congregation 
there. 

In  the  autumn  of  1862,  Anders  Olsen,  a  cobbler,  settled 
in  Oslo.  Some  more  Methodists  from  the  Halden  district 
also  moved  to  Oslo,  and  this  made  more  urgent  the 
desire  that  there  be  a  permanent  organization.  Anders 
Olsen  dominated  the  period  of  transition  from  organized 
activity  to  congregation,  and  it  was  he  who  laid  the  foun- 
dation for  the  congregation  which  was  organized  in  Oslo 
in  1865. 

In  the  autumn  of  1870,  Martin  Hansen  was  appointed 
pastor  in  Oslo.  The  meetings  drew  very  large  crowds,  and 
it  became  obvious  that  a  chapel  would  have  to  be  built. 
Hansen  secured  a  site  for  the  congregation,  where  a  two- 
story  building  was  erected,  with  the  meeting  hall  on  the 
first  floor.  This  began  to  be  used  on  April  23,  1871.  On  the 
same  site  three  years  later  a  church  was  consecrated  in 
1874 — the  first  Methodist  church  in  the  capital  of  Norway. 
This  congregation  continues  today  as  the  First  Methodist 
Church  of  Oslo. 

The  work  in  Oslo  expanded,   and   in    1877   a   second 


Ik 


CtNTBALKlKKEiN,  OsLO,  N'ORW  AY 


OSTERHOUT,   SMITH    STANLEY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


congregation  was  organized  and  became  known  as  "Meth- 
odist Congregation  Elim."  This  congregation  first  built  a 
small  thapel,  and  then  in  1896  a  four-story  business  build- 
ing with  adjoining  church  was  completed. 

In  1887,  a  third  congregation  was  founded  in  Oslo. 
In  the  beginning  it  made  u.se  of  rented  accommodations, 
but  subsequently  got  its  own  church.  This  is  the  congre- 
gation which  in  1961  took  into  use  an  eight-story  business 
building  with  adjoining  church.  This  church  located  in  the 
center  of  the  city  is  known  as  "Centralkirken." 

One  further  congregation  was  founded  in  Oslo  in  1895, 
and  this  also  built  a  chapel.  The  chapel  was  demolished  at 
a  later  date,  and  a  five-story  business  building  together 
with  a  church  replaced  it,  and  was  taken  into  use  in  1956. 
This  is  the  Immanuel  Church. 

The  tenth  World  Methodist  Conference  was  held 
in  Oslo,  Aug.  17-25,  1961.  The  president  of  the  Confer- 
ence was  H.AROLD  Roberts,  of  Great  Britain.  The  theme 
of  the  Conference  was  "New  Life  in  the  Spirit."  About 


Betanien  Hospital.  Oslo,  N'ohwav 

two  thousand  delegates  and  foreign  guests  attended  the 
conference,  as  well  as  great  numbers  of  visitors  from  all 
parts  of  Norway  and  Sweden.  His  Majesty,  Olav  V,  King 
of  Norway,  was  present  on  the  opening  night  of  the 
conference  to  welcome  and  extend  greetings  to  the 
delegates. 

Immediately  prior  to  the  conference,  the  World  Federa- 
tion of  Methodist  Women  had  held  their  Sixth  Assembly, 
the  theme  being  "Jesus  Christ  Is  Lord."  Also  at  this  as- 
sembly the  attendance  was  very  large. 

EiLERT  Bernhardt 

OSTERHOUT,  SMITH  STANLEY  (1868-1953),  Canadian 
minister,  was  bom  of  United  Empire  Loyalist  stock  in 
Cobourg,  Ontario,  on  June  30,  1868.  He  graduated  from 
Victoria  College,  Toronto,  and  following  ordination 
came  to  British  Columbia  in  1893  as  a  volunteer  for 
the  Indian  work  and  was  stationed  on  the  Nass  River 
in  the  northern  part  of  the  province. 

After  five  years  on  the  Nass  he  was  moved  to  Port 
Simpson,  the  largest  Tsimshian  village  on  the  coast.  Here 
he  served  for  another  five  years.  He  learned  and  spoke 
the  language  fluently,  edited  a  grammar,  and  translated 
hymns  and  scripture  into  the  Tsimshian.  The  provincial 
government  made  him  a  justice  of  the  peace  for  Cassiar 
district. 

After  eleven  years  in  Indian  work,  he  ministered  to 
white  congregations  in  Victoria,  Kamloops,  Vernon,  and 
Vancouver.    In    1911    he   was    appointed    superintendent 


of  Oriental  missions  for  western  Canada,  and  served  in 
that  capacity  until  his  retirement  in  1939.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  first  General  Council  of  The  United  Church 
of  Canada,  in  1925. 

In  1929  he  published  Orientals  in  Canada,  which  was 
regarded  as  a  valuable  contribution  to  one  of  Canada's 
racial  problems.  In  1916  and  1939  he  was  president  of 
the  British  Columbia  Conference.  He  died  on  Oct.  7, 
1953,  in  Vancouver,  B.  C. 

Osterhout  was  a  man  of  broad  sympathy  and  under- 
standing. Possibly  his  greatest  contribution  to  the  religious 
life  of  his  day  was  his  ability  to  interpret  the  values  of  the 
Oriental  and  Occidental,  each  to  tlie  other. 

G.   H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of   Methodism   in  Canada.    1881. 

\V.  P.  BUNT 

OSTROM,  EGON  NILS  (1903-1945),  Swedish  minister, 
evangelist,  martyr,  and  missionary  was  born  in  Halsing- 
borg,  Sweden,  Nov.  27,  1903.  A  godly  mother  kindled 
the  lamp  of  faith  in  his  heart,  and  at  the  age  of  thirteen 
he  had  a  transforming  Christian  experience  which  made 
him  a  "winner  of  souls." 

He  studied  for  the  ministry  at  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  Gothenburg  and  was  graduated  in  1927. 
A  spectacularly  successful  ministry  in  Mblndal,  1925-30, 
made  his  name  known  all  over  Sweden,  and  many  tried 
to  convince  him  to  stay  in  Sweden  as  a  minister  and 
evangelist.  But  in  1930  he  was  transferred  to  Sumatra 
for  work  among  the  Chinese  of  that  island.  He  spent  about 
ten  months  in  China  to  learn  the  Hokkien  dialect,  and 
upon  his  return  to  Sumatra  he  was  able  to  speak  the 
language.  Large  crowds  gathered  around  his  pulpit,  for 
the  Hokkien-speaking  Chinese  of  Sumatra  had  never 
heard  a  white  person  so  able  to  use  their  mother  tongue. 

In  1937  he  returned  from  furlough,  which  included 
studies  at  Drew  University  in  the  United  States,  and 
was  appointed  to  Tebing  Tinggi  where  he  had  some 
very  successful  years  in  spite  of  the  war.  Being  a  native 
of  Sweden,  he  and  his  family  decided  (together  with 
another  Swedish  family)  to  remain  in  Sumatra.  He  served 
as  Methodist  district  superintendent  and  as  Mission  trea- 
surer, besides  his  work  as  evangehst  among  the  Chinese. 
When  all  neutrals  were  interned  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Indonesian  revolution,  he  used  his  time  in  camp  as  a 
Red  Cross  worker,  and  was  appointed  Acting  Consul  for 
Sweden.  On  Dec.  11,  1945  he  decided  to  return  to  his 
home  for  some  documents,  though  many  of  his  friends 
warned  him.  He  was  picked  up  by  some  extremists,  thrown 
into  a  river,  and  his  body  was  never  found.  The  story 
of  Egon  N.  Ostrom  is  ably  told  by  his  wife.  Vera  Edborg 
Ostrom,  in  her  Book  O  Boksu — the  story  of  a  man  who 
gave  his  life  for  Sumatra. 

Vera  Edborg  Ostrom,  O  Boksu.  New  York:  Board  of  Missions, 
1948. 

Metodistkyrhans  i  Sverige.  Arsbok,  1946. 

Minutes  of  the  Sumatra  Provisional  Annual  Conference,  1948. 

Ragnab  Alm 

OSUNA,  ANDRES  (1872-1957),  Mexican  educator  and 
outstanding  layman,  whose  connection  was  with  the  M.E. 
Church  South,  in  that  land,  but  whose  influence  was  felt 
in  the  realm  of  education  over  the  whole  country.  He  was 
born  in  a  Christian  home  in  Cd.  Mier,  Coahuila,  and  from 
childhood  had  the  religious  influence  of  his  mother  and  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OHERBEIN,   PHILIP   WILLIAM 


a  missionary,  Alexander  M.  Southerland.  The  Institute 
Fronterizo  (later  Laurens  Institute)  in  Monterrey,  and  the 
Methodist  church  the  family  attended  also  exerted  great 
influence  in  his  life.  Adventurous,  the  child  moved  from 
one  place  to  another  seeking  education,  working  his  way 
ahead,  learning  English  and  teaching  what  he  knew.  He 
graduated  as  teacher  from  the  Normal  School  in  Monter- 
rey in  1892,  and  the  same  year  married  Lugarda  L. 
Trevino. 

He  established  a  private  grammar  school  in  Saltillo, 
Coahuila,  and  became  one  of  the  founders  of  the  teacher's 
training  school  there,  in  1894.  Later  he  became  director  of 
that  school.  He  was  appointed  general  director  of  Ele- 
mentary Education  in  the  State.  His  influence  was  felt 
in  a  reorganization  of  the  plan  of  studies,  the  program 
of  work,  the  equipment  used,  the  buildings,  and  the 
administration,  for  eleven  years. 

In  1909  a  new  door  was  opened  to  him  through  contact 
with  Walter  R.  Lambuth,  secretary  of  Missions  from 
the  M.E.  Church,  South  in  the  U.S.A.  Osuna  was  invited 
to  work  in  the  editorial  department  for  Spanish  books  in 
the  Publishing  House  at  N.\shville,  Term.  There,  he 
carried  on  an  important  program  of  publication  and  was 
also  able  to  study  at  Vanderbilt  University.  He  received 
the  Ph.D.  there  in  1915. 

President  Venustiano  Carranza  appointed  him  General 
Director  of  Public  Education  in  the  Federal  District  in 
1915.  He  was  elected  temporary  Governor  in  his  home 
state  in  1918. 

From  1920-27,  along  with  other  duties,  he  accepted 
the  position  of  manager  of  the  Union  Pubhshing  House 
(Protestant  concern)  in  Mexico  City,  and  in  1927  was 
appointed  Director  of  Public  Education  in  the  state  of 
Nuevo  Leon.  Osuna  was  most  helpful  to  the  Church  in 
matters  of  finance,  properties,  governmental  relationships, 
and  education.  He  was  a  fine  Christian,  a  true  witness. 
His  death  occurred  on  May  17,  1957. 

Gustavo  A.  Velasco  G. 

OTTERBEIN,  PHILIP  WILLIAM  (1726-1813),  American 
bishop  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  was  born 
June  3,  1726  in  Dillenburg,  Nassau,  Germany,  where  his 
father  served  as  both  minister  and  teacher  in  the  Reformed 
Latin  school.  Of  the  ten  chiildren  born  into  this  family 
three  died  in  childhood,  while  six  sons  became  ministers 
and  the  surviving  daughter  married  a  minister.  With  the 
death  of  her  husband  Mrs.  Otterbein  moved  her  family  to 
Herborn,  so  that  the  children  could  better  obtain  an 
education  at  the  Academy,  nearly  equivalent  to  a  univer- 
sity schooling.  The  eldest  son  supported  the  family  until 
the  next  in  age,  Philip  Wilham,  could  take  over.  Then 
Philip,  in  turn,  supported  the  group  until  the  son  below 
him  in  age,  had  completed  his  education. 

Following  an  examination  before  the  Herborn  faculty, 
May  6,  1748,  Philip  Willaim  was  approved  as  a  candidate 
for  the  ministry  and  became  a  precepter  in  the  Herborn 
school.  The  next  year,  June  13,  1749,  he  was  ordained  and 
filled  the  pulpit  at  Ockersdorf  in  addition  to  teaching. 
Opposition  appeared  from  some  who  wanted  to  stop  his 
preaching,  about  which  his  mother  remarked,  "Ah,  Wil- 
liam, I  expected  this  and  give  you  joy.  This  place  is  too 
narrow  for  you,  my  son;  they  will  not  receive  you  here; 
you  will  find  your  work  elsewhere." 

When  Michael  Schlatter,  a  missionary  to  Pennsylvania, 
appeared  in  Germany  looking  for  volunteers  to  accompany 


Philip  W.  Otterbein 

him  back  to  the  New  World  to  fill  vacant  pulpits  among 
the  German  Reformed,  Otterbein  responded.  He  and  five 
other  recruits  were  examined  by  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Svnod  of  Holland  and  approved.  Thev  landed  in  New 
York,  July  28,  1752. 

Otterbein  was  soon  called  to  the  congregation  at  Lan- 
caster, Pa.,  the  second  most  important  Reformed  church 
in  America.  During  the  six  years  he  served  in  this  city 
a  new  stone  church  was  erected,  internal  order  within  the 
congregation  assured,  and  he  served  one  year,  1757,  as 
president  of  the  Reformed  coetus.  Following  an  earnest 
sermon  on  repentance  and  faith  in  1754,  a  man  under 
conviction  came  to  Otterbein  for  advice.  Philip  William 
replied,  "My  friend,  advice  is  scarce  with  me  today." 
Then  the  preacher  retired  to  his  quiet  place  where  he 
stayed  until  he  had  obtained  the  joy  of  his  own  conscious 
salvation. 

Some  years  later,  about  1767,  attending  a  "great"  meet- 
ing in  the  barn  of  Isaac  Long  in  Lancaster  County,  Otter- 
bein heard  a  xMennonite  bishop,  Martin  Boehm,  preach 
a  warm  sermon  on  personal  salvation.  Following  the  mes- 
sage, Otterbein  hurried  forward,  embraced  the  Mennonite, 
and  exclaimed,  "Wir  sind  bruder  (We  are  brothers)." 
Here  he  had  found  one  who  knew  spiritual  truths  through 
deep  pangs  and  struggles  which  Otterbein  himself  had 
discovered  under  similar  effort.  This  occasion  furnished 
roots  for  a  religious  movement  that  eventually  was  to 
culminate  in  the  formation  of  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ. 

Pastorates  were  conducted  in  Tulpohocken,  Pa.  (near 
Reading),  Frederick,  Md.,  and  York,  Pa.,  during  the 
next  sixteen  years.  Within  that  period  Otterbein  was 
married  to  Miss  Susan  LeRoy  of  Lancaster,  April  19,  1762, 
who  died  within  six  years,  April  27,  1768.  He  remained 
a  widower  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Otterbein  assumed  charge  of  an  independent  Reformed 
congregation  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  May  4,  1774,  but  after 
having  refused  the  offer  several  previous  times.  Perhaps 
the  change  of  decision  was  induced  by  a  letter  that 
Francis  Asbury  wrote  Feb.   3,   1774   urging  Otterbein, 


OTTERBEIN   CHURCH 

whom  he  had  not  yet  met,  to  settle  in  Baltimore.  In 
the  forty  years  that  followed,  Otterbein  and  Asbury  be- 
came close  friends. 

Otterbein,  along  with  a  number  of  Reformed  ministers 
and  laymen  desirous  of  promoting  a  spirit  of  inward  piety, 
began  to  meet  with  some  regularity  as  early  as  1774. 
They  did  not  intend  to  create  a  new  church  but  to  form 
a  little  association  within  the  Reformed  Church  that  might 
serve  "to  leaven  the  whole  lump."  Ultimately  most  of  the 
ministers  of  the  group  withdrew  from  this  society,  while 
the  la>Tnen  remained.  Otterbein  became  the  leader  under 
whom  they  worked.  Their  efforts  were  expanded  chiefly 
in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  where  the  Reformed  Church 
had  very  little  influence  upon  the  German  people.  Even- 
tually this  group  of  "united  ministers"  did  form  a  new 
church  in  1800,  known  as  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ  (see  United  Brethren).  Philip  Wil- 
liam Otterbein  and  Martin  Boehm,  a  former  Mennonite, 
became  the  first  bishops  or  superintendents. 

In  1805,  Otterbein  suffered  a  serious  illness,  from  which 
he  never  quite  recovered.  From  then  until  his  death  he 
did  not  leave  Baltimore,  but  the  preachers  of  this  new 
church  came  to  him  for  counsel  and  assistance. 

Upon  the  invitation  of  Francis  Asbury,  Philip  William 
Otterbein  assisted  in  the  consecration  and  ordination  of 
his  friend  to  the  office  of  bishop,  Dec.  27,  1784.  Their 
last  visit  together  was  on  the  evening  of  March  22,  1813. 
Henry  Boehm,  a  traveling  companion  of  Asbury  and  son 
of  Martin  Boehm,  was  present  and  wrote  about  the  ex- 
perience many  years  later:  "That  was  an  evening  I  shall 
ever  remember;  two  noble  souls  met,  and  their  conversa- 
tion was  rich  and  full  of  instruction.  They  had  met  fre- 
quently before;  this  was  their  last  interview  on  earth 
— long  ago  they  met  in  heaven." 

Less  than  two  months  before  his  death,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-,seven  years,  Otterbein  had  received  a  special  re- 
quest from  the  Miami  Conference  asking  that  he  ordain 
several  persons  by  the  laying  on  of  hands,  so  that  these 
afterwards  might  perform  the  same  for  others.  (Up  to 
this  time  certain  United  Brethren  preachers  had  been 
ridiculed  as  irregular  by  some  persons  in  other  denomina- 
tions.) On  Oct.  2,  1813,  in  the  parsonage  at  Baltimore,  in 
the  presence  of  several  members  of  the  congregation. 
Christian  Newcomer,  Joseph  Hoffman,  and  Frederick 
Schaffer  were  duly  ordained  by  Otterbein,  assisted  by 
William  Ryland,  an  elder  in  the  M.E.  Church. 

Death  came  to  this  churchman  Wednesday,  Nov.  17, 
1813,  at  his  home.  At  the  funeral  sei-vice  a  German  dis- 
course was  preached  by  J.  D.  Kurtz,  a  Lutheran,  followed 
by  an  English  message  delivered  by  William  Ryland. 

Asbury  received  the  news  of  Otterbein's  death  while  on 
one  of  his  trips,  and  exclaimed,  "Is  Father  Otterbein 
dead?  Great  and  good  man  of  God!  An  honor  to  his 
church  and  country.  One  of  the  greatest  scholars  and 
divines  that  ever  came  to  America,  or  bom  in  it.  .  .  ." 
Four  months  later,  in  March  1814,  by  request  of  the 
Baltimore  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  the  con- 
ference adjourned  to  Otterbein's  Church  where  Asbury 
preached  in  memory  of  his  departed  friend. 

Otterbein  was  buried  in  the  courtyard  of  the  church 
in  Baltimore  where  he  had  served  for  nearly  forty  years. 
Soon  after  his  death  the  church  became  known  as  The 
Otterbein  Church  (later  The  Old  Otterbein  CntrRCH), 
and  continued  to  be  an  independent  congregation  supplied 
bv  ministers  of  the  Church  of  the  United   Brethren   in 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

Christ.  In  1949  it  was  formally  received  into  The  E.U.B. 
Church. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

A.  C.  Core,  Otterbein.  1968. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  UB.  1924. 

Otterbein.  1884. 

Otterbein  Collection  in  Commission  on  Archives  and  History. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

OTTERBEIN  CHURCH,  "The  Old  Otterbein,"  Conway  and 
Sharp  Streets,  Baltimore,  Md.,  "Mother  Church  of  the 
LInited  Brethren  in  Christ,"  and  a  United  Methodist 
Historic  Shrine,  was  erected  1785-1786  on  the  same  site 
on  which  a  temporary  chapel  had  been  erected  in  1771, 
when  the  congregation  was  organized.  Several  other 
churches  existed  in  Baltimore  at  the  time  Otterbein 
Church  was  erected,  but  all  have  either  rebuilt  or  re- 
located, leaving  Otterbein  have  the  distinction  of  being 
the  oldest  church  edifice  in  the  city.  Organized  as  an 
independent   German    Evangelical    Reformed    Church   in 

1771,  the  same  congregation  became  United  Brethren 
when  the  United  Brethren  denomination  was  launched  in 
1800,  and  pastor  Otterbein  was  elected  to  the  bishopric. 

The  first  pastor  of  the  congregation  was  Benedict 
Schwope,  who  served  from  1771  to  1774.  He  was  a  warm 
friend  of  Methodists  Robert  Strawbridge  and  Francis 
Asbury.  Several  Methodist  histories  state,  "There  is  a 
strong  tradition  that  Strawbridge  received  ordination  from 
Rev.  Mr.  Schwope."  On  Monday,  June  22,  1772,  Schwope 
loaned  his  chapel  to  Francis  Asbury  as  a  place  for  the 
organization  of  the  Lo\'ely  Lane  Meeting  House  con- 
gregation   ("Mother   Church   of   American   Methodism"). 

Desiring  to  follow  the  frontiersmen  into  Kentucky, 
Schwope  resigned  his  pastorate  in  1774,  but  not  before 
he,  with  assistance  from  Asbury,  had  prevailed  upon 
Philip  William  Otterbein  to  accept  the  Baltimore 
pastorate.  Otterbein  preached  his  first  sermon  in  the 
chapel  on  May  4,  1774,  and  remained  as  pastor  until  his 
death,  Nov.  17,  1813.  His  ashes  repose  in  the  adjoining 
churchyard. 

The  temporary  chapel  of  1771  soon  gave  way  to  the 
present  edifice,  erected  in  1785-1786,  on  the  same  site. 
Bricks  for  the  massive  walls  were  brought  from  England 
as  ballast  in  the  famous  chpper  ships.  All  nails  used  in 
the  building  were  hand-made.  The  bells  were  cast  in 
Bremen  and  were  installed  in  1789.  The  bells  rang  at  the 
close  of  all  America's  wars  since  their  installation.  Before 
Baltimore  had  a  fire  alarm  system,  the  bells  called  volun- 
teer firemen  to  fight  fires.  The  big  bell  tolled  for  the 
deaths  of  our  martyred  presidents:  Lincoln,  Garfield, 
McKinley,  and  Kennedy.  In  keeping  with  instmctions 
from  Otterbein,  the  bells  have  never  been  rung  on  Good 
Friday.  When  immigrant  ships  arrived  from  Germany,  the 
bells  rang  a  welcome  while  residents  of  "Little  Germany" 
— the  community  around  the  church — rushed  to  the  near- 
by docks  to  greet  the  newcomers.  The  German  language 
was  used  in  the  services  until  1918.  Many  outstanding 
citizens  of  Baltimore  have  been  members  of  the  church. 
Five  pastors  became  bishops  and  several  became  editors  of 
German  literature. 

In  1825  the  cemetery  surrounding  the  church  was  filled 
and  ground  was  purchased  for  a  new  one  "way  out  in 
the  country" — eight  blocks  west. 

In  addition   to  loaning  the   Methodists   the   chapel   in 

1772,  and  the  appeal  to  Otterbein  by  Asbury  in   1774, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OTTERBEIN    COLLEGE 


Otterbein  Church,  Baltimore.  Maryland 


there  are  other  facts  that  indicate  the  close  rapport  of 
their  respective  groups  in  the  late  1700's  and  early  1800's. 
When  Asbury  was  consecrated  as  a  bishop  in  1784,  he 
requested  that  Otterbein  should  have  a  part  in  the 
ceremony.  Asbury  and  Otterbein  had  many  consultations 
on  ways  and  means  of  merging  their  groups  into  a  united 
church,  even  to  the  working  out  of  a  proposed  disciphne. 
The  long  absences  of  Asbury  from  the  city,  the  increasing 
age  of  Otterbein,  and  tlie  barriers  of  language  seem  to 
have  been  the  factors  that  prevented  the  union. 

When  Otterbein  finally  yielded  to  a  demand  by  his 
German  associates  that  he  ordain  them,  he  insisted  that  a 
Methodist  preacher  should  assist  him.  Asbury  was  out  of 
the  city,  so  William  Ryland,  a  nearby  Methodist  pastor, 
was  brought  in  for  the  ceremony.  This  was  in  October, 
1813.  Several  weeks  later  Bishop  Otterbein  died  and  the 
English  sennon  at  his  funeral  was  preached  by  Ryland. 
Asbury  was  out  of  the  city  and  when  he  heard  of  the 
death  of  his  friend,  several  weeks  later,  he  wept  like  a 
child  and  delivered  a  classic  eulogy.  In  March  1814,  when 
the  Methodist  conference  met  in  Baltimore,  a  memorial 
session  was  held  in  Otterbein  Church,  with  Asbury  de- 
livering the  sermon. 

Otterbein  Church  is  the  only  church  building  in  the 
Baltimore  area,  still  standing,  where  it  is  definitely  known 
that  Asbury  preached — not  once,  but  many  times. 

P.  E.  Holdcraf t,  Pennsylvania  Conference  ( UB ) .  1938. 

Paul  E.  Holdcraft 


OTTERBEIN  COLLEGE,  Westerville,  Ohio,  first  institution 
of  higher  learning  established  by  the  United  Brethren 
IN  Christ.  Otterbein  University  (changed  to  College  in 
1917),  resulted  from  action  taken  by  the  old  Scioto  Con- 
ference in  the  fall  of  1846.  The  first  Board  of  Trustees  met 
in  Westerville,  Ohio,  on  April  26,  1847,  and  decided  to 
open  on  Sept.  1,  in  two  small  buildings  purchased  from 
the  Blendon  Seminary,  a  defunct  Methodist  institution. 
Otterbein  claims  to  be  the  first  college  in  America  to 
begin  as  a  coeducational  institution,  and  the  first  to  em- 
ploy women  on  its  faculty.  The  first  two  graduates  of  the 
university  were  women.  No  student  has  ever  been  denied 
admission  to  Otterbein  on  grounds  of  sex,  race,  color, 
or  creed. 

Nine  conferences  of  The  E.U.B.  Church  elected  twenty- 
four  trustees  to  the  governing  board.  Ten  trustees  were 
elected  by  the  Alumni  Association,  and  ten  at  large.  Otter- 
bein secured  a  charter  from  the  State  of  Ohio  in  1849 
and  granted  its  first  degrees  in  1857.  Graduating  in  the 
second  class  (1858)  was  Benjamin  Hanby,  the  song- 
writer, son  of  Bishop  Willlam  Hanby,  and  one  of  Otter- 
bein's  most  famous  alumni. 

For  more  than  sixty  years,  Otterbein  University  fought 
a  constant  battle  against  debt,  with  student  enrollment 
fluctuating  between  fifty  and  200.  The  Civil  War,  a  dis- 
astrous fire  which  destroyed  the  Old  Main  Building  in 
1870,  and  two  national  financial  panics  threatened  to  snuff 
out  her  feeble  flame  of  learning.  Due  largely,  however,  to 


OTTERBEIN    PRESS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


the  heroic  efforts  of  Presidents  Lewis  Davis  ( 1850-57  and 
1860-71),  Henry  A.  Thompson  (1872-86),  Henry  Garst 
(1886-89),  T.  J.  Sanders  (1891-1901),  and  George  Scott 
(1901-04),  the  university  maintained  an  excellent  faculty, 
produced  outstanding  graduates,  and  finally  achieved 
economic  stability. 

Under  the  vigorous  leadership  of  Presidents  Lewis 
Bookwalter  (1904-09)  and  Walter  G.  Clippinger  (1909- 
39),  Otterbein  College  enjoyed  three  decades  of  unprece- 
dented prosperity  and  growth.  Eight  new  buildings  were 
erected,  and  an  endowment  of  a  $1,000,000  was  created. 
Then  the  successive  blows  of  world  war  and  depression 
brought  this  era  to  a  painful  halt.  President  J.  R.  Howe 
(1939-45)  struggled  against  dwindling  enrollments  and 
diminished  resources  to  hold  the  college  to  its  course. 
Under  President  J.  Gordon  Howard  (1946-57),  Otter- 
bein began  to  share  in  the  phenomenal  growth  of  post- 
war American  higher  education.  In  1967  the  student  body 
numbered  1,530,  the  faculty  103,  the  total  number  of 
college  employees  over  300.  The  operating  budget  was 
over  $3,500,000;  the  endowment  $3,051,973;  and  the 
physical  plant  $5,934,714  (forty-four  acres  and  forty-one 
buildings). 

When  the  Association  of  Ohio  Colleges  first  adopted 
minimum  standards  for  college  work,  Otterbein  was  one 
of  fifteen  Ohio  institutions  to  meet  the  requirements. 
She  became  a  member  of  the  North  Central  Association 
in  1912  and  of  the  Association  of  American  Colleges  in 
1915. 

Lynn  W.  Turner 

OTTERBEIN  PRESS,  a  publishing  house  of  The  E.U.B. 
Church,  located  at  230  W.  Fifth  Street,  Dayton,  Ohio. 
The  first  publishing  house  of  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ  was  established  in  a  dwelling  on 
the  west  side  of  North  Court  Street  in  Circleville,  Ohio 
in  1834.  The  Religious  Telescope  and  other  church  publi- 
cations were  issued  from  Circleville  until  1853,  when  the 
U.  B.  Publishing  House  was  moved  to  Dayton,  Ohio. 

A  four  story  building  was  erected  for  pubfishing  pur- 
poses on  the  northeast  corner  of  Fourth  and  Main  Streets 
in  downtown  Dayton.  It  was  enlarged  on  numerous  oc- 
casions (1869,  1884,  1891,  and  1903).  In  1905  the  first 
section  of  a  fourteen  story  office  building  was  built  on  the 
original  site.  A  second  section  was  added  in  1921  and 
included  a  tower  with  six  additional  stories.  Early  in  the 
twentieth  century  land  in  downtown  Dayton  was  too 
valuable  to  be  used  as  a  factory  location.  A  site  was  pur- 
chased on  West  Fifth  Street  and  the  present  structure. 
The  Otterbein  Press,  was  built  in  1915. 

The  business  for  many  years  was  handicapped  with  a 
heavy  indebtedness,  partly  due  to  its  own  expansions  and 
also  from  the  erection  and  operation  of  the  office  building. 
The  office  building  was  eventually  sold  in  1952  and  the 
assets  were  placed  in  an  investment  fund  for  ministerial 
pensions. 

The  profits  of  the  publishing  enterprise  were  designated 
solely  for  preacher  pensions.  Since  1947,  a  total  of  $2,071,- 
000  had  been  transferred  from  profits  for  this  purpose.  In 
each  of  the  two  years  1966  and  1967,  The  Evangelical 
Press  and  The  Otterbein  Press  gave  jointly  a  total  of 
$415,000  for  pensions.  After  the  formation  of  the  Church 
Services  Division  of  the  Board  of  Publication  in  1963,  a 
sum  of  $1,370,000  was  transferred  from  The  Otterbein 
Press    assets    to   erect  and   equip    the   three    story   office 


building  and  historical  wing  at  140  South  Perry  Street, 
Dayton,  Ohio.  The  net  worth  of  The  Otterbein  Press 
(Aug.  31,  1967)  amounted  to  $3,625,000  and  there  was 
an  employment  of  230  persons.  Current  sales  were  listed 
in  1967  at  $4,700,000.  The  Press  itself,  as  an  agency  of 
The  E.U.B.  Church,  went  under  the  Board  of  Publications 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church  in  1968.  In  1969  Otter- 
bein Press  was  sold  along  with  the  Cincinnati  and  Harris- 
burg  plants. 

Records  of  the  Board  of  Publication,  EUB,  in  the  Commis- 
sion  on  Archives   and    History.  John   H.    Ness,   Jr. 

OUR  CHURCH  RECORD  (1894-1910)  was  the  weekly 
periodical  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the 
M.P.  Church  published  by  J.  F.  McCulloch  in  Greens- 
boro, N.  C.  It  was  an  outgrowth  of  The  Central  Protestant 
and  was  the  only  publication  sponsored  by  a  specific  con- 
ference in  the  M.P.  Church.  Our  Church  Record  was 
started  with  the  view  of  arousing  interest  in  the  need  for 
a  conference  educational  institution.  In  1898  there  were 
several  issues  devoted  to  the  history  of  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Church  in  North  Carolina  which  provide 
valuable  material  for  the  researcher  interested  in  the 
Methodist  Protestant  movement.  In  1910  the  name  of 
the  paper  was  changed  to  The  Methodist  Protestant 
Herald. 

J.  Elwood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  (Greensboro, 
1939);  scattered  issues  of  Our  Church  Record. 

Ralph  Hardee  RrvES 


Gideon  Ouseley 

OUSELEY,  GIDEON  (1762-1839),  Irish  preacher.  A  fox- 
hunting, drinking,  gambling  country  gentleman  from 
County  Galway,  he  was  converted  in  1791  through  Meth- 
odist meetings  begun  in  his  home  town  of  Dunmore  by 
soldiers  from  the  Royal  Irish  Dragoons.  He  became  a 
local  preacher,  but  his  proficiency  in  the  Irish  language 
led  to  him  being  called  out  by  the  1799  Conference  with 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OVERSEAS   MISSIONARY   SOCIETY 


Charles  Graham  and  James  McQuigg  as  a  General 
Missionary  over  the  whole  of  Ireland.  For  forty  years  he 
exercised  this  unique  public  ministry,  preaching  in  fairs 
and  markets  everywhere  with  great  evangelistic  success. 
Many  other  preachers  were  appointed  from  time  to  time 
to  help  in  this  Irish  Mission,  but  most  of  them  had  to 
retire,  broken  in  health  by  the  hardships  they  had  to  en- 
dure. Ouseley  continued  to  preach  and  travel  until  a 
few  months  before  his  death.  A  memorial  church  to  him 
is  in  MountmeUick,  County  Laois,  the  town  in  which  he 
preached  his  last  sermon. 

C.  H.  Crookshank,  Methodism  in  Ireland.  1885-88. 
R.  H.  Gallagher,  Pioneer  Preachers.  1965. 
F.  JefFery,  Irish  Methodism.  1964. 

William    Reilly,    A    Memorial   of   the   Ministerial   Life    of   the 

Rev.  Gideon  Ouseley.  Irish  Missionary.  London:  John  Mason, 

1847.  Frederick  Jeffery 


Albert  C.  Outler 

OUTLER,   ALBERT    COOK    (1908-  ),    American    min- 

ister and  theologian,  was  born  at  Thomasville,  Ga.,  on 
Nov.  17,  1908.  He  received  his  A.B.  degree  from  Wof- 
FORD  College  in  1928,  and  the  D.D.  there  in  1952. 
Other  degrees  are  from  Emory  University,  B.D.,  1933; 
Yale,  Ph.D.,  1938;  Kalamazoo  College,  D.D.,  1962;  Ly- 
coming College,  L.H.D.,  1964;  Notre  Dame,  LL.D., 
1966;  Ohio  Wesleyan,  L.H.D.,  1967;  General  Theolog- 
ical Seminary,  D.S.T.,  1967;  Emory  University,  Litt.D., 
1968.  His  wife  is  Carlotta  Grace  Smith,  whom  he  mar- 
ried in  1931  and  they  have  two  children. 

Dr.  Outler  sei-ved  certain  appointments  in  the  South 
Georgia  Conference  and  then  took  the  post  of  instructor 
in  theology  at  Duke  University,  1938-39,  becoming  a 
full  professor  and  serving  there  until  1945.  He  was  an 
associate  professor  at  Yale,  1945-48,  the  Dwight  professor 


of  theology  there,  1948-51,  at  which  time  he  went  to 
Southern  Methodist  University  in  Dallas,  Texas, 
where  he  became  professor  of  theology. 

He  has  been  a  delegate  to  the  Methodist  Church's 
Third  World  Council  in  Faith  and  Order  at  Lund, 
Sweden;  a  Methodist  delegate  to  the  Third  Assembly 
of  the  World  Council  of  Churches  in  New  Delhi; 
vice-chairman  of  the  Fourth  World  Council  of  Faith  and 
Order,  Montreal,  1963;  observer  at  the  Second  Vatican 
Council;  a  delegate  (North  Texas  Conference)  to  the 
General  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church,  1960, 
'64,  and  '68;  vice-president  of  the  Commission  on  Ecu- 
menical AfJairs  and  the  chairman  of  the  Ecumenical  Study 
and  Liaison  Committee  of  1964.  He  is  the  past  president 
of  the  American  Theological  Society  and  of  the  American 
Society  of  Church  History. 

Among  his  books  are:  A  Christian  Context  for  Coun- 
seling, 1946;  Colleges,  Faculties  and  Religion,  1949; 
Psychotherapy  and  the  Christian  Message,  1954;  The 
Confessions  and  Enchiridion  of  St.  Augustine,  1955;  The 
Christian  Tradition  and  the  Unity  We  Seek,  1957;  That 
the  World  May  Believe,  1966;  A  Methodist  Observer  at 
Vatican  II,  1967;  Who  Trusts  in  God;  Musings  on  the 
Meaning  of  Providence.  1968.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
editorial  committee  of  A  Library  of  Protestant  Thought, 
and  also  the  author  of  John  Wesley  (1964).  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Editorial  Board  of  the  Wesley  Works  Project 
and  currently  is  serving  as  chairman  of  the  theological 
study  Commission  on  Doctrine  and  Doctrinal  Standards 
authorized  to  study  Part  II  of  the  Plan  of  Union  by  the 
General  Conference  and  other  pertinent  references  in  the 
Discipline  and  to  bring  back  to  the  General  Conference  of 
1972  its  report  on  doctrine  and  doctrinal  standards  in 
The  United  Methodist  Church.  He  delivered  the  uniting 
ceremony  sermon  at  Dallas,  Texas,  before  the  combined 
General  Conferences  of  The  Methodist  Church  and  the 
E.U.B.  Church.  He  is  a  Fellow,  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  and  a  member  of  The  Academy  of 
Te.\as. 


Who's  Who  in  America. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


OVERSEAS  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY,  New  Zealand,  has  its 
headquarters  in  Auckland.  "Overseas"  was  foimerly  "For- 
eign." In  1856,  when  a  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference 
was  constituted  for  Australasia,  its  responsibilities  included 
the  care  of  the  existing  missions  in  Tonga  and  Fiji. 
When  Methodist  work  was  reopened  in  Samoa,  and 
established  later  in  New  Britain  (1875),  Papua  (1891), 
and  the  Solomon  Islands  (1902),  Methodist  men  and 
women  from  New  Zealand  shared  with  .Australians  in 
the  labors  there.  After  a  New  Zealand  Conference  had 
been  formed,  affiliated  with  the  Australasian  General 
Conference,  a  minister  in  circuit  work  was  regularly  ap- 
pointed as  honorary  Conference  secretary  for  Foreign 
Missions.  He  and  other  representatives  from  New  Zealand 
attended  some  sessions  of  the  Board  of  Missions  at  Sydney. 
In  1913,  the  various  divisions  of  the  Methodist  Church 
in  the  country  were  united,  and  the  Methodist  Church 
of  New  Zealand  became  independent  of  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Australasia.  Plans  then  begun  for  a  division 
of  the  overseas  mission  work  were  delayed  b\'  the  First 
World  War.  In  1922,  the  centenar\'  year  of  New  Zealand 
Methodism,  the  Solomon  Islands  Mission  District  was 
separated  to  be  the  sole  overseas  missionary  responsibility 


OWEN,    ISAAC 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


of  the  Methodist  Church  of  New  Zealand.  In  anticipation 
of  this  step,  the  Methodist  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of 
New  Zealand  was  constituted.  The  first  full-time  General 
Secretary  was  W.  A.  Sinclair,  set  apart  in  1919.  He  was 
succeeded  by  A.  H.  Scrivin  in  1932. 

Except  for  financial  and  staffing  setbacks  during  the 
depression  of  the  1930's  and  for  the  occupation  of  the 
Solomon  Islands  by  the  Japanese  during  the  Second  World 
War,  the  work  of  the  society  has  gradually  extended. 

In  1953,  the  missions  boards  in  Australia  and  New 
Zealand  entered  into  an  agreement  for  cooperation,  which 
resulted  in  New  Zealand  Methodism  taking  an  active 
share  in  a  newly  founded  mission  in  the  New  Guinea 
Highlands. 

C.  T.  J.  Luxton,  Isles  of  Solomon.  Methodist  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  New  Zealand,  1955.  Stanley  G.  Andrews 

OWEN,  ISAAC  (1809-1866),  pioneer  American  clergy- 
man in  California,  began  life  in  Vermont  but  two 
years  later  was  taken  by  his  parents  to  Indiana.  Coming 
under  the  influence  of  Methodist  circuit  riders,  he  was 
converted  at  age  seventeen,  and  admitted  to  the  Indiana 
Conference  in  1835.  While  stationed  at  Greencastle, 
he  took  private  instruction  from  professors  at  Indiana 
Asbury  University  (now  DePauvv),  and  also  at  Blooming- 
ton,  seat  of  the  state  university.  So  tutored,  he  acquired 
a  critical  knowledge  of  the  Greek  Testament.  Indiana 
Asbury  recognized  his  abilities  as  an  organizer  and  orator, 
employed  him  four  \ears  as  financial  agent  and  conferred 
on  him  an  honorary  D.D. 

A  second  career  opened  for  him  in  1849  when  he  was 
appointed  the  first  missionary  of  the  M.E.  Church  to  Cah- 
fornia.  Joining  the  gold  rush,  he  and  Mrs.  Owen,  with  an 
infant  daughter,  took  the  long  overland  trip  westward  to 
Sacramento  where  they  were  sheltered  in  Sutter's  Fort 
until  a  frame  parsonage  could  be  built.  They  lived  in  it 
a  scant  month  before  it  was  swept  away  by  the  flooded 
American  River.  Escaping  to  San  Francisco,  they  later 
established  a  home  at  Santa  Clara  where  Mrs.  Owen  re- 
mained while  her  indefatigable  husband  ranged  over 
mountain  trails  linking  California  settlements.  So  fruitful 
was  his  ministry,  historian  Leon  L.  Loofbourow  char- 
acterized him  as  "the  Francis  Asbury  of  California." 

Isaac  Owen  called  "a  convention"  of  ministers  and  lay- 
men Jan.  6-7,  1851  at  the  Methodist  Church  of  San  Jose 
"to  consult  and  advise"  on  the  "founding  of  an  institution 
of  the  grade  of  a  university."  It  soon  came  into  being, 
was  seated  first  at  San  Jose,  then  Santa  Clara,  and  in 
1924  at  Stockton,  and  is  now  the  University  of  the 
Pacific — oldest  chartered  institution  of  higher  learning 
in  California. 

Owen  had  planned  to  start  a  university  in  California 
before  he  had  left  Indiana,  which  was  sheer  audacity,  for 
in  1850  California  had  but  699  Methodists.  Nevertheless 
Owen's  University  of  the  Pacific  dream  became  reality. 
Its  historian,  Rockwell  D.  Hunt,  says  that  Isaac  Owen 
"more  than  any  other  individual,  as  trustee,  agent,  and 
presiding  elder,  may  with  good  reason  be  called  the 
founder  .  .  ."  But  closely  associated  with  him  were  Wil- 
liam Taylor  and  Edward  Bannister. 

On  Jan.  16,  1850  the  ship  Arkansas  arrived  in  San 
Francisco  Bay  with  $2,000  worth  of  books  which  Owen, 
in  the  honored  Wesleyan  tradition,  had  purchased  before 
starting  west.  With  the  help  of  William  Taylor,  they  were 


put  on  sale — establishing  the  first  continuously  existing 
bookstore  in  California. 

In  1860  Owen  was  put  in  charge  of  the  Sacramento 
District,  and  he  and  most  of  his  family  made  the  weary- 
ing four-day  trip  by  wagon  from  Santa  Clara  to  the  state 
capital.  There  Mrs.  Owen  soon  died.  When  Owen  was 
elected  to  the  General  Conference  of  1856,  he  could 
not  spare  time  for  the  trip  east,  but  upon  his  election 
again  in  1864,  he  did  go  to  Philadelphia.  Later,  while 
in  charge  of  the  San  Francisco  District,  what  appeared 
to  be  a  trifling  wound  on  his  hand  became  serious  as 
erysipelas  set  in.  He  died  Feb.  9,  1866,  and  Bishop  Simp- 
son later  recorded,  "no  man  did  more  for  laying  the 
foundation  of  the  Church  on  the  Pacific  Coast  than  did 
Isaac  Owen." 

C.  V.  Anthony,  Fifty  Years.  1901. 

R.  D.  Hunt,  College  of  the  Pacific.  1951. 

L.  L.  Loofljourow,  In  Search  of  God's  Gold.  1950. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1881.  Leland  D.  Case 

OWENS,  THOMAS  (17?  -1808),  British  pioneer  mission- 
ary to  the  West  Indies,  was  an  Irishman,  whose  date  and 
place  of  birth  are  uncertain.  He  became  a  Wesleyan 
traveling  preacher  in  1785,  and  was  one  of  the  earliest 
missionaries  appointed  to  the  West  Indies.  A  man  of  high 
character  and  personal  charm,  he  was  offered  the  Anglican 
living  (£800  per  annum)  at  Carriacou  by  Governor- 
General  Matthews,  but  refused  it  in  order  to  continue 
ministering  to  the  slaves.  He  served  ably  in  Grenada, 
St.  Vincent,  Tortola,  St.  Kitts,  etc.,  returned  to  Britain 
in  1803,  and  died  in  1808. 

OWENS,  THOMAS  (1787-1868),  American  pioneer 
preacher  of  the  deep  South,  noted  for  his  exuberant  humor 
and  irregular,  colorful  words  and  actions.  He  was  born 
near  Charleston,  S.  C,  on  Jan.  8,  1787,  the  son  of 
Thomas  and  Frances  Owens.  His  parents,  who  were 
Methodists,  removed  to  the  Mississippi  Territory,  it  is 
thought  in  1803.  Tommy  Owens — as  he  was  always  called 
— led  a  rather  wild  life  in  his  youth,  addicted  to  profanity, 
Sabbath  breaking,  occasional  drunkenness,  and  horse- 
racing.  On  one  occasion,  while  riding  an  impromptu  race, 
he  was  thrown  over  his  horse's  head  and  for  a  time  his 
life  was  despaired  of.  He  would  frequently  comment  after- 
ward, "The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard." 

Through  concerned  prayers  and  later  while  attending 
a  quarterly  conference  communion  service,  he  was  con- 
verted and  entered  upon  his  new  life  with  great  delight. 
He  began  to  enjoy  discharging  churchly  duties,  then  be- 
came an  exhorter,  knowing  instinctively  how  to  call  for 
penitents,  and  how  to  manage  the  altar  services — which 
he  did  with  marked  success.  After  a  successful  meeting 
in  his  own  church,  he  and  one  of  his  co-workers  de- 
cided to  go  to  Greenville,  Miss.,  not  far  away,  and  there 
they  soon  organized  a  church  with  about  sixty  members. 
The  court  house  was  used  for  worship. 

Tommy  Owens  was  small  and  thin,  and  when  the  Mis- 
sissippi Conference  was  organized  on  Nov.  1,  1813,  at 
the  home  of  Newitt  Vick,  he  was  admitted,  though  over 
some  opposition  because  of  "his  unusual  flow  of  wit  and 
humor."  Also  he  seemed  to  lack  requisite  physical  strength. 
He  was,  however,  admitted  and  gave  fifty-five  years  to  the 
ministry — much  longer  than  most  of  the  robust  brethren 
who  had  doubted  his  endurance  in  conference  life. 

His  irrepressible  humor  often  got  him  into  trouble  with 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OWSTON   FERRY   CASE 


the  more  sober  conference  brethren.  Taking  part  in  a 
debate  once  and  greatly  opposing  ministers  marrying 
and  bringing  their  young  wives  to  conference,  he  ended 
by  saying,  "They  come  riding  up  to  conference  beside 
their  young  wives  with  all  the  importance  of  a  Bishop." 

Bishop  R.  R.  Roberts,  who  was  presiding,  interrupted 
and  said,  "Brother  Owens,  please  tell  the  Conference  how 
important  a  Bishop  is."  "Well,  as  to  that.  Sir,"  Owens 
replied,  "I  do  not  know  that  I  can  decide;  but  they  are 
very  important  in  their  place.  To  say  the  least  of  it,  I 
think  those  who  marry  before  they  leam  how  to  preach 
might  have  the  prudence  and  modesty  with  their  young 
wives  that  a  cow  has  with  her  young  calf;  hide  them  out 
awhile  before  they  bring  them  to  conference."  He  himself 
later  married  Mrs.  Rebecca  Bass  Calvit  on  Jan.  8,  1828. 

On  one  occasion,  the  conference  voted  to  have  the 
bishop  reprimand  Brother  Owens  for  his  levity  in  the 
pulpit.  The  bishop  did  so  and  then  kindly  called  upon 
Brother  Owens  to  lead  in  prayer.  Owens  said,  "O  Lord, 
Thy  knowest  that  this  world's  a  whirligig — a  whirligig, 
O  Lord.  Amen."  (Lazenby's  History  of  Methodism  in 
Alabama  and  Mississippi,  p.  88) 

The  grandmother  of  this  writer  said  she  heard  him 
once  when  she  was  quite  young  and  remembered  that  the 
congregation  sang  the  hymn,  "Oh  How  Happy  Are  They," 
with  the  lines  (which  Methodist  Hymnal  Commissions 
have  long  excised!),  "I  rose  higher  and  higher  on  a  chariot 
of  fire,  and  the  moon  it  was  under  my  feet";  Brother 
Owens  stopped  the  music  and  said,  "Ah,  Brethren,  that 
was  high  flying  for  you." 

On  another  occasion  there  was  a  debate  concerning 
uniformity  in  dress  for  the  preachers.  "Most  of  the  South- 
em  preachers  had  already  abandoned  the  short  trousers, 
knee  buckles,  and  long  stockings  which  were  still  worn 
by  both  of  our  bishops  now  present  with  us."  So  wrote 
historian  John  G.  Jones  in  1826.  Most  of  the  older  min- 
isters continued  to  use  and  contend  especially  for  the  old- 
fashioned  Methodist  coat.  "But,"  added  Jones,  "our 
younger  ministers  soon  quietly  gave  up  the  keel-bottomed 
coat  with  its  standing  collar,  for  the  neat-fitting  frock 
coat.  J.  R.  Lambuth  and  Thomas  Owens  were  the  first 
to  venture  into  our  Annual  Conference  with  the  ordinary 
frock  coat.  Some  of  the  old  brethren  looked  at  them 
reprovingly.  .  .  .  They  were  soon  followed  by  most  of 
the  young  men  in  the  Conference,  and  ultimately  by  most 
of  the  older  ministers  too."  (Jones,  ii,  119). 

As  the  Mississippi  Conference  covered  the  western  and 
southern  part  of  Alabama  in  those  days,  Owens  served 
appointments  in  Alabama,  as  well  as  in  Mississippi,  which 
later  became  a  state  in  1818.  He  lived  to  be  eighty-one 
years  of  age,  dying  at  his  home  at  Rocky  Springs,  Miss.,  on 
July  1,  1868,  and  the  Mississippi  and  Alabama  Confer- 
ences are  proud  today  to  claim  him  as  one  of  their  pio- 
neers. 

J.  G.  Jones,  Mississippi  Conference.  1887-1908. 

M.  E.  Lazenby,  Alabama  and  West  Florida.  1966.       N.  B.  H. 

OWENSBORO,  KENTUCKY,  U.S.A.  Settle  Memorial 
Church.  The  first  Methodist  Society  was  organized  in 
Owensboro  (then  Owensborough ) ,  in  1833.  From  this 
Society  evolved  the  present  Settle  Memorial  Church. 
Albert  H.  Redford,  the  second  pastor  of  the  Methodist 
Society  in  Owensborough  in  1839,  was  a  leading  figure 
in  Kentucky  Methodism  for  forty  years.  He  served  as 
book  agent  for  the  General  Conference  and  was  the 


author  of  The  Life  and  Times  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh  and  a 
three-volume  History  of  Methodism  in  Kentucky. 

Ovvensboro's  first  Methodist  church  building  was 
erected  in  1851  and  it  was  here  that  David  Morton,  later 
the  first  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  served  from  1858  to  1860.  Sixty- 
three  years  later  Bachman  Gladstone  Hodge  (elected 
bishop  in  1956)  became  pastor  of  Settle  Memorial. 

Settle  Chapel,  the  second  building  occupied  by  the 
Owensboro  church,  and  Settle  Memorial,  the  third  and 
present  edifice,  were  named  for  Henry  C.  Settle,  who 
served  the  congregation  from  1866  to  1870  and  again 
from  1877  to  1881.  Settle  Chapel  was  completed  in  1881, 
during  Settle's  second  assignment  to  Owensboro,  and 
Settle  Memorial  in  1907.  The  Century  of  Progress,  pub- 
lished by  the  Historical  Society  of  the  Louisville  Con- 
ference, used  the  one  word  "brilliant,"  to  describe  Settle. 

In  1970  Settle  Memorial  reported  1,992  members, 
property  valued  at  $1,026,795,  and  a  total  of  S96,486 
raised  for  aU  purposes. 


General   Minutes. 


Hugh   O.   Potter 


OWINGS,  RICHARD  (1738-1786),  first  native  born  local 
preacher  in  American  Methodism,  was  born  in  Baltimore 
County,  Md.,  Nov.  13,  1738,  son  of  Joshua  and  Mary 
(Cockey)  Owings.  In  1770  he  accompanied  Robert 
Strawbridge,  under  whom  he  was  converted,  on  a 
preaching  mission  to  Georgetown  (now  part  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia),  and  "crossing  the  Potomac  river, 
planted  societies  in  Fairfax  county,  Virginia."  When 
Strawbridge  died  in  1781,  while  visiting  at  the  home  of  a 
convert,  Joseph  Wheeler,  the  funeral  seiTnon  was  preached 
by  Owings. 

He  was  appointed  in  1775  to  the  Baltimore  Circuit. 
His  name  appears  in  the  Minutes  as  "Owen"  and  "Owens," 
incorrect  forms  of  the  surname  which  he  did  not  use.  The 
family  name  is  perpetuated  in  Owings  Mill.  The  Minutes 
of  1786  list  him  as  a  deacon  appointed  to  the  Fairf.ix 
(Virginia)  Circuit. 

Thomas  Scott  recalls  that  Owings  "was  nearly  six  feet 
in  height,  slender,  stooped  in  his  shoulders,  sandy  hair 
and  florid  complexion."  He  died  on  Oct.  8,  1786  and 
was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  Leesburg's  "Old  Stone 
Church."  His  will,  dated  Oct.  5,  1786,  and  probated  five 
days  later  on  Oct.  10,  was  witnessed  by  John  Littlejohn, 
Samuel  Murrey  and  Thomas  Edwards. 

Frederick  E.  Maser,  The  Dramatic  Story  of  Early  American 
Methodism.  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C:  Association  of  Methodist 
Historical  Societies,  1966. 

Thomas  Scott,  "Journal."  Ms.  owned  by  Dr.  Lawrence  Sher- 
wood, Oakland,  Md. 

Melvin  Lee  Steadman,  Jr.,  Leesburg's  Old  Stone  Church. 
W.  W.  Sweet,  Virginia.  19.55.  Walter  M.  Lockett.  Jr. 

OWSTON  FERRY  CASE.  In  May,  1874,  the  perpetually 
smoldering  relations  between  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
connection  and  the  Church  of  England  once  more  burst 
into  flame.  The  vicar  of  Owston  Ferry,  G.  E.  Smith,  de- 
clined to  allow  the  title  "The  Reverend"  to  appear  on  the 
tombstone  of  the  daughter  of  a  Wesleyan  minister,  the 
Rev.  H.  Keet  (Anglican  incumbents  have  some  control 
over  the  form  of  memorials  erected  in  their  churchyards ) . 
The  Archibshop  of  Canterbun,',  A.  C.  Tait,  in  a  letter  to 
The  Times  on  Aug.  11,  1874,  agreed  with  the  Wesleyans 


OXFORD,   ENGLAND 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


that  such  an  objection  ought  not  to  have  been  made,  but 
the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Christopher  Wordsworth,  upheld 
Smith's  action  on  the  ground  that  the  Wesleyan  ministers, 
not  being  in  what  he  called  Holy  Orders,  had  no  right 
to  the  title  of  "Reverend,"  and  that  in  any  case  this  was 
contrary  both  to  the  wishes  of  John  Wesley  and  of  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference  regulations  of  1793.  In 
the  previous  year  the  bishop  had  issued  a  "Pastoral  to  the 
Wesleyan  Methodists  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,"  inviting 
them  to  the  return  to  what  he  called  the  Mother  Church, 
according  to  the  principles  of  their  founder. 

Very  vehement  controversy  followed  both  these  actions, 
and  the  Wesleyan  Conference  of  1874  manifested  a  great 
deal  of  anti-Anglican  feeling.  Smith's  decision  regarding 
the  tombstone  was  upheld  in  the  ecclesiastical  court  of 
arches  but  was  overruled  by  the  court  of  appeal,  the 
privy  council.  One  result  of  all  this  was  Osborne  Morgan's 
Burial  Law  Amendment  Bill  of  1880,  which  Bishop 
Wordsworth  bitterly  opposed  as  a  bill  which  would  "im- 
peril the  existence  of  the  Church  of  England."  One  in- 
dignant rural  rector  aiTned  his  flock  with  pitchforks  to 
keep  the  dissenters  out  of  his  churchyard.  Nevertheless, 
the  bill  became  law,  enabling  dissenting  ministers  to  hold 
their  own  services,  after  due  notice,  in  the  parish  church- 
yard. This  act  (43  and  44  Victoria  c.  41)  and  subsequent 
clarifications  in  1900,  brought  to  an  end  what  B.  L.  Man- 
ning called  "the  dreariest  and  most  unedifying  of  all  the 
campaigns  in  the  long  war  between  the  Establishment  and 
Dissent." 

B.  L.  Manning,  Tlie  Dissenting  Deputies.  London,  1952. 

Maldwyn  L.  Edwards 

OXFORD,  England,  Wesley  Memorial  Church.  Wesley 
severed  his  connection  with  the  spiritual  life  of  Oxford 
University  when  he  "delivered  his  soul"  to  its  members  in 
Great  St.  Mary's  Church,  on  Aug.  24,  1744.  His  private 
diary  shows  that  at  the  time  of  his  conversion  he  was  in 
touch  with  small  religious  groups  of  townspeople  in  Ox- 
ford, where  they  probably  formed  the  first  Methodist 
Society.  Oxfordshire  was  assigned  to  the  London  District 
by  the  Conference  of  1746,  but  in  1748  it  became  a 
separate  circuit.  In  1765,  Thomas  Tobias  was  stationed 
as  "travelling  preacher"  in  the  Oxford  Circuit,  since  which 
time  there  has  been  a  regular  succession  of  Methodist 
preachers  in  the  town.  When  Wesley  visited  Oxford,  he 
usually  preached  in  private  houses,  and  his  congregations 
must  have  been  small.  In  1773  it  was  said  that  Methodists 
in  and  around  Oxford  worshiped  with  the  Baptists.  Ten 
years  later,  however,  the  Methodists  had  acquired  a 
meeting  house,  for  Wesley  records  in  his  Journal  for  July 
14,  1783,  "I  preached  in  the  new  preaching-house  at  Ox- 
ford, a  lightsome  cheerful  place."  This  preaching-house  is 
the  building  now  (1969)  numbered  32  and  34  New 
Inn  Hall  Street,  which  was  then  and  still  is  the  property 
of  Brasenose  College,  from  which  it  was  rented  by  the 
Society  for  23s.  8d.  a  year.  Wesley  preached  in  this  build- 
ing on  some  half-dozen  subsequent  occasions,  but  only 
in  1788  and  1789  was  it  too  small  to  hold  the  congregation 
of  both  townspeople  and  students  with  comfort. 

After  Wesley's  death  the  Society,  which  can  never  have 
been  large,  fell  into  decay,  and  there  were  less  than 
twenty  members  in  1799.  However,  the  cause  recovered 
and  in  181.5  was  strong  enough  for  members  to  decide 
to  build  a  chapel.  Donations  were  solicited,  but  came  in 
slowly,  even  though  the  Conference  in   1816  considered 


the  case  of  the  Oxford  Chapel  "extraordinary,"  and  al- 
lowed the  preachers  of  the  Oxford  Circuit  to  send  a  cir- 
cular letter  to  every  superintendent  minister.  There  was 
strong  opposition  in  Oxford  to  the  building  of  a  Meth- 
odist Chapel;  eventually  a  site  a  short  distance  west  of 
the  meeting  house  was  bought  from  Daniel  Harris,  one- 
time Keeper  of  Oxford  Gaol.  His  relations  tried,  though 
unsuccessfully,  to  prevent  the  sale  on  the  grounds  that 
Harris  was  insane  and  incapable  of  managing  his  own 
affairs. 

The  architect  of  the  new  chapel  was  William  Jenkins, 
who  had  taken  up  that  profession  after  twenty-two  years 
as  a  Methodist  preacher.  In  May  1817,  the  foundation 
stone  was  laid  and  the  Chapel  was  opened  in  February 
1818.  The  building  cost  over  £5,000,  most  of  which  was 
raised  by  loans  and  annuities,  which  left  a  heavy  burden 
of  debt.  Nevertheless  a  schoolroom,  used  both  as  a  Day 
School  and  Sunday  school  was  added  at  a  cost  of  over 
£200  in  1819. 

Henry  Goring,  an  Anglican  resident  in  Oxford,  pre- 
sented the  Chapel  trustees  with  £2,000  towards  liquidating 
the  debt  on  the  Chapel,  and  £500  towards  the  school, 
which  was  immediately  improved;  in  1831,  a  new  school 
was  built.  Unfortunately  Church  records  are  sparse  and 
little  is  known  of  this  period  though  there  was  an  active 
Tract  Society  and  a  Missionary  Auxiliary.  Class  meet- 
ings were  still  a  regular  feature  of  Church  life;  in  1846, 
there  were  six  meetings  on  Sunday,  the  first  at  7  a.m., 
three  every  Monday,  Tuesday  and  Thursday,  two  every 
Friday  and  one  every  Wednesday.  Unfortunately  the 
Church  was  divided  by  the  Fly-Sheet  agitation;  teachers 
seceded  from  the  Sunday  school,  taking  their  classes  with 
them,  and  the  congregation  was  depleted,  membership 
falling  from  249  in  1845  to  180  in  1854.  Much  of  the 
Chapel  debt  remained  unpaid,  annual  income  was  usually 
less  than  expenditure,  and  in  1857  when  Benjamin 
Gregory  took  up  his  ministry  at  the  church  he  found 
Oxford  Methodism  in  a  pitiable  condition,  ruined  by  dis- 
sension and  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  Under  his  min- 
istry, things  began  to  change.  Undergraduates,  at  the  risk 
of  offending  the  LIniversity  authorities  flocked  to  hear  his 
sermons,  and  though  local  Anglo-Catholic  Clergy  were 
bitterly  anti-Methodist,  Gregory  forged  close  links  with 
local  Evangelical  Anglican  clergy  as  well  as  with  other 
nonconformist  bodies.  The  financial  position  of  the  Church 
was  further  strengthened  in  1859  by  a  legacy  from  its 
old  benefactor,  Henry  Goring,  but  the  millstone  of  debt 
was  not  cleared  for  another  ten  years.  Originally,  singing 
in  the  Chapel  had  been  accompanied  by  an  orchestra,  but 
a  small  organ  replaced  this  in  1862,  and  a  larger  and  bet- 
ter instrument  was  installed  in  1866.  At  this  time,  the 
Church  had  an  active  Young  Men's  Improvement  Society; 
Day  School  and  Sunday  school  now  seem  to  have  sepa- 
rated, but  both  flourished. 

Until  1871,  membership  of  Oxford  University  had  been 
limited  to  Anglicans,  but  in  that  year  the  religious  tests 
were  abolished.  Perhaps  anticipating  the  growth  of  non- 
confoimity  within  the  University,  the  Conference  of  1871 
appointed  a  special  committee  to  consider  the  building  of 
a  new  chapel,  since  the  old  was  dilapidated,  and  "inade- 
quate to  meet  requirements  of  the  times."  The  Conference 
sanctioned  a  general  appeal  for  funds  and  work  on  the 
new  chapel,  built  in  front  of  the  old,  began  in  1877  during 
the  ministry  of  G.  Maunder,  the  memorial  stones  being 
laid  in  July.  The  architect  was  Charles  Bell  of  London, 
who  adapted  the  Gothic  decorated  style  for  the  new  build- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OXFORD,    ENGLAND 


ing.  A  striking  feature  is  the  carving  of  the  arcade  capitals 
and  other  ornamental  stonework  to  represent  English 
plants.  There  is  a  rose-window  in  the  (ritual)  east  wall, 
and  in  the  west  a  stained  glass  window  representing 
flowers  mentioned  in  the  Bible  and  water  plants,  placed 
there  by  local  Temperance  Societies  in  memory  of 
Maunder,  who  died  before  the  building  was  complete. 
On  the  south  side  is  a  window  representing  Faith,  Hope 
and  Charity  and  another  showing  the  Risen  Lord  between 
Simeon  and  Anna.  The  cost  of  the  new  building  and  of  the 
conversion  of  the  old  into  lecture  and  classrooms 
amounted  to  £13,000.  For  a  time  these  classrooms  were 
also  used  by  a  Girls'  School,  founded  in  1800;  the  old 
Lancasterian  School  having  now  become  a  successful 
high  grade  boys'  school,  though  the  stages  of  its  develop- 
ment are  not  clear. 

Benjamin  Gregory  was  prevented  from  fulfilling  his 
preaching  appointment  at  the  Chapel  during  his  Presi- 
dential year,  and  sent  as  his  substitute  Hugh  Price 
Hughes,  who  made  an  immense  impression.  As  a  result, 
Hughes  accepted  the  ministry  of  Wesley  Memorial  Church 
in  1881,  although  he  knew  Maunder  had  said  that  Oxford 
was  the  poorest  Methodism  he  had  known  and  many  peo- 
ple advised  him  against  the  move.  Nevertheless  Hughes 
spent  three  of  the  most  fruitful  years  of  his  life  at  Oxford, 
despite  the  fact  that  both  University  and  city  were  antag- 
onistic to  Methodism,  while  the  countryside  around  was 
sunk  in  agricultural  depression.  Under  Hughes'  energetic 
leadership,  Methodism  became  a  strong  force  in  the  Ox- 
ford  district.    Hughes   founded    a    Mission    Band,    which 


visited  surrounding  villages  in  wagons  called  "Gospel 
Chariots,"  which  gave  new  life  to  languishing  causes  and 
established  new  ones.  A  powerful  preacher,  Hughes  in- 
creased the  membership  of  the  Church  by  over  a  hundred 
in  his  first  year.  He  took  a  particular  interest  in  under- 
graduates, as  a  result  of  which,  a  Wesleyan  Society  (now 
the  John  Wesley  Society)  was  formed. 

Hughes'  successors  were  for  the  most  part  men  of  signal 
ability  and  scholarship.  They  included  G.  Stringer  Rowe, 
later  House  Governor  of  tlie  Ministerial  Training  College 
at  Headingley;  John  Martin,  who  had  served  with  distinc- 
tion in  the  West  African  Mission  Field,  where  he  wrote 
grammars  of  local  languages,  for  which  he  also  devised 
alphabets;  James  Chapman,  later  principal  of  the  Women's 
Teacher  Training  College,  now  Southlands  College, 
Wimbledon.  During  Chapman's  ministry,  the  Church 
celebrated  the  centenary  of  Wesle>'s  death,  an  event 
which  met  with  friendly  support  from  the  evangelical 
wing  of  the  Anglican  Church,  but  with  bitter  attacks  on 
the  "Wesleyan  schism"  from  Anglo-Catholics.  During 
the  ministry  of  Enoch  Salt  (1893-6),  Anglo-Catholic  op- 
position was  more  bitter,  but  this  drew  Methodism  closer 
to  the  older  Dissent  (Baptist,  Congregational);  a  Non- 
conformist Church  Council  was  formed  in  Oxford.  A 
branch  of  the  Wesley  Guild,  whose  activities  continue 
to  the  present,  was  also  formed  during  Salt's  pastorate. 
From  the  time  of  Hugh  Price  Hughes  until  the  First  World 
War  missions  to  the  city  as  a  whole  and  open-air  evangel- 
ical meetings  were  an  important  feature  of  church  life. 

A  heavy  program  of  restoration  and  renovation  of  the 


Wesley  Room,  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  Engl.\nd 


OXFORD,   MISSISSIPPI 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


church  buildings  was  finished  just  before  tlie  outbreak  of 
War  in  1914.  This  event  acted  as  a  great  stimulus  on 
church  life;  work  among  young  people  was  increased  and 
there  was  a  flourishing  club  for  soldiers.  Immediately 
after  the  War,  the  social  activities  of  the  church  were 
re-organized  and  extended,  and  the  Boys'  School  ex- 
panded. Unfortunately  the  Trade  Depression  which  fol- 
lowed forced  the  trustees  to  close  the  school  and  sell  the 
buildings  in  1930,  to  St.  Peter's  College,  which  bought 
the  old  Chapel  building  in  1932.  Thanks  to  this  sale,  it 
was  possible  to  build  a  new  block  containing  offices  and 
rooms  for  smaller  meetings,  among  which  is  the  extremely 
attractive  John  Wesley  Room. 

The  Bicentenary  of  Wesley's  admission  as  a  Fellow  of 
Lincoln  College  was  celebrated  in  1926  when  representa- 
tives of  Methodist  Churches  in  the  British  Isles  and  over- 
seas attended  a  special  service  in  Lincoln  College  Chapel. 
Rt.  Hon.  Walter  Runciman  unveiled  a  bust  of  Wesley  in 
the  College  Quadrangle. 

Wesley  Memorial  Church  celebrated  its  Jubilee  with 
special  services  in  1928,  and  in  1932  the  Union  of  the 
three  English  Methodist  Connexions  was  marked  by  a 
service  at  which  representatives  of  these  bodies,  as  well 
as  the  Anglican  and  Nonconfomiist  Churches  were 
present.  Within  the  year,  the  congregation  of  the  nearby 
United  Methodist  Church  was  united  with  that  of 
Wesley  Memorial.  The  Church's  Diamond  Jubilee  was 
celebrated  in  1938,  in  a  time  of  growing  political  uncer- 
tainty. When  war  broke  out  in  1939,  troops  were  billeted 
in  the  Church  Hall  and  in  1940,  a  Forces  Canteen  was 
opened;  this  did  not  close  until  1945,  during  which  time 
it  served  204,000  meals,  as  well  as  countless  cups  of  tea 
and  other  refreshments.  Short  services  for  the  Forces 
were  broadcast  from  the  church  during  the  war,  and  in 
spite  of  black-out  restrictions,  social  organizations  con- 
tinued with  renewed  vigor. 

In  1951,  the  church  was  the  headquarters  of  the  Ecu- 
menical Methodist  Conference,  and  Methodists  from 
all  over  the  world  became  familiar  with  its  precincts. 

Although  the  post-war  years  were  marked  by  financial 
stringency,  church  membership  steadily  advanced,  and 
a  new  problem  was  created  with  the  greatly  increased 
niimber  of  Methodist  students  in  the  University.  At  first, 
these  were  met  by  the  appointment  of  an  assitant  minister, 
who  was  also  an  officer  of  the  Student  Christian  Move- 
ment, which  shared  with  the  Church  the  expense  of  his 
maintenance.  However,  a  Commission  was  appointed  in 
1961  to  consider  the  position  of  the  church  with  regard 
to  members  of  the  University  and  to  other  chapels  in  the 
circuit.  This  decided  that  there  should  be  two  ministers, 
one  of  whom,  as  in  earlier  days,  should  be  superintendent 
minister  of  the  Circuit.  In  1964,  D.  Rose  was  appointed 
to  Wesley  Memorial  Church  and  became  superintendent 
minister  in  1965. 

The  Church  celebrated  the  150th  anniversary  of  the 
opening  of  the  old  chapel  and  the  ninetieth  anniversary 
of  the  opening  of  the  new  chapel  in  May  1968  by  special 
services.  The  president  of  Conference,  Irvonwy  Morgan, 
unveiled  a  plaque  on  32  and  34  New  Inn  Hall  Street, 
recording  that  it  was  the  first  Methodist  meeting  house 
in  Oxford  and  that  John  Wesley  preached  there  on  several 
occasions.  St.  Peter's  College  plans  presently  to  demolish 
the  old  Chapel,  and  replace  it  with  new  buildings. 

J.  E.  OXLEY 


OXFORD,  MISSISSIPPI,  U.S.A.  The  Methodist  church  in 
0.\ford  was  organized  in  1837  under  the  leadership  of 
William  Craig,  pastor,  with  David  O.  Shattuck  as  presid- 
ing elder  of  the  Holly  Springs  district.  The  first  deed 
bears  date  of  Aug.  23,  1838,  the  trustees  being  Richard 
R.  Corbin,  William  Webb,  Daniel  Grayson,  Nathanael 
S.  Jennings,  and  William  Gordon.  On  this  lot,  which  cost 
$50,  a  frame  building  was  erected  in  the  fall  of  1838, 
during  the  pastorate  of  A.  J.  S.  Harris.  Pastors  who  served 
in  this  building  were  E.  J.  Williams  and  William  B. 
Walker,  with  others  whose  names  are  not  available. 

On  July  4,  1851,  a  new  lot  was  purchased  on  Jackson 
Avenue  near  the  square  and  a  new  church  built  thereon, 
a  handsome  brick  building  with  an  auditorium  upstairs 
and  a  substory  beneath.  The  University  of  Mississippi 
had  opened  at  Oxford,  and  this  new  building  was  evi- 
dently intended  to  serve  the  students  as  well  as  the  towns- 
people. Trustees  in  1851  were  William  Gordon,  William 
Webb,  John  M.  Boggs,  Lewis  T.  Wynn,  Hugh  W.  Rison, 
B.  Walton,  and  William  Jones.  The  following  served  as 
pastor  in  this  church  before  it  was  burned  in  1889;  Lewis 
H.  Davis,  E.  J.  Williams,  George  W.  Carter,  C.  N.  B. 
Campbell,  John  Barcroft,  John  J.  Wheat,  Amos  Kendall, 
S.  R.  Brewer,  W.  B.  Murrah,  Kenneth  A.  Jones,  W.  T.  J. 
Sullivan,  E.  B.  Ramsey,  R.  M.  Standifer,  and  Thomas  W. 
Dye.  Many  outstanding  students  and  faculty  members 
worshipped  in  this  building,  among  the  former  Charles 
B.  Galloway,  later  a  Methodist  bishop  and  James  W. 
Lambuth,  one  of  the  great  pioneer  missionaries  in  the 
Methodist  Church,  serving  in  China  and  Japan  from  1854 
until  his  death  in  1892.  There  was  a  Methodist  parsonage 
on  South  Lamar  Street  during  most  of  this  time. 

A  Gothic  brick  church  was  built  on  the  same  location 
in  1890  with  a  Sunday  school  annex,  one  of  the  first  of 
its  type  in  the  area.  The  Siuiday  school  during  the  college 
year  was  always  too  large  for  the  building,  and  for  a 
number  of  years  the  church  used  the  public  school  build- 
ing just  across  the  street.  The  movement  for  a  new  church 
began  in  1920  but  it  was  not  until  fifteen  years  later  the 
actual  plans  began  to  be  put  into  effect.  A  building  com- 
mittee was  appointed  in  1935.  The  North  Mississippi 
Conference  approved  the  building  of  the  first  unit  at 
a  cost  of  $60,000  and  the  Mississippi  Conference  prom- 
ised to  cooperate.  A  new  location  was  secured  from  the 
Bank  of  Oxford  in  December  1936,  and  construction  be- 
gan on  Feb.  1,  1937. 

The  new  sanctuary  was  constructed  in  the  fall  and  win- 
ter of  1949  and  the  spring  of  1950.  H.  Ellis  Finger, 
now  a  bishop,  was  pastor  at  that  time.  The  cost  was 
$90,000. 

In  addition  to  the  enterprising  local  membership,  which 
now  reports  1,184  persons,  the  Oxford  Methodist  church 
has  been  primarily  the  church  of  the  University  of  Mis- 
sissippi. It  is  located  nearer  the  campus  than  the  church 
in  any  of  the  other  college  towns  and  is  more  influenced  by 
the  school  than  any  similar  church  in  Mississippi. 

J.  B.  Cain 

OXFORD  COLLEGE  OF  EMORY  UNIVERSITY,  Oxford, 
Georgia,  occupies  the  old  campus  of  Emory  College  estab- 
lished in  1836.  When  Emory  College  became  the  College 
of  Arts  and  Sciences  of  Emory  University,  in  1915,  the 
Oxford  division  continued  as  an  academy.  In  1929  a 
junior  college  was  started.  The  institution  is  an  integral 
part  of  Emory  University,  and  library  and  assets  are  re- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OXFORD   METHODISTS 


Old  Chapel  at  Emory,  Oxford 


ported  by  the  university.  For  the  governing  board,  see 
Emory  University. 

John  O.  Gross 

OXFORD  INSTITUTE  ON  METHODIST  THEOLOGICAL 
STUDIES  grew  out  of  a  concern  that  Methodist  beginnings 
at  Oxford  University  be  memorialized  through  a  Hving 
theological  consultation.  As  early  as  the  1951  meeting  of 
the  World  Methodist  Council  at  Oxford,  some  effort 
to  mark  this  memorial  was  sought.  At  the  World  Meth- 
odist Council  meeting  at  Lake  Junaluska  in  1956,  the 
format  of  a  theological  institute  was  agreed  upon.  The 
first  such  Institute  was  held  in  1958. 

One  hundred  persons  from  over  the  world  made  up 
largely  of  Methodist  theologians  come  together  for  a  ten- 
day  institute  at  Lincoln  College,  Oxford.  The  total  mem- 
bership is  divided  roughly  as  one-third  U.  S.,  one-third 
British  and  one-third  the  rest  of  the  Methodist  world.  This 
institute  has  provided  a  meeting  place  for  persons  en- 
gaged professionally  in  theology  in  world  Methodism.  It 
has  focused  each  time  on  a  significant  doctrine  of  the 
Church,  and  on  some  occasions  has  contributed  to  studies 
of  these  doctrines  in  the  World  Council  of  Churches. 

The  first  Institute  was  in  1958  and  its  theme  Biblical 
Theology  and  Methodist  Doctrine.  The  second  Institute 
in  1962  was  on  The  Doctrine  of  the  Church.  The  third  in 
1965  was  on  The  Finality  of  Christ,  and  the  fourth  in 
1969  had  as  its  theme.  The  Living  God.  Presiding  as 
wardens  in  these  respective  sessions  were  the  Rev. 
Reginald  Kissack  (1958),  Principal  Harold  Roberts 
(1962)  and  Dr.  Dow  Kirkpatrick  (1965),  and  Principal 
Raymond  George  (1969).  The  first  of  the  series  was 
published  in  the  July  1959,  London  Quarterly  and  Hol- 


born  Review  and  the  others  were  published  in  book  form 
by  Abingdon  Press,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  U.S.A.  A  fifth 
Institute  is  projected  for  the  summer  of  1973. 

Dow  Kirkpatrick 

OXFORD  METHODISTS  were  the  original  followers  of 
John  Wesley  at  Oxford  University.  John  Wesley  him- 
self described  the  beginning  of  the  Oxford  Methodists 
as  follows:  "In  November,  1729,  four  young  gentlemen 
of  Oxford — Mr.  John  Wesley,  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College; 
Mr.  Charles  Wesley,  Student  of  Christ  Church;  Mr. 
Morgan,  Commoner  of  Christ  Church;  and  Mr.  Kirkham 
of  Merton  College — began  to  spend  some  evenings  in  a 
week  together  in  reading,  chiefly,  the  Greek  Testament." 
(Works,  viii,  334.)  The  "Mr.  Morgan"  mentioned  was 
William  Morgan,  the  elder  of  the  brothers  who  were 
at  Oxford,  who  died  in  tragic  circumstances  in  Dublin 
on  August  26,  1732.  Robert  Kirkham,  who  died  in  March 
1767,  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Lionel  Kirkham  of  Stanton, 
Gloucestershire.  Kirkham's  place  as  the  fourth  member  of 
the  party  is  disputed,  however,  by  V.  H.  H.  Green,  the 
historian,  who  forwards  the  claims  of  Francis  Gore  of 
Christ  Church  (see  The  Young  Mr.  Wesley,  p.  151).  By 
1735  this  group  had  giown  to  some  fourteen  or  fifteen 
(Works,  xiii.  288),  and  Luke  Tyerman  (The  Oxford  Meth- 
odists, 1873)  lists  the  following  as  having  been  connected 
with  it:  Charles  Morgan  (born,  1714),  Commoner  of 
Lincoln  College;  John  Clayton  (1709-73),  Brazenose; 
Benjamin  Ingham  (1712-72),  Queen's;  John  Gambold 
(1711-71),  Christ  Church;  James  Hervey  1714-58), 
Lincoln;  Thomas  Broughton  (died,  1777),  Exeter; 
John  Boyce  (bom  c.  1711),  Christ  Church;  WiUiam 
Chapman  of  Pembroke;   Charles   Kinchin    (died,    1742), 


OXNAM,   GARFIELD   BROMLEY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Corpus  Christi;  Richard  Hutchins  (died,  1781),  Lincoln; 
Christopher  Atkinson  (1713-74),  Queen's;  John 
Whitelamb  (1710-69),  Lincoln;  and  VVestley  Hall 
(died,  1776),  Lincoln.  As  one  would  expect,  it  is  not 
easy  to  be  exact  about  membership,  and  Green  in  The 
Young  Mr.  Wesley  quotes  from  a  contemporary  list  which 
gives  the  following  additional  names:  George  White- 
field,  Pembroke  College;  Thomas  Home,  Christ  Church; 
Richard  Smith  and  Henry  Evans,  Christ  Church;  John 
Robson  and  Gridsley  (Christian  name  unknown),  Lincoln; 
Mattliew  Salmon,  Brazenose;  Kitchen  (Christian  name 
unknown),  Pembroke;  Robert  Watson,  Henry  Washington, 
John  Bell,  Roger  (?)  Wilson  and  John  (?)  Smith,  Queen's. 
Green  also  lists  men  who  "were  on  the  periphery  of  the 
Holy  Club,  who  were  at  least  interested  in  its  activities": 
Bulman,  Bingham,  Morgan  Graves,  Cox,  Watkins  (Wad- 
ham  College);  Christopher  Rhodes  and  John  Spicer 
(Christ  Church);  and  William  Golburne.  Others  are 
named  who  fall  into  this  category:  Nash,  Langford,  Potter, 
Thomas  Patten  ( Corpus  Christi ) ;  WiUiam  Nowell 
(Brazenose);  Hudson  Martin  (Jesus);  George  Watson 
(Christ  Church);  William  Haward  (Merton);  William 
Clements  (Lincoln);  NichoUs,  William  Smith,  Thomas 
Greives,  Robert  Davison,  and  Matthew  Robinson  (the 
last  four  all  of  Lincoln ) . 

V.  H.  H.  Green,  Young  Mr.  Wesley.  1961. 

L.  Tyerman,  Oxford  Methodists.  1873.    Brian  J.  N.  Galliers 


G.  Bromley  Oxnam 

OXNAM,  GARFIELD  BROMLEY  (1891-1963),  American 
bishop  was  born  at  Sonora,  Calif.,  Aug.  14,  1891,  the  son 
of  Thomas  Henry  and  Mamie  (Job)  Oxnam.  He  was 
educated  at  the  University  of  Southern  California  (A.B., 
1913),  and  Boston  University  (S.T.B.,  1915).  He  did 
graduate  study  at  Harvard  and  other  schools.  During  his 
career  some  twenty-one  institutions,  including  Amer- 
ican, Boston,  NoRTm\-ESTERN,  Princeton,  Southern  Cal- 
ifornia, and  Yale  Universities,  conferred  on  him  a  total 
of  eight  honorary  degrees — D.D.,  S.T.D.,  Th.D.,  LL.D., 
Litt.D.,  L.H.D.,  D.Sc,  and  D.C.L.  He  married  Ruth  Fi.sh- 
er,  Aug.  19,  1914,  and  they  had  three  children,  Robert, 
Philip,  and  Ruth  (Mrs.  Robert  McConmack). 


Admitted  on  trial  in  the  Southern  California  Con- 
ference in  1913,  Oxnam  was  ordained  deacon  in  1915 
and  elder  in  1917.  His  appointments  were:  1916,  Poplar, 
Calif.;  1917-26,  Church  of  All  Nations,  Los  Angeles; 
1927,  professor,  Boston  University  School  of  Theol- 
ogy; and  1928-35,  president,  DePauw  University. 

In  one  year  at  Poplar,  Oxnam  built  a  new  church  and 
a  new  parsonage  and  more  than  doubled  the  church  mem- 
bership. In  ten  years  at  the  Church  of  All  Nations,  he 
identified  with  the  labor  movement  and  other  causes, 
and  he  organized  activities  including  a  boys'  club  of  1,000 
members.  As  a  result  the  area  which  had  previously  had 
the  highest  juvenile  delinquency  rate  in  Los  Angeles  at- 
tained a  rate  lower  than  the  average  for  the  municipality 
as  a  whole.  While  serving  the  church  Oxnam  was  also 
professor  of  social  ethics  in  the  University  of  Southern 
California  for  four  years. 

A  delegate  to  four  General  Conferences,  1924-36, 
Oxnam  was  elected  bishop  in  1936.  His  episcopal  assign- 
ments were:  1936-39,  Omaha;  1939-44,  Boston;  1944-52, 
New  York;  and  1952-60,  Washington. 

The  epi.scopacy  gave  full  scope  for  Oxnam 's  abilities. 
He  visited  every  parsonage  in  the  Omaha  Area  which 
comprised  Iowa  and  Nebraska.  He  traveled  widely;  usu- 
ally his  annual  expense  account  was  larger  than  that  of 
any  other  bishop  in  the  church.  He  wielded  great  influ- 
ence as  secretary  of  the  Council  of  Bishops,  1939-56, 
transforming  the  periodic  meetings  of  the  church  leaders 
into  a  real  Council  which  considered  a  full  and  challeng- 
ing agenda  at  each  session.  He  originated  the  plan  which 
requires  the  bishops  in  turn  to  visit  foreign  fields  so  as  to 
gain  first-hand  knowledge  of  world  conditions.  He  con- 
ceived and  led  the  Methodist  Crusade  for  World  Order, 
1944-48.  Under  his  leadership  Westminster  Seminary 
in  Maryland  was  moved  to  Washington  as  Wesley 
Seminary,  and  the  School  of  International  Service  was 
established  at  American  University  with  funds  appro- 
priated by  the  General  Conference. 

Endowed  with  a  quick  mind,  a  diversity  of  gifts,  and 
a  capacity  for  hard  work,  Oxnam  developed  competence 
in  a  number  of  fields.  He  filled  ten  or  more  important 
university  lectureships,  including  the  LvTnan  Beecher  at 
Yale,  Fondren  at  Southern  Methodist,  Merrick  at 
Ohio  Wesleyan,  Earl  at  Pacific,  Tipple  at  Drew,  and 
Hoover  and  Tuthill  at  Chicago.  His  books,  more  than 
twenty  in  number,  widened  his  influence.  Among  them 
were:  The  Mexican  in  Los  Angeles,  1920;  Social  Principles 
of  Jesus,  1923;  Preaching  in  a  Revolutionary  Age,  1944; 
The  Church  and  Contemporary  Change,  1950;  I  Protest, 
1954;  and  A  Tesiaincnt  of  Faith,  1958.  He  was  a  tmstee 
of  nine  institutions,  including  Boston  and  American  Uni- 
versities. 

Active  in  both  denominational  and  ecumenical  organiza- 
tions and  movements,  Oxnam  served  as  president  of  the 
Federal  Council  of  Churches,  1944-46;  was  a  pre- 
siding officer  at  the  organization  of  the  National  Coun- 
cil of  Churches,  1950;  was  one  of  the  presidents  of 
the  World  Council  of  Churches,  1948-54;  and  later 
was  a  member  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the 
latter.  He  chaired  the  division  of  educational  institutions. 
General  Board  of  Education,  1939-44,  and  did  the  same 
for  the  division  of  foreign  missions.  General  Board  of 
Missions,  1944-52.  During  World  War  II  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Civil  Advisory  Commission  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  official  visitor  for  the  Joint  Chiefs  of  Staff 
to  army  and  navy  chaplains,  chairman  of  the  Commission 


WORLD   METHODISM 


OXNAM,   GARFIELD   BROMLEY 


to  Study  Post  War  Relief  Conditions  in  Germany,  and 
chairman  of  the  Methodist  Commission  on  Chaplains. 
Claiming  that  the  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities 
of  the  U.S.  Congress  had  for  seven  years  released  so-called 
"files"  containing  false  material  which  said  or  suggested 
that  he  was  a  communist,  and  pointing  out  that  the 
Committee  had  ignored  repeated  requests  to  correct  its 
files,  Oxnam  in  July  1953,  requested  a  hearing  before  the 
Committee.  In  a  twelve-hour  session  he  attempted  to 
explain  his  beliefs  and  to  refute  the  false  accusations.  The 
Committee  did  not  apologize  or  retract,  but  aftei"ward  two 
individual  congressmen  said  they  did  not  believe  the  bish- 
op was  or  ever  had  been  a  communist.  The  reaction  in 
the  press  was  favorable  to  the  bishop.  After  O.xnam's  death 
the  1964  Northeastern  Jurisdictional  Conference 
adopted  a  resolution  saying  the  bishop  had  "called  the 
House  Committee  on  Un-American  Activities  to  public 
accounting"  for  the  "irresponsible  way"  in  which  it   had 


attacked  and  tried  to  intimidate  him  and  other  churchmen. 
Also,  the  resolution  declared  that  Oxnam  had  "left  the 
impress  of  his  brilliant  mind,  courageous  spirit,  and  tireless 
will  on  every  level  of  the  life  of  The  Methodist  Church 
as  well  as  the  National  and  World  Council  of  Churches." 
Broken  in  health,  Oxnam  retired  in  1960.  He  died  at 
White  Plains,  N.  Y.,  March  12,  1963.  On  April  11,  1964, 
his  ashes  were  interred  in  a  solemn  service  of  enshrinement 
beneath  the  chancel  of  the  Oxnam  Chapel,  Wesley  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Christian  Advocate,  March  28,  196-3. 

General  Conference  Journals,  MEC  and  MC. 

General  Minutes,  MEC. 

Journal  of  the  Northeastern  Jurisdictional  Conference,  1964. 

G.  Bromley  Oxnam,  /  Protest.  New  York:  Harper,  1954. 

Service  of  Enshrinement  of  the  Ashes  of  G.  Bromley  Oxnam. 

(Pamphlet).  1964. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  30. 

World  Outlook,  June,  1963.  Albea  Godbold 


PACE,  JAMES    (1930-  ),  missionary  to  Bolivia,  was 

born  in  Brownsville,  Texas.  He  received  the  A.B.  degree 
from  Southern  Methodist  University  and  the  B.D. 
degree  from  Yale  Divinity  School.  He  married  Evelyn 
Duponey,  and  they  have  four  children.  A  missionary  to 
Bolivia  since  1957,  he  has  served  as  pastor,  superintendent 
of  the  Central  District,  conference  executive  secretary 
( 1962 ) ,  director  of  Wesley  Seminary,  and  executive  secre- 
tary of  the  conference  committee  on  literacy  and  literature. 

Natalie  Babber 

PACE,   JOHN    CAPERTON    (1888-  ),   and   MILDRED 

SMITH  (1893-  ),  served  with  distinction  as  missionary 

educators  in  India  from  late  1920  until  July  1943.  Pace 
was  born  in  Palestine,  Texas,  and  was  educated  at  South- 
western University  (B.A.  ),  Southern  Methodist  Uni- 
versity, and  Yale  Divinity  School  (B.D.).  Mrs.  Pace  was 
born  in  Stirling  City,  Texas,  April  17,  1893. 

They  were  appointed  to  India  and  arrived  there  in 
1920.  Their  first  appointment  was  to  a  boys'  industrial 
school  at  Aligarh,  United  Provinces,  but  in  February  1922, 
they  were  put  in  charge  of  the  only  high  school  then  in 
existence  in  the  large  Northern  India  Conference. 

After  furlough  in  1925,  they  were  sent  to  the  now- 
famed  Ingraham  Institute  at  Ghaziabad,  a  few  miles  from 
Delhi.  They  remained  in  that  key  appointment  until  1942, 
when  they  left  India  on  furlough.  The  next  year,  for 
family  reasons,  they  withdrew  from  service  under  the 
board;  and,  after  a  few  years  on  a  farm,  John  Pace 
accepted    the  presidency   of   a   junior   college   in  Texas. 

While  he  was  in  the  grip  of  the  responsibilities  of  the 
principalship  of  Ghaziabad,  Mrs.  Pace  was  both  his  in- 
valuable colleague  and  a  very  convincing  adviser  of  other 
primary  and  second  school  officers.  Their  helpful  influ- 
ence was  felt  in  hundreds  of  schools  in  India,  penetrating 
into  secular  schools  of  government,  and  even  into  schools 
maintained  by  non-Christian  groups. 

J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956.       J.  Waskom  Pickett 

PACIFIC  CHINESE  MISSION.  Thousands  of  Chinese  im- 
migrants poured  into  California  following  the  Gold  Rush 
of  1849.  Nearly  two  decades  passed  before  the  M.  E. 
Church  began  evangelizing  them.  With  support  from  the 
California  Conference  and  the  General  Missionary 
Committee  in  New  York,  Otis  Gibson,  who  had  served  as 
missionary  in  China,  became  superintendent  of  missionary 
work  among  the  west  coast  Chinese  in  1868.  He  soon 
organized  two  Sunday  schools  in  San  Francisco  and 
one  in  San  Jose.  In  1870,  a  headquarters  building  called 
the  Chinese  Mission  Institute  was  opened  in  San  Fran- 
cisco. By  1878  Gibson  reported  that  the  work  was  opening 
up  and  expanding  on  every  side. 

Several  factors  served  to  hinder  the  ministry  to  the 
Chinese  immigrants.  In  the  early  years  there  were  no 
native  Chinese  preachers  to  assist  the  missionaries.   The 


white  people  soon  developed  strong  race  prejudice  against 
the  Chinese.  It  was  not  unusual  for  Chinese  to  be  attacked, 
kicked,  and  beaten  as  they  were  on  their  way  to  Methodist 
services  and  language  classes.  Then  in  1882  came  the 
Chinese  Exclusion  Act  which  effectually  stopped  the  rapid 
inflax  of  immigrants  from  China. 

Because  of  ill  health,  Gibson  resigned  as  superintendent 
of  Chinese  missions  in  1884  and  was  succeeded  by  F.  J. 
Masters.  Other  leaders  in  the  Chinese  work  were  John 
Hammond,  A.  J.  Hanson,  George  Hedley,  Edward  James, 
and  George  Pearson.  Eventually  Chinese  missions  were 
started  in  Berkeley,  Gilroy,  Monterey,  Salinas,  Watsonville, 
Hanford,  and  Marysville,  California,  and  in  such  cities 
as  Portland,  Seattle,  Denver,  San  Antonio,  and 
Tucson  in  other  states.  In  1907,  superintendent  James 
reported  that  he  had  traveled  6,000  miles  in  making  the 
circuit  of  the  work  in  the  Pacific  Chinese  Mission. 

The  California  Conference  formed  a  Chinese  District 
in  1893,  and  in  1904  the  Chinese  Mission  was  formally 
organized  in  San  Francisco  with  Bishop  Luther  B.  Wil- 
.soN  presiding.  In  1908  the  name  was  changed  to  Pacific 
Chinese  Mission  and  it  included  all  Chinese  work  in  the 
western  half  of  the  United  States.  At  unification  in  1939, 
the  Pacific  Chinese  Mission  with  eleven  effective  preach- 
ers, 428  members,  and  773  Sunday  school  pupils  became 
a  part  of  the  California  Oriental  Mission  which  also  in- 
cluded Filipino  and  Korean  work.  The  organization  was 
designated  as  the  California  Oriental  Provisional  Con- 
ference in  1945.  In  1952  the  ministers  afld  churches  of 
the  provisional  conference  were  absorbed  into  the  English- 
speaking  conferences  of  the  Western  Jurisdiction.  How- 
e\'er,  sixteen  years  later  there  were  still  five  Chinese 
Methodist  churches  in  California — at  San  Francisco,  Oak- 
land, Sacramento,  and  Los  Angeles. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Methodist  Missions.  1957. 
E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 
Journals  of  the  Pacific  Chinese  Mission.  Edwar  Lee 

PACIFIC  CONFERENCE  (1852-1939)  was  the  first  or- 
ganized work  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  on  the  west 
coast.  Sent  by  the  bishops  of  the  church,  Jes.se  Boring 
and  A.  M.  Wynn  of  the  Georgia  Conference  and  D.  W. 
Pollock  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference  arrived  in  San 
Francisco  in  1850.  They  distributed  literature,  organized 
circuits,  enrolled  members,  and  in  April  1852,  formed  the 
Pacific  Conference  to  include  California,  Oregon, 
Arizona,  and  New  Mexico. 

At  the  outset  the  work  of  the  conference  was  limited  to 
the  vicinity  of  San  Francisco,  but  in  1854  the  presiding 
elder  of  the  Stockton  Distiict  learned  that  some  members 
of  a  church  on  the  Los  Angeles  Circuit  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  opposed  to  an  abolition  society  in  the  congrega- 
tion, had  withdrawn  and  desired  affiliation  with  the 
Southern  church.  He  visited  the  group,  organized  a  class 
of  sixteen,  and  sent  three  preachers  to  the  area  in  1855. 

Due  to  anti-Southern  feeling,  the  work  progressed  slow- 


PACIFIC   GROVE,   CALIFORNIA 


ly  in  southern  California.  A  Los  Angeles  District  was 
foimed  in  1858  but  was  discontinued  the  next  year.  In 
1866  and  1867,  Los  Angeles  was  the  sole  appointment  of 
the  Pacific  Conference  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state. 
However,  in  1868,  the  Los  Angeles  Mission  District  was 
formed  with  five  appointments. 

The  Pacific  Conference  organized  an  Oregon  District 
in  1859,  and  in  1866  the  General  Conference  desig- 
nated Oregon  and  a  part  of  northern  California  as  the 
Columbia  Conference  (1866-1917). 

In  October  1870,  the  Pacific  Conference  was  again 
divided  to  form  the  Los  Angeles  Conference  (1870-1922). 
The  new  body  included  southern  California  and  Arizona; 
at  the  beginning  it  had  ten  preachers  and  475  members. 
Throughout  its  history  the  Los  Angeles  Conference  was 
never  large.  In  1880  there  were  about  1,000  church 
members.  By  1900  there  were  thirty  churches  and  some 
2,000  members,  one-sixth  of  them  in  Arizona.  VVlien  the 
conference  was  dissolved  in  1922,  it  gave  back  to  the 
Pacific  Conference  some  4,500  members  and  sixteen 
churches,  while  the  remainder — about  2,800  members  and 
twenty-one  congregations — formed  the  Arizona  Confer- 
ence. 

For  lack  of  strength  the  Southern  Methodist  conferences 
in  California  were  not  able  to  establish  a  peimanent 
college  or  seminary.  However,  they  started  several  educa- 
tional institutions  which  served  varying  periods  of  time. 
Among  them  were  Bascom  Institute  at  San  Jose,  Asbury 
Institute  at  Sacramento,  Corvallis  College  in  Oregon,  and 
the  Pacific  Methodist  College  at  Vacaville.  The  latter 
institution  later  moved  to  Santa  Rosa;  it  began  in  1861 
and  closed  in  1887. 

The  Pacific  Conference  launched  a  church  paper  at 
San  Francisco  in  1852.  Published  under  several  different 
names,  it  finally  became  the  Pacific  Methodist  Advocate 
in  1891  and  so  continued  until  1934.  The  Los  Angeles 
Christian  Advocate,  started  in  1885  by  the  Los  Angeles 
Conference,  failed  within  three  years.  Groveh  C.  Em- 
mons, long  a  Southern  Methodist  leader  in  southern 
California,  founded  The  Upper  Room  in  1934  and  was 
its  editor  until  his  death  ten  years  later. 

The  conferences  laid  strong  emphasis  on  Sunday  schools 
and  youth  work.  Trinity  Church  in  Los  Angeles  pioneered 
in  the  ministry  to  youth  and  prepared  the  memorial  to 
the  General  Conference  of  1890  which  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Epworth  Le.\gue  in  the  Southern 
church.  Soon  after  1900,  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society  began  operating  the  Homer  Toberman  Deaconess 
Home  in  Los  Angeles.  It  has  continued  as  a  settlement 
or  neighborhood  house  ministering  to  the  needy. 

Trinity  Church,  organized  in  1869,  was  the  largest 
church  in  the  Los  Angeles  Conference  from  1880  onward, 
and  in  time  it  became  one  of  the  strongest  congregations 
in  Southern  Methodism.  In  the  decade  from  1920  to  1930 
the  congregation  quadrupled  in  size.  The  growth  and 
dominance  of  Trinity  Church  were  due  largely  to  an 
intensive  proram  under  the  leadership  of  able  pastors, 
such  as  H.  M.  DuBose,  Charles  C.  Selecman,  and 
Robert  P.  Shuler,  At  its  peak  strength  the  church  had 
nearly  5,000  members. 

Through  the  generosity  of  a  Southern  Methodist, 
Lizzie  H.  Glide,  the  Glide  Memorial  Church  was  erected 
at  Taylor  and  Ellis  Streets,  San  Francisco,  in  1929  at  a 
cost  of  about  half  a  million  dollars.  Beginning  with 
seventy  members.  Glide  Memorial  took  the  place  of  the 
Fitzgerald   Church   a    few    blocks   away.    A   program    of 


continuous  evangelism  lifted  the  membership  to  about 
1,350  by  1939.  In  the  1940's  the  membership  began  to 
decline.  In  1967,  the  church  reported  something  over  300 
members. 

The  M.  E.  Church,  South  did  not  fare  well  in  competi- 
tion with  the  M.  E.  Church  in  California,  particularly  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  state.  The  Southern  chiuch 
preachers  were  vigorous  and  determined,  but  their  denom- 
ination did  not  invest  as  much  money  in  church  extension 
as  did  the  Northern  church.  Moreover,  the  Northern 
church  had  a  distinct  advantage  in  that  the  majority  of 
the  immigrants  into  the  region  were  from  the  northern 
states. 

At  unification  in  1939,  the  Pacific  Conference  with 
19,817  members  constituted  the  total  numerical  strength 
of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  in  California.  Some  11,308 
of  these  members  went  into  the  California  Conference 
and  8,509  into  the  Southern  California  Conference 
of  The  Methodist  Church. 

General  Minutes  (MES),  185.5ff. 

E.  D.  Jervey,  Southern  California  and  Arizona.  1960. 

J.    C.    McPheeters,    The    Life   Story   of   Lizzie   II.    Glide.    San 

Francisco:    Eagle  Printing  Co.   19.36.  Peahl  S.  Sweet 

PACIFIC  GERMAN  CONFERENCE  grew  out  of  mission 
work  among  the  Gemian-speaking  people  in  the  north- 
west. Frederick  Bonn  joined  the  Oregon  Conference 
in  1880  and  gave  himself  to  work  among  the  Germans. 
He  went  to  Puget  Sound  in  1882  and  .soon  had  German 
churches  at  Tacoma  and  Seattle.  James  H.  Wilbur 
started  work  among  the  Geimans  at  Walla  Walla. 

In  1888  the  North  Pacific  Geiman  Mission,  including 
work  in  Washington,  Oregon,  Idaho,  and  Montana, 
was  organized.  In  1892  it  became  the  North  Pacific  Ger- 
man Mission  Conference,  and  in  1905  the  Pacific  GeiTnan 
Conference.  The  conference  was  organized  Sept.  7,  1905 
at  Portland,  Ore.,  with  Bishop  William  F.  McDowell 
presiding.  At  the  time  of  organization  it  had  two  districts, 
Portland  and  Spokane,  and  there  were  twenty-two  charges 
and  1,242  members.  Twelve  of  the  charges  were  in 
Washington. 

The  Pacific  German  Conference  was  the  last  of  the 
German  conferences  to  be  organized  in  the  M.  E.  Church 
in  accordance  with  the  plan  for  a  system  of  such  confer- 
ences adopted  by  the  1864  General  Conference.  The 
Pacific  German  Conference  reached  peak  strength  in  1910 
when  it  had  twenty-four  charges  and  1,539  members. 
Liquidation  of  the  GeiTnan  conferences  came  rapidly  after 
1925  when  the  St.  Louis  German  Conference  merged 
into  the  overlying  English-speaking  conferences.  The  de- 
crease in  German  immigration  and  the  rapid  Americani- 
zation of  the  GeiTnan  language  churches  after  the  first 
world  war  made  the  mergers  inevitable.  With  few  church 
services  being  conducted  in  German  there  was  no  logical 
reason  for  maintaining  the  German  conferences.  The 
Pacific  German  Conference  merged  in  1928,  having  at 
the  time  seventeen  charges,  nineteen  churches,  1,256 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $107,350. 

P.  F.  Douglass,  German  Methodism.  1939. 


General  Minutes,  MEG. 


Frederick  E.  Maser 


PACIFIC  GROVE,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.  At  the  southern 
tip  of  the  Monterey  Peninsula  is  situated  this  one-time 
capital  of  California  Methodism.  The  annual  conference 
of  1875  was  ofl^ered  a  gift  of  100  acres  of  land  at  this 


PACIFIC   JAPANESE   MISSION 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


place  for  a  summer  resort  and  retreat  for  Methodists. 
The  offer  was  accepted  and  the  area  was  developed  as 
Pacific  Grove  Retreat.  Camp  meetings  were  held;  Meth- 
odist families  vacationed  here  in  great  numbers;  many 
Methodists  came  here  to  live  and  to  die;  and  the  city 
of  Pacific  Grove  came  into  being. 

A  church  was  built,  far  larger  than  the  local  member- 
ship required,  to  be  serviceable  for  the  sessions  of  the 
annual  conference  which  met  here  twenty-seven  consecu- 
tive times,  1886  to  1913.  Preceding  the  session  many  of 
the  ministers  and  their  families  were  at  Pacific  Grove 
several  days  while  the  Itinerants'  Club  met  each  morning 
and  provided  intellectual  stimulus  for  the  ministers  while 
the  families  enjoyed  the  vacation.  Lectures  on  poetry, 
Bible  themes,  or  other  contemporary  topics,  discussions  on 
church  polity,  Sunday  school  curriculum  or  other  matters 
of  interest  filled  the  hours,  and  in  the  evening  an  illus- 
trated lecture  or  musical  program.  Pacific  Grove  provided 
a  Methodist  cultural  center  for  the  people  whose  interests 
followed  the  annual  conference  sessions. 

In  time  the  church  corporation  lost  all  the  property 
except  that  occupied  by  church  and  parsonage  because  of 
financial  problems.  Changing  patterns  of  life  shifted  inter- 
est away  from  the  fornier  ways,  and  Pacific  Grove  ceased 
to  be  a  dominant  factor  in  conference  life.  The  first  pastor 
named  was  J.  B.  Chynoweth,  in  1884.  He  reported  twenty- 
five  members.  The  church  was  a  notable  one  for  many 
years,  and  the  conference  cemetery  at  Pacific  Grove  was 
the  place  of  interment  of  many  Methodist  ministers. 

C.  V.  Anthony,  Fifty  Years.  1901. 

California  Christian  Advocate. 

L.  L.  Loofbourow,  In  Search  of  God's  Gold.  1950. 

J.  C.  Simmons,  Pacific  Coast.  1886.  Don  M.  Chase 

PACIFIC  JAPANESE  MISSION.  The  M.  E.  Church  began 
work  among  the  Japanese  in  California  in  1877  when 
some  Japanese  attended  the  Chinese  mission  being  con- 
ducted by  Otis  Gibson.  (See  Pacific  Chinese  Mission.) 
In  1884,  Kanichi  Mieyama,  a  Japanese,  was  admitted  on 
trial  into  the  California  Conference.  The  conference 
formed  a  Japanese  District  in  1893,  and  in  1894  the 
first  Japanese  Methodist  Church  in  America  was  dedicated 
in  San  Francisco.  Work  among  the  Japanese  extended 
north,  south,  and  east  from  San  Francisco. 

The  Pacific  Japanese  Mission  was  organized  in  1900 
with  M.  C.  Harris  as  superintendent.  The  mission  in- 
cluded the  Japanese  and  Korean  work  on  the  Pacific  slope 
and  in  Hawaii.  Methodist  work  had  flourished  among  the 
Japanese  in  Hawaii  because  Kanichi  Mieyama  went  there 
as  a  missionary  from  California  in  1885.  In  1905  the 
Hawaii  work  became  the  Hawaii  Mission,  leaving  the 
Pacific  Japanese  Mission  with  eight  pastors,  699  church 
members,  and  305  Sunday  school  pupils. 

Beginning  in  1897,  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  did 
oriental  missionary  work  on  the  west  coast,  and  there  was 
some  division  of  responsibility  between  the  two  Episcopal 
Methodisms.  (See  California  Oriental  Mission.) 

Hebrert  B.  Johnson  was  superintendent  of  the  Pacific 
Japanese  Mission  from  1904  to  1925.  That  period  was 
marked  by  the  development  of  anti-Japanese  feeling  on 
the  west  coast  and  the  rise  of  an  English-speaking  genera- 
tion of  Japanese.  Many  Japanese  Methodist  young  people 
began  to  achieve  places  of  leadership  in  the  English- 
speaking  communities.  Frank  Herron  Smith  served  as 
superintendent   from    1926   to    1944.    He   led    in    church 


extension,  in  Christian  training  for  young  people,  and  in 
the  promotion  of  good  will  among  Americans  and  Japa- 
nese. Japanese  churches  were  organized  in  California, 
Oregon,  Washington,  Arizona,  and  Colorado. 

At  unification  in  1939,  the  mission  was  superseded  by 
the  Japanese  Provisional  Conference  which  also  included 
the  Japanese  work  from  the  California  Oriental  Mission  of 
the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  The  promising  work  of  the  pro- 
visional conference  was  soon  interrupted  by  the  second 
world  war.  More  than  110,000  Japanese  people  on  the 
west  coast  were  evacuated  to  the  desert  areas  of  western 
America.  Though  the  doors  of  many  Japanese  churches 
were  locked  and  other  sanctuaries  were  rented,  somehow 
religious  services  and  activities  were  carried  on  among 
the  Japanese  in  the  relocation  centers.  Because  of  the 
illness  of  Smith,  John  B.  Cobb  was  appointed  acting 
superintendent  in  1945.  Channing  A.  Richardson  led  the 
mission  from  1946  to  1948,  and  in  1949  Taro  Goto  be- 
came superintendent,  the  first  Japanese  in  the  United 
States  to  hold  the  office. 

In  the  post-war  years,  the  work  of  the  provisional  con- 
ference was  notable  in  several  ways.  Leadership  in  the 
churches  passed  from  Japanese-speaking  to  English-speak- 
ing members.  There  was  progress  in  church  building — 
ten  new  churches,  thirteen  education  units,  and  seven 
parsonages,  along  with  the  purchase  of  fifteen  parsonages. 
Also,  there  was  a  definite  trend  toward  integration  of  the 
Japanese  work  with  the  English-speaking  conferences.  The 
merger  finally  was  consummated  in  1964,  and  the  Japa- 
nese Provisional  Conference  was  no  more.  At  the  time  of 
integration  the  conference  had  forty-one  ministers  (eleven 
retired),  thirty  churches,  6,534  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $3,581,990. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  Ainerican  Methodism,  1964. 

Journals  of  the  Pacific  Japanese  Mission. 

Journals  of  the  Pacific  Japanese  Provisional  Conference. 

Taro  Goto 

PACIFIC  NORTHWEST  CONFERENCE,  which  includes  the 
state  of  \\'.\.shington  and  part  of  Idaho,  was  organized 
as  a  conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  Sept.  17,  1929  at 
Spokane,  Wash.,  with  Bishop  Titus  Lowe  presiding.  At 
the  time  of  organization  the  conference  also  included  the 
work  in  Alaska,  but  that  was  set  off  as  the  Alaska  Mission 
in  1939.  The  Pacific  Northwest  Conference  was  formed  by 
merging  the  Puget  Sound  and  Columbia  Rueb  Con- 
ferences. The  one  covered  west  Washington,  and  the  other 
east  Washington  and  a  part  of  Idaho.  When  organized 
the  new  conference  had  nine  districts  and  49,724  mem- 
bers. (See  Washington  for  beginnings  of  Methodi,sm  in 
the  state.) 

The  Columbia  River  Conference  was  formed  in  1873 
by  dividing  the  Obegon  Conference.  It  was  first  called 
the  East  Oregon  and  Washington  Conference,  the  name 
being  changed  to  Columbia  River  in  1876.  The  conference 
included  east  Washington,  east  Oregon,  and  the  pan- 
handle of  Idaho.  At  the  end  of  the  first  year  it  reported 
nineteen  charges  and  455  members.  In  1922  the  Oregon 
territory  of  this  conference  was  given  to  the  Oregon  Con- 
ference. In  its  last  year,  1928,  the  Columbia  River  Con- 
ference reported  three  districts,  115  charges,  20,449 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $1,853,050. 

The  Puget  Sound  Conference  was  formed  in  1884  by 
dividing  the  Oregon  Conference.  Its  territory  was  west 
Washington.    In    1924   Alaska   was   made   a   part   of   the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PAGE,    JESSE   HAYES 


conference.  The  conference  started  with  two  districts  and 
thirty-four  charges.  At  the  end  of  the  first  year  it  reported 
1,638  members.  In  its  last  year,  1928,  the  Puget  Sound 
Conference  had  four  districts,  168  charges,  28,580  mem- 
bers, and  property  valued  at  $2,669,250. 

The  Pacific  German  Conference  and  the  Pacific 
Swedish  Mission  Conference  were  absorbed  by  the 
overlying  English-speaking  conferences  in  1928,  and  a 
few  ministers  and  churches  from  both  bodies  were  re- 
ceived into  the  Columbia  River  and  Puget  Sound  Confer- 
ences at  that  time.  At  Unification  in  1939,  three  M.  P. 
congregations  with  about  800  members,  and  two  from  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South  with  394  members,  entered  the 
Pacific  Northwest  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church. 
The  Western  Norwegian-Danish  Conference  was 
merged  with  the  overlying  English-speaking  conferences 
in  1939.  This  merger  brought  nine  churches  with  about 
530  members  into  the  Pacific  Northwest  Conference.  The 
new  Pacific  Northwest  Conference  was  organized  at  Bel- 
lingham.  Wash.,  on  June  14,  1939  with  Bishop  Wallace 
E.  Brown  presiding.  It  began  with  five  districts;  and  in 
1941  it  reported  247  pastoral  charges  and  48,011  mem- 
bers. 

Methodist  work  among  the  Japanese  in  Spokane  began 
in  1902,  The  Japanese  Provisional  Conference  was 
merged  with  the  overlying  English-speaking  conferences 
in  1964.  This  merger  brought  four  Japanese  churches 
with  1,023  members  into  the  Pacific  Northwest  Confer- 
ence. 

One  member  of  the  Pacific  Northwest  Conference,  J. 
Ralph  Magee,  was  elected  bishop  in  1932. 

Methodism  in  Washington  has  supported  schools  and 
service  agencies.  The  Columbia  River  Conference  had  the 
Columbia  Christian  Advocate  in  Spokane  in  the  1890's. 
and  the  Puget  Sound  Conference  supported  the  Pacific 
Christian  Advocate  at  Portland,  Ore.  Both  conferences 
maintained  several  Wesley  Foundations  at  the  state 
schools.  The  College  of  Puget  Sound  (now  University) 
was  founded  at  Tacoma  in  1888.  With  an  endowment  of 
over  $5,000,000,  and  a  plant  valued  at  $13,000,000,  the 
school  has  a  student  body  of  more  than  2,300. 

In  1968  the  Pacific  Northwest  Conference  was  support- 
ing the  Deaconess  Children's  Home  at  Everett,  Central 
Washington  Deaconess  Hospital  at  Wenatchee,  Spokane 
Deaconess  Hospital,  Kadlec  Methodist  Hospital  at  Rich- 
land, Bayview  Manor  in  Seattle,  Wesley  Gardens  at  Des 
Moines,  Rockwood  Manor  at  Spokane,  Goodwill  Industries 
at  Aberdeen,  Seattle,  Spokane,  and  several  camps. 

The  Pacific  Northwest  Conference  reported  in  1970 
seven  districts,  236  charges,  405  ministers,  101,718  mem- 
bers, and  property  valued  at  $52,416,524.  In  that  year  it 
raised  for  all  purposes  $7,914,835. 

General  Minutes,  MEG,  MEGS,  TMG,  UMG. 
Erie  Howell,  Methodism  in  the  Northwest.  Nasvhille:   Parthe- 
non Press,  1966. 
Minutes  of  the  Pacific  Northwest  Conference.    Erle  Howell 

PACIFIC  SWEDISH  MISSION  CONFERENCE  (ME)  grew 
out  of  Methodist  mission  work  among  the  Swedish-speak- 
ing people  in  the  northwest.  The  Swedes  came  to  the 
region  in  large  numbers  in  the  1880's.  While  most  were 
Lutherans,  some  had  been  won  to  Methodism  in  the  east- 
em  part  of  the  United  States.  Swedish  Methodist  work 
began  on  the  west  coast  in  1873  when  a  group  of  Swedish 
and  Norwegian  friends  organized  a  class  in  the  Howard 


Street  M.E.  Church,  San  Francisco.  Two  years  later  the 
class  became  an  independent  church,  and  the  next  year  it 
received  its  first  pastor.  As  time  passed  Swedish  churches 
were  organized  in  Berkeley,  Pasadena,  Spokane, 
Tacoma,  Seattle,  Portland,  Salem,  and  elsewhere. 

In  1890  a  Swedish  District  with  ten  charges  was  or- 
ganized in  the  Puget  Sound  Conference.  A  year  later  the 
district  reported  only  108  members.  In  1900  there  were 
225.  Notwithstanding  the  low  aggregate  number  of  mem- 
bers in  the  Swedish  churches,  the  Pacific  Swedish  Mission 
Conference  was  organized  on  Sept.  2,  1908,  at  Oakland, 
Calif.,  with  Bishop  Henry  W.  Warren  presiding.  It  began 
with  two  districts,  California  and  Washington,  and  there 
were  eighteen  charges  and  950  members. 

The  Pacific  Swedish  Mission  Conference  continued  only 
twenty  years,  holding  its  last  session  in  1928.  At  that 
time  it  had  sixteen  charges,  1,230  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $253,600,  The  Swedish  churches  and  ministers 
were  received  into  the  overlying  English-speaking  con- 
ferences. 

General  Minutes,  MEG. 

Erie  Howell,  Methodism  in  the  Northwest.  Nashville:  Parthe- 
non Press,  1966. 

V.  H.  Esllrniud  and  E.  D,  Olson,  A  Short  Storij  of  Stoedlsh 
Methodism  in  America.  Cliicago,  19-31.     Fuedehick  E.  Maser 

PADUCAH,  KENTUCKY,  U.S.A.,  is  a  city  on  the  Ohio 
River  named  for  the  Chief  of  an  Indian  tribe  that  occupied 
the  area.  The  earliest  religious  meetings  in  Paducah  are 
unrecorded,  but  in  1834  two  circuit  riders,  George  W. 
Martin  and  George  W.  Cayce,  called  together  a  group  of 
their  converts  and  organized  the  first  Methodist  church 
in  the  lower  Ohio  Valley.  It  was  organized  in  the  private 
school  of  Professor  Robert  Ball  and  was  known  as  the 
Paducah  charge.  These  were  followed  by  Finley  Bynum, 
G.  W.  Kelson,  J.  D,  Fleming,  J.  W.  Jones,  E.  M.'Williams, 
E.  W.  Yancey,  J.  P.  Stanfield,  and  George  E,  Young.  In 
1841  the  first  appointment  was  made  to  Paducah  Station, 
in  the  person  of  James  Young,  and  under  his  leadership 
the  church  building  was  completed. 

Although  in  Kentucky,  the  charge  was  in  the  Mem- 
phis Annual  Conference,  which  in  1883  changed  the 
name  of  Paducah  Station  to  Broadway  Church.  In  1888  a 
group  of  members  formed  a  second  mission  in  north 
Paducah,  and  in  1970  there  were  thirteen  United  Meth- 
odist churches  in  the  city,  with  a  total  membership  of 
5,097.  Broadway  is  the  largest,  with  1,054  members. 

General  Minutes. 

Journals  of  the  Memphis  Conference.  James  A.  Fisher,  Sb. 

PAGE,  JESSE  HAYES  (1831-1903),  distinguished  Ameri- 
can minister  and  educator,  was  for  almost  a  quarter  of  a 
century  a  leader  in  the  North  Carolina  Conference 
of  the  M.  P.  Church.  He  was  born  May  23,  1831.  In 
1881  he  united  with  the  North  Carolina  Conference 
of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  He  was  a  member  of  a 
prominent  Wake  County,  N.  C,  Methodist  family  which 
included  his  nephew,  the  Honorable  Walter  Hines  Page, 
Ambassador  to  Great  Britain,  1913-1918. 

Page  was  educated  at  South  Lowell  Academy  and  at 
Randolph-Macon  College.  In  1855  he  came  to  Brinkley- 
ville,  N.  C,  where  he  and  William  Henry  Wills 
opened  the  Halifax  Male  Academy  and  later  the  Elba 
Female  Seminary.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  at  Bethes- 
da   Church   at   Brinkleyville   in   1858,   the   same   year   in 


PAGE,   JOHN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


which  he  joined  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the 
M.  P.  Church.  On  Dec.  2,  1856,  he  married  .Martha 
Elizabeth  Wills,  daughter  of  Henry  Wills.  The  Pages 
had  one  son  and  five  daughters. 

Page  served  as  Secretary  of  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference in  1859.  1861,  1866,  1867,  1875  and  1876.  He 
was  President  of  the  Conference  in  1878-1879.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  General  Conkebences  of  the  M.  P. 
Church  held  in  1866,  1874  and  1880.  .Around  1870  he 
and  RicH.\BD  Henry  Wills,  his  brother-in-law,  held  a 
protracted  meeting  near  the  residence  of  E.  L.  Lee  in 
Halifa,x  County  and  as  a  result  "Lee's  Chapel"  was  estab- 
lished. 

Page  served  first  as  a  private  and  later  as  chaplain  in 
the  Anny  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America.  In  1865, 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  he  returned  to  Brinkleyville  and 
in  the  following  year  was  assigned  to  the  Tar  River  Circuit 
of  the  North  Carolina  Conference.  In  1867  and  1868  he 
taught  again  at  Brinkley\'ille  and  from  1869-1871  he 
taught  at  "Whitakertown"  near  Enfield.  During  this  peri- 
od he  also  served  the  Roanoke  Circuit.  In  1871  he  moved 
to  Guilford  County  and  taught  until  1873  when  he  re- 
turned to  his  boyhood  home,  Gary,  in  Wake  County  and 
taught  until  1877.  In  1877-1878  he  served  the  Halifax 
Circuit,  which  included  Bethesda  Church  and  Eden 
Church  (which  see),  and  in  187S  he  was  made  President 
of  the  Conference.  In  1880  he  moved  to  Winston  (now 
Winston-S.\lem)  and  in  1881  he  united  with  the  M.  E. 
Church,  South.  As  a  member  of  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference of  this  branch  of  Methodism,  he  served  the  follow- 
ing circuits  or  stations:  Lenoir,  Rock  Spring,  Rockingham, 
Kinston,  Concord,  Statesville,  Morganton,  Aberdeen, 
Laurinburg.  Page  was  "a  man  of  strong  individuality  and 
lovable  personality"  and  "one  of  the  most  able  and  dis- 
tinguished ministers  of  the  gospel  in  North  Carolina 
and  one  of  her  most  beloved  sons."  He  had  an  exceptional- 
ly good  pulpit  voice  and  he  was  well-acquainted  with 
the  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages. 

He  was  superannuated  in  1899  and  died  in  Henderson, 
N.  G.,  on  Dec.  10,  1903. 

The  Henderson  (N.C.)  Cold  Leaf,  Dec.  17,  1903. 

Journal    of     tlie     Nortli     Carolina     Conference,     MES,     1904. 

Our  Church  Record,  June  23,  Sept.  29,  1898. 

Manly  Wade  Wellman,  Rebel  Boast.  New  York,  1856. 

J.  E.  Carroll,  North  Carolina  Conference  (MP).  1939. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

PAGE,  JOHN  (1766-1859),  American  pioneer  preacher 
and  presiding  elder,  was  born  in  Fauquier  County,  Va., 
on  Nov.  22,   1766.  He  married  Celia  Douglass  in   1791. 

Admitted  on  trial  in  the  itinerancy,  he  was  appointed 
to  Livingston  in  1792;  Danville,  1793;  Salt  River,  1794; 
Limestone,  1795;  Green  (East  Tennessee),  1796;  Huck- 
stone,  1797;  Salt  River  and  Shelby,  1798;  Cumberland 
Circuit,  1799-1802. 

On  the  Cumberland  Circuit,  John  Page  wrought  mighti- 
ly for  four  years  and  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  work 
on  that  circuit.  It  was  unusual  in  that  day  to  continue  a 
man  on  a  circuit  longer  than  one  year.  At  the  close  of  his 
four  years  he  was  appointed  presiding  elder  of  the 
Cumberland  District.  At  the  end  of  the  first  year  he  was 
broken  in  health  and  therefore  located  in  1804. 

In  1800  Page  had  been  placed  on  the  Holston,  Russell, 
and  New  River  Circuit  in  Virginia,  but  owing  to  dis- 
satisfaction among  the  people  of  Cumberland  Circuit  at 


his  removal  from  tliat  circuit,  he  was  recalled  and  his 
place  supplied  in  Holston. 

Page  was  one  of  the  prime  movers  and  one  of  the 
most  important  Methodist  leaders  in  the  historic  Great 
Revival  which  came  about  in  Tenn'essee  and  Kentucky 
in  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Out  of  it 
came  many  denominations.  Christian  organizations,  and 
movements  during  the  Revival. 

Readmitted  to  the  Conference  in  1811,  Page  was  ap- 
pointed to  Goose  Creek  Circuit;  and  Caney  Fork,  1812; 
again  he  located  in  1813.  He  was  readmitted  and  sent  to 
Stone's  River,  1825;  Nashville  Circuit,  1826;  Lebanon, 
1827;  Smith's  Fork  as  supernumerary,  1828;  Goose  Creek, 
1829-30;  Fountain  Head,  1831-32;  and  Smith's  Fork, 
1833.  He  was  either  a  supernumerary  or  superannuate 
from  then  on  until  his  death. 

When  Page  entered  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  there 
were  in  that  territory  nineteen  traveling  preachers.  At 
the  time  of  his  death  there  were  681.  A  man  of  faith  and 
power,  John  Page  died  June  17,  1859,  at  the  age  of 
ninety-three  and  in  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  ministry. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

R.  N.  Price,  Holston  Methodism. 

Journal,  Tennessee  Conference.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

PAGE,  RODGER  CLARENCE  GEORGE  (1878-1965),  Aus- 
tralian minister,  was  a  member  of  a  devoted  Methodist 
family  at  Grafton,  on  the  Clarence  River,  northern  New 
South  Wales.  One  of  his  brothers  was  the  late  Sir  Earle 
Grafton  Page,  for  a  time  Prime  Minister,  and  for  many 
years  Treasurer  in  the  Federal  Government. 

Rodger  Page  went  to  Tonga  in  1908  and  became  chair- 
man of  the  small  Methodist  Church  from  which  the 
majority  of  Tongan  Methodists  (the  Free  Wesleyan 
Church  of  Tonga)  had  seceded  in  1885.  With  great 
patience  and  genuine  affection  for  all  Tongans  he  worked 
for  re-union.  Through  the  leadership  of  the  late  Queen 
Salote  the  hopes  of  re-union  were  largely  realized.  In 
1924  the  Methodists  were  legally  united  with  the  Free 
Wesleyan  Church  of  Tonga  of  which  R.  C.  G.  Page  be- 
came President,  1924-46.  It  was  regrettable  that  about 
one-third  of  the  seceding  body  refused  to  unite  and  has 
remained  outside  union  ever  since. 

Page's  devotion  to  Methodism  and  the  people's  interests, 
his  cheerful  spirit,  and  his  influence  with  the  Queen 
brought  him  very  great  respect.  Though  a  widower  he 
continued  to  labor  in  Tonga  until  ill-health  compelled 
his  retirement  in  1947.  He  died  in  Sydney  in  1965  and 
his  ashes  were  taken  to  Tonga  at  his  request.  The  Queen, 
not  long  before  her  own  death,  showed  the  high  regard 
in  which  she  held  Rodger  Page  by  ordering  that  the 
Tongan  word  reserved  for  royalty  should  be  inscribed  on 
his  tomb;  no  greater  recognition,  in  the  opinion  of 
Tongans,  could  have  been  given. 

A.  Harold  Wood 

PAGE'S  MEETING  HOUSE,  near  Radford,  Va.,  was  a  log 
church  built  in  1774,  some  two  and  one-half  miles  south 
of  Radford.  The  Holston  Gonfebence  Committee  on 
History  has  erected  a  stone  marker  at  this  historic  site, 
Edward  Morgan,  an  Englishman  by  birth  and  reputed  to 
have  been  licensed  by  John  We.sley  in  England,  is  as- 
sociated with  Page's  Meeting  House.  He  preached  there 
on  Sundays  and  is  said  to  be  the  first  pastor  of  this  earliest 


WORLD   METHODISM 

church  within  the  bounds  of  what  is  now  the  Holston 
Conference. 

Francis  Asbuhy  preached  in  this  chapel  several  times, 
and  David  Morgan  was  ordained  there,  being  the  first 
man  ordained  in  the  whole  area.  Here  also  was  held  the 
first  CAMP  MEETING,  which  was  one  of  the  centers  of  a 
great  revival.  John  Page  was  a  promoter  of  this  revival 
in  the  Holston  country  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

In  1874  Page's  Meeting  House  was  replaced  by  a  frame 
building  erected  not  far  away  by  William  H.  Price.  The 
old  chapel  disappeared  and  the  land  reverted  to  the  orig- 
inal donors. 


F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 
I.  P.  MarUn,  Hohton.  1945. 
R.  N.  Price,  Holston.  1903-13. 


E.  E.  Wiley,  Jb. 


Federico  Paguba 

PAGURA,  FEDERICO  (1923-  ),  Argentine  bishop,  was 

born  in  Arroyo  Seco,  Argentina,  and  attended  the  Meth- 
odist-related Colegio  Americano  in  Rosario  in  that  coun- 
try. He  attended  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  BLrENOs 
Aires,  where  he  graduated  in  1946.  He  is  a  former  Meth- 
odist Crusade  Scholar,  having  studied  in  that  capacity  at 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  New  York,   1948-49. 

Bishop  Pagura  entered  the  Methodist  ministry  in  1947. 
He  served  as  pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Resurrection  in 
Rosario,  and  as  district  superintendent  of  the  Central 
District  of  the  Argentina  Annual  Conference.  In  1960-61 
he  was  on  the  staff  of  the  World  Student  Christian  Federa- 
tion in  Geneva,  Switzerland,  preparing  a  hymnal  and 
a  book  of  worship  for  students  in  Spain,  Portugal,  and 
Latin  America.  He  has  been  president  of  the  Argentina 
Conference  Board  of  Christian  Education,  vice-president 
of  the  conference's  General  Board,  and  president  of  the 
Evangelical  Council  on  Christian  Education  and  Curricu- 
lum in  Latin  America.  He  is  married  and  tlie  father  of 
three  children.  He  was  elected  bishop  by  the  South  Amer- 
ica Central  Conference,  holding  what  was  to  be  its 
last  meeting  in  Santiago,  Chile,  in  January  1969,  The 
various  Methodist  annual  conferences  comprising  the  Cen- 
tral Conference  of  South  America  are  expected  to  become 
autonomous  Methodist  churches  during  the  1968-72  quad- 
rennium  (see  Latin  American  Evangelical  Methodist 
Churches,  Council  of  ) . 

When  elected  bishop,  Federico  Pagura  was  professor 
of  pastoral  counseling  and  chaplain  at  the  Union  Theologi- 


PAINE   COLLEGE 

cal  Seminary  in  Buenos  Aires.  He  was  assigned  the  Meth- 
odist work  in  Panama  and  Costa  Rica. 

N.  B.  H. 

PAINE,  ROBERT  (1799-1882),  American  bishop,  was  bom 
in  Person  County,  N.  C,  on  Nov.  12,  1799,  the  son  of 
James  and  Mary  A.  Paine.  The  family  went  to  Giles 
County,  Tenn.,  in  1814,  and  Robert  was  educated  in  the 
neighborhood  schools  and  at  a  private  school  near  Cul- 
leoka,  Tenn.  In  1817  he  was  converted  in  a  camp  meet- 
ing held  at  Pisgah  campground  and  joined  Bethesda  Meth- 
odist Church  under  the  ministry  of  Thomas  L.  Dougl.^ss, 
presiding  elder  of  the  Nashville  district.  After  he  was 
licen.sed  to  preach,  he  spent  one  year  as  the  colleague  of 
Miles  Harper  on  the  Nashville  circuit  and  was  then  admit- 
ted on  trial  into  the  Tennessee  Conference,  meeting  at 
Nashville  on  Oct.  1,  1818,  Bishops  McKendree  and 
George  presiding.  His  first  appointment  was  the  Flint 
River  circuit  in  Tennessee,  followed  by  a  year  on  the 
Tuscaloosa  circuit  in  Alabama.  After  that  he  sei-ved  suc- 
cessively Murfreesboro  and  Shelbyville,  Franklin  and  Leb- 
anon. In  1823  he  was  appointed  presiding  elder  of  the 
Forked  Deer  district.  In  1824-25  he  was  pastor  at  Nash- 
ville, and  in  1826-29  he  was  presiding  elder  of  the 
Nashville  district. 

In  1829  he  was  appointed  superintendent  of  a  school 
at  Tuscumbia,  and  from  1830  until  his  election  to  the 
episcopacy  in  1846,  he  was  president  of  LaGrange  College 
in  Franklin  County,  Ala.  During  this  time  he  was  awarded 
the  D.D.  degree  by  a  college  that  is  not  known  at  the 
present  time. 

As  a  bishop,  Robert  Paine  presided  over  all  the  con- 
ferences of  Southern  Methodism,  sei-ving  as  the  presiding 
officer  of  the  Tennessee  Conference  on  six  different  oc- 
casions. He  was  the  presiding  bishop  of  the  Mississippi 
Conference  for  nine  sessions.  After  his  election  as  bishop 
he  moved  to  Aberdeen,  Miss.,  where  he  remained  until 
his  death  on  Oct.  19,  1882.  His  wife  died  at  Aberdeen 
on  Jan.  3,  1904.  At  the  time  of  his  death  the  following 
children  survived  him:  Mrs.  J.  H.  Scruggs,  Mrs.  S.  F. 
Hamilton,  William  M.  Paine,  and  George  C.  Paine. 

At  the  request  of  the  General  Conference  of  1854, 
Bishop  Paine  was  requested  to  write  the  life  of  Bishop 
William  McKendree,  which  he  did  with  great  effective- 
ness, due  largely  to  his  early  association  with  Bishop 
McKendree. 

R.  H.  Rivers,  The  Life  of  Robert  Paine.  Nashville;  Southern 
Methodist  Publishing  House,   1884.  J.   B.  Cain 

PAINE  COLLEGE,  Augusta,  Georgia,  an  institution  histori- 
cally related  to  the  needs  of  Negro  youth,  was  established 
in  1883  as  Paine  Institute,  through  the  joint  efforts  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  and  the  C.M.E.  Church.  The 
name  was  changed  in  1903  to  the  present  one.  Bishops 
Atticus  Haygood,  Warren  A.  Candler,  and  Charles 
B.  Galloway  were  influential  in  getting  the  institution 
started  and  in  securing  financial  support  from  the  M.E. 
Church,  South. 

The  school  was  named  for  Bishop  Robert  Paine  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  who  had  been  interested  in  planta- 
tion missions  and  organized  the  Negro  members  of  his 
church  into  the  C.M.E.  Church.  Southerners  of  both 
races  planned  for  and  supported  the  college  from  the 
beginning.  It  was  the  major  concern  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  for  Negro  education  and  supported  as  such. 


PAISLEY,    CHARLES   HENRY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Epworth  11. il 


Degrees  granted  are  the  B.A.,  B.S.,  and  B.S.  in  Educa- 
tion. The  governing  board  has  thirty  members:  including 
six  from  The  United  Methodist  Church  at  large;  six 
from  the  Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Sei-vice;  six  from 
the  C.M.E.  Church;  the  Executive  Secretary,  Educa- 
tional Work,  National  Missions;  a  representative  of  the 
staff  of  the  Division  of  Higher  Education,  named  by  the 
division;  one  of  the  executive  secretaries  of  the  Southeast- 
em  Jurisdictional  Council;  General  Secretary,  Board  of 
Christian  Education  of  the  C.M.E.  Church;  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Paine  College  National  Alumni  Association, 
elected  by  them;  and  the  president  of  Paine  College,  ex 
officio. 

John  O.  Gross 

PAISLEY,  CHARLES  HENRY  (1843-1908),  Canadian  Meth- 
odist preacher  and  theologian,  was  boni  in  Fredericton, 
New  Brunswick,  Nov.  15,  1843.  After  taking  his  M.A. 
degree  at  the  University  of  New  Brunswick  in  1866,  he 
was  received  on  probation  as  a  Methodist  minister.  Before 
and  after  his  ordination  in  1870  he  was  stationed  on  sever- 
al circuits  in  the  Maritime  Provinces. 

In  1879  he  was  appointed  principal  of  Mount  Alliso.n 
Academy  and  professor  of  New  Testament  Greek  at  the 
university.  He  was  also  one  of  the  examiners  of  the 
University  of  New  Brunswick.  He  left  these  positions  in 
1884,  and  obtained  leave  to  study  at  Edinburgh  and 
Cambridge.  Returning  in  1885,  he  served  on  circuits  until 
1896,  when  he  returned  to  Mount  Allison  as  professor  of 
church  history  and  New  Testament  exegesis.  In  1902  he 
became  dean  of  theology,  a  position  which  he  held  until 
his  death. 

During  his  ministry  Charles  Paisley  held  many  respon- 
sible positions  in  the  church.  He  was  President  of  the 
New  Brunswick  and  Prince  Edward  Island  Conference  in 
1888,  and  a  delegate  to  several  General  Conferences.  At 
the  time  of  his  death  he  was  a  member  of  the  General 
Conference  Committee  on  Union  with  the  Presbyterian 
and  Congregational  churches,  and  of  its  subcommittee  on 
doctrine.  He  was  honored  by  Victoria  College  with  a 
D.D.  in  1900. 

Paisley  made  many  contributions  to  The  Wesleyan  and 
other  periodicals  on  both  religious  and  scientific  subjects. 
One  of  his  papers,  "Illustrations  of  the  Harmony  Between 
Scripture  and  Science,"  was  published  in  The  Canadian 
Methodist  Magazine. 


His  sudden  death  at  Sackville,  Jan.  20,  1908,  was  a 
great  k)ss  to  his  church  and  to  his  university. 

D.  Johnson,  Eastern  British  America.  1924. 

T.  \V.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1890.  E.  A.  Betts 

PAKISTAN.  On  Aug.  15,  1947  the  British  Crown  Colony  of 
India  was  granted  independence,  and  divided  into  two 
sovereign  dominions  according  to  religious  predomi- 
nance— India  (Hindu)  and  Pakistan  (Moslem).  Both  re- 
mained in  the  British  Commonwealth,  and  also  joined 
the  United  Nations.  Pakistan  decided  in  1953  to  become 
a  Republic,  in  .May  1955  adopted  a  new  constitution, 
and  in  March  1956  inaugurated  the  new  republic.  The 
Moslems  predominated  in  the  west  and  that  portion  be- 
came West  Pakistan.  They  also  predominated  in  the  east, 
and  that  became  East  Pakistan,  separated  by  1,000  miles 
of  Hindu  India.  The  name  Pakistan  was  chosen  because 
it  means  Holy  Land. 

A  little  more  than  one-fifth  of  prepartition  India  came 
into  Pakistan,  365,529  square  miles  in  all,  of  which  West 
Pakistan  had  310,403  square  miles,  the  remaining  55,126 
being  in  East  Pakistan.  The  1961  Census  reports  the 
population  as  follows:  For  all  Pakistan  132,000,000,  of 
whom  Moslems  are  about  eighty  percent.  Literacy  figures 
for  Pakistan  total  15.9%;  West  Pakistan  13.6;  East  Pakistan, 
17.6. 

In  West  Pakistan  the  people  are  largely  from  the  Aryan 
stock  with  some  of  Mongol  and  Central  Asian  ancestry. 
Very  few  Aborigines  are  in  the  land. 

The  ruins  of  Harappa,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ravi  River 
120  miles  south-west  of  Lahore,  and  of  Mohenjo-Daro 
on  the  banks  of  the  Indus  200  miles  north  of  Karachi 
belong  to  the  Indus  Valley  Civilization  of  5,000  years 
ago,  and  show  their  advanced  culture  (Dravidian). 

The  ruins  of  Taxila,  some  twenty  miles  north-west  of 
Rawalpindi,  reveal  much  early  history,  e.g.  the  coming 
of  Alexander  the  Great  in  327  b.c.  and  the  lingering 
Greek  influence.  The  beginning  of  the  spread  of  Buddhism 
brought  the  famous  Indian  king,  Asoka,  273-232  b.c,  to 
Taxila  and  helped  make  a  Buddhist  Center  in  Taxila. 
Buddhist  influence  in  India  was  great  for  several  centuries. 

The  first  Moslem  invader  of  India  came  from  the  west, 
Persia,  in  712.  Through  the  following  eight  centuries  fre- 
quent and  incessant  forays  or  invasions  continued,  ending 
in  1525  with  Babar  who  set  up  the  famous  Moghul 
dynasty  which  ended  with  the  death  of  Aurangzeb  in 
1707.  Confusion  reigned  till  the  British  era  came  after 
1750.  During  the  200  \ears  of  Moghul  domination  the 
.Moslems  increased  rapidly  in  numbers,  particularly  in  the 
extreme  east  of  India  and  even  more  in  the  west.  South 
India  remained  very  predominantly  Hindu  and  the  north- 
em  part  of  India  was  overwhelmingly  Hindu,  beginning 
from   Amritsar  and  increasingly  stronger  to  mid-Bengal. 

In  1365  Firoz  Shah,  a  Moslem  king,  imposed  a  poll 
tax  on  Hindus,  with  Moslems  exempt,  known  as  Jizya. 
Akbar,  a  Moslem,  abolished  the  tax  in  1569.  In  1679 
Aurangzeb,  last  of  the  famous  Moslem  kings  of  the 
Moghul  dynasty,  reimposed  the  Jizya  tax.  A  few  years 
later  it  was  not  enforced  and  has  not  been  in  force  since. 

The  British  control  of  India  began  in  the  1750  decade, 
in  the  name  of  the  East  India  Company.  In  1857  the 
British  Government  took  over  the  control  of  India,  but 
Moslem  majorities  continued  in  the  western  sections  and 
the  eastern  half  of  Bengal.   After  the   first  World  War, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


the  British  Government  came  to  the  conclusion  that  India 
should  get  independence. 

The  rivalry  between  the  Congress  Party  dominated 
by  Hindus,  and  the  Moslem  League  representing  Moslems, 
led  to  the  demand  from  the  latter  for  separation  at  the 
time  of  independence.  The  nearer  the  promised  day  of 
independence  came,  the  more  adamant  the  Moslem 
League  became.  The  British  leaders  feared  the  outbreak 
of  civil  war  within  all  of  India,  particularly  all  of  northern 
India,  and  so  agreed  to  the  separation.  The  Congress 
Party  reluctantly  accepted  the  plan.  The  Congress  Party 
was  never  happy  over  the  partition,  and  Moslem-estab- 
lished Pakistan  was  unwilling  to  accept  India's  action 
claiming  the  right  to  absorb  Kashmir  on  the  request  of 
the  ruler,  a  Hindu,  ruling  a  nation  predominantly  Islamic. 
Fighting  between  India  and  Pakistan  over  Kashmir  broke 
out  in  1948,  but  was  quickly  muted  into  a  cease  fire 
urged  by  the  United  Nations.  In  September  1965,  the 
fighting  again  broke  out,  and  again  the  United  Nations 
got  a  cease  fire  arranged  and  carried  out.  In  January 
1966,  the  Russian  leader,  Kosygin,  arranged  for  a  meeting 
in  which  the  two  leaders.  Premier  Shastri  for  India,  and 
President  Aiyub  for  Pakistan,  signed  the  Tashkent  agree- 
ment that  eased  matters  considerably,  but  did  not  include 
a  decision  or  agreement  on  Kashmir.  The  sudden  death 
of  Shastri,  from  a  heart  attack,  an  hour  or  two  after 
signing  the  new  agreement,  brought  a  lull,  and  the  election 
of  another  Premier,  Mrs.  Firoze  Gandhi,  nee  Indira  Nehru, 
daughter  of  Jawahir  Lall  Nehru.  No  definite  agreement 
on  the  Kashmir  issue  was  reached  at  Tashkent  discussion. 
The  Kashmir  issue  between  India  and  Pakistan  is  still 
pending. 

Important  Towns  in  West  Pakistan:  (1969  population 
estimates  shown).  Karachi,  (3,060,000);  Lahore,  (1,- 
823,000);  Hyderabad,  (434,000);  Rawalpindi,  (455,- 
000);  Multan,  (225,000);  Peshawar,  (213,000);  Lyallpur, 
(over  100,000);  Sialkot,  (over  100,000);  Quetta,  (about 
70,000);  MuiTee  (a  Hill  station  in  the  Himalayas). 

Methodism  in  Pakistan  Prior  to  Partition.  Methodist 
work  began  in  Karachi  in  1874  when  a  regiment  of  British 
troops  had  responded  to  the  preaching  of  William  Tay- 
lor, later  bishop  to  Africa.  The  regiment  came  to  Karachi 
with  summers  in  Quetta.  D.  O.  Fox  was  the  missionary 
sent  to  begin  the  organized  work.  The  first  church  building 
was  erected  in  Karachi  for  the  English  speaking  group  in 
1874.  Within  a  couple  of  years  there  was  also  an  Indian 
congregation  formed.  A  church  building  was  also  erected 
in  Quetta.  These  two  places  were  outposts  of  the  Bombay 
Conference  for  almost  fifty  years,  until  the  formation  of 
the  Indus  River  Conference  in  1923. 

The  first  Methodist  congregation  in  Lahore  was  orga- 
nized in  1881  by  James  Shaw,  and  the  first  church  build- 
ing erected  in  1883.  The  work  in  the  Indian  group  was 
separated  in  1886.  The  congregations  continued,  growing 
slowly  until  1904.  The  North  India  Mass  Movement  quick- 
ened the  work  in  and  around  Lahore,  led  by  J.  B.  Thomas, 
then  J.  C.  Butcher,  followed  by  others.  Miss  Lily  D. 
Greene  was  the  first  representative  of  the  Woman's  For- 
eign Missionary  Society  (M.E.  Church,  U.S.A.),  to 
come  to  Lahore;  she  arrived  in  1912.  A  primary  school  and 
hostel  for  boys  had  already  been  started,  and  Miss  Greene 
soon  got  a  primary  school  and  hostel  started  for  girls. 
The  Urdu-speaking  congregation  had  grown  considerably 
and  now  grew  more  rapidly.  Indian  preachers  and  district 
workers  were  increasing  rapidly  in  numbers,  and  local 
groups  were  organized  in  several  towns.  The  boys'  school 


was  moved  to  Raiwind,  twenty-five  miles  from  Lahore, 
in  1922. 

In  1922  the  Indus  River  Conference  was  organized.  It 
included  from  the  Bombay  Conference,  Karachi  and 
Quetta.  From  the  Northwest  India  Conference,  Lahore 
and  Multan,  together  with  other  districts  which  in  1950, 
after  partition  since  they  were  in  India,  joined  the  Delhi 
Conference.  The  Indus  River  Conference  represented 
Methodism  in  all  of  West  Pakistan. 

The  increasing  numbers  of  poor  people  of  the  village 
coming  into  the  Methodist  Church  in  large  numbers,  and 
the  need  for  securing  land  for  many  of  them  to  settle  made 
matters  increasingly  acute.  The  Government  was  then 
building  an  elaborate  and  intricate  canal  system  to  develop 
agriculture  in  the  Punjab.  Clyde  B.  Stuntz  in  1924  was 
able  to  get  permission  for  200  Christian  families  to  pur- 
chase land  to  settle  on.  A  Christian  village  was  formed, 
its  official  name  being  Chak  No.  I35/16/L.  The  grateful 
community  gave  it  the  name  Stuntzabad.  Many  other 
Christian  families  managed  to  secure  land  in  neighboring 
villages,  making  possible  the  development  of  a  fine  rural 
church,  composed  of  people  who  had  come  from  a  poor 
community,  and  had  been  unable  to  have  schools  to  which 
their  children  could  go. 

Methodism  Since  Partition.  Partition  split  the  Indus 
River  Conference,  confining  the  conference  to  Pakistan. 
The  leadership  of  the  conference  went  with  those  on  the 
India  side.  New  leaders  were  needed  in  Pakistan.  The 
conference  that  remained  in  Pakistan  consisted  of  twenty- 
seven  members  of  whom  three  were  missionaries;  one 
Pakistani  member  who  had  completed  high  school,  eigh- 
teen Pakistani  members  who  had  not  completed  high 
school,  and  five  retired  Pakistani  preachers.  All  Pakistani 
members  had  been  through  the  seminary.  The  number  of 
Methodists  was  a  little  over  25,000. 

The  latest  figures  show  the  number  of  Methodists  to  be 
56,000.  The  conference  members  number  fifty-five,  of 
whom  ten  are  missionaries;  of  the  Pakistani  members, 
eight  are  graduates;  nineteen  have  passed  high  school; 
seventeen  have  not  passed  the  high  school;  one  is  retired. 
All  but  two  of  the  Pakistani  members  are  seminary  trained; 
both  of  the  untrained  are  graduates. 

New  leaders  have  come  to  the  front.  There  are  nine 
districts  in  the  area,  all  having  Pakistani  district  super- 
intendents. There  are  four  high  schools  at  work  and  one 
more  expected  to  be  fully  accredited  soon,  making  a  total 
of  five,  two  of  whom  are  for  boys,  two  for  girls  and  one 
co-educational.  Each  high  school  has  a  qualified  Pakistani 
principal,  the  two  for  girls  having  lady  principals.  Mission- 
aries are  helpers  and  associates,  engaged  in  special  work 
organizing  new  types  of  service. 

Expansion  of  Work  and  Development  of  Conferences: 
The  distance  between  Lahore  and  Karachi  by  train  is  755 
miles.  Thirty-five  miles  from  Lahore  are  considered  Meth- 
odist fields;  then  a  gap  of  115  miles  is  served  by  other 
churches,  followed  by  120  miles  more  of  Methodist  field; 
another  gap  of  work  for  other  churches  then  comes  and 
the  last  one  hundred  miles  to  Karachi  are  also  in  the  Meth- 
odist field.  These  long  distances  made  the  work  of  con- 
ference committees  expensive  and  time-consuming.  The 
need  for  a  separate  conference  to  take  care  of  Karachi  and 
Quetta  became  evident.  Up  to  1954  the  main  effort  had 
been  in  the  Punjab  section  which  included  Lahore  and 
Multan.  The  importance  of  Karachi  as  the  first  capital  led 
to  a  strengthening  of  the  Methodist  force  there. 

The  General  Conference  of  1956  gave  authorization 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


for  the  necessary  establishment  of  the  Karachi  Provisional 
Annual  Conference  which  was  duly  organized  in  1959. 
The  General  Conference  of  1960  authorized  the  creation 
of  the  Provisional  Central  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Pakistan,  since  membership  in  the  Central 
Conference  of  Southern  Asia  had  become  unwise.  Epis- 
copal leadership  had  been  provided,  first  when  the  Indus 
River  Conference  was  included  in  the  Delhi  Area,  with 
J.  Waskom  Pickett  as  resident  bishop  until  May  1952; 
then  for  four  years  as  part  of  the  Lucknow  area,  with 
Clement  D.  Rockey  as  resident  bishop.  In  November, 
1956,  the  Central  Conference  of  Southern  Asia  retired 
Clement  Rockey  who  had  reached  the  age  of  retirement. 
On  the  request  of  the  Indus  River  Conference,  approved 
by  the  College  of  Bishops  of  the  Central  Conference  in 
India,  he  was  given  authorization  by  the  Council  of 
Bishops  of  The  Methodist  Church  to  sei-ve  in  Pakistan 
until  the  end  of  September  1964.  By  action  of  the  Council 
of  Bishops  in  Pittsburgh  in  1964  the  retiring  bishop  of 
South  East  Asia  Central  Conference,  was  authorized  to 
take  over.  Thus  on  Oct.  1,  1964,  retired  Bishop  Hobart 
B.  Amstutz  served  as  bishop  in  Pakistan. 

Centers  of  Methodist  Work  in  Pakistan.  Partition  pro- 
vided Pakistan  with  a  good  nucleus  of  workers  and  insti- 
tutions in  The  Methodist  Church.  Expansion  into  new  cen- 
ters of  work,  and  opening  of  new  institutions,  as  well  as 
further  development  of  existing  institutions,  have  resulted 
in  the  following:  Lahore,  Lucie  Harrison  Girls  High  School 
(800);  Stuntzabad,  high  school  (600),  and  ten  primary 
schools;  Quetta,  primary  school.  Bethel  Church;  Karachi, 
Drigh  Road  Church,  Drigh  Road  High  School  (over  600), 


The  Trinity  Girl's  High  School  of  the  Methodist  Church 
(234),  The  Methodist  Primary  School  (301). 

Churches  in  Pakistan  have  found  it  helpful  and  stimu- 
lating to  work  together  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  develop- 
ing country.  The  West  Pakistan  Christian  Council  was 
speedily  organized,  and  has  grown  steadily  in  efficiency 
thus  producing  better  relations  between  the  denomina- 
tions at  work  in  the  country:  Anglicans,  Presbyterians  (of 
four  different  branches),  Methodists,  Salvation  Army,  and 
Pakistan  Lutherans.  Headquarters  are  in  Lahore.  The 
W.P.C.C.,  as  it  is  called,  selects  fields  for  new  groups  to 
work  in  Pakistan,  and  provides  for  the  exchange  of  new 
ideas,  also  for  organizing  institutions  of  comity,  smoothing 
out  denominational  differences,  enforcing  rules  for 
comity,  and  for  providing  an  agency  to  approach  govern- 
ment when  necessary. 

Institutions  in  which  Methodists  are  cooperating: 
Lahore;  United  Christian  Hospital,  Forman  Christian  Col- 
lege, Kinnaird  College  for  Women,  Kinnaird  Teacher 
Training  Center.  Gujranwala:  Theological  Seminary — one 
Methodist  missionary  on  staff;  two  Pakistani  students  in 
each  year's  class,  training  for  the  Methodist  ministry; 
United  Bible  Training  Center  for  Village  Workers — for 
Christian  women  workers  and  the  wives  of  seminary  stu- 
dents; Boys  Industrial  School — for  Technological  Educa- 
tion; Christian  Adult  Literacy  Center. 

The  Central  Conference  of  Pakistan  in  1968  on  the 
first  and  only  ballot  for  bishop  elected  John  Victor 
Samuel.  Mrs.  Shirin  Samuel,  his  wife,  is  capable  and  well 
qualified  to  help  him  provide  able  leadership  for  Meth- 
odism in  Pakistan. 


Theological  Seminary,  Pakistan 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PALMER,    EVERETT   WALTER 


In  1968  trouble  in  the  Gujranwala  Theological  Semi- 
nary broke  out.  Methodism  cooperates  in  the  Seminary, 
providing  staff  and  sending  students,  as  other  denomina- 
tions also  do.  Staff  members  from  other  participating 
denominations,  continued  in  teaching  their  classes.  A  few 
other  Pakistani  members  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church  tried  to  control  the  Seminary.  Failing  to  secure 
help  as  they  wanted  they  applied  to  Dr.  Carl  Mclntyre  in 
America  to  provide  finances  and  join  in  the  effort  to  get 
village  churches  of  rural  groups,  of  any  denomination,  to 
join  them.  Dr.  Mclntyre  gave  money  to  enable  weak  rural 
churches  to  receive  enough  to  pay  their  pastors  three 
times  as  much  as  they  had  been  getting.  Very  few  of  the 
rural  ministers  of  other  churches  accepted  the  money  and 
stayed  with  their  congregations.  The  rebellious  group  con- 
tinued to  try  to  occupy  their  quarters  and  hold  classes  in 
the  seminary  buildings.  The  struggle  to  control  continues. 
The  classes  of  students  of  the  main  group  and  their 
teachers  from  other  churches  continue  to  receive  their 
preparation  for  the  ministry. 

United  Church  Formed  in  Pakistan.  In  1970  an  epochal 
event  for  Protestantism  came  about  in  Pakistan  by  the 
formal  consummation  of  church  union  and  the  birth  of 
a  new  200,000  member  church  in  that  land  on  November 
1-3.  The  cooperative  work  of  the  different  denominations 
in  Pakistan  has  been  described  in  previous  paragraphs,  but 
through  historic  ceremonies  held  in  Lahore,  the  Pakistan 
United  Methodist  Central  Conference,  the  Anglican 
Church  of  Pakistan,  the  Pakistani  Lutheran  Church,  and 
the  United  Church  of  Pakistan  became  a  united  body. 
The  new  church  encompasses  both  East  and  West  Paki- 
stan. Bishop  John  Victor  Samuel  took  a  prominent  part  in 
leading  60,000  United  Methodists  into  this  union. 

The  new  Church  was  organized  into  five  dioceses — four 
in  Western  Pakistan,  each  known  by  the  name  of  its  head- 
quarters: Lahore,  Multan,  Sialkot,  Karachi.  Efforts  at  the 
time  of  this  writing  are  being  made  to  organize  the  north- 
western part  of  the  Lahore  diocese  into  another  diocese. 
Bishop  Samuel  became  the  chosen  head  of  the  Multan 
diocese. 

B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 
W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

Ghayur-ul-lslam,    et    al.,    comp.,    A    Handbook    of    Pakistan 
Economy.  Lahore:  Ali  Brothers,  1957. 
J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956. 
Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 
Minutes  of  the   Indus   River  Conference,    1963;   Karachi  Pro- 
visional Conference,  1963-64. 

Pakistan— 1962-1963.   Karachi:   Pakistan   Publications,    1963. 
Short   History   of   Hind-Pakistan.    Pakistan    Historical    Society, 
1960. 
World  Outlook,  April  1963.  Clement  D.  Rockey 

PALMER,  EVERETT  WALTER  (1906-1971),  American  bish- 
op, was  born  in  Menomonie,  Wis.,  on  Jan.  25,  1906,  the 
son  of  John  Stephen  and  May  (Sanders)  Palmer.  From 
Dakota  Wesleyan  University,  he  received  the  B.A.  de- 
gree in  1932,  the  D.D.  in  1952;  he  was  a  part-time  gradu- 
ate student  at  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  1935-39, 
where  he  received  his  B.D.  degree  in  1935;  a  graduate  stu- 
dent at  Oxford  (England)  University,  summer  of  1950; 
received  the  degree  of  S.T.D.  from  the  Uni\'ersity  of 
PuGET  Sound  in  1961;  also  a  LL.D.  degree  from  Morn- 
INGSIDE  College,  in  1963. 

On  June  30,  1927,  he  married  Florence  Ruth  Wales, 
and  they  had  three  daughters,  Joanne   (Mrs.  Clifford  C. 


Everett  W.  Palmer 

Cate),  Elizabeth  (Mrs.  A.  Ross  Cash),  and  Ruth  (Mrs. 
John  P.  McKean ) . 

Everett  W.  Palmer  preached  his  first  sermon  on  Nov. 
15,  1929,  and  from  1929-30  was  pastor  in  Artesian,  S.  D. 
He  was  admitted  on  trial  at  the  Dakota  Annual  Confer- 
ence (ME)  in  October  1930;  ordained  a  deacon  at  Atlan- 
tic City,  N.  J.,  on  Oct.  1,  1934;  elder  at  Asbury  Park,  N.  J., 
Sept.  22,  1935.  His  pastorates  include:  Artesian  and  Far- 
well,  S.  D.,  1929-32;  Silverton  Circuit,  N.  J.,  1933-34; 
Trinity  Church,  Highland  Park,  N.  J.,  1934-42;  Centenary 
Tabernacle,  Camden,  N.  J.,  1942-46;  First  Church,  Asbury 
Park,  N.  J.,  1946-51;  First  Church,  Glendale,  Calif.,  1951- 
60.  He  was  elected  bishop  July  13,  1960  at  the  Western 
Jurisdictional  Conference,  and  assigned  to  the  newly 
created  Seattle  Area. 

As  a  member  of  the  General  Board  of  Education,  he 
was  chairman  of  its  Department  of  Ministerial  Education; 
vice-president  of  the  Commission  on  Ecumenical  Affairs; 
and  chairman  of  its  Committee  on  Promotion  and  Inter- 
pretation of  Ecumenical  Affairs;  he  sen'ed  also  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Commission  on  Structure  on  Methodism  0\'er- 
seas;  of  the  Commission  on  Interjurisdictional  Relations; 
and  was  chairman  of  the  1966  Urban  Life  Convocation; 
also  he  was  on  the  executive  committee  of  the  Methodist 
Educational  Foundation.  He  was  president  of  Pacific 
Homes  Corporation,  1953-60. 

Bishop  Palmer  was  a  member  of  the  World  Method- 
ist Council,  of  the  Assembly  of  the  National  Council 
of  Churches,  and  was  a  Methodist  delegate  to  the  World 
Council  of  Churches  in  Uppsala,  1968. 

He  received  the  "Star  of  Africa:  Grand  Band,"  Liberia's 
highest  decoration  presented  to  a  citizen  of  another  coun- 
try. Presentation  was  made  by  President  W.  V.  S.  Tubman, 
president  of  the  Repubhc  of  Liberia. 

His  books  include:  Spiritual  Life  Through  Witnessing 
(Tidings  Press),  1955;  You  Can  Have  a  New  Life  (Abing- 
don), 1959;  There  is  An  Answer  (Abingdon),  1962;  and 


PALMER,    FLORENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


The  Glorious  Imperative  (Abingdon),  1967.  He  delivered 
the  Jarrell  Lectures  at  Emory  University  at  the  Candler 
School  of  Theology  (Atlanta,  Georgia),  in  1967.  He 
travelled  widely  in  carrying  out  various  church-wide  re- 
sponsibilities including  an  episcopal  visitation  to  South 
Asia  in  1963;  to  Africa  in  1967. 

He  served  as  resident  bishop  of  the  Seattle  Area,  in- 
cluding Washington  State  and  Northern  Idaho  until  his 
death  in  Palm  Springs,  Calif.,  on  Jan.  5,  1971,  of  an  appar- 
ent heart  attack. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

PALMER,   FLORENCE    (1904-  ),  was  a  missionary  in 

the  Gujarat  Annual  Conference,  1930-59.  In  1960,  she 
became  secretary  for  India,  Nepal,  and  Pakistan  and  in 
the  Woman's  Division  of  the  Board  of  Missions  in  New 
York.  In  1965  she  returned  to  India  and  retired  in  1968. 

Miss  Palmer  was  bom  in  Carthage,  111.,  April  8,  1904. 
She  holds  a  B.A.  degree  from  Carthage  College,  and  has 
studied  in  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  and  Scarritt  Col- 
lege. In  India  she  was  an  effective  evangelist  and  district 
administrator  of  primary  schools.  With  the  advantage  of 
four  years  of  secretarial  service  in  the  Board  of  Missions 
added  to  her  previous  fruitful  experience,  she  assisted  the 
church  in  India  in  a  fruitful  study  of  women's  leadership 
training. 

Minutes  of  the  Gujarat  Annual  Conference. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

PALMER,  PHEBE  (1807-1874),  American  lay  evangelist 
and  exponent  of  Christian  holiness,  was  bom  in  New 
York  City,  Dec.  18,  1807,  the  child  of  Henry  Worrall  and 
Dorethea  Wade. 

Her  father  was  bom  in  Yorkshire,  England.  As  a  boy 
of  fourteen,  he  heard  John  Wesley  preach,  was  convinced 
of  the  truth  of  his  preaching,  and  soon  became  a  member 
of  Society,  receiving  a  ticket  certifying  his  membership 
from  the  hand  of  Mr.  Wesley.  About  the  age  of  twenty- 
five,  Mr.  Worrall  came  to  America  and  settled  in  New 
York  City.  After  some  spiritual  struggle,  he  became  a 
member  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  as  had  his  wife  before  him. 
Phebe  was  their  fourth  child.  In  later  years,  Phebe  ex- 
pressed gratitude  for  the  influence  Christian  parents  and  a 
Christian  home  had  upon  her  life.  She  was  converted  at 
an  early  age.  In  spite  of  this  experience  she  seemed  not  to 
have  been  completely  satisfied  with  her  religious  experi- 
ence or  the  depth  of  her  spiritual  life. 

Phebe  married  Walter  C.  Palmer,  a  New  York  City 
physician,  on  Sept.  28,  1827.  Their  life  together  was 
happy.  They  shared  many  common  interests — and  none 
more  than  their  desire  to  promote  spiritual  holiness.  Both 
were  greatly  influenced  by  a  revival  which  took  place  in 
the  Allen  Street  Methodist  Church  in  1832. 

In  subsequent  years,  Phebe  gave  birth  to,  and  lost,  sev- 
eral children — one  tragically.  She,  herself,  passed  through 
a  critical  illness  and  was  convinced  that  her  life  had  been 
miraculously  spared.  All  of  these  experiences,  along  with 
her  spiritual  hunger,  led  her  to  search  for  further  light 
and  understanding.  On  July  26,  1837,  she  had  an  experi- 
ence, following  much  inner  spiritual  wrestling,  which  con- 
vinced her  that  she  had  experienced  perfect  love  and  had 
been  sanctified. 

Her  home  soon  became  a  meeting  place  for  a  group  of 


women  who  had  been  meeting  regularly  for  prayer  for  a 
number  of  years.  These  meetings  gradually  grew  in  num- 
bers and  importance  until  they  attracted  ministers  and 
laymen  from  all  corners  of  the  world.  In  later  years,  when 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Palmer  were  away  on  evangehstic  tours, 
the  meetings  went  on  in  their  home  in  their  absence  and 
even  after  Mrs.  Palmer's  death. 

Mrs.  Palmer  quickly  became  the  leader  of  this  group 
and  an  outstanding  leader  in  the  holiness  movement  both 
in  and  outside  of  Methodism,  in  this  country  and  abroad. 
She  was  invited  to  speak  at  many  church  conferences, 
assemblies,  camp  meetings,  and  other  gatherings.  With 
her  husband,  she  conducted  meetings  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  over  a  four  year  period.  She  wrote  a  number 
of  books,  many  of  which  were  published  by  her  husband. 
Among  them  are:  The  Way  of  Holiness,  1850;  Pioneer 
Experiences,  1868;  Some  Accounts  of  the  Recent  Revival 
in  the  North  of  England  and  Clascow,  1859;  and  Four 
Years  in  the  Old  World,  1866  (with  Dr.  Palmer) . 

Excerpts  from  her  letters  and  writings,  published  in 
The  Life  and  Letters  of  Mrs.  Palmer  by  Richard  Wheatley, 
indicate  that  her  interest  in,  and  exposition  of,  holiness 
were  not  irrational  or  out  of  keeping  with  scriptural  teach- 
ing. She  may  have  been  caught  up  in  the  tides  of  re- 
vivalism and  perfectionism  which  dominated  much  of  the 
religious  life  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  in  America. 
Yet  her  desire  to  love  God  with  all  her  heart  and  mind 
and  soul  and  strength  was  not  divorced  from  her  desire  to 
love  and  serve  her  fellowman. 

Mrs.  Palmer  took  her  stand  against  slavery;  she  worked 
for  the  liberation  of  women  in  the  church  and  in  society; 
she  saw  that  just  wages  must  be  paid  to  domestic  help; 
she  recognized  that  a  Christian  must  be  a  good  and  in- 
terested and  active  citizen;  she  opposed  the  liquor  traffic 
and  its  degrading  effects  upon  human  life  and  the  com- 
munity. 

Mrs.  Palmer  had  her  detractors  and  opponents.  Yet  the 
number  and  names  of  bishops  and  ministers  who  sup- 
ported and  encouraged  her  efforts  read  like  a  Who's  Who 
of  Methodism  during  the  years  of  her  lifetime.  There  can 
be  no  question  but  that  her  influence  was  great  upon  the 
people  who  were  touched  by  her  life.  Indeed,  she  was  one 
of  the  moving  spirits  in  one  of  the  important  theological 
and  doctrinal  crusades  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Mrs.  Palmer  died  Nov.  2,  1874. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Richard    Wheatley,    The    Life   and    Letters    of    Mrs.    Phoebe 

Palmer.  New  York:  W.  C.  Palmer,  1876. 

C.  Wesley  Christman,  Jh. 

PALMER,  WALTER  C.  (1804-1883),  American  physician 
and  lay  evangelist,  was  born  in  New  Jersey  on  Feb.  6, 
1804.  After  graduating  from  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons  in  New  York  City,  he  engaged  successfully 
in  the  practice  of  medicine  in  that  city.  He  was  converted 
at  an  early  age  and  joined  the  Methodist  Church. 

On  Sept.  28,  1827,  he  married  Phebe  Worrall.  They 
lived  happily  together  for  nearly  fifty  years.  During  many 
of  these  years.  Palmer  supported  and  encouraged  his  wife 
in  furthering  the  teaching  of  scriptural  holiness.  Through 
most  of  their  married  life  meetings,  devoted  to  this  cause, 
were  held  in  their  home  on  Tuesday  afternoons.  These 
meetings  were  exceedingly  popular  and  became  models 
for  similar  meetings  held  around  the  country. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Palmer  were  members  of  the  Allen  Street 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PALMYRA   MANIFESTO,   THE 


Methodist  Church  in  New  York  City  and  faithfully  sup- 
ported the  work  there.  They  later  transferred  their  mem- 
bership to  the  Norfolk  Street  Church  in  New  York  City 
because  they  felt  their  help  was  needed  there  to  strength- 
en the  work.  This  desire  to  help  undergird  the  Christian 
cause  motivated  all  of  their  living. 

Palmer  accompanied  his  wife  on  many  of  her  evange- 
listic tours,  both  in  this  country,  Canada  and  Europe. 
One  of  their  most  extensive  tours  through  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  lasted  for  four  years.  They  gave  an  account 
of  their  experiences  on  this  tour  in  their  book  Four  Years 
in  the  Old  World. 

For  thirty-seven  years.  Palmer  edited  and  published 
the  Guide  to  Holiness,  a  magazine  devoted  to  advancing 
the  cause  of  holiness.  In  1870,  the  magazine  had  over 
30,000  subscribers.  Palmer  published  many  of  the  books 
written  by  his  wife  to  explain  and  further  the  cause  to 
which  they  were  both  devoted. 

He  was  a  man  of  wide  sympathies  and  deep  religious 
conviction.  He  was  thoroughly  committed  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  spiritual  life  as  this  was  understood  and 
practiced  by  the  holiness  advocates  of  the  nineteenth 
century — especially  within  the  Methodist  Church. 

Palmer's  full  and  useful  life  came  to  a  close  at  Ocean 
Grove,  N.  J.  He  died  there  on  July  20,  1883. 

C.  Wesley  Christman,  Jr. 

PALMORE,  WILLIAM  BEVERLY  (1844-1914),  for  twenty- 
four  years  was  Editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Chri.stian  Advocate, 
the  organ  of  the  three  annual  conferences  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South,  in  Missoubi.  He  was  bom  in  Fayette 
County,  Tenn.,  and  as  an  infant  was  taken  to  Missouri 
by  his  recently  widowed  mother  to  a  farm  near  Malta 
Bend.  There  he  grew  up  and  received  an  elementary 
education.  At  the  onset  of  the  Civil  War,  he  enlisted  in 
the  Confederate  Army  of  General  Sterhng  Price,  and 
served  in  General  John  S.  Marmaduke's  Brigade  through- 
out the  war.  At  war's  end  he  operated  a  general  store  in 
Waverly. 

Palmore  was  deeply  religious.  He  was  active  in  the 
Waverly  church  as  a  Sunday  school  teacher.  In  this 
exercise  he  felt  and  responded  to  a  call  to  the  ministry. 
To  prepare  for  this  vocation  he  entered  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity. Upon  his  return  to  Missouri  he  joined  the 
Southwest  Missouri  Conference.  He  quickly  came  to 
leadership,  recognized  for  his  intelligence  and  ability  in 
"the  practical  affairs"  of  the  Church  as  well  as  for  his 
forceful  preaching. 

In  1887  Palmore  was  appointed  financial  agent  of 
Central  College  For  Women,  Lexington,  to  raise  a  debt 
of  $16,000,  This  he  did  in  one  year's  time.  His  attachment 
to  the  college  became  permanent  and  was  expressed  by 
his  many  benefactions;  particularly,  while  Editor  of  the 
Advocate,  by  raising  $10,000  to  endow  a  scholarship  to 
aid  the  daughters  of  ministers  and  other  "worthy  girls." 

While  serving  Walnut  Street  Church,  Kansas  City 
(1890),  he  was  elected  assistant  editor  of  the  Advocate 
to  relieve  the  drain  upon  the  strength  of  aged  Editor 
Mc Anally.  Upon  the  latter's  death  in  1892,  Palmore  was 
elected  Editor  and  Manager. 

His  personal  financial  resources,  and  his  bachelorhood, 
enabled  him  to  publish  the  Advocate  at  a  small  annual 
profit;  to  travel  frequently  to  foreign  mission  stations 
throughout  the  world;  and  to  give  generously  toward  the 
education  of  young  women.  His  gifts  made  possible  the 


establishment  of  Palmore  Institute,  Kobe,  Japan,  and 
Colegio  Palmore,  Chihuahua,  Mexico. 

Palmore  often  declared  that  he  was  led  and  guided  by 
the  Holy  Spirit;  that  none  of  the  changes  and  events  in  his 
life  were  of  his  planning.  Perhaps  the  most  startling 
instance  he  cited  was  fracturing  his  wrist  by  a  fall  upon 
the  station  platform  as  he  was  about  to  board  the  "boat 
train"  to  take  passage  on  the  Titanic.  The  delay  enforced 
by  the  doctor  caused  him  to  miss  the  boat. 

It  was  his  editorial  policy  to  cover  events  in  social, 
political  and  economic  affairs,  local,  state  and  national,  in 
the  perspective  of  the  Christian  religion.  Articles  and  re- 
ports of  missionary  endeavors  reflected  his  deep  personal 
interest.  He  was  notably  successful  in  securing  a  wide 
coverage  of  local  church  news,  often  by  attending  district 
meetings  and  by  preaching  in  local  churches.  He  pushed 
the  circulation  of  the  Advocate  to  more  than  20,000,  with 
a  large  readership  outside  the  state. 

Palmore  held  moderate  views  on  most  of  the  con- 
temporary social  and  economic  issues,  and  was  often  a 
leader  in  reform  movements  in  the  state.  But  he  was  a 
steady  and  unintimidated  foe  of  the  "liquor  traffic,"  the 
advocate  of  complete  prohibition  of  all  alcoholic  bever- 
ages. He  wrote  many  anti-tobacco  articles.  His  articles  on 
these  subjects  were  generally  without  the  smooth  and 
polished  style  seen  in  his  writings  on  other  subjects.  He 
wasted  no  fine  rhetoric  on  them. 

Frank  C.  Tucker 

PALMYRA  MANIFESTO,  THE,  is  a  1,000-word  document 
issued  at  Palmyra,  Mo.,  in  June,  1865,  by  ministers  and 
laymen  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South. 

Andrew  Monroe,  "the  pioneer  and  patriarch  of  Mis- 
souri Methodism,"  called  the  meeting  in  Palmyra.  Aware 
that  the  Missouri  Conference  (ME),  meeting  in  St. 
Joseph  in  March  1865,  had  invited  the  Missouri  Confer- 
ence (MES)  to  unite  with  it,  and  mindful  that  many 
people  north  and  south  believed  that  the  Church  South, 
which  had  been  closely  identified  with  the  Confederacy 
and  which  had  suffered  great  losses  during  the  war,  would 
disintegrate  when  the  conflict  ended,  Monroe  felt  that 
all  should  know  that  the  M.E.  Church,  South  was  deter- 
mined to  carry  on  as  an  independent  ecclesiastical  body. 
Significantly  his  invitation  said  the  purpose  of  the  Palmyra 
meeting  would  be  to  ascertain  the  condition  of  the  church 
and  to  consider  means  of  advancing  its  welfare. 

Twenty-four  preachers  and  about  half  as  many  laymen 
convened  at  Palmyra  in  response  to  Monroe's  caD.  Bishop 
Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh  of  Kentucky,  the  only  southern 
bishop  who  spent  much  time  outside  the  Confederate 
lines  during  the  war,  arrived  on  the  second  day,  and  his 
presence  inspired  the  group.  Out  of  the  meeting  came 
the  manifesto  which  declared  that  the  M.E.  Church, 
South  claimed  original  paternity  and  coexistence  as  a 
Methodist  Church  with  the  other  branches  of  the  Meth- 
odist family,  that  the  differences  between  the  two  episco- 
pal Methodisms  had  not  been  swept  away  in  the  war, 
that  the  Church  North  was  trying  to  gain  by  strategy  what 
it  failed  to  get  by  military  order  during  the  war,  and  that 
the  Church  South  was  determined  to  carry  on  as  a  sepa- 
rate and  distinct  ecclesiastical  organization,  while  at  the 
same  time  cultivating  fraternal  relations  with  other  church 
bodies. 

Quickly  circulated  over  the  South  by  both  the  religious 
and    the   secular   press,    the    Palmyra    Manifesto  had    an 


PALO   ALTO,   CALIFORNIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


exhilarating  effect  on  ministers  and  members  alike  in  the 
region.  Some  said  it  was  like  life  from  the  dead.  The 
manifesto  prompted  the  bishops  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  meeting  at  Columbus,  Ga.,  in  August  1865,  to  issue 
a  pastoral  address  that  was  a  trumpet  call  to  action;  it 
proclaimed  that  the  M.E.  Church,  South  still  survived 
and  that  it  would  go  forward  with  determination.  The 
bishops  called  for  a  General  Conference  to  meet  in 
New  Orleans  the  next  year.  That  gathering,  influenced 
directly  and  indirectly  by  the  spirit  of  the  Palmyra  Mani- 
festo, proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  significant  and  for- 
ward kxjking  General  Conferences  in  the  history  of  Ameri- 
can Methodism. 

Charles  W.  Ferguson,  Organizing  to  Beat  the  Devil:  Method- 
ism in  the  Making  of  America.  New  York:  Doubleday,  1971. 
E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  MetJiodism.  1964. 
W.  H.  Lewis,  The  History  of  Methodism  in  Missouri,  1860- 
70.  Nashville;  Methodist  Publishing  House,  1890. 
Frank  C,  Tucker,  The  Methodist  Church  in  Missouri,  1798- 
1939.  Nashville:  Parthenon  Press,  1966.         Albea  Godbold 

PALO  ALTO,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.,  population  55,413 
(1970),  about  thirty  miles  southeast  of  San  Francisco 
on  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  was  incorporated  in 
1894.  The  population  more  than  doubled  from  1950  to 
1960.  It  was  named  Palo  Alto  (Spanish  for  tall  tree), 
and  is  a  residential  city  for  Leland  Stanford  wished  to 
have  a  residential  community  near  Stanford  University 
campus.  It  is  a  shopping  center  for  some  160,000  people. 

Methodist  meetings  in  Palo  Alto  were  held  in  the 
homes  of  pioneers  by  Wilbur  W.  Thoburn  (a  close  friend 
of  David  Starr  Jordan,  first  president  of  Stanford  Univer- 
sity), pastor  of  Mayfield  Methodist  Church,  1891-92.  First 
Methodist  Church  was  started  as  a  mission  church  with 
twenty-four  charter  members  by  M.  H.  Alexander  on 
Jan.  14,  1894.  The  site  of  First  Church,  on  which  three 
buildings  have  been  erected,  was  assessed  at  $51.  In 
1896,  despite  the  1893  Panic,  First  Church  erected  a 
white-painted  redwood  church,  with  oil-skin  windows  and 
wood-burnings  stoves  costing  $3,200  (the  other  two  build- 
ings were  constructed  in  1914  and  1963  on  the  original 
lot). 

For  the  development  of  Palo  Alto  Methodism  in  a 
more  complete  way,  see  the  accounts  following  of  First 
Church,  Aldersgate,  St.  Andrews,  and  Wesley.  In  addition 
to  these,  it  should  be  added  that  the  University  A.M  E. 
Zion  Church  was  established  in  1918.  Their  present  build- 
ing was  erected  and  dedicated  in  1965  at  a  cost  of 
$135,000. 

Aldersgate  Church  has  had  three  names  (Japanese 
Methodist,  Page  Mill  Methodist,  Aldersgate  Methodist) 
and  eight  locations. 

In  November,  1909,  young  Japanese  immigrants  felt 
the  need  of  Christian  faith  and  fellowship  and  ten  of 
them  organized  in  Palo  Alto  a  Japanese  Methodist  Mis- 
sion group  in  1909,  under  the  leadership  of  the  superinten- 
dent, H.  B.  Johnson,  and  Katahide  Yoshioka,  pastor  of 
the  church  in  San  Jose.  Stanford  students  and  a  few 
Japanese  families  organized  a  mission  church  in  1911  in 
the  basement  of  G.  Lkazawa's  boarding  house.  Early 
part-time  pastors  were  Atsuji  Komuro  and  Otoe  So. 

In  April  1940,  a  new  $10,000  church  building  was  com- 
pleted and  dedicated.  Gifts  included  $1,500  from  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions,  $2,500  from  the  Caucasian 
community   and   $6,000  from   the   Japanese   community. 


Church  membership  was  thirty  in  1933. 

During  World  War  II,  all  persons  of  Japanese  descent 
were  evacuated  from  the  West  Coast  and  placed  in  ten 
Relocation  Centers,  Palo  Alto  Japanese  being  removed  to 
Harte  Mountain,  Wyo.  During  this  trying  period  following 
1942  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Alon  H.  Wheeler,  Sunday  school 
teachers,  kindly  cared  for  their  church  and  belongings 
until  1945.  The  church  re-opened  that  fall.  To  help  re- 
turned Japanese  further  at  this  time  the  Palo  Alto  Fair 
Play  Committee  was  organized. 

In  1950  the  membership  rose  to  seventy-four.  The 
first  full-time  pastor,  Sadao  Masuko,  was  appointed  in 
1952  and  served  two  years.  In  1960  church  membership 
was  171  and  church  school  162.  The  church  was  self- 
supporting  in  1962. 

Traffic  and  parking  problems  made  it  imperative  that 
the  church  relocate  and  build  new  quarters.  The  con- 
gregation bought  a  three-acre  site  on  Manuela  Avenue. 
Groundbreaking  took  place  on  May  3,  1964.  The  new 
church,  Aldersgate,  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Donald 
Harvey  Tippett  on  Aug.  15,  1965. 

The  Japanese  Provisional  Conference  was  dissolved 
May  15,  1964,  and  the  thirty-one  Japanese  Methodist 
churches  joined  the  various  geographical  Conferences,  the 
Aldersgate  Church  joining  the  Califobnia-Nevad.'^  Con- 
ference. Since  1945  the  Aldersgate  Church  has  been  a 
bi-lingual  church.  Membership  in  1970  was  251,  and 
170  students  attended  church  school.  The  hillside  setting 
of  the  new  sanctuary,  facing  mountain  rim  sunsets,  adds 
to  the  beauty  of  the  Japanese  architecture  for  these 
Japanese-American  Christians. 

First  Church,  whose  new  $1,350,000  modern-Gothic 
church  with  dramatic  stained  glass  windows  is  often 
called  the  "West  Coast  Cathedral  of  Methodism,"  has 
2,472  members  and  continues  leading  the  California- 
Nevada  Methodist  Conference  in  benevolences. 

This  pioneer  church  was  during  the  ministry  of  J.  F. 
Jenness,  1901-03,  the  final  home  church  for  Bishop  Wil- 
liam Taylor.  Its  lamp-lighted  pulpit  was  sometimes 
filled  on  Sunday  nights  by  Stanford  University's  famed 
president,  David  Starr  Jordan. 

Just  before  the  1906  earthquake  and  fire  swept  San 
Francisco,  and  did  damage  locally,  the  church  gained  its 
first  parsonage  when  Rev.  H.  E.  Milnes  was  pastor,  1903- 
06.  During  the  pastorate  of  Carl  Melvin  Warner  the  out- 
grown wooden  church  was  moved  across  the  street  for 
temporary  use  until  the  second  place  of  worship,  the 
$36,000  white  stucco  church  with  belfry  was  completed. 
The  financial  struggle  for  this  building  was  climaxed  by 
Bishop  Edwin  Holt  Hughes'  three-hour  fund  rally  and 
the  church  dedication  before  900  people. 

Layman  fund  drives  under  the  ministry  of  R.  Marvin 
Stuart  during  and  following  the  second  World  War 
netted  a  $22,000  parsonage,  a  $55,000  sanctuary  re- 
modeling and  the  great  cathedral  church  for  the  rapidly 
growing  membership. 

The  church's  physical  plant  today  includes  a  small 
chapel  and  14,000-square  foot  basement  for  the  Edward 
D.  Kohlstedt  Memorial  Hall,  the  Stuart  Youth  Center  and 
choir,  and  church  school  rooms.  Dedication  day  was 
June  2,  1963.  This  new  building  has  been  called  a  space- 
age  decision  to  build  a  great  "downtown  church"  at  a  time 
when  other  denominations  were  moving  out  into  suburban 
neighborhoods.  A  future  membership  of  4,000  was  then 
projected  by  this  largest  church  of  the  Methodist  Cali- 
fornia-Nevada Conference. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PALO   ALTO,   CALIFORNIA 


First  Church,  Palo  Alto,  California 


Gerald  Kennedy  was  pastor  in  1940-42,  and  awakened 
the  congregation  to  needs  in  a  growing  and  changing 
Palo  Alto  as  this  city  was  on  the  threshhold  of  becoming 
the  major  western  center  of  university  and  industrial 
laboratories  for  electronics,  genetics,  medical  and  aero- 
space research. 

During  and  following  World  War  II,  Church  school 
attendance  doubled  and  re-doubled  several  times.  "Family 
Night"  was  proved  feasible  for  even  a  big  congregation 
and  the  original  Fireside  Fellowship  evolved  into  seven 
fellowships.  In  addition  to  organized  fund  raising,  zealous 
laymen  learned  a  way  of  raising  the  annual  operational 
budget  on  one  "Loyalty  Sunday."  Retreats  for  yearly 
planning  and  summer  church  camp  were  important  de- 
velopments. 

Music,  with  noted  choir  directors  over  the  years,  has 
been  significant  at  this  church,  which  has  the  unique 
Merritt  C.  Speidel  Memorial  Organ  (two  co-ordinated 
organs ) . 

There  are  eight  Circles  of  the  Women's  Society  of 
Christian  Service  and  the  Wesleyan  Service  Guild. 
The  Men's  Club  and  the  Commission  on  Missions  have 
sponsored  eight  refugee  families  (Latvian,  Polish,  German, 
Chinese  and  Dutch-Indonesian)  in  new  homes  and  jobs 
in  Palo  Alto. 

University  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  began  in  1918  when  a 
small  group  of  Palo  Alto  residents  met  in  the  home  of 
Mrs.  Melvina  McCaw  at  330  Cowper  Street.  Their  desire 
for  a  church  home  led  to  the  establishment  that  year  of 
the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  Mission  directed  by  J.  W.  Byers. 
Early  meetings  were  held  at  Fraternity  and  Ostranger 
Halls   on   University   Avenue.    The   little  Christian   flock 


with  its  eight  original  trustees  was  served  by  E.  P.  Bond 
its  first  minister. 

By  the  fall  of  1923  the  twenty-two-member  congrega- 
tion, imder  the  guidance  of  L.  W.  McCoy  and  Elder 
Byers,  raised  $1,254  for  the  church  fund.  Ground  was 
broken  for  the  $6,000  church  on  March  10,  1924,  and  in 
April  1925  the  building,  seating  200  worshippers,  was 
dedicated.  Church  membership  had  increased  to  thirty- 
eight  and  average  attendance  was  seventy-five. 

The  indebtedness  through  the  Depression  years  of  the 
1930's  was  serious,  but  community  efforts  rescued  the 
congregation  from  its  distress.  The  church  was  helped  by 
L.  Offenhizer  and  Alexander  Miller,  associated  with  Stan- 
ford University,  Dallas  E.  Wood,  First  Church  layman, 
Oscar  M.  Green  of  All  Saints  Episcopal  Church,  Gerda 
Isenberg,  president  of  the  Palo  Alto  Fair  Play  Council, 
R.  Marvin  Stuart,  pastor  of  First  Church,  authoress  Kath- 
leen Norris,  and  others. 

The  parsonage,  an  organ  and  a  next  door  rental  income 
property  were  acquired  in  1945  when  J.  O.  Hart  was 
minister.  By  1963  church  membership  had  increased  to 
100  families  and  the  congregation  purchased  the  present 
site  at  3549  Middlefield  Road.  The  Ramon  a  Street  build- 
ing was  sold  with  final  services  held  there  on  the  Sunday 
of  Aug.  9,  1964,  prior  to  occupancy  of  the  modem  new 
$135,000  church  which  was  dedicated  in  1965. 

Wesley  Church.  Earhest  Methodism  of  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Peninsula  seems  to  have  rooted  this  church,  accord- 
ing to  fragmentaiy  records  and  yellowed  newspaper 
files.  The  eleven-saloon  town  of  Mayfield  sprouted  from 
the  cattle  trail  and  stage  coach  route  long  before  Stanford 
University  or  Palo  Alto  were  even  anticipated.  Yet  there 


PAMLA,   CHARLES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


proved  to  be  some  few  determined  Methodists  in  the 
rough  little  Mayfield  of  the  1870's.  The  Alley-Bowen  His- 
tory of  1881  notes  that  a  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
was  built  in  1872,  and  a  local  paper  refers  to  a  Ladies' 
Aid  Society  of  Mayfield  Methodist  Church  in  1893. 

By  1904  trustees  of  the  Mayfield  Methodist  Church 
decided  to  tear  down  their  old  building  at  second  and 
Sherman  and  build  a  new  church  and  parsonage  on  lots  in 
Evergreen  Park.  A  white-painted  wooden  belfry  church 
was  completed  the  following  May. 

Since  the  pastorate  of  Thomas  Bateman  in  1924,  the 
name  Mayfield  Community  Church  had  designated  this  as 
the  one  Protestant  church  of  the  Town  of  Mayfield  ( South 
Palo  Alto  after  1925).  In  mid-summer  1941,  the  church 
trustees  changed  the  name  to  College  Avenue  Church. 
Bishop  James  C.  Baker  was  present  for  the  church  re- 
dedication  on  Nov.  22,  1942,  following  a  $2,500  renova- 
tion of  the  building. 

In  1959  First  Church  of  Palo  Alto  gave  a  $30,000  debt- 
free  adjacent  building  site  to  the  College  Avenue  Church 
— soon  to  have  its  name  changed  to  Wesley  Church.  The 
new  $120,000  sanctuary  and  hall  were  dedicated  in  1959. 

First  Methodist  Church  Service  of  Consecration,  with  History 
of  the  Church,  June  2,  1963. 
General  Minutes. 


Chables  Pamla 

PAMLA,  CHARLES  (1834-1917),  was  one  of  the  first 
four  Africans  ordained  to  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  min- 
istry in  South  Africa  and  the  first  African  superintendent 
minister.  His  father,  who  belonged  to  a  royal  house  in 
Natal,  fled  to  Gcalekaland  during  the  Shaka  Wars  and 
later  migrated  to  the  Peddie  district.  He  was  given  the 
name  Pamla — "a  person  of  no  fixed  abode" — by  the 
Gcaleka  chief  Hintsa.  Charles  was  converted  at  an  early 
age  and  accepted  for  the  ministry  in  1866.  Almost  imme- 
diately he  became  interpreter  to  Bishop  William  Taylor, 
accompanying  him  through  the  native  territories  and 
learning  much  by  precept  and  example.  In  1867  he  was 
enrolled  in  the  first  class  at  the  Theological  College, 
Healdtowtsi,  and  in  1871  he  was  ordained.  Pamla's  most 
significant  ministry  was  at  Etembeni  (1890-1909)  where 
he  built  up  the  membership  from  300  to  5,000  and  sur- 
vived several  attempts  upon  his  life.  He  subsequently 
served  as  connexional  evangelist,  giving  special  attention 
to  the  preparation  of  laymen  for  evangehstic  work.  It  is 
estimated  that  he  was  instrumental  in  25,000  conversions. 


He  was  an  active  preacher  until  the  day  of  his  death  on 
June  24,  1917. 

Minutes  of  South  African  Conference  1918. 
Gordon    Mears,    Cliarles   Pamla,    Methodist    Missionary    Pam- 
phlets No.  2 — Cape  Town. 

W.  Taylor,  Christian  Adventures  in  South  Africa,  New  York, 
1881.  G.  Mears 

PANAMA,  a  republic  occupying  the  400-mile  long  S 
shaped  isthmus  connecting  South  America  with  Central 
and  North  America,  is  a  charter  member  of  the  United 
Nations.  Panama  City  is  the  capital.  Exclusive  of  the  Canal 
Zone,  Panama's  area  is  28,753  square  miles;  and  the 
population  (1969  estimate)  is  1,417,000. 

As  in  many  other  regions,  Methodism  in  Panama  is 
much  older  than  Methodist  missionary  work.  According 
to  tradition,  a  Methodist  called  Mother  Abel  landed  at 
Bocas  del  Toro  between  1815  and  1821,  with  some  En- 
glish settlers.  She  gathered  Colombian  fisherfolk  for  wor- 
ship, taught  them  Methodist  hymns,  and  preached  salva- 
tion by  faith. 

Methodist  missionary  work  began  in  March  1877,  when 
William  Taylor  (later  bishop)  went  there.  He  encoun- 
tered a  number  of  Negroes  who  had  migrated  from 
Jamaica,  some  of  whom  were  members  of  the  British 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church.  They  had  no  pastor  in 
Panama.  On  returning  home  Taylor  appointed  Charles 
W.  Birdsall  to  Panama,  and  he  departed  in  November 
1878.  Birdsall  succumbed  to  malaria  in  four  months.  E.  L. 
Latham  followed  him,  remaining  long  enough  to  organize 
a  Methodist  Society  and  erect  a  combined  chapel,  school 
and  parsonage  at  Panama  City.  In  1881  Richard  Copp 
went  to  Colon,  effectively  developing  the  work  in  both 
cities  for  about  ten  years. 

Meanwhile  Methodists  in  Jamaica  were  becoming  in- 
terested in  their  Negro  members  who  had  emigrated  to 
Panama.  In  1884  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  mis- 
sionary, Thomas  Geddes,  spent  four  months  in  Panama. 
He  was  followed  by  other  missionaries  and  agents  of  the 
newly  autonomous  West  Indian  Conference,  including  his 
son,  Alexander  W.  Geddes,  who  worked  in  Panama  from 
1887  to  1902. 

Two  Panamanians  were  called  to  the  Methodist  minis- 
try during  this  period:  Edward  A.  Pitt,  who  became  the 
first  Methodist  worker  in  Costa  Rica,  and  Clifi^ord  M. 
Surgeon,  who  returned  to  Panama  in  1913. 

American  Methodist  work,  which  had  lapsed  since  the 
end  of  Copp's  ministry  in  Panama,  was  renewed  when, 
in  1903,  Panama  became  independent,  and  the  United 
States  took  over  the  Canal.  The  republic  decreed  the 
separation  of  Church  and  State,  so  that  neutrality  between 
rehgious  groups  was  implied  by  the  constitution.  A  con- 
ference on  Protestant  missions  was  held  in  Panama  in 
1916.  Two  years  later,  a  mission  to  the  Valiente  Amer- 
indians was  begun  by  Ephraim  S.  Alphonse.  Surgeon  and 
Alphonse  reduced  the  Valiente  language  to  writing,  and 
Alphonse  became  the  first  national  chairman  of  the  Cen- 
tral American  sub-District. 

In  January  1967,  Panama  and  Costa  Rica  became  a  full 
district,  under  its  West  Indian  chairman  Felmin  B.  Cock- 
burn.  Later  in  the  same  year,  it  became  a  founder  district 
of  the  autonomous  Methodist  Church  in  the  Caribbean 
AND  Americas.  The  district  has  a  community  of  about 
2,000.  It  has  one  secondary  school  in  Col6n,  with  114 
students.  The  district's  youth  work  is  reaching  out  into 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Spanish-speaking  homes  as  well  as  the  West  Indian  fam- 
ilies who  form  the  majority  of  the  Church's  members. 
In  early  1969  in  the  general  reorganization  of  Amer- 
ican-related Methodism  in  South  America,  several  of  the 
annual  conferences  became  autonomous  churches  each  to 
have  its  own  bishop.  The  Central  American  Provisional 
Annual  Conference  was  given  this  right,  and  Fedebico 
Paguha  was  accordingly  elected  bishop,  and  assigned  to 
the  Costa  Rica  and  Panama  area  to  be  the  President  of 
the  Provisional  Conference  there. 


Colon  Church,  Panama 

The  American  United  Methodist  Church  has  congrega- 
tions in  Panama  City,  Colon  and  Cristobal.  The  Pana- 
manian Institute  enrolls  1,500  students.  A  rural  work 
center,  in  David,  capital  of  Chiriqui  Province.  At  Armuel- 
les,  a  banana  port  on  the  Pacific  coast,  the  United  Fruit 
Company  gave  land  for  a  chapel.  Membership  is  around 
600  with  a  much  larger  community. 

Traditionally,  American-related  Methodism  has  worked 
mainly  among  Spanish-speaking  Panamanians,  and  British- 
related  Methodism  with  Negroes  of  Jamaican  descent, 
and  with  the  Valiente.  The  work  of  the  Methodist  Church 
in  the  Caribbean  and  the  Americas  is  now  largely  self- 
supporting,  apart  from  the  Valiente  work  which  is  a  mis- 
sion. The  MCCA  and  the  Central  American  Provisional 
Annual  Conference  have  co-operative  ministries,  especially 
in  Colon. 

E.  S.  Alphonse,  Among  the  Valiente  Indians.  London:  Cargate 

Press,  1938. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1949-57. 

PANGGABEAN,  WISMAR  (1904-  ),  head  of  the 
autonomous  Methodist  Church  in  Indonesia,  was  bom 
in  Simasom,  Pahae,  Sumatra,  Indonesia,  March  15,  1904. 
His  parents  were  first  generation  Christians  and  sent  their 
son  to  the  Mission  School  in  the  village.  When  he  was 
sixteen  years  old  he  was  called  to  become  "help-teacher" 
in  a  small  school.  Two  years  later  the  Methodist  Church 
asked  him  to  go  to  Singkawan,  Borneo,  to  teach  Indone- 
sian in  a  Chinese  school.  From  1923  to  1927  he  was  a 
student  in  the  Methodist  Training  School  in  Bogor,  Java. 
After  graduation  he  was  appointed  to  do  pioneer  work 
among  the  jungle-dwelling  Bataks  in  Asahan,  Sumatra.  His 
Annual  Conference  elected  him  for  further  training  in 
1941  and  sent  him  to  the  Batak  Seminary  in  Tarutung. 
On  account  of  the  war  his  ordination  had  to  wait  until 
1949,  when  he  was  ordained  deacon  one  day  and  elder 
the  next.  He  served  some  large  churches,  became  district 
superintendent  in  1950,  and  also  served  as  treasurer  of 


the  Home  Missionary  Society,  Conference  Treasurer,  and 
later  principal  of  the  large  Methodist  School  in  Medan. 
His  Church  sent  him  as  delegate  to  a  number  of  Ecumen- 
ical Conferences  such  as  The  Prapat  Conference  and  The 
Indonesian  Council  of  Churches.  When  the  political  sit- 
uation in  Indonesia  called  for  an  Indonesian  assistant  to 
the  bishop,  Panggabean  was  appointed  to  that  position, 
and  when,  in  1964,  the  Methodist  Church  of  Indonesia  be- 
came autonomous,  he  was  elected  their  first  Ketua  (Bish- 
op), to  which  position  he  was  re-elected  in  March  1967. 

Ragnar  Alm 

PAPUA,  comprising  the  southeastern  part  of  the  island  of 
New  Guinea  and  certain  nearby  islands,  was  annexed  by 
Queensland,  Australia,  in  1883  and  by  the  British  Crown 
in  1888.  It  came  under  the  control  of  the  Australian  Com- 
monwealth in  1901  and  became  the  Territory  of  Papua 
in  1906.  Japan  invaded  Papua  in  early  1942,  but  in  De- 
cember of  that  year  Australian  control  was  restored.  It  is 
presently  considered  Australian  territory  and  United  Na- 
tions territory.  The  dependency  is  about  90,540  square 
miles  and  a  population  in  Papua  itself  of  620,000. 

The  London  Missionary  Society  commenced  operations 
in  the  Port  Moresby  district  of  Papua  in  1871.  After  Aus- 
tralian Government  administration  began  the  policy  of 
demarcation  of  missionary  areas  in  Papua,  Methodists 
took  responsibility  for  the  islands  to  the  south-east  of  the 
mainland  (D'Entrecasteaux,  Trobriand,  Louisiade  groups) 
together  with  a  small  district  at  the  tip  of  the  mainland 
known  as  East  Cape. 

In  1891  Methodist  missionaries  entered  this  area,  with 
George  Brown  the  inspiration  here  as  elsewhere.  The 
leader  was  W.  E.  Bbomilow,  previously  a  missionary  in 
Fiji.  Patient  in  his  dealings  with  primitive  people,  equally 
gifted  in  administration  and  translating  Bromilow  served 
in  this  malarial  district  for  twenty-one  years. 

One  of  the  chief  difficulties  was  travelling  through  the 
islands  over  long  ocean  distances  and  through  reef-strewn 
seas;  because  of  the  narrow  entrances  only  small  craft 
could  be  used. 

The  homogeneity  and  the  tribal  structure  that  mark 
Polynesian  people  (e.g.  in  Tonga  and  Samoa)  had  no 
counterpart  in  Papua  or  in  New  Britain  and  adjacent 
islands.  The  people  differed  widely  in  language  and  lack- 
ing either  chiefs  or  a  sense  of  nationhood. 

The  first  Missionary  Sisters  came  from  Australia  to 
Papua  to  found  an  orphanage  and  care  for  babies  who 
would  otherwise  have  been  buried  alive  with  their  dead 
mothers,  according  to  native  custom. 

Bromilow's  successor  was  M.  K.  Giknour,  boat-builder 
and  preacher  who  served  for  thirty-three  years.  In  his 
term  medical  work  was  established  in  this  district  where 
there  had  previously  been  no  doctor  for  40,000  inhabi- 
tants. 

During  World  War  II  the  authorities  ordered  the 
evacuation  of  the  missionaries  from  these  exposed  islands. 
The  mission  was  left  to  the  faithful  care  of  South  Sea 
Islands  workers. 

Since  the  war  evangelistic,  educational  and  medical 
work  have  made  marked  progress,  enabling  the  district  to 
take  a  worthy  place  in  the  United  Church  of  Papua,  New 
Guinea  and  the  Solomon  Islands. 

J.  W.  Burton,  Papua  for  Christ.  1926. 

W.    E.   Bromilow,    Twenty   Years   Among   Primitive  Papuans. 

1923.  Australian  EnrroiuAL  Committee 

1857 


PARADISE,    JOHN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


PARADISE,  JOHN  (1783-1833),  American  portrait  artist, 
was  born  Oct.  24,  1783  in  Hunterdon  County,  N.  J.,  and 
died  in  September  1833,  near  Springfield,  N.  Y.  Though 
modem  critics  regard  him  as  an  artist  of  hmited  talents, 
his  drawings  were  correct  in  detail  and  he  was  popular 
as  a  portraitist  of  Methodist  preachers  of  his  day,  his  at- 
tachment to  Methodism  being  further  evidenced  by  nam- 
ing his  aitist  son,  John  Wesley  Paradise. 

John  Paradise  worked  in  PHiLADELPraA  from  1803 
until  1810  when  he  moved  to  New  York,  where  he  be- 
came a  member  of  the  National  Academy  of  Design  upon 
its  organization  in  1826.  The  History  Society  of  New 
York  owns  his  portrait  of  Henry  Ten  Brook.  Other  evi- 
dences of  his  art  are  held  widely  and  many  family  por- 
traits are  believed  to  be  unidentified  as  his  work. 

John  Paradise  painted  an  oil  on  canvas  of  Bishop 
Francis  Asbuby  during  the  General  Conference  of 
1812  in  New  York  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Anne  Grice 
(1760-1839),  daughter  of  John  Hammond,  prominent 
Methodist  at  Annapolis.  Bishop  Asbury  and  Henry 
BoEHM  were  her  guests  at  the  time.  That  portrait  is  be- 
lieved to  be  the  one  for  which  the  Board  of  Missions  in 
1844  paid  John  Paradise's  widow  $20,  raised  by  private 
subscription.  It  now  is  on  exhibition  at  the  United  Meth- 
odist Publishing  House  offices,  in  Nashville,  Tenn. 

E.  Benezet,  Dictionnaire  des  Peintres,  Sculpteurs,  Dessinateurs, 

et  Graveurs  (vol.  VI,  p.  515). 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Mantle  Fielding,  Dictionary  of  American  Painters,  Sculptors, 

and  Engravers.  New  York;  James  F.  Carr,  1965. 

Leland  D.  Case 


PARAGUAY  is  an  inland  republic  of  South  America.  One 
of  the  smallest  countries  on  the  continent,  Paraguay  has 
an  area  of  157,000  square  miles  and  a  population  of 
2,303,000  (1969).  It  has  extensive  but  undeveloped  nat- 
ural resources,  and  the  economy  is  based  upon  farming 
and  grazing. 

Homeland  of  the  Guarani  Indians,  the  region  along  the 
Paraguay  River  received  its  first  Spanish  settlers  in  1535. 
It  became  a  part  of  the  Spanish  Empire  in  South  Ainerica, 
until  it  gained  independence  in  1811.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  is  established,  but  under  law  other  religions  are 
tolerated.  The  estimated  Protestant  community  of  11,000 
(1961)  is  considerably  less  than  one  percent  of  the  popu- 
lation— as  small  a  percentage  as  any  country  of  Latin 
America  except  Ecuador. 

The  first  Methodist  workers — and  in  fact  the  first 
Protestant  ministers — to  visit  Paraguay  were  a  Scotsman 
who  came  in  from  Argentina,  Andrew  M.  Milne,  and 
a  Uruguayan,  Juan  Correa,  who  were  traveling  together 
as  colporteurs  of  the  American  Bible  Society  and  made 
a  tour  in  Paraguay  in  1881.  Paraguay  was  visited  again 
by  Methodists  in  1884,  and  in  1886,  Charles  W.  Drees, 
superintendent  of  the  South  American  Mission  in  Buenos 
Aires,  Argentina,  appointed  a  local  preacher,  Juan  Villa- 
nueva,  to  establish  a  Paraguay  Circuit.  Because  of  anti- 
Protestant  feeling,  he  was  warned  of  the  danger  of  assas- 
sins, but  he  proceeded  boldly,  making  regular  visits  to 
Asuncion,  Paraguari,  and  German  colonies  of  Altos  and 
San  Bernardino.  He  was  the  only  Protestant  pastor  in 
Paraguay.  A  girls'  school  was  established  in  Asuncion, 
with  Juana  Villanueva  as  teacher.  By  1891  the  school 
enrolled  more  than  100  pupils.  A  boys'  school  was  estab- 
lished in  1892  by  Antonio  Bandies. 


When  the  South  America  Annual  Conference  was  orga- 
nized in  1893,  there  was  a  Paraguay  District.  Contacts 
during  the  first  years  were  mainly  with  the  European 
population,  for  none  of  the  missionaries  had  learned  the 
Guarani  language,  then  spoken  by  most  of  the  Paraguayan 
people.  In  1894  and  1895,  efforts  to  reach  poor  Paraguay- 
an people  in  Asuncion  and  some  small  towns  in  the  in- 
terior met  with  moderate  success. 

Following  the  Panama  Congress  of  Protestant  workers 
in  Latin  America  (1916),  comity  agreements  were  signed 
between  various  mission  boards  in  the  United  States. 
Under  one  of  these  agreements,  the  M.E.  Church  with- 
drew from  Paraguay,  leaving  its  work  to  the  Disciples  of 
Christ.  The  Disciples  now  have  an  important  school, 
Colegio  Intemacional,  in  Asuncion. 

The  Free  Methodist  Church  of  North  America 
entered  Paraguay  in  1946.  Byron  S.  Lamson,  secretary  of 
the  General  Missionary  Board,  visited  Asuncion  and  pur- 
chased five  acres  and  buildings  that  had  been  used  previ- 
ously as  an  orphanage  by  a  nondenominational  mission 
group.  The  Rev.  and  Mrs.  Harold  H.  Ryckman  were 
appointed,  aiTiving  in  Asuncion  in  July  of  that  year. 

The  orphanage  building  was  remodeled  for  a  Bible 
training  school,  which  was  operated  for  several  years  but 
then  closed.  A  clinic  was  established  in  1956  and  carried 
on  for  ten  years  by  Elizabeth  A.  Reynolds.  The  1965 
annual  report  listed  two  stations,  ten  outstations  and  five 
organized  churches.  They  were  organized  as  a  provisional 
conference. 

Colonies  of  Japanese  have  settled  in  newly  opened 
agricultural  regions.  The  Free  Methodist  Mission  in 
Brazil,  which  has  work  among  Japanese  colonists  there, 
has  sent  Minoru  Tsukamoto  to  direct  work  among  the 
Japanese  in  Paraguay. 

In  the  summer  of  1966,  crusades  sponsored  by  young 
people  from  the  United  States  and  Canada  were  held 
in  the  Asuncion  area.  Two  new  churches  have  recently 
been  opened  here.  Gospel  distribution  and  cooperative 
evangelistic  activity  are  recent  developments.  This  still 
remains  a  provisional  conference.  Church  growth  has 
been  slow. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

W.  Stanley  Rycroft  and  Myrtle  M.  Clemmer,  A  Factual  Study 
of  Latin  America.  New  York:  Commission  on  Ecumenical  Mis- 
sion and  Relations,  United  Presbyterian  Church  U.S.A.,  1963. 
Alberto  G.  Tallon,  Historia  del  Metodismo  en  el  Rio  de  la 
Plata.  Buenos  Aires:  Imprensa  Metodista,  1936. 

Edwin  H.  Maynard 

PARIS,  JOHN  (1809-1883),  distinguished  MP.  minister 
and  author,  was  the  son  of  Henry  and  Mary  Paris  and 
was  born  in  Orange  County,  N.  C,  on  Sept.  1,  1809. 
He  taught  school  for  several  years  near  Mount  Hermon 
Church,  Orange  Circuit,  of  the  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference of  the  M.P.  Church  and  at  Mount  Hermon 
Church  in  1832  Paris  was  converted  and  decided  to  enter 
the  ministry.  In  November  of  1843  he  was  received  into 
the  North  Carolina  Conference  and  assigned  to  the  Roa- 
noke Circuit. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Annual  Conference  in  1848, 
Paris  was  authorized  to  complete  a  history  of  the  M.P. 
Church  in  North  Carolina  begun  by  William  Bellamy, 
who  had  died  in  1843.  This  history,  a  valuable  record  of 
the  reform  movement  among  the  Methodists  in  North 
Carolina  during  the  1820's,  was  published  in  Baltimore 
in    1849.    For   several   years,    Paris   was   not   assigned   a 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PARK   RIDGE,    ILLINOIS 


pastorate  in  order  that  he  might  devote  his  entire  time 
to  writing.  In  addition  to  his  History,  Paris  wrote  several 
books,  and  the  magazine,  Our  Living  and  Our  Dead, 
carried  a  series  of  chapters  in  1875  written  by  Paris 
entitled  "History  of  the  War  by  an  Army  Chaplain," 
based  on  his  experiences  during  the  Civil  War.  At  the  age 
of  fifty-hvo  he  volunteered  and  served  the  Confederate 
Army  for  four  years  as  a  chaplain. 

Paris  served  many  M.P.  churches  in  North  Carolina. 
He  was  President  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of 
the  M.P.  Church  in  1879  and  1880. 

John  Paris  married  first  a  daughter  of  William  Bellamy 
of  Edgecombe  County,  N.  C,  and  on  Dec.  19,  1849,  he 
married  Maria  Yancey  of  Mecklenburg  County,  Va.  He 
died  near  Buffalo  Lithia  Springs,  Va.,  on  Oct.  6,  1883, 
and  was  buried  at  Fairview  Cemetery,  LaGrange,  N.  C. 

The  three-volume  diary  which  Paris  kept  during  the 
Civil  War  is  preserved  in  the  Southern  Historical  Collec- 
tion at  the  University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill. 

J.  E.  Carroll,  North  Carolina  Conference  (MP).  1939. 
Journal  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  MP. 
Our  Church  Record,  June  23,  Sept.  29,  1898. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rrs'ES 


W.  H.  Park 


PARIS,  PERCY  REGINALD  (1882-1942),  New  Zealand 
Methodist  minister,  was  born  in  Dunedin,  and  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one  became  a  candidate  for  the  ministry,  and 
entered  Prin'ce  Albert  College  for  training.  He  began 
his  ministry  at  Otaki  in  1906  and  served  in  a  total  of  nine 
circuits. 

His  ministry  was  marked  by  a  deep  concern  to  increase 
the  beauty  and  significance  of  public  worship,  and  by  a 
passionate  interest  in  social  questions.  Often  the  center  of 
controversy  because  of  his  pacifist  convictions  and  liberal 
political  views,  Percy  Paris  was  none  the  less  universally  re- 
spected for  his  utter  integrity,  the  graciousness  of  his 
personality  and  the  warmth  of  his  preaching.  He  was 
president  of  Conference  in  1938,  and  was  for  ten  years 
editor  of  the  New  Zealand  Methodist  Times. 

He  collapsed  while  conducting  evening  worship  in  Wes- 
ley Church,  Wellington,  on  Palm  Sunday,  March  29, 
1942,  during  the  seventh  year  of  his  ministi-y  there,  and 
died  almost  immediately. 

Ormond  Burton,  Percij  Paris  (friends  of  Percy  Paris,  Wesley 
Church,   Wellington,    1963).  L.   R.    M.    Gilmore 

PARK,  WILLIAM  HECTOR  (1858-1927),  American  medical 
missionary  to  China,  was  born  in  Catoosa  County,  Ga., 
on  Oct.  27,  1858.  He  was  educated  at  Emory  College, 
Georgia,  graduating  in  the  class  of  1880.  He  studied 
medicine  at  Vanderbilt  University,  but  the  Mission 
Board  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  had  him  go  to  New 
York  for  further  study  in  Bellevue  Medical  College,  and 
he  took  further  work  at  Edinburgh,  Scotland.  He  went 
to  Soochow  in  1882  and  in  the  following  year,  1883, 
he  and  Walter  R.  Lambuth  established  the  Soochow 
Hospital,  which  Park  continued  to  serve  nearly  forty- 
five  years.  Besides  the  hospital  work,  he  and  Dr.  Margaret 
Polk  trained  many  young  men  and  women  to  become 
successful  doctors. 

He  compiled  the  book  Opinions  of  Over  One  Hundred 
Physicians  on  the  Use  of  Opium  in  China.  This  was  pub- 
lished by  the  Anti-Opium  League  in  Shanghai,  China,  by 
the  American  Presbyterian  Mission  Press  in  1899.  When 
the  book  was  presented  in  the  British  House  of  Commons, 


it  helped  to  stop  the  British  opium  trade  in  China.  It  had 
been  made  possible  by  funds  raised  by  missionaries  and 
business  men  as  well  as  certain  wealthy  Chinese  friends. 
Park  was  married  to  Nora  Kate  Lambuth,  sister  of 
Bishop  Lambuth,  who  worked  along  with  her  husband, 
and  was  especially  active  in  the  Anti-Foot  Binding  As- 
sociation. They  had  one  daughter,  Mrs  Dwight  Lamar 
Sheretz,  the  wife  of  a  missionary  to  China  and,  within 
recent  years,  to  Rhodesia.  Park  died  in  Florida  in  1927, 
but  his  ashes  were  taken  back  to  Soochow  for  burial,  and 
his  wife,  who  died  in  Soochow  in  1949,  is  buried  beside 
him  in  the  same  cemetery. 

Francis  P.  Jones 

PARK  RIDGE,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A.,  First  Church  well  merits 
the  tribute,  "Church  Undaunted."  Actual  construction  of 
the  first  edifice  began  in  1857,  only  to  be  halted  shortly 
afterward  when  a  national  money  panic  interferred  with 
payment  of  subscriptions.  A  portion  of  the  basement  had 
been  completed,  however.  Here  the  struggling  congrega- 
tion worshipped  until  the  summer  of  1859.  Despite  dif- 
ficulties the  pioneers  did  not  lose  sight  of  their  goal. 
In  October  1859  the  first  church  was  completed  and 
dedicated  at  a  cost  of  $6,000. 

For  a  period  of  forty-two  years,  membership  averaged 
fifty-one  persons,  not  reaching  100  until  1912.  During 
the  same  period  the  church  had  twenty-nine  different 
pastors.  The  years  between  1917  and  1936  saw  remarkable 
improvement  in  the  church's  fortunes.  Park  Ridge  grew; 
so  did  the  church  membership. 

When  it  became  evident  in  1917  that  a  new  church 
building  was  necessary,  plans  were  made  for  a  new 
edifice.  After  several  years  of  discussion,  committee  meet- 
ings and  attention  to  a  volume  of  detail,  work  on  the  new 
church  was  ordered  to  proceed.  A  gift  of  $20,000  from 
F.  C.  Jorgeson  was  an  important  assist.  Estimated  cost  of 
the  new  building  was  $120,000,  of  which  it  was  necessary 
to  borrow  $60,000.  Dedicatory  services  were  Sunday, 
April  12,  1925,  with  Bishop  E.  H.  Hughes  preaching  the 
sermon.  By  1947  a  debt  of  $65,000  was  liquidated. 

The  last  twenty  years  mark  an  amazing  growth  in  the 


PARKER,   ALBERT  AUSTIN 

church  both  in  membership  and  property.  Adult  atten- 
dance soared;  so  did  Sunday  school  membership. 

New  and  enlarged  facilities  for  the  church  school  be- 
came necessary.  Committees  promptly  made  preparations. 
The  building  project  was  completed  in  1952  at  a  cost 
of  $250,000  and  was  consecrated  Sept.  21,  1952. 

In  recent  years  a  third  floor  was  added  to  the  church 
school. 

Now  the  church  officiary  and  congregation  have  autho- 
rized a  remodeling  program  to  cost  approximately  $225,- 
000,  providing  for  a  new  chancel,  new  choir  loft,  new 
organ  console,  new  offices  and  social  quarters.  Thus  from 
a  modest  membership  of  fifty-one  in  the  early  days,  the 
church  has  grown  to  2,377  members  and  a  property 
valuation  of  $1,044,000 


General  Minutes. 


Edward  D.  Akers 


PARKER,  ALBERT  AUSTIN  (1871-1949),  was  a  missionary 
to  Indi.\  from  1904  to  liis  retirement  in  1936.  He  was 
associated  helpfully  with  the  recruitment  and  training  of 
ministers  throughout  his  missionary  career.  He  was  first 
an  instructor,  and  then  principal  of  the  Florence  B. 
Nicholson  School  of  Theology  at  Baroda,  and  from  1928 
was  principal  of  the  Leonard  Theological  College, 
Jabalpur.  Between  service  in  those  institutions  he  gave 
dynamic  leadership  to  the  Council  of  Christian  Education 
in  all  its  varied  service  to  the  church  and  the  nation.  He 
was  a  forceful  preacher,  and  many  young  people  decided 
to  accept  Christ  as  Lord  and  Saviour  as  a  result  of  listen- 
ing to  A.  A.  Parker's  sermons.  His  presentation  of  the  need 
for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  and  of  the  sacred  nature 
of  the  ministerial  calling  added  significantly  both  to  the 
number  of  candidates  for  the  ministry,  and  to  the  Chris- 
tian concern  and  purpose  with  which  they  asked  for 
ministerial  training. 

He  was  born  in  Hamilton,  Iowa,  Jan.  27,  1871,  and 
was  educated  at  Southwestern  College,  Winfield, 
Kansas.  He  married  Luetta  Oldham  of  Wichita  in  1896, 
and  joined  the  Southwest  Kansas  Conference  in  1897. 
He  was  pastor  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Wichita  when  he 
responded  to  the  call  for  missionaries  in  India.  Mrs.  Parker 
shared  in  all  his  labors,  and  in  his  happy  years  of  retire- 
ment. Parker  died  in  Los  Angeles,  California,  July  6, 
1949,  and  Mrs.  Parker  in  the  same  city  several  years  later. 


The  Indian  Witness,  Aug.  4,  1949. 


J.  Waskom  Pickett 


PARKER,  CHARLES  EDWARD  (1872-1933),  American  mis- 
sionary to  India,  became  a  fervent  evangelist  and  perhaps 
the  foremost  minister  of  God  in  the  "Mass  Movement" 
that  made  possible  the  Hyderabad  and  South  India 
Annual  Conference.  He  was  bom  in  Robeson  County, 
N.  C,  on  Feb.  13,  1872.  His  father  died  when  he  was  a 
small  boy. 

Because  of  the  poverty  of  the  family,  he  rarely  went" 
to  school  more  than  two  months  in  any  year.  He  worked 
hard  on  a  hilly  farm,  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  he 
was  converted,  and  determined  to  get  an  education.  By 
home  study  he  managed  to  learn  enough  to  obtain  en- 
trance to  the  local  high  school.  He  was  inspired  by  the 
example  of  two  North  Carolina  men  who  had  obtained 
college  education  after  reaching  adult  life  although  they 
were  barely  able  to  read  when  they  started. 

In  his  first  year  in  high  school  he  worked  on  the  farm 
from  daylight  until  nine  or  ten  o'clock,  then  went  to  his 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 

first  class.  He  studied  during  recess,  while  others  played. 
When  he  had  learned  enough  to  teach  in  a  primary 
school,  he  took  a  county  examination  and  received  a 
license  to  teach.  He  taught  for  eighteen  months,  and  then 
entered  Trinity  College — from  which  Duke  Uni\ersitv 
later  developed.  Sometimes  he  fasted  because  he  had 
nothing  to  eat.  Eventually  he  graduated  from  Trinity 
College  and  Drew  Seminary,  and  in  1901  was  appointed 
to  India. 

In  1911  he  became  superintendent  of  Hyderabad  Dis- 
trict. In  1904,  he  married  Sarah  R.  Turner  of  Braddock, 
Pa.,  then  a  missionary  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  Gujarat. 

At  his  funeral,  all  creeds  and  castes  were  represented. 
His  selfless  service  had  convinced  multitudes  that  he  had 
fellowship  with  God,  and  many  had  come  to  Christian 
faith  and  experience,  drawn  by  his  influence. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 


E.  W.  Parker 

PARKER,  EDWIN  WALLACE  (1833-1901),  was  elected 
missionary  bishop  for  Southern  Asia  by  the  General 
Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  May  1900.  He  never 
presided  as  bishop  over  an  Annual  Conference.  Until 
September  15  of  that  year  he  remained  in  the  United 
States  for  a  heavy  schedule  of  preaching  appointments  and 
discussions  with  mission  board  secretaries.  He  was  not 
well  when  he  arrived  in  Bombay  by  ship  on  October  16, 
and  there  encountered  a  succession  of  problems. 

He  was  warmly  welcomed  in  his  home  at  Shahjahanpur 
in  Lucknow,  which  was  to  be  his  ofiicial  residence,  and 
also  in  every  center  he  visited,  but  his  health  steadily 
worsened.  On  New  Year's  Day  1901,  he  arranged  for 
Bishop  F.  W.  Warne  to  take  charge  of  his  conferences. 
He  died  on  June  30  in  Naini  Tal,  and  is  buried  in  the 
Kaladungi  Cemetery  near  many  other  pioneer  missionaries 
of  Methodism  in  India. 

Parker  was  born  in  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt.,  Jan.  21,  1833. 
He  was  of  old  Yankee  stock,  his  Scotch-Irish  ancestors 
having  arrived  in  Massachusetts  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  His  father  was  a  farmer,  and  he  worked  full- 
time  on  the  farm  during  most  of  his  boyhood,  never  going 
to   school   more   than    three   months    in  any    year,    until 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PARKER,   FRANKLIN    NUTTING 


after  his  twentieth  birthday,  he  entered  Newbury  Semi- 
nary. In  the  previous  year  he  had  been  converted,  and 
almost  immediately  felt  that  he  must  "preach  the  Gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God."  Until  then  his  ambition  had  been  to 
become  a  farmer.  In  prayer  in  the  woods  one  day  a 
deeper  experience  came  to  him,  and  he  began  to  sense 
that  God  wished  him  to  become  a  missionary.  He  fear- 
fully told  his  fiancee,  Lois  Lee,  of  this  growing  conviction, 
and  she  replied  that  from  childhood  she  had  felt  that 
she  might  be  a  missionary.  They  were  married  in  1856. 

In  1857,  he  accepted  a  pastoral  charge  at  Lunenburg, 
Vt.,  and  he  and  Mrs.  Parker  both  taught  school.  The 
next  year,  they  learned  that  the  Board  of  Missions 
wanted  six  married  couples  to  go  to  India  and  they  asked 
if  they  might  go.  Friends  tried  to  dissuade  them,  but  in 
December  1858,  the  appointment  came;  and  early  in 
March  of  1859  they  left  Vermont  for  India.  They  arrived 
in  Lucknow  with  three  other  couples  and  a  single  man, 
James  M.  Thobubn,  on  Sept.  3,  1859. 

Their  first  appointment  was  to  Bijnor.  Parker  baptized 
his  first  convert,  Guy  Dayal,  in  June  1860.  He  was  one  of 
the  first  missionaries  to  contact  the  Mazhabi  Sikhs,  and 
of  him  it  is  said  in  the  Minutes  of  the  India  Mission 
Conference,  "No  other  missionary  worked  harder  or  longer 
for  their  uplift."  His  biographer,  James  H.  Messmobe, 
says:  "His  capacity  for  work  was  exceptional.  .  .  .  He 
possessed  the  gift  of  leadership." 

Throughout  his  forty-two  years  in  North  India,  Parker 
was  near  the  center  of  planning  and  direction  for  Meth- 
odist action.  His  counsel  was  invariably  sought  on  all 
major  projects,  not  only  in  his  own  church  but  in  other, 
and  in  such  interchurch  activities  as  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  the  North  India  Book  and  Tract 
Society,  and  the  United  Missionary  Conferences. 

After  Bishop  Parker's  death — he  was  sixty-seven  when 
elected  bishop — Mrs.  Parker  decided  to  continue  to  live 
in  India.  She  was  greatly  honored  and  loved  by  Indian 
Christians  and  respected  by  people  of  all  creeds,  castes 
and  races.  She  was  a  forceful  public  speaker  with  a 
strong  voice  that  could  be  heard  to  the  most  distant 
corner  of  every  assembly. 

J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956. 

J.   H.   Messmore,   The   Life  of  Edwin  Wallace  Parker,  D.D. 

New  York:  Eaton  and  Mains,  1903. 

J.   E.    Scott,    Southern  Asia.    1906.       J.   Waskom   Pickett 

PARKER,  FITZGERALD  SALE  (1863-1936),  American  pas- 
tor, presiding  elder,  editor,  was  bom  in  Caddo  Parish, 
La.,  March  16,  1863,  the  son  of  Bishop  Linus  Parker 
and  Ellen  Katherine  (Burruss)  Parker.  Educated  at  Uni- 
versity High  School  and  University  of  Louisiana  (now 
Tulane),  New  Orleans,  La.,  he  studied  at  the  New 
England  Conservatory  of  Music  one  year,  not  earning  a 
degree.  Centenary  College  of  Louisiana  conferred  upon 
him  the  D.D.  degree  in  1903.  He  was  converted  and 
joined  the  Felicity  Street  Methodist  Church  (New  Or- 
leans) about  1874,  then  entered  the  hardware  business 
and  for  a  time  was  clerk  in  the  British  and  American 
Mortgage  Company  of  New  Orleans.  Answering  then  the 
call  to  the  ministry,  he  was  admitted  into  the  Louisiana 
Conference  in  January  1886. 

His  appointments  were:  Carrollton  Avenue  and  Parker's 
Chapel,  New  Orleans,  1886-87;  Santa  Ana,  Cahf.,  one 
year;  Trinity  Church,  El  Paso,  Texas,  1889.  Then  again  in 
Louisiana  he  served  New  Iberia,  1890-93;  Dryades  Street, 


New  Orleans,  1894-96;  Lake  Providence,  1897-98;  Jack- 
son, 1899;  presiding  elder.  Baton  Rouge  District,  1890- 
91;  and  Crowley,  1902-03.  He  went  with  the  Epworth 
League  Board  (MES)  at  Nashville,  Term.,  in  1904,  be- 
coming the  Board's  General  Secretary  in  1910.  Here  he 
lived  and  worked  until  his  death.  He  was  secretary  of  the 
Louisiana  Conference  for  twenty  years,  1900-20. 

Parker's  pre-eminent  and  outstanding  work  was  un- 
questionably his  leadership  of  young  people  through  the 
Epworth  League.  He  was  General  Secretary  for  twenty 
years,  1910-30,  and  editor  of  the  Epworth  Era.  Under 
him  the  League  chapters  practically  trebled.  After  the 
merger  of  the  Epworth  League  with  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion in  1930,  he  remained  editorial  writer  for  the  Board 
of  Education,  and  for  the  Book  Editor's  office  from  1930 
until  his  death  in  1936. 

He  was  also  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of 
his  Church  for  twenty-four  years,  1906-30;  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Board  of  Missions  for  a  time  in  the  Orient; 
one  of  the  trustees  of  Mansfield  Female  College  in  Louisi- 
ana; and  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conferences  of 
1906  and  1914. 

Parker  rendered  notable  service  to  the  life  and  worship 
of  the  Church  on  the  Joint  Hymnal  Commissions  in  1905 
and  1935.  John  W.  Langdale  of  the  M.E.  Church  said  of 
him:  "He  was  easily  the  most  spiritual  member  of  the 
Joint  Hymnal  Commission  ...  To  have  come  to  know 
him,  is  one  of  the  rich  rewards  of  the  hymnal  association." 

On  April  17,  1901,  Parker  married  Lucy  Irwin  Paxton 
of  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  and  they  had  two  sons,  Fitzgerald, 
Jr.,  and  William  Paxton.  He  died  in  Nashville  on  July 
21,  1936. 

Journal  of  the  Louisiana  Conference,  1936. 
C.    F.    Price,    Who's    Who    in    American    Methodism,    1916. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 

PARKER,  FRANKLIN  NUTTING  (1867-1954),  American 
pastor,  theologian  and  influential  teacher  of  ministerial 
students  and  ministers,  was  bom  in  New  Orleans,  La., 
on  May  20,  1867.  He  was  the  son  of  Bishop  Linus 
Parker  and  Ellen  Katherine  Burruss  Parker. 

Franklin  Parker  attended  Centenary  College  of 
Louisiana  (then  at  Jackson)  in  1883-1884.  Then  he  was 
a  student  at  Tulane  University  in  1885.  He  never  re- 
ceived an  earned  degree,  but  was  the  recipient  of  honorary 
degrees  from  Centenary  College,  and  Trinity  College 
(later  Duke  University  in  North  Carolina).  He  married 
Minnie  Greeves  Jones  of  Baton  Rouge  on  Dec.  20,  1899, 
just  as  he  concluded  his  tenure  as  a  presiding  elder  on 
the  Baton  Rouge  District,  and  on  his  move  to  be  the 
pastor  of  Carondelet  Street  in  New  Orleans.  To  them 
were  bom  two  daughters,  Mrs.  Nell  P.  Stipe,  and  Mrs. 
Margaret  P.  Winn,  both  of  Atlanta. 

Franklin  N.  Parker,  although  he  greatly  revered  his 
father,  made  no  profession  of  faith  until  he  was  seventeen 
years  old.  Then  he  joined  the  church  under  S.  Holsey 
Werlein  on  Jan.  25,  1885,  in  the  old  Felicity  Street 
Church  in  New  Orleans.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  on 
May  11,  1885.  His  father,  who  had  been  elected  a  bishop 
in  1882,  died  between  the  time  Frank  Parker  joined  the 
church  and  the  granting  of  his  license  to  preach.  He  was 
admitted  on  trial  in  the  Louisl^na  Conference  on  Jan. 
6,  1886;  ordained  a  deacon  by  Bishop  Key  at  Shreveport 
in  1888;  an  elder  by  Bishop  Duncan  in  1889. 

After  serving  two  or  three  small  appointments,  he  was 


PARKER,   GEORGE   DANIEL 

sent  to  CarroUton  Avenue,  New  Orleans  in  1888;  then 
to  Rayne  Memorial,  New  Orleans,  1892-1895.  He  was 
then  appointed  to  Baton  Rouge,  1896-1898;  to  Carondelet 
Street,  1899-1901;  put  upon  the  Baton  Rouge  District 
1902-1903;  and  from  thence  he  served  in  Monroe  as 
pastor,  then  presiding  elder  of  the  Crawley  District  for 
a  year,  and  then  was  sent  to  take  over  the  New  Orleans 
District,  which  he  served  1906-1909.  In  1910  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  Alexandria,  La.,  but  left  there  in  1911  to 
become  the  Professor  of  Biblical  Literature  at  Trinity 
College  in  Durham,  N.  C.  There  he  taught  for  three 
years.  In  1914  he  was  sought  by  Bishop  Warren  A. 
Candler  to  come  to  the  newly  founded  Candler  School 
OF  Theology  at  Emory  University,  where  he  was  to 
remain  the  rest  of  his  life.  He  occupied  the  chair  of 
Systematic  Theology  from  1915  to  1918,  and  then  became 
Dean  of  the  School  in  1919.  In  that  capacity  he  served  for 
eighteen  years  until  in  1938,  when  he  became  Dean 
Emeritus.  He  continued  teaching,  however,   until    1952. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference  of 
the  M.E.  Church,  South,  seven  times,  usually  leading  the 
Louisiana  delegation.  In  1918  at  the  General  Conference 
in  Atlanta,  he  was  elected  bishop,  but  refused  the  election 
explaining  that  he  did  this  "solely  on  the  ground  that  he 
deemed  himself  not  qualified  to  serve  in  the  office  to  which 
he  had  been  elected."  His  refusal  to  accept  the  episcopacy 
was  not  always  understood,  though  his  unimpeachable 
sincerity  carried  conviction  with  it. 

Parker  did  his  greatest  work  as  a  teacher  in  the  School 
of  Theology  at  Emory.  Though  not  having  a  formally 
earned  theological  degree,  he  could  nevertheless  take  a 
leading  place  in  theological  circles  because  of  his  own 
wide  reading  and  study  and  great  competence  in  that 
which  underlies  all  theology,  namely  a  spiritual  under- 
standing of  God,  and  of  sure  and  orthodox  Christian 
teaching. 

In  his  later  years  Parker's  pupils  contributed  $100,000 
to  endow  a  chair  of  theology  at  the  Candler  School  of 
Theology  and  named  it  for  Franklin  N.  Parker.  One  of 
his  contributions  as  a  member  of  the  1930  General  Con- 
ference (MES)  was  to  serve  on  the  sub-committee  which 
provided  for  the  retirement  of  a  bishop  automatically  at, 
or  near,  seventy  years  of  age.  Parker's  formulation  of  the 
resolution  in  this  regard  was  accepted  by  the  larger  com- 
mittee, and  voted  by  the  General  Conference,  and  thus 
became  a  law  in  the  Southern  Church. 

He  died  in  the  home  which  his  wife  had  planned  and 
which  they  both  took  pleasure  in  building  in  Atlanta. 
Mrs.  Parker  predeceased  him  by  some  few  years.  Parker 
himself  died  on  March  1,  1954,  his  funeral  being  held 
in  the  Durham  Chapel  of  the  School  of  Theology. 

Clark  and  Stafford,  Wfw's  Who  in  Methodism.  1952. 
Minutes  of  the  Louisiana  Conference,  1955.  N.  B.  H. 

PARKER,  GEORGE  DANIEL  (1872-1958),  American  mis- 
sionary in  Brazil,  was  bom  in  New  Orleans,  La.,  on 
Aug.  17,  1872,  and  graduated  from  Centenary  College, 
then  in  Jackson,  La.  Though  his  mother  was  a  Roman 
Catholic,  George  became  a  Methodist,  but  no  information 
is  available  as  to  his  ministerial  training. 

He  went  to  Brazil  in  November  1901.  His  first  appoint- 
ment was  to  work  in  Rio  de  Janeiro.  Later,  he  transferred 
to  the  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  Conference.  On  Feb.  10,  1908, 
during  his  first  furlough  in  the  United  States,  he  married 
Ada  Stewart,  who  had  been  seven  years  in  Brazil  as  a 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

missionary  and  who  had  proven  herself  a  consecrated  mis- 
sionary. During  a  calamitous  epidemic  of  yellow-fever  in 
Ribeirao,  Preto,  she  had  left  the  classroom  for  the  hospital 
rooms,  earning  among  Brazihans  the  title  of  "angel." 

Parker  served  as  pastor,  presiding  elder,  agent  for  the 
publishing  house,  and  president  of  Colegio  Uniao,  now 
the  Institute,  in  Uruguaiana,  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  Wher- 
ever he  went,  he  left  fine  churches  and  parsonages.  Per- 
haps his  greatest  work  was  in  helping  educate  several  girls 
to  become  teachers  for  Methodist  schools,  and  in  influenc- 
ing five  or  six  young  men  to  enter  the  ministry,  one  of 
these  being  Joao  Amaral,  who  in  time  became  a  bishop. 
Failing  eyesight  forced  his  retirement  to  Jacksonville, 
Fla.,  where  he  died  on  Feb.  13,  1958,  and  was  buried 
there.  In  memory  of  his  wife  who  had  died  on  July  12, 
1948,  he  left  a  substantial  bequest  for  the  Gloria  Church 
in  Porto  Alegre. 

EuLA  K.  Long 


Linus  Parker 

PARKER,  LINUS  (1829-1885),  American  editor  and  bish- 
op, was  bom  on  a  farm  near  Vienna,  Oneida  County, 
N.  Y.,  April  23,  1829,  the  son  of  devout  Methodists, 
John  and  Alvira  (Wadham)  Parker.  From  six  to  sixteen 
he  attended  school  six  months  each  year  and  became  an 
avid  reader.  Later  he  studied  three  months  at  Mandeville 
College,  New  Orleans.  Centenary  College  (Louisi- 
ana) awarded  him  the  D.D.  degree. 

In  1845,  young  Parker  went  to  New  Orleans  and 
worked  in  a  store  operated  by  an  older  brother.  In  1846, 
he  enlisted  and  served  as  a  soldier  in  the  Mexican  War. 
Soon  afterward  he  began  the  study  of  law,  but  his  pastor, 
Holland  N.  McTyeire,  later  bishop,  and  Richard  Deer- 
ing,  the  presiding  elder  in  New  Orleans,  guided  him  to- 
ward the  ministry.  In  March  1849,  he  began  to  supply 
Good  Hope  Chapel  in  Algiers,  and  two  months  later  he 
abandoned  the  study  of  law  and  was  licensed  to  preach. 
The  following  December  he  joined  the  Louisl\na  Con- 
ference, and  was  ordained  deacon  in  1851  and  elder 
in  1853.  He  rose  rapidly,  going  to  Shrev-eport,  the 
strongest  church  in  the  conference  outside  New  Orleans, 
at  twenty-one,  and  to  Carondelet  Street  Church,  the  rank- 
ing congregation  in  Louisiana  Methodism,  at  twenty-six. 
His  appointments,  all  in  Louisiana,  were:  Lake  Provi- 
dence,  1849;   Shreveport,   1850-51;   Felicity  Street,  New 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PARKERSBURG,   WEST   VIRGINIA 


Orleans,  1852-54;  Carondelet  Street,  1855-57;  New  Or- 
leans District,  1858;  Felicity  Street,  1859-61;  Shreveport, 
1862-63;  Caddo  Circuit  (because  of  the  war),  1864-65; 
Felicity  Street,  1866-69;  New  Orleans  District  and  editor 
of  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate,  1870-73;  and 
editor,  1874-81. 

On  June  7,  1853,  Parker  married  Sallie  F.  Sale  who 
died  of  yellow  fever  three  months  later,  September  13. 
His  second  marriage,  Jan.  20,  1858,  was  to  EUen  K.  Bur- 
russ.  They  had  three  sons,  John  B.,  Fitzgerald  S.,  and 
Franklin  N.  The  latter  two  joined  the  Louisiana  Con- 
ference and  became  distinguished  leaders  in  the  church, 
the  one  as  editor  of  the  Epworth  Era  and  the  other  as 
dean  of  Candler  School  of  Theology. 

As  a  young  preacher,  Parker  was  greatly  interested  in 
the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate  which  was  estab- 
lished in  1851.  Encouraged  by  McTyeire,  the  editor,  he 
began  contributing  articles  which  showed  marked  journal- 
istic ability.  Later  as  editor  of  the  paper,  he  was  widely 
recognized  as  an  able  religious  journalist.  He  wrote  rapid- 
ly, easily,  and  with  little  need  for  revision  or  emendation. 
His  polished,  limpid  style  won  him  fame  and  made  him 
known  throughout  the  connection  and  beyond.  As  time 
passed  his  friends  felt  that  he  did  his  best  and  most  lasting 
work  with  his  pen. 

Though  bom  and  reared  in  the  North,  Parker  became 
southern  in  his  viewpoint  and  sympathies.  After  the  Civil 
War  he  agreed  that  slavery  was  evil  and  that  it  had  to 
go.  However,  he  believed  that  out  of  the  sordid  traffic  had 
come  good  to  the  Negro  and  to  Africa  in  that  it  brought 
both  into  contact  with  Christian  civihzation. 

Parker  was  a  delegate  to  four  General  Conferences, 
1866,  74,  78,  and  '82,  and  the  latter  elevated  him  to  the 
episcopacy.  For  two  years  he  gave  episcopal  supervision 
to  the  Texas  conferences,  and  then  was  assigned  to  the 
conferences  in  Missouri,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina, 
and  Maryland.  He  died  rather  suddenly  in  New  Or- 
leans, apparently  of  a  cerebral  hemorrhage,  March  5, 
1885,  and  was  buried  there. 

Charles  B.  Galloway,  Linus  Parker.  Nashville:  Southern  Meth- 
odist Publishing  House,  1886. 
General  Minutes,  MEGS. 

General  Conference  Journal,  1886,  pp.  184-185. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

PARKER,  RICHARD  JOSEPH  (1878-1960),  an  American 
missionary  to  Cuba,  was  bom  Feb.  14,  1878.  He  was 
married  to  Lottie  Lee  Barnes  Dec.  21,  1904.  They  had 
five  children.  In  1908  he  was  accepted  as  a  missionary  to 
Cuba  where  he  served  efficiently  as  pastor  and  district 
superintendent  for  fourteen  years.  Because  of  health  rea- 
sons he  retired  from  Cuba  in  1922  and  for  a  number  of 
years  was  superintendent  of  Latin  work  in  Florida.  His 
last  work  was  assistant  pastor  of  Hyde  Park  Church, 
Tampa,  Fla.  His  evangelistic  spirit  characterized  his  work 
wherever  he  went,  even  when  retired.  In  Cuba  it  was 
common  for  him  to  search  out  the  cane  workers  and  hold 
services  for  them  when  they  would  be  resting  in  the  fields 
at  noon. 

Garfield  Evans 

PARKER,  SAMUEL  (1774-1819),  American  preacher,  was 
bom  in  New  Jersey  about  1774  and  became  a  member  of 
the  Methodist  Church  when  he  was  fourteen  years  old. 


In  1800  he  received  his  license  as  a  local  preacher  and 
in  1805  became  a  travelling  preacher.  In  1809  he  re- 
ceived elder's  orders  and  was  appointed  to  serve  as  the 
first  presiding  elder  in  the  Indiana  district.  He  continued 
in  this  appointment  for  four  years,  at  which  time  the  dis- 
trict was  divided.  In  1813  he  rode  the  Deer  Creek  circuit, 
in  1814  was  appointed  presiding  elder  of  the  Miami 
District,  and  in  1815  the  presiding  elder  of  the  Kentucky 
District.  He  was  then  sent  to  the  Mississippi  Conference, 
where  on  Dec.  20,  1819,  he  died.  His  funeral  sermon  was 
preached  on  the  Sunday  following  his  death  at  Washing- 
ton, Miss.,  by  William  Winans  who  had  earlier  preached 
at  Vincennes,  Ind. 

Robert  S.  Chafee 

PARKER,  WHITE  (1887-1956),  American  Indian  minister, 
was  bom  Oct.  20,  1887  near  Cache,  Okla.,  son  of  the 
famous  Quanah  Parker,  last  of  the  great  chiefs  of  the 
Comanche  Indians.  He  attended  Cook  Christian  Train- 
ing School  in  Phoenix,  Ariz.  He  was  admitted  on  trial  in 
the  Oklahoma  Conference  in  1934,  and  served  in  some 
of  the  leading  appointments  of  the  Indlan  Mission.  He 
married  Laura  Esther  Clark,  daughter  of  M.  A.  Clark, 
early  missionary  among  the  Comanches.  He  was  killed 
in  an  automobile  accident  on  March  2,  1956,  while  re- 
turning home  from  the  annual  Indian  Mission  Pastors' 
School.  He  was  a  man  of  commanding  appearance  and 
gentle  demeanor,  greatly  loved  by  those  he  served. 

Glegg  and  Oden,  Oklahoma.  1968. 
journal  of  the  Oklahoma  Gonference.  1956. 

Walter  N.  Vernon 

PARKERSBURG,  WEST  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.,  a  city  of  about 
43,000  in  1970,  is  located  at  the  confluence  of  the  Little 
Kanawha  and  Ohio  Rivers.  The  Methodists  were  the  first 
denomination  to  enter  the  region  and  later  they  were  the 
first  to  build  a  church  in  Parkersburg.  In  1790,  Jacob 
Lurton  and  Thomas  Boyd,  Methodist  circuit  riders,  were 
appointed  to  the  Kanawha  Circuit  which  included  the 
region  in  which  Parkersburg  is  located.  It  is  believed  that 
the  first  church  in  the  area  was  built  of  logs  near  Fort 
Neal.  The  fort  itself  was  erected  in  1785  near  the  con- 
fluence of  the  rivers.  Sometime  before  1817,  the  Meth- 
odists constructed  a  brick  church  on  Avery  Street  in 
Parkersburg,  and  the  building  was  used  as  a  school  during 
the  week. 

In  1832,  J.  H.  Power  and  B.  L.  Jefferson  were  appointed 
to  the  Parkersburg  Circuit;  it  was  the  first  time  the  name 
of  the  town  which  was  chartered  in  1820  appeared  in 
the  Ohio  Conference  minutes.  The  next  year  the  circuit 
reported  812  members.  In  1836  Parkersburg  became  a 
station,  and  in  1837  it  reported  162  members.  At  that  time 
a  new  church  was  built  opposite  the  city  hall.  Asbury 
Academy,  with  Gordon  Battelle  as  principal,  flourished 
in  Parkersburg,  1840-43. 

In  1845,  the  church  in  Parkersburg,  which  had  reported 
207  white  and  nine  colored  members  in  1844,  cast  a 
majority  vote  for  adhering  South,  and  the  M.E.  Church, 
South  retained  control  of  the  building.  A  wealthy  citizen 
gave  lumber  to  the  members  who  desired  to  adhere  North, 
and  in  fourteen  days  they  built  a  frame  church  on  Fifth 
Street.  The  next  year  the  new  church  reported  100  white 
and  ten  colored  members,  while  in  1846  the  congregation 
which  adhered  South  had  129  white  and  no  colored 
members. 


PARKS,   HENRY  BLANTON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


In  1857,  the  trustees  of  the  M.E.  congregation  in 
Parkersburg  brought  suit  and  recovered  the  building  from 
the  Southern  Methodists.  In  1862  the  structure  was  torn 
down  and  a  new  and  larger  church  was  erected.  That  edi- 
fice was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1873,  and  another  was 
built.  The  present  First  Church  building  was  completed 
in  1911  when  there  were  642  members.  Before  and  after 
the  division  of  1845,  First  Church  had  some  distinguished 
pastors,  such  as  Peter  Cartwright,  Asa  Shinn,  Jacob 
Young,  H.  B.  Bascom  (later  bishop),  and  T.  B.  Hughes 
who  was  the  father  of  Bishops  E.  H.  and  M.  S.  Hughes. 
John  L.  Wolfe,  who  was  reared  in  Parkersburg,  served 
as  pastor  eighteen  years,  1945-63. 

After  losing  the  church  property  in  1857,  the  Southern 
Methodist  congregation  worshiped  for  a  tinie  in  the  City 
Building.  In  1858  the  body,  which  then  had  225  members, 
bought  a  lot  at  Seventh  and  Market  Streets  and  at  a  cost 
of  $10,000  erected  the  largest  church  building  up  to  that 
time  in  Parkersburg.  For  nearly  half  a  century  thereafter 
it  was  the  strongest  congregation  in  the  Western  Vir- 
ginia Conference  (MES).  In  1895  the  building  was 
sold  and  a  new  one,  thereafter  known  as  St.  Paul's 
Church,  was  erected  on  Market  and  Eleventh  Streets.  Six 
of  St.  Paul's  pastors  were,  or  became,  college  presidents, 
and  one  of  the  six  was  elected  bishop.  They  were  U.  V.  W. 
Darlington,  R.  T.  Webb,  Paul  S.  Powell,  W.  B.  Camp- 
bell, T.  S.  Wolfe,  and  Roy  McCuskey.  The  latter  had 
previously  been  a  minister  in  the  M.E.  Church.  Darlington 
(later  bishop)  had  two  pastorates  at  St.  Paul's,  and  he 
also  led  in  building  the  Johnson  Memorial  Church  in 
Huntington. 

In  1900,  First  Church  had  494  members  to  421  for 
St.  Paul's.  At  unification  in  1939  the  figures  were  839 
and  766,  the  difi^erence  being  exactly  seventy-three  mem- 
bers in  both  years.  In  1939  the  M.E.  Church  had  eight 
churches  and  4,085  members  in  Parkersburg  to  five  con- 
gregations and  2,073  members  for  the  M.E.  Church, 
South. 

In  1872  the  West  Virginia  Conference  of  the  M.P. 
Church  started  a  mission  in  Parkersburg  with  Benjamin 
Stout  in  charge.  He  conducted  a  revival  in  an  abandoned 
schoolhouse  near  Lynn  Street,  and  on  Christmas  Day 
organized  a  congregation  of  twenty-two  members.  They 
bought  the  schoolhouse  and  fitted  it  up  as  a  place  of 
worship.  Within  four  years  the  church  had  100  members. 
In  the  next  three  decades,  Bethany  Church,  as  it  was 
called,  experienced  financial  difficulties,  but  it  carried 
on.  In  1936  it  reported  236  members  and  property  valued 
at  $27,000.  It  came  into  The  Methodist  Church  at  unifica- 
tion in  1939. 

In  1970,  there  were  fifteen  United  Methodist  churches 
in  Parkersburg  proper,  three  of  them  being  former  E.U.B. 
congregations  with  an  aggregate  membership  of  2,002. 
The  fifteen  churches  had  a  combined  membership  of 
7,949  and  property  valued  at  approximately  $5,130,000, 
and  they  raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year  about 
$428,000. 

I.  A.  Barnes,  The  Methodist  Protestant  Church  in  West  Vir- 
ginia. Baltimore:  Stockton  Press,  1926. 
General  Minutes,  MEG,  MEGS,  MC,  and  UMG. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 
Albea  Godbold 


PARKS,   HENRY   BLANTON    (1856-1936),   an  American 
bishop  of  the  A. M.E.  Church,  was  born  in  Georgia  about 


1856.  He  was  educated  in  Atlanta  University.  He  rose  to 
be  a  General  OfiBcer  (Connectional  Missionary  Secretary) 
during  1896-1908.  He  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  in 
1908  and  as  a  bishop  served  in  the  south  and  west.  Bishop 
Parks  was  known  as  an  eloquent  and  impressive  preacher. 

R.  R.  Wright,  The  Bishops.  1963.  Grant  S.  Shockley 

PARKS,  WILLIAM  J.  (1799-1873),  pioneer  American 
preacher,  was  born  in  Franklin  County,  Ga.,  on  Nov. 
30,  1799.  He  was  the  son  of  Henry  Parks,  one  of  the 
first  converts  to  Methodism  in  Georgia.  Reared  in  the 
backwoods,  unpolished,  and  with  skin  as  dark  as  an 
Indian's,  he  was  licensed  to  preach  under  the  venerable 
Isaac  Smith  on  the  Athens  District,  Georgia.  In  1822, 
Parks  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  South  Carolina 
Conference  which  then  served  Georgia.  Few  men  have 
left  behind  them  such  an  impressive  record  of  long  and 
varied  service  to  the  Methodist  Church.  He  was  a  mis- 
sionary two  years,  presiding  elder  fourteen  years,  four 
years  on  a  station,  ten  years  agent  of  church  institutions, 
and  twelve  years  on  circuits,  a  total  of  forty-two  years  of 
effective  service. 

Parks  was  elected  a  member  of  all  General  Con- 
ferences of  undivided  Methodism  from  1832  to  1844. 
He  was  elected  to  the  Louisville  Convention  in  1845, 
but  was  unable  to  attend.  After  the  formation  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  Parks  was  chosen  for  every  General 
Conference  from  1846  to  1870,  but  he  was  not  able  to 
attend  in  1846  and  1870.  In  1836  he  became  a  member 
of  the  first  board  of  trustees  of  Wesleyan  Female  Col- 
lege at  Macon,  Ga. 

Parks  was  married  three  times.  He  was  widely  loved 
and  became  affectionately  known  as  Uncle  Billy.  He 
helped  officiate  at  the  funeral  of  Bishop  James  O.  Andrew 
in  Oxford,  Ga.,  in  1871.  On  Dec.  16,  1873,  Parks  died  at 
Oxford,  Ga.,  just  a  few  days  before  the  meeting  of  the 
North  Georgla  Conference. 

H.  N.  McTyeire,  History  of  Methodism.  1884. 

A.  M.  Pierce,  Georgia.  1956. 

G.  G.  Smith,  Georgia.  1913. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Donald  J.  West 

PARLIN,   CHARLES   COOLIDGE    (1898-  ),    American 

lawyer,  financier,  and  a  president  of  the  World  Council 
of  Churches,  was  bom  on  July  22,  1898,  in  Wausau 
Wis.,  the  son  of  Charles  Coolidge  and  Daisy  (Blackwood) 
Parlin.  He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, received  the  LL.B.  degree  at  Harvard  in  1922,  and 
has  subsequently  been  the  recipient  of  many  honorary 
degrees.  He  served  as  a  private  first-class  in  the  U.  S. 
Army  in  the  first  World  War.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
New  York  Bar  in  1923,  and  has  since  practiced  law  in 
New  York  City.  He  is  the  director  of  numerous  corpora- 
tions. He  married  Miriam  Boyd  on  Oct.  11,  1924,  and 
their  children  are  Charles  Coolidge,  II,  Camilla,  and 
Blackwood  Boyd. 

Parlin  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conferences 
of  1940,  '44,  '48,  '52,  '56,  '60,  '64,  '68,  and  '70.  In  1944 
he  led  the  debate  presenting  a  minority  report  from  the 
Committee  on  the  state  of  the  Church  calling  for  prayer 
for  victory  in  the  war  then  raging,  which  was  against  the 
majority  report  of  that  Committee  presented  by  Ernest 
F.  Tittle,  its  chairman.  This  great  debate  featured  that 
General  Conference,  the  minority  report  being  substituted 
for  the  majority  by  a  close  vote  in  a  vote  by  orders. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Parlin  has  served  on  the  World  Methodist  Council 
(was  president,  1970-71);  was  the  secretary  of  the  Com- 
mission on  Church  Union,  1948-64;  chairman  of  the 
Committee  to  Study  Jurisdictional  System,  1956-60;  chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Interjurisdiction  Relations, 
1960-64;  on  the  Ad  Hoc  Committee  on  the  Union  with 
the  E.U.B.  Church  in  1964,  at  which  General  Conference 
at  its  adjourned  session  in  1966  he  presented  the  report 
of  the  Committee  calling  for  union.  He  has  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  General  Board  of  National  Council  of 
Churches  since  1950,  and  the  first  vice  president  from 
1958-61.  He  was  chairman  of  the  committee  in  the  U.S.A. 
which  raised  the  money  for  the  founding  of  the  World 
Council  of  Churches;  attended  the  founding  Amsterdam 
Assembly  in  1948  and  the  succeeding  Assemblies  of  1954, 
1961  and  1968;  was  a  member  of  the  Finance  Committee, 
1948-68;  of  the  Central  Committee  1954-58;  and  of  the 
Presidium  1961-68.  He  was  honored  in  October  1969  at 
the  Citation  Dinner  of  The  Upper  Room  receiving  on  this 
occasion  its  annual  award.  He  was  especially  honored  at 
the  General  Conference  of  The  United  Methodist  Church 
in  St.  Louis  in  1970  by  a  testimonial  dinner  attended  by 
almost  all  the  conference. 


Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


PARR,  WILLIAM  DAVID  (1855-1918),  American  minister, 
was  bom  near  Jolietville,  Ind.,  Nov.  10,  1855.  He  was 
admitted  on  trial  in  the  North  Indiana  Conference 
in  1878.  He  was  pastor  of  several  churches  and  was 
elected  four  times  to  General  Conference  in  1896, 
1900,  1904  and  1908.  He  was  active  in  civic  and  business 
affairs  and  became  widely  known  as  the  "dedicator  of  new 
churches,"  being  extremely  efficient  in  raising  money  on 
the  day  of  dedication.  It  is  said  that  he  dedicated  more 
churches  than  any  other  Methodist  minister  during  his 
lifetime.  He  married  Cora  Walton  on  Jan.  11,  1883.  He 
died  at  Kokomo,  Ind.,  Aug.  12,  1918. 

Harold  Thrasher 

PARRAMATTA,  New  South  Wales,  Australia,  was  the 
second  place  of  importance  in  the  Colony  when  Samuel 
Leigh  visited  it  in  1815.  Religious  services  were  first  held 
in  the  Government  schoolroom.  One  of  his  converts  was 
James  Watsford,  whose  son,  John  Watsford,  became  a 
notable  missionary  to  Fiji. 

Walter  Lawry  who  had  arrived  from  England  in  1818 
to  become  Leigh's  colleague,  may  be  regarded  as  the 
father  of  Methodism  in  Parramatta.  He  became  the  first 
minister  there  when  it  became  a  separate  circuit  in  1820. 
A  chapel  was  opened  on  Good  Friday,  1821,  on  a  site 
granted  by  Governor  Macquarie.  When  a  new  church  was 
built  by  Daniel  Draper  in  1839,  this  chapel  was  in- 
corporated as  the  vestry.  On  the  day  of  the  opening  of 
the  church,  the  foundation  stone  of  the  Centenary  Church 
at  North  Parramatta  was  laid.  The  present  church,  known 
as  Leigh  Memorial,  was  opened  in  1887. 

Several  strong  circuits  have  been  formed  from  the 
original  Parramatta  Circuit  which  is  now  the  head  of  a 
connexional  district  and  the  center  of  active  church  enter- 
prises. 

J.  Colwell,  Illustrated  History.  1904. 

Australian  Editorial  CoMMrrrEE 


PARRISH,  JOSEPH  LAMBERSON  (1806-1895),  American 
Indian  missionary,  U.  S.  Indian  Agent,  and  leader  in 
Christian  education  in  the  Pacific  Northwest.  Joseph  L. 
Parrish  heard  the  call  to  the  Indian  mission  in  Oregon 
in  1839.  As  Jason  Lee,  the  mission  superintendent,  had 
filled  his  quota  of  ministers,  Parrish,  a  conference  member, 
reverted  to  his  early  trade  and  went  to  Oregon  as  the 
"mission  blacksmith."  He  went  with  the  mission  reinforce- 
ment which  had  made  the  long  voyage  around  Cape 
Horn,  reaching  Oregon  in  1840. 

After  two  years  as  blacksmith  working  at  the  main 
mission  station,  located  in  the  Willamette  Valley,  Parrish 
was  given  charge  of  his  own  station  to  work  among  the 
coast  Indians.  After  the  close  of  the  Indian  mission  in 
1846,  Parrish  worked  as  a  preacher  among  the  white 
settlers,  first  as  a  lay  preacher  and  later  as  a  conference 
member  in  full  connection. 

From  1849  to  1854  he  was  a  government  Indian  agent 
during  the  years  the  government  was  seeking  to  estabhsh 
the  Indians  of  the  Pacific  Northwest  upon  reservations. 
Among  the  Indian  tribes,  with  whom  he  worked  as  mis- 
sionary or  Indian  agent,  he  was  known  as  "The  Man  of 
Peace."  It  was  the  kind  of  peace  which  resulted  from 
great  courage  and  faith  that  his  own  purposes  were  in 
harmony  with  God's  will. 

Parrish  was  keenly  interested  in  public  affairs  and 
during  his  early  years  in  Oregon  he  joined  the  other 
settlers  in  establishing  the  Provisional  Government  of 
Oregon  which  was  to  be  the  only  government  the  settlers 
had  until  the  United  States  established  the  Oregon  terri- 
torial government  in  1846. 

In  1854  he  was  again  a  missionary  to  the  Indians,  this 
time  being  appointed  by  the  Oregon  Conference,  but 
ill  health  forced  his  retirement  in  1856. 

His  home,  when  he  could  be  there,  had  been  for  many 
years  on  his  Donation  Land  Claim  in  what  is  now  Salem, 
Ore.  In  his  retirement  years  he  served  for  sixteen  years 
as  the  volunteer  chaplain  of  the  state  prison.  These  very 
active  retirement  years  permitted  him  to  perform  his  great- 
est service  to  Methodism.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the 
original  board  of  trustees  of  the  Oregon  Institute  (1840) 
which  was  chartered  as  Willamette  University  in 
1853,  and  is  the  oldest  university  of  the  Pacific  North- 
west. He  was  continuously  a  member  of  the  board  until 
his  death  in  1895.  For  twenty-six  years,  he  gave  coura- 
geous leadership  to  the  little  band  of  men  who  struggled 
and  succeeded,  in  keeeping  their  Christian  university  a 
living  institution  despite  the  poverty  of  the  pioneer  com- 
munity. Upon  his  death,  his  fellow  trustees  inscribed 
upon  their  official  minutes,  "He  has  been  a  continuing 
and  constant  factor  in  the  planting,  nurturing  and  rebuild- 
ing of  Willamette  University,  faithful  in  service,  loyal  in 
purpose,  and  helpful  in  executing,  his  name  goes  into 
history  as  the  friend  of  Willamette  University." 

R.  M.  Gatke,  Willamette  University.  1943. 

Robert  Moulton  Gatke 

PARSONAGES,  a  term  that  originally  came  from  the 
rentals,  or  amount  due  to  the  parson  (from  "person")  in 
England,  and  then  came  to  mean  specifically  his  house, 
was  the  name  brought  over  early  into  American  Method- 
ism to  represent  the  dwelling  place  of  the  preacher.  Par- 
sonages were  never  mentioned  in  the  records  of  the  ear- 
liest years  after  the  organization  of  the  M.E.  Church  in 
America,  since  most   of  the   preachers   were   unmarried. 


PARSONS,   ELMER   E. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


and  all  of  them  moved  so  continually  that  the  matter  of  a 
permanent  dwelling  place — as  is  needed  for  an  extended 
pastorate — was  not  an  issue.  However,  by  the  time  of  the 
General  Conference  of  1800,  the  question  of  renting  or 
building  houses  for  the  preachers  came  under  discussion, 
and  that  Conference  recommended  that  the  friends  or 
people  of  any  congregation  purchase  a  lot  of  ground  in 
each  circuit,  and  build  a  house  upon  it  for  the  preacher 
and  furnish  it  with  at  least  "heavy  furniture."  By  1816, 
a  provision  relating  to  the  duty  of  the  presiding  elders 
concerning  parsonages  was  added  to  the  above  provision. 
The  part  that  the  stewards  or  trustees  should  play  in  this 
was  put  in  by  the  General  Conference  of  1828.  By  this 
time  the  ministry,  while  still  itinerant  and  moving  as  fre- 
quently as  every  two  years,  was  becoming  "settled" 
enough  to  need  a  house  in  which  the  pastor  and  family 
could  live  while  he  was  upon  that  special  appointment. 

In  time  the  need  of  such  a  house  was  seen  everywhere, 
and  it  became  the  duty,  and  eventually  the  pride  of  each 
quarterly  conference  to  see  that  a  parsonage  was  provided 
for  their  preacher.  Sometimes  such  houses  were  furnished, 
quite  often  they  were  not — a  condition  that  lasted  through 
the  better  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Eventually  par- 
sonages as  well  as  the  local  churches  were  covered  by 
the  Trust  Clause  as  directed  by  the  Discipline  in  order  to 
insure  the  unchallenged  occupancy  of  the  minister  when 
properly  appointed  to  each  special  charge. 

The  present  Discipline — and  the  disciplines  of  most 
Methodist  churches — has  quite  a  few  regulations  having 
to  do  with  parsonages  and  their  care.  In  time  special 
regulations  have  had  to  be  drawn  up  for  seeing  that  the 
equities  in  a  particular  parsonage,  which  is  jointly  owned 
by  several  churches  on  a  circuit,  shall  be  secured  to  each 
such  church  if  they  are  put  upon  other  circuits,  or  made 
into  a  station.  The  number  of  parsonages  and  their  value 
must  be  reported  at  each  session  of  the  Annual  Con- 
ference, and  made  a  part  of  the  General  Minutes  of  that 
body.  Present  day  parsonages  are  commodious  and  well 
equipped  homes,  and  some  of  them  vie  with  the  better 
homes  in  any  community. 


Disciplines. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 


N.  B.  H. 


PARSONS,   ELMER   E.    (1919-  ),   American  executive 

of  the  Free  Methodist  Church  and  an  ordained  elder 
in  the  Columbia  River  Conference,  was  bom  in  Asotin 
County,  Wash.  He  was  educated  at  Seattle  Pacific 
College,  A.B.,  1942;  Biblical  Seminary  of  New  York, 
S.T.B.,  1945;  AsBURY  Theological  Seminary,  M.Th., 
1955.  He  received  the  honorary  D.D.  from  Greenville 
College,  1958.  He  married  Marjorie  Carlson  in  1942.  He 
was  Dean  and  Professor  of  Religion,  Wessington  Springs 
College,  South  Dakota,  1945-47;  missionary  service, 
mainland  China,  1947-49;  missionary,  Japan,  1949-54; 
President,  Central  (Junior)  College,  McPherson,  Kan., 
1955-64;  missionary,  Japan,  and  President,  Osaka  Chris- 
tian College,  since  1964.  He  has  been  Asia  Area  Secretary 
since  1964.  He  contributed  to  Arnold's  Commentary, 
Light  and  Life  Press,  1962  and  1967,  and  was  the  author 
of  Witness  to  the  Resurrection  (Baker),  1967.  He  orgai- 
nized  the  Asia  Fellowship  Conference  in  1965  and  was  a 
delegate  to  the  World  Congress  on  Evangelism,  Berlin, 
Germany,  1966.  He  resides  in  Osaka,  Japan. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 


First  Church,  Pasadena,  California 

PASADENA,    CALIFORNIA,    U.S.A.    First    Church,    was 

established  in  1874  in  a  city  now  of  111,826  on  the  west 
coast  and  noted  for  wealth  and  culture.  For  several  years, 
including  the  current  one,  it  has  been  among  the  top  two 
or  three  churches  of  the  nation  in  benevolence  giving. 

In  1875  at  its  beginning  the  church  took  a  lead  in 
ecumenicity — an  unknown  word  then — in  the  form  of 
union  services  with  the  Presbyterians,  as  the  two  denomi- 
nations met  jointly  in  the  school  house  with  the  Methodist 
and  Presbyterian  ministers  preaching  on  alternate  Sun- 
days. In  1888,  when  the  church's  parking  space  for  horses 
and  buggies  proved  to  be  inadequate,  the  church  paid 
$10  a  month  to  a  neighboring  rancher  to  allow  members 
to  park  their  buggies  in  his  orange  grove  and  tie  their 
horses  to  the  orange  trees.  By  1890  more  churches  were 
needed  in  the  Pasadena  area,  and  First  Church  took  the 
lead  in  establishing  them. 

All  seven  churches  in  Pasadena  today  received  all  or 
part  of  their  initial  support  from  First  Church.  The  present 
Lincoln  Avenue  Church  was  built  by  First  Church  in 
1898  at  a  cost  of  $13,000,  and  First  Church  made  its 
investment  secure  by  transferring  200  of  its  members  to 
the  new  congregation.  In  1924  First  Church  gave  to  the 
Methodists  on  the  east  side  of  the  city  the  beautiful  stone 
church  building  it  had  outgrown.  Then  its  members  raised 
$25,000  to  help  them  buy  a  lot,  and  assisted  them  in 
numbering  and  moving  the  stones  one  by  one  to  the  new 
location,  so  that  the  building  could  be  reconstructed  just 
as  it  had  been.  The  Holliston  Avenue  Church  still  stands 
in  that  location  today,  the  second  largest  Methodist 
Church  in  the  Pasadena  area. 

The  present  First  Church  building  was  erected  in  1924, 
and  is  an  impressive  Gothic  structure  with  a  sanctuary) 
seating  2,000.  It  provides  a  setting  for  the  preaching  and 
outstanding  music  for  which  the  church  has  become 
known  on  the  west  coast.  Among  the  preachers  whose 
ministry  has  brought  distinction  to  the  Pasadena  pulpit 
have  been  Matthew  S.  Hughes  (later  a  bishop).  Merle 
Smith,  Albert  Day,  Harold  Case  and  Morgan  Edwards. 
At  one  time  so  many  retired  Methodist  bishops  resided  in 
Pasadena  and  attended  First  Church  that  a  special  pew 
was  reser\'ed  for  them,  which  pew  still  bears  the  metal 
plaque  that  reads  simply,  "The  Bishops." 

In  1886  First  Church  engaged  in  a  nine-year  fight  to 
establish  strict  liquor  laws,  and  to  prohibit  the  sale  of 
cigarettes  to  minors.  Feelings  became  so  intense  that 
patrols  had  to  be  stationed  both  outside  the  church  and 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PASCOE,   JUAN   NICANOR 


in  the  back  pews  to  maintain  order.  Ministers  were  hung 
in  effigy  on  the  front  of  the  church,  and  a  big  hostile 
sign  was  once  placed  by  the  front  door:  "This  Is  A  Saloon. 
Come  In." 

The  Pasadena  Methodist  Foundation,  established  by 
the  leading  members  of  First  Church  in  1939,  has  cur- 
rent assets  in  excess  of  $2,000,000.  Largely  through  the 
foundation  the  church  was  able  to  purchase  and  equip 
a  fine  mountain  camp  in  the  San  Bernardino  mountains. 
Also  through  generous  gifts  First  Church  was  able  to 
do  much  for  the  estabhshing  of  The  School  of  Theology 
AT  Claremont,  Cahf. — a  rare  instance  where  a  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  was  largely  established  by  a  local  church. 

Now  showing  some  of  the  battle  scars  of  a  downtown 
city  church.  First  Church  of  Pasadena  continues  its  work 
with  a  current  expense  and  benevolent  budget  at  present 
of  over  $345,000.  It  maintains  a  large  staff,  including  five 
ministers  some  of  whom  are  engaged  in  counseling,  crisis 
intervention,  youth  work  and  in  giving  a  ministry  to  the 
inner  city.  While  continuing  its  world-wide  mission  in- 
terests, the  church  has  also  within  the  last  year  built  a 
new  parsonage,  and  launched  a  campaign  to  raise  $500,- 
000  for  the  purchase  of  adjoining  property  for  parking 
and  expansion,  and  for  assisting  the  work  of  other  Method- 
ist churches  in  the  city.  It  currently  lists  a  membership 
of  2,587. 


FmsT  Church,  Pasadena,  Texas 

PASADENA,  TEXAS,  U.S.A.  First  Church  is  the  oldest 
church  in  Pasadena,  being  organized  in  1896  at  the  then- 
thriving  community  of  Deepwater  by  Peter  E.  Nicholson, 
a  local  preacher.  The  church  was  organized  with  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  charter  members,  and  the  first  pastor  assigned 
by  the  annual  conference  was  S.  W.  Warner,  who  re- 
mained for  three  years. 

In  the  autumn  of  1896  the  organization  was  moved  to 
nearby  Pasadena,  since  most  of  the  members  had  moved 
from  Deepwater  and  a  number  of  them  had  settled  in 
Pasadena.  This  church  became  a  part  of  a  circuit  com- 
posed of  Harrisburg,  La  Porte,  Seabrook,  and  Pasadena.  A 
Sunday  school  was  organized  in  1900  with  J.  W.  Collins 
as  the  first  superintendent.  Mrs.  W.  F.  Weeks  and  Miss 
Maggie  Guinn  joined  the  church  in  1903,  and  are  still 
very  active  members. 

For  the  first  nine  years  after  organizing  in  Pasadena, 
the  congregation  met  in  the  school  building  since  the 
first  church  building  was  not  erected  until  1907,  during 
the  pastorate  of  O.  F.  Zimmerman.  This  first  church  build- 
ing was  of  frame  construction,  and  was  truly  a  credit  to 
the  small  town.  The  original  property  for  the  church  was 
bought  in  1904  by  W.  B.  Bailey,  R.  M.  Guinn,  and  H. 


Plum,  each  of  whom  paid  for  one  lot,  and  then  deeded 
these  lots  to  the  church. 

Among  the  early  twentieth  century  ministers  who 
served  the  church  full  time  were  the  young  John  Mills 
and  the  older  H.  B.  Smith.  In  1935  the  original  educa- 
tional building  was  erected  under  the  chaiimanship  of 
A.  G.  Whitman,  during  the  ministry  of  George  J.  Evans. 
In  1937,  under  the  ministry  of  Marvin  Vance,  the  move- 
ment for  a  new  church  began,  and  in  1938  a  stone  church 
was  built.  This  is  the  building  which  now  is  used  as 
Wesley  Chapel,  and  is  very  popular  for  weddings. 

Richard  S.  Marshall  served  the  church  for  four  years 
after  Mar\'in  Vance,  and  proved  effective  in  leadership 
and  Sunday  school  organization  and  classification.  An  ad- 
dition to  the  educational  building  was  erected  in  1948 
while  D.D.  McGaughey  was  pastor.  It  was  during  tlie 
pastorate  of  Rev.  Nance  B.  Crawford  that  the  present, 
fully  air-conditioned,  sanctuary  seating  approximately  900 
persons,  was  built,  and  it  was  first  occupied  during  the 
summer  of  1955. 

The  membership  of  First  Church  has  grown  to  the 
present  enrollment  of  2,411.  A  new  educational  building 
has  been  added  at  a  cost  of  $300,000. 

Thomas  M.  Price 

PASCOE,  JUAN  NICANOR  (1887-1962),  first  bishop  of 
the  Iglesia  Metodista  de  Mexico,  was  bom  in  San  Telmo 
Ranch,  Edo.  de  Mi:xico,  Aug.  18,  1887.  He  studied  at 
Colegio  Palmore  in  Chihuahua  and  graduated  from 
Vanderbilt  University  in  1916.  Garrett  Biblical  In- 
stitute in  Evanston  conferred  on  him  the  honorary  D.D. 
degree  in  1932. 

Juan  Pascoe  experienced  trying  and  difficult  times  dur- 
ing his  childhood.  His  father  had  many  controversies  with 
Roman  Catholics.  Pascoe  was  member  of  the  M.E,  Church, 
South,  ordained  in  1908.  He  served  churches  in  Torreon, 
Durango,  and  Laredo,  Texas.  He  then  studied  at  Nash- 
ville. Upon  his  return,  he  was  pastor  of  Balderas,  Chi- 
huahua, Saltillo  AUende,  San  Antonio,  Tex.^.s,  Monterrey, 
and  then  to  Me,xico  City. 

The  First  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church 
of  Mexico,  upon  consummation  of  the  union  of  the  two 
branches,  was  held  in  the  Iglesia  "La  Santisima  Trinidad." 
It  opened  its  sessions  on  Sept.  16,  1930.  Juan  N.  Pascoe 
was  elected  bishop  Sept.  19,  and  consecrated  on  Sunday, 
Sept.  21,  by  the  five  presiding  elders  already  elected. 
The  term  of  office  was  four  years.  Difficult,  of  course,  was 
the  first  period.  Time  and  effort  were  devoted  to  organi- 
zation and  interpretation,  seeking  understanding  among 
ministers  as  well  as  among  the  congregations.  He  also 
had  to  do  much  deputation  work  in  the  country  and 
abroad. 

Pascoe  married  Elisa  Steel  and  they  were  parents  of 
four  children.  Mrs.  Pascoe  has  also  been  active  in  women's 
organizations  and  was  Vice-Chairman  of  the  World 
Federation  of  Methodist  Women  for  one  term.  To- 
gether, Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pascoe  undertook  the  ministry  of 
translating  The  Upper  Room  to  Spanish.  For  twenty-five 
years  they  did  that  work  which  has  been  a  blessing  for 
the  Spanish-speaking  Methodist  churches  as  well  as  other 
denominations  in  many  countries.  Pascoe  asked  for 
voluntary  location  from  the  Conference  in  1943  to  co- 
operate in  the  lay  movement  of  the  church.  For  three 
years  he  was  Secretary  for  the  Y.M.C.A.  A  few  years 
later  he  returned  to  the  itinerant  pastoral  ministry   and 


PASTORAL   VISITING 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


even  after  retirement  continued  to  be  secretary  of  Social 
action  in  the  Church. 
He  died  Nov.  6,  1962. 

Gustavo  A.  Velasco  G. 

PASTORAL  VISITING.  From  the  beginning  Methodism  has 
urged  its  ministers  to  visit  the  people.  The  early  class 
LE.\DER  was  a  sub-pastor  who  was  required  to  see  each 
member  of  his  class  once  a  week  to  inquire  into  his  spiri- 
tual condition.  One  of  the  questions  asked  of  a  preacher 
when  he  seeks  admission  into  full  connection  in  the  con- 
ference is,  "Will  you  visit  from  house  to  house?" 

Today  pastoral  visiting  is  more  difficult  than  in  former 
times.  Both  parents  may  work  away  from  home,  and 
members  of  the  family  may  eat  and  sleep  at  varied  hours. 
Extracurricular  school  activities,  community  meetings, 
and  motoring  and  numerous  other  forms  of  recreation  may 
take  people  away  from  home  during  hours  that  a  minister 
might  normally  be  expected  to  call.  If  the  pastor  tries  to 
visit  while  some  persons  are  viewing  their  favorite  televi- 
sion programs,  he  may  not  receive  a  warm  welcome. 

But  even  so,  visiting  continues  to  be  one  of  the  pastor's 
duties.  The  1968  Discipline  says  that  the  pastor  is  "to 
visit  in  the  homes  of  the  parish  and  community,  especially 
among  the  sick,  aged,  and  others  in  need."  He  "is  re- 
sponsible for  ministering  to  the  needs  of  the  whole  com- 
munity as  well  as  to  the  needs  of  the  people  of  his 
charge,"  and  "he  shall  give  an  account  of  his  pastoral 
ministry  to  the  charge  and  annual  conference."  The  very 
name  pastor  originally  meant  shepherd,  and  the  pastor 
is  still  the  spiritual  leader  of  his  people. 

Pastors  still  find  ways  and  times  to  minister  to  the  peo- 
ple. They  use  the  telephone  and  the  mails,  and  they 
make  it  known  that  they  are  available  for  counseling  when 
anyone  wishes  to  come  to  them.  They  are  alert  to  the 
times  when  sickness,  sorrow,  and  other  crises  strike  in 
homes  and  in  individual  lives.  At  such  times  they  are 
needed  and  their  ministry  is  welcome. 

In  Methodist  circles  the  reputation  and  work  of  a 
preacher  as  a  pastor  counts  heavily  in  the  total  evaluation 
of  his  ministry. 

Discipline,  1968,  Paragraph  3.50. 

Nolan  B.  Hannon,  Ministerial  Ethics  and  Etiquette,  1950. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

PATAGONIA  PROVISIONAL  CONFERENCE  was  orga- 
nized during  the  quadrennium  ending  in  1964  and  com- 
prises the  country  of  southern  Argentina  through 
Neuquen,  Rio  Negro,  and  the  Bahia  Blanca  region  of 
Buenos  Aires  Province  (see  also  Argentina).  Bariloche 
is  headquarters  of  the  conference. 


Discipline,  1960,  P.  2007.2;  1964,  P.   1846. 


N.  B.  H. 


PATERSON,  NEW  JERSEY,  U.S.A.  (1970  population 
142,641),  is  an  industrial  city  situated  on  the  Passaic 
River.  Incorporated  as  a  city  in  1851,  it  is  the  seat  of  a 
state  teachers  college  and  branches  of  Rutgers  State  and 
Seton  Hall  Universities. 

Paterson  first  appears  in  the  M.E.  Church  Minutes  in 
1825,  when  J.  Creamer  was  pastor.  He  reported  126 
members  the  following  year.  By  1857  the  city  had  two 
stations — Cross  Street  and  Prospect  Street,  with  a  total 
of   1,647   members   and   $18,000   worth   of  property.   In 


1876  Paterson  had  five  churches  and  "the  Paterson  Cir- 
cuit." The  membership  of  the  six  charges  was  2,263, 
property  appraised  at  $121,000. 

Market  Street  Church,  the  largest  Methodist  church  in 
that  city,  had  710  members  and  property  estimated  at 
$65,000. 

Calvary,  built  in  1895,  was  razed  by  fire  on  Jan.  2, 
1967. 

Christ  Church  began  in  the  home  of  Mrs.  Louise  Boss- 
hardt,  a  converted  German,  in  1881,  and  later  became  a 
part  of  the  Newark  German  charge.  Antipathy  to  the 
German  language  church  during  World  War  I  caused  the 
East  German  Conference  to  be  dissolved  in  1940.  The 
German  Church  then  became  a  part  of  the  Newark 
(now  Northern  New  Jersey)  Conference.  Services 
continued  in  German,  and  in  English,  in  this  church  until 
1957.  Calvary  and  Christ  Churches  held  joint  services 
in  Christ  Church  after  the  Calvary  fire,  but  due  to  the 
prevalent  erosion  of  city  churches,  ceased  to  hold  services 
until  1968.  The  Calvary  trustees  continue  to  exist,  pending 
property  settlement,  and  Christ  Church  has  asked  to  dis- 
band as  of  this  writing. 

East  Side  Terrace  was  built  in  1893.  The  first  parsonage 
for  this  church  was  built  in  1925.  Lloyd  C.  Wicke,  now 
bishop,  was  the  first  pastor  to  move  into  the  parsonage. 

Embury  Church  began  in  1869.  Its  building  was  dedi- 
cated in  1886.  In  1904  the  present  property  was  pur- 
chased. It  was  remodeled  in  1955. 

Epworth  Church  began  around  1891,  becoming  a  regu- 
lar conference  appointment  in  1908.  A  new  church  was 
built  in  1914.  It  merged  in  1968  with  the  former  Christ 
E.U.B.  Church. 

Grace  Church,  one  of  whose  pastors,  J.  W.  Fitzgerald, 
became  a  bishop,  moved  to  Wyckoff  after  its  property  was 
taken  for  public  housing.  Madison  Park  (a  former  Meth- 
odist Protestant  Church)  began  in  1895. 

Paterson  Avenue  is  in  the  Totowa  section  of  Paterson, 
and  came  out  of  a  cottage  prayer  meeting  in  1866.  The 
present  edifice  was  dedicated  in  1928.  Bishop  John  Wes- 
ley Lord  as  a  young  man  belonged  to  this  church. 

The  Church  of  the  Saviour  began  under  Italian  leader- 
ship when  Signor  Vincenzo  Barrecchia  gathered  a  group 
of  new  Americans  in  his  home  and  organized  an  Italian 
Bible  class.  Beginning  in  1908  the  group  used  a  room  in 
the  Prospect  Street  Church,  but  after  1914  took  over  the 
whole  church.  When  the  building  was  condemned  in 
1922,  the  people  met  for  a  time  in  the  home  of  Nicola 
Bruno  and  also  with  the  Salvation  Army.  The  present 
Church  of  the  Saviour  was  erected  in  1924. 

Simpson  Church  originated  in  South  Paterson  with  the 
old  Market  Street  Church  people  helping  to  organize  it 
in  1889.  The  church  building  was  destroyed  by  fire  on 
Jan.  10,  1969.  It  had  become  a  yoked  parish  with  Madison 
Park  in  the  late  1960's. 

Union,  the  Totowa  Borough  Church,  had  its  building 
destroyed  by  fire  on  Jan.  11,  1967.  It  had  its  first  official 
board  chosen  in  June  1911,  and  was  built  in  1913,  adding 
Sunday  school  and  meeting  rooms  in  1940. 

Trinity,  another  church  founded  by  Market  Street 
Church,  was  organized  on  Feb.  21,  1889,  and  dedicated 
on  July  6,  1890.  Many  of  the  first  families  in  Paterson 
began  to  attend  this  church,  and  a  new  brick  structure 
was  dedicated  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  1905.  Trinity  became 
the  Spanish-speaking  church,  and  following  a  fire  in  the 
early  1960's  was  sold  to  Negro  Baptists.  Its  congregation 
as  of  1969  was  worshipping  in  Wesley  Church. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PATTON,   SAMUEL 


Wesley  Church  was  built  around  November  1891.  In 
the  private  home  of  Francis  Huntington  the  first  meetings 
of  the  congregation  were  held.  The  group  finally  organized 
a  year  later  as  the  Wesley  M.E.  Church  and  built  a 
chapel  which  later  became  Eastside  Terrace.  The  present 
building  was  dedicated  in  1907.  Wesley  and  Eastside 
Terrace  became  a  yoked  parish  in  1967. 

Westside  Church  was  started  by  Sunday  school  teachers 
from  Gross  Street  Church;  and  became  part  of  a  circuit 
in  1890.  It  became  West  Paterson  M.E.  Church  in  1893; 
and  was  made  a  separate  charge.  A  new  building  dedi- 
cated in  1905  had  three  fires,  the  last  of  which  in  1941 
destroyed  it.  Around  1918  the  Borough  of  West  Paterson 
was  established,  the  site  of  the  present  church,  built  in 
1941,  remaining  within  Paterson,  and  the  name  was 
changed  to  Westside.  The  church  is  not  to  be  confused 
with  the  present  West  Paterson  Community  (Methodist) 
Church,  which  came  into  being  later,  in  West  Paterson 
Borough. 

In  1970  Paterson  had  seven  churches.  The  church  with 
the  largest  membership  is  Embury  with  426  and  estimated 
value  of  its  building,  equipment  and  land  $660,690.  Total 
membership  reported  by  the  seven  churches  was  1,246. 
Their  property  was  valued  at  $1,486,945. 

General  Minutes. 

V.  B.  Hampton,  Newark  Conference.  1957. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedio.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

PATRICK,  HUGH  McALLISTER  (1888-1959),  New  Ze.^- 
LAND  layman,  was  born  in  Auckland.  He  began  work  in 
the  Takapuna  post  office  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  and  be- 
came director-general  of  the  Post  and  Telegraph  Depart- 
ment in  1945.  He  was  decorated  Member  of  the  Royal 
Victorian  Order  for  his  efficient  arrangement  of  the  tour 
of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  in  1931. 

Patrick  had  many  public  interests — justice  of  the  peace, 
member  and  sometime  president  of  the  English-Speaking 
Union  in  Auckland,  organizer  for  Merchant  Navy  Wel- 
fare Appeal. 

He  was  an  outstanding  Methodist  layman,  and  was  a 
very  acceptable  local  preacher.  In  1959  he  was  awarded 
the  Local  Preachers'  Association  Long  Service  (50  years) 
diploma.  He  was  national  organizer  of  the  Peace  Thanks- 
giving Fund  Appeal  in  1947,  and  was  elected  vice-presi- 
dent of  Conference  in  1953. 

New  Zealand  Methodist  Times,  Nov.  7,  1959. 

L.  R.  M.  GiLMORE 

PATTERSON,  DONALD  STEWART  ( 1897-  ) ,  lay  leader 

of  Washington,  D.  C,  and  the  Baltimore  Conference 
and  executive  secretary  of  the  Methodist  Commission  on 
Chaplains,  1943-1956,  was  born  on  May  20,  1897,  in 
Anderson,  Ind.,  and  served  with  the  U.  S.  Army  from 
1917-19.  He  became  assistant  to  the  president  of  Ameri- 
can University  in  1942,  and  thereafter  continued  to  live 
in  Washington,  where  he  took  an  increasingly  prominent 
part  in  the  work  of  The  Methodist  Church.  During  World 
War  II  he  was  elected  executive  secretary  of  the  Com- 
mission on  Chaplains  of  The  Methodist  Church  and 
served  as  such  until  1956.  From  1956  to  1965,  he  was 
the  chairman  of  the  Commission  on  Camp  Activities  of 
The  Methodist  Church.  He  was  president  of  the  Council 
OF  Secretaries  of  the  Church,  1954-55;  the  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  General  Board  of  Lay  Activities,  1944-52; 
the  lay  leader  of  the  Baltimore  Conference,  1938-52.  He 


has  served  as  a  trustee  of  American  University  and  of  the 
Asbury  Methodist  Home  at  Gaithersburg,  Md.  Western 
Maryland  College  awarded  him  the  Churchmanship 
Award  in  1951,  and  he  was  named  Layman  of  the  Year 
by  the  iMethodist  Union  in  Washington  in  1965.  He  is  the 
author  of  A  National  Strategy  for  Temperance  Education, 
1940;  Methodist  Men  at  Work,  1943;  and  Be  Ye  Doers, 
1958.  He  has  been  a  member  of  successive  General 
Conferences  for  a  number  of  years.  He  continues  to 
reside  in  Washington,  D.  C. 


Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


PATTON,  JOHN  (1823-1897),  American  lumbeman, 
merchant,  banker,  philanthropist  and  layman  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  was  born  Jan.  6,  1823  in  Tioga  County,  Pa.  He 
was  reared  in  Curwensville,  Clearfield  County,  Pa.,  by 
poor  but  pious  and  industrious  parents  whose  backgrounds 
go  back  to  Colonial  days  in  America.  His  grandfather, 
Philip  Antes,  founded  Methodism  in  Centre  and  Clear- 
field Counties.  With  limited  educational  advantages  him- 
self, John  Patton  became  an  ardent  advocate  and  sup- 
porter of  schools  and  colleges. 

A  pioneer  lumberman,  he  became  the  founder  of  the 
First  National  Bank  at  Curwensville,  promoter  of  mining 
resources  and  land  development,  director  of  a  railroad 
and  a  patriotic,  public  spirited  citizen.  Active  in  politics, 
he  helped  to  select  Abraham  Lincoln  as  Republican  candi- 
date for  President  at  the  Convention  of  1861.  A  congress- 
man during  the  Civil  War,  he  earnestly  supported  the 
war  measures  and  generously  contributed  funds  for  the 
relief  of  suffering  soldiers.  His  land  company  founded  the 
town  of  Patton,  Pa.,  and  named  it  for  him. 

General  Patton  was  for  many  years  known  as  the  lead- 
ing layman  of  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference 
of  the  M.E.  Church,  and  was  president  of  its  Layman's 
Association.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference  in  Washington,  D.  C.  He  was 
a  director  of  Williamsport  Dickinson  Seminary  and  a 
trustee  of  Dickinson  College  and  Drew  Theological 
Seminary. 

His  generous  benefactions  to  religious  and  educational 
objects  were  remarkable  for  his  day.  His  local  church  and 
tlie  Patton  Public  School  at  Curwensville  are  monuments 
to  his  generosity.  Methodist  educational  institutions  and 
the  Church  Extension  Society  received  large  donations 
from  him. 

He  was  held  in  highest  esteem  because  of  the  depth  of 
his  Christian  character  and  his  loyaltv  to  Christ  and  his 
Church.  He  died  at  Curwensville,  Dec' 23,  1897. 

The  Christian  Advocate  (  New  York),  March  13,  1884. 
The  Conference  News,  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  March  15,  1884. 
MiniUes  of  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference.  1898. 

Charles  F.  Berkheimer 

PATTON,  SAMUEL  (1797-1854),  American  pioneer 
preacher,  was  bom  in  Lancaster  District,  S.  C,  on  Jan. 
27,  1797.  In  his  career  he  served  in  three  Methodist 
Conferences.  First  the  Tennessee  Conference  (1819- 
1821),  where  he  was  ordained  traveling  deacon  by  Bishop 
McKe.ndree,  and  served  effectively  the  Sequatchie  and 
then  the  Clinch  circuits;  next  he  was  enlisted  to  sen'e 
the  Tuscaloosa  Circuit  (1821-1823)  in  the  newly  orga- 
nized Mississippi  Co.nference,  where  he  had  a  most 
successful  ministry.  On  November  27,  1823,  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Nancv  Morrison  of  SuUivan  Count\',  Tenn.,  and 


PAUL   QUINN    COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


applied  for  the  transfer  of  his  membership  to  the  Holston 
CoNFEREN'CE  in  1824.  He  was  received  into  this  Con- 
ference, meeting  in  Jonesborough,  Tenn.  and  in  it  he 
served  as  an  effective  leader  until  his  death. 

Fourteen  of  his  first  nineteen  years  in  Holston  Con- 
ference were  as  a  presiding  elder.  In  this  role,  he  was  most 
effective,  manifesting  a  spirit  of  modesty  and  humility 
with  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility  and  efficiency  in  pas- 
toral care.  Though  not  highly  trained,  Patton  was  self- 
educated  beyond  his  early  elementary  schooling.  Emory 
AND  Henry  College  conferred  the  honorary  D.D.  upon 
him.  As  pastor  of  the  First  Church  in  Knoxville,  at  the 
urgent  suggestion  of  leaders  in  the  Conference,  he  single- 
handedly  published  The  Methodist  Episcopalian,  which 
became  The  Holston  Christian  Advocate,  and  evolved  into 
the  official  organ  in  the  Southern  Methodist  Church  after 
1848.  Originally  of  Presbyterian  background,  Patton  was 
capable  of  answering  the  attacks  of  Frederick  A.  Ross, 
eminent  Presbyterian  divine  and  editor  of  The  Calvinistic 
Magazine  published  in  Rogersville,  Tenn.  Patton's  serious 
nature,  combined  with  regular  habits  of  reading  and  study, 
and  his  natural  ability  in  logical  reasoning,  especially  in 
doctrinal  matters,  qualified  him  eminently  to  champion 
Wesleyan  doctrine  and  polity.  Serving  his  church  at  all 
of  the  General  Conferences  from  1828  until  his  death, 
he  proved  an  invaluable  interpreter  of  the  position  of  the 
Church,  South,  before  and  after  the  eventful  year  of  1844. 

Patton  suffered  an  illness  in  youth  that  impaired  his 
lungs,  and  this  deficiency  along  with  periodic  and  serious 
dejection  inherited  from  "Miss  Nichols"  (suffering  mental 
afflictions)  whom  his  father  married,  impeded  his  joy  of 
living  and  serving  his  Lord  throughout  his  life.  He  was 
a  man  of  five  feet,  eight  inches  in  height,  slender  and  a 
bit  stooped,  with  keen,  deep-set  gray  eyes,  who  leaned  a 
bit  forward  in  the  pulpit,  using  few  gesticulations,  but 
always  well-prepared  and  thoughtful  in  his  utterances. 
He  was  respected  and  loved  throughout  his  ministry, 
which  was  full  of  well-deserved  honor  and  noted  for 
effectiveness,  as  is  attested  by  his  friend,  W.  G.  Brown- 
low,  editor  of  The  Knoxville  Whig,  with  whom  Patton 
roomed;  his  family,  which  included  four  children,  lived 
at  the  Spring  Place  Home  in  Sullivan  County.  During 
most  of  his  ministry,  he  received  between  one  and  two 
hundred  dollars  per  year  as  salary.  Frugal  living,  hard 
work,  and  consecrated  devotion  characterized  this  leader 
of  early  Holston  Methodism,  whose  converts  and  acces- 
sions in  the  church  ran  to  multiplied  thousands. 

He  died  Aug.  1,  1854,  in  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

David  Rice  M'Anally,  Life  and  Times  of  B.ec.  S.  Patton,  D.D., 

and  Annals  of  the  Holston  Conference.  St.  Louis,  Mo.:   n.p., 

1859. 

R.  N.  Price,  Holston.  190.3-13. 

VI.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  E.  E.  Wiley,  Jr. 

PAUL  QUINN  COLLEGE,  the  oldest  Negro  liberal  arts  col- 
lege in  Te.xas,  was  founded  by  the  A.M.E.  Church  at 
Waco  in  1872.  It  was  granted  a  charter  for  operation  by 
the  State  of  Texas  in  1881.  The  first  president  of  Paul 
Quinn  College,  as  well  as  its  organizer,  was  Bishop  John 
M.  Brown.  The  George  B.  Young  Theological  Seminary 
is  related  to  Paul  Quinn  College,  which  was  named  for 
the  famed  A.M.E.  missionary.  Bishop  L.  H.  McCloney  is 
president  of  the  college,  while  B.  L.  McCormick  is  dean 
of  the  seminary. 

Grant  S.  Shockley 


John  Fawson 

PAWSON,  JOHN  (1737-1806),  British  minister,  was  born 
at  Thorner,  near  Leeds,  in  November  1737.  He  became 
a  Methodist  preacher  in  1762,  and  in  1785  he  was  or- 
dained by  John  Wesley  for  Scotland,  where  he  said 
that  he  became  "fully  satisfied  that  it  requires  a  far 
greater  degree  of  Divine  influence,  generally  speaking, 
to  awaken  a  Scotchman  out  of  the  dead  sleep  of  sin  than 
to  awaken  an  Englishman."  He  sympathized  with  the 
popular  request  for  the  Methodist  preachers  to  administer 
the  Sacraments  to  the  societies  in  their  care,  though 
he  accepted  John  Wesley's  ruling,  when  he  left  Scotland 
in  1787,  that  he  must  not  himself  administer  the  Sacra- 
ments in  England.  He  exercised  a  mediating  influence 
in  the  controversies  on  this  subject  which  followed  Wes- 
ley's death,  both  in  1792,  when  Pawson  suggested  drawing 
lots  on  the  question,  and  again  in  1793,  when  he  was 
President  of  the  Conference.  He  was  also  one  of  the 
sponsors  of  the  Lichfield  Plan,  which  proposed  a  form  of 
episcopal  government  for  British  Methodism,  a  scheme 
which  the  Conference  of  1794  rejected. 

Pawson's  revision  of  Wesley's  Large  Minutes  in  1797 
was  accepted  by  the  Conference  as  the  authoritative  state- 
ment of  Methodist  discipline.  He  was  elected  President 
again  in  1801,  a  mark  of  the  high  respect  in  which  his 
brethren  held  him.  Adam  Clarke  called  him  an  "upright 
and  downright  man"  ( Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers, 
ed.  T.  Jackson,  London,  1846,  i,  392),  and  a  strain  of 
severity  and  narrowness  is  implied  by  Pawson's  expurga- 
tion of  Wesley's  library:  it  was  he  who  burned  John 
Wesley's  annotated  copy  of  the  plays  of  William  Shake- 
speare. The  autobiography  which  Pawson  contributed  to 
the  Arminian  Magazine  (qv.)  and  which  may  be  found 
in  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers,  is  similarly  a 
solemn,  rather  unrevealing  production.  Letters  of  his 
which  survive,  however,  suggest  a  rather  crisper  character 
in  everyday  life.  He  died  on  March  19,  1806. 

John  Newton 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PEARCE,   WriLIAM 


PAYNE,  DANIEL  ALEXANDER  (1811-1893),  distinguished 
churchman  and  the  first  American  Negro  college  presi- 
dent, was  bom  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  on  Feb.  24,  1811  of 
free  parents.  He  migrated  to  the  North  and  attended  the 
Lutheran  Theological  Seminary  in  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  1835- 
38.  Payne,  who  later  received  two  honorary  doctorate 
degrees  (D.D.,  LL.D.),  was  licensed  to  preach  and  or- 
dained in  the  Lutheran  Church.  He  was  admitted  into 
the  Philadelphia  Conference  of  the  A.M.E.  Church  in 
1843.  Earliest  advocate  of  a  trained  ministry  in  the  de- 
nomination and  its  first  historiographer,  publishing  one  of 
the  earhest  pieces  of  historical  research  among  Negroes, 
History  of  the  A.M.E.  Church  (Nashville,  1891),  Payne 
was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  in  1852.  In  that  office  he 
organized  the  New  England  Conference  in  1852,  the 
Missouri  Conference  in  1855,  and  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference in  1868;  negotiated  the  purchase  of  Wilber- 
force  Universtty  for  the  A.M.E.  Church  (1863); 
rendered  yeoman  service  in  re-establishing  the  denomina- 
tion in  his  native  South  Carolina  and  introducing  the 
connection  in  the  South  after  the  Civil  War.  He  claimed 
the  longest  episcopal  tenure  of  his  denomination,  forty- 
one  years. 

Grant  S.  Shockley 

PAYTON,  JACOB  SIMPSON  (1884-1963),  American  min- 
ister and  publicist,  was  bom  at  De  Soto,  Iowa,  March  24, 
1884,  and  was  educated  at  Fort  Worth  University  (A.B. 
1908)  and  Drew  Theological  Seminary  (B.D.  1911). 
He  joined  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  and  served 
Christ  Church,  the  Army  YMCA  in  France,  Ben  Avon, 
Sewickley,  Beaver,  and  Asbury,  Pittsburgh,  besides  super- 
intending the  Allegheny  and  Pittsburgh  Districts,  1926-31. 
From  1936-41  he  was  editor  of  The  National  Methodist 
Press,  then  assistant  editor  of  The  Christian  Advocate 
and  during  the  war,  acting  editor  of  The  Chaplain.  He 
closed  his  career  as  Washington  correspondent  for  The 
Christian  Advocate.  He  was  the  author  of  Our  Fathers 
Have  Told  Us,  a  history  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference, 
1938,  and  with  E.  T.  Clark  and  J.  M.  Potts  edited  The 
Journal  and  Letters  of  Francis  Asbury,  1958.  Rose  Marsh, 
whom  he  married  June  16,  1917,  survived  him.  He 
died  Oct.  4,  1963,  at  Falls  Church,  Va. 

Edwin  Schell 


PEACE  FELLOWSHIP,  METHODIST,  is  the  association  of 
pacifists  within  the  British  Methodist  Church.  It  was 
founded  on  Nov.  3,  1933.  Following  a  letter  by  Henry 
Carter  to  The  Methodist  Recorder  earlier  that  year,  over 
500  ministers  covenanted  together  "to  renounce  war  and 
all  its  ways  and  works,  now  and  always,  God  being  our 
helper."  In  January  1934,  laity  took  tlie  same  covenant; 
and  by  1939  the  membership  had  risen  to  over  4,000, 
of  whom  900  were  ministers.  The  present  membership  is 
5,000.  Methodist  Peace  Fellowship  is  part  of  the  Fellow- 
ship of  Reconciliation,  the  ecumenical  pacifist  body. 

John  Stagey 

PEACH,  JOHN  S.  (1810-1891),  was  bom  in  England. 
He  was  received  on  trial  in  1840  and  came  to  New- 
foundland in  the  same  year.  He  was  ordained  in  1844 
and  served  several  of  the  larger  charges  in  the  Newfound- 


land district.  He  was  financial  secretary  from  1856  to  1862, 
and  was  chairman  of  the  district  from  1863  to  1870.  He 
was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference,  Montreal,  in 
1878,  the  year  of  his  retirement.  A  delegate  to  the  Ecu- 
menical Congress  in  1881,  he  was  elected  President  of  the 
Newfoundland  Conference  in  1882.  He  gave  valuable 
leadership  in  the  Newfoundland  District  and  Conference. 

G.  H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.  1881. 
H.  M.  Mosdell,  When  Was  That?  St.  John's:   Trade  Printers, 
1923.  N.  WiNSOR 

PEAKE,  ARTHUR  SAMUEL  (1865-1929),  British  biblical 
scholar  of  international  reputation,  was  born  at  Leek, 
Staffordshire,  Nov.  24,  1865.  He  entered  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  in  1883.  In  1887  he  became  Casberd 
Scholar  and  took  First  Class  in  the  Honours  School  of 
Theology.  In  1889  he  became  Denyer  and  Johnson 
Scholar  and  the  next  year  gained  the  Ellerton  Essay 
Prize.  In  the  same  year  he  was  appointed  lecturer  at 
Mansfield  College,  Oxford,  and  was  elected  to  a  theolog- 
ical fellowship  at  Merton  College.  He  was  greatly  in- 
fluenced by  the  work  of  Cheyne,  Driver,  Sanday,  Fair- 
bairn,  and  Hatch. 

In  1892  through  the  foresight  of  William  P.  Hartley, 
he  was  appointed  tutor  at  the  Primitive  Methodist  The- 
ological Institute,  later  named  Hartley  College,  Manches- 
ter (see  Theological  Colleges)  and  remained  in  this 
post  for  thirty-seven  years  until  his  death.  He  was  also 
lecturer  at  Lancashire  Independent  College  (Congrega- 
tional) and  at  the  United  Methodist  College  in  Man- 
chester. In  1904  he  became  the  first  Rylands  Professor  of 
Biblical  Criticism  and  Exegesis  in  the  University  of  Man- 
chester, and  was  the  chief  foiTnative  influence  in  the  newly 
founded  faculty  of  theology. 

His  tremendous  literary  output  included:  commentaries 
on  fob,  Jeremiah,  Hebrews  in  "The  Century  Bible"  ( 1902- 
12);  Colossians  in  the  "Expositors  Greek  Testament" 
(1903);  The  Problem  of  Suffering  in  the  Old  Testament 
(Hartley  Lecture,  1904);  The  Religion  of  Israel  (1908); 
A  Critical  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament  (1909); 
The  Bible:  Its  Origin,  Its  Significance,  and  Its  Abiding 
Worth  (1913);  The  Revelation  of  John  (Hartley  Lecture, 
1919).  His  most  notable  achievement  was  the  editing  of 
A  Commentary  on  the  Bible  (1919),  for  which  by  his 
wide  influence  he  secured  contributions  by  the  most 
eminent  scholars.  A  successor  to  this  work  still  boasts  the 
title,  Peake's  Commentary  (1962). 

From  1919  he  was  editor  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Holborn  Review  and  in  1925  coeditor  of  An  Outline  of 
Christianity.  A  man  of  wide  ecumenical  understanding 
as  church  leader,  he  helped  to  save  England  from  a  funda- 
mentalist controversy.  He  was  the  first  nonconformist 
lavTnan  to  receive  the  Oxford  D.D.  (1920);  he  also  held 
the  D.D.  of  Aberdeen.  He  died  August  19,  1929. 

John  T.  Wilkinson,  ed.,  Arthur  Samuel  Peake,  1865-1929: 
Essays  in  Commemoration.  London:  Epworth  Press,  1958. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

PEARCE,  WILLIAM  (1862-1947),  American  Free  Meth- 
odist bishop,  was  born  in  Hayle,  Cornwall  County,  En- 
gland, Oct.  15,  1862.  He  was  converted  in  a  revival  similar 
to  the  Welsh  Methodists.  Called  to  the  ministry,  he  joined 
the  California  Conference,  and  served  as  pastor  and  dis- 
trict elder  until  1901.  He  transferred  to  the  Oregon  Con- 


PEARNE,   THOMAS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


ference  and  to  Genesee  in  1904  where  he  served  as  pastor 
and  district  elder.  He  was  a  bishop,  1908-47.  E.xcept  for 
the  training  in  the  common  schools  of  England,  he  was 
self-educated.  He  had  one  of  the  finest  minds  in  the 
church;  by  instinct  he  was  a  scholar.  He  mastered  New 
Testament  Greek  without  a  teacher.  For  sixteen  years  he 
was  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Administration  and  the 
Board  of  Directors  of  the  Free  Methodist  Publishing 
House.  He  was  the  author  of  Our  Incarnate  Lord  and 
numerous  articles  in  The  Free  Methodist,  all  of  high  merit. 
An  unusual  preacher,  unique  in  every  way,  his  great  ser- 
mons were  the  poetic  overflow  of  a  rich  mind  and  soul.  His 
influence  was  wide  and  long-continued.  He  sei-ved  as 
bishop  longer  than  any  other. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

PEARNE,  THOMAS  (18P-1901),  American  Indian  min- 
ister. The  Conference  Journal  of  the  Columbia  River 
Conference  in  1901  carried  this  note,  "He  was  bom 
about  65  years  ago."  He  married  Kate  McKay  in  1869. 
James  H.  Wilbur  performed  the  ceremony.  Both  Thomas 
and  Kate  attended  the  Fort  Simcoe  Indian  School  in  the 
early  1860's  under  "Father"  Wilbur.  Thomas  then  at- 
tended the  Chemawa  Indian  School  near  Salem,  Ore., 
and  later  returned  to  his  home  near  Fort  Simcoe  to  be 
taught  Bible  and  other  pastoral  skills  by  Wilbur. 

He  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Oregon  Oonfebence 
in  1869,  was  admitted  to  full  membership  and  ordained 
deacon  by  Bishop  E.  S.  Janes  in  1871,  and  appointed 
that  year  to  Simcoe  Indian  Mission.  He  became  a  charter 
member  of  the  Columbia  River  Conference  when  it  was 
formed  in  1874. 

Besides  preaching  in  the  churches  on  the  Yakima  Reser- 
vation, he  conducted  and  assisted  in  many  revival  meet- 
ings among  the  Indians  of  Washington,  Oregon  and 
Idaho.  Notable  among  these  meetings  was  the  great  re- 
vival among  the  Nez  Perces  when  over  300  were  con- 
verted and  became  members  of  the  church. 

Pearne  owned  and  operated  a  large  ranch  in  Medicine 
Valley  near  Fort  Simcoe,  the  first  irrigated  ranch  in 
Yakima  Valley,  much  of  the  proceeds  from  which  he  used 
to  help  those  in  need. 

Death  came  to  him  in  September  1901,  and  he  was 
buried  in  the  White  Swan  Methodist  Cemetery.  (This 
Cemetery  was  a  part  of  the  land  donation  of  Chief  White 
Swan  to  the  Methodist  Church  for  church,  campground, 
and  revival  meetings  for  the  Indians.)  He  preached, 
visited  among  them  and  ministered  to  their  every  need. 
His  death  was  regretted  by  his  own  people  and  by  hun- 
dreds of  his  white  brethren. 

Journals  of  the  Oregon  and  Columbia  River  Conferences. 

C.  T.  Hatten 

PEARSE,  MARK  GUY  (1842-1930),  British  Wesleyan  and 
world-famous  preacher,  was  bom  on  Jan.  3,  1842,  at 
Camborne,  Cornwall,  and  after  considering  a  medical 
career,  entered  the  Wesleyan  ministry  in  1863.  Serving 
in  various  circuits,  he  was  elected  to  the  Legal  Hundred 
in  1884,  and  then  from  1887-1904  was  associated  with 
Hugh  Price  Hughes  in  the  West  London  Mission.  Here 
he  was  largely  responsible  for  the  building  up  of  the 
West  London  Mission  Sisterhood.  Worldwide  preaching 
tours  and  many  books  on  Cornish  and  religious  themes 


Mark  Guy  Pearse 

gained  him  an  international  reputation.  He  died  on  Jan. 
1,  1930. 

H.  M.  Rattenbury 


PEARSON,    BENJAMIN    HAROLD    (1893-  ),    an    or- 

dained elder  of  the  Arizona-Southern  California  Confer- 
ence of  the  Free  Methodist  Church,  is  a  retired  mis- 
sionary. He  was  born  at  Los  Angeles,  Calif.,  and  holds 
the  A.B.  and  Th.M.  degrees  from  the  University  of  South- 
em  California.  The  Litt.D.  degree  was  conferred  on  him 
by  Seattle  Pacific  College  in  1942.  He  was  super- 
intendent of  the  Pacific  Coast  Home  Missions,  1919-39 
and  General  Superintendent  of  the  Young  People's  Mis- 
sionary Society,  1935-43.  He  served  as  Superintendent 
and  Director  of  the  Colombia,  South  America  field.  Orien- 
tal Missionary  Society,  1943-50;  and  of  the  Brazil  field, 
1950-55.  He  was  executive  secretary.  World  Gospel 
Crusades,  1955-59;  and  President,  1960-65.  He  is  now 
president  emeritus.  He  is  the  author  of  Mexican  Missions; 
Off  to  Panama;  The  Lost  Generation  Returns;  Wings  Over 
Aztec  Land;  The  Monk  Who  Lived  Again;  Next;  Ad- 
ventures in  Christ-like  Living;  Don  Pedro;  The  Head- 
hunter's  Bride;  and  The  Vision  Lives.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pear- 
son reside  in  Los  Angeles,  Calif. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

PECK,  GEORGE  (1797-1876),  American  clergyman,  edu- 
cator, editor,  and  author,  was  born  in  Middlefield,  Otsego 
County,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  8,  1797.  The  son  of  Luther  and 
Annis  Collar  Peck,  he  and  four  brothers  became  Methodist 
ministers,  one  being  Bishop  Jesse  T.  Peck.  A  Christian 
at  fifteen,  he  joined  the  Genesee  Conference  in  1816, 
continuing  in  effective  service  fifty-seven  years.  He  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Oneida  Conference  when  orga- 
nized (1829),  and  of  the  Wyoming  Conference  when 
organized  (1852),  being  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Conference  during  his  editorial  years  (1840-1852).  He 
served  seventeen  pastorates,  was  presiding  elder  seven 
times,  and  a  member  of  thirteen  sessions  of  the  General 
Conference,  1824-1872. 

From  1840  for  eight  years  Peck  was  editor  of  the 
Methodist  Quarterly  Review;  then  four  years  as  editor 
of  the  Christian  Advocate.  He  was  Principal  of  Cazenovia 


WORLD   METHODISM 


George  Peck 

Seminary,  Cazenovia,  N.  Y.,  1835-1838.  Shortly  after- 
ward he  proposed  that  a  seminary  be  estabhshed  at 
Kingston,  Pa.,  which  materialized  in  1844.  He  also  was 
the  proponent  of  the  General  Conference  course  of  studies 
for  preachers.  Peck  published  several  books,  including 
History  of  Wyoming,  History  of  Methodism  within  the 
Bounds  of  the  Old  Genesee  Conference,  and  The  Life 
and  Times  of  Rev.  George  Peck,  D.D. 

Wesleyan  University  granted  George  Peck  the  M.A. 
degree  and  Augusta  College  that  of  D.D.  In  1846  he 
went  to  London  as  a  member  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance. 

George  Peck  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Philip  and 
Martha  Myers,  of  Forty  Fort,  Pa.,  June  10,  1819.  Of  their 
four  children  George  M.  and  Luther  W.  became  members 
of  the  Wyoming  Conference,  Wilbur  F.  became  a  physi- 
cian, and  a  daughter  became  the  wife  of  T.  J.  Crane  of 
the  Newark  Conference. 

Peck  died  in  Scranton,  Pa.,  May  20,  1876,  and  was 
buried  at  Forty  Fort. 

A.  F.  Chafee,  Wyoming  Conference.  1904. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

L.  D.  Palmer,  Heroism  and  Romance.  1950. 

George  Peck,  The  Life  and  Times  of  Rev.  George  Peck.  New 

York:  Nelson  &  Phillips,  1874. 

,  Old  Genesee  Conference.  1860. 

Louis  D.  Palmer 

PECK,  JESSE  TRUESDELL  (1811-1883),  American  bishop, 
was  born  at  Middlefield  Center,  Otsego  County,  N.  Y., 
the  son  of  Luther  and  Annis  (Collar)  Peck,  and  a  de- 
scendant of  Henry  Peck,  one  of  the  founders  of  New 
Haven,  Conn.  He  was  the  youngest  of  five  brothers, 
all  of  whom  became  ministers.  Educated  at  Cazenovia 
Seminary,  he  married  Persis  Wing,  Oct.  13,  1831;  they 
had  no  children. 

Peck  joined  the  Onefda  Conference  in  1832,  was 
ordained  deacon  in  1834,  and  elder,  in  the  Black 
Rn-ER  Conference,  in  1836.  He  served  several  pastor- 
ates, and  in  1837-40  was  principal  of  a  high  school  which 
later  became  Gou\erneur  Wesleyan  Seminary.  From  1841 
to  1848  he  was  principal  of  the  Troy  Conference  Acad- 
emy, Poultney,  Vt.,  after  which  he  had  four  years  as 
president  of  Dickinson  College,  Carlisle,  Pa.  In  1852, 
he  went  to  Foundry  Church,  Washington,  but  left  after 
two  years  to  become  editor  and  secretary  of  the  Tract 
Society.  In  1856  he  was  appointed  to  Greene  Street 
Church,  New  York,  and  two  years  later,  because  of  his 
wife's  health,  transferred  to  California,  where  he  served 


PEELE,   WILLIAM   WALTER 

pastorates  in  San  Francisco  and  Sacramento  and  was 
presiding  elder  of  the  San  Francisco  District  for  one 
year.  While  in  the  west  he  was  a  trustee  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  the  Pacific  and  contributed  to  its  support.  In 
1866  he  returned  east,  supplied  St.  Paul's  Church,  Peeks- 
kill,  N.  Y.,  for  a  time,  and  in  1867  was  appointed  to 
Hudson  Street,  Albany,  where  he  sened  three  years. 
From  1870  to  1872  he  was  pastor  at  Syracuse  where  he 
led  in  founding  S-i-RACusE  LIniversity. 

Peck  was  a  delegate  to  five  General  Conferences, 
1844-48,  and  1864-72.  Though  only  thirty-three  in  1844, 
his  speech  in  the  debate  over  the  status  of  Bishop  James 
O.  Andrew  brought  Peck  into  wide  and  favorable  notice 
in  the  north.  He  believed  himself  capable  of  doing  great 
things,  and  he  manifested  great  energy  and  persistence. 
Though  he  weighed  over  300  pounds,  his  body  was 
seldom  at  rest  and  his  mind  was  always  on  the  alert. 
When  others  doubted  that  Syracuse  University  could  suc- 
ceed, he  was  confident.  When  the  school  began  he 
pledged  $25,000,  a  sum  greater  than  all  his  possessions, 
and  paid  it.  In  1883,  he  gave  $50,000  to  the  institution 
and  had  nothing  left.  He  publi.shed  several  books,  includ- 
ing The  Central  Idea  of  Christianity,  The  True  Woman, 
and  the  History  of  the  Great  Republic.  In  addition,  he 
wrote  tracts  and  pamphlets  and  contributed  to  Methodist 
periodicals  and  holiness  magazines. 

In  1872,  Peck  was  elevated  to  the  episcopacy  and  in 
the  next  eleven  years  manifested  zeal  and  vigor  in  the 
work.  He  presided  over  eighty-three  conferences,  includ- 
ing those  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  Denm.\rk,  Sweden, 
and  Norway.  He  participated  in  the  first  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference  in  1881.  He  died  in  Syracuse, 
May  17,  1883,  and  was  buried  there. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography,  Volume  14. 

General  Minutes,  MEG. 

General  Conference  Journal,  1884. 


M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 


Jesse  A.  E.AiiL 
Albea  Godbold 


W.  W.  Peele 

PEELE,  WILLIAM  WALTER  (1881-1959),  American  bish- 
op, was  born  at  Gibson,  N.  C,  on  Nov.  26,  1881.  He 
graduated  from  Trinity  College,  Durham,  N.  C,  in  1903 


PEEPIES,    BENJAMIN 

and  was  awarded  the  D.D.  degree  by  the  same  institu- 
tion in  1928.  The  LL.D.  degree  was  conferred  upon  him 
in  1941  by  Randolph-Macon  College.  He  was  married 
to  Ehzabeth  L>'tch  of  Laurinburg,  N.  C,  on  Aug.  2,  1911. 

From  1903  until  1938,  Peele  served  as  an  educator  and 
pastor  in  North  Carolina  Methodism.  He  was  professor 
of  Mathematics  at  Rutherford  College,  1903-1906,  and 
from  1906  to  1909  was  president  of  that  school.  He 
was  headmaster  of  Trinity  Park  School  from  1911  to 
1915  and  from  1915  to  1918  was  professor  of  Biblical 
Literature  in  Trinity  College. 

As  pastor  Peele  sei-ved  important  appointments  in  North 
Carolina  Methodism  such  as  Edenton  Street  Church, 
Raleigh,  1918-1923;  Trinity  Church,  Durham,  1923- 
1928;  First  Church,  Charlotte,  1928-1937;  presiding 
elder,  Greensboro  District,  1937-1938. 

He  was  elected  a  bishop  at  the  General  Conference 
of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  in  1938  and  from  1938  to 
1952  he  served  as  bishop  of  the  Richmond  Area  which 
comprised  the  Virginia,  Baltimore  and  North  Caro- 
lina Conferences.  He  retired  as  bishop  at  the  South- 
eastern Jurisdictional  Conference  of  1952. 

Bishop  Peele  gave  dynamic  leadership  to  the  Richmond 
Area,  and  in  addition  his  work  influenced  many  phases  of 
World  Methodism.  During  World  War  II,  he  was  chair- 
man of  the  Methodist  Commission  on  Chaplains  and 
directed  the  work  of  nearly  3,000  Methodist  Chaplains. 
He  was  also  chairman  of  the  Methodist  Commission  on 
Camp  Activities,  which  agency  gave  special  attention  to 
the  program  of  local  Methodist  churches  located  near 
military  bases  for  the  military  personnel  and  their  de- 
pendents. 

Bishop  Peele  was  very  active  in  the  field  of  Methodist 
higher  education,  serving  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  Duke  Unu-ersity,  Randolph-Macon  College, 
Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College,  Louisbuhg  Col- 
lege, Ferrum  Junior  College,  and  Randolph-Macon 
Academy.  He  also  served  as  president  of  the  Council  of 
Bishops  and  vice-chairman  of  the  Board  of  Missions. 

Upon  retirement  in  1952,  Bishop  and  Mrs.  Peele  made 
their  home  at  Laurinburg,  N.  C.  He  died  there  on  July  1, 
1959  and  was  buried  in  the  Lytch  Cemetery  at  Laurin- 
burg. 

Paul  N.  Career 


PEEPLES,  BENJAMIN  (1797-1883),  American  preacher, 
was  born  in  Carter  County,  Tenn.,  April  3,  1797.  He 
professed  religion  and  joined  the  M.E.  Church  when  but 
a  boy,  felt  the  call  to  preach  early,  and  was  licensed  to 
preach  when  eighteen  years  of  age.  He  was  admitted  on 
trial  into  the  Tennessee  Conference  in  October  1816, 
ordained  deacon  in  1818,  and  elder  in  1820.  He  had 
traveled  several  circuits  and  in  1820  the  Kentucky  Con- 
ference was  organized.  He  and  Hezekiah  Holland  were 
appointed  to  the  Dover  Circuit  as  co-pastors. 

He  was  later  sent  as  missionary  to  that  portion  of  the 
Jackson  Purchase  lying  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  along 
with  Lewis  Garrett.  The  two  met  at  McLemoresville, 
Tenn.,  and  agreed  to  divide  the  territory,  Garrett  taking 
the  .southern  portion  and  Peeples  the  northern.  A  group 
of  people  led  by  John  Manley,  a  local  preacher,  had  been 
holding  services  in  a  community  a  few  miles  east  of  what 
is  now  Paris,  Tenn.  Shortly  after  the  arrival  of  Peeples,  he 
organized  this  group  into  a  church  and  it  was  named 
Manley's  Chapel.  This  church  is  believed  by  many  to 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

have  been  the  first  Methodist  church  organized  in  the 
Memphis  Conference.  This  was  in  1820.  With  this 
church  as  a  base,  the  Sandy  River  Circuit  was  organized. 

In  1822  Peeples  married  Martha  Davidson  Randle,  a 
sixteen-year  old  girl  with  three  younger  brothers  looking 
to  her  for  care.  At  the  Conference  that  year  he  located, 
feebng  that  with  his  responsibilities  and  his  meager  allow- 
ance from  the  church  he  could  not  support  his  family. 
He  settled  in  the  wilderness  three  miles  east  of  what  is 
now  Henry,  Tenn.,  and  from  this  home  as  a  base  he  car- 
ried on  the  work  of  the  church,  preaching,  organizing 
churches  and  otherwise  ministering  to  the  territory.  He 
practiced  medicine,  served  as  judge  of  Henry  County 
Court  several  years,  and  was  one  of  the  commissioners  who 
surveyed  the  Kentucky-Tennessee  line  on  the  north.  His 
wife's  three  brothers  and  five  of  their  sons  became  travel- 
ing Methodist  preachers. 

In  1869,  having  reared  and  supported  the  family,  he 
was  readmitted  to  the  Memphis  Conference  and  served 
several  years  with  success.  He  died  on  Aug.  22,  1883. 
Peeples  and  Garrett  are  regarded  as  fathers  of  the 
Memphis  Conference. 

F.  H.  Peeples 

PEGLAR,  GEORGE  (1799-  ?  ),  an  American  Wesleyan 
Methodist  pastor  and  church  leader,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don, England,  on  Oct.  11,  1799,  and  spent  his  early  life 
as  a  sailor  and  world  traveler.  For  a  time  he  belonged  to 
the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  but  severed  his  con- 
nection with  that  body  over  the  slavery  issue.  He  was 
pastor  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in  Utica,  N.  Y., 
where  the  convention  met  in  May  1843  and  perfected  the 
organization  of  the  new  church.  At  the  sixth  General  Con- 
ference of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Connection  held  in 
Adrian,  Mich.,  in  1864,  the  new  West  Wisconsin  Con- 
ference was  represented  by  the  doughty  sailor-preacher 
George  Peglar.  Interesting  to  note,  only  twelve  of  the 
persons  present  in  the  organizing  conference  twenty-one 
years  before  were  in  attendance  at  this  one.  George  Peglar 
presided  in  the  anniversary  celebration.  He  was  the  first 
president  of  the  Rochester  Conference  of  his  church,  being 
named  to  that  office  in  1844.  After  the  1867  General  Con- 
ference authorized  the  union  of  the  two  conferences  in 
Wisconsin,  Peglar  was  elected  the  first  president  of  the 
united  conference.  He  had  emigrated  from  New  York 
and  was  active  in  the  work  there.  He  held  this  office  still 
in  1869. 

McLeister    and    Nicholson,    Wesleyan    Methodist    Church    of 

Atnerica.  1959. 

M.   Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.   1878.  George  E.   Failing 

PEHIAKURA,  on  the  Manukau  Peninsula,  New  Zealand, 
was  the  site  of  an  early  mission  station.  The  local  chief, 
baptized  as  Epiha  Putini  (Jabez  Bunting)  attended  train- 
ing school  at  Mangungu  and  became  teacher  and  preach- 
er to  his  own  people,  first  at  Pehiakura  and  in  later  years 
at  Ihumatao,  from  1838  until  his  death  in  1856.  Mission- 
aries, traveling  from  Mangungu  to  stations  in  the  south, 
frequently  called  at  Pehiakura  and  conducted  sei-vices  in 
the  large  church  Putini  had  caused  to  be  built.  Member- 
ship grew  by  1844  to  seventy-two,  with  a  total  of  150 
attendants  to  worship. 

William  Woon  was  appointed  to  be  resident  missionary 
at  Pehiakura  in  1845,  but  was  unable  to  take  up  his  ap- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PEIAGIANISM 


pointment  because  of  tribal  warfare  in  the  area.  The 
work  continued  to  be  supervised  from  Auckland  by  H.  H. 
La  WRY,  until  it  was  entirely  disrupted  by  the  Maori  Wars 
of  the  1860's. 

C.  T.  J.  LuxTON,  Methodist  Beginnings  iti  the  Manukau.  Wes- 
ley Historical  Society,  New  Zealand,  1960.  L.  R.  M.  Gilmore 

PEKIN,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A.  First  Church,  is  the  oldest  con- 
gregation in  Tazewell  County.  It  began  in  the  cabin  of 
Jacob  Tharp  in  "Town  Site,"  later  called  Pekin,  when 
Jesse  Walker,  the  founder  of  Methodism  in  both  St. 
Louis  and  Chicago,  preached  there  in  1826.  The  first 
building,  a  brick  structure,  was  later  referred  to  as  Found- 
ry Church  because  it  was  then  used  as  a  foundry. 

Pekin  first  appears  in  the  conference  minutes  in  1842 
when  Warner  Oliver  was  appointed  pastor.  The  Pekin 
Circuit  reported  232  members  in  1843.  Pekin  became  a 
station  in  1857;  it  then  had  sixty-four  members  and  its 
property  was  valued  at  $2,500.  A  Sunday  school  was  orga- 
nized in  1846. 

The  congregation  erected  a  second  building  at  Capitol 
and  Margaret  Streets  about  1846,  and  another  costing 
$12,000  was  constructed  at  Fourth  and  Broadway  in  1867. 
The  latter  structure  was  remodeled  in  1905  and  was  used 
by  the  members  until  1954  when  the  present  edifice  was 
consecrated. 

When  the  Southwestern  German  Conference  was 
organized  in  1865,  there  was  a  German-speaking  congre- 
gation of  104  members  and  property  valued  at  $5,000  in 
Pekin,  and  by  1876  it  outnumbered  First  Church  187  to 
154.  Now  called  Grace  Church,  it  reported  1,533  mem- 
bers in  1970,  property  valued  at  $852,597,  and  a  total 
of  $108,562  raised  for  all  purposes.  The  statistics  for 
First  Church  in  1970  were  1,762  members,  property 
valued  at  $553,554,  and  $87,962  raised  for  all  purposes. 

General  Minutes,  MEG,  and  UMG. 
Simpson,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism. 

Marie  Kohlbacher,  Brief  Histonj  of  First  Church,  Pekin.  (type- 
script),  1968.  Jesse  A.   Earl 

PEKIN,  NEW  YORK,  U.S.A.,  Centenary  Park  near  Pekin 
marks  the  site  of  the  Layman's  Convention  where  the 
Free  Methodist  Church  was  organized,  Aug.  23,  1860. 
It  is  located  on  Hoover  Road,  one  and  one-half  miles 
south  of  Pekin,  adjacent  to  Schenck's  Grove  where  lay- 
men and  ministers  adopted  a  Constitution  and  Book  of 
Discipline  for  the  new  denomination.  The  park  is  bounded 
by  a  substantial  rail  fence.  There  is  a  bronze  marker 
affi.\ed  to  a  fifteen-ton  granite  boulder,  and  the  grounds 
are  appropriately  landscaped.  The  creation  of  Centenary 
Park  was  a  joint  venture  of  The  International  Light  and 
Life  Men's  Fellowship,  in  cooperation  with  the  denomina- 
tion. The  park  was  dedicated  with  appropriate  ceremonies 
in  connection  with  the  Free  Methodist  Centennial  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1960. 

The  Free  Methodist,  Aug.  9,  1910. 

W.  T.  Hogue,  Free  Methodist  Church.  1938. 

L.  R.  Marston,  From  Age  to  Age.  1960. 

Glarence  Howard  Zalmiser,  Earnest  Christian:  Life  and  Works 

of  Benjamin  Titus  Roberts.  Gircleville,  O.:  Advocate  Publishing 

House,  1957.  Byron  S.  Lamson 

PELAGIANISM,  a  heresy  advancing  unacceptable  views 
concerning  sin  and  Grace  particularly  referred  to  in  the 


seventh  Article  of  Religion  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church.  The  "father"  of  Pelagianism  was  Pelagius  (d. 
around  420).  Of  Pelagius'  life  little  is  known  definitely. 
Even  his  birthplace  is  not  certain,  although  it  seems  likely 
that  his  native  home  was  Britain.  Pelagius  was  a  monk  of 
learning  and  moral  earnestness.  He  came  to  Rome  around 
400  and  became  popular  as  a  preacher.  He  was  shocked 
at  the  low  point  which  Roman  morals  had  reached,  and 
sought  to  raise  ethical  standards.  He  was  concerned  to 
stir  up  moral  endeavor  among  lax  Christians  who  stressed 
the  weakness  of  the  flesh  and  the  impossibility  of  fulfilling 
God's  commands. 

The  famous  "Pelagian  controversies"  (over  sin  and 
grace)  began  when  Pelagius  visited  North  Africa  where 
Augustine  was  bishop.  Among  the  first  literary  efforts 
of  Augustine  after  he  became  bishop  of  Hippo  had  been 
a  treatise.  Ad  Simplicianum,  addressed  to  Simplicianus 
the  successor  of  Ambrose  as  bishop  of  Milan.  The  work  is 
important  in  the  development  of  Augustine's  thought 
because  it  is  generally  regarded  as  a  significant  stage  in 
his  understanding  of  St.  Paul  and  the  theology  of  grace. 
In  this  writing  Augustine  denies  the  possibility  of  human 
merit  before  God  and  stresses  man's  sinfulness.  Indeed 
he  provoked  Pelagius  by  his  statement  ".  .  .  all  men 
are  a  mass  of  sin  .  .  ."  {Augustine:  Earlier  Writings.  The 
Library  of  Christian  Classics,  \'ol.  VI.  Edited  by  J.  H.  S. 
Burleigh.  Philadelphia:  The  Westminster  Press,  pp.  398, 
402,  404.)  Pelagius  felt  that  Augustine's  view  of  human 
nature  was  faulty  and  lay  in  part  behind  the  evident 
decline  in  morals. 

Of  the  writings  of  Pelagius  little  is  extant.  However, 
much  can  be  learned  from  what  remains  of  his  work  and 
from  his  opponents,  especially  Augustine.  Pelagius  re- 
garded it  an  affront  to  God  to  insist  that  man  could  not 
help  sinning.  To  him  this  seemed  to  be  a  fatalistic  view 
of  man.  Others  shared  his  doctrine  (e.g.  Celestius  and 
Julian  of  Eclanum),  and  developed  a  "Pelagianism"  which 
not  infrequently  went  further  than  some  of  the  teachings 
of  Pelagius  himself.  The  main  concern  of  Pelagianism 
was  to  emphasize  that  man  is  a  responsible  being,  and 
that  his  actions  depend  entirely  upon  himself.  Any  fonn 
of  predestination  is  rejected  by  Pelagianism;  man  in  his 
own  freedom  determines  how  he  will  develop.  The  argu- 
ment used  to  support  this  doctrine  of  the  freedom  of  the 
will  is  that  God  does  not  command  man  to  do  what  man 
is  unable  to  do.  The  unassisted  human  will  is  regarded 
as  decisive  in  the  matter  of  salvation.  Man  is  completely 
free  to  choose  good  or  evil  because  there  is  no  internal 
or  external  pressure  on  him — no  internal  pressure  because 
native  depravity  is  denied;  no  external  pressure  because 
predestination  is  rejected. 

Pelagianism  insists  that  there  is  no  Original  Sin  which 
has  been  inherited  from  Adam.  Man's  flesh  is  not  regarded 
as  evil,  and  death  is  not  seen  as  a  result  of  the  fall. 
Neither  sin  nor  virtue  is  inborn  in  man,  and  any  concept 
of  the  transmission  of  sin  from  parent  to  child  by  genera- 
tion (peccatum  ex  traduce)  is  rejected.  Each  soul  is  seen 
as  a  new  creation  from  God  and  completely  untainted  with 
original  sin.  Pelagianism  did  recognize  that  the  mass  of 
men  are  indeed  bad,  but  only  so  because  they  have  been 
ready  to  follow  the  bad  example  of  Adam's  sin. 

Because  aff  men  have  followed  a  bad  example  they 
are  culpable  and  must  change  their  manner  of  living.  But 
this  change  is  not  to  be  accomplished  in  the  traditional 
way  by  relying  upon  grace.  Grace  is  not  regarded  as  a 
divine  influence  upon  man's  soul,  nor  a  divine  work  done 


PEMBERTON,    NEW   JERSEY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


in  behalf  of  man.  Grace  is  regarded  as  the  enhghtenment 
of  man's  reason.  EnHglitenment  comes  through  the  law, 
especially  the  law  found  in  the  New  Testament  given 
by  Christ  in  precept  and  example.  This  enlightenment 
enables  man  to  see  the  will  of  God  so  that  he  may  use 
his  own  natural  powers  to  choose  the  good.  Grace  is 
not  the  direct  work  of  God,  it  is  comprised  of  the  natural 
endowment  given  to  men  as  they  are  enlightened. 

A  corollary  of  this  teaching  of  Pelagianism  is  man's 
perfectibility.  If  man  wills,  he  can  observe  God's  com- 
mandments without  sinning.  Pelagius  argues  that  God 
commands  perfection  (Lev.  19:2;  Matt.  5:48),  and  man 
can  fulfill  the  requirement.  This  perfection  comes  about 
by  man's  diligent  effort  and  the  continuous  exercise  of 
the  will.  When  men  use  the  resources  at  hand,  they  can 
reach  a  perfection.  Many  Pelagians  teach  that  man  can 
live  without  sin  if  he  so  wills. 

Pelagian  tendencies  from  time  to  time  have  reoccurred 
in  the  Christian  Church,  Schools  of  thought  which  have 
placed  primary  emphasis  upon  education  and  a  social 
transformed  environment  to  the  relative  neglect  of  con- 
version and  regeneration  by  the  grace  of  God  have  been 
regarded  by  many  as  a  near,  if  not  a  total,  Pelagianism. 
Many  saw  a  movement  toward  a  modem  Pelagianism  in 
the  rise  of  theological  Liberalism  during  the  mid-nine- 
teenth century.  Liberalism,  sometimes  called  "Modern- 
ism," stressed  man's  free  will,  human  moral  endeavor, 
character  development,  and  man's  rational  powers.  This 
movement  was  called  "Culture  Protestantism"  by  Karl 
Barth;  and  he  criticized,  among  other  things,  the  notion 
that  man  could  find  God  or  attain  salvation  through  human 
effort.  This  reaction  gave  rise  to  a  movement  often  called 
"Neo-Orthodo.\y"  or  "Crisis  Theology."  This  rejection  of 
"modern  Pelagianism"  by  Barth  and  others  stressed  the 
sovereignty  to  God  in  initiating  any  Divine-human  en- 
counter. 

Methodist  theology  has  sometimes  been  accused  of  hav- 
ing "Pelagian  tendencies."  This  is  because  of  three  em- 
phases of  Methodism:  (1)  The  emphasis  upon  free  grace 
for  all  men  which  implies  the  possibility  of  Salvation 
for  all.  (2)  The  rejection  of  double  predestination.  (3) 
The  emphasis  upon  Christian  Perfection.  However, 
it  may  be  fairly  claimed  that  traditional  Methodist  theo- 
logy is  free  from  Pelagianism.  Indeed,  Methodi.sm,  along 
with  other  branches  of  the  Church,  has  from  its  beginning 
rejected  Pelagianism,  regarding  it  as  too  extreme.  Wesley 
and  other  early  Methodist  leaders  have  always  insisted 
upon  man's  sinfulness  and  the  necessity  for  God's  grace 
in  the  life  of  man.  For  example,  Wesley,  in  the  Preface 
to  his  work  on  The  Doctrine  of  Original  Sin,  strongly 
repudiates  a  Pelagian  position.  Elsewhere  (e.g.  sermons 
"Salvation  by  Faith"  and  "Justification  by  Faith")  Wesley 
emphasizes  the  necessity  for  the  grace  of  God  in  salvation. 

Methodism,  in  harmony  with  historic  Christendom,  has 
criticized  Pelagianism  at  the  following  points:  1.  The 
nature  of  sin.  Pelagianism  sees  sin  as  a  series  of  separate 
acts  with  no  basis  in  a  depraved  nature.  Sin  is  regarded 
as  an  action  which  does  not  have  any  connection  with 
an  inherited  sinful  condition  of  the  soul.  Methodism  re- 
gards man  as  sinful,  both  racially  and  individually.  The 
notion  that  certain  men  may  have  been  without  sin  is 
rejected,  and  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  is  maintained. 
2.  The  nature  of  grace.  Pelagianism  sees  grace  as  the 
enlightenment  of  the  natural  capacities  of  man  and  fails 
to  see  any  direct  work  of  God  in  the  life  of  men.  Meth- 
odism views  grace  as   something  quite  outside   of  man. 


Grace  is  from  God  alone,  and  it  is  the  result  of  God's 
direct  activity  in  the  life  of  man.  3.  The  tendency  of 
legalism.  Pelagianism  intei"prets  the  relationship  between 
God  and  man  in  a  legal  fashion.  Good  works  are  the  basis 
for  salvation.  Methodism  insists  that  salvation  is  sola  gratia 
(by  grace  alone)  and  that  man's  justification  is  based  upon 
the  grace  of  God,  not  on  the  works  of  the  law. 

Pelagianism  has  been  condemned  by  the  Church  as  a 
heresy.  It  was  rejected  at  Carthage  (418)  and  at  Ephesus 
(431).  A  later  modification  of  Pelagianism  called  semi- 
Pelagianism  was  also  condemned  at  Orange  (529) . 

J.  F.  Betliune-Baker,  An  Introduction  to  the  Early  History  of 

Christian  Doctrine. 

Jolin  Ferguson,  Pelagius:  A  Historic  and  Tlieological  Study. 

J.  N.  D.  Kelly,  Early  Christian  Doctrines. 

VV.  B.  Pope,  Compendium  of  Christian  Theology.  1880. 

R.  Watson,  Theological  Institutes.  1832. 

Kenneth  Cain  Kinchorn 

PEMBERTON,  NEW  JERSEY,  U.S.A.,  population  1,341,  a 
town  in  Burlington  County,  in  which  was  erected  the 
third  Methodist  meeting  house  in  New  Jersey  and  the 
fifth  in  the  U.  S.  A.  It  was  originally  known  as  New 
Mills,  but  the  name  was  changed  to  Pemberton  in  1828. 

The  exact  date  of  the  organization  of  the  Methodist 
Society  at  New  Mills  is  indefinite.  However,  Methodist 
itinerants  preached  here  as  early  as  1769.  Thomas  Coke 
visited  the  Society  in  1785  and  wrote,  "This  place  has 
been  favored  with  a  faithful  ministry  for  sixteen  years." 

Captain  Thomas  Webb  preached  here,  perhaps  as 
early  as  1768  or  1769.  An  early  leader  in  the  New  Mills 
Society  was  William  Budd  who  preached  here  before 
Bishop  Asbuby's  first  visit  in  1772. 

The  first  church  structure  was  begun  in  1775.  It  was 
a  frame  building,  twenty-six  by  thirty-six  feet,  with  gal- 
leries around  three  sides  and  a  high  pulpit. 

Bishop  Francis  Asburv  visited  New  Mills  on  numerous 
occasions:  1772,  1776,  1782,  1783,  1786,  1789,  1800, 
1802,  1806,  1813.  During  the  1806  visit,  he  preached  a 
funeral  sermon  for  Bishop  Wh.\tcoat  who  had  died 
earlier  in  the  year. 

Among  the  early  pastors  were  John  King,  William 
W.attebs,  Phillip  Gatch,  Thomas  Rankin,  William 
Duke,  Freeborn  Garrettson,  Benjamin  Abbott,  and 
Henry  Boehm. 

There  have  been  three  church  edifices  in  Pemberton. 
The  first,  built  in  1775-76,  was  sold  in  1833,  and  is  still 
in  use  as  a  dwelling.  The  second,  built  in  1833,  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  1894.  The  present  sanctuary,  built 
in  1894,  continues  to  serve  a  growing  congregation. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

G.  A.  Raybold,  Reminiscences  of  Methodism  in  West  Jersey. 
New  York:  Lane  &  Scott,  1849. 

F.  B.  Stanger,  New  Jersey.  1961. 

Woodward  and  Hageman,  The  History  of  Burlington  and  Mer- 
cer Counties.  Philadelphia:  Everts  &  Peck,  1883. 

Frank  Bateman  Stanger 

PENARANDA,  NESTOR  (1889-  ),  was  the  first  Boliv- 

ian Methodist  minister.  He  was  accepted  into  the  Boliv- 
ian Missionary  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1916, 
its  first  year.  He  and  his  wife,  Angelica,  soon  felt  the 
need  to  study  the  Aymara  language  so  they  could  work 
more  effectively  in  schools  and  churches  among  the 
Aymara  Indians.  Within  six  months  Peiiaranda  was  preach- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PENINSULA   CONFERENCE 


ing  in  their  language.  Later,  with  another  man,  he  trans- 
lated the  four  Gospels  and  the  Book  of  Acts  from  Spanish 
into  Aymara.  He  also  compiled  an  Aymara  hymnbook. 
He  retired  from  the  ministry  in  1948,  but  continued  to 
work  in  retirement. 

Natalie  Barber 


Edward  J.  Pendergrass 

PENDERGRASS,  EDWARD  JULIAN,  JR.  (1900-  ), 
American  bishop,  was  born  in  Florence,  S.  C,  on  Sept. 
24,  1900,  the  son  of  Edward  Julian  and  Eula  Ethel 
(Smith)  Pendergrass.  He  did  his  college  work  at  the 
University  of  North  Carolina,  receiving  the  A.B.  degree; 
his  seminary  studies  at  Emory  University's  Candler 
School  of  Theology,  and  additional  work  at  Garrett 
School  of  Theology  and  the  Moody  Bible  Institute  in 
Chicago.  He  also  holds  an  honorary  D.D.  degree  from 
Florida  Southern.  He  married  Lois  Mae  Sheppard  on 
June  26,  1929.  They  have  three  children — Amy  Katherine 
(Mrs.  John  Miller),  Edla  Ethel  (Mrs.  Burton  Barnes) 
and  Edward  Eugene. 

He  has  been  a  minister  of  the  Florida  Conference 
since  1929.  He  was  ordained  deacon  in  1932,  elder  in 
1934.  His  first  pastorate  was  at  Fort  White,  1930-31; 
followed  by  High  Springs,  1931-32;  Cross  Citv,  1932-34; 
Fort  Pierce,  1934-38;  College  Heights  at  Lakeland,  1938- 
39;  Seminole  Heights  Church,  Tampa,  1939-43;  super- 
intendent of  the  Tallahassee  District,  1943-46;  pastor 
of  First  Church,  Tampa,  1946-52;  First  Church,  Orlando, 
1952-64 — all  of  these  in  Florida.  He  was  elected  bishop 
in  1964,  and  assigned  to  the  Jackson   (Mississippi)  Area. 

He  was  secretary  of  the  Conference  Board  of  Missions 
and  secretary  of  Evangelism,  1960,  '63;  delegate  to  the 
General  Conferences  of  1948,  '52,  '56,  '60,  and  '64; 
Southeastern  Jurisdictional  Conference,  1944,  '48,  '52, 
'56,  '60,  and  '64.  He  is  a  trustee  of  Millsaps  College, 
Rust  College,  Wood  Junior  College,  and  Lake 
Junaluska  Assembly.  He  is  an  ex-officio  trustee  of  the 


Methodist  Children's  Home,  Methodist  Home  Hospital, 
Seashore  and  Traceway  Manor. 

Bishop  Pendergrass  is  now  assigned  to  the  following 
boards  and  committees  of  The  United  Methodist  Church: 
General  Board  of  Education,  General  Board  of  Evan- 
gelism, Interboard  Committee  on  Town  and  Country 
Work,  and  the  Quadrennial  Program,  1968-72.  He  resides 
in  Jackson,  Miss. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

PENINSULA  CONFERENCE  which  superseded  the  Wil- 
mington Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  was  organized 
by  the  Uniting  Conference  in  1939.  Its  territory  includes 
the  state  of  Delaware  and  the  counties  of  Maryland 
east  of  the  Susquehanna  River  and  Chesapeake  Bay.  The 
first  session  of  the  conference  was  held  at  Wilmington, 
Del.,  May  15-20,  1940,  with  Bishop  Edwin  H.  Hughes 
presiding.  At  the  time  the  conference  had  244  ministers, 
241  pastoral  charges  and  68,891  members. 

Captain  Thomas  Webb  preached  the  first  Methodist 
sermon  in  Delaware  at  Wilmington  in  1769.  The  first 
Methodist  society  in  the  colony  was  organized  at  New 
Castle  in  1770.  The  record  shows  150  members  in  Dela- 
ware in  1773  and  1,714  in  1783. 

From  the  beginning  Methodist  work  on  the  peninsula 
was  a  part  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  In  1868 
the  General  Conference  organized  the  Wilmington 
Conference  to  include  Delaware  and  the  parts  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  east  of  the  Susquehanna  River  and 
Chesapeake  Bay.  At  its  last  session  in  1939  the  Wilming- 
ton Conference  reported  183  ministers,  180  pastoral 
charges,  and  53,438  members. 

When  organized  the  Peninsula  Conference  included  all 
the  ministers  and  churches  in  its  territory  belonging  to 
the  three  branches  of  Methodism  which  united  to  form 
The  Methodist  Church,  except  the  Negro  ministers  and 
churches  which  continued  in  the  Delaware  Conference 
of  the  Central  Jurisdiction  until  1965.  Though  it  covered  a 
little  less  territory  than  the  body  it  superseded,  the  Penin- 
sula Conference  immediately  showed  an  increase  of  over 
sixty  ministers  and  some  15,000  members.  These  came 
from  the  former  Maryland  Conference  of  the  M.P. 
Church  and  the  former  Baltimore  Conference  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South. 

When  the  Delaware  Conference  was  absorbed  by  the 
conferences  of  the  Northeastern  Jurisdiction  in  1965,  the 
Peninsula  Conference  at  once  showed  another  increase  of 
some  sixty  ministers  and  about  15,000  members. 

Peninsula  Methodism  established  a  paper  in  1875  and 
maintained  it  for  thirty-five  years.  Called  the  Conference 
Worker,  the  paper  was  first  published  at  Easton,  Md.; 
soon  afterward  it  moved  to  Chestertown,  Md.,  and  then 
to  Wilmington.  From  1884  to  its  demise  in  1910,  the 
publication  was  called  the  Peninsula  Methodist. 

The  Peninsula  Conference  supports  Wesley  College,  a 
two-year  coeducational  school  at  Dover;  two  homes  for  the 
aged — Methodist  Country  House  at  Wilmington,  and 
Methodist  Manor  House  at  Seaford,  Del.;  and  Drayton 
Manor,  Worton,  Md.,  a  retreat  center  or  camp  primarily 
for  adults.  The  conference  cooperates  with  the  Baltimore 
Conference  in  the  support  of  the  Board  of  Child  Care  at 
Rockdale,  Md.,  giving  some  $18,000  to  the  organization 
in  1968. 

Aware  of  the  importance  of  history,  the  Peninsula  Con- 


PENNINGTON,   CHESTER   ARTHUR 

ference  has  an  active  historical  society.  The  society  has 
erected  a  museum  and  a  home  for  a  curator  adjacent  to 
Babratt's  Chapel,  near  Frederica,  Del.,  one  of  the  his- 
toric Shrines  of  American  Methodism. 

In  1970  the  Peninsula  Conference  had  324  ministers, 
240  pastoral  charges,  64,901  enrolled  in  church  school, 
100,600  church  members,  and  property  valued  at  $66,- 
109,683. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC,  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Wilmington  and  Peninsula  Conferences. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclaptwdia.   1878.  Albea  Godbold 

PENNINGTON,  CHESTER  ARTHUR  (1916-  ),  Ameri- 
can minister,  was  bom  in  Delanco,  N.  J.,  on  Sept.  16, 
1916,  the  son  of  Chester  Arthur  and  Emily  (Lush)  Penn- 
ington. He  was  educated  at  Temple  University  where  he 
received  the  A.B.  degree  in  1937  and  at  Drew  Univer- 
sity, receiving  the  B.D.  in  1940,  the  Ph.D.  in  1948.  He 
did  postgraduate  work  at  Oxford  in  England.  Ohio 
UniversitN'  gave  him  the  L.H.D.  degree  in  1961.  Mc- 
Kendree  College  awarded  him  the  D.D.  degree  in  1968. 
He  married  Marjorie  Elizabeth  Bruschweiler,  on  Sept. 
13,  1941,  and  their  children  are  Celeste  Ann  and  Law- 
rence Arthur.  Dr.  Pennington  joined  the  New  Jersey 
Conference  in  1938,  was  ordained  elder  in  1940.  He 
sei-ved  as  pastor  in  Neptune  City,  1938-41;  then  in  Spring 
Lake,  N.  J.,  1941-43,  and  was  chaplain  in  the  U.S.  Navy, 
1943-46.  He  became  assistant  minister  Calvary  Church, 
East  Orange,  N.  J.,  1946-47,  and  thereafter  was  profes- 
sor of  philosophy  at  Centenary  College  in  New  Jersey 
and  the  pastor  in  Hackettstown,  N.  J.,  at  the  same 
time,  1947-51.  He  then  transferred  to  the  New  York 
Conference  and  became  pastor  of  St.  Paul  and  also  St. 
Andrew  Churches  in  New  York  City,  1951-55,  and  in  that 
year  was  transferred  to  the  Mi.nnesota  Conference  and 
put  in  charge  of  the  large  Hennepin  Avenue  Church  in 
Minneapolis.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Commission  on 
Chaplains,  a  trustee  of  Hamline  University,  a  member 
of  the  American  Theological  Society,  and  is  a  director  of 
the  Ministers  Life  and  Casualty  Union  of  Minneapolis.  He 
is  the  author  of  Even  So  .  .  .  Believe  (1966);  and  With 
Good  Reason  (1967),  both  published  by  Abingdon  Press. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  .34. 

Wlio's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

PENNINGTON  SCHOOL,  Pennington,  New  Jersey,  a  sec- 
ondary school  for  boys,  was  founded  in  1838  by  the  New 
Jersey  Annual  Conference.  Included  among  its  long 
list  of  graduates  are  many  influential  leaders  of  Method- 
ism, such  as  J.  M.  Buckley,  editor  of  the  New  York 
Christian  Advocate;  Borden  P.  Bowne,  distinguished  pro- 
fessor of  Boston  University;  and  the  late  Bishop  Adna 
W.  Leonard,  who  was  killed  in  a  plane  crash  in  Green- 
land during  the  Second  World  War.  In  the  1880's  it  was 
said  that  a  third  of  the  ministers  of  New  Jersey  were 
graduates  of  Pennington  School.  The  governing  board 
has  twenty-four  members  elected  by  the  New  Jersey  An- 
nual Conference  on  nomination  of  the  board  of  trustees. 

John  O.  Gross 

PENNSYLVANIA,  called  the  "Keystone  State"  because  of 
its  central  location  among  the  thirteen  original  colonies, 
is  thirty-third  in  size  but  third  in  population,  according 
to  the  1970  census    (11,669,565).  It  was  settled  by  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

Swedes  in  1638,  by  the  Dutch  who  conquered  the  Swedes, 
and  by  the  English  who  overpowered  the  Dutch  in  1644. 
In  1682  Charles  II  granted  the  land  to  the  Quaker  Wil- 
liam Penn  who  named  it  Penn's  Woods  or  Penns-sylvania. 
Noted  for  its  agricultural  and  dairy  products,  Pennsylvania 
is  also  one  of  the  largest  mineral  producing  states;  it  sup- 
plies all  of  the  anthracite  and  much  of  the  bituminous  coal 
for  the  nation.  Industries  include  iron  and  steel,  foundry 
and  machine  works,  printing,  knit  goods,  electrical  sup- 
plies, and  railway  manufactures. 

George  Whitefield  was  the  first  Methodist  to  visit 
Pennsylvania,  preaching  in  Philadelphia  as  early  as 
1739.  A  major  influence  in  the  Great  Awakening,  White- 
field  nevertheless  failed  to  organize  his  converts  into 
societies.  However,  he  made  the  word  "Methodist"  well 
known  in  the  colonies. 

Several  of  Whitefield's  converts  in  Philadelphia  began 
meeting  infoimally  in  a  sail  loft  on  Dock  Street.  The  loft 
belonged  to  Samuel  Croft;  the  leaders  of  the  meetings 
were  James  Emerson  and  Edward  Evans.  In  1767  Captain 
Thomas  Weed  came  to  Philadelphia  and  formed  the  sail 
loft  group  into  a  Methodist  society  which  eventually  be- 
came St.  George's  Church,  now  one  of  the  historic 
Shrines  of  American  Methodism. 

In  1769  John  Wesley  sent  his  first  two  Methodist 
missionaries  to  America — Richard  Boardman  and  Joseph 
PiLMORE.  They  arrived  in  Philadelphia  October  21  and 
discovered  that  the  society  organized  by  Webb  was  meet- 
ing at  8  Loxley  Court;  it  then  numbered  about  100  per- 
sons. Pilmore  remained  to  minister  to  the  group  in 
Philadelphia  while  Boardman  went  on  to  New  York. 
About  a  month  later  the  Philadelphia  society  purchased 
the  shell  of  the  church  building  named  St.  George's  from 
a  German  Refoimed  group. 

Between  1769  and  1773,  Wesley  sent  eight  official 
missionaries  to  America,  and  on  landing  all  of  them  came 
first  to  Philadelphia.  Francis  Asbuby  arrived  in  1771 
and  Tho.mas  Rankin  and  George  Shadford  in  1773. 
In  1773  and  in  the  tvvo  succeeding  years  the  first  three 
Methodist  conferences  held  in  America  were  conducted 
at  St.  George's  Church  by  Thomas  Rankin,  John  Wesley's 
General  Assistant  for  America.  By  1800  numerous  societies 
and  circuits  had  been  organized  in  Pennsylvania.  Some 
of  the  early  circuits  and  the  dates  of  their  beginning  were: 
Chester,  1774;  York,  1781;  Lancaster,  1782;  Redstone, 
1784;  Juniata,  1784;  Ohio,  1787;  Huntingdon,  1788;  Pitts- 
burgh, 1788;  Bristol,  1788;  Wyoming,  1791;  Northumber- 
land, 1792;  Tioga,  1792;  Carlisle,  1794;  Shenango,  1800; 
and  Erie,  1800. 

In  1803  Pennsylvania  was  divided  between  two  confer- 
ences, the  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia.  The  Baltimore 
Conference  had  three  districts,  Alexandria.  Pittsburgh, 
and  Baltimore,  which  covered  western  Mary'land  and 
western  Pennsylvania  and  extended  into  Ohio  and  western 
Virginia.  The  conference  reported  thirty  appointments 
and  18,927  members.  The  Philadelphia  Conference 
had  six  districts,  Delaware,  Chesapeake,  Jersey,  Albany, 
Genesee,  and  Susquehanna,  and  it  covered  eastern  Penn- 
sylvania, New  Jersey,  a  part  of  New  York,  and  the 
eastern  shore  of  tlie  Chesapeake  including  Delaware. 
It   had    forty-three    appointments    and  33,187    members. 

Not  only  was  Pennsylvania  one  of  the  mother  regions 
of  American  Methodism,  it  was  also  the  place  where  the 
evangelical  movement  began  among  the  Germans.  The 
religious  zeal  kindled   by  Philip   William   Ottebbein, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PENSACOLA,    FLORIDA 


Martin  Boehm,  and  Jacob  Albright  and  which  eventu- 
ally produced  the  Evangelical  United  Brethren 
Church,  took  its  rise  in  Pennsylvania. 

Allegheny  College  at  Meadville,  founded  in  1817, 
has  been  under  Methodist  control  since  1833.  Dickinson 
College  at  Carlisle,  established  in  1783,  has  been  Meth- 
odist since  1834.  Lycoming  College  at  Williamsport  was 
started  as  an  academy  in  1812,  came  under  Methodist 
patronage  in  1848,  was  elevated  to  a  junior  college  in 
1929  and  a  four-year  college  in  1948.  Title  to  Lycoming 
is  held  by  the  Preachers'  Aid  Society  of  the  Central 
Pennsylvania  Conference.  The  Methodists  started  sev- 
eral academies  or  seminaries  which  were  in  reality  second- 
ary schools  before  the  rise  of  public  high  schools.  A  num- 
ber of  hospitals,  homes  for  children,  and  homes  for  the 
aged  were  also  established. 

Other  Methodist  bodies  arose  in  Pennsylvania,  some  of 
them  offshoots  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  The 
A.M.E.  Church  was  organized  in  Philadelphia  in  1816, 
and  presently  has  two  conferences  in  the  state,  Philadel- 
phia and  York.  Part  of  the  Philadelphia-Baltimore  Con- 
ference of  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  is  in  Pennsylvania. 
The  Primitive  Methodist  Church  which  came  from 
England  in  1829  has  a  conference  extending  from  Mas- 
sachusetts to  the  midwest  and  some  of  its  churches  are 
in  Pennsylvania.  The  Methodist  Protestant  Church  de- 
veloped considerable  strength  in  western  Pennsylvania. 
Its  Pittsburgh  Conference  was  one  of  the  strongest  in 
the  connection.  The  Wesyleyan  Methodist  Church, 
organized  at  Utica,  N.Y.,  in  1843,  merged  with  the 
Pilgrim  Holiness  Church  in  1968  to  form  the  Wesleyan 
Church.  Before  the  union  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  had 
the  Penn-Jersey  Conference  operating  partly  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  Free  Methodists,  organized  in  1860,  have 
four  conferences  in  Pennsylvania,  Oil  City,  Pittsburgh,  and 
parts  of  the  New  York  and  Susquehanna  Conferences. 
Several  smaller  Methodist  bodies  have  a  few  congrega- 
tions in  the  state. 

After  the  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  Conferences, 
which  were  original  conferences,  the  M.E.  Church  devel- 
oped four  more  conferences  in  Pennsylvania  which  con- 
tinued until  unification  in  1939  and  after.  The  Pitts- 
burgh Conference  (ME)  was  formed  in  1824  from 
parts  of  the  Ohio  and  Baltimore  Conferences.  The  Erie 
Conference,  composed  of  territory  in  Pennsylvania  and 
New  York,  came  in  1836  by  dividing  the  Pittsburgh  Con- 
ference. The  Wyoming  Conference  was  foiTned  in  1852 
by  dividing  the  Oneida  Conference  (New  York).  The 
Wyoming  Conference  has  always  been  made  up  about 
half  and  half  of  territory  from  Pennsylvania  and  New 
York.  The  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference  was  formed 
in  1868  from  parts  of  the  Philadelphia  and  East  Baltimore 
Conferences.  In  1962  the  Erie  and  Pittsburgh  Conferences 
combined  to  form  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Confer- 
ence. After  1960  the  Baltimore  Conference  had  no  Penn- 
sj'lvania  territory  within  its  bounds. 

About  five  per  cent  of  Pennsylvania's  population  be- 
longed to  The  Methodist  Church  in  1968.  While  this 
does  not  compare  favorably  with  10.7  per  cent  in  Iowa, 
nevertheless  the  total  number  of  Methodists  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, 540,201  in  1968,  make  it  numerically  one  of  the 
largest  Methodist  states  in  the  nation.  In  1968  there  were 
1,936  Methodist  churches  in  Pennsylvania  and  they  were 
valued  at  $345,248,677.  At  the  time  Pennsylvania  Meth- 
odism  was   divided   among   three   episcopal   areas,   Pitts- 


burgh, Harrisburg,  and  Philadelphia,  with  a  resident 
bishop  in  each  of  the  cities  named. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Pennsylvania  Conferences. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1881.  W.  Guy  Smeltzeh 

PENSACOLA,  FLORIDA,  U.S.A.,  is  an  important  harbor 
city  on  Pensacola  Bay,  off  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  was 
settled  in  the  early  1500's  by  the  Spanish,  has  been  under 
the  rule  of  five  flags;  Spain,  France,  England,  Confederate 
States,  and  the  United  States.  Pensacola  was  the  site  of 
the  formal  transfer  of  the  Florida  territoiy  to  the  United 
States  in  1821,  and  now  is  headquarters  for  the  Pensacola 
Naval  Air  Station. 

Methodism  was  the  first  Protestant  denomination  to 
establish  a  mission  in  Pensacola.  From  1781  to  1821, 
Protestant  denominations  were  not  permitted  in  the  ter- 
ritoiy  of  Florida,  but  upon  purchase  of  Spanish  territory 
by  the  United  States  this  restriction  was  removed  and 
in  1821  the  Misslssippi  Conference  established  the 
Pensacola  Mission  and  appointed  Alexander  Talley  as 
missionary. 

Thus  First  Methodist  Church,  mother  church  of  Prot- 
estantism in  northwest  Florida,  was  organized  and  al- 
though burned  twice  and  moved  several  times,  it  was 
finally  located  in  1881  on  its  present  site  in  downtown 
Pensacola. 

Thirteen  years  later  Navy  Yard  Mission  was  added  to 
Pensacola  Mission,  and  Green  Malone  became  pastor. 
Navy  Yard  was  later  to  become  Warrington. 

The  Civil  War  years  from  1861-1866  show  no  statistics 
nor  appointments,  for  Pensacola  was  occupied  by  Federal 
troops;  however,  in  1861  there  were  sixty-six  white  and 
nine  colored  Methodists,  with  fifty-three  white  and  six 
colored  on  probation.  Post  war  years  reflect  in  1866 
sixty-five  white  Methodists  only. 

The  year  1891  marked  the  phenomenal  spread  of  Meth- 
odism in  Pensacola  after  years  of  yellow  fever  epidemics, 
hardships,  and  the  Civil  War  interruptions.  Now  a  group 
of  preaching  places  were  named:  Malaga  Square  Mission, 
Muscogee  Wharf  Mission,  Reed's  Chapel,  and  Warrington. 
In  1902  Gadsden  Street  Church  was  built  in  East 
Pensacola.  Reed's  Chapel  later  became  the  present  Rich- 
ard's Memorial  in  West  Pensacola. 

Prior  to  1861  the  records  show  that  Negro  and  white 
Methodists  worshipped  together.  In  March  1888,  First 
Presbyterian  sold  its  old  building  to  "the  M.E.  Church 
(colored)  for  $2,500."  This  was  the  beginning  of  St.  Paul 
Chuich  which  retained  its  M.E.  connection.  In  1904 
St.  Paul  was  to  be  host  to  the  Annual  Conference  but, 
destroyed  by  fire  and  too  late  to  notify  delegates, 
Tolberts's  Chapel  A.M.E  Zion  (now  Big  Zion)  loaned  its 
church  for  the  session  to  be  held. 

The  St.  Paul  congregation  bought  its  property  for  a 
new  start,  worshipped  for  a  time  in  an  old  dance  hall, 
later  in  a  tabernacle  of  rough  boards  and  sawdust  floors, 
until  the  present  handsome  brick  church  was  finished  with 
the  cornerstone  laid  in  1908.  Bishop  Mallalieu  who 
was  of  gieat  inspiration  to  this  congregation,  bought  for 
the  church  a  gift  of  a  large  brass  bell  which  still  hangs 
in  the  belfry.  As  a  member  of  the  Central  Jurisdiction, 
St.  Paul  was  in  the  Central  Alabama  Conference, 
while  her  sister  churches  belonged  to  the  Alabama- West 
Florida  Conference,  Southeastern  Jurisdiction. 


PENSIONS,    BOARD   OF 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


In  Pensacola  proper,  United  Methodism  is  now  rep- 
resented by  sixteen  churches  with  a  membership  of 
10,525.  Primary  churches  are:  First  Methodist,  Gadsden 
Street,  Myrtle  Grove,  St.  Mark,  Richard's  Memorial  and 
Warrington.  First  Church  in  1970  reported  1,646  mem- 
bers. 

General  Minutes. 

M.  E.  Lazenby,  Alabama  and  West  Florida.  1960. 

Ralph  Wesley  Nichols 

PENSIONS,  BOARD  OF.  The  care  of  retired  ministers 
has  been  a  concern  of  Methodist  Churches  since  the  orga- 
nization of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1784.  There  was  at  first 
provided  a  Chartered  Fund — which  even  today  con- 
tinues to  bring  in  modest  returns;  subsequently,  showing 
that  this  matter  was  on  the  mind  of  the  Church,  the  Gen- 
ER.\L  Conference  in  1808,  by  the  Restrictive  Rules 
drawn  up  then,  was  forbidden  to  give  the  "produce"  or 
profits  of  the  Publishing  House  to  any  cause  other  than 
that  of  the  "superannuated  and  worn-out  preachers,  their 
wives,  widows  and  orphans."  This  was  at  best  but  meager 
support  for  "worn-out"  preachers,  and  through  the  years 
there  came  to  be  an  increasing  call  for  something  better 
than  this  early  penurious  effort  had  proved  to  be.  Various 
annual  conferences  after  a  time  began  to  set  apart  out  of 
their  own  funds  monies  for  the  support  of  their  retired 
brethren,  and  philanthropic  laymen  provided  retirement 
homes  for  ministers  of  their  respective  conferences.  After 
a  time  the  whole  matter  was  taken  over  by  the  separate 
General  Churches  whose  union  came  about  to  form 
what  is  now  The  United  Methodist  Church. 

In  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  there  was  created  in  1866 
in  each  annual  conference  a  powerful  committee  known 
as  the  Joint  Board  of  Finance.  This  became  an  institution 
in  each  annual  conference,  and  these  conference  commit- 
tees exerted  great  power  in  collecting  and  distributing 
monies  for  the  conference  claimants,  as  well  as  for  other 
needed  causes.  Each  annual  conference  came  to  depend 
heavily  upon  its  Board  of  Finance  to  look  after  this 
matter. 

In  the  M.E.  Church  eventually  the  Church  itself  created 
a  Board  of  Conference  Claimants  and  began  to  build 
a  "Connectional  Fund"  which  was  administered  by  its 
central  agency.  In  1916  the  Board  of  Conference  Claim- 
ants became  the  Board  of  Pensions  and  Relief  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  and  all  the  general  funds  were  put  under  the  con- 
trol of  that  Board.  It  was  thus  enabled  to  correlate  in  a 
better  way  the  whole  matter  of  caring  for  the  superan- 
nuates. 

In  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  as  it  became  increasingly 
clear  that  a  better  integrated  overhead  organization  was 
needed  to  care  for  all  conference  claimants,  the  General 
Conference  in  1908  created  a  General  Board  of  Finance 
and  directed  that  it  should  be  incorporated  under  the 
laws  of  Missouri.  This  Board  a  bit  later  promoted  a 
churchwide  Superannuate  Endowment  Fund,  which 
added  to  its  holdings  appreciably. 

The  M.P.  Church  cared  for  its  retired  ministers  in 
the  same  way  as  the  M.E.  Church  did,  that  is  chiefly 
through  local  conference  collections  and  appropriations. 
But  in  time  a  general  Superannuate  Fund  was  created  and 
the  executive  committee  of  that  Church  was  given  control 
of  the  Fund. 

In  1939  at  the  organization  of  The  Methodist  Church, 
this  whole  matter  of  supporting  the  conference  claimants 


was  put  under  a  Board  of  Pensions.  This  was  organized 
as  the  Board  of  Pensions  of  The  Methodist  Church,  in- 
corporated in  Illinois,  but  it  continued  to  carry  on  for 
a  time  the  work  of  the  boards  and  agencies  of  the  separate 
uniting  churches  in  order  not  to  lose  the  funds  which 
already  had  been  devised  by  will  and  otherwise  to  the 
respective  agencies  looking  after  this  matter. 

Through  the  years  1939-1968,  a  better  correlation  was 
worked  out  by  the  separate  boards  and  continuing  agen- 
cies, and  in  1968  at  the  organization  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church,  there  was  created  a  General  Board  of  Pen- 
sions to  take  over  and  look  after  this  whole  matter  for 
the  new  and  greatly  enlarged  Church. 

The  E.U.B.  Church.  As  early  as  June  10,  1836  The 
Charitable  Society  was  formed  for  the  relief  and  support 
of  "the  itinerant  superannuated  and  worn-out  Ministers 
and  Preachers  of  the  Evangelical  Association  (in 
the  United  States  of  America),  their  Wives  and  Children, 
Widows  and  Orphans"  (Articles  of  Incorporation).  In 
these  early  years  in  the  Church  of  the  United  Breth- 
ren IN  Christ  many  annual  conference  pension  programs 
were  rapidly  coming  into  existence. 

This  benevolent  ministry  had  its  beginning  in  the  twen- 
tieth century,  however,  when  Bishop  S.  C.  Breyfogel 
decided  that  the  Church  should  do  something  for  the  re- 
tired ministers  and  ministers'  widows. 

A  legislative  act  of  the  1911  General  Conference 
of  the  Evangelical  Association  in  session  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  brought  the  Superannuation  Fund  into  existence. 
In  preparation  for  church  union  with  the  Evangelical 
Association  in  1922,  the  United  Evangelical  Church 
raised  $312,750,  thus  making  it  possible  for  ministers  of 
The  United  Evangelical  Church  to  participate  in  benefits 
of  the  Superannuation  Fund. 

On  Jan.  1,  1943,  the  Ministers  Reserve  Pension  Plan 
came  into  existence.  This  plan  became  available  for  min- 
isters of  The  Evangelical  Church  who  were  ordained 
after  Jan.  1,  1943.  A  Pension  Plan  for  Lay  Employees  of 
the  Church  was  also  inaugurated  on  Jan.  1,  1943. 

Leaders  in  the  denominational  pension  program  of  the 
Evangelical  Association  and  since  1922  in  The  Evangelical 
Church  were:  Bishop  S.  C.  Breyfogel,  1911-1935;  George 
Johnson,  1911-1920;  J.  R.  Niergarth,  1920-1938;  and 
A.  H.  Doescher,  1934-1958. 

While  many  worthy  annual  conference  pension  pro- 
grams existed  at  a  very  early  date  in  the  Church  of  the 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  it  was  not  until  1921,  when 
the  General  Conference  was  in  session  at  Indianapolis, 
that  the  denominational  Ministerial  Pension  and  Annuity 
Plan  was  legislated  into  existence.  This  pension  plan 
was  the  result  of  a  study  authorized  by  the  1917  General 
Conference. 

Leadership  in  the  Ministerial  Pension  and  Annuity  Plan 
was  provided  by  H.  H.  Baish  (1921-1939)  and  George 
A.  Heiss  (1939-1948). 

The  union  of  The  Evangelical  Church  and  the  Church 
of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  brought  all  the  assets  and 
liabilities  of  the  two  former  pension  programs  under  the 
direction  of  the  Board  of  Pensions  of  The  E.U.B.  Church 
on  Jan.  1,  1947.  Offices  of  the  Superannuation  Fund  at 
1900  Superior  Avenue,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  the  Minis- 
terial Pension  and  Annuity  Plan  at  16  East  Eighth  Ave- 
nue, York,  Pa.,  were  moved  to  the  U.B.  Building,  Fourth 
and  Main  Streets,  Dayton,  Ohio,  at  that  time.  The  Board 
of  Pensions  in   July   of   1960  was  relocated  in   the  new 


WORLD  METHODISM 

Administrative  OfiBces  Building,  601  West  Riverview  Ave- 
nue, Dayton,  Ohio. 

Pension  legislation  at  the  1962  General  Conference 
united  the  Superannuation  Fund  and  the  Ministerial  Pen- 
sion and  Annuity  Plan  into  the  Senior  Pension  Plan.  These 
two  former  ministerial  pension  plans  had  been  closed  to 
new  entrants  on  Jan.  1,  1947. 

Men  who  have  served  in  various  places  of  leadership 
in  the  Board  of  Pensions  of  the  E.U.B.  Church  since 
1947,  are:  A.  H.  Doescher  (1947-1958),  Ceorge  A.  Heiss 
(1947-1948),  John  H.  Ness,  Sr.  (1948-1962),  H.  E. 
HiLLEB   (1959-  ),  G.  L.  Fleming   (1961-  ),  and 

Sherman  A.  Cravens  ( 1967-  ) . 

During  the  long  history  of  this  benevolent  enterprise 
the  Board  has  gained  added  financial  strength  by  grants 
from  the  Publishing  Houses,  the  Board  of  Publication, 
gifts  and  bequests,  as  well  as  appropriations  from  the 
denominational  Christian  Service  Fund. 

The  1966  General  Conference  placed  the  assets  of 
The  Printing  Estabhshment  of  the  United  Brethren  in 
Christ  in  excess  of  $2,000,000  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Board  of  Pensions  of  The  E.U.B.  Church.  The  income 
from  this  Printing  Establishment  Fund  is  distributed  an- 
nually for  pension  purposes  in  the  annual  conferences. 

On  Jan.  1,  1967,  the  assets  of  the  Board  of  Pensions  of 
The  E.U.B.  Church  were  in  excess  of  $25,000,000.  There 
were  3,166  ministers  and  lay  persons  enrolled  in  The 
Senior  Plan  (for  ministers).  The  Ministers  Reserve  Pen- 
sion Plan,  and  The  Pension  Plan  for  Lay  Employees.  In 
1967  over  $1,000,000  were  distributed  to  over  1,200 
annuitants. 

The  Discipline  may  be  referred  to  at  any  time  to  ascer- 
tain such  matters  as  the  organization  and  membership  of 
the  Board,  and  the  rules  and  procedures  which  govern 
the  administering  to  the  needs  of  the  conference  claimants 
are  also  set  forth  in  detail.  This  particular  section  of  the 
Book  of  Discipline  has  grown  larger  and  larger  through 
the  years — necessarily  so,  as  all  manner  of  different  cases 
affecting  the  claims  and  interests  of  various  claimants 
must  be  ruled  upon  in  an  equitable  way,  thus  establish- 
ing precedents  which  eventually  become  law. 

The  Board  is  directed  to  "compile  and  maintain  com- 
plete service  records  of  ministerial  members  in  full  con- 
nection, associate  members,  and  probationary  members  of 
the  Annual  Conferences  of  The  United  Methodist  Church 
and  of  lay  pastors  whose  service  may  be  related  to  po- 
tential annuity  claims"  (Discipline,  1968,  P.  1377.10). 
While  it  is  admitted  that  the  General  Church  and  annual 
conferences  have  yet  to  do  much  more  than  they  are  doing 
for  their  claimants — men  worn  out  in  the  service  of  the 
Church,  men  compelled  to  retire  at  seventy-two  years  of 
age,  and  the  widows  and  orphans  of  preachers,  much 
has  been  accomplished  to  date.  Efficient  offices  manned 
by  able  executives  and  secretaries  with  present  headquar- 
ters at  EvANSTON,  III.,  are  depended  upon  to  look  after 
this  matter  as  it  should  be. 


PENZOTTI,    FRANCISCO   G. 


Discipline,  UMC,  1968. 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Organization.  1962. 


N.  B.  H. 

H.  E.  HiLLEB 


PENZOTTI,  FRANCISCO  G.  (1851-1925),  was  a  prodi- 
gious distributor  of  the  Bible,  whose  evangelistic  work 
touched  almost  all  of  the  countries  of  South  and  Central 
America.  During  his  hfetime  he  personally  distributed 
125,000  copies  of  the  Bible.   Under  his   direction  more 


F.  G.  Penzotti 

than  2,000,000  copies  were  distributed,  and  under  his 
influence  churches  distributed  another  million. 

Bom  in  Italy,  he  emigrated  as  a  boy  to  Montevideo, 
Uruguay,  where  he  established  a  carpenter  shop  of  his 
own.  At  nineteen  he  married  Josefa  Sagastilbensa,  his 
warmth  toward  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  having  been 
cooled  in  a  quarrel  with  the  bishop  over  papers  and  fees 
connected  with  the  wedding.  He  stopped  going  to  Mass 
and  dedicated  himself  to  his  carpentry,  to  study,  and  to 
his  new  home.  However,  he  felt  ill  at  ease.  While  he  was 
tiying  to  cheer  a  mood  of  despondency  at  a  public  dance 
hall,  somebody  gave  him  a  copy  of  St.  John's  Gospel. 
This  was  in  December  1875.  The  gift  stirred  anew  a  child- 
hood interest  in  the  restricted  book,  and  he  hurried  home 
to  read  it  with  his  wife. 

Hearing  that  the  whole  Bible  could  be  had  at  the  Prot- 
estant chapel,  he  went  and  there  met  the  man  who  had 
given  him  the  book  and  two  great  Methodist  preachers 
with  whom  his  life  henceforth  was  to  be  interwoven: 
John  F.  Thomson  and  Andrew  M.  Milne. 

Penzotti  became  a  regular  attender  and  brought  his 
friends  to  the  Protestant  chapel.  Yet  he  failed  to  feel  the 
joy  he  saw  in  others,  so  he  sought  a  pastoral  interview 
with  Milne.  As  they  were  talking,  they  were  joined  by 
Thomas  B.  Wood,  who  talked  and  prayed  with  them. 
During  the  prayer,  Penzotti  suddenly  felt  "a  ray  of  divine 
fight  penetrate  my  soul."  He  called  out:  "I  feel  that  Christ 
has  entered  my  heart.  I  want  to  sing  a  hymn  of  gratitude 
to  the  Lord."  The  three  rose  and  sang. 

Penzotti  became  one  of  a  team  of  fourteen  young  peo- 
ple who  went  from  door  to  door  in  Montevideo,  distrib- 
uting Bibles  and  talking  about  Christ.  The  church  grew 
as  a  result,  but  the  greatest  outcome  was  to  prepare  the 
young  Penzotti  for  the  work  that  was  to  immortalize  his 
name.  While  he  was  trying  to  combine  preaching  with 
carpentry,  someone  one  night  set  fire  to  his  shop — his 
only  source  of  support.  Turning  to  prayer  and  the  Bible, 
he  found  comfort  in  the  words  of  John  13:7:  "What  I  am 
doing  you  do  not  know  now,  but  afterward  you  will  under- 
stand." 

The  Methodist  Church  at  Colonia  Waldense  needed  a 
pastor,  and  Thomson  and  Milne  saw  that  Penzotti  was  the 
person  to  fill  the  vacancy.  At  first  he  refused  because  of 
his  lack  of  preparation,  but  he  came  to  feel  that  it  was 
the  will  of  God  and  accepted. 

He  was  in  charge  of  the  church  there  from  1879-87, 
but  early  he  felt  life  too  comfortable  in  the  Waldensian 
colony  and  resolved  to  become  a  missionary  to  the  entire 


PEOPLE'S   METHODIST   CHURCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


continent.  In  1883,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  he  interrupted 
his  pastoral  work  to  make  his  first  missionary  journey, 
going  to  Bolivia  with  Milne.  The  eight-month  journey 
was  made  by  way  of  northern  Argentina  and  included 
travel  into  Chile.  The  pair  distributed  8,000  copies  of 
the  Scriptures.  They  were  not  the  first  Bible  Society 
colporteurs  to  enter  Bolivia,  but  they  went  knowing  that 
a  predecessor,  Joseph  Mongiardino,  had  been  murdered 
by  a  fanatic  crowd. 

On  his  second  journey,  Penzotti  was  the  leader,  with 
two  assistants.  This  was  a  thirteen-month  trip  reaching 
hundreds  of  villages  in  northern  Argentina,  Bolivia,  and 
Chile.  Events  included  a  celebrated  debate  on  the  Scrip- 
tures with  the  Archbishop  of  Cochabamba  (Bolivia),  in 
which  Penzotti  came  off  the  hero  of  the  liberals  and 
Masons.  He  returned  to  Uruguay  exhausted. 

Milne  saw  Penzotti's  need  for  rest,  and  persuaded  him 
that  they  should  go  together  to  London.  In  November 
1885,  they  set  out,  and  in  London  conferred  with  officials 
of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  about  Scrip- 
ture distribution  in  Latin  America.  Then  they  returned 
home  on  a  long  circuit  through  South  America,  spreading 
Bibles  all  the  way.  They  visited  Trinidad  and  Curacao 
in  the  Caribbean,  then  landed  in  Venezuela.  They 
preached  and  distributed  Scriptures  there  and  in  Colom- 
bia, then  visited  Ecuador  where  in  a  famous  incident 
their  books  were  confiscated  at  the  customhouse.  Enter- 
ing Peru,  they  were  welcomed  and  preached  freely, 
perhaps  unnoticed  by  the  authorities.  They  also  worked 
in  Chile  and  Argentina  before  at  last  returning  to  Uruguay 
in  December  of  1886. 

In  a  few  months  Penzotti  had  completed  his  pastoral 
work  at  Colonia  Waldense,  and  then  he  was  a  pastor 
briefly  at  Rosario,  Argentina.  But  at  this  point  he  took 
up  the  work  of  Bible  distribution  permanently,  entering 
the  service  of  the  American  Bible  Society-. 

He  was  sent  to  open  a  new  Bible  agency  in  Peru. 
Arriving  with  his  family  at  the  port  city  of  Callao  in 
July  1888,  he  began  to  distribute  the  Bible  and  pieach 
in  Spanish.  So  successful  was  he  that  the  Anglicans  (who 
were  allowed  to  hold  services  in  English)  put  a  vacant 
chapel  at  his  disposal.  But  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy 
threatened  to  have  the  site  dynamited,  so  he  rented  a 
house  instead.  As  he  moved  about  Peru,  his  services 
were  often  attacked,  and  persons  who  received  his  books 
were  persecuted,  excommunicated,  and  finally  even  im- 
prisoned. At  Arequipa  in  1890  he  was  apprehended, 
charged  by  the  local  clergy  with  "clandestinely  introduc- 
ing immoral  and  corrupting  books  [Bibles!]."  His  books 
were  confiscated,  and  he  had  to  spend  two  weeks  in 
jail.  He  made  the  jail  into  a  church,  and  under  his 
preaching  one  of  the  guards  was  converted.  He  was  re- 
leased through  personal  intervention  by  the  president  of 
the  Republic,  General  Cardenas. 

After  a  trip  into  Bolivia,  Penzotti  was  arrested  on 
July  26,  1890,  as  he  arrived  at  his  home  in  Callao.  He 
now  had  to  spend  eight  months  in  Casas  Matas,  called  the 
most  frightful  prison  in  America.  But  this  time  the  con- 
sciences of  liberal  people  were  astir.  In  Peru  and  all 
over  America  and  Europe  the  "Penzotti  Case"  was  known 
as  a  case  for  rehgious  hberty.  The  Peruvian  constitution 
did  not  allow  other  faiths  besides  the  Roman  Catholic, 
but  diplomatic  pressures  were  applied.  Worldwide  dis- 
tribution was  given  to  a  snapshot  taken  by  a  North 
American  reporter,  showing  Penzotti  behind  the  iron  gate 
of  Casas   Matas.   The  widespread  interest   succeeded   in 


opening  the  prison  door  for  him  on  Easter  Eve,  March 
28,  1891. 

The  next  year  he  was  appointed  to  open  a  new  Bible 
agency  in  Central  America.  After  visiting  Panama,  he 
entered  Costa  Rica,  where  he  organized  a  party  of  six 
to  visit  all  the  Central  American  countries.  Disease  over- 
took the  party,  and  by  the  time  they  reached  Managua, 
Nicaragua,  all  but  Penzotti  were  sick,  three  actually  dying. 
After  burying  the  dead,  Penzotti  sent  the  two  survivors 
back  to  Costa  Rica  and  continued  alone  to  Guatemala. 
At  Guatemala  City  he  established  the  Bible  agency  and 
was  joined  there  by  his  family. 

In  1906  he  received  an  appointment  to  supervise  the 
Bible  agency  at  Buenos  Aires,  Argentina,  succeeding 
his  old  friend,  Andrew  Milne.  By  the  time  he  could  take 
up  the  appointment,  in  January  1908,  Milne  had  died. 

Penzotti  continued  his  work  in  the  Rio  de  la  Plata 
area  until  1921,  when  he  retired  as  executive  secretary, 
to  be  succeeded  by  one  of  his  two  sons.  (The  son,  Pablo 
Penzotti,  served  the  agency  from  1921-46.)  Though  no 
longer  secretary,  Francisco  Penzotti  continued  to  be  the 
evangelist  until  his  death,  July  27,  1925. 

He  has  been  variously  described  as  "a  hero  of  the 
evangelical  cause  in  Latin  America"  and  "apostle  of  lib- 
erty and  truth."  Others  have  seen  parallels  with  John 
Wesley  in  his  personal  conversion  experience,  his  evan- 
gelistic spirit,  and  the  thousands  of  miles  he  covered  on 
foot  and  muleback.  A  fitting  memorial  was  given  to  him 
when,  in  1956,  the  Bible  Society  gave  the  name  "Penzotti 
Institute"  to  the  training  program  it  set  up  to  prepare 
men  for  the  work  of  Bible  distribution,  two  by  two,  from 
house  to  house. 

Francis  G.  Penzotti,  Spiritual  Victories  in  Latin  America:  the 
Autobiography  of  Rev.  Francis  G.  Penzotti,  Agent  of  the  Amer- 
ican Bible  Society  for  the  La  Plata  Agency,  tr.  and  ed.  by  the 
Society.  Centennial  Pamphlet  No.  16  of  the  American  Bible 
Society.  N.  Y.:  American  Bible  Society,  1916. 
Luis  D.  Salem,  Francisco  G.  Penzotti — apostol  de  la  libertad 
y  de  la  verdad.  Mexico  City:  Bible  Societies  of  Latin  America, 
1963. 

Adam  F.  Sosa,  Desde  el  Cabo  de  Hornos  hasta  Quito  con  la 
Biblia.  Buenos  Aires:  La  Aurora  Press,  1944. 

Daniel  P.  Monti 
Edwin  H.  Maynard 

PEOPLE'S  METHODIST  CHURCH  was  formed  in  North 
Carolina  by  members  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  who 
did  not  wish  to  join  the  Methodist  merger  of  1939.  They 
are  a  conservative  and  holiness  group  with  approximately 
1,000  members  in  twenty-five  congregations.  They  operate 
a  school,  John  Wesley  Bible  College,  in  Greensboro, 
N.  C. 

Mead:  Handbook  of  Denominations  in  the  United  States. 

J.  Gordon  Melton 

PEORIA,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A.,  with  a  population  of  125,736 
(1970),  is  beautifully  situated  along  and  above  the  west 
bank  of  the  Illinois  River,  in  the  heart  of  rich  farm  land. 
Methodism  began  in  Peoria  as  early  as  1824,  when 
Jesse  Walker  was  appointed  "Missionary  to  the  Indians" 
in  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Clark.  He  had  moved  westward 
from  VrRGiNL\  in  1806  with  William  McKendree  (later 
bishop),  first  to  Southern  lUinois,  then  to  the  Peoria  terri- 
tory. In  1825  he  started  First  Methodist  Church  of  Chi- 
cago. The  first  permanent  class  was  formed  in  1833,  with 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PEORIA,   ILLINOIS 


seven  members.  Stephen  R.  Beggs  came  as  pastor  in 
1839  and  held  meetings  in  Daniel  Brestel's  carpenter  shop. 
He  led  the  settlers  in  erecting  the  first  church  building, 
made  of  logs,  and  travelled  as  far  as  St.  Louis  to  raise 
$65  toward  the  costs.  Shortly  an  addition  was  necessary, 
making  the  building  40  by  43  feet. 

The  second  building  was  completed  in  1849 — a  brick 
structure,  60  by  90  feet,  at  Fulton  and  Madison  Streets. 
Peter  C.\rtwright  was  an  official  preacher  here.  In  1856 
Peoria  ceased  to  be  a  part  of  the  Rock  River  Confer- 
ence and  became  a  member  of  the  new  Central  Illi- 
nois Conference.  The  third  building,  a  two-story  brick, 
costing  $35,000  (including  the  site)  was  completed  at 
Sixth  and  Franklin  Streets  in  1884  and  enlarged  in  1891. 
This  now  and  since  early  days  has  always  been  called 
First  Church. 

In  1910  William  E.  Shaw  was  appointed  pastor  of 
First  Church.  Two  long  talked-of  events  matured  under 
his  leadership.  First,  Madison  Avenue  Church  (started  as 
a  missionary  project  in  1855)  merged  its  membership  of 
seventy-five  with  First  Church  in  1914.  Second,  a  splendid 
new  building  was  erected  of  Bedford  Stone  at  the  comer 
of  Perry  Avenue  and  Hamilton  Boulevard  at  a  cost  of 
$133,762  (for  lot,  building  and  equipment)  and  dedicated 
June  18,  1916.  The  twenty-two  years  of  Shaw's  ministry 
were  years  of  large  growth,  for  he  was  an  able  preacher, 
and  a  leader  with  sound  judgment,  tact,  diplomacy  and 
untiring  zeal.  The  influence  of  his  hfe  was  wide-spread, 
then  and  even  today. 

Many  distinguished  men  have  served  First  Church  in 
its  long  years  and  its  membership  and  staff  and  spiritual 
influence  have  increased  accordingly.  In  1957,  under  the 
leadership  of  Robert  Harvey  Bodine,  a  fine,  new  admin- 
istration building  was  erected  adjoining  the  main  structure 
at  a  cost  of  $894,325.  Appropriately,  it  is  named  The 
William  E.  Shaw  Memorial  Church  House. 

The  First  German  Methodist  congregation  erected  a 
building  at  Fifth  and  Monson  Streets  in  1854.  A  second 
building,  costing  $7,000,  was  built  between  1865-68.  This 
congregation  helped  organize  and  build  a  church  for  the 
Sanger  Street  Mission  in  1889,  and  this  had  regularly 
appointed  pastors  until  it  disbanded  in  1921,  with  its 
members  uniting  with  the  German  Church.  A  third  build- 
ing was  completed  in  1890  at  a  cost  of  $20,000.  In  1918 
the  name  of  the  church  was  changed  to  the  St.  John's, 
and  in  1925  this  went  into  the  Central  Illinois  Conference, 
(MEG),  the  German  Conference  being  dissolved.  In  1950 
the  congregation  moved  to  the  East  Bluff,  with  services 
being  held  in  a  public  school  until  the  first  part  of  a  three 
phase  building  program  was  completed.  In  this  same  year 
the  name  of  the  church  was  changed  to  Forrest  Hill.  In 
1952  one  section  was  formally  opened,  and  presently  other 
units  make  provision  for  worship,  education  and  admin- 
istration, at  a  cost  of  over  $100,000. 

Grace  Church  started  as  a  Sunday  school  in  1963  or 
1864  at  the  outskirts  of  town.  The  first  building  was 
dedicated  in  September  1897.  It  was  known  for  a  time  as 
the  Forrest  Hill  Church,  but  in  1939  the  name  was 
changed  to  University  Avenue  Church.  Other  structures 
were  erected.  The  present  sanctuary  was  begun  in  1951, 
and  an  educational  unit,  costing  $147,000,  called  Cart- 
wright  Hall,  was  completed  in  1960. 

Hale  Memorial  Church  was  organized  by  members  of 
First  Church  in  1868  and  dedicated  its  first  building  at 
Main  and  High  Streets  Jan.  14,  1869.  In  1901  a  new  stone 
structure   replaced    the   old    building.    The    congregation 


changed  the  name  to  Epworth  Church  in  1953  and  com- 
pleted a  new  building  in  1954  on  Columbia  Terrace  in  a 
residential  section,  nearer  Bradley  University. 

Wesley  Church  was  begun  as  a  mission  in  1870  in  the 
south  end  of  the  city.  Its  members  affiliated  with  First 
Church  in  1926. 

The  Averyville  Church  (organized  in  the  north  end  of 
town  in  1894)  built  a  lovely  edifice  in  1930,  under  the 
pastorate  of  T.  Reighton  Jones,  and  took  the  name  of 
Madison  Avenue  Church. 

Bethel  Methodist  was  begun  in  1911  and  has  long 
been  a  part  of  the  community,  serving  tlie  Negro  people. 
It  is  now  a  member  of  the  Central  Illinois  Conference. 

Membership  in  Peoria  United  Methodist  churches,  ac- 
cording to  the  1970  Minutes,  is:  Bethel — 235;  Epworth — 
399;  First— 4,340;  Forrest  Hill— 863;  Grace— 347;  Mad- 
ison Avenue — 589;  and  University  Avenue — 2,202,  a  total 
of  8,975.  First  Church  has  long  been  the  largest  Methodist 
church  in  the  North  Central  Jurisdiction.  Its  total  budget 
in  1970  was  $275,000,  $55,000  of  which  was  for  benev- 
olences. There  are  five  ministers  on  the  church  staff. 

Peoria  District,  in  the  Central  Illinois  Conference,  re- 
ported 37,092  members  in  1970.  Methodism  in  Peoria 
observed  its  centennial  in  1924  and  looks  forward  to  its 
one  hundred  and  fiftieth  year  in  1974. 

Methodist  Hospital  of  Central  Illinois  is  a  general  hos- 
pital of  550  beds,  with  great  new  construction  presently 
underway.  The  hospital's  early  years  were  precarious 
and  uncertain.  The  move  that  began  the  hospital  was 
prompted  in  1898  by  three  deaconesses  of  the  M.E. 
Church  who  at  first  saw  the  need  for  a  home  for  deacon- 
esses, and  later  were  persuaded  by  Peoria  doctors  to  com- 
bine this  project  with  a  small  hospital  of  eighteen-bed 
capacity.  Until  1917  it  carried  the  name  "The  Deaconess 
Home  and  Hospital."  As  the  deaconess'  effort  waned,  the 
need  for  full  hospital  services  in  Central  Illinois  grew. 
The  small  hospital  was  increased  in  capacitv  by  additions 
in  1910,  1918,  1924,  and  1953. 

The  Methodist  Hospital  is  under  the  sponsorship  of  the 
Central  Illinois  Conference  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church,  and  is  governed  by  a  Board  of  Trustees  of  thirty- 
six  members.  As  provided  in  the  by-laws,  eighteen  trustees 
must  be  ministers  in  active  relationship  to  the  Conference. 
The  lay  members  come  from  many  denominations  al- 
though at  least  nine  are  required  to  be  members  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church.  These  trustees  serve  without 
pay  or  remuneration  of  any  kind. 

Methodist  Hospital  is  classified  as  a  "base  hospital" 
and  as  such  has  full  facilities  and  a  staff  competent  to 
perform  a  full  range  of  delicate  and  intricate  surgical 
procedures.  There  are  eighty-four  physicians  and  surgeons 
on  its  active  staff,  and  the  courtesy  staff  numbers  240 
men  and  women.  More  than  sixty  percent  of  the  hospital 
is  of  the  most  modem  construction,  fully  air-conditioned, 
this  section  being  opened  in  1953  and  1960.  There  are 
fifteen  operating  suites  which  offer  every  convenience  to 
surgeons. 

The  hospital  is  fully  accredited  by  all  proper  accrediting 
agencies.  It  maintains  a  series  of  schools  as  a  part  of  its 
responsibility,  including  a  School  of  Medical  Technology, 
School  of  X-Ray  Technology,  School  of  Surgical  Nursing, 
training  for  practical  nurses,  a  fully  accredited  School  of 
Nursing,  and  a  school  for  resident  physicians  in  various 
specialties.  Located  near  downtown  Peoria,  the  hospital 
properties  occupy  more  than  two  square  blocks  and  are 
valued  at  more  than  $11   million.   A   full-time  chaplain. 


PEPPER,   JOHN    ROBERTSON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


an  ordained  Methodist  minister,  gives  spiritual  oversight 
to  more  than  1,000  employees,  several  hundred  students 
and  approximately  480  patients. 


General  Minutes. 


Flora  C.  Moore 
W.  V.  Hebrin 


John  R.  Pepper 

PEPPER,  JOHN  ROBERTSON  (1850-1931),  American 
merchant  and  Sunday  school  administrator,  was  born  in 
Montgomery  County,  Va.,  on  April  6,  1850,  and  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  and  Christiansburg  Com- 
mercial College.  In  early  manhood  he  entered  the  whole- 
sale grocery  business  in  Mississippi  and  was  president  of 
companies  in  Greenville,  Greenwood,  Yazoo  City,  and 
Rosedale.  He  then  went  to  Memphis,  Tenn.,  and  became 
president  of  the  Memphis  Machine  Works. 

A  leading  layman  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  Pepper 
was  especially  interested  in  Sunday  school  work  and  was 
for  nearly  fifty  years  a  Sunday  school  superintendent.  He 
was  a  student  of  methods  of  religious  education  and 
wrote  and  published  five  books  between  1885  and  1929. 
These  were  Modern  Sunday  School  Superintendent, 
Quiver  Tips  for  Lovers  of  Sunday  School  Work,  Tried 
Plans  for  Sunday  School  Work,  Thirty  Years  at  the  Super- 
intendent's Desk,  and  Well-Nigh  Fifty  Years  at  the  Super- 
intendent's Desk. 

Pepper  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Southern  As- 
sembly at  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C,  and  was  one  of  the 
original  thirteen  cottage  owners  in  1913.  In  1923  and 
again  in  1928  he  was  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 
In  the  days  of  financial  difficulty  he  made  large  contribu- 
tions to  the  Assembly;  he  purchased  stock  and  loaned 
money,  and  in  1929  he  donated  the  stock  and  notes  for 
$10,500  to  the  institution. 

Pepper  died  at  Memphis  on  March  31,  1931. 


Who's  Who  in  America. 


Elmer  T.  Clark 


PEREZ,  CARLOS  (1911-  ),  Cuban  pastor  and  college 

president,  was  bom  at  Cardenas,  Cuba  on  July  24,  1911. 
He  married  Juana  Maria  Sardiiia  in  April  of  1935.  He 
studied  at  "La  Progresiva,"  at  Candler  College  in 
Havana  and  Scahritt  and  Peabody  Colleges,  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  and  in  the  Methodist  Seminary  (Havana);  and 
received  the  Ph.D.  degree  from  Havana  University  in 
1934.  He  served  several  pastoral  charges  in  Cuba  and 
Puerto  Rico  and  was  a  district  superintendent  twice  in 
Cuba.   He  was  director  of  Colegio  Pinson,    1935-38;   of 


Havana  Central  School,  1940-46;  and  of  Candler  College, 
1946-60.  He  organized  Candler  University,  1958,  which 
was  the  first  Protestant  university  in  all  Latin  America. 
He  was  a  clerical  delegate  from  Cuba  to  the  General 
Co.nference  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1964  and  also 
to  the  special  General  Conference  of  1966.  At  present  he 
is  serving  in  Ponce,  Puerto  Rico. 

Garfield  Evans 


Asuncion  Perez 

PEREZ,  ASUNCION  A.  (1893-1967),  FiHpino  social 
worker  and  first  woman  cabinet  member  was  bom  in 
Gasan,  Marinduque,  on  Aug.  15,  1893.  She  was  educated 
at  the  Manila  High  School  (1915),  the  University  of  the 
Philippines  (B.A.  in  1917),  the  San  Francisco  Training 
School,  and  received  honorary  degrees  from  the  Philippine 
Women's  University  (doctor  of  laws  in  human  welfare), 
the  Central  Philippine  University,  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin and  the  University  of  Denver  (doctor  of  human- 
ities). She  also  received  the  Presidential  Merit  Award. 
She  was  married  to  Cirilo  Perez  on  Aug.  18,  1918,  and 
they  had  three  children:  Ernesto,  Rebecca,  and  Edwin. 
Returning  from  the  United  States  in  1920,  she  joined 
the  Far  Eastem  College  where  she  taught  until  1924  when 
she  started  as  a  social  worker  in  charge  of  civilian  relief 
for  the  American  Red  Cross  (Philippine  Chapter).  She 
received  her  first  presidential  assignment  from  Senate 
President  Manuel  L.  Quezon  who  sent  her  to  America  to 
make  representation  with  American  leaders  to  convince 
them  not  to  send  Filipino  workers  back  to  Manila  during 
the  depression.  In  1925  she  was  named  the  executive 
secretary  of  the  Associated  Charities  of  Manila  (Family 
Welfare  Agency)  which  was  absorbed  by  the  govemment 
in  1941  and  named  the  Bureau  of  Public  Welfare.  She 
was  made  chief  of  the  Public  Assistance  Office  and,  after 
six  months,  director  of  pubBc  welfare.  When  World  Wai' 
II  ended  she  was  appointed  superintendent  of  the  Relief 
Office  for  the  Greater  Manila  Area,  supervising  the  re- 
habilitation of  war  victims.  With  the  re-establishment  of 
the  Philippine  Commonwealth  in  1945,  President  Sergio 
Osmena  designated  her  as  the  director  of  public  welfare, 
a  position  which  she  held  until  1947.  In  the  following 
year  (1948)  President  Manuel  Roxas  appointed  her  the 
social  welfare  administrator  where  she  sat  in  the  presi- 
dent's cabinet,  a  position  she  held  under  four  succeeding 
presidents.  Also  in  1948,  President  Elpidio  Quirino  made 
her  the  chairman,  with  cabinet  rank,  of  the  President's 
Action  Committee  on  Social  Amelioration  which  was  en- 
trusted with  the  physical,  social,  and  economic  welfare  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PERKINS,   JOE   J. 


the  displaced  individuals  arising  from  the  Hukbalahap 
activities. 

Together  with  her  husband  she  joined  Marking's  Gueril- 
las on  Oct.  20,  1942,  to  fight  the  Japanese  invaders  of  the 
Philippines.  They  were  captured  by  the  Japanese  on  Feb. 
3,  1944,  and  incarcerated  in  Fort  Santiago.  Her  husband 
was  executed  by  the  Japanese  and  after  enduring  severe 
torture  she  was  set  free  on  May  25,  1944. 

After  her  retirement  from  government  service  Mrs. 
Perez  continued  her  social  work  in  various  fields.  She 
became  president  of  the  Philippine  Wesleyan  College  in 
Cabanatuan  City  and  served  actively  in  several  humani- 
tarian and  civic  organizations  including  the  Philippine 
Mental  Health  Association,  Children's  Garden  (an  orphan- 
age). Friendship,  Inc.,  and  the  Women's  Christian 
Temperance  Union. 

Byron  W.  Clark 
PERFECTION,  CHRISTIAN.  (See  Christian  Perfection.) 


E.  Benson  Perkins 

PERKINS,  ERNEST  BENSON  (1881-  ),  British  Meth- 
odist minister,  was  born  July  14,  1881  in  Leicester,  and 
was  educated  at  Alderman  Newton's  School  there.  Ac- 
cepted for  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry  in  1903,  he 
served  in  Jersey  for  a  year  before  going  for  theological 
training  to  Handsworth  College,  Birmingham.  He  early 
distinguished  himself  by  his  forceful  advocacy  of  social 
reform,  which  found  wide  scope  both  in  his  superinten- 
dencies  of  city  missions  in  Nottingham  (1916-20), 
Birmingham  (1925-35),  and  Sheffield  (1935-39),  and 
also  in  his  five  years  of  service  as  Assistant  Secretary  to 
the  Temperance  and  Social  Welfare  Department  ( 1920- 
25).  In  1939  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  Secretaries 
for  the  Department  of  Chapel  Affairs.  He  retained  that 
office  until  1952,  a  crucial  period  during  which  he  ex- 
ercised a  very  important  influence  in  directing  the  post- 
war reconstruction  of  Methodist  property.  His  indefati- 
gable labors  were  recognized  by  his  election  as  President 
of  the  Methodist  Conference  in  1948. 

Benson  Perkins  was  always  active  outside  as  well  as 
within  his  own  church.  He  was  a  prominent  member  of 
many  national  organizations,  such  as  the  Churches'  Com- 
mittee on  Gambling,  the  National  Federal  Free  Church 
Council  (of  which  he  was  elected  Moderator  in  1954), 
and  the  British  Council  of  Chltrches,  of  which  he  was 


Vice-President  1952-54.  In  1952  he  superannuated  after 
almost  fifty  years  in  the  active  ministry,  but  until  1961 
he  ably  fulfilled  his  duties  as  Joint  Secretary  (with  Elmer 
T.  Clabk)  of  the  World  Methodist  Council,  to  which 
he  had  been  appointed  in  1951.  His  best  known  writings 
include  With  Christ  in  the  Bull  Ring  [i.e.  at  Birmingham] 
(1935),  The  Methodist  Church  Builds  Again  (with 
Albert  Hearn,  1946),  Gambling  in  English  Life  (the 
Beckly  Lecture,  1950),  Methodist  Preaching-Houses  and 
the  Law  (Wesley  Historical  Society  Lecture,  1952),  and 
his  autobiography.  So  Appointed,  which  appeared  in  1963. 
He  was  awarded  an  honorary  LL.D.  by  Centenary 
College  of  Louisiana  in  1956. 


E.  B.  Perkins,  Autobiography.  1964. 


Frank  Baker 


PERKINS,  JOE  J.  (1874-1960),  and  LOIS  CRADDOCK 
PERKINS  (1887-  ),  American  Methodist  churchmen 
and  philanthropists,  who  have  made  significant  contribu- 
tions to  Texas  Methodism.  Mr.  Perkins  was  bom  on  a 
farm  in  Lamar  County,  Texas,  on  March  7,  1874.  In 
early  life  he  moved  to  the  cattle  raising  part  of  the  state, 
in  1910  reaching  Wichita  Falls,  his  home  for  the  remain- 
der of  his  life.  Mrs.  Perkins  was  born  in  China  Springs, 
Texas,  on  Feb.  8,  1887.  She  attended  Southwest  Uni- 
versity, and  went  to  Wichita  Falls  in  1913  as  a  teacher. 
She  married  Mr.  Perkins  in  1918.  Perkins'  first  business 
effort  was  a  department  store  in  Decatur,  which  eventually 
led  to  a  chain  of  stores  in  North  Texas.  Later  he  en- 
gaged— usually  with  others — in  mining  activities,  in  ranch- 
ing, in  banking,  and  in  the  development  of  oil  leases  and 
property.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Perkins'  first  loyalty,  however,  was 
to  Methodist  causes  and  projects.  They  have  served  their 
local  church  in  many  capacities,  he  as  trustee  and  steward, 
she  in  educational  and  missions  work.  Both  have  been 
delegates  to  annual  and  General  Conferences.  They 
have  helped  support  many  civic  enterprises  and  especial- 
ly youth  character-building  agencies.  They  have  contrib- 
uted generously  to  many  Methodist  agencies,  such  as  the 
North  Texas  Conference  pension  fund,  Dallas  Meth- 
odist Hospital,  Methodist  Children's  Home  at  Waco, 
Alaska  Methodist  Church,  Anchorage,  Western  Meth- 
odist Assembly  at  Fayetteville,  Ark.,  Southwestern  Uni- 
versity, Southern  Methodist  University,  and  most  of 
all  to  Perkins  School  of  Theology  at  Southern  Method- 
ist University.  The  latter  gift  has  amounted  to  about 
$12,000,000  including  a  new  plant  and  an  endowment. 
Giving  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Perkins  was  always  a  joint  action 
by  husband  and  wife,  and  it  was  a  natural  outpouring 
of  their  concern  for  the  cause  involved,  and  never  a  mere 
financial  contribution,  as  evidenced  by  their  giving  much 
of  their  time  as  trustee,  board  and  committee  member, 
and  chairmen  to  various  causes.  Bishop  Paul  E.  Martin, 
for  many  years  pastor  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Perkins,  called 
Mr.  Perkins  "the  greatest  layman  I  have  ever  known." 
Mr.  Perkins  died  on  Sept.  15,  1960.  Mrs.  Perkins  has 
continued  the  same  concern  for  Methodist  enterprises. 
She  has  been  awarded  an  honorary  L.H.D.  by  South- 
western University  and  the  LL.D.  degree  by  Southern 
Methodist  University.  She  was  a  member  of  the  executive 
committee  of  the  World  Methodist  Council,  1961-68. 
Dean  Joseph  D.  Quillian,  Jr.,  of  Perkins  School  of 
Theology,  has  written  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Perkins  have 
given  more  to  Texas  Methodism  than  any  other  two  per- 
sons— not  simply  of  their  means  but  also  of  their  spirit. 
The  Perkins  heritage  of  churchmanship  and  philantliropy 


PERKINS,   WILLIAM   CHRISTIE 

continues  to  the  third  generation  through  their  daughter 
Ehzaheth  (Mrs.  Charles  N.  Prothro),  and  the  Prothro 
sons  and  daughter. 

Wichita  Falls  Record  News,  Sept.  16,  1960. 

Fort  Worth  Star  Telegram,  Sept.  16,  1960. 

Wichita  Falls  Times,  April  28,  1970.         Walter  N.  Vernon 

PERKINS,  WILLIAM  CHRISTIE  (1868-1955),  American  lay 
leader  and  business  executive,  was  born  Sept.  27,  1868 
in  Baltimore,  Md. 

Starting  to  work  at  the  age  of  twelve,  Perkins  spent 
his  entire  life  in  the  hardware  business.  In  1917  he  became 
as.sociated  with  the  American  Chain  and  Cable  Company 
in  Pittsburgh,  where  he  became  a  prominent  participant 
in  the  work  of  the  M.P.  Church. 

His  outstanding  service  was  as  President  of  the  Board 
of  Publications  of  the  M.P.  Church.  He  was  a  delegate 
to  many  annual  and  General  Conferences.  In  1943-44 
he  was  President  of  the  Methodist  Social  Union  of  the 
Pittsburgh  Annual  Conference. 

In  1947  Perkins  retired  after  thirty  years  service  with 
American  Chain  and  Cable  and  moved  back  to  Baltimore, 
where  he  died  July  28,  1955.  He  is  interred  in  Woodlawn 
Cemetery,  Baltimore. 

Clark:  Who's  Who  in  Methodism,  1952.         J.  H.  Straughn 

PERKINS  SCHOOL  OF  THEOLOGY,  Southern  Method- 
ist University-,  Dallas,  Texas,  grew  out  of  a  desire  for 
a  Methodist  theological  school  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
Ministers  serving  that  region  had  received  their  education 
at  Soutwvestern  University,  Georgetown,  Texas.  When 
Southern  Methodist  University  opened  in  1915,  as  the 
official  university  for  the  church  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
a  school  of  theology  was  included.  In  1945,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
J.  J.  Perkins  made  provision  for  gifts  exceeding 
$10,000,000,  and  the  school  moved  from  its  original  loca- 
tion to   a   sixteen-acre  tract  on   the   Southern   Methodist 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

campus.  In  1951,  seven  new  buildings,  including  the 
Perkins  Chapel,  classroom  buildings,  library,  and  dormitor- 
ies, were  dedicated.  Later  another  classroom  building  and 
dormitory  were  erected.  This  stands  out  as  one  of  the 
most  significant  developments  in  the  history  of  Protestant 
theological  education.  The  Bridwell  Library,  given  by 
J.  S.  Bridwell,  is  part  of  the  theological  campus. 

The  seminary's  degree  program  includes  the  B.D., 
M.R.E.  (Religious  Education),  S.T.M.  (Master  of  Sacred 
Theology),  and  M.S.M.  (Sacred  Music)  degrees.  The 
Ph.D.  degree  is  available  in  cooperation  with  the  univer- 
sity. 

John  O.  Gross 

PERKS,  ROBERT  WILLIAM  (1849-1934),  British  Methodist, 
industrialist,  and  politician,  was  bom  on  April  24,  1849, 
at  Brentford,  London,  qualified  as  a  solicitor,  and  from 
1876-1901  was  in  partnership  with  Henry  Fowler. 
Specializing  in  railway  law,  he  became  associated  with  a 
firm  which  built  railways  and  docks  in  many  parts  of  the 
world.  From  1892-1910  he  was  Liberal  M.P.  for  Louth, 
Lincolnshire,  and  a  firm  supporter  of  Lord  Rosebery's 
liberal  imperialism.  Perks  was  originator  and,  from  1906- 
8,  chairman  of  a  group  of  200  Nonconformist  M.P.'s  in 
the  House  of  Commons. 

From  1902-6  he  was  chairman  of  the  Metropolitan 
District  Railway.  He  was  created  a  baronet  in  1908.  In 
1878  he  was  one  of  the  first  group  of  laymen  admitted 
to  the  Wesleyan  Conference.  He  was  an  originator  and 
the  senior  treasurer  of  the  Twentieth-Century  Fund.  He 
worked  for  Methodist  Union  and  was  the  first  vice- 
president  of  the  united  Methodist  Church  in  1932.  He 
died  on  Nov.  30,  1934,  in  London. 

H.  M.  RATTENBtTRY 

PERRILL,  FRED  MAXSON  (1882-1946),  American  mission- 
arv  to  India  and  noted  editor  there,  was  bom  at  Mentor, 


?r*<g^    H 


Perkins  School  of  Theology,  Dallas,  Texas 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PERRY,   CLARA   TUCKER 


Kan.,  Dec.  4,  1882.  He  attended  Kansas  Wesleyan  and 
Baker  Universities,  graduating  from  Baker  in  1903,  and 
from  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  in  1906.  He  came 
to  India  in  October  1906,  and  joined  the  Bengal  Con- 
ference. He  was  ordained  deacon  and  elder  before  his 
twenty-fourth  birthday.  His  appointments  were  missionary 
to  Muzaffarpur;  missionary  in  Arrah;  superintendent  of 
Ballia  District,  superintendent  of  Cawnpore  (now  Kan- 
pur)  District;  and  editor  of  The  Indian  Witness.  He 
married  Mary  Voigt  (sister  of  Bishop  Edwin  Voigt)  May 
5,  1911. 

From  his  earhest  years  in  India  Perrill  was  a  popular 
correspondent  for  The  Indian  Witness  and  for  the  church 
papers  in  America.  He  became  editor  of  The  Indian  Wit- 
ness in  1929,  and  continued  for  seventeen  years  at  the 
helm  of  that  official  organ  of  Methodism  in  Southern 
Asia.  He  suffered  a  heat  stroke  on  a  railway  journey  in 
North  India  while  en  route  to  the  mountains  after  ex- 
hausting labor,  and  died  at  the  Clara  Swain  Hospital  in 
Bareilly,  June  12,  1946.  He  is  buried  in  Bareilly.  His 
only  son,  Charles  Voigt  Perrill  was  then,  and  for  some 
years  before  and  after,  superintendent  of  that  renowned 
institution,  and  is  now  superintendent  of  the  Creighton- 
Freeman  Hospital  in  Vrindaban  which  he  is  relocating 
between  Vrindaban  and  Mattrura. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

PERRONET,  CHARLES,  EDWARD,  and  VINCENT,  were 
British  Evangelicals.  Vincent  Perronet  (1693-1785),  vicar 
of  Shoreham,  Kent,  first  met  John  Wesley  in  1746.  Both 
John  and  Charles  Wesley  visited  him  and  preached  in 
his  church.  He  became  their  friend  and  adviser.  He  at- 
tended the  Conference  of  1747,  and  it  was  to  him  that 
John  Wesley  addressed  A  Plain  Account  of  the  People 
Called  Methodists.  Not  for  nothing  was  Perronet  called 
"the  archbishop  of  Methodism." 

Edward  Perronet  (1721-1792),  the  hymn  writer  ("All 
Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name"),  was  the  eldest  son  of 
Vincent  Perronet,  and  itinerated  for  Wesley  until  he 
joined  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon  and  her  connection. 
His  open  antipathy  to  the  Established  Church  led  him 
finally  to  become  the  pastor  of  a  dissenting  congregation 
in  Canterbury.  It  was  at  Edward  Perronet's  house  that 
Charles  Wesley  met  Mrs.  Vazeille,  who  had  aroused 
the  interest  of  his  brother  John.  When  Perronet  told 
Charles  that  his  brother  was  thinking  of  marrying  the 
lady,  Charles  "refused  his  company  to  the  chapel  and 
retired  to  mourn  with  my  faithful  Sally." 

John  Wesley  had  great  admiration  for  Edward  Perronet 
and  wanted  to  hear  him  preach,  but  Perronet  seemed 
determined  that  he  should  not.  Seeing  Perronet  in  his 
congregation  one  day,  Wesley  calmly  announced  that  the 
former  would  preach  the  next  morning.  Perronet,  feeling 
he  could  not  go  against  Wesley's  wishes,  appeared  in  the 
pulpit  at  the  proper  time,  announced  the  hymn,  led  in 
prayer,  and  then  explained  that  he  had  not  been  asked 
to  preach  and  had  not  consented  to  do  so,  but  would 
deliver  at  that  service  the  finest  sermon  that  had  ever 
been  preached.  He  then  read  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
with  no  word  of  comment,  after  which  he  brought  the 
service  to  a  close! 

Edward  Perronet  and  his  brother  Charles,  both  Meth- 
odist preachers,  favored  separation  of  their  group  from 
the  Church  of  England  when  that  question  was  under 
discussion.  This  movement  was  opposed  by  the  Wesleys. 


Perronet  had  written  The  Mitre,  a  Sacred  Poem,  in  1757, 
sharply  criticizing  the  Church.  At  Wesley's  protest,  he 
discontinued  selling  it,  but  continued  giving  copies  of  it 
away.  This  caused  a  break  between  Perronet  and  the 
Wesleys,  and  also  led  to  an  estrangement  between  Per- 
ronet and  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  whose  chaplain 
he  had  been  at  Canterbury.  He  then  served  an  indepen- 
dent dissenting  church  in  that  city  until  his  death,  Jan. 
2,  1792. 

Charles  Perronet  (1723-1776),  the  second  son  of 
Vincent  Perronet,  also  itinerated  in  Methodism  until  in 
1754  his  advocacy  of  separation  from  the  Church  incurred 
Wesley's  displeasure. 

A.  Skevington  Wood 


Mrs.  J.  W.  Perry 

PERRY,  CLARA  TUCKER  (1870-1964),  American  mission- 
ary leader,  was  born  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  on  Jan.  4,  1870, 
and  was  educated  at  the  Nashville  College  for  Young 
Ladies.  On  Oct.  19,  1893,  she  was  married  to  John  Wiley 
Perry,  member  of  the  Holston  Conference  and  secre- 
tary of  the  Home  Department  of  the  Board  of  Missions 
of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South. 

Mrs.  Perry  became  a  leader  in  the  Woman's  Missionary 
Society  of  her  Church.  In  1907  she  was  elected  Vice 
President  of  the  Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
in  1910  became  a  Vice  President  of  the  Woman's  Mis- 
sionary Council,  which  was  formed  by  the  union  of  the 
Home  and  Foreign  Boards.  In  1931  she  was  elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  and  remained  in  this  office  until  the 
unification  of  the  three  large  branches  of  American  Meth- 
odism in  1939. 

She  was  President  of  the  Holston  Conference  Home 
and  Foreign  Missionary  Societies  in  1911  and  again  in 
1920.  She  was  the  only  woman  member  of  the  Commission 
on  Methodist  Union,  a  delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference in  1922,  the  Uniting  Conference  in  1939,  and 
the  first  General  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church 
after  unification  in  1940.  Her  other  Church  activities  in- 
cluded membership  in  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Coun- 
cil, delegate  to  the  Foreign  Missions  Conference,  presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Woman's  Christian 
College  in  China  and  Ewha  College  in  Korea,  member 
of  the  board  of  Ginling  College  in  China  and  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  Federal  Council  of 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America. 


PERRY,    JOHN   WILEY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


After  the  unification  of  American  Methodism,  Mrs. 
Perry  was  for  four  years  a  member  of  tlie  Hoard  of 
Missions  and  Church  Extension,  serving  on  the  Woman's 
Division  and  also  the  Division  of  Foreign  Missions. 

Mrs.  Perry  died  on  Aug.  4,  1964,  at  Chattanooga,  Tenn., 
at  the  age  of  ninety-four.  She  was  survived  by  one  son, 
Wiley  Perr>',  and  one  daughter,  Katherine  Perry. 

Elmer  T.  Clark 


J.  W.  Perry 

PERRY,  JOHN  WILEY  (1866-1954),  American  minister 
and  missionary  administrator,  was  bom  in  Scott  County, 
Va.,  on  Feb.  8,  1866.  He  studied  in  the  public  schools  and 
in  a  small  private  school  called  Shoemaker  College.  He 
served  one  year  as  a  supply  preacher  on  the  Erwin  Mis- 
sion in  1886  and  then  went  to  Vanderbilt  University, 
from  which  he  graduated  in  1891. 

In  1892  he  joined  tlie  Holston  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  South,  and  was  sent  to  West  Radford  for 
two  years.  His  other  appointments  in  order  were  Cente- 
nary Church  in  Knoxville,  Highland  Park  in  Chattanoo- 
ga, Sweetwater,  Abingdon,  Church  Street  Church  in 
Knoxville,  Morristown,  presiding  elder  of  the  Chattanooga 
District,  Conference  Missionary  Secretary,  presiding  elder 
on   the   Morristown   District   and   the   Knoxville   District. 

In  1922  he  was  elected  by  the  General  Conference  as 
secretary  of  the  Home  Division  of  the  Board  of  Missions, 
in  which  office  he  remained  for  twelve  years.  During 
this  period  he  rendered  important  sei"vice  in  connection 
with  Paine  College,  an  institution  for  Negroes  at  Augus- 
ta, Ga.  When  he  rehnquished  the  position  of  missionary 
secretary  in  a  reorganization  of  the  Board  of  Missions 
he  returned  to  the  Holston  Conference  and  served  four 
years  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Chattanooga  District  and 
five  years  as  pastor  at  Abingdon,  Va.  He  retired  in  1942. 

As  a  leader  of  his  Conference  Perry  was  ten  times 
elected  a  member  of  the  General  Conference,  including 
the  Uniting  Conference  in  1939  and  the  first  General 
Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1940. 

On  Oct.  19,  1893,  he  married  Clara  Tucker  of  Nashville, 
Term.,  who  later  became  the  president  of  the  Woman's 
Missionary  Council.  They  had  two  sons  and  one  daughter. 

Perry  died  at  Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  on  March  5,  1954, 
and  was  buried  in  Emory,  Va. 

Journal  of  the  Holston  Conference,  1954.      Elmer  T.  Clark 


PERSECUTION  OF  METHODISTS  IN  ENGLAND.   It  was 

inevitable  that  Methodism  should  be  persecuted  because 
it  was  opposed  to  so  many  aspects  of  eighteenth-century 
religious  and  social  life.  Dishonest  tradesmen  found  that 
their  livelihood  was  threatened;  the  gentry  resented 
criticism  by  the  Methodists  and  feared  revolution;  the 
clergy  was  enraged  by  the  rebukes  of  the  Methodists  and 
feared  a  revival  of  "enthusiasm." 

The  Mobs.  Usually  "King  Mob"  was  the  tool  used  by 
Methodism's  opponents.  Mobs  were  easily  hired,  made 
drunk,  and  then  directed  to  plunder  Methodist  homes, 
destroy  meeting  houses,  and  wound  Methodist  men,  wom- 
en, and  children.  The  preachers  bore  the  worst  of  the 
mobs'  attacks  and  some  of  them  were  actually  martyred  by 
the  rabble. 

The  Law.  Many  magistrates  were  furiously  hostile  to- 
ward Methodism  and  were  prepared  to  lead  the  mobs. 
Methodists  were  frequently  denied  legal  redress  by  the 
courts,  and  many  of  them  were  sent  to  prison  or  pressed 
into  tlie  armed  forces.  The  law,  far  from  repressing  per- 
secution, became  another  tool  of  the  persecutors,  although 
Methodism  was  never  officially  suppressed  as  a  matter  of 
government  policy. 

Literary  Persecution.  Methodism  was  satirized  in  pam- 
phlets, while  clergymen  thundered  anti-Methodist  sermons 
from  their  pulpits  and  published  their  attacks  as  broad 
sheets.  The  press,  the  stage,  and  the  pulpit  became  weap- 
ons in  the  hands  of  the  persecutors. 

Later  Persecutions.  This  general  pattern  of  persecution 
persisted  after  Methodism  became  divided.  In  the  nine- 
teenth century,  many  of  the  social  and  religious  conditions 
against  which  Methodism  had  first  protested  still  re- 
mained, and  both  the  Bible  Christians  and  the  Primitive 
Methodists  were   persecuted,    especially   in   the   villages. 

D.  D.  Wilson 


PERSEVERANCE,  FINAL.  The  doctrine  of  the  Final  Per- 
severance of  the  Saints,  often  popularly  expressed  in  the 
maxim,  "Once  saved,  always  saved,"  is  a  natural  part  of 
the  strict  Calvinist  system,  and  was  a  subject  of  controver- 
sy in  the  times  of  Wesley,  and  since.  Clearly,  if  Election 
to  salvation  is  unconditional,  if  a  man  once  finds  himself 
in  a  state  of  salvation  he  is  bound  to  continue  in  it  to 
the  end  of  his  life,  and  to  arrive  in  heaven.  He  may  appear 
to  stumble  upon  the  path  of  life,  but  he  cannot  finally 
fall.  Wesley  called  this  position  in  question,  ".  .  .  Tlie 
Calvinists  hold  .  .  .  that  a  true  believer  in  Christ  cannot 
possibly  fall  from  grace.  The  Arminians  hold,  that  a  true 
believer  may  'make  shipwreck  of  faith  and  a  good  con- 
science;' that  he  may  fall,  not  only  foully,  but  finally,  so 
as  to  perish  forever."  (John  Wesley  The  Question,  "What 
is  an  ArminianF'  Answered.  1770)  (See  also  Arminius.) 
In  his  opposition  to  Calvinism's  syndrome  of  sovereign 
election,  irresistible  grace,  and  the  final  perseverance  of 
the  elect,  we  see  one  of  the  properly  "Arminian"  emphases 
of  John  Wesley.  The  position  that  the  elect  believer  can- 
not ultimately  fall  away  from  his  condition  of  grace  was 
considered  an  item  for  assurance  within  Calvin's  theology. 
To  John  Wesley  such  a  position  could  only  contribute  to 
gross  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the  believers  and  there 
was  such  a  thing  as  "falling  from  grace."  Profoundly  true 
though  it  was,  that  "God  is  at  work"  enabling  the  believer 
both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure,  it  was  equally 
true  that  the  believer  must  "work  out"  his  salvation  "with 
fear  and  trembling." 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Indeed,  continued  Wesley,  "a  believer  need  never  again 
come  into  condemnation,"  need  never  "come  into  a  state 
of  doubt,  or  fear,  or  darkness.  .  .  ."  (Minutes  for  the 
Conference  of  1744,  question  10  for  Monday,  June  25). 
Nevertheless,  "a  man  may  forfeit  the  free  gift  of  God, 
either  by  sins  of  omission  or  commission."  (Ibid,  question 
11)  How  important,  therefore,  for  every  believer  to  be- 
ware, "lest  'his  heart  be  hardened  by  tlie  deceitfulness  of 
sin;'  .  .  .  lest  he  should  sink  lower  and  lower,  till  he  wholly 
fall  away,  till  he  become  as  salt  that  hath  lost  its  savour: 
for  if  he  thus  sin  wilfully,  after  we  have  received  the 
experimental  'knowledge  of  the  truth,  there  remaineth 
no  more  sacrifice  for  sins'  .  .  ."  (Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
IV,  i,  8,  1747).  Wesley  contrasted  that  "heaviness  through 
manifold  temptations,"  which  is  the  common  experience 
of  believers  with  the  possible  return  to  the  "wilderness" 
state  characterized  by  the  absence  of  any  vital  communion 
with  the  living  God. 

John  Calvin  had  based  his  confidence  in  the  final  per- 
severance of  the  elect  on  Scriptural  promises;  such  "assur- 
ance," in  the  case  of  the  individual  believer,  was  Scriptu- 
rally-derived.  Wesley  felt  the  testimony  of  Scripture,  how- 
ever, included  circumstances  wherein  true  believers  could 
finally  fall;  "that  one  who  is  holy  or  righteous  in  the  judg- 
ment of  God  himself  may  nevertheless  so  fall  from  God 
as  to  perish  everlastingly."  (Serious  Thoughts  upon  the 
Perseverance  of  the  Saints;  standard  reference,  for  in- 
stance, was  to  Ezekiel  18:24)  "Assurance,"  for  Wesley, 
was  a  much  more  empirical  phenomenon — associated  with 
the  believer's  present  confidence  in  the  gift  of  justifying 
grace,  wherein  the  love  of  God  was  manifest  to  the  be- 
liever through  the  inward  workings  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
(Romans  5:5) 

For  the  comfort  which  Calvin  saw  in  the  doctrine  of 
final  perseverance  (for  the  elect  behever!),  Wesley  em- 
phasized rather  the  assurance  of  salvation  through  the 
witness  of  the  spirit  (see  assurance),  and  the 
exhortation  to  "go  on  unto  perfection."  In  the  Wesleyan 
theology  of  grace,  the  anticipation  of  entire  sanctification 
(itself  a  gift  of  grace)  served  as  a  corrective  to  the  be- 
liever's "falling  away."  Augmenting  such  expectancy,  of 
course,  was  the  prime  importance  of  continuing  in  the 
way  of  the  "means  of  grace,"  continuing  to  implement 
the  workings  of  Divine  grace  through  the  disciplines  of 
worship,  Bible  study,  prayer,  sacrificial  service. 

Perseverance  in  grace,  therefore,  was  conditioned  upon 
the  believer's  persevering!  Although  the  believer  con- 
tinued dependent  upon  atoning,  redeeming  grace  through- 
out the  course  of  his  salvation,  nevertheless — for  Wesley — 
such  grace  (as  seen  through  Scripture)  must  be  consid- 
ered finally  resistible,  the  Spirit  could  finally  be  quenched. 
Thus  the  believer  is  "saved  from  the  fear,  though  not  from 
the  possibility,  of  falling  away  from  the  grace  of  God." 
(Sermon  I.  ii.  4.) 

Leland  Scott 


PERSSON,  JOSEF  A.  (1888-1964),  Swedish  missionary  to 
Africa,  was  bom  in  Stockholm,  Oct.  14,  1888.  His  mother 
had  herself  first  felt  the  call  to  the  mission  field.  A  poor 
widow,  she  brought  up  her  son  and  was  glad  to  send 
him  away  when  God's  call  came  to  him.  As  a  young  man 
of  eighteen  he  was  one  of  the  first  two  missionaries  sent 
out  by  the  Sweden  Annual  Conference  in  1907.  His  first 
place  was  a  primitive  printing  plant  in  Cambini,  Inham- 
bane,  Mozambique.  Persson  picked  up  the  foreign  lan- 


PERTH,   AUSTRALIA 

guage  from  the  lips  of  his  native  helpers.  So  he  learned  to 
know  the  native  languages,  Chopi,  "Tonga,  and  Tswa.  He 
gave  the  natives  a  literature,  beginning  with  a  primer  and 
a  grammar,  a  Tswa-Enghsh  dictionary,  Bible  studies,  and 
several  other  books.  He  crowned  his  work  with  a  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible  into  Tswa,  which  he  thoroughly  revised 
before  his  death.  He  settled  down  in  Johannesburg,  Union 
of  South  Africa,  acting  as  pastor  and  district  superinten- 
dent, and  during  the  Second  World  War  he  served  also 
as  bishop's  deputy.  He  developed  the  printing  office  in 
Johannesburg,  the  Central  Mission  Press  in  Cleveland, 
Transvaal,  to  be  an  important  help  for  several  missions  in 
South  Africa.  He  was  active  for  more  than  fifty  years, 
and  crowds  of  friends,  black  and  white,  followed  him 
when  he  was  laid  to  rest  in  a  jungle  grave  in  October, 
1964.  Two  of  his  sons  are  active  in  the  work  of  the  church. 

Minutes  of  the  Sweden  Annual  Conference,  1965. 

Josef  A.  Persson,  Vardagsliv  och  hogtidsstunder  i  Inhambane. 

Stockholm,  1933. 

Svenska  Folkrorelser.  Stockholm,  1937.       Mansfield  Hubtig 

PERTH,  Australia,  is  the  capital  of  Australia's  largest 
state,  Western  Australia,  whose  population  has  not  quite 
reached  a  million  people.  Because  of  the  discovery  of  vast 
quantities  of  minerals  in  Western  Australia  in  recent  years, 
the  potential  of  Perth  would  appear  to  know  no  limits. 

Kingswood  College  is  a  University  College  for  men 
within  the  University  of  Western  Australia.  It  was  opened 
in  1963  by  the  Prime  Minister  of  Australia,  Sir  Robert 
Gordon  Menzies.  It  occupies  a  site  of  over  five  acres  in  a 
commanding  position  on  Stirling  Highway,  Nedlands,  a 
southern  suburb  of  Perth.  It  has  accommodation  for  one 
hundred  and  thirty-three  students,  including  tutors.  It  is 
planned  to  increase  this  number  to  250.  Men  of  all 
denominations  and  faiths  are  admitted.  All  faculties  are 
represented  in  the  College  and  it  is  also  the  training 
center  for  men  studying  for  the  Methodist  ministry. 

The  governing  body  is  a  council  of  nineteen,  with  the 
President  and  Secretary  of  the  Methodist  Conference  ex- 
officio  members.  Two  members  are  elected  from  the  Uni- 
versity Senate,  two  from  the  Academic  Staff  of  the  Uni- 
versity, and  the  remainder,  ministers  and  laymen,  are 
elected  annually  by  the  Methodist  Conference.  General 
supervision  over  studies  is  exercised  by  a  staff  of  about 
twelve  tutors.  A  restricted  number  of  nonresidential  stu- 
dents is  permitted  to  join  the  tutorial  classes. 

The  TTheological  Institution  established  in  1912,  now 
named  the  Barclay  Theological  Hall,  is  located  on  the 
college  grounds.  The  College  was  built  by  gifts  from 
Methodist  people  throughout  the  State,  from  business 
houses  and  companies,  and  by  substantial  contributions 
from  the  Commonwealth  and  State  Governments. 

Methodist  Ladles  College,  Claremont,  a  southern  sub- 
urb of  Perth,  is  situated  on  Stirling  Highway  on  thirteen 
acres  of  land  overlooking  Freshwater  Bay,  a  lovely  reach 
of  the  Swan  River.  It  was  founded  in  1907  and  now  has 
an  enrolment  of  six  hundred  and  seventy-three  fee-paying 
scholars.  In  addition  to  preparing  girls  to  enter  the  Uni- 
versity, the  school  offers  courses  in  Commercial  Subjects 
and  in  Domestic  Arts. 

In  1951  a  day  school  for  girls  in  South  Perth,  St.  Anne's, 
was  purchased  by  the  Council  and  developed  as  a  branch 
of  M.L.C.  It  has  become  a  flourishing  school  under  its 
principal,  Mrs.  M.  B.  Way.  In  1964  its  name  was  changed 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


from  Methodist  Ladies  College,  South  Perth,  to  "Penrhos" 
but  as  yet  it  has  not  achieved  its  independence.  Both 
schools  are  controlled  by  the  one  Council,  a  rather  large 
group  appointed  annually  by  the  Methodist  Conference. 

The  Principal  of  the  College  is  Walter  Shepherd,  and 
the  Chaplain  is  D.  McCaskill.  Two  deaconesses  have  been 
appointed  by  the  Church  to  work  at  the  schools. 

Wesley  College  in  South  Perth  is  a  day  and  boarding 
school  for  boys  situated  on  twenty-one  acres  of  land  on 
the  south-eastern  bank  of  the  Swan  River.  The  foundation 
stone  was  laid  on  Nov.  11,  1922  by  the  Premier  of  West- 
em  Australia,  Sir  James  Mitchell  and  the  school  opened 
in  February  1923  with  J.  F.  Ward  as  its  first  Headmaster. 
The  school  grew  so  rapidly  that  the  College  Council 
soon  realized  that  it  could  not  meet  the  pressing  needs  of 
the  school.  In  1926  the  Annual  Conference  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church  of  Western  Australia  considered  the  problem 


Wesley  Church,  Perth,  Australia 

and  requested  the  Trustees  of  the  Wesley  Church  Central 
Methodist  Mission,  Perth,  a  group  of  very  able  and  influ- 
ential men,  controlling  considerable  financial  resources, 
to  take  over  the  financial  responsibility  and  management  of 
the  College.  The  Trustees  then  became  the  College  Coun- 
cil. In  1965  steps  were  taken  to  release  the  Trustees  from 
sole  responsibility  and  the  College  Council  was  enlarged. 

The  School  provides  tuition  from  Kindergarten  to  the 
School  Leaving  Certificate  Standard  (Martriculation)  and 
prepares  boys  to  enter  the  professions,  the  commercial 
and  business  life  of  the  city  and  the  university.  It  has  an 
enrolment  of  six  hundred  boys  of  whom  one  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  are  boarders. 

The  Headmaster  is  Chve  Hamer,  and  the  Chaplain  is 
B.  R.  Angus. 


The  Theological  Institution,  Western  Australia,  was  es- 
tablished by  the  Methodist  Conference  of  1912,  with 
Brian  Wibberley  as  principal.  Accommodation  was  pro- 
vided in  the  buildings  of  the  Perth  Central  Methodist  Mis- 
sion. Local  preachers  and  Christian  workers  were  permitted 
to  attend  classes  with  the  theological  students.  The  first 
World  War  disrupted  this  work  and  it  was  not  recom- 
menced until  1923,  when  J.  W.  Grove  was  appointed 
principal.  Wesley  College  became  the  training  center  in 
1927  and  theological  students  were  prepared  for  the 
Diploma  of  the  Melbourne  College  of  Divinity.  The  grow- 
ing need  for  ministers  with  University  training  eventually 
led  the  Western  Australia  Conference  to  send  its  matricu- 
lated theologs  to  the  Theological  Halls  in  the  Eastern 
States.  This  policy  was  continued  until  Kingswood  Col- 
lege was  founded  in  1963  within  the  University  of  West- 
ern Australia.  The  Theological  Institution,  now  named 
the  Barclay  Theological  Hall,  was  located  within  the  Col- 
lege, with  Robert  Maddox  as  director.  Here  students  are 
able  to  take  degrees  in  secular  disciplines  as  well  as  in 
Divinity.  The  cost  of  the  maintenance  of  the  Hall  is  met 
by  a  levy  upon  the  whole  of  the  Church  in  Western 
Australia.  The  Presbyterian  and  Congregational  Churches 
in  this  State  are  cooperative  and  are  contributing  to  it 
both  teaching  staff  and  students. 

Australian  Edftorial  Committee 


PERU  is  a  republic  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America, 
extending  1,400  miles  from  Ecuador  to  Chile.  The  capi- 
tal is  Lima.  The  area  is  514,059  square  miles,  and  the 
population  (1969)  is  estimated  at  13,172,000.  The  north- 
south  ranges  of  the  Andes  Mountains,  having  deep  valleys 
between,  separate  the  country  into  long  strips  of  highly 
diversified  characteristics,  with  only  slight  communications 
to  bind  them  together.  The  inhabitants  of  the  varied 
sectors  are  as  diverse  as  the  terrain.  Ten  peaks  of  the 
Peruvian  Andes  reach  at  least  20,000  feet,  the  highest, 
Huascaran,  attaining  22,205  feet.  The  Cordillera  of  the 
Andes  marks  the  continental  divide;  all  rivers  rising  in 
the  slopes  east  of  that  line  flow  into  the  Amazon  to  the 
Atlantic. 

The  Inca  empire  and  culture  dominated  the  west  coast 
of  South  America  from  the  late  eleventh  century  to  the 
Spanish  conquest  under  Francisco  Pizarro  in  the  1530's. 
Cuzco,  in  southern  Peru,  was  the  capital.  Roads  were 
built  along  the  valleys  between  the  Cordilleras  and  today 
long  stretches  of  the  Inter-American  Highway  follow  these 
roads.  The  ruins  of  forgotten  Machu  Picchu,  an  Inca  city 
seventy-five  miles  north  of  Cuzco,  were  discovered  by 
Hiram  Bingham  in  1911. 

Needing  a  capital  close  to  the  sea,  Pizarro  founded 
Lima  in  1535.  Revolt  and  bloodshed  continued  for  dec- 
ades, Pizarro  himself  being  assassinated  in  Lima.  Jose  de 
San  Martin  proclaimed  Peruvian  independence  from 
Spain  in  1820.  Bolivar  and  Sucre  followed  up  San  Martin's 
victory  and  completed  the  ouster  of  Spanish  forces  in 
January  1826.  Frequent  revolutions  marked  the  next  hun- 
dred years.  A  new  constitution  was  adopted  in  1933  and 
amended  in  1939.  Some  advanced  social  legislation  has 
been  enacted,  and  elementary  and  higher  education  are 
emphasized. 

Peru  is  one  of  the  "Indian  republics,"  and  an  estimated 
forty-six  percent  of  the  people  are  of  pure  Indian  blood. 
Another  forty-three   percent   are   Mestizo    (mixed),    and 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PETERS,    BENJAMIN 


eleven  percent  of  European  extraction.  Indigenous  reli- 
gions continue  among  some  Indian  groups.  The  Roman 
Catholic  Church  claims  89.6  percent  of  the  population 
and  Protestant  groups  only  0.7  percent. 

Methodism  was  taken  to  Peru  in  the  late  1870's  by 
William  Taylor,  later  bishop,  of  the  M.E.  Church.  He 
projected  what  he  hoped  would  be  a  series  of  self-support- 
ing schools  and  churches  in  Callao,  Lima,  and  other  cities. 
He  actually  established  workers  in  Iquique,  then  in  Peru 
but  soon  lost  to  Chile  in  the  War  of  the  Pacific  (1879-83). 
From  1886  to  1890,  Francisco  G.  Penzotti,  agent  of 
the  American  Bible  Society  and  Methodist  preacher, 
made  several  visits  to  Peru  from  Argentina.  In  July  1890, 
he  was  arrested  for  preaching  in  Callao,  suffering  impris- 
onment for  eight  months  before  the  international  reper- 
cussions over  the  question  of  liberty  of  worship  forced 
his  release. 

In  1891  Thomas  B.  Wood,  Methodist  leader  in  Argen- 
tina and  Uruguay,  arrived  at  Lima  as  superintendent  of 
the  newly  projected  Western  District  of  the  South  America 
Conference.  Prior  to  this  no  organized  Evangelical  work 
had  been  established  by  any  Protestant  church.  With  the 
aid  of  his  daughter,  Elsie  Wood,  several  schools  were 
organized  that  developed  into  outstanding  institutions. 
The  leading  Methodist  schools  are  the  Callao  High  School 
(Colegio  America),  Lima  High  School  (Colegio  Maria 
Alvarado),  Victoria  School  (Escuela  America  de  la  Victo- 
ria), and  Colegio  Andino  at  Huancayo.  These  with  Meth- 
odist parochial  schools  have  a  total  enrollment  of  3,500. 
The  Institute  for  Christian  Workers  in  Lima  trains  pastors 
and  social  workers. 

Evangelistic  work  remained  very  difficult  for  many 
years,  with  frequent  persecution.  In  1945  the  churches 
had  barely  400  members.  Then  rapid  progress  started  as 
the  preachers  moved  out  from  the  chief  centers.  Approach 
was  made  to  the  Campa  Indians  of  the  eastern  jungle  area 
near  Satipo  on  the  Rio  Negro.  The  church  membership 
has  grown  greatly  of  late  years  and  the  Peru  Provisional 
Annual  Conference  became  a  part  of  the  Pacific   Area. 

To  meet  a  need  for  qualified  Evangelicals  as  teachers 
in  the  schools,  which  form  a  substantial  part  of  the  mis- 
sion program.  The  Methodist  Church  established  the 
Panamericana  Normal  School  in  Lima  in  1961 — finally 
winning  government  approval  one  week  before  its  first 
commencement  in  1964.  Also  new  in  the  educational 
field  is  a  student  hostel  related  to  historic  San  Marcos 
University. 

In  recent  years  the  church  in  Peru  has  shown  a  decided 
interest  in  social  work,  largely  as  a  result  of  the  ambitious 
program  of  the  Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Ser- 
vice in  the  La  Florida  Social  Center,  founded  by  the 
late  Martha  Vanderberg  and  serving  residents  of  a  very 
poor  section  of  Lima.  As  the  barriadas,  or  squatters'  set- 
tlements, have  become  a  serious  social  problem  (contain- 
ing more  than  a  million  residents  in  1965),  the  church 
has  extended  social  services  and  evangelistic  work  to  them. 
Best  known  is  the  Methodist  Social  Center  at  Pedregal, 
a  settlement  built  near  a  former  garbage  dump,  where 
vocational  training,  adult  classes,  club  work,  a  kinder- 
garten, and  religious  services  are  offered.  There  is  work 
in  several  other  barriadas,  much  of  it  carried  on  by  lay 
volunteers  from  the  older  established  Methodist  churches 
in  Lima. 

Methodists  in  Peru  are  becoming  known  increasingly 
for    their    social    witness.    The    1965    annual    conference 


adopted  a  "Manifesto  to  the  Nation" — a  document  without 
precedent  for  any  church  in  the  country.  The  manifesto 
proclaimed  the  rightful  interest  of  the  church  in  the  social 
and  economical  organization  of  the  world.  The  Church 
believes  that  all  change,  renewal  or  effective  revolution 
ought  to  spring  from  man  regenerated  by  the  power  of 
God. 

The  Peruvian  Methodist  Church.  As  has  been  the  case 
with  other  conferences  of  The  United  Methodist  Church 
in  South  America,  the  Conference  in  Peru,  pursuant  to 
proper  legislation  adopted  by  the  General  Conference  of 
1968,  decided  to  become  autonomous  and  so  organized 
itself  as  a  church,  Iglesia  Metodista  Peruana,  on  Jan.  19, 
1970,  in  Lima.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Wenceslao  Bahamonde, 
fifty-four  years  of  age,  was  elected  its  first  bishop.  The 
Church  reports  2,753  members  (full  and  preparatory) 
in  twenty-eight  organized  churches.  There  are  2,830  Sun- 
day school  pupils.  The  administration  of  work  in  Peru 
has  been  through  two  districts — a  District  de  la  Costa, 
which  centers  about  Lima;  and  a  District  Centro  with  its 
principal  center  at  Huancayo  in  the  Andes. 

In  the  Peruvian  Methodist  Chuich,  almost  full  auton- 
omy has  been  given  to  the  districts  of  the  conference  as 
these  districts  have  a  certain  appointing  power,  especially 
of  those  ministers  and  laymen  who  are  not  under  the 
supervision  of  the  whole  church.  There  is,  however,  a 
general  committee  in  charge  of  all  the  ministers  in  full 
connection,  and  these  are  assigned  in  a  block  to  the 
districts  and  these  make  their  appointments  within  the 
geographical  limits.  The  bishop  or  president  in  this  newly 
organized  church  has  by  no  means  the  full  appointive 
power. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 
General  Minutes,  1965. 

Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 
W.  Stanley  Rycroft  and  Myrtle  M.  Clemmer,  A  Factual  Study 
of  Latin  America.  New  York:  Commission  on  Ecumenical  Mis- 
sion and  Relations,  United  Presbyterian  Church  U.S.A.,  1963. 
World  Methodist  Council,  Handbook  of  Information. 

Edwin  H.  Maynard 
Arthur  Bruce  Moss 

PETERS,  BENJAMIN  (1844-1898),  early  Indian  minister 
of  the  South  India  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
was  bom  in  Madras,  was,  converted  from  Hinduism  in 
1874,  and  was  ordained  as  an  elder  in  1882.  His  mother 
tongue  was  Tamil,  but  he  learned  English  so  well  that 
he  sometimes  ministered  to  English-language  congrega- 
tions. His  theological  studies  were  conducted  under  the 
guidance  of  Clark  P.  Hard. 

While  serving  as  pastor  of  the  Tamil  congregation  in 
Bangalore,  Peters  zealously  preached  on  the  streets.  This 
led  to  counterpreaching  on  the  streets  by  the  Moslems, 
and  to  fear  that  violence  might  result.  A  magistrate  issued 
an  order  against  street  preaching.  Peters  felt  obliged  in 
conscience  to  disobey.  He  changed  his  preaching  place. 
The  police  drove  his  would-be  hearers  away.  He  was  ar- 
rested and  imprisoned,  but  on  appeal  was  released  on 
bail.  The  judicial  commissioner  decided  that  there  could 
be  no  sweeping  prohibition  of  Gospel  preaching  in  public 
places,  and  he  was  released.  Peters  promptly  resumed 
street  preaching  and  suffered  no  further  interference  by 
the  courts. 

His  stand  and  its  outcome  made  an  important  contribu- 
tion to  the  freedom  "to  profess,  to  practice  and  to  propa- 
gate" the  religion  of  one's  choice  which  is  now  guaranteed 


PETERS,   WILLIAM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


by  the  Constitution  of  the  Republic  of  India.  He  died 
in  Madras  May  10,  1898. 

J.  N.  HoUister,  Southern  Asia.  1956.       J.  Waskom  Pickett 

PETERS,  WILLIAM  (1855-1915),  a  minister  of  the  M.E. 
Church  in  India,  was  born  Jan.  1,  1855.  He  was  said  to 
be  of  mixed  British  and  Indian  ancestry  but  was  proudly 
Indian  in  his  feelings.  His  family  lived  in  the  Budaun 
District  before  and  during  the  Sepoy  uprising  and  narrow- 
ly escaped  assassination.  He  was  a  fervent  evangelist,  an 
able  administrator,  and  a  saintly  character.  In  time  He 
was  appointed  as  the  first  Indian  superintendent  of  the 
Budaun  District,  which  during  his  superintendency  was 
the  most  rapidly  growing  district  in  the  North  India 
Conference.  He  died  Sept.  28,  1915. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 


PETERSBURG,  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.,  is  an  old  historic  town 
situated  on  the  Appomattox  River  about  twenty-two  miles 
south  of  RiCHMO.vD.  Methodism  was  introduced  into 
Petersburg  by  Robert  Williams  in  February  1773.  It  is 
said  that  Cresset  Davis  and  Nathaniel  Young,  who  were 
merchants  of  Petersburg,  met  Robert  Williams  in  Norfolk 
where  they  happened  to  be  and  invited  him  to  come  and 
preach  for  them.  He  came  and  preached  in  an  old  theatre 
fitted  up  for  the  use  of  all  denominations.  As  it  turned  out, 
however,  the  infant  church  was  severely  persecuted.  At 
one  time  when  Hope  Hull  and  John  Easter  were  hold- 
ing a  meeting,  a  mob  burst  in  upon  them  with  lighted 
squibs  and  fire  crackers.  Then  another  band  brought  up 
a  fire  engine  and  played  a  stream  of  water  into  the  house 
until  every  light  was  put  out.  This  account  states  that 
"Soon  the  place  was  involved  in  darkness,  save  where  a 
bursting  firecracker  gave  a  momentary  gleam,  and  the 
whole  congregation  was  routed  and  driven  from  the 
place." 

The  preachers,  however,  continued  to  preach  as  occa- 
sion furnished  and  a  society  was  begun  and  Petersburg 
was  included  in  the  Brunswick  circuit.  The  old  theatre  was 
abandoned  and  a  church  was  built  on  Harrison  Street;  but 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  it  was  occupied  by  the 
soldiers,  first  as  a  barracks,  then  as  a  hospital,  and  was 
finally  destroyed  by  fire.  After  the  loss  of  the  church,  sev- 
eral people  opened  their  private  dwellings  for  the  preach- 
ing. Soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  a  second  Methodist 
church  was  built,  started  by  Mr.  Davis,  who  headed  the 
subscription  list  with  fifty  pounds.  This  church  is  described 
as  "very  small  and  unique  of  its  kind,  and  showing  any 
amount  of  props,  beams,  and  girders." 

In  1792,  Petersburg  first  appears  in  the  annals  of  the 
M.  E.  Church,  John  Lindsay  being  appointed  pastor  and 
an  annual  conference  was  held  there  on  Nov.  15,  1793. 

The  first  Ceneral  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church, 
South,  was  held  in  Petersburg  in  1846,  an  epochal  con- 
ference in  every  way.  The  delegates  assembled  at  the 
Union  Street  Church,  though  this  had  just  recently  been 
sold  to  a  Negro  congregation.  The  Washington  Street 
Church,  which  continues  to  stand  in  stately  grandeur  in 
Petersburg,  had  almost  been  completed  but  was  not  then 
ready  for  general  occupancy.  That  church  since  that  date 
has  been  noteworthy  in  the  Virginia  Conference. 

The  original  cornerstone  of  the  old  Union  Street  Church 
is  still  preserved  in  the  Washington  Street  Church  today. 


Washington  Street  Church, 
Petebsbxwg,  VraciNiA 

bearing  the  inscription:  "Cornerstone  of  Union  Street 
M.  E.  Church  laid  by  Blandford  Lodge  of  the  Masons, 
October  26,  1818."  Also,  Washington  Street  preserves  the 
pulpit  brought  from  Union  Street  Church — one  from 
which  Bishop  Asbury  is  said  to  have  preached. 

An  A. M.E.  Zion  Church,  erected  in  1879,  with  a  present 
membership  of  something  over  350  and  known  as  the 
Oak  Street  A. M.E.  Zion  Church,  is  also  found  in  Peters- 
burg. 

The  present  churches  of  the  city  are:  Blandford,  with  a 
membership  of  415;  High  Street,  585;  Memorial  Method- 
ist, 953;  St.  Mark's  713;  Trinity,  633;  and  Washington 
Street,  833. 

Many  distinguished  pastors  of  the  Virginia  Confer- 
ence have  served  Petersburg  through  the  years,  and  it  has 
long  been  the  head  of  a  district.  The  Petersburg  District 
presently  reports  24,700  members. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1881. 

W.  W.  Sweet,  Virginia.  1955.  N.  B.  H. 

PETTY,  JOHN  (1807-68),  British  Methodist,  was  born 
near  Skipton,  Yorkshire,  on  Dec.  27,  1807.  He  united  with 
the  Primitive  Methodist  society  in  1823,  and  six  months 
later  began  to  preach,  serving  as  a  hired  local  preacher  in 
the  Keighley  Circuit.  He  entered  the  itinerant  ministry  in 
1826  and  commenced  in  South  Wales,  covering  large 
tracts  of  country.  He  was  appointed  Connexional  Editor 
in  1851.  He  was  the  first  governor  of  the  Jubilee  School 
(Elmfield  College),  York,  in  1862,  becoming  the  first 
connectional  theological  tutor  for  candidates  for  the  minis- 
try. In  addition  to  being  a  sound  administrator,  he  was 
also  a  historian,  and  in  1864  pubhshed  his  History  of  the 
Primitive  Methodist  Connexion  (revised  edition,  1884).  A 
volume  of  his  sermons  was  published  in  1851.  He  died 
April  22,  1868. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

PEW  RENTAL  is  an  expedient  for  raising  funds  for  a  church 
by  renting  pews  to  individuals  or  families  for  their  sole 
use  and  the  use  of  their  guests.  Never  popular  in  Method- 
ism as  a  whole,  the  custom  of  renting  pews  did  however 
prove  acceptable  in  some  sections  of  Methodism,  particu- 
larly New  England,  in  spite  of  the  admonitions  in  the 
Discipline  against  it. 

In  1784  the  answer  to  Question  74  in  the  Discipline 
read,  "Let  all  our  Chapels  be  built  plain  and  decent  .  .  ." 
to  which  was  added  in  1820,  "and  with  free  seats."  Several 
other  paragraphs  were  added  to  this  section  of  the  Dis- 
cipline, one  of  which  read,  "As  it  is  contrary  to  our  econ- 
omy to  build  houses  with  pews  to  sell  or  rent,  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  several  annual  conferences  to  use  their 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PHELAN,   MACUM 


influence  to  prevent  houses  from  being  so  built  in  the 
future;  and  as  far  as  possible  to  make  those  houses  free 
which  have  already  been  built  with  pews." 

These  provisions  were  evidently  not  universally  accept- 
able, for  in  1852  the  Discipline  added,  "wherever  prac- 
ticable" to  the  provision  of  1820  so  that  the  whole  line 
read,  "and  with  free  seats,  wherever  practicable."  Evident- 
ly the  Methodists  were  finding  that  pew  rents  could  be  a 
lucrative  source  of  income. 

Bishop  Matthew  Simpson,  in  his  Cyclopaedia,  said 
that  in  New  England,  "free  churches  are  almost  unknown," 
and  there  are  extant  today  actual  contracts  for  pew  rentals 
of  Methodist  churches  in  New  England.  Simpson  closed 
his  article  by  saying,  "At  present  the  churches  throughout 
the  Middle  States,  and  throughout  the  East  and  South 
generally,  have  free  seats,  except  a  few  in  the  larger 
cities.  In  New  England,  New  York,  Northern  Ohio,  and 
Michigan  a  large  proportion  of  the  churches  are  pewed." 

The  provision  about  pew  rentals  remained  in  the  M.  E. 
Discipline  until  1928.  Today  all  seats  in  Methodist 
churches  everywhere  are  free. 


Disciplines,  ME. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1880. 


Frederick  E.  Maser 


PFEIFFER,    HENRY    (1857-1939),    and   ANNIE    MERNER 

PFEIFFER  (1860-1946),  Henry  Pfeifler  was  born  at  Lewis- 
ton,  Pa.,  March  3,  1857,  son  of  Henry  and  Barbara 
(Kluftinger)  Pfeiffer.  He  was  reared  in  Cedar  Falls,  Iowa, 
where  he  received  his  early  education  in  the  public 
schools.  After  attending  North  Central  College  in 
Illinois,  he  secured  employment  as  a  clerk  in  a  retail 
drug  store  in  Cedar  Falls  and  later  on  became  the  owner. 
In  1891  he  moved  to  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  and  entered  the 
wholesale  drug  business.  Ten  years  later  he  founded  the 
PfeiflFer  Chemical  Company.  In  1908  Pfeiffer  expanded 
his  business  by  purchasing  control  of  William  R.  Warner 
and  Company,  Inc.,  of  Philadelphia,  highly  regarded 
manufacturers,  wholesalers  and  retailers  of  New  York 
City. 

Parallel  with  Pfeiffer's  success  in  business  was  his  in- 
terest in  philanthropies,  particularly  those  related  to  the 
M.E.  Church,  of  which  he  was  a  lifelong  member.  This 
interest  was  aided  by  Mrs.  Pfeiffer  (born  Annie  Memer 
in  New  Hamburg,  Ontario,  Canada,  on  Sept.  23,  1860), 
to  whom  he  was  wed  on  March  7,  1882.  Mrs.  Pfeiffer, 
from  the  beginning,  took  an  active  role  in  the  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E.  Church.  Her  in- 
terest in  homes  for  children  and  the  aged,  and  particularly 
in  educational  institutions  at  home  and  abroad,  was  shared 
by  her  husband.  Their  philanthropies  amounted  to  more 
than  forty  million  dollars  to  colleges  alone.  While  Mr. 
Pfeiffer  carried  on  a  business  that  rapidly  expanded  across 
the  country  and  into  many  foreign  countries,  Mrs.  Pfeif- 
fer was  serving  on  numerous  boards  of  trustees  of  Method- 
ist colleges  and  other  institutions  of  the  church.  Both  were 
the  recipients  of  many  honorary  degrees  and,  in  1935,  a 
junior  college  near  Charlotte,  N.  C,  of  which  Mrs.  Pfeiffer 
was  a  trustee,  changed  its  name  to  Pfeiffer  College  in 
recognition  and  appreciation  for  their  benefactions.  Mr. 
Pfeiffer  died  in  his  eighty-third  year  on  April  13,  1939, 
and  Mrs.  Pfeiffer  passed  away  in  her  eighty-fifth  year  on 
Jan.  8,  1946,  but  the  monuments  to  their  names  and 
benefactions  will  long  remain  to  bless  generations  yet  to 
come. 


PFEIFFER  COLLEGE,  Misenheimer,  North  Carolina,  was 
established  by  Emily  Pruden  as  the  Emily  Pruden  School, 
near  Lenoir,  N.  C,  in  1885.  In  1903  Miss  Pruden  deeded 
the  property  to  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society, 
and  the  name  was  changed  to  Ebenezer  Mitchell  Indus- 
trial Home  and  School.  In  1910  it  was  moved  to  Misen- 
heimer, where  it  operated  as  a  high  school  until  1928, 
when  two  years  of  college  work  were  added.  In  1935  the 
name  was  changed  to  Pfeiffer  Junior  College,  honoring  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Henry  Pfeiffer  of  New  York,  whose  generous 
gifts  made  possible  five  buildings.  It  became  a  senior  col- 
lege in  1954,  and  since  then  its  growth  has  been  phenom- 
enal both  in  resources  and  enrollments. 

In  1961  the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference 
of  The  Methodist  Church  voted  to  sponsor  the  college 
and  to  extend  financial  support  in  a  cooperative  arrange- 
ment with  the  Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Service. 
Pfeiffer  grants  the  B.A.  degree.  The  governing  board  has 
thirty-six  members,  elected  by  the  Western  North  Carolina 
Conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

PFRIMMER,  JOHN  GEORGE  (1762-1825),  pioneer  Ameri- 
can United  Brethren  preacher,  was  bom  in  Alsace,  France. 
He  was  a  surgeon  in  the  French  navy,  who  at  the  age  of 
twenty-eight  emigrated  to  America  where  he  settled  in 
Berks  County,  Pa. 

There  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Philip  William 
Otterbein  and  became  a  preacher  in  1790. 

After  preaching  in  eastern  and  western  Pennsylvania 
he  moved  to  Harrison  County,  Ind.,  in  1808,  eight  years 
after  the  territory'  had  been  opened  to  settlers.  He  became 
a  member  of  the  Indiana  district  of  the  Miami  Confer- 
ence, Church  of  the  Untted  Brethren  in  Christ,  and 
later  ser\'ed  as  superintendent,  then  secretary,  of  that  an- 
nual conference,  as  well  as  secretary  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1825. 

He  was  appointed  an  Associate  Judge  of  the  state  by 
Governor  (later  President)  William  Henry  Harrison,  and 
served  effectively  for  two  years. 

Pfrimmer  played  an  active  part  in  establishing  the 
United  Brethren  Church  in  Indiana.  He  organized  a 
church  which  bore  his  name,  Pfrimmer's  Chapel,  which 
was  the  first  United  Brethren  Church  built  west  of  Ohio. 
He  sensed  the  need  for  the  religious  instruction  of  chil- 
dren and  organized  the  first  Sunday  school  in  the  de- 
nomination in  1820.  He  was  simultaneously  a  physician, 
jurist,  and  a  musician  as  well  as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Pfrimmer  died  Sept.  5,  1825  and  is  buried  near  Cory- 
don,  Ind. 

D.  Berger,  History  of  UB.  1897. 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  UB.  1924. 

C.  H.  Keller,  A  History  of  the  Allegheny  Conference  of  the 

Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ.  Youngwood,  Pa.:  All 

State  Printers,  1943. 

John  Wilson  Owen,  A  Short  History  of  the  United  Brethren 

Church.  Dayton:  Otterbein  Press,  1944. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr.,  article  in  Builders,  Oct.  31,  1965. 

A.  Byron  Fulton 

PHELAN,  MACUM  (1874-1950),  American  minister  and 
author,  was  bom  in  Trenton,  Term.,  Feb.  22,  1874.  As  a 
youth  he  came  to  Texas,  and  soon  entered  the  State  Uni- 
versity at  Austin,  where  he  received  the  M.A.  degree  in 


PHILADELPHIA,   PENNSYLVANIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


1903.  For  a  short  time  he  taught  in  the  public  school 
system.  Reaching  a  decision  to  enter  the  ministry,  he  was 
received  into  the  Northwest  Texas  Conference  on 
Nov.  16,  1905,  and  was  active  from  that  time  until  his 
retirement.  Starting  on  the  Colorado  Circuit  he  was,  at 
different  times,  assigned  to  appointments  including  the 
presiding  eldership  of  the  Vemon  District.  Transferring 
to  California,  he  was  assigned  to  the  Sacramento  Dis- 
trict. On  his  return  to  Texas  he  was  for  several  years 
editorial  assistant  on  the  Southwestern  Christian  Advocate 
(later  the  Texas  Christian  Advocate).  He  returned  to  the 
pastorate,  serving  Haslett  as  his  last  appointment,  retiring 
from  that  charge  in  1937.  He  established  a  home  in  Hand- 
ley,  Texas,  where  he  spent  his  declining  years. 

He  was  married  Nov.  9,  1905,  to  Mrs.  Bonita  Bren- 
nard,  and  to  them  were  bom  six  children. 

An  outstanding  contribution  of  Macum  Phelan  was  his 
two-volume  set  of  The  History  of  Methodism  in  Texas, 
covering  the  years  1817  through  1899.  In  the  preface  to 
that  publication  he  stated:  "All  of  the  old  files  of  the 
Texas  Christian  Advocate  now  in  existence  have  been 
examined  page  by  page,  and  almost  item  for  item,  and 
these  have  been  drawn  upon  to  a  very  considerable 
extent." 

He  also  wrote  sermons  and  addresses.  While  trying  to 
complete  the  second  volume  of  his  book  on  Texas  Method- 
ism, he  developed  an  eye  infection  which  made  it  impos- 
sible for  him  to  read  the  final  proof  of  his  manuscript. 

Representatives  of  the  five  Texas  Annual  Conferences 
of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  met  in  Dallas,  Dec.  5,  1933, 
and  elected  a  committee  to  make  plans  for  the  1936  Cen- 
tennial Celebration  of  Texas  Methodism.  Phelan  was  a 
valuable  member  of  that  committee. 

He  died  Aug.  4,  1950,  and  was  buried  in  Handley, 
Texas. 

Journal  of  tlie  Central  Texas  Conference,  1951. 
O.  W.  Nail,  Southwest  Texas  Conference.  1958. 

,  Texas  Methodism.  1961. 

Texas  Christian  Advocates.  Mrs.   John   H.   Warnick 

PHILADELPHIA,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.  (1970  popula- 
tion 1,927,863).  The  first  Methodist  to  preach  in  Philadel- 
phia was  George  Whitefield.  He  arrived  in  1739.  Two 
of  his  converts,  Edward  Evans  and  James  Emerson,  soon 
began  meeting  informally  with  several  other  hke  minded 
persons.  Through  Charles  von  Wrangle,  a  missionary  to 
the  Swedes  in  Philadelphia,  they  heard  of  John  Wesley 
and  British  Methodism.  Von  Wrangle  recommended  to 
one  of  their  number,  James  Hood,  that  they  give  a  warm 
welcome  to  any  of  Wesley's  preachers  who  might  visit 
Philadelphia.  In  1767  Captain  Thomas  Webb,  a  British 
Methodist  local  preacher,  arrived  in  Philadelphia  and  was 
enthusiastically  greeted  by  the  Philadelphia  Methodists. 
He  organized  them  into  "The  Religious  Society  of  Protes- 
tants called  Methodists."  There  were  seven  members  in  the 
new  Society  meeting  in  a  sail  loft  near  a  drawbridge  on 
Dock  Creek  (now  Dock  Street)  at  Front  Street. 

Through  Webb's  leadership  and  preaching  the  Society 
grew  rapidly,  and  in  1769  when  the  Methodist  preachers, 
Joseph  Pilmobe  and  Richabd  Boardman,  arrived  from 
England  they  found  a  Society  of  100  persons  desiring  to 
be  in  connection  with  John  Wesley.  Pilmore  remained  in 
Philadelphia  as  pastor  of  the  growing  group,  and  Board- 
man  travelled  to  New  York.  They  subsequently  ex- 
changed appointments  about  every  four  months. 


By  this  time,  also,  the  Philadelphia  Methodists  had 
moved  from  their  Dock  Creek  meeting  place  to  a  former 
pot  house  (a  kind  of  tavern  where  beer  was  sold  at  a 
penny  a  pot)  at  number  Eight  Loxley  Court.  Prayer 
meetings  were  held  on  the  first  floor,  and  preaching 
services  were  conducted  from  a  balcony  outside  the 
second  story  window  where  the  preachers  addressed  the 
congregations  gathered  in  the  courtyard  below.  The  ar- 
rangement, however,  was  unsatisfactory,  and  in  1769  the 
Methodists  began  to  look  for  larger  quarters. 

A  splinter  group  from  the  local  German  Reformed 
Church  had  built  the  shell  of  a  huge  building  at  what  is 
now  Fourth  and  New  Streets.  They  borrowed  a  large 
sum  of  money,  but  were  unable  either  to'  complete  the 
building  or  to  pay  ofi^  the  indebtedness,  and  their  trustees 
were  put  into  the  debtor's  jail.  The  Assembly  then  auc- 
tioned off  the  building  to  pay  the  debt,  and  it  was  pur- 
chased by  a  mentally  retarded  youth  for  700  pounds.  His 
father  decried  the  bargain,  but  he  refused  to  sign  an 
affidavit  that  his  boy  v\'as  not  mentally  responsible.  Hear- 
ing that  the  Methodists  were  looking  for  a  building  he 
sold  it  to  them  for  650  pounds.  On  Nov.  24,  1769  the 
Society  moved  into  the  unfinished  building  which  had 
neither  windows  nor  doors  and  only  a  rough  dirt  floor. 

Robert  Williams  came  to  the  New  World  with  a 
license  from  Wesley  to  preach  occasionally  under  the 
direction  of  the  regular  preachers.  His  ship  had  been 
driven  southward  by  storms,  and  he  landed  at  Norfolk. 
He  preached  in  Norfolk  for  a  short  time,  and  then  came 
to  Philadelphia,  the  Methodist  Society  there  paying  his 
way.  By  1769  he  had  gone  to  New  York  and  was  there 
to  greet  Richard  Boardman. 

In  1770  John  King  arrived  from  England  but  not 
having  proper  credentials  from  John  Wesley,  was  refused 
a  local  preacher's  license  by  Pilmore.  King  preached 
a  sermon  in  "Potter's  Field"  (now  Washington  Square) 
and  so  impressed  the  Methodists  who  heard  him  that 
Pilmore  permitted  him  to  give  a  trial  sermon  at  St. 
George's  and  subsequently  licensed  him. 

In  1771  Francis  Asbuby  and  Richard  Wright  ar- 
rived. Asbury  preached  his  first  sermon  in  America  from 
St.  George's  pulpit.  In  fact,  all  of  Wesley's  itinerants 
with  few  exceptions  preached  their  first  seimons  in  the 
new  world  in  St.  George's.  In  Philadelphia  also  Asbury 
formed  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Roberdeau  who  after- 
wards, as  General  Roberdeau,  introduced  Bishops  Coke 
and  Asbury  to  General  Washington  when  they  visited 
him  in  Mt.  Vernon  in  1785  to  discuss  slavery. 

In  1773  Thomas  Rankin  arrived  from  Europe,  having 
been  appointed  general  superintendent  of  the  work  in 
America.  He  held  the  first  American  Methodist  Confer- 
ence in  St.  George's  July  14 — 16,  1773.  Ten  preachers 
were  present,  possibly  eleven,  if  we  accept  William 
Watters'  inference  that  he  also  was  present.  At  this 
Conference  180  members  were  reported  in  the  Society  in 
Philadelphia  and  a  few  surrounding  appointments.  The 
second  and  third  Conferences  of  American  Methodism 
were  also  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1774  and  1775.  In  the 
former  year  the  membership  in  Philadelphia  was  204,  and 
in  1775,  190. 

Notwithstanding  its  plain  and  unfinished  condition,  St. 
George's  was  frequented  by  many  able  men.  Among 
these  was  John  Adams  who  noted  in  his  diary  in  1774 
that  he  had  listened  to  Captain  Webb  with  high  apprecia- 
tion of  his  eloquence.  St.  George's  still  stands  and  his- 
torians consider  it  the  oldest  existing  Methodist  meeting 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PHILADELPHIA,   PENNSYLVANIA 


house  in  America,  and  the  world's  oldest  Methodist 
church  edifice  in  continuous  service. 

The  Revolutionary  War  seriously  affected  the  work 
in  Philadelphia.  When  the  British  occupied  the  city  they 
used  St.  George's  with  its  dirt  floor  as  a  cavalry  school. 
The  Methodists  protested  strongly,  holding  their  meetings 
now  in  the  home  of  Mary  Thome,  the  first  woman  class 
leader  of  American  Methodism.  In  the  year  1776,  there- 
fore, the  Conference  met  in  Baltimore,  and  in  1781 
and  1782  the  name  of  Philadelphia  disappeared  from 
the  Minutes,  although  statistics  were  given  for  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania.  In  1783  Philadelphia  reappeared,  re- 
porting 119  members,  and  in  1784,  the  war  having 
closed,  Philadelphia  reported  470  members. 

In  1789  John  Dickins  was  appointed  Book  Steward 
and  was  also  placed  in  charge  of  the  Philadelphia  ap- 
pointment. Philadelphia  continued  as  the  center  of  the 
publishing  business  imtil  1804  when  it  was  moved  to 
New  York.  In  1790  Richard  Whatcoat  was  appointed 
to  Philadelphia  and  Dickins  became  "Superintendent  of 
the  Printing  and  Book  Business."  In  that  year,  also,  a 
small  brick  building  called  "Ebenezer,"  in  Second  Street 
below  Catherine,  was  opened  by  the  Methodists.  It  was 
the  first  house  of  worship  erected  by  the  Methodists  in 
Philadelphia,  and  was  not  built  until  twenty  years  after 
the  purchase  of  St.   George's.   It   is   no   longer  standing. 

In  1794  on  Sixth  Street  above  Lombard  a  place  of 
worship  was  erected  for  the  colored  people.  It  acquired 
a  large  membership,  and  was  under  the  disciphne  of  the 
M.E.  Church  until  1816.  It  then  became  independent  and 
was  organized  with  other  colored  churches  into  the 
"African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church."  Richard 
Allen,  who  had  been  licensed  to  preach  by  St.  George's 
in  1784,  and  had  been  ordained  as  a  deacon  by  Asbury 
in  1799,  became  the  first  bishop  of  the  new  denomina- 
tion. 

In  1796  in  Brown  Street  a  second  place  of  worship 
was  opened  for  the  colored  Methodists  called  "Zoar." 
This  Society  still  remains  in  connection  with  the  Methodist 
Church. 

In  1793  and  also  in  1794,  1796,  1797  and  1798  a 
yellow  fever  plague  swept  Philadelphia,  and  in  1798 
John  Dickins  died  of  the  epidemic.  He  was  one  of  the 
few  clergymen  who  remained  at  his  post  in  the  city  during 
the  plagues.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  book  business  by 
EzEKiEL  Cooper. 

In  1800  a  number  of  families,  leaving  St.  George's, 
purchased  a  part  of  Whitefield's  Academy  near  Fourth 
and  Arch  Streets,  and  in  1802  founded  "Union  Meth- 
odist Church."  The  original  building  is  gone  but  the 
successor  congregation  is  now  Union  Methodist  Church, 
Brookline,  Pa.,  a  suburb  of  Philadelphia.  The  subsequent 
growth  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Philadelphia  has  been 
steady  though  not  rapid. 

Philadelphia  has  been  the  seat  of  an  Episcopal  Res- 
idence for  over  100  years.  In  1863  Bishop  Matthew 
Simpson,  a  close  friend  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  setded  in 
Philadelphia  at  the  request  of  interested  laymen  who 
presented  him  with  a  house.  He  was  followed  by  Bishop 
Cyrus  D.  Foss,  Bishop  Charles  McCabe  and  Bishop 
Luther  B.  Wilson  respectively.  Bishop  Joseph  F.  Berry, 
who  served  in  Philadelphia  from  1912  to  1928,  was  the 
first  bishop  appointed  to  Philadelphia  under  the  area 
system.  Bishop  Ernest  G.  Richardson  served  from  1928 
to  1944  and  Bishop  Fred  Pierce  Corson  from  1944  to 
1968. 


The  Home  for  the  Aged  in  Bala  just  outside  of  Phila- 
delphia, was  built  in  1898  and  1899  largely  through  the 
benefactions  of  a  Colonel  Joseph  M.  Bennett;  the  Deacon- 
ess Home  was  erected  on  Vine  Street  in  1893  through  the 
further  munificence  of  Colonel  Beimett  (it  has  since 
moved  to  West  Philadelphia);  the  Methodist  Hospital 
was  built  on  South  Broad  Street  in  1888  to  1892  through 
the  generosity  of  Dr.  Scott  Steward  and  today  is  an  en- 
larged and  completely  modernized  institution;  the  Orphan- 
age (now  the  Children's  Home)  was  begun  in  1887 
through  the  help  of  the  ever  generous  Colonel  Bennett; 
the  Historical  Society  of  the  Conference  was  founded  in 
1867  and  today  houses  its  10,000  volume  library,  manu- 
scripts and  relics  at  St.  George's. 

In  1914  a  site  was  purchased  by  the  Tract  Society 
of  the  Conference  and  in  1916  the  Wesley  Building  was 
completed  at  17th  and  Arch  Streets  and  still  houses  the 
Methodist  Book  Store.  The  Book  Store  is  not  connected 
with  the  Publishing  House  but  is  a  venture  of  the  Tract 
Society  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  The  profits  are 
used  for  the  Preachers'  Aid  Society.  It  has  been  in  ex- 
istence on  various  sites  since  1864.  Prior  to  this  date  an 
independent  Methodist  Book  Store  was  in  existence. 

In  1922  part  of  the  Wesley  Building  was  purchased  as 
a  headquarters  by  the  Home  Mission  Board  of  the  Gen- 
eral Church  (now  the  Division  of  National  Missions)  and 
subsequently  the  bishop's  office  and  many  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Conference  agencies  were  established  here.  In 
1967  the  building  was  purchased  by  the  Philadelphia 
Annual  Conference  when  it  was  sold  by  the  Division  of 
National  Missions.  The  Division  moved  to  New  York. 

In  1949  the  General  Board  of  Evangelism  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church  conducted  in  Philadelphia  a  pilot  project 
for  a  United  Preaching  and  Visitation  Evangelistic  Cam- 
paign; 240  churches  joined  in  the  venture,  resulting  in 
9,000  accessions  to  the  church. 

In  1953  a  World  Convocation  on  Evangelism,  celebrat- 
ing the  250th  Anniversary  of  the  birth  of  John  Wesley, 
was  held  in  Philadelphia.  Laymen  and  preachers  from  all 
over  the  world  gathered  in  Convention  Hall  for  meetings 
each  day  and  evening  for  three  days.  On  Sunday  morning, 
June  28,  many  of  the  visiting  preachers  occupied  pulpits 
in  metropolitan  Philadelphia.  In  the  afternoon  despite 
heavy  rains,  35,000  people  gathered  in  Franklin  Field 
for  a  mass  meeting.  One  thousand  individuals  were  per- 
sonally united  to  the  church  that  afternoon  under  the 
leadership  of  Resident  Bishop  Corson. 

The  present  strength  of  Methodism  in  Philadelphia 
includes  ninety-five  Methodist  charges.  There  are  ten 
foirner  E.U.B.  charges,  thirty  A. M.E.  charges,  seven 
A. M.E.  Zion  charges,  and  one  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church. 

The  Academy.  This  structure,  originally  located  on  the 
west  side  of  Fourth  Street  below  Arch  in  Philadelphia, 
was  built  as  a  tabernacle  or  preaching  house  for  George 
Whitefield  and  other  itinerant  preachers  who  desired  a 
hearing  in  the  city.  Begun  in  1740,  it  was  immediately 
used  by  Whitefield  who  preached  to  a  large  congregation 
when  the  walls  were  only  partially  erected.  It  was  com- 
pleted by  1744  and  five  years  later  Benjamin  Franklin 
and  Whitefield  cooperated  in  procuring  it  for  about  777 
pounds  to  house  an  Academy,  the  first  in  Philadelphia. 
It  was  chartered  under  the  name,  "The  Academy  and 
Charity  School."  A  section  was  still  reserved,  however,  as 
a  preaching  center  for  itinerants.  In  1753  it  became  the 


PHILADELPHIA,   PENNSYLVANIA 

"College"  of  Philadelphia  and  was  incorporated  as  "The 
College,  Academy  and  Charitable  School."  A  year  later 
Dr.  WiLLi.\M  SNirrH  became  the  first  Provost.  The  school 
had  an  excellent  reputation  and  in  1753  sixty-five  boys 
were  enrolled  from  near-by  colonies.  In  1779  it  was  con- 
verted into  "The  University  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania," 
out  of  which  the  present  University  of  Pennsylvania  has 
grown.  In  1800  a  group  of  about  fifty  dissidents  left  Old 
St.  George's  Methodist  Church  and  rented  the  north 
end  of  the  Academy  building  in  which  to  worship.  In 
1801  they  purchased  the  south  end,  worshipping  there  for 
about  thirty  years.  They  organized  Union  M.E.  Church 
which  is  still  in  existence,  being  located  today  in  Brook- 
line,  a  suburb  of  Philadelphia. 

In  1802  The  University  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania 
was  moved  from  The  Academy  Building  on  Fourth  Street 
to  the  President's  House  on  the  west  side  of  Ninth  Street, 
south  of  Market.  The  House  had  been  built  as  a  residence 
for  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  but  it  had  never 
been  used  for  this  purpose.  It  was  purchased  by  the 
University  for  $41,650,  about  one  half  of  its  original  cost. 
In  1874  the  University  was  moved  to  its  present  location 
in  West  Philadelphia.  Near  the  men's  dormitories  of  the 
University  there  is  today  a  bronze  statue  of  Whitefield 
commemorating  his  part  in  the  founding  of  the  University. 

The  Academy  building  itself  is  no  longer  in  existence, 
the  site  now  being  partly  used  as  a  parking  lot  for  a 
nearby  restaurant.  At  one  time  a  bronze  tablet  could  be 
seen  on  a  wall  near  this  site:  "The  Whitefield  Meeting 
House  erected  in  1740  for  George  Whitefield  and  for  a 
Charity  School  subsequently  used  until  1812  by  the 
School,  Academy,  College  and  University  of  Pennsylvania 
successively."  The  University  had  moved  in  1802. 

Albert  W.  ClifiFe  in  his  book.  The  Glory  of  Our  Meth- 
odist Heritage,  adds  this  other  word:  It  was  "the  first 
symbol  of  Religious  Freedom  in  America  as  it  was  used 
expressly  for  the  use  of  any  preacher  of  any  religious 
persuasion  who  might  desire  to  say  something  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Philadelphia." 

Arch  Street  Church  is  the  stately  Italian  white  marble 
Gothic  cathedral  at  the  very  center  of  the  city  of  "Brother- 
ly Love."  The  Romanesque  Masonic  Temple  is  next  door 
and  the  French  Renaissance  City  Hall  is  situated  just  be- 
yond that  with  the  famous  Billy  Penn  statue  on  top  of  it. 

This  is  the  hub  of  the  industrial,  business,  historical 
and  social  life  of  the  city.  Arch  Street  Church  is  the  oldest 
building  in  this  complex,  dating  from  1862.  New  high- 
rise  business  oflBces  and  apartments  contrast  the  new  with 
the  old — but  the  self-giving  life  of  the  church  is  ever 
expanding. 

A  full  program  for  the  college  or  graduate  students  in 
center  city  is  maintained.  An  open  chapel  daily  invites 
hundreds  to  pray  away  from  the  noise  of  the  city.  The 
social  services  rendered  reach  into  every  part  of  the  city 
and  government  as  well  as  to  the  many  strangers  who 
need  a  helping  hand. 

Weekly  Sunday  evening  services  and  mid-week  Hour 
of  Power  are  still  popular  here  serving  a  downtown  tran- 
sient people.  The  business  community  enjoys  the  outstand- 
ing preachers  presented  each  noonday  during  Lent.  One 
of  the  largest  Wesleyan  Service  Guilds  in  the  East 
meets  here,  as  well  as  a  weekly  noonday  Business  Men's 
spiritual  luncheon. 

The  visitors  at  the  Sunday  morning  service  include 
every  state  in  the  Union  and  almost  all  the  countries  of 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Arch  Street  Church, 
Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania 

the  world  during  the  course  of  a  year.  The  church  has 
the  privilege  of  entertaining  these  transients  and  getting 
further  acquainted  at  a  CoflFee  Hour  following  the  service. 

The  Bishop  of  the  area  considers  this  his  family  church. 
The  ashes  of  Bishop  Ernest  G.  Richardson  are  interred 
under  the  marble  pulpit  which  has  presented  almost  every 
great  preacher  of  each  generation  to  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia. General  Grant  attended  service  regularly  with 
Bishop  Simpson  and  his  family. 

Besides  being  the  Conference  seat  where  the  Phila- 
delphia Annual  Conference  meeting  is  held,  Arch  Street 
is  always  employing  new  approaches  to  serve  its  great 
Center  City  populace,  using  as  its  motto  "  'Where  Cross 
the  Crowded  Ways'  men  find  their  way  by  the  Cross." 

Bethel  A.M.E.  Church.  The  "Mother  Church"  of  the 
A. M.E.  denomination  began  in  1786  in  St.  George's  M.E. 
Church,  as  a  Prayer  Band  of  forty-two  Negroes  under  the 
leadership  of  Richard  Allen.  Following  an  incident  in- 
volving racial  discrimination  in  1787,  Allen  and  several 
other  Negro  members  withdrew  from  St.  George's  and 
organized  a  "Free  African  Society."  By  1794  an  African 
meeting  house  (Bethel)  had  been  built,  dedicated  by 
Francis  Asbury  and  opened  for  worship  with  Allen  as 
preacher.  Between  1794  and  1816  the  Philadelphia  M.E. 
Conference  sought  to  reclaim  Bethel.  The  matter  was  set- 
tled when  Bethel  was  granted  legal  independence  from 
St.  George's  in  1816. 

About  1840,  the  1794  structure  was  replaced  by  a 
second  brick  church  which  remained  until  1889,  when 
the  present  structure  was  built  on  the  original  site  pur- 
chased by  Allen.  Seven  pastors  have  been  elected  to  the 
episcopacy  from  the  pastorate  of  Bethel:   Richard  Allen 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PHrLADELPHIA,   PENNSYLVANIA 


(1816),  Morris  Brown  (1828),  Willis  Nazery  (1852), 
Cornelius  T.  Shaffer  (1900),  Levi  J.  Coppin  (1900), 
William  H.  Heard  (1908)  and  John  D.  Bright  (1964). 

Methodist  Home  for  the  Aged  was  founded  in  the 
spring  of  1865  in  the  era  often  referred  to  as  "Victorian," 
and  indelibly  marks  the  year  when  Bishop  Matthew  Simp- 
son and  his  wife  used  their  talents  and  substance  to  bring 
the  Home  into  reality.  Having  acquired  an  "old"  mansion 
with  a  tract  of  land  in  1867,  located  on  Lehigh  Avenue, 
between  12th  and  13th  Streets,  it  was  opened  as  a  resi- 
dence in  1868  with  twenty-five  guests.  This  project,  a 
pioneer  in  the  concern  and  care  for  aging  Philadelphia, 
grew  so  rapidly  that  within  a  very  brief  period  a  new 
building  was  erected,  this  time  providing  accommodations 
for  100  persons.  This  was  the  largest  Home  for  Aging  in 
Philadelphia  at  the  time. 

Finally,  again  through  the  intense  interest  of  the 
Simpsons,  in  1898  a  new  site  was  acquired  in  what  is 
considered  today  Urban  Philadelphia.  This  overlooks  the 
famed  Fairmount  Park,  and  there  now  are  impressive 
buildings  with  ample  accommodations  for  240  people. 
Through  the  years  the  Home  has  enjoyed  a  reputation 
for  e.xcellent  management  under  the  direction  of  a  Board 
of  Managers  and  the  Trustees.  In  addition,  the  Home  is 
supervised  by  a  professional  staff  training  in  geriatrics 
care.  In  recent  years  a  modern  infirmary  has  been  opened 
with  a  capacity  of  seventy-two  beds.  During  the  101st 
Anniversary  the  new  Barnes  facilities  building  was  dedi- 
cated. 

The  present  value  of  the  property  is  $3,038,300  and 
that  of  the  contents  and  equipment  is  $335,616.  Cur- 
rently there  is  no  indebtedness.  The  operating  budget 
today  exceeds  $500,000. 

Methodist  Home  for  Children,  The,  serves  as  a  home 
for  approximately  sixty-five  school-aged  children  from 
Philadelphia  and  surrounding  areas.  It  was  founded  as  an 
oiphanage  in  1879  by  Mrs.  Ellen  Simpson,  wife  of  Bishop 
Matthew  Simpson.  In  the  years  that  followed  it  became 
evident  that  the  children  needing  a  Home  most  desperate- 
ly were  no  longer  orphans,  but  rather  dependent  and 
neglected  children  from  broken,  disturbed,  and  deprived 
families.  The  Home  gradually  shifted  its  program  to  meet 
that  need,  and  the  name  was  subsequently  changed  from 
Methodist  Episcopal  Orphanage  to  Methodist  Home  for 
Children.  The  Home  today  is  more  professionally  staffed 
than  was  possible  in  the  past,  and  includes  two  social 
workers,  a  part-time  psychologist,  and  a  part-time  psychia- 
trist, in  order  to  deal  with  the  complex  problems  of  in- 
dividual children  coming  out  of  abnormal  backgrounds. 

Other  concepts  have  changed  through  the  years.  Where- 
as originally  the  children  of  the  Home  participated  in  an 
internal  religious  and  educational  program,  having  school 
and  church  on  the  grounds,  the  emphasis  is  now  based 
upon  the  hope  of  preparing  the  children  to  be  a  part  of 
normal  society  rather  than  isolated  from  it.  Now  most  of 
the  children  attend  public  schools,  with  supplementary 
tutoring  at  the  Home,  while  religious  education  is  given 
both  within  the  Home  and  in  local  Methodist  churches. 

In  1966  two  modem  cottages  were  completed,  each 
housing  fourteen  children  and  two  houseparents  in  single 
and  double  rooms.  These  replaced  the  old  two  and  three 
story  doiTnitory-type  buildings  which  had  served  since  the 
early  1900's.  Two  other  modern  cottages  are  presently  in 
process  of  being  built.  The  beautiful  old  stone  Administra- 
tion Building,  containing  the  chapel,  dining  hall,  recre- 


ation room,  infirmary,  and  offices,  has  been  renovated.  The 
aim  of  the  Home  is  to  give  deprived  children  the  per- 
sonal, professional  care  necessary  for  them  to  develop  into 
happy  and  useful  maturity. 

Old  Ebenezer  was  the  first  church  built  by  the  Meth- 
odists in  Philadelphia,  St.  George's  having  been  purchased 
from  another  denomination.  Erected  in  1790,  it  is  men- 
tioned frequently  in  Bishop  Asbury's  Journal.  On  one 
occasion  a  crowd  gathered  around  the  church  while  As- 
bury  was  preaching.  They  began  "fighting,  swearing, 
threatening."  Asbury  wrote,  "This  is  a  wicked,  horribly 
wicked  city;  and  if  the  people  do  not  reform,  I  think  they 
will  be  let  loose  on  one  another.  .  .  ."  (Vol.  1,  pp.  729, 
730) 

The  church  was  moved  three  times  in  its  history,  and 
the  successor  church  today  is  Ebenezer,  Havertown  at 
Eagle  and  Steel  Roads  outside  of  Philadelphia.  The  orig- 
inal building  located  on  2nd  St.  near  Queen  is  no  longer 
in  existence. 

St.  George's  Church  (see  under  St.  George's). 

Zoar  Church  (African  Zoar  Methodist  Epsicopal) 
founded  in  1794,  represents  the  historic  continuity  of  the 
Afro-American  within  the  traditional  stream  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church.  She  represents  the  remnant  of  Negroes  who 
in  the  early  days  of  the  Republic,  although  disliking 
the  patterns  of  participation  available  to  them,  refused  to 
separate  themselves  from  the  fold  of  the  "John  Wesley 
Methodists."  The  eighteen  men  and  three  women  used 
an  abandoned  butcher  shop  as  their  first  place  of  public 
worship  at  Brown  and  Fourth  Streets.  Later  a  lot  was 
purchased,  the  first  edifice  erected  and  dedicated  by 
Bishop  Francis  Asbury  and  John  Dickins,  Aug.  4,  1796. 
This  was  Methodism's  third  structure  built  in  Philadelphia. 

Zoar  was  not  included  in  appointments  separately  under 
St.  George's  until  1811.  She  became  a  separate  station 
under  the  Covenant  of  Assumption  in  April,  1835,  and 
was  listed  in  1836  as  having  450  members.  Perry  Tilgh- 
man,  lay  preacher,  was  the  first  Negro  pastor-in-charge 
from  1835  to  1844. 

The  Zoar  Church  received  its  charter  from  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Pennsylvania  on  June  14,  1837.  The 
congregation  moved  from  Brown  and  Fourth  Streets  to 
the  present  site,  1204-08  Melon  Street,  in  1883. 

The  first  Convention  of  Colored  Local  Preachers  and 
Laymen  met  at  Zoar,  Aug.  23-27,  1852,  and  the  second 
convention  on  June  28,  1855.  The  first  Conference  of 
Colored  Local  Preachers  met  on  August  5  and  6,  1857, 
under  the  leadership  of  Bishop  Levi  Scott,  and  by  the 
authority  of  the  1856  General  Conference.  Among  the 
nineteen  local  preachers  who  attended  were  James  Davis, 
and  David  Tilghman,  local  elders;  and  Richard  Crawford 
from  Zoar.  The  third  and  sixth  conferences  were  also  held 
at  Zoar,  Aug.  10,  1859  and  Aug.  7  and  8,  1862,  respec- 
tively. This  series  of  conferences  (1857-1863)  became 
the  immediate  forerunner  of  the  Delaware  Annual  Con- 
ference of  the  M.E.  Church  instituted  by  the  General 
Conference  of  1864  on  recommendation  of  the  "Commit- 
tee on  the  State  of  the  Work  Among  the  People  of  Color." 

At  the  General  Conference  of  1868,  James  Davis, 
charter  member  of  the  Delaware  Conference  and  a  son  of 
Zoar,  was  the  first  Negro  ever  to  be  seated  as  a  General 
Conference  delegate. 

Among  the  deaconesses  commissioned  early  in  this 
century  was  Shelly  Jane  Gale  of  Zoar  who  was  consecrated 
by  Bishop  Edward  G.  Andrews,  March  18,  1904. 


PHIUOELPHIA   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


TiNDLEY  Temple,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania 


Existing  churches  founded  bv  Zoar  are:  Tindley  Tem- 
ple (John  Wesley,  1837);  Janes  Memorial  (1872);  St. 
Thomas,  Frankford  (1872);  Haven  Memorial  (1878); 
St.  John's,  Spring  Lake,  N.  J.  (1885);  and  Mt.  Zion 
(1915). 

Richard  Allen,  Life  Experience.  1833. 
F.  Asbuxy,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 
A.  W.  ClifFe,  Our  Methodist  Heritage.  1957. 
William  Colbert,  "Journal,"  ms.  St.  George's  Church. 
William  Douglass,  Annals  of  the  First  African  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America.  Philadelphia:  King  and  Baird,  1862. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

A.   Stevens,   History  of  the  M.   E.   Church,    1864-67. 
F.  H.  Tees,  Methodist  Origins.  1948. 

Carter  G.  Woodson,  The  History  of  the  Negro  Church.  Wash- 
ington, D.  C:  Associated  Publishers,  1921. 

Frederick  E.  Maseb 

James  M.  Haney 

Grant  S.  Shockley 

Robert  L.  Curhy 

H.  Darrel  Stone 

Joshua  E.  Licorish 

PHILADELPHIA  CONFERENCE  (ME).  The  first  three  con- 
ferences of  Methodist  preachers  in  America  were  con- 
ducted by  Thomas  Rankin  in  Old  St.  George's  Chubch, 
Philadelphia,  in  1773,  1774,  and  1775.  These  and  in- 
deed all  of  the  conferences  prior  to  the  organization  of 
the  M.E.  Church  in  1784  were  gatherings  of  all  the  Meth- 
odist preachers  in  the  land,  and  each  meeting  was  called, 
"Some  conversations  between  the  Preachers  in  Connection 
with  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley."  Except  in  1779  there  was  only 
one  such  conference  each  year. 

After  the  organization  of  the  church  in  1784,  the  meet- 


ings of  the  preachers  over  which  Bishop  Asbury  presided 
were  called  "annual  conferences."  From  1785  to  1787  in- 
clusive, apparently  the  preachers  in  Philadelphia  and 
vicinity  traveled  to  the  annual  conferences  which  Asbury 
held  in  Baltimore  or  elsewhere.  Then  on  Sept.  22,  1788 
Asbury  convened  a  conference  in  Philadelphia,  and  there- 
after the  Philadelphia  Conference  met  annually.  Thus  it 
is  proper  to  date  the  Philadelphia  Conference  from  1788. 

In  1796  the  General  Conference  designated  six  an- 
nual conferences  with  boundaries,  and  the  Philadelphia 
Conference  was  one  of  the  sL\.  At  the  time  it  embraced 
New  York  west  of  the  Hudson  River,  Pennsylvanla 
east  of  the  Susquehanna  River,  New  Jersey,  Delaware, 
and  the  remainder  of  the  Peninsula.  (See  Pennsylvania 
for  beginnings  of  Methodism  in  the  state. )  The  boundaries 
of  the  conference  were  altered  a  number  of  times  as  the 
years  passed  and  eventually  about  a  dozen  conferences  in 
whole  or  in  part  were  carved  from  the  territory  of  the 
Philadelphia  Conference. 

Through  the  decades  the  Philadelphia  Conference  was 
a  strong  and  influential  body.  In  1808  when  the  denomi- 
nation had  about  152,000  members,  some  36,000  of  them 
were  in  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  Thirty-two  of  the 
129  preachers  eligible  to  sit  in  the  1808  General  Confer- 
ence were  members  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  Ten 
members  of  the  conference  have  been  elevated  to  the 
episcopacy:  George  H.  Bickley,  Charles  W.  Burns, 
John  Emory,  Edmund  S.  Janes,  W.  Vernon  Middleton, 
Thomas  B.  Neely,  Robert  R.  Roberts,  Levi  Scott, 
Henry  W.  Warren,  and  Isaac  W.  Wiley.  Bickley  and 
Neely  were  bom  in  Philadelphia. 

The  conference  supports  the  Methodist  Hospital  in 
Philadelphia,  a  Children's  Home  at  Bala,  and  Homes  for 


WORLD   METHODISM 

the  Aged  at  Bala  and  Cornwall.  Three  camps  are  main- 
tained— Innabah,  Pocono  Plateau,  and  Carson-Simpson 
Farm.  While  there  are  no  Methodist  colleges  within  the 
bounds  of  the  conference,  it  cooperates  with  the  Balti- 
more Conference  in  supporting  Dickinson  College 
at  Carlisle,  Pa.  The  office  of  the  bishop  of  the  Philadelphia 
Area,  is  at  1701  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia. 

In  1952  the  Puerto  Rico  Provisional  Annual  Confer- 
ence was  added  to  the  Philadelphia  Area,  and  since  that 
time  the  churches  in  the  area  have  greatly  aided  the  grow- 
ing Puerto  Rico  work.  The  conference  gave  strong  sup- 
port to  the  World  Convocation  on  Evangelism  which 
was  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1953,  capitalizing  on  the  two 
hundred  fiftieth  anniversary  of  John  Wesley's  birth. 

In  more  recent  years  the  territory  of  the  Philadelphia 
Conference  has  been  southeastern  Pennsylvania  only.  In 
1968  the  conference  reported  394  ministers,  340  pastoral 
charges,  141,333  members,  and  property  valued  at  $113,- 
314,138. 

The  Philadelphia  Conference  merged  with  portions  of 
the  Eastern  and  Central  Pennsylvania  Conferences 
(former  E.U.B.)  on  Jan.  1,  1970,  to  fonm  the  Eastern 
Pennsylvania  Conference. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference. 

Francis  H.  Tees,  History  of  Old  St.  George's  Church,  including 

Sketch  of  Philadelphia  Conference.  Germantown,  Pa. :  Paramore 

Print  Shop,  1934.  Frederick  E.  Maser 

PHILADELPHIA  METHODIST,  THE,  was  a  magazine  pub- 
lished twice  a  month  by  the  Tract  Society  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Conference  from  the  year  1879  to  1916.  It 
contained  some  news  of  the  general  church,  but  it  was 
more  of  a  local  news  sheet  for  the  benefit  of  the  friends 
and  members  of  the  churches  of  the  Philadelphia  Con- 
ference. Growing  out  of  the  Monthly  Messenger  of  the 
Tract  Society,  it  was  an  ambitious  undertaking  of  eight 
newspaper-size  pages  of  which  the  Corresponding  Secre- 
tary of  the  Tract  Society,  J.  B.  McCullough,  was  the 
Editor.  In  1885  McCullough  became  full  time  Editor  of 
the  Philadelphia  Methodist,  another  person  assuming  the 
position  of  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Tract  Society. 
The  paper  reached  its  largest  size  and  subscription  list 
when  in  1894  it  was  increased  to  sixteen  pages.  It  con- 
tinued over  twenty  more  years,  changing  its  name  toward 
the  end  of  its  life  to  the  Methodist  Times.  Interest  in  the 
paper  slowly  waned,  however,  and  in  1916  the  Tract 
Society  reported  to  the  Conference,  "financial  returns 
[do]  not  warrant  the  continuance  of  the  Methodist 
Times."  The  report  added,  "we  rejoice  in  the  beautiful 
spirit  exhibited  by  the  Times  management"  in  sending  to 
the  New  York  Christian  Advocate  its  subscription  list. 

Minutes  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  Frederick  E.  Maser 

PHILANDER  SMITH  COLLEGE,  Little  Rock,  Arkansas, 
was  established  as  Walden  Seminary  in  1877  and  char- 
tered in  1883  as  Philander  Smith  College,  in  recognition 
of  gifts  from  the  Smith  family  of  Oak  Park,  Illinois.  The 
college  is  one  of  the  institutions  founded  in  the  South 
for  the  education  of  Negroes  by  the  Fbeedmen's  Aid 
Society  of  the  M.E.  Church.  Under  the  leadership  of 
Bishop  M.  L.  Harris,  who  served  as  president  for  twenty- 
four  years,  the  college  was  accredited  and  its  resources 


PHILIPPINES,    REPUBLIC   OF   THE 

greatly  expanded.  Degrees  granted  are  the  B.A.,  B.S.  and 
B.S.  in  Home  Economics.  The  governing  board  consists 
of  twenty-eight  members  elected  by  the  board.  Owner- 
ship of  the  college  and  its  holdings  is  vested  with  the 
General  Board  of  Education  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church. 

John  O.  Gross 

PHILIPPINES,  REPUBLIC  OF  THE,  is  the  largest  island 
group  of  the  Malay  Archipelago,  discovered  in  1521  by 
Magellan,  conquered  in  1565  by  the  Spaniards,  and  for 
333  years  a  part  of  the  Spanish  overseas  possessions.  The 
islands  were  ceded  to  the  United  States  in  1899  in  the 
treaty  after  the  Spanish-American  War.  On  July  4,  1946 
the  independent  Republic  of  the  Philippines  was  formally 
recognized.  The  islands  are  1,150  miles  from  north  to 
south  and  682  miles  from  east  to  west,  with  a  total  area 
of  115,707  square  miles  lying  entirely  within  the  tropics. 
The  estimated  population  in  1970  was  37,158,000.  The 
people  are  chiefly  of  the  Malay  race.  Approximately  one- 
third  of  the  population  speaks  Enghsh  and  one-third 
speaks  Tagalog,  the  national  language  since  1946.  Taga- 
log,  Spanish  and  English  are  the  official  languages  for 
government  and  commerce. 

Church  and  State  are  separate  by  constitution  and  there 
is  freedom  of  worship  and  of  conscience  except  to  the 
degree  that  social  and  indirect  political  pressures  are 
exerted  by  the  dominant  church.  About  82  percent  of  the 
population  is  Roman  Catholic.  Aglipayans  number  2,000,- 
000;  Muslims,  791,000;  Protestants,  500,000.  For  almost 
four  centuries  following  Magellan's  discovery  of  the  archi- 
pelago he  named  the  Philippine  Islands,  Spain  dominated 
the  political  life  of  the  people  with  a  heavy  hand,  and 
Catholic  missionaries — and  later  Catholic  priests — domi- 
nated the  religious  life.  People  and  taxes  were  for  Spain's 
wealth;  any  rehgious  group  other  than  Roman  Catholic 
was  forbidden  to  carry  on  its  religious  services. 

And  then,  suddenly,  Dewey's  defeat  of  the  Spanish 
fleet  in  May  1898  changed  the  whole  political,  religious, 
social  and  economic  situation  in  the  Philippines.  American 
rule  and  then  self-rule  (the  latter  on  July  4,  1946)  came 
quickly.  Religious  liberty  was  immediately  proclaimed 
and  practiced.  Three  months  after  Spain's  dominance 
ended,  the  first  Protestant  service  was  held  in  the  Islands 
— by  Chaplain  George  Stull,  a  minister  of  the  M.E. 
Church  who  arrived  with  the  occupying  forces.  Though 
the  service  was  primarily  for  the  military,  many  Filipinos 
— freed  from  the  old  Spanish-Catholic  prohibitions — 
joined  the  soldiers  in  worship. 

In  March  1899,  Bishop  James  M.  Thoburn,  Methodist 
missionary  bishop  for  India  and  elsewhere  in  Southern 
Asia,  arrived  in  Manila  with  letters  from  the  Missionary 
Society  in  America  appointing  him  to  begin  missionar>' 
services  in  the  newly-liberated  land.  A  year  later,  Bishop 
Thoburn  ordained  one  Nicholas  Zamora  as  the  first 
Filipino  Methodist  preacher. 

During  the  early  years  of  the  new  century,  a  large 
number  of  newly-named  Methodist  missionaries  arrived 
from  the  United  States — and  educational  and  medical 
services  were  developed  along  with  a  rapidly  gathering 
and  training  of  Methodist  congregations  both  in  the  cities 
and  in  the  rural  villages.  The  Woman's  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  sent  several  women  missionaries  to  the 
Phihppines.  The  women  organized  a  boarding  school  for 
girls,  and  this  was  later  to  become  the  Harris  Deaconess 
School.  During  1900,  also,  the  activities  of  the  missionaries 


PHILIPPINES,    REPUBLIC   OF   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


NiPA  Church,  Phu-ippines 


spread  from  Manila  to  San  Fernando  in  Pampanga,  and 
to  Malolos  in  Bulacan;  and  the  seven  preaching  places 
(with  seven  Filipino  workers  and  220  probationers)  were 
organized  as  "the  Philippine  Islands  District  of  the  Ma- 
laysia Conference." 

In  the  first  ten  years  of  the  century,  the  Methodist  Pub- 
lishing House  opened  a  press  in  Manila — publishing  The 
Philippine  Christian  Advocate  in  English,  Spanish,  and 
four  Filipino  languages;  Harris  Memorial  School  was 
founded;  Mary  Johnston  Hospital  was  established;  Union 
Theological  Seminary  was  founded  by  Methodists  and 
Presbyterians;  and  several  notable  churches — including 
Central  and  Knox  Memorial  churches — were  organized. 
By  1908  the  membership  had  grown  to  the  point  that  the 
work  was  organized  into  the  Philippine  Islands  Annual 
Conference. 

Methodist  missionaries  to  the  Philippines  worked  zeal- 
ously in  the  development  of  indigenous  leadership — for 
the  church  and  its  institutions.  The  long  restlessness  of 
the  Filipinos  under  Spanish  rule,  the  educational  opportu- 
nities given  by  the  American  school  system  in  the  Islands, 
and  the  new  spirit  of  freedom  and  achievement  and 
search  for  "a  place  in  the  sun"  all  contributed  to  the 
churchmen's  desire  to  conduct  their  own  religious  services 
and  institutions  free  from  anything  that  looked  like  Amer- 
ican domination  or  tutorship.  The  spirit  of  nationalism  rose 
high — and  affected  both  the  church  and  secular  institu- 
tions. Unfortunately,  the  American  Methodist  Church, 
moving  as  fast  as  its  machinery  for  organization  permitted, 
was  not  speedy  enough  for  some  of  the  Methodists  of  the 
Philippines,  and  a  considerable  group  of  the  latter  broke 
away  from  the  Annual  Conference  and  formed  "The 
Evangelical  Methodist  Church  in  the  Philippine  Islands." 
This  new  church  was  then  led  by  the  aforementioned 
Nicholas  Zamora.  Friendly  and  cooperative  relationships 
exist  between  this  new  church  and  the  Philippine  Islands 
Central  Conference — but  the  breach  has  not  been  healed. 

Prior  to  the  organization  of  the  Central  Conference 
(which  elects  its  own  bishops  and  is  in  many  other  ways 


self-governing),  the  Philippine  Islands  Annual  Conference 
was  divided  into  the  Philippines  Annual  Conference,  and 
the  Northern  Philippines  Annual  Conference;  and  more 
recently  (1949)  the  Northwest  Philippines  Annual  Con- 
ference was  created,  and  (1955)  the  Mindanao  Provisional 
Annual  Conference  was  added.  The  first  session  of  the 
still  newer  Middle  Philippines  Annual  Conference  met 
in  1961.  This  rapid  growth  in  conferences  reflects  the 
rapid  growth  of  Methodism  in  the  Islands. 

The  Church  had  suffered  heavily  in  men  and  in  edi- 
fices of  worship  during  the  years  of  Japanese  occupation 


lil|iliii;iiili|i|L,t 

St.  John's  Chubch,  Quezon  City 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PHILIPPINES,    REPUBLIC   OF   THE 


in  the  second  World  War — but  the  Christians  had  neither 
flinched  nor  knuckled  under,  and  their  post-war  recovery 
was  a  remarkable  chapter  of  history. 

Methodism  in  the  Philippines  has  been  strengthened  by 
the  coming  in  of  about  fifteen  United  Methodist  mission- 
aries who  came  from  the  former  E.U.B.  Church  in  Amer- 
ica and  who  had  been  serving  in  what  was  called  The 
United  Church  of  Christ  in  the  Philippines.  In  1929,  the 
United  Brethren  joined  the  Presbyterian  and  the  Con- 
gregationalists  to  form  the  United  Evangelical  Church. 
That  Church  was  a  major  party  in  the  formation  of  the 
United  Church  of  Christ  in  the  Philippines  in  1948,  with 
the  Disciples  being  the  other  main  group.  With  the 
Philippine  Methodists  and  the  United  Brethren  in  the 
United  Church  of  Christ  in  the  Phihppines,  a  rather  in- 
teresting situation  came  about  at  the  union  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church  with  the  E.U.B.  Church  in  May  of  1968. 
The  net  result  has  been  a  great  strengthening  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church  in  the  Philippines. 


mail wPAd!  (.Ill  i  HHJh 


Philippine  Wesleyan  College 

Outstanding  institutions  still  ser\'ing  the  Filipino  peo- 
ple include:  Union  Theological  Seminary,  Mary  Johnston 
Hospital  and  School  of  Nursing,  Harris  Memorial  School, 
Philippine  Christian  College,  Methodist  Social  Center 
(Manila),  Philippine  Wesleyan  College,  Northern  Philip- 
pines Academy,  Thobum  Memorial  Academy,  Eveland 
Memorial  Academy,  Aldersgate  Junior  College,  Asbui"y 
Junior  College,  Aurora  Wesleyan  High  School,  Bethel 
Girls'  High  School,  Greene  Academy,  Jose  L.  Valencia 
Academy,  San  Mateo  Farm  Research  Center,  Methodist 
Rural  Center  at  Kidapawan,  three  mobile  clinics,  and 
eight  student  centers. 

The  Methodist  Church  in  the  Philippines  has  for  some 
time  been  administered  by  two  Filipino  bishops  elected  by 
the  Central  Conference.  In  1968  Bishop  Jose  L.  Valen- 
cia retired  at  the  Central  Conference  after  twenty  years 
of  service  in  the  episcopacy  and  Bishop  Benjamin  I. 
CuANSiNG  died  in  June  1968,  after  a  little  more  than  a 
year  of  episcopal  service.  To  replace  these  two  bishops, 
CoRNELio  M.  Ferrer  and  Paul  L.  Granadosin  were 
elected  by  the  Central  Conference  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church  of  the  Philippines  in  Manila  at  the  Nov.  22- 
Dec.  1  Conference.  They  will  serve  four  year  terms. 

A  new  conference,  the  Southwest  Philippines  Pro- 
visional Annual  Conference,  was  constituted  in  1969 
by  Bishop  Comelio  M.  Ferrer,  presiding.  This  comprises 
territory  formerly  in  the  Philippines  Annual  Conference, 
including  many  large  and  small  islands  between  Luzon 
and  Mindanao.  Among  these  are  Mindoro,  Palawan,  Cebu, 


and  others  where  Methodist  work  is  either  beginning  or 
in  the  developing  stage. 

The  Philippines  Central  Conference,  as  at  present  con- 
stituted, is  comprised  of  the  Philippines,  the  Northwest 
Philippines,  Northern  Philippines,  Middle  Phihppines, 
and  Mindanao,  with  the  Southwest  Philippines  as  the 
new  conference.  The  Central  Conference  is  one  of  two 
Church  bodies  in  the  Philippines  related  to  United  Meth- 
odism in  America.  The  other  is  United  Church  of  Christ 
in  the  Philippines.  Bishop  Ferrer's  Episcopal  Address  at 
the  constituting  conference,  held  in  the  Knox  Memorial 
Church  in  Manila,  was  entitled,  "God  is  giving  us  a  New 
Church  in  the  Philippines."  Latest  reports  indicate  that 
there  are  130,830  full  and  preparatory  members  in  The 
United  Methodist  Church  of  the  Philippines. 

E.U.B.  Church.  As  a  "Silver  Anniversary  Memorial" 
the  Board  of  the  Women's  Missionary  Association  of  the 
United  Brethren  in  Christ  voted  in  1901  to  establish  a 
mission  in  the  Philippines.  The  first  missionaries,  Sanford 
B.  Kurtz  and  Edwin  S.  Eby,  arrived  there  in  1901  and 
took  up  their  work  in  three  provinces  in  the  northwestern 
part  of  Luzon  under  the  direction  of  a  Comity  Commit- 
tee. The  new  work  met  with  strong  opposition  from  native 
superstition  and  Romanism.  The  arrival  of  H.  W.  Widdoes 
and  his  wife  in  1903  and  their  successes  at  San  Fernando 
marked  the  beginning  of  better  things.  By  1908  a  mission 
conference  was  organized,  schools  were  opened,  the  Scrip- 
ture was  translated,  a  weekly  religious  newspaper  was 
published  in  Uocano  and,  in  1920  Bethany  hospital  was 
erected  at  San  Fernando.  This  mission  became  the  most 
rapidly  growing  mission  which  the  denomination  sup- 
ported. 

The  Japanese  invasion  of  Luzon  wrought  havoc  upon 
this  enterprise  in  the  Philippines.  The  church  in  an  heroic 
manner  rebuilt  her  work. 

Just  two  years  after  the  union  of  the  Evangelical  Church 
and  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  Church,  in  1948,  the 
United  Church  of  Christ  in  the  Philippines  brought  to- 
gether in  union  these  churches:  The  Christian  Churches 
(Disciples  of  Christ);  The  Evangelical  United  Breth- 
ren Church,-  the  Congregational  Church  (now  United 
Church  of  Christ);  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  the 
Philippines  Methodist  Church.  Through  this  union  there 
have  come  additional  ministries  in  higher  education,  hos- 
pitals, in  the  newly  located  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
and  by  means  of  the  organization  of  the  National  Council 
of  Churches  in  the  Philippines,  new  steps  in  ecumenical 
endeavors.  The  E.U.B.  Church  provided  about  twenty 
missionaries  in  this  United  Church. 

Free  Methodist  Church.  On  recommendation  of  the 
Philippine  Church  Federation,  Free  Methodist  mission- 
aries started  work  in  1949  on  Mindanao,  the  second  largest 
of  the  Phihppine  Islands.  Main  stations  are  on  the  Agusan 
River  at  Bunawan  and  Butuan.  Missionaries  Groesbeck 
and  Schlosser  (from  China)  found  few  roads.  They 
traveled  by  coastal  steamer,  river  boat  or  on  foot.  New 
converts  became  lay-preachers  and  assisted  placing  pre- 
tuned  gospel  radio  sets  and  hand-wound  phonographs 
with  gospel  recordings  in  the  interior  villages.  Churches 
were  organized  on  a  self-support  basis.  A  Bible  School 
opened  in  1955  now  occupies  a  fine  campus  at  Butuan. 
Each  student  spends  one  year  in  field  work  before  gradu- 
ation. Government  high  schools  are  open  for  Bible  in- 
struction. Primitive  outlaw  tribes  have  been  converted  and 
reconciled  with  the  government.  Some  translation  of 
Christian  hterature  is  done  by  the  students. 


PHILLIPPI,   JOSEPH   MARTIN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


A  conference  was  organized  in  1963.  A  new  field  is 
being  opened  on  the  island  of  Leyte,  where  the  popula- 
tion is  sparse. 

The  national  conference  superintendent  is  a  member  of 
the  denomination's  Board  of  Administration.  There  were 
about  1,000  members  in  1969. 

R.  L.  Deals,  Philippines.  1964. 

,  Nationalism  and  Christianity  in  the  Philippines. 

Dallas:  Southern  Methodist  University  Press,  1967. 
Douglas  Elwood,  Churches  and  Sects  in  the  Philippines.  Duma- 
guete  City:  Silliman  University,  1968. 
Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 
Mississippi  Methodist  Advocate,  Aug.  9,  1969.    W.  W.  Reid 

Lois  Miller 
Byron  S.  Lamson 

PHILLIPPI,  JOSEPH  MARTIN  (1869-1926),  American 
editor  and  United  Brethren  clergyman,  was  born  March 
2,  1869,  near  London  Mills,  in  Fulton  County,  111.,  the 
youngest  of  ten  children  of  Martin  and  Caroline  (Swartz) 
Phillippi.  His  advanced  education  was  taken  at  West- 
field  College  in  Illinois  (B.A.,  1893),  Union  Biblical 
Seminary  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  (B.D.,  1896),  and  Illinois 
Wesleyan  University  (Ph.D.,  1904).  Westfield  College 
also  awarded  him  M.A.  (1896)  and  D.D.  (1906)  degrees. 
In  1896  he  was  ordained  by  the  Illinois  Conference, 
Chitrch  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  and  in 
1897  he  joined  the  faculty  of  Westfield  College  as  pro- 
fessor of  ancient  languages.  On  Sept.  22,  1899,  he  married 
Marie  Edna  DeWitte,  a  student  at  the  college. 

In  1902  PhiUippi  moved  to  Dayton,  Ohio,  where  he 
became  assistant  editor  of  the  Religious  Telescope  ( 1902- 
1908).  He  became  editor  in  chief  of  the  denominational 
paper  in  1908  and  continued  in  that  position  until  his 
death,  Sept.  27,  1926.  His  continuous  service  as  editor 
for  more  than  twenty-four  years  was  the  longest  in  the 
paper's  history.  His  writing  was  characterized  by  support 
of  worthy  civic  causes  and  he  often  took  definite  stands 
on  national  political  issues  which  had  a  moral  aspect. 
Between  1909-13  he  worked  to  establish  the  Otterbein 
Home,  an  institution  for  children  and  aged  people  estab- 
hshed  by  the  United  Brethren  Church  on  the  site  of  a 
former  Shaker  colony.  He  wrote  The  Stuord  Un.sheathed, 
or  The  Bible  for  the  Masses  (1911)  and  Shakerism:  or 
the  Romance  of  a  Religion  ( 1912) . 

A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  UB.  1953. 

Religious  Telescope,  Oct.  9,  1926.  Donald  K.  Gorbell 

PHILLIPS,  CHARLES  HENRY  (1858-1951),  eighth  bishop 
of  the  C.M.E.  Church,  was  born  on  Jan.  17,  1858,  at 
Milledgeville,  Ga.  He  joined  the  M.E.  Church,  South 
in  1868  and  became  a  member  of  the  C.M.E.  Church 
when  it  was  formed  in  1870. 

Phillips  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1878  and  was  or- 
dained deacon  in  1879  and  elder  in  1883.  He  received 
an  A.B.  and  M.A.  degrees  from  Walden  University  and 
a  M.D.  degree  from  Meharry  Medical  College.  Be- 
tween 1883  and  1884,  he  was  president  of  Jackson  High 
School  (later  Lane  College).  He  served  churches  in 
Tennessee,  Washington,  D.  C,  and  Kentucky.  In  1894, 
he  was  elected  editor  of  The  Christian  Index,  where  he 
served  until  1902  when  he  was  elected  bishop  by  the 
General  Conference.  While  bishop,  he  was  noted  as  a 
scholarly  writer  and  an  eloquent  speaker.  He  organized 


the  California  Conference  and  served  as  its  bishop 
until  his  retirement  in  1946.  Bishop  PhiUips  was  desig- 
nated "Church  Historian"  when  he  retired. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965. 

I.   Lane,  Autobiography.   1916. 

Religious  Leaders  of  America,  1941-42.  Ralph  G.  Gay 

PHILLIPS,  GLENN  RANDALL  (1894-1970),  American 
bishop,  was  bom  May  21,  1894,  in  Paulding  County,  Ohio, 
the  son  of  Samuel  Kepler  and  Iva  Evelyn  (Randall) 
Phillips. 

He  was  married  on  Dec.  31,  1918  to  Ruth  EsteUa 
dinger.  They  have  one  child,  a  son,  Randall  dinger 
Phillips,  a  Methodist  minister  of  Los  Angeles. 

He  received  his  B.A.  degree  from  Ohio  Wesleyan 
University  in  1915;  studied  at  Drew  Theological 
Seminary  in  1916,  and  in  1917  received  his  S.T.B.  at 
Garrett  Bihlical  Institute,  He  received  the  D.D.  de- 
gree from  Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  Garrett  Biblical 
Institute,  Westminster  College  and  Rocky  Mountain 
College;  the  LL.D.  from  the  University  of  Southern 
California  and  University  of  Denver. 

He  was  ordained  in  1920.  During  1919-20  he  served  as 
pastor  at  Moorpark,  Calif.;  at  Santa  Maria,  1920-25;  at 
North  Hollywood,  1925-29;  at  First  Church,  Phoenix, 
Ariz.,  1929-30;  and  at  First  Church,  Hollywood,  Calif., 
1930-48. 

He  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  by  the  Western 
Jurisdictional  Conference  in  1948  and  was  assigned 
to  the  Denver  Area. 

Among  the  memberships  he  held  in  various  groups 
were:  Board  of  Lay  Activities,  1948;  National  Council 
of  Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  1952;  World 
Methodist  Council,  1956  and  1961;  World  Council 
of  Churches,  Evanston,  111.,  1954;  Board  of  Missions; 
Board  of  Publications;  Chairman,  Commission  on 
Church  Union,  1960-64;  Commission  on  Jurisdictional 
Study;  Registrar,  Board  of  Ministerial  Training,  Annual 
Conference,  1936-48;  Chairman,  Deaconess  Work;  Over- 
seas Relief  (MCOR);  Los  Angles  Church  Federation; 
Denver  Coimcil  of  Churches;  Los  Angeles  and  Hollywood 
Ministerial  Association,  (President  in  1934). 

He  contributed  articles  to  a  number  of  religious 
publications:  A  Preaching  Mission,  1949;  Young  Men  for 
Tomorrow's  Service,  1951;  and  Strength  for  Service. 

He  was  a  lecturer.  School  of  Religion,  University  of 
Southern  California,  1940-45  and  has  served  as  trustee  of 
the  Iliff  School  of  Theology,  the  University  of  Denver, 
and  California  Western  University. 

He  made  official  visits  to  the  Methodist  Mission  Proj- 
ects in  India  in  1950;  to  the  Methodist  Mission  Projects 
in  Europe  and  North  Africa  in  1953;  and  served  as  the 
Council  of  Bishops'  Representative  to  the  Central  Ju- 
risdictional Conference  in  1952. 

In  1957  he  received  a  citation  for  his  distinguished 
leadership  in  the  Denver  Area.  He  was  host  bishop  to  the 
General  Conference  when  it  met  in  Denver  in  1960 
and  ably  discharged  all  duties  then  devolving  upon  him. 

Bishop  Phillips  retired  in  1964  but  was  recalled  by 
the  Council  of  Bishops  and  put  in  charge  of  the  Port- 
land (Oregon)  Area  in  1967  upon  the  death  of  Bishop 
Raymond  Grant.  He  served  until  1968,  when  he  again 
retired  and  lived  in  San  Diego  until  his  death  Oct.  6, 
1970.  A  man  of  singular  sweetness  of  spirit,  he  was  held 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PHOEBUS,   WILLrAM 


in  high  and  affectionate  regard  by  all  who  knew  him  and 
especially  by  his  compeers  in  the  Council  of  Bishops. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

Mary  French  Caldwell 

PHILLIPS,  JOHN  MILTON  (1820-1889),  American  book 
agent  and  Methodist  layman,  was  bom  in  Montgomery 
County,  Ky.,  March  26,  1820,  the  son  of  William  Phillips, 
a  Methodist  clergyman.  Orphaned  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
and  left  with  the  responsibility  of  rearing  a  younger 
brother,  he  began  his  career  with  the  Methodist  Book 
Concern  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  as  office  boy  and  factotum. 
He  apphed  himself  dibgently  to  his  work  and  became  an 
accountant  and  guarded  the  business  affairs  of  the  Con- 
cern. 

He  was  elected  a  lay  delegate  to  the  M.E.  General 
Conference  in  1872,  at  which  time  he  was  elected  junior 
Book  Agent  in  New  York.  He  was  the  first  layman  to  be 
elected  a  secretary  of  the  General  Conference  and  also 
the  first  layman  to  become  Book  Agent.  He  became  senior 
New  York  agent  in  1879  and  remained  in  that  office 
until  his  death. 

A  quiet  and  unassuming  man,  he  knew  the  business  of 
publishing  and  brought  to  his  post  thirty  years  of  ex- 
perience with  the  Concern.  John  M.  Phillips  died  at 
Cincinnati,  Jan.  15,  1889. 

The  New  York  Christian  Advocate  said  of  him,  "Little 
has  been  done  or  organized  on  a  large  scale  in  Methodism 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  without  receiving  the  benefit 
of  his  unobtruded  counsels  and  harmonizing  spirit." 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

National  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

PHILLIPS,  PETER  (1778-1853),  British  founder  of  Inde- 
pendent Methodists,  was  bom  at  Warrington.  Arising 
from  a  sense  of  pastoral  neglect,  a  new  movement  was 
started,  and  the  Friar's  Green  Chapel  was  built.  An  en- 
counter with  Wesleyan  discipline  led  Phillips  to  a  close 
study  of  the  New  Testament,  and  he  became  convinced 
that  the  Church  should  be  self-governing  and  the  min- 
istry unpaid  and  unseparated.  Under  some  Quaker  in- 
fluence for  a  while,  the  group  was  known  as  Quaker 
Methodists,  and  some,  including  Phillips,  adopted  the 
Quaker  mode  of  dress  and  speech.  His  preaching  secured 
the  establishment  of  new  societies  throughout  Lancashire 
and  Cheshire,  and  the  new  denomination  took  the  name 
of  Independent  Methodists  in  1808.  In  1816  Phillips  was 
elected  President  of  the  Conference  of  the  Independent 
Methodists,  a  post  which  he  filled  eight  times.  His  wife, 
Hannah  Phillips,  became  a  female  evangelist  alongside 
her  husband,  and  Hugh  Bourne  was  influenced  by 
both  in  his  early  ventures.  Phillips  traveled  some  thirty 
thousand  miles,  mostly  on  foot  during  this  preaching  tour. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

PHILLIPS,  PHILIP  (1834-95),  American  gospel  singer, 
hymn  writer  and  musical  editor  of  the  Methodist  Book 
Concern,  was  born  in  Chautauqua  County,  N.  Y.,  on 
Aug.  13,  1834.  He  early  developed  musical  talent  and 
at  the  age  of  nineteen  devoted  his  whole  time  to  musical 
science  and  practice.  He  was  successful  in  publishing 
Early    Blossoms,    a    collection   of    hymns;    and    Musical 


Leaves,  another  brochure  of  the  same  type  which  sold 
over  a  million  copies.  During  the  Civil  War,  he  entered 
into  the  work  of  the  Christian  Commission,  and  published 
Hymn  Songs  for  the  Soldiers'  Orphan  Home  at  Iowa, 
the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  this  book  being  used  for  the 
Soldiers'  Home.  In  1866  he  became  musical  editor  of 
the  Methodist  Book  Concern  in  New  York,  and  issued 
the  New  Hymn  and  Tune  Book  which  was  much  used  in 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  In  1868  he  visited  En- 
gland, and  again  in  1872.  On  this  latter  trip,  he  proceeded 
by  San  Francisco  on  a  tour  around  the  world.  He  held 
evenings  of  song  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  Palestine,  Egypt  and  India,  sometimes  in 
cities,  sometimes  beneath  the  shade  of  wide-spreading 
banyan-trees.  Returning  eventually  to  Naples,  Rome, 
Florence,  Genoa,  and  the  leading  cities  of  Europe,  and 
coming  back  to  England,  he  gave  200  nights  of  song  for 
the  Sunday  School  Union.  He  was  one  of  the  first  of  the 
"gospel  singers,"  as  others  of  that  profession  following 
Phillips  subsequently  made  a  career  of  singing  for  large 
church  congregations,  or  in  revival  services,  or  in  giving 
personal  concerts.  "Mr.  Phillips  has  the  honor  of  leading 
in  introducing  these  evenings  of  song,"  according  to 
Bishop  Simpson,  "and  is  the  first  who  has  thus  belted  the 
globe."  He  died  in  Delaware,  Ohio,  on  June  25,  1895. 

Encyclopedia  Americana.  1950. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

PHOEBUS,  WILLIAM  (1754-1831),  American  physician 
and  minister,  was  born  in  Somerset  County,  Md.,  in 
August  1754.  Little  is  known  of  his  early  life.  While  quite 
young,  he  joined  the  Methodist  Society.  He  was  admitted 
on  trial  to  the  travelling  ministry  in  1783  and  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Frederick  Circuit.  In  1784,  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  East  Jersey.  He  was  one  of  the  ones  who 
attended  the  Christmas  Conference  in  Baltimore  in 
1784,  at  which  American  Methodism  was  organized  into 
a  church  under  the  leadership  of  Coke  and  Asbury. 

In  1785  he  was  appointed  to  the  West  Jersey  Circuit; 
1787  to  Redstone;  1788  to  Rockingham;  1789  to  Long 
Island;  1790  to  New  Rochelle;  1791  to  Long  Island.  In 
1792  he  located,  possibly  due  to  his  marriage  and  to  the 
necessity  of  making  more  adequate  prox'ision  for  his 
family.  In  1796-97  he  returned  to  the  travelling  ministry. 
However,  he  located  once  more  in  1798  and  took  up  the 
practice  of  medicine  in  the  city  of  New  York.  He  was 
readmitted  to  the  New  York  Conference  in  1806  and 
stationed  at  Albany.  In  1808  he  transferred  to  Charles- 
ton, S.  C.  He  returned  to  New  York  in  1811  and  served 
there  through  1812.  He  was  sent  to  New  Rochelle  in 
1813;  to  New  York  in  1814-15;  to  Albany  in  1816;  to 
Jamaica,  L.  I.,  in  1817;  to  Zion  and  Asbuiy  Churches, 
New  York,  in  1818;  and  served  as  Conference  missionary 
in  1819-20.  In  1821  he  was  given  the  supernumerary 
relation  and  in  1824  was  listed  as  superannuated.  He 
remained  in  that  relation  until  his  death. 

According  to  his  contemporaries,  Phoebus  was  a  man 
of  consideralale  intellectual  ability  and  spiritual  awareness. 
He  was  an  effective  physician  and  minister,  as  well  as 
something  of  a  linguist  and  historian.  His  eccentricities 
of  speech  and  manner,  according  to  N.^than  Bangs,  made 
him  on  some  occasions  the  object  of  ridicule — which  he 
bore  with  patience  and  Christian  grace. 

Phoebus  was  a  participant  in  some  of  the  most  signif- 
icant events  in  the  history  of  early  American  Methodism. 


PHOENIX,   ARIZONA 

In  addition  to  attending  the  Christmas  Conference  of 
1784,  he  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conference 
of  1808  which  voted  that  the  Church  should  hold  a 
delegated  General  Conference  in  the  future.  It  is  reported 
that  Phoebus  made  the  motion  to  take  up  the  matter  of 
regulating  the  General  Conference,  a  matter  forcibly 
brought  to  the  General  Conference  by  a  memorial  from 
the  New  York  Conference. 

In  1821,  Phoebus  was  elected  by  the  New  York  Con- 
ference of  the  A.M.E.  connection  to  preside  over  its  first 
yearly  session,  in  the  absence  of  the  invited  bishop 
(probably  McKendree)  from  the  M.E.  Church.  This  Con- 
ference convened  in  New  York  City  on  June  21,  1821. 

Phoebus  was  the  author  of  two  books  which  are  impor- 
tant for  the  understanding  of  early  American  Methodism. 
The  first,  An  Essay  on  the  Doctrine  and  Order  of  the 
Evangelical  Church  in  America,  was  published  in  1817.  It 
has  been  called  "one  of  the  finest  summaries  of  the  doc- 
trinal and  historical  position  of  early  Methodism.  .  .  ." 
(Bucke,  I,  337).  The  second.  Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  Richard 
Whatcoat,  was  published  in  1828.  The  first  part  of  the 
book  contains  Whatcoat's  incomplete  Journal.  The  latter 
part  of  the  book  contains  Phoebus'  understanding  and 
evaluation  of  Whatcoat  and  of  his  relationship  to  develop- 
ing Methodism. 

Phoebus  died  on  Nov.  9,  1831.  He  is  buried  in  Cyprus 
Hills  Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 
Discovery,  Quarterly  Journal  of  Metliodist  Historical  Treasures, 
published  by  Northeastern  Jurisdictional  Association  of  Method- 
ist Historical  Societies,  Spring  1963. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 
W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals.  1861.      C.  Wesley  Christman,  Jb. 

PHOENIX,  ARIZONA,  U.S.A.,  the  capital  of  the  state,  is 
surrounded  by  many  tourist  attractions,  prehistoric  vil- 
lages, cliff  dwellings,  Papago  Park,  and  the  city's  South 
Mountain  Park.  Phoenix  was  founded  in  1870  and  in- 
corporated in  1881.  It  is  the  site  of  Phoenix  Junior  Col- 
lege, founded  in  1920.  Arizona  State  University  is  located 
at  Tempe,  ten  miles  away. 

According  to  unverified  tradition,  N.  M.  Dyer,  presiding 
elder  of  the  New  Mexico  District  of  the  Colorado  Con- 
ference (ME),  preached  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in 
Arizona  at  a  date  and  place  not  known.  Alexander  Gil- 
more  of  the  Newark  Conference  was  later  appointed 
Army  Chaplain  and  assigned  to  Arizona.  He  preached  in 
the  Southern  Methodist  Church  in  1871.  Southern  Church 
work  had  begun,  but  evidently  no  regular  work  was  con- 
ducted then.  No  report  of  Southern  work  is  available 
from  1872  to  1875. 

In  1880  George  F.  Bovabd,  a  probationer  in  the 
Southern  California  Conference,  was  appointed  to 
Phoenix.  He  held  services  in  the  George  Coast  home 
where  the  First  Methodist  Church  was  organized  with 
eleven  members  in  January  1881.  Bovard  held  a  revival 
in  another  home  and  forty-nine  members  were  added  to 
the  church.  Under  Bovard  a  brick  church  was  built, 
valued  at  $4,000  in  1883. 

In  1870  the  Los  Angeles  Conference  (MES)  appointed 
Alexander  Groves  a  missionary  to  Arizona.  He  went  to 
Phoenix,  held  services  in  the  schoolhouse,  and  organized 
a  Sunday  school.  M.  M.  Jackson  hauled  children  from 
their  adobe  hut  homes  to  and  from  Sunday  school  in  a 
wagon  drawn  by  oxen.  Groves  held  a  camp  meeting  in 


iNCYCLOPEDIA   OF 

the  school  and  in  the  fall  of  1870  organized  a  class  of 
seven.  Later  a  lot  was  secured  in  downtown  Phoenix 
and  a  frame  church  was  built  in  1884.  It  is  the  present 
Central  Church. 

Other  Methodist  developments  through  the  years  in- 
clude the  establishment  of  Good  Samaritan  Hospital  in 
1912,  and  the  organization  of  many  new  Methodist 
churches.  Other  branches  of  Methodism  active  in 
Phoenix  today  are:  two  C.M.E.  Churches,  one  A.M.E., 
four  Evangelical  Methodist,  and  three  Free  Methodist. 
In  1970  there  were  twenty-two  United  Methodist  church- 
es in  the  city,  with  a  total  membership  of  15,550. 

Central  Church  (Mother  of  Methodism  in  the  Valley), 
had  its  beginning  in  1870  when  two  ministers,  Alexander 
Groves  and  Franklin  McKean,  were  appointed  to  the 
Arizona  Territory.  The  Southern  California-Arizona  Con- 
ference Journal  states  that  Alexander  Groves  was  the  first 
pastor  assigned  to  the  church.  Services  were  held  under 
Cottonwood  trees  or  brush  ramadas,  and  sometimes  in  the 
homes  of  ranchers,  in  theaters  and  store  rooms,  until 
1875  when  the  first  church  structure  was  erected  at  the 
corner  of  Second  Avenue  and  West  Washington. 

In  1880  another  church  (adobe)  was  built  on  the  south- 
west corner  of  Central  Avenue  and  Monroe,  on  grounds 
donated  by  the  city.  The  congregation  grew  rapidly  and 
by  1902  the  adobe  church  was  replaced  by  an  imposing 
brick  structure  which  served  for  many  years.  The  con- 
gregation was  growing  rapidly  when  the  Arizona  Territory 
became  a  state  in  1912. 

By  1920  it  was  evident  that  more  room  was  needed, 
so  property  was  purchased  at  the  corner  of  Central  and 
Pierce  and  another  structure  was  begun.  The  cornerstone 
was  laid  in  1920  and  the  first  service  was  held  on  May 
4,  1924.  Between  1942  and  1949  land  was  purchased  at 
Central  and  Palm  Lane  and  plans  were  initiated  for  the 
present  two  million  dollar  plant.  Under  the  leadership 
of  Charles  Kendall,  the  present  complex  of  buildings  was 
realized.  In  1949  the  Sanctuary  was  begun  and  the  fifth 
structure  of  Central  Methodist  Church  was  dedicated 
Sept.  24,  1950.  The  educational  building  followed  in 
1954,  then  Pioneer  Chapel,  and  the  administrative  build- 
ing in  1955.  Kendall  Hall,  the  fellowship  facility,  was 
consecrated  on  Jan.  20,  1957.  Additional  property  was 
acquired  in  1963  for  future  expansion.  The  membership 
in  1970  was  2,785.  The  peak  membership  was  reached 
in  1961  at  4,654,  however  members  from  this  church  have 
started  or  helped  to  start  several  new  churches  in  the 
Valley. 

First  Church  is  considered  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
Methodist  churches  in  the  entire  Southwest.  Although 
officially  organized  with  eleven  members  in  January  1881, 
the  first  Methodists  began  meeting  as  early  as  1874  when 
four  of  them  came  together  under  a  brush-arbor  in 
Phoenix  and  began  worshiping  regularly. 

The  townsite  of  Phoenix  had  just  been  established 
through  a  patent  signed  by  President  Ulysses  S.  Grant. 
The  population  was  about  300.  Business  and  town  lots 
were  selling  for  $7  to  $11  each.  In  1875,  with  prophetic 
vision,  the  M.E.  Church  through  its  church  extension 
program,  bought  strategic  lots  in  the  heart  of  tovw. 

The  brush-arbor  Methodists  decided  to  rent  a  building 
for  worship  services.  The  selection  was  an  adobe  building 
with  dirt  floor  and  dirt  roof,  but  capable  of  seating  100 
people.  The  first  official  meeting  was  held  Jan.  16,  1881, 
when  the  church  organized  with  eleven  members. 

Through   the   years   the   church  has   had  four   sites — 


WORLD   METHODISM 


First  Church,  Phoenix,  Arizona 

three  in  dov\Tito\vn  Phoenix  and  the  present  site,  which 
is  about  five  miles  from  the  center  of  downtown  Phoenix. 
For  fifty-seven  years  prior  to  moving  to  the  present  site 
at  Central  and  Missouri  Avenues  the  church  was  located 
at  Second  and  Monroe  Avenues.  As  the  city  moved  north- 
ward the  membership  and  attendance  began  to  dwindle 
until  it  was  below  1000. 

Ground  breaking  services  for  the  educational  plant, 
administration  offices  and  Fellowship  Hall  were  held  on 
March  2,  1952.  The  first  service  at  the  new  location  was 
held  Aug.  31,  1952.  On  June  30,  1957  ground  was  broken 
for  the  new  sanctuary,  and  the  first  services  were  held 
in  it  on  Christmas  Sunday,  Dec.  21,  1958. 

The  membership  in  1970  was  3,193,  which  is  the 
second  largest  membership  in  the  Southern  Californi.^- 
Arizona  Conference.  The  church  and  grounds  are  valued 
at  $1,200,000. 

First  Church  has  a  dynamic  program  for  all  age  groups. 
It  reaches  out  in  service  around  the  world.  One  college 
president,  George  F.  Bovard,  and  one  bishop,  Glenn 
R.  Phillips,  have  ser\'ed  as  its  pastors. 

General  Minutes. 

E.  D.  Jervey,  Southern  California  and  Arizona.  1960. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 
Wilson  O.  Troxel 

PICKARD,  BENJAMIN  (1842-1904),  British  Methodist, 
was  one  of  those  Liberal  trade  unionists  who  strengthened 
the  hold  of  Gladstone  on  the  votes  of  the  working  class. 
Pickard  was  a  Wesleyan  Local  Preacher  who  had  started 
to  work  in  the  pit  at  the  age  of  twelve,  and  who  became 
general  secretary  of  the  Yorkshire  Miners'  Union  in  1881, 
and  the  first  president  of  the  Miners'  Federation  in  1888. 
Outside  Parhament  he  had  fought  for  mines  acts,  anti- 
truck  acts,  and  the  institution  of  a  living  wage;  as  Liberal 
M.P.  for  Normanton  he  pressed  for  an  eight-hour  day  in 
the  mines,  and  for  the  setting  up  of  conciliation  boards 
to  settle  disputes. 

E.  R.  Taylor 


PICKAVANT,    JOHN 

PICKARD,  HUMPHREY  (1813-1890),  Canadian  minister 
and  educator,  was  bom  in  Fredericton,  June  10,  1813,  into 
a  family  which  stemmed  from  the  pre-Loyalist  congre- 
gationalist  settlement  in  New  Brunswick.  His  mother  was 
a  member  of  the  first  Methodist  society  in  Fredericton. 
He  was  educated  at  the  Wesleyan  University,  in  Con- 
necticut, before  returning  home  to  enter  his  father's  busi- 
ness. 

Pickard  was  more  interested  in  the  ministry  than  in 
business,  and  in  1835  he  sought  admission  to  the  Wesleyan 
ministry.  Fortunately  he  was  permitted  in  1837  to  return 
to  Wesleyan  University,  from  which  he  graduated  in 
1839.  He  was  ordained  in  1842,  stationed  in  St.  John, 
and  appointed  editor  of  The  British  North  American 
Wesleyan  Methodiii  Magazine,  a  forerunner  of  The 
Wesleyan. 

By  this  time  the  new  Sackville  Academy  was  taking 
shape,  and  those  in  charge  were  looking  for  a  principal. 
After  considerable  hesitation,  the  young  and  scholarly 
Pickard  was  offered  the  place.  He  was  at  the  academy 
when  it  opened  January  19,  1843,  with  a  few  students. 
LTnder  his  skillful  management  with  the  number  of  stu- 
dents quickly  increased,  and  soon  the  "Female  Branch" 
was  added.  By  1862,  Pickard  had  secured  the  establish- 
ment of  Mount  Allison.  The  first  class  in  Arts  graduated 
in  1863,  the  beginning  of  a  steady  and  increasing  stream 
of  trained  people  who  were  to  find  their  way  into  all 
parts  of  our  country  and  to  the  lands  beyond  the  seas. 

In  1869,  Pickard  decided  to  leave  Mount  Allison  and 
retum  to  editorial  work.  Until  1872  he  was  editor  of 
The  Wesleyan  and  book  steward.  Subsequently  he  re- 
turned to  Sackville,  to  become  Mount  Allison's  agent  and 
minister  of  the  Sackville  Methodist  Church.  He  retired 
in  1877  and  died  in  Sackville,  Feb.  28,  1890. 

Apart  from  his  regular  duties,  Pickard  filled  many  re- 
sponsible positions  in  the  Methodist  Church.  The  Con- 
ference of  Eastern  British  America  elected  him  secretary 
from  1857  to  1860,  co-delegate  in  1861,  and  President 
in  1862  and  1870.  He  was  often  a  representative  to  the 
British  Conference  and  a  member  of  the  second  General 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  1886.  Appropri- 
ately he  was  given  the  doctorate  of  divinity  by  Wesleyan 
University  in  1857. 

His  successor  at  Mount  Allison,   David   Alhson,   said: 

Nature  had  endowed  him  too  with  vigorous  mental  powers 
which  within  certain  ranges  had  been  carefully  cultivated.  He 
did  not  aspire  to  the  reputation  of  profound  or  versatile  schol- 
arship, but  he  was  a  clear  thinker,  with  exceptional  aptitudes 
for  the  exact  sciences,  for  logic,  and  for  philosophy.  As  a 
teacher  he  excelled  in  the  lucidity  of  his  prelection,  in  the 
emphasis  with  which  he  presented  truth  that  he  deemed  im- 
portant, and  in  the  rare  power  he  possessed  of  stirring  up  to 
intellectual  activity  the  indifferent  and  the  indolent.  (The 
United  Churchman. ) 

Elsewhere  Allison  concluded:  "He  was  on  the  whole  the 
most  influential  personal  factor  in  determining  the  evolu- 
tion of  Methodist  history  in  the  Maritime  Provinces." 

G.   H.   Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.    1881. 

G.  S.  French,  Parsons  and  Politics.  1962. 

T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1877. 

The  United  Churchman,  Jan.  12,  1966.  E.  A.  Betts 

PICKAVANT,  JOHN  (1792-1848),  was  bom  in  Lanca- 
shire, England.  He  was  converted  to  Methodism  in  1808. 


PICKERING,    GEORGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Initially  a  local  preacher,  he  was  put  on  trial  and  sent  to 
Newfoundland  in  1814.  He  was  stationed  first  at  Port 
de  Grave,  and  in  1815  he  moved  to  St.  John's,  to  take 
charge  of  the  new  Methodist  chapel,  then  under  erection. 
In  January,  1816,  the  new  chapel  was  burned,  and  he 
went  to  England  to  solicit  funds  for  a  new  one. 

Pickavant  sei-ved  in  Newfoundland  for  almost  thirty 
years,  and  during  many  of  these  was  chairman  of  the 
district  and  recognized  head  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church  in  the  colony.  He  was  described  as  "a  master  in 
Israel,  gentle  and  gentlemanly,  and  in  his  pulpit  an 
orator  at  once  charming  and  subduing."  His  long  ministry 
and  his  valuable  leadership  in  the  district  gave  inspiration 
and  strength  both  to  members  and  ministers  who  were 
devoted  to,  and  anxious  for,  the  growth  of  Methodism  in 
Newfoundland. 

D.    G.    Pitt,    Windows   of   Agates.    St.    John's:    Cower    Street 

Church,  1966. 

T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1877. 

W.   Wilson,   Newfoundland  and  its  Missionaries.   Cambridge, 

Mass.:    Dakin  &  Metcalf,   1866.  N.  Winsor 


Ceohce  Pickering 

PICKERING,  GEORGE  (1769-1846),  a  New  England  pio- 
neer preacher,  was  bom  in  Talbot  County,  Md.,  in  1769. 
Converted  at  eighteen  in  St.  George's  Church,  Phila- 
delphia, he  became  a  Methodist  in  the  face  of  opposition. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Baltimore  Conference  in 
1790,  and  after  two  years  was  sent  to  New  England.  Over 
the  years  he  was  appointed  to  Boston,  Lynn,  Lowell, 
Cambridge,  Salem,  Marblehead,  Newburyport,  Glouces- 
ter, Roxbury,  and  other  places.  Four  different  times  he  was 
appointed  presiding  elder  in  Boston,  serving  a  total  of 
eleven  years  in  that  capacity.  In  addition,  he  was  fre- 
quently engaged  as  financial  agent  for  schools  and  embar- 
rassed churches.  On  one  occasion  he  made  a  tour  through 
Delaware  and  Maryland  collecting  money  for  a  chapel 
in  Boston.  He  was  known  for  tact,  enterprise,  and  suc- 
cess. He  had  a  tenacious  memory,  a  sense  of  humor,  and 
good  judgment.  He  was  a  popular  preacher  and  a  success- 
ful evangelist.  It  was  said  that  the  children  and  the  un- 
lettered as  well  as  the  educated  comprehended  his  brief 
sermons. 

A  leader  in  his  conference,  Pickering  represented  it  at 
least  nine  times  in  the  General  Conference,  1804-32 
and  1844.  He  led  the  delegation  every  time  except  in 
1844  when  he  was  the  fifth  and  last  member  on  his  dele- 
gation. Orange  Scott  and  others  displaced  Pickering  in 
the  1836  and  1840  delegations,  presumably  because  they 
were  more  vehemently  opposed  to  slavery  than  Pickering. 


In  the  1808  General  Conference,  Pickering  had  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  a  member  of  the  committee  which 
drafted  the  plan  for  a  delegated  General  Conference. 

Pickering  married  Mary  Bemis,  the  daughter  of  Abra- 
ham Bemis,  a  wealthy  and  dedicated  Methodist  layman 
of  Waltham,  Mass.  She  inherited  her  father's  estate, 
and  she  and  her  husband  lived  there  the  rest  of  their 
lives.  However,  a  home  in  Waltham  did  not  keep  Picker- 
ing from  itinerating  as  a  Methodist  preacher.  He  went 
where  he  was  sent  and  visited  his  family  occasionally. 
His  biographer  says  that  in  half  a  century  of  married 
life  he  spent  a  total  of  about  ten  years  at  home.  Pickering 
never  retired,  and  when  he  died  at  Waltham,  Dec.  8, 
1846,  it  was  claimed  that  he  was  the  oldest  effective 
Methodist  preacher  in  the  world. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

A.  Stevens,  Memorials  of  Methodism.  1849.     Albea  Godbold 

PICKETT,  DEETS  ELBERT  (1885-1966),  American  temper- 
ance leader  and  managing  editor  of  The  Clipsheet  and 
The  Voice,  was  bom  in  Dangerfield,  Texas  on  Aug.  29, 
1885,  the  son   of  Leander  and   Millie  Dorough  Pickett. 

Pickett  came  to  The  Board  of  Temperance  of  the 
Methodist  Church  in  1912  as  Research  Secretary  and 
Managing  Editor  of  The  Clipsheet,  a  weekly  paper  which 
was  sent  to  all  leading  newspapers,  and  The  Voice,  a 
monthly  magazine  with  a  circulation  at  that  time  of 
about  75,000. 

He  was  educated  at  Louisville  Training  School  and 
AsBURY  College,  both  in  Kentucky.  He  attended  the 
Alcohol  School  of  Studies,  Yale  University  in  1943.  He 
married  Annie  Belle  Mingeldorfl  Oct.  25,  1907,  and  they 
had  two  children. 

After  his  retirement  in  1954  he  lived  near  Fredericks- 
burg, Va.,  until  the  family  moved  to  South  Africa,  where 
Mrs.  Pickett  and  the  children  presently  live.  Pickett  passed 
away  in  September  1966,  in  Africa. 

During  his  long  career  as  a  temperance  worker  Pickett 
was  Secretary  of  The  Internal  Reform  Bureau,  (1912), 
and  Executive  Secretary  of  the  Christian  and  Social  Com- 
mission. He  studied  liquor  control  in  Great  Britain  and 
France  in  1919.  He  represented  the  government  at  the 
16th  International  Congress  Against  Alcoholism  in  Swit- 
zerland, 1921. 

Pickett  is  the  author  of  Enemies  of  Youth  and  other 
books,  monographs,  magazine  articles  and  pamphlets. 

So  impressed  with  his  ability  were  many  governmental 
leaders  that  he  was  invited  more  than  once  to  assume 
prominent  White  House  responsibilities.  Declining  lucra- 
tive positions  in  the  darkest  days  of  the  temperance 
movements,  Pickett  elected  to  stay  on  with  the  Boaid  of 
Temperance,  sometimes  at  less  than  half  payment  of  his 
meager  salary. 

The  Voice,  February  1954. 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1953-54. 

PICKETT,    JARRELL    WASKOM    (1890-  ),    American 

missionary  to  India  and  bishop,  was  bom  near  Jones- 
ville,  Texas,  on  Feb.  21,  1890,  the  son  of  Leander  Ly- 
curgus  and  Ludie  (Day)  Pickett.  He  was  graduated  from 
AsBURY  College,  B.A.,  1907;  M.A.,  in  1908;  and  a  D.D. 
in  1926.  He  received  the  LL.D.  from  Ohio  Northern 
Universfty  in  1946,  and  the  L.H.D.  from  Ohio  Wes- 
leyan Uni\'ersity  in   1966.  He  married  Ruth  Robinson 


WORLD  METHODISM 


PIERCE,   GEORGE   FOSTER 


on  July  27,  1916.  Their  children  are  Elizabeth  Day  (Mrs. 
Henry  Ankeny  Lacy),  Miriam  Lee  (Mrs.  William  E. 
Gould),  Margaret  Joy  (Mrs.  John  Sagan)  and  Douglas 
Robinson. 

In  1908  and  1909,  J.  Waskom  Pickett  was  a  teacher  of 
Latin  and  Greek  at  Vilonia,  Ark.;  and  from  1909-10, 
associate  professor,  New  Testament  Greek,  Taylor  Uni- 
versity (Upland,  Ind.).  He  was  admitted  on  trial,  or- 
dained deacon,  then  elder  in  the  North  Indi.\  Confer- 
ence (ME)  in  1911;  full  connection  in  1913.  He  served 
as  pastor  in  Lucknow,  India,  1910-14;  missionary  at 
Abrah  Bihar,  India,  1917-23;  superintendent  of  the  Arrah 
District,  1918-23.  He  was  editor  of  the  Temperance  Clip- 
Sheet,  1917-23;  and  editor  of  the  Indian  Witness,  1925- 
29.  He  was  secretary  of  the  National  Christian  Council  of 
India  from  1930  until  1936.  He  was  elected  bishop  by 
the  Central  Conference  of  Southern  Asia  in  1935-36 
and  assigned  to  the  Bombay  Area,  1936-45;  and  the 
Delhi  Area,  1945-56,  retiring  in  1956. 

Since  retirement.  Bishop  Pickett  has  been  professor 
of  Mission,  Boston  Uni\'ersity  School  of  Theology, 
and  counsellor  in  evangehsm,  Methodist  Board  of  Mis- 
sions 1957-60,  and  counsellor  in  Finance,  American  Com- 
mittee for  Ludhiana  Christian  Medical  College,  New 
York  City,  since  1961.  He  is  the  organizer  of  the  United 
Christian  Mission  to  Nepal,  1950,  and  its  president, 
1950-56;  chairman,  Methodist  Church  Councils  on  Chris- 
tian Education  and  Medical  Work,  1936-56;  consultant 
on  the  Constitution  of  India,  Indian  Political  Leaders, 
1947-56;  and  consultant  on  Indo-American  Relations  by 
appointment  of  Presidents  Truman  and  Eisenhower.  He 
was  the  organizer,  the  first  chairman  of  the  National 
Christian  Relief  Committee,  India,  1947;  acting  president 
of  the  National  Christian  Council,  1945-46;  and  is  the 
past  president  of  Boards  of  various  colleges,  hospitals, 
and  regional  Christian  Councils. 

Bishop  Pickett  is  the  author  of  Mass  Movements  in 
India,  1933;  Christ's  Way  to  India's  Heart,  1938;  (with 
Warner,  Azariah,  Van  Doren,  Jones)  Moving  Milliotis: 
The  Pageant  of  Modern  India,  1938;  (with  D.  A.  Mc- 
Gavran  and  G.  H.  Singh)  Christian  Missions  in  Mid- 
India,  1938;  (with  D.  A.  McGavran)  Church  Growth 
and  Group  Conversion,  1956;  (with  Smith,  Barbier, 
Booth,  Brewster,  Brumbaugh)  Lands  of  Witness  and  De- 
cision, 1957;  The  Dynamics  of  Church  Growth,  1963,  and 
(with  Eba  Peter)  a  popular  short  book,  India,  a  resume 
of  Methodist  activities  in  India,  1965.  He  has  acted  as 
over-all  editor  and  compiler  of  the  India  Methodist  ma- 
terial in  this  Encyclopedia  of  World  Methodism.  He  re- 
sides in  Dearborn,  Mich. 


Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


PIERCE,  GEORGE  FOSTER  (1811-1884),  American  bish- 
op, and  one  of  the  great  leaders  of  southern  Methodism, 
was  bom  on  Feb.  3,  1811,  in  Greene  County,  Ga.,  when 
his  mother,  Ann  Foster  Pierce,  the  wife  of  the  distin- 
guished LoviCK  Pierce,  was  staying  at  her  father's  home 
while  Lovick  Pierce  was  making  his  rounds  of  the  dis- 
trict. 

George  Pierce  had  the  great  advantage  of  association 
with  and  training  by  his  father.  George  was  educated  in 
Greensboro  where  certain  distinguished  leaders  of  the 
state  then  hved,  and  where  a  teacher  of  unusual  ability 
took  him  in  hand  and  taught  him  the  fundamentals  of 
sound  learning.  He  entered  the  freshman  class  of  Franklin 


George  F.  Pierce 

College  (Athens,  Ga.),  a  state  school,  when  he  was  a 
little  over  fifteen  years  old,  and  later  went  into  what  be- 
came the  University  of  Georgia.  His  college  days  ended, 
he  attempted  to  study  law,  but  failed  at  that,  and  follow- 
ing an  interview  with  James  O.  Andrew,  felt  called  to 
preach  and  gave  himself  into  the  ministry.  He  married 
Ann  M.  Waldron  in  1834  and  was  almost  immediately 
thereafter  sent  to  Charleston,  S.  C. 

He  was  elected  president  of  Emory  College  in  1849, 
where  he  served  until  1854.  Meanwhile,  he  had  been  a 
delegate  to  the  General  Conferen'ce  of  1844  and  had 
taken  part  in  the  great  debate  which  resulted  in  the  Plan 
of  Separation  and  the  division  of  Methodism.  He  was, 
of  course,  a  champion  of  the  South  and  while  only  thirty- 
three  years  of  age  "was  a  bom  ruler  of  men  and  bore  the 
kingly  look  on  his  face"  his  biographer  expressed  it.  The 
motion  which  eventually  passed  the  General  Conference 
by  a  strictly  sectional  vote  to  depose  Bishop  Andrew  as 
a  slave  owner  aroused  Pierce,  and  his  speech  carried  in 
the  Journal  of  that  Conference  has  sei-ved  to  set  forth  the 
Southern  point  of  view  in  a  powerful  way. 

Pierce  took  part  in  the  organization  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  at  both  the  Louisville  Con\'e:ntion  in  1845  and 
the  first  General  Conference  in  Petersburg  in  1846. 

George  F.  Pierce  was  elected  bishop  eight  years  later 
in  1854  by  the  M.E.  Church,  South  in  spite  of  a  whisper 
campaign  against  him  which  stated  that  he  was  not  sound 
in  his  views  on  Christian  Perfection.  Pierce  afiRimed 
that  they  were  substantially  those  held  by  the  Methodist 
Church,  but  he  admitted  that  they  were  not  exactly  those 
of  Mr.  Wesley  nor  his  father.  "The  great  difficulty  has 
been,"  he  stated  long  afterward,  "not  an  actual  disagree- 
ment upon  the  subject  itself,  but  in  the  attempt  to  define 
what  is  undefinable."   (Smith,  Life  and  Times,  p.   190.) 

As  bishop,  he  was  sent  into  Arkansas  and  Missouri 
and  in  1859  to  the  far  west.  He  managed  to  hold  the 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  and  Georgia  Conferences  in 
1862  when  invasion  had  already  broken  up  the  South, 
but  through  the  war  years  could  do  very  httle,  especially 


PIERCE,    lOVICK 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


after  Sherman  had  invaded  Georgia.  His  only  son,  Lovick 
(there  were  four  daughters),  of  the  15th  Georgia  Regi- 
ment C.S.A.  was  wounded  in  the  fighting  during  the 
Gettysburg  campaign,  but  lived  to  be  the  grandfather  of 
the  present  Lovick  Pierce,  the  publisher  of  The  Meth- 
odist Church  and  now  retired. 

Bishop  Pierce  took  part  in  what  was  really  the  reorga- 
nization of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  in  1866  at  New- 
Orleans  and  found  himself  the  senior  bishop  in  1870. 
He  was  admittedly  very  conseiA'ative  in  his  views,  part  of 
his  antipathy  to  any  involvement  of  the  Church  in  politics 
being  due  to  the  aggressive  attitude  of  the  Northern  bish- 
ops, especially  Bishop  Simpson,  who  had  no  hesitation 
in  relying  on  Federal  Armies  to  extend  the  sweep  of  the 
M.E.  Church  in  the  concjuered  South.  Bishop  Pierce  op- 
posed the  move  to  establish  a  theological  seminary,  as 
Bishop  McT\'Eire  managed  to  do  in  his  sponsorship  of 
Vanderbilt  at  Nashville.  He  objected  to  the  extension 
of  the  "time  limit"  from  two  years  to  four  in  the  matter  of 
ministerial  appointments,  and  observed  in  speaking  of 
Augusta,  Ga.:  "The  four  years  rule  and  the  organized 
choir  have  well  nigh  ruined  one  of  the  finest  churches  in 
the  state." 

The  General  Conference  of  1878  was  held  in  Atlanta 
where  Bishop  Pierce  was  much  the  senior  bishop  and  was 
given  all  honor  by  his  comrades.  In  1884  he  and  his  wife 
celebrated  their  golden  wedding  and  there  were  many 
distinguished  guests  at  his  home  "Sunshine"  near  Sparta, 
Ga. 

He  retired  to  "Sunshine"  and  knowing  that  he  would 
not  again  make  any  Conference  visitations,  he  called 
Atticus  G.  Haygood  (later  bishop)  to  him  and  gave  him 
directions  to  give  Bishop  McTyeire  to  take  over  his  Con- 
ferences. To  a  venerable  Christian  minister.  Dr.  J.  Rembert 
Smith,  who  was  also  a  physician  and  sitting  by  his  side, 
he  asked,  "What  do  you  think  about  me?  Will  I  get  well?" 
The  physician  paused  and  then  replied,  "No  bishop,  your 
work  is  done,  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  recover."  He 
died  as  he  had  lived  in  quietness  and  peace,  and  was 
buried  at  the  home  of  his  son  in  Sparta.  His  biographer 
observed  that  what  he  had  said  beautifully  of  Bishop 
Capers  in  his  memorial  service  could  be  said  of  him: 
"There  were  no  sins  to  lament,  no  vices  to  deplore." 

G.  G.  Smitli,  George  Foster  Pierce.  1888.  N.  B.  H. 

PIERCE,  LOVICK  (1785-1879),  prominent  American  min- 
ister, from  1804  until  his  death,  both  in  the  M.E.  Church 
and,  after  its  formation,  in  the  M.E.  Church,  South. 

Progenitor  of  a  family  productive  of  Methodist  leader- 
ship in  successive  generations  to  the  present  day,  Lovick 
Pierce  was  the  father  of  George  F.  Pierce,  widely  re- 
spected bishop  in  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  and  of  James 
L.  Pierce  and  Thomas  F.  Pierce,  ministers  in  that  church; 
and  great-great  grandfather  of  Lovick  Pierce,  who  from 
1946  to  1970  headed  The  Methodist  Publishing  House. 

Lovick  Pierce  was  born  March  24,  1785  in  Martin 
County,  N.  C,  where  his  parents  I,ovick  Pierce,  Sr.  (son 
of  Philip  Pierce)  and  Lydia  Culpepper  Pierce  settled 
after  their  marriage  in  Portsmouth,  Va.  Son  of  an  humble 
household,  Lovick  Pierce  was  one  of  nine  children  born 
to  his  parents.  Most  of  his  formative  years  were  spent  in 
Barnwell  County,  S.  C,  where  his  family  moved  in  his 
early  childhood.  Later  described  by  their  son  as  plain 
people  who  'lived  by  personal  daily  labor,"  Lovick,  Sr. 
and  Lydia  Pierce  reared  their  children  under  the  general 


Lovick  Pierce 

influence  of  the  Baptist  Church,  predominant  among  the 
small  farmers,  hunters,  and  trappers  of  the  frontier  South, 
who  composed  the  society  of  which  the  Pierce  family 
was  a  part. 

By  1802  the  influences  of  Methodism  were  being  strong- 
ly felt  in  the  region  of  the  Pierce  farm,  and  in  the  summer 
of  that  year  the  entire  family,  including  Lovick  and  his 
elder  brother,  Reddick,  joined  the  M.E.  Church.  This 
occurred  despite  the  initial  skepticism  of  the  father,  a 
militia  captain,  who  at  the  outset  had  questioned  the 
doctrinal  soundness  of  the  new  denomination. 

In  1803  under  the  preaching  of  James  Jenkins,  a  Meth- 
odist circuit  rider,  both  Lovick  and  Reddick  experienced 
conversion  and  indicated  their  interest  in  becoming  Meth- 
odist preachers.  Shortly  thereafter  the  parents  moved  into 
Georgia,  settling  in  Baldwin  County,  leaving  the  sons  in 
South  Carolina,  where  they  began  their  ministry.  Re- 
ceived into  the  South  Carolina  Conference  in  1804, 
Lovick,  then  nineteen,  was  assigned  to  the  Great  Pee  Dee 
Circuit  in  Eastern  South  Carolina,  where  for  a  time  he 
was  engaged  in  teaching.  At  this  period  the  South  Carolina 
Conference  embraced  all  of  South  Carohna,  part  of  North 
Carolina  and  the  settled  portions  of  Georgia  and 
Florida. 

In  1806  when  the  Conference  met  at  Sparta,  Ga., 
Lovick  was  assigned  to  the  Apalachee  Circuit,  during  the 
course  of  which  assignment  he  took  into  the  church  a  Miss 
Ann  Foster,  the  gay  and  fashionable  daughter  of  a  wealthy 
Green  County  planter.  Col.  George  Foster.  Chastened  by 
her  conversion  experience,  which  came,  as  was  often  the 
case  in  those  days,  during  a  camp  meeting,  the  young 
lady  renounced  her  frivolous  ways  and  in  1809  became 
the  wife  of  the  handsome  and  fastidous,  although  as  yet 
unschooled,  young  preacher.  On  Sept.  28,  1809,  at  the 
home  of  her  father,  Ann  Foster  and  Lovick  Pierce  were 
married.  This  year  was  further  made  distinctive  by  Pierce's 
ordination  as  elder  and  his  simultaneous  assignment  by 
Bishop  Francis  Asbury  to  the  position  of  presiding  elder 
of  the  Oconee  District  which  included  half  the  state  of 
Georgia.  At  the  time,  it  is  said.  Pierce  was  the  youngest 
man  ever  to  be  named  presiding  elder. 

From  1809  to  1812  he  served  in  this  capacity.  In  the 
latter  year  he  was  further  honored  by  election  to  the 
denomination's  first  delegated  General  Conference. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PIERCE,    LOVICK 


During  the  War  of  1812,  Pierce  was  drafted  and  as- 
signed as  chaplain  to  the  troops  at  Savannah.  It  was 
during  these  years  that  the  young  preacher,  because  of  a 
throat  ailment,  reluctantly  resolved  to  give  up  the  travel- 
ing ministry  for  a  career  more  compatible  with  his  re- 
sponsibilities as  husband  and  father.  His  son,  George, 
later  to  become  a  bishop,  was  bom  in  1811,  the  eldest 
of  Lovick  and  Anne  Pierce's  eight  children,  of  whom  there 
were  four  sons.  Locating  in  1814,  Pierce  (1815-1816) 
pursued  a  course  of  study  at  the  medical  college  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  in  Philadelphia  to  qualify 
himself  as  a  preaching  physician,  a  career  he  followed 
successfully  in  Greensboro,  Ga.,  until  1823. 

Returning  to  the  itineracy  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  that 
year,  he  soon  re-established  himself  as  a  leader  in  the 
denomination,  holding  various  pastorates  in  Georgia  and 
serving  as  one  of  the  first  agents  of  Georgia  Female  Acad- 
emy (later  Wesleyan  at  Macon).  In  1830,  when  the 
Georgia  Conference  was  formed  from  the  South  Caro- 
lina Conference,  Pierce  was  one  of  its  charter  members. 
(In  1867  this  conference  was  further  divided  into  the 
North  and  South  Georgia  Conferences,  with  Pierce's 
membership  remaining  in  the  latter.)  In  1835  Pierce 
became  a  trustee  of  Randolph-Macon  College  in  Vir- 
ginia, receiving  the  D.D.  from   that  institution  in   1843. 

Lovick  Pierce  was  a  delegate  to  all  the  Genteral  Con- 
ferences of  the  M.E.  Church  from  1824  to,  and  includ- 
ing, the  Conference  held  at  New  York  in  1844  when  the 
sectional  division  in  the  denomination  occurred.  In  this 
division  he  went  with  the  Southern  group,  with  whose 
cause  he  was  more  than  ordinarily  identified,  having 
himself  been  the  man  to  recommend  James  O.  Andrew 
in  1812  for  conference  membership  when  Andrew  was  a 
young  unknown  preacher.  Successively  Pierce  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  Louisville  Convention  of  1845  at  which  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  was  organized,  and  to  the  first 
General  Conference  of  this  church  in  1846.  At  this  con- 
ference he  was  elected  the  fraternal  messenger  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  to  the  1848  General  Conference 
of  the  M.E.  Church.  But  when  this  body  met  in  Pitts- 
burgh, while  accepting  Pierce  personally  and  unofficially 
as  a  friend,  it  rejected  fraternal  relationships  with  the 
newly  formed  Church  and  refused  to  recognize  him  in 
his  official  capacity.  The  conference  recorded  its  action 
as  follows: 

".  .  .  whereas  there  are  serious  questions  and  difficulties  existing 
between  the  two  bodies,  therefore  resolved  that  while  we  tender 
to  Rev.  Dr.  Pierce  all  personal  courtesies,  and  invite  him  to 
attend  our  sessions,  this  General  Conference  does  not  consider 
it  proper  at  present  to  enter  into  fraternal  relations  with  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Soutli."  {Daili/  Christian  Advo- 
cate, May  6,  1848.) 

To  this  Pierce  replied:  ".  .  .  within  the  bar  I  can  only 
be  known  in  my  ofiRcial  character."  And  he  added: 

"You  will  therefore  regard  this  communication  as  final  on  the 
part  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  She  can  never  renew  the  offer 
of  fraternal  relations  between  the  two  great  bodies  of  Wesleyan 
Methodists  in  the  United  States.  But  the  proposition  can  be 
renewed  at  any  time,  either  now  or  hereafter,  by  the  M.E. 
Church.  And  if  ever  made  upon  the  basis  of  the  Plan  of  Separa- 
tion, as  adopted  by  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  the 
Church,  South,  will  cordially  entertain  the  proposition."  ( Ibid. ) 

As  Bishop  Andrew  in  1844  had  become  the  embodiment 


of  the  rift  in  Episcopal  Methodism,  so  Pierce,  in  1848, 
became  the  symbol  of  the  uncordial  feelings  that  existed 
between  the  two  ecclesiastical  bodies  for  nearly  thirty 
years.  Fortunately  Pierce  lived  to  see  fraternal  relations 
again  established.  In  1876,  after  the  M.E.  Church  had 
made  moves  of  reconciliation,  he  was  again  elected  fra- 
ternal messenger  to  the  General  Conference  of  that  de- 
nomination. Ill  health  prevented  his  presence  at  the  gath- 
ering but  the  acceptance  of  his  written  message  by  the 
M.  E.  body  did  much  to  repair  the  damage  caused  by  its 
action  of  1848. 

Up  until  the  time  of  his  death,  Lovick  Pierce,  although 
never  elected  to  the  episcopacy,  held  a  unique  position 
of  leadership  in  the  Church,  South.  Invariably  he  was  a 
delegate  to  its  General  Conferences,  and  for  more  than 
thirty  years  was  a  guiding  influence  in  its  affairs.  De- 
scribed as  being  not  so  rhetorically  brilliant  as  his  famous 
son,  George,  the  "old  Doc"  in  his  day  was  considered 
by  many  "the  ablest  expounder  of  the  Scriptures  then 
living.  He  was  tmly  a  marvelous  preacher,  deeply  spir- 
itual, with  a  mighty  sweep  of  thought  and  a  vocabulary 
to  match  .  .  ."  He  was  said  to  delight  in  "the  grandest 
themes,"  delivering  them  in  a  diction  marked  by  "the  roll 
of  evangelical  thunder."  For  the  rudest  rustic  as  well  as 
the  most  learned  scholar,  "the  simple  grandeur  of  his  char- 
acter had  charm  .  .  ." 

Active  in  body  and  mind  until  the  end  of  his  life.  Pierce 
died  Nov.  9,  1879,  in  Sparta,  Ga.,  at  the  home  of  his 
son,  George,  where  he  had  resided  during  his  declining 
years.  Two  days  later  his  remains  were  buried  at  Colum- 
bus, Ga.,  by  the  grave  of  his  wife,  who  died  in  1850.  His 
death  was  mourned  throughout  the  Church  and  through- 
out the  section  with  whose  affairs  he  had  so  closely  iden- 
tified his  long  and  fruitful  life.  His  portrait  is  in  the  home 
of  his  great-grandson  in  Nashville,  the  present  Lovick 
Pierce. 

A.  D.  Betts,  South  Carolina.  1952. 

Christian  Advocate  (Nashville),  Nov.  15,  1879;  Nov.  29,  1879. 

O,  P.  Fitzgerald,  Sunset  Views.  1900. 

R.  Irby,  Randolph-Macon  College.  1899. 

Journal  of  tlie  General  Conference,  ME,   1848;  MES,  1850. 

Methodist  Revietv,  January-February  1897. 

A.  M.  Pierce,  Georgia.  1956. 

G.  G.  Smith,  George  Foster  Pierce.  1888. 

,  Georgia  and  Florida.  1877. 

James  P.  Pilkincton 

PIERCE,  LOVICK  (1903-  ).  Publisher  of  The  (United) 

Methodist  Publishing  House,  was  bom  on  Oct.  17,  1903, 
in  Sparta,  Ga.,  the  son  of  Walter  Flournoy  and  Sarah 
(Alfriend)  Pierce.  He  was  a  student  at  the  Georgia  Mili- 
tary College,  1920-21;  Morningside  College,  D.B.A. 
in  1952;  Ohio  Northern  University,  Litt.D.  in  1961. 
He  married  Florence  Eugenia  Couch  on  Jan.  30,  1926, 
and  their  children  are  Eugenia  Carter  (Mrs.  Andrew  W. 
Young,  Jr. )  and  Lovick,  Jr.  Mr.  Pierce  is  the  grandson  of 
Bishop  George  F.  Pierce  and  the  great-grandson  of 
Lovick  Pierce — the  Southern  Church  leader  of  a  hundred 
years  ago. 

He  joined  The  Methodist  Publishing  House  and  be- 
came its  merchandise  manager  at  the  Richmond  Branch, 
1921-29;  went  to  Dallas  as  manager  of  the  Publishing 
House  Branch  there  from  1929-46,  when  he  was  elected 
one  of  the  Publishing  Agents — as  they  then  were  termed 
— of  The  Methodist  Church.  The  Publishing  Agents'  title 
was  changed  in  1956,  with  one  such  to  be  appointed  and 


PIERCE,    RALPH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


to  be  known  as  Publisher  of  The  Methodist  Church  and 
President  of  the  pubhshing  corporation.  Mr.  Pierce  was 
elected  and  continued  in  this  capacity  until  he  retired  in 
1970. 

He  was  steward  in  Ginter  Park  Church,  Richmond, 
Va.;  Highland  Park  Church,  Dallas,  Te.xas,  where  he 
served  as  chairman;  and  in  West  End  Church,  Nashville, 
Tenn.  He  has  been  the  treasurer  of  the  South  Central 
Jurisdictional  Conference,  1940-46;  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  Secretaries  since  1946;  ex  officio  member  of 
the  Curriculum  Committee  of  The  Methodist  Church; 
of  the  1960-64  Hymnal  Commission;  the  Commission 
on  Worship;  the  ad  hoc  committee  dealing  with  the 
Methodist-E.U.B.  union;  and  director  and  executive  of 
various  Church  organizations.  Presently,  Mr.  Pierce  serves 
on  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Scarritt  College.  He  also 
is  one  of  the  directors  of  the  First  American  National 
Bank  of  Nashville;  is  a  member  of  the  American  Book- 
sellers Association,  for  many  years  upon  its  Board  and 
at  one  time  Vice-President;  is  a  member  of  the  American 
Book  Publishers  Council,  and  of  the  National  Council 
OF  Churches.  He  has  been  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Governors  of  the  Nashville  Area  Chamber  of  Commerce. 
The  present  enlarged  Publi.shing  House,  including  its  new 
building  and  printing  facilities — among  the  largest  in  the 
world — came  about  under  his  administration. 


Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.B.  H. 


PIERCE,  RALPH  (1827-1908)  and  Mrs.  Pierce,  with  the 
Rev.  James  L.  and  Mrs.  Humphrey,  were  the  first  mis- 
sionary recruits  from  America  to  join  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wil- 
liam Butler  in  the  India  Mission.  On  the  day  of  the 
massacre  in  Baheilly,  May  31,  1857,  a  meeting  was  held 
in  Boston  to  bid  farewell  to  these  two  couples.  When 
they  reached  Calcutta  on  Sept.  22,  they  were  not  al- 
lowed to  depart  for  the  north,  but  remained  in  Calcutta 
and  studied  Hindustani.  On  March  11,  1858,  they  joined 
Butler  at  the  Taj  Mahal  in  Agra  in  well-furnished  rooms 
in  the  building  known  as  Jawab  (or  "answer"),  a  feature 
of  Moghal  architecture. 

His  first  appointment  was  to  Naini  Tal.  A  school  for 
girls  was  opened  in  the  residence.  A  few  months  later 
the  superintendent  appointed  him  to  Lucknow.  (The 
appointments  in  those  days  were  given  only  to  the  men, 
but  the  wives  worked  as  devotedly  as  did  their  husbands. ) 
The  first  converts  in  Lucknow  from  a  non-Christian  reli- 
gion were  from  Islam — Hosein  Beg,  his  wife,  and 
daughter.  They  were  baptized  June  12,  1859. 

In  the  fall  of  1858  a  girls'  orphanage  was  opened  in 
Lucknow  under  the  care  of  Mrs.  Pierce.  In  1861-62,  she 
was  assisted  by  Miss  Husk  (later  Mrs.  Messmore).  In 
Nov.  of  1862,  Mrs.  Pierce  died.  The  orphanage  was  then 
removed  to  Bareilly,  and  Pierce  became  its  superintendent. 
He  was  assisted  by  Mrs.  David  W.  Thomas.  It  became 
and  remained  for  a  generation  the  largest  and  most  pro- 
ductive of  the  girls'  boarding  schools  of  Indian  Meth- 
odism. In  1861,  the  orphan  girls  in  the  school  numbered 
forty-one.  Two  years  later  they  numbered  135.  After 
furlough  Pierce  remained  in  America.  He  died  in  Wash- 
ington, D.C.,  March  17,  1908. 

B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 
J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  19.56. 
J.  E.  Scott,  Southern  Asia.  1906. 


J.  Waskom  Pickett 


PIERCE,  REDOICK  (1782-1860),  a  minister  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  and  subsequently  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South, 
was  born  in  Halifax  County,  N.  C,  Sept.  26,  1782.  Both 
he  and  his  brother,  LovicK,  his  junior  by  two  years,  were 
admitted  on  trial  into  the  South  Carolina  Conference 
at  Charleston  in  1805,  with  Bishop  Asbury  presiding. 
Reddick  Pierce  was  sent  as  junior  preacher  on  the  Little 
River  Circuit,  Georgia.  He  then  served  the  Sparta  Cir- 
cuit, Augusta  station,  and  Columbia,  S.  C,  and  was  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  Saluda  District. 

The  two  brothers  differed  markedly  in  appearance  and 
temperament.  Reddick  was  vigorous  in  body  and  mind, 
brave,  daring.  Lovick  was  somewhat  more  gentle  and 
sensitive,  with  a  taste  for  all  the  refinements  of  life. 

Reddick  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  power  in  the  pul- 
pit. His  brother,  Lovick,  records  that  scores  fell  senseless 
as  Reddick  preached.  The  brothers  possessed  no  early 
literary  advantages,  but  their  ministry  was  characterized 
by  lofty  heroism  and  wholehearted  dedication  to  the 
cause  of  Christ. 

Reddick  Pierce  located  in  1812,  but  returned  to  the 
work  in  1822.  He  resided  in  Fairfield  County,  S.  C,  later 
moving  to  Mt.  Ariel  to  educate  his  children.  He  became 
very  deaf  in  later  life  and  could  communicate  with  his 
friends  only  by  writing.  He  was  asked  once  why  he  at- 
tended church  so  regularly,  for  "Uncle  Redd,  you  can't 
hear  a  word"  said  the  inquirer.  "I  go  to  fill  my  place" 
said  the  old  minister  simply. 

The  last  twelve  years  of  his  Ife  were  spent  in  the  home 
of  Jacob  Stroman  in  Orangeburg  County,  S.  C.  He  died 
July  24,  1860,  and  his  body  was  buried  at  Rocky  Swamp 
Church.  This  tribute  was  paid  to  him  by  a  friend:  "A 
purer  Christian  never  lived.  His  whole  religious  life  was 
a  rich  development  of  the  most  guileless  devotion  to  God, 
His  Cause  and  Kingdom." 

A.  D.  Belts,  South  Carolina.  1952. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1881. 

G.  G.  Smith,  Georgia  and  Florida.  1877.  J.  Marvin  Rast 

PIERCE,  ROBERT  BRUCE  (1917-  ),  American  minister 

and  city  pastor  was  bom  in  Hancock,  Mich.,  on  April 
11,  1917,  the  son  of  Ralph  Milton  and  Nellie  Payne  Pierce. 
He  was  educated  at  NoRTH^vESTERN  University,  A.B., 
1939;  M.A.,  1944;  Garrett  Theological  Seminary, 
B.D.,  1941;  Hebrew  Union  College,  and  holds  an  honorary 
degree  from  Union  College.  His  wife  was  Harriet  Vivian 
White  whom  he  married  on  Aug.  3,  1938,  and  they  have 
four  children. 

Dr.  Pierce  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the  Rock  River 
Conference  in  1940  and  into  full  connection  and  or- 
dained elder  in  1942.  He  served  as  pastor  in  Glencoe,  111., 
1941-49;  Broadway  Church,  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  1949- 
57;  Metropolitan  Church,  Detroit,  Mich.,  1957-61,  at 
which  time  he  became  pastor  of  the  Chicago  Temple  or 
First  Church  of  Chicago.  He  serves  as  a  trustee  of  the 
Chicago  Wesley  Memorial  Hospital,  the  Rock  River  Con- 
ference Foundation,  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Chicago 
YMCA  Hotel,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Advisory  Board  of 
the  Salvation  Army.  He  was  the  recipient  of  the  Freedom 
Foundation's  George  Washington  medal  in  1954.  His 
ofl5ce  is  in  the  imposing  skyscraper  building  of  the  Chicago 
Temple,  where  of  course  he  preaches  each  Sunday  morn- 
ing. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 


1910 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PIETERS,   ANDRE 


PIERCE,  WILLIAM  HENRY  (1856-1948),  Canadian  min- 
ister, was  bom  at  Fort  Rupert  on  Vancouver  Island,  of  a 
Scottish  father  and  a  Tsimshian  mother,  on  June  10, 
1856.  Three  weeks  later  his  mother  died,  and  when  the 
news  of  her  death  reached  her  father,  he  took  the  infant 
boy  to  Port  Simpson  where  he  was  reared  among  the 
tribesmen  of  his  mother. 

His  first  teacher  was  William  Duncan,  an  Anglican 
missionary,  who  founded  Metlakatla,  Alaska.  At  twelve 
years  of  age  he  joined  the  crew  of  the  "Otter,"  a  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company  steamer  under  command  of  a  Captain 
Lewis,  who  saw  signs  of  promise  in  the  boy.  At  fifteen  he 
was  converted  under  the  preaching  of  Thomas  Crosby, 
the  great  Methodist  missionary  to  the  Indians  of  the 
Pacific  Coast.  For  a  time,  he  acted  as  an  interpreter  for 
Crosby  when  opening  new  missions  on  the  coast  and  up. 
the  Nass  and  Skeena  Rivers. 

In  1877,  Pierce  was  appointed  to  Port  Essington,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Skeena,  where  he  taught  school  and 
preached.  Under  the  direction  of  Crosby,  Pierce  opened 
missions  at  Fort  Wrangel,  Alaska,  at  Lak-al-zap  on  the 
Nass,  at  Bella  Bella  on  Campbell  Island,  and  at  Bella 
Coola  on  the  mainland.  In  1895  he  was  with  Crosby  on 
the  mission  boat,  "Glad  Tidings,"  when  they  visited  thirty- 
two  villages  and  travelled  over  seven  thousand  miles. 

Pierce's  next  appointment  was  Kitseguecla  on  the  Upper 
Skeena,  but  shortly  thereafter  he  was  sent  further  up  the 
river  to  Kispiox,  where  he  remained  for  fifteen  years.  In 
1910  he  returned  to  Port  Essington — his  first  mission — 
and  was  there  until  his  retirement  in  1932. 

Pierce,  the  first  person  of  Indian  blood  to  become  a 
minister  in  British  Columbia,  was  ordained  in  May,  1887, 
at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Methodist  Conference.  Gifted 
with  an  alert  mind,  compelling  humor,  shrewdness,  and 
intense  Christian  devotion,  he  made  an  indf'lible  mark  on 
the  lives  of  both  Indians  and  Canadians.  He  was  a  staunch 
advocate  of  temperance,  a  leader  in  social  changes,  and  a 
wise  and  trusted  counselor. 

W.  H.  Pierce,  From  Potlatch  to  Pulpit.  Vancouver:  Vancouver 
Bindery,  1933. 

Mrs.  F.  C.  Stephenson,  Canadian  Methodist  Missions.  1925. 

W.  P.  Bunt 

PIERCY,  GEORGE  (1829-1913),  first  British  Methodist 
missionary  to  China,  was  born  at  Pickering,  England, 
February  27,  1829.  After  two  voyages  as  a  seaman  he 
settled  back  to  farming  and  was  an  efi^ective  local 
PREACHER.  An  interest  in  China,  then  newly  opening  to 
the  West,  resulted  in  his  asking  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Missionary  Society  for  authority  to  go  as  a  missionary, 
but  they  could  not  contemplate  opening  new  work  at 
that  time.  Piercy  went  to  Hong  Kong  on  his  own  charges 
in  1851,  preached  to  soldiers  and  civilians,  and  moved  on 
to  Canton  in  1852,  when  he  offered  himself  again  to  the 
missionary  society  and  was  then  accepted  as  a  Wesleyan 
minister.  In  1853  he  opened  the  first  Wesleyan  preaching 
hall  in  Canton  and  was  joined  by  W.  R.  Beach  and 
JosLWH  Cox.  The  Wesleyan  Church  had  committed  itself 
to  the  China  Mission.  In  1854  Mrs.  Piercy  began  a  school 
for  girls;  but  in  1856,  following  the  second  Opium  War, 
the  missionaries  had  to  withdraw  to  Macao.  Here,  Feb- 
ruary, 1857,  the  first  Methodist  converts  were  baptized. 
Piercy  returned  to  Canton  in  1858  and  remained  in  South 
China  until  1882.  He  died  July  16,  1913. 

Cyril  J.  Davey 


PIERPONT,  FRANCIS  HARRISON  (1814-1899),  governor 
of  the  "restored"  state  of  Virgini,\,  and  M.P.  layman, 
was  bom  Jan.  25,  1814,  near  Morgantown,  Monongalia 
County,  Va.  (now  W.  Va.),  the  son  of  Francis  and 
Catherine  (Weaver)  Pierpont.  He  won  the  B.A.  degree 
at  Allegheny  College  in  1839.  After  teaching  school 
two  years  in  his  home  state  and  one  year  in  Mississippi, 
he  returned  home  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 

An  ardent  anti-slavery  man,  Pierpont  supported  Lincoln 
for  president  in  1860.  When  Virginia  seceded  from  the 
Union  in  1861,  he  organized  a  mass  meeting  at  Wheeling 
in  May  which  led  to  a  convention  that  elected  him 
provisional  governor  of  Virginia.  When  West  Virginia 
was  admitted  to  the  Union  in  1863,  a  new  govemor  was 
chosen  for  that  state,  and  Pierpont  was  granted  a  four-year 
term  as  govemor  of  the  "restored"  state  of  Virginia,  that 
is,  governor  of  the  few  counties  which  were  in  Federal 
hands  and  not  in  West  Virginia.  Pierpont  moved  his 
capital  to  Alexandria  and  carried  on  under  military  pro- 
tection. When  the  Confederacy  fell,  he  went  to  Richmond 
and  became  in  fact  the  govemor  of  Virginia,  carrying  on 
until  replaced  by  a  military  commander  in  1868.  He  then 
returned  to  his  home  in  Faiimont,  W.  Va.,  and  resumed 
the  practice  of  law.  Known  as  the  "father  of  West  Vir- 
ginia," the  state  placed  a  statue  of  him  in  the  Capital  at 
Washington  in  1910.  One  biographer  says  that  apparently 
Pierpont  belonged  to  that  large  class  of  men  who  are 
selected  as  leaders  in  troubled  times  because  they  possess 
strength  of  conviction   rather   than   strength   of   intellect. 

As  a  Methodist  Protestant  strongly  opposed  to  slavery, 
Pierpont  was  among  those  who  withdrew  from  the  West- 
ern Virginia  Conference  (MP)  in  1866  and  went  into 
the  Pittsburgh  Conference  which  became  a  part  of  the 
newly  formed  Methodist  Church  (See  Table  of  Method- 
ist Annual  Conferences).  He  was  elected  president  of  the 
Second  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church 
which  met  in  Pittsburgh  in  1871.  Though  a  delegate  to 
the  1875  General  Conference,  he  did  not  attend.  How- 
ever he  participated  in  the  1877  Convention  at  Balti- 
more when  the  Methodist  Church  and  the  Methodist 
Protestant  Church  reunited  under  the  latter  name,  and 
he  served  as  a  delegate  to  the  1880  General  Conference 
(MP). 

Pierpont  married  Julia  Robertson  of  New  York  in  1854. 
He  died  at  the  home  of  his  daughter  in  Pittsburgh,  March 
24,  1899,  and  was  buried  at  Fairmont,  W.  Va. 

T.  H.  Colhouer,  Sketches  of  the  Founders.  1880. 
Dictionary  of  American  Biography,  Volume  14. 
E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church. 
1898.  Ann  G.  Siler 

Albea  Godbold 

PIERS,  HENRY  (1694-1770),  British  Anglican,  figures  in 
John  Wesley's  diary  as  a  friend  whom  he  often  met  in 
the  period  leading  up  to  his  conversion.  Piers  himself 
was  led  to  Christ  under  the  influence  of  Charles  Wesley 
and  John  Bray.  A  vicar  of  Bexley,  Kent,  Piers  offered  his 
pulpit  to  the  Wesleys.  Kezia  Wesley  was  a  paying  guest 
in  his  home.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Fetter  Lane 
Society-  and  attended  the  Conferences  of  1744  and  1747. 

A.  Skevington  Wood 

PIETERS,  ANDRE  ( 1924-  ),  a  minister  of  the  Belgium 

Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church,  was  born  at  St. 
Andres  les  Bruges  (Belgium),  on  Dec.  31,  1924.  He  was 


PIETISM   AND   METHODISM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Andre  Pieters 

given  a  Th.B.  degree  at  the  Brussels  Protestant  Theologi- 
cal School  and  a  Ph.D.  from  Cambridge  University 
(England)  in  1965.  He  was  pastor  at  Vilvorde — the 
William  Tyndale  Memorial  Church— from  1950  to  1959 
and  at  Uccle  from  1962-63.  He  has  been  secretary  of  the 
annual  conference  since  1955,  a  district  superintendent 
since  1961,  a  professor  at  the  Protestant  Theological 
School  since  1961  and  Dean  in  1966,  elected  President 
of  the  E.xecutive  Council  of  The  Protestant  Church  of 
Belgium  at  its  organization  in  1969.  He  married  Andree 
Desle  of  Kain  (Belgium)  in  October  1944,  and  they  have 
two  daughters. 

William  G.  Thoncer 

PIETISM  AND  METHODISM.  Definitions.  Continental 
Pietism  arose  in  the  seventeenth  century  as  the  older 
half-brother  of  eighteenth  century  Anglo-American 
Awakenings  of  which  Methodism  is  a  part.  This  explains 
( 1 )  that  Pietism  was  of  greater  influence  on  Methodism 
than  vice  versa.  Yet  (2)  Methodism  is  distinct  from 
Pietism  because  it  also  stems  from  other  sources  than 
Pietism.  Concretely,  (3)  Pietism  and  Methodism,  both 
originally  mocking  names  ("Pietism"  first  used  around 
Darmstadt  1677,  "Methodism"  at  Oxford  1729)  share 
the  emerging  Protestant  emphasis  on  the  piety  of  the 
people  over  against  theological  doctrine  and  church 
structure.  They  (4)  differ  because  Pietism  is  embedded 
in  Calvinistic-Lutheran  soil  while  Methodism  stems  from 
Anglican-Puritan  parentage. 


History:  Pietism  a.  Roots.  Pietism  claims  (1)  the  Ref- 
ormation. Calvin's  concern  for  the  third  use  of  the  law 
(the  law  as  the  scaffold  for  Christian  living.  Institutes 
1559,  2,  7,  12)  led  the  very  defenders  of  orthodoxy  to 
an  ethically  oriented  Precisianism  (Voetius  1589-1676). 
Luther's  1522  Preface  to  the  Romans  (with  its  emphasis 
on  a  living  faith)  motivated  the  Rostock  Reform  wing 
of  Orthodoxy  (H.  Mueller  1631-1675,  Scriver  1629-1693). 
They  in  turn  led  Spener  (1635-1705)  to  claim  the  Preface 
again  and  again  as  the  Magna  Charta  of  Pietism.  The 
real  Father  of  Pietism,  however,  is  Martin  Bucer,  the 
mediator  among  the  Reformers.  His  program  (cf.  the 
Tetrapolifan  Confession  of  1530)  intended  a  Protestant 
consensus  on  the  basis  of  piety.  Direct  links  connect 
Bucer  with  Calvinistic  and  Lutheran  Pietists  (Ames, 
Spener)  and  also  with  the  Radicals  (via  Schwenkfeld). 
Anglican  (Bradford)  and  Puritan  (Perkins)  piety  is  also 
in  his  debt. 

Pietism  blends  (2)  into  the  unbroken  stream  of 
Mysticism.  It  treasures  among  the  ancients  Macarios  and 
among  the  medievals  Tauler.  Since  the  Reformation  the 
Pietistic  pedigree  includes  Protestant  mystics  like  Weigel 
(1533-1588),  Amdt  (1555-1621)  and  Boehme  (1575- 
1624).  Nor  is  Pietism  afraid  to  appropriate  seventeenth 
century  Romance  Mysticism,  particularly  Quietism 
(Molinos  1628-1696/7,  Fenelon  1651-1715,  de  Guyon 
1648-1717). 

b.  Classical  Forms.  Pietism  began  around  1630  in  the 
Netherlands  as  ( 1 )  Reformed  Pietism,  though  not  yet 
under  this  name.  It  grew  out  of  the  academic  orthodoxy 
of  the  universities  (Ames  and  the  Cases  of  Conscience 
theology,  1630  ff.,  at  Franeker;  Voetius  and  legalistic 
Precisionism  in  conventicles  at  Utrecht,  1634  ff;  Coccejus 
and  evangelical  covenant  theology,  1648  ff.,  at  Leyden). 
Pietism  was  carried  out,  however,  by  pastors.  In  Holland 
Lodensteyn  in  LTtrecht  (Scales  of  Imperfections  1664) 
stayed  within  the  church,  Labadie  in  Middelburg  (Refor- 
ination  of  the  Church  by  the  Ministrxj  1667)  broke  with 
it  (1669).  In  Northwest  Germany  (Muehlheim/Ruhr) 
Undereyck  founded  1666  conventicles  which  later  pro- 
vided the  setting  for  the  devotion  of  Tersteegen  (1697- 
1769). 

Lutheran  Pietism  (2),  which  gave  the  movement  its 
name,  developed  four  main  forms.  First,  there  is  the 
Pietism  of  the  founder  Spener.  During  his  ministry  in 
Frankfurt/Main  (1666-1686)  Spener  instituted  (1670) 
conventicles  out  of  which  grew  his  Pia  Desideria  (1675), 
the  program  of  Pietism  which  made  Spener  into  the  head 
of  the  Pietistic  party.  Second,  his  student  Francke  (1663- 
1727)  created  Pietistic  welfare  and  educational  institutions 
in  Halle.  As  professor  he  made  the  theological  faculty  of 
the  university  into  the  academic  center  of  Pietism.  Third, 
in  Wuerttemberg  Bengel  (1687-1752)  shaped  Pietism 
exegetically-apocalytically  {Gnomon  1742)  and  his  stu- 
dent Oetinger  (1702-1782)  elaborated  it  systematically- 
philosophically  (Philosophia  Sacra  1765).  From  these 
three  "pedestrian"  forms  Zinzendorf  (1700-1760)  dis- 
tinguished the  (fourth  form  of)  Pietism  of  the  Moravian 
Brethren  as  "equestrian."  This  Pietism  swings  wider,  first 
to  the  Radicals  (Dippel,  Sifting  Period)  then  to  Luther 
(since  1734).  The  Moravians  were  criticized  by  Halle 
(Francke's  son)    and  Wuerttemberg   (Bengel,  Oetinger). 

Radical  Pietism  (3)  on  Calvinistic  soil  breaks  with  the 
church  bv  external  emigration,  creating  free  churches 
(Labadie'  1669,  Church  of  the  Brethren  1708).  On 
Lutheran  soil  it  goes  into  internal  emigration.  Sectarians 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PIETISM    AND    METHODISM 


withdrew  into  individualism.  Some  are  loosely  interrelated 
in  Jane  Leade's  Philadelphian  Society  (founded  1694, 
Peterson,  Breckling,  Gichtel).  Others  represent  extreme 
offshoots  on  the  way  to  the  Enlightenment  (Dippel).  Most 
important  is  G.  Arnold  (1666-1714).  In  his  Impartial 
Church  and  Heresy  History  (1699/1700)  he  replaces 
dogmatic  confessionalistic  church  historiography  by  the 
ethical  approach  of  Pietism. 

c.  Subsequent  Forms.  Classical  Pietism  aiose  against 
the  front  of  Orthodoxy  and  foreshadowed  the  Enlighten- 
ment. In  the  nineteenth  century  Neo-Pietism  ( 1 )  emerged 
on  the  continent  as  it  did  in  England  and  America  in  the 
form  of  revivalism  (Erweckung,  Reveil) .  Although  it  had 
representatives  in  universities  (Tholuck)  it  was  often 
anti-intellectual  in  its  reaction  to  the  Enlightenment.  The 
classical  Pietistic  heritage  appears  in  Neo-Pietism  in  three 
ways.  In  the  territorial  churches  it  took  the  form  of 
Inner  or  Home  Mission  (Wichem,  Hauge).  It  was  soon 
expanded  into  evangelism  (Schrenk,  Keller),  a  concern 
the  free  churches  joined.  A  special  emphasis  is  found  in 
the  Holiness  Movement  (Rappard,  Gebhard). 

Neo-Pietism  led  to  Neo-Orthodoxy  and  related  move- 
ments. These  are  today  under  attack  by  (2)  a  contempo- 
rary Pietism  which  stands  in  a  broken  relationship  to 
classical  Pietism  and  only  in  an  oblique  relationship  to 
Neo-Pietism.  The  traditional  conventicles  (classical  Piet- 
ism) and  movements  (Neo-Pietism)  are  exceeded  by  a 
new  Confessional  Movement  No  Other  Gospel  ( 1693 
flF.).  Its  distinguishing  marks  are  a  fundamentalism  in  the 
attitude  toward  Scripture  and  various  forms  of  personalism 
in  its  efforts  to  create  Christian  life  styles  (Bergmann, 
Kuenneth). 

History:  Pietism  and  Methodism  a.  Wesley  and  Pi- 
etism. The  founder  of  Methodism  had  various  contacts 
with  Pietism.  (1)  Literary  Contacts.  In  his  Oxford  days 
(1733  fl. )  Wesley  read  widely  in  Francke  and  was  also 
acquainted  with  Arnold.  In  preparing  his  Notes  upon  the 
New  Testament  (1755)  Wesley  extensively  excerpted 
from  Bengel's  Gnomon  of  1742.  In  1763  the  Notes  be- 
came a  part  of  (the  not  yet  repealed)  doctrinal  standards 
of  Methodism.  Thus  the  Lutheran  Pietism  of  Wuerttem- 
berg  lives  on  in  the  confessional  documents  of  Methodism. 
(2)  Structural  contacts  are  given  with  the  Anglican 
Religious  Societies  (e.g.  at  Aldersgate  Street).  These 
were  fostered  by  Anthony  Homeck  (1641-1696),  a  friend 
of  Spener's.  Wesley  modelled  his  own  societies  (1739  ff. ) 
more  after  these  than  the  Moravian  societies  (e.g.  at 
Fetter  Lane)  with  whom  he  soon  had  conflicts.  (3) 
Personal  contacts  seem  to  be  restricted  to  meetings  with 
Moravians:  on  the  way  to  and  in  Georgia  (1735ff., 
Spangenberg)  as  well  as  after  his  return  in  England 
(1738ff.,  Boehler)  including  a  visit  to  Herrnhuth 
1738,  Zinzendorf).  From  these  contacts  rose  his  interest 
in  translating  German  Pietist  hymns.  When  the  Meth- 
odists and  the  Moravians  broke  (1740ff.)  it  also  meant 
for  Wesley  a  conscious  decision  for  the  classical  Pietism 
of  Spener,  Francke  and  Bengel. 

b.  Early  Methodism  and  Pietism.  The  contacts  of  other 
early  Methodists  with  Pietism  were  also  embedded  in  the 
situation  which  was  marked  by  two  facts.  Works  by 
Francke  (particularly  his  Pietas  Hallensis,  1705)  were 
generally  accessible  in  the  translation  of  Anthony  William 
Boehm(e).  From  1740  on  writings  of  Zinzendorf s  be- 
came available  in  Engfeh,  in  addition  to  the  personal  in- 
fluence which  the  Moravians  exerted  particularly  through 
their   London    societies.    Some    special    points.    Charles 


Wesley,  like  his  brother  John,  was  influenced  by  Pietistic 
hymnody  (Neander,  Tersteegen,  Zinzendorf)  in  his 
frequent  insistence  that  in  the  sight  of  God  man  is  but 
a  worm.  A  charismatic  itinerant  ministry  in  England  and 
America  led  Whitefield  into  many  contacts  with  Pietists, 
mainly  Moravians,  including  an  unsuccessful  correspon- 
dence and  personal  meeting  with  Zinzendorf  ( 1743) . 

c.  Later  Methodism  and  Pietism.  Revivalistic  Method- 
ism and  Pietism  developed  largely  separately  with  only 
occasional  meetings.  English  Methodism  stimulated  Pi- 
etistic publications  on  Methodism  (Niemeyer,  Burckhardt, 
Krummacher,  Christlieb).  American  Methodism  originally 
rejected  German  language  work  which  led  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  United  Brethren  Chltrch  (1787  ff.)  and 
the  Evangelical  Association  (1816  ff.)  in  both  America 
and  Germany.  When  later  (1838  ff.)  American  Method- 
ism supported  German-speaking  work  contacts  increased. 
In  America  Nast  (1807-1899)  continually  built  bridges  to 
the  immigrant  Germans  which  led  him  into  a  literary 
controversy  with  Walther  (Missouri  Synod  Lutheran) 
over  communion  (1847).  In  Germany  the  meeting  ground 
for  Pietism  and  Methodism  became  increasingly  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  which  had  been  founded  in  England 
1846  and  was  introduced  into  Germany  1878. 

d.  Contemporary  Methodism  and  Pietism.  Today  con- 
tacts are  on  restricted  levels.  Ecumenical  relations  of  the 
larger  Methodist  Churches  in  America  and  Britain  with 
the  larger  Reformed  and  Lutheran  Churches  on  the 
continent  relegate  the  Methodist-Pietist  relations  to  inner- 
evangelical  conversations.  In  Britain  the  former  Primitive 
Methodists  uphold  the  "Pietistic"  stance  of  the  dissenters, 
although  this  stance  is  partly  social  in  origin.  In  America 
the  smaller  Methodist  Churches  of  decidedly  Arminian 
outlook  (in  the  following  of  Fletcher,  not  of  Wesley, 
although  the  position  is  claimed  to  be  Wesleyan)  relate 
to  the  descendents  of  the  early  immigration  churches 
with  pietistic  background.  On  the  continent  rural  sections 
of  Methodism  placed  in  traditional  pietistic  surroundings 
(Wuerttemberg,  Lower  Rhine,  Saxony,  parts  of  Switzer- 
land and  Scandinavia)   continue  old  bonds  of  alliance. 

Theology:  Pietism.  Pietism  exists  only  in  concrete  geo- 
graphical, confessional  and  later  denominational  forms, 
although  it  intends  to  overcome  these.  For  these  reasons 
Pietism  possesses  no  unified  theology.  Yet  all  of  its  forms 
(including  the  Anglo-American  Awakening  relatives) 
share  certain  foundations,  concerns  and  results  of  classical 
Pietism. 

a.  Foundations.  (1)  The  norms  of  Word  and  Spirit. 
For  ecclesial  Pietism  the  Word  of  scripture  (devotional 
book)  is  the  historical  vehicle  for  the  Holy  Spirit  (Coc- 
cejus,  Bengel).  For  radical  Pietism  the  outer  Word  of  the 
flesh  only  confirms  the  inner  Word  of  the  Spirit  (Peter- 
sen). (2)  The  rules  of  faith  and  love.  The  act  of  faith  is 
more  important  than  the  content  of  belief  (Spener,  Ar- 
nold ) .  The  doctrine  of  faith  is  exceeded  by  the  life  of  love 
(Tersteegen).  The  mediator  between  faith  and  love  is 
conscience  (Ames). 

b.  Concerns.  (1)  The  nature  of  piety  is  expressed  by 
the  new  man  who  has  his  origin  in  the  New  Birth 
(Spener)  and  is  edified  in  Sanctification  and  Perfec- 
tion (Spener).  (2)  The  conventicles  of  piety  {Collegia 
pietatii)  anticipate  the  future  Kingdom  of  God  within 
(for  the  Radicals:  outside)  the  established  churches  of 
the  present  (Voetius,  Bengel).  As  ecclesiae  in  ecclesia 
(respectively  extram  ecclesiam)  they  gather  the  true 
church  in  or  from  the  many  churches  through  the  means 


PIGGOTT,    HENRY   JAMES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


of  fellowship  (Undereyck,  Spener).  (3)  The  practice  of 
piety  rests  on  specific  suggestions  for  conduct  (Voetius) 
but  also  moves  out  to  tackle  social  evils  (Francke).  (4) 
A  reformation  of  piety  is  called  for  as  a  second  refor- 
mation building  on  the  first  reformation  of  doctrine  (  Teel- 
linck).  Spener's  Pia  Desideria  outline  the  program:  re- 
forms are  necessary  because  of  the  fallen  state  of  the 
church  (cf.  also  Arnold).  Reforms  are  possible  because  of 
better  times  promised  to  the  church  ( cf.  also  Bengel ) . 
Reforms  are  suggested  as  concrete  measures  to  be  taken 
up  by  the  church,  particularly  the  ministry  (cf.  also 
Labadie). 

c.  Results.  ( 1 )  Pietism  upholds  an  ambiguous  attitude 
toward  the  world  as  both  God's  good  creation  and  man's 
dominion  in  which  he  constantly  fails.  Therefore  Pietism's 
relations  to  state  and  society  vacillate  according  to  the 
openness  of  the  people  concerned  to  cooperate  with  Pi,- 
etism  (Cf.  Francke  and  Prussia).  (2)  Pietism  accepts  as 
special  mandate  mission  work  (e.g.  Halle  Missions  in 
Tranquebar,  Moravians  in  Greenland,  both  in  America). 
This  engenders  an  irenic  spirit  of  ecumenism  which  tran- 
scends old  party  lines  (cf.  Zinzendorf's  tropology  and 
Arnold's  Church  and  Heresy  History).  (3)  The  expansion 
of  Pietism  was  effected  geographically  by  outreach  (Halle 
Pietism  in  Switzerland,  Scandinavia,  Russia)  or  transplan- 
tation (Moravian  colonies  in  England,  Greenland  and 
America ) .  Socially  Pietism  spread  by  permeating  the  lower 
classes  who  had  few  or  no  worldly  goods  to  lose  and  by 
entering  the  uppermost  classes  who  could  afford  to.  Classi- 
cal Pietism  was  not  at  home  in  the  middle  classes.  (4) 
Further  effects  reach  into  literature  (Goethe,  Romanticism, 
e.g.  Scleiermacher)  and  influenced  scholarship  particularly 
in  the  areas  of  psychology  and  education  (Francke, 
Pestalozzi). 

Theology:  Pietism  and  Methodism.  Original  Meth- 
odism (i.e.  as  it  felt  bound  by  its  doctrinal  standards) 
shared  most  foundations,  concerns  and  results  of  classical 
Pietism.  It  differs  (increasingly  so)  in  some  special  points. 

a.  Foundations.  (1)  The  (norming)  norms  of  Word 
and  Spirit  are  confirmed  by  the  (normed)  norms  of 
reason,  antiquity  and  experience.  Reason  is  appropriated 
because  Methodism  had  to  respond  to  Deism  while  Pi- 
etism preceded  the  Enlightenment  (Knowledge  and  piety 
in  KiNGSwooD  School,  Charles  Wesley).  Antiquity  is 
emphasized  in  agreement  with  the  Anglican  mother 
church  (Wesley's  refusal  to  consider  separation  from  the 
Chltrch  of  England).  Experience  is  the  modem  scientific 
test  to  which  both  Methodism  and  Pietism  are  open  (The 
legitimate  practice  of  testimomies  and  the  illegitimate  in- 
vocation of  Wesley's  private  warm  heart  experience  as 
a  model).  (2)  The  rules  of  faith  and  love  are  clarified 
as  suffering  and  doing  the  will  of  God,  suffering  what 
God  does  for  us  and  doing  what  God  does  in  us  (Wesley). 

b.  Concerns.  (1)  The  nature  of  piety  shall  lead  the 
new  man  to  perfection,  not  a  sinless  perfection  but  a 
perfection  that  frees  from  sin  (Wesley).  Contemporary 
Methodism  has  all  but  renounced  this  doctrine.  (2)  The 
Kingdom  of  God  is  an  inward  work  (The  life  of  God  in 
the  soul  of  man,  Wesley  with  Scougal),  realized  in  the 
Methodist  societies  ( 1739  ff. )  whose  conferences  ( 1744 
fiF. )  are  prudential  means  of  grace  (Wesley;  where  two 
or  three  confer  with  each  other).  Conferences  have  since 
( 1784  ff. )  changed  from  sacramental  to  administrative 
means.  Yet  Methodism  is  basically  still  an  ecclesiola 
(emphasizing  fellowship  instead  of  doctrine  or  structure) 
although  it  had  to  move  to  ecclesia  functions  with  which 


it  has  not  yet  come  to  terms.  (3)  Practical  piety  is  shown 
by  doing  no  harm,  by  doing  good  and  by  attending  upon 
all  the  ordinances  of  God  (Rules  1743).  Because  the 
third  element  increasingly  tended  to  become  problematic, 
the  first  two  misled  Methodism  sometimes  into  moralism. 
(4)  Reforms  of  piety  are  enacted  within  the  societies 
(the  early  discipline  of  membership  tickets,  later  given 
up)  but  also  encouraged  at  large  (Wesley's  criticism  of 
war  and  opposition  to  slavery,  Methodism's  Social  Creed). 

c.  Results.  (!)  Originally  the  ambiguity  of  the  world 
was  felt  more  in  personal  than  social  categories.  Therefore 
Methodism  always  supported  (sometimes  uncritically)  the 
state  (Wesley  and  the  Crown,  Asbury  and  the  outcome 
of  the  American  Revolution)  at  least  silently  (under  totali- 
tarian regimes).  Recently  Methodism  notices  ambiguities 
in  the  social,  yet  hardly  in  the  cosmic  world.  (2)  Mission 
and  ecumenism  have  been  strong  Methodist  emphases 
since  Wesley.  Often  mission  and  ecumenism  were  pur- 
sued with  an  optimistic  activism  which  is  today  being 
challenged.  (3)  Methodism  expanded  geographically 
mainly  among  English  speaking  people  through  evange- 
lism (at  home)  and  mission  (abroad).  In  the  western 
world  it  appealed  originally  to  the  lower  classes  whom  it 
soon  lifted  socially  through  the  preaching  of  frugality 
(Wesley:  On  the  use  of  money).  Only  rarely  were  en- 
trances into  higher  classes  achieved  (Whitefield  and  Lady 
Huntingdon).  Today  Methodism  is  predominantly  middle 
class,  another  reason  for  its  rejection  of  Pietism.  (4)  Of 
the  further  effects  of  original  Methodism  few  remained 
alive.  Wesley's  broad  literary  activity  was  soon  over- 
shadowed by  dissenter  position  (in  Britain)  or  revivalistic 
emotionalism  (in  America).  Wesley's  emphasis  on  learn- 
ing was  kept  alive  mainly  among  the  Wesleyan  Methodists 
in  England.  Others,  especially  in  America,  advocated  a 
less  complicated  activism.  Wesley's  concern  for  education 
(Kingswood  School)  was  replaced  by  evangelistic  Sunday 
Schools  (Cf.  the  late  foundation  of  Methodist  seminaries 
and  their  thorough  practical  emphases ) . 

A  new  Wesley  renaissance  (Cannon,  Lindstrom,  Towl- 
son,  Monk,  C.  Williams,  M.  Schmidt)  has  promise  to  lead 
Methodism  not  only  to  a  much  needed  reappreciation  of 
Wesley's  significance  but  also  to  an  openness  toward  its 
Pietistic  relations  and  affinities. 

H.  Bett,  Spirit  of  Methodism.  1945. 

B.  L.  Manning,  Hymns  of  Wesley  and  Watts.  1942. 
A.  W.  Nagler,  Pietism  and  Methodism.  1918. 

M.  Schmidt,  John  Wesley.  1966. 

C.  W.  Towlson,  Moravian  and  Methodist.  1957. 

F.  Wunderlich,  Methodists  Linking  Two  Continents.   1960. 

Egon  W.  Gerdes 

PIGGOTT,  HENRY  JAMES  (1831-1917),  leading  pioneer 
missionary  in  Italy,  was  bom  July  18,  1831,  at  Lowestoft, 
England,  the  son  of  William  Piggott  (missionary  in 
Sierra  Leone,  1824-28)  and  Elizabeth  Gadsden.  Edu- 
cated at  Kingswood  School  (1842-44),  at  Wesley  Col- 
lege Taunton,  and  London  University  (1848-50),  he  en- 
tered the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry,  and  served  in 
Newbury,  Berks,  Oxford,  Hastings,  and  Hammersmith.  He 
married  Mary  Ellen  Brown  in  1859.  He  refused  invitations 
to  Australia  and  India  with  Richard  Green,  but  ac- 
cepted one  as  pioneer  missionary  to  Italy  in  1861.  He 
arrived  in  Italy  in  November,  1861;  initiated  work  at 
Ivrea,  and  Milan,  and  assumed  leadership  of  the  mission 
when  ill-health  compelled  Green's  return  in  1863. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


Henby  Piggott 

In  1865  he  moved  his  base  to  Padua,  and  then  to 
Rome  in  1873.  In  1870  the  work  was  divided  into  two 
districts,  north  and  south,  Piggott  being  the  General 
Superintendent.  He  is  regarded  as  the  Father  of  Meth- 
odism in  Italy,  and  his  Life  and  Letters  as  its  primary 
text  book.  He  was  a  scholar,  evangelist  and  administrator, 
wide  in  ecumenical  vision,  and  a  tireless  worker  in  the 
cause  of  unity  among  Protestants  in  Italy.  He  retired  from 
the  Superintendency  of  the  mission  in  1902,  and  from 
active  pastoral  work  in  1903.  Thereafter  he  lived  in  Rome 
until  his  death  on  Nov.  30,  1917. 

Findlay  and  Holdsworth,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Soc.  1921. 
Piggott  and  Durley,  Henry  James  Piggott.  1921. 

Cyril  J.  Davey 
Reginald  Kissack 

PILCHER,  ELIJAH  HOLMES  (1810-1887),  American  min- 
ister, was  born  in  Athens,  Ohio,  on  June  2,  1810.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  Ohio  Conference  on  trial  in  1829,  and 
preached  one  year  in  West  Vibgini.'V.  Then  followed 
eight  years  on  farflung  pioneer  circuits  in  Michigan. 

Beginning  in  1838,  he  served  terms  as  presiding  elder 
of  several  districts,  interspersed  with  prominent  appoint- 
ments in  Michigan.  In  1833  Pilcher  was  one  of  four 
Methodist  leaders  who  began  working  to  estabhsh  a  Semi- 
nary in  Michigan,  later  Albion  College.  He  served  Al- 
bion as  trustee,  agent,  and  professor.  He  helped  to  estab- 
lish the  University  of  Michigan,  serving  five  years  as 
regent.  He  promoted  the  estabhshment  of  Michigan  State 
Agricultural  College,  and  was  co-founder  of  the  Michigan 
Christian  Advocate.  He  served  nine  times  as  Secretary  of 
the  Conference,  five  times  as  delegate  to  General  Con- 
ference, as  a  trustee  of  Northwestern  University,  and 
member  of  the  Book  Committee  of  the  Book  Concern. 
He  organized  at  least  thirteen  churches. 

Pilcher  studied  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar;  later 
he  studied  medicine  and  was  admitted  to  practice.  He 
was  the  author  of  Protestantism  in  Michigan,  published  in 
1878,  and  of  many  articles. 

In  1877  he  heeded  the  call  to  aid  the  Canadian  Meth- 
odists. He  was  serving  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Hamilton 
District  in  1882,  when  his  health  broke.  Pilcher  died 
April  7,  1887  at  the  home  of  his  son,  Lewis,  in  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.   Married   three  times,   he  had  four  sons   and   one 


PILMORE,   JOSEPH 

daughter.  A  son,  Leander,  served  as  a  missionary  in 
China. 

lo  Triumphe,  November  1957. 

Minutes  of  the  Detroit  Conference,  1887. 

E.  H.  Pilcher,  Michigan.  1878. 

James   Elijah   Pilcher,   Life  and  Labors  of   Elijah  H.   Pilcher. 

New  York:  Hunt  &  Eaton,  1892.  Ronald  A.  Brunger 

PILGRIM  HOLINESS.  ( See  Wesleyan  Church. ) 

PILLAR  OF  FIRE  CHURCH,  THE,  is  a  Methodist  oriented 
Pentecostal  group  organized  around  the  teachings  of  Mrs. 
Alma  White.  It  was  organized  in  1901  at  Denver,  Colo., 
as  the  Pentecostal  Union.  The  name  was  changed  in  1917 
to  Pillar  of  Fire.  The  movement  was  ruled  charismatically 
by  Mrs.  White  until  her  death  in  1946,  and  has  been 
headed  by  her  son,  Arthur  K.  White,  since  that  time. 
Mrs.  White  had  been  converted  under  Methodist  ministers 
in  Kentucky  and  eventually  married  one  from  Colorado. 
She  preached  from  her  husband's  pulpit  but  eventually 
gathered  an  independent  following.  She  withdrew  from 
the  Methodist  Church  after  conflict  developed  with  church 
authorities.  Mrs.  White  became  the  first  bishop  of  the 
new  body. 

The  Pillar  of  Fire  teaches  the  "second  blessing"  holiness 
doctrine  and  premillenarianism,  as  part  of  the  program 
to  revive  primitive  Wesleyanism  and  to  re-establish  the 
true  "New  Testament"  church.  The  church  is  anti-Catholic 
and  defends  the  Ku  Klux  Klan.  In  the  1940's  three 
volumes  entitled  Guardians  of  Liberty  were  first  published 
in  order  to  highlight  these  views. 

The  Pillar  of  Fire  operates  a  large  number  of  day 
schools,  elementary  schools  and  academies.  Two  colleges. 
Alma  White  College  at  Zarephath,  N.  J.,  and  Bellville 
College  at  Denver,  Colo.,  are  in  operation.  The  Belleview 
Bible  Seminary  operates  out  of  the  Alma  Temple  in 
Denver.  Home  missionary  work  is  carried  on  in  most  of 
the  major  cities  across  the  United  States  and  foreign  work 
in  England  and  Liberia.  The  church  was  among  the  first 
to  enter  the  radio  ministry,  buying  its  first  station  in  1927. 
Two  others  were  added  shortly  after. 

A  periodical,  The  Pentecostal  Union  Herald  (changed 
to  Pillar  of  Fire  in  1905)  appeared  almost  as  soon  as  the 
denomination.  It  has  been  joined  by  seven  others.  The 
denomination  also  publishes  numerous  books,  mostly  by 
Mrs.  White  and  her  sons. 


E.  T.  Clark,  Small  Sects.  1949. 
Yearbook  of  American  Churches,  1971. 


J.  Gordon  Melton 


PILMORE,  JOSEPH  (1739-1825),  Methodist  itinerant  in 
Great  Britain  and  one  of  the  first  two  preachers  sent  to 
America  by  John  Wesley.  (There  are  four  spellings  of 
his  surname;  Pillmore,  Pilmoor,  Pilmoore,  Pilmore.) 

He  was  bom  in  Tadmouth,  Yorkshire,  England,  Oct. 
31,  1739.  His  parents  belonged  to  the  Church  of  England. 
At  the  age  of  sixteen,  under  the  influence  of  John  Wesley, 
he  was  converted.  He  was  educated  at  Kingswood 
School.  In  1765  he  was  admitted  into  the  Methodist  Con- 
ference on  trial,  and  the  next  year  into  full  membership. 
For  two  years  he  preached  in  Wales. 

In  August  1769,  he  volunteered  to  go  to  America  to 
preach  and  the  Conference  sent  him.  He  and  Richakd 
BoARDMAN  arrived  at  Gloucester  Point,  N.  J.,  on  Oct. 
24,  1769.  The  following  day  they  met  with  the  Methodist 


PINHEIRO,    JOSE   PEDRO 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Joseph  Pilmore 

Society  in  Philadelphia.  From  that  date  until  May  1772, 
Pilmore  and  Boardman  alternated  their  ministries  in 
Philadelphia  and  New  York  City,  exchanging  every  four 
months.  In  Philadelphia,  Pilmore  supervised  the  purchase 
of  St.  George's  Church  and  introduced  the  Intercession 
and  the  Love  Feast  into  American  Methodism.  From  May 
26,  1772,  until  June  2,  1773,  Pilmore  made  an  evangehstic 
tour  into  the  Southern  Colonies,  going  as  far  as  South 
Carolina.  He  formed  Methodist  Societies  in  Baltimore, 
Md.,  and  in  Portsmouth  and  Norfolk,  Va.  Even  though 
there  were  no  appointments  for  Pilmore  and  Boardman 
at  the  first  American  Conference  in  1773,  they  continued 
their  ministries  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York  for  a  short 
time.  During  the  winter  of  1774  they  returned  to  England. 
Pilmore  received  no  appointment  at  the  Conferences  in 
England  in  1774  and  1775.  From  1776  to  1784  he  re- 
ceived appointments  at  London,  Norwich,  Edinburgh 
(twice),  Dublin,  Nottingham,  York. 

Sometime  after  the  Conference  of  1784,  Pilmore  with- 
drew from  the  Methodist  ministry.  Many  reasons  have 
been  suggested  for  this  action.  Basically  there  was  a 
decisive  conflict  between  him  and  Wesley.  Perhaps  this 
division  is  the  "Paul  and  Barnabas  episcode"  of  early 
Methodism. 

In  1785  Pilmore  was  ordained  a  deacon  and  a  priest  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  America.  From  1786 
to  1789  he  served  as  rector  of  the  United  Parishes  of 
Trinity  (Oxford,  Pa.),  All  Saints  (Lower  Dublin,  Pa.), 
St.  Thomas,  Whitemarsh  (Pa.).  From  1789  to  1794  he 
was  assistant  rector  at  St.  Paul's  Church,  Philadelphia. 
In  1794  he  became  rector  of  Christ  Church,  New  York 
City.  In  1804  he  returned  to  Philadelphia  and  served  as 
rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church  until  1821,  when  he  retired. 
In  1807  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  conferred  upon 
him  the  honorary'  D.D.  degree. 

He  died  July  24,  1825  and  is  buried  beneath  the  floor 


of  the  Sunday  school  room  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Phila- 
delphia. 

Norris  Barratt,  Outline  of  the  History  of  Old  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Philadelphia,  Pa.  Philadelphia:  The  Colonial  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania, 1917. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
Maser  and  Maag,  Journal  of  Joseph  Pilmore.  1969. 
Joseph   Pilmore,   Narrative   of   Labours   in   South   Wales,   Per- 
formed Partly  in  Company  with  the  Rev.  John  Wesley  in  the 
Years  1767  and  1768.  Philadelphia:  William  Stavely,  1825. 
Frank  Bateman  Stanger,  "The  Life  and  Ministry  of  the  Rev. 
Joseph  Pilmore."  Unpublished  thesis.  Temple  University,  1942. 
Frank  Bateman  Stanger 


Jose  Pedro  Pinheibo 

PINHEIRO,  JOSE  PEDRO  (1907-  ),  a  bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Church  in  Brazil,  was  born  on  March  19,  1907, 
in  Garibaldi,  state  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  Brazil,  the 
son  of  Pedro  and  Marieta  (Krieger)  Pinheiro.  His  edu- 
cation included  a  secondary  course  in  the  Methodist 
seminary  at  Porto  Alegre  Institute,  and  one  year  at 
the  Candler  School  of  Theology  at  Emory  Univer- 
sity. 

Pinheiro  was  ordained  deacon  in  1933  and  elder  in 
1935.  He  always  served  in  his  native  state,  both  in  rural 
and  urban  areas,  successively  as  pastor,  district  super- 
intendent, principal  (Reitor)  of  the  Instituto  Porto  Alegre, 
and  director  for  seven  years  of  the  Lar  Methodista,  the 
children's  home,  in  Santa  Mahl\.  He  has  also  been  editor 
of  the  Methodist  youth  magazine,  Cruz  de  Malta;  regional 
secretary  of  the  Boards  of  Christian  Education  and  of 
Missions;  and  president  of  the  Central  Council,  the  key 
committee  coordinating  activities  between  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Brazil  and  the  Methodist  Church  of  the  United 
States.  He  has  also  strongly  supported  Instituto  Joao 
Wesley  in  Porto  Alegre — designed  to  train  pastors  and 
laymen. 

Jose  Pinheiro  was  elected  Bishop  of  the  Second  Region 
in  1955,  re-elected  in  1960,  and  again  in  July  1965.  He 
retired  at  the  July  1970  General  Conference. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


W.   W.    PiNSON 

PINSON,  WILLIAM  WASHINGTON  (1854-1930),  Ameri- 
can clergyman  and  missionary  administrator,  was  bom  in 
Cheatham  County,  Tenn.,  on  April  4,  1854,  and  joined 
the  Tennessee  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South, 
in  1878.  He  served  pastorates  at  Bell  Buckle,  Winchester, 
McMinnville,  Tracy  City  and  Franklin  in  Tennessee,  at 
Austin,  San  Antonio  and  Gonzales  in  Texas,  Columbus, 
Ga.,  and  Louisville,  Ky. 

He  was  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Missions 
from  1906  to  1910  and  General  Secretary  from  1910  to 
1926.  He  then  became  the  editor  of  missionary  literature 
for  the  Sunday  schools,  in  which  capacity  he  served  four 
years. 

In  1916  Pinson  launched  the  Missionary  Centenary, 
a  successful  campaign  to  raise  $35,000,000  for  Southern 
Methodist  missions  in  celebration  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  Methodist  missionary 
society,  and  he  was  chairman  of  the  joint  committee 
representing  both  branches  of  American  Methodism. 

Pinson  received  honorary  degrees  from  the  University 
of  Georgia  and  Southern  Methodist  University,  and 
traveled  widely  in  visiting  the  foreign  mission  fields  of 
the  world.  Pinson  College  in  Camaguey,  Cuba,  was  named 
in  his  honor. 

Pinson  was  the  author  of  In  Black  and  White;  Missions 
in  a  Changing  World;  China  in  Action;  Bishop  Walter 
R.  Lambuth,  Prophet  and  Pioneer;  and  George  R.  Stuart, 
His  Life  and  Work. 

He  died  on  Oct.  7,  1930,  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  and  was 
buried  there. 

Who's  Who  in  America. 

Journal  of  the  Tennessee  Conference,  1930.    Elmer  T.  Clark 

PIRMASENS,  Germany,  has  the  mother  church  of  Pala- 
tine Methodism,  founded  in  1855  by  Enist  Mann.  While 
waiting  for  his  ship  to  America,  he  was  invited  to  a 
Bremen  Methodist  meeting  and  converted.  He  returned 
to  his  home  city  and  began  to  bear  witness;  many  were 
awakened.  Persecution  followed;  meetings  were  prohibited 


PITHORAGARH,    INDIA 

several  times;  one  preacher,  the  father  of  Bishop  John  L. 
NuELSEN,  had  to  leave  the  city  within  three  hours.  It  was 
only  in  1883  that  all  this  was  stopped  by  royal  decree. 
But  the  chui'ch  was  growing.  In  1876  a  meetinghouse 
was  dedicated.  At  the  same  time  congregations  were 
founded  in  other  Palatine  towns  and  in  neighboring  vil- 
lages. In  1898  a  big  church  was  built,  soon  proving  too 
small;  so  in  1914  another  meetinghouse  was  bought  and  a 
second  minister  appointed.  In  the  Second  World  War 
the  church  was  destroyed  and  its  members  dispersed,  the 
city  being  evacuated  two  times.  But  new  members  were 
won,  and  the  church  was  reconstructed  in  1950.  There 
were  about  six  hundred  members  in  1967,  served  by  one 
minister.  There  has  been  a  certain  decrease  in  member- 
ship owing  to  mobility  of  population,  particularly  young 
people  leaving  Pirmasens. 

Wolfgang  Hammer 

PITEZEL,  JOHN  H.  (1814-1906),  American  preacher,  was 
born  in  Frederick  County,  Md.,  on  April  18,  1814.  The 
family  moved  to  "the  wilds"  of  Ohio  when  John  was 
nine.  He  lived  in  Tiffin,  Ohio  from  age  fifteen  to  twenty, 
and  was  hcensed  to  preach  in  April  1834.  He  attended 
Norwalk  Seminary  for  a  year,  and  in  1835  was  assigned  to 
the  Lima  Circuit  in  Ohio,  and  later  in  the  year  appointed 
to  the  Lower  Sandusky  Circuit  as  jvmior  preacher.  When 
the  Michigan  Conference  was  formed  at  Mansfield, 
Ohio  in  1836,  John  was  appointed  to  the  Tecumseh  Cir- 
cuit. After  serving  Adrian,  Ypsilanti,  Northville  and  Plym- 
outh in  southern  Michigan,  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Sault  Ste.  Marie  Indian  Mission  in  Michigan's  Upper 
Peninsula  in  1843.  He  served  the  Kewawenon  Mission 
during  1844-47,  and  the  Eagle  River  Mission  among  the 
early  copper  miners  during  1847-48.  From  1848  to  1852 
he  served  as  Superintendent  of  the  Indian  Mission  Dis- 
trict of  the  Michigan  Conference,  in  Michigan's  Upper 
Peninsula.  After  leaving  these  appointments  he  wrote 
Lights  and  Shades  of  Missionary  Life  (1857),  giving 
vivid  accounts  of  Indian  life,  and  of  early  copper  mining 
activities  and  white  settlers.  From  1852  to  1859  he  served 
Kalamazoo,  Allegan,  Edwardsburg,  and  Paw  Paw,  in 
southern  Michigan.  In  1859  he  was  made  supernumerary 
and  superannuated  until  1870,  when  he  was  put  on  the 
active  list  again  and  appointed  to  Flowerfield.  He  retired 
again  in  one  year,  due  to  continuing  frail  health,  and 
went  to  live  at  Three  Rivers,  his  wife's  home.  She  died 
in  1880,  and  in  1887  Pitezel  married  the  widow  of  G.  W. 
Breckenridge  of  the  Ohio  Conference.  They  went  to  live 
in  Norwalk,  Ohio,  and  when  she  died  in  1901,  Pitezel 
went  to  live  with  a  daughter  in  Loraine,  Ohio.  He  died  at 
the  daughter's  home  on  May  4,  1906.  Burial  was  in  Three 
Rivers,  Mich. 

Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  Vol.   3,  p.  241. 

Minutes  of  the  Michigan  Conference,  1906. 

J.  H.  Pitezel,  Lights  and  Shades.  1883.  Byron  G.  Hatch 

PITHORAGARH,  India,  a  subdivision  headquarters  town 
in  the  beautiful  Shor  Valley  of  Kumaun  District,  Uttar 
Pradesh,  has  been  a  center  of  Methodist  church  activities 
since  1873.  The  beginning  was  made  by  arrangement  of 
Bishop  James  Thoburn  on  the  suggestion  of  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  London  Missionary  Society  in  Almora,  who 
had  learned  that  they  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  open 
work  there. 


PITMAN,    CHARLES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


The  request  was  made  that  a  doctor  be  sent  from  Amer- 
ica for  Pithoragarh.  Richardson  Gray  was  sent  in  response 
to  the  request.  In  preparing  to  open  missionary  work  in 
that  remote  but  strategic  center,  he  spent  considerable 
time  in  Almora,  the  governmental  district  headquarters, 
and  in  the  home  of  the  most  experienced  missionaries  in 
the  Indian  Himalayas.  Before  his  preparations  were  com- 
plete he  became  engaged  to  Margaret  Budden,  one  of 
four  daughters  of  that  greatly  respected  family.  They 
were  married  and  began  work  in  Pithoragarh  in  1875. 

While  four  fifths  of  the  people  of  the  valley  were  Brah- 
mans,  and  some  were  prosperous,  there  were  no  schools. 

Gray  began  medical  work.  Mrs.  Gray,  knowing  the  local 
language  (Kumauni)  well,  invited  the  women  to  her  home 
and  began  teaching  them  needlework.  Out  of  these  activi- 
ties came  a  call  for  a  girls'  boarding  school.  Annie  Budden 
came  to  visit  her  sister  and  accepted  an  invitation  to  take 
charge  of  the  girls'  school.  She  joined  the  Methodist 
Ghurch  and  soon  thereafter  became  a  missionary  of  the 
Women's  Foreign  Missionaby  SociETi-. 

One  day,  a  Hindu  widow  named  Sarli  came  with  two 
sons  and  two  daughters,  asking  for  religious  instruction. 
The  whole  family  soon  became  zealous  Christians.  One 
of  the  boys,  named  Khuliya,  adopted  the  surname  Wilkin- 
son and  became  the  leading  Indian  minister  of  the  district. 
The  long-range  results  of  missions  are  well  illustrated  by 
the  record  of  the  Wilkinson  family  since  Sarli's  conversion 
in  1877.  A  son  of  Khuliya,  Richard  Wilkinson,  followed  his 
father  into  the  ministry  and  served  as  pastor  of  large 
churches  and  as  superintendent  of  two  districts,  one  of 
them  Pithoragarh.  One  of  Richardson's  sons  has  been 
professor  of  sociology  in  the  University  of  Nagpur  and  is 
an  eminent  Christian  layman  who  represents  the  World 
Council  of  Churches  in  a  study  project  in  the  United 
States.  Another  son  is  doing  important  social  work  in 
New  York,  and  a  daughter  has  held  very  responsible  posi- 
tions in  educational  institutions  in  India  and  America. 
A  daughter  of  Khuliya  married  a  young  minister  who  has 
been  superintendent  of  two  districts,  one  on  the  plains  of 
the  Uttar  Pradesh,  the  other,  Almora. 

From  the  small  primary  schools  started  by  the  Grays 
have  come  in  the  intervening  years  and  through  the  able 
missionary  service  of  many  men  and  women — Indian 
more  than  American — a  co-educational  intermediate  col- 
lege and  a  junior  high  school  for  girls.  From  the  early 
emphasis  on  healing,  a  wonderful  ministry  to  sufferers 
from  leprosy  has  been  developed  on  the  mountain  just 
above  Pithoragarh. 

Outstanding  among  the  missionaries  from  abroad  has 
been  Lucy  W.  Sullivan,  who  with  Annie  Budden  exer- 
cised tremendous  influence  on  two  generations  of  Hindus 
and  Christians  in  the  Shor  Valley  and  adjacent  areas. 

B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 

J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956. 

J.  E.  Scott,  Southern  Asia.  1906.  J.  Waskom  Pickett 

PITMAN,  CHARLES  (1796-1854),  American  pastor, 
orator,  evangelist,  presiding  elder,  and  denominational 
administrator,  was  bom  at  Cookstown,  Burlington  Coun- 
ty, N.  J.,  on  Jan.  9,  1796.  Early  in  his  youth  he  came 
under  the  influence  of  Methodist  meetings  in  Wrights- 
town,  N.  J.,  walking  six  miles  to  attend  them.  In  his 
sixteenth  year  he  was  converted.  Later  he  attended  the 
Methodist  services  in  New  Mills  (Pemberton),  N.  J. 
At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  began  teaching  in  a  country 


school  near  his  home.  After  his  marriage  (around  1817), 
he  taught  in  a  school  near  New  Mills. 

In  1817  he  was  licensed  as  a  local  preacher  and 
accepted  a  supply  appointment  on  the  Trenton  Circuit 
(New  Jersey).  In  1818  he  was  received  on  trial  in  the 
Philadelphlv  Conference.  In  1820  he  was  ordained 
deacon  and  in  1821  ordained  elder. 

Pitman's  highly  successful  ministerial  career  may  be 
summarized  under  three  types  of  assignment:  as  pastor, 
as  presiding  elder,  and  as  denominational  administrator. 
He  served  local  pastorates  from  1817  to  1826:  Trenton 
Circuit,  Bergen  Circuit,  New  Brunswick,  Bridgeton,  all 
in  New  Jersey;  St.  George's,  Philadelphia  (twice); 
Union,  Philadelphia;  Eighth  Street,  Philadelphia;  Green 
Street,  Trenton  (New  Jersey). 

He  served  as  presiding  elder  on  the  West  Jersey  Dis- 
trict (1826-1830),  on  the  East  Jersey  District  (1830- 
1833),  and  on  the  Trenton  District  (1841). 

He  served  as  special  agent  to  raise  funds  for  Dick- 
inson College  (1835-36).  From  1841  until  his  forced 
retirement  in  1850,  because  of  illness,  he  served  as  Secre- 
tary of  the  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E.  Church. 

In  1844  the  University  of  North  Carolina  honored  him 
with  the  D.D.  degree. 

He  was  a  leader  in  the  movement  to  have  New  Jersey 
Methodism  become  an  Annual  Conference,  separate  from 
the  Philadelphia  Conference.  This  was  done  by  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  1836. 

He  died  in  Trenton,  N.  J.,  on  Jan.  14,  1854,  and  was 
buried  in  Mercer  Cemetery  in  that  city. 

Both  Pitman  Grove  Camp  Meeting  and  the  City  of 
Pitman,  Gloucester  County,  N.  J.,  which  grew  out  of  the 
Camp  Meeting,  are  named  for  him. 

C.  A.  Malmsbury,  The  Life,  Labors  and  Sermons  of  Rev. 
Charles  Pitman,  D.D.  Philadelphia:  M.  E.  Book  Rooms,  1887. 
The  New  Jersey  Conference  Memorial.  Philadelphia:  Perkin- 
pine  &  Higgins,  1865.  Frank  Bateman  Stanger 

PITMAN  COMMUNITY  CENTER,  Methodist  rural  commu- 
nity institution,  was  established  in  1921  by  John  S. 
Bumette.  It  is  located  on  Webb's  Creek  in  Sevier  Coun- 
ty, Tenn.,  and  serves  a  large  area  of  the  mountain  country. 
A  school,  physician,  nurse,  a  store  selling  used  clothing 
and  furnishings  at  a  small  price,  post  office,  and  craft  shop 
comprise  the  center.  The  property  has  twelve  acres  of 
land  used  as  a  demonstration  farm. 

L.  W.  Pierce 

PITTS,  FOUNTAIN  E.  (1808-1874),  American  preacher 
and  missionary  to  South  America  was  bom  in  George- 
town, Ky.,  July  4,  1808.  Both  parents  died  when  he 
was  quite  young.  Fortunately,  relatives  provided  him  a 
good  home  and  education.  At  twelve,  he  joined  the 
church;  at  sixteen  he  was  licensed  to  preach;  and  in  1826 
he  was  admitted  into  the  Kentucky  Conference,  on 
trial.  Four  years  later  he  was  ordained  an  elder  and  trans- 
ferred to  the  Tennessee  Conference. 

In  1835,  while  pastor  of  McKendree  Church,  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.,  he  was  asked  by  the  Board  of  Managers  of 
the  Missionary  Society  to  make  a  survey  of  South  Amer- 
ica. This  was  in  response  to  a  resolution  of  the  1832 
General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  asking  for 
study  of  the  possibility  of  the  church  entering  South 
America. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PrTTSBURGH,   PENNSYLVANIA 


Gone  from  home  nearly  a  year,  Pitts  spent  six  months 
in  South  America  and  made  lasting  impact  upon  Brazil, 
Uruguay,  and  Argentina.  At  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil,  he 
organized  a  Methodist  class  in  two  weeks  and  petitioned 
the  board  to  send  a  permanent  missionary.  He  also  orga- 
nized a  class  in  Montevideo,  Uruguay.  In  BtJENOS  Aires, 
Argentina,  he  organized  a  Methodist  society  and  made 
preliminary  arrangements  for  building  a  church. 

Direct  results  of  his  survey  were  the  sending  out  of 
Justin  Spaulding,  founder  of  the  work  in  Brazil,  the 
first  Methodist  missionary  appointed  for  permanent  ser- 
vice in  South  America,  and  of  John  Dempster,  founder 
of  Methodist  work  in  Argentina  and  Uruguay. 

Mrs.  Pitts'  health  required  his  early  return  to  Tennes- 
see, where  he  served  as  circuit  preacher,  station  preacher, 
and  district  superintendent.  He  became  one  of  the  lead- 
ers of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  at  its  organization  and 
afterward. 

Fountain  Pitts  was  gifted  in  mind,  voice,  and  personal- 
ity. Eloquence  and  imagination  made  him  one  of  the 
powerful  preachers  of  his  generation.  He  was  noted  for 
his  campmeeting  preaching,  at  a  time  when  distinguished 
preachers  of  all  denominations  were  creating  the  notable 
Cumberland  Valley  revival  epoch  of  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  slavery  controversy  embittered 
many  churchmen,  both  North  and  South,  but  Fountain 
Pitts  consistantly  sought  to  temper  the  passions  of  all 
with  Christian  charity  and  understanding.  Early  in  the 
first  General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South, 
Pitts  moved  that  Lovick  Pierce,  a  like-minded  peace 
maker,  be  sent  to  the  next  General  Conference  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  as  a  fraternal  delegate  "to  convey  the  love 
and  good  wishes  of  the  Southern  brethren." 

Pitts'  consuming  concern  became  the  redemptive  minis- 
try and  welfare  of  the  church.  At  the  General  Conference 
of  1874,  he  co-authored  a  resolution  which  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  the  Brazil  mission.  On  Sunday,  however, 
during  that  Conference  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  having 
preached  twice,  he  was  fatally  stricken  and  died  on  May 
12  of  that  year.  The  first  funeral  service  was  before  the 
General  Conference;  the  second  was  in  McKendree 
Church  in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  before  his  own  congregation 
and  a  multitude  of  friends  from  all  faiths. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Cullen  T.  Carter,  Methodist  Leaders  in  Jerusalem  Conference, 

1812-1962.  Nashville,  1961. 

,  Tennessee  Conference.  1948. 

Journal  of  the  General  Conference,  MES,  1846. 

Edwin  Maynard 
J.  Richard  Spann 

PITTSBURGH,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.  (population  512,- 
789),  is  the  second  city  in  the  state  in  size.  It  was  laid  out 
in  1786  and  its  strategic  location  at  the  junction  of  the 
Monongahela  and  Allegheny  Rivers  which  formed  the 
Ohio  gave  it  early  prominence  as  a  gateway  to  the  West. 
Its  proximity  to  large  bituminous  coal  fields  and  certain 
deposits  of  iron  ore  led  to  the  establishment  of  large  steel 
mills  which  have  formed  the  basis  of  its  industrial  life 
through  the  years.  The  coal  and  steel  industry  drew  per- 
sons from  almost  every  portion  of  the  world  to  Pittsburgh, 
and  it  has  been  truly  a  melting  pot  of  the  nations. 

The  city  is  first  mentioned  in  the  minutes  of  the  M.E. 
Church  for  1788,  when  Charles  Conway  was  appointed 
the  first  preacher  in   the  circuit,   embracing   the   region 


for  many  miles  around  the  city.  In  1790  there  were 
ninety-seven  circuit  members,  though  not  many  in  Pitts- 
burgh itself.  Bishop  Asbury  first  visited  the  city  in  1789, 
and  makes  the  following  record:  "I  preached  in  the  eve- 
ning to  a  serious  audience.  This  is  a  day  of  very  small 
things;  what  can  we  hope?  Yet,  what  can  we  fear?  I  feel 
great  love  to  the  people,  and  hope  God  will  arise  to  help 
and  bless  them." 

Methodism  was  finally  established  in  Pittsburgh  in 
the  year  1796  through  the  work  of  John  Wrenshall, 
who  had  been  bom  in  England  where  he  was  converted 
in  a  Methodist  society  and  became  a  local  preacher.  He 
removed  to  Philadelphia  in  1794  and  then  in  1796  came 
to  Pittsburgh  to  open  a  new  store.  A  little  society  under 
the  leadership  of  Wrenshall  met  variously  in  a  large  room 
at  the  old  fort  at  the  Point,  and  in  Wrenshall's  home.  In 
1808,  the  little  congregation  moved  to  the  home  of 
Thomas  Cooper  where,  for  some  two  years,  services  were 
held  until  the  first  Methodist  church  building  in  Pitts- 
burgh was  erected  on  the  comer  of  Front  and  Smith- 
field  Streets  on  a  lot  purchased  from  Thomas  Cooper. 
On  Aug.  28,  1810,  Bishop  Asbury  stood  upon  the  comer- 
stone  of  this  church  and  preached,  and  made  this  entry: 
"The  society  here  is  lively  and  increasing  in  numbers,  and 
the  prospect  still  is  good  in  this  borough."  This  was  the 
only  house  of  worship  owned  by  the  Methodists  imtU 
1817,  when  a  church  was  erected  at  the  corner  of  Smith- 
field  and  Seventh  Streets,  where  there  has  been  a  con- 
tinuing congregation  to  the  present. 

The  growth  of  the  Methodist  Church  was  quite  rapid 
until  between  1824  and  1829  great  controversy  arose 
in  reference  to  the  economy  and  government  of  the 
Church.  A  great  deal  of  controversy  was  centered  in  the 
Smithfield  Street  Church,  and  the  M.P.  Church,  which 
separated  from  the  M.E.  Church,  became  very  strong  in 
Pittsburgh  and  had  a  glorious  history  untU  1939  when 
Methodism  was  reunited. 

The  Methodist  Church  in  Pittsburgh  grew  rapidly, 
serving  the  diverse  areas  of  the  city  by  the  establishment 
of  what  came  to  be  great  churches.  In  1970  there  were 
three  churches  with  memberships  of  over  2,000  mem- 
bers. They  are:  Baldwin  Community  Church,  Christ 
Church  in  Bethel  Park,  and  Mt.  Lebanon  Church.  Time 
has  taken  toll  of  the  membership  of  certain  other  great 
churches,  and  yet  First  Church  (formerly  Christ)  in 
Shadyside,  Calvary  Church  on  the  Northside  of  Pitts- 
burgh, and  Emory  Church  in  East  Liberty  are  rendering 
a  great  service  in  difficult  neighborhoods  of  Pittsburgh. 

One  of  the  significant  movements  of  Pittsburgh  Meth- 
odism was  the  creation  of  a  City  Society  organized  in 
1880.  It  was  chartered  in  1894  as  the  Methodist  Church 
Union  and  it  serves  as  the  official  Home  Mission  and 
Church  Extension  agency  for  Pittsburgh  Methodists. 
Through  its  efforts,  Methodism  has  been  attempting  to 
relate  to  the  City  of  Pittsburgh  in  days  of  change  and 
decadence. 

Three  General  Conferences  have  been  held  in  the 
City  of  Pittsburgh.  The  first  in  1828,  again  in  1848,  and 
more  recently  in  1964.  The  General  Conference  of  1964 
held  its  sessions  in  the  Civic  Arena,  which  is  noted  for 
the  dome  which  can  be  opened  so  that  the  great  arena 
becomes  an  open-air  theater.  The  late  Bishop  W.  Vernon 
Middleton,  resident  bishop  of  the  Westem  Pennsylvania 
Area,  in  welcoming  the  1964  General  Conference,  wel- 
comed them  to  "the  Renaissance  City"  and  pointed  out 


PITTSBURGH,   PENNSYLVANIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


that  persons  had  come  from  fifty  states  and  nearly  two 
score  lands  to  attend  the  sessions. 

The  churches  of  Pittsburgh  are  contained  within  two 
districts  of  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Conference, 
the  Pittsburgh  District  and  the  Pittsburgh  East.  There 
are  at  the  present  time  54,822  members  in  ninety-five 
churches  in  Pittsburgh  and  its  immediate  environs.  These 
churches  possess  assets  in  the  amount  of  $37,896,084.  The 
Methodist  Church,  therefore,  is  one  of  the  dominant 
Protestant  groups  in  the  City  of  Pittsburgh,  and  its  in- 
fluence and  service  in  the  city  is  very  great. 

Baldwin  Community  Church  is  a  large  church  in  the 
Whitehall,  South  Hills  section  of  Pittsburgh,  which  grew 
rapidly  after  its  organization  on  Mothers'  Day,  May  12, 
1946,  when  it  was  organized  with  eighty-five  charter 
members  under  T.  R.  Courtice,  the  superintendent  of  the 
Pittsburgh  District  of  The  Methodist  Church,  who  was 
the  first  minister  of  the  new  church.  In  October  1947, 
Courtice  retired  as  David  J.  Wynne  was  appointed  pastor 
and  served  through  1961.  The  church  grew  so  rapidly 
that  by  1952  two  separate  services  were  unable  to  seat  the 
congregation  and  a  third  service  was  called  for.  The  third 
building,  a  sanctuary,  was  completed  in  1955  and  on 
Christmas  Eve  the  first  service  was  held  in  the  new 
building.  In  November  1959,  the  ground  was  broken  for 
the  final  educational  building  and  the  addition  housed 
thirteen  classrooms  of  public  school  room  size,  a  visual 
aids  room,  additional  rest  rooms  and  storage  areas,  bring- 
ing the  total  cost  of  buildings  and  lands  to  over  a  million 
dollars. 

One  of  the  striking  experiences  in  the  life  of  this  church 
was  the  entertainment  of  the  Pittsbubch  Conference 
in  May  of  1959  under  the  direction  of  Bishop  Lloyd  C. 

WiCKE. 

The  story  of  Baldwin  Community  Church  is  a  chronicle 
of  growth  in  numbers  and  property,  but  likewise  it  is  one 
of  growth  to  a  spiritual  maturity.  Across  her  years,  she 
developed  into  a  church  of  3,110  in  1970,  in  which  a 
program  of  family  centered  nature  has  been  developed 
from  interests  such  as  dramatic  groups,  ceramics  groups, 
chess  groups,  choirs,  photography  and  art  interests  as 
well  as  those  inspirational  and  educational  opportunities 
that  are  usually  associated  with  the  on-going  process  of 
a  local  church.  A  weekday  nursery  school  was  begun  as  a 
service  to  the  local  community  and  enrolls  over  sixty  pre- 
school youngsters  in  each  semester  and  is  an  integral  part 
of  the  program  of  the  church. 

The  church  members  are  divided  into  a  circuit  system 
with  three  circuits,  three  ministers,  and  under  each  min- 
ister is  a  circuit  lay  leader.  In  each  circuit,  there  are 
section  leaders  who  are  members  of  the  Commission  on 
Membership  and  Evangelism  of  the  local  church.  Under 
each  section  leader,  there  are  various  area  leaders.  Areas 
are  groups  of  some  ten  to  twelve  families  for  the  purpose 
of  fellowship,  concern  and  general  pastoral  care.  The  area 
system  works  extremely  well  as  a  mode  of  communication 
for  the  overall  efl^ectiveness  of  the  pastoral  responsibility 
of  the  church  in  the  community  and  is  one  of  the  keys  to 
the  success  of  this  intimate  relationship  that  exists  in  an 
extremely  large  church. 

Christ  Church,  Bethel  Park.  Located  on  Highland  Road 
in  Bethel  Borough,  this  great  Church,  started  in  1949, 
had  become  the  largest  church  in  the  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania Conference  by  1967.  The  organizing  minister  was 
Harry  N.  Peelor.  The  site  of  the  new  church  was  pur- 
chased by  the  Methodist  Church  Union  of  the  Pittsburgh 


Conference  in  1945,  and  the  proposed  church  was  listed 
as  a  new  appointment  at  the  Conference  session  in  Octo- 
ber 1949.  The  first  service  was  held  on  Oct.  20,  1949  in 
a  two-room  office  on  the  second  floor  of  the  Mitchell 
Building  on  Highland  Road,  Bethel  Borough.  The  first 
twenty-seven  members  were  received  in  November  1949. 
On  April  13,  1950  the  church  was  officially  chartered  by 
the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  with  200  charter 
members.  On  July  5,  1951  ground  was  broken  for  the 
first  unit  of  the  building  which  was  occupied  for  the 
first  service  in  it  on  Easter  Sunday,  April  13,  1952.  In 
May,  1959  ground  was  broken  for  three  additional  units, 
a  sanctuary,  with  administration  and  educational  wings. 
The  new  sanctuary  was  opened  for  worship  on  April  3, 
1960.  The  1960  membership  had  grown  to  1,805,  and  by 
1970  it  was  3,604,  with  a  property  valuation  of  $1,730,- 
387.  Its  total  benevolent  contributions  in  1970  were 
$34,351  while  the  church  continued  carrying  a  heavy 
building  indebtedness.  A  highly  developed  system  of  pas- 
toral care  was  inaugurated  in  the  fall  of  1961  whereby 
the  congregation  is  divided  into  three  societies  each  func- 
tioning under  the  administration  of  an  ordained  minister 
of  the  church  staff.  This  is  said  to  maintain  the  warmth 
of  a  smaller  church  while  retaining  the  power  of  the 
present  large  one. 

First  Church.  The  first  record  of  Methodist  preaching 
in  the  City  of  Pittsburgh  shows  that  Wilson  Lee  of  the 
Red  Stone  Circuit  preached  in  the  Triangle  district  in 
1785,  one  year  after  Methodism  was  organized  in  America 
and  twenty-seven  years  after  the  founding  of  Pittsburgh. 
The  Pittsburgh  Circuit  was  formed  in  1788  with  Charles 
Conway  as  the  pastor.  For  the  first  seven  years  meetings 
were  held  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  and  the  re- 
mains of  old  Fort  Pitt.  Later  they  were  held  in  private 
homes  until  the  first  brick  chapel  was  completed  in  1810 
on  Front  Street  between  Smithfield  Street  and  Wood 
Street,  with  Wilham  Knox  as  the  pastor.  In  1817  the  group 
moved  to  a  larger  church  at  Smithfield  Street  and  Seventh 
Avenue.  On  March  5,  1828,  this  church  was  incorporated 
by  the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania. 

First  Church  was  divided  over  the  issue  of  mutual  rights 
of  ministers  and  laymen.  In  May  of  1829  opposing  groups 
in  the  church,  one  known  as  the  "Old  Side"  and  the  other 
as  "The  Reformers,"  were  holding  separate  services  in  the 
Methodist  Church  at  the  corner  of  Seventh  Avenue  and 
Smithfield  Street.  On  June  24,  1829,  the  church  was 
placed  under  the  "Conventional  Articles,"  which  had  been 
adopted  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  on  Nov.  12,  1828.  On  May 
25,  1831  ground  was  purchased  for  a  new  church  build- 
ing on  Fifth  Avenue  near  Smithfield  Street.  This  church 
was  dedicated  June  3,  1833.  Later  it  came  to  be  known 
as  "The  Old  Home."  The  Corporation  owned  the  churches 
on  Water  Street,  Smithfield  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue  and 
also  a  cemetery  where  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Station 
now  stands.  Litigation  developed  among  the  members  of 
the  original  church  over  the  ownership  of  this  property. 
The  Superior  Court  of  Pennsylvania  held  all  of  these 
properties  belonged  to  the  majority  group  or  the  "Re- 
formers," who  retained  the  original  charter.  However, 
the  court  recommended  an  amicable  settlement,  and  an 
agreement  was  reached  in  which  the  "Reformers"  gave  to 
the  "Old  Side"  group  the  title  to  the  property  at  Smith- 
field  Street  and  Seventh  Avenue  and  $2,000.  On  Feb.  6, 
1838  this  group  was  incorporated  as  The  Smithfield  Street 
M.E.  Church.  In  1893  the  church  located  on  Fifth  Ave- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PITTSBURGH,   PENNSYLVANIA 


nue,  known  as  The  First  Methodist  Protestant  Church  in 
the  City  of  Pittsburgh  and  holding  the  original  amended 
charter,  built  two  churches  belonging  to  the  same  corpora- 
tion, The  First  M.P.  Church  and  Trinity  M.P.  Church. 
Following  Methodist  Union  in  1939,  the  First  M.P. 
Church  again  amended  its  charter,  changing  its  name  to 
The  First  Methodist  Church  of  Pittsburgh.  In  1946  The 
First  Methodist  Church  of  Pittsburgh  united  with  Christ 
Church  under  the  name  of  The  First  Methodist  Church  of 
Pittsburgh  and  the  original  charter  granted  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania State  Legislature  in  March  of  1828  was  amended 
to  that  effect.  First  Church  reported  1,207  members  in 
1970. 

John  Wesley  A.M.E.  Zion  Church.  In  the  spring  of 
1836,  a  small  group  of  Christians  began  holding  religious 
services  in  the  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edward  Parker  on 
Roberts  Street.  In  July  of  the  same  year,  they  were  orga- 
nized into  an  A.M.E.  Zion  Mission,  the  first  of  the  de- 
nomination in  Pittsburgh.  Their  numbers  outgrew  the 
Parker  home  in  a  few  months,  necessitating  larger  quar- 
ters which  were  found  in  the  home  of  Obadiah  and 
Charlotte  Mahoney,  two  members  living  on  Arthur  Street. 

Three  years  later  under  the  leadership  of  a  Rev.  Mr. 
Tabbs,  a  lot  was  acquired  in  Peru  Way  upon  which  a  one- 
story  building  was  erected;  it  became  popularly  known 
as  "Little  Jim."  It  was  dedicated  and  occupied  in  the 
year  1850.  In  1865,  during  the  tenure  of  Nick  Williams, 
a  great  revival  was  held  in  which  100  souls  "desired  to 
flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  and  be  saved  from  their  sins" 
united  with  Zion  Methodism  and  the  "Little  Jim."  From 
this  epoch-making  event,  the  Peru  Way  structure  became 
increasingly  inadequate. 

In  the  year  1881,  under  the  pastorate  of  Jehu  Holliday, 
the  membership  acquired  a  site  on  Arthur  Street  and  pro- 
ceeded to  build  a  new  building  which  was  completed  and 
dedicated  in  October  1886.  From  that  time  the  John 
Wesley  Church  became  one  of  the  metropohtan  charges 
in  Zion  Methodism. 

During  the  long  history  of  the  congregation,  twenty- 
five  ministers  have  served  the  church,  each  rendering 
some  worthwhile  contribution  to  the  life  and  history  of 
Zion  Methodism  in  Pittsburgh. 

Mount  Lebanon  Church  is  a  commanding  church  of  the 
Pittsburgh  area,  having  a  fine  edifice,  a  million  dollar 
education  facility,  and  has  known  great  growth  since  its 
beginning  in  1912.  At  that  date  a  modest  chapel  was 
erected  named  Sanner  Chapel  to  honor  the  memory  of 
N.  H.  Sanner,  an  early  pastor.  This  chapel,  still  in  use 
today,  served  until  the  present  sanctuary  was  completed 
and  dedicated  by  Rishop  Francis  J.  McConnell  on  Nov. 
23,  1924.  In  1955  the  sanctuary  was  remodeled.  The 
Mount  Lebanon  Church  reflects  the  phenomenal  growth  of 
the  South  HiUs  District  of  Pittsburgh,  where  more  and 
more  people  have  built  residences  away  from  the  smoke  of 
the  city.  Membership  grew  steadily  and  in  1970  numbered 
2,887  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  many  of  the  members 
hving  south  of  Mount  Lebanon  have  transferred  to,  and 
helped  develop,  Christ  Church.  Mount  Lebanon  Church 
also  substantially  assisted  Christ  Church  financially  for  a 
number  of  years. 

The  church  gained  considerable  national  attention  in 
1942  when  a  "Golden  Chain  Campaign"  was  proposed  to 
liquidate  a  $50,000  mortgage.  The  campaign  was  so  suc- 
cessful that  nearly  $80,000  was  pledged,  and  the  excess 
amount  was  returned  to  the  subscribers.  One  of  the  leaders 


of  this  campaign  was  Leon  E.  Hickman,  a  member  of 
the  church,  and  prominent  in  general  church  activities. 

Two  former  pastors  of  the  church  were  elected  to  the 
episcopacy:  Lloyd  C.  Wicke,  1942-48,  and  W.  Ralph 
Ward,  Jr.,  1948-60. 

The  church  ranks  among  leading  chtirches  of  Meth- 
odism in  its  mission  giving. 


Smithfield  Strket  Church, 
Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania 

Smithfield  Street  Church.  This  is  the  old  historic  church 
of  Pittsburgh  Methodism.  The  original  Society  was  estab- 
lished under  the  leadership  of  local  preacher  and  mer- 
chant, John  Wrenshall,  in  October  1796,  and  met  from 
1796  to  1803  in  the  historic  "Blockhouse"  of  old  Fort 
Pitt.  Its  first  building  was  erected  at  Front  and  Smithfield 
Streets  in  1810,  and  it  became  the  first  station  appointment 
west  of  the  Allegheny  mountains  in  1811.  The  present 
property  at  Smithfield  Street  and  Seventh  Avenue  was 
purchased  for  $5,000  in  1817,  and  the  first  church  build- 
ing was  erected  on  it  in  1818.  From  1812  to  1819  the 
membership  grew  from  167  to  357.  A  great  revival  in 
1819  and  1820  increased  the  membership  to  697  in  1821. 
One  evening  during  the  revival  some  young  men  put  a 
paper  of  brimstone  on  the  hot  stove.  The  suffocating 
fumes,  the  character  of  the  preaching,  and  the  yellow 
painting  of  the  building  fastened  the  name  "Brimstone 
Corner"  upon  the  church. 

The  first  General  Conference  west  of  the  Allegheny 
mountains  was  held  in  this  Church  in  1828.  It  was  the 
historic  General  Conference  at  which  the  appeal  of  "the 
Reformers"  was  rejected,  and  this  resulted  in  the  formation 
of  the  M.P.  Chubch.  Consequently  during  1829-33  Pitts- 
burgh Methodism  became  greatly  divided.  The  contro- 
versy split  the  Smithfield  Street  congregation  and  resulted 
in  the  formation  of  the  First  M.P.  Church  in  1831,  and 
legal  litigation  over  the  Smithfield  Street  property  ensued, 
the  church  site  being  retained  by  the  M.E.  congregation 
under  an  agreement  reached  in  1833. 

Despite  this  disruption  the  church  maintained  its  mem- 
bership of  about  750  until  another  controversy  in  the 
1840's  reduced  the  membership  from  750  in  1843  to  360 
in  1847.  Seventy  of  the  leading  members  withdrew  at 
one  time  and  joined  new  Methodist  congregations  being 
established  in  the  growing  city.  Despite  this  decline,  in 
1848  it  was  determined  to  replace  the  inadequate  old 
church.  The  present  building  was  erected  between  May 
and  December  1848,  the  chief  initiative  being  by  William 
Bingham,  with  Alexander  Bradley  providing  financial 
guidance.  It  was  dedicated  on  Christmas  Day,  1848  by 
Bishop  L.  L.  Hamline. 


PITTSBURGH   CHRISTIAN   ADVOCATE,   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


In  the  post  Civil  War  period  this  historic  church  was 
one  of  the  strong  pulpits  of  Methodism  and  four  of  its 
pastors  were  elected  to  the  episcopacy,  namely:  Chahles 
W.  Snuth,  pastor  1876-1878,  elected  bishop  1908; 
Chables  B.  Mitchell,  pastor  1886-1888,  elected  bishop 
1916;  Charles  E.  Locke,  pastor  1888-1892,  elected  bish- 
op 1920;  and  Naphtali  Luccock,  pastor  1893-1897, 
elected  bishop  1912. 

During  the  depression  of  the  1930's  the  property  then 
in  debt  was  saved  for  Methodism  by  the  Conference 
Church  Union  assuming  financial  responsibility  for  it.  In 
1942,  under  the  leadership  of  the  Church  Union,  a  Pitts- 
burgh Conference  campaign  produced  the  funds  to  pay 
off  the  indebtedness  and  renovate  both  the  church  and 
the  adjoining  building.  The  four  story  building  was  re- 
named Benedum  Hall,  for  layman  Michael  L.  Benedum, 
a  generous  supporter  of  the  project,  and  was  made  into 
the  Pittsburgh  Methodist  Bookstore,  and  episcopal  and 
other  offices.  This  valuable  corner  is  at  present  the  last 
remaining  piece  of  Methodist  property  in  the  "golden 
triangle"  of  downtown  Pittsburgh.  The  Church  continues 
as  a  functioning  congregation,  and  the  Center  is  a  hive 
of  activity. 

Albert  G.   Curry,   Sinithfield  Street   Methodist  Church.   Pam- 
phlet, 1953. 
General  Minutes. 

Journal  of  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Conference. 
M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 
W.  G.  Smeltzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951. 

Allan  J.  Howes 

Mahlon  D.  Hublbert,  Jr. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzeb 

John  W.  Hawley 

David  H.  Bradley 

W.  E.  Fenstermaker 

PITTSBURGH  CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE,  THE.  This  weekly 
M.E.  publication  commenced  on  Feb.  1,  1834  and  con- 
tinued until  June,  1932,  when  it  was  merged  with  The 
Christian  Advocate  published  in  New  York.  Its  original 
name  was  The  Pittsburgh  Conference  Journal  and  it  was 
launched  as  a  project  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference. 
In  1840  the  General  Conference  gave  its  approval  to 
the  publication  and  its  name  was  changed  to  The  Pitts- 
burgh Christian  Advocate.  Throughout  its  ninety-eight 
years  of  publication  it  continued  to  serve  as  the  regional 
Methodist  publication  of  the  daughter  Conferences  of  the 
original  Pittsburgh  Conference,  namely:  Pittsburgh,  Erie, 
North  Ea.st  Ohio,  and  West  Vibcinl\  Conferences.  It 
was  one  of  the  leading  publications  of  the  M.E.  Church 
with  a  circulation  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  twentieth 
century  of  over  40,000.  Its  editors  were  among  the  most 
influential  men  of  the  denomination.  They  were:  Charles 
Elliott,  William  H.  Hunter,  Charles  Cooke,  Homer 
J.  Clark,  Isaac  N.  Baird,  Samuel  H.  Nesbitt,  Alfred 
Wheeler,  Charles  W.  Smith,  John  J.  Wallace,  and 
Ralph  B.  Urmy.  The  bound  files  of  this  publication  have 
been  preserved  and  are  the  property  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Conference. 
They  are  housed  in  the  Conference  Historical  Collection 
in  the  Library  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Western  Penn- 
sylvania in  Pittsburgh.  They  have  been  microfilmed  by  the 
Board  of  Microtext  of  the  American  Theological  Library 
Association  and  are  available,  in  whole  or  in  part,  from 
them.  They  form  a  major  source  of  the  official  history  of 
the  Pittsburgh  Conference,  Methodism  on  the  Headivaters 


of  the  Ohio,  by  Smeltzer,  where  numerous  significant 
items  are  preserved  in  quotations. 

Pittsburgh  Christian  Advocate,  Feb.  1,  1834  to  June  1932. 
W.  G.  Smeltzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzer 

PITTSBURGH  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  created  by  the 
1824  General  Conference.  It  was  composed  of  the 
original  Redstone  CmcuiT  and  what  might  be  called  its 
daughter  circuits.  Its  territory  included  western  Pennsyl- 
vania, eastern  Ohio  to  the  Muskingum  and  Tuscarawas 
Rivers,  northwestern  Virginia  (later  West  Virginia),  and 
the  western  tip  of  New  York.  The  conference  was  carved 
mostly  from  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Conferences, 
with  small  sections  coming  from  the  Genesee  and  Ken- 
tucky Conferences.  At  the  beginning  the  Pittsburgh 
Conference  had  seventy-one  preachers,  forty-three 
appointments,  and  20,355  members. 

After  the  Fort  Stanwix  treaty  with  the  Iroquois  Indians 
in  1768,  it  became  legally  proper  for  white  people  to 
settle  in  southwestern  Pennsylvania,  and  it  is  estimated 
that  within  seven  years  over  50,000  came  into  that  area 
and  northwestern  Virginia.  Among  the  newcomers  were 
many  Methodists  from  the  Strawbridge  region  in  Mary- 
land, and  there  was  some  unofficial  religious  activity  in 
their  midst  during  the  1770's.  Organized  Methodism  came 
into  the  region  in  the  fall  of  1783  when  Richard  Owings, 
Strawbridge's  first  local  preacher,  laid  out  the  original 
Redstone  Circuit,  largely  in  the  homes  of  relatives  who 
had  emigrated  to  the  west.  Bishop  Asburv  appointed  two 
itinerant  preachers  to  the  Redstone  Circuit  in  the  spring 
of  1784.  By  the  end  of  the  third  year  the  Redstone  Cir- 
cuit had  extended  300  miles  and  reported  756  members. 
In  1787  it  was  divided  into  three  circuits,  Redstone,  Ohio 
(east  of  the  Ohio  River),  and  Clarksburg.  By  1799  five 
circuits  covered  southwestern  Pennsylvania  and  northwest- 
ern Virginia.  They  had  a  total  of  1,649  members  and  about 
ninety-six  societies,  some  eighty-seven  of  them  centering 
in  homes  and  the  others  meeting  in  small  log  cabin 
churches.  Eight  circuit  riders  ministered  to  the  ninety-six 
societies. 

After  the  defeat  of  the  Indian  Confederacy  in  1795, 
northwestern  Pennsylvania  was  opened  to  settlement. 
Many  Methodists  migrated  to  the  region,  and  they  became 
the  nuclei  for  new  Methodist  societies.  By  1804  the  Red- 
stone Circuit  had  expanded  to  include  eight  new  circuits 
in  northwestern  Pennsylvania,  eastern  Ohio,  and  north- 
western Virginia. 

Such  is  the  story  of  the  rise  of  Methodism  in  the  region 
which  became  the  Pittsburgh  Conference.  After  its  orga- 
nization the  conference  grew  rapidly,  and  in  1836  it  was 
divided,  the  northern  portion  becoming  the  Erie  Confer- 
ence with  four  districts,  fifty  appointments,  and  16,876 
members,  and  the  southern  part  continuing  as  the  Pitts- 
burgh Conference  with  five  districts,  fifty-eight  appoint- 
ments, and  25,615  members.  In  1848  the  Western  Vir- 
ginia Conference  was  organized,  taking  two  districts 
from  the  Ohio  Conference.  In  1876  the  East  Ohio  Con- 
ference was  created  by  detaching  the  Ohio  portions  of 
both  the  Pittsburgh  and  Erie  Conferences. 

The  original  Pittsburgh  Conference  established  Madison 
College  at  Uniontown  in  1826.  It  continued  until  1833 
when  it  was  merged  with  Allegheny  College  at  Mead- 
ville,  which  came  under  the  patronage  of  the  conference 
at  that  time.  Allegheny  is  still  a  Methodist  institution  of 


WORLD  METHODISM 


PLAN    OF    PACIFICATION 


higher  learning.  In  1834  the  conference  launched  a  weekly 
publication,  The  Pittsburgh  Conference  Journal,  which  as 
the  Pittsburgh  Christian  Advocate  became  an  official  organ 
of  the  denomination  in  1840.  It  was  merged  with  the 
New  York  Christian  Advocate  in  1932. 

At  unification  in  1939  the  Pittsburgh  Conferences  of  the 
M.  E.  and  M.  P.  denominations  united  within  the  boun- 
daries of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  (ME)  to  form  the 
Pittsburgh  Conference  (TMC),  the  one  unit  bringing  395 
churches  and  120,622  members  to  the  merger  and  the 
other  sixty-three  churches  and  13,578  members. 

In  1960  the  Northeastern  Jurisdictional  Confer- 
ence readjusted  a  number  of  conference  boundaries  to 
make  them  conform  more  nearly  to  state  lines,  a  prelimi- 
nary step  to  the  merger  in  1962  of  the  major  portions  of 
the  Pittsburgh  and  Erie  Conferences  into  the  Western 
Pennsylvania  Conference.  The  Jamestown  District  of 
the  Erie  Conference  became  part  of  the  Genesee  Con- 
ference, some  of  the  Genesee  appointments  came  into  the 
Western  Pennsylvania  Conference,  and  the  churches  in 
the  northern  panhandle  of  West  Virginia  were  given  to 
the  West  Virginia  Conference. 

In  1916  the  Pittsburgh,  Erie,  and  West  Virginia  Con- 
ferences were  designated  as  an  episcopal  area  with  the 
bishop  residing  in  Pittsburgh.  This  arrangement  continued 
until  1960  when  the  West  Virginia  Conference  became  an 
area,  the  Central  Pennsylvania  Conference  taking  its 
place  in  the  Pittsburgh  Area.  Four  years  later  the  Cen- 
tral Pennsylvania  Conference  became  an  area  with  its 
bishop  residing  at  Harrisburg,  leaving  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania as  the  only  conference  in  the  Pittsburgh  Area. 

The  Pittsburgh  Conference  existed  138  years  as  one  of 
the  strong  conferences  of  American  Methodism.  In  1962, 
its  last  year,  it  reported  five  districts — Allegheny,  Blairs- 
ville,  McKeesport,  Pittsburgh,  and  Washington — about 
308  ministers,  345  pastoral  charges,  163,861  members,  and 
property  valued  at  $76,317,442. 

Minutes  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference. 

Minutes  of  the  Western  Pennsylvania  Conference,  1963. 

W.  G.  Smeltzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzer 

PITTSBURGH  CONFERENCE  (MP)  was  organized  at  the 
fifth  session  of  the  Ohio  Conference  (MP)  in  Cincin- 
nati in  1833.  At  the  time  the  Ohio  Conference  included 
western  Pennsylvania  as  well  as  Indl\na  and  Kentucky. 
When  formed  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  included  the  east 
half  of  Ohio,  western  Pennsylvania,  and  western  Virginia 
(later  West  Virginia).  The  first  session  of  the  conference 
was  held  at  Mt.  Pleasant,  Ohio,  Sept.  9-16,  1834.  At  that 
time  the  conference  had  thirty-eight  preachers,  twenty- 
eight  appointments,  and  7,050  members.  Asa  Shinn 
served  as  first  president  of  the  conference. 

Among  other  actions  at  its  first  session  the  Pittsburgh 
Conference  voted  to  support  the  Methodist  Correspondent 
which  was  laimched  by  the  Ohio  Conference  in  1830.  The 
paper  became  the  Methodist  Recorder  in  1866;  it 
was  published  in  Pittsburgh  from  1871  to  1929  when  it 
was  moved  to  Baltimore  and  merged  with  the  Methodist 
Protestant  to  become  the  Methodist  Protestant-Recorder. 

In  1842  the  Ohio  territory  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference 
was  set  oflF  as  the  Muskingum  Conference,  and  in  1854  the 
Virginia  part  became  the  Western  Virginia  Conference. 
Due  in  part  to  this  loss  of  territory,  the  Pittsburgh  Con- 


ference grew  slowly,  as  compared  with  its  original  nu- 
merical strength.  In  1900  the  conference  had  only  8,635 
members,  but  even  so  it  was  the  dominant  conference  in 
a  region  where  the  M.  P.  Church  was  relatively  strong. 
Pittsburgh  was  next  to  Baltimore  as  a  M.  P.  center;  it  was 
an  important  publication  headquarters  for  the  denomina- 
tion. 

The  Pittsburgh  Conference  was  a  part  of  the  Methodist 
Church  (the  name  taken  by  one  section  of  the  divided 
M.  P.  Church),  from  1866  to  1877.  (See  Table  of  Meth- 
odist Conferences.) 

The  Pittsburgh  Conference  strongly  supported  Alleghe- 
ny Seminary  until  it  closed  in  1867.  Then  it  gave  generous 
support  to  Adrian  College  in  Michigan  which  had  be- 
come a  M.  P.  institution  in  1852.  The  conference  as- 
sisted Westminster  Theological  Seminary  from  its 
founding  in  1882,  and  it  gave  support  to  a  home  for  the 
aged  at  West  Lafayette,  Ohio.  A  fairly  strong  Preachers' 
Aid  Society  was  organized  in  the  conference  in  1852  on 
receipt  of  a  gift  of  $25,000.  Careful  management  and  ad- 
ditional donations  brought  the  fund  up  to  $125,000,  and 
the  income  from  it  made  possible  annual  payments  of 
$400  to  the  superannuates  and  $250  to  the  widows  of 
ministers  in  the  1920's  and  1930's. 

Over  the  years  several  Pittsburgh  Conference  men  were 
elected  president  of  the  M.  P.  General  Conference, 
and  some  became  president  of  Adrian  College.  John  Cal- 
vin Broomfield,  president  of  the  General  Conference, 
1928-36,  was  one  of  the  two  M.  P.  ministers  elected  to 
the  episcopacy  of  The  Methodist  Church  at  the  Uniting 
Conference  in  1939. 

In  1936  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  voted  seventy-two 
to  seven  in  favor  of  Methodist  union.  In  1939  the  con- 
ference brought  sixty-three  churches  and  13,578  mem- 
bers into  the  Pittsburgh  Conference  of  The  Methodist 
Church. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  History  of  tlie  M.  P.  Church.  1882. 

Methodist  Protestant  Yearbook,  1918. 

Minutes  of  the  Pittsburgh  Conference,  1936.  F.  E.  Maseb 

PLAN  OF  PACIFICATION  (1795),  together  with  the  rules 
and  regulations  jjassed  by  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Con- 
ference of  1797,  was  the  attempt  of  the  Wesleyan  itiner- 
ants after  the  death  of  John  Wesley  in  1791  to  work  out  a 
constitution  for  the  connection  which  would  satisfy  those 
who  wanted  the  Wesleyan  societies  to  become  more  like 
a  religious  denomination  of  a  democratic  kind  (and  that 
quickly),  and  those  who  were  content  with  the  position 
as  John  Wesley  had  left  it.  The  Plan  of  Pacification,  which 
was  accepted  by  the  itinerant  conference  in  1795,  was  a 
compromise  on  the  subject  of  the  Sacraments:  one  group, 
consisting  especially  of  some  of  the  more  influential  trus- 
tees, were  not  anxious  to  see  the  itinerants  administer  the 
Sacraments  for  the  time  being;  a  majority  of  the  laity,  and 
many  of  the  itinerants  themselves,  thought  that  the  itiner- 
ants should  now  be  allowed  to  administer  the  Sacraments 
in  virtue  of  their  pastoral  position.  The  plan  provided  that 

the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  shall  not  be  administered 
in  any  chapel,  except  the  majority  of  the  Trustees  of  tlie  chapel 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  majority  of  the  Stewards  and  Leaders 
belonging  to  the  chapel  (as  the  best  qualified  to  give  the 
sense  of  the  people)  on  the  other  hand,  allow  it.  Nevertheless, 
in  all  cases  the  consent  of  the  Conference  shall  be  obtained 
before   the    Lord's    Supper   be   administered. 


PUN   OF   SEPARATION,   THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Where  there  was  a  society  but  no  chapel,  it  was  suf- 
ficient for  a  majority  of  the  stewards  and  leaders  to  say 
that  the  Lord's  Supper  should  be  administered.  This  de- 
cision meant  that  within  a  few  years  all  the  itinerants  were 
administering  the  Sacraments  without  any  local  opposition, 
and  this  is  often  taken  as  marking  the  moment  of  separa- 
tion between  the  Church  of  England  and  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  societies. 

The  conference  action  was  not  based  on  a  theory  that 
the  itinerants  had  received  a  presbyterian  ordination  in 
succession  from  John  Wesley;  the  Conference  of  1791  had 
forbidden  any  further  ordinations  by  the  imposition  of 
hands  and  so  prevented  the  emergence  of  a  significant 
succession  of  this  kind.  The  itinerants  almost  certainly  re- 
garded their  reception  into  Full  Connexion  as  a  kind  of 
ordination,  "virtual  ordination"  as  it  is  sometimes  called. 
The  chief  architects  of  the  plan  were  John  Pawson, 
Joseph  Benson,  and  William  Thompson.  It  is  not  always 
realized  that  the  plan  also  offered  a  solution  to  the  prob- 
lem of  the  place  of  the  laity  in  the  constitution.  The  sec- 
tion "Concerning  Disciphne"  gave  to  a  simple  majority 
of  trustees,  or  of  the  stewards  and  leaders,  of  any  society 
authority  to  summon  the  pastors  of  the  local  district,  to- 
gether with  all  the  trustees,  stewards,  and  leaders  of  the 
circuit  in  which  the  society  lay,  in  order  to  try  any  circuit 
pastor  whom  they  considered  "immoral,  erroneous  in  doc- 
trines, deficient  in  abilities,"  or  an  offender  against  the 
other  iTjles  contained  in  the  plan  itself.  There  was  a  lay 
majority  in  such  a  meeting,  and  it  was  empowered  to  act 
by  a  majority  vote;  a  pastor  found  guilty  had  to  with- 
draw from  the  circuit  in  question,  though  a  district  meet- 
ing, consisting  of  itinerants  only,  finally  decided  his  fate. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  in  the  "Addenda"  to  the  Minutes  of 
1795  the  itinerants  said  that  "we  have,  to  some  degree, 
deposited  our  characters  and  usefulness  in  your  hands,  or 
the  hands  of  your  representatives,  by  making  them  judges 
of  our  morals,  doctrines  and  gifts."  This  extraordinary 
regulation,  however,  was  never  appealed  to,  except  per- 
haps when  Samuel  Warren  claimed,  wrongly,  that  he 
ought  to  have  been  tried  by  this  court  in  1835,  instead  of 
by  a  district  meeting. 

As  a  first  stage  in  the  development  of  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odism after  John  Wesley's  death,  the  Plan  of  Pacification 
was  important,  but  it  was  not  as  decisive  as  is  sometimes 
suggested.  The  Constitution  of  1797  had  to  add  further 
clarification  to  the  Wesleyan  constitution,  and  the  two 
sets  of  regulations  were  not  in  themselves  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent the  establishment  of  the  Methodist  New  Connexion 
in  1797.  It  was  the  position  of  the  laymen  in  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  connection  which  was  the  fundamental  issue, 
not  the  question  of  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments. 
Further  schisms  took  place  between  1797  and  1849,  and 
the  matter  was  not  finally  settled  until  the  admission  of 
lay  representatives  to  the  Weslevan  Methodist  Conference 
in  1878. 

John  Kent 

PLAN  OF  SEPARATION,  THE.  A  plan  adopted  by  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1844  after 
long  and  fruitless  debate  and  heated  division  over  con- 
tinuing in  the  episcopacy  a  Southern  bishop,  James  A. 
Andrew,  who  was  a  slave-owner,  albeit  an  unwilling  one. 
This  Plan  allowed  the  thirteen  Annual  Conferences  in  the 
slave-holding  states  to  withdraw  from  the  M.  E.  Church 


"should  the  Annual  Conferences  in  the  slave-holding  states 
find  it  necessary  to  unite  in  a  distinct  ecclesiastical  con- 
nection" (History  of  American  Methodism.  Vol.  II,  p.  63). 
The  whole  report — later  called  the  Plan  of  Separation — 
was  a  lengthy  one  containing  twelve  separate  resolutions. 
Each  of  these  was  voted  on  separately  with  roll  call  votes 
on  four  of  the  separate  resolutions,  but  the  whole  being 
finally  adopted  by  the  Conference  with  only  eight  mem- 
bers dissenting.  In  effect  it  allowed  the  Southern  Confer- 
ence representatives  to  ascertain  the  feelings  of  their  peo- 
ple, and  allowed  "the  Societies,  stations  and  Conferences 
adhering  to  the  Church  in  the  south,  by  a  vote  of  the 
majority  of  the  members  of  the  said  societies  ...  to  re- 
main under  the  unmolested  pastoral  care  of  the  Southern 
Church"  (Ibid).  It  agreed  that  there  would  be  no  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  M.  E.  Church  to  organize  churches  or 
societies  within  the  limits  of  the  Church,  South,  and  the 
Church,  South  should  reciprocally  observe  the  same  rule. 
It  also  agreed  that  the  equity  in  the  Book  Concern  should 
be  divided  in  "the  same  proportions  to  the  whole  property 
of  said  Concern  that  the  traveling  preachers  in  the  South- 
em  Church  shall  be  to  all  the  traveling  preachers  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church." 

The  text  of  this  plan  is  given  in  full  in  Methodist  his- 
tories. Pursuant  to  this  Plan  of  Separation,  the  Southern 
Conferences  and  local  churches  did  form  their  own  eccle- 
siasticism — the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
This  Church  organized  formally  in  1846  and  existed  as  one 
of  the  two  great  branches  of  Episcopal  Methodism  until 
it,  with  the  M.  E.  and  M.  P.  Churches,  reunited  in  1939 
to  be  The  Methodist  Church. 

The  Plan  of  Separation  was  repudiated  by  the  next 
General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  (1848)  forcing 
the  Southern  Church,  which  had  by  that  time  organized, 
to  go  into  court  to  secure  its  equity  in  the  Book  Concern 
and  other  general  Church  interests.  The  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  finally  acted  upon  this  matter,  finding 
for  the  Church,  South,  and  holding  that  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  Church  was  competent  to  adopt  the  Plan 
of  Separation  and  ordering  the  Book  Agents  and  those  in 
authority  in  the  M.  E.  Church  to  pay  over  to  the  Southern 
Church  the  above  mentioned  equity.  (Federal  Reports,  16 
Howard,  288;  Smith  vs.  Swormstedt,  1853.) 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

C.  Elliott,  Great  Secession.  185.5. 

Federal  Reports,  16  Howard,  288,  Smith  vs.  Stoormstedt.  1853. 

J.  M.  Moore,  Long  Road  to  Union.  1943. 

Plan  of  Separation  and  Disruption  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church.  Nashville:  A.  H,  Redford,  1876.  N.  B.  H. 

PLAUEN,  Germany.  About  1869  a  Methodist  family  named 
Schneider  re-emigrated  from  the  United  States  to  Plauen 
(Saxony)  and  gathered  a  group  of  people  seeking  salva- 
tion. Most  of  the  first  Plauen  Methodists  were  women. 
The  first  official  Methodist  service  was  held  on  Whitsun- 
day, 1870.  For  several  years  Plauen  was  served  from  other 
circuits;  only  after  1886,  when  two  villages  had  been 
separated,  was  Plauen  able  to  develop,  and  a  big  church 
was  built  in  1892.  Three  years  later  the  Plauen-Reichen- 
bach-Netzschkau  Circuit  was  divided  into  three.  Only 
117  members  were  left  in  Plauen,  but  a  steady  increase 
led  to  about  800  adult  members  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Second  World  War.  Then  the  community  suffered  griev- 
ous losses  from  air-raid  destructions  and  subsequent 
emigrations  of  members.  The  church  property  was   de- 


WORLD  METHODISM 


PLUMMER,    F.    BERRY 


Erloserkirche,  Plauen,  Germany 

stroyed,  but  after  the  war  the  congregation  gathered  in  a 
wooden,  shed-hke  building,  increasing  again  to  about  six 
hundred  members.  In  1954  the  conspicuous  Erloserkirche 
(Church  of  our  Redeemer)  with  a  seating  capacity  of 
1,000,  with  numerous  additional  rooms  was  dedicated. 
The  Plauen  Circuit,  today  in  the  Central  Conference 
of  the  German  Democratic  Republic  and  near  the  demar- 
cation line  between  East  and  West  and  on  the  border  of 
the  Czechoslovak  Republic,  seems  predestined  to  repre- 
sent the  world-wide  Methodist  task  of  reconciliation. 

Theophil  Funk 

PLAYER,  WILLA  BEATRICE  ( 1909-  ) ,  American  college 
president,  was  born  at  Jackson,  Miss.,  on  Aug.  9,  1909,  the 
the  daughter  of  Clarence  C.  and  Beatrice  (Day)  Player. 
She  received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Ohio  Wesleyan 
University,  1929,  and  the  LL.D.  from  that  institution  in 
1953.  She  became  Doctor  of  Education  at  Columbia 
Teachers  College;  and  has  received  the  LL.D.  from  Ly- 
coming College,  1962;  from  Morehouse  College,  1963; 
and  from  Albion  College,  1963.  Miss  Player  went  upon 
the  faculty  of  Bennett  College,  N.  C,  in  1930,  and 
after  being  an  instructor  and  vice-president  there,  1930- 
55,  she  was  elected  president  of  the  college  in  1955.  She 
is  a  member  of  the  Women's  Planning  Commission  for  the 
Japan  International  Christian  University  Foundation,  Inc.; 
and  the  Ford  Foundation;  and  is  a  member  of  the  Na- 
tional Association  of  Schools  and  Colleges  of  the  United 
Methodist  Church  (president,  1962-63);  the  North  Caro- 
lina Council  of  Churches  (secretary);  the  Southern  As- 
sociation of  Secondary  Schools  and  Colleges  (Visiting 
Committee,  1953-54);  American  Association  of  University 
Women;  the  National  Council  of  Negro  Women,  and  of 
the  United  Church  Women  (upon  its  Board  of  Managers). 


She  is  a  member  of  the  American  Association  of  Colleges 
and  has  served  on  its  Committee  on  Liberal  Learning. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

PLAYTER,  GEORGE  FREDERICK  (1809-1866),  Canadian 
minister  and  historian,  was  bom  in  London,  England. 
When  he  was  twenty-four  he  emigrated  to  Canada,  and 
in  1834  he  was  taken  on  trial  in  the  Canada  Conference. 
He  was  ordained  in  1838. 

For  some  years,  Playter  served  on  circuits  in  Upper 
Canada.  At  the  same  time  his  interest  in  writing  was  de- 
veloping. After  the  union  with  the  Wesleyans  broke  down 
in  1840,  he  issued  two  powerful  letters  entitled  "A  Voice 
from  Canada"  and  "A  Second  Voice  from  Canada,"  in 
which  he  defended  the  Canadian  Methodists.  Thus  from 
1844  to  1846  he  became  editor  of  The  Christian  Guardian, 
but  in  this  capacity  his  earlier  promise  was  not  fulfilled. 

After  he  left  The  Guardian,  Playter  dropped  out  of  the 
ministry  temporarily  to  write  and  to  operate  a  printing 
estabbshment.  He  took  up  circuit  duties  again  in  1849, 
but  became  superannuated  in  1858.  In  retirement  he  com- 
pleted two  volumes  of  his  History  of  Methodism  in  Can- 
ada, of  which  only  the  first,  covering  the  years  before 
1828,  was  published. 

Playter's  history  was  an  admirable  piece  of  work — well- 
informed,  judicious,  and  comprehensive.  The  loss  of  the 
second  volume,  which  would  have  continued  the  story  to 
1847,  was  a  great  misfortune  for  future  historians  of  Meth- 
odism. 

As  a  writer  and  as  a  preacher,  Playter  was  honest, 
straightforward,  and  blunt.  "His  sermons  were  remarkable 
for  their  clearness.  He  uttered  nothing  at  random,  nor 
anything  not  worth  the  uttering.  His  professions  were  not 
loud,  but  he  was  a  sincere,  humble  lover  of  the  Saviour." 
(Minutes  of  the  Conference  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church,  1867,  16).  He  died  on  Oct.  24,  1866. 

G.  H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.  1881. 
Minutes  of  the  Conference  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church, 
1867.  G.  S.  French 

PLUMMER,  F.  BERRY  (1885-1957),  American  E.U.B.  min- 
ister, was  born  to  Charles  W.  and  Sarah  Eakle  Plummer, 
Jan.  7,  1885,  at  Bridgeport,  Washington  County,  Md.  He 
joined  the  Pennsylvania  Conference,  Church  of  the 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  in  1903  and  was  ordained 
by  the  same  conference  in  1908.  He  graduated 
from  Lebanon  Valley  College  in  1905  with  the  B.A. 
degree  and  later  received  from  his  alma  mater  the  D.D. 
degree.  Plummer  was  married  to  Emma  E.  Flook  of  My- 
ersville,  Md.,  Nov.  11,  1907,  who  preceded  him  in  death 
(Feb.  10,  1949). 

He  was  one  of  the  strongest  figures  in  his  annual  con- 
ference, representing  it  in  eleven  Gen'eral  Conferences. 
For  thirty-five  years  Plummer  served  Hagerstown,  Md.,  St. 
Paul's  Church,  one  of  the  most  important  churches  in  the 
Conference.  He  served  forty-one  years  as  a  trustee  of 
Lebanon  Valley  College,  receiving  in  1955  the  first  citation 
that  the  college  had  issued  to  one  of  its  trustees.  For 
fifteen  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  Federal  Council  of  Chltrches  of  Christ  in  Amer- 
ica. He  served  his  denomination  as  a  member  of  the 
General  Board  of  Christian  Education,  the  Board  of 


PLYLER,    MARION   TIMOTHY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Pensions,  and  the  General  Council  of  Administration,  in- 
cluding its  Executive  Committee. 

After  an  illness  of  eight  weeks,  Plummer  died  May  25, 
1957  in  Hagerstown,  Md.,  and  his  remains  were  placed  in 
the  Mt.  Zion  Cemetery,  Myersville,  Md. 

P.  E.  Holdcraft,  Pennsylvania  Conference.  1939. 

Minutes  of  the  Pennsylvania  Conference,  1957. 

The  Telescope-Messenger,  July  6,  1957.        John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

PLYLER,  MARION  TIMOTHY  (1867-1954),  and  ALVA 
WASHINGTON  (1867-1956),  American  brothers,  pastors, 
and  editors.  Marion  T.  Plyler  was  bom  on  Sept.  14,  1867, 
in  Iredell  County,  N.  C,  the  son  of  Robert  Conrad  and 
Mary  L.  (Kimball)  Plyler.  His  wife  was  Epie  Duncan 
Smith,  whom  he  married  on  June  20,  1900,  and  they 
became  the  parents  of  seven  children. 

He  was  educated  at  Trinity  College  (now  Duke),  A.B. 
in  1892;  A.M.,  1897;  and  D.D.,  1937;  and  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago  where  he  did  postgraduate  work  in  1898. 
He  also  received  the  M.A.  degree  from  the  University  of 
North  Carolina  in  1905  and  its  D.D.  in  1931. 

Joining  the  North  Carolina  Conference,  he  served 
Wilmington,  Murfreesboro,  Plymouth,  Louisburg,  Chapel 
Hill,  Greenville,  and  Washington,  1892-1910.  He  was  the 
presiding  elder  of  the  Elizabeth  City  District,  1911-14; 
of  the  Raleigh  District,  1915;  pastor,  Grace  Church,  Wil- 
mington, 1916-19;  again  the  presiding  elder  of  the  Dur- 
ham District,  1920-23;  the  Raleigh  District,  1924-27.  He 
became  editor  of  the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate 
in  1928,  and  served  in  that  capacity  continually  until  his 
retirement  in  1945. 

Alva  Washington  Plyler,  the  twin  brother  of  M.  T. 
Plyler,  began  his  ministry  in  1892.  Among  other  appoint- 
ments, he  served  three  times  as  presiding  elder,  the  dis- 
tricts being  Asheville,  Salisbury,  and  Greensboro  in 
the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference.  He  became 
editor-manager  of  the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate 
in  1921  (seven  years  before  his  brother  M.  T.  joined 
him).  The  Plyler  Brothers,  as  they  were  always  called, 
were  always  thought  of  together  in  connection  with  the 
editing  and  publication  of  the  North  Carolina  Christian 
Advocate.  Alva  W.  Plyler  was  the  author  of  one  book. 
The  Iron  Duke  of  the  Methodist  Itinerancy  (John  Tillett), 
which  was  published  in  1925. 

M.  T.  Plyler  was  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ences (MES)  of  1914,  '18,  '22,  '26,  '30,  "34,  and  '38,  and 
also  of  the  General  Conferences  of  The  Methodist  Church 
of  1940  and  '44,  as  well  as  the  Uniting  Cvnference  of 
1939.  He  attended  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Confer- 
ence of  1921  and  1931;  ser\'ed  on  the  General  Board  of 
Missions  in  his  Church,  1918-25;  was  president  of  the 
Board  of  the  Pastors'  School  at  Duke  University  from 
1918  for  thirty-two  years.  He  was  president  of  the  Wesley 
Foundation  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina  also.  He 
wrote  Leroij  Lee  Smith,  Lawyer  of  the  Old  School,  1916; 
Men  of  the  Burning  Heart,  1918  (in  collaboration);  Bethel 
Among  the  Oaks,  1925;  Thomas  Neal  Ivey — Golden 
Hearted  Gentleman,  1925;  Letters  of  Travel  in  America 
and  Europe. 

He  had  considerable  influence  in  his  Conference  as 
editor  and  church  leader  and  was  held  in  great  respect 
by  his  brethren.  He  retired  in  1945  and  died  in  Durham, 
N.  C,  on  March  24,  1954. 

A.  W.  Plyler  was  a  trustee  of  the  Methodist  Assembly 
(Lake  Junaluska)    at  one  time,    and   also  a   trustee   of 


Brevard  College.  He  married  Grace  Davis  Earnhardt  on 
July  20,  1901.  (She  is  still  living  and  resides  in  The  Meth- 
odist Home,  Charlotte,  N.  C).  They  had  three  daugh- 
ters of  whom  only  one  survived  infancy. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Press 
Association  and  at  one  time  was  its  president;  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  editorial  council  of  the  Religious  Press  of  Amer- 
ica. He  received  the  honorary  D.D.  degree  from  both 
AsBURY  College  and  Duke  University.  He  was  a  delegate 
to  six  General  Conferences,  including  the  Uniting  Con- 
ference at  Kansas  City  in  1939. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945.  N.  B.  H. 

PLYMOUTH,  England.  The  first  Methodist  class  to  be 
formed  in  this  famous  Devon  port  was  started  in  1745, 
and  twelve  months  later  John  Wesley  paid  the  first  of  a 
score  of  visits  to  the  city;  the  last  of  these  was  in  1789. 
His  association  with  the  city  was  not  always  a  happy  one, 
and  on  one  of  his  last  visits  a  better-than-usual  reception 
occasioned  the  comment  in  his  Journal,  March  2,  1787: 
"What,  is  God  about  to  work  in  Plymouth  also."  This  un- 
certain beginning  has  been  belied  by  later  growth. 
Plymouth  Methodism  remained  a  part  of  the  Devonshire 
Circuit  until  1783  when  the  Plymouth  Dock  Circuit  was 
formed.  The  first  chapel  was  opened  in  Lower  Street  in 
1780.  Ker  Street,  the  most  famous  of  the  early  chapels, 
opened  in  1787,  was  demolished  in  1960's.  By  the  time  of 
John  Wesley's  death  there  were  fifteen  hundred  members 
in  the  circuit.  In  1819  a  second  circuit  was  carved  out  of 
the  Dock  Circuit  and  called  Plymouth.  In  1823  the  Dock 
Circuit  was  renamed  Devonport. 

By  1871  Plymouth  had  to  be  redivided  into  the  King 
Street  and  Ebenezer  Circuits.  The  King  Street  Chapel, 
built  in  1864,  was  claimed  to  be  the  finest  outside  London. 
It  housed  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  conferences  of  1895, 
1913,  and  1929,  and  remained  in  use  until  its  destruction 
by  German  bombing  in  1941.  Ebenezer  was  built  in  1816 
and  survived  to  provide  a  skeleton  for  the  Plymouth  Cen- 
tral Hall  which  was  created  after  Wesley  Church  (1879) 
was  destroyed  in  1937  by  fire.  This  reconditioned  building 
would  also  have  perished  in  the  wartime  bLtz,  but  was 
saved  largely  due  to  the  efforts  of  a  team  of  students  from 
Richmond  College  who  were  holding  a  crusade  at  the 
hall  at  the  time  of  the  air  attack.  Their  work  in  extin- 
guishing dozens  of  incendiaiy  bombs  saved  the  building, 
which  was  the  only  large  hall  left  standing  in  the  city. 
And  so  it  became,  until  1959,  the  scene  of  the  city's 
annual  mayor-choosing  ceremony,  and  of  other  important 
civic  functions. 

The  Devonport  Circuit  was  divided  in  1893  to  form  the 
Gloucester  Street  and  Belmont  Circuits.  These  existed 
separately  until  1926,  when  a  single  Devonport  Circuit 
was  again  formed.  The  Belmont  Chapel  (1875)  is  still  in 
use.  The  nineteenth  century  also  saw  the  growth  in  the 
city  of  the  other  branches  of  the  Methodist  family.  Primi- 
tive Methodism  seems  to  have  owed  its  origins  to  a  local 
resident,  William  Driffield.  By  the  middle  of  the  century 
it  had  rooms  in  Plymouth  and  Devonport  and  village 
cau.ses  at  Holberton  and  Dunstone  to  the  east.  From  this 
work  grew  the  societies  at  Millbridge,  Herbert  Street, 
Morice  Town,  and  Cobourg  Street.  Of  these  city  chapels 
only  Millbridge  survived  the  Second  World  War. 

The  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  had  a  society 
in  Ebrington  Street.  The  Bible  Christian  movement  was 
estabhshed    in   Plymouth    Dock    in    1818    by    William 


WORLD   METHODISM 


O'Bryan  himself.  It  was  at  Stoke  Damerell  that  a  Bible 
Christian  press  was  set  up  in  1822  to  print  a  hymnbook'. 
And  it  was  in  Stoke  Damerell  Church  that  O'Bryan's 
daughter  Mary  married  William  Thorne,  the  printer.  The 
press  moved  to  Shebbear  in  1829,  but  the  work  in 
Plymouth  grew.  By  mid-century  there  were  half  a  dozen 
societies  of  which  Greenbank  and  Embankment  Road  were 
the  largest.  It  was  to  Elburton  that  Mary  Thome  retired 
as  a  widow,  and  there  spent  the  last  ten  years  of  her  life. 

The  union  of  1907  created  three  United  Methodist  cir- 
cuits centered  on  Greenbank,  Ebrington  Street,  and 
Morice  Town.  These  three,  together  with  the  Primitive 
Methodist  Circuit  of  Cobourg  Street,  and  the  four  Wesley- 
an  circuits — King  Street,  Ebenezer,  Devonport,  and  Garri- 
son were  amalgamated  after  Methodist  Union  in  1932  to 
form  King  Street,  East,  Devonport,  and  Garrison  Circuits. 
In  the  years  before  the  Second  World  War  the  growth 
and  movement  of  population  in  the  city  led  to  extension 
work  in  many  of  the  suburbs.  A  new  central  hall  was 
opened  in  the  Garrison  Circuit.  At  the  outbreak  of  war 
the  membership  of  the  four  circuits  was  over  5,000.  The 
Second  World  War  brought  great  naval  and  military  ac- 
tivity in  Plymouth,  and  between  1939  and  1945  Plymouth 
Methodism  gave  hospitality  to  thousands  of  servicemen 
from  all  over  the  world.  The  sailors'  "Welcome"  at  Devon- 
port,  begun  in  1908,  and  the  Plymouth  Central  Hall  were 
the  focal  points  of  this  work.  But  in  one  week  in  April, 
1941,  the  city  center  was  destroyed  by  air  attack,  and  a 
third  of  the  population  was  made  homeless.  Eleven  Meth- 
odist churches  were  destroyed  and  many  others  damaged. 
In  Devonport  on  the  Sunday  morning  after  the  blitz  not 
one  church  was  fit  for  worship.  To  deal  with  this  emer- 
gency a  single  Plymouth  Circuit  was  set  up.  This  con- 
tinued until  1945  when  the  Plymouth  East  Circuit 
separated  itself.  At  the  same  time  the  Plymouth  Central 
Hall  joined  the  Garrison  Circuit  to  form  the  Plymouth 
Mission  Circuit.  In  1952  the  King  Street  and  Devonport 
Circuits  resumed  their  own  existence. 

Methodism  in  Plymouth  has  produced  many  famous 
men.  Henby  Cabter,  so  long  a  creative  figure  at  the 
Temperance  Department,  was  bom  in  the  city.  Three  vice- 
presidents  of  the  Methodist  Conference  came  from  Plym- 
outh, including  Isaac  Foot.  It  was  the  generosity  of  John 
Beckly,  a  Plymouthian,  which  gave  the  Conference  the 
annual  lecture  in  social  studies  and  Christianity  which 
bears  his  name.  Perhaps  the  city's  greatest  claim  to  fame 
in  Methodism,  however,  will  be  that  it  was  here  in  1965 
that  the  Methodist  Conference  took  the  historic  decision 
to  pursue  the  path  of  union  with  that  Church  of  England 
from  which  John  Wesley  sprang. 

Donald  Mason 

POE,  ADAM  (1804-1868),  American  preacher  and  book 
agent,  was  born  in  Columbiana  County,  Ohio,  July  21, 
1804.  His  formal  education  was  limited,  but  by  dint  of 
reading  and  study  he  became  a  well  informed  man.  Bald- 
win University  awarded  him  the  D.D.  degree  in  1862. 
In  1825,  he  married  Ehza  Hosford,  and  they  had  a  son 
and  two  daughters. 

Brought  up  a  Presbyterian,  Poe  embraced  Methodism 
as  a  youth,  and  in  1827  joined  the  Ohio  Conference. 
Following  seven  years  on  circuits,  he  received  varied  ap- 
pointments. He  served  a  total  of  nine  years  on  four  dis- 
tricts—Wooster,  1834-37;  Tiffin,  1838;  Norwalk,  1842  and 
1847;  and  Elyria,  1848-49.  There  were  five  appointments 


to  two  stations  for  a  total  of  eight  years — Mansfield,  1839, 
1845-46,  and  1850-51;  and  Delaware,  1840-41,  and  1843. 
In  1844  he  was  appointed  for  one  year  as  agent  for  Ohio 
Wesleyan  University  and  Norwalk  Seminary.  In  1852, 
he  became  assistant  agent  at  the  Western  Book  Concern 
in  Cincinnati,  and  served  as  agent  from  1860  to  1868. 

Poe  was  pastor  at  Delaware  when  Ohio  Wesleyan 
University  began  in  1842.  A  trustee  from  that  time  for- 
ward, he  rendered  notable  service.  At  his  funeral.  Bishop 
Davis  W.  Clark  remarked  that  it  could  almost  be  said 
that  Adam  Poe  was  the  founder  of  Ohio  Wesleyan. 

While  Poe  was  preaching  in  a  powerful  revival  at  the 
Methodist  Church,  Danville,  Ohio,  in  January  1835, 
William  Nast,  who  was  to  become  the  father  of  German 
Methodism  in  America,  knelt  at  the  altar  with  other  peni- 
tents and  was,  according  to  his  own  testimony,  "born 
again."  It  was  Nast's  Aldersgate  experience.  That  Septem- 
ber Poe  introduced  Nast  to  the  Ohio  Conference  which 
admitted  him  on  trial  and  appointed  him  as  "German  Mis- 
sionary" in  Cincinnati. 

The  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  of  the  M.  E.  Church 
was  organized  Aug.  7-8,  1866,  when  eleven  men,  includ- 
ing Poe,  met  in  Trinity  Church,  Cincinnati;  he  was  elected 
as  the  first  treasurer  of  the  society. 

A  man  of  recognized  abihty  and  devotion,  genial  in 
nature,  and  equipped  with  a  stock  of  reminiscences  and 
anecdotes  which  he  used  effectively  in  conversation  and 
preaching,  Poe  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  his  brethren, 
as  attested  by  the  fact  that  they  elected  him  to  six  Gen- 
eral Conferences,  1844-64.  He  died  June  26,  1868. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

P.  F.  Douglass,  Story  of  German  Methodism.  1939. 

General  Minutes,  MEC. 

Minutes  of  the  North  Ohio  Conference,  1867-68. 

M.   Simpson,   Cyclopaedia.    1878.  Albea   Godbold 

POL,  GASTON  (1924-  ),  Bolivian  educator,  was  born 
in  Cochabamba.  He  studied  at  the  university  there,  re- 
ceiving a  law  degree  in  1964.  He  took  graduate  courses  at 
Vanderbilt,  Peabody,  and  Scabritt,  all  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.  He  married  JuUa  Salazar,  a  teacher  and  director  of 
the  elementary  sections  of  the  American  Institute.  They 
have  two  adopted  children.  He  was  a  professor  in  the 
school  of  law  at  the  university.  His  positions  in  the  Meth- 
odist Church  included  lay  preacher,  treasurer  of  the  an- 
nual conference,  executive  secretary  of  finances,  coordina- 
tor of  educational  work  in  Bolivia,  and  director  of 
Colegio  Evangelico  Metodista  in  La  Paz  (formerly 
American  Institute). 

In  1969  Dr.  Pol  was  named  as  one  of  an  eight-member 
Supreme  Council  on  Education  for  Bolivia,  which  was 
created  to  guide  sweeping  educational  reforms  in  Bolivia. 
He  was  one  of  five  private  citizens  on  this  council,  the 
other  three  being  cabinet  members.  A  United  States  mis- 
sionary wrote:  "the  new  and  much-needed  Comision  Su- 
prema  de  Educacion  is  charged  with  restructuring  and 
unifying  Bolivian  education;  this  affords  Dr.  Pol  a  unique 
opportunity  for  service  to  his  country." 

Natalie  Barber 


POLAND,  a  country  of  eastern  Europe,  is  bounded  on 
the  north  by  the  Baltic  Sea  and  the  U.S.S.R.,  on  the  east 
by  the  U.S.S.R.,  to  the  south  by  Czechoslovakia,  and  to 
the  west  by  Gebmany. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Polish  history  begins  with  966  A.D.,  when  Mieczyslaw 
I,  duke  of  Mazowie,  accepted  Christianity  for  himself  and 
his  people.  His  son,  Boleslaw  the  Brave,  transformed  his 
father's  principality  into  a  powerful  and  independent  king- 
dom. With  her  everchanging  frontiers  and  a  prestige  and 
political  power  that  waxed  and  waned  repeatedly,  Poland 
played  for  the  next  seven  centuries  a  vital  role  in  Euro- 
pean history'.  During  the  sixteenth  century  her  rulers  be- 
came elective.  This  democratic  innovation  weakened  her 
to  such  an  extent  that  her  powerful  neighbors,  Russia, 
Austria  and  Prussia,  could  partition  her  territory  in  three 
successive  moves  (1772,  1793,  and  1795).  Restored  as  a 
republic  in  1918,  Poland  enjoyed  a  brief  independence 
until  she  was  divided  anew  by  Germany  and  the  U.S.S.R. 
in  1939.  After  the  Second  World  War,  she  emerged  as  a 
republic  again  with  sweeping  changes  in  ideology,  terri- 
tory, and  population. 

Poland  is  recognized  as  traditionally  a  Roman  Catholic 
country.  Before  the  Second  World  War,  sixty-nine  percent 
of  the  population  were  Poles;  of  these  seventy-five  percent 
were  Roman  and  Uniat  Catholics.  Today,  ninety-eight 
percent  is  estimated  as  Polish,  and  of  that  ninety-four  per- 
cent is  Roman  Catholic. 

During  the  early  days  of  the  Reformation,  Protestant- 
ism flourished  in  Poland,  because  of  a  prevailing  religious 
tolerance,  with  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  predominating. 
At  one  time  a  majority  of  the  Pohsh  nobles  accepted  the 
tenets  of  the  Reformers.  Due  to  a  lack  of  unity  and  the 
extremism  of  some  Protestant  leaders,  the  educational  ac- 
tivities of  the  Jesuits,  and  external  pohtical  situations,  the 
influence  of  the  Reformation  slowly  waned  until  it  became 
negligible.  Today,  Protestants  represent  between  one  and 
two  percent  of  the  population,  with  a  predominance  of  the 
following  denominations;  Lutheran,  Reformed,  Methodist, 
Baptist  and  Evangelical. 

Methodism.  The  Methodist  Church  in  Poland  grew  out 
of  the  activity  of  the  1918-19  Centenary  Commission  of 
the  U.S.  M.  E.  Church,  South.  After  the  First  World  War, 
deputations  were  sent  to  Europe  to  investigate  existing 
situations,  and  on  June  5,  1919,  the  Board  of  Missions 
(MES)  voted  "that  work  be  opened  in  Poland  ...  as  soon 
as  the  conditions  will  allow."  This  new  activity  sought  to 
provide  temporary  physical  relief  to  those  in  need,  and 
religious  services  for  those  seeking  spiritual  guidance.  The 
unique  Polish  Relief  Campaign  in  the  United  States  pro- 
vided clothing  and  other  supplies  valued  at  $2,000,000. 
Daisy  Davies  was  its  director. 

The  first  sessions  of  the  "Poland  and  Danzig  Mission" 
were  held  in  Warsaw,  Poland,  Aug.  24-27,  1922,  with 
Bishop  W.  B.  Beauchamp  of  Richmond,  Va.,  presiding. 
It  reported:  districts,  2;  charges,  9;  churches,  7;  member- 
ship, 800;  probationers,  150;  value  of  property,  $67,000. 
The  district  superintendents  were  George  W.  Twynham 
and  John  Rasmussen,  Sr.  Other  early  missionaries  and 
church  workers  were  Edmund  Chambers,  Hiram  King, 
Fred  C.  Woodward  and  Thomas  J.  Gamble. 

Klarysew  School  and  Home.  The  first  congregations 
were  organized  in  the  key  cities  of  the  country.  To  meet 
certain  pressing  postwar  problems  of  the  population,  some 
institutions  were  opened.  The  best  known  of  these  was 
the  school  and  children's  home  at  Klarysew  near  Warsaw. 
This  institution  had  three  main  goals:  to  provide  a  home 
and  education  for  the  most  promising  of  the  many  orphans 
adopted  by  the  church,  to  create  a  center  that  would  be  a 
base  for  the  church's  future  development,  and  to  help 
meet  through  education  one  of  the  fundamental  needs  of 


Methodist  Centre,  Klarysew, 
NEAR  Warsaw,  Poland 

the  country.  Its  first  and  only  director  was  Wladyslaw 
Dropiowski,  a  well-known  Polish  educator.  In  1933,  due 
to  budget  restrictions,  the  mission  was  forced  to  close  this 
institution.  Reopened  in  1965,  it  now  serves  as  a  confer- 
ence center. 

English  Language  School.  Another  unusual  product  of 
the  early  years  is  the  English  Language  School  in  Warsaw. 
In  1921,  E.  B.  McKnight  and  a  Mr.  Welch  started  free 
evening  classes  for  teaching  English  and  the  Bible,  and 
these  gained  immediate  popularity.  Reportedly  from  1,500 
to  2,000  persons  attended  during  the  first  year.  Soon  these 
courses  developed  into  an  evening  English  language  school 
for  paying  students.  This  gradually  improved  in  teaching 
personnel,  standards  of  instruction,  physical  facilities;  it 
imported  textbooks  from  London  especially  written  for 
Poles.  In  the  last  decades  it  has  been  known  as  the  best 
institution  teaching  English  in  Poland.  Today  it  has  over 
5,000  students.  Its  directors  were  consecutively  Thomas 
W.  Williams,  W.  Winston  Cram,  Ruth  Lawrence,  Leonid 
Jesakow,  and  Joseph  Szczepkowski. 

Woman's  Work.  On  May  4,  1927,  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions of  the  M.  E.  Church  South  voted  to  close  the  Rus- 
sian Mission  in  Harbin,  Manchuria,  and  transferred  the 
personnel  and  budget  of  the  Woman's  Department  in  that 
city  to  Poland  for  a  program  among  White  Russians.  Con- 
stance Rumbough  and  Sallie  Lewis  Browne  arrived  from 
Harbin  within  a  few  months  and  established  their  head- 
quarters in  Wilno,  Poland.  Later  their  mandate  was  wid- 
ened to  include  work  among  the  women,  youth,  and 
children  of  the  entire  country. 

Growth  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Poland  was  slow. 
Legal  restrictions,  such  as  the  lack  of  official  recognition 
of  the  church  by  the  state,  made  difficult  any  rapid  expan- 
sion. The  German-speaking  congregations  which  had  con- 
stituted an  entire  district  in  1922  decreased  rapidly  in 
membership  and  influence.  Even  before  the  Second  World 
War  several  of  them  conducted  their  services  in  Polish. 
After  the  war  no  German-speaking  congregations  re- 
mained. 

In  the  1920's,  a  program  undertaken  to  establish  new 
congregations  and  to  open  hostels  for  high  school  students 
among  the  White  Russians  in  the  northeastern  provinces 
met  with  only  limited  success.  The  congregations  disap- 
peared when,  in  1939,  these  provinces  were  annexed  by 
the  U.S.S.R.  Attempts  were  made  also  (in  the  late  1920's) 
to  open  work  among  the  Ukrainians  in  eastern  Galicia. 
These  efi^orts  were  fruitless.  Church  development  received 
a  serious  setback  from  the  depression  in  the  United  States, 
which  between  1931  and  1936  brought  drastic  budget  re- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


POLITICS   AND   BRITISH   METHODISM 


ductions  and  the  recall  of  most  of  the  American  mission- 
aries. Bishop  U.  V.  W.  Darlington  of  Huntington, 
W.  Va.,  as  the  bishop  in  charge,  sympathetically  guided 
the  young  church  during  these  difficult  years.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded in  1934  by  Bishop  Arthur  J.  Moore  of  Atlanta, 
Ga.  This  tireless  evangelist  visited  most  of  the  Polish  con- 
gregations and  untiringly  labored  at  deepening  the  spiritual 
life  and  increasing  the  missionary  zeal  of  preachers  and 
members. 

The  Second  World  War  dealt  a  grave  blow  to  Method- 
ism in  Poland.  During  this  conflict  one  third  of  the  con- 
gregations were  lost  because  of  territorial  incorporation 
into  the  U.S.S.R.  Over  one  half  of  the  preachers  were 
lost  to  the  church,  forced  to  leave  the  country  by  various 
circumstances.  Many  promising  young  Methodists  per- 
ished in  prisons  and  on  battlefields.  For  six  years  the  life 
of  the  church  was  totally  disorganized. 

Fortunately  a  vital  core  remained  in  Warsaw.  Classes 
in  church  history  and  related  subjects,  usually  given  at 
theological  seminaries,  and  covering  a  three-year  course, 
were  taught  by  university  professors  and  other  qualified 
persons.  In  this  way  some  twenty  men  and  several  women 
were  carefully  prepared  for  future  leadership  in  the 
church.  WTien  the  war  ended,  most  of  the  men  students 
became  the  pastors  of  the  rebuilt  congregations. 

Since  1945.  With  the  coming  of  peace  in  1945,  Meth- 
odism experienced  a  period  of  substantial  expansion.  New 
congregations  were  organized  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. Church  membership  grew  rapidly.  Some  reasons  for 
the  increase  were  the  official  recognition  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Poland  by  the  Polish  government;  the  uprooting 
and  transfer  to  the  west  and  north  of  a  large  segment  of 
the  population;  the  availability  of  young  clergymen 
trained  during  the  last  few  years  of  the  war;  the  vigorous 
leadership  of  Konstanty  Najder,  the  first  general  superin- 
tendent, and  the  material  support  from  the  church  abroad 
under  the  energetic  direction  of  Bishop  Paul  Neff  G.\h- 
BER  of  the  Geneva  Area. 

Much  of  this  expansion  was  due  to  the  situation  that 
arose  in  former  East  Prussia,  a  considerable  part  of  which 
fell  to  Poland  in  1945.  Since  the  German  pastors  and 
many  of  the  members  of  the  United  Evangelical  Church 
of  this  territory  had  fled  to  postwar  Geimany,  their 
churches  and  parsonages  stood  empty.  The  constituencies 
that  remained  were  leaderless.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  Poland  began  to  take  over  some  of  the  church 
buildings.  Najder,  acting  jointly  with  leaders  of  the  Augs- 
burg Evangelical  Church  ( Lutheran ) ,  petitioned  the 
Polish  government  to  assign  the  still  unoccupied  churches 
to  these  two  denominations.  The  Methodists  were  per- 
mitted to  begin  services  and  to  organize  congregations  in 
over  twenty  of  these  parishes. 

At  the  same  time,  new  work  was  started  in  other  parts 
of  Poland.  Numerically  this  period  marked  the  high  tide 
of  Pohsh  Methodism.  For  several  years  the  annual  reports 
showed  over  sixty  pastors  with  appointments  and  mem- 
ership  above  sixty  thousand. 

After  the  Second  World  War  the  Board  of  Missions 
sent  another  group  of  experienced  missionaries  to  Poland. 
However,  these  were  permitted  to  remain  only  a  short 
time:  in  the  fall  of  1949,  all  foreign  rehgious  workers  were 
ordered  by  the  Polish  authorities  to  leave  the  country. 
Seven  dark  years  followed.  No  sessions  of  the  annual  con- 
ference were  held.  Dissensions  and  intrigues  among  the 
preachers    abounded.     Finally    the    traveling    preachers 


expelled  the  general  superintendent,  Joseph  Naumiuk, 
from  the  conference.  Jan  Ostrowski  was  elected  his  suc- 
cessor. Great  losses  in  members  and  clergy  occurred 
during  these  years. 

After  the  radical  political  changes  of  1956,  a  new  day 
dawned  for  the  church.  Relationships  between  the  preach- 
ers slowly  improved.  Communication  with  the  church 
overseas  became  normal  again.  With  the  election  of  Joseph 
Szczepkowski  as  general  superintendent,  Methodism 
bound  up  its  wounds  and  attacked  energetically  its  organ- 
izational problems  and  missionary  responsibilities.  During 
these  years  Bishop  Ferdinand  Sigg  of  Zurich,  Switzer- 
land, in  charge  of  the  Central  and  Southern  Europe 
Central  Conference,  visited  the  church  regularly,  or- 
dained to  the  ministry  those  qualified,  and  supervised  the 
appointments. 

Today,  though  small  in  numbers,  Methodism  plays  a 
vital  role  in  modern  Poland  as  a  Protestant  denomination. 
It  has  been  active  in  the  country's  ecumenical  organiza- 
tion and  has  sent  delegates  to  numerous  overseas  religious 
and  social  action  meetings.  Its  representatives  have  of 
course  participated  in  the  sessions  of  the  Central  and 
Southern  Europe  Central  Conferences,  and  the  Genera! 
Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

Annual  Reports,  Board  of  Missions,  MES,  TMC. 

J.  Cannon,  Southern  Methodist  Missions.  1926. 

P.  N.  Garber,  Continental  Europe.  1949. 

Journals  of  the  Annual  Missions  and  Annual  Conferences  of 

the   Methodist  Church   in   Poland.    GArxHER    P.    Wabfield 

POLAND  ANNUAL  CONFERENCE  embodies  the  Method- 
ist work  in  Poland.  It  was  a  Provisional  Annual  Conference 
when  in  1960  the  General  Conference  of  The  Method- 
ist Church  gave  permission  to  it  to  become  an  annual  con- 
ference, if  during  the  quadrennium  a  minimum  of  twenty- 
five  ministerial  members  should  belong.  This  condition  was 
met  and  the  conference  was  recognized  as  the  Poland 
Annual  Conference  in  1964.  It  is  in  the  Centr.\l  and 
Southern  Europe  Central  Conference  and  is  currently 
presided  over  by  the  bishop  of  the  Geneva  Area. 

Statistics  of  this  conference  at  the  1969  reporting 
were:  Number  of  districts,  5;  charges  or  appointments, 
36;  organized  churches,  36;  preaching  stations,  13  (total, 
49);  ordained  ministers,  27;  lay  preachers  serving  as  pas- 
tors, 8;  members  of  the  chin-ch,  6,519.  Institutions  of  the 
conference  as  described  above  are  the  English-Language 
School  at  Warsaw,  an  orphanage  at  Klarysew,  and  a  Bible 
school  and  youth  center,  "Warfieldowe,"  Klarysew. 

Barbara  H.  Lewis,  Methodist  Overseas  Missions.  1960. 

N.  B.  H. 


POLITICS  AND  BRITISH  METHODISM.  In  the  history  of 
English  party  politics  there  has  been  a  pecuhar  polarity. 
Underlying  the  shifting  connections  traced  by  the  famous 
historian  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Lewis  Namier,  and 
the  altering  attitudes  to  specific  policies,  there  has  re- 
mained a  seemingly  natural  alliance  behveen  Tory  and 
Anglican  on  the  one  hand  and  Liberal  and  Free  Church- 
man on  the  other.  From  the  days  of  Cavalier  and  Round- 
head to  those  of  Disraeli  and  Gladstone,  and  even  to  some 
extent  to  the  present  time,  "Church  and  Queen"  has  been 
a  Tory  toast,  while  Whig-Liberal  agents  have  relied  on  the 
support  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Nonconformist  vote. 
Neither  party  has  been  able  to  ignore  religious  loyalties; 
and  when  the  Labour  Party  began  to  displace  the  Liberal 


POLITY,    CHURCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Party  as  the  major  party  of  political  reform  and  radical- 
ism, it  too  was  seen  to  owe  more  to  Methodism  than  to 
Marxism. 

Within  this  pattern  the  part  played  by  Methodism  as 
an  influence  in  English  politics  has  been  as  equivocal  as 
its  own  ecclesiastical  development.  John  Wesley's  author- 
itarian rule  was  as  much  a  reflection  of  his  Tory-Anglican 
traditions  as  of  his  undisputed  supremacy  over  every  part 
of  the  church  he  brought  forth  from  its  Anglican  cradle, 
but  at  first  he  was  anxious  to  keep  Methodism  out  of 
politics  as  much  as  he  could.  Many  of  those  to  whom  he 
preached  had  no  votes;  he  was  determined  to  avoid  the 
dangers  of  allowing  an  evangelical  movement  to  run  out 
in  the  sands  of  political  activity,  as  he  feared  some  eigh- 
teenth-century nonconformity  had  done;  he  was  anxious 
to  avoid  either  Jacobite  or  Jacobin  "smears,"  so  he  insti- 
tuted a  "no-politics  rule"  for  his  helpers. 

In  the  troubled  period  which  followed  the  death  of 
Wesley  this  rule  served  to  keep  Methodists  from  unhappy 
association  with  some  of  the  potentially  revolutionary 
movements  of  the  early  nineteenth  century,  and  the  sup- 
posed atheism  of  some  of  the  followers  of  Tom  Paine 
horrified  them.  It  is  too  much  to  claim  that  Methodism 
saved  England  from  a  revolution  such  as  affected  France, 
for  conditions  in  the  two  countries  were  so  different,  but 
it  is  true  that  many  to  whom  the  new  doctrines  of  the 
rights  of  men  were  being  preached  were  finding  them 
more  clearly  expounded  in  the  Bible  than  in  Rousseau 
or  Paine.  A  no-politics  rule  normally  works  more  favor- 
ably for  conservatism  than  for  radicalism,  and  two  further 
tendencies  in  the  post-Napoleonic  War  period  worked 
toward  keeping  Methodists  out  of  the  old  Whig-Dissenting 
alliance.  There  was  a  Tory  government  in  office  and  the 
newly  emergent  church  was  anxious  not  to  attract  re- 
strictions; the  major  public  interest  of  Methodists  was  in 
humanitarian  movements,  and  many  of  the  leaders  of  these 
were  Tories  like  William  Wilberfohce  and  Shaftesbury. 

The  1832  Reform  Act  did  not  much  excite  those  whom 
Disraeli  in  Coningsby  called  the  respectable  Wesleyans 
who  should  be  natural  allies  of  his  new-type  Conserva- 
tives; they  reacted  in  unmistakable  aversion  from  Chart- 
ism; they  might  not  like  Anglo-Catholicism,  but  they 
would  not  support  Liberal-Dissenters  in  trying  to  dis- 
establish the  Church  of  England.  Jabez  Bunting,  in  the 
mid-century,  seemed  to  be  the  very  incarnation  of  this 
new  ecclesiastical-political  entente  between  Methodism 
and  Conservatism;  even  when  the  disasters  of  1849-51 
.splintered  the  Wesleyan  connection,  his  view  still  pre- 
vailed with  the  majority  of  his  ministerial  brethren,  and 
with  most  Wesleyan  laymen  too. 

Bunting's  influence  remained  within  Wesleyan  Method- 
ism strongly  supporting  authoritarian  church  government 
and  conservative  pohtical  sympathies;  but  outside  the 
Wesleyan  connection,  there  were  other  Methodist  move- 
ments which  were  less  fearful  of  contamination  by  liberal 
ideas.  By  1797  Alexander  Kilham's  Methodist  New 
Connexion  was  avowing  liberal  principles  in  church  and 
state  alike.  The  appeal  of  William  Clowes  and  Hugh 
Bourne  in  Primitive  Methodism,  and  of  William 
O'Bryan  and  his  Bible  Christians  was  to  a  class  socially 
lower  than  those  who  comprised  the  strength  of  the  Wes- 
leyan connection.  It  was  small  wonder  that  these  con- 
nections were  less  circumspect  in  their  political  expres- 
sion; among  their  members  were  to  be  found  many  wh,o 
supported  movements  for  cheap  food  and  better  working 
conditions.  The  Founding  Fathers  of  English  trade  union- 


ism were  often  Methodist  local  preachers  and  class  lead- 
ers, and  the  terms  they  used  for  some  of  their  organiza- 
tions they  learned  from  the  Methodism  that  first  taught 
them  the  worth  of  ordinary  men  and  also  the  way  to 
organize  them.  Such  men  naturally  turned  to  Liberals 
rather  than  to  Conservatives;  and  as  the  franchise  was 
widened,  they  were  wooed  first  by  the  Radical-Liberals, 
and  later  by  the  Labour  Party. 

The  parallel  development  of  Wesleyan  Tory  and  Primi- 
tive Methodist  Radical  was  accompanied  by  the  emer- 
gence of  a  Liberal  Methodist  type  which  was  more  middle 
class  in  composition,  and  which  was  particularly  signifi- 
cant in  the  Gladstonian  era.  It  was  predominantly  lay  in 
character,  and,  while  it  was  recruited  in  large  numbers 
by  the  ecclesiastical  conflicts  of  the  nineteenth  century,  it 
may  have  owed  its  genesis  to  the  consequences  of  the 
Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1835.  Democratic  institu- 
tions in  England  emerged  first  in  the  nineteenth  century 
in  local  government,  and  it  was  here  that  Methodist  lay- 
men first  found  themselves  in  alliance  with  Nonconformist 
shopkeepers  and  manufacturers.  So  often  in  the  old  towns 
there  had  been  an  alliance  between  the  squire,  the  parson, 
and  the  professional  classes,  respectable  established  citi- 
zens with  a  naturally  conservative  outlook.  The  new 
wealthy  classes  produced  by  the  Industrial  Revolution  had 
to  struggle  against  the  privileges  of  this  "establishment." 
Liberalism,  with  its  substitution  of  election  for  inherited 
privilege  and  hierarchy,  was  the  natural  political  creed  for 
such  protagonists.  By  the  time  of  Gladstone  and  Hugh 
Price  Hughes,  such  Methodists  had  become  a  powerful 
ally  of  the  Liberal  Party  when  it  claimed  to  speak  with 
the  voice  of  the  "Nonconformist  conscience." 

In  the  twentieth  century  the  interconnection  between 
religion  and  pohtics  had  been  blurred  by  greater  emphasis 
upon  class  divisions.  The  three  Methodist  political  types 
have  all  continued  within  the  Methodist  Church — reunited 
in  1932 — but,  as  English  Liberalism  has  declined  in  in- 
fluence as  a  political  party,  many  of  the  more  radical 
Methodists  have  veered  towards  the  Labour  Party,  which 
in  England  has  been  non-Marxist.  Many  of  the  more 
prosperous  have  joined  their  old  Wesleyan  brethren  in 
supporting  the  Conservatives.  It  would  be  hard  to  estimate 
the  proportion  of  each  party  within  the  Church  today. 

E.  R.  Taylok 

POLITY,  CHURCH.  (See  Church  Government;  British 
Methodism.  Organization  of;  and  other  articles  dealing 
with  various  aspects  of  Methodist  organization. ) 

POLK,  CHARLES  PEALE  (1767-1822),  American  portrait 
painter,  best  remembered  for  his  so-called  "lost  portrait" 
of  Bishop  Francis  Asbury.  He  was  a  son  of  Robert  Polk 
and  Elizabeth  Digby  (Peale)  Polk.  His  mother  came  from 
the  famous  Peale  family  of  artists,  was  a  daughter  of 
Charles  Peale,  Jr.,  and  a  sister  of  Charles  Willson  Peale. 
After  his  father  was  killed  in  a  naval  action  in  1777, 
Charles  Peale  Polk  was  trained  in  art  by  his  uncle,  Charles 
Willson  Peale. 

"The  hard  linear  painting,  well  executed  and  attractive 
in  Charles  Willson  Peale,  was  debased  by  his  nephew, 
Charles  Peale  Polk,"  says  critic  J.  Hall  Pleasants  in  the 
Maryland  Historical  Magazine,  pointing  to  "stiff  handling 
by  Polk  of  legs,  arms,  and  figure  .  .  ."  But  Polk  painted 
Washington,  Frankhn,  LaFayette,  and  other  notables  of 
the  day.   One  canvas  of  Washington  hangs   outside  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


POLK,  TRUSTEN 


State  Dining  Room  at  the  White  House  and  his  work 
appears  in  exhibitions  depicting  the  development  of  the 
portrait  art  in  America. 

The  "lost  portrait"  of  Asbury  was  done  in  1794.  He 
reluctantly  agreed  to  sit  for  the  artist  only  when  James 
McCannon,  a  merchant  tailor,  proposed  in  exchange  to 
give  a  warm  waistcoat  to  each  of  his  preachers.  Asbury 's 
Journal  of  June  18,  of  that  year  notes:  "I  once  more  came 
to  Baltimore  where,  after  having  rested  a  little,  I  sub- 
mitted to  have  my  likeness  taken;  it  seems  they  want  a 
copy;  if  they  wait  longer,  perhaps  they  may  miss  it.  Those 
who  have  gone  from  us  in  Virginia  [i.e.,  followers  of  the 
schismatic  James  O'Kelly]  have  drawn  a  picture  of  me 
which  is  not  taken  from  life." 

That  portrait  done  in  Baltimore  was  by  Charles  Peale 
Polk.  For  many  years  its  whereabouts  were  unknown, 
but  it  was  recovered  by  George  C.  M.  Roberts,  and  is 
now  owned  by  the  Baltimore  Conference  Historical  So- 
ciety as  a  prized  show-piece  of  the  Lovely  Lane  Church 
Museum  in  Baltimore.  That  it  once  was  used  as  a  fire- 
screen was  believed  by  Roberts,  who  made  a  study  of 
the  portrait's  mysterious  provenance.  A  hole  was  cut 
through  the  canvas  where  the  right  hand  is  uplifted,  prob- 
ably to  admit  a  stovepipe.  Now  restored,  this  "lost  por- 
trait" was  prominently  exhibited,  September-December, 
1968,  in  Room  206  of  the  new  National  Portrait  Gallery 
in  Washington  for  the  inaugural  exhibit  titled  "This  New 
Man."  Now  it  is  permanently  on  display  at  the  Lovely 
Lane  Museum,  2200  St.  Paul  Street,  Baltimore.  It  offers  an 
interesting  comparison  both  in  subject  and  technique  with 
the  Asbury  portrait  done  in  1812  by  John  Paradise. 

This  1794  portrait  was  done  by  Polk  during  a  period 
when  he  was  most  popular  as  a  painter  of  portraits  and 
his  own  confidence  in  his  talents  ran  high.  He  had  adver- 
tised himself  at  Philadelphia  as  a  house,  ship,  and  sign 
painter  in  1787.  But  from  1791  to  1793  he  announced 
himself  in  Baltimore  newspapers  as  a  portraitist. 

Apparently  Polk  for  a  while  became  a  traveling  artist, 
typical  of  the  period,  for  he  was  in  Richmond,  Va.,  1799- 
1800.  In  this  he  may  not  have  been  altogether  successful 
for  he  became  a  government  clerk  in  Washington  and 
apparently  lived  there  until  his  death  in  1822.  There  is 
evidence  that  he  married  three  times:  1)  c.  1785,  Ruth 
Ellison;  2)  c.  1811,  Mrs.  Brockenbrough,  and  3)  c.  1816, 
Ellen  B.  Bowman,;  and  was  father  of  fifteen  children. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.   II,  p.   17. 

Antiques  Magazine,  November  1968. 

Maryland  Historical  Magazine,  1946. 

J.  Hall  Pleasants,  Maryland  Historical  Magazine,  1942. 

Smithsonian    Institution's   Catalog    of   the   exhibit   "This    New 

Man,"  1968. 

Together  Magazine,  November  1959.  Leland  D.  Case 

POLK,  JAMES  KNOX  (1795-1849),  the  eleventh  President 
of  the  United  States  and  first  President  to  be  associated 
with  the  Methodist  Church,  was  bom  on  Nov.  2,  1795 
near  Pineville,  N.  C.  In  1796  his  family  moved  to  Ten- 
nessee. In  1820,  two  years  after  his  graduation  from  the 
University  of  North  Carolina,  he  began  the  practice  of 
law  in  Columbia,  Tenn.  In  1821  he  became  the  chief 
clerk  of  the  Tennessee  Senate  and  two  years  later  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Tennessee  House  of  Representatives.  While  a 
member  of  the  state  legislature  he  married  Sarah  Chil- 
dess.  They  had  no  children. 


From  1825  until  1839  Polk  was  a  member  of  the  U.S. 
Congress  and  for  the  last  four  years  served  as  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives.  In  1839  he  was  elected 
governor  of  Tennessee,  but  was  defeated  in  his  bid  for 
reelection  in  1841.  In  1844  Polk  was  nominated  by  the 
Democratic  Party  for  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States.  In  the  November  5  election  he  defeated  his 
opponent,  Henry  Clay,  and  on  March  4,  1845  was  inaug- 
urated. During  his  administration  Texas,  Iowa,  and  Wis- 
consin became  states,  the  western  part  of  the  United 
States  was  acquired  from  Mexico,  and  the  Oregon  dis- 
pute with  Great  Britain  was  settled. 

While  President,  Polk  usually  attended  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Washington,  D.  C.  Early  in  his  Presi- 
dency he  wrote  in  his  diary:  "Mrs.  Polk  being  a  member 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  I  generally  attend  that  church 
with  her,  though  my  opinions  and  predilections  are  in 
favor  of  the  Methodist  Church."  When  he  attended  church 
alone,  he  often  worshiped  at  Foundry  M.  E.  Church  in 
Washington. 

Polk  declined  to  run  for  re-election  in  1848.  On  June 
9,  1849,  shortly  before  he  died,  he  was  baptized  and  re- 
ceived into  membership  in  the  M.  E.  Church,  South,  by  a 
long-time  friend,  John  B.  McFerrin  of  Nashville,  Tenn. 
Polk  died  on  June  15,  1849  in  Nashville  and  is  buried 
there  on  the  State  Capitol  Grounds. 

Fitzgerald:  John  B.  McFerrin,  A  Biography. 
Isely:  The  Presidents,  Men  of  Faith. 
Kane:  Facts  About  the  Presidents. 
McCormac:  James  K.  Polk. 
Nevins,  ed. :  Polk,  The  Diary  of  a  President. 

H.  Alden  Welch 

POLK,  TRUSTEN  (1811-1876),  American  layman.  Gover- 
nor of  Missouri,  and  U.S.  Senator,  was  born  in  Sussex 
County,  Md.,  May  29,  1811.  He  attended  Cambridge 
Academy  and  graduated  from  Yale  University  in  1831, 
with  honors,  completing  a  study  there  in  1833. 

Polk  opened  a  law  office  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  in  1835  to 
begin  a  notable  career  in  the  profession  and  in  politics. 
Two  years  later  he  married  Elizabeth  Skinner,  Dec.  26.  In 
1845  he  was  elected  to  the  Convention  to  re-write  the 
Constitution  of  the  State  of  Missouri.  His  most  important 
efforts  were  directed  toward  the  establisliment  of  public 
schools  by  constitutional  provisions.  This  laid  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  the  state's  public  school  system  has  been 
built.  Polk's  interest  in  education  was  expressed  by  his 
becoming  a  founder  and  life-long  supporter  of  Central 
Methodist  College. 

Thwarted  in  his  desire  to  become  a  minister  of  the 
Gospel,  his  Christian  commitment  was  expressed  in  his 
life  and  services  to  the  Methodist  Church.  Trusten  Polk 
held  every  office  and  performed  every  function  open  to  a 
layman  in  his  local  church.  Centenary,  St.  Louis;  was 
actively  engaged  in  district  and  annual  conference  affairs; 
and  from  1866  until  his  death  an  influential  member  of 
the     General     Conference,     M.E.     Church,     South. 

Polk  ran  successfully  for  the  Governorship  of  Missouri 
against  two  politically  powerful  men,  Robert  Ewing  and 
former  U.S.  Senator  Thomas  Hart  Benton.  He  was  in- 
augurated Governor  on  Jan.  5,  1857;  but  a  week  after  that 
was  elected  to  the  U.S.  Senate  (January  13),  and  resigned 
the  Governorship  on  Feb.  27.  He  served  in  the  L^.S.  Sen- 
ate until  Jan.  12,  1862,  when,  the  Civil  War  raging,  he 
became  Colonel  of  a  Missouri  regiment  in  the  Confederate 


POLLARD,    SAMUEL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


States  Army.  He  was  appointed  Judge  Advocate  General, 
Department  of  the  Mississippi,  but  was  captured  by  Union 
forces  in  1864.  Upon  his  release  in  1865,  he  returned  to 
St.  Louis  and  resumed  his  law  practice  and  church  activ- 
ities. His  stature  as  a  layman  was  recognized  by  his 
appointment  as  one  of  the  two  laymen  to  the  Cape  May 
Commission  from  the  M.  E.  Church,  South.  His  death 
April  16,  1876  occurred  before  the  Commission  met. 

Hyde  and  Conard,  Cyclopedia  of  the  History  of  St.  Louis.  St. 
Louis:  Southern  History  Co.,  1899. 
National  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography. 
Shoemaker,   Missouri  and  Missourians.  St.   Louis:   Lewis  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  n.d.  Frank  C.  Tuckeh 


Samuel  Pollard 

POLLARD,  SAMUEL  (1864-1915),  British  Methodist  pio- 
neer missionary  to  Southwest  China,  was  born  at  Camel- 
ford,  England,  April  20,  1864,  the  son  of  Samuel  Pollard, 
a  Bible  Christian  minister.  After  five  years  in  the  civil 
service  he  offered  for  the  Bible  Christian  ministry.  Bible 
Christian  missionary  work  had  begun  in  1884  when  S.  T. 
Thorne  and  Thomas  Vanstone  were  sent  to  Yunnan, 
Southwest  China,  and  Pollard  and  Francis  Dymond 
joined  Thome  at  Chaotung  in  1887.  He  spent  four  very 
hard  years  at  Kunming  from  1889-93,  but  was  appointed 
chairman  in  1895  and  was  sustained  by  more  British  work- 
ers. The  main  approach  was  to  the  Chinese  people,  but 
Pollard  trekked  into  the  hills,  coming  to  know  the  aborigi- 
nal Miao  f>eople.  His  distinctive  work  began  when  four 
Miao  tribesmen  visited  his  house  in  1904,  after  wandering 
five  hundred  miles  in  many  directions  "in  search  of  truth." 
By  1905  Pollard  had  been  visited  by  four  thousand  Miao 
and  had  begun  to  itinerate  in  their  tribal  areas. 

The  first  church  was  built  at  Stone  Gateway  in  1905. 
The  Chinese  joined  with  the  Miao's  overlords,  the  No-su, 
in  persecuting  the  new  Christians;  and  in  1907  Pollard  was 
attacked  and  almost  killed,  but  before  his  death  the  Miao 
mass  movement  had  been  swelled  by  No-su  and  Go-p'u 
converts.  Chapel  building  averaged  three  per  year,  with 
hundreds  of  cottage  meetings,  and  twenty-three  schools 
were  opened.  Pollard  invented  the  "Pollard  script"  in  com- 
mitting the  Miao  language  to  writing,  and  translated  the 
New  Testament  and  many  hymns.  He  died  of  typhus  at 
Stone  Gateway  after  heroic  labors  on  Sept.  15,  1915. 

Cyril  J.  Davey 

POLLOCK,  CHARLES  ANDREW  (1853-1928),  American 
jurist  and  prominent  layman  of  North  Dakota  Method- 


ism, was  born  on  Sept.  27,  1853  at  Elizabethtown,  N.  Y., 
the  son  of  John  and  E\mice  Ellis  Pollock.  He  received  the 
A.B.  degree  (1878),  M.A.  (1881)  and  LL.D.  (1908) 
from  Cornell  College.  On  Sept.  27,  1882  he  married 
Martha  Clinton.  Four  children  were  born  to  them:  John 
C,  Clara  A.,  Lorine  M.,  and  Charles  XL  He  migrated  to 
the  Dakota  Territory  in  1885  and  became  District  Attor- 
ney of  Cass  County.  He  was  Judge  of  the  Third  District 
Court  of  North  Dakota  from  1885  to  1905.  He  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church  from  1908-12.  Here  he  served  notably  on  the 
Committee  on  Judiciary  which,  in  the  M.E.  Church,  in- 
terpreted the  constitutionality  and  effect  of  the  General 
Conference  enactments  for  the  Discipline. 

Judge  Pollock  was  a  firm  believer  in  prohibition  and 
became  known  as  a  mighty  advocate  of  laws  pursuant 
thereto.  He  was  instrumental  in  writing  the  Prohibition 
Law  of  the  State  of  North  Dakota  in  1889.  He  also  wrote 
a  Manual  of  the  Prohibition  Law  of  the  State  of  North 
Dakota  in  1910.  He  made  his  home  in  Fargo,  N.  D.,  where 
he  died  in  July  1928. 

David  F.  Knecht 

POLWHELE,  RICHARD  (1760-1838),  British  Anglican,  was 
born  at  Truro  on  Jan.  6,  1760,  and  educated  at  Truro 
School  and  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford.  Ordained  in 
1782,  he  was  appointed  in  1794  to  Manaccan,  near  Hel- 
ston,  in  Cornwall,  a  parish  where  he  remained  until  1821. 
He  had  already  shown  his  interest  in  poetry,  history  and 
topographical  studies.  His  study  of  Devonshire  began  to 
appear  in  1793,  and  his  more  famous  History  of  Cornwall 
in  seven  volumes  from  1803  to  1808.  He  also  published 
Traditions  and  Recollections  (1826)  and  Biographical 
Sketches  in  Cornwall  (1831).  He  comes  into  Methodist 
history  because  he  was  a  vicious  critic  of  the  whole  evan- 
gelical revival;  in  1800  he  published  Anecdotes  of  Meth- 
odism, which  contained  the  kind  of  material  which  Lord 
Sidmouth  was  to  use  against  Methodism  at  the  time  of 
his  abortive  attempt  to  introduce  anti-Methodist  legisla- 
tion. Polwhele  was  answered  by  Samuel  Drew,  who  re- 
plied with  Observations  on  Polwhele's  Anecdotes,  also  in 
1800.  This  controversy  introduced  the  two  men  to  one 
another,  and  they  later  became  quite  friendly.  Polwhele 
cannot,  however,  be  regarded  as  a  very  serious  student  of 
either  Methodism  or  Evangelicalism  in  general.  He  died 
at  Truro  on  March  12,  1838. 

John  Kent 

POMONA,    CALIFORNIA,    U.S.A.,    Trinify    Church    is    a 

model  of  Tudor  Gothic  Cathedral  of  the  fifteenth  century 
and  one  of  the  most  attractive  churches  in  Pomona.  The 
church  began  in  May  of  1877  when  A.  M.  Hough  orga- 
nized the  First  M.  E.  Church  of  Pomona.  The  organization 
meeting  was,  appropriately,  held  in  a  carpenter's  shop, 
owned  by  J.  G.  Reed.  There  were  seven  charter  members 
of  the  new  church.  During  that  year  the  first  church  was 
built  on  land  donated  and  the  total  cost  of  the  building 
was  $500,  a  goodly  sum  at  that  time. 

During  the  early  years  the  church  was  served  by  cir- 
cuit pastors.  In  1882  the  church  had  grown  to  the  point 
where  it  required  a  new  building.  This  second  church 
with  a  seating  capacity  of  300  cost  $2,250.  It  was  dedi- 
cated, debt  free,  on  Sept.  30,  1883.  In  1888  J.  W.  Phelps 
became  pastor  of  the  First  M.   E.  Church,   and  a  third 


WORLD   METHODISM 

building  was  built  and  dedicated  Jan.  10,  1890.  This 
building  is  still  standing  and  is  occupied  by  another 
denomination. 

On  Oct.  25,  1906  at  a  Quarterly  Conference  of  First 
Church  a  motion  was  passed  "that  we  recommend  the 
building  of  a  church  on  the  north  side  of  the  Southern 
Pacific  track."  It  was  decided  that  the  new  church  should 
be  named  Trinity  M.  E.  Church.  At  a  general  meeting 
held  on  April  18,  1907,  it  was  "voted"  to  build  an  edifice 
costing  $21,000. 

The  year  of  1935  brought  about  a  great  change  for 
Methodism  in  Pomona.  During  the  depression  years, 
church  pledges  were  materially  reduced.  In  the  interest  of 
economy  Bishop  James  C.  Baker  and  District  Superin- 
tendent Charles  F.  Seitler,  promoted  the  merging  of  First 
Church  and  Trinity.  This  move  resulted  in  the  dissolution 
of  the  First  M.  E.  Church  Corporation,  and  the  transfer 
to  Trinity  of  its  church  property  and  most  of  its  members. 

In  January  1953,  ground  was  broken  for  the  present 
sanctuary  on  the  location  of  the  old  Trinity  Church.  Be- 
fitting God's  house,  the  handsomest  of  materials  have  been 
used.  Altar,  reredos,  paneling,  and  pews  are  of  Philippine 
mahogany,  richly  carved.  The  front  doors  are  hewn  from 
solid  oak. 

Stained  glass  windows  depicting  the  life  of  Christ,  Old 
Testament  history  and  contemporary  events  in  Protestant- 
ism are  memorial  gifts  installed  by  the  famous  Judson's 
Studios  of  Los  Angeles,  Calif.  On  Oct.  6,  1968  a  new 
organ  built  by  Abbot  and  Sieker  was  dedicated,  one  of  the 
finest  instruments  in  the  Pomona  Valley. 

Trinity's  building  and  equipment  outlay  is  approximate- 
ly $884,000  and  is  debt  free.  In  1970  it  reported  1,741 
members. 

Trinity  is  Methodism's  mother  church  in  the  Pomona 
Valley.  It  has  been  a  church  with  a  strong  mission  to 
foreign  and  local  missions.  Its  church  school  and  youth 
programs  over  the  years  have  been  responsible  for  youth 
entering  the  Christian  ministry,  youth  work,  mission  field 
and  other  related  church  endeavors.  The  church  ser\'es  the 
community  with  varied  programs  vital  to  youth  in  scouting 
and  campfire  groups;  it  sei"ves  its  members  through  two 
worship  services  each  Sunday,  family  night  programs. 
Woman's  Society  of  Christian  Service,  programs  for 
Lent  and  Christmas,  and  church  school  classes  for  the 
children,  youth  and  adults.  The  music  program  at  Trinity 
is  one  of  the  most  outstanding  within  the  community. 

First   M.   E.   Church   Quarterly   Conference   minutes,   Oct.  25, 

1906. 

General  Minutes,  UMC. 

John  N.  Strout,  "History  of  Trinit\'  Methodist  Church,  Pomona, 

California."  Mimeographed,  1960.  James  R.  McCobmick 

PONCA   CITY,   OKLAHOMA,   U.S.A.    First   Church   is   a 

strong  church  in  that  section  of  Oklahoma.  With  the  open- 
ing of  the  "Cherokee  Strip"  of  Oklahoma  Territory  in  1893 
and  the  subsequent  establishment  of  Ponca  City,  the  Meth- 
odists started  with  a  "class"  and  within  the  year  built  their 
first  church  building.  E.  C.  Harper  was  the  first  pastor. 
In  1921,  under  the  pastorate  of  Clarence  N.  Hewitt,  the 
present  church  edifice  was  erected  and  dedicated.  An 
educational  building  was  added  in  1951. 

Under  the  leadership  of  twenty-nine  pastors  who  have 
served  the  First  Church  of  Ponca  City,  membership  has 
grown  to  2,450  and  a  church  school  membership  of  958 
in   1970.    Annual    programming    of    its    ministn,'    exceeds 


POPE,   WILLIAM   BURT 

$125,000  in  cost.  StaflF  includes  two  full-time  ministers, 
minister  of  music,  two  missionaries  in  Congo,  and  secre- 
tarial assistance. 

.\rgus  J.  Hamilton,  Jr. 


Henry  J.  Pope 

POPE,  HENRY  J.  (1836-1912),  British  minister,  was  born 
at  March,  Cambridgeshire,  Feb.  2,  1836.  He  entered  the 
Wesleyan  ministry  in  1858.  From  1876-97  he  was  secre- 
tary at  the  Chapel  Office;  he  made  this  a  center  of 
religious  aggression  as  well  as  a  financial  department.  He 
was  the  inspiration  of  the  Central  Mission  set  up  in  Man- 
chester in  1885-86,  whose  success  was  the  key  to  the 
spread  of  the  Central  Hall  idea  throughout  England.  In 
recognition  of  his  share  in  the  Forward  Movement, 
he  was  elected  president  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  in 
1893.  In  1897  he  became  Home  Missions  Secretary,  and 
worked  constantly  for  expansion.  He  died  in  London  on 
July  16,  1912. 

John  Kent 


POPE,  WILLIAM  BURT  (1822-1903),  British  minister  and 
scholar,  was  bom  at  Horton,  Nova  Scotia,  Feb.  19,  1822; 
his  father  was  a  Wesleyan  Methodist  missionary  from 
Devonshire.  Brought  up  at  Plymouth,  he  studied  for  the 
ministry  at  the  Theological  Institution,  Hoxton  (1841-42). 
While  on  circuit,  he  built  up  a  reputation  by  translating 
antirationalist  Cerman  theologians;   Haupt's  Fir.ft  Epistle 


POPE,   WILLIAM   KENNETH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


John  (1846);  Stier's  Words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  (1854); 
Ebrard's  Commentary  on  the  Johannine  Epistles  (1859); 
Winer's  Confessions  of  Christendom  (1863).  Pope  became 
theological  tutor  at  Didsbury  College,  Manchester,  in 
1867.  In  1871  he  gave  the  second  Fernley  Lecture 
on  The  Person  of  Christ;  in  1875-76  he  published  his 
Compendium  of  Christian  Theology.  In  1877  he  was 
elected  president  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference,  and  in 
1878  pubhshed  Sermons,  Addresses  and  Charges  delivered 
during  his  year  of  office. 

A  saintly  man.  Pope  had  immense  prestige  as  a  theo- 
logian in  later  nineteenth-century  Wesleyanism;  his  aloof, 
scholarly  conservatism  probably  explains  why  liberal  the- 
ology developed  so  slowly  in  the  Wesleyan  connection. 
Blind  in  his  later  years,  he  died  on  July  5,  1903. 

John  Kent 

POPE,  WILLIAM  KENNETH  (1901-  ),  American  bishop, 
was  born  Nov.  21,  1901,  at  Hale,  Mo.,  the  son  of  William 
Mumford  and  Victoria  (LaRue)  Pope.  In  1917-20  he 
attended  Clarendon  College  in  Texas.  He  received  his 
B.A.  degree  in  1922,  and  his  B.D.  in  1924  from 
Southern  Methodist  University.  He  attended  the 
Graduate  School  at  Yale  University  from  1927  to  1929. 
His  honorary  degrees  include:  D.D  from  Southwestern 
University  (Georgetown,  Texas)  in  1937  and  from 
Hendrlx  College  in  1961;  and  the  LL.D.  degree  from 
Southem  Methodist  University  in  1964. 

On  March  16,  1930,  he  married  Kate  Sayle  and  they 
have  two  children,  Katherine  Victoria  and  Kenneth  Sayle. 

He  joined  the  Central  Texas  Conference  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South  in  1924,  deacon  in  1925,  full  con- 
nection in  1926,  elder  in  1929.  He  was  transferred  to  the 
Southwest  Mission  Conference  in  1936;  to  the  South- 
west Texas  Conference  in  1940;  to  the  Texas  Con- 
ference in  1949.  His  pastorates  include:  Milford,  Texas, 
1924-26;  First  Church,  Breckenridge,  1929-33;  First 
Church,  Georgetown,  1933-36;  St.  Paul  Church,  Spring- 
field, Mo.,  1936-40;  First  Church,  Austin,  Texas,  1940-49; 
First  Church,  Houston,  1949-60. 

He  was  elected  a  bishop  in  June  1960  by  the  South 
Central  Jurisdictional  Conference,  and  assigned  to 
the  Dallas-Fort  Worth  Area.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
South  Central  Jurisdictional  Conferences  of  1948,  1952, 
1956  and  I960;  a  member  of  the  General  Conference 
(TMC)  in  1952,  1956  and  1960.  He  served  as  secretary 
of  the  Commission  to  Study  the  Ministry  of  The  Methodist 
Church  1949-56.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Board 
of  Education  of  The  Methodist  Church,  1952-64,  has 
been  on  the  Board  of  Christian  Social  Concerns  since 
1960  and  was  elected  on  the  Commission  on  Ecumenical 
Affairs  by  the  Uniting  Conference  of  1968;  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Program  Council  in  1968.  He  was  a  delegate 
to  the  World  Conference  on  Life  and  Work  in  Oxford, 
England  in  1937;  and  to  the  World  Methodist  Conference 
at  Oxford  in  1951.  He  was  a  visiting  preacher  to  the 
General  Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  Mexico 
in  1946,  and  represented  The  Methodist  Church  in  the 
United  States  to  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  Methodism 
in  India  in  1956.  Bishop  Pope  is  a  trustee  of:  Southem 
Methodist  University,  Southwestern  University,  Texas 
Wesleyan  College,  and  of  the  Methodist  Children's 
Home  of  Texas.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Western 
Methodist  Assembly  (Mount  Sequoyah).  He  adminis- 
ters the  work  of  The  United   Methodist  Church   in   the 


North  Texas  and  the  Central  Texas  Annual  Conferences. 
The  Area  presently  comprises  more  than  700  churches 
with  a  total  membership  of  about  165,000. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

PORT  ARTHUR,  TEXAS,  U.S.A.  The  Methodist  Temple. 

Many  of  the  first  settlers  of  Port  Arthur  were  from 
Kansas,  Illinois,  Iowa  and  Missouri  and  many  of  these 
were  Methodist.  In  January  1897,  they  held  a  meeting  in 
Hotel  Sabine  and  enrolled  as  a  Methodist  Class,  after 
the  original  Class  meetings.  Application  for  a  charter 
was  made  and  this  was  received  in  May  of  1897. 
Material  and  work  were  solicited  for  the  erection  of  a 
new  house  of  worship.  The  Port  Arthur  Townsite  Company 
donated  a  lot  at  the  comer  of  Sixth  Street  and  Savannah 
Avenue.  One  of  the  officials  of  the  Kansas  City,  Pitts- 
burgh and  Gulf  Railroad  made  the  church  a  gift 
of  eight  dozen  chairs.  An  organ  was  loaned  to  the 
little  congregation.  Charles  K.  Woodson  was  sent  to 
the  church  in  1899,  succeeding  P.  C.  W.  Wimberly,  who 
had  come  into  the  Methodist  Conference  from  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  and  was  asked  by  the  local  Methodists 
to  resign  because  of  "inconsistency  concerning  Methodist 
discipline."  A  new  organ  was  purchased  while  Woodson 
was  at  the  charge.  The  church  was  without  a  pastor  from 
1900  until  1902.  During  this  interval  the  Methodist 
congregation  attended  the  Congregational  Church  ser- 
vices. In  1902  the  church  building  was  moved  from 
Sixth  and  Savannah  Avenue  to  Sixth  near  Beaumont 
Avenue. 

On  Oct.  28,  1902,  the  Trinity  M.  E.  Church,  South, 
was  organized,  taking  a  number  of  members  from  the 
First  Church,  North.  The  membership  consisted  of  forty 
charter  members.  F.  M.  Bowles,  who  had  been  a  success- 
ful lawyer  and  has  just  entered  the  ministry,  was  assigned 
by  the  Conference  as  pastor.  Under  his  leadership  200 
members  were  added  to  the  church  during  the  next 
four  years  and  a  church  building  at  836  Fifth  Street 
was  erected.  A  parsonage  was  added  soon  after.  Several 
years  later  the  church  property  in  the  800  block  was 
sold  and  the  property  at  the  comer  of  Nashville  Avenue 
and  Fifth  Street  with  adjacent  lots  on  Sixth  Street  was 
acquired  by  the  church,  which  is  known  today  as  the 
Methodist  Temple. 

Twenty-nine  pastors  have  served  the  pulpit  of  The 
Methodist  Temple.  One,  William  C.  Martin,  was  elected 
to  the  episcopacy.  In  1970  the  Temple  reported  a 
membership  of  1,620. 

General  Minutes,  UMC.  Carl  G.  Owens 

PORT  ARTHUR  COLLEGE,  Port  Arthur,  Texas,  was  founded 
in  1908  by  the  Gulf  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church. 
The  school  practically  came  into  existence  with  the  city 
of  Port  Arthur  itself.  John  Gates,  a  pioneer  who  developed 
the  city,  made  provision  for  the  campus  and  for  assist- 
ance in  erecting  some  of  its  buildings. 

It  began  as  Port  Arthur  Collegiate  Institute.  At  present 
it  is  a  vocational  school  specializing  in  business  and 
electronics.  The  Board  of  Education  holds  title  to  the 
property  and  the  school's  endowment.  The  goveming 
board  of  twenty-one  members,  elected  by  the  board,  is 
self -perpetuating. 

John  O.  Gross 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PORTLAND,   OREGON 


PORTER,  HENRY  PHILLIPS  (1879-1960),  seventeenth  bish- 
op of  the  C.M.E.  Church,  was  bom  near  Kilgore, 
Texas.  He  attended  Texas  College,  where  he  finished 
the  preparatory  course  in  1903.  Bishop  Porter  began 
preaching  in  1893  and  became  a  member  of  the  Central 
Texas  Conference.  In  1922,  he  was  elected  publishing 
agent,  and  while  serving  in  that  capacity  he  directed  the 
building  of  a  new  publishing  house  and  improved  the 
church  literature.  At  the  General  Conference  in  1934,  he 
was  elected  to  the  office  of  bishop.  He  presided  over  the 
episcopal  areas  of  Alabama,  Ohio,  Kentucky,  North 
and  South  Carolina,  and  Texas.  He  retired  in  1958 
and  died  in  1960. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965. 
The  Mirror,  General  Conference,  C.M.E.  1958. 

Ralph  G.  Gay 

PORTER,  JAMES  (1808-1888),  American  minister  was 
bom  on  March  1,  1808,  in  Middleboro,  Mass.,  the  son 
of  William  and  Rebecca  Porter.  He  attended  Pierce 
Academy  and  Kent's  Hill  Academy.  In  1827,  converted 
under  Ebenezer  Blake,  he  joined  the  M.E.  Church.  He 
became  a  member  of  the  New  England  Conference  in 
1830. 

His  early  pastorates  were  within  the  bounds  of  the 
present  Southern  New  England  Conference;  later  ap- 
pointments included  the  cities  of  Worcester,  Boston, 
and  Lynn  in  Massachusetts.  In  1844  he  was  presiding 
elder  of  the  Worcester  District  and  ten  years  later  of 
the  Boston  District.  From  1856  onward  he  was  Assistant 
Book  Agent  in  New  York,  retiring  from  that  post  and 
the  active  ministry  in  1868. 

As  a  result  of  a  resolution  introduced  by  Porter  in 
the  annual  conference  of  1855,  laymen  were  admitted 
to  New  England  Conference  committees.  At  the  time 
of  his  death  he  was  the  only  member  of  the  New  England 
Conference  elected  seven  times  to  General  Conference. 
Here  he  was  a  conspicuous  leader  in  the  anti-slavery 
struggle,  especially  in  1844.  EvangeUsm,  theological  edu- 
cation, and  promotion  were  his  strong  interests.  Porter 
published  sixteen  volumes,  including:  Compendium  of 
Methodism,  History  of  Methodism,  Winning  Worker, 
Clmrt  of  Life,  and  Helps  to  Officers  of  the  Church. 

On  June  17,  1838,  he  married  Jane  Tinkham  Howard. 
Eight  children  were  born  to  them.  Porter  died  on  April 
16,  1888,  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  He  was  buried  there  in 
Greenwood  Cemetery. 

Minutes  of  the  New  England  Conference,  1889. 

J.  Mudge,  New  England  Conference.  1910. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Ernest  R.  Case 

PORTLAND,  MAINE,  U.S.A.  Jesse  Lee  preached  in  Port- 
land on  his  first  visit  to  Main-e  in  1793.  On  this  occasion, 
and  several  other  times,  he  preached  in  the  second 
Congregational  church,  referred  to  in  some  accounts  as 
"Rev.  Kellog's  meeting  house."  Once  he  preached  in  the 
court  house.  In  1794  Philip  Wagner  organized  the  class 
at  Monmouth.  He  was  appointed  in  1795  to  the  Pordand 
Circuit,  where  he  organized  the  class  at  Portland.  The 
population  of  the  place  then  was  2,246.  In  December  of 
that  year  the  first  Quarterly  Meeting  held  in  Maine 
assembled  in  Portland.  Wagner  formed  a  class  of  nine 
members  who  stmggled  along  with  great  difficulty.  At 
the  end  of  nine  years  the  class  numbered  eleven.  The 
favorable  turn   came   in    1804   when   Enoch    Elsley  pur- 


chased and  presented  to  the  society  a  house  of  worship 
previously  used  by  the  Episcopalians.  The  building  was 
remodeled,  moved  to  Federal  Street,  and  was  soon  filled 
by  a  "respectable"  congregation. 

In  1797  Joshua  Taylor  was  appointed  presiding  elder 
of  the  newly  erected  District  of  Maine  and  preacher  in 
charge  of  the  Readfield  Circuit.  It  was  in  1800,  as  he 
tried  to  preach  in  Castine,  that  he  was  rudely  escorted 
from  town  by  a  clamorous  mob.  In  1804-5  he  was  ap- 
pointed pastor  of  Portland.  During  that  time  the  society 
giew  from  eleven  members  to  sixty-four.  Taylor  was  forced 
to  give  up  his  work  because  of  ill  health  and  opened  a 
private  school  in  Portland  which  he  continued  for  sixteen 
years,  preaching  on  the  Sabbath  in  the  vicinity  as  occasion 
required.  He  later  was  readmitted  to  the  conference  and 
in  1847  he  retired  in  Portland.  When  he  died  in  1861 
at  the  age  of  ninety-three  years,  the  city  of  Portland 
went  into  mourning.  The  mayor  and  other  dignitaries 
attended  the  service  and  during  the  funeral  procession 
all  the  church  bells  of  the  city  tolled.  Methodism  had 
made  its  place  in  the  city  and  Joshua  Taylor  had  been 
instrumental  in  bringing  this  about. 

The  Chestnut  Street  Church  was  completed  and  dedi- 
cated on  Feb.  11,  1811.  It  prospered  and,  as  the  city 
extended  its  borders,  became  the  mother  of  churches.  In 
1846  its  members  started  the  church  on  Pine  Street;  in 
1851  they  organized  a  church  on  Munjoy  Hill,  now  known 
as  Congress  Street  Church;  later  they  established  a  church 
on  Peak's  Island  in  Casco  Bay.  For  many  years  there  was 
an  Italian  Mission  which  later  became  a  church.  A  few 
years  ago  it  was  given  up.  its  members  joining  other 
Methodist  churches  in  the  city  as  there  was  no  longer 
need  for  services  in  the  ItaUan  language.  For  many 
years  there  was  a  Deaconess  Home  in  Portland,  but  with 
changing  conditions  that,  too,  was  given  up. 

For  a  considerable  period  Chestnut  Street  Church 
regularly  received  pastors  transferred  from  other  con- 
ferences, but  of  recent  years  members  of  the  Maine 
Conference  have  been  appointed  to  it.  Among  its  most 
distinguished  pastors  was  Bishop  Matthew  Simpson 
Hughes,  brother  of  Bishop  Edwin  Holt  Hughes.  This 
church  has  a  present  membership  of  959,  the  largest  in  the 
Maine  Conference.  There  are  six  United  Methodist 
churches  in  the  city  of  Portland,  four  in  South  Portland, 
four  on  islands  in  Casco  Bay.  Methodism  in  Portland  and 
vicinity  is  stronger  than  anywhere  else  in  the  State  of 
Maine. 

Allen  and  Pilsbury,  Methodism  in  Maine.  1887. 

General  Minutes,  UMC.  Alfred  G.  Hempstead 

PORTLAND,  OREGON,  U.S.A.,  chartered  in  1851,  had  a 
population  of  about  375,000  in  1970.  Jason  Lee,  the 
pioneer  missionary  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  his  associates 
introduced  Methodism  in  the  region  in  1834.  By  1848 
there  were  eight  mission  employees,  and  in  1849  the 
Oregon  and  California  Mission  Conference  was  organized. 
In  1850,  James  H.  Wilbur  was  appointed  to  Portland 
and  Oregon  City;  he  immediately  began  to  build  Port- 
land Academy  and  what  came  to  be  known  as  "Father 
Wilbur's  Chapel,"  the  forerunner  of  First  Church,  on 
Taylor  Street  near  Third.  The  next  year  Wilbur  reported 
fifty-eight  members  on  the  charge.  In  1852,  the  General 
Conference  created  the  Oregon  Conference,  and  that 
year  Portland  had  fortv-three  members.  The  church  had 
109  members  in  I860,'  222  in   1870,  and  296  in   1880, 


PORTLAND,   OREGON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


though  by  the  latter  year  a  second  church,  Hall  Street, 
had  been  organized.  In  1890,  First  Church  had  631 
members,  while  two  other  congregations  and  a  Chinese 
mission  accounted  for  some  500  more  in  the  city.  In 
1912,  when  First  Church  had  1,250  members  and  Grace 
Church  had  656,  the  two  merged  under  the  name  of 
First  Church  which  reported  1,670  members  the  next 
year. 

In  1864,  the  East  Portland  Church  was  organized  in 
the  part  of  the  city  lying  east  of  the  Willamette  River. 
Three  years  later  it  reported  326  members,  including  127 
probationers.  After  1888  it  was  known  as  Centenary 
Church.  In  1900,  Portland  had  twelve  churches  with  a 
total  membership  of  2,153.  At  unification  in  1939,  the 
M.E.  Church  had  twenty-six  churches  and  11,149  mem- 
bers in  Portiand. 

The  Pacific  Christian  Advocate  which  began  in  Salem 
in  1855,  was  published  in  Portland  from  1858  to  1929 
when  it  was  moved  to  S.\n  Francisco. 

In  1858,  the  M.  E.  Church,  South  organized  work  in 
Oregon,  making  it  a  part  of  the  San  Francisco  District 
of  the  Pacific  Conference.  The  Oregon  District  was  formed 
in  1859  with  Orceneth  Fisher  as  presiding  elder.  In 
1860  he  reported  five  circuits,  one  of  them  called  Portland, 
with  a  total  of  268  members.  There  are  no  records  for 
the  Civil  War  years,  but  in  1866  the  Columbia  Con- 
ference was  formed  with  two  districts,  and  a  total  of 
seven  circuits  in  Oregon.  However,  the  denomination 
had  difficulty  gaining  a  foothold  in  Portland.  In  1868 
there  was  a  Portland  Mission  with  forty-five  members, 
but  the  next  year  the  number  had  dropped  to  thirteen, 
and  Portland  did  not  appear  again  in  the  appointments 
until  1903  when  C.  A.  Hyatt  was  appointed  there.  In 
1904  he  reported  eighty-four  members.  From  1910  to 
1919,  the  Portland  church  reported  over  300  members 
each  year,  but  thereafter  it  decreased  in  strength  until 
1931  when  it  closed. 

The  M.  P.  Church  organized  the  Oregon  and  California 
Conference  in  1850,  but  the  denomination  was  never 
strong,  and  it  disappeared  from  that  region  after  1908. 

A  few  foreign  language  churches  were  organized  in 
Portland,  but  with  the  passage  of  time  they  became 
churches  in  the  Portland  District  of  the  Oregon  Con- 
ference. Hughes  Memorial,  a  Negro  church  with  ninety- 
seven  members  in  1970,  receives  some  financial  aid  from 
the  Portland  District  Church  Extension  Society.  That 
organization,  composed  principally  of  laymen,  was  formed 
in  1903.  It  helps  to  establish  new  churches  and  gives 
financial  assistance  to  existing  churches  which  are  in  need. 
The  society  helped  to  establish  Goodwill  Industries  in 
Portland,  and  it  has  managed  Leewood  Camp.  Portland 
Methodism  assists  with  interdenominational  inner  city 
redemptional  projects  and  helps  to  support  Koinonia 
House  on  the  Portland  State  College  campus. 

Portland  was  one  of  the  sixteen  cities  selected  by  the 
1904  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  for 
episcopal  residences,  and  it  has  continued  as  such  to  this 
day. 

In  1970,  the  Oregon-Idaho  Conference  had  a  Portland 
East  and  a  Portland  West  District,  the  one  having  43 
charges  and  15,203  members  and  the  other  31  charges 
and  11,350  members.  In  the  City  of  Portland  proper  The 
United  Methodist  Church  in  1970  reported  26  churches, 
11,742  members,  property  valued  at  $7,139,575,  and 
$1,035,488  raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year.  Rose 
City  Park  and  First  are  the  tvvo  largest  churches  in  the 


city,  the  one  with  1,652  members  and  property  valued 
at  $857,856,  and  the  other  with  1,313  members  and  prop- 
erty worth  $1,519,937. 

First  A. M.E.  Zion  Church  was  organized  in  1862  at  the 
home  of  Mrs.  Mary  Carr  on  A  Street  (now  Ankeny).  It 
was  then  called  "The  People's  Church."  The  first  Trustees 
included  Ned  Simmons,  a  Mr.  Johnson,  and  a  Mr.  Nichols. 
For  some  time  the  church  held  services  at  various  homes 
of  the  members.  Later,  property  was  purchased  on  North 
Third  Street,  between  B  and  C  Streets  (now  Burnside 
and  Couch  Streets).  Here,  the  cornerstone  was  laid, 
June  3,  1869.  J.  O.  Lodge  was  the  pastor  at  this  time. 

In  1883  the  trustees  of  the  church  bought  property 
on  Main  and  Eleventh  Streets  (now  Thirteenth  Street), 
and  erected  a  building.  On  Sunday,  Oct.  11,  1891  the 
old  cornerstone  was  relaid  at  13th  and  Main  Streets.  A. 
Tilgham  Brown  was  the  pastor.  The  church  remained  at 
this  location  for  more  than  twenty  years. 

The  building  of  the  church,  at  the  present  location, 
began  in  1917,  and  was  completed  under  the  pastorate 
of  W.  I.  Rowan;  Bishop  L.  W.  Kyles  was  presiding  bishop 
at  that  time.  The  parsonage  apartment  was  built  in  1929 
and  was  formally  opened  on  May  12,  1929.  With  the 
opening  of  the  enlarged  Church  plant,  a  more  extensive 
program  began,  and  the  formal  rededication  of  the  new 
church  and  parsonage  on  Sunday,  Sept.  15,  1929,  by 
Bishop  J.  W.  Martin,  marked  a  new  epoch  in  the  history 
of  this  old  Portland  and  Pacific  Northwest  Church.  W.  W. 
Matthews,  a  former  pastor  of  First  A. M.E.  Zion  of  Port- 
land, became  a  bishop. 

There  have  been  periods  of  great  trial  for  Zion.  During 
the  period  of  1911  to  1917  many  members  became  dis- 
satisfied and  discouraged  and  joined  other  Churches. 
Again  in  the  thirties,  the  church  was  faced  with  great 
financial  problems,  but  overcame  them  by  faith  and  by 
hard  work  of  the  members. 

Rose  City  Park  Church  is  a  large  residential  church 
located  half-way  between  downtown  Portland  and  the 
city's  international  airport.  Its  brick  edifice  is  best  known 
for  its  memorial  windows  of  traditional  stained  glass. 

District  Superintendent  J.  W.  McDougall  organized  this 
congregation  in  the  Rose  City  Community  Club  House  on 
Feb.  1,  1913.  The  church  soon  bought  nearby  lots  in 
this  section  which  had  just  come  into  the  city,  a  step 
which  transformed  a  notorious  horse  racing  track  a  few 
blocks  away  into  a  sedate  municipal  golf  course.  The  new 
congregation  soon  moved  from  the  club  house  into  a  large 
tent  and,  by  the  first  winter,  were  housed  in  a  bungalow- 
type  wooden  chapel,  known  as  "The  Little  Brown  Church 
on  the  Hill,"  which  was  used  until  1925.  By  that  time 
the  first  pastor,  W.  W.  Youngson,  had  returned  for  a 
second  pastorate  after  a  term  as  district  superintendent. 

The  present  brick  sanctuary  was  built  in  1924-25,  with 
an  extensive  educational  unit  and  chapel  added  in  1951. 
Youngson  Hall,  honoring  the  first  pastor,  was  dedicated 
in  1957.  The  nave  was  remodeled  and  enlarged  with  a 
new  chancel  added  in  1965,  with  a  new  organ  installed 
in  1966,  bringing  the  total  plant  valuation  to  one  million 
dollars. 

In  the  mid-1950's  the  membership  numbered  over 
2,000  and  maintains  a  constituency  of  about  twice  that 
number.  In  1970  it  reported  1,652  members.  It  has  a 
multiple  staff  and  multiple  Sunday  morning  services, 
served  by  five  trained  choirs.  The  chief  emphasis  has 
been  on  persons  and  their  needs.  During  the  Golden 
Anniversary  Year  in  1963,  a  count  showed  85,000  people 


WORLD  METHODISM 


PORTSMOUTH,   NEW   HAMPSHIRE 


entering  for  worship,  study  or  fellowship.  Half  of  the 
twelve  senior  pastors  who  have  served  over  the  years, 
including  this  writer,  have  either  been  appointed  to  the 
church  from  the  superintendency  or  have  gone  from  this 
parish  to  a  district  assignment. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  MES,  TMC,  UMC. 

Mildred  P.  Nye,  Portland's  First  Church.  Privately  published, 

1962. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

T.  D.  Yarnes,  Oregon.  1959.  Albea  Godbold 

David  H.  Bradley 
Daniel  E.  Taylor 

PORTO  ALEGRE,  Brazil.  The  work  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Porto  Alegre,  capital  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul, 
was  begun  by  Joao  C.  Correa,  lay  preacher  and  homeo- 
pathic doctor.  Born  in  Jaguarao,  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  he 
had  moved  to  Montevideo,  Uruguay,  where  he  first 
heard  the  Gospel.  Converted,  he  became  a  volunteer 
worker  for  the  Plate  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
and  was  asked  to  return  to  Brazil.  This  he  did  in  April 
1875,  seUing  Bibles  and  Christian  literature.  He  was  soon 
officially  appointed  by  Thomas  Wood,  Superintendent  of 
the  Mission,  to  be  a  missionary  in  charge  of  the  Province 
of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul. 

Gorr^a  moved  with  his  family  and  a  young  Uruguayan 
teacher.  Carmen  Chacon,  their  protegee,  to  Porto  Alegre. 
In  September  1885,  he  organized  the  first  congregation 
with  six  charter  members;  a  Sunday  school  with  twenty 
pupils,  and  a  day  school  which  he  named  the  Colegio 
Evangelico  Misto.  Carmen  was  put  in  charge  of  the  school, 
which  eventually  became  the  well-known  Colegio  Ameri- 
cano of  today.  The  httle  congregation  grew  into  Central 
Methodist  Church  of  Porto  Alegre.  Correa  served  until 
1896,  being  succeeded  by  William  Robinson,  who  came 
from  Montevideo  with  his  family,  and  with  Miss  H.  M. 
Hegeman,  a  contract  missionary  teacher  who  was  to  direct 
the  school.  Due  to  illness  and  the  death  of  a  child, 
Robinson  returned  to  the  States,  and  John  W.  Price  took 
charge  of  the  work.  To  this  day  the  influence  of  the  Prices 
is  felt  in  the  educational  and  evangelistic  work  of  the 
Methodist  Church  in  this  region. 

In  1900,  the  M.E.  Church  transferred  its  work  in  Brazil 
to  the  M.E.  Church,  South;  and  South  Brazil  was  or- 
ganized into  a  district  of  the  Brazil  Annual  Conference. 
It  is  now  the  Second  Ecclesiastical  Region  of  the  Method- 
ist Church  of  Brazil. 

Today  there  are  seven  self-supporting  churches  in  Porto 
Alegre,  plus  Sunday  schools  and  preaching  points  through- 
out the  city  and  surrounding  area.  The  Porto  Alegre 
District  supports  a  home  for  aged  women,  called  the 
Ottiha  Chaves  Home.  Other  churches  have  developed  fine 
welfare  services,  a  girls'  home,  and  mothers'  clubs.  Central 
Church,  with  its  beautiful  temple  in  the  downtown  area, 
has  built  a  several-storied  educational  and  office  building. 

There  are  two  outstanding  Methodist  schools  in  the 
city.  One  is  the  Colegio  Americano  for  girls,  whose 
modern  plant  was  designed  by  the  missionary-architect, 
Mary  Sue  Brown.  The  other  is  a  boys'  school,  the 
Instituto  Porto  Alegre  (originally  called  College),  founded 
in  1923  with  the  support  of  Bishop  John  M.  Moore.  Its 
first  principal  or  reitor  was  John  R.  Saunders.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Earl  Moheland,  when  he  decided  to 
continue  in  pastoral  work. 


A  unique  feature  of  Methodism  in  this  city  is  a  granite 
and  bronze  monument  in  its  main  park  honoring  John 
Wesley.  Its  sculptor  was  a  Brazilian  Methodist,  Romano 
Reif.  This  is  the  first  monument  in  South  America  that 
honors  the  founder  of  a  leading  Protestant  denomination. 

Porto  Alegre  College  was  founded  in  1921  by  the 
M.E.  Church,  South,  with  funds  provided  through  the 
church's  Centenary  Fund.  Its  founders  with  Bishop  John 
M.  Moore,  John  R.  Saunders  and  J.  Earl  Moreland.  Bishop 
Moore  chose  the  city  and  campus  site,  purchased  the 
land  and  served  as  first  advisor.  Saunders  served  as  first 
president,  1921-25;  Moreland  was  vice-president,  1922-26, 
and  president,  1927-34.  Classes  were  held  the  first  year 
in  rented  quarters  in  downtown  Porto  Alegre  until  the 
new  campus  buildings  were  completed  in  February  1924, 
on  the  site  400  meters  above  the  level  of  the  business 
section  of  the  city.  Enrollment  was  held  to  350  men 
through  the  first  fifteen  years  (1967  enrollment,  1,624; 
coeducational  since  1945).  Schools  are  Elementar  (eight 
years),  accredited  by  State,  Rio  Grande  do  Sul;  Ginasio 
(six  years),  accredited  by  the  Federal  government  since 
1928;  School  of  Theology  (three  years);  business  school 
(two  years).  Faculty  and  staffs  through  1934  numbered 
twenty-six.  The  name  was  changed  in  1935  to  Instituto 
Porto  Alegre.  The  college  was  designed  by  its  founders 
to  serve  the  three  Southern  states,  as  Gbanbehy  College 
served  the  Northern  states.  Trustees  are  nominated  by 
the  Board,  but  serve  only  after  approval  by  the  Concilio 
do  Sul  (So.  Brazil  Annual  Conference).  Presidents  have 
been;  Alan  K.  Manchester  (1926-27);  Dr.  Oscar  Machado 
(1934-49);  Bishop  Jose  Pinheiro  (1949-53);  Daniel  L. 
Betts  ( 1953-55) ;  Dr.  Aslid  Gick  ( 1955-         ) . 

D.  A.  Chaves,  Methodism  in  Brazil.  N.p.,  n.d. 
Enciclopedia  Riograndense,  IV,  1957. 

E.  M.  B.  Jaime,  Metodismo  no  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  1963. 

J.  L.  Kennedy,  Metodismo  no  Brasil.  1928.      Ottilia  Chaves 

PORTSMOUTH,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  U.S.A.,  one  of  the 
oldest  cities  in  New  England,  was  settled  in  1623  and 
incorporated  in  1633.  As  early  as  1767  George  White- 
field  came  here  preaching  the  Word,  but  Methodism 
proper  was  introduced  by  Jesse  Lee  on  July  18,  1790. 
On  a  second  visit,  there  being  no  public  building  open 
to  him,  he  preached  to  an  eager  throng  from  the  court 
house  steps. 

In  1798  Francis  Asbury  noted  in  his  diary  that  he 
found  Portsmouth  "well  fortified  against  Methodism,"  but 
the  seeds  sown  began  to  sprout  almost  eighteen  years 
after  Jesse  Lee's  first  summer  service,  for  a  class  of  fifty- 
two  active  members  made  up  the  Methodist  society  or- 
ganized April  27,  1808  by  George  Rich,  missionary  of  the 
Boston  District.  He  purchased  for  $2,000  an  old  meeting 
house  on  Vaughn  Street,  which  had  been  the  property 
of  the  Universalists,  and  it  was  used  by  Methodists  for 
nearly  twenty  years. 

Mentioned  in  the  M.E.  Church  minutes  first  in  1806, 
Portsmouth,  which  was  then  in  the  Boston  District,  was 
served  by  Levi  Walker,  who  was  sent  to  Rhode  Island 
and  Portsmouth.  Previous  to  the  organizing  of  a  Sunday 
school  in  1819,  the  Ladies  Aid  Society  had  been  formed 
and  remained  continuously  active.  After  having  been  con- 
nected with  various  charges  since  its  founding,  it  appears 
at  the  head  of  the  New  Hampshire  District  in  1820,  with 
Josiah  A.  Scarritt  as  pastor.  The  Portsmouth  society  was 
incorporated   by   order   of   the   General   Court   following 


PORTSMOUTH,    VIRGINIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


occupancy  on  State  Street  of  a  newly  built  $9,000  sanc- 
tuary, dedicated  Jan.  1,  1828.  This  was  remodeled  in 
1868.  The  New  England  Conference  met  at  Portsmouth 
in  1829  and  during  the  session  organized  the  New 
Hampshire-Vermont  Conference. 

On  May  4,  1839  the  local  fellowship  adopted  the 
following  resolution:  "Resolved  that  with  John  Wesley  we 
believe  that  American  slavery  is  the  vilest  that  ever  saw 
sun  .  .  .  Resolved  that  as  slavery  exists  to  an  alarming 
extent  in  the  Methodist  Church,  we  ought  by  all  con- 
stitutional means  use  our  influence  to  clear  the  Church  of 
this  shocking  abomination." 

Attempts  at  forming  a  second  society  under  the  name 
of  the  Broadhead  Church  in  1859  were  not  successful 
and  after  a  few  years  it  was  given  up.  An  Epwobth 
League  was  organized  in  1889  at  the  State  Street  Church. 
Upon  completion  of  the  present  stone  church  on  Miller 
Avenue  in  1913,  the  old  building  was  taken  over  for  use 
as  a  Jewish  Synagogue.  In  more  recent  years,  due  to  the 
proximity  of  the  Pease  Air  Force  Base,  additional  facilities 
became  imperative  and  an  adjoining  parish  house  and 
educational  building  was  built  and  dedicated  on  Apr. 
27,  1958.  It  is  in  the  New  Hampshire  Conference 
and  in  1970  reported  593  members,  160  preparatory 
members,  a  church  school  of  251,  a  Sunday  school  average 
attendance  of  150,  and  estimated  value  of  church  building 
equipment  and  land  of  $296,600. 

Cole  and  Baketel,  New  Hampshire  Conference.  1929. 

W.  H.  Daniels,  Illustrated  History.  1887. 

Journals  of  the  New  Hampshire  and  New  England  Conferences. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

James  Duane  Squires,  The  Granite  State  of  the  United  States. 

New  York:  American  Historical  Co.,  1956. 

A.  Stevens,  History  of  Methodism.  1895.     William  J.  Davis 

PORTSMOUTH,  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.  (population  109,827), 
is  one  of  the  ports  of  Hampton  Roads  and  an  active 
seaport  city.  It  has  an  important  navy  yard,  is  a  rail  and 
ocean  shipping  center.  Laid  out  in  1750,  it  was  the  scene 
of  conflict  in  the  American  Revolution  and  in  the  War 
Between  the  States. 

Joseph  Pilmore  and  Robert  Williams  were  among 
the  first  evangelists  sent  to  America  by  John  Wesley. 
Williams,  not  an  ordained  preacher,  left  Ireland  in  1766 
and  was  licensed  to  preach  at  Philadelphia  in  1769  by 
Joseph  Pilmore.  In  early  1772  Isaac  Luke,  a  member  of 
the  Anglican  Church  in  Portsmouth,  heard  Williams 
preach  from  the  court  house  steps  in  Norfolk  and  invited 
him  to  cross  the  river  to  Portsmouth.  Williams  accepted 
and  preached  from  the  porch  of  the  Luke  home  on  Court 
Street.  He  appointed  Luke  as  leader  of  the  group  and 
Luke  found  an  empty  warehouse  for  a  meeting  place. 
Williams  labored  here  two  months  before  going  elsewhere. 

Joseph  Pilmore  preached  in  Portsmouth  several  times 
in  July  1772,  and  on  Nov.  14,  1772,  organized  the  class 
into  the  first  Methodist  society  in  southeastern  Virginia. 
Two  days  later  he  formed  a  society  in  Norfolk.  These  two 
groups  formed  the  Portsmouth-Norfolk  Circuit.  At  the 
first  Methodist  Conference  in  America,  held  in  Philadel- 
phia July  1,  1773,  Richard  Wright,  an  ordained 
preacher,  was  appointed  to  the  circuit.  John  King  was 
the  next  pastor,  followed  by  Francis  Asbury  in  1775. 
After  Asbury  arrived,  a  small  chapel  was  built  in  Ports- 
mouth on  Effingham  Street  by  the  twenty-seven  members. 

The  American  Revolution  brought  troubles  for  Method- 

1938 


ism.  Wesley  disapproved  of  rebellious  colonists.  Many 
preachers  returned  to  Creat  Britain,  among  them  Joseph 
Pilmore  and  Richard  Wright.  Asbury  remained.  He  was  on 
the  circuit  six  months  and  conducted  the  funeral  of 
Robert  Williams  while  there.  From  1777  until  1783,  no 
preachers  were  appointed  to  the  circuit.  The  British  dis- 
trusted the  Methodists  and  discouraged  meetings.  Class 
leaders  continued  the  work,  and  membership  increased 
during  the  war. 

In  Portsmouth  the  little  chapel  was  outgrown,  the 
society  purchased  a  lot  on  Glasgow  Street  in  1792.  The 
chapel  building  was  moved  to  the  new  lot  and  enlarged. 
In  1792  William  McKendree  became  pastor  of  the  cir- 
cuit which  had  grown  to  949  white  and  693  Negro  mem- 
bers. The  Portsmouth  church  became  a  station  in  1806. 
The  first  Sabbath  school  was  established  in  1818.  The 
congregation  moved  to  its  present  location  on  Dinwiddie 
and  Queen  Streets  in  October  1833. 

In  1843  the  congregation,  interested  in  church  exten- 
sion, built  a  chapel  on  Gosport  which  became  Wright 
Memorial  Church.  In  1843,  because  of  the  desires  of  the 
342  Negro  members,  the  church  on  Glasgow  Street  was 
turned  over  to  these  faithful  members.  This  group  was 
served  for  years  by  a  white  local  preacher,  George  M. 
Bain,  until  a  colored  preacher,  James  A.  Handy,  was 
found.  This  church  is  now  Emmanuel  Church,  a  strong 
congregation  of  the  A.M.E.  Church.  Also,  Wesley  Chapel 
was  built  on  Effingham  Street.  It  served  that  area  until 
June  1966,  when  it  was  closed.  Another  chapel  was 
erected  which  was  to  become  Central  Church. 

The  disastrous  yellow  fever  epidemic  of  1855  took 
the  lives  of  many  members. 

The  old  church  on  Glasgow  Street  burned  in  1856. 
George  M.  Bain  asked  Dinwiddie  Street  Church  to  help, 
and  a  large  brick  building  was  erected  on  North  Street. 
The  Virginia  Conference  of  1858,  presided  over  by 
Bishop  Kavanaugh,  met  there,  and  the  building  was 
then  turned  over  to  the  Negro  brethren. 

During  the  War  Between  the  States,  Dinwiddie  Street 
Church  dropped  from  600  to  197  members.  The  northern 
Baltimore  Conference  assumed  control  in  1862  with 
authority  granted  by  Federal  forces.  Pastors  appointed 
by  the  Virginia  Conference  were  harassed  by  Federal 
troops  and  forced  to  leave.  A  notation  in  the  conference 
annual  listed  Dinwiddie  Street  Church  as  being  "in  Fed- 
eral hands."  In  1864  the  church  burned,  and  the  military 
commander  gave  St.  John's  Episcopal  Church  to  the 
northern  preacher,  and  that  church  was  used  by  northern 
Methodists  until  the  close  of  the  war.  During  this  period 
a  small  chapel  was  built  at  the  rear  of  the  Dinwiddie 
Street  lot,  and  services  were  held  there  by  the  southern 
Methodists. 

During  its  first  century  the  Dinwiddie  Street  congre- 
gation had  started  four  other  churches:  Wright  Memorial, 
North  Street,  Wesley  Chapel  and  Central.  Three  of  its 
former  pastors,  Asbury,  McKendree  and  Early,  and  one 
of  its  presiding  elders,  Richard  Whatcoat,  had  become 
bishops. 

At  the  beginning  of  its  second  century  Dinwiddie  Street 
Church  started  rebuilding,  and  a  new  brick  church  was 
consecrated  on  Nov.  14,  1876.  It  was  given  the  name 
Monumental  as  a  monument  to  Robert  Williams,  the  first 
Methodist  to  preach  in  Portsmouth  in  1772,  and  the 
first  to  introduce  Methodism  into  Virginia. 

In  1881  the  ladies  of  the  church  formed  a  Foreign 
Missionary   Society,    a   new   organization   in    Methodism, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


against  the  wishes  of  the  pastor.  He  felt  that  women 
should  not  hold  prominent  positions  in  the  church.  His 
wife  was  the  first  president! 

By  1907  Monumental  was  a  prosperous  city  church 
with  869  members.  It  had  become  a  leading  church  in 
Virginia  Methodism,  giving  generously  to  missions,  edu- 
cation and  other  Methodist  causes.  The  first  women  stew- 
ards were  elected  in  1925.  Many  churches  in  Portsmouth 
were  assisted  in  their  early  days  by  this  "Mother"  church. 
William  B.  Beauchamp,  pastor  1915-1917,  and  Walter 
C.  Gum,  pastor  1933-1936,  later  became  bishops.  Twenty- 
eight  Methodist  preachers  came  out  of  Monumental 
Church.  Present  membership  is  1,158  (1970). 

At  the  Annual  Conference  held  in  Norfolk  in  1966, 
Monumental  was  awarded  a  certificate  by  the  Conference 
Bicentennial  Committee  recognizing  it  as  the  oldest  Meth- 
odist church  in  continuous  existence  in  Virginia. 

Journals  of  the  Baltimore  and  Virginia  Conferences. 

J.  J.   LafFerty,   Sketches  of  Virginia  Conference.   1880,   1890, 

1901. 

Jesse  Lee,  Short  History.  1810. 

H.  N.  McTyeire,  History  of  Methodism.  1884. 

Dorothy  Fleet  Monroe,  The  History  of  Monumental  Methodist 

Church,  1772-1966.  N.d. 

W.  W.  Sweet,  Virginia.   1955.      John  Rallson  Hendbicks 

PORTUGAL  (Igreja  Evangelica  Metodista  Portuguesa, 
abbr.  lEMP).  Metropolitan  Portugal  occupies  the  western 
part  of  the  Iberian  Peninsula  in  Europe,  being  bounded  on 
the  north  and  east  by  Spain,  and  the  south  and  west  by 
the  Atlantic  Ocean.  It  covers  an  area  of  35,466  square 
miles,  and  its  population  was  estimated  in  1968  as  ap- 
proximately nine  million.  Portugal  is  mountainous  though 
about  two-thirds  of  the  land  is  cultivated.  Lisbon,  its  cap- 
ital, operates  a  major  international  airport. 

In  recent  years  marked  industrialization  has  proceeded 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  in  the  overseas  provinces, 
with  a  rapid  growth  of  commercial  and  industrial  activity, 
centering  on  the  capital  in  the  south,  and  on  Oporto,  the 
second  largest  city  and  seaport,  in  the  north.  This  develop- 
ment not  only  has  its  important  economic  consequences, 
but  is  producing  profound  sociological  effects  on  the  life 
and  ethos  of  the  people. 

As  early  as  1811,  Methodist  class  meetings  were  being 
held  among  soldiers,  with  some  officers,  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington's  Peninsular  Army,  winter  quartered  in  Car- 
taxo,  some  forty-five  miles  north  of  Lisbon;  but  no  known 
permanent  results  of  this  activity  remain.  Historically  sig- 
nificant work  began  in  1853-54  when  Thomas  Chegwin, 
a  Cornish  mining  engineer,  inaugurated  his  class  meeting 
among  workers  in  the  Palhal  Mines  in  northern  Portugal. 

Another  layman,  James  Cassels,  born  in  1844  of  a 
British  family  resident  in  Portugal,  introduced  Methodism 
to  Vila  Nova  de  Gaia,  a  smaller  neighbor  of  Oporto,  situ- 
ated on  the  southern  bank  of  the  River  Douro.  He  was 
afterwards  ordained  a  minister  of  the  Lusitanian  (Episco- 
pal) Church,  and  became  a  naturalized  Portuguese;  he 
was  decorated  by  the  Portuguese  Government  in  1924 
as  a  public  benefactor,  and  a  bust  to  his  memory,  "Diogo 
Cassels,"  stands  in  a  public  garden  in  Vila  Nova.  He 
built  the  first  Wesleyan  Church  in  Portugal,  "Tome"  in 
Vila  Nova  de  Gaia  (now  the  day-school  building  of  the 
Lusitanian  Church  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist),  which  was 
dedicated  in  1868  in  a  service  conducted  by  H.  H.  Rich- 
mond, Methodist  minister  from  Gibraltar,  in  which  sta- 
tion the  tiny  work  in  Portugal  was  for  a  while  included. 


The  first  celebration  of  the  Holy  Communion  and  the 
first  infant  baptism  (of  James  Cassel's  daughter),  also 
took  place  on  this  occasion. 

In  February  of  1871  the  first  British  Methodist  mis- 
sionary came  to  take  charge  of  the  work  at  Oporto  and 
Palhal.  He  was  Robert  Hawkey  Moreton,  bom  in  Biienos 
Aires  in  1844,  whose  knowledge  of  Spanish  helped  him 
to  a  rapid  acquisition  of  Portuguese,  in  which  tongue  he 
became  an  acknowledged  master  and  into  which  he  trans- 
lated several  hymns  still  widely  used  today  in  hymnaries 
both  in  Portugal  and  Brazil.  He  introduced  the  tonic  sol- 
fa  musical  system  into  Portugal  to  enable  his  people,  then 
mostly  without  culture,  to  learn  to  sing.  He  remained 
superintendent  for  forty-three  years.  His  ministry  was 
marked  by  the  use  of  hymns  and  of  the  current  Methodist 
liturgy  in  his  own  Portuguese  liturgy,  by  his  insistence 
on  the  class  meeting  and  the  due  application  of  Methodist 
discipline,  and  by  his  own  erudition  and  missionary  zeal. 

Aided  by  members  of  the  British  colony  in  Oporto,  he 
designed  and  built  the  Mirante  Church,  opened  in  March 
1877.  This  is  the  mother-church  of  Portuguese  Methodism. 
Later,  in  1934,  the  facade  of  this  church  was  adorned 
with  azulejos,  the  distinctive  Portuguese  glazed  tiling 
used  on  exteriors,  giving  it  an  appearance  almost  unique 
in  Methodism,  with  its  two  great  evangelical  te.xts  seen 
regularly  by  the  scores  who  pass  by  its  doors.  In  the  early 
days  Moreton  had  the  help  of  two  converted  Roman 
Catholic  priests,  Guilherme  Dias  and  Santos  Figueiredo, 
the  former  of  whom  had  the  distinction  at  that  time  of 
filling  his  unusual  preaching  place  twice  every  Sunday 
morning  with  two  distinct  congregations. 

Moreton's  chief  helpers  for  many  years  were  Alfredo 
da  Silva,  later  (1914-48)  General  Superintendent, 
teacher,  preacher  and  for  a  time  member  of  the  Oporto 
City  Council,  representative  of  international  committees  in 
the  cause  of  peace,  and  a  founder  of  the  Portuguese 
YMCA;  and  Jose  A.  Femandes,  the  first  editor  of  the  peri- 
odical Portugal  Evangelica,  founded  in  October  1920  and 
still  being  published.  An  earlier  publication,  A  Reforma,  a 
joint  enterprise  of  Moreton  and  Dias,  maintained  a  very 
high  standard  during  its  sixteen  years  of  existence,  1876- 
92. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  century  work  was  begun  in 
Lisbon,  superintended  from  Oporto,  and  under  the  charge, 
first  of  Arthur  H.  Wilks,  and  then  of  Thomas  H.  Simpson, 
both  ministers  of  the  British  Methodist  Conference.  This 
venture  met  with  great  success,  hundreds  of  people  flock- 
ing to  the  services  and  meetings  held  in  a  hired  basement 
room.  In  1906  through  lack  of  funds,  this  work  was 
handed  over  to  another  evangelical  mission. 

Much  of  the  work  done  in  the  past  has  contributed, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  life  of  churches,  Methodist 
and  others,  in  South  America,  notably  in  Brazil,  where 
there  are  many  Portuguese  immigrants.  Valuable  contribu- 
tion has  also  been  made  in  this  way  to  the  work  in 
Angola,  Mozambique,  and  other  parts  of  overseas  Portu- 
gal, although  there  is  no  direct  association  with  European 
Portuguese  Methodism.  Methodist  work  at  one  time  ex- 
isted in  Madeira,  but  this  has  for  many  years  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  Presbyterians. 

In  1968  there  were  five  Portuguese  ministers,  with  a 
British  minister  as  General  Superintendent  and  fraternal 
worker;  there  were  also  thirty  local  preachers  and  one 
Portuguese  deaconess.  The  work  is  centered  in  Oporto, 
and  covers  mainly  the  northern  half  of  the  country,  reach- 
ing to  Coimbra,  the  ancient  University  town,  and  with  the 


POSNETT,    CHARLES   WALKER 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


second  largest  of  its  churches  at  Aveiro,  the  so-called 
Venice  of  Portugal.  The  membership  is  upwards  of  700, 
in  a  community  of  something  over  2,500,  being  part  of  the 
estimated  65,000  in  the  non-Roman  Christian  community. 
There  is  good  Sunday  school  work,  as  well  as  four  small 
primary  day  schools.  Other  social  and  benevolent  work  is 
carried  out,  much  of  it  in  collaboration  with  other  Protes- 
tant Churches;  there  is  some  ecumenical  outreach.  Large 
scale  emigration  has  tended  to  keep  numerical  progress 
at  a  modest  level,  but  there  is  positive  growth. 

The  lEMP  is  an  overseas  District  of  the  British  Method- 
ist Conference,  and  has  a  British  missionary  as  its  chair- 
man. There  is  an  Annual  Synod  with  an  elected  permanent 
Executive  Committee,  which  supei"vises  the  work  now 
divided  into  two  circuits,  one  centered  on  Oporto,  the 
other  on  Aveiro.  Plans  for  increasing  autonomy  are  being 
studied.  The  lEMP  is  a  full  member  of  the  World 
Methodist  Council. 

A  Reforma,  files  of,  1876-92. 

Diogo  Cassels,  A  Reforma  em  Portugal.  Oporto:  privately  pub- 
lished, 1906. 

Findlay  and  Holdsworth,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Sac.   1921. 
E.    Moreira,   Virfa*  Convergentes.   Lisbon:   Junta   Presbiteriane 
de  Cooperacao  em  Portugal,  19.58. 
Portugal  Evangclico,  1920.  Albert  Aspey 


C.    W.    PoSNETT 

POSNETT,  CHARLES  WALKER  (1870-1950),  British  mis- 
sionary, was  born  in  Sheffield,  England,  Oct.  7,  1870. 
Educated  at  Kingswood  School  and  Richmond  College, 
he  sailed  for  India  in  1895  and  was  appointed  to  Medak, 
Hyderabad  District,  in  1896.  He  was  to  become  the  great 
administrator  in  the  Methodist  Church  in  India.  Ap- 
pointed chairman  of  the  Hyderabad  District  and  of  the 
Provincial  Synod  in  1916,  he  established  many  of  the 
district's  most  valuable  institutions — Annuitant  Society  for 
Indian  Ministers  (1909),  Pension  Fund  for  Evangelists 
(1909),  the  "cathedral  church"  at  Medak  (opened  1924), 
the  Training  School  for  Evangelists  (1926),  the  "Week  of 
Witness"  (1929),  nursery  schools  (1936).  A  great  evan- 
gelist and  preacher,  he  shepherded  tens  of  thousands  of 
outcastes,  mainly  Madigas,  who  responded  in  the  "mass 
movements"  from  1916  onward  and  the  smaller  but  equal- 
ly important  "caste  movement,"  into  the  Church  from 
1926.  He  began  work  among  Gonds  (outcastes)  in  1931. 
He  worked  constantly  for  Church  union,  and  organized 
much  relief  work  in  times  of  famine,  especially  the  great 
famine  of  1918-21.  He  was  decorated  with  the  Kaiser-i- 
Hing  gold  medal  by  the  government   of  India.   On  his 


retirement  in  1939  the  Christian  movement  in  Hyderabad 
numbered  109,000.  He  died  on  Sept.  30,  1950. 

Cyril  J.  Davey 

POTTER,  ANDREW  JACKSON  (1830-1895),  American 
preacher,  was  born  in  Chariton  County,  Mo.,  April  3, 
1830.  In  his  day  he  was  one  of  the  best  known  pioneer 
preachers  of  West  Texas.  With  only  three  months  of 
schooling,  he  was  left  an  orphan  at  ten  years  of  age. 
He  became  a  horserace  jockey  and  a  gambler,  and  then 
joined  the  army  when  sixteen.  In  the  army  he  helped  to 
fight  Apaches  and  other  Indians  in  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona.  He  married  and  settled  in  West  Texas  in  1853. 
He  was  converted  in  1856,  and  joined  the  Methodist 
Church  in  1858,  and  became  a  local  preacher  in  1859. 
He  served  as  a  chaplain  in  the  Confederate  Army  through- 
out the  Civil  War.  In  1866  he  joined  the  West  Texas 
Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South. 

Phelan  summarizes  Potter's  career  in  these  terms:  He 
became  "a  noted  character  as  an  Indian  fighter,  a  tamer 
of  desperadoes  and  a  popular  preacher.  .  .  .  His  rugged 
character,  his  courage  and  ready  wit,  common  sense  and 
sincerity  made  him  a  popular  hero  among  the  early 
settlers.  In  addition  to  his  Bible,  hymnbook,  and  saddle- 
bags, a  Winchester  and  six  shooter  were  a  part  of  Potter's 
equipment,  and  he  was  known  on  more  than  one  occasion 
to  use  his  fist  as  a  quelling  influence  upon  frontier  toughs 
who  were  disposed  to  disturb  public  meetings." 

Once  a  caller  was  sent  through  a  pioneer  settlement 
announcing  Potter's  preaching  engagement  that  night  in 
these  words:  "O  yes,  O  yes,  O  yes.  There  is  going  to  be 
some  spang-up  religious  racket  on  Mr.  F's  gallery  tonight 
by  the  fighting  parson,  a  reformed  gambler,  but  now  a 
celebrated  gospel  sharp.  The  racket  will  begin  in  fifteen 
minutes." 

Potter  died  in  the  pulpit  at  the  close  of  a  sermon  at 
Tilman  Chapel,  near  Lockhart,  Texas,  Oct.  31,  1895. 

M.  Phelan,  Methodism  in  Texas.  1937. 

O.  W.  Nail,  The  First  100  Years.  1958. 

H.  A.  Graves,  Andrew  Jackson  Potter,  The  Noted  Parson  of  the 

Texas  Frontier.  1890.  Walter  N.  Vernon 


POTTER,  JOHN  (c.  1674-1747),  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
from  1737,  previously  Bishop  of  Oxford  was  a  patristic 
and  classical  scholar.  He  approved  of  the  ministrations  of 
the  Holy  Club  at  the  Bocardo  Gaol,  and  ordained  several 
of  its  members  including  John  Wesley,  Benjamin 
Ingham,  James  Hervey,  and  John  Gambold.  Potter  ad- 
vised Wesley  that  it  was  possible  for  him  to  fulfill  his 
ministry  in  other  ways  than  as  a  parish  priest.  In  1739 
Potter  interviewed  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  speaking 
with  affection  but  warning  them  against  rash  speaking, 
and  declaring  himself  to  be  against  any  kind  of  innovation. 
Potter  was  inclined  to  accept  the  validity  of  the  Moravian 
episcopal  succession.  In  1750  Wesley  abridged  his  Grecian 
Antiquities  (2  vols.,  1697-99)  for  the  Kingswood  scholars. 

Thomas  Shaw 

POTTERY,  WESLEY.  (See  Wesley  Pottery.) 

POTTS,  JAMES  HENRY  (1848-1942),  American  pastor 
and  long-time  editor  of  The  Michigan  Christian  Advocate, 
was  bom  June  12,  1848,  near  Simcoe,  Ontario,  Canada. 


WORLD   METHODfSM 


POTTS,   JOHN 


He  was  the  son  of  Philip  and  Fannie  Ann  (Buck)  Potts. 
He  received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity, and  Albion  College  in  Michigan  awarded  him 
the  D.D.  and  LL.D.  degrees  in  his  later  life.  On  Sept.  8, 
1869,  he  married  Alonsa  C.  Cole,  and  their  children  were 
James  R.,  Florence  A.,  and  Alice  E.  As  a  pastor  he  served 
Ganges,  Mich.  1869;  Cedar  Springs,  1871;  Allen,  1872; 
and  Plainwell,  1873.  He  became  assistant  editor  of  The 
Michigan  Christian  Advocate  in  1877,  and  was  with  it 
until  his  retirement,  as  he  became  editor-in-chief  in  1884, 
keeping  his  membership  in  the  Michigan  Conference. 
Potts  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conferences 
(ME)  of  1888,  '92,  '96,  1900,  and  '04,  and  was  appointed 
a  fraternal  delegate  to  the  Canadian  General  Conference 
from  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1894.  He  was  also  a  member  of 
the  Ecumenical  Conference  of  1911.  He  served  in  the 
Civil  War  as  a  private  in  the  6th  Michigan  Volunteer 
Cavalry  for  fourteen  months — from  1865-66  (being  at 
that  time  but  seventeen  years  of  age).  He  was  the  author 
of  Methodism  in  the  Field,  1880;  Golden  Dawn,  1881; 
Faith  Made  Easy,  1888;  Back  to  Oxford,  1903;  Upward 
Leading,  1905;  My  Gift  to  Thee,  1909-10;  Every  Day 
a  Delight,  1914.  He  was  the  editor  of  Perrine's  Princi- 
ples of  Church  Government  brought  out  by  the  Book 
Concern  in  1887;  and  Living  Thoughts  of  John  Wesley, 
1891.  He  exerted  great  influence  as  an  editor  and  his 
memoir  in  the  Michigan  Conference  Minutes  stated  that 
"since  his  retirement  he  was  a  most  loved  figure  in  Algo- 
nac  where  he  resided  with  his  daughter." 

Michigan  Christian  Advocate,  March  26,  1942. 

Minutes  of  the  Michigan  Conference,  1942. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

N.  B.  H. 

POTTS,  JAMES  MANNING  (1895-1973),  American  minis- 
ter, editor,  and  church  executive,  was  bom  at  Como,  N. 
C,  on  July  14,  1895.  He  was  the  son  of  Reginald  Hanrell 
and  Annie  Christian  (Moore)  Potts.  His  education  was  at 
Randolph-Macon  College,  where  he  received  the  M.A. 
degree  in  1920,  and  the  D.D.  in  1935.  Princeton  Univer- 
sity granted  him  the  Th.B.  degree  in  1924,  the  Th.M.  in 
1925,  and  he  did  postgraduate  work  at  the  University  of 
Virginia  and  at  the  University  of  Chicago.  The  Ewha 
Woman's  Unfversity  in  Seoul,  Korea,  gave  him  the 
Litt.D.  in  1961. 

His  wife  was  Agnes  Wright  whom  he  married  on  Dec. 
23,  1920,  and  their  children  are  Reginald  Harrell,  James 
Manning,  Joseph  Christian,  Katharine  Coleman  (dec), 
Agnes  Withers  (Mrs.  George  Beck),  and  Ann  Wilson 
(dec). 

Dr.  Potts  joined  the  Virginia  Conference  in  1925, 
and  went  into  full  connection  in  1927.  He  ser\'ed  as 
pastor  in  Berryman  Church,  Richmond,  1926-30;  Trinity 
Church,  Petersburg,  1930-32;  Barton  Heights  Church, 
Richmond,  1932-35,  was  the  superintendent  of  the  Rich- 
mond District,  1935-40,  and  was  pastor  of  Greene  Memo- 
rial, Roanoke,  1940-44 — all  in  Virginia.  At  this  time  he 
became  the  associate  director  of  the  Crusade  for  Christ 
with  headquarters  in  Chicago,  from  1944-48.  He  was  then 
elected  editor  of  The  Upper  Room,  Nashville,  Tenn., 
where  he  served  1948-67,  at  which  time  he  retired  from 
its  editorship. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Television,  Radio  and  Film 
Commission,  1948-64;  the  Commission  on  Evangelism, 


1940-48;  the  executive  secretary  of  the  Methodist  Ad- 
vance, 1948-50;  a  member  of  the  General  Board  of  the 
National  Council  Churches  of  Christ,  1952-66;  a 
member  of  the  Broadcasting  and  Film  Commission,  1952- 
65;  a  member  of  the  General  Assemblies  of  the  Federal 
Council  of  Churches  and  the  National  Council  of  Churches 
from  1938;  of  the  World  Council  of  Churches  also. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Advisory  Council  on  Naval 
Affairs  of  the  Sixth  Naval  District  (U.S.)  from  1956.  He 
was  a  trustee  of  Randolph-Macon  College,  1930-67, 
a  Fellow  in  Methodist  History,  a  member  of  the  World 
Association  of  Christian  Broadcasting,  and  his  editorship 
of  The  Upper  Room  caused  him  to  travel  over  world-wide 
Methodism  where  he  acted  as  a  liaison  official  between 
the  Methodists  in  various  countries  and  the  Methodism  of 
his  own  homeland  and  other  denominations. 

Dr.  Potts  wrote  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Ashury 
Smith,  Love  Abounds,  A  Profile  of  Harry  Dcnman,  1965; 
edited  the  Prayers  of  the  Early  Church,  1953;  Prayers 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  1954;  was  editor-in-chief  of  The 
Letters  of  Francis  Asbury,  1958;  Selections  from  Letters 
of  John  Wesley,  Francis  Asbury,  John  Woohnan,  1957; 
Listening  to  the  Saints,  1962;  Grace  Sufficient,  The  Story 
of  Helen  Kim,  1964.  He  was  associate  editor  of  The 
Journal  of  Francis  Asbury,  three  volumes,  published  in 
1958;  History  of  American  Methodism,  1964;  and  was 
a  contributor  to  articles  on  early  Virginia  Methodism 
in  various  historical  and  church  publications. 

Upon  retirement  in  1967,  as  editor  of  The  Upper  Room, 
he  was  elected  by  the  trustees  of  the  Lake  Jltnaluska 
Assembly  to  serve  as  its  executive  director.  He  retired 
from  this  position  in  1970  and  resided  in  Crystal  Springs, 
Fla.,  until  his  death  on  Jan.  31,  1973. 

Dictionary  of  International  Biography.  London,  1968. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

POTTS,  JOHN  (1838-1907),  Canadian  minister,  was  born 
at  Maguire's  Bridge,  County  Fermanagh,  Ireland.  As  a 
young  man,  he  emigrated  to  Canada  and  was  for  a  time 
a  student  at  Victoria  College.  Taken  on  trial  in  1858, 
he  was  ordained  in  the  Canada  Conference   in  1861. 

From  the  outset  Potts  demonstrated  striking  oratorical 
abilities.  A  powerful  man  wjth  a  fertile,  well-stocked  mind, 
he  rapidly  gained  a  great  reputation  as  an  outstanding 
preacher.  His  talents  were  promptly  put  to  use  in  the 
new  Centenary  Church  (Hamilton),  at  St.  James'  Church 
in  Montreal,  and  at  the  Metropolitan  Church  in 
Toronto. 

John  Potts  was,  however,  much  more  than  a  great  pulpit 
orator.  At  an  early  stage,  he  became  interested  in  the 
church's  educational  institutions.  He  was  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  governing  bodies  of  Victoria  University  and  the 
Wesleyan  Theological  College  in  Montreal.  In  1886,  he 
became  Secretary  of  Education,  which  office  he  held 
until  his  death.  In  this  capacity,  he  strengthened  and 
amplified  the  Methodist  Church's  concern  for  the  orderly 
development  of  all  the  educational  institutions  under  its 
charge. 

Potts,  who  received  doctorates  from  Ohio  Wesleyan 
in  1887  and  Victoria  in  1894,  was  described  by  one  of  his 
contemporaries  as  a  "Methodist  of  the  Methodists."  He 
was,  indeed,  a  keen  defender  of  his  church's  interests,  a 
powerful  orator,  a  temperance  advocate,  a  man  alert  to 


POTTSVILLE,   PENNSYLVANIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


changing  trends  in  education  and  in  politics.  Yet  he  was 
not  a  sectarian.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  make  friendly 
gestures  to  the  Episcopal  Methodists,  and  he  collaborated 
generously  with  representatives  of  other  churches. 

When  he  died  in  1907,  the  Methodist  Church  lost  one 
of  the  figures  most  representative  of  its  late-nineteenth- 
century  prosperity. 

G.  H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.  1881. 
H.  J.  Morgan,  ed.,  Canadian  Men  and  Women  of  the  Time. 
Toronto:    Briggs,    1898.  G.   S.   French 

POTTSVILLE,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.,  First  Church,  is  an 
important  church  of  the  PuiLADELPinA  Area,  and  the  first 
Methodist  church  established  in  what  is  known  as  the 
Anthracite  Region  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  The 
city  itself  began  in  1806  when  a  John  Pott  of  Oley  Berks 
County,  Pa.,  came  into  the  region  and  purchased  a  small 
iron  furnace  which  had  been  built  two  years  earher  by 
Lewis  Reese  and  Isaac  Thomas.  The  industry  grew,  a 
forge  was  added  and  houses  were  built  for  the  workers. 
Other  industries  moved  into  the  community  and  more 
families  settled  in  the  area,  among  whom  were  several 
Methodists.  A  local  preacher,  Jonathan  Wynn,  who  also 
moved  into  the  community,  began  holding  rehgious  ser- 
vices in  the  homes  of  the  Methodists  and  has  the  honor 
of  preaching  the  first  Methodist  sermon  in  Pottsville, 
although  the  exact  date  of  its  preaching  is  not  known. 
During  the  winter  of  1827  and  1828,  however,  the  Meth- 
odists were  visited  by  preachers  from  the  Lancaster  Cir- 
cuit: Ceorge  Cookman,  David  Best,  Samuel  Grace,  and 
John  Lednum. 

Preaching  services  began  to  be  held  regularly  in  a 
small  log  schoolhouse  on  North  Center  Street,  and  in  1828 
a  class  was  formed  of  thirteen  members.  Originally  served 
by  pastors  from  the  Lancaster  Circuit,  the  church  was 
organized  in  1829  with  sixty-seven  members  as  a  separate 
appointment  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference.  In  October 
1830,  the  first  church  building  was  dedicated,  a  stone 
structure  40  by  60  feet.  The  church  continued  to  grow  and 
some  of  its  laymen  assisted  in  the  establishment  of 
churches  in  neighboring  anthracite  communities,  particu- 
larly Port  Carbon  and  Minersville. 

In  1854  a  second  church  at  5th  and  Market  Streets 
was  begun  in  Pottsville  by  some  dissident  members  of 
First  Church,  and  it  became  known  as  Second  M.E. 
Church.  By  1857,  however,  the  two  churches  had  re- 
united. 

First  Church  continued  to  grow,  and  the  church  build- 
ing was  enlarged.  Finally  in  1898  the  site  of  the  present 
huge  gray  stone  edifice  was  purchased  for  $38,500. 
Ground  for  the  new  church  was  broken  in  1907  and 
the  cornerstone  was  laid  in  November  of  the  same  year. 
The  entire  cost  of  the  building  was  $126,500,  and  was 
paid  in  full  by  1916.  It  was  a  large  sum  to  have  been 
raised  in  those  days.  The  church  has  had  a  widening 
influence  in  this  section  of  the  Anthracite  Region.  Its 
leadership  is  greater  than  one  would  expect  of  a  member- 
ship of  about  1,200  persons. 

Frederick  E.  Maser 

POWELL,  THOMAS  (1872-1949),  Canadian  Methodist 
and  United  Church  of  Canada  minister,  was  born  in 
Radnor,  Herefordshire,  England,  on  March  5,   1872.   In 

1942 


1876  he  came  to  Canada  with  his  parents  and  was  edu- 
cated at  Almonte,  Ontario.  Originally  an  Anglican,  he 
joined   the   Epworth    League   and   became   a   Methodist. 

He  attended  McGill  University  and  Montreal  Wesleyan 
College.  Ordained  in  1899,  he  was  appointed  to  Olds  in 
the  Northwest  Territories.  Subsequently  he  served  in  var- 
ious charges  in  Alberta  until  in  1918  he  became  superin- 
tendent of  missions,  a  post  which  he  continued  to  hold 
after  Union.  He  retired  in  1942,  and  died  at  Calgary  on 
June  10,  1949. 

Powell  was  president  of  his  conference  in  1913  and 
1936.  He  was  a  commissioner  to  the  first  General  Council 
of  the  United  Church  and  to  several  subsequent  ones. 
The  doctorate  of  divinity  conferred  on  him  in  1928  by 
St.  Stephen's  College  was  indicative  of  the  esteem  in 
which  he  was  held  by  the  church  in  Alberta. 

G.  H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.  1903. 

J.  Riddell,  Middle  West.  1946. 

The  United  Church  Observer,  July  15,  1949.       C.  D.  Powell 

POWER,  JOHN  H.  (1798-1873),  American  minister,  was 
bom  on  March  15,  1798  in  Montgomery  County,  Ky.  and 
attended  common  schools  there.  He  was  admitted  on 
trial  to  the  Kentucky  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church 
in  1821  and  to  full  connnection  in  1823.  He  served 
churches  in  Kentucky,  Virginl\,  Ohio  and  Iowa  for 
eighteen  years  and  was  an  effective  presiding  elder  in 
Ohio  and  of  the  Burlington,  Muscatine  and  Keokuk  Dis- 
tricts of  the  Iowa  Conference  for  twenty-eight  years. 
From  1848-52  he  was  assistant  agent  for  the  Western 
Book  Concern  and  from  1854-55  he  was  in  a  super- 
numerary relationship  because  of  ill  health.  He  returned 
to  active  work  in  1865  and  continued  vigorously  until 
his  death  on  Jan.  25,  1873.  A  member  of  the  board  of 
trustees  of  Iowa  Wesleyan  University  1860-72,  he  acted 
as  president  of  the  board  1868-72,  and  was  influential  in 
the  expansion  of  the  university  and  the  public  school 
system  in  Iowa.  He  was  an  official  delegate  to  eight 
General  Conferences. 

Gaining  his  education  by  individual  effort,  he  taught 
himself  both  Greek  and  Hebrew.  He  was  noted  as  a 
preacher  of  power  and  insight  and  as  an  administrator 
for  methodical,  exact  attention  to  detail.  He  never  missed 
a  meeting  of  an  annual  conference  in  fifty-two  years. 
Current  religious  and  political  controversy  attracted  his 
attention  and  he  published  pamphlets  on:  Power  on  Uni- 
versalism;  DooUttle  and  Power;  Domestic  Piety  and  Let- 
ters to  Dr.  Smith  on  Slavery.  Ohio  Wesleyan  University 
granted  him  an  honorary  D.D.  in  1853. 

A.  W.  Haines.  Makers  of  Iowa  Methodism.  1900. 

Iowa  Wesleyan  College  Archives. 

Journal  and  Reports  of  tlie  Iowa  Annual  Conference,  1873. 

E.  H.  Waring.  Iowa  Annual  Conference.  1910. 

Louis  A.  Haselmayer 

POYTHRESS,  FRANCIS  (1732-1818),  American  minister, 
was  bom  in  Virginia  in  1732  and  converted  there  in 
1772  under  Devereux  Jarratt.  He  was  received  on  trial 
in  1775,  and  after  preaching  ten  years  in  Virginia  and 
Maryland  he  served  fifteen  years  (1786-1800)  with  dis- 
tinction as  a  presiding  elder.  Although  accustomed  to 
settled  life,  he  uncomplainingly  endured  frontier  hardships 
to  establish  Methodism  in  Kentucky  and  to  sustain 
Bethel  Academy.  Worn  by  his  labors,  he  sank  in  1801 


WORLD   METHODISM 

into  a  tragic  mental  illness  and  died  about  1818  in  Jessa- 
mine County,  Ky. 

J.  E.  Armstrong,  Old  Baltimore  Conference.  1907. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

R.   N.   Price,  Holston.   1906-14.  Edwin   Schell 


E.  W.  Praetorius 

PRAETORIUS,  ELMER  WESLEY  (1882-1966),  American 
E.U.B.  bishop,  was  bom  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  Oct.  1,  1882. 
He  was  graduated  from  North  Central  College  and 
Evangelical  Theological  Seminary,  Naperville,  111. 
He  was  ordained  a  minister  of  the  Indiana  Conference 
of  The  Evangelical  Association  and  through  the  course 
of  denominational  unions  served  in  The  Evangelical 
Church  and  The  E.U.B.  Church.  He  ministered  as  pastor 
of  congregations  in  Louisville,  Ky.;  Terre  Haute  and 
Elkhart,  Ind. 

Sixteen  years  as  Executive  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Christian  Education  followed  his  service  in  the  parish 
ministry.  In  1934  he  was  elected  bishop  and  quadrennially 
thereafter  was  re-elected  by  general  conference  until  his 
retirement  in  1954.  He  died  in  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  Feb.  2, 
1966. 

As  pastor,  educator  and  bishop  he  prosecuted  his 
vocation  with  zeal,  sincerity  and  joyous  faith  in  God.  His 
dihgent  efforts  as  a  preacher,  expounding  the  Word  of 
God  which  he  loved,  were  illuminating  and  dynamic  and 
persuasive.  He  promoted  programs  of  Christian  Education 
which  enhanced  that  cause  at  all  levels  of  denominational 
life.  He  rendered  inestimable  service  with  his  painstaking 
editorial  work  in  the  preparation  and  publication  of  suc- 
cessive denominational  Disciplines. 


Church  and  Home,  April  15,  1966. 


Paul  H.  Milleb 


PRAIRIE  VILLAGE,  KANSAS,  U.S.A.,  Asbury  Church,  is 

located  in  a  rapidly  growing  suburban  area  in  Kansas 
City.  Founded  in  October  1952,  under  the  part-time 
direction  of  Mills  M.  Anderson,  the  first  full-time  minister, 
Al  Hager  was  appointed  in  1955  at  which  time  the  church 


PRAYER  MEETINGS 

moved  into  its  first  unit  or  educational  building.  Asbury 
Church  has  now  completed  its  facilities  with  a  sanctuary, 
educational  building,  ofiBce-educational  wing,  and  chapel 
unit.  Its  membership  in  1970  was  2,575. 

Asbury  Church  has  been  a  pioneer  in  the  small  group 
movement.  The  life  of  the  church  is  honeycombed  with 
prayer  groups,  research  groups,  skeptic  groups,  and  spiri- 
tual life  encounter  groups. 

Asbury  Church  began  the  one-year  lay-missionary  pro- 
gram to  the  Inner-City  in  1962-64,  which  was  later 
adopted  as  the  program  of  the  1964  General  Confer- 
ence. 

The  church  is  now  in  the  process  of  developing  a 
Clinical  Pastoral  Training  program.  It  has  a  relationship 
to  St.  Paul  School  of  Theology  in  terms  of  its  super- 
visory capacity  of  seminary  students  in  the  life  of  the 
local  church. 

The  original  two-part  saddlebag  Bibles  of  Bishop 
Francis  Asbury  are  owned  and  displayed  in  a  special 
glass  case  at  Asbury  Church. 

PRATHER'S  MEETINGHOUSE  in  Iredell  County,  N.  C. 
was  organized  before  1800.  Francis  Asbury  visited  it  in 
1797  and  1799,  referring  to  it  the  first  time  as  "the 
church  in  the  Forks  of  the  Yadkin,"  and  the  second  time 
as  "Prather's  Meetinghouse."  Land  for  the  church  was 
given  by  Bazil  Prather  in  a  deed  dated  1800,  as  he,  his 
family,  and  some  neighbors  were  moving  to  southern 
Indiana  in  which  locality  he  became  a  leader  in  early 
Methodism.  The  name  of  Prather's  Meetinghouse  was 
changed  to  Mt.  Bethel,  and  it  continues  as  a  work  on  the 
Harmony  Charge,  Statesville  District.  In  1969  Mt.  Bethel 
reported  fifty-six  members  and  property  valued  at  $20,695. 

F.  Asbury,  journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

Minutes  of  the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference. 

Homer  Keeveb 

PRATT,  M.  A.  RUGBY  (1875-1946),  New  Zealand  min- 
ister, was  born  in  Gisborne,  New  Zealand,  but  grew  up 
in  Tasmania.  He  served  as  a  home  missonary,  entered  the 
theological  college  in  Melbourne,  and  then  came  to  New 
Zealand.  For  twenty-five  years  he  was  a  circuit  minister 
and  was  known  as  a  gifted  organizer  and  also  as  a  close 
and  earnest  student.  In  1927  he  began  a  term  of  nineteen 
years  as  connexional  secretary,  and  during  this  time  he 
considerably  enlarged  the  scope  of  the  service  rendered 
by  various  departments  to  the  church.  In  1923,  he  visited 
Tonga  and  helped  to  reunite  the  church  there  in  a  spirit 
of  harmony.  He  was  keenly  interested  in  the  movement 
for  Bible-in-schools  and  prohibition.  He  wrote  Pioneering 
Days  in  Southern  Maoriland  (London:  Epworth  Press, 
1932),  and  was  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  Historical  Society. 
He  died  in  Christchurch  on  March  6,  1946. 

Minutes  of  the  New  Zealand  Methodist  Conference,  1947. 

WrLLiAM  T.  Blight 


PRAYER.  (See  Worship.) 

PRAYER  MEETINGS  which  began  in  early  Methodism  as 
informal  gatherings  of  Christians,  came  in  time  to  be  in 
Methodist  Churches,  especially  in  those  in  America, 
stated,  formal  mid-week  evening  services.  Some  historians 
trace  the  origin  of  Methodism  to  a  prayer  meeting  group 
(the  Holy  Club),  in  which  there  were  earnest  inquirers 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


after  a  more  complete  Christian  life.  The  General  Rules 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church  state  in  their  introduc- 
tion, "In  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1739  eight  or  ten 
persons  came  to  Mr.  Wesley,  in  London,  who  appeared 
to  be  deeply  convinced  of  sin,  and  earnestly  groaning  for 
redemption.  They  desired,  as  did  two  or  three  more  the 
next  day,  that  he  would  spend  some  time  with  them  in 
prayer,  and  advise  them  how  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come  which  they  saw  continually  hanging  over  their 
heads.  That  he  might  have  more  time  for  this  great  work, 
he  appointed  a  day  when  they  might  all  come  together, 
which  from  thenceforward  they  did  every  week,  namely, 
on  Thursday,  in  the  evening.  To  these,  and  as  many  more 
as  desired  to  join  with  them  (for  their  numbers  increased 
daily),  he  gave  those  advices  from  time  to  time  which  he 
judged  most  needful  for  them,  and  they  always  concluded 
their  meetings  with  prayer  suited  to  their  several  neces- 
sities." {Discipline,  UMC,  1968.) 

Wesley  himself  indicated  that  this  was  "the  rise  of 
the  United  Society  first  in  Europe  and  then  in  America." 
The  Methodist  societies  at  first  met  apart  from  regular 
church  hours  for  their  preaching  services,  and  also  in 
general  for  their  prayer  services. 

After  organization  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  America, 
CLASS  meetings  and  prayer  meetings  continued  of  course 
to  be  held,  though  by  now  regular  Sunday  preaching 
services  had  begun.  However,  there  grew  in  local  churches 
as  they  were  estabhshed  at  first  the  custom  and  then  the 
rule  to  have  a  mid-week  evening  prayer  sei"vice.  This 
came  to  be  on  Thursday  evening  over  a  large  section 
of  the  church,  especially  in  the  North,  while  Wednesday 
evening  came  to  be  the  usual  time  in  the  South.  Prayer 
meetings  proved  to  be  a  great  religious  service  to  the 
church,  as  in  them  not  only  older  members  were  ex- 
pected and  did  take  part  but  younger  ones  also  frequently 
commenced  publicly  the  exercise  of  their  gifts  and  leader- 
ship in  prayer  and  worship. 

As  the  prayer  meeting  was  held  other  than  at  the 
regular  church  service  period,  and  was  unknown  in  the 
older  liturgical  churches  as  a  formal  part  of  the  church's 
program,  Methodists  were  considered  by  some  to  be  in- 
novators and  pioneers  in  thus  dignifying  a  service  of  wor- 
ship apart  from  the  regular  ordinances  of  the  church.  "In 
the  United  States  and  especially  on  its  frontier  where  there 
was  no  ritualistic  established  church  to  preserve  the  'dead 
forms,'  the  conventional  means  of  grace  and  worship  had 
little  chance  in  competition  with  the  prayer  meeting  and 
the  revival."  (Bucke,  III,  610.)  The  same  authority  says 
that  Phihp  Schaff  was  more  horrified  at  the  liturgical,  than 
at  the  intellectual  and  doctrinal  state  of  Methodism  in 
America  when  he  said,  "In  worship,  Methodism  is  not 
satisfied  with  the  usual  divinely  ordained  means  of  grace. 
It  really  little  understands  the  use  of  the  Sacraments.  .  .  . 
It  has  far  more  confidence  in  subjective  means  and  excit- 
ing impressions,  than  in  the  more  quiet  and  unobserved 
but  surer  work  of  the  old  church  system  of  educational 
religion."  (ibid).  Schaff  further  states  that  he  had  been 
prepared  to  recommend  that  the  formalized  churches  of 
Germany  consider  the  adaptation  of  the  prayer  meeting 
to  their  needs,  but  after  he  came  to  America  and  saw  the 
usual  prayer  meeting  in  action,  he  was  not  so  impressed. 

During  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
prayer  meeting  as  an  institution  of  Methodist  Church  life 
grew  in  importance,  especially  after  class  meetings  as  such 
had  begun  to  die  away.  As  travel  became  easier  and  the 
whole  congregation  could  be  centered  about  each  indivi- 


dual church,  it  was  easier  to  gather  the  congregation  to- 
gether for  a  mid-week  prayer  meeting  than  to  continue 
to  depend  upon  scattered  classes  as  had  been  the  case  in 
early  pioneer  days,  when  Methodist  families  were  sepa- 
rated— sometimes  at  a  considerable  distance — from  each 
other.  The  prayer  meeting  thus  came  into  rather  full 
flower  late  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  Bishop  Simp- 
so.N  says  it  was  ".  .  .  of  great  religious  service  to  the 
church.  ...  It  has  often  been  observed  that  wherever  a 
genuine  revival  has  prevailed  the  social  means  of  grace 
have  also  more  or  less  revived,  and  prayer  meetings 
especially  are  at  once  established." 

Methodism  in  America  influenced  other  evangelical 
denominations  with  its  prayer  meetings,  and  these  also 
adopted  the  prayer  meeting  plan  on  a  nation-wide  scale. 
However,  with  the  increasing  complexity  and  tensions  of 
life  which  have  come  about  toward  the  middle  of  the 
twentieth  century,  prayer  meetings  have  declined  greatly 
in  influence,  and  indeed  in  many  places  have  been  en- 
tirely discontinued.  Nevertheless,  the  Book  of  Discipline 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church  still  names  as  one  of 
the  duties  of  the  pastor  in  charge  "to  hold  or  appoint 
prayer  meetings,  love  feasts,  and  watch  night  meetings, 
wherever  advisable." 

Certain  ministers  make  a  feature  of  their  prayer  meet- 
ing services,  and  many  are  known  to  succeed  well  in 
conducting  this  type  of  worship.  Others,  especially  in 
large  churches,  have  discontinued  the  formal  weekly 
prayer  meeting,  though  encouraging  local  groups  and 
organizations  of  the  church  to  meet  for  prayer  and  wor- 
ship in  connection  with  their  other  duties. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

PREACHING.  British  Methodism.  One  reason  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  eighteenth-century  evangelical  revival  was  a 
change  in  pulpit  style.  George  Whitefield  and  John 
Wesley  and  their  imitators  dropped  the  rather  impersonal 
style  which  had  developed  in  the  time  of  Tillotson,  and 
instead  made  a  direct  assault  on  the  minds  and  feelings 
of  their  hearers,  seeking  to  convert  them  on  the  spot. 
Simplicity  returned:  Wesley  constanUy  advised  his  preach- 
ers to  speak  in  the  language  of  the  common  people. 

At  least  one  reason  for  this  was  that  eighteenth  century 
Methodist  preachers  often  spoke  in  the  open  air,  where 
elaborate  periods  and  over-subtlety  or  argument  were 
wasted.  Open-air  preaching  was  a  novelty  in  the  period; 
John  Wesley  began  to  preach  outdoors  when  he  was 
denied  the  use  of  the  Anglican  pulpits;  much  street 
preaching  took  place  in  the  effort  to  form  new  societies 
in  places  where  there  was  no  Methodist  building  avail- 
able; in  the  early  nineteenth  century  the  tradition  was 
continued  by  the  Bible  Christians  and  the  Primitive 
Methodists  who  imitated  the  American  camp  meeting, 
and  spoke  to  country  audiences  from  farm-carts  in  the 
fields;  Hugh  Bourne  stressed  the  importance  of  proclaim- 
ing the  Gospel  in  the  street,  in  order  that  those  who  re- 
fused to  come  to  the  chapels  should  have  heard  it;  belief 
in  the  value  of  "open-air  evangelism,"  as  it  is  now  often 
called,  has  remained  even  in  twentieth  century  British 
Methodism.  Nevertheless,  most  Methodist  sermons  have 
been  preached  indoors,  in  cottages  as  well  as  chapels,  and 
the  best  eighteenth  century  Methodist  preachers  revived 
the  Puritan  tradition  of  preaching,  in  which  the  preacher 
developed  his  own  spiritual  experience  for  the  spiritual 


WORLD  METHODISM 


benefit  of  his  congregation.  The  eighteenth  century  ser- 
mon often  lasted  more  than  an  hour;  the  shorter  sermon 
seems  to  have  come  in  the  later  nineteenth  century,  when 
Hugh  Price  Hughes  often  spoke  for  about  twenty  min- 
utes. Between  1791  and  1860  the  style  of  Methodist 
preaching  degenerated,  often  became  very  florid  (cf. 
MORLEY  Punshon).  The  reasons  for  the  change  remain 
obscure,  but  certainly  early  nineteenth  century  Methodist 
preachers  suffered  from  their  efforts  at  self-improvement. 
Thus,  in  An  Essay  on  the  Christian  Ministry  (1828),  by 
Jonathan  Edmundson,  written  as  a  guide  to  young  preach- 
ers before  the  start  of  theological  colleges,  the  author 
spoke  of  the  necessity  of  studying  rhetoric,  which  "will 
enrich  your  style,  enable  you  to  deliver  your  discourses 
with  gracefulness,  and  fix  the  attention  of  your  hearers." 
Edmundson  recommended  Claude  on  the  Composition  of 
the  Sermon  (this  was  probably  the  influence  of  the  Angli- 
can Evangelical  Charles  Simeon,  who  popularized  the 
book  in  the  Church  of  England);  and  Gibbon's  Rhetoric: 
"Gibbon's  Rhetoric  claims  your  first  attention.  He  gives 
you  a  clear  account  of  the  tropes  and  figures  in  their 
origin  and  powers;  with  a  variety  of  rules  to  escape 
errors  and  blemishes  and  to  attain  propriety  and  elegance 
in  composition.  Examine  his  work  with  care,  copy  all 
his  definitions,  and  commit  them  to  memory." 

The  reaction  against  this  tradition  was  part  of  the 
Forward  Movement  from  about  1880.  Hugh  Price 
Hughes,  Samuel  Collier,  Luke  Wiseman,  and  others 
built  up  large  popular  audiences  by  a  return  to  more 
direct,  simple  praching;  they  also  widened  the  scope  of 
the  pulpit,  speaking  on  social  and  political  themes  more 
often  than  had  been  customary  in  the  past.  A  modified 
version  of  the  rhetorical  tradition  continued  in  William 
Watkinson  and  F.  W.  Macdonald.  At  the  close  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  day  of  the  popular  preacher 
reached  its  zenith;  leading  Methodist  preachers  had  con- 
gi-egations  which  sometimes  exceeded  two  thousand.  At 
the  same  time  thousands  of  Methodist  ministerial  and 
lay  preachers  continued  to  deliver  sermons  of  a  biblical 
and  practical  kind  which  would  have  seemed  familiar 
in  the  eighteenth  century.  In  the  twentieth  century  the 
preacher's  prestige  and  audience  declined.  Biblical  criti- 
cism afi^ected  the  situation  deeply.  The  rhetorical  tradition 
became  rarer  in  a  climate  which  grew  more  pragmatic 
and  doubtful  of  authority.  W.  E.  Sangster  was  the  most 
recent  Methodist  in  this  tradition;  he  also  wrote  much  on 
the  technique  of  preaching.  Donald  Soper  continued  the 
tradition  of  commenting  on  social  and  political  affairs. 
It  was  often  said  in  the  early  1960's,  however,  that  the 
day  of  the  popular  preacher  had  ended.  Television  was 
replacing  the  church  service  as  the  preacher's  medium  of 
contact  with  society  in  general;  it  is  too  early  to  say 
how  successfully  Methodism  would  adapt  to  this  new 
opportunity. 

American  Methodism.  The  estabhshment  of  Methodist 
Societies  in  America  dates  from  the  preaching  of  P*hilip 
Embury  and  Captain  Thomas  Webb  in  New  York  in 
1766,  and  from  Jesse  Lee's  work  on  the  pioneer  circuit 
in  Virginia  in  1'789.  Robert  Strawbridge,  an  Irish  im- 
migrant itinerating  in  Maryland,  Delaware,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Virginia,  1773-75,  called  forth  the  first  native 
American  preachers:  Philip  Catch,  Freeborn  Garrett- 
SON,  and  William  Watters.  From  the  preaching  of  such 
devoted  men,  unordained  and  largely  untrained,  grew 
the  Methodism  which  moved  forward  with  the  earliest 
settlers  on  every  advancing  frontier. 


Until  late  in  the  nineteenth  century,  this  preaching  was 
almost  exclusively  evangelistic,  designed  to  foster  the  three 
steps  commonly  accepted  as  structural  to  salvation — 
awakening.  Justification,  and  Sanctification.  The  first 
two  steps  supplied  the  objective  of  preaching  in  mixed 
gatherings  of  believers  and  unbelievers;  the  last  provided 
the  substance  of  sermons  at  love  feasts  and  other  more 
intimate  services  of  the  faithful.  The  preaching  was  bibli- 
cal in  method;  the  preacher  was  expected  to  "take  a  text" 
and  to  base  both  the  structure  and  content  of  his  message 
upon  it.  Addresses  which  did  not  meet  this  qualification 
were  carefully  designated  "exhortations"  or  "discourses" 
to  differentiate  them  from  sermons. 

Such  preaching  led  to  great  revivals  such  as  developed 
in  Virginia  in  the  years  around  1772.  The  Virginia  revival 
was  traceable  to  the  preaching  of  Devereux  Jarrett,  a 
minister  of  the  Established  Church  who,  having  gone  to 
England  to  be  ordained,  had  come  under  the  influence 
of  John  Wesley.  Remaining  in  the  Established  Church, 
he  preached  in  a  manner  largely  Methodist  in  doctrine 
and  spirit.  These  frontier  revivals  produced  the  "sacra- 
mental meeting,"  in  which  preaching  continued  daily  for 
weeks  on  end  and  in  which  preachers  became  adept  at 
reaching  crowds  of  10,000  or  more.  Following  the  revival 
of  1797-1805,  the  camp  meeting,  a  western  development 
of  the  "sacramental  meeting,"  achieved  such  popularity 
that  by  1812  Methodists  were  holding  at  least  400  such 
meetings  annually.  Although  there  were  extravagant  emo- 
tional outbursts,  these  were  discouraged  by  the  circuit 
preachers,  as  by  John  Wesley  and  Francis  Asbury  before 
them. 

Early  American  Methodist  preaching  was  almost  en- 
tirely the  work  of  circuit  riders,  many  of  whom  were 
assigned  to  territories  requiring  five  or  six  weeks  of  con- 
tinuous travel  and  daily  preaching  to  cover.  In  1803  a 
preacher  was  given  the  State  of  Illinois  as  his  charge;  in 
1806  another  was  assigned  simply  to  Missouri.  In  such  a 
ministry  Francis  Asbury  traveled  270,000  miles  and 
preached  more  than  16,000  sermons;  on  the  East  Jersey 
circuit,  near  the  turn  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Ezekiel 
Cooper  preached  345  times  in  a  single  year.  In  Illinois, 
at  the  same  period,  Peter  Cartwbight  won  a  reputation 
for  his  witty,  picturesque,  resourceful  extempore  preach- 
ing and  for  his  "muscular  evangelism" — equally  ready  to 
struggle  for  a  man's  soul  or  to  beat  him  in  a  fight  if  he 
interfered  with  the  free  expression  of  the  gospel.  Supple- 
menting the  circuit  riders,  frontier  farmers,  serving  as 
LOCAL  preachers,  shepherded  congregations  between  cir- 
cuit visits,  or  gathered  the  initial  congregation  in  advance 
of  the  coming  of  the  itinerant  preacher. 

With  little  formal  schooling,  these  early  preachers  were 
uneducated  only  in  the  sense  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
uneducated,  as  William  Warren  Sw:eet  observed. 
Carrying  their  few  books  in  their  saddlebags,  they  studied 
as  they  rode.  Preaching  his  way  around  a  circuit  so  far- 
flung  that  a  dozen  sermons  a  year  would  have  guarded 
amply  against  repetition  to  the  same  congregation,  Ezekiel 
Cooper  recorded  in  his  journal  the  use  of  seventy-three 
diflferent  texts  in  a  single  year.  The  outhnes  in  his  journal 
show  a  remarkable  penetration  in  exegesis  and  an  inven- 
tive variety  in  treatment.  It  was  not  until  1816  that  the 
General  Conference  prescribed  a  course  of  study  in 
which  presiding  elders  were  to  supervise  candidates  for 
the  ministry.  Yet  by  1878  the  frontier  had  produced,  in 
Matthew    Simpson,    a    national   figure    known    for    his 


PREDIGERSEMINAR 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


eloquence,  who  made  a  worthy  contribution  to  the  dis- 
tinguished Lyman  Beecher  Lectureship  in  preaching. 

Proclamation  of  Christian  perfection  declined  after 
1840,  as  the  church  found  a  more  established  life  in 
cities  and  towns,  with  a  somewhat  more  formal  worship. 
In  protest,  organized  emphasis  on  "holiness"  was  pro- 
moted in  many  pulpits.  A  National  Camp  Meeting  As- 
sociation for  the  Promotion  of  Holiness,  founded  in  1867, 
had  its  principal  strength  among  Methodists.  A  "holiness" 
revival  swept  considerable  areas  in  1880.  Preaching 
tended  to  divide  between  this  emphasis  and  the  growing 
modernism,  but  the  "holiness"  movement  left  a  limited 
influence  within  the  church  as  it  gave  its  strength  to  the 
establishment  of  separate  denominational  bodies  devoted 
to  this  doctrine. 

The  opening  of  the  twentieth  century  found  a  social 
message  taking  its  place  in  Methodist  pulpits,  led  by  the 
notable  preaching  of  such  men  as  Herbert  Welch, 
Francis  J.  McConnell,  Frank  Mason  North,  and 
Harris  Franklin  Rall.  It  was  reflected  in  the  adoption 
of  the  first  Social  Creed  of  the  Church  in  1908.  In 
1905-1906  Charles  Reynolds  Brown  delivered  his  first 
series  of  Lyman  Beecher  lectures,  devoting  them  to  The 
Social  Message  of  the  Modern  Pulpit.  Within  the  span  of 
a  generation,  other  Methodists  called  to  that  important 
homiletic  forum  took  up  similar  themes:  Francis  J.  Mc- 
Connell treating  The  Prophetic  Ministry;  G.  Bromley 
Oxnam,  Preaching  in  A  Revolutionary  Age;  and  Ernest 
Fremont  Tittle,  Jesus  After  Nineteen  Centuries,  with  a 
stress — always  present  in  Tittle's  preaching — on  the  social 
impact  of  Jesus.  Such  preaching  fostered  a  new  social 
conscience  in  the  church. 

With  the  development  of  electronic  mass  media,  preach- 
ing took  to  the  airways.  Ralph  W.  Sockman's  long  min- 
istry in  the  National  Radio  Pulpit  dramatized  the  use  of 
that  medium  by  great  numbers  of  preachers  across  the 
country,  who  preached  regularly  through  more  local 
facihties.  Led  by  the  work  of  the  Television,  Radio  and 
Film  Commission  (TRAFCO),  ministers  in  the  1960's 
were  learning  to  use  the  more  di£Bcult  medium  of  televi- 
sion. 

After  a  generation  in  which  preaching  had  been  mostly 
topical,  the  1950's  and  1960's  saw  the  return  of  an 
emphasis  on  biblical  preaching  in  theological  seminaries; 
with  the  growing  concern  for  the  hermeneutic  problem  in 
the  theological  world  there  were  indications  that  strong 
biblical  preaching  might  dominate  the  pulpits  of  the  final 
third  of  the  twentieth  century. 

Batsell  Barrett  Baxter,  The  Heart  of  the  Yale  Lectures.  New 
York:  The  Macmillan  Company,  1947. 
R.  D.  Clark,  Matthew  Simpson.  1956. 

James  McGraw,  Great  Evangelical  Preachers  of  Yesterday. 
Nashville:  Abingdon  Press,  1961. 

Lester   Buryl   Soberer,   Ezekiel   Cooper,   1763-1847,  An   Early 
American  Methodist  Leader.  Unpublished  doctoral  dissertation: 
Garrett  Theological  Seminary  Library. 
W.  W.  Sweet,  Methodism  in  American  History.  1933. 
Ernest    Trice    Thompson,    Changing    Emphases    in    American 
Preaching.  Philadelphia:  Westminster  Press,  1943.  John  Kent 

Merrill  R.  Abbey 

PREDIGERSEMINAR  (The  Theological  Seminary  of  the 
United  Methodist  Church  of  Germany)  is  at  Frankfurt/ 
Main.  Here  in  1968  the  Predigerseminar  der  Method- 
istenkirche  and  the  Predigerseminar  der  Evangelischen 
Gemeinschaft  (EUB  Church)  in  Reutlingen  were  united. 


The  Predigerseminar  der  Methodistenkirche  was  opened 
in  1858  by  L.  S.  Jacoby  at  Bremen.  The  first  students 
were  two  young  Germans  and  one  Swiss  who  felt  the 
call  to  preach.  After  almost  ten  years  in  cramped  quarters, 
the  seminary  was  transferred  to  Frankfurt.  The  new  build- 


Seminaby,  Frankfurt,  Germany 

ing  was  made  possible  by  a  gift  of  $25,000  by  the  New 
York  textile  merchant,  John  T.  Martin,  after  whom  the 
school  was  named  "Martins  Mission  Anstalt."  Frankfurt 
was  chosen  because  of  its  central  geographical  position. 

The  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  proved  fruit- 
ful for  the  seminary,  which  served  the  needs  of  a  growing 
Methodism  well.  The  faculty  included  German,  Swiss, 
and  American  professors.  W.  F.  Warren  served  on  the 
faculty  from  1861-66  and  went  to  Boston  University 
in  the  United  States;  his  successor  was  J.  F.  Hurst 
(1866-71),  later  to  become  bishop  in  the  United  States 
and  the  author  of  valuable  publications.  While  the  Frank- 
furt theological  seminary  was  serving  the  needs  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  another  theological  school  was  training 
Wesleyan  Methodist  ministers  in  south  Germany.  When 
the  Methodisms  of  American  and  British  background  were 
amalgamated  (1897),  the  seminary  in  Frankfurt  became 
the  training  center  for  all  Methodist  ministers.  A  fine  new 
building  was  completed  in  1914,  but  before  it  could  be 
dedicated,  the  First  World  War  broke  out.  German  theo- 
logical students  were  drafted  into  the  army;  only  the 
Swiss  men  temporarily  continued  their  work.  A  major 
part  of  the  building  was  commandeered  for  a  mihtary 
hospital.  Taking  on  new  life  in  1920,  the  seminary  began 
one  of  its  most  fruitful  decades.  The  new  president, 
F.  H.  Otto  Melle,  was  a  superb  administrator.  Enroll- 
ments rose  from  twenty-three  in  1920  to  a  high  of  eighty- 
eight  in  1928.  During  this  period  the  school  trained  not 
only  Germans,  Swiss,  and  Austrians,  as  it  still  does,  but 
Bulgarians,  Hungarians,  Estonians,  Finns,  Lithuanians, 
Latvians,  and  Yugoslavs.  There  was  even  a  Chinese 
graduate  student.  There  have  been  exchange  students 
also  from  Argentina,  the  United  States,  Japan,  Crete, 
and  Great  Britain  in  recent  years. 

Perhaps  the  seminary's  most  difficult  period  began  in 
1933  with  the  ascendancy  of  Hitler  and  the  Nazis.  Young 
men  facing  two  years  of  army  duty  could  make  no  plans 
for  seminary  training,  and  the  theological  course  had  to 
be  shortened  to  four  years.  Apart  from  three  men  who 
did  not  become  ministers,  all  students  succeeded  in  hold- 
ing to  the  church's  viewpoint  on  public  life  and  pastoral 
care.  In  1936,  Melle  was  elected  the  first  German  Meth- 
odist bishop;  his  successor  at  the  seminary  became  J.  W. 
E.  Sommer.  Then  came  1939  and  war.  After  a  few  months 


WORLD   METHODISM 

the  seminary  found  itself  on  an  uncertain  basis.  Students 
attended  only  between  campaigns  when  their  military 
service  permitted.  Medical  and  dental  military  units  took 
over  some  of  the  seminary  rooms,  thus  safeguarding  it 
from  Gestapo  control.  Some  damage  was  done  to  the 
buildings.  After  the  war  reconstruction  proceeded  slowly. 
Sommer  having  been  elected  a  bishop  in  1946,  Friedrich 
WuNDERLiCH  succeeded  him  as  president.  The  seminary 
recovered  with  the  help  of  American  Methodist  gifts. 
Enrollment  reached  fifty-four  in  1951.  Then  in  1952  an- 
other blow  fell.  The  seminary  was  cut  off  from  serving  the 
forty-five  percent  of  German  Methodists  in  the  Eastern 
zone,  as  it  had  previously  been  cut  off  from  Methodists 
in  the  Balkans.  The  East-zone  Methodists,  however,  were 
able  to  set  up  their  own  theological  school  at  Bad 
Klosterlausnitz,  now  under  the  leadership  of  Direktor 
Hans  Witzel.  Here  both  Methodist  and  Evangelical 
United  Brethren  students  are  trained.  In  1952  Bishop 
Sommer  died,  and  Wunderlich  was  elected  to  the 
episcopacy.  In  August  1953,  C.  Ernst  Sommer,  son 
of  the  late  bishop,  became  president  of  the  seminary.  In 
May  1968  C.  E.  Sommer  was  elected  the  first  bishop  of 
the  United  Methodist  Church  in  Germany. 

Predigerseminar  der  Evangelischen  Gemeinschaft 
(EUB  Church)  in  Reutlingen  was  opened  July  25,  1877. 
The  first  director  was  John  Kaechele.  Until  1905  the  attics 
of  the  Ebenezer-Church  were  used  as  classrooms  and 
dormitories.  Kaechele  was  succeeded  by  G.  Heinmiller 
(1886-91).  In  1891  John  Schempp,  Sr.  was  elected 
director.  The  character  of  the  theological  school  was 
very  much  influenced  by  him  during  his  almost  thirty 
years  of  leadership.  In  1905  a  big  and  modern  building 
was  erected  with  large  classrooms,  library,  dormitories  for 
the  students,  flats  for  the  teachers  and  adjoining  rooms. 
When  the  building  was  dedicated  in  December  1905  the 
lord  mayor  declared  the  seminary  on  a  hill  overlooking 
the  city  to  be  an  embellishment  of  Reutlingen,  the  old 
Freetown  of  the  Reich.  The  seminiary  trained  the  min- 
isters of  the  Annual  Conferences  of  Germany  and 
Switzerland  and  during  some  years  after  the  First  World 
War,  also  Estonians  and  Lithuanians.  The  most  fruitful 
time  of  the  school  was  during  the  years  1925-30  when 
fifty  students  were  enrolled.  During  the  Second  World 
War  the  seminary  was  occupied  for  military  purposes  but 
in  1946  it  was  reopened  under  the  directorship  of  John 
Schempp,  Jr.  with  six  students.  In  1952  he  was  succeeded 
by  Reinhold  Kuecklich.  With  the  help  of  the  mother- 
church  in  the  U.S.A.  the  buildings  were  enlarged  and 
the  enrollment  was  raised  to  thirty-four  students.  After 
1954  the  students  of  the  German  Democratic  Republic 
had  to  do  their  studies  in  the  east.  Together  with  The 
Methodist  Church,  a  new  seminary  in  Klosterlausnitz  was 
founded.  When  Kuecklich  retired  in  1966,  Karl  Steckel 
was  elected  director  of  the  seminary  in  Reutlingen. 

After  several  years  of  preparation  and  careful  deliber- 
ations together  at  the  union  of  the  E.U.B.  Church  and 
The  Methodist  Church,  the  two  seminaries  were  united, 
Sept.  15,  1968,  in  Frankfurt/Main.  Karl  Steckel  was  elected 
the  new  president.  There  were  forty-one  students  and 
six  full-time  professors  of  whom  two  were  Swiss.  As  a 
united  seminary,  the  Frankfurt  theological  school  has 
moved  expectantly  into  its  second  century,  ministering 
and  witnessing  to  the  indestructibility  of  the  Christian 
faith,  so  that  young  men  shall  go  forth,  trained  to  meet 
every    need    a    modem    minister    may    encounter,    and 


PREST,    CHARLES 

strengthened  in  their  faith  and  their  sense  of  divine 
calling. 

C.  Ernst  Sommer 
Kabl  Steckel 

PRESCOTT,  C.  J.  (1857-1946),  able  scholar  and  educator, 
was  bom  at  Bridport,  England,  the  son  of  a  Wesleyan 
minister.  He  was  educated  at  Kingswood  School  where 
he  passed  through  the  usual  six  years  course,  but  being 
Head  Boy  was  allowed  to  remain  two  additional  years. 

He  won  the  Dux  and  Arithmetic  Medals  twice,  and 
twice  gained  the  Medal  for  Greek  Testament.  He  passed 
the  Junior  Oxford  Local  Examination  Twice  and  sub- 
sequently gained  a  scholarship  for  four  years. 

In  1873  he  proceeded  to  Worcester  College,  Oxford, 
where  he  completed  his  course  in  1880,  taking  his  B.A. 
degree  and  gaining  honors  in  Mathematics.  He  received 
his  M.A.  degree  in  1893. 

He  was  accepted  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  and 
appointed  assistant  tutor  at  Handsworth  Theological 
Institution. 

In  1882  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  join  the  Confer- 
ence in  New  South  Wales  and  was  stationed  at  Par- 
ramatta  for  three  years,  during  which  time  he  acted  as 
tutor  in  Classics  and  General  Literature  at  the  Provisional 
Theological  Institution  at  Stanmore. 

In  1886  he  was  appointed  Headmaster  of  the  Method- 
ist Ladies'  College  at  Burwood  and  in  1900  was  made 
Headmaster  at  Newington  College,  Stanmore,  which  posi- 
tion he  held  until  his  retirement. 

In  1910  he  was  elected  President  of  the  New  South 
Wales  Conference. 

When  the  new  Methodist  Hymn  Book  was  under  revi- 
sion he  gave  valuable  service  as  a  member  of  the  Revision 
Committee. 

In  1912  he  was  honored  with  the  D.D.  degree  by 
Emory  University,  U.S.A. 

He  was  the  author  of  three  books:  Romance  of  a 
School,  Matters  for  Methodists,  and  Methodist  Chiirch- 
manship — Plaint  and  Flea. 

Australian  Editomal  Committee 

PRESIDING  ELDER.    (See  Superintendent.) 

PRESS  AND  INFORMATION  SERVICE,  METHODIST  (Brit- 
ish) was  formed  as  a  result  of  a  decision  by  the  1948 
British  Conference.  Its  function  is  to  provide  an  authorita- 
tive channel  of  communication  with  the  press  when  they 
are  seeking  information  and  guidance  about  Methodist 
affairs.  It  is  responsible  for  providing  newspapers  with 
news  about  Methodism  and  with  the  views  expressed  by 
organizations  of  the  church  and  its  leaders  on  questions 
of  current  interest.  The  service  is  under  the  general  direc- 
tion of  the  Connexional  Editor,  who  presents  its  report 
to  Conference,  but  a  lay  journalist  carries  out  the  actual 
work  to  ensure  that  matter  submitted  conforms  to  news- 
paper needs. 

ToM  Goodall 

PREST,  CHARLES  (1806-1875),  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist, had  great  influence  in  the  organization  of  Wes- 
leyanism  after  the  mid-nineteenth  century  disputes.  He 
was    born    on    Oct.    16,    1806,    at    Bath,    Somerset,    and 


PRETTYMAN.    FORREST   JOHNSTON 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Charles  Prest 

entered  the  Wesleyan  ministry  in  1829.  President  of  the 
Conference  in  1862,  he  is  best  known  for  his  reorganiza- 
tion and  extension  of  Home  Missions  during  the  last 
eighteen  years  of  his  life.  He  was  also  secretary  of  the 
Committee  of  P*rivileges  for  nineteen  years.  As  trea- 
surer of  the  Schools'  Fund,  he  was  active  in  promoting 
the  building  of  the  new  Kingswood  School.  He  estab- 
lished district  missionaries  and  encouraged  the  appoint- 
ment of  chaplains  to  the  forces.  He  died  at  Lee,  Kent, 
on  Aug.  25,  1875. 

John  Kent 

PRETTYMAN,  FORREST  JOHNSTON  (1860-1945),  Ameri- 
can minister  and  chaplain  of  the  U.S.  Senate  during  the 
Theodore  Roosevelt  and  Woodrow  Wilson  administrations, 
was  born  at  Brookeville,  Md.,  on  April  7,  1860.  His  father, 
E.  Barrett  Prettyman,  had  been  Secretary  of  Education 
of  Maryland,  and  his  mother  was  Lydia  (Forrest)  Pretty- 
man.  He  was  educated  at  the  Rockville  (Maryland) 
Academy,  at  St.  John's  College  at  Annapolis,  and  in  part 
at  Washington  and  Lee  University.  Randolph-Macon 
College  conferred  upon  him  the  D.D.  degree  later  on 
in  life. 

On  Oct.  17,  1888,  he  married  Elizabeth  R.  Stonestreet, 
and  to  them  were  born  two  sons  and  two  daughters,  E. 
Barrett,  Edith  S.,  Charles  W.  and  Martha  B.  The  older 
son  is  Judge  E.  Barrett  Prettyman,  of  the  Fifth  Circuit 
of  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  Washington,  D.C.  Prettyman 
served  as  pastor  in  the  Old  Baltimofie  Conference 
(MES)  including  St.  Paul  in  Baltimore;  Lexington,  Va.; 
Martinsburg,  W.  Va.;  Staunton,  Va.;  Washington,  D.C. 
at  Mount  Vernon  Place;  and  at  Emory  Church;  also 
Trinity  Church  in  Baltimore.  He  was  the  presiding  elder 
of  the  Washington  District  for  some  years,  and  a  member 
of  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South, 
1906,  1910,  and  1930;  and  a  fraternal  messenger  to  the 
M.P.  General  Conference  of  1912. 

Prettyman  was  a  commanding  preacher  and  after  serv- 
ing as  chaplain  of  the  Senate  from  1913  until  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Harding  administration  in  1920,  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  Church  Street  Church,  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  where 


he  served  for  a  time,  and  then  went  to  the  Castonia 
Church  in  the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference. 
On  his  return  to  the  Baltimore  Conference,  he  was  as- 
signed to  Wilson  Memorial  Church  on  St.  Charles  Avenue, 
Baltimore,  in  1927,  and  then  to  Fredericksburg,  Va.,  from 
which  position  he  retired. 

Prettyman  had  a  presence  which  added  distinction  to 
any  occasion  in  which  he  participated,  and  especially  in 
the  formal,  diplomatic  and  congressional  ceremonies  and 
functions  in  Washington,  D.C,  he  was  able  to  represent 
his  church  and  its  ministry  in  an  urbane,  commanding 
way.  He  died  at  Rockville,  Md.,  in  the  old  family  home 
there,  on  Oct.  12,  1945. 

Journal  of  the  Baltimore  Conference,  1946. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  WJxo  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

N.  B.  H. 

PRICE,  CARL  FOWLER  (1881-1948),  American  layman, 
author,  musician,  organist,  hymn  composer,  lecturer,  his- 
torian and  churchman,  was  born  May  16,  1881,  at  New 
Brunswick,  N.  J.  He  was  the  son  of  Jacob  Embury  and 
Anne  Bacon  Ware  Price.  He  was  graduated  from 
Centenary  Collegiate  Institute  in  1898,  and  from  Wes- 
leyan University  in  1902.  On  April  21,  1905,  he  married 
Leila  A.  Field  of  East  Hampton.  She  died  March  24, 
1906.  On  June  19,  1913,  he  married  Flora  Draper  Treat 
of  New  York.  She  died  Aug.  30,  1919.  They  had  one  son, 
Sherman. 

A  man  of  great  vitality,  Carl  Price  was  interested  in, 
and  served,  Wesleyan  University  throughout  his  life.  He 
helped  found  the  Alumni  Association  in  1904,  and  the 
Wesleyan  Alumnus  in  1916.  He  edited  a  Wesleyan  Song 
Book  and  wrote  Wesleyan's  First  Century,  a  400-page 
history  of  the  college,  in  addition  to  many  other  articles 
and  songs.  In  1932  Wesleyan  conferred  upon  him  the 
honorary  M.A.  degree  in  recognition  of  his  distinguished 
service  to  the  University. 

Carl  Price  served  the  church  in  many  capacities.  He 
was  Secretary  of  the  National  Board  of  the  Epworth 
League,  1912-24;  President  of  the  Methodist  Social 
Union,  1919-21;  member  of  the  Ecumenical  Methodist 
Conference  in  1931;  historian  of  the  Methodist  His- 
torical Society,  1937-48;  author  of  Who's  Who  in  Meth- 
odism in  1916,  and  an  active  lay  member  of  the  New 
York  Conference,  serving  as  president  of  its  Laymen's 
Association  for  over  twenty-five  years. 

His  greatest  contribution  to  the  church  was  in  the 
field  of  music.  Carl  Price  composed  over  200  hymn  tunes, 
as  well  as  cantatas  and  canticles.  He  lectured  on  hymnody 
at  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York,  and  at  Drew 
University.  He  was  co-founder  of  the  Hymn  Society 
of  America,  serving  as  its  president  from  1922-26.  He 
published  many  books  on  hymns,  music,  and  worship. 
Among  them  are:  Music  and  Hymnody  of  the  Methodist 
Hymnal,  A  Year  of  Hymn  Stories,  Curiosities  of  the 
Hymnal,  More  Hymn  Stories,  101  Methodist  Stories,  Songs 
of  Life,  Hymns  of  Worship,  101  Hymn  Stories,  Hymns, 
Hymnologists  and  Their  Stories.  In  all  he  was  the  author 
of  eleven  books,  editor  of  thirty  music  collections,  pub- 
lished thirty-one  songs,  200  hymn  tunes,  cantatas,  festival 
services,  booklets,  and  other  miscellany,  in  addition  to 
over  400  articles  which  appeared  in  various  church  and 
secular  magazines  and  newspapers.  He  earned  his  living 
as  an  insurance  broker,  but  his  real  vocation  was  church 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Carl  Price  died  April  12,  1948,  following  a  stroke.  He 
was  buried  at  Kensico  Cemetery,  Valhalla,  N.  Y. 

R.  G.  McCutchan,  Our  Hymnodtj.  1937. 
Minutes  of  the  New  York  Conference,  1948. 

C.  Wesley  Christman,  Jr. 

PRICE,  FREDERICK  ADOLPHUS  (1879-1966),  Methodist 
missionary  and  American  consul-general  of  Liberia,  was 
bom  on  April  5,  1879,  in  Barbados,  British  West  Indies. 
After  receiving  his  early  education  in  Barbados,  Frederick 
Price  traveled  to  the  United  States  for  special  training 
in  missionary  service.  After  graduating  from  the  Union 
Missionary  Training  Institute,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  he  was 
recommended  by  Bishop  J.  C.  Hahtzell  for  appointment 
to  Liberia.  In  late  1904  he  began  his  mission  service  in 
Harper,  Cape  Palmas.  Working  along  the  Cavalla  River, 
he  established  many  mission  schools. 

Among  the  stations  begun  by  Price  was  Barclayville, 
which  remains  today  a  strong  center  for  Methodism  and 
one  of  the  fine  schools  in  the  Methodist  system.  In  1934 
he  became  district  superintendent  of  the  Cape  Palmas 
District  and  pastor  of  Mt.  Scott  Methodist  Church,  serving 
also  as  field  treasurer  for  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 
He  served  there  until  his  retirement  in  1945.  His  mis- 
sionary pension  he  donated  each  year  to  the  work  of  the 
church  in  Liberia. 

Not  content  with  one  career  of  service,  he  then  became 
a  Liberian  citizen  and  was  appointed  Liberian  Consul 
General  to  New  York  City.  This  appointment  included 
diplomatic  assignments  in  Washington,  D.  C,  and  service 
on  several  delegations  to  the  United  Nations.  After  his 
retirement  in  1958  (the  second  time).  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Price 
(nee  Luna  A.  Jones)  returned  to  Harper,  Cape  Palmas. 
Mrs.  Price  pre-deceased  her  husband  in  1963.  He  was 
decorated  several  times  by  the  Liberian  government  and 
his  life  remains  an  example  of  devotion  to  the  service  of 
his  fellowman.  He  died  in  Monrovia,  Liberia,  on  Jan.  5, 
1966. 

Official  Gazette,  Department  of  State,  Republic  of  Liberia,  Jan. 
5,  1966. 

PRICE,  HIRAM  (1814-1901),  American  congressman, 
banker  and  railroad  president,  was  bom  Jan.  10,  1814, 
in  Washington  County,  Pa.  Removing  to  Mifflin  County 
in  1819  and  later  to  Huntingdon  County,  Pa.,  he  was 
educated  in  local  schools.  He  married  Susan  Betts  in 
1834  and  they  had  five  children.  Price,  described  as  a 
man  "of  determined  perseverance,  inviolate  integrity, 
good  business  tact,  temperate  and  conscientious,"  removed 
to  Davenport,  Iowa  in  1844  and  opened  a  store.  He 
was  school  fund  commissioner,  1847-56,  and  recorder 
and  treasurer  of  Scott  County,  1848-56.  In  the  early 
fifties  he  occupied  himself  with  railroad  enterprises,  build- 
ing a  railroad  from  Davenport  to  Council  Bluffs.  When 
Iowa's  state  bank  was  established  in  1858,  he  represented 
the  Davenport  branch,  serving  as  its  president,  1860-65. 
Price,  a  Republican  Party  member,  was  U.S.  Congress- 
man, 1865-69  and  1877-81,  and  U.S.  Commissioner  of 
Indian  Affairs,  1881-85. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Dubuque  M.E.  Church  for 
over  fifty-seven  years,  served  as  sexton,  recording  steward, 
trustee,  class  leader,  and  Sunday  school  superintendent. 
He  was  lay  delegate  of  the  Upper  Iowa  Conference 
at  two  General  Conference  sessions  and  a  trustee  of 


PRICE,   JOHN   WATKIN 

Mt.  Vernon's  Iowa  Conference  Seminary.  Price,  an  ad- 
vocate of  temperance,  organized  a  Grand  Division  of  the 
Sons  of  Temperance  in  1848;  edited  the  Temperance 
Organ  for  several  years;  served  as  President  of  the  "Maine 
Law  Alliance,"  1854;  spoke  on  temperance  at  Iowa's  first 
State  Methodist  Convention,  1871,  and  became  the  Na- 
tional Anti-Saloon  League's  first  president.  He  died  in 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Annals  of  Iowa,  April  1893,  January  1894,  January  1895. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

S.  N.  Fellows,  Upper  Iowa  Conference.  1907. 

A.  W.  Haines,  Makers  of  Iowa  Methodism.   1900. 

Martin  L.  Greer 

PRICE,  JOHN  WATKIN  (1870-1951),  American  preacher 
and  missionary  to  Brazil,  was  bom  in  Tamaqua,  Pa.,  on 
Jan.  30,  1870.  Price  studied  three  years  at  Oberlin 
Academy  then  at  the  Christian  Training  School  in  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  and  the  Christian  and  Missionary  Alliance 
Training  School  in  New  York  City.  While  studying  in 
Cleveland,  he  met  Elizabeth  Wittman,  a  Bible  student 
working  among  the  underprivileged  of  that  city.  They 
were  married  June  18,  1895,  and  continued  evangelistic 
work  together  in  Cleveland. 

Through  reading  Guiness'  book,  The  Neglected  Con- 
tinent. Price  felt  definitely  called  to  Brazil.  He  offered 
himself  and  was  sent  there  in  May  1896,  by  the  Christian 
and  Missionary  Alliance.  In  1898,  however,  he  was  moved 
to  Buenos  Aires,  Argentina,  where  he  was  received 
into  the  River  Plate  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
and  was  soon  appointed  to  South  Brazil,  then  a  mission  of 
that  Conference.  He  was  appointed  pastor  of  the  Central 
Methodist  Church  in  Porto  Alegre,  capital  of  the  state 
of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  in  May  1899. 

Price  began  expanding  the  work  at  once,  established 
three  suburban  missions,  and  founded  the  first  Epworth 
League  in  the  state.  In  1899,  when  the  South  Brazil 
mission  was  transferred  by  mutual  agreement  to  the  M.E. 
Church,  South,  then  operating  in  other  areas  of  Brazil, 
Price  elected  to  stay  in  Brazil.  He  served  throughout  the 
years  as  pastor,  presiding  elder,  and  superintendent  of 
the  mission.  Though  his  strongest  point  was  mainly  in 
the  field  of  evangelism,  he  also  contributed  to  education 
by  founding  in  1908  the  school  in  Umguaiana,  Uniao 
Colegio,  now  Institute.  Later  he  also  taught  at  Porto 
Alegre  College. 

After  forty  years  on  the  mission  field,  the  Prices  re- 
tired to  Denver,  Colo.,  and  there  continued  a  ministry 
to  the  Latin  Americans  of  the  area.  In  all  his  work  every- 
where, his  wife  was  an  invaluable  helper.  She  was  bom 
in  Ohio  on  March  19,  1872,  and  from  the  time  she  was 
sixteen,  dedicated  her  life  to  the  Lord's  work.  When 
John  Price  asked  her  if  she  was  willing  to  go  with  him  to 
a  foreign  country,  she  replied:  "If  there  are  souls  to 
save,  I'll  go  with  you." 

John  Price  died  in  Denver  on  May  21,  1951;  and 
Mrs.  Price  in  Englewood,  N.  J.  (where  she  had  moved  to 
be  with  her  daughter)  on  June  6,  1962.  They  were 
survived  by  three  children — Thomas,  a  Harvard  Ph.D.; 
Llewellyn,  an  archeologist;  and  Elizabeth  Gorsuch,  who, 
with  her  husband,  served  as  a  missionary  in  Brazil  for  a 
period.  An  older  daughter,  Margaret,  had  preceded 
them  in  death. 

The  Prices  were  considered  among  the  most  sacrificial 
and   saintly  of  all  missionaries.   Mrs.   Price's   name  lives 


PRICE,    JOSEPH    CHARLES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


on  in  an  association  of  ministers'  wives  in  the  state  of 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  named  in  her  honor  the  EHza  Price 
Association. 

E.  M.  B.  Jaime,  Metodismo  no  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  1963. 

J.  L.  Kennedy,  Metodismo  no  Brasil.  1928.        Eula  K.  Long 

PRICE,  JOSEPH  CHARLES  (1854-1893),  American  Negro 
minister  and  educator,  was  born  in  Elizabeth  City,  N.  C, 
on  Feb.  10,  1854.  His  father  was  a  slave,  but  Price 
followed  the  condition  of  his  mother  who  was  free  born. 
Educated  at  first  in  freedmen's  schools,  Price  studied 
for  a  time  at  Shaw  University  (Raleigh,  N.  C.)  where  he 
was  converted  during  a  revival.  In  1875  he  was  licensed 
to  preach  in  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church.  He  began  formal 
preparation  for  the  ministry  at  Lincoln  University  in 
PENNS-iXVANiA  whcre  he  graduated  in  classics  in  1879. 
Prior  to  the  completion  of  his  theological  training  there 
in  1881,  Price  was  ordained  elder.  In  1880  he  served  for 
the  first  of  four  times  as  a  delegate  to  the  A.M.E.  Zion 
General  Conference. 

While  Price  was  abroad  to  attend  the  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference  at  London  in  1881,  he  toured 
Great  Britain  to  raise  funds  for  his  church's  Zion  Wesley 
Institute  in  Salisbury,  N.  C.  After  obtaining  pledges  for 
nearly  $10,000,  he  returned  to  America  to  assume  the 
presidency  of  the  school  which  was  renamed  to  honor 
David  Livingstone.  During  the  next  decade  Price  at- 
tracted national  attention  for  his  creative  leadership  in 
Negro  education,  which,  he  contended,  should  consist  of 
liberal  arts  instruction  as  well  as  industrial  training.  He 
was  largely  responsible  for  estabUshing  Livingstone's  rep- 
utation as  the  first  successful  college  in  America  founded, 
owned  and  manned  by  Negroes. 

A  nationally  famous  preacher  and  skilled  orator,  Price 
campaigned  in  behalf  of  prohibition  and  of  racial  justice. 
In  1890  the  Afro-American  National  League,  a  Negro 
civil  rights  organization,  named  him  its  first  president. 
In  ecclesiastical  afiairs  he  earnestly  supported  a  merger 
between  the  A.M.E.  and  A.M.E.  Zion  Churches.  At  the 
peak  of  his  career  Price  was  afflicted  with  Bright's  disease 
to  which  he  succumbed  on  Oct.  25,  1893  at  his  home  in 
Salisbury. 

W.  J.  Walls,  Joseph  Clmrles  Price.  1943. 

Carter  G.   Woodson,  ed.,  Negro  Orators  and  Their  Orations. 

Washington:  Associated  Publishers,  Inc.,  1925. 

Wu-LiAM  B.  Gravely 

PRICE,  RICHARD  NYE  (1830-1923),  American  minister 
and  historian  of  the  Holston  Conference,  was  born  at 
Elk  Garden,  Va.,  on  July  30,  1830.  He  was  educated  at 
Emory  and  Henry  College,  from  which  he  received 
the  B.A.  and  M.A.  degrees  and  the  honorary  D.D.  degree. 

He  joined  the  Holston  Conference  in  1850  and  with 
the  exception  of  one  year's  location  he  served  continuous- 
ly until  his  retii-ement  in  1921.  He  held  every  type  of 
appointment  in  the  conference:  circuit,  junior  preacher, 
presiding  elder,  conference  secretary,  college  professor 
and  president,  editor  of  the  conference  paper,  and  chap- 
lain in  two  wars. 

He  married  Anne  Edgeworth  Vance  of  Marshall,  N.  C, 
on  May  8,  1855,  and  was  the  father  of  ten  children. 

Price  is  best  known  as  the  author  of  Holston  Methodism, 
a  history  in  five  volumes  which  was  published  in  1908 
after  ten  years  of  labor  devoted  to  its  preparations. 

He  died  at  Morristown,  Term.,  on  Feb.  7,   1923,  and 


was  buried  there.  He  was  "the  oldest  in  years  and  longest 
in  ministerial  service"  in  the  conference,  having  been  a 
preacher  seventy-three  years,  including  three  years  as  a 
local  preacher. 

Journal  of  the  Holston  Conference,  MES,  1923. 

I.  P.  Martin,  Holston.  1945.  Elmer  T.  Clark 

PRICHARD,  JESSE  ELI  (1880-1957),  American  M.P.  min- 
ister and  administrator,  was  bom  on  Nov.  29,  1880,  in 
Asheboro,  N.  C.  He  was  the  son  of  Isaiah  Franklin  and 
Nancy  Ellen  Conner  Prichard.  Upon  graduation  from 
Western  Maryland  College  in  1909,  he  enrolled  in 
Westminster  Theological  Seminary,  where  he  re- 
received  the  B.D.  degree  in  1912.  He  was  accepted  on 
trial  in  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.P. 
Church  in  November  1911,  and  in  November  of  the 
following  year  was  ordained  an  elder  and  assigned  to 
Halifax  Circuit,  which  he  served  until  1915.  He  afterward 
sei'ved  churches  in  North  Carolina  as  follows:  Thomas- 
viUe  (1915-1916);  Burhngton  (1916-1921);  Henderson 
(1921-1926);  Asheboro  (1926-1931);  Winston-Salem 
(1931-1934;  1940-1941);  Greensboro  (1934-1938); 
Ramseur  (1941-1945);  and  Mocksville  (1945-1946). 

In  1938  he  became  President  of  the  North  Carolina 
Conference  of  the  M.P.  Church,  a  position  he  held  for 
two  years.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Board  of 
Education  of  his  Church  from  1924-1928  and  served  that 
body  as  Recording  Secretary.  In  1932  Western  Maryland 
College  conferred  on  him  the  D.D.  Degree.  He  served  for 
a  number  of  years  as  a  trustee  of  High  Point  College 
and  for  twelve  years  as  a  trustee  of  the  Methodist  Chil- 
dren's Home  of  the  Western  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence in  Winston-Salem.  From  1934-1936  he  was  editor 
of  The  Methodist  Protestant  Herald,  published  at  Greens- 
boro, N.  C,  the  official  church  paper  for  the  North 
Carolina  Conference. 

Prichard  was  a  delegate  to  three  General  Confer- 
ences of  the  M.P.  Church,  a  delegate  to  the  Uniting 
Conference  in  1939,  and  a  delegate  to  the  first  South- 
eastern Jurisdictional  Conference  of  The  Methodist 
Church. 

On  Dec.  12,  1912,  he  married  Laura  Vestal  of  Siler 
City,  N.  C.  Following  his  retirement  in  1946,  Prichard 
lived  in  Asheboro  until  his  death  on  Aug.  10,  1957.  He  is 
buried  in  Asheboro  City  Cemetery. 

J.  E.  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the 

M.  P.  Church.  Greensboro,  1939. 

The  Dispatch,  Henderson,  N.  C,  July  27,  1957. 

Who's  Who  in  Methodism,  1952.         Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

PRIMITIVE  METHODISM,  British  Methodist  denomination 
(1811-1932),  was  formed  in  1811  by  the  coalescing  of 
the  Camp  Meeting  Methodists  and  the  Clow^sites, 
both  groups  representative  of  the  revivafism  which  marked 
the  early  nineteenth  century.  The  beginnings  were  set 
in  1800,  on  the  borders  of  Staffordshire  and  Cheshire, 
when  Hugh  Bouhne,  a  moorland  carpenter,  was  working 
in  the  region.  Converted  three  years  before,  he  became 
concerned  for  the  conversion  of  his  cousin,  Daniel 
Shubotham,  of  Harriseahead,  to  whom  he  gave  a  written 
account  of  his  own  conversion.  Shubotham's  spiritual 
deliverance  soon  followed,  as  also  that  of  a  collier,  Mathias 
Bayley.  By  this  "conversation-preaching"  the  work  spread, 
and   at   Harriseahead   a   chapel   was   built.   This   revival. 


WORLD   METHODISM 

though  nominally  Wesleyan  Methodist,  went  on  without 
the  recognition  or  direction  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
authorities,  though  in  1802  the  chapel  and  its  associated 
classes  were  taken  over  by  the  Burslem  Circuit.  A  second 
revival  in  1804  arose  at  Tunstall,  and  in  the  Burslem 
Circuit,  largely  through  a  visit  to  Congleton  by  a  re- 
vivalist group  from  Stockport.  An  important  result  was 
the  conversion  of  William  Clowes,  a  skilled  potter  who 
rapidly  growing  in  Christian  understanding,  began  evange- 
listic work. 

The  Harriseahead  movement  found  vigorous  expression 
in  a  CAMP  MEETING  held  on  Mow  Cop  on  May  31,  1807. 
Earlier,  in  1805,  a  somewhat  eccentric  evangelist  from 
America,  Lorenzo  Dow,  had  labored  in  South  Lancashire 
and  East  Cheshire.  His  utterances  had  often  contained 
references  to  the  camp  meetings  begun  in  America  in 
1799,  and  on  a  visit  to  Harriseahead  he  stressed  this. 
Later,  at  Congleton,  in  April,  1807,  Bourne  bought  cer- 
tain pamphlets  relating  to  these  American  meetings.  Al- 
ready Bourne  had  planned  for  a  camp  meeting  to  be 
held  at  Norton-le-Moors  in  August  1807,  in  order  to 
counteract  the  evils  of  the  local  holidays  or  "wakes,"  but 
the  Harriseahead  people  pressed  to  have  "a  day's  praying 
on  Mow."  Official  Wesleyan  Methodist  opposition  began 
to  appear  on  the  one  hand  from  the  Burslem  Circuit, 
and  on  the  other  from  a  master  potter  who  declared 
camp  meetings  to  be  illegal.  A  second  meeting  was  how- 
ever held  on  Mow  Cop  on  July  19,  1807. 

Of  these  early  camp  meetings,  however,  the  third  held 
at  Norton-le-Moors  on  August  25,  is  historically  the  most 
important,  because  the  Liverpool  Wesleyan  Conference 
of  1807  had  pronounced  adversely  upon  such  enterprises, 
and  the  preachers  of  the  Burslem  Circuit  implemented  the 
decision  locally,  with  the  result  that  supporters  diminished 
in  number.  As  Bourne  was  convinced  as  to  the  rightness 
of  his  judgment,  the  meeting  was  duly  held  and  pro- 
nounced successful.  The  direct  consequence  was  his 
expulsion  from  the  Wesleyan  society  in  1808.  Without 
complaint  he  continued  his  work  on  evangelization,  and 
the  following  year  engaged  James  Crawfoot  as  an 
itinerant  evangelist  to  labor  in  East  Cheshire  and  Staf- 
fordshire. These  "Camp  Meeting  Methodists"  were  not 
as  yet  a  distinct  community  but  rather  a  mission  band 
whose  labors  were  auxiliary  to  the  regular  churches.  Be- 
cause the  Burslem  Circuit  refused  to  take  over  a  new 
society  at  Stanley,  which  had  been  brought  into  being  by 
their  labors,  by  March,  1810,  the  Camp  Meeting  Meth- 
odists came  to  a  separate  existence.  Written  plans  were 
now  prepared,  and  these  show  some  interchange  between 
Independent  Methodists  and  the  Camp  Meeting  Meth- 
odists. 

In  1810,  William  Clowes  was  deprived  of  his  Wesleyan 
Methodist  membership.  Many  followed  his  leadership;  and 
a  home  for  those  thus  unchurched  was  found  in  the  house 
of  one  Mr.  Smith  of  Tunstall,  where  for  some  two  years 
preaching  services  had  been  held.  So  this  "house-church" 
soon  became  the  center  of  a  small  circuit,  and  preparations 
were  made  for  the  building  of  a  chapel  at  Tunstall.  This 
new  group  became  known  as  the  "Clowesites,"  and  before 
the  opening  of  the  Tunstall  chapel  they  resolved  to  make 
common  cause  with  the  Camp  Meeting  Methodists.  A 
joint  meeting  was  held  on  May  30,  1811,  at  which  union 
was  agreed  upon  and  tickets  of  membership  were  printed. 
In  July,  1811,  it  was  further  decided  that  Crawfoot  and 
Clowes  should  be  separated  as  preachers  and  be  supported 


PRIMITIVE   METHODISM 

by  the  contributions  of  the  members  of  the  new  denomina- 
tion, now  about  200  in  number.  At  a  further  meeting  on 
Februaiy  13,  1812,  the  name  of  the  new  denomination 
was  determined:  "The  Society  of  the  Primitive  Method- 
ists." The  source  of  the  name  appears  to  be  in  the  farewell 
address  given  by  John  Wesley  to  the  preachers  of  the 
Chester  Circuit  in  1790,  when,  pleading  for  a  ministry 
of  universal  evangelism,  he  declared:  "If  you  have  devi- 
ated from  the  old  usage,  I  have  not:  I  still  remain  a 
primitive  Methodist."  These  words,  recalled  by  Crawfoot, 
who  had  heard  Wesley  speak,  determined  the  name.  They 
were  sometimes  called  "Ranters"  because  of  their  enthu- 
siastic evangelism. 

Owing  partly  to  the  social  conditions  of  the  time  and 
partly  to  the  sparse  population  of  the  region,  the  new 
denomination  did  not  spread  rapidly  or  widely,  and  until 
1816  it  was  confined  to  the  Tunstall  Circuit.  An  issue 
now  arose  as  to  whether  the  policy  should  be  one  of 
consolidation  or  extension.  The  majority  favored  consolida- 
tion. Chapels  were  built,  and  Bourne  became  responsible 
in  1814  for  framing  regulations.  The  "Tunstall  Nonmission 
Law"  was  the  name  given  to  the  prevailing  policy  by 
those  who  disagreed,  among  them  Bourne  himself.  Before 
long,  however,  the  policy  of  extension  reasserted  itself, 
and  more  camp  meetings  were  held  in  other  counties, 
bringing  spiritual  revival  especially  in  Nottinghamshire 
and  beyond.  Bourne  became  general  superintendent  of 
the  connection  and  traveled  widely.  In  1819  Clowes 
entered  Hull  and  began  extension  northward,  later  to  be 
followed  by  a  mission  to  Cornwall  and  the  West  Country. 
In  1820  the  first  conference  was  held  in  Hull,  constituted 
of  representatives  from  the  circuits  in  the  proportion  of 
two  laymen  to  one  minister.  By  this  time  the  membership 
of  the  new  denomination  had  risen  to  7,842;  by  1824 
it  was  33,507. 

The  period  1825-28  proved  to  be  a  time  of  crisis, 
largely  owing  to  the  rapidity  of  growth.  Through  the 
courage  and  insight  of  Bourne  a  process  of  pruning  took 
place.  The  following  years  were  marked  by  geographical 
extension,  so  that  by  1842  the  membership  had  risen  to 
nearly  80,000,  with  500  traveling  preachers  and  more 
than  1,200  chapels.  This  period  of  missionary  extension 
was  marked  by  much  heroism,  for  the  itinerant  preachers 
had  often  to  contend  with  hostility  and  persecution.  A 
further  feature  in  this  process  of  evangelization  was  the 
extent  to  which  women  itinerant  preachers  shared  in  the 
work. 

The  decade  1843-53  was  a  period  of  transition.  The 
superannuation  of  Bourne  and  Clowes  in  1842  led  to  new 
leadership  and  far-reaching  changes.  The  Connectional 
Book  Room  was  moved  to  London,  and  a  proposal  for  a 
general  missionary  committee  moved  in  the  direction  of 
greater  coordination  of  the  circuits,  the  period  of  circuit 
predominance  gradually  giving  way  to  more  centraliza- 
tion in  missionary  enterprise. 

The  death  of  the  first  leaders — Clowes  died  in  1851 
and  Bourne  soon  afterward  in  1852 — brought  the  begin- 
ning of  the  middle  period  of  the  denomination's  history. 
By  1853  there  were  ten  districts,  and  each  tended  to 
foster  its  own  line  of  development.  The  annual  District 
Meeting  assumed  great  importance,  and  to  no  small  mea- 
sure at  the  expense  of  the  overall  Conference.  Preachers 
were  usually  stationed  within  each  district,  the  boundaries 
of  which  were  rigidly  held.  This  "districtism"  made  for 
an  originality  which  brought  denominational  enrichment. 
The  Hull  District  led  the  way  in  a  bolder  policy  in  chapel 


PRIMITIVE   METHODIST   CHURCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


building;  the  Norwich  District  in  overseas  missions;  the 
Sunderland  and  Manchester  Districts  in  ministerial  educa- 
tion; the  Leeds  District  in  Sunday  school  advance. 

By  the  Jubilee  year  of  the  denomination  in  1860  the 
connection  reached  a  membership  of  132,114;  by  1875 
it  rose  to  165,410,  but  the  progress  was  not  an  uninter- 
rupted one.  The  years  1852-55  were  marked  by  decreases, 
largely  due,  however,  to  external  causes  including  emigra- 
tion, the  Crimean  War,  and  the  Fly  Sheets  controversy 
( 1844-57)  in  Wesleyan  Methodism. 

Eventually  "districtism"  was  bound  to  disappear,  not 
least  through  a  regulation  of  1879  which  encouraged 
circuit  ministerial  invitation  irrespective  of  district  bound- 
aries. Further  a  new  cohesion  in  Church  polity  upon  a 
presbyterial  basis  was  developing,  and  before  the  end  of 
the  century  a  more  unified  denomination  had  emerged. 
This  is  symbolized  by  the  use  of  the  word  "Church" 
instead  of  "connexion"  in  the  Consolidated  Minutes,  the 
codified  laws  of  the  denomination. 

One  feature  of  development  was  the  expansion  over- 
seas. As  far  back  as  the  Conference  of  1820  in  the  Lincoln- 
shire village  of  Scotter,  it  was  decided  to  send  a  mission 
to  the  United  States.  In  1843  colonial  missions  were  begun 
in  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  In  1870  missionaries 
landed  in  West  Africa.  In  1889  missions  were  begun  in 
South  Central  Africa  and  in  Southern  Nigeria. 

The  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  saw  great 
improvement  in  the  general  pattern  and  structure  of 
church  administration.  Legislation  regarding  the  safe- 
guarding of  chapel  property  was  established.  There  was  an 
expansion  of  interest  in  social  questions,  particularly  in 
regard  to  London  and  the  provincial  centers  of  population. 
Orphanages  were  established.  Particular  emphasis  was 
given  to  the  uplifting  of  the  working  classes,  and  the 
trade-union  movement  derived  many  of  its  early  leaders 
from  the  ranks  of  the  local  preachers  especially  in  North- 
em  England  and  in  East  Anglia.  As  early  as  1832 — under 
the  deep  conviction  of  Bourne — the  Conference  had  em- 
phasized the  importance  of  the  formation  of  temperance 
societies,  and  this  strong  temperance  sentiment  persisted 
throughout  the  denomination. 

As  early  as  the  middle  of  the  century  some  concern 
had  been  expressed  regarding  ministerial  education,  but  it 
was  not  until  1865  that  Ehnfield  House,  in  York,  was 
acquired  for  the  double  purpose  of  providing  a  school  for 
boys  and  also  accommodation  for  ministerial  training.  In 
1869,  however,  the  latter  arrangement  was  superseded  by 
the  purchase  of  a  building  in  Sunderland  for  a  separate 
theological  institute.  In  1886  the  Theological  College  in 
Manchester  was  opened,  eventually  to  be  known  as 
Hartley  College,  its  name  chosen  in  acknowledgment  of 
the  two  extensions  (1897  and  1906)  through  the  munif- 
icence of  William  Hartley,  and  which  was  associated 
with  the  work  of  A.  S.  Peake,  a  biblical  scholar  of 
international  reputation.  Elmfield  continued  as  a  school 
for  boys  and,  alongside  it,  a  later  foundation  (1882) 
was   Bourne  College,   on   the   outskirts   of   Birmingham. 

At  the  time  of  the  centenary  of  the  denomination  in 
1907  a  hundred  thousand  people  attended  the  Centenary 
Camp  Meeting  on  Mow  Cop,  and  a  fund  of  more  than 
£270,000  was  raised  for  the  evangelistic,  educational  and 
social  work.  The  spiritual  results,  tabulated  in  terms  of 
addition  to  membership  were,  however,  disappointing, 
though  these  were  lean  years  for  all  churches  in  the  land. 


The  1914  war  inevitably  brought  problems  to  Primitive 
Methodism,  not  least  problems  of  conscience  to  many 
individuals,  for  Primitive  Methodism  has  been  perhaps  the 
most  pronouncedly  pacifist  of  all  the  denominations  save 
the  Society  of  Friends.  To  meet  the  needs  of  the  many 
thousands  of  Primitive  Methodists  who  had  enhsted,  the 
resources  of  the  Church  were  mobilized,  and  by  the  end 
of  the  war  nearly  fifty  chaplains  were  at  work  in  the 
services. 

For  some  years  it  had  become  increasingly  clear  that 
some  attempt  must  be  made  to  bring  together  the  dif- 
fering groups  within  British  Methodism.  In  1912  the 
Wesleyan  Conference  declared  its  conviction  that  serious 
effort  thould  be  made  to  this  end,  and  in  1917  representa- 
tives met  to  discuss  the  possibilities;  in  1920  a  scheme  in 
outline  was  presented  to  the  three  Conferences  concerned. 
By  1925  sanction  for  such  union  was  sought  on  the  basis 
of  a  requirement  of  seventy-five  percent  majority  vote. 
The  Primitive  Methodist  Conference  secured  a  ninety- 
three  percent  vote,  but  the  Wesleyan  Conference  fell 
short  of  the  required  majority.  Not  until  1928  did  the 
latter  succeed  in  fulfilling  the  condition,  but  at  each 
intervening  Conference  the  Primitive  Methodist  vote  con- 
tinued heavily  in  favor  of  union.  In  1932  the  Union 
was  achieved.  Into  the  United  Church,  Primitive  Meth- 
odism brought  222,021  members;  1,131  ministers;  12,896 
local  preachers,  277,792  Sunday  school  scholars;  4,356 
church  buildings. 

H.  B.  Kendall,  Primitive  Methodist  Church.  1905. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

PRIMITIVE  METHODIST  CHURCH  (U.S.A.)  arrived  in  the 
United  States  by  way  of  migration  of  laymen  from  Great 
Britain.  Concern  for  these  members  expressed  at  the 
1829  British  Conference  by  the  Hull  and  Tunstall  Cir- 
cuits led  to  the  sending  of  four  missionaries  to  establish 
an  American  mission.  Under  the  joint  responsibility  of 
these  two  circuits,  William  Knowles  and  Ruth  Watkins 
from  Tunstall  Circuit  and  William  Summersides  and  T. 
Morris  from  Hull  Circuit  sailed  for  New  York  on  June 
19,  1929.  The  Tunstall  missionaries  established  work  in 
New  York,  while  the  Hull  missionaries  founded  classes 
at  Philadelphia  and  Pottsville,  Pennsylvanl\. 

At  the  American  annual  conference,  meeting  in  1840, 
it  was  "resolved  that  we  consider  ourselves  from  this  time 
distinct  from  and  unconnected  with  the  English  Confer- 
ence." An  attempt  to  re-establish  ties  with  the  English 
Conference  was  made  in  1843;  and  Hugh  Bourne,  even 
though  he  was  over  seventy  years  of  age,  traveled  to  the 
United  States  as  an  "Advisor  from  the  English  Confer- 
ence." Relations  on  an  informal  basis  were  re-established, 
primarily  through  Bourne's  own  fatherly  status  as  founder 
of  Primitive  Methodism;  and  with  his  death  all  relations 
ceased.  The  work  continued  to  grow,  although  slowly, 
because  of  the  overwhelming  competition  of  a  strongly 
evangelistic  M.E.  Church  and  the  continued  British-like 
structure  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  worship. 

Work  foimed  itself  very  early  into  three  conferences.  A 
general  conference  was  organized  in  1889.  It  became  the 
legislative  body  for  the  church,  making  all  rules  and 
regulations  in  its  quadrennial  sessions.  It  also  has  direct 
oversight  of  the  general  boards:  the  Foreign  Mission 
Board,  the  Journal  Board,  the  Publisher,  the  School  of 
Theology,  the  Board  of  Temperance,  and  the  Commission 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PRIMITIVE   WESLEYAN    METHODIST    CONNEXION 


on  Chaplains.  There  are  at  present  four  annual  confer- 
ences: Eastern  Wyoming,  Schuykill,  Pittsburgh,  and 
Western.  They  provide  administrative  guidance  along  with 
the  district  and  quarterly  conferences.  The  conferences 
are  presided  over  by  a  president,  as  there  are  no  bishops 
or  district  superintendents;  and  laymen  are  equally  repre- 
sented at  all  levels. 

Mission  work  is  carried  on  in  Guatemala,  Kenya,  and 
Brazil.  An  oEBcial  organ,  The  Primitive  Methodist  Journal, 
is  published  monthly.  At  last  report  there  were  approxi- 
mately 12,000  members  in  ninety  churches. 

The  Primitive  Methodist  Church  found  its  way  to 
Canada  through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Williain  Lawson,  a 
former  layman  in  the  Wesleyan  Connection  in  England. 
Lawson  had  been  expelled  from  the  Connection  because  of 
his  association  with  James  Johnson,  a  Primitive  Methodist. 
Lawson  joined  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  in  1826 
and  preached  in  his  home  town  of  Bramton.  In  1829  he 
migrated  to  Canada  and  arrived  in  York  (Toronto)  on 
June  11.  He  gathered  a  class  together  and  became  their 
leader.  In  October  a  meeting  home  was  secured.  In  1830, 
at  Lawson's  request,  William  Watkins  arrived  as  the  first 
missionary  preacher.  Watkins  left  after  a  few  months 
because  of  the  weather,  and  William  Summersides  was 
transferred  from  the  United  States  to  take  over  the  work. 
For  the  next  several  years  Hull  Circuit  in  England  had 
direct  responsibility  for  the  Canadian  mission.  In  1833 
the  Niagara  Station  was  set  apart  from  York,  and  in  1838 
the  Brampton  Station  was  given  an  independent  status. 
Josiah  Partington  and  William  Lyle  were  sent  from  En- 
gland to  enlarge  the  work.  By  1850  the  total  member- 
ship in  the  struggling  church  had  risen  to  about  1,500 
and  nine  appointments. 

In  1853  the  English  Conference  set  the  Canadian  work 
apart  and  the  first  Canadian  Conference  met  at  Brampton, 
County  of  Peel.  A  hymnbook  was  approved,  and  plans 
were  laid  for  a  book  room  and  a  journal.  In  1858  the 
semi-monthly  Christian  Journal  was  begun,  and  in  1860 
the  first  Book  of  Discipline  was  authorized.  In  1867  a 
theological  institute  was  started  with  Thomas  Crompton 
as  tutor. 

In  1870  a  widespread  move  to  unite  all  of  Canadian 
Methodism  held  the  attention  of  the  conference.  Primitive 
Methodists  by  this  time  were  divided  into  six  districts  with 
fifty  appointments.  Although  union  was  voted  down  at  this 
conference,  it  was  a  continuing  issue  for  future  meetings. 

In  1883  a  plan  of  union  was  submitted  to  the  mem- 
bership and  approved  by  an  eighty  percent  vote.  In  1884 
final  union  was  accomplished.  The  Primitive  Methodist 
Church  merged  with  the  three  other  Methodist  bodies  to 
become  the  Methodist  Church  and  thus  ceased  to  exist 
as  a  separate  body. 

Discipline   of    the    Primitive    Methodist    Church    in    Canada. 

Toronto:  William  Bee,  1873. 

General   Rules  of  the   Primitive   Methodist   Church.   London, 

1922. 

Mrs.   R.   P.   Hooper,   Primitive   Methodism   in   Canada.    1904. 

H.  B.  Kendall,  Primitive  Methodist  Church.  1905. 

Yearbook  of  American  Churches,  1970. 

J.  Gordon  Melton 

PRIMITIVE  METHODIST  CHURCH  (1792-1803).  Not  to  be 
confused  with  the  still  existing  Primitive  Methodist  Church 
founded  by  Lorenzo  Dow,  this  church  was  the  result  of 
the  preaching  of  William  Hammett.  It  was  started  by 
members  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  South  Carolina  who 


had  responded  strongly  to  Hammett's  preaching.  Hammett 
had  arrived  in  South  Carolina  after  having  several  ap- 
pointments in  Jamaica  and  St.  Christopher  where  his 
health  had  suffered.  In  1791  the  Charleston  congrega- 
tion requested  Hammett's  appointment  to  their  church. 
When  AsBURY  refused,  Hammett  developed  his  following, 
and  they  |built  their  own  church. 

The  main  characteristic  of  the  new  church  was  its 
dissent  with  episcopal  authority.  The  church  grew  for 
several  years  and  estabhshed  sizable  congregations  in 
Georgia  and  the  Carolinas.  A  Rev.  Meredith  formed  a 
large  society  of  Negro  members  at  Wilmington,  N.  C. 
The  church  suffered  so  much  under  the  slipping  reputa- 
tion of  its  founder,  who  had  difiBculty  in  keeping  peaceful 
relations  with  his  ministers  and  became  a  slaveholder  and 
a  heavy  drinker,  that  it  returned  to  the  M.E.  Church 
soon  after  the  death  of  its  founder  in  1803. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

J.  Gordon  Melton 

PRIMITIVE  PHYSICK.  John  Wesley's  interest  in  medicine, 
fostered  by  wide  reading  of  the  available  literature,  en- 
abled him  to  meet  the  desperate  need  of  the  poor  for 
inexpensive  and  sensible  guidance  in  matters  of  health 
and  sickness.  Primitive  Physick,  written  by  him  and  pub- 
lished in  1747,  was  of  prime  importance  in  furthering 
his  purpose. 

Wesley's  approach  to  heahng  was  by  way  of  observa- 
tion and  experiment,  in  contrast  to  the  generally  accepted 
approach  of  eighteenth-century  physicians  by  way  of 
theory,  e.g.  Humoral,  Brunonian.  Wesley  incisively  casti- 
gates such  theoretical  approach  in  his  Preface. 

Primitive  Physick  defines  in  alphabetical  order  a  variety 
of  complaints,  and  applies  to  each  disorder  a  number  of 
simple  remedies.  These  remedies  form  a  wide  selection 
from  the  plethora  of  eighteenth-century  cures,  many  of 
which  were  nauseating,  some  dangerous,  and  most  of 
which  were  useless. 

Included  in  the  Preface  are  excellent  rules  for  main- 
taining health,  and  in  the  1760  edition  and  thereafter, 
the  use  of  electricity  is  recommended  for  some  illnesses. 

Arthur  Hill 


PRIMITIVE  WESLEYAN  METHODIST  CONNEXION  (Ire- 
land) began  in  1818  in  Ireland  and  consisted  of  those 
Methodists  who  wished  to  maintain  the  position  of  being 
a  Society  inside  the  Established  Church.  They  opposed 
the  1816  decision  of  the  Irish  Conference  to  grant  limited 
permission  for  Methodist  preachers  to  administer  the 
Sacraments.  Their  leader  was  Adam  Averell,  a  deacon 
of  the  Church  of  Ireland  and  a  leading  Methodist  evange- 
list. 

While  the  main  body  of  Methodists  (" Wesley ans") 
rapidly  assumed  the  functions  of  an  independent  church, 
the  Primitive  Wesleyan  Methodist  Connexion  remained 
ofiicially  a  Society  inside  the  Church  of  Ireland,  though 
with  its  own  Conference,  District  and  Circuit  organiza- 
tion. It  was  strongest  in  numbers  in  the  Enniskillen  and 
Clones  area. 

One  efl^ect  of  the  Disestablishment  of  the  Church  of 
Ireland  in  1870  was  to  re-emphasize  the  common  Meth- 
odist heritage  of  the  two  Methodist  bodies.  After  dis- 
cussion, in  1878  the  Primitives  re-united  with  the  main 


PRIMM,    HOWARD   THOMAS 

body,   henceforth   known   as  "The   Methodist  Church   in 
Ireland." 

R.  L.  Cole,  Methodism  in  Ireland.  1960. 

C.  H.  Crookshank,  Methodism  in  Ireland.  1885-88. 

F.  Jeffery,  Irish  Methodism.  1964. 

Wesley  Historical  Society  Proceedings,  1963,  1964. 

Frederick  Jeffery 


H.  T.  Primm 

PRIMM,    HOWARD    THOMAS     (1904-  ),    American 

bishop  of  the  A.M.E.  Chltrch,  was  bom  in  Brentwood, 
Tenn.,  on  June  23,  1904.  He  was  educated  at  Wilbeb- 
FORCE  University  and  Payne  Theological  Seminary 
(Ohio),  from  which  institutions  he  received  the  A.B. 
and  B.D.  degrees  in  1924  and  1927,  respectively.  He 
has  received  honorary  degrees  from  Wilberforce  and  Allen 
Universities,  and  Morris  Brown,  Edward  Waters, 
Payne,  and  Monrovia  (Liberia,  W.  Africa)  Colleges. 
He  was  ordained  deacon  in  1922  and  in  1928,  held 
pastorates  in  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  Mississippi  and 
Arkansas.  He  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  in  1952 
from  the  Union  Bethel  Church  in  New  Orleans,  La. 
He  presently  resides  at  Nashville,  Tenn.  and  supervises 
the  work  of  the  Fifth  Episcopal  Area  District  which  in- 
cludes the  Puget  Sound,  California,  Southern  California, 
Colorado,  Kansas-Nebraska,  North  Missouri  and  Missouri 
Annual  Conferences. 

Grant  S.  Shockley 

PRINCE  OF  WALES  COLLEGE:  PRINCE  OF  WALES  COL 
LEGIATE  (formerly  Wesleyan  Academy;  Methodist  Col- 
lege), St.  John's,  Newfoundland.  In  education,  as  in  other 
areas,  voluntary  agencies  were  the  first  to  attempt  provi- 
sion for  the  needs  of  the  scattered  people  of  Newfound- 
land. Schools  were  founded  by  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  and  by  the  Newfoundland 
School  Society,  which  were  supplemented  by  Sunday 
schools  and  charity  schools.  Their  efforts,  however,  were 
sporadic  and  unsystematic,  and  they  reached  compara- 
tively few  of  the  settlements. 

As  early  as  1844,  the  provincial  legislature  passed  an 
act  to  establish  a  non-denominational  academy,  but  the 
institution  was  unsuccessful.  This  stemmed  in  large  mea- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 

sure  from  the  increasing  clamor  for  the  recognition  of 
denominational  interests  in  the  schools,  an  attitude  which 
was  recognized  by  a  new  bill  in  1850.  The  latter  provided 
for  three  academies,  representing  the  Roman  Catholics, 
the  Anglicans,  and  the  other  denominations. 

At  this  juncture,  the  growing  Wesleyan  Methodist  con- 
stituency protested  against  sharing  the  Protestant  grant 
with  other  bodies.  They  regarded  themselves  as  unfairly 
treated,  in  comparison  with  other  groups.  In  their  petition 
of  1857,  they  stressed  that  the  Anglicans  and  Roman 
Catholics  were  receiving  grants  for  their  schools,  but  the 
15,000  Methodists  were  lumped  with  minor  Protestant 
bodies. 

In  response  the  legislature  passed  an  act  (1858) 
authorizing  a  Wesleyan  Academy  in  St.  John's,  and  an 
annual  grant  of  £200.  In  September  of  that  year  the 
govemor-in-council  appointed  the  first  board  of  directors. 

When  in  1874,  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  of  East- 
em  British  America  was  incorporated  in  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada,  the  academy  became  the  Methodist 
Academy.  Under  its  third  principal,  R.  E.  Holloway,  the 
school  flourished  in  the  next  decade.  New  buildings  were 
opened  in  1887,  leaving  the  old  edifice  as  a  home  for 
boarders  and  ministers'  children.  In  the  same  year  a  new 
charter  was  issued  providing  for  the  appointment  of  the 
board  of  governors  of  the  St.  John's  Methodist  College,  by 
the  Newfoundland  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church. 
The  college  remained  subject  to  annual  inspection  by  the 
relevant  provincial  superintendent. 

Since  1887  the  college  has  sustained  much  physical 
damage  through  repeated  fires.  The  lost  buildings  have 
been  replaced  by  a  new  main  structure,  known  as  Prince 
of  Wales  College,  Pitts  Memorial  Hall,  the  Ayre  Memorial 
Gymnasium,  the  Harrington  building  for  elementary 
classes,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  Arena. 

Despite  its  difficult  history.  Prince  of  Wales  College, 
as  it  was  called  after  1925,  had  an  enviable  academic 
and  athletic  record.  Twenty  of  its  students  won  Rhodes 
scholarships;  many  others  secured  various  scholarly 
awards.  Graduates  of  the  college  have  acquired  important 
places  in  the  professions  and  in  business. 

From  the  start,  the  college  balanced  academic  achieve- 
ment with  concern  for  the  religious  life.  George  P.  Story, 
first  chaplain  and  guardian  of  the  home,  was  followed  by 
Mark  Fenwick,  T.  B.  Darby,  S.  G.  Garland,  L.  A.  D. 
Curtis,  W.  E.  Stanford,  and  J.  A.  McKim.  All  of  these 
men  gave  outstanding  service.  The  most  recent  was  ap- 
pointed religious  instructor  for  all  United  Church  schools 
in  St.  John's. 

In  1962  the  college  system  and  the  other  United 
Church  schools  in  St.  John's  were  placed  under  a  new 
board  drawn  from  the  college  board  of  governors,  the 
former  United  Church  School  Board  and  from  local  in- 
terested laymen.  The  new  board,  known  as  the  St.  John's 
United  Church  School  Board,  operates  ten  schools.  The 
senior  high  school,  called  Prince  of  Wales  Collegiate,  is 
housed  in  a  new  building;  the  former  Prince  of  Wales 
building  is  now  known  as  United  Junior  High  School. 
In  these  institutions  the  traditions  of  the  Wesleyan 
Academy  and  the  Methodist  College  are  continued. 

F.  W.   Rowe,   The  Development  of  Education  in  Newfound- 
land. Toronto:  Ryerson,  1964. 
T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1877,  1890. 

W.  F.  Butt 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PROGRAM   COUNCIL,   THE 


PRINTERS,  John  Wesley's,  included  William  Strahan  of 
London  and  Felix  Farley  of  Bristol,  William  Pine  of 
Bristol,  and  Robert  Hawes  of  London  (see  Book  Rooms). 
For  further  information,  see  A  Charge  to  Keep,  by  Frank 
Baker  (London:  Epworth  Press,  1947). 

John  Kent 


lands,  East  Coast,  and  West  Country,  from  1772-1802. 
Pritchard  was  frequently  ill.  Originally  excessively  ner- 
vous— leaving  Norwich  after  only  one  week — he  became 
a  bold,  undeterred  preacher  and  pastor.  He  died  in  Bristol 
in  1814. 

G.  Lawton 


PRISON  MINISTERS  (British).  It  may  almost  be  said  that 
Methodism  began  in  prison;  for  the  concern  of  John 
Wesley  and  his  fellow  members  of  the  Holy  Club 
for  those  imprisoned  in  Oxford  Gaol,  and  their  methodical 
visits  to  and  services  in  the  jail  partly  led  to  their  being 
called  Methodists.  Charles  Wesley  frequently  visited 
the  prisoners  in  Newgate;  and  his  work  was  carried  on 
by  other  Methodists,  such  as  Sarah  Peters,  who  died  of 
jail  fever  contracted  during  her  visitations.  Silas  Told 
became  famous  for  his  ministrations  to  condemned 
criminals. 

Under  the  Prison  Ministers'  Act  of  1863,  denominations 
other  than  the  Established  Church  were  given  the  right 
to  appoint  ministers  to  visit  their  members  in  prison. 
Since  that  date  Methodist  ministers  have  been  appointed 
to  every  prison  and  subsequently  to  every  Borstal  and 
detention  center.  Nominations  are  made  by  the  Home 
Mission  Department  Prison  Committee  and  submitted  to 
the  secretary  of  state,  who  makes  the  appointment  of 
these  ministers  and  thus  ensures  that  they  have  the  bene- 
fit of  official  recognition.  The  oversight  of  the  work  is 
the  responsibility  of  the  chaplain  general  of  prisons,  and 
of  the  Home  Mission  Department  acting  on  behalf  of  the 
Methodist  Church. 

It  is  the  duty  of  each  visiting  minister  to  visit  his 
prison  or  institution  at  least  once  a  week.  He  visits  the 
prisoners  in  their  cells  in  private;  and,  wherever  numbers 
make  it  practicable,  holds  a  regular  service  to  which  all 
under  his  care  are  permitted  to  come.  This  service  is 
held  either  in  the  prison  chapel  or  in  some  other  con- 
veniently arranged  place.  There  is  also  opportunity  for 
the  regular  celebration  of  Holy  Communion,  and  the 
minister  is  permitted  to  use  the  prison  communion  vessels 
supplied  by  the  prison  authorities.  By  reason  of  his 
official  appointment,  the  prison  minister  is  in  direct  contact 
with  the  welfare  and  after-care  agencies  of  the  prison, 
both  statutory  and  voluntary.  Through  these  agencies  he 
is  often  able  to  arrange  visits  to  and  aid  for  prisoners' 
families,  to  help  in  reconciliations,  and  to  assist  in  provid- 
ing contacts,  work,  and  accommodation  on  release.  In 
special  cases  he  can  also  communicate  direct  with 
prisoners'  families  for  the  purpose  of  helping  them  and 
providing  for  the  prisoners'  after-care.  All  these  tasks  he 
undertakes  as  a  spiritual  ministry  in  order  that  he  may 
effectively  offer  Christ  and  his  saving  power  to  those  in 
need. 

G.  Fbazer  Thompson 


PROBATIONERS  is  the  term  by  which  those  entering  or 
endeavoring  to  enter  into  church  membership,  or  into 
full  annual  conference  membership  are  known.  See 
Membership  in  Methodist  Churches;  and  also  Ministry 
IN  American  Methodism. 

PROBERT  TRUST,  at  Auckland,  New  Zealand,  administers 
funds  left  to  the  Methodist  Church  by  John  Probert,  an 
early  Auckland  settler  who  prospered  with  the  growth  of 
the  city.  He  was  also  a  loyal  Wesleyan,  being  attached  to 
Pitt  Street  Church.  At  his  death  in  1890  he  left  approxi- 
mately £12,000  to  be  devoted  to  theological  education  in 
the  City  of  Auckland.  Invested  in  city  property,  the 
capital  of  the  trust  has  multiplied  in  value,  and  the 
trustees  are  now  able  to  contribute  substantially  towards 
the  maintenance  of  Trinity  College. 

Eric  W.  Hames 

PROCTER,  JOHN  ERNEST  ( 1918-  ) ,  American  layman, 

was  born  July  23,  1918  in  Gainsboro,  Tenn.  to  Leon  C. 
and  Mary  (Poteet)  Procter.  Schooling  was  obtained  at 
Memphis  State  College,  George  Peabody  College,  Van- 
DERBILT  University,  University  of  Miami,  and  University 
of  Tennessee.  He  was  married  to  Jane  Christine  Sprott, 
May  2.3,  1941. 

He  rose  to  rank  of  captain  while  serving  in  the  USAF, 
1943-4.5,  1950-52.  He  was  decorated  with  the  CerHficate 
of  Valor  and  the  Air  Medal,  receiving  seven  oak  leaf 
clusters.  Mr.  Procter  became  manager  of  the  Accounts 
Payable  Department,  the  Methodist  Publishing  House, 
1946-58;  system  analyst,  1958-64;  vice-president  of  the 
Publishing  Division,  1964-70;  and  Publisher  from  that 
date. 

As  a  member  of  the  Nashville  Administrative  Manage- 
ment Society,  he  has  held  the  offices  of  secretary,  trea- 
surer, vice-president  and  president,  receiving  the  Out- 
standing Service  Plaque  for  service  to  the  national  office, 
the  Gold  Merit  Key  (1961),  and  the  Diamond  Merit  Key 
(1967).  He  has  served  as  chairman  of  several  committees 
for  the  Protestant  Church-Owned  Pubhshers  Association. 
He  is  also  a  member  of  Nashville  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
American  Book  Publishers  Council,  and  the  Publishers 
Section  of  the  National  Council  of  Churches. 


Who's  Who  in  America,  1970-71. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 


PRITCHARD,  JOHN  (1746-1814),  British  itinerant,  was 
governor  of  Kingswood  School  from  1802-7.  Bom  De- 
cember 1746,  at  Arthbay,  Ireland,  educated  locally, 
afterward  at  Dublin  Academy,  he  disappeared  to  London 
about  1763,  suffering  ague,  poverty  and  spiritual  despair. 
At  the  Foundery  under  Peter  Jaco  in  1765  he  found 
peace.  Traveling  with  Wesley  in  1770-71,  Pritchard  was 
received  into  Full  Connexion  in  1772.  After  tramping 
four  Irish  circuits,  he  served  in  England — North,    Mid- 


PROGRAM  COUNCIL,  THE,  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church.  This  organization,  called  for  and  created  by  the 
Uniting  Conference  of  1968,  is  new  to  American  Method- 
ism, but  was  known  to  the  E.U.B.  Church  as  part  of 
their  conference  administrative  work  before  union  with 
The  Methodist  Church  in  1968  (Discipline  of  the  EUB 
Church,  1967,  paragraph  1012-1017).  As  adopted  and 
created  for  The  United  Methodist  Church,  it  takes  as 
its   aim  "to  provide  a  consultation   process   wherein   the 


PROGRAM-CURRICULUM   COMMIHEE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Council  of  Bishops,  the  Council  of  Secretabies,  and 
the  representative  laymen  and  pastors  may  discuss,  choose, 
correlate  and  coordinate  program  emphases  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church."  It  is  also  "to  provide  services  to 
assist  in  the  selection  and  coordination  of  the  program 
emphases  and  in  the  interpretation  and  promotion  of  them 
in  the  Annual  Conferences  and  local  churches." 

As  organized  this  powerful  body  took  over  from  The 
Methodist  Church  the  functions  of  the  Commission  on 
Promotion  and  Culth'ation;  the  Coordinating  Council; 
the  Interboard  Commission  on  Local  Church;  and  the  De- 
partment of  Research  of  the  Council  on  World  Service 
AND  Finance;  and  incorporated  the  Television,  Radio 
AND  Film  Commission  as  a  full  division  within  its  struc- 
ture. It  also  took  over  and  continues  the  former  Program 
Council  of  the  E.U.B.  Church. 

Fifteen  bishops  were  made  members  of  the  Program 
Council — three  from  each  Jurisdiction  and  four  ministers 
from  each  Jurisdiction,  at  least  three  of  whom  are  to  be 
pastors  at  the  time  of  their  election;  and  seven  la\Tnen  of 
whom  at  least  one  should  not  be  over  twenty-one  years 
of  age  at  the  time  of  election.  Two  of  these  laymen  also 
were  to  be  women.  All  members  of  the  Council  of  Secre- 
taries were  made  members  of  this  body  but  had  no  vote. 

Lengthy  disciplinary  directions  were  given  for  the 
organization  and  functioning  of  this  Council  with  specific 
directions  regarding  division  of  the  body  for  purposes  of 
administration,  and  further  directions  as  to  meetings,  staff, 
secretariat,  and  the  like. 

In  general  the  functions  of  the  Program  Council  are  to 
give  leadership  in  and  participate  in  the  coordinate  re- 
search and  planning  for  The  United  Methodist  Church, 
and  to  assist  the  general  agencies  of  the  Church  in  the 
interpretation  and  promotion  of  the  cooperative  program 
of  all  such  agencies. 

Since  the  Program  Council  takes  over  the  work  formerly 
done  by  the  Coordinating  Council,  much  of  its  work  will 
be  in  the  nature  of  correlating  the  different  plans  and 
moves  of  a  Church  as  large  as  The  United  Methodist. 
Plans  ahead,  of  course,  will  be  made  by  the  Council, 
especially  when  a  new  quadrennium  is  near.  The  Program 
Council  must  report  directly  to  the  General  Conference 
upon  its  work. 

A  full  secretariat  is  provided  with  executive  officers 
who  let  the  entire  Church  know  of  moves  being  made 
and  planned  for;  and  there  is  also  a  central  promotional 
office  for  the  purpose  of  advancing  throughout  the  Church 
a  program  of  World  Ser\'ice,  Advance  Specials,  One  Great 
Hour  of  Sharing,  the  Television-Radio  Ministerial  Fund, 
the  Fellowship  of  Suffering  and  Service,  the  Interdenom- 
inational Cooperation  Fund,  and  other  general  benev- 
olence causes  except  as  otherwise  directed  by  the  General 
Conference. 

In  each  Jurisdiction,  there  may  be  a  Jurisdiction 
Program  Council  designed  to  coordinate  and  make  the 
work  of  the  Boards  and  Agencies  of  the  Church  effective 
within  such  Jurisdiction.  Likewise,  in  each  Annual  Con- 
ference, there  must  be  organized  an  Annual  Conference 
Program  Council.  This  is  to  develop  all  recommendations 
from  the  local  churches,  the  district  agencies,  the  annual 
conference  agencies,  and  the  general  Program  Council 
and  make  all  such  available  and  useful  in  each  Annual 
Conference. 

In  the  local  church,  instead  of  a  Program  Council, 
a  Local  Church  Council  on  Ministries  is  created  which 
"shall  consider,  develop,  and  coordinate  proposals  for  the 


church's  strategy  for  mission.  It  shall  receive,  and  where 
possible,  utilize  resources  for  mission  provided  by  the 
District,  Annual,  Jurisdictional  and  General  Conference 
Program  Councils,  boards,  and  agencies,  and  shall  coordi- 
nate these  resources  with  the  church's  plan  for  ministries 
in  its  local  and  other  settings." 

N.  B.  H. 

PROGRAM-CURRICULUM  COMMITTEE.  When  The 
United  Methodist  Church  was  formed  in  1968  the  re- 
sponsibility for  planning  curriculum  for  the  educational 
ministry  of  the  local  church  was  delegated  to  a  Program- 
Curriculum  Committee  of  the  General  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. It  was  similar  to  former  curriculum  committees  in 
the  uniting  churches,  with  the  significant  addition  to  its 
scope  of  program  elements  related  to  curriculum. 

The  great  growth  of  church  schools  and  church  school 
literature  during  the  early  years  of  the  twentieth  century, 
including  various  church  school  publications  and  lesson 
materials  and  the  like,  called  in  time  for  an  over-all, 
authoritative,  broadly  based  curriculum  plan  that  Board 
staff  alone  could  not  properly  develop.  In  the  former  M.E. 
Church  the  General  Conference  of  1928  authorized 
the  Board  of  Education  to  "appoint  a  Curriculum  Com- 
mittee of  such  number  and  in  such  manner  as  it  may 
determine,  always  including  the  Book  Editor,  the  Editor 
of  Church  School  Publications,  and  the  Editor  of  The 
Epworth  Herald."  The  function  of  the  committee  was  to 
"determine  standard  curricula  for  all  church  schools,  in- 
cluding vacation  and  week-day  schools,  the  Epworth 
Le.\gue,  and  other  agencies  within  the  local  church,  and 
to  recommend  to  the  Board  books  and  other  literature 
which  may  be  found  desirable  for  use  in  religious  educa- 
tion and  in  the  training  of  leaders  and  teachers."  (Para- 
graph 500.4,  Disciphne,  1928.) 

In  the  former  M.E.  Church,  South,  there  was  a  staff 
Committee  on  Curriculum  and  Program  after  1930  {Dis- 
cipline, 1934,  Paragraph  414),  but  at  Union  in  1939  a 
Curriculum  Committee  very  much  like  that  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  and  patterned  after  it,  was  established  for  The 
Methodist  Church.  The  Committee  consisted  of  seventeen 
voting  members  and  of  various  important  officials  of  the 
General  Board  of  Education  and  The  Methodist  Pub- 
lishing House,  as  well  as  representatives  of  the  Board  of 
Missions,  the  Board  of  Evangelism,  the  Board  of  Chris- 
tian Social  Concerns,  and  the  Board  of  Lay  Activities. 

In  the  former  E.U.B.  Church  there  was  a  Church 
Curriculum  Committee  with  twenty  voting  members  repre- 
senting the  major  boards  and  agencies  of  the  church.  Its 
function  was  to  carry  on  curriculum  research  and  to 
develop  a  curriculum  design,  including  objectives,  out- 
lines, and  courses  of  study.  Writers  and  editors  were 
responsible  to  the  denomination's  publishers. 

In  the  current  Program-Curriculum  Committee  there 
are  thirty-five  voting  members.  Among  them  are  repre- 
sentatives of  the  major  program  agencies  of  the  church, 
pastors,  professors,  lay  workers,  conference  directors  of 
education,  and  public  school  leaders.  The  committee 
meets  semiannually,  and  is  charged  with  planning  a 
curriculum  that  "is  graded,  based  on  sound  educational 
principles,  and  on  the  universal  gospel  of  the  living 
Christ  .  .  .  [and]  related  to  the  traditions,  purposes, 
programs,  and  movements  of  the  church."  Resources 
based  on  these  curriculum  plans   are  developed  by   the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PROTESTANT   METHODISTS 


Board  of  Education  through  its  Division  of  Curriculum 
Resources. 


Discipline,  TMC,  1940-64;  UMC,  1968. 


Walter  N.  Vernon 


PROMOTION  AND  CULTIVATION,   COMMISSION  ON, 

an  agency  of  The  Methodist  Church  was  organized  in  1952. 
The  purpose  of  the  commission  was  "that  duphcation, 
overlapping,  and  competition  may  be  eliminated  in  the 
promotion  of  the  general  financial  causes  of  the  church, 
and  to  the  end  that  our  people  may  be  informed  about, 
and  may  adequately  support  the  general  agencies  of  the 
church,"  .  .  .  and  to  promote  "throughout  the  church  the 
program  of  World  Service,  Advance  Specials,  Week  of 
Dedication  ofiFerings,  and  other  general  financial  causes 
except  as  otherwise  directed  by  the  General  Conference." 
( 1952  Discipline,  Paragraphs  750-4 ) 

The  1956  General  Confepience  renewed  this  mandate 
and  added  specifically  for  promotion  the  Fellowship  of 
Suffering  and  Service  offerings,  and  the  Television  Minis- 
try Fund.  In  1960  the  Week  of  Dedication  offerings 
became  the  One  Great  Hour  of  Sharing  offerings,  and  the 
Interdenominational  Cooperation  Fund  was  included  for 
promotion.  In  1960  and  1964  the  General  Conferences 
reafiBrmed  the  mandate  of  the  Commission  to  inform 
Methodist  people  that  adequate  support  might  be  given 
the  general  agencies,  and  to  promote  the  program  of 
world  service  and  other  general  benevolence  causes. 

Since  1952  the  commission  has  informed  Methodist 
people  and  encouraged  their  support  of  World  Service 
and  other  general  benevolences.  The  record  written  by 
Methodists  during  this  sixteen  year  period  shows  that  the 
total  amount  contributed  to  World  Service,  General  Ad- 
vance Specials,  for  Special  Appeals  such  as  Emergency 
Help  for  India,  the  Week  of  Dedication,  and  the  One 
Great  Hour  of  Sharing,  the  Fellowship  of  Suffering  and 
Service,  the  Television-Radio  Ministry  Fund,  Temporary 
General  Aid  and  World  Service  Specials  was 
$375,161,801. 

A  variety  of  means  and  materials  were  used  by  the 
commission  to  promote  benevolence  causes.  The  Methodist 
Story,  a  program  journal,  was  sent  free  each  month  to 
ministers  and  key  laymen  in  each  local  church.  The  Meth- 
odist Story  and  Spotlight,  the  program  journal  of  the 
E.U.B.  Church  were  merged  in  May  of  1968.  As  Method- 
ist Story — Spotlight  it  was  mailed  to  over  315,000  persons 
in  that  month.  Other  printed  materials  include  free  Fourth 
Sunday  World  Service  leaflets,  leaflets  about  each  general 
benevolence  cause.  World  Service  and  general  benevo- 
lence charts,  and  materials  for  special  observances.  Films 
and  filmstrips  have  been  developed  as  well  to  dramatize 
and  pictorialize  benevolences. 

In  1952  the  entire  staff  of  the  Advance  For  Christ 
and  His  Church  office  became  the  staff  of  the  Commission 
on  Promotion  and  Cultivation,  with  Bishop  William  C. 
Martin  serving  as  chairman  and  E.  Harold  Mohn  as 
secretary  and  executive  director.  Related  to  the  commis- 
sion was  the  Advance  Committee.  From  1952-56  Bishop 
Costen  J.  Harrell  was  chairman  and  Dr.  Mohn  was 
executive  director.  Bishop  Martin  served  as  chairman  of 
the  commission  until  his  retirement  in  1964  and  E.  Harold 
Mohn  until  his  retirement  in  1960.  Bishop  Hazen  G. 
Werner  became  chairman  of  the  Advance  Committee  in 
1956,  and  was  the  chairman  at  the  time  of  his  retirement 
in  1968.  In  1961  headquarters  of  the  Commission  were 


located  in  Evanston,  111.,  and  Elliott  L.  Fisher  became 
general  secretary.  Howard  Greenwalt  was  chosen  general 
secretary  of  the  Commission  in  1966,  following  the  death 
of  Dr.  Fisher.  Bishop  Donald  H.  Tippett  served  as  chair- 
man of  the  Commission  on  Promotion  and  Cultivation 
from  1964  to  1968. 

The  General  Conference  of  1968  (The  Uniting  Con- 
ference) created  an  organizational  union  of  the  Commis- 
sion on  Promotion  and  Cultivation,  the  Coordinating 
Council,  the  Interboard  Commission  on  the  Local  Church, 
and  Television,  Radio  and  Film  Commission,  and  the 
Department  of  Research  of  the  Council  on  World 
Service  and  Finance  of  The  Methodist  Church;  and 
The  Program  Council  of  the  Evangelical  United  Breth- 
ren Church.  The  Commission  on  Promotion  and  Cultiva- 
tion became  The  Division  of  Interpretation  of  The  Pro- 
gram Council. 

Discipline,  TMC,  1952-64;  UMC,  1968. 

Journal  of  the  General  Conference,  TMC,  1952-64;  UMC,  1968. 

Howard  Greenwalt 

PROTESTANT  METHODISTS,  a  British  secession  from  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  connection  which  took  place  in  1828. 
The  affair  began  when  a  group  of  trustees  from  the 
Brunswick  Chapel,  Leeds,  applied  to  the  Leeds  District 
Meeting  for  permission  to  ask  Conference  to  sanction  the 
building  of  an  organ  in  their  chapel.  (There  still  existed 
a  residual  Puritan  objection  to  the  use  of  such  instruments 
in  religious  services,  hence  the  complicated  nature  of  the 
procedure.)  The  trustees  were  refused  permission  by  a 
large  majority,  but  nevertheless  made  their  request  to  the 
Conference  of  1827,  which,  despite  the  warning  of  the 
Leeds  superintendent  and  a  deputation  of  protest  from 
the  Leeds  circuit  involved,  gave  the  desired  permission. 
The  trustees  sent  out  orders  for  the  building  of  the  organ, 
but  the  local  preachers  and  leaders  who  had  originally 
objected  to  the  idea  on  rituahstic  grounds  now  decided 
to  resist  on  constitutional  grounds.  The  conflict  soon 
turned  on  the  rights  of  the  ministry  as  opposed  to  the 
rights  of  the  laity;  at  a  special  district  meeting  in  Leeds, 
Jabez  Bunting  upheld  the  authority  of  the  pastoral  office 
as  he  saw  it;  in  turn,  he  was  supported  by  the  Conference 
of  1828.  The  secession  which  followed  was  small;  in  1830 
there  were  3,997  members,  scattered  thinly  over  Lan- 
cashire and  Yorkshire,  apart  from  402  in  the  London 
South  Circuit. 

The  Rules  of  the  Leeds  Protestant  Methodists  (Leeds, 
1829;  there  was  a  final  version  in  September,  1830) 
reacted  so  strongly  against  Wesleyanism  that  the  ministry 
was  replaced  with  an  eldership,  and  the  annual  meeting 
was  stripped  of  the  enormous  powers  wielded  by  the 
Wesleyan  Conference.  The  survivors  of  the  secession 
joined  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Association  in  1837. 
The  principal  leader  in  Leeds  was  a  local  schoolmaster 
called  James  Sigston,  who  had  written  a  biography  of  the 
revivalist,  William  Bramwell.  The  Leeds  secession  was 
important  because  it  marked  the  climax  of  Jabez  Bunting's 
career;  his  autocratic  behavior  at  Leeds  was  never  for- 
given by  his  opponents,  and  his  refusal  to  make  any 
significant  concessions  to  the  laity  made  inevitable  an 
internal  Wesleyan  struggle  which  lasted  until  1857.  Many 
pamphlets  were  written  at  the  time;  see  especially,  three 
Letters  to  the  Protestant  Methodisis,  by  Daniel  Isaac 
(Leeds,  1830);  An  Affectionate  Address  .  .  .  to  the  South 
London  Circuit,  Richard  Watson   (1829);  the  Protestant 


PROUTY,    FLORENCE   J. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Methodist  Magazine,  1829-30;  and  An  Essay  on  the 
Constitution  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  John  Beecham 
(London,  1829) — virtually  a  book,  and  a  classic  state- 
ment of  Jabez  Bunting's  case,  which  was  more  coherent 
than  is  often  allowed. 

John  Kent 

PROUTY,  FLORENCE  J.   (1908-  ),  American  mission- 

ary to  Chile,  was  born  in  Ollie,  Mont.  She  was  sent  to 
Chile  as  a  nurse  in  1940  to  reorganize  the  medical  work 
at  Sweet  Memorial  Institute,  Santiago,  which  was  a  part 
of  the  program  for  training  young  women  for  work  in 
the  local  church. 

As  a  specialist  in  pediatric  nursing,  Miss  Prouty  was 
concerned  about  the  high  infant-morality  rate  in  Chile 
and  embarked  on  a  campaign  of  educating  the  mothers  on 
how  to  take  care  of  their  children.  Under  her  leadership 
the  kindergarten  and  day  nursery  were  reorganized  and 
have  become  the  outstanding  teaching  center  of  its  kind 
for  all  Latin  America. 

In  1946  Miss  Prouty  organized  the  medical  work  of 
The  Methodist  Church  with  the  Mapuche  Indians  in 
southern  Chile,  a  small  clinic  being  set  up  in  Nueva 
Imperial.  The  work  has  been  extended  into  the  nearby 
communities,  and  emphasis  has  been  given  to  child  care 
under  the  leadership  of  a  missionary  doctor  and  a 
Mapuche  nurse. 

The  Bernardo  O'Higgins  Award  was  bestowed  upon 
Miss  Prouty  in  1960  in  recognition  of  her  work  and  con- 
cern for  the  Chilean  child.  This  is  the  highest  award  Chile 
gives  to  a  foreign  resident.  In  1965  Miss  Prouty  received 
the  Javier  Spencer  Award  from  the  Association  of  Amer- 
ican Women  in  Chile  as  the  woman  who  had  rendered  out- 
standing service  to  the  community  during  the  year. 

Joyce  Hill 

PROVIDENCE,  RHODE  ISLAND,  U.S.A.,  the  state  capital, 
had  a  population  of  about  177,000  in  1970.  Founded  by 
Roger  Williams  in  1636,  it  was  incorporated  in  1832. 
Freeborn  Garbettson  preached  the  first  Methodist  ser- 
mon in  the  city  in  April  1787,  and  the  second  was 
delivered  by  Jesse  Lee,  July  4,  1790.  Bishop  Asbury 
visited  the  community  as  early  as  1791,  and  in  1792  the 
Providence  Circuit  was  organized.  The  circuit  included 
Bristol,  Cranston,  Newport,  and  Warren  along  with  some 
towns  over  the  line  in  Massachusetts.  Designated  as 
Warren  Circuit  in  1792,  it  reported  fifty-eight  members. 

In  1815  the  first  Methodist  church  building  in  Provi- 
dence was  erected  with  Van  Rensselaer-Osbom  as  pastor. 
Following  a  successful  revival  in  1820,  a  new  and  larger 
building  called  Chestnut  Street  Church  was  dedicated  in 
1822.  Chestnut  Street  sponsored  Power  Street  Church  in 
1833,  and  in  1848  Mathewson  Street  sprang  from  the 
latter.  In  1876  there  were  eight  churches  in  Providence, 
including  one  in  East  Providence,  with  a  total  member- 
ship of  2,197.  At  that  time  the  A.M.E.  and  A.M.E.  Zion 
Churches  had  two  congregations  each  in  the  city. 

For  many  years  during  the  first  half  of  the  twentieth 
century,  Mathewson  Street  Church  was  one  of  the  strong- 
est and  most  influential  churches  in  the  New  England 
Southern  Conference,  reporting  at  one  time  more  than 
1,400  members.  In  more  recent  years  it  has  declined  in 
strength;  in  1968  it  had  768  members.  Since  that  time 
Mathewson  Street  and  Broadway  Churches  together  have 


been  called  Christ  Methodist  Parish.  In  1970  the  parish 
reported  894  members  and  property  valued  at  $1,231,546. 
In  1970,  The  United  Methodist  Church  had,  in  addition 
to  Christ  Methodist  Parish,  four  churches  in  Providence 
— Cranston  Street,  Friendship,  Trinity  Union,  and  Wash- 
ington Park.  The  statistics  for  the  five  units  were:  2,282 
members,  property  valued  at  $2,582,986,  and  $165,090 
raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

Ceneral  Minutes,  MEC,  MC,  and  UMC. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Albea  Godbold 

PROVIDENCE  CONFERENCE  (ME),  was  organized  June 
9,  1841  at  Providence,  R.  I.,  with  Bishop  Elijah 
Hedding  presiding.  The  1840  General  Conference 
created  the  Providence  Conference  by  dividing  the  New 
England  Conference.  The  territory  of  the  new  con- 
ference was  the  part  of  Connecticut  east  of  the  Connecti- 
cut River,  Rhode  Island,  and  southeastern  Massachu- 
setts. The  Providence  Conference  began  with  three  dis- 
tricts. Providence,  New  London,  and  Sandwich.  It  had 
sixty-four  charges,  eighty-five  preachers,  and  10,664 
members. 

The  successive  divisions  of  the  New  England  Confer- 
ence to  form  the  Maine  Conference  in  1825,  the  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont  Conference  in  1830,  and  the 
Providence  Conference  in  1840,  reflect  the  statistical  in- 
crease of  Methodism  in  New  England  during  that  period, 
and  the  consequent  advisability,  under  existing  conditions, 
of  organizing  the  several  socio-economic  parts  of  the  re- 
gion into  separate  annual  conferences. 

Two  notable  enterprises  promoted  by  the  Providence 
Conference  were  the  East  Greenwich  Academy  (See 
Rhode  Island),  and  the  Martha's  Vineyard  Camp  Meet- 
ing. President  U.  S.  Grant  had  a  "conversion  experi- 
ence" at  Martha's  Vineyard  in  1874. 

The  Providence  Conference  was  renamed  the  New 
England  Conference  in  1881.  In  1880  the  conference 
reported  178  charges,  181  preachers,  23,147  members, 
and  property  valued  at  $1,669,250. 

General  Minutes,  ME. 

R.  C.  Miller,  New  England  Southern  Conference.  1898. 

Minutes  of  the  Providence  Conference. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Ernest  R.  Case 

PRUSSNER,  AUGUST  HENRY  (1884-1947),  missionary, 
educator,  writer,  was  born  in  Kreis  Herford,  Westphalia, 
Germany,  April  23,  1884.  As  a  very  young  man  he  emi- 
grated to  America,  and  settled  down  in  Iowa.  His  desire 
for  knowledge  led  him  to  Charles  City  College,  from 
which  he  received  his  B.A.  in  1914.  In  1916  he  was 
graduated  with  highest  honors  from  Garrett  Biblical 
Institute  with  a  B.D.  degree,  and  in  1917  he  received 
his  M.A.  from  Northwestern  Unix'ersity.  Three  years 
later  he  had  completed  his  work  for  a  Ph.D.  from  Chicago 
University  in  the  field  of  Semitic  languages. 

In  1921  he  had  the  choice  of  going  to  the  Methodist 
Seminary  in  Frankfurt  Am  Main,  Germany,  or  to  a  newly 
organized  Theological  Training  School  in  Java,  and  de- 
cided in  favor  of  the  latter.  He  became  Principal  of  the 
Training  School,  where  he  served  1921-1926.  After  his 
first,  furlough  he  was  asked  to  go  to  Sumatra  and  work  as 
District  Missionary,  later  District  Superintendent,  and  in 
1935-1940  as  Principal  of  the  Methodist  Boys  School  in 
Palembang,  where  he  built  a  beautiful  new  school  build- 
ing. Being  a  very  able  writer  in  the  Indonesian  (Malay) 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PUBLICATION,   BOARD   OF 


language,  he  translated  a  number  of  books  and  wrote 
several  tracts  and  books,  the  most  important  of  which  was 
a  scholarly  study  of  Amos  and  Hosea  ( 1935 ) .  Not  able  to 
return  to  Indonesia  on  account  of  the  war,  he  transferred 
to  the  Northwest  Indiana  Conference.  At  the  time  of 
his  death  he  was  pastor  of  Immanuel  and  Sacred  Heart 
Methodist  Churches  in  South  Bend,  Ind.,  U.S.A.  He 
died  Dec.  13,  1947,  and  was  buried  in  Highland  Ceme- 
tery, South  Bend. 

Ragnah  Alm 


Thomas  M.  Pryor 

PRYOR,  THOMAS  MARION  (1904-  ),  American  bish- 

op was  born  in  Cairo,  III.,  on  Feb.  28,  1904,  the  son  of 
Thomas  J.  and  Esther  (Handley)  Pryor.  Later  his  family 
moved  to  Michigan  where  he  has  lived  and  served  the 
church. 

His  undergraduate  work  was  taken  at  the  University 
of  Michigan,  from  which  institution  he  also  earned  the 
M.A.  and  Ph.D.  degree,  the  latter  being  in  the  field  of 
Urban  Sociology.  He  also  earned  the  S.T.B.  degree  from 
Boston  University  School  of  Theology,  and  took 
additional  graduate  training  at  the  Sorbonne  in  France 
and  the  University  of  Heidelberg  in  Germany.  Adrian 
College  awarded  him  an  honorary  degree  in  1962. 

He  married  Alice  Wuerfel  on  Sept.  5,  1925.  They 
have  four  children:  Thomas  H.,  a  copywriter;  David  B., 
a  clinical  psychologist  on  the  staff  of  the  University  of 
Michigan  medical  school;  Nancy  S.  (Mrs.  Karl  Kienholz) 
and  Mary  Ann  (Mrs.  Roderick  Daane) . 

Thomas  M.  Pryor  is  a  member  of  Theta  Phi  (honorary 
theological  fraternity)  and  Alpha  Kappa  Delta  (honorary 
sociological  fraternity).  He  has  served  as  special  lecturer 
at  both  the  University  of  Michigan  and  Wayne  University, 
Detroit. 

He  has  served  Methodist  churches  in  both  the  Detroit 
and  Michigan  Conferences.  He  was  senior  pastor  at 
First  Church,  Kalamazoo,  when  elected  to  the  episcopacy 
in  1964.  Previously,  he  served  for  thirteen  years  as  pastor 
of  First  Church,  Royal  Oak,  Mich.  His  student  pastorates 


included  Whitmore  Lake,  Montrose,  Newberg,  and 
Detroit,  Whitefield. 

Bishop  and  Mrs.  Pryor  have  traveled  widely  throughout 
the  nation  and  the  world.  He  was  with  the  Sherwood 
Eddy  Seminar  to  Europe  in  1951;  journeyed  through  the 
USSR  with  the  Board  of  Christian  Social  Concerns  in 
1961;  made  an  around  the  world  tour  of  Methodist 
missions  in  1958,  and  has  traveled  twice  for  the  I.R.O. 
and  the  Y.M.C.A.  as  an  observer  in  displaced  persons 
camps.  In  1955  he  spent  three  months  in  Nottingham, 
England  as  an  exchange  minister.  In  1965  he  and  Mrs. 
Pryor  made  an  episcopal  visitation  to  missions  in  Africa. 

Upon  his  election  to  the  episcopacy  in  1964,  he  was 
assigned  to  the  Chicago  Area  where  he  is  serving  at 
present.  He  is  a  trustee  of  Northwestern  University, 
Kendall  College,  Garrett  School  of  Theology, 
North  Central  College,  and  Chicago  Wesley  Memo- 
rial Hospital.  He  was  president  of  the  Church  Federation 
of  Greater  Chicago  for  the  year  1968-69.  He  serves  as 
a  member  of  the  World  Methodist  Council,  the 
Commission  for  Ecumenical  Affairs,  the  Program  Coun- 
cil, and  the  National  Board  of  Education. 


Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


PUBLICATION,  BOARD  OF  (EUB),  was  the  printing  and 
publishing  agency  of  the  Evangelical  United  Breth- 
ren Church  in  America  with  headquarters  in  Dayton, 
Ohio.  The  Board  was  first  organized  immediately  after 
union  of  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ 
and  the  Evangelical  Church  in  1946.  From  1946  until 
1962  the  publishing  work  of  the  church  was  carried  on  by 
the  two  church  publishing  houses:  The  Otterbein  Press 
of  Dayton,  Ohio  (United  Brethren)  and  The  Evangel- 
ical Press  of  Harrisburg,  Pa.  (Evangelical).  In  1962  the 
General  Conference  approved  a  plan  of  restructuring 
its  Board  of  Publication  to  provide  for  all  general  church 
publishing  by  this  Board  under  the  administration  of  one 
publisher. 

Publishing  in  the  church  has  been  an  important  function 
since  the  first  years  of  the  Evangelical  and  United  Breth- 
ren Churches,  beginning  early  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
In  The  Evangelical  Church  the  first  publishing  house  was 
established  in  New  Berlin,  Pa.,  in  1817,  being  constructed 
side  by  side  with  the  first  church  of  that  denomination 
which  was  erected  in  the  same  year.  During  the  years 
other  publishing  centers  for  The  Evangelical  Church 
were  located  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  Harrisburg,  Pa. 
The  original  Harrisburg  location  of  the  publishing  house 
was  Second  and  Locust  Streets  (1894).  A  new,  modern 
building  was  erected  in  1918  at  the  comer  of  Third  and 
Reily  Streets  which  has  been  the  site  of  The  Evangelical 
Press  from  that  time  to  the  present.  This  is  a  three-story 
modern  brick  building  with  printing  and  binding  equip- 
ment and  administrative  oflBces.  An  additional  printing 
building  (Plant  No.  2)  was  erected  in  1955  and  is  located 
a  few  blocks  from  Plant  No.  1 . 

The  United  Brethren  in  Christ  in  its  early  years  pub- 
lished disciplines,  hymnals  and  church  school  literature, 
with  printing  being  done  by  private  printers.  In  1834 
printing  equipment  was  purchased  and  a  Printing  Estab- 
lishment opened  at  Circleville,  Ohio.  One  of  the  first 
publications  was  the  Religious  Telescope,  published  Dec. 
31,  1834.  This  publication  was  to  continue  without  in- 
terruption   until    church    union    with    The    Evangelical 


PUBLICATION,   BOARD  OF 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Church  in  1946.  The  pubhshing  house  was  incorporated 
in  the  State  of  Ohio  in  1839,  by  an  act  of  the  General 
Assembly  as  the  Printing  Establishment  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ. 

Within  a  few  years  there  was  a  demand  to  move  the 
publishing  center  to  a  larger  city.  After  considerable 
heated  discussion,  the  General  Conference  in  1853 
authorized  the  Printing  Establishment  to  be  relocated  in 
Dayton,  Ohio.  The  first  location  was  at  Fourth  and  Main 
Streets.  Publishing  continued  there  in  several  different 
buildings  until  1914.  The  publishing  house  was  then  re- 
moved to  its  present  location  at  Fifth  and  Perry  Streets. 
In  1935  The  Otterbein  Press  was  incorporated  in  the  State 
of  Ohio  to  become  the  successor  to  the  Printing  Estab- 
lishment corporation  as  the  official  pubhshing  agency  of 
the  United  Brethren  Church.  The  Printing  Establishment 
corporation  was  continued  as  the  holding  company  for 
the  twenty-one-story  office  building  which  was  erected  at 
Fourth  and  Main  in  1925.  This  building  was  sold  in  1952 
and  the  Printing  Establishment  corporation  dissolved  in 
1966,  after  transfer  of  over  $2,000,000  in  assets  to  the 
Board  of  Pensions  of  the  church. 

Purpose  and  Objectives.  The  E.U.B.  Church  restated 
its  publishing  purpose  and  objectives  in  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1962  at  the  time  the  constitution  of  the  Board 
was  approved.  The  objectives  as  stated  were  as  follows: 

The  primary  publishing  objective  of  The  Evangelical  United 
Brethren  Church  shall  be  to  foster  Christian  thought  and 
action   through   the   wide   distribution  of   Christian   materials. 

To  accomplish  this  objective,  the  Board  of  Publication  shall 
produce,  publish,  purchase  and  distribute  Christian  literature, 
printed,  audio-visual  and  other  materials  for  the  church.  The 
Board  of  Publication  shall  share  with  other  agencies  in  the 
total  Christian  education  program  of  the  church,  providing 
printing  and  publishing  services  to  church  boards  and  agencies 
in  implementing  the  total  program  of  the  church. 

Primarily,  the  publishing  was  for  the  churches  and 
members  of  the  denomination;  however,  from  time  to  time 
the  church  had  published  religious  books,  periodicals,  and 
additional  material  for  other  denominations  and  for  the 
Armed  Services  Curriculum  Committee. 

Board  Organization  and  Meetings.  The  Board  of  Pub- 
lication was  made  up  of  eighteen  members,  two  of  whom 
were  bishops  of  the  church.  Fourteen  members  were 
elected  by  the  General  Conference,  seven  of  whom  were 
laymen  and  seven  ministers.  Two  members  at  large  were 
elected  by  the  Board  of  Publication.  The  Publisher  of  the 
Church,  the  General  Conference-elected  executive  editors, 
and  one  representative  from  each  of  the  following  boards 
were  advisory  members:  General  Council  of  Administra- 
tion, the  Board  of  Christian  Education,  the  Board  of 
Evangelism,  the  Board  of  Missions,  the  Board  of  Pensions. 
All  active  bishops  of  the  church  were  advisory  members. 
All  elected  members  of  the  Board  constituted  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  The  Evangelical  Press  and  of  The  Otterbein 
Press. 

The  Board  of  Publication  met  annually  or  upon  call. 
An  Executive  Committee  of  the  Board  met  quarterly. 
The  Board  had  the  "responsibility  for  and  supervision  of 
all  the  publishing  interests  of  The  Evangelical  United 
Brethren  Church." 

The  Pubhsher  was  the  chief  executive  officer  and  trea- 
surer of  the  Board. 

Church  Publishing-Educational.  The  Board  published  a 
complete  line  of  Sunday  school  literature   for   all   ages, 


including  graded  and  uniform  lesson  materials.  Supple- 
mental materials  were  provided  in  the  form  of  age  level 
reading  papers:  Builders  for  senior  high  and  above; 
Friends  for  junior  high;  Boys  and  Girls  for  juniors;  Chil- 
dren's Stories  for  primary.  Power,  with  daily  meditations 
for  youth,  was  printed  and  distributed  for  Christian  Youth 
Publications  to  our  church  as  well  as  several  other  denom- 
inations. Teacher's  helps  included  materials  for  adults, 
youth,  junior  children,  primary  children  and  nursery-kin- 
dergarten. 

Church  and  Home  was  a  monthly  magazine  for  the 
Christian  home  with  a  circulation  of  about  225,000. 

Executive  and  administrative  offices  were  located  in 
the  new  Board  of  Publication  Center  building  at  Fifth 
and  Perry  Streets,  Dayton,  Ohio.  The  Publication  Center 
also  provided  commodious  quarters  for  a  full  staff  of 
church  school  literature  and  Church  and  Home  editors. 
The  Board  of  Publication  maintained  an  art  department 
for  its  own  publications  and  for  art  service  to  all  of  the 
departments  of  the  church. 

The  Board  held  title  for  the  church  to  several  real 
estate  properties,  including  two  printing  manufacturing 
buildings  in  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  the  five-story  Otterbein  Press 
building  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  and  the  new  Board  of  Publi- 
cation Center,  with  total  assets  aggregating  over  nine 
million  dollars. 

Grants  for  Pensions.  The  Board  of  Publication  made 
annual  grants  from  its  net  proceeds  for  the  aid  of  retired 
ministers  and  their  dependents.  This  had  been  a  policy 
of  both  of  the  uniting  churches  since  the  beginning  of 
publishing.  These  grants  were  made  to  the  Board  of 
Pensions  and  to  the  annual  conferences.  The  annual  grant 
for  1966  and  1967  each  had  been  over  $400,000. 

Bibles,  Books  and  Merchandise.  The  Board  of  Publica- 
tion was  responsible  in  the  church  for  the  promotion, 
sale  and  distribution  of  Bibles,  religious  books  and  other 
religious  merchandise  for  the  church  and  the  home.  Two 
modern  bookstores  were  situated  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  and 
Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania.  A  large  part  of  this  religious 
merchandising  was  carried  on  through  a  well  organized 
mail  order  service. 

In  addition  to  church  and  religious  printing,  both  of 
the  printing  plants  did  commercial  work.  This  had  been 
a  policy  of  the  church  from  its  early  years.  The  Board  of 
Publication  provided  modem  printing  and  binding  equip- 
ment incorporating  the  latest  printing  processes  and 
methods.  Since  much  of  the  church  printing  was  on  a 
monthly  or  quarterly  maihng  basis,  additional  printing 
was  required  to  keep  employees  and  equipment  busy 
throughout  the  year.  The  current  dollar  volume  of  the 
printing  and  publishing  operation  in  1967  was  about 
$10,000,000  per  year. 

Throughout  the  years  the  church  served  its  constituency 
and  many  others  with  Christian  printed  materials,  chal- 
lenging them  to  more  active  and  meaningful  Christian 
living. 

With  the  formation  of  The  United  Methodist  Church, 
the  work  of  this  Board  was  transferred  to  the  new  Board 
of  Publication  and  the  Methodist  Publishing  House. 

J.  H.  Ness,  History  of  Publishing  (EUB).  1966. 

L.  L.  Huffman 

PUBLICATION,  BOARD  OF  and  BOOK  COMMITTEE.  The 

Board    of    PubUcation    is    the    directing    and    controlling 


WORLD  METHODISM 


PUBLICATION,   BOARD  OF 


Board  or  Agency  of  The  United  Methodist  Church  which 
manages  and  directs  the  Methodist  Publishing  House. 
This  Pubhshing  House  "comprises  the  pubhshing  interests 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church." 

The  Baltimore  Chkistmas  Conference  in  1784  was 
the  first  ancestor  of  the  Board  of  Publication,  creating 
this  role  for  itself  by  inserting  the  following  paragraph  in 
the  Minutes  of  the  Conference:  "...  the  Advice  of  the 
Conference  shall  be  desired  concerning  any  valuable  Im- 
pression, and  their  consent  be  obtained  before  any  Steps 
be  taken  for  the  Printing  thereof."  The  first  Book  Commit- 
tee (so  called  in  the  M.E.  Church  and  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  until  unification)  was  appointed  by  the  General 
Conference  of  1792  and  had  three  members:  John 
DiCKiNs,  first  Book  Steward;  Henry  Willis  and  Thomas 
Haskins;  and  two  duties:  "to  determine  ....  on  the 
amount  of  the  droughts  which  may  be  drawn  from  time 
to  time  on  the  book-fund,"  and  "to  publish  ....  such 
books  or  treatises  as  members  of  the  Book  Committee 
shall  unanimously  judge  proper."  The  yellow  fever  epi- 
demic of  1798  and  Dickins'  resultant  death  wiped  out 
these  brave  beginnings  of  a  book  committee,  since  the 
Discipline  for  that  year  makes  no  mention  of  the  Book 
Committee  as  originally  set  up,  but  lays  the  responsibility 
of  the  publishing  interests  of  the  church  upon  the  F*hila- 
DELPHiA  Conference,  with  a  conference-appointed  com- 
mittee to  examine  quarterly  the  state  of  the  Book  Concern. 
No  books  or  tracts  were  to  be  printed  without  the  consent 
of  one  bishop  and  two-thirds  of  the  Philadelphia  Confer- 
ence. 

For  nearly  fifty  years  the  annual  conference  in  which 
the  Book  Concern  was  located  appointed  the  Book  Com- 
mittees. In  this  responsibility,  the  New  York  Conference 
replaced  the  Philadelphia  Conference  when  the  Concern 
moved  to  New  York  under  the  stewardship  of  Ezekiel 
Cooper  in  1804.  When  "the  Concern  for  the  Western 
Country"  was  created  in  1820  and  located  in  Cincinnati, 
the  Ohio  Conference  appointed  the  Book  Committees 
for  the  Western  part  of  the  church.  Membership  and 
responsibihties  of  the  committee  waxed  and  waned  with 
the  fortunes  of  the  Concern,  the  general  trend  being  on- 
ward and  upward.  By  1836,  the  Book  Committee  of  the 
eastern  Concern  included  all  the  preachers  stationed  in 
New  York,  including  the  editors  of  the  periodicals  and 
literature,  the  resident  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
Missionary  Society  and  the  presiding  elder  of  the  district. 
This  arrangement  held  until  1844  when  the  General  Con- 
ference ordered  the  first  geographical  distribution  of  the 
committee,  specifying  that  both  Eastern  and  Western 
Concern  Committees  be  limited  to  six  members  each — two 
elected  annually  by  each  of  these  three  conferences  in 
the  East:  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  New  Jersey — 
and  two  elected  annually  by  each  of  the  three  Western 
conferences:  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Indiana.  The  term 
"Book  Steward"  was  dropped  in  favor  of  "Agent."  The 
Western  agent  and  assistant  could  be  taken  from  any 
annual  conference,  not  simply  the  Ohio  Conference,  and 
both  Eastern  and  Western  agents  needed  only  the  approv- 
al of  the  editors  instead  of  that  of  the  Book  Committee 
to  publish  any  new  works. 

In  1848  the  General  Conference  assumed  responsibility 
for  appointing  the  Book  Committees  and  gave  the  bodies 
expanded  powers.  In  1868,  the  two  Committees  were 
combined  into  one.  In  1872,  however,  to  assure  local 
supervision,  subordinate  local  committees  were  authorized 


for  New  York  and  Cincinnati.  It  was  at  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1872  that  laymen,  first  elected  delegates  to  that 
General  Conference,  became  members  of  the  Book  Com- 
mittee. In  1912,  the  Eastern  and  Western  Concerns  were 
unified  under  one  charter  and  management  and  the  Book 
Committee  became  a  corporation. 

The  Book  Committee  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  was 
created  by  the  1846  General  Conference  following  the 
separation  of  the  two  Methodisms  in  1844.  From  a  mem- 
bership of  three,  it  grew  to  a  thirteen-man  body  in  1878, 
with  heavy  lay  representation:  nine  laymen  and  four 
ministers,  reflecting  this  church's  greater  dependence  upon 
the  laity  in  business  matters  during  the  post-war  and 
Reconstruction  era.  In  1890  the  lay-clerical  representation 
was  adjusted  to  seven  lay,  six  cleric.  As  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Book  Committees  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  were  in  the  early  years  dominated  by  the  annual 
conferences,  in  which  its  publishing  houses  were  located, 
so  was  the  Southern  Book  Committee  membership  made 
up  largely  of  Nashvillians.  Residential  restrictions  were 
instituted  in  1898  when  the  Discipline  specified  that  of 
the  thirteen  members,  only  five  could  be  residents  of 
Nashville  and  vicinity.  In  1906  the  Book  Agents  were 
made  coordinate  in  rank,  the  title  of  the  chief  executive 
officer  was  changed  to  "Publishing  Agent"  and  it  devolved 
upon  the  Book  Committee  to  determine  their  functions 
and  prerogatives.  In  1918  the  Book  Committee  assumed 
the  responsibility  of  electing  the  Publishing  Agents,  a 
responsibility  of  the  General  Conference  since  the  found- 
ing of  the  church. 

The  Book  Committee  of  the  M.P.  Church  was  created 
in  1830,  following  the  1828  split  in  the  ranks  of  American 
Methodism  over  lay  representation.  The  committee,  ac- 
countable to  the  Maryland  Conference  in  the  interim  of 
the  General  Conference,  had  both  lay  and  ministerial 
members  on  it  from  its  inception,  more  clearly  defined 
duties  than  M.E.  Church  or  M.E.  Church,  South,  counter- 
parts, but  approximately  the  same  powers.  The  rise  of  the 
North-West  M.P.  Book  Concern,  with  headquarters  ulti- 
mately at  Pittsburgh,  caused  administrative  problems,  and 
at  the  1854  General  Conference  a  Plan  of  Division  of  the 
Book  Concern  was  adopted,  creating  separate,  self-sus- 
taining Concerns,  each  operated  by  its  own  Book  Com- 
mittee, known  as  Directories.  Four  years  later  the  church 
followed  its  Book  Concerns  into  separation  along  the  same 
geographical  lines.  Although  the  Church  reunited  in  1877, 
the  publishing  concerns  continued  to  function  separately, 
but  under  the  control  of  the  General  Conference  and  a 
twenty-member  Board  of  Publication,  composed  of  the 
corporate  bodies  of  the  Pittsburgh  and  Baltimore  Direc- 
tories. The  two  M.P.  Publishing  Houses  united  in  1932. 

The  Present  Board.  At  the  time  of  church  union  of  the 
three  Methodisms  in  1939,  the  term  "Book  Committee" 
was  considered  a  bit  archaic  for  the  new  union,  and  the 
"Board  of  Publication"  supplanted  "Book  Committee"  as 
the  managerial  group  to  control  the  Methodist  Publishing 
House. 

Regulations  in  the  present  Discipline  call  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  of  Publication  to  be  elected  largely 
by  the  Jurisdictional  Conferences,  and  a  ratio  which  pro- 
vides for  an  equitable  distribution  among  the  various 
Jurisdictions  has  been  worked  out  based  upon  their  mem- 
bership. The  membership  of  the  Board  is  equally  divided, 
as  far  as  practicable  between  ministers  and  layTnen.  Two 
bishops   since    1952  have   been   members   of   the   Board, 


PUBLISHING  HOUSE  CONTROVERSY 

selected  by  the  Council  of  Bishops;  and  five  persons  are 
put  upon  the  present  Board  by  election  of  the  Board  itself. 
Careful  disciplinary  regulations  govern  the  proceedings 
and  define  the  functions  of  the  Board  of  Publication. 
These  from  time  to  time  are  changed,  usually  in  minor 
ways  that  seem  good  to  the  directing  General  Conference. 

The  Board  of  Publication  has  since  1956  elected  one 
general  executive  known  as  the  president,  who  is  the 
president  of  each  corporation  under  the  direction  of  the 
Board  and  who  is  also  known  as  Publisher  of  The  United 
Methodist  Church.  The  Board  also  elects  the  Book  Editor 
of  the  Church,  the  editor  of  Church  School  Publications 
— in  conjunction  with  the  action  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion— and  elects  also  the  editors  of  the  general  church 
periodicals,  as  the  Christian  Advocate  and  Together.  Such 
editors  are  elected  quadrennially. 

The  Board  organizes,  as  do  other  Agencies,  by  electing 
its  own  president  and  officers  and  as  it  has  traditionally 
had  upon  it  laymen  of  unusual  ability  in  the  field  of 
business  and  wide  enterprise,  its  meetings  are  in  the 
nature  of  the  annual  meeting  of  any  other  large  manu- 
facturing or  business  company. 

This  incorporated  board  functions  through  a  chairman, 
vice-chairman,  and  secretary,  an  executive  officer  (the 
president  already  described),  and  a  sixteen-member  ex- 
ecutive committee  which  exercises  all  the  powers  of  the 
Board  except  those  expressly  reserved  for  Board  action 
by  the  Discipline  or  by  the  corporate  charter  and  by-laws. 
Board  officers  also  serve  as  executive  committee  officers; 
the  two  bishops  sei-ving  on  the  Board  are  ex  officio  mem- 
bers of  the  committee  with  vote;  the  president  (publisher) 
is  an  ex  officio  member  without  vote. 

In  its  directing  and  controlling  of  the  Publishing  House, 
the  Board  acts  through  the  president  (publisher)  elected 
by  the  Board  and  answerable  to  it.  For  legal  and  historical 
purposes,  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Publication  are 
the  successors  of  the  incorporators  named  in  the  charters 
of  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  (M.E.  Church),  the 
Publishing  Agents  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  the  Board 
of  Publication  of  the  M.P.  Church,  and  the  Board  of 
Publication  of  the  E.U.B.  Church.  The  president  (pub- 
lisher) is  the  successor  of  the  Book  Agents  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South. 

Broadly  speaking,  it  is  the  responsibility  of  the  Board 
to  direct  the  operations  of  the  Publishing  House  in  the 
channels  laid  down  for  it  by  the  Discipline;  to  appropriate 
money  from  net  income,  above  adequate  reserves,  and 
distribute  this  appropriation  annually  to  the  annual  con- 
ferences for  the  conference  claimants;  to  hold,  use,  man- 
age, and  operate  all  property  and  assets  of  the  corpora- 
tions that  make  up  the  body  of  the  publishing  operations 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  and  to  see  that  all 
legal  obligations  of  these  corporations  are  fulfilled;  and  to 
make  a  written  report  of  its  action  and  proceedings  to 
the  church  through  the  General  Conference.  The  Board 
not  only  elects,  but  fixes  the  salaries  of,  and  can  suspend 
the  following  officers:  president  (publisher),  book  editor, 
editors  of  the  ofl^cial  church  papers,  editor  of  church 
school  publications,  and  other  salaried  officers  provided 
for  in  the  Discipline.  It  bonds  the  president  and  other 
corporate  executive  officers,  and  blanket  bonds  all  staff 
personnel  whose  responsibilities  justify  such  coverage, 
fixing  the  amount  of  the  bonds  and  paying  the  premiums. 

The  Board  of  Publication  controls  an  enormous  business 
under  the  direction  of  the  Discipline,  which  states  that  the 


ENCYCLOPEDIA    OF 

objects  of  the  Methodist  Publishing  House  shall  be:  "The 
advancement  of  the  cause  of  Christianity  by  disseminating 
religious  knowledge  and  useful  literary  and  scientific  in- 
formation in  the  form  of  books,  tracts,  and  periodicals; 
the  promotion  of  Christian  education;  the  transaction  of 
any  and  all  business  properly  connected  with  the  pub- 
lishing, manufacturing,  and  distribution  of  books,  tracts, 
periodicals,  materials,  and  supplies  for  churches  and 
church  schools;  and  such  other  business  as  the  General 
Conference  may  authorize  and  direct."  (See  also  Meth- 
odist Publishing  House.  ) 

Disciplines. 

R.  Emory,  History  of  the  Discipline.  1844. 

J.  P.  Pilkington,  Methodist  Publishing  House.  1968. 

James  P.  Pk-kington 

PUBLISHING  HOUSE  CONTROVERSY  (1897-1902).  The 
Union  Army  during  the  Civil  War  took  over  the  relatively 
new  M.E.  Church,  South  Publishing  House  building  and 
printing  plant  when  Nashville  was  occupied  by  the 
Union  Army.  They  used  and  abused  the  Isuilding  and 
equipment  for  approximately  four  years.  In  1867  the 
War-Claims  Committee  appraised  the  rent  and  damage 
at  $500,000.  This  claim  was  unsuccessfully  pressed  by 
various  attorneys  for  over  thirty  years.  Then  Barbee  and 
Smith,  the  Publishing  House  Agents,  employed  Major 
E.  B.  Stahbnan,  an  eminent  attorney  in  Nashville,  "to 
secure  the  most  favorable  settlement  possible."  He  was 
to  receive  thirty-five  percent  of  the  amount  collected.  The 
attorney  spent  much  of  1896-97  in  Washington  seeking 
Congressional  approval  of  the  claim  bill. 

After  the  House  voted  in  1898  to  pay  $288,000  on  the 
claim,  it  encountered  opposition  in  the  Senate.  Senator 
Pasco  of  Florida,  the  sponsor  of  the  claim,  wrote  Barbee 
that  "there  is  a  rumor  in  the  Senate  that  Mr.  Stahlman  is 
to  receive  forty  percent  of  the  amount  recovered.  If  this 
is  so,  1  believe  it  will  defeat  the  bill.  I  need  a  denial  from 
you  to  read  in  the  Senate."  Before  this  letter  could  be 
answered.  Senator  Bates  of  Maine  made  a  request  for 
denial  or  confirmation  of  the  rumor.  Barbee  wired:  "It  is 
not  true  that  Stahlman  will  receive  forty  percent."  Stahl- 
man gave  the  Senators  the  impression  "that  he  was  not 
interested  in  the  case  on  account  of  monetary  considera- 
tions." 

After  the  Senate  passed  the  bill  and  the  $288,000  were 
paid,  it  became  known  that  the  attorney's  fee  was  thirty- 
five  percent.  A  Senate  Investigating  Committee  was  ap- 
pointed on  the  grounds  that  the  Senate  had  been  de- 
ceived. 

The  Agents  and  their  attorney  insisted  that  "the  Senate 
consider  the  claim  on  its  merits:  that  the  fee  was  a  matter 
of  the  Publishing  House  Agents'  discretion."  Therefore 
the  Agents  felt  that  they  were  under  no  obligation  to 
divulge  the  details  of  their  contract  with  their  attorney. 

The  Senate  Investigating  Committee  summarized  their 
findings  as  follows: 

First:  That  the  Book  Agents  purposefully  withheld  facts. 
Second:  That  if  there  was  any  mistake  or  omission  on  the 
part  of  the  Senate,  it  was  in  failing  to  protect  the  bene- 
ficiaries against  the  Book  Agents. 

Third:  The  Committee  deems  it  proper  .  .  .  that  no  cen- 
sure should  rest   upon   the   Methodist   Episcopal   Church, 
South. 
Fourth:   The  Committee  .   .  .  suggests   that  no  action  be 


WORLD   METHODISM 

taken  by  the  Senate  .  .  .  but  that  the  Church  be  allowed 
to  take  such  measures  as  it  deems  proper. 

W.  P.  Lovejoy,  a  member  of  the  Book  Committee  (the 
Administrative  management  of  the  Publishing  House) 
moved  that  the  Book  Committee  ask  the  Agents  to  resign. 
This  motion  was  rejected  twelve  to  one. 

This  issue  was  debated  all  over  Southern  Methodism  for 
over  three  years — in  Annual  Conferences,  in  the  General 
Conference  of  1902,  and  in  the  church  papers.  One 
side  denounced  the  Agents  for  what  they  termed  "un- 
ethical conduct."  The  defenders  as  vigorously  denied  the 
charges.  They  maintained  that  the  Agents  were  victims 
of  a  chain  of  unfortunate  circumstances.  The  facts  are 
detailed  by  the  Senate  Committee  Report  No.  1416,  and 
the  Church  Investigating  Committees. 

The  College  of  Bishops,  speaking  for  the  whole  Church, 
officially  reported  to  the  Senate  "that  if  the  Senate  by 
ofiicial  affirmative  action,  declare  that  the  passage  of  the 
payment  bill  was  due  to  misleading  statements,  we  will 
.  .  .  have  the  entire  amount  returned."  The  Senate  how- 
ever "refused  to  recommend  any  further  action." 

The  1902  General  Conference  Committee  investigating 
the  Agents,  found  no  cause  for  trial,  and  the  Tennessee 
Conference  also  found  no  grounds  for  trying  J.  D.  Bar- 
bee.  However,  Barbee  declined  to  be  considered  for  re- 
election as  Book  Agent.  He  was  appointed  presiding 
elder  of  the  Nashville  District. 

DuBose,  in  his  History  of  Methodism,  gave  the  General 
Conference  summary  of  the  controversy  as  follows: 

First:    the   Church   had   a   historic,   just   and   legal   claim 

against  the  Government. 

Second:   that  the  amount  finally  recovered  and  accepted 

as  payment  in  full  for  the  claim,  was  not  equal  to  the  loss 

sustained. 

Third:  that  in  answer  to  the  complaint  that  this  pa>nient 

had  been  secured   through   misleading   statements  of  the 

churches  representatives  had  not  been  substantiated  by  the 

Senate. 

Fourth:  that  tlie  Church  repudiates  all  acts  of  concealment. 

Fifth:  that  tliis  action  is  declared  to  be  a  final  settlement 

of  the  whole  matter.   (See  the  biography  of  J.  D.  Barbee 

in  this  Encyclopedia. ) 

J.  M.  Batten,  Outline  and  Bibliographical  Guide.  1954. 
H.  M.  DuBose,  Life  of  ].  D.  Barbee.  N.d. 

,  History.  1916. 

Senate  Report  No.  1416:  Methodist  Book  Concern. 

J.  Richard  Spann 

PUBLISHING  HOUSE  OF  UNITED  EVANGELICAL 
CHURCH.  ( See  Evangelical  Press.  ) 

PUBLISHING  HOUSES,  Br.  (See  Book  Rooms,  Br.) 

PUERTO  RICO,  a  hilly  tropical  island  southeast  of  Cuba, 
is  105  miles  long  and  35  miles  wide,  and  has  a  population 
of  about  2,700,000.  As  a  possession  of  the  United  States, 
it  has  commonwealth  status  and  chooses  its  chief  execu- 
tive by  popular  vote.  Puerto  Rico's  largest  income  is  from 
manufacturing — textiles  and  apparel,  electronic  equip- 
ment, chemicals,  etc.  Spanish  is  the  official  language,  but 
the  study  of  English  is  compulsory  in  the  schools. 

When  the  United  States  received  Puerto  Rico  from 
Spain  in  1898,  Protestant  missionaries  entered  the  island 


PUERTO   RICO 


First  Church,  Guayama,  built  in  1902,  is 
THE  oldest  Methodist  church  in  Puerto  Rico 

at  once.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  transferred 
Charges  W.  Drees  from  Uruguay  in  1900,  and  he 
immediately  organized  English  and  Spanish-speaking 
churches  in  San  Juan,  the  capital.  Other  Methodist  mis- 
sionaries soon  arrived,  and  in  1902  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society  of  the  denomination  inaugurated 
several  projects,  including  the  George  O.  Robinson  School 
for  Girls  in  Santurce.  By  a  comity  agreement  among 
several  Protestant  denominations,  the  Methodists  were 
assigned  a  segment  of  territory  running  north  and  south 
through  the  center  of  the  island  and  including  the  im- 
portant cities  of  San  Juan,  Ponce,  and  Arecibo. 

The  Puerto  Rico  Mission  (MEC)  was  organized  at 
San  Juan,  March  7,  1902  with  Bishop  John  M.  Walden 
presiding.  The  territory  of  the  mission  was  Puerto  Rico 
and  adjacent  islands.  The  mission  reported  195  full  mem- 
bers and  640  probationers.  Appointments  were  made  to 
ten  charges. 

The  1912  General  Conference  adopted  an  enabling 
act  permitting  the  Puerto  Rico  Mission  to  become  a  mis- 
sion conference,  and  it  was  organized  as  such  at  San 
Juan  on  Feb.  27,  1913  with  Bishop  William  Burt  pre- 
siding. It  began  with  thirty-five  charges,  eighteen  minis- 
ters, twenty  supply  preachers,  and  3,052  members  plus 
2,612  probationers.  In  1939  the  mission  conference  re- 
ported twenty-three  charges  and  2,800  members.  In  1940 
it  became  a  provisional  annual  conference. 

Today  Methodism  in  Puerto  Rico  joins  other  denomi- 
nations in  supporting  the  Evangelical  Seminary  of  Puerto 
Rico.  The  conference  helps  to  maintain  Middleton  House, 
the  Methodist  student  center  which  adjoins  University 
Church  in  Rio  Piedras.  The  George  O.  Robinson  School 
has  become  coeducational,  offering  courses  (English)  from 
kindergarten  through  the  twelfth  grade.  The  pupils  study 
religion  as  well  as  pursue  a  regular  public  school  curricu- 
lum which  is  in  Spanish. 

In  1968  the  Puerto  Rico  Provisional  Conference  re- 
ported two  districts,  fifty-six  charges,  sixty-nine  ministers, 
11,763  members,  property  valued  at  $4,994,780.  and  a 
total  of  $233,970  raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

The  1968  General  Conference  elevated  the  Puerto  Rico 
work  to  the  status  of  a  full  annual  conference.  The  Puerto 
Rico  Conference  was  organized  Jan.  23,  1969  at  University 


PUGET   SOUND   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Mosaic  of  Christ  on  facade  of 
University  Church,  Rio  Piedras,  San  Juan 

Church,  Rio  Piedras,  with  Bishop  J.  Gordon  Howard 
presiding. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

General  Minutes,  ME,  TMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Puerto  Rico  Provisional  Conference. 

Project  Handbook,  Section  of  Home  Fields.  National  Division, 

Board  of  Missions,   1967.  Albea  Godbold 

PUGET  SOUND  CONFERENCE  (MEG).  See  Pacific 
Northwest  Conference. 

PUGH,  ABRAM  WESLEY  ( 1894-  ) ,  American  minister, 

member  of  Judicial  Council,  was  bom  at  Perkasie,  Pa., 
June  7,  1894,  son  of  Joseph  M.  and  Harriett  (Moyer) 
Pugh. 

He  received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Taylor  University 
in  1922.  and  was  awarded  the  D.D.  degree  by  that 
institution  in  1936.  DePaitw  University  also  conferred 
the  D.D.  degree  upon  him  in  1954. 

He  served  as  supply  pastor  in  Cameron,  Ohio,  1916; 
Marion,  Home  Park,  Ind.,  1920-22.  He  was  admitted  on 
trial  into  the  North  Indiana  Conference,  M.E.  Church, 
1919,  and  ordained  deacon,  1921.  He  was  received  in 
full  connection  and  ordained  elder  in  1923. 

His  pastorates  were:  Uniondale,  1922-26;  Churubusco, 
1926-28;  Albany,  1928-32;  Noblesville,  1932-36;  superin- 
tendent, Richmond  District,  1936-37,  and  again  1959-61; 
pastor.  High  Street  Church,  Muncie,  1937-49;  superin- 
tendent, Fort  Wayne  District,  1949-55;  pastor  in  Marion, 
1955-59  (all  Indiana).  He  was  president  of  the  Preachers 
Aid  Society,  North  Indiana  Conference,  1937-61;  mem- 
ber of  the  General  Conferences,  1936-56;  he  was 
chairman  of  the  committee  chairmen,  1956,  and  chairman 
of  the  Rules  Committee,  1948-56.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Publication  of  The  Methodist  Church,  1944-56, 
and  a  member  of  the  Judicial  Council  of  The  Methodist 
Church,  1956-68  and  secretary  of  the  Council,  1960-64. 

He  has  served  as  trustee  of  Taylor  University,  1932-44; 
trustee  and  member  of  the  executive  committee  of  the 
Indianapolis  Methodist  Hospital,  1939-61;  and  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  board  of  directors  of  Parkview  Memorial,  Fort 
Wayne,   1949-55.    He   served   to   2nd   Lieutenant,    U.    S. 


Army,  1918-19.  In  1944  he  was  chairman  of  the  Kiwanis 
International  Committee  on  support  of  Churches  in  their 
Spiritual  Aims. 

He  was  mairied  to  Sarah  Essa  Pence  on  Aug.  24,  1920. 
Their  children  are:  Geraldine  Joy  (Mrs,  James  C.  Barr) 
and  Miriam  June  (Mrs.  Warren  L.  Bergwall).  On  June 
6,  1967  he  was  married  to  Marguerite  Deyo. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.    J.  Marvin  Rast 

PULPIT  ROCK,  The  Dalles,  Oregon,  U.  S.  A.,  is  a  slender 
basalt  pillar,  rising  abruptly  near  the  south  boundary  of 
the  city  of  The  Dalles,  forming  a  natural  pulpit  from 
which  the  early  Methodist  missionaries  were  accustomed 
to  preach  to  the  Indians  in  pleasant  weather.  It  was  used 
first  in  1838  when,  on  March  22,  Jason  Lee,  Daniel 
Lee,  and  H.  K.  W.  Perkins  arrived  from  the  mission  on 
the  Willamette  to  found  the  mission  at  The  Dalles. 

The  rock  originally  had  two  pinnacles  rising  about 
twelve  feet  from  the  base.  Daniel  Lee  chiseled  off  one  of 
the  points  for  a  table  on  which  to  place  his  Bible  and  the 
other  was  used  as  a  seat  by  the  minister. 

An  eye  witness  reported  that  customarily  at  dawn  the 
minister  mounted  Pulpit  Rock  and  blew  a  horn  that  could 
be  heard  across  the  Columbia.  In  response  the  Indians 
crossed  the  River  in  canoes  while  others  came  by  foot  to 
assemble  about  the  rock  to  listen  to  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel. 

The  rock  was  dedicated  and  a  memorial  tablet  set 
upon  it,  March  22,  1908,  by  the  Old  Fort  Dalles  Historical 
Society  and  the  Good  Intent  Society  of  The  Dalles  Meth- 
odist Church.  The  tablet  was  unveiled  by  Miss  Ethel  W. 
Grubbs,  granddaughter  and  only  descendant  of  Jason 
Lee,  first  missionary  in  Oregon. 

Erle  Howell 

PUMPHREY,  REASON  (1736-1812),  so  far  as  is  known 
was  the  first  American  Methodist  to  move  west  of  the 
Appalachian  Mountains  after  the  Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix 
of  1768  opened  the  way  to  the  issuing  of  land  titles  on 
the  western  Pennsylvania  and  western  Virginia  frontier. 
Pumphrey  moved  west  from  Anne  Arundel  County,  Md., 
in  1772,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  eight  sons,  seven 
servants,  and  four  slaves.  He  first  settled  on  a  claim  of 
308  acres  of  land  on  the  headwaters  of  Chartier's  creek 
near  the  Indian  village  of  Catfish  within  the  bounds  of 
the  present  city  of  Washington,  Pa.  Pumphrey  had  become 
a  Methodist  in  one  of  Robert  Strawbridge's  classes.  He 
was  accompanied  to  the  west  by  Eli  Shickle,  one  of 
Strawbridge's  local  preachers,  who  conducted  religious 
services  in  the  camp  on  Sundays  en  route  west,  and  who 
preached  in  the  Pumphrey  and  other  frontier  cabins  until 
his  return  to  Maryland  in  1776. 

Pumphrey  was  a  cousin  of  Richard  Owings,  Straw- 
bridge's  leading  local  preacher.  According  to  the  Journal 
of  John  Littlejohn  the  Baltimore  Circuit  in  Maryland 
in  1777-78  was  an  eight-week  circuit  with  four  preachers 
on  it.  Preaching  points  on  it  included  the  widow  Ann 
Murphy;  Edward  Teal;  the  widow  Pumphrey,  Reason's 
mother;  Joshua  Owings,  father  of  Richard;  Hawkins;  and 
William  Ridgely,  Pumphrey's  father-in-law.  In  the  early 
1780's  Ann  Murphy,  Edward  Teal,  William  Hawkins  and 
others  of  the  Maryland  Methodists  moved  to  western 
Pennsylvania.  In  the  fall  of  1783  Richard  Owings  visited 
these  settlements  west  of  the  mountains  and  made  plans 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PURCELL,    CLARE 


for  a  Methodist  circuit  among  them.  In  the  spring  of 
1784  Francis  Asbury  appointed  two  preachers  to  the 
new  Redstone  Circuit. 

In  1785  Pumphrey  moved  farther  west  to  a  bottom 
land  farm  on  the  Ohio  River  at  Beech  Bottom  in  Brooke 
County,  Va.,  (now  W.  Va.),  and  almost  immediately 
Methodism  again  followed  him,  a  Society  of  the  Red- 
stone Circuit  being  organized  in  his  home  in  1786. 
This  Society  became  the  Kadesh  Chapel  Methodist 
Church  when  the  first  church  building  was  erected  in 
1788.  This  church  continues  today  as  one  of  the  historic 
churches  of  the  West  Virginia  Conference. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzer 

PUNJAB  UNITED  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS.  These  schools 
consist  of  two  higher  secondary  schools — one  for  girls,  the 
other  for  boys — and  an  industrial  training  center.  They 
have  been  developed  by  the  Punjab  Synod  of  the  United 
Church  of  North  India,  the  Delhi  Annual  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Church  of  Southern  Asia,  and  the  related 
boards  of  missions.  After  years  of  delays  caused  by  the 
Second  World  War  and  by  the  slow  process  of  land 
acquisition,  classes  were  opened  in  1944.  Initially  207 
acres  had  been  obtained,  but  the  army  took  over  the 
entire  property  for  defense  purposes  during  the  war  and 
has  retained  use  of  a  large  portion. 

The  enrollment  figures  for  1965  were:  333  (of  which 
137  were  Christians)  in  the  boys'  high  school;  218  (of 
which  151  were  Christians)  in  the  girls'  high  school;  34 
(of  which  18  were  Christians)  in  the  industrial  center. 
Of  the  306  Christians  enrolled,  276  were  in  the  boarding 
department  and  were  under  Christian  supei-vision  and 
instruction  in  the  dormitories  and  in  recreation. 

The  need  for  these  schools  has  long  been  urgent,  and 
their  potential  for  service  is  immense.  The  master  plan 
was  drawn  by  a  professional  missionary  architect.  The 
first  two  stages  of  the  building  program  have  been 
completed. 

Many  students  develop  a  strong  sense  of  mission.  This 
is  helped  by  the  Sunday  school,  which  has  an  enrollment 
of  330.  The  school  chaplain  conducts  weekly  classes  for 
teachers.  During  the  last  summer  vacation  fifty-five  of  the 
older  students  conducted  daily  vacation  Bible  schools  in 
their  villages.  Some  also  had  classes  for  illiterate  Chris- 
tians, teaching  them  to  read  and  to  witness  to  their  faith. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

PUNSHON,  WILLIAM  MORLEY  (1824-1881),  British 
Methodist,  was  bom  at  Doncaster,  Yorkshire,  May  29, 
1824.  The  son  of  a  draper,  he  entered  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist ministry  in  1844.  In  the  1850's  he  established  a  repu- 
tation as  the  giver  of  highly  rhetorical  lectures:  The 
Huguenots,  Wilherforcc,  Science,  Religion  and  Literature, 
Daniel  in  Babylon, , etc.;  the  real  subject  of  most  of  these 
was  progress  in  the  nineteenth  century.  In  1862-67  he 
raised  £10,000  by  lecturing,  and  built  a  series  of  Methodist 
chapels  in  seaside  towns.  He  helped  to  found  and  edit  the 
Methodist  Recorder.  From  1868-73  he  was  virtually  the 
head  of  Canadian  iMethodism.  In  1868  and  1872  he  was 
fraternal  delegate  to  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  He  returned  to  England, 
and  was  elected  president  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference 
of  1874.  He  was  appointed  to  the  Home  Mission  Depart- 
ment in  1875;  in  1876-78  he  was  the  leader  of  those  who 


W.  MoRLEY  PUNSHON 

persuaded  the  Wesleyan  Conference  to  admit  lay  repre- 
sentatives. Apart  from  his  lectures  and  sermons,  he  pub- 
lished a  series  of  devotional  poems,  Sabbath  Chimes 
( 1867 ) ,  a  Wesleyan  imitation  of  Keble's  Christian  Year. 
He  died  at  Brixton  Hill,  April  14,  1881. 

F.  W.  Macdonald,  Williatn  Morley  Punslion.  1887. 

John  Kent 

PUNTAMBA,  India,  is  the  headquarters  of  a  district  of 
the  same  name  in  the  Bombay  Conference.  It  is  located 
200  miles  east  of  Bombay  City  on  the  Godavari  River, 
which  is  regarded  by  Hindus  as  sacred.  Many  thousands 
of  pilgrims  visit  the  town  annually.  It  is  within  the  civil 
district  of  Ahmednagar. 

Methodism  has  a  strong  self-supporting  church  and 
operates  a  service  program  that  includes  ( 1 )  the  Bowen 
Bruere  Hospital,  named  for  a  greatly  loved  and  fervent 
young  second-generation  Methodist  missionary  who  died 
while  serving  here;  (2)  a  rural  high  school,  coeducational, 
which  extends  preferential  treatment  to  boys  and  girls 
from  villages  and  tries  to  maintain  an  atmosphere  of  rural 
simplicity;  (3)  hostels  for  selected  boys  and  girls;  and 
(4)  an  extension  agency  that  promotes  adult  literacy, 
church  membership,  evangelism,  and  training  for  com- 
munity sei'vice. 

One  of  the  circuits  in  the  district  centers  in  Sangamner, 
where  Samuel  Rahator  and  others  representing  The  Meth- 
odist Church,  British  connection,  carried  on  an  active  and 
productive  evangelistic  program  for  years.  The  work  was 
made  over  to  the  Bombay  Annual  Conference  in  1944. 

"Puntamba-Sangamner,"  The  Gazette,  Board  of  Missions,  1960. 
J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.  1956.  J.  Waskom  Pickett 

PURCELL,  CLARE  (1884-1964),  American  bishop,  was 
born  on  Nov.  17,  1884,  at  Columbia,  Ala.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Birmingham  Southern  College  and  the 
Divinity  School  of  Vanderbilt  University,  and  received 
honorary  degrees  from  three  other  institutions.  He  joined 
the  North  Alabama  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South  in  1906,  and  was  appointed  to  Wedowee.  His 
other  appointments  in  North  Alabama  included  Madison, 
Owenton  Church  in  Birmingham,  Sylacauga,  Hartselle, 
Talladega,  Tuscaloosa  and  Gadsden,  and  superintendents 


PURITANISM   AND   METHODISM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Clare  Pubcell 

of  the  Jasper  District.  He  was  a  chaplain  of  the  131st 
Infantry,  U.S.  Army,  with  the  American  Expeditionary 
Forces  during  the  first  World  War. 

Clare  Purcell  was  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  1930,  1934,  and  1938 
— at  which  last  he  was  elected  bishop  and  assigned  to  the 
Charlotte  Area.  His  brethren  credited  a  speech  he  made 
in  favor  of  unification  during  the  debate  on  this  matter 
as  having  much  to  do  with  his  election,  as  this  speech 
came  at  a  critical  moment  and  was  noteworthy  as  coming 
from  a  delegate  from  the  deep  South.  As  bishop  he  served 
on  the  powerful  Council  on  World  Service  and 
Finance,  becoming  its  president  in  1940.  He  also  served 
on  the  Board  of  Education  and  Board  of  Missions  and 
then  was  chairman  of  the  Trustees  of  Lake  Jun.\luska 
Assembly,  1938-48.  He  was  assigned  to  the  Birmingham 
Area  in  1948,  where  he  served  until  his  retirement  in 
1956.  He  was  president  of  the  Council  of  Bishops,  1955- 
56.  A  man  of  great  balance  and  sagacity,  he  enjoyed  the 
respect  and  esteem  of  all  his  compeers. 

After  retirement,  he  continued  to  live  in  Birmingham 
until  his  death  on  Feb.  8,  1964,  and  is  buried  there. 

Who's  Who  in  America. 

Clark   and  Stafford,   Who's   Who   in   Methodism.    1952. 

Elmer  T.  Clark 
N.  B.  H. 

PURITANISM  AND  METHODISM.  The  term  "Puritan"  may 
refer  to  any  person  concerned  with  renovation  of  religious 
thought  and  practice  from  the  earliest  centuries  to  the 
present.  In  late  sixteenth-century  England  it  referred  to 
those  who  sought  to  continue  the  Protestant  Reformation 
by  establishing  what  they  understood  to  be  "pure"  forms 
of  doctrine,  worship  and  church  polity.  Often  these  at- 
tempts to  reform  the  church  involved  political  action 
aimed  at  religious  liberty  and  constitutional  rights.  Con- 
vinced that  Christianity  demanded  a  vibrant  faith  based 
on  an  experiential  relationship  with  the  God  revealed  in 
Christ,  the  Puritans  took  scripture  as  their  primary  guide 
of  thought  and  action.  Their  ethical  idealism,  when 
rigidly  practiced,  tended  to  separate  them  from  their 
neighbors. 

Methodism's  well-disciphned,  circumspect,  and  some- 
times austere  mode  of  Christian  living  revived  for  many 
of  John  Wesley's  contemporaries  the  spirit  and  practice 
found  in  Puritan  models  of  the  previous  century.  Bishop 
Warburton,  Samuel  Johnson,  Horace  Walpole,  and  others 


could,  in  Warburton 's  words,  identify  the  "true  character 
of  Methodism"  with  that  of  the  "old  Precisians,  Puritans, 
and  Independents."  This  similarity  in  teaching  and  prac- 
tice, so  often  recognized  by  friend  and  foe  alike,  denotes 
only  one  among  several  points  of  contact  between  the 
two  movements. 

The  interconnection  of  Methodism  with  Puritanism  has 
its  origin  in  John  and  Charles  Wesley's  own  Puritan 
heritage.  Both  their  grandfathers  and  two  of  their  great 
grandfathers  had  been  Puritans  of  some  renown.  Samuel 
Wesley's  grandfather,  Bartholomew  Westley,  and  his 
father,  John  Westley,  were  ejected  from  their  churches 
when  they  refused  to  accept  the  requirements  of  the  Act 
of  Uniformity  imposed  on  Church  of  England  clergy  in 
1662.  Susanna  Wesley's  maternal  grandfather,  John 
White,  a  member  of  the  Long  Parliament,  took  an  active 
role  in  the  examination  and  ejection  of  many  Anglican 
clergymen  during  the  Puritan  regime.  Her  father,  Samuel 
Annesley,  one  of  the  most  eminent  ministers  of  London, 
unwilling  to  conform  in  1662,  became  a  leader  of  the 
disenfranchised  Puritan  community. 

While  Samuel  and  Susanna  left  this  Nonconformist 
heritage  to  return  to  the  Church  of  England,  they  carried 
with  them  many  emphases  of  their  early  religious  training. 
Samuel  Wesley's  disciplined  daily  scholarship  concentrat- 
ing in  biblical  study  may  perhaps  be  traced  to  his  Puritan 
preceptors.  Exposed  in  his  Puritan  home  to  the  reality  of 
a  personal  religious  experience,  Samuel  proclaimed  "the 
inward  witness"  to  his  sons  even  from  his  death  bed. 
Susanna's  influence  through  her  typically  Puritan  regula- 
tion of  the  family  household  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
The  rigid  discipline;  the  careful  timetable  which  left  little 
room  for  "light"  diversions;  the  insistence  on  personal 
and  family  meditation,  devotion,  and  religious  study;  the 
expectation  of  genuine  piety  are  all  strikingly  similar  to 
Puritan  prototypes.  Influenced,  perhaps  unconsciously,  by 
these  Puritan  emphases  the  Wesley  brothers  retained  them 
throughout  their  own  lives. 

John  Wesley  readily  admitted  his  public  and  university 
education  had  prejudiced  him  against  the  Nonconformists. 
Nevertheless,  when  his  own  study  led  him  to  Puritan 
writings  he  found  there  many  qualities  and  teachings 
congenial  to  his  own  religious  experiences.  Overcoming 
his  prejudices,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  abridge  and  publish 
numerous  Puritan  tracts  and  treatises  for  the  instruction  of 
the  Methodists.  Of  the  some  fifty  abridgments  and  ab- 
stracts published  by  Wesley  as  separate  volumes,  more 
than  a  third  are  by  Puritan  authors.  In  his  Christian 
Library,  designed  specifically  for  guidance  in  Christian 
thought  and  life — termed  by  him  "practical  divinity" — 
Puritan  authors  predominate  both  in  number  and  space 
allotted.  Wesley's  introductory  comments  to  these  works 
in  the  Christian  Library  expresses  his  opinion  of  their 
value:  "The  peculiar  excellency  of  these  writers  seems  to 
be,  the  building  us  up  in  our  most  holy  faith  .  .  .  They 
lead  us  by  the  hand  in  the  paths  of  righteousness,  and 
shew  us  how  we  may  most  surely  and  swiftly  grow  in 
grace."  Wesley  found  in  the  Puritan  writings  sound  doc- 
trine scripturally  grounded  and  practical  instruction  in 
Christian  living  which  might  serve  as  guidance  for  his 
followers.  Guided  by  the  Moravian  pietists  Wesley  had 
come  to  an  insistence  on  the  priority  of  God's  grace  ap- 
propriated by  man  through  faith  alone  and  wihiessed  to 
by  a  believer's  knowledge  of  his  own  relationship  with 
God.  When  he  looked  for  English  material  stressing  these 
doctrines  he  found  them  among  the  Puritans.  Supporting 


WORLD   METHODISM 


PUSEY,   GEORGE   B. 


his  position  that  a  believer  might  enjoy  personal  assurance 
of  God's  grace,  Wesley  identifies  this  doctrine  with  that 
held  by  Puritans  such  as  William  Perkins,  Richard  Sibbes, 
and  John  Preston. 

Wesley  and  the  Puritans  shared  the  conviction  that 
Sanctification  as  well  as  Justificatiox  rested  on  faith 
alone.  The  Puritan  doctrine  which  recognized  sin  and 
repentance  even  in  believing  Christians  became  one  of 
Wesley's  defenses  against  Moravian  quietism  for  he  saw  it 
as  "continually  tearing  up  the  roots  of  Antinomianism." 
Of  course,  Wesley  rejected  the  Calvinistic  predestinarian- 
ism  accepted  by  most  Puritans  and  corrected  this  in  his 
abridgments,  although  he  did  find  support  for  his  own 
position  in  the  works  of  Puritans  Richard  Baxter  and  John 
Goodwin.  Richard  Baxter  also  held  a  theory  of  "final 
justification"  which  is  similar  to  that  taught  by  Wesley. 

Not  only  these  theological  affinities  to  the  Puritans  but 
also  their  practical  instructions  in  daily  hving  attracted 
Wesley  to  these  works.  Joseph  Alleine's  An  Alarm  to 
Unconverted  Sinners  and  Richard  Baxter's  A  Call  to  the 
Unconverted  became  standard  Methodist  evangelical  pub- 
lications. Wesley's  insistence  on  self-examination  and  hoh- 
ness  found  able  representation  in  several  Puritan  works. 
For  his  explication  of  Christian  conscience  Wesley  turns 
to  that  offered  by  his  grandfather.  Dr.  Annesley.  Christian 
family  worship  as  defineated  in  Philip  Henry's  Method 
of  Family  Prayer  became  instruction  for  Methodists  in 
this  area.  Wesley  issued  at  least  three  editions  of  William 
Whateley's  Directions  for  Married  Persons,  commenting, 
"I  have  seen  nothing  of  the  subject  in  any  either  ancient 
or  modern  tongue,  which  is  in  any  degree  comparable 
to  it."  Wesley's  own  educational  philosophy  certainly 
paralleled  that  of  the  Puritans  and  it  may  be  that  Kings- 
wood  School  was  patterned  at  least  in  part  on  the  Dis- 
senting Academies.  A  succinct  abridgment  of  Richard 
Baxter's  The  Reformed  Pastor  incorporated  in  Wesley's 
Minutes  became  the  standard  outline  for  Methodist 
pastoral  visitation  and  religious  instruction. 

In  the  independent  Methodist  worship  services  supple- 
menting regular  Anglican  services,  Wesley  appropriated 
several  distinctive  Puritan  forms  of  worship.  His  use  of 
extemporaneous  preaching  and  "free"  prayers  to  appeal 
to  those  uncomfortable  in  formal  worship  had  certainly 
been  anticipated  in  Nonconformist  worship.  One  of  the 
unique  services  of  Methodist  worship — the  service  of 
covenant  renewal — was  patterned  after  Joseph  and 
Richard  Alleine's  formula  and  directions  for  making  a 
personal  covenant  with  God.  John  and  Charles  Wesley 
found  in  the  hymns  of  Isaac  Watts  a  model  for  their 
own  remarkable  hymnody.  Wesley's  abridgment  of  The 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  for  American  Methodism  may 
also  have  followed  the  suggested  changes  offered  by  the 
Presbyterian  Divines  at  the  Savoy  Conference  (1661).  At 
least,  most  of  their  suggested  changes  are  incorporated  in 
Wesley's  abridgment. 

Wesley's  Puritan  selections  constitute  only  a  part  of  his 
genuine  ecclecticism  which  drew  from  any  source  mate- 
rials expressing  a  useful  interpretation  of  the  Gospel  and 
offering  practical  instruction  in  Christian  living.  Never- 
theless, Wesley's  extensive  appropriation  of  Puritan  teach- 
ings and  patterns  guaranteed  a  significant  Puritan  impact 
upon  later  Methodism. 

Many  of  Wesley's  co-workers  shared  his  appreciation  of 
the  Puritan  tradition  and  teachings.  John  Fletcher,  his 
chief  ally  in  theological  controversy,  extensively  quoted 
Baxter,  Matthew  Henr>',  John  Owen,  Daniel  Williams,  and 


others.  Often  dependent  on  the  Biblical  exposition  of  Mat- 
thew Henry,  Charles  Wesley  also  credited  Baxter  with 
helping  him  combat  Antinomianism.  Thomas  Coke 
acknowledged  the  influence  of  Alleine's  Alarm.  Francis 
Asbury's  Journal  and  Letters  make  frequent  reference  to 
Puritan  works  and  he,  like  Wesley,  understood  Baxter's 
The  Reformed  Pasior  to  be  the  pattern  for  Chistian  min- 
isters. Early  American  Methodists  printed  and  sold  many 
of  Wesley's  Puritan  abridgments. 

Later  Methodists  continued  this  interest  in  the  Puritan 
tradition,  as  is  seen  in  the  extensive  Puritan  library 
amassed  by  Thomas  Jackson,  nineteenth-century  editor 
of  Wesley's  Works.  Adam  Clarke,  author  of  the  most 
famous  Methodist  Biblical  commentary,  ack-nowledges 
his  indebtedness  to  Henry  Ainsworth's  notes  on  the 
Pentateuch  and  recommends  the  interpretations  of  many 
Puritan  commentators.  A  modern  revival  of  Puritan  study 
by  Methodist  scholars  such  as  Gordon  Wakefield,  John 
Wilkinson,  Gordon  Rupp,  Frank  Baker,  and  John  New- 
ton indicates  the  continuing  interconnection  of  the  two 
traditions. 

A  common  concern  for  a  genuine  personal  religion 
dependent  on  God's  grace  and  evidenced  in  a  recognizable 
Christian  mode  of  life  brought  the  Puritan  and  Methodist 
traditions  together.  Perhaps,  in  the  words  of  Horton 
Davies,  Methodism  revived  "the  evangelical  passion  and 
experiential  religion"  of  Puritanism.  Methodist  interest  in 
Puritanism  has  continued  because  of  these  central  values 
found  in  the  genuinely  Christian  life. 

Frank  Baker,  "Wesley's  Puritan  Ancestry,"  London  Quarterly 
and  Holborn  Review,  1962,  p.  187. 
J.  Bishop,  Methodist  Worship.  1950. 

Duncan  Coomer,  "The  Influence  of  Puritanism  and  Dissent 
on  Methodism,"  London  Quarterly  and  Holborn  Review,  1950, 
p.  175. 

Horton  Davies,  Worship  and  Theology  in  England:  From  Watts 
and  Wesley  to  Maurice,  1690-1850.  Princeton:   Princeton  Uni- 
versity Press,  1961. 
R.  C.  Monk,  John  Wesley.  1966. 

John  Newton,  Methodism  and  Puritans.  London:  Dr.  WiUiams 
Trust,  1964. 

,  Susanna  Wesley.  1968. 

F.  C.  Pritchard,  Secondary  Education.  1949. 
Gordon  Wakefield,  Puritan  Devotion:  Its  Place  in  the  Develop- 
ment of  Christian  Piety.  London:  Epworth  Press,  1957. 

Robert  C.  Monk 


PUSEY,  GEORGE  B.  (1845-1933),  American  layman  and 
philanthropist,  was  born  at  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  on  Oct.  22, 
1845,  the  son  of  William  B.  and  Jane  H.  Pusey.  In  his 
youth  George  Pusey  learned  the  ways  of  business  by 
serving  as  retail  clerk,  salesman,  and  manager  in  various 
mercantile  businesses  in  Pittsburgh.  As  a  young  man  he 
estabhshed  his  own  wallpaper  business.  This  business 
prospered  and  enabled  him  to  accumulate  a  fortune 
estimated  to  exceed  two  million  dollars  at  the  time  of  his 
death. 

Pusey  never  married.  Beyond  his  business  his  chief 
interest  was  his  church.  He  was  a  member  of  the  fomier 
downtown  Christ  M.  E.  Church  in  Pittsburgh  and  a  mem- 
ber of  its  board  of  trustees  at  the  time  the  church  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  1892.  Along  with  other  members  of 
Christ  Church  residing  in  Pittsburgh's  Northside  area,  he 
led  in  organizing  Calvary  M.E.  Church,  becoming  one  of 
the  first  trustees  of  the  church.  This  congregation  built  a 
fine  stone  building  in  1893  which  remains  as  an  excellent 


PUTINI,   EPIHA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


example  of  truly  Gothic  architecture.  During  his  lifetime 
Pusey  contributed  liberally  to  his  local  church  and  to  the 
conference  and  missionary  organizations  of  Methodism.  He 
died  on  Aug.  31,  1933  at  his  winter  home  in  Orlando, 
Fla.  After  several  bequests  to  employees  and  friends,  the 
bulk  of  his  estate  was  distributed  to  the  charities  he  had 
supported  during  his  lifetime.  Chief  beneficiaries  were 
Calvary  Church,  the  M.E.  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  the 
Methodist  Church  Union  of  Pittsburgh,  the  Y.M.C.A.  and 
the  Y.W.C.A.  of  Pittsburgh  and  several  local  hospitals. 
Pusey's  bequest  has  enabled  Calvary  Church  to  continue 
an  effective  service  in  a  neighborhood  which  has  become 
an  area  of  typical  innercity  bi-racial  population. 

Francis  M.  Kees 

PUTINI,  EPIHA  (c.  1816-1856),  prominent  New  Zealand 
Methodist  Maori  layman,  was  born  son  of  Chief  Te 
Rangitaahua  Ngamuka,  was  baptized  in  1835,  and  took 
the  name  of  Epiha  Putini  (Jabez  Bunting).  He  was 
trained  at  Mangungu  and  became  teacher  and  preacher 
among  his  own  people  at  Pehiakura  and  Ihumatao  until  his 
death  at  about  the  age  of  forty  in  1856.  He  was  prominent 
in  efforts  to  bring  about  cooperation  between  the  mission- 
ary societies  of  the  various  churches  and  exerted  himself 
for  the  welfare  of  his  own  people. 

C.  T.  J.  Luxton,  Methodist  Beginnings  in  the  Manukau.  Wesley 
Historical  Society,  New  Zealand,  1960. 

L.  R.  M.  GiLMORE 


Fritz  Honc-kyu  Pyun 

PYEN,  FRITZ  HONG-KYU  (1899-  ),  a  bishop  of  the 
Korean  Methodist  Church,  was  born  in  Chunan,  Kore.\, 
on  May  28,  1899.  He  studied  in  Kongju  Methodist  Mis- 
sion School,  and  finished  high  school  at  the  German- 
Chinese  High  School  in  Tsingtao,  China  in  1919.  He 
graduated  from  Hamline  Universfty  in  1926,  and  re- 
ceived the  B.D.  and  Th.D.  degree  from  Drew  Theo- 
logical School  in  1928  and  1931  respectively.  While  a 
student  at  Drew,  Dr.  Pyen  was  an  instructor  in  German. 
The  German  language,  as  well  as  that  non-Korean  first 
name,  was  acquired  while  interned  with  a  German 
Lutheran  missionary  in  Tsingtao,  China,  during  the  first 
World  War. 


He  was  ordained  in  the  Newark  Conference  in 
1929,  and  then  held  pastorates  in  Honolulu,  1931-33, 
and  Harbin,  Manchuria,  1933-34.  In  1934  he  joined  the 
faculty  of  the  Methodist  Theological  Seminary  in  Seoul, 
and  four  years  later  became  its  first  Korean  president 
(1938). 

The  anti-Christian  government  closed  the  seminary  in 
1940,  and  Dr.  Pyen  served  as  pastor  of  Chong-Kyo 
Church,  Seoul,  1941-43,  and  East  Gate  Church,  Seoul, 
1943-46.  In  1942  he  was  elected  by  the  General  Con- 
ference as  the  "Director-General"  of  the  interim  "Korean 
Methodist  Block  of  the  Japanese  Christian  Church  in 
Korea"  but  was  forced  to  resign  after  six  months  by  the 
Japanese  officials. 

Shortly  after  the  Japanese  surrender,  he  reopened  the 
Methodist  Seminary  which  he  headed  until  1948  when 
he  assumed  the  pastorate  of  South  Mountain  Church  in 
Seoul.  When  the  Seoul  churches  were  closed  by  the 
Communist  invasion  he  organized  a  church  in  Pusan. 
When  Seoul  was  reopened  in  1953,  he  resumed  the 
pastorate  of  the  South  Mountain  Church  and  continued 
to  serve  there  until  elected  bishop  of  the  Korean  Meth- 
odist Church  by  the  General  Conference  of  that  Church 
on  March  4,  1967. 

Bishop  Pyen's  first  wife,  Ban-Syuk  Kim,  perished  in  a 
tragic  fire.  She  was  the  sister-in-law  of  Bishop  J.  S. 
Ryang  and  quite  prominent.  Bishop  Pyen  married  Naptuk 
Kin  on  June  10,  1955. 

Bishop  Pyen  was  present  and  sat  in  and  with  the 
Council  of  Bishops  of  The  United  Methodist  Church 
at  the  Uniting  Conference  in  Dallas  in  1968. 

Having  reached  the  age  of  retirement  in  1970,  he 
attended  the  General  Conference  meeting  at  St.  Louis, 
and  then  stepped  aside  to  accept  the  presidency  of  the 
Los  Angeles  Bible  College  and  Seminary,  newly  estab- 
lished under  Korean  auspices. 

Charles  A.  Sauer 

PYKE,  JAMES  HOWELL  (1845-1924),  a  pioneer  missionary 
in  North  China,  was  bom  near  Glenwood,  Ind.,  July  9, 
1845.  He  was  educated  at  DePauw  University.  In  1873 
with  Anabel  Goodrich  as  his  bride,  he  sailed  for  China, 
where  he  served  as  organizer  of  churches,  as  district  and 
conference  evangelist,  and  as  missionary-in-charge  of  two 
districts.  He  was  a  charter  member  of  the  North  China 
Conference  when  it  was  organized  in  1893,  and  was  a 
presiding  elder  (1884-1908).  In  1903  he  was  decorated 
by  the  Emperor  of  China  for  his  handling  of  the  indemnity 
claims  growing  out  of  the  Boxer  Uprising. 

W.  W.  Reid 

PYKE,  RICHARD  (1873-1965),  British  Methodist,  was 
born  at  Sampford  Courtney,  Devon,  in  1873.  He  entered 
the  ministry  of  the  Bible  Christian  Church  in  1894, 
and  his  long  and  successful  ministry  was  largely  confined 
to  the  West  Country.  From  1915  to  1922  he  was  governor 
of  Shebbear  College,  and  from  1922  to  1949  bursar  of 
Edgehill  College.  A  tall,  thin,  commanding  figure,  he 
was  chosen  as  President  of  the  United  Methodist 
Church  in  1927,  and  as  president  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  1939.  He  retired  to  Bristol  in  1949  and  con- 
tinued to  preach  for  many  years.  He  died  on  Sept.  20, 
1965. 

John  Kent 


QUAKER  METHODISTS,  the  name  by  which  the  followers 
of  Peter  P^hillips  of  Warrington  were  known  because 
they  included  many  Quakers  and  adopted  some  of  their 
customs.  Later  they  came  to  be  known  as  Independent 
Methodists,  the  present  name  of  the  denomination. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

QUAKERS  AND  METHODISM.  Like  the  Methodists,  the 
Quakers  had  originated  as  a  movement  dedicated  to  the 
inculcation  of  personal  rehgious  experience  and  to  secur- 
ing the  spiritual  reform  of  the  Established  Church;  they 
called  themselves  a  "society,"  but  accepted  as  their  most 
famihar  title  a  derisive  nickname.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  in  the  early  days  of  the  revival  it  was 
frequently  a  friendly  Quaker  who  gave  protection  and 
support  to  the  persecuted  Methodists.  Although  drawn  to- 
gether against  their  common  enemies  in  the  world,  how- 
ever, rivalry  did  develop  between  the  two  groups,  who 
remained  so  far  different  in  their  views  that  they  continued 
to  seek  proselytes  from  among  each  others'  members. 
The  Friends'  quietist  views  on  the  means  of  grace 
especially  distressed  Wesley,  who  maintained  that  be- 
cause of  this  "a  great  gulf"  was  fixed  between  them.  This 
was  widened  by  the  Quakers'  formal  insistence  upon  their 
peculiar  and  superficial  "testimonies"  in  dress  and  speech, 
which  Wesley  termed  "mere  superstition." 

Nevertheless  the  Society  of  Friends  did  exercise  a 
beneficial  influence  upon  Methodism.  In  himself  insisting 
upon  plain  speech  and  simple  dress  Wesley  acknowledged 
his  debt  to  the  Quakers.  The  Methodist  Quaktebly 
Meeting  owed  at  least  some  of  its  inspiration  (through 
John  Bennet)  to  the  Friends,  and  they  strongly  in- 
fluenced Methodist  opposition  to  the  slave  traffic,  just 
as  Wesley's  Thoughts  upon  Slavery  was  largely  an  abridg- 
ment of  Anthony  Benezet's  Some  Hi^orical  Account  of 
Guinea — an  abridgment  warmly  approved  by  the  original 
author.  Throughout  the  succeeding  generations  the  Meth- 
odists and  the  Society  of  Friends  have  similarly  maintained 
parallel  courses,  the  social  witness  of  Methodism  enriched 
by  that  of  the  Friends,  and  they  in  turn  gaining  some 
warmth  and  flexibility  in  their  spirituality  in  part  at  least 
from  Methodist  influences.  Rarely,  however,  have  Meth- 
odists been  able  to  understand  the  more  mystical  aspects 
of  Quaker  teaching  upon  the  "inner  light,"  nor  Friends  to 
appreciate  the  sacramental  emphasis  wliich  the  Method- 
ists derived  from  Wesley. 

Frank  Baker,  The  Relations  between  the  Society  of  Friends  and 
Early  Methodism.  London:  Epworth  Press,  1949. 

Frank  Baker 

QUARTERAGE.  The  word  "quarterage,"  meaning  quarterly 
payments  for  the  support  of  the  ministry,  is  used  in  the 
1796  Discipline,  but  it  is  not  found  in  the  book  after  that 
date.  Richard  Boardman  and  probably  Robert  Straw- 
BBiDGE  held  quarterly  meetings  of  societies  and  circuits. 


In  describing  the  work  in  1772,  Jesse  Lee  said  the  preach- 
ers regulated  their  business  at  different  quarterly  meet- 
ings. The  quarterage  was  collected  in  preparation  for  the 
quarterly  meetings  and  it  was  distributed  or  paid  to  the 
preachers  at  the  meetings.  Asbury's  Journal  for  Dec.  22, 
1772,  says  that  at  a  quarterly  meeting  in  Maryland, 
"Brother  Strawbridge  received  eight  pounds  quarterage; 
brother  King  and  myself  six  pounds  each."  Incidentally, 
that  is  the  earliest  known  documentary  reference  to 
"quarterage"  in  Methodist  writings.  In  explaining  the  word 
"quarterage"  Simpson's  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism,  pub- 
lished in  1876,  says,  "on  stations  and  in  cities  this  term 
is  not  so  generally  employed  as  formerly;  but  it  is  still 
in  use  on  the  circuits."  Perhaps  it  is  fair  to  say  that  as 
long  as  presiding  elders  were  required  to  hold  a  quarterly 
CONFERENCE  on  cach  charge  every  three  months,  and  as 
long  as  it  was  the  custom  to  divide  the  amount  raised  for 
the  support  of  the  ministry  during  the  preceding  quarter 
on  a  percentage  ratio  between  the  presiding  elder  and  the 
preacher  in  charge,  apparently  the  word  quarterage  was 
used  on  some  circuits  down  to  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century  and  a  little  later. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

Discipline,  1796. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Albea  Godbold 

QUARTERLY  CONFERENCE,  THE.  The  Quarterly  Confer- 
ence (renamed  by  the  United  Methodist  Church  in  1968 
the  Charge  Conference)  has  been  the  traditional  business 
and  governing  body  of  the  local  charge  or  station  in 
American  Methodism.  It  has  continued  to  be  so  to  the 
present  time,  though  it  may  abrogate  its  rights  in  certain 
important  particulars  to  the  Official  Board  of  the  church 
— or  to  a  Church  Conference — should  it  decide  to  do  so. 
Recent  changes  have  been  made  in  this  Conference — now 
the  Charge  Conference — under  the  Constitution  of  1968, 
but  it  yet  remains  the  sovereign  and  controlling  body  in 
each  local  charge. 

Apparently  called  Quarterly  Meetings  at  first  in  America 
— as  the  equivalent  body  is  still  called  in  Britain — in 
time  the  name  came  to  be  Quarterly  Conference  instead 
of  Quarterly  Meeting.  Asbury  and  Coke  in  their  Notes 
on  the  Discipline  indicated  that  the  ruling  elder,  then 
becoming  known  as  the  presiding  elder,  should  always 
preside  at  the  several  Quarterly  Conferences  under  his 
charge,  and  this  presidency  came  to  be  an  established 
rule  in  Methodism  as  Quarterly  Conferences  grew  in  status 
and  in  standing. 

The  district  superintendent,  however,  as  the  presid- 
ing elder  is  now  called,  in  presiding  has  no  vote  since  he  is 
not  a  member.  He  camiot  even  resolve  a  tie  if  there  is 
a  tie  vote.  In  the  absence  of  the  district  superintendent, 
an  elder  "designated  by  him"  is  empowered  to  preside. 
Sometimes  the  pastor  himself  is  so  designated.  The 
Quarterly  Conference  is  and  in  general  always  has  been 


QUARTERLY    REVIEW   OF   THE   UNITED   BRETHREN    IN   CHRIST 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


composed  of  all  the  traveling,  supernumerary,  and  retired 
preachers  residing  within  its  circuit  or  charge.  To  these 
were  added  in  time  local  preachers,  exhorters,  dea- 
conesses, and  thus  this  body  has  always  been  fully  rep- 
resentative of  the  ministry.  But  making  up  the  vast 
majority  of  the  Quarterly  Conference  have  always  been 
local  church  lay  officials — at  first  stewards  and  trustees, 
but  in  later  years  added  to  them,  financial  secretaries, 
treasurers,  church  school  superintendents,  and  other  ex 
officio  members. 

In  the  United  Methodist  Church,  the  members  of  the 
newly  named  Administrative  Board — who  are  to  all  intents 
practically  the  same  as  those  formerly  known  in  The 
Methodist  Church  as  stewards  and  official  board  members 
— now  are  members  of  the  Charge  Conference.  The  name 
steward,  except  that  of  the  district  steward,  does  not 
appear  in  the  1968  Discipline  as  the  name  of  a  church 
officer.  The  members  at  large  of  the  administrative  board 
are  referred  to  by  the  Discipline  of  1968  not  as  stewards, 
but  as  members  of  this  board. 

Traditionally  no  quorum  has  ever  been  required  for  a 
Quarterly  Conference,  as  the  members  present  at  the 
time  and  place  regularly  appointed  for  a  Quarterly  Con- 
ference constitute  a  quorum.  Occasions  have  been  known 
where  only  the  district  superintendent  and  the  pastor  in 
charge  were  present,  but  if  proper  announcement  had 
been  made,  a  Quarterly  Conference  could  be  held  and  was 
valid.  However,  there  has  been  a  regulation  within  recent 
years  that  no  property  can  be  sold,  purchased,  nor  any 
lien  created  upon  church  property  unless  ten  days'  notice 
has  been  given  of  such  intent. 

Also  in  a  circuit  where  there  are  two  or  more  churches, 
where  real  or  personal  property  of  a  separate  church  is 
involved,  or  a  merger  of  churches  is  to  be  considered, 
each  local  church  shall  organize  a  church  local  conference. 
This  gives  a  local  church  a  right  to  represent  its  own 
interests  apart  from  the  larger  church  conference  of  the 
circuit. 

The  Quarterly  (Charge)  Conference  has  electoral 
powers.  It  elects  its  own  members  once  a  year  for  the 
succeeding  year,  except  the  clerical  or  ministerial  mem- 
bers who  belong  to  the  Annual  Conference,  and  this 
automatically  puts  them  in  the  Quarterly  Conference.  It 
elects  stewards,  trustees,  and  church  school  officials,  and 
the  like,  though  under  certain  circumstances  it  may  pro- 
vide for  the  election  of  these  officials  by  a  formal  church 
conference.  In  addition  to  officers  of  the  local  church,  the 
Quarterly  Conference  elects  the  church's  lay  representa- 
tive to  the  Annual  Conference,  and  to  the  District  Con- 
ference when  there  is  one. 

For  long  years  in  Episcopal  Methodism  the  preacher  in 
charge  had  the  sole  right  to  nominate  the  lay  officials 
of  the  church,  and  since  these  lay  officials  made  up  and 
make  up,  as  they  do  now,  the  majority  of  the  Quarterly 
Conference,  to  that  extent  the  pastor  exercised  potential 
control  of  that  body.  However,  in  The  Methodist  Church 
after  1939,  a  nominating  committee  was  created  to 
nominate  all  the  officials  to  be  elected  by  the  Quarterly 
Conference,  though  the  pastor  was  made  chairman  of  this 
committee  and  if  there  was  no  committee,  he  himself 
was  to  make  all  nominations.  This  power  granted  the 
pastor  has  been  greatly  criticized  and  has  been  so  since 
earliest  days  of  American  Methodism.  In  their  Notes  ap- 
pended to  the  Discipline  of  1796,  Bishops  Asbury  and 
Coke  defended  the  pastor's  right  to  name  the  stewards 
by  himself,  saying  that  the  pastor  was  the  one  who  "is 


likely  to  be  the  best  judge  of  the  society  at  large  and 
of  each  member  in  particular."  Later  on  stewards  came 
to  be  elected  by  the  Quarterly  Conference,  but  as  de- 
scribed above,  on  nomination  of  the  pastor. 

The  Quarterly  Conference  formerly  had  the  right  to 
license  men  to  preach,  but  in  The  United  Methodist 
Church  this  right  has  now  been  placed  for  many  years 
in  the  hands  of  a  committee  of  ministers  headed  by  the 
district  superintendent.  However,  no  one  can  be  licensed 
by  this  ministerial  committee  unless  his  Quarterly  Con- 
ference has  nominated  or  approved  him. 

In  its  supervisory  powers,  the  Annual  Conference 
creates  many  committees  which  have  to  do  with  the  on- 
going of  the  work.  Up  until  1968  certain  commissions  were 
obligatory  in  each  local  church,  and  these  were  to  be 
elected  by  the  Quarterly  Conference  though  they  were 
responsible  to  the  Official  Board.  This  regulation  has  been 
somewhat  changed,  though  the  Committee  on  Pastor- 
Parish  Belations,  that  on  Finance,  and  that  on  Nominations 
and  Personnel  are  mandatory. 

There  can  scarcely  be  a  conflict  between  the  Quarterly 
(Charge)  Conference  and  the  Official  (Administrative) 
Board  since  they  are  both  composed  of  the  same  persons 
and  work  generally  in  the  same  field.  The  Quarterly  Con- 
ference, however,  presided  over  by  the  district  super- 
intendent who  represents  the  general  Church,  is  the  con- 
nectional  link  between  each  local  church  and  the  general 
Church.  The  district  superintendent  must  ask  the  same 
questions  at  every  Charge  Conference  which  he  asks  at 
any  one,  and  so  connectional  uniformity  is  maintained  all 
up  and  down  the  line.  The  Official  (Administrative) 
Board  represents  a  local  church  only,  and  without  the 
connectional  bond  of  the  Charge  Conference  may  tend 
to  keep  the  individual  church  somewhat  isolated  in  its 
own  plans  and  life.  The  Charge  Conference  "is  the  basic 
unit  in  the  connectional  system  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church."  (Discipline,  P.  144.) 

The  name  Charge  Conference  was  adopted  in  1968  for 
Quarterly  Conference  in  the  United  Methodist  Church. 
All  other  Methodist  Churches  continue  to  use  the  name 
Quarterly  Conference,  which  had  been  the  name  since  the 
early  days  of  Asbury.  It  is  understood  that  each  General 
Conference  may  make  minor  alterations  in  matters  of 
membership,  powers  and  specific  duties  of  this  body,  as 
has  always  been  the  case,  and  may  revise  it  at  any  ses- 
sion as  was  done  in  1968. 

Discipline,  UMC,  1968. 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Organization.  1962.  N.  B.  H. 

QUARTERLY  REVIEW  OF  THE  UNITED  BRETHREN  IN 
CHRIST  was  authorized  by  the  General  Conference 
in  1889.  The  first  issue  appeared  in  January  1890,  with 
J.  W.  Etter,  editor.  It  began  with  a  circulation  of  625 
subscribers,  but  at  the  end  of  the  quadrennium  there  were 
only  152  remaining.  In  mid-1891  the  editor  was  elected 
professor  of  systematic  theology  in  Union  Biblical 
Seminary,  Dayton,  Ohio.  He  enlisted  the  support  of  his 
fellow  faculty  members,  so  that  the  General  Conference 
of  1893  gave  editorial  responsibility  to  the  faculty  as  a 
group.  However,  at  the  end  of  the  year  1893,  the  Pub- 
lishing House  discontinued  the  magazine. 

A  group  of  nineteen  church  leaders  organized  "The 
Review  Publishing  Association"  and  revived  the  magazine 
without  losing  an  issue.  George  M.  Mathews,  pastor  of 
First  Church,  Dayton,  voluntarily  served  as  editor  with- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


QUEEN,    LOUISE   LEATHERWOOD 


out  renumeration  for  the  remainder  of  the  quadrennium. 
The  General  Conference  of  1897  gave  oERcial  recognition 
to  the  magazine  with  continued  supervision  by  the  Review 
Committee.  When  Mathews  became  associate  editor  of  the 
Religious  Telescope  in  1898,  he  was  replaced  as  Review 
editor  by  H.  H.  Fout,  pastor  of  Oak  Street  Church, 
Dayton. 

The  publishing  house  was  directed  by  the  1901  General 
Conference  to  take  full  responsibility  of  the  Quarterly 
Review.  H.  A.  Thompson,  associate  editor  of  Sabbath 
School  literature,  became  the  new  Review  editor.  In  1902 
the  magazine  was  increased  to  six  issues  and  renamed  the 
United  Brethren  Review.  After  continued  losses,  the  pub- 
lishing house  discontinued  the  magazine  at  the  end  of 
1908. 


A.  W.  Drury,  History  of  the  UB.  1924. 
J.  H.  Ness,  History  of  Publishing.  1966. 


John  H.  Ness,  Jh. 


William  A.  Quayle 

QUAYLE,  WILLIAM  ALFRED  (1860-1925),  American  bish- 
op and  renowned  orator,  was  bom  at  Parkville,  Mo.,  on 
June  25,  1860.  His  father  was  a  miner  and  both  parents 
were  born  on  the  Isle  of  Man.  They  had  come  to  the 
United  States  in  search  of  opportunities  for  more  com- 
fortable living.  They  were  journeying  to  the  west  across 
Missouri  when  the  baby  was  bom  a  few  miles  from  the 
Kansas  line.  As  the  child  grew  he  had  the  physical 
characteristics  and  the  whimsical  imagination  of  his  Manx 
ancestors  and  was  always  proud  to  think  he  was  a  Manx- 
man. 

While  his  father  was  working  in  the  mines  of  Colorado 
his  mother  died,  and  there  were  years  of  search  for  her 
unmarked  grave  when  he  had  grown  to  maturity.  As  a 


boy  he  found  a  home  with  a  Kansas  farmer.  He  went  to 
Baker  University  at  Baldwin,  Kan.,  and  there  he  gradu- 
ated. Having  been  licensed  to  preach,  his  first  pastorate 
was  Osage  City,  Kan.  He  was  called  to  the  faculty  of 
Baker  University,  and  while  he  was  still  a  young  man, 
after  a  few  years  of  teaching,  he  was  elected  to  the 
presidency  of  his  alma  mater. 

In  many  ways  Quayle  was  a  genius,  and  his  preaching 
as  he  visited  communities  in  behalf  of  the  University 
gave  him  such  a  reputation  that  he  was  sought  by  large 
churches.  He  resigned  the  presidency  of  Baker  to  become 
pastor  of  Independence  Avenue  Church  in  Kansas  City. 
From  there  he  went  to  the  Meridian  Street  Church  in 
Indianapolis.  He  returned  to  Kansas  City  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  Grand  Avenue  Temple.  His  fourth  large 
city  church  was  St.  James  in  Chicago.  He  was  so  bril- 
liantly gifted  and  such  a  unique  phraser  and  preacher  that 
one  of  the  Chicago  daily  papers  printed  every  Monday 
one  of  his  Sunday  sermons.  He  became  a  bishop  in  the 
M.E.  Church  in  1908  and  served  until  retirement  in  1924. 

There  was  too  much  individuahty  in  him  for  him  to 
fit  into  any  pattern,  even  that  of  the  episcopacy.  He  was 
never  at  home  in  administrative  tasks,  but  people  would 
journey  hundreds  of  miles  to  hear  him  preach  at  con- 
ference, At  each  conference  session  he  gave  a  lecture  for 
which  tickets  were  sold  for  the  benefit  of  some  church 
fund.  His  famous  lecture  on  "Jean  Valjean"  is  remembered 
today  by  hundreds.  Another  remembered  lecture  of  his 
was  "Napolean  Bonaparte — Democrat." 

He  loved  books  and  acquired  a  large  library.  He  would 
deny  himself  food  and  raiment  to  buy  valuable  books, 
and  there  is  found  today  in  the  library  of  Baker  University 
one  of  the  most  valuable  collections  of  Bibles  in  the  world 
which  he  brought  together.  In  his  pastorates  he  used  once 
a  month  to  give  a  lecture  on  a  literary  theme.  One  of 
his  themes  for  such  lectures  in  Chicago  was  "Shakespeare's 
Heroines."  He  loved  nature,  birds,  flowers,  and  trees. 
This  love  was  a  heritage  from  the  ancestors  who  lived  on 
the  picturesque  Isle  of  Man.  His  descriptions  of  the 
beauties  of  God's  out-of-doors  were  so  thrilHng  that  his 
greatest  biographer,  Merton  S.  Rice,  called  him  "The 
Skylark  of  Methodism." 

Because  of  ill  health  he  retired  as  bishop  in  1924, 
writing  to  the  General  Conference,  "Mine  has  been  a 
sunny  life,  radiant  as  spring."  He  died  on  March  9,  1925. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
Methodist  Review,  September  1925. 

Merton  S.  Rice,  William  Alfred  Quayle,  the  Skylark  of  Method- 
ism. New  York:  Abingdon  Press,  1928. 
C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Ivan  Lee  Holt 


QUEEN,  LOUISE  LEATHERWOOD  ( 1923-  ) ,  American 
lay  woman,  was  born  in  Haywood  County,  N.  C,  on 
March  9,  1923,  the  daughter  of  William  Pinckney  and 
Margaret  Kirkpatrick  Leatherwood.  She  attended  Woman's 
College  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  Greensboro, 
N.  C.  She  was  married  to  Earl  Wilson  Caldwell  (deceased 
1947)  on  June  20,  1942,  and  to  them  were  born  two 
sons,  Wilham  Earl  and  Wayne  Wilson.  In  1949  she  mar- 
ried Kenneth  A.  Stahl  (divorced  1962),  and  on  July  9, 
1963,  she  married  Rufus  G.  Queen,  who  had  two 
daughters,  Pamela  June  and  Dariacia  Jan. 

Louise  Queen  was  employed  as  secretary  to  the  Super- 
intendent of  Haywood  County  Public  Schools  from  1946 


QUEENS   COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


to  1951.  She  then  assisted  Elmer  T.  Clark  in  setting 
up  his  office  at  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C,  acting  as  his 
secretary  in  the  work  of  the  Association  of  Methodist 
Historical  Societies  and  the  World  Methodist  Coun- 
cil until  his  retirement  as  executive  secretary  of  those 
bodies.  She  continued  in  the  same  office  under  Albea 
GoDBOLD,  who  became  executive  secretary  of  the  Associa- 
tion of  Methodist  Historical  Societies  in  1963,  and  she  is 
now  administrative  and  editorial  assistant  to  John  H.  Ness, 
Jr.,  in  the  Commission  on  Archives  and  History.  She 
has  served  as  illustration  editor  and  copy  editor  of  this 
Encyclopedia,  in  addition  to  preparing  the  general  index 
for  this  work. 

Mrs.  Queen's  local  church  membership  is  in  Long's 
Chapel  United  Methodist  Church,  Lake  Junaluska, 
where  she  has  held  numerous  offices.  She  has  served  as 
secretary  of  the  Wesleyan  Service  Guild  of  the  Western 
North  Carolina  Annual  Conference,  and  has  been  active 
in  numerous  other  church  and  civic  organizations. 


Queen 


1-     Mll.lKllHM 


QUEEN'S  COLLEGE,  Melbourne,  Victoria,  AustraUa.  As 
early  as  1855,  only  a  year  after  the  Melbourne  University 
was  founded,  the  idea  of  a  College  affiliated  with  each  of 
the  universities  of  Sydney  and  Melbourne  found  voice  in 
the  first  Australasian  Wesleyan   Methodist  Conference. 

Though  ten  acres  in  the  University  reserve  at  Carlton 
had  been  set  aside  by  the  Government  for  this  purpose, 
over  twenty  years  were  to  pass  before  the  Victorian 
and  Tasmanw,n  Conference  took  steps  to  utilize  the 
concession. 

The  efforts  to  found  a  Central  Theological  Institution 
for  the  whole  of  Australia,  made  during  subsequent  years, 
broke  down,  on  the  matter  of  finance,  and  arrangements 
were  made  to  train  the  men  in  existing  establishments.  In 
1871  the  Provisional  Theological  Institution  for  Victoria 
and  Tasmania  was  linked  up  with  Wesley  College,  Mel- 
bourne— students  going  into  residence  for  both  general 
and  theological  training. 

In  1878  the  Conference  appointed  a  committee  to  raise 


funds  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  College  for  general 
educational  purposes,  and  also  "if  possible  to  house  theo- 
logical students."  W,  A.  Quick  undertook  the  task  of 
canvassing  for  money,  and  by  December  1884,  was  able 
to  report  money  in  hand  and  promises  amounting  to 
£6,370.  A  small  endowment  fund  was  also  provided,  chiefly 
from  a  half  share  in  the  land  of  an  earlier  Wesleyan 
Immigrant's  Home  in  Carlton.  With  further  help  from  the 
Jubilee  Thanksgiving  Fund  in  1886,  the  Conference  re- 
solved that  the  College  should  be  erected  in  the  Jubilee 
year  of  Queen  Victoria's  reign  and  for  that  reason,  be 
called  "Queen's."  The  foundation  stone  was  laid  on  June 
19,  1887,  by  His  Excellency  Sir  Henry  Brougham  (later 
Lord  Loch ) . 

Edward  Holdsworth  Sucden,  an  English  Wesleyan 
minister,  was  appointed  its  first  master.  He  arrived  with 
his  wife  and  family  to  take  charge  in  January  1888.  On 
March  14,  1888,  the  College  was  officially  opened  by  the 
Govenior. 

The  Council  appointed  by  the  Conference  to  administer 
the  affairs  of  the  College,  elected  W.  A.  Quick  as  its 
first  chairman  and  E.  W.  Nye  as  its  secretary.  Quick  was 
President  of  the  Council  for  twenty-one  years,  contributing 
more  than  anyone  else,  outside  the  master,  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  College.  Its  first  master,  E.  H.  Sugden,  gave 
outstanding  service  for  forty  years,  from  1888-1928.  He 
was  followed  by  Rev.  Keniwick  from  1928-33  and  Raynor 
Johnson  from  1934-66.  A.  E.  Albiston  was  Professor  of 
Theology  from  1920-38,  followed  bv  Calvert  Barber,  1937- 
59  and  Norman  Lade,  1959-66. 

Although  the  College  was  in  financial  difficulties  in  its 
early  days,  the  gifts  of  many  liberal  benefactors  have 
enabled  it  to  steadily  expand.  In  1889  the  College  had 
thirteen  students;  by  1968  there  was  accommodation  for 
220  students  and  ninety  non-resident  students.  Alongside 
it  stands  St.  Hilda's  Methodist-Presbyterian  University 
College  for  girls. 

The  Theological  Hall  (founded  1871)  is  the  organ  of 
the  Victorian  and  Tasmanian  Conference  charged  with 
the  training  of  men  accepted  as  candidates  for  the  min- 
istry. It  is  not  a  separate  College,  but  is  associated  with 
Queen's  College  where  almost  all  of  its  students  are  in 
residence.  It  is  under  the  direction  of  a  principal.  Pro- 
fessor NoiTnan  Lade;  with  whom  are  associated  Professors 
of  Biblical  Studies  and  Systematic  Theology.  The  Meth- 
odist Theological  Hall  works  in  close  collaboration  with 
that  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

When  Queen's  College  was  founded  the  Conference 
resolved  that  "such  College  be  made  available,  as  far  as 
practicable,  for  the  training  of  our  Theological  students." 
Efforts  were  later  made  to  establish  a  central  Theological 
Institution  for  the  whole  of  Australia.  These  broke  down, 
and  subsequently  the  provisional  Theological  Institution 
for  Victoria  and  Tasmania  was  formed  and  linked,  first 
with  Wesley  College  (1871)  and  in  1889  with  Queen's 
College.  Here  the  students  were  under  the  direction  of 
the  Master,  E.  H.  Sugden.  In  1892  the  Conference  set 
up  a  separate  committee  to  administer  the  Theological 
Institution.  In  1920  A.  E.  Albiston  was  appointed  as 
Theological  tutor  (later  Professor  of  Theology)  with  full 
oversight  of  the  curriculum  of  five  years,  three  of  which 
are  spent  chiefly  in  University  studies  and  two  in  the  B.D. 
course  of  the  Melbourne  College  of  Divinity  and  in  other 
theological  and  pastoral  studies. 

Australian  Editorial  CoMMrrrEE 


WORLD   METHODISM 


QUEENSLAND   CONFERENCE 


QUEENSLAND  CONFERENCE,  Australia.  Methodism  in 
Queensland  dates  from  1847  when  William  Moore,  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  minister  from  Sydney,  began  services  in 
a  hired  hall  in  the  main  street  of  Bbisbane,  at  South 
Brisbane  and  in  the  nearby  settlement  of  Zion  Hill. 
Brisbane  was  then  a  struggling  township  of  a  few  hundred 
people;  today  it  is  the  capital  city  of  the  State  and  has  a 
population  of  over  600,000.  In  less  than  a  year  Moore 
began  the  work  at  the  mining  township  of  Ipswich,  twenty- 
five  miles  west  of  Brisbane.  He  was  followed  by  a  succes- 
sion of  ministers  who  established  Wesleyan  Methodist 
preaching  places  wherever  possible. 

In  1855  Australia  became  an  independent  Conference 
with  William  B.  Boyce  as  President,  and  headquarters  at 
Sydney,  New  South  Wales.  Queensland  then  became  a 
circuit  in  the  New  South  Wales  District.  It  was  con- 
stituted a  separate  District  in  1863.  Complete  autonomy 
was  attained  in  1893  when  it  became  a  separate  Con- 
ference, having  thirty  ministers.  Henry  Youngman  was  the 
first  President. 

Its  Jubilee  was  celebrated  in  1897.  By  that  time  the 
church  was  represented  in  every  important  center  and  in 
a  great  many  small  townships  throughout  the  State.  There 
were  ninety-four  churches  and  seventy-seven  other  preach- 
ing places;  thirty-two  ministers  and  139  local  preachers; 
2,742  church  members,  18,109  adherents  and  101  Sunday 
schools  with  9,337  scholars  and  938  teachers.  A  Thanks- 
giving Fund  of  £5,000  was  fully  subscribed. 

The  Primiti\'e  Methodist  Church  began  in  Queens- 
land in  1860  under  the  auspices  of  the  British  Confer- 
ence with  W.  Colley  as  minister.  The  first  church  was 
built  in  Brisbane  in  1861.  The  work  spread  quickly  and 
widely. 

The  United  Methodist  Church  was  introduced  in 
1873,  but  its  activities  were  limited.  The  Bible  Chris- 
tians began  in  1886  and  soon  had  several  churches  in 
Brisbane  and  Ipswich.  Before  the  turn  of  the  century  the 
Bible  Christians  and  the  United  Methodist  Church  were 
merged  with  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church.  After  some 
years  of  negotiation  the  Primitive  and  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Churches  were  united  in  1898,  and  Henry  Youngman 
was  the  first  President  of  the  Conference. 

In  1905  Conference  made  the  first  organized  effort  to 
provide  the  ordinances  of  religion  in  the  scattered  com- 
munities in  the  vast  inland  of  the  State.  A  minister, 
equipped  with  a  horse-drawn  wagon,  travelled  extensively 
under  difficult  conditions,  visiting  the  cattle  stations,  min- 
ing camps  and  sheep  properties,  conducting  services  and 
counselling  the  people  in  need. 

As  a  result  a  number  of  home  mission  stations  and  cir- 
cuits were  created  and  young  ministers  appointed  to  them. 
Eventually  three  large  mission  areas  were  constituted  and 
sturdy  motor  vehicles  provided,  making  it  possible  to 
patrol  thousands  of  miles  and  extend  a  ministry  to  lonely 
settlers,  shearers,  drovers  and  others. 

The  Centenary  of  Methodism  in  Queensland  took  place 
in  1947.  The  programme  included  a  Crusade  for  the 
renewal  of  the  Church  and  a  Thanksgiving  Fund  of 
£100,000.  The  secretaries,  C.  A.  Bead  and  A.  W.  Preston, 
visited  every  circuit  and  home  mission  station,  conducting 
evanglistic  missions  and  quickening  the  interest  of  the 
members  of  the  Church  in  the  celebrations.  R.  S.  C. 
Dingle  compiled  a  history  of  the  Church  in  Queensland, 
which  was  published  in  a  300-page  book  entitled  Annals 
of  Achievement. 


At  this  time  there  were  126  ministers,  16,000  members 
of  the  Church,  and  16,279  Sunday  school  scholars. 

The  Centenary  ushered  in  an  era  of  prosperity  in  which 
many  handsome  church  buildings  were  erected  and  new 
activities  introduced.  Special  emphasis  was  placed  upon 
Christian  education  for  young  people.  The  programme 
was  carried  out  in  holiday  camps,  a  Training  College  for 
Christian  workers  in  Brisbane,  in  Teacher  and  Leader 
training  courses,  and  through  the  mail  bag  Sunday  school 
for  the  children  of  the  inland.  The  work  was  under  the 
direction  of  a  succession  of  gifted  ministers — H.  A.  Denny, 
H.  W.  Prouse,  T.  N.  Deller,  and  I.  W.  Alcorn. 

Statistics  for  the  Queensland  Conference  as  of  May 
1969,  were  as  follows:  149  ministers  in  active  work;  440 
churches;  21,035  members. 

The  Home  Mission  Society  was  formed  in  1864  for 
"the  evangelization  of  Queensland  without  respect  of 
colour,  class  or  creed."  This  aim  has  been  pursued  per- 
sistently and  is  prominent  today.  The  Society  has  been 
responsible  for  initiating  numerous  circuits  and  has  pro- 
vided from  its  agents  many  candidates  for  the  ministry. 
It  has  been  associated  directly  with  the  Methodist  Inland 
Mission  which  is  an  activity  of  the  General  Conference 
for  sending  ministers  into  the  vast  areas  in  the  central, 
western  and  northern  parts  of  the  country. 

The  Methodist  work  in  many  new  housing  settlements 
has  been  undertaken  by  the  Society;  it  has  administered 
hostels  for  students,  homes  for  underprivileged  children 
and  homes  for  discharged  men  and  women  prisoners  as 
well  as  supplying  chaplains  for  hospitals  and  public  in- 
stitutions. 

It  introduced  the  Order  of  Deaconesses  into  the  State 
and  undertook  the  training  of  young  women  for  the  work. 

Some  of  these  activities  are  now  conducted  indepen- 
dently, while  the  Society  turns  its  attention  to  other 
pressing  needs — including  a  Mission  to  Aborigines  and 
Islanders  in  North  Queensland.  A  recent  feature  of  the 
Home  Mission  work  is  its  cooperation  in  new  housing  areas 
with  the  Presbyterian  and  Congregational  Churches.  The 
Society  has  been  administered  by  a  succession  of  compe- 
tent superintendents — W.  H.  Harrison,  A.  A.  Mills,  J.  A. 
Pratt,  C.  A.   Read,  N.   H.  Grimmett,  and  G.   D.   Smith. 

Life  Line  is  an  organization  which  offers  help  to  dis- 
tressed people  twenty-four  hours  a  day.  Thousands  of  men 
and  women  with  fears  and  worries,  beset  by  personal 
and  domestic  problems  are  counselled  every  year  under 
the  direction  of  the  Rev.  Alan  Kidd,  who  is  assisted  by 
scores  of  voluntary  workers.  The  well-known  slogan  is 
"Help  is  as  near  as  the  telephone."  This  social  service 
enjoys  public  appreciation  and  support. 

Inland  Missions.  In  1905  Conference  made  the  first 
organized  effort  to  minister  to  the  scattered  communities 
in  the  vast  inland  of  the  State.  As  a  result  of  much 
sacrificial  giving  and  prayer,  a  minister  equipped  with  a 
horse-drawn  wagon  travelled  extensively  under  difficult 
conditions  over  a  wide  area.  This  work  was  developed 
when  young  ministers  were  stationed  at  strategic  centers. 
Eventually  three  large  Mission  areas  were  constituted. 
Today  ten  men  with  mobile  units  patrol  thousands  of 
square  miles  to  minister  to  lonely  settlers,  shearers,  drovers 
and  others. 

Church  Schools.  The  Queensland  Conference  conducts 
six  Church  Schools  in  cooperation  with  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  which  are  administered  by  the  Presbyterian  and 
Methodist  Schools'  Association.  They  are  Brisbane  Boys' 


QUETTA,    PAKISTAN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


College,  Somenille  House  (girls),  Clayfield  College 
(girls),  and  Moreton  Bay  Girls'  High  School  in  the  Bris- 
bane area  and  Thornburgh  College  (boys)  and  Black- 
heath  College  (girls)  at  Charters  Towers,  North  Queens- 
land. They  cater  to  students  from  primary  classes  to 
matriculation  and  are  amongst  the  most  reputable  public 
schools  in  Australia. 

Young  People's  Department  H.  A.  Denny,  first  full- 
time  direction  appointed  in  1920,  began  an  era  of  extraor- 
dinary development.  He  introduced  teacher  and  leader 
training  and  modem  equipment  into  Sunday  schools;  be- 
gan a  "Mail-Bag"  Sunday  school  for  out-back  children; 
opened  a  holiday  camp  at  the  seaside  where  thousands  of 
young  people  have  received  intensive  Christian  education 
at  vacation  times.  There  are  now  eight  such  camps  serving 
the  entire  State.  A  Training  College  for  Christian  Workers 
is  conducted  by  C.  D.  Alcorn  and  H.  C.  Krohn,  where 
nearly  100  are  in  residence  each  year.  The  present  Direc- 
tor, I.  W.  Alcorn,  has  two  ministerial  colleagues  and  one 
lay  assistant.  Young  people  constitute  a  large  and  lively 
part  of  the  Church  today.  ( See  also  Brisbane.  ) 

Australian  Editorial  Committee 

QUETTA,  Pakistan.  This  city  is  about  550  miles  west  of 
Lahore  and  a  similar  distance  north  of  Karachi  and  has 
train  and  air  connection  with  both  these  important  cities. 
There  is  also  rail  connection  with  Zahidan,  a  Persian 
frontier  town  to  the  West.  Quetta  is  capital  of  Baluchistan 
Province,  and  the  Administrative  center  for  the  Tribal 
Area.  It  has  a  large,  well-organized  Cantonment.  Not  far 
distant  is  a  fine  Thermal  Plant  completed  in  1963-64. 
Quetta  occupies  a  strategic  location  in  case  of  an  invasion 
from  the  West. 

Methodist  Work:  The  destructive  Quetta  earthquake 
of  1935  demolished  the  former  church  building.  A  tempo- 
rary building  then  erected  was  replaced  by  the  well- 
built  Bethel  Church,  in  1959.  Its  pastor,  K.  L.  Peter 
(who  serves  also  as  district  superintendent)  is  supported 
by  the  congregation,  and  his  wife  is  principal  of  tlic 
thriving  Primary  School  which  meets  in  the  old  tempo- 
rary church  building.  A  well  known  and  very  popular 
Mission  Hospital  belonging  to  the  Anglican  Church  is 
widely  known  because  of  two  of  its  famous  eye  surgeons, 
father  and  son,  the  Drs.  Holland. 

Clement  Hockey 

QUILLIAN,  JOSEPH   DILLARD,   JR.    (1917-  ),  Ameri- 

can minister  and  seminary  dean,  was  bom  at  Buford,  Ga., 
Jan.  30,  1917,  the  son  of  Joseph  Dillard  and  Jeannette 
(Evans)  Quillian.  He  was  graduated  from  Piedmont  Col- 
lege,   B.A.,     1938;    V.A.NDERB1LT    UNIVERSITY,    B.D.,     1941; 

Yale  University,  Ph.D.,  1951.  On  Dec.  15,  1944,  he  was 
married  to  ELzabeth  Mary  Sampson.  Their  children  are: 
Suzanne  Elizabeth,  Alma  Jeannette,  Mary  Shannon, 
Joseph  Dillard  III,  Ellen  Evans. 

He  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  of  the  Congregational 
Church.  In  1943  he  was  received  in  full  connection  and 
ordained  elder  in  the  Tennessee  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church.  He  was  pastor  of  Hillsboro  Circuit, 
Tennessee,  1938-41;  Nashville,  1941-42;  Stamford, 
Conn.,  1946-50;  president  of  Martin  College,  Pulaski, 
Tenn.,  1950-54.  In  1954  he  went  to  be  professor  of  wor- 
ship  and  preaching   at   Perkins   School   of   Theology, 


Southern  Methodist  University,  and  since  1960  he  has 
been  dean  of  that  institution. 

Since  1964  he  has  ser\ed  as  vice  chairman  of  the 
Commission  on  Worship.  He  ser\ed  to  lieutenant  com- 
mander as  chaplain,  U.  S.  Naval  Reserve,  1942-46.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Association  of  Methodist  Theological 
Schools,  of  the  Association  of  American  Theological 
Schools,  and  of  the  Council  of  Southwestern  Theological 
Schools.  He  is  the  author  (with  H.  Grady  Hardin  and 
James  F.  White)  of  T/ie  Celebration  of  the  Gospel,  1964. 


Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


J.  Marvin  Rast 


QUILLIAN,  PAUL  WHITFIELD  (1895-1949),  American 
pastor,  was  bom  Dec.  19,  1895,  at  Conyers,  Ga.,  the  son 
of  John  W.  and  Lucy  (Zachry)  Quillian.  He  was  educated 
at  Emory  College,  A.B.,  1914,  and  Southern  Meth- 
odist University,  B.D.,  1924.  Hendrix  College  and 
Southern  Methodist  awarded  him  the  D.D.  degree,  and 
Florida  Southern  College  gave  him  the  LL.D.  On 
July  4,  1916,  he  married  Eula  Dupree  in  Sandersville, 
Ga.,  and  they  had  one  daughter. 

After  teaching  school,  1914-16,  Quilhan  entered  busi- 
ness in  1917,  and  was  president  of  the  Arkansas  Soft 
Drink  Manufacturers,  1920-21.  Feeling  the  call  to  preach, 
he  entered  the  Southern  Methodist  ministry  and  was  or- 
dained in  1923.  His  appointments  were:  Camden,  Ark., 
1924-27;  Winfield,  Little  Rock,  1928-32;  St.  Luke's, 
Oklahoma  City,  1933-36;  and  First  Church,  Houston, 
Texas,  1936-49.  Under  his  leadership,  First  Church  was 
then  the  world's  largest  Methodist  church  with  7,800 
members  and  a  staff  of  twenty-five. 

Quillian  was  a  delegate  to  the  Uniting  Conference, 
1939,  and  to  five  General  Conferences,  1934-38,  and 
1940-48;  to  the  1947  Ecumenical  Methodist  Confer- 
ence, and  to  the  1948  Assembly  of  the  World  Council 
OF  Churches.  An  able  pulpit  preacher,  he  served  as  a 
member  of  the  National  Christian  Mission  Team,  1941- 
42,  and  1944.  He  contributed  to  the  American  Pulpit 
Series,  1945-46,  and  to  Best  Sermons,  1946. 

He  served  on  the  Commission  on  Unification  of  Ameri- 
can Methodism;  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Edu- 
cation in  the  Uniting  Conference;  and  was  a  trustee  of 
Southwestern  and  Dillard  Universities,  and  of  the 
Methodist  Hospital  in  Houston.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Wesley  Foundation  in  Texas,  the  General  Board  of 
Education  of  The  Methodist  Church,  the  National  Ad- 
visory Commission  on  the  Negro  College  Fund,  and  the 
Commission  on  the  resettlement  of  the  Japanese  in  the 
United  States.  He  delivered  the  Thirkield  Lectures  at 
Gammon  Theological  Seminary,  1945.  A  contributor  to 
religious  journals  and  books,  he  also  wrote  church  school 
lesson  material. 

Quillian  received  large  votes  for  the  episcopacy  in 
1938,  1944,  and  1948.  In  the  latter  year  at  the  South 
Central  Jurisdictional  Conference,  he  was  one  of  the 
chief  contenders  for  twenty-six  ballots,  after  which  he 
graciously  withdrew.  Since  he  had  a  brilliant  mind  and 
was  an  excellent  preacher  and  an  able  administrator, 
many  in  the  church  were  surprised  that  he  was  never 
elected  a  bishop.  Bishop  Paul  E.  Martin  said,  "Paul 
Quillian  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  dedicated  men 
the  Methodist  Church  has  ever  had  ...  he  was  a  great 
administrator,   a   gifted  minister  and   a  wise  counselor." 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Quillian  died  suddenly  of  a  heart  attack  in   Houston, 
March  28,  1949. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 

Who  Was  Who  in  America,  1942-1950.  Albea  Godbouj 


QUILLIAN,  WILLIAM  FLETCHER  (1880-1960),  American 
college  president  and  church  executive,  was  born  on  Dec. 
21,  1880,  at  Lithonia,  Ga.,  the  son  of  William  Fletcher 
and  Lucy  Ann  (Vail)  Quillian.  Emory  College  gave 
him  the  A.B.  degree  in  1901,  the  D.D.  in  1921;  at 
Vanderbilt  he  took  post  graduate  courses,  1912-14. 
Southern  Methodist  University  granted  him  the  LL.D  ' 
in  1931. 

He  married  Nonie  Acree  on  June  1,  1910,  and  their 
children  are  Wilham  Fletcher,  Jr.  (president,  Randolph- 
Macon  Woman's  College),  Christine  Mason  (Mrs. 
Hubert  Searcy). 

Quillian,  after  serving  in  various  posts  including  being 
missionary  to  Mexico  and  editor  of  the  El  Educaitdo, 
1907-11,  became  president  of  Wesleyan  College, 
Macon,  Ga.,  1920-31,  at  which  time  he  became  general 
secretary  of  the  General  Board  of  Christian  Education 
of  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  In  1940,  upon  Methodist 
union,  he  was  elected  Cultivation  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Missions  and  Church  Extension  of  The  Methodist 
Church  and  resided  in  New  York  from  1940-44.  In  that 
year  he  was  elected  executive  secretary  of  the  South- 
eastern Jurisdiction  and  moved  to  Atlanta,  Ga.  Upon 
the  sudden  death  of  the  president  of  Wesleyan  College  at 
Macon,  in  October  1950,  Quillian  acted  again  as  president 
of  that  institution  until  the  new  president  was  elected  and 
assumed  charge  in  January  1952.  During  this  time  he 
commuted  between  Macon  and  Atlanta,  continuing  to 
hold  his  position  as  Executive  Secretary  of  the  South- 
eastern Jurisdiction.  He  occupied  this  position  until  his 
retirement  in  June  1952. 

Quillian  was  a  member  of  the  General  Conference 
of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  1922,  '26,  '30,  '34  and  '38, 
and  of  The  Methodist  Church,  1940  and  '44,  representing 
the  South  Georgia  Conference.  He  was  also  a  member 
of  the  Uniting  Conference  in  1939. 

He  was  on  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Federal 
Council  of  Churches,  1940,  and  of  the  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Council,  1930.  He  wrote  A  New  Day  for 
Historic  Wesleyan,  1928;  Christ  and  the  Coming  King- 
dom, 1932. 

On  his  retirement  he  continued  to  Kve  in  Atlanta,  with 
a  summer  residence  at  Lake  Junaluska,  N.  C.  He  enjoyed 
the  complete  confidence  of  his  compeers  in  both  the 
educational  and  executive  world  of  American  Methodism. 

He  died  in  Atlanta  on  Oct.  26,  1960. 

C.   T.    Howell,    Prominent   Personalities.    1945. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

N.  B.  H. 

QUIMBY,  SILAS  EVERARD  (1837-1913),  American  clergy- 
man, was  bom  in  Haverhill,  N.  H.,  Oct.  19,  1837,  the 
son  of  Silas  and  Penelope  C.  (Fifield)  Quimby.  Under 
the  inspiration  and  guidance  of  his  preacher  father, 
Quimby  made  a  public  profession  of  his  faith  when  he 
was  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  united  with  the  M.E. 
Church  at  Unity,  N.  H.,  in  1852.  He  then  attended 
Tilton  Seminary,  where  his  father  had  been  a  trustee 


QUINCY,   PENNSYLVANIA 

since  its  founding  in  1845.  He  later  attended  Wesleyan 
University  and  graduated  there  in  1859. 

Taking  up  the  teaching  profession,  he  taught  Greek 
and  Latin  in  the  Newbury  Seminary  in  Vermont,  and 
while  there  he  went  into  the  Vermont  Conference  on 
trial  and  was  ordained  deacon  by  Bishop  Osmon  C.  Baker 
in  April  1862.  In  1863  he  was  transferred  on  trial  to  the 
New  Hampshire  Conference  and  stationed  at  Littleton, 
N.  H.  The  next  year  he  was  again  assigned  to  a  professor- 
ship at  Newbury  Seminary.  In  1866  he  was  ordained 
elder  and  received  into  full  connection  at  Keene,  N.  H., 
by  Bishop  Matthew  Simpson  and  was  appointed  presi- 
dent of  Newbury  Seminary. 

When  plans  were  made  to  transfer  the  school  to  Mont- 
pelier,  Vt.,  Quimby  was  appointed  to  Lebanon,  N.  H., 
where  he  served  two  years.  In  1869-70  he  was  appointed 
to  Plymouth;  1871-73,' Exeter;  1874-76,  Sunapee.  In  1877 
he  was  appointed  to  Tilton,  but  the  next  year  when  the 
president  of  Tilton  Seminary  died,  Quimby  was  sought  to 
replace  him.  He  held  that  office  for  seven  years,  1878-85, 
during  which  time  he  raised  the  standard  of  the  institu- 
tion, organized  the  scientific  department,  instituted  a 
special  course  of  study  in  industrial  science,  and  added 
a  year  to  the  course  in  preparation  for  college.  During 
these  years  a  spirit  of  revival  was  manifested  among  the 
students. 

Resuming  the  pastorate,  Quimby  served  the  following 
New  Hampshire  appointments:  Whitefield,  1886-87; 
Laconia,  1888-89;  Newmarket,  1890;  Exeter,  1891-93; 
Rochester,  1894;  Penacook,  1895-96;  Pleasant  Street, 
Salem,  1897-1900;  Conference  evangelist,  1901;  Milton 
Mills,  1902-03;  Derry,  1904-07;  Conference  evangelist, 
1908-12. 

Silas  Quimby  was  one  of  the  great  men  of  the  New 
Hampshire  Conference.  He  was  twice  elected  delegate  to 
the  General  Conference,  1880  and  1896;  was  for 
thirty-four  years  secretary  of  the  New  Hampshire  Con- 
ference, 1877-1910;  was  a  trustee  of  Tilton  Seminary 
from  1871  until  his  death;  and  was  recognized  by 
Syracuse  University  in  1910  with  the  D.D.  degree. 

He  died  on  Feb.  23,  1913,  at  the  home  of  his  daughter 
in  Bellefont,  Pa.,  and  was  buried  in  Tilton,  N.  H. 

Journal  of  the  New  Hampshire  Conference,  1913. 

William  J.  Davis 

QUINCY,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.  Quincy  E.U.B.  Or- 
phanage and  Home  originated  under  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ,  was  incorporated  Aug.  2,  1902,  and 
started  operation  in  1903  in  the  farm  home  of  Henry  J. 
and  Henrietta  Middour  Kitzmiller,  who  gave  the  home 
and  164  acres  of  land.  Kitzmiller  became  the  first  superin- 
tendent and  served  until  Jan.  25,  1936.  Originally  the 
home  vv^s  opened  only  to  children,  and  during  the  earlier 
half  of  the  operation  cared  for  as  many  as  155  youngsters 
at  one  time. 

Z.  A.  Colestock  opened  his  home  in  Mechanicsburg, 
Pa.,  to  retirement  residents  early  in  the  century  as  the 
first  such  home  in  the  denomination.  By  1913  it  became 
evident  that  age  would  no  longer  permit  him  to  care  for 
those  whom  he  served.  Approaches  were  made  and  a 
building  built,  and  in  1915  the  Colestock  residents  be- 
came the  first  eleven  occupants  in  the  retirement  section 
on  the  Quincy  campus.  The  original  capacity  was  thirty. 
Retirement  population  was  increased  by  new  buildings  in 
1927,    1954,    1961,    1963,   and   1966,   and   today   on  the 


QUINN,   JAMES 


Quincy  campus  and  in  the  new  Lititz,  Pa.  off-campus 
unit,  Quincy  Home  is  caring  for  175  senior  citizens. 

At  tlie  inception  of  the  retirement  section  of  Quincy 
all  programs  were  quite  conservative,  and  all  residents 
entered  on  what  today  is  known  as  "hfe  care."  Apphcants 
turned  over  to  the  home  all  assets  and  then  the  home 
accepted  responsibility  for  the  care  of  the  person  for  the 
remainder  of  life.  Today  there  is  Plan  II  for  persons  with 
insufficient  resources  to  meet  the  cost  of  care,  and  support 
is  available  to  the  resident  from  the  State. 

Care  Programs  today  cover  a  much  more  complete 
medical  and  infirmary  service,  improved  food  service, 
recreation  and  activity  facilities  and  direction,  increased 
safety  standards,  higher  staff  ratio,  and  higher  wages 
across  the  board.  Some  of  these  are  dictated  by  the  state 
and  some  by  the  times,  and  most  are  specific  improve- 
ments and  necessary;  but  they  mark,  in  the  history  of  the 
benevolent  home,  a  move  from  a  place  to  stay  and  be  fed 
only,  to  a  way  of  total  life  experience.  The  great  increase 
in  costs  for  such  care  in  recent  years  has  caused  a  great 
deal  of  concern  for  each  applicant,  as  well  as  for  the  home 
administration,  in  working  out  equitable  solutions  for 
the  retirement  residents  entering  Quincy,  or  other  homes. 

S.  Fred  Chbistman 


Methodist  Societies  of  the  Redstone  CmcuiT  and  the 
five  children  were  baptized,  James  being  the  oldest.  James 
was  admitted  to  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  1799.  He 
married  Patience  Teal  in  1803  and  in  1804  followed  his 
father-in-law,  Edward  Teal,  to  near  Lancaster,  Ohio.  He 
served  in  Ohio,  in  the  Western  Conference,  until  the 
Ohio  Conference  was  organized  in  1812.  When  the 
Pittsburgh  Conference  was  organized  in  1825  he  re- 
mained with  the  Ohio  Conference.  Much  of  his  service, 
before  1825,  had  been  in  that  portion  of  Ohio  which  was 
included  in  the  original  Pittsburgh  Conference.  James 
Quinn  was  a  circuit  rider  for  twenty-two  years  and  a 
presiding  elder  for  twelve  years.  He  was  a  delegate  to 
seven  General  Conferences.  John  F.  Wright  of  the 
Ohio  Conference  published  a  biography  of  Quinn  in  1851 
titled.  Sketches  of  the  Life  and  Labors  of  James  Quinn. 
The  volume  incorporates  a  considerable  section  of  auto- 
biographical material  written  by  Quinn  himself  and  is  a 
valuable  portrait  of  early  Methodism  in  western  Pennsyl- 
vania and  eastern  Ohio. 

W.  G.  Smeltzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951. 

John   F.   Wright,   Sketches  of  the   Life  and  Labors  of  James 

Quinn.  Cincinnati:  Methodist  Book  Concern,  18.51. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzer 


James  Quinn 

QUINN,  JAMES  (1775-1847),  American  preacher  was 
born  in  Washington  County,  Pa.,  where  his  parents  were 
among  the  earliest  settlers  west  of  the  Appalachian  moun- 
tains. In  1786  the  family  was  received  into  one  of  the 


QUINN,  WILLIAM  PAUL  (ca.  1788-1873),  American 
bishop  of  the  A.M.E.  Church  and  instigator  of  the  home 
missions  movement  in  African  Methodism,  was  born  in 
Honduras,  Central  America,  about  1788  of  Roman  Catho- 
lic parentage.  He  was  taken  to  the  United  States  at  an 
early  age,  converted  in  1808  in  Bucks  County,  Pa., 
licensed  to  preach  in  1812,  and  admitted  in  the  Philadel- 
phia Conference  of  the  A.M.E.  Church  in  1816.  He  was 
ordained  deacon  in  1818,  but  was  not  ordained  elder 
until  1838. 

Quinn,  who  was  present  at  the  organizing  convention 
of  the  denomination  at  Philadelphia  in  1816,  held 
pastorates  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  before  em- 
barking on  a  missionary  itinerary  during  which  he  founded 
seventy-two  new  congregations  and  organized  forty-seven 
churches  west  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains  in  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri 
between  1840  and  1844. 

He  was  elected  assistant  bishop  in  1841  and  bishop  in 
1844.  He  died  on  Feb.  3,  1873,  after  having  served  the 
longest  term  as  senior  bishop  in  the  denomination  up  until 
that  time. 

Grant  S.  Shockley 


RACE,  JOHN  H.  (1862-1954),  American  preacher,  edu- 
cator, and  publishing  agent,  was  born  at  Paupack,  Pa., 
on  March  6,  1862.  In  1858  his  father,  Ernest  Race,  came 
from  England  and  settled  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
Wyoming  Conference. 

As  a  young  man,  John  H.  Race  thought  of  business  as 
a  career  and  took  a  position  in  a  planing  mill,  where  in 
an  accident,  he  lost  his  left  hand.  This  misfortune  marked 
a  turning  point  in  his  life.  He  entered  Wyoming  Semi- 
nary, where  under  the  influence  of  Levi  L.  Sprague,  he 
decided  to  enter  the  ministry  and  prepared  for  Princeton 
University.  On  graduation  from  college  in  1890,  he  re- 
turned to  Wyoming  Seminary,  where  he  taught  in  the 
English  department  for  two  years.  Then  he  was  sent 
to  Centenary  Church,  Binghamton,  N.  Y. 

In  1898  he  became  chancellor  of  Grant  University  in 
Chattanooga,  Tenn.  During  his  administration  the 
name  was  changed  to  Chattanooga  University. 

In  1913  the  Book  Committee  of  the  M.E.  Church 
elected  him  as  one  of  the  publishing  agents  of  the  Book 
Concern  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  In  June  1924,  he  was 
transferred  to  New  York  City,  where  he  served  as  Senior 
Publishing  Agent  until  his  voluntary  retirement  in  19.36 
at  which  time  he  was  elected  Publishing  Agent  Emeritus 
by  the  General  Conference. 

He  was  a  trustee  of  Wyoming  Seminary  from  1914  until 
the  date  of  his  death. 

Leroy  E.  Bugbee,  Wyoming  Seminary,  1844-1944.  N.p.,  n.d. 
Minutes  of  the  Wyoming  Conference.       Wilbur  H.  Fleck 

RADER,  DANIEL  LEAPER  (1850-1910),  American  pioneer 
minister,  was  bom  Aug.  27,  1850,  in  Rose  Hill,  Johnson 
Co.,  Mo.  He  was  converted  in  1864,  after  his  family  had 
moved  to  SaHna  County,  where,  since  there  was  no  Meth- 
odist organization,  Daniel  joined  the  Presbyterian  church. 
He  studied  under  a  Presbyterian  minister  before  attending 
Shelbyville  High  School  for  two  years,  and  after  this  he 
taught  school  briefly. 

In  1866,  he  joined  the  M.E.  Church,  South;  and,  in 
1871,  became  a  minister  and  a  member  of  the  Southwest 
Missouri  Conference  of  that  church.  He  was  immedi- 
ately placed  in  charge  of  the  Oskaloosa  Circuit  in  Kansas. 
Shordy  thereafter  he  was  sent  to  the  Broadway  M.E. 
Church,  South,  in  Leavenworth,  and  then  to  Council 
Grove  in  1873.  He  married  Eugenia  Shackelford  on  Sept. 
18,  1872. 

Returning  to  Missouri,  Rader  developed  a  respiratory 
ailment  which  compelled  him  to  move  to  Colorado  in 
1879.  After  a  rest  of  more  than  two  years  he  joined  the 
Denver  Conference  and  was  made  presiding  elder  of 
the  Denver  District,  a  task  he  prosecuted  with  great 
vigor.  Under  his  leadership,  southern  Methodism  was 
established  in  the  remote  towns  of  Grand  Junction  and 
Fruita,  substantially  in  advance  of  the  work  of  the  north- 
ern church. 


Feehng  that  there  was  no  need  for  two  Methodisms  in 
Colorado,  he  sought  to  transfer  to  the  M.E.  Church.  The 
southern  church,  however,  was  unwilling  to  grant  this 
request,  so  D.  L.  Rader  located  in  1885,  and  then  entered 
the  Colorado  Conference  of  the  northern  church.  Ap- 
pointed at  first  to  Cheyenne,  Wyo.,  he  became  in  1888 
the  first  superintendent  of  the  Wyoming  Mission  Con- 
ference. Again,  he  distinguished  himself,  pushing  the  work 
of  the  church  into  the  most  isolated  portions  of  the  area 
assigned  to  him. 

Later  (1892),  he  became  presiding  elder  of  the  Pueblo 
District  of  the  Colorado  Conference,  and  still  later  was 
associated  with  The  Rocky  Mountain  Advocate,  pubhshed 
briefly  in  Denver.  He  was  serving  as  editor  of  The  Pacific 
Advocate  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1910. 

I.  H.  Beardsley,  Echoes  from  Peak  and  Plain.  1898. 
lournal  of  tlie  Puget  Sound  Conference,  ME,  1911. 

Walter  J.  Boigegrain 

RADHAKRISHAN,  JOHN  (1916-  ),  is  a  minister  in 
India.  He  was  born  in  an  orthodox,  priestly  Brahman 
home,  and  was  taught  Brahmanic  rites  and  discipline  in 
his  home.  He  attended  a  high  school  maintained  by  the 
Arya  Samaj,  did  his  undergraduate  studies  in  a  college 
run  by  an  atheistic  society,  and  did  postgraduate  studies 
in  a  Muslim  college. 

He  developed  an  intense  interest  in  religion,  question- 
ing and  eventually  rejecting  the  daily  worship  of  gods  and 
goddesses.  His  college  principal,  who  was  the  founder 
of  the  atheistic  society,  hoped  that  he  would  join  that 
organization.  But  Radhakrishan  was  led  (in  some  way) 
to  obtain  a  Bible  for  his  own  personal  study.  His  first 
reaction  was  very  unfavorable.  He  had  begun  his  study 
with  Genesis.  With  much  difficulty,  he  met  a  Christian 
minister  who  advised  him  to  study  the  New  Testament. 
After  two  years  of  desultory  reading,  he  developed  a  new 
and  great  interest  in  Christianity.  He  was  nearing  gradua- 
tion, when  he  met  a  woman  missionary  who  talked 
Hindustani  beautifully  and  explained  many  passages  that 
had  puzzled  him.  Seeing  his  contact  with  Christians,  many 
Hindus  expressed  shocked  surprise  that  he  would  even 
consider  becoming  a  Christian.  On  completing  his  B.A. 
examinations,  he  declared  his  Christian  faith  and  was 
baptized.  After  gaining  his  Master's  degree  and  teaching 
for  three  years  in  a  Christian  college,  he  was  sent  by  the 
Presbyterian  mission  to  Leonard  Theological  College  and 
graduated  at  the  head  of  his  class. 

Since  there  was  no  Presbyterian  opening  when  John 
Radhakrishan  completed  his  studies,  he  sought  and  ob- 
tained an  appointment  in  a  Methodist  high  school  as 
warden  of  the  hostel  for  Christian  students.  A  call  was 
made  for  chaplains  to  serve  the  needs  of  Christian 
troops  in  the  army  of  India,  and  he  volunteered.  He  was 
ordained  and  served  as  chaplain  for  five  years.  He  then 
became  a  teacher  in  the  Bareilly  Theological  Seminary. 


RAGSDALE,   RAY   WALDO 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


In  1949,  he  was  awarded  a  scholarship  for  advanced  study 
in  the  United  States.  He  was  accepted  by  Boston  Uni- 
versity School  of  Theology  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Doctor  of  Theology  degree  and  was  awarded  that  degree 
in  the  shortest  possible  time.  His  thesis  on  The  Bhagavad- 
Gita  and  the  Fourth  Gospel  was  highly  acclaimed.  Again 
he  went  to  Bareilly  Seminary,  but  a  year  later  he  was 
appointed  superintendent  of  the  Shahjahanpur  District, 
where  he  served  for  four  years.  In  1955,  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  a  professorship  in  Leonard  Theological  College. 
In  March  1966,  he  became  principal  of  the  college.  He 
is  a  member  of  the  Faith  and  Order  Commission  of  the 
World  Council  of  Churches,  a  member  of  the  executive 
Committee  of  the  National  Christian  Council's  Board  of 
Theological  Education,  vice-president  of  the  Madhya 
Pradesh  Christian  Council,  and  a  member  of  the  Central 
Conference  Commission  on  the  Structure  of  Methodism 
and  on  Church  Union.  He  has  written  many  articles  for 
church  papers  on  India  and  abroad. 

Minutes  of  the  North  India  Conference,  1937-68. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

RAGSDALE,  RAY  WALDO   (1909-  ),  American  min- 

ister, city  pastor  and  church  leader,  was  bom  at  Washing- 
ton, Ind.,  on  Aug.  22,  1909,  the  son  of  Tilman  L.  and 
Clara  E.  (Johnson)  Ragsdale.  He  was  educated  at  De- 
Pauw  University,  receiving  the  B.A.  in  1931  and  the 
D.D.  in  1955;  Boston  University,  S.T.B.,  1934;  and  the 
D.D.  from  the  University  of  the  Pacific  in  1951.  He 
married  Eleanor  Hughes  on  Aug.  9,  1931,  and  they  had 
two  children. 

He  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  Indiana  Conference 
in  1928  and  after  full  ordination  as  elder  in  1934,  trans- 
ferred to  the  west  where  he  was  pastor  at  Holbrook, 
Ariz.,  1934-36;  Flagstaff,  Ariz.,  1936-40;  Fullerton,  Calif., 
1940-47;  Westwood  Church,  Los  Angeles,  Cahf.,  1947- 
54;  superintendent  of  the  Los  Angeles  District,  1954- 
60;  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Whittier,  Calif.,  1960-63; 
and  is  presently  at  the  Catalina  Church,  Tucson,  Ariz. 
He  has  been  a  delegate  to  the  Western  Jurisdictional 
Conference,  1944  to  1964  inclusive;  and  a  member  of 
the  General  Conference,  1952  to  1964  inclusive.  At 
the  General  Conference  of  1960,  he  was  the  "chairman 
of  chairmen"  of  the  various  legislative  committees,  and 
thus  the  director  of  the  presentation  of  all  legislation  of 
the  Conference.  He  has  been  a  member  of  the  executive 
committee  of  the  General  Board  of  Evangelism,  1946- 
64;  of  the  World  Council  of  Churches,  Central  Com- 
mittee, Nyborg,  Denmark,  1958;  a  delegate  to  the  third 
Assembly  of  the  World  Council  of  Churches  at  New  Delhi, 
India,  1961.  He  is  a  trustee  of  the  Methodist  School  of 
Theology  at  Claremont,  Calif.  He  is  the  author  of 
Self  Help  for  Church  Members  and  The  Work  of  the 
Official  Board. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 


RAGSDALE,  THOMAS  CHARLTON  (1863-1945),  Ameri- 
can pastor,  was  bom  Dec.  26,  1863,  in  Laurens  County, 
S.  C,  the  son  of  E.  C.  and  Elizabeth  Calhoun  Ragsdale. 
While  Thomas  was  still  a  child,  the  family  moved  to 
Texas.  In  1888  he  was  admitted  to  the  Northwest  Texas 
Conference  and  was  appointed  in  succession  to  Temple, 
Cisco,  and  Missouri  Avenue  Church  in  Fort  Worth.  He 
married  and  had  five  children.  The  writer  of  his  memoir 


does  not  mention  his  education.  It  is  known  that  in  mature 
life  he  was  awarded  an  honorary  D.D.  degree. 

In  1894  Ragsdale  transferred  to  the  Tennessee  Con- 
ference, and  in  the  next  forty-five  years  served  thirteen 
appointments:  Fayetteville,  West  Nashville,  Madison 
Street  in  Clarksville,  West  End  in  Nashville,  Murfrees- 
boro,  Pulaski,  McKendree  and  Tulip  Street  in  Nashville, 
Murfreesboro  District,  Nashville  District,  East  End  in 
Nashville,  Springfield,  and  Dickson.  An  able  preacher 
with  a  good  sense  of  humor,  it  was  said  that  he  served 
more  leading  churches  in  Nashville  than  any  other 
preacher  in  his  day.  He  was  a  member  of  the  1922  and 
1926  General  Conferences,  leading  his  conference 
delegation  both  times.  After  his  retirement  in  1939,  Rags- 
dale lived  at  Springfield,  Tenn.  He  died  there,  Dec.  22, 
1945. 

CuUen   T.    Carter,    Methodist   Leaders  in   the   Old  Jerusalem 

Conference,  1812-1962. 

General  Minutes,  MEGS,  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  the  Tennessee  Conference,  1946.  Albea  Godbold 

RAHATOR,  SAMUEL  (1866-1936),  Indian  minister,  was 
born  at  Nasik,  Western  India,  and  was  converted  at  a 
mission  conducted  by  Major  Campbell  of  the  Royal 
Engineers,  1885.  Immediately  Rahator  gave  up  his  work 
as  a  clerk  on  the  railways  and  moved  into  the  chawls 
(slums)  of  Bombay.  He  was  accepted  for  the  ministry 
in  1892;  his  work  falls  into  three  parts:  in  1892-1911  in 
the  slums  of  Bombay,  where  he  founded  the  Marathi 
Methodist  Church,  opened  orphanages,  and  often  medi- 
ated in  Hindu-Mushm  disputes;  in  1911-25,  when  he 
trekked  through  the  Maharashtra  villages  beyond  Nasik, 
and  opened  up  the  country  circuit  of  the  Methodist 
Marathi  Mission  under  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Mis- 
sionary Society;  and  in  1925-36  when,  at  the  govern- 
ment's request,  he  worked  among  the  criminal  tribes  in 
Maharashtra  and  helped  to  resettle  many  of  them  in 
Bombay.  The  first  Indian  minister  to  undertake  pioneer 
missionary  work  to  his  own  people  under  British  Meth- 
odism, he  died  in  Bombay,  April  13,  1936. 

Cyril  J.  Davey 

RAIKES,  ROBERT  (1735-1811),  Sunday  school  promoter, 
was  born  in  Gloucester,  England,  Sept.  14,  1735.  He 
was  the  son  of  the  proprietor  of  the  Gloucester  Journal, 
founded  in  1722,  and  on  his  father's  death  in  1757  suc- 
ceeded to  the  business.  Raikes  was  a  humanitarian  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  of  England,  but  seems  to  have  had 
very  few  direct  links  with  the  Methodist  societies.  Hannah 
Ball  had  founded  a  Sunday  School  at  High  Wycombe 
in  1769,  and  several  years  later  Thomas  Stock  began  one 
at  Ashbury,  Berkshire.  Stock  moved  to  Gloucester,  and 
Raikes  cooperated  with  him,  in  July  1780  opening  his 
own  Sunday  school  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mary  le  Crypt, 
where  George  Whitefield  had  been  bom  and  educated. 
One  of  the  earliest  Sunday  school  teachers  employed  and 
paid  by  Raikes  later  married  the  Methodist  preacher 
Samuel  Bradburn.  In  November  1783  Raikes  inserted 
in  his  Gloucester  Journal  a  long  letter  describing  the  work 
of  the  Sunday  school.  This  was  reprinted  in  the  Gentle- 
man's Magazine  for  June  1784,  and  may  be  regarded  as 
the  beginning  of  the  widespread  Sunday  school  move- 
ment. John  Wesley's  Journal  for  July  18,  1784  describes 
his  visit  to  a  recently  founded  Sunday  school  in  Bingley, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RAKENA,   PIRIPI 


Yorkshire,  noting:  "I  find  these  schools  springing  up  wher- 
ever I  go.  Perhaps  God  may  have  a  deeper  end  therein 
than  men  are  aware  of.  Who  knows  but  some  of  these 
schools  may  become  nurseries  for  Christians?"  In  his 
Arminian  Magazine  for  January  1785,  Wesley  printed 
an  independent  account  by  Raikes  of  the  beginning  of 
the  Gloucester  experiment.  Raikes  never  claimed  to  be  the 
founder  of  Sunday  schools,  though  this  title  was  accorded 
to  him  by  Samuel  Bradbuni  and  others,  but  his  advocacy 
undoubtedly  led  to  their  almost  universal  adoption. 

Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

Metlwdist  Magazine,   1868,  pp.  438-48.  Frank  Baker 


Richard  C.   Raines 

RAINES,  RICHARD  CAMPBELL  (1898-  ),  American 
bishop,  was  bom  at  Independence,  Iowa,  Dec.  23,  1898. 
He  was  the  son  of  Robert  Bielby  and  Cora  Belle  (Curtis) 
Raines.  He  was  educated  at  Cornell  College,  A.B., 
1920;  D.D.,  1931;  BosTo.N  University,  S.T.B.,  1924, 
S.T.D.,  1950;  at  Oxford  University,  1924-25.  He  holds  a 
number  of  honorary  degrees  including  the  LL.D.  from 
Yonsei  University,  Seoul,  Korea,  in  1958.  He  married 
Lucille  Marguerite  Arnold  on  July  14,  1920,  and  their 
children  are  Rose  Lucille,  Robert  Arnold,  Richard  Camp- 
bell and  John  Curtis. 

He  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  of  the  M.E.  Church  in 
1926,  and  after  serving  brief  pastorates  in  Massachusetts 
and  the  Mathewson  Street  Church  in  Providence,  R.  I., 
1927-30,  went  to  the  Hennepin  Avenue  Church,  Minne- 
apolis, as  pastor.  There  he  served  from  1930  to  1948 
when  he  was  elected  bishop  of  The  Methodist  Church  by 
the  Northeastern  Jurisdiction  meeting  that  year.  Bish- 
op Raines  was  then  assigned  to  the  Indiana  Area  of  The 
Methodist  Church,  and  was  reassigned  to  this  area  for 
five  quadrennia  until  he  retired  in  1968. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  and  Jurisdictional 
Conferences  of  the  Church,  1948;  to  the  World  Council 
of  Churches  in  Amsterdam  in  that  same  year;  to  the 
World  Council  of  Churches  in  Evanston,  1954;  to  the 
World  Methodist  Conference  at  Lake  Junaluska  in 
1956,  and  to  the  World  Council  of  Churches,  New  Delhi, 
India.  He  served  upon  the  Commission  on  the  Struc- 


ture OF  Methodism  On-erseas  (COSMOS)  1956-64.  He 
was  one  of  the  consultants  to  the  Commission  on  Wor- 
ship for  the  revision  of  the  Methodist  Hymnal  in  1960- 
64;  member  of  the  Commission  on  Chaplains;  of  the 
Commission  on  Camp  Activities;  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  World  Methodist  Council;  and  of  the  As- 
sembly of  the  World  Council  of  Churches.  He  served  as 
president  of  the  Division  of  World  Missions  of  the  Board 
of  Missions  of  The  Methodist  Church,  1952-60;  and  as 
president  of  the  Board  of  Missions,  1960-64.  He  was  also 
the  chairman  of  the  Commission  on  Public  Relations 
and  Methodist  Information  of  The  Methodist  Church 
1952-60. 

Bishop  Raines  has  been  a  trustee  of  Cornell  College, 
Iowa;  DePauw  University;  and  was  in  demand  as  a 
lecturer  at  various  institutions  of  learning. 

Bishop  Raines  was  the  first  bishop  to  appoint  a  fulltime 
administrative  assistant,  which  type  of  appointment  later 
became  a  common  and  helpful  procedure  in  many  areas. 
He  established  the  first  full-time  area  program  of  public 
relations,  and  the  first  area  program  of  pastoral  care  and 
counseling.  He  served  as  president  of  the  Council  of 
Bishops  of  The  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

His  episcopal  travel  included  two  visits  to  South 
America  in  1946,  and  1963;  and  he  was  liaison  bishop 
between  American  and  Korean  Methodists,  1952-60.  He 
made  an  around  the  world  tour,  stopping  in  Korea,  while 
Korean  churches  were  being  rebuilt.  In  1952  he  visited 
Korea,  Japan,  and  Formosa,  conducting  a  series  of 
seminars  for  chaplains  in  Japan  and  Korea  on  the  invita- 
tion of  the  Chief  of  Chaplains'  of  the  United  States  Army. 
He  was  also  in  Korea  in  1954  and  1955,  in  Africa  and  the 
Near  East  in  the  same  year,  and  in  the  spring  of  1957, 
Korea  and  Japan. 

Since  retirement  he  and  his  wife  reside  in  Pompano 
Beach,  Fla.  He  has  been  assigned  by  the  Council  of 
Bishops  to  work  in  the  area  of  recruitment. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

RAIWIND  CHRISTIAN  INSTITUTE,  Raiwind,  Pakistan,  is 
twenty-one  miles  south  of  Lahore.  There  are  two  depart- 
ments included  in  the  Institute.  The  high  school  has  an 
enrollment  of  about  450.  Of  the  twenty-five  taking  the 
final  government  e.xamination  in  the  high  school  graduat- 
ing class  of  1964,  only  one  failed  to  pass.  The  high 
school  enrollment  is  427  of  whom  351  are  Christian.  Fifty- 
three  of  these  are  girls.  The  second  Department  is  the 
Training  Class,  preparing  high  school  graduates  to  become 
teachers  in  primary  schools,  urban  or  rural.  It  is  a  one- 
year  course  finishing  up  with  a  government  examination, 
and  those  passing  receive  a  teaching  certificate.  This  in- 
stitute is  the  only  approved  non-Government  training 
institution.  Reporting  the  examination  results  conducted 
by  government  and  noting  that  out  of  the  152  candidates 
for  the  high  school  and  the  Teacher's  Training  examina- 
tions only  one  failed,  Inayet  S.  Mall,  the  capable  principal, 
remarked:  "These  fine  results  bear  testimony  to  the  team 
work  of  the  teaching  staff." 

Clement  D.  Rockey 

RAKENA,  PIRIPI  (c.  1860-1934),  outstanding  New  Zea- 
land Methodist  Maori  minister,  was  trained  at  Wesley 
College,  Three  Kings.  Accepted  for  the  ministry  in  1882, 


RALEIGH,    NORTH   CAROLINA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


he  spent  nearly  the  whole  of  his  years  in  the  ministry 
working  among  his  own  people  at  Mangamuka  in  the 
Hokianga  district.  He  was  noted  as  an  effective  tem- 
perance advocate,  and  for  his  eagerness  in  teaching  his 
people  the  value  of  music  in  public  worship. 

New  Zealand  Methodist  Conference  Minutes,  1934. 

L.  R.  M.  GiLMORE 

RALEIGH,  NORTH  CAROLINA,  U.S.A.  francis  Asbuby 
and  Jesse  Lee  preached  in  Wake  County,  N.  C,  in  1780, 
twelve  years  before  the  city  of  Raleigh  was  founded  as  the 
capital  of  the  state.  John  King,  the  first  Methodist 
preacher  to  reside  in  the  county,  came  there  about  1790. 
A  Scotsman,  William  Glendenning,  is  credited  with 
introducing  Methodism  into  the  village  of  Raleigh  in 
1799,  and  although  he  was  not  ordained,  Glendenning 
built  his  own  house  of  worship,  thought  by  some  his- 
torians to  have  been  non-denominational,  and  officiated 
at  its  altar.  Bishop  Asbury  preached  at  the  North  Carolina 
State  House  in  Raleigh  in  1800  and,  assisted  by  Bishop 
WiLLL\M  McKendree,  presided  at  the  first  Methodist 
conference  held  in  Raleigh  in  1811.  Following  this  con- 
ference, the  present-day  Edenton  Street  Church  was  orga- 
nized, although  no  specific  date  for  its  founding  can  be 
determined.  The  Raleigh  Circuit  was  formed  in  1807  by 
action  of  the  Virginia  Annual  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church  which  met  in  New  Bern,  N.  C,  and  three  years 
later  the  Raleigh  District  was  established.  Ten  years  later 
the  Edenton  Street  Church  became  a  separate  station. 
Bishop  Asbury  last  visited  Raleigh  in  1816.  A  mission 
chapel,  later  known  as  the  "Central  Church,"  was  built  in 
1846  under  the  leadership  of  Rennet  T.  Blake,  who  also 
conducted  a  female  seminary.  Prior  to  1852,  when  a 
PARSONAGE  was  first  provided,  Methodist  ministers  in 
Raleigh  were  obliged  to  room  and  board  in  the  town.  In 
1849  the  congregation  of  St.  Paul's  A.M.E.  Church  was 
formed  as  an  outgrowth  of  the  Edenton  Street  Church. 
This  congregation  purchased  its  own  church  site  in  1853 
and  since  that  date  has  served  as  the  parent  of  several 
other  Negro  Methodist  churches  organized  in  Raleigh. 

The  North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church 
was  organized  in  1837  and  met  in  Raleigh  in  October 
1841.  Following  the  establishment  of  the  North  Carolina 
Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  annual  confer- 
ences were  held  in  Raleigh  in  1853,  1862,  1865,  1874, 
1882,  1897,  1909,  1922,  1927,  1937.  Following  the  unifi- 
cation of  the  three  major  branches  of  Methodism  in  1939, 
the  North  Carolina  Annual  Conference  has  been  held  in 
Raleigh  in  1944,  1954,  and  1965. 

The  Methodist  Home  for  Children,  supported  by  the 
North  Carolina  Conference,  was  established  between 
Glenwood  Avenue  and  St.  Mary's  Street,  in  1899. 

Raleigh  Methodist  churches  in  existence  today  are: 
Jenkins  Memorial,  established  in  1907  from  the  former 
Brooklyn  Church,  which  was  established  in  1878;  Fair- 
mont and  Hayes  Barton,  both  established  in  1937;  Person 
Street,  established  in  1939  from  the  Central  Church  which 
was  estabhshed  in  1846;  and  Epworth  Church,  established 
in  1893.  Since  1945  the  following  new  churches  have  been 
organized  in  Raleigh:  Layden  Memorial,  Wesley  Memo- 
rial, Westover,  Highland,  Longview,  St.  Mark,  Cokesbury, 
Trinity,  St.  James,  Wynnewood  Park,  Macedonia,  Mill- 
brook,  Pleasant  Grove.  The  Benson  Memorial  Church, 
located  just  outside  the  city  limits,  was  organized  in 
1965. 


For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  Raleigh  has  been 
the  residence  of  the  district  superintendent  of  the  Raleigh 
District.  Following  the  Southeastern  Jurisdictional 
Conference  of  1964,  it  also  became  the  episcopal  resi- 
dence of  the  Raleigh  Area,  including  fifty-six  eastern 
North  Carolina  counties. 

On  April  29,  1962,  Bishop  Career,  president-elect  of 
the  Council  of  Bishops,  presided  at  the  consecration  of 
"The  Methodist  Building"  on  Glenwood  Avenue.  This 
building  houses  the  bishop's  offices  and  sewes  as  the 
headquarters  for  the  various  boards  and  agencies  of  the 
North  Carolina  Conference. 

In  1970  there  were  nineteen  United  Methodist  churches 
in  Raleigh,  reporting  a  total  membership  of  14,230. 

Edenton  Street  Church  is  the  oldest  congregation  in 
North  Carolina's  capital  city,  and  the  present  structure 
stands  on  the  same  spot  Methodism  has  occupied  in 
Raleigh  since  1811. 

In  1831  Melville  Cox,  its  pastor,  left  to  go  to  Liberia 
as  a  missionary.  For  several  years  the  church  has  sup- 
ported several  missionaries  on  the  foreign  fields. 

The  original  church  building  was  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1839,  and  replaced  in  1841.  In  1881  a  church  school 
building  was  erected,  and  the  sanctuary  was  torn  down 
and  replaced  by  a  larger  structure.  In  1912  a  new  Chris- 
tian education  building  was  erected,  which  stood  until 
1937,  when  it  was  replaced  by  the  present  Poindexter 
Memorial  Building.  The  sanctuary  was  renovated  and 
enlarged  in  1950-51,  but  it  was  destroyed  by  fire  July 
28,  1956.  On  Feb.  2,  1958,  a  new  sanctuary,  a  distinctive 
new  building,  yet  one  in  the  spirit  and  form  of  the  old 
building,  was  opened  for  worship. 

Braxton  Craven,  who  served  Edenton  Street  in  1864- 
65,  commanded  the  Confederate  Military  Post  at  Salem- 
burg  and  in  the  fall  of  1865  became  the  president  of 
Trinity  College  (now  Duke  University)  until  1882.  Wil- 
liam Walter  Peele,  who  served  the  church  from  1918- 
23,  was  elected  bishop  in  1938,  the  only  minister  of 
Edenton  Street  to  become  a  bishop  and  the  only  native 
North  Carolinian  to  enter  the  episcopacy  from  this  state. 

Among  the  prominent  laymen  who  have  been  identified 
with  Edenton  Street  Church  were:  Josepheus  Daniels, 
.secretary  of  the  Navy,  1913-21,  and  Ambassador  to 
Mexico,  1933-42;  and  Willis  Smith,  president  of  the 
American  Bar  Association,  1945-46,  and  U.  S.  Senator, 
1950-53.  Although  not  a  member  of  the  church,  Governor 
Clyde  R.  Hoey  of  Shelby,  N.  C,  served  as  teacher  of  the 
Men's  Bible  Class  during  his  gubernatorial  administration, 
1937-41. 

The  200-foot,  cross-tipped  spire  of  Edenton  Street 
Church  is  a  prominent  Raleigh  landmark.  Only  two  blocks 
from  the  Capitol  Square  and  the  principal  downtown  busi- 
ness district,  this  church  continues  to  serve  North  Caro- 
lina's capital  city.   In    1970  it  reported  3,339  members. 

Methodist  Home  for  Children  is  a  multi-service  agency 
for  tlie  care  of  orphan,  dependent,  and  neglected  children. 
It  is  owned,  operated,  controlled  and  financially  supported 
by  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of  The  United  Meth- 
odist Church. 

In  1873  the  North  Carolina  Conference  adopted  a  res- 
olution authorizing  the  churches  to  raise  money  to  assist 
the  Masonic  Orphanage  at  Oxford  to  care  for  orphan  chil- 
dren, many  of  whom  came  from  Methodist  families.  In 
1898  the  Conference  decided  to  establish  its  own  orphan- 
age. As  a  result  a  corporation  entitled  "Trastees  of  the 
Methodist  Orphanage"  was  incorporated  by  an  act  of  the 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RALL,   HARRIS   FRANKLIN 


State  Legislature  in  1899.  A  site  was  purchased  in  the 
city  of  Raleigh,  the  state  capital.  J.  W.  Jenkins  was 
elected  the  first  superintendent.  J.  B.  Hurley  was  ap- 
pointed "agent"  to  solicit  money  from  the  Sunday  schools 
and  churches  of  the  conference.  The  first  children  were 
admitted  in  January  1901.  In  1955  the  name  of  the  agency 
was  changed  from  "Methodist  Orphanage"  to  "Methodist 
Home  for  Children." 

The  Methodist  Home,  with  a  plant  valued  in  excess  of 
$1,600,000,  occupies  a  sixty  acre  campus  within  easy 
walking  distance  of  schools,  churches  a:id  shopping  areas. 
Children  of  school  age,  both  boys  and  girls,  may  be 
served  in  group  care  at  one  time.  Younger  children  are 
placed  in  foster  homes.  A  competent  staff  provides  pro- 
fessionally trained  workers  in  social  service,  health,  edu- 
cation and  rebgion.  Children  attend  public  schools,  go  to 
a  community  church,  participate  in  community  life  and 
live  in  family  type  cottages  under  the  super\'ision  of 
houseparents.  The  home  cares  for  150  children. 

L.    S.    Burkhead,    ed..    Centennial    of    Methodism    in    North 

Carolina.  Raleigh,  1876. 

Edenton  Street  in  Methodism,  a  memorial  book  published  by 

Edenton  Street  Church,  Raleigh,  1961. 

General  Minutes. 

Journal  of  the  Nortli  Carolina  Conference. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

Gbady  L.  E.  Carroll 

H.  Arthur  Phillips 

J.  W.  LiNEBEBCEB,  Sb. 

RALEY,  GEORGE  HENRY  (1864-1958),  Canadian  Meth- 
odist and  United  Church  of  Canada  minister,  was  born 
in  Yorkshire,  England,  on  Feb.  14,  1864,  and  came  to 
Canada  in  1882.  He  was  received  on  probation  for  the 
ministry  in  1884  by  the  Bay  of  Quinte  Conference,  and 
ordained  in  1889.  On  May  12,  1890  Raley  married  Maude 
Giles  of  Brockville,  Ontario.  After  four  years  in  Ontario 
pastorates,  Raley  volunteered  for  Indian  work  and  came 
to  British  Columbia  in  1893.  He  was  the  first  ordained 
missionary  in  the  northern  village  of  Kitamat,  one  of  the 
most  isolated  spots  on  the  coast.  During  his  thirteen  years 
there,  he  served  in  many  capacities — Christian  minister, 
postmaster,  lay  doctor,  justice  of  the  peace,  and  trusted 
counselor.  By  taking  a  number  of  orphaned  boys  and  girls 
into  their  home,  the  Raleys  began  what  was  to  become 
the  Elizabeth  Long  Memorial  Home,  a  residential  school. 

Raley  quickly  mastered  the  language  of  the  Kitamats, 
as  well  as  other  northern  Indian  dialects.  He  compiled 
the  first  dictionary.  With  a  small  hand  press  he  turned 
out,  in  1896,  the  North  Coast's  first  newspaper,  called 
Nanakwa  (The  Dawn).  Raley  also  established  the  first 
meteorological  station  in  northern  British  Columbia. 

In  1906,  he  was  transferred  to  Port  Simpson — a  large 
Indian  village  some  thirty  miles  north  of  Prince  Rupert. 
While  here,  he  rebuilt  the  historic  church  after  a  fire.  It 
had  been  built  first  by  the  veteran  missionary,  Thomas 
Crosby.  A  new  mission  house  was  also  erected.  After 
eight  years  at  Port  Simpson,  Raley  was  appointed  to  the 
principalship  of  Coqualeetza  Residential  School  at  Sardis, 
B.  C,  an  office  he  filled  with  distinction  until  his  retire- 
ment in  1934. 

In  1912  he  was  president  of  the  Conference  of  British 
Columbia.  He  held  a  D.D.  degree  from  Union  College 
of  British  Columbia,  as  well  as  fellowships  in  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society  and  the  Royal  Society  of  Arts.  He 
died  in  Vancouver  on  Sept.  14,  1958. 


Raley  wrote  profusely.  His  writings  covered  almost 
every  phase  of  Indian  life,  legend,  and  culture,  on  which 
he  was  a  recognized  authority.  He  was  a  collector  of 
choice  specimens  of  native  art.  His  collection,  said  to  be 
one  of  the  finest  in  the  province,  now  belongs  to  the 
University  of  British  Columbia. 

Records  of  the  conference  of  British  Columbia. 
Mrs.   F.   C.   Stephenson,   Canadian  Methodist  Missions.    1925. 

W.  P.  Bunt 

RALL,  HARRIS  FRANKLIN  (1870-1964),  American  theo- 
logian, was  born  at  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  Feb.  23,  1870, 
the  son  of  a  minister  in  the  Evangelical  Association. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  University  of  Iowa,  and  of  the 
Divinit\'  School  of  Yale  University  in  1897.  He  engaged 
in  two  years  study  abroad  at  University  of  Berlin,  and  of 
Halle- Wittenberg.  A  Ph.D.  was  granted  him  by  the  latter 
in  1899  magna  cum  laude. 

Before  going  abroad,  he  married  Rose  St.  John.  Two 
daughters  were  bom  to  them.  Mary,  the  one  surviving, 
holds  an  important  position  with  the  United  Charities  of 
Chicago. 

After  his  return  from  Europe,  Rail  spent  a  year  as 
student  and  lecturer  at  Yale  and  then  served  as  pastor  of 
the  M.E.  Church  at  East  Berlin,  Conn.;  of  Trinity  in  New 
Haven  and  the  historic  First  Church  of  Baltimore,  Md. 

In  1910,  Rail  became  president  of  Iliff  School  of 
Theology,  Denver,  Colo.,  where  he  had  to  select  and 
organize  a  new  faculty,  bring  togetlier  a  student  body  of 
promise,  and  estabhsh  the  school  on  a  substantial  founda- 
tion. He  accepted  an  invitation  to  the  chair  of  Systematic 
Theology  at  Garbett  Biblical  Institute  in  1915  in 
which  position  he  was  to  continue  his  creative  work  until 
his  retirement  in  1945.  Rail  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Commission  on  Course  of  Study'  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1916,  became  its  recording  secretary  and  in 
many  ways  its  directing  spirit.  He  prepared  much  of  the 
necessary  literature,  helped  organize  the  summer  schools 
for  the  annual  conferences,  and  the  coaching  conference 
for  leaders  held  annually  for  many  years  at  Evanston, 
111. 

The  bibliography  of  the  writings  of  Harris  Franklin  Rail 
as  given  in  a  testimonial  volume  published  in  1940  as 
part  of  the  recognition  of  his  twenty-five  years  of  service 
at  Garrett  covers  twelve  pages.  It  lists,  of  course,  all 
his  books  up  to  1940,  articles  in  scholarly  journals,  volumes 
to  which  he  contributed  a  chapter  or  more,  books  reviews, 
etc.  Not  all  the  fourteen  full  length  books  he  wrote  can 
be  listed  here.  Those  best  known  are  given  in  chronologi- 
cal order:  A  Working  Faith;  Neto  Testament  History; 
The  Life  of  Jesus  and  The  Teachings  of  Jesus;  Modern 
Prernillenarianism  and  the  Christian  Hope;  The  Meaning 
of  God  (Quilhan  Lecture);  A  Faith  For  Today  (similar  to 
hds  Working  Faith  of  an  earlier  day);  Christianity;  An 
Inquiry  Into  Its  Nature  and  Truth  (this  volume  was 
selected  out  of  over  two  hundred  manuscripts  submitted 
for  the  Bross  Prize  Award  which  in  that  anniversary  year 
amounted  to  $15,000).  Other  books  followed  after  1940, 
chief  of  which  were  Religion  As  Salvation;  Paul  and  the 
Faith  of  Today;  The  God  of  Our  Faith.  He  ran  a  long 
series  of  articles  in  the  Christian  Advocate  entitled  "Doc- 
tor Rail  Answers"  and  book  reviews  in  the  Garrett  Tower, 
which  journal  he  founded   and   edited   for  many   years. 

In  1949,  Garrett  established  the  Harris  Franklin  Rail 
Lectureship,   a  doubly   appropriate  recognition    since  he 


RALSTON,   THOMAS   NEELY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


had  given  the  Nathaniel  Taylor  Lectures  at  Yale  as  well 
as  the  Quillian  and  Ayer  as  noted  above. 

Rail's  theology  was  discussed  briefly  in  the  December 
issue,  1964,  of  the  Garrett  Tower  by  his  former  colleague, 
Georgia  Harkness.  His  social  concern  is  discussed  in  the 
same  issue  of  the  Tower  by  his  former  student  and  col- 
league, Murray  Leiffer.  This  concern  runs  through  all 
his  writings  as  it  did  his  teaching.  He  was  active  in  the 
Methodist  Federation  for  Social  Service  as  he  was 
also  in  the  early  stages  of  the  ecumenical  movement.  He 
attended  the  conference  at  Edinburgh  and  did  much 
writing  in  preparation  for  the  gathering  at  Lund. 

Toward  the  end  of  his  long  ministry  at  First  Church, 
Evanston,  Ernest  F.  Tittle  asked  the  official  board  to 
name  Rail  as  adviser  to  the  senior  minister  of  that  church. 
Tittle  once  said  to  a  colleague:  "I  preach  the  gospel 
according  to  Frank  Rail." 

Harris  Frankhn  Rail  served  the  church  in  the  following 
conferences.  New  England  Southern,  Baltimore, 
Colorado  and  Rock  River.  He  died  Oct.  13,  1964. 

Horace  Greeley  SMrrn 

RALSTON,  THOMAS  NEELY  (1806-1891),  American  min- 
ister, southern  leader  and  theologian  was  bom  in  Bourbon 
County,  Ky.,  March  21,  1806,  son  of  John  Ralston  and 
Elizabeth  Neely  Ralston.  He  was  educated  at  Georgetown 
College,  Ky.  Converted  at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  was 
licensed  to  preach  the  following  year.  He  first  joined  the 
Illinois  Conference  about  1833,  and  was  ordained  elder 
there  in  1834.  The  following  year  he  transferred  to  the 
Kentucky  Conference.  Strongly  evangelistic,  in  one  year 
on  Mt.  Sterling  Circuit  he  brought  600  persons  into  the 
church.  He  was  president  of  the  Methodist  Female  High 
School  in  Lexington,  Ky.,  1843-47,  and  in  1851  he  edited 
the  Methodist  Monthly.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Louis- 
ville Convention  of  1845  of  Southern  Methodist  Con- 
ferences. He  was  elected  secretary  pro-tem  as  the  conven- 
tion opened,  later  becoming  assistant  secretary;  and  at 
the  first  General  Conference  (MES)  in  1846  he  was 
chosen  secretary.  He  was  also  a  delegate  to  the  General 
Conferences  of  1850  and  1854.  He  was  given  the  D.D. 
degree  by  Wesleyan  University,  Florence,  Ky.,  in  1857. 
He  edited  four  volumes  of  Posthumous  Works  of  the 
Rev.  Henry  B.  Bascom  (1856ff.),  and  was  the  author 
of  Evidences,  Morals,  and  Institutions  of  Christianity 
(1870),  Ecce  Unitas,  or  a  Plea  for  Christian  Unity 
(1875),  and  of  Elements  of  Divinity  (first  edition,  1847, 
last  one,  1924 ) .  For  many  years  the  latter  book  was  in 
the  minister's  course  of  study.  Thomas  J.  Dodd  of  Ken- 
tucky and  Vanderbilt  called  it  "the  first  theological 
treatise  in  the  way  of  a  body  of  divinity  that  ever  came 
from  the  American  Methodist  press,"  and  Gilbert  Rowe 
said  that  "it  will  long  remain  as  the  chief  exponent  of  the 
religious  thought  of  one  of  the  most  vital  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South." 
Ralston  died  near  Newport,  Ky.,  on  Nov.  25,  1891. 

Appleton's   Cyclopedia   of   American   Biography    ( N.    Y.,    D. 

Appleton  and  Co.,  1888) 

Christian  Advocate  (Nashville),  Dec.  26,  1891. 

General  Minutes,  MES.,  1892,  p.  30.     Walter  N.  Vernon 

RAMOS,  RUY  VITORINO  (1909-1962),  Brazilian  layman 
and  federal  congressman,  was  bom  in  Itaqui,  state  of 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  on  Sept.  9,  1909.  He  was  the  son  of 


Colonel  Laurindo  Ramos.  While  studying  at  the  .Methodist 
Institute  Uniao,  Ruy  was  converted  and  became  an  active 
Christian.  He  afterwards  studied  at  the  University  of 
Porto  Alegre,  from  which  he  received  a  bachelor's  degree 
in  law,  and  became  a  district  attorney  in  Alegrete,  where 
he  lived  the  greater  part  of  his  life.  He  married  Nehyta, 
and  they  had  four  children — Ecila,  Cosete,  Ruy,  and 
Rosete. 

Becoming  interested  in  politics,  and  convinced  that  the 
evangelicals  should  take  a  more  active  part  in  govern- 
ment, Ruy  campaigned  for  the  office  of  Federal  congress- 
man from  the  state  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  and  was  elected. 
In  1954  he  tried  for  the  Senate  but  lost  due  to  very  strong 
Roman  Catholic  opposition.  He  tried  again  in  1958,  and 
was  elected.  Ramos  was  a  leader  in  the  Labor  Party,  the 
first  president  of  the  Movement  for  Landless  Farmers,  a 
.strong  advocate  of  the  land  reform  in  Brazil.  Despite 
the  fact  that  many  disagreed  with  the  principles  he  ad- 
vocated, all  admired  Ramos  for  the  fact  that  he  was  honest 
and  not  ashamed  of  his  evangehcal  faith,  and  never  bowed 
to  the  pressures  of  the  ecclesiastical  majority. 

In  the  Methodist  Church,  he  occupied  several  positions 
as  layman.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Board  of 
Social  Action  from  1950-60;  was  a  delegate  to  the 
Latin  American  Evangelical  Consultation  in  Lima,  Peru, 
in  1961;  and  was  twice  a  lay  delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Brazil  ( 1946  and 
1950).  In  1962,  he  was  promoting  a  plan  for  the  develop- 
ment of  Brazil's  southwest  frontier,  in  his  native  state, 
when  an  airplane  accident  took  his  life  and  that  of  his 
wife  Nehyta. 

Funeral  rites  were  conducted  in  the  Government  Palace 
in  Porto  Alegre,  capital  of  the  state,  with  Bishop  Jose 
PiNHEiBo  officiating,  and  was  attended  by  thousands  in- 
cluding the  highest  state  and  local  authorities. 

Isnard  Rocha 

RAMSEY,  FRED  W.    (1880-  ),  American  E.U.B.  lay- 

man, was  born  Aug.  16,  1880.  He  was  a  member  of 
Calvary  Church,  Clen-eland,  Ohio,  and  rendered  dis- 
tinguished service  as  executive  director  of  the  Forward 
Movement  Campaign  of  the  former  Evangelical  Associa- 
tion in  the  early  part  of  the  century.  The  Campaign 
raised  $1,000,000,  a  considerable  sum  at  that  time  and 
the  largest  financial  effort  of  the  denomination  to  that 
date. 

At  that  time.  Dr.  Ramsey  was  president  of  the  Perfec- 
tion Oil  Stove  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio.  He  resigned  this 
position  to  devote  his  time  to  philanthropic  enterprises. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  Cleveland  Community  Fund  for 
years,  raising  millions  of  dollars  for  charitable  institutions 
and  enterprises.  Then  he  served  for  three  years  as  General 
Secretary  of  the  International  Council  of  the  YMCA  taking 
the  place  of  the  well-known  John  R.  Mott.  In  this  posi- 
tion he  traveled  to  Europe  and  Asia  continuously.  Ohio 
Wesleyan  University,  Delaware,  Ohio,  honored  him 
with  the  LL.D.  degree. 

Dr.  Ramsey  served  as  superintendent  of  Calvary  Sunday 
school,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  for  forty-five  years.  For  several 
decades  this  was  the  largest  Sunday  school  in  the  former 
Evangelical  CnurRCH,  enrolling  1,800  pupils.  When  Dr. 
Ramsey's  office  as  International  YMCA  Secretary  was  in 
New  York,  he  would  commute  by  pullman  Saturday 
nights  to  be  in  this  place  of  leadership  in  Sunday  school, 
returning  Sunday  nights  to  New  York.  Over  the  years  he 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RANDOLPH,    FLORENCE 


has  addressed  many  prominent  gatherings  within  his  own 
and  other  denominations. 

Raymond  M.  Veh 

RANCHHOD,  KERSHAN,  a  bhagat,  or  leader  of  the  Kabir 
Pant  sect  of  reformed  Hindus,  was  converted  in  Bombay 
in  1889  and  baptized  with  three  of  his  associates  in  the 
Grant  Road  Methodist  Church  by  the  pastor.  Homer  C. 
Stuntz  (later  bishop).  Caste  wise  Ranchhod  was  regarded 
as  very  low  in  the  social  scale,  but  he  was  strong  in  per- 
sonality, an  able  and  energetic  leader  of  his  people,  and 
had  amassed  some  property.  At  the  time  of  his  conversion 
he  was  a  labor  contractor,  recruiting  and  managing  work- 
men for  the  conservancy  department  of  the  city  of  Bom- 
bay. 

"With  overflowing  love  for  the  Saviour  and  great  eager- 
ness for  his  people  to  know  what  he  had  learned,"  wrote 
The  Missionary  Advocate  in  1874,  he  returned  to  Gujerat 
and  urged  his  people  to  trust  in  Christ  rather  than  in 
Kabir  or  any  other.  Several  groups  of  his  fellows  in 
Gujarati  towns  and  villages  were  converted.  They  were 
the  first  people  to  turn  to  Christ  in  considerable  numbers, 
using  group  solidarity  as  a  means  of  spreading  the  Gospel 
instead  of  allowing  it  to  be  an  obstacle. 

Another  humble  group  had  begun  to  learn  of  Christ 
through  some  of  their  number  who  were  employed  as 
house  servants  for  members  of  the  English-language  Meth- 
odist Church  that  was  established  in  Baroda  in  1875.  In 
1895  a  movement  began  among  this  second  group,  known 
as  Dheds,  also  regarded  as  low-caste,  but  in  their  own 
thinking  and  in  public  esteem  of  higher  rank  than  the 
conservancy  group  (commonly  called  sweepers).  This 
second  group  is  much  larger  in  Gujarat  than  Ranchhod's 
people  who  first  began  moving  together  into  Christian 
faith  and  purpose.  And  as  the  new  movement  grew  in 
power,  unfortunately  caste  prejudice  prevailed  over  grace, 
and  both  the  pioneer  movement  which  began  among  the 
conservancy  group  and  the  later  movement  among  the 
Dheds  suffered  serious  retardation.  Innumerable  victories 
over  the  caste  system  have  been  won,  but  much  remains 
to  be  done  before  this  peculiar  Indian  form  of  segregation 
is  completely  overcome  within  the  church  in  India. 

J.  N.  Hollister,  Southern  Asia.   1956.  J.  Waskom   Pickett 

RANDLE,  BARTON  (1796-1882),  pioneer  Iowa  circuit 
rider,  was  born  in  Screven  County,  Ga.,  the  son  of  a 
local  Methodist  preacher.  In  1811  the  family  removed  to 
the  vicinity  of  Edwardsville,  lU.  Barton  was  converted  in 
1812  and  was  licensed  as  exhorter  and  preacher.  In  1831 
he  filled  a  vacancy  on  Spoon  River  Circuit,  and  that  year 
he  was  ordained  deacon  and  received  on  trial  into  the 
Illinois  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church,  and  assigned 
to  Shelbyville  Circuit.  In  1832  he  traveled  the  Henderson 
River  Mission  and  organized  a  circuit  with  several  socie- 
ties. While  on  this  charge  he  gave  Barton  H.  Cart- 
wright,  who  was  destined  to  plant  Methodism  in  southern 
Iowa,  his  first  preaching  assignment. 

Randle  was  ordained  elder  in  1833,  received  into  the 
Conference  in  full  connection,  and  assigned  to  Galena  and 
Dubuque  Mission.  He  was  called  the  "Apostle  of  Iowa 
Methodism,"  and  he  introduced  Methodism  into  northern 
Iowa.  After  preaching  in  Dubuque,  on  Nov.  6,  1833,  he 
preached  regularly  during  the  winter  of  1833-34  and 
established  several  appointments  in  Iowa.  He  organized 


the  first  Methodist  society  in  Dubuque,  perhaps  in  Iowa, 
on  May  18,  1834,  and  was  the  dominating  force  behind 
the  erection  of  Iowa's  first  church  building,  the  Dubuque 
Methodist  log  structure,  which  was  raised  July  25,  1834. 
Described  by  Peter  Cartwright  as  one  of  the  best 
missionaries  he  knew,  Randle  subsequently  preached  on 
circuits,  stations,  and  districts  in  southern  Ilhnois  until 
1845,  when  he  retired.  In  1848  he  resumed  his  itinerant 
ministry  but  was  superannuated  in  1850.  He  died  on  Jan. 
2,  1882. 

S.  N.  Fellows,  Upper  Iowa  Conference.  1907. 

R.  A.  Gallaher,  Methodism  in  Iowa.  1944. 

A.  W.  Haines,  Makers  of  Iowa  Methodism.  1900. 

LeConipte,  "Early  Schools  and  Churches,"  Proceedings  in  the 

House    of   Representatives    (Iowa    Centennial — 100    Years   of 

Progress,  1846-1946). 

E.  H.  Waring,  Iowa  Conference.  1910.     Martin  L.  Greeb 

RANDOLPH,  FLORENCE  (1866-1951)  was  bom  in 
Charleston,  S.  C,  Aug.  9,  1866,  a  daughter  of  John  and 
Anna  (Smith)  Spearing.  At  the  age  of  eight  years  she 
was  greatly  impressed  with  Christianity  through  the  teach- 
ings of  a  bhnd  grandmother  whom  she  led  from  house  to 
house  as  the  grandmother  prayed  with  the  sick  and  ex- 
plained to  them  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

In  later  years  as  Dr.  Randolph  became  increasingly 
interested  in  social  and  religious  endeavors,  she  began 
the  study  of  Bible  History  under  a  private  tutor  who  was 
a  Yale  graduate  and  an  astute  Greek  and  Hebrew  scholar. 
Subsequently,  Florence  Randolph  completed  a  course 
with  the  Moody  Bible  Institute  in  Chicago  and  further 
studied  at  Drew  Theological  Seminary. 

Dr.  Randolph's  public  work  spanned  fifty  years.  She 
began  with  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  in 
1892  lecturing  and  organizing  against  the  liquor  traffic 
and  remaining  after  in  that  organization  for  about  forty 
years. 

She  was  licensed  to  preach  in  Jersey  City  in  1897  and 
was  ordained  a  deacon  at  Atlantic  City  in  May  1900. 
During  her  active  ministry,  Dr.  Randolph  was  pastor  of 
five  churches,  the  first  being  the  A. M.E.  Zion  Church 
on  Pennington  Street  in  Newark  in  May  1901,  now  Clin- 
ton Memorial  Church.  She  was  ordained  an  elder  in 
1903.  For  twenty-five  years  Dr.  Randolph  served  as  the 
president  of  the  Women's  Home  and  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  the  New  Jersey  Conference  of  the  A. M.E. 
Zion  Church  and  was  the  General  President  of  the  Society 
for  four  years.  She  was  a  member  of  the  State  Christian 
Endeavor  Society  and  was  the  organization's  only  Negro 
state  member  for  two  years. 

In  1915  Dr.  Randolph  founded  the  New  Jersey  State 
Federation  of  Colored  Women's  Clubs  and  served  as 
president  for  twelve  years. 

Her  inspirational  leadersfiip  was  responsible  for  the 
building  of  a  beautiful  $80,000  red  brick  colonial  church, 
Wallace  Chapel  A. M.E.  Zion  Church,  at  Summit,  N.  J., 
together  with  a  parsonage  and  a  community  house. 

Dr.  Randolph  traveled  abroad  extensively.  In  1901  she 
attended  the  Ecumenical  Conference  which  met  in 
London.  In  1922  she  again  visited  England  enroute  to  the 
Gold  Coast,  British  West  Africa,  now  Ghana,  where  she 
spent  two  years  bringing  the  Gospel  to  Africa  as  a  foreign 
missionary.  She  spent  time  in  Sierra  Leone  and  Monrovia, 
Liberia.  Upon  her  return  to  America  she  brought  with 
her  an  African  girl.  Charity  Zombelo,  whom  she  educated 


RANDOLPH,   JOSEPH   BENJAMIN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


in  Summit  High  School  and  Hampton  Institute.  Upon  her 
return  to  Africa,  Miss  Zombelo  furthered  tlie  spread  of 
the  Christian  principles  through  her  teachings  in  African 
schools. 

Dr.  Randolph  in  1931  made  a  trip  to  the  Holy  Lands 
including  Palestine,  Italy,  Egypt,  Turkey,  Greece  and 
several  points  in  North  Africa. 

David  H.  Bradley 

RANDOLPH,  JOSEPH  BENJAMIN  (1875-1961),  American 
scholar  and  educator,  was  bom  in  Shell  Mound,  Miss., 
On  Sept.  9,  1875;  he  was  one  of  two  sons  of  John  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  E.  J.  (Berry)  Randolph.  He  received  the 
A.B.  degree  from  New  Orleans  University  in  1902  and  the 
A.M.  in  1905.  He  was  a  summer  school  student  at  Harvard 
University,  1907-11.  He  taught  at  Wiley  College,  Mar- 
shall, Texas  from  1902-10  and  served  as  dean  of  Wiley 
College  from  1910  to  1917.  He  was  elected  principal  of 
Haven  Institute,  Meridian,  Miss.,  in  1917  and  held  this 
position  until  1920,  when  he  was  elected  president  of 
Samuel  Huston  (now  Huston  Tillotson)  College  in 
Austin,  Texas.  On  the  retirement  of  L.  M.  Dunton,  J.  B. 
Randolph  was  elected  president  of  Claflin  College, 
Orangeburg,  S.  C,  and  served  in  this  capacity  from  1922 
to  his  retirement  in  1945. 

Joseph  Benjamin  Randolph  married  Gertrude  Mattie 
Ramsey  June  7,  1905.  She  preceded  him  in  death  Aug. 
24,  1960. 

Randolph  was  very  active  in  the  work  of  the  South 
Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Uniting  Conference  of  1939  and  the 
Jurisdictional  Conferences  of  1940  and  1944.  Other 
religious  activities  included  membership  on  The  Univer- 
sity Senate,  1920-24;  and  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Ecumenical  Conference  of  1921. 

He  was  laid  to  rest  April  29,  1961  in  the  Fairmont 
Cemetery,  Newark,  N.  J. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 
Yenser,  Who's  Who  in  Colored  America,  4th  ed. 

J.  VV.  Curry 

RANDOLPH-MACON  ACADEMY,  Front  Royal,  Virginia, 
was  established  in  1892  as  a  part  of  the  Randolph-Macon 
system.  Since  1953  it  has  operated  under  its  own  charter 
with  its  own  board  of  trustees.  It  has  always  emphasized 
college  preparatory  work.  The  governing  board  has  twenty 
members,  is  self-perpetuating,  but  election  must  be  ap- 
proved by  the  Virginia  Annual  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Church. 

John  O.  Gross 

RANDOLPH-MACON  COLLEGE,  Ashland,  Va.,  a  college 
of  liberal  arts  for  men,  was  chartered  Feb.  3,  1830.  The 
school  was  named  for  two  of  the  distinguished  congress- 
men of  that  day:  John  Randolph  of  Virginia  and  Nathaniel 
Macon  of  North  Carolina.  It  was  the  first  permanent 
institution  of  The  Methodist  Church  to  bear  the  name 
and  do  the  work  of  a  college. 

During  its  first  thirty-six  years  (1830-66)  the  college 
was  located  at  Boydton,  Va.  It  was  closed  during  the 
Civil  War,  and  most  of  its  endowment,  which  had  been 
invested  in  Confederate  bonds,  was  lost.  Removal  of  the 
college  to  Ashland  took  place  in  1868. 


Beginning  in  1891,  and  continuing  through  1930,  the 
following  institutions  were  included  in  the  Randolph- 
Macon  system:  Randolph-Macon  College,  Ashland,  Va.; 
Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College,  Lynchburg,  Va.; 
Randolph-Macon  Academy,  Bedford,  Va.;  Randolph- 
Macon  Institute  (for  girls),  Danville,  Va.  Randolph- 
Macon  Academy,  Front  Royal,  Va.  The  school  at  Bedford 
was  closed,  and  the  one  at  Danville  became  an  indepen- 
dent institution.  In  1953  the  charter  of  Randolph-Macon 
was  modified  and  the  three  remaining  schools — Ashland, 
Lynchburg,  and  Front  Royal — were  given  separate  boards 
of  trustees. 

While  the  beginning  of  a  college  is  seldom  the  result 
of  one  man's  efforts,  John  Early  must  be  placed  at  the 
top  of  the  list  of  Randolph-Macon's  founders.  Associated 
with  him  in  this  enterprise  were  Hezekiah  G.  Leigh  and 
Gabriel  P.  Disosway.  John  Early,  a  native  of  Virginia  and 
a  friend  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  joined  the  Virginia  Con- 
ference in  1807  and  was  elected  a  bishop  in  the  M.E. 
Church,  South,  in  1854.  He  was  president  of  the  board  of 
trustees  for  forty-four  years. 

Randolph-Macon  has  been  known  for  the  high  percent- 
age of  its  graduates  listed  in  Who's  Who  in  America. 
It  is  doubtful  that  any  small  college  can  boast  of  more  in 
Methodism's  Who  Was  Who.  Among  these  are  Bishop 
Holland  N.  McTyeire,  founder  of  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity, and  Dean  Wilbur  F.  Tillet  of  the  School  of 
Religion  of  the  same  university.  Dean  Tillet,  as  much 
as  any  leader,  is  responsible  for  his  church's  ability  to 
keep  its  balance  during  the  fundamentalist-modernist  con- 
troversy. 

Great  teachers  who  at  one  time  were  associated  with 
Randolph-Macon  include  Stephen  Olin,  its  first  presi- 
dent and  the  second  president  of  Wesleyan  University; 
Landon  C.  Garland,  first  chancellor  of  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity; Thomas  R.  Price,  who  attached  as  much  impor- 
tance to  the  teaching  of  English  as  to  Latin  and  Greek 
and  founded  the  first  department  for  the  teaching  of 
English  in  the  United  States.  He  concluded  his  distin- 
guished career  as  a  professor  in  Columbia  University. 

Significant  developments  in  the  curricular  program  and 
expansion  of  the  physical  plant  took  place  during  the 
administrations  of  Presidents  Robert  Emory  Blackwell 
(1902-38)  and  J.  E.\rl  Moreland  (1939-67). 

A  Phi  Beta  Kappa  chapter  was  estabhshed  May  3, 
1923.  Degrees  offered  are  the  B.A.  and  B.S.  The  govern- 
ing board  has  thirty-seven  members,  nominated  by  the 
board,  approved  by  the  Virginia  Conference,  and  elected 
by  the  board. 

John  O.  Gross 

RANDOLPH-MACON  WOMAN'S  COLLEGE,  Lynchburg, 
Va.,  was  founded  in  1891  under  a  chaiter  granted  to 
Randolph-Macon  College  for  men  in  1830.  Although 
it  was  able  to  draw  heavily  upon  the  .scholarly  traditions 
developed  by  the  men's  college,  in  a  short  period  the  new 
woman's  college  was  widely  recognized  for  its  own  stand- 
ards of  educational  excellence.  In  1916  it  became  the 
first  woman's  college  south  of  the  Potomac  to  receive  a 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  chapter.  The  college's  collection  of  paint- 
ings by  American  artists  is  one  of  the  best  owned  by  any 
college  in  the  United  States. 

In  1966  Randolph-Macon  Woman's  College  was  chosen 
by  the  Ford  Foundation  for  a  challenge  grant  of  $1,500,- 
000  as  part  of  the  foundation's   Special  Education   Pro- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RANKIN,   GEORGE   CLARK 


gram  designed  "to  advance  the  development  of  selected 
private  institutions  of  higher  education  as  national  and 
regional  centers  of  excellence."  The  college  offers  the 
B.A.  degree.  The  governing  board  has  thirty  members, 
nominated  and  elected  by  the  board  with  the  approval 
of  the  Virginia  Annual  Conference.  (The  Randolph- 
Macon  institutions  operated  under  a  single  board  until 
1953  when  separate  boards  were  established  for  each.) 

John  O.  Gross 

RANGARAMANUJAM,  PAUL  (1893-194.5),  Indian  min- 
ister, was  bom  of  Brahman  parents  at  Mannargudi,  South 
India,  and  was  converted  as  a  scholar  at  Findlay  College. 
Early  desires  for  baptism  were  rejected  by  his  family;  and 
when  he  was  baptized  at  eighteen,  the  age  of  consent,  he 
was  outcast  by  his  family.  He  thought  of  becoming  a 
sanmjasi  (wandering  preacher)  but  entered  the  recently 
opened  United  Theological  College  at  Bangalore  in  1913, 
and  was  ordained  in  1918,  becoming  a  minister  under  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionary  Society.  After  serving 
in  Mesopotamia  as  a  chaplain  to  Indian  troops  and  acting 
as  Student  Christian  Movement  secretary  in  1920-23, 
when  he  visited  England  and  China,  he  was  appointed 
to  Dharapuram  in  1923.  Here,  as  an  ex-Brahman,  his 
work  among  outcastes  was  greatly  rewarding,  and  he 
constantly  championed  their  rights.  He  was  a  man  of 
high  character,  passionate  evangelical  zeal,  and  wide 
vision,  with  great  gifts  of  leadership,  and  was  greatly 
active  in  helping  to  create  the  Church  of  South  India. 
He  had  been  chairman  of  the  Provincial  Synod  and  of 
the  Trinchinopoly  District  and  was  to  preside  over  the 
Third  General  Synod  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  India, 
Burma,  and  Ceylon  at  Mysore,  when  he  died  after  a 
short  illness,  June  4,  1945,  at 'Mannargudi. 

Cyril  J.  Davey 

RANK,  JOSEPH  ARTHUR,  Lord  Rank  of  Sutton  Scotney 
(1888-1972),  British  Methodist,  was  bom  on  Dec.  22. 
1888,  the  son  of  Joseph  Rank,  a  Methodist  and  flour 
miller  of  Hull.  He  was  chairman  of  Rank,  Hovis,  Mac- 
Dougall,  one  of  the  larger  milling  concerns  in  the  world. 
In  1934  he  pioneered  the  use  of  films  for  religious  educa- 
tion and  evangelism.  He  was  personally  involved  in  the 
production  of  religious  films  through  Religious  Films, 
Limited;  among  the  films  made  are  "John  Wesley"  and 
"The  Promise."  Lord  Rank's  part  in  the  British  film  in- 
dustry was  through  the  Rank  Organization,  of  which  he 
was  chairman  from  1941  to  1962,  and  then  president.  In 
the  church.  Lord  Rank  was  a  Sunday  school  teacher 
and  superintendent  for  almost  fifty  years;  he  held  monthly 
film  services  in  his  village  hall.  He  was  chairman  of 
the  British  Committee  of  the  World  Council  of  Christian 
Education  and  Sunday  School  Association;  joint  treasurer 
of  the  Home  Mission  Committee  of  the  Methodist 
Church;  and  chairman  of  the  Churches'  Television 
Centre.  He  was  made  a  baron  in  1957,  taking  the  title 
Baron  Rank  of  Sutton  Scotney. 

R.  A.  Burnett,  The  Life  of  Joseph  Rank:  Through  the  Mill 
London:  Epworth  Press,  1945. 

Alan  Wood,  Mr.  Rank:  a  Sttidtj  of  }.  Arthur  Rank  and  British 
Fihns.  London:  Hodden  &  Stoughton.  1952. 

Peter  Stephens 


RANKIN,  ALEXANDER  MARTIN  (1857-1940),  distin- 
guished American  M.P.  lay  leader  and  benefactor,  a  manu- 
facturer and  industrial  pioneer  in  High  Point,  N.  C, 
was  identified  with  the  activities  of  the  annual  and  Gen- 
eral Conferences  of  his  denomination  for  forty  years 
and  was  a  prominent  supporter  of  the  M.P.  Children's 
Home  and  the  High  Point  College.  "Captain  Rankin," 
as  he  was  affectionately  known,  was  bom  on  Oct.  29, 
1857,  the  son  of  William  Wharton  Rankin  and  Louise 
Roach  Rankin  of  Benaja,  Rockingham  County,  N.  C.  He 
attended  Yadkin  College.  He  first  married  Mamie  Belle 
Reece,  who  died  in  childbirth.  They  had  one  daughter 
who  hved  only  three  years.  In  1898  he  married  Lena 
IBlair  and  to  this  union  were  born  six  children.  Rankin 
was  engaged  in  many  prosperous  business  interests. 

"Captain  Rankin"  took  an  active  interest  in  the  estab- 
lishment and  maintenance  of  the  M.P.  Children's  Home 
in  Denton,  N.  C,  and  gave  $500  when  the  home  was 
later  moved  to  High  Point.  He  served  as  trustee  of  this 
home  from  its  opening  until  his  death,  and  after  1914 
as  secretary-treasurer.  He  was  instmmental  in  the  found- 
ing of  High  Point  College  and  gave  $10,000  to  it;  he 
served  as  a  trustee  from  1924  until  his  death.  Rankin 
Memorial  Methodist  Church  in  High  Point,  founded  about 
1935,  was  named  in  his  honor.  He  attended  ten  General 
Conferences,  beginning  in  1904,  a  distinction  for  which 
he  was  duly  honored  and  recognized  at  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1936  which  met  in  High  Point. 

"Captain  Rankin"  died  on  Jan.  23,  1940,  in  High  Point 
and  was  buried  in  Oakwood  Cemetery  there. 

J.  Elwood  Carroll,  History  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference 

of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro,  19.39. 

High  Point  (N.C.)  Enterprise,  ]an.  2.3,  1940. 

North  CaroUna  Christian  Advocate,  Februar>'  1940. 

S.   M.   Rankin,  The  Rankin  and  Wharton  Families  and  Their 

Genealogy.   Greensboro,  n.d.  Ralph   Hardee  RrvES 

RANKIN,  GEORGE  CLARK  (1849-1915),  American 
preacher  and  church  editor,  was  born  in  Dandridge,  Tenn. 
In  ancestry  the  Rankins  traced  their  line  back  to  Scot- 
land's Robert  Bruce  and  rigid  Calvinistic  Presbyterianism. 
That  inheritance  continued  through  the  days  of  George 
Rankin's  father,  who  died  when  he  was  twelve.  His 
mother  was  the  first  of  the  family  to  be  of  confident 
Methodist  persuasion. 

Rankin  grew  up  during  a  period  in  which  many  peo- 
ple had  little  appreciation  of  "education"  for  the  minister; 
but  after  one  year  in  the  annual  conference  he  asked  for 
"location"  in  order  that  he  might  go  to  school.  On  gradua- 
tion from  HiwASSEE  College  in  Tennessee  he  was  ad- 
mitted into  the  Holston  Conference  (MES)  where  he 
labored  until  1890.  He  later  transferred  to  an  appoint- 
ment in  Kansas  City,  and  then  to  Shearn  Memorial 
Church  in  Houston,  Texas,  and  two  years  later  to  First 
Methodist  Church,  Dallas.  In  1898  he  became  editor  of 
the  Texas  Christian  Advocate  and  in  that  position  made 
his  greatest  contribution  to  his  church's  life. 

A  great  hulk  of  a  man  who  "looked  like  a  grizzly  bear" 
one  preacher  said  of  liim,  he  was  powerful  on  the  platfoiTn 
as  well  as  in  his  forensic  writing.  He  became  best  known 
for  his  attacks  upon  the  liquor  traffic  and  gambling.  A 
common  pattern,  followed  upon  several  different  occa- 
sions, was  for  him  to  announce  and  preach  a  series  of 
Sunday  night  sermons  on  these  evils.  During  his  editor- 
ship  of  the   Texas  Christian   Advocate,    180   counties   in 


RANKIN,   LOCHIE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Texas  outlawed  the  saloon,  and  the  Legislature  made 
gambling  a  criminal  offense.  Whatever  else  he  might  be 
writing  of,  his  editorials  almost  always  ended  with  the 
sentence  "on  with  the  battle" — and  everyone  knew  he 
meant  against  the  liquor  traific. 

He  died  in  the  editorship,  Feb.  2,  1915. 

Journal  of  the  North  Texas  Conference,  1915. 

O.  W.  Nail,  Texas  MetJwdism.  1961. 

George  C.  Rankin,   The  Story  of  My  Life.  Nashville:   Smith 

and   Lamar,   1912.  R.   W.    Goodloe 


LOCHIE    R.\NKIN 

RANKIN,  LOCHIE  (1851-1929),  American  missionary  to 
China,  was  bom  in  Milan,  Tenn.,  in  1851.  In  1877  she 
responded  to  a  call  in  the  Christian  Advocate  (Nashville) 
for  a  volunteer  to  go  as  a  missionary  to  China.  She  was 
commissioned  by  Bishop  H.  N.  McTyeire  in  April,  1878, 
as  the  first  unmarried  woman  missionary  sent  out  under 
the  auspices  of  women  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  She 
was  sent  to  Shanghai  to  assist  Mrs.  J.  W.  Lambuth  in 
the  Clopton  Boarding  School.  She  quickly  mastered  the 
language  and  within  a  year  opened  a  new  grade  school 
at  Nanziang,  fifteen  miles  away.  Needing  more  help,  she 
persuaded  her  eighteen-year-old  sister,  Dora,  to  join  her 
in  the  work.  Dora  Rankin  died  six  years  after  arriving, 
but  this  only  intensified  the  efforts  of  her  older  sister,  and 
soon  she  opened  an  Anglo-Chinese  school.  In  1901  .she 
went  to  Huchow  to  open  a  boys'  school.  She  hved  in 
China  through  the  defeat  of  China  by  Japan;  the  aggres- 
sion by  Russia,  Great  Britian,  Germany,  and  France; 
the  fall  of  the  Manchu  Dynasty;  the  birth  of  the  Chinese 
Republic  in  1912;  the  Boxer  Uprising;  and  the  rise  of 
Communism.  She  spent  forty-nine  years  in  educational 
missions  in  China.  It  was  said  that  she  had  students  in 
responsible  positions  in  every  province  in  China.  Return- 
ing home  in  1926  she  retired  on  the  campus  of  Scarritt 
College,  Nashville.  At  her  death  on  Sept.  13,  1929,  her 
funeral  was  held  in  Scarritt's  Wightman  Chapel. 

The  Missionary  Voice,  December,  1929,  pp.  21,  35 

Mabel  K.   Howell,  Women  and  the  Kingdom,   1928,  pp.  42, 

129 

Noreen  Dunn  Tatum,  A  Crown  of  Service,  1960,  pp.   18,  24, 

80,  81,  89,  93,  336 

The  Nashville  Banner,  September  13,  14,  1929 

Walter  N.  Vernon 


Thomas  Rankin 

RANKIN,  THOMAS  (1738-1810),  British  Methodist 
preacher,  was  bom  at  Dunbar,  East  Lothian.  He  came 
under  the  influence  of  Methodist  dragoons  and,  after  a 
business  trip  to  Carolina,  began  to  preach  in  1759.  He 
became  an  itinerant  in  1761,  in  the  Sussex  Circuit.  Later 
he  became  Wesley's  traveling  companion  and  in  1773 
was  sent  out  as  "General  Assistant  and  Superintendent"  of 
American  Methodism.  He  strove  to  enforce  the  Method- 
ist discipline,  but  his  brusque  manner  and  lack  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  colonial  cause  led  to  strained  relations.  He 
returned  home  in  1778  and  in  1789  was  ordained  by 
Wesley  for  England. 

John  A.  Vickers 

RANKIN,  VICTOR  LEE  (1917-  ),  was  born  in  Alh- 
ance,  Ohio,  Oct.  2,  1917,  the  son  of  H.  W.  and  Bertha 
Rankin.  He  graduated  from  Florida  Southern  College 
in  1941,  Boston  University  1943,  and  obtained  the  M.A. 
degree  from  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  1956. 

He  was  married  to  Pearl  Katherine  Rankin  on  June  14, 
1941  and  their  two  sons  are  David  and  Larry. 

His  first  appointment  was  assistant  pastor  to  First 
Church,  Orlando,  Fla.  In  1950  he  was  appointed  pastor 
in  Camaguey,  Cuba,  and  later  district  superintendent  of 
the  Camaguey  District.  In  1960,  because  of  communist 
pressure,  he  returned  to  the  States  and  became  assistant 
secretary  for  Latin  America  in  the  General  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, 1960-62. 

In  1963  he  was  appointed  pastor  of  First  Methodist 
Church,  Buenos  Aires,  Argentina,  and  the  district  super- 
intendent of  the  Buenos  Aires  area. 

Garfield  Evans 

RANSOM,  REVERDY  CASSIUS  (1861-1959),  American 
bishop  of  the  A. M.E.  CHtjRCH,  was  born  in  Flushing, 
Ohio,  on  Jan.  4,  1861.  He  was  educated  at  Wilberforce 
University,  where  he  graduated  in  theology  in  1886, 
and  at  Oberlin  College.  He  was  converted  in  1881,  li- 
censed to  preach  in  1883,  ordained  deacon  in  1886  and 
ELDER  in  1888.  He  held  pastorates  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
Illinois,  Massachusetts  and  New  York.  He  was  elected 
to  the  episcopacy  from  the  editorship  of  the  A. M.E. 
Church  Review  in  1924.  Bishop  Ransom  was  an  outstand- 
ing e.xponent  of  the  "Social  Gospel."  He  delivered  the  in- 


1986 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RANSON,   CHARLES   WESLEY 


vocation  at  the  Democratic  National  Convention  in  1940 
and  was  a  founder  of  the  famous  "Niagra  Movement,"  the 
forerunner  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Colored  People  (N.A.A.C.P.)- 

Grant  S.  Shockley 

RANSOM,  JOHN  JAMES  (1851-1934),  American  preach- 
er and  pioneer  missionary  to  Brazil  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  was  bom  in  1851,  in  Rutherford  Count>',  Tenn., 
the  son  of  a  Methodist  preacher.  He  received  his  B.A. 
degree  from  Emory  and  Henry  College,  Virginl-v,  and 
his  D.D.  from  the  same  in  1901.  He  was  admitted  to 
the  Tennessee  Conference  in  1874.  In  response  to  ur- 
gent appeals  made  to  the  board  by  J.  E.  Newman  of 
Brazil,  Ransom  sailed  for  that  country,  arriving  in  Rio 
DE  Janeiro  on  Feb.  2,  1876.  After  a  year  studying  at  the 
Presbyterian  Collegio  Intemacional  in  Campinas,  state  of 
Sao  Paulo,  Ransom  traveled  extensively  to  determine  the 
best  locations  for  establishing  Methodist  work.  One  trip 
took  him  to  the  state  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  where  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had  established  work  in 
1875.  From  there  he  went  to  Uruguay  to  confer  with 
Thomas  B.  Wood,  superintendent  of  the  River  Plate  Con- 
ference. Returning  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Ransom  rented  a 
house  in  which  he  held  services — in  English  first,  on  Jan. 
13,  1878,  and  in  Portuguese  two  weeks  later.  This  work 
aroused  the  hostility  of  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy, 
which  attacked  him  as  an  atheist  and  heretic  through  its 
magazine,  O  Apostolo.  Ransom  replied  inviting  them  to 
come  and  listen. 

He  organized  the  first  Methodist  Church  in  Rio  with 
six  members,  all  Americans,  one  being  the  minister  of 
the  United  States  in  Brazil.  In  March,  1879,  Ransom  re- 
ceived into  membership  the  first  Brazilians,  one  being  a 
former  Catholic  priest,  Antonio  Teixeira  de  Albuquerque. 
By  July  he  had  received  four  other  Brazilians.  On  Christ- 
mas day,  1879,  Ransom  married  Annie  Newman,  who 
died  six  months  later.  He  then  came  to  the  United  States 
and  authorized  by  the  Board  of  Missions,  appealed  for 
missionaries  to  Brazil.  The  result  was  that  upon  his  return 
he  took  with  him  James  L.  Kennedy,  James  W.  Koger, 
and  Martha  H.  Watts.  They  sailed  via  England  in 
March  1881,  and  arrived  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  on  May  16, 
1881. 

Ransom  worked  mostly  in  the  city  of  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
and  in  the  states  of  Sao  Paulo  and  Minas  Gerais.  In  Rio, 
with  Kennedy  as  associate,  he  did  visitation  work  and 
supervised  the  construction  of  the  first  Methodist  church 
in  Brazil,  the  small  but  attractive  Catete  Chapel,  which 
still  stands.  He  also  opened  other  preaching  points  in  the 
city. 

In  1882,  Ransom  returned  to  the  United  States  for  a 
visit;  but  was  back  for  the  July  inauguration  of  the  chapel, 
whose  construction  had  continued  under  Kennedy's  super- 
vision. 

In  December  1882,  when  at  a  quarterly  conference 
the  work  was  divided  into  two  districts.  Ransom  was 
named  presiding  elder  of  the  Rio  district,  and  Koger  sub- 
stituted for  him  as  superintendent  of  the  Mission.  Ransom 
now  devoted  himself  to  itinerant  work  and  to  church  jour- 
nalism, though  he  returned  to  the  United  States  in  the 
fall  of  1883.  There,  on  September  2,  he  married  Ella 
Crow  and  with  her  returned  to  Brazil.  In  1884  he  began 
publishing  A  Escoh  Dominical  (The  Sunday  school),  and 
a  leaflet  for  children,  Nosm  Gente  Pequena   (Our  Little 


People ) .  On  New  Year's  Day,  1886,  he  launched  what  was 
to  become  the  official  Methodist  organ,  Metodista  Catolico 
(Catholic  Methodist).  It  continued  under  this  name  until 
July  20,  1887,  when  by  general  consensus,  and  under  the 
editorship  of  J.  L.  Kennedy,  it  was  renamed  Expositor 
Cristao  (Christian  Expositor)  and  so  continues  to  this 
day  (1969). 

Brazil  received  its  first  episcopal  visit  on  July  4,  1886, 
with  the  arrival  of  Bishop  John  C.  Granbery.  He  at  once 
called  a  missionary  Conference  in  Piracicabo,  state  of  Sao 
Paulo,  at  which  time  a  committee  was  named,  consisting 
of  Ransom  and  Kennedy,  to  regularize  Methodist  proper- 
ties in  Brazil.  These,  up  to  then,  had  to  be  held  in  Ran- 
som's name  and  considered  his  personal  property,  since  at 
that  time  the  imperial  government  did  not  recognize  the 
Board  of  Missions,  or  the  Women's  Missionary  Council  as 
juridical  entities.  Title  to  the  property,  however,  had  been 
guaranteed  by  a  will  executed  in  Brazil,  and  by  legal  docu- 
ments held  in  Nashville,  Tenn. 

At  this  meeting,  for  reasons  never  openly  given.  Ransom 
disassociated  himself  from  the  work  in  Brazil  and  asked 
for  transfer  back  to  the  Tennessee  Conference.  Whatever 
the  reasons  his  resignation  was  greatly  regretted.  After  re- 
turning to  the  homeland  Ransom  served  short  periods  in 
California  and  Cuba  from  1888  to  1890,  going  back  and 
forth  to  his  family  in  Tennessee.  Finally,  he  served  as  as- 
sociate pastor  at  McKendree  Church  in  Nashville.  There 
he  died  on  Oct.  18,  1934,  and  was  buried  in  Woodlawn 
Cemeteiy.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife  and  four  children 
— Richard,  Annie,  Ellene,  and  John  Crowe  Ransom,  the 
distinguished  writer. 

E.  M.  B.  Jaime,  Metodismo  no  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  1963. 
J.  L.  Kennedy,  Metodismo  no  Brasil.  1928.      Eula  K.  Long 


Charles  W.   Ranson 

RANSON,  CHARLES  WESLEY  (1903-  ),  minister,  edu- 

cator, and  former  university  dean,  was  born  in  Ballyclare, 
Ireland,  on  June  15,  1903,  the  son  of  Henry  John  and 
Elizabeth  (Clarke)  Ranson.  He  studied  at  the  Methodist 
College  at  Belfast,  Ireland,  and  Queen's  University 
there,  and  at  the  Edgehill  Theological  College — also 
at  Belfast.  He  became  a  B.Litt.  at  Oxford  (England)  Uni- 
versity, a  Th.D.  at  Kiel  University,  Germany;  and  Dickin- 
son College  in  America  awarded  him  the  S.T.D.  in  1965. 
Dr.  Ranson  was  ordained  in  the  ministry  of  the  Irish 
Methodist  Conference  in  1929  and  became  a  missionary 
to  India,  1929.  After  that  he  was  the  general  secretary  of 


RANSTON,    HARRY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


the  International  Missionary  Council,  1948-58,  com- 
ing to  America  in  1948  the  better  to  manage  the  affairs 
of  that  International  Council.  He  acted  as  a  director  of 
the  Theological  Educational  Fund  of  the  World  Council 
OF  Chltrches,  1958-63,  and  then  became  dean  of  the 
Theological  School  and  the  professor  of  Ecumenical  The- 
ology at  Dreu  University,  Madison,  N.  J.,  in  1963.  In 
1968  he  was  appointed  professor  of  Theology  and  Ecu- 
menics  at  Hartford  Seminary  Foundation. 

He  was  the  president  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Ire- 
land, 1961-62,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Fund  for  Theological  Education,  as  well  as  a  trus- 
tee of  the  Margaret  Chambers  VVarnshuis  Foundation.  He 
received  the  King  George  V  medal  for  public  service  in 
India  in  1935.  He  has  written  A  Cittj  in  Transition,  1938; 
The  Christian  Minister  in  India,  1945;  That  the  World 
May  Know,  1953. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 


Harry  Ranston 

RANSTON,  HARRY  ( 1878-  ) ,  New  Zealand  Method- 

ist minister  and  noted  Bible  scholar,  was  bom  at  Keighley, 
Yorkshire,  in  1878.  He  began  work  in  the  worsted  mills 
at  the  age  of  ten.  By  attending  evening  classes  he  won 
a  scholarship  to  attend  secondary  school  and  another  for 
Ruskin  Hall,  O.xford.  Both  had  to  be  refused  because  of 
necessitous  family  circumstances. 

In  1900,  he  trained  for  a  year  at  Hartley  College, 
Manchester,  under  A.  S.  Peake,  and  then  was  appointed 
to  Canning  Town,  East  London. 

In  1902,  he  came  to  New  Zealand  and  served  in  a 
number  of  important  circuits.  While  in  full  circuit  work, 
and  without  being  able  to  attend  university,  he  gained  the 
B.A.  degree  and  the  senior  university  scholarship  in  Greek 
of  the  University  of  New  Zealand  in  1913.  The  following 
year  he  graduated,  M.A.  with  honors  in  Greek  and  He- 
brew. He  wrote  two  major  books,  the  first  securing  him  a 
doctorate  of  literature:  Ecclcsiastes  and  the  Early  Greek 
Wisdom  Literature  and  The  Old  Testament  Wisdom  Books 
(London:  Epworth  Press,  1925,  1930). 


For  many  years  he  was  in  close  touch  with  the  Auck- 
land University,  as  degree  examiner,  part-time  lecturer, 
and  member  of  the  senate.  For  twenty-two  years  he  served 
on  the  staff  of  the  theological  college,  both  at  Dunholme 
and  Trinity,  the  last  ten  of  them  being  as  principal. 

He  retired  in  Auckland  in  1941,  but  continued  for 
some  years  as  part-time  lecturer  at  both  Auckland  Univer- 
sity and  Trinity  College.  In  1966  he  was  living  at  Tyler 
House,  a  home  operated  by  Auckland  Central  Mission. 

Minutes  of  the  New  Zealand  Methodist  Conference,  1941. 

L.  R.  M.  ClLMORE 

RAST,  JOHN  MARVIN   (1897-  ),  American  minister, 

editor,  and  college  president,  was  bom  at  Bartow,  Ga., 
on  March  13,  1897,  the  son  of  Jeremiah  Lawton  and  Susie 
Louise  (Bearden)  Rast.  He  was  educated  at  Emory  Uni- 
versity and  Columbia  University  (M.A.  in  1924),  Union 
Theological  Seminary  (1923-24),  and  Candler  School 
OF  Theology  (B.D.,  1929).  Wofford  College  awarded 
him  the  D.D.  degree  in  1940.  He  taught  three  years  at 
Emory  University  Academy  and  three  at  Wofford  College. 
Going  into  the  South  Carolina  Conference,  he  served 
three  appointments  until  in  1936  he  became  editor  of  the 
Southern  Christian  Advocate  and  served  as  such  from 
1936  to  1941.  At  that  time  he  became  president  of  Lan- 
der College  at  Greenwood,  S.  C.  He  served  in  the  first 
World  War  in  the  United  States  Amiy. 

Dr.  Rast  has  become  well  known  as  a  writer  of  syndi- 
cated daily  devotional  newspaper  features  since  1925.  His 
wife  was  Florence  Olive  Mays,  whom  he  married  on  Aug. 
24,  1927,  and  they  have  a  son  and  two  daughters. 

For  ten  years  he  sei-ved  as  executive  secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Education  of  the  South  CaroUna  Conference 
(after  the  Upper  South  Carolina  and  the  South  Carolina 
Conferences  united).  He  became  the  associate  editor  of 
the  South  Carolina  Methodist  Advocate,  1963,  and  con- 
tinues to  write  for  the  rehgious  press.  Dr.  Rast  has  con- 
tributed several  articles  to  this  Encyclopedia. 

Who's  Who  in  America,  Vol.  34. 

Who's  Who  in  Methodism,  1952.  N.  B.  H. 


Harold  B.   Rattenbuby 


RATTENBURY,  HAROLD  BURGOYNE   (1878-1961),  Brit- 
ish, Methodist  missionary  to  China,  was  bom  at  Witney  in 


WORLD   METHODISM 


READING,   PENNSYLVANIA 


1878,  trained  at  Headingley  College,  and  entered  the 
Weslevan  ministry  in  1902.  He  went  to  China  in  1902,  and 
served  in  the  Hupeh  district  until  1935;  he  was  a  general 
secretary  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionahy  Society 
from  1935-50,  and  was  president  of  the  Methodist  Con- 
ference in  1949.  He  was  the  son,  grandson,  brother,  and 
father  of  Methodist  ministers.  His  was  the  controlhng 
voice  in  Methodist  policy  in  China  for  many  years.  He 
died  on  Dec.  24,  1961. 

John  Kent 

RATTENBURY,  JOHN  ERNEST  (1870-1963),  British  Meth- 
odist, brother  of  Harold  B.  Rattenbury,  and  like  him 
educated  at  Woodhouse  Grove  School.  He  entered  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry  in  1893,  being  trained  at 
Didsbury  College,  Manchester.  Much  of  his  ministry  was 
spent  in  city  missions,  including  eighteen  years  in  the 
West  London  Mission,  where  he  preached  first  in  the 
Lyceum  Theatre  and  then  opened  the  Kingsway  Hall.  He 
was  a  founding  member  of  the  Methodist  Sacramental 
Fellowship,  and  an  outstanding  advocate  of  its  ideals. 
The  most  important  of  his  many  pubhcations  appeared 
after  his  retirement  in  1935;  The  Conversion  of  the  Wes- 
leys  (1938),  The  Evangelical  Doctrines  of  Charles  Wes- 
ley's Hymns  (the  Femley-Hartley  Lecture  for  1941),  and 
The  Eucharistic  Hymns  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley 
(1948).  He  died  Jan.  19,  1963. 

Frank  Baker 

RAYMOND,  MINER  (1811-1897),  American  minister  and 
educator,  was  bom  on  Aug.  29,  1811,  at  Rennselaerville, 
N.  Y.  With  little  education  he  turned  to  the  shoemaker's 
trade,  but  in  his  eighteenth  year  felt  called  to  a  religious 
life.  He  entered  Wesleyan  Academy  in  Wilbraham, 
Mass.,  where,  under  the  influence  of  Wilbur  Fisk,  he 
moved  from  the  role  of  student  to  that  of  helper  and 
teacher.  In  1838  he  joined  the  New  England  Confer- 
ence, but  continued  at  Wilbraham  for  three  years. 

From  1841  to  1848  he  held  pastorates  in  Worcester, 
Boston,  and  Westfield,  Mass.  He  was  elected  principal 
at  Wilbraham  in  1848.  The  Academy  under  his  adminis- 
tration prospered,  with  new  buildings — Fisk,  Binney,  and 
Rich  Halls  being  erected.  He  was  elected  professor  of 
Systematic  Theology  at  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  of 
Evanston,  111.,  in  1864,  where  he  wrote  a  three-volume 
work.  Systematic  Theology. 

Raymond  was  a  delegate  to  six  General  Conferences, 
representing  the  New  England  Conference  five  times  and 
the  Rock  River  Conference  once.  In  1856  he  was  Gen- 
eral Conference  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Slaveiy. 
In  1872  he  received  over  fifty  votes  for  bishop. 

He  was  married  twice.  By  his  first  wife,  Elizabeth  Hen- 
derson, who  died  in  1877,  he  had  five  sons  and  a  daugh- 
ter. His  second  wife  was  Mrs.  Isabella  Hill  Binney,  widow 
of  Amos  Binney,  one-time  member  of  the  New  England 
Conference.  Raymond  died  on  Nov.  25,  1897,  at  Evanston, 
111. 


J.  M.  Buckley,  History  of  Methodists.  1896. 
Xions  Herald,  Dec.  1,  1897. 


Ernest  R.  Case 


and  to  employ  Anglican  clergymen  to  assist  with  the  com- 
munion services.  This  continued  after  1791,  and  in  1811 
Thomas  Vasey  was  appointed  as  "Reader."  He  had  been 
ordained  by  John  Wesley  in  September,  1784,  and  sent  to 
America  and  was  later  ordained  in  America  by  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Bishop  William  White  of  Philadelphia. 
His  duty  was  to  perform  the  liturgical  service,  which  he 
did  until  the  close  of  1825.  When  he  resigned,  the  trustees 
of  the  chapel  made  a  vain  attempt  to  find  an  Anglican 
clergyman  to  continue  the  succession;  they  then  applied 
to  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference  for  an  itinerant  to 
be  stationed  as  Reader.  This  led  to  a  quarrel  with  Henry 
Moore,  who  was  still  superintendent  of  the  circuit  in 
which  the  chapel  lay,  and  who  tried  to  claim  the  position 
of  Reader  in  terms  of  John  Wesley's  will.  Legal  advice 
did  not  sustain  Moore's  claims,  and  from  1826  the  Confer- 
ence appointed  itinerants  to  do  the  work  of  Reader  at 
City  Road,  though  not  apparently  using  the  title  as  such. 
By  1850,  however,  the  City  Road  society  had  lost  ground 
financially,  and  so  in  1852  the  trustees  decided  to  save 
money  by  abolishing  the  office  of  Reader,  and  this  decision 
came  into  effect  from  the  Conference  of  1853. 

John  Kent 

READFIELD,  MAINE,  U.S.A.,  is  significant  as  the  location 
of  what  is  now  called  the  Jesse  Lee  Memorial  Church, 
the  first  Methodist  meetinghouse  erected  in  the  state. 
Jesse  Lee  visited  the  region  in  1793,  and  the  following 
year  was  appointed  presiding  elder  of  the  Lynn  District 
and  the  Province  of  Maine.  Philip  Wager  was  sent  to  the 
Readfield  Circuit  in  1794,  and  under  Lee's  direction  he 
led  in  building  the  meetinghouse.  In  November  Lee  wrote 
that  the  edifice  was  almost  completed,  and  on  June  21, 
1795,  he  dedicated  the  plain,  rough  structure. 

On  Dec.  12,  1794,  Lee  administered  the  communion  to 
the  society  members  at  Readfield,  the  first  time  the  rite 
was  observed  under  Methodist  auspices  in  Maine.  With 
ten  preachers  present.  Bishop  Asbury  conducted  the  first 
Methodist  conference  in  the  Province  of  Maine  at  Read- 
field,  beginning  Aug.  29,  1798. 

In  1825  the  Readfield  Church  building  was  moved  some 
thirty  rods  from  its  original  location  and  was  repaired  and 
rededicated.  In  1857  tlie  structure  was  remodeled;  the 
roof  was  raised  and  a  steeple  and  bell  were  added.  When 
the  railroad  came  to  Readfield,  a  new  village  grew  up 
around  the  depot,  and  another  Methodist  church  was 
established  there.  The  original  church  was  then  called 
East  Readfield. 

About  1900,  East  Readfield  was  rededicated  as  the 
Jesse  Lee  Memorial  Church.  Today  services  are  conducted 
in  the  building  only  at  Easter,  Christmas,  and  in  the  sum- 
mer months;  the  members  worship  at  the  Kents  Hill 
Church  five  miles  away  during  the  rest  of  the  year. 

In  1971  the  Jesse  Lee  Memorial  Church  had  twenty- 
nine  members  and  its  building  was  valued  at  $25,000. 

Allen  and  Pilsbury,  Methodism  in  Maine. 
East  Readfield  Church.  (Typescript),  7  pp.,  n.  d. 
General  Minutes,  MEG  and  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the   Maine   Conference.   William   T.   Bennett 
Bertram  F.  Wentworth 


READER  AT  CITY  ROAD  CHAPEL,  LONDON.  In  John 
Wesley's  Ufetime  it  had  been  the  custom  to  use  the  ser- 
vices of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  at  City  Road  Chapel, 


READING,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.  Memorial  Church  of 
the  Holy  Cross,  Methodist.  This  is  the  mother  church  of 
Methodism   in   Reading.   The   first   Methodist   sermon   in 


READY,   WILLIAM 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Reading  was  preached  at  the  Court  House  by  Joseph 
PiLMOBE  May  27,  1772.  He  commented  in  his  Journal  on 
the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  this  city  wliich  then  num- 
bered about  400  persons.  No  Society  was  fornied,  how- 
ever, and  in  1803  when  Henry  Boehm  attempted  to 
preach  in  Reading  he  was  prevented  by  the  Commissioner. 
Five  years  later  he  and  Francis  Asbury  passed  through 
Reading  and  were  ridiculed  by  the  people.  In  1822  hvo 
Methodist  young  men  moved  from  Lancaster  to  Reading 
and  organized  a  pr.-^yer  meeting  or  class.  The  class  grew 
and  in  the  same  year  it  was  formally  organized  into  a 
church  (Ebenezer,  now  Holy  Cross)  by  Henry  Boehm. 
The  organization  took  place  in  the  old  State  House  on 
the  Northeast  Comer  of  Fifth  and  Penn  Streets.  For  the 
next  five  years  the  church  met  in  the  homes  of  its  mem- 
bers, but  in  1827  they  erected  a  building  on  the  East 
side  of  South  Third  Street  which  they  called  Ebenezer 
M.E.  Church.  In  1839  a  larger  brick  structure  was  built 
on  South  Fourth  Street  below  Penn  which  was  remodeled 
in  1870  and  again  in  1884.  A  growing  membership  soon 
made  this  building  inadequate,  and  the  Trustees  were  in- 
structed to  look  for  a  new  site.  The  present  site  on  North 
Penn  Street  was  purchased  and  ten  leading  architects  of 
the  country  submitted  plans  for  the  new  building.  A  Phil- 
adelphia firm  was  selected.  In  1890  ground  was  broken 
for  the  new  church,  and  in  1893  the  new  structure  was 
completed.  It  was  called  Memorial  M.E.  Church,  which, 
in  1944,  was  changed  to  Memorial  Church  of  the  Holy 
Cross,  Methodist.  The  building  was  considered  by  many 
to  be  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  all  of  American  Meth- 
odism. The  Romanesque  architecture  was  deviated  by  an 
arcaded  cloister  paved  with  mosaic.  One  entrance  was 
marked  by  a  stately  tower  supported  by  open  groined 
columns.  The  interior  walls  were  of  white  crystalline  mar- 
ble in  combination  with  Portland  Red  Stone  from 
Michigan.  It  is  thought  that  the  first  vested  choir  began 
to  serve  here  in  1893. 

On  Sunday,  June  26,  1936  a  fire  broke  out  in  the 
educational  building  and  twelve  fire  companies  fought  the 
blaze  to  save  the  church  proper.  The  sanctuary  was  saved 
but  the  educational  building  and  the  chapel  were  de- 
stroyed. By  1938  the  educational  imit  and  the  chapel  had 
been  rebuilt  and  the  sanctuary  redecorated.  Today  the 
Church  is  one  of  the  most  influential  Methodist  Churches 
in  the  city.  Directly  or  indirectly  it  has  aided  the  orga- 
nization and  building  of  most  of  the  Methodist  churches 
in  Reading. 

Charles  Yrigoyen,  Jr.,  History  of  Memorial  Church  of  the 
Holy  Cross,  Methodist,  in  Reading,  Pennsylvania,  manuscript  in 
the  archives  of  Old  St.  George's  United  Methodist  Church,  Phil- 
adelphia, Pennsylvania.  Frederick  E.  Maser 

READY,  WILLIAM  (1860-1927),  New  Zealand  minister, 
became  an  orphan  at  an  early  age.  He  lived  as  best  he 
could  until  accepted  into  Muller's  Orphanage  at  Bristol, 
England.  Converted  at  seventeen,  he  was  trained  for  the 
ministry  at  the  Bible  Christian  College.  He  came  to  New 
Zealand  at  twenty-seven  and  served  some  of  the  leading 
pulpits.  He  founded  Dunedin  Central  Mission  in  1890, 
where  in  a  matter  of  two  or  three  years  he  built  up  what 
was  then  the  largest  congregation  in  New  Zealand.  Famed 
as  an  evangehst,  he  was  conducting  a  mission  in  Palmers- 
ton  North  when  he  suddenly  took  ill  and  died  on  Sept. 
7,  1927.  The  story  of  his  early  life  has  been  told  in  a  book 


by  Lewis  H.  Court,  Ready,  Aye  Ready  (London:  Epworth 
Press,  1935). 

L.  R.  M.  Gilmore,  The  Bible  Christians  in  New  Zealand 
(Wesley  Historical  Society,  New  Zealand,  1947). 

L.  R.  M.  Gilmore 

RECIFE,  Brazil,  capital  of  the  northeast  state  of  Pernam- 
buco.  Methodism  began  in  1880,  when  William  Taylor 
made  his  second  trip  to  South  America.  That  year,  in 
Recife,  he  laid  the  groundwork  for  a  mission  and  sent 
out  several  "very  strong  men  .  .  .  but  they  set  their  plow 
too  deep."  All  but  one,  George  Nind,  left  soon,  sick  or 
discouraged.  Nind,  a  licensed  exhorter,  established  a  con- 
gregation, taught  music  during  the  week  to  support  him- 
self; and  on  Sundays  held  Sunday  school  and  worship 
services  in  his  house,  and  preached  outdoors  in  the  public 
parks.  Despite  his  constant  pleas  for  help,  no  ordained 
minister  was  ever  sent  out.  Finally,  in  1892,  he  was  forced 
by  his  wife's  illness,  to  return  to  the  United  States — the 
Methodists  in  Recife  were  absorbed  into  other  Protestant 
denominations  that  came  in. 

Recife,  with  a  population  of  around  one  million,  is  the 
third  largest  city  of  Brazil  and  the  capital  of  the  north- 
east region.  After  decades  of  no  witness,  Cesar  Dacobso, 
the  first  Brazilian  bishop,  made  plans  for  the  occupation  of 
all  Brazil,  beginning  with  Salvador,  state  of  Baia,  in  1946. 
That  year,  the  General  Conference  of  Brazil  considered 
Recife  as  a  possible  field;  and  in  1950,  the  General  Sec- 
retary of  Missions  reported  the  existence  of  a  small  Meth- 
odist congregation  which  had  resulted  from  the  efforts  of 
individual  Methodists.  It  was,  however,  only  in  1959  that 
Dorival  Beulke,  a  Brazilian,  was  sent  to  Recife  as  a  mis- 
sionary. 

His  first  sewice  was  held  in  a  garage  with  an  attendance 
of  thirty-two.  Since  then,  the  work  has  spread  to  three 
other  centers.  These  stress  social  service  with  hteracy 
classes  for  adults,  and  instruction  on  nutrition  and  hygiene. 

W.  C.  Barclay,  History  of  Missions.  1957. 

Minutes  of  Annual   Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 

Brazil,  1946,   1950.   1955,   1960.  D.  A.  Reily 

RECORDS  AND  STATISTICS  (USA).  The  Methodist 
Church  has  ever  kept  careful  records  of  all  its  confer- 
ences and  disciphnary  actions.  The  Large  Minutes  as  put 
together  in  the  time  of  John  Wesley,  indicate  how  records 
first  came  to  be  formulated.  Subsequently,  when  the  Dis- 
cipline began  to  be  published  in  American  Methodism, 
it  contained  within  itself  all  sorts  of  recorded  moves  as 
well  as  disciplinary  requirements. 

It  has  always  been  the  duty  of  the  preacher-in-charge 
in  the  Methodist  churches  to  keep  correct  records  of  all 
persons  received  on  probation,  or  removed  by  letter,  with- 
drawn from  the  church,  and  those  who  have  deceased. 
Careful  disciplinary  directions  have  continued  to  be  pre- 
scribed through  the  years  instructing  ministers  how  they 
must  record  enrollment,  marriages,  baptisms  and  deaths, 
and  indeed  all  matters  relating  to  the  membership  of  the 
charge.  One  of  the  questions  formally  asked  in  quarterly 
conferences  was,  "Are  the  church  records  properly  kept?" 

Specific  directions  are  given  throughout  the  Discipline 
for  the  recording  of  work  carried  on,  and  for  checking  over 
work  done.  Every  conference,  from  the  Church  Confer- 
ence to  the  General  Conference,  has  a  secretary  or 
secretarial  staff  whose  duties  are  to  keep  careful  records 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RED   LION,   PENNSYLVANIA 


of  all  matters  transpiring,  and  to  see  that  these  are  prop- 
erly preserved.  The  journal  of  each  Annual  Conference 
must  be  signed  by  the  bishop  or  presiding  president;  and 
the  bishops  who  preside  over  the  General  Conference  must 
sign  the  minutes  for  the  day  or  days  upon  which  they 
preside. 

The  district  superintendent  signs  the  record  of  each 
charge  conference.  The  minutes  of  the  previous  meeting 
are  formally  approved  by  the  body  creating  them,  after 
any  member  has  an  opportunity  to  propose  corrections. 
Some  conferences  put  the  matter  of  checking  and  approv- 
ing the  minutes  in  the  hands  of  a  special  committee. 

It  has  long  been  the  practice  in  the  church  for  the 
minutes  of  each  quarterly  (charge)  conference  to  be 
taken  to  the  district  conference  ( when  there  is  one ) ,  and 
that  conference  appoints  a  committee  to  check  over  and 
report  upon  how  the  records  of  the  several  charges  are 
kept.  In  turn,  where  there  are  district  conferences,  these 
send  their  records  to  the  Annual  Conference  for  approval. 
The  Annual  Conferences  must  send  their  four  year  printed 
journals  to  the  succeeding  Jurisdictional  Conference 
for  its  examination  and  approval. 

The  United  Methodist  Church  has  a  Statistical  Office 
which  since  reorganization  of  the  general  administrative 
oflBces  of  the  church  in  1952  has  been  put  under  the 
direction  of  the  Council  on  World  Service  and 
Finance.  Before  that  time  there  was  an  office  of  statistics 
under  the  Book  Editor,  and  a  statistician  empowered  to 
collect  statistics  from  the  entire  church  and  to  get  these 
ready  for  the  General  Minutes  as  these  were  published. 

The  General  Minutes  of  The  Methodist  Church  have 
been  published  in  one  volume  each  year  entitled  the  Gen- 
eral Minutes  of  the  Annual  Conferences  of  The  Methodist 
Church  in  the  United  States  and  Overseas.  Such  have  been 
pubhshed  since  1785.  This  now  includes  statistics  for  each 
local  church  in  each  annual  conference.  The  Section  of 
Research,  Records  and  Statistics,  which  acts  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Council  on  World  Service  and  Finance, 
is  authorized  by  the  General  Conference  to  put  out  each 
year  the  complete  compilation  of  Methodist  records. 

The  number  of  specific  items  having  to  do  with  the 
ongoing  of  all  the  activities  of  the  church  all  of  which 
must  be  reported  on,  and  the  necessity  for  the  proper 
forms  upon  which  to  do  this,  forced  The  Methodist 
Church  in  time  to  create  a  Committee  on  Official  Records 
and  Forms.  Something  hke  135  specific  forms  had  to  be 
prepared  by  this  committee;  everything  from  the  proper 
baptismal  certificate  for  an  infant  to  the  long  hst  of  ques- 
tions which  had  to  be  called  by  the  bishop  at  each  annual 
conference. 

Complete  directions  for  keeping  such  records  are  out- 
lined in  the  Discipline  of  The  United  Methodist  Church, 
although  such  directions  are  not  of  course  to  be  found 
together  in  any  one  place.  The  United  Methodist  Church 
prides  itself,  however,  on  keeping  its  records  in  better 
order  and  by  a  better  system  than  any  other  large  eccle- 
siasticism,  although  in  older  days  the  jibe  was  sometimes 
heard  of  the  "Methodist  Statistical  Church." 

The  Commission  on  Archives  and  History  and  Annual 
Conference  Historical  Societies  have  helped  greatly  in 
the  preservation  of  old  records  and  statistics.  Each  quart- 
erly (charge)  conference  is  now  empowered  to  create  a 
"committee  on  records  and  history"  which  "shall  be  re- 
sponsible for  assisting  the  pastor  to  see  that  all  church 
and  charge  conference  records  are  kept  on  the  official 
record  blanks  provided  for  that  purpose.  This  Committee 


is  empowered  to  examine  the  charge  conference  records 
annually  at  the  end  of  each  conference  year,  and  to  report 
the  result  of  its  examination  to  the  charge  conference 
in  the  ensuing  year."  {Discipline,  1968,  1  1412.) 

Roy  A.   Sturm 

RED  BIRD  MISSION.  In  1919  the  United  Evangelical 
Church,  later  the  EUB  Church,  initiated  a  mountain  mis- 
sion on  the  Red  Bird  River  at  Beverly,  Ky.  Twenty  acres 
in  Bel!  County  were  donated  for  the  mission  by  the 
Knuckle  brothers. 

Misses  Myra  Bowman  (Pennsylvania)  and  Emahne 
Welsh  (Illinois)  were  the  first  teachers,  organizing  a  Sun- 
day school  for  mountain  people. 

Elementary  education  in  three  locations  and  secondary 
education  dirough  a  boarding  school  in  1931  became  the 
first  evidences  of  the  growth  of  the  mission. 

J.  J.  DeWall  of  Iowa  was  the  first  evangelist  and  in 
1920,  a  nurse,  Lydia  B.  Rice,  began  a  medical  service. 
It  was  not  until  1927  that  a  doctor,  the  Rev.  Harlan  S. 
Heim,  M.D.,  joined  the  mission  staff.  The  small  hospital, 
erected  in  1928,  was  replaced  by  a  new  structure  located 
in  Queendale  in  1959. 

The  evangelistic  witness  also  was  manifest  in  the  build- 
ing of  chapels  and  churches  in  Beverly,  Jack's  Creek, 
Beech  Fork,  Mill  Creek  and  Greasy  Fork,  among  others. 

The  mission  work  was  carried  on  in  1970  by  a  staff  of 
approximately  eighty  missionaries. 

The  rapid  change  in  the  mountains,  including  the  strip 
mining  process,  and  the  advent  of  the  Anti-Poverty  gov- 
ernment program  in  Appalachia  have  challenged  the  mis- 
sion toward  the  significance  of  the  church  in  its  ministry 
to  the  people  of  the  mountains. 

Lois  Miller 

RED  LION,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.,  is  a  town  where  the 
United  Brethren  have  always  been  strong.  Red  Lion  was 
incorporated  as  a  borough  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania 
on  Jan.  16,  1880.  But  as  far  back  as  May  10,  1729,  when 
Lancaster  County  was  established,  there  is  record  of  white 
settlements  in  the  area  which  is  now  known  as  York  Coun- 
ty. The  soil  was  found  to  be  unusually  good.  In  a  very 
short  time  industrious  German  immigrant  farmers  were 
clearing  land  and  planting  crops.  Most  of  these  German 
immigrants  belonged  to  the  Reformed  and  Lutheran 
faith;  some  were  also  Mennonites  and  Dunkards. 

The  areas  now  k-nown  as  Freysville,  Red  Lion  and  Dal- 
lastown  became  settled  with  these  German  immigrants.  In 
1748  they  built  a  log  church  and  school — the  only  church 
that  served  this  laige  territory.  The  St.  John's  Reformed 
Church  was  the  first  to  establish  a  permanent  church 
building  with  regular  sei"vices  for  the  town  of  Red  Lion. 

Since  1831  United  Brethren  in  Christ  missionaries 
had  been  preaching  in  the  surrounding  areas.  In  1842  or 
1843  Christian  Crider  urged  the  people  to  purchase  a 
plot  of  land  nearby  and  a  place  of  worship  was  built. 
After  the  incorporation  of  the  borough  of  Red  Lion  there 
was  a  strong  urge  for  a  town  church  of  the  United 
Brethren.  The  cornerstone  for  the  town  church  was  laid 
June  22,  1882.  A  new  modem,  architecturally  beautiful 
Bethany  Church  was  dedicated  May  5,  1930. 

St.  Paul's  Evangelical  Church  had  its  beginning  in  1885 
when  Red  Lion  was  a  part  of  the  Old  York  Circuit.  An 
organization  was  effected  but  no  regular  preaching  was 


RED   ROCK   CAMP   MEETING 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


maintained  for  lack  of  a  place  in  which  to  worship.  In 
1894  a  substantial  brick  church  was  built  which  had  a 
membership  of  125. 

During  the  pastorate  of  J.  Theodore  Pettit,  a  new 
church  school  building  was  built  and  dedicated,  debt  free, 
in  1919.  The  church  membership  was  650  and  a  church 
school  enrollment  of  995. 

St.  Paul's  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church,  on  Feb. 
3,  1935,  dedicated  its  Gothic  Sanctuary.  St.  Paul's  Church 
of  Red  Lion  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  largest 
churches  in  the  denomination.  It  had  a  membership  of 
1,700  members  in  1967  and  a  few  more  than  2,000  church 
school  members. 

Although  the  population  of  Red  Lion  (1970)  is  5,887, 
St.  Paul's  Church  with  its  1,656  members,  Bethany  with 
her  1,016  members,  and  Zion  Church  on  the  edge  of  town 
with  319  members  accounted  for  more  than  one-half 
of  the  community's  population. 

Sei"ving  Red  Lion  are  five  other  churches:  St.  John's 
United  Church  of  Christ,  Grace  Lutheran,  The  Christian 
Missionary  Alliance,  Congregation  of  Jehovah's  Witnesses 
and  the  Assembly  of  God. 

But  within  a  three  mile  radius  of  the  borough  of  Red 
Lion  are  seventeen  former  Evangelical  United  Brethren 
Churches.  In  some  of  these  areas  thus  served,  there  are 
no  other  denominations  present. 

Alfhed  John  Thomas 

RED  ROCK  CAMP  MEETING.  In  1837  the  first  three  Meth- 
odist missionaries — Alfred  Brunson,  David  King,  and 
John  Holton — went  to  Minnesot.\  to  minister  to  the 
Indians,  to  a  Sioux  village  at  Kaposia,  now  South  St. 
Paul.  Here  in  two  and  one-half  years  a  church  of  thirty- 
three  members  had  been  organized — whites,  Indians,  and 
halfbreeds — and  a  farm  of  150  acres  placed  under  cultiva- 
tion. 

In  the  fall  of  1839  B.  T.  Kavanaugh  was  sent  as  super- 
intendent and  built  a  log  parsonage-meeting  house-school 
on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi  at  Red  Rock.  In  1843 
the  missions  on  both  sides  of  the  river  were  closed;  others 
however,  continued  and  white  work  e.xtended. 

John  Holton,  who  came  originally  as  a  farmer,  continued 
at  Red  Rock  on  his  own  farm.  In  1868  he  offered  Pastor 
Bowdish  of  the  Newport  church,  one  mile  south,  ten 
acres  of  land  for  a  c.\mp  meeting.  This  included  the  log 
cabin  and  Red  Rock.  With  neighboring  pastors  the  offer 
was  accepted,  and  the  first  camp  held  in  June  1869.  More 
land  was  purchased,  extensive  grounds  developed,  and 
camp  meetings  were  held  there  continuously  through 
1937,  with  people  coming  by  team,  train,  and  steamer. 
The  high  point  was  1886-88  under  the  ministry  of  Sam 
Small  and  Sam  Jones  when  20,000  passed  through  the 
turnstiles  in  a  single  day.  Then  came  a  gradual  decline 
until  1899  when  few  attended. 

In  1898  Bishop  Joyce  assumed  his  residence  in 
Minneapolis  and  brought  evangelists  Dunham  and  Baker 
for  meetings.  To  consei"ve  the  results  he  organized  in  1899 
the  Minnesota  Pentecostal  Association.  For  the  year  1900 
this  new  association  was  asked  by  the  Red  Rock  Park 
Association  to  conduct  the  camp  meeting,  and  this  they 
did.  Later  they  assumed  the  original  charter  and  have 
conducted  the   camp  since  under   the  Red   Rock   name. 

In  1938,  due  to  encroaching  industry  and  railroads, 
the  camp  was  moved  to  Mission  Farms,  ten  miles  north- 


west of  Minneapolis;  and  in  1961  to  Lake  Koronis,  ninety 
miles  west. 

Noted  evangelists  and  Bible  teachers  have  appeared 
there.  Missions  have  been  emphasized  and  the  voices  of 
Bishops  Taylor,  McCabe,  Oldham,  and  W-\rne  were 
heard.  Other  bishops  have  given  forceful  preaching — 
Foss,  McIntybe,  Leete,  Cushman,  Nall.  Programs  for 
children  and  youth  have  been  well-planned;  many  have 
gone  into  the  ministry  and  mission  fields. 

Chauncey  Hobart  said:  "What  the  State  of  Minnesota 
owes  to  Red  Rock  Camp  Meeting  can  never  be  told.  Nor 
can  the  waves  of  vital  godliness  that  have  flowed  from  it 
be  estimated." 


C.  Hobart,  Minnesota.  1887. 
C.  N.  Pace,  Minnesota.  19.52. 


Bl.^ine  Lambert 


REDFIELD,  JOHN  WESLEY  (1810-1863),  Americiui  leader 
in  the  organization  of  the  Free  Methodist  Church,  was 
a  medical  doctor,  a  Methodist  local  preacher  and  an  out- 
standing evangelist.  He  was  prominent  in  the  mid-century 
holiness  revival  movement  in  Illinois,  and  ultimately 
led  this  group  to  join  with  the  reform  movement  in  the 
Genesee  Conference  (ME)  to  organize  the  new  church. 
Redfield  was  the  evangelist  during  an  unusual  revival 
on  the  campus  at  Wesleyan  Univebsity,  Middletown, 
Conn.  B.  T.  Roberts,  later  founder  of  the  Free  Method- 
ist Church,  was  a  student  there.  He  was  greatly  influenced 
bv  these  events  and  became  a  life-long  friend  of  Red- 
field. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 


A.  II.  Redfobd 

REDFORD,  ALBERT  HENRY  (1818-1884),  American  min- 
ister and  historian,  was  born  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  Nov.  18, 
1818.  He  was  converted  in  his  boyhood  and  was  early 
impressed  that  he  was  called  to  preach.  Through  the  as- 
sistance of  an  uncle  he  received  a  classical  education  and 
his  uncle  expected  him  to  enter  a  career  of  business. 
Despite  this  opposition  he  acted  upon  his  conviction  of 
duty  and  was  licensed  to  preach.  He  joined  the  Kentucky 
Conference  in   1837.  From  mountain  mission  and  hard 


WORLD   METHODISM 


REED,    ELBERT   E. 


circuits  he  moved  on  to  the  best  circuits,  stations,  and 
districts  of  his  conference. 

Five  times  in  succession  he  was  elected  as  a  delegate  to 
the  General  Conference.  He  is  best  known  for  his  work 
in  historical  research,  and  he  left  to  the  church  three 
volumes  of  the  history  of  Methodism  in  Kentucky  to 
1832,  and  a  fourth  volume  entitled  Western  Cavaliers, 
bringing  this  history  to  the  year  1846;  also  two  other 
volumes  entitled  The  Life  and  Times  of  Hubbard  Hines 
Kavanaugh  and  A  History  of  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South.  These  volumes  have  been  a  constant 
source  of  biographical  and  historical  authority  for  Meth- 
odist historians.  He  searched  the  records  of  the  church  and 
availed  himself  of  close  examination  of  the  General  Min- 
utes, the  Methodist  Magazine,  Quarterly  Reviews,  and 
weekly  journals  of  the  church  in  order  to  bring  together 
the  details  of  the  history  of  the  Methodist  Church  in 
Kentucky.  He  rescued  from  oblivion  the  names  of  the 
pioneers  and  presented  their  characters  in  graphic  brief- 
ness as  only  the  vvaelder  of  a  precise  and  eloquent  pen 
could  Ido. 

In  1866,  Redford  was  elected  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  as  Book  Editor,  and 
for  twelve  years  he  guided  the  Methodist  Publishing 
House  of  the  Southern  Church  through  the  most  perilous 
period  of  its  history,  following  the  War  between  the 
States.  He  faced  criticism,  divisions,  many  times  bank- 
ruptcy, but  by  reason  of  his  deep  devotion  and  excellent 
business  ability,  he  was  able  to  bring  the  publishing  in- 
terests of  Southern  Methodism  through  this  stoiTny  period. 
At  the  General  Conference  of  1878  he  was  unable  to 
continue  further  the  arduous  trials  of  his  position  and 
returned  to  a  pastorate  in  Louisville,  where  he  sei-ved 
until  his  death. 

Journal  of  tlie  Louisville  Conference,  1884. 

J.  C.  Rawlings,  Century  of  Progress.  1946.       Harry  R.  Short 

REDRUTH  PLAN  as  an  episode  in  British  Methodist  his- 
tory. After  the  death  of  John  Wesley  in  1791,  disagree- 
ment about  the  future  form  of  Methodism  rapidly  came 
to  a  head.  The  group  of  about  fifty  lay  delegates  who 
met  in  Redruth,  Cornwall,  on  June  14,  1791,  wanted  a 
drastic  revision  of  the  Wesleyan  constitution.  They  sug- 
gested, in  a  circular  which  was  sent  round  the  connection, 
that  in  future  classes  should  choose  their  own  leaders, 
and  that  members  should  not  be  expelled  from  or  ad- 
mitted to  the  societies  without  the  consent  of  the  majority 
of  the  existing  members.  The  Quarterly  Meeting  should 
decide  by  a  majority  vote  on  such  matters  as  the  division 
of  circuits  and  the  admission  of  itinerants.  If  a  case  was 
brought  against  an  itinerant,  it  should  be  heard  by  a 
court  composed  of  equal  numbers  of  itinerants  and  stew- 
ards. Such  changes  would  have  meant  an  end  of  the 
itinerants'  virtual  monopoly  of  Wesleyan  government.  The 
Redruth  Plan  had  no  immediate  effect  on  the  situation, 
but  was  important  because  it  pointed  forward  to  the  kind 
of  Methodist  constitution  which  was  to  be  set  up  by  the 
Methodist  New  Connexion  in  1797,  and  shows  that  such 
attitudes  were  already  rife  in  some  areas  of  Metliodism 
soon  after  John  Wesley's  death. 

John  Kent 

REDSTONE  CIRCUIT.  The  original  "mother  Circuit"  of 
American  Methodism  west  of  tlie  Appalachian  mountains 


in  western  Pennsylvania  and  western  Virginia.  The  cir- 
cuit was  laid  out  in  the  homes  of  Maryland  Methodists 
who  had  emigrated  to  the  west  in  the  Fall  of  1783  by 
Richard  Owings,  and  in  the  Spring  of  1784  John  Cooper 
and  Samuel  Breeze  were  appointed  by  Fr.\ncis  Asbury 
to  organize  the  circuit.  In  its  first  three  years  the  circuit 
expanded  to  about  300  miles  in  extent  with  thirty  preach- 
ing places  extending  from  Uniontown,  Pa.,  to  the  Ohio 
River,  and  from  just  south  of  Pittsburgh  nearly  to  Fair- 
mont, W.  Va.  In  1787  the  circuit  was  divided  into  three 
circuits  and  the  next  year  a  fourth  was  added.  By  1799 
there  were  five  circuits  in  the  region  with  ninety-six 
preaching  places:  Clarksburg,  twelve;  Greenfield,  twenty- 
four;  Ohio,  twenty-four;  Pittsburgh,  twelve;  and  Redstone, 
twenty-four.  There  were  nine  log  meetinghouses  in  the 
region,  the  remainder  of  the  preaching  places  being  in 
homes. 

After  the  Treaty  of  Greenville  of  1795  opened  the 
northwest  Territories  to  legal  settlement  and  Methodists 
moved  into  northwestern  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  circuits 
were  laid  out  in  the  new  regions,  the  impetus  coming 
from  the  original  Redstone  Circuit  region.  Thus  the 
Muskingum  Circuit  was  organized  in  1799;  Shenango, 
1800;  Erie,  1800;  West  Wheeling,  1802;  Hock-Hocking, 
180-3;  and  Deerfield,  1803.  The  name  "redstone "  derives 
from  a  small  creek  that  flows  west  from  the  mountains 
through  Uniontown  to  the  Monongahela  River  at  Browns- 
ville in  Pennsylvania.  It  gave  its  name  to  the  early  religious 
organizations  tliat  moved  into  the  region  of  southwestern 
Pennsylvania  and  western  Virginia  after  legal  settlement 
was  made  possible  by  the  Treaty  of  Fort  StanwLx  with 
the  Iroquois  Indians  in  1768.  Thus  the  Baptist  Redstone 
Association  was  formed  in  1776;  the  Presbyterian  Red- 
stone Presbytery  in  1782;  and  the  Methodist  Redstone 
Circuit  in  1784.  The  "redstone  country "  was  an  important 
stage  in  American  westward  migration  where  the  advanc- 
ing frontier  was  arrested  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  then 
burst  westward  in  a  flood  with  the  end  of  the  Indian 
wars. 

Robert  Ayres,  manuscript  journal  for  1786-87. 

Raymond   Bell,   Methodism   on   the   Upper  Ohio   before   1812. 

W.  G.  Smeltzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951. 

,  The  Story  of  Methodism  in  the  Pittsburgh  Region. 

W.  Guy  Smeltzer 


REED,  ELBERT  E.  (1896-  ),  American  agricultural  mis- 

sionan,',  was  born  at  Wichita,  Kan.,  and  was  reared  in 
La  Grange,  111.  He  received  a  B.S.  degree  in  horticulture 
from  Iowa  State  College,  1920,  and  M.S.  from  Oregon 
State  College,  1936. 

In  1920  Reed  was  called  to  Chile  as  horticulturist  at 
El  Vergel,  3,800-acre  farm  near  Angol,  acquired  in 
1919  by  the  M.E.  Church.  In  1925  he  became  general 
administrator,  occupying  this  position  until  retirement  in 
1963. 

The  work  Elbert  Reed  accomplished  in  building  at  El 
Vergel  during  these  thirty-eight  years  became  known  all 
over  Chile,  and,  indeed,  to  horticulturists  over  the  world. 
He  began  with  very  little  and  with  no  encouragement  or 
even  belief  on  the  part  of  the  local  Chilean  landholders 
that  he  could  do  anything  at  all  with  the  project  he  was 
starting.  But  in  time  there  came  to  be  gardens,  orchards, 
finally  a  colony  employing  about  400  people,  having  its 
own  grist  mill  and  its  own  self-sustaining  facilities  with 
a  chapel  in  which  worship  is  regularly  conducted,  and  an 


REED,   MARSHALL   RUSSELL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Elbert  E.   Reed 

amazing  success  in  the  planting  of  shrubs,  flowers,  fruit 
trees,  and  hardy  trees  for  timber.  The  Chilean  government 
after  a  time  recognized  this  remarkable  achievement  by 
calling  upon  Elbert  Reed  for  various  types  of  services 
and  authorities  in  horticulture  over  South  America  and 
foreign  lands  were  accustomed  to  write  him  for  advice  on 
various  matters  connected  with  their  work.  With  all  the 
colony  was  a  Christian  one  in  every  way,  and  practical 
Christianity  was  exemplified  in  all  its  attitudes  and  under- 
takings. El  Vergel  was  struck  by  an  earthquake  and  badly 
damaged  in  May  I960  and  the  Christians  of  Chile  and 
Methodists  of  the  world  rallied  to  build  back  what  had 
been  destroyed  in  the  chapel  and  facilities. 

Reed  contributed  to  the  development  of  the  fruit  in- 
dustries and  to  the  beautification  of  city  streets,  parks,  and 
gardens.  His  procedures  in  soil  conservation  and  farm 
management  were  widely  adopted  and  became  important 
to  food  production. 

In  1922  he  was  married  to  Marian  Harrington,  daughter 
of  the  Rev.  and  Mrs.  Francis  M.  Harrington,  mission- 
aries in  Chile  and  founders  of  The  Methodist  Church  and 
schools  in  Bolivia. 

For  his  work  in  Chile,  Reed  has  received  awards  by  the 
Government  of  Chile,  Agricultural  Missions,  Inc.,  and  the 
Alumni  Association  of  Iowa  State  College.  He  retired  to 
California  to  live. 

Edwin  Maynabd 

REED,  MARSHALL  RUSSELL  (1891-1973),  American  bish- 
op, was  bom  at  Ousted,  Mich.,  on  Sept.  15,  1891,  the 
son  of  Fred  P.  and  Elsie  A.  (Russell)  Reed.  From  Albion 
College  he  received  the  A.B.  degree  in  1914  and  the 
D.D.  in  1931;  and  from  Garbett  Theological  Seminary 
the  B.D.  in  1916  and  the  D.D.  in  1940.  Northwestern 
University  granted  him  the  M.A.  degree  in  1917  and 
the  S.T.D.  in  1953;  and  Adrian  College,  the  LL.D. 
in  1959.  He  also  studied  at  Drew  University. 


He  was  ordained  in  1917  and  served  pastorates  in 
Gaines,  1917-18;  Onaway,  1918-19;  Calvary  Church,  De- 
troit, 1919-23;  Jefferson  Avenue,  Detroit,  1923-28; 
Ypsilanti,  1928-34;  Nardin  Park  Church,  Detroit,  1934- 
48,  all  these  being  in  Michigan.  He  was  elected  a  bishop 
of  The  Methodist  Church  at  the  North  Central 
Jurisdictional  Conference  at  Indianapolis,  Ind.  in  July 
1948,  and  was  assigned  to  the  Michigan  Area. 

He  married  Mary  Esther  Kirkendall  on  May  14,  1917, 
and  they  had  three  daughters,  Elizabeth  Jan  (Mrs.  Allan 
Grav),  Elsie  Mae  (Mrs.  John  Ferentz),  and  Mary  Louise 
(Mrs.  William  Ives). 

Bishop  Reed  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1932,  '36,  and  to  that  of  The 
Mediodist  Church  in  1940,  '44,  and  '48 — when  he  was 
elected  bishop.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  Uniting 
Conference  in  1939.  He  served  on  the  General  Board  of 
the  National  Council  of  Churches,  on  the  Board  of 
Missions,  on  the  Board  of  Pensions  (of  which  he  was 
president),  and  on  the  Commission  on  Interjurisdictional 
Relations.  He  was  chairman  of  the  National  Methodist 
Conference  on  Urban  Life,  1962,  and  the  president  of 
the  Council  of  Bishops,  1962-63.  He  served  as  trustee 
of  the  Children's  Home  Society,  the  Chelsea  Home 
for  the  Aged,  of  Adrian  College,  and  of  Albion  Col- 
lege in  Michigan.  His  official  travel  visitations  as  bishop 
took  him  to  Chile,  1950,  and  a  four-month  visitation  to 
India  and  the  Orient  in  1951,  at  the  request  of  the 
Council  of  Bishops.  He  was  the  official  visitor  to  Europe 
and  North  Africa  in  1955.  Upon  his  retirement  in  1964, 
he  continued  to  reside  in  Ousted,  Mich.  He  died  March  1, 
1973,  in  Chelsea,  Mich. 


Who's  W/io  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966. 


N.  B.  H. 


REED,  MARY  (1854-1943),  an  heroic  missionary  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  was  bom  in  a  prosperous  family  in  Lowell, 
Ohio,  and  educated  in  that  state.  She  came  to  Kanpur, 
India  in  1884,  but  became  ill  a  few  weeks  later,  and  was 
sent  to  Pithoragarh  in  the  Himalayas  to  recuperate  and  to 
study  Hindi.  On  a  ridge  above  her  temporary  home  at 
the  mission,  she  saw  a  colony  of  lepers,  and  felt  that 
God  wished  her  to  serve  them  and  would  in  time  show 
her  how.  She  returned  to  Kanpur  and  sei"ved  there  until 
she  was  appointed  in  1889  to  Gonda. 

The  next  year  she  went  to  America  on  furlough.  In 
her  homeland  she  became  ill  again,  and  was  treated  in 
Christ  Methodist  Hospital  in  Cincinnati.  A  tingling  sensa- 
tion in  the  forefinger  of  her  right  hand  and  a  strange  scar 
on  her  right  cheek  baffled  the  physicians.  One  day,  "as 
clearly  as  if  a  voice  had  spoken,"  she  learned  that  her 
disease  was  leprosy,  and  that  she  should  return  to  India 
to  serve  the  lepers  at  Pithoragarh.  She  told  her  physician 
of  the  "revelation"  that  she  knew  God  had  given  her  about 
her  condition.  He  consulted  other  physicians  who  were 
acquainted  with  leprosy  and  they  confirmed  the  diagnosis. 
Within  her  family  she  told  only  one  sister  before  saying 
good-bye  to  parents  and  other  loved  ones  and  friends.  In 
London  and  Paris  she  consulted  "experts  on  leprosy,  who 
confirmed  her  conviction  and  the  diagnosis  made  in  Ohio. 

From  Bombay  she  wrote  to  her  sister  and  asked  her  to 
tell  her  mother.  She  proceeded  to  Pithoragarh  with  joy, 
fully  persuaded  that  she  was  under  God's  compulsive 
guidance.  With  backing  from  her  church  and  the  British 
Mission  to  Lepers,  she  developed   at  Chandag  Heights, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


REED,   WILLIAM 


two  miles  above  Pithoragarh,  a  lovely  home  for  the  home- 
less and  gave  herself  unreservedly  to  serving  sufferers  from 
leprosy.  While  she  never  doubted  that  the  physicians 
were  correct  in  diagnosing  her  illness,  she  lived  in  the 
assurance  that  God  was  holding  it  in  check  to  enable  her 
to  serve  others  without  fear.  She  alleviated  the  suffering 
of  hundreds  and  led  a  great  company  of  afflicted  people 
to  Jesus  Christ  and  the  joy  of  discipleship.  She  returned 
to  America  just  once  to  say  good-bye  to  her  family  and 
country.  After  1912  she  never  departed  from  the  hills  of 
Eastern  Kumaun. 

Some  of  those  whom  she  received  into  her  home  came 
out  of  Nepal,  and  others  from  Bhot  on  the  border  of 
Tibet.  She  maintained  a  guest  house  near  her  house  and 
many  people  from  India,  Great  Britain,  and  America 
traveled  to  Chandag  Heights  to  meet  her.  She  had  a  well- 
stocked  library  and  kept  abreast  of  history — local,  Indian, 
and  world.  Her  book  The  Unfailing  Presence  tells  the 
secret  of  how  she  lived  alone  and  achieved  so  much. 

Lee  S.  Huizenga,  Mary  Reed  of  Chandag.  Grand  Rapids, 
Mich.:  Zondervan  Publishing  House,  n.d. 

E.  Mackerchar,  Manj  Reed  of  Chandag.  London:  Mission  to 
Lepers,  n.d.  J.  Waskom  Pickett 

REED,  NELSON  (1751-1840),  American  minister,  was 
born  in  Anne  Arundel  County,  Md.,  Nov.  27,  1751,  and 
entered  the  traveling  ministry  on  Petersburg  (Virginia) 
Circuit,  June  1778.  He  was  ordained  elder  at  the  Christ- 
mas Conference  and  presided  ten  years  over  various 
districts  before  his  marriage  and  location  in  1800.  In  1805 
he  re-entered  the  Baltimore  Conference,  where  his 
comrades  knew  him  for  integrity  and  humble  piety,  and 
there  served  twelve  additional  years  as  a  presiding  elder 
before  retiring  in  1821. 

Six  times  elected  to  General  Conferences  (1808-28), 
he  led  the  1824  delegation.  Although  reputedly  the 
world's  oldest  Methodist  preacher,  he  remained  active 
and  in  the  closing  year  of  life,  as  the  sole  sui'viving 
Cokesburv  trustee,  deeded  the  college  property  to  Abing- 
don Church.  He  died  Oct.  20,  1840  at  Baltimore.  His 
journal,  1778-82,  is  in  the  Methodist  Historical  Society, 
Baltimore. 

J.  E.  Armstrong,  Old  Baltimore  Conference.  1907. 
E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Edwin  Schell 


REED,  SETH  (1823-1924),  American  minister,  was  born 
in  Otsego  County,  N.  Y.,  on  June  2,  1823,  of  Puritan 
New  England  ancestry.  The  father  died  before  his  birth, 
leaving  the  mother  and  four  children  to  struggle  on  a 
pioneer  farm.  In  1840,  at  seventeen  years  of  age,  he  began 
to  teach  school. 

In  1842  the  family  moved  to  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 
where  he  taught  everything  from  alphabet  to  astronomy  in 
rural  schools,  gaining  his  knowledge  by  home  study.  Ex- 
pecting to  enter  the  legal  profession,  he  also  studied  law 
and  became  familiar  with  Blackstone's  Commentaries. 

His  mother  had  been  a  Universalist  and  had  brought  up 
the  boy  in  that  faith;  but  before  leaving  New  York  he  had 
undergone  a  conversion  and  joined  the  Methodists.  In 
Grand  Rapids  he  responded  to  the  call  of  the  ministry 
and  entered  the  Michigan  Conference  in  the  fall  of 
1844.  For  the  next  seventy-nine  years  he  answered  the 
annual  conference  roll  call  in  person,   a  denominational 


record.  His  early  circuits  were  Flat  River,  Mapleton, 
Bennington  and  Genesee,  circuits  which  covered  entire 
counties,  where  the  preacher  followed  trails,  corduroy 
roads,  and  met  deer  and  bear  and  pagan  Indians. 

In  1847  he  married  Harriett  W.  Russell,  who  was  his 
companion  for  fifty-one  years.  To  them  four  children  were 
born.  Among  his  city  appointments  were  Mount  Clemens, 
Pontiac,  Flint,  Ypsilanti,  Ann  Arbor,  and  Detroit.  For  a 
period  of  eighteen  years  he  served  as  a  district  superinten- 
dent. During  the  Civil  War  he  served  both  Union  and 
Confederate  forces  as  a  member  of  the  Christian  Com- 
mission. 

When  the  Detroit  Conference  was  organized  in 
1856,  he  was  elected  its  first  secretary,  a  position  he  held 
for  four  years.  In  1895  he  was  one  of  the  organizers  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  at  W.-vshington,  D.  C.  He  also 
served  as  the  first  superintendent  of  the  Methodist  Home 
for  the  Aged  at  Chelsea,  Mich. 

After  his  retirement  and  his  marriage  to  Henrietta 
Andrews,  following  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  he  resided 
in  Flint.  His  one  hundredth  birthday  in  1923  was  the 
occasion  of  a  civic  and  Conference-wide  celebration.  He 
died  March  24,  1924  and  was  buried  in  Glenwood 
Cemetery,  Flint,  Mich. 

Minutes  of  the  Michigan  and  Detroit  Conferences. 

E.  H.  Pilcher,  Michigan.  1878. 

Setli   Reed,    The   Story   of  My   Life.   Cincinnati:    Jennings   & 

Graham,    1914.  William    C.    S.    Pellowe 

REED,  WALTER  (1851-1902),  noted  American  physician, 
head  of  the  United  States  Army  Yellow  Fever  Commission 
and  the  one  generally  credited  with  the  discovery  of  the 
mosquito  as  the  carrier  of  yellow  fever.  He  was  bom  in 
Belroi,  Gloucester  Co.,  Va.,  on  Sept.  13,  1851,  his  father 
being  Lemuel  Sutlor  Reed  who  sei"V'ed  for  forty  years 
as  a  Methodist  preacher  in  the  Virginia  Conference 
(MES).  Living  in  Charlottesville,  he  attended  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia,  obtaining  a  medical  degree  in  1869  and  a 
second  degree  from  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College 
(later  merged  with  New  York  University's  Medical 
School)  in  1870.  In  1874  he  went  into  the  Medical  Corps 
of  the  U.  S.  Army. 

Reed's  work  will  always  be  associated  with  the  work 
of  the  Yellow  Fever  Commission  and  with  the  consequent 
control  of  that  disease.  The  Walter  Reed  General  Hospital 
in  Washington  was  subsequently  named  in  his  honor. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  "of  a  lively,  happy  disposition, 
enthusiastic  and  optimistic  in  everything  to  which  he 
turned  his  hand."  He  is  one  of  the  few  Methodists  whose 
bust  has  been  placed  in  the  Hall  of  Fame  of  Great  Ameri- 
cans in  New  York  City. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

Consult   also    H.   A.    Kelh',   Walter  Reed  and  Yellow   Fever, 

3rd  Edition.  1923. 

The  Hall  of  Fame  for  Great  Americans  at  New  York  University. 

Edited   by  Theodore  Morello.   New  York:    New  York   Uni\er- 

sity  Press,  1967.  N.  B.  H. 

REED,  WILLIAM  (1800-1858),  British  Bible  Christian 
minister,  was  born  at  Holwell,  Buckland  Brewer,  North 
Devon,  in  October,  1800.  His  family  united  with  Wil- 
Li.\M  O'Bryan,  and  Reed  accompanied  James  Thor.ne 
on  itineraiy  in  1819.  Diffident  and  retiring  as  a  youth,  he 
developed  remarkable  powers  of  oratory,  sustained  prayer, 
and  spiritual  persuasion,   and   during  his   year   at   Hols- 


REESE,    ELI   YEATES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


worthy  four  hundred  members  were  received  on  trial.  In 
1835  he  helped  to  reconcile  many  who  had  followed 
O'Bryan  out  of  the  connection.  He  was  four  times  presi- 
dent of  Conference,  and  F.  W.  BouR>fE  considered  him 
the  greatest  preacher  of  the  denomination.  Reed  died  at 
Barnstaple  on  May  9,  1858,  and  was  buried  at  Lake. 

Alyx  W.  G.  Court 


Eli  Yeates  Reese 

REESE,  ELI  YEATES  (1816-1861),  American  preacher,  poet, 
educator,  singer,  was  for  nineteen  years  the  editor  of  The 
Methodist  Protestant,  the  official  organ  of  the  M.  P. 
Church.  Reese  was  born  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  on  Jan.  18, 
1816,  the  youngest  of  four  preacher  brothers  who  were 
actively  identified  with  the  M.  P.  Church.  These  brothers 
were  the  sons  of  David  and  Mary  Reese.  John  S.  Reese, 
M.D.  (May  15,  1790-Feb.  15,  1855)  served  as  president 
of  the  Maryland  Conference  many  times;  Levi  R. 
Reese  was  chaplain  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
Congress  in  1837-38;  Daniel  E.  Reese  (Feb.  17,  1810- 
April  23,  1877)  was  president  of  the  Maryland  Confer- 
ence from  1871-73.  Eli  Yeates  Reese  was  elected  editor  of 
The  Methodist  Protestant  on  Oct.  13,  1838,  retired  on 
July  22,  1843,  and  served  again  as  editor  from  July  25, 
1846,  until  his  death  on  Sept.  14,  1861.  He  was  the  prin- 
cipal compiler  of  the  Hymn  Book  of  the  Methodist  Protes- 
tant Church,  published  by  authority  of  the  General 
Conference  of  1859. 

Reese  was  popular  as  a  public  lecturer  both  in  Baltimore 
and  elsewhere  in  the  United  States  and  often  spoke  on  the 
Lyceum  circuit.  His  death  resulted  from  a  mental  depres- 
sion which  came  about  as  the  War  Between  the  States 
severely  cut  the  circulation  of  his  paper  south  of  the 
Potomac  River.  Also  the  death  of  his  wife  a  year  earlier 
had  a  profound  effect.  He  was  buried  in  the  Baltimore 
Cemetery. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1877. 

T.  H.  Colhouer,  Sketches  of  the  Founders.  1880. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform.  1899. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 


REESE,  LEVI  R.  (1806-1851),  American  M.P.  leader  of 
considerable  note  in  his  connection  and  president  of  its 
General  Conference  for  a  term,  was  born  in  Harford 
County,  Md.,  Feb.  8,  1806.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he 
was  employed  as  an  assistant  teacher  in  an  academy, 
where  he  increased  his  literary  attainments.  He  planned 
to  enter  the  naval  service,  but  the  death  of  a  young  friend 
made  a  deep  impression  on  his  mind,  and  under  the 
pointed  exhortation  of  a  preacher  he  was  converted  and 
united  with  the  M.E.  Church,  being  about  twenty  years 
of  age.  He  espoused  the  cause  of  reform,  then  being 
agitated  in  Baltimore,  joined  the  Union  society,  and 
became  secretary  to  that  body;  and  in  the  controversies 
which  arose  he  was  among  the  number  excommunicated 
from  the  M.E.  Church  on  the  charge  of  "sowing  dissen- 
sion in  the  church  and  speaking  evil  of  ministers."  He 
immediately  entered  into  the  active  ministry  of  the  new 
Methodist  Protestant  Church,  and  spent  two  or  three 
years  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  He  subsequently 
served  in  every  important  station  and  in  every  official 
position  in  the  body  with  which  he  was  connected.  For 
two  successive  years  he  was  chosen  president;  was  repeat- 
edly a  representative  in  the  General  Conference;  and  at 
one  time  presided  over  its  deliberations.  He  was  elected 
chaplain  to  the  House  of  Representatives  in  Congress 
in  1837-38.  During  his  chaplaincy  a  regrettable  duel  oc- 
curred which  stirred  public  circles  greatly,  and  Levi  Reese 
delivered  an  impressive  address  which  Bishop  Simpson 
says  was  one  of  "delicacy,  fidelity,  and  pathos."  He  also 
delivered  in  the  Capitol  a  series  of  discourses  on  the 
obligations  of  the  Sabbath,  which  were  afterwards  pub- 
lished. He  was  the  author  of  Thoughts  of  an  Itinerant. 
He  died  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Sept.  21,  1851. 

M.   Simpson,    Cyclopaedia.    1878.  N.  B.  H. 

REEVES,  HANNAH  PEARCE  (1800-1868),  born  in  Devon- 
shire, England,  Jan.  30,  1800,  became  one  of  the  first 
itinerant  woman  preachers  in  the  M.P.  Church  and  there- 
fore a  pioneer  among  women  in  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  who  sought  the  right  to  share  the  lecture 
platform  and  the  pulpit  with  men.  She  began  preaching 
among  the  Bible  Christians  at  the  age  of  nineteen  and 
traveled  on  circuits  in  England  and  Wales.  Subsequently 
she  came  to  America  and  on  July  5,  1831,  was  married  to 
William  Reeves  (Dec.  5,  1802-April  20,  1871).  Reeves,  a 
native  of  Staplehurst,  Kent,  England,  had  come  to  the 
United  States  in  1829  and  become  a  minister  in  the  Ohio 
Annual  Conference  of  the  M.P.  Church.  At  the  division 
of  the  Ohio  Conference  in  1833,  he  continued  in  the  newly 
formed  Pittsburgh  Conference,  which  he  later  served 
frequently  as  president.  He  became  a  member  of  several 
General  Conferences  and  conventions  of  the  denomi- 
nation. 

Upon  arrival  in  America  the  couple  immediately  began 
their  joint  career  in  the  reform  movement  of  this  church. 
Though  Mrs.  Reeves  was  offered  an  appointment  on  her 
own,  she  declined,  preferring  to  accompany  and  assi.st 
her  husband  in  his  work.  She  was  described  as  an  "earnest 
and  successful  speaker,  and  was  active  in  works  of  benev- 
olence and  philanthropy."  Her  health  during  the  last  nine 
years  of  her  life  kept  her  from  regular  public  appearances, 
but  she  continued  to  be  active  in  assisting  churches,  Sun- 
day schools  and  benevolent  societies.  In  1848  her  husband 
published  at  Putnam,  Ohio,  a  defense  of  the  ministry  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


REFORMED   ZION    UNION   APOSTOLIC   CHURCH 


women;  and  George  Brown  wrote  a  book  relating  her 
life  and  services. 

She  died  on  Nov.  13,  1868,  in  New  Brighton,  Pa. 

A.  H.  Bassett,  Concise  History.  1887. 

George  Brown,  The  Lady  Preacher;  or.  The  Life  and  Labors 

of  Mrs.  Hannah  Reeves   (Philadelphia:   Daughaday  &  Becker, 

1870). 

T.  H.  Colhouer,  Sketches  of  the  Founders.  1880. 

E.  J.  Drinkhouse,  History  of  Methodist  Reform,  1899. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1882. 

REEVES,  JONATHAN  (dates  unknown),  British  Method- 
ist, was  one  of  John  Wesley's  earliest  supporters.  Reeves 
labored  with  success  both  in  Cornwall  and  Ireland.  He 
attended  the  Conferences  of  1746,  1747,  and  1748  and 
was  appointed  a  trustee  of  the  Oiphan  House  in  Bristol. 
He  sought  episcopal  ordination  and  accepted  the  chap- 
laincy of  the  Magdalen  Hospital,  London,  in  1758.  He 
later  sei-ved  as  a  curate  in  Whitechapel  and  as  rector  of 
West  Ham,  Essex. 

A.  Skevington  Wood 


REFORMED  METHODIST  CHURCH  was  formed  in  1814 
in  Readsborough,  Vt.,  by  a  group  of  Methodists  led  by 
Pliny  Brett,  a  local  preacher.  At  their  first  conference, 
Feb.  4,  1814,  they  adopted  some  Articles  of  Religion  and 
rules  for  church  government.  The  government  was  es- 
sentially congregational  with  no  sharp  distinctions  being 
made  bet^veen  ministers  and  laymen.  While  the  Meth- 
odist system  of  representative  conferences  was  kept,  min- 
isters were  delegates  only  if  elected,  not  e,\-ofEcio.  The 
local  church  was  the  focus  of  power,  having  the  right 
to  ordain  elders,  select  their  own  ministers  and  do  what- 
ever else  was  necessary  to  carry  on  their  work.  Ministers, 
likewise,  could  pick  their  field  of  service. 

Their  doctrine  was  essentially  Wesleyan  though  they 
emphasized  divine  heahng  and  the  possilsihty  of  attaining 
entire  sanctification  in  this  life.  However,  church  member- 
ship did  not  rest  upon  assent  to  any  particular  doctrine, 
but  in  the  fruits  of  righteousness  obtained.  They  were 
anti-slavery  and  had  an  article  against  war. 

From  Vermont,  the  church  spread  into  the  rest  of 
New  England,  Canada  and  New  York.  In  1837  it  began 
publication  of  The  South  Courtland  Luminary,  which  be- 
came the  Fayetteville  Luminary  in  1939  and  the  Meth- 
odist Reformer  in  1942. 

In  1838  Pliny  Brett,  a  large  group  in  Ohio,  and  a  large 
group  in  Massachusetts  left  the  Reformed  Methodists 
for  the  M.P.  Church.  Even  in  this  weakened  condition, 
the  church  continued  to  exist  as  a  separate  body  until 
1952  when  it  united  with  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Chris- 
tian Union  and  is  now  known  as  the  North  Eastern  Dis- 
trict of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  Christian  Union. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

Vincent   L.    Milner,   Religious   Denominations  of   the   World, 

1872. 

Yearbook  of  American  Churches,  1967.       J.  Gordon  Melton 

REFORMED  METHODIST  UNION  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

The  Reformed  Methodist  Union  Episcopal  Church  was 
formed  in  1885  by  members  of  the  A.M.E.  Church  who 
withdrew  after  a  dispute  concerning  the  election  of  min- 
isterial delegates  to  General  Conference.  William  E.  John- 
son was  elected  the  first  president.  A  strong  sentiment  of 


and  for  the  non-episcopal  nature  of  the  new  church  was 
expressed.  However,  in  1896,  steps  were  taken  to  alter  the 
polity;  and  in  1919  after  the  death  of  Johnson,  E.  Russell 
Middleton  was  elected  bishop.  He  was  consecrated  by  Rt. 
Rev.  Peter  F.  Stevens  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church. 
Following  Middleton's  death,  a  second  bishop  was  elected 
and  consecrated  by  the  laying  on  of  hands  of  seven  elders 
of  the  church. 

Doctrine  was  taken  from  the  M.E.  Church.  The  polity 
has  moved  in  that  direction  and  was  fully  adopted  in  1916. 
Class  meetings  and  love  feasts  are  also  retained.  There 
were  16,198  members  in  thirty-one  churches  reported  in 
1967. 

Frank  S.   Mead,   Handbook  of  Denominations  in  the   United 

States.  Nashville:  Abingdon,  1965. 

Yearbook  of  American  Churches.  J.  Gordon  Melton 

REFORMED  NEW  CONGREGATIONAL  METHODIST 
CHURCH.  The  Reformed  New  Congregational  Church 
was  formed  in  1916  by  Earl  Wilcoxen,  a  minister  of  the 
Congregational  Methodist  Church,  and  J.  A.  Sander, 
an  independent  minister.  Using  the  doctrines  of  repen- 
tance, forgiveness  and  justification  as  their  main  points, 
they  began  a  preaching  tour  through  southern  Indiana 
and  Illinois  and  gathered  con\erts  into  congregations. 

The  church  is  of  the  "holiness"  type  believing  in  the 
forsaking  of  sin  by  the  sinner  and  the  reception  of  divine 
light  by  God.  They  believe  that  war  is  contrary  to  Jesus' 
teaching  and  they  condemn  divorce,  fancy  wearing  ap- 
parel, and  secret  societies. 

As  its  name  implies,  the  church  is  congregational  in 
government  and  each  elects  its  own  pastor  who  is  paid  by 
freewill  offering.  No  statistics  later  than  1936  are  avail- 
able at  which  time  there  were  eight  churches  with  329 
members. 


Census  of  Religious  Bodies,  1936. 


J.  Gordon  Melton 


REFORMED  ZION  UNION  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH.  The  Re- 
formed Zion  Union  Apostohc  Church  was  founded  by  a 
group  from  the  A.M.E.  Church  interested  in  setting  up  a 
religious  organization  "to  aid  in  bringing  about  Christian 
Union,  whose  fruit  will  be  Holiness  unto  the  Lord."  Led 
by  James  Howell,  the  group  met  at  Boydton,  Va.,  in  April 
1869  and  organized  the  Zion  Union  Apostolic  Church  with 
James  Howell  as  the  president.  Harmony  and  growth  pre- 
vailed until  1874,  when  changes  in  polity  led  to  the  elec- 
tion of  Howell  as  bishop  with  life  tenure.  Dissatisfaction 
witli  this  action  nearly  destroyed  the  organization  even 
though  Bishop  Howell  resigned.  In  1882  a  reorganization 
was  effected,  the  four-year  presidental  structure  reinsti- 
tuted,  and  the  present  name  adopted. 

A  representative  conference  structure  is  maintained  with 
the  law-making  power  invested  in  a  quadrennial  General 
Conference.  Over  the  years  the  four-year  presidency  has 
again  been  dropped  in  favor  of  fife-tenure  bishops.  A 
board  of  publication  has  control  over  church  literature 
and  publishes  the  church  school  material  and  the  Union 
Searchlight,  a  periodical. 

In  1965,  the  Refoimed  Zion  Union  Apostolic  Church 
reported  16,000  members  in  fifty  churches. 

General  Rules  and  Discipline  of  the  Reformed  Zion  Union 
.Apostolic  Church,    1966.  J.   Gordon   Melton 


REGISTRATION    FOR   WORSHIP    AND    MARRIAGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


REGISTRATION  FOR  WORSHIP  AND  MARRIAGES.  Fol- 
lowing the  eviction  of  over  two  thousand  clergymen  of 
the  Church  of  England,  under  the  Act  of  Uniformity, 
1662,  and  the  oppressive  Conventicle  Act,  1664,  some 
relief  was  given  to  dissenters  by  the  Act  of  Toleration, 
1689,  under  which  dissenting  meetinghouses  might  be 
licensed.  With  the  extension  of  Methodist  preaching 
houses,  as  they  were  called,  John  Wesley  was  faced  with 
a  great  difficulty.  He  rightly  maintained  that  the  Meth- 
odists were  not  dissenters  but,  many  of  them,  members  of 
the  Established  Church,  and  that  the  preaching  houses 
were  not  used  during  church  hours.  He  finally  agreed, 
after  taking  legal  advice,  but  under  protest,  that  Methodist 
chapels  might  be  licensed  under  the  Act  of  Toleration. 
This  was  one  factor  which  involved  definite  separation 
from  the  Church  of  England.  It  was  not  until  toward  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  the  continuing  dis- 
abilities were  removed.  The  present  requirements  in  re- 
spect of  all  Nonconformist  places  of  worship  are  as  fol- 
lows: (1)  A  building  which  is  intended  to  be  used  for 
public  worship  must  be  registered  for  that  purpose  before 
use.  Sketch  plans  may  be  required  by  the  Superintendent 
Registrar,  and  a  fee  of  2/6  has  to  be  paid.  (2)  A  building 
registered  for  public  worship  must  be  further  registered 
if  it  is  desired  that  it  should  be  used  for  the  solemnization 
of  marriages.  A  fee  of  £4.10.0  is  payable  to  the  Registrar 
General.  The  presence  of  the  official  registrar  to  witness 
and  register  the  marriage  is  necessary  unless  otherwise 
provided  as  under  (3).  (3)  An  "authorized  person" — 
minister  or  layman — may  be  certified  on  the  appropriate 
form  in  triplicate  to  the  Registrar  General  and  when  of- 
ficially registered  can  take  the  place  of  the  registrar  in 
attendance  at  the  ceremony  and  in  registering  the  mar- 
riage. No  fee  is  required  in  securing  this  appointment, 
but  there  are  certain  conditions  including  the  provision  of 
a  suitable  safe  for  the  security  of  registers. 

Registrations  (1),  (2),  and  (3)  can  all  be  undertaken 
at  the  same  time  if  so  desired. 

E.  Benson  Perkins 

REHOBOTH  BEACH,  DELAWARE,  U.S.A.,  a  seaside  resort 
community,  is  situated  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Delaware  Bay  and  forty  miles  from  Dover. 
Because  Robert  W.  Todd,  a  Methodist  minister,  sug- 
gested at  a  Wilmington  preachers'  meeting  that  an  ocean- 
side  religious  gathering  might  prove  popular,  a  camp 
MEETING  was  begun  at  Rehoboth  in  1872.  When  land 
was  secured  and  lots  laid  out,  Todd  was  made  manager. 
The  resort  town,  a  direct  outgrowth  of  the  camp  meeting, 
developed  slowly.  From  the  camp  meeting  program  two 
churches  were  eventually  organized:  the  first,  nonsectarian 
under  Methodist  control,  was  built  by  summer  residents 
and  called  "Bishop  Scott's  Church"  after  the  bishop  who 
pr&sided  at  the  1880  dedication;  the  second,  Epworth 
Church,  was  built  in  1889.  When  fire  destroyed  Scott's 
Church  in  1913  the  two  congregations  united,  using  the 
site  of  the  former  church,  rebuilding  and  enlarging  the 
old  structure,  and  taking  the  name  of  the  latter  church. 
In  1970  Epworth  Church  property  was  valued  at  $381,- 
260;  its  membership  numbered  515,  there  were  260 
church  school  students. 

General  Minutes. 

E.  C.  Hallman,  Garden  of  Methodism.  1948.  Ernest  R.  Case 


Rehoboth  Church 

REHOBOTH  CHURCH,  one  of  the  national  Historic 
Shrines  of  American  Methodism,  located  on  a  five-acre 
tract  two  miles  east  of  Union,  Monroe  Co.,  W.  Va.,  is 
the  oldest  Protestant  church  edifice  west  of  the  Alleghe- 
nies.  A  log  structure  some  twenty-one  by  twenty-nine 
feet  with  a  narrow  gallery  which  will  seat  nearly  as  many 
people  as  the  room  below,  the  church  was  built  in  1786. 

Under  the  leadership  of  local  preachers  who  hved 
among  the  settlers  in  the  region,  a  Methodist  society  was 
organized  there  in  1784.  The  group  met  in  a  schoolhouse 
which  stood  near  the  site  of  the  present  church.  About 
1785,  Methodist  circuit  riders  by  the  names  of  William 
Phoebus  and  Lasley  Matthews  visited  the  area,  and  under 
Phoebus'  ministry,  Edward  Keenan,  a  fonner  Roman 
Catholic,  was  converted.  Keenan  led  in  building  Rehoboth 
Church.  His  tombstone  northeast  of  the  church  reads, 
"Edward  Keenan,  born  1742,  died  August  11,  1826.  He 
built  Rehoboth  Church,  and  gave  the  lot  of  ground." 

Rehoboth  Church  gave  Methodism  a  foothold  in  a 
region  where  there  were  still  forts  against  the  Indians. 
In  1787  the  Greenbrier  Circuit  which  included  Rehoboth 
Church  was  formed,  and  John  Smith  was  appointed  to 
travel  it.  Setting  out  to  organize  Methodism  in  the  terri- 
tory. Smith  used  Rehoboth  Church  as  his  rallying  point. 
Smith's  journal  shows  that  he  visited  Rehoboth  Church 
the  first  time  on  July  29,  1787.  Also,  it  indicates  that  he 
was  ordained  deacon  there  by  Bishop  Asbury  on  July  5 
or  6,  1788  in  the  first  ordination  ceremony  ever  conducted 
west  of  the  Alleghenies.  According  to  Asbury's  journal, 
he  conducted  three  conferences  at  Rehoboth  Church — 
1792,  1793,  and  1796 — and  in  addition  he  preached  in 
the  church  in  1790  and  1797. 

Rehoboth  Church  was  used  regularly  as  a  place  of  wor- 
ship for  more  than  a  century.  From  the  early  days  people 
in  the  vicinity  manifested  concern  for  the  log  church 
and  gave  it  protection  and  care.  It  is  now  the  property  of 
the  Commission  on  Archives  and  History  of  the  West 
Virginia  Conference.  In  recent  years  a  steel  canopy  has 
been  erected  over  the  old  log  structure  to  protect  it  from 
the  elements. 

The  1960  General  Conference  designated  Rehoboth 
Church  as  a  national  Historic  Shrine  of  American  Meth- 
odism. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

Kibler,  j.  L.,  A  Historical  Sketch  of  Rehoboth  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South  Monroe  County,  West  Virginia. 
Journal  of  John  Smith.  Unpublished.  At  Garrett  Theologi- 
cal Seminary.  Lawrence  F.  Sherwood 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RELIGION    IN    LIFE 


REID,  ALEXANDER  (1821-1891),  New  Zealand  minis- 
ter, was  born  in  Edinburgh,  Scotland.  As  a  young  man, 
he  became  a  teacher,  both  at  Oxford  and  at  Bath.  Fired 
with  enthusiasm  for  the  missionary  cause,  he  offered  for 
service  in  Africa  and  was  sent  for  training  to  Richmond 
College,  London.  He  was  there  only  twenty-four  hours, 
for  a  letter  came  from  Walter  La\vby  asking  for  hvo  of 
the  best  men,  and  Reid  was  one  of  those  chosen.  Or- 
dained and  married  in  1848,  he  reached  New  Zealand 
in  1849,  and  was  appointed  principal  of  Wesley  College, 
Three  Kings. 

After  eight  years  of  strenuous  teaching  and  preaching, 
Reid's  health  gave  way  and  he  was  sent  to  the  Te  Kopua 
Mission  Station.  There  he  won  the  deep  affection  of  the 
Maoris,  who  picked  him  up  bodily  and  carried  him  to 
safety  when  the  Maori  Wars  brought  alien  tribes  to  the 
district.  After  working  among  the  British  troops,  he  served 
in  leading  circuits  until  1885,  when  he  was  again  ap- 
pointed to  Three  Kings,  where  he  labored  until  his  death 
on  Aug.  25,  1891. 

He  helped  to  translate  the  Bible  into  the  Maori  lan- 
guage; he  attended  the  first  Ecumenical  Methodist 
Conference  in  London;  he  was  president  of  the  New 
Zealand  Wesleyan  Conference  in  1876;  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Auckland  University  Council;  he  was  a  leader  of 
men  and  a  prince  of  preachers. 

W.   Morley,   New  Zealand.    1900.  Wu,ijam  T.    Blight 


REID,  CLARENCE  FREDERICK  (1849-1915),  pioneer  mis- 
sionarv'  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  to  China  and  Korea, 
and  later  secretary  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Move- 
ment, was  bom  in  South  Oxford,  N.  Y.,  July  19,  1849.  As 
a  member  of  the  Kentucky  Conference  (MES),  he 
was  appointed  missionary  to  China,  arriving  in  Shanghai 
in  1878.  He  became  presiding  elder  of  the  Soochow  Dis- 
trict, and  was  a  charter  member  of  the  China  Mission  Con- 
ference, organized  in  1886. 

The  Soochow  missionaries  were  seeking  a  mission  field 
with  more  suitable  climate  for  those  who  found  the  Soo- 
chow area  unbearable,  and  in  1895,  Reid  and  Bishop 
Eugene  R.  Hendrix  visited  Seoul  for  that  purpose.  De- 
cision was  made  to  open  work,  and  Reid  was  named  super- 
intendent of  the  Korea  District  of  the  China  Conference. 
The  ne.xt  year  he  established  residence  in  Seoul,  surveyed 
the  Korea  field  and  began  work  in  both  Songdo  and  Seoul. 
In  1897  he  was  made  superintendent  of  the  newly  estab- 
lished Korea  Mission  by  the  Board  of  Missions  of  his 
church. 

Failing  health  caused  Reid  to  return  to  America  in 
1900,  but  he  never  forgot  his  zeal  for  work  in  China  and 
Korea.  His  remarkable  gifts  as  a  platform  speaker  made 
him  a  favorite  through  southern  Methodism,  especially 
for  his  address,  "The  Old  and  New  in  China." 

He  had  early  made  a  promise  of  a  hosptial  for  Songdo 
but  it  was  left  to  his  son,  Wightman  T.  Reid,  M.D.,  to  ful- 
fill that  dream.  A  generous  layman  from  Lynchburg,  Va. 
gave  $5,000,  and  in  1907,  the  son  went  to  Songdo  to  erect 
the  W.  C.  Ivey  Hospital  and  begin  the  medical  work 
which  continued  until  Songdo  was  over-run  by  the  Com- 
munists in  1950. 

After  returning  to  America,  Reid  became  superintendent 
of  work  for  Orientals  on  the  Pacific  Coast  for  his  denomi- 
nation, and  in  1909  was  named  secretary'  of  the  Laymen's 
Missionary  Movement.  His  energetic  leadership  secured 
among  other  things  legislation  in  the  1914  General  Con- 


ference giving  official  standing  to  the  work  of  the  lay- 
men of  the  church. 

Clarence  F.  Reid  died  in  Erlanger,  Ky.,  Oct.  7,  1915. 

Journal,   North  Alabama  Conference,   1915,  p.  225. 
The  Missionary  Voice,  November,  1915,  pp.  482-484. 

Charles  A.  Sauer 

REID,  FRANK  MADISON  (1898-1962),  an  American  bish- 
op of  the  A. M.E.  Church,  was  born  in  Nashville,  Tenn., 
on  Aug.  11,  1898.  He  received  the  A.B.  degree  from 
WiLBERFORCE  Unr'ERsity  (Ohio)  in  1921,  and  the  M.A., 
D.D.  and  LL.D.  (honorary)  from  Wilberforce  and  Allen 
Universities  respectively.  He  was  converted  in  1904,  Li- 
censed to  preach  in  1918  and  admitted  into  the  West 
Kentucky  Annual  Conference  in  1922.  He  was  ordained 
DEACON  in  1922  and  elder  in  1923.  He  held  pastorates 
in  Kentucky  and  Missouri.  He  was  elected  bishop  in 
1940  from  the  pastorate  of  St.  Paul  Church,  St.  Louis, 
Mo.  He  served  in  South  Africa  and  the  southern  L^nited 
States.  He  died  in  1962.  Bishop  Reid  was  active  in  the 
civil  rights  movement  in  South  Carolina  and  known  as 
an  eloquent  preacher. 

R.    R.    Wright,    The   Bishops.  Grant   S.    Shockley 

REINHARDT  COLLEGE,  Waleska,  Ga.,  was  established  in 
1883  as  Reinhardt  Normal  College  with  elementary  and 
secondary  schools.  The  college  was  named  for  Captain 
A.  M.  Reinhardt  of  Atlanta,  who  was  the  leading  influ- 
ence in  its  establishment.  The  elementary  school  trans- 
ferred to  the  public-school  system  in  1925,  and  the  sec- 
ondary work  was  discontinued  in  1956.  Samuel  Candler 
Dobbs,  a  nephew  of  Bishop  Warren  A.  Candler,  was 
chairman  of  the  board  of  trustees  from  1926  to  1951  and 
the  school's  chief  benefactor.  The  governing  board  consists 
of  forty-hvo  members  elected  by  the  board  and  confinmed 
by  the  North  Georgia  Annual  Conference. 

John  O.  Gross 

RELIEF  FUND,  METHODIST  (British),  began  as  a  private 
appeal  by  Henry  Carter  to  assist  refugees  in  Europe;  it 
has  been  administered  since  1951  by  the  Department 
OF  Christian  Citizenship.  It  gives  help  "in  special  cases 
of  emergency,  distress  or  need,  in  which  the  Methodist 
Church  has  a  particular  denominational  responsibility." 
This  is  in  practice  interjjreted  to  mean  Methodists  in  dis- 
tress, and  also  relief  projects  administered  by  Methodists. 
The  fund  now  serves  ( 1 )  to  give  immediate  assistance 
to  distress  caused  by  natural  catastrophes;  (2)  to  sustain 
refugee  relief  work  in  Germany,  Austria,  Hong  Kong, 
and  Algeria;  (3)  to  launch  eventually  self-supporting 
long-term  relief  projects,  e.g.  "Operation  Friendship"  in 
Jamaica,  an  orphanage  in  Uzuakoli,  an  agricultural  de- 
velopment project  in  Kenya;  (4)  to  provide  personal  as- 
sistance in  cases  of  acute  need.  There  is  regular  coopera- 
tion with  the  Methodist  Commission  on  Overseas 
Relief  (U.S.A.).  Annual  income  grew  from  £1,500  in 
1951  to  £34.000  in  1965,  an  indication  that  the  fund, 
though  kept  defiberately  subordinate  to  Inter-Church  Aid, 
exercises  a  growing  ministry'  of  practical  compassion. 

E.  Rogers 

RELIGION  IN  LIFE  is  a  quarterly  journal  published  by 
Abingdon  Press,  a  division  of  the  Methodist  Publishing 


RELIGIOUS   SOCIETIES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


House  of  The  United  Methodist  Church.  It  names  itself 
"A  Cliristian  Quarterly  of  opinion  and  discussion"  and 
makes  its  appeal  to  ministers  and  thinking  laymen  of  all 
denominations.  It  was  begun  in  the  early  1930's  by  John 
W.  Langdale,  the  book  editor  of  the  M.E.  Church  who 
felt  that  since  the  old  Quarterly  Review  had  been  dis- 
continued, and  the  Quarterly  Reoictc  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  was  about  to  be  discontinued,  a  journal  to  take 
the  place  of  these  traditionally  sponsored  Church  publica- 
tions might  well  be  published  with  success  and  profit.  This 
should  be  not  for  Methodism  alone,  but  for  a  wide  read- 
ing Christian  constituency  among  the  major  denominations 
of  the  United  States  and  it  was  hoped  over  the  English 
speaking  world.  The  publication  was  begun  by  the  Meth- 
odist Book  Concern  in  New  York  and  when  a  few  years 
later  at  Church  union  in  1939  the  Book  Concern  was 
merged  into  the  Methodist  Publishing  House,  the  Uniting 
Conference  itself — and  subsequent  General  Conferences — 
have  ordered  and  sponsored  the  publication  of  Religion 
in  Life. 

To  further  the  interdenominational  appeal,  the  editorial 
board  chosen  for  this  journal  has  always  had  in  its  mem- 
bership scholarly  and  representative  men  of  various  Chris- 
tian denominations.  On  its  "advisory  council"  likewise  are 
scholars,  theologians,  publicists  and  Church  leaders  of 
various  denominations.  The  book  editor  of  the  Methodist 
Church  is  directed  by  the  Discipline  to  edit  Religion  in 
Life  as  part  of  his  duties,  and  the  publication  of  the 
quarterly  is  entrusted  to  the  Methodist  Publishing  House. 
The  Board  of  Publication  of  The  United  Methodist 
Church  "at  its  descretion,  may  continue  the  publication 
of  the  quarterly  Religion  in  Life,  with  the  book  editor 
responsible  for  its  editorial  content." 

In  keeping  with  its  interdenominational  character.  Reli- 
gion in  Life  does  not  promote  specifically  the  fundamental 
Methodist  emphases  as  did  the  old  Reviews  of  the  past 
generation.  It  is  understood,  however,  that  as  it  is  under- 
written and  published  by  The  United  Methodist  Church, 
it  will  and  does  set  forth  in  many  scholarly  articles  the 
teachings  and  trends  and  influential  happenings  in  that 
Church,  as  well  as  reflecting  significant  movements  in  the 
modem  Church  world — bodi  in  theology  and  in  life. 

Religion  in  Life  is  necessarily  somewhat  eclectic  for 
the  reasons  given  above.  The  vast  number  of  its  sub- 
scribers are,  however,  Methodists.  Within  recent  years 
each  issue  has  been  devoted  specifically  to  a  particular 
emphasis  in  the  realm  of  Church  life  and  thought,  with 
three  or  four  articles  setting  forth  the  special  emphasis 
featured  in  that  individual  issue.  Other  articles  are  chosen 
for  their  merit  in  the  general  field  of  Church  life,  history, 
ethics,  theology,  and  so  forth,  and  as  in  the  case  with 
other  scholarly  publications,  a  book  review  section  en- 
deavors to  keep  the  readers  abreast  of  new  and  significant 
publications. 

Religion  in  Life,  like  its  Review  predecessors  (e.\cept 
possibly  in  their  heyday)  has  never  been  entirely  self- 
supporting,  but  is  underwritten  by  the  Publishing  House 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church  as  a  service  to  Christian 
scholarship  and  to  enlightened  thinking  on  the  part  of  its 
readers.  The  journal  is  held  in  high  repute  in  the  United 
States,  is  on  file  in  many  libraries,  and  current  and  past 
volumes  of  Religion  in  Life  are  available  on  microfilm  for 
those  who  wish  to  have  its  published  material  made  thus 
available. 

Following  John  Langdale,  who  died  just  after  Church 
union  in   1939,   Nolan  B.  Harmon,   book  editor  of  the 


Church,  edited  the  journal  until  1956  when  he  was  elected 
bishop;  and  then  Emory  S.  Bucke,  the  present  book  editor 
of  The  United  Methodist  Church,  became  editor-in-chief. 
The  address  is  the  Methodist  Publishing  House  in 
Nashville,  Tenn. 

Files  of  Religion  in  Life 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  Vol.  Ill  (pp.  295, 

303,307,537). 

J.   P.   Pilkington,   The  Methodist   Publishing   House,   Nashville. 

.■\bingdon  Press,  (p.  160).  N.  B.  H. 

RELIGIOUS  SOCIETIES.  Several  voluntary  groups  were 
founded  in  later  seventeenth-century  England,  to  combat 
what  many  felt  to  be  a  breakdown  of  religion,  morals, 
and  social  stability.  This  probably  reflected  the  declining 
influence  of  traditional  church  doctrine  and  disciphne, 
as  well  as  a  desire  for  active  lay  Christianity.  Of  these 
societies,  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge 
(1698)  promoted  education,  and  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  (1701)  hoped  to  serve  the 
colonies.  The  Societies  for  the  Reformation  of  Manners 
(1690-91)  wished  to  implement  existing  laws  against  vice; 
and  in  the  eighteenth  century  both  John  Wesley  and 
William  Wilberforce  supported  short-lived  attempts 
to  revive  them.  The  "Religious  Societies"  proper  were 
founded  earher  (c.  1678)  by  Anthony  Horneck  and 
Richard  Smithies  for  young  Londoners  with  a  religious 
concern.  They  were  wholly  Anglican,  under  clerical  direc- 
tion; they  used  the  Prayer  Rook;  and  discussion  of  per- 
sonal problems  was  voluntary.  Later,  these  societies  spread 
to  the  rest  of  the  British  Isles  and  encouraged  charitable 
work.  Religious  societies  of  this  type  still  active  in  1738 
probably  supplied  personnel  rather  than  methods  or  ideas 
to  early  Methodism.  Under  Methodist  and  Moravian 
influence,  and  in  response  to  the  preaching  of  Whitefield 
and  the  Wesleys,  these  societies,  and  new  ones,  began  to 
use  free  prayer,  to  emphasize  justification  by  faith,  and  to 
concentrate  on  mutual  confession  of  sins.  The  older  type 
of  society  probably  disappeared,  while  the  specifically 
Methodist  societies  separated  from  the  Moravians  in  1740, 
and  had  tlieir  own  distinctive  rules  from  1743. 

Henry  Rack 

RELIGIOUS  TELESCOPE,  official  paper  of  the  Church  of 
the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  was  authorized  by  the 
Scioto  Conference  in  1834,  when  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1833  requested  that  Conference  to  supervise  the 
publishing  venture  to  be  formed  at  Circleville,  Ohio.  In 
June  1834  William  Rhinehart  had  begun  a  newspaper 
for  the  Virginia  Conference  under  the  title  Union  Mes- 
senger, soon  changed  to  Mountain  Messenger.  The 
trustees  of  the  newly  fornied  denominational  publishing 
house,  in  order  to  discourage  more  than  one  periodical 
in  the  church,  purchased  the  fonts  of  type  from  William 
Rhinehart  in  November  1834,  and  chose  him  to  become 
their  editor.  Rhinehart  also  brought  along  his  subscribers, 
small  in  number.  The  first  issue,  a  semi-monthly,  was 
released  Dec.  31,  1834.  Later  it  became  a  weekly. 

When  Dayton.  Ohio  became  the  site  of  the  publishing 
house  in  1853,  the  Religious  Telescope  was  issued  from 
that  city.  The  paper  continued  to  serve  the  church  until 
the  time  of  union  with  The  Evangelical  Church  in 
1946.  It  was  then  united  with  The  Evangelical-Messenger 
of  that  body  to  become  The  Telescope-Messenger  of  The 


WORLD   METHODISM 

Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church,  which  paper 
received  the  volume  numbering  of  the  Religious  Tele- 
scope. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

RENNER,  S.  M.    (1896-  ),  E.U.B.  minister  in  Sierra 

Leone,  West  Africa,  was  born  Oct.  22,  1896.  Educated 
in  the  mission  schools  of  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ  in  Sierra  Leone,  he  entered  the  min- 
istry, January  1918,  and  was  ordained  by  the  Sierra  Leone 
Conference,  January,  1927.  He  served  pastorates  at  Free- 
town and  Moyamba,  covering  fifty-one  years.  For  twenty- 
two  years  he  also  was  conference  superintendent.  On 
June  2,  1921  he  was  married  to  Miss  Martha  Rosaline,  to 
which  union  were  bom  four  sons,  two  of  whom  entered 
the  ministry. 

In  addition  to  denominational  responsibilities  he  has 
held  membership  as  follows:  general  secretary  and  presi- 
dent of  United  Christian  Council;  president  of  Sierra 
Leone  Ministers  Fraternal;  Freetown  City  Council;  Chair- 
man of  Mining  Wages  Board;  The  Protectorate  Assembly; 
Committee  on  return  to  Civilian  Rule;  World  Council 
OF  Churches  Committee  on  Rapid  Social  Changes  in 
Africa. 

Lebanon  Valley  College  gave  him  an  honorary  D.D. 
degree  in  1945.  King  George  VI  decorated  him  as  an 
Officer  of  the  Most  Excellent  Order  of  the  British  Empire 
(Civil  Division)  and  Queen  Ehzabeth  II  decorated  him  as 
Commander  of  the  Most  Excellent  Order  of  the  British 
Empire. 

John  H.  Ness,  Jr. 

RENO,  NEVADA,  U.S.A.,  is  the  educational,  financial,  and 
industrial  center  for  the  northern  and  central  part  of  the 
state.  The  town  was  named  for  a  Civil  War  General, 
Jesse  Lee  Reno. 

Methodism  and  the  Central  Pacific  Railway  reached 
Truckee  Meadowns,  now  Reno,  in  the  same  year,  1868. 
The  town  grew  steadily.  When  the  mines  closed  and 
Nevada  turned  to  "tourism"  for  its  support,  Reno  an- 
nounced itself  "The  Biggest  Little  City  in  the  World." 
Owing  to  Nevada'  liberal  divorce  law  in  the  years  fol- 
lowing World  War  II  as  many  as  6,000  divorces  were 
granted  here  annually,  and  24,000  marriages  per  year 
were  performed.  As  the  downtown  church.  First  Church 
was  sought  by  many  of  the  out  of  town  couples  who  came 
from  religious  homes.  An  energetic  pastor,  Frederick  H. 
Busher,  arranged  to  have  a  minister  of  marriage,  and 
announced  that  all  fees,  above  expenses,  would  go  to 
missionary  work  in  the  state.  For  several  years  this  church 
reported  the  second  largest  number  of  marriages  of  any 
church  in  the  United  States. 

Since  1950  Las  Vegas  has  become  more  an  amusement 
center  than  Reno,  and  attracts  larger  numbers. 

The  campus  of  the  University  of  Nevada  is  in  the  city. 
President  during  its  formative  years,  1884  to  1904,  was 
Joseph  E.  Stubbs,  a  member  of  the  California  Annual 
Conference. 

The  six  Methodist  churches  in  the  Reno-Lake  Tahoe 
area  report  (1970)  2,121  members. 

General  Minutes. 

L.  L.  Loofbourow,  Steeples  Among  the  Sage.  1964. 

Leon  L.  Loofbourow 


REPENTANCE 

RENTOUL,  THOMAS  C.  (1882-1945).  Australian  minister 
and  church  leader.  After  a  sound  evangelical  conversion, 
T.  C.  Rentoul  entered  the  ministry  in  Victoria  in  1911. 
He  soon  became  distinguished  by  his  earnestness  and  his 
administrative  ability.  He  was  a  chaplain  in  World  War 
I,  1916-18,  suffering  the  effects  of  gas.  After  a  short 
experience  in  circuit  work  he  was  selected  to  assist  A.  T. 
HoLDEN  in  Home  Missions  work. 

From  1932  to  1945  he  was  general  superintendent  of 
Home  Missions  in  Victoria.  Tall,  with  authority  in  his 
bearing,  a  master  of  detail,  and  tireless  in  pursuing  pro- 
gressive policies,  T.  C.  Rentoul  stamped  his  influence  on 
the  life  of  Methodism  in  Victoria,  and  also  in  the  Federal 
Inland  Misson.  He  travelled  far  and  wide  through  the 
inland  areas  of  the  continent  in  supervising  the  pioneer 
work  of  the  Church. 

T.  C.  Rentoul's  initiative  was  seen  in  organizing  the 
work  of  the  Deaconess  Order,  in  the  acquisition  of  church 
property,  and  in  stimulating  evangelism.  He  served  as 
chaplain  in  World  War  II  and  was  Chaplain-General 
from  1937  until  his  death  on  Dec.  28,  1945,  this  resulting 
from  an  infection  received  while  on  duty  in  New  Guinea 
that  year. 

He  was  president  of  the  Victoria  and  Tasmania  Con- 
ference in  1940,  elected  secretary-general  in  1945  and, 
but  for  his  untimely  death,  would  have  become  president- 
general. 

A.  Harold  Wood 


REPENTANCE.  Repentance  in  its  generic  sense  signifies  a 
change  of  mind  (metanoia  in  the  Greek  New  Testament), 
a  wishing  something  were  undone  that  has  been  done  and 
signifying  a  change  of  mind  and  disposition.  In  a  strictly 
religious  sense  it  signifies  a  conviction  of  sin,  and  a  godly 
sorrow  for  it.  A  real  repentance  differs  from  what  has 
sometimes  been  called  "repentance"  when  that  has  been 
caused  by  the  knowledge  of  injuries  sustained  or  penalties 
likely  to  come.  It  is  not  sorrow  for  being  caught  in  wrong 
doing.  Evangelical  repentance  is  not  only  sorrow  for  some- 
thing done — sometimes  for  a  whole  life  recognized  as 
wrong — but  is  a  recognition  of  the  sin  as  offensive  to  God, 
accompanied  by  an  immediate  intent  to  see  that  the  act 
repented  of  is  done  no  more.  Frequently  great  moral 
dejection  comes  when  man  feels  himself  helpless  in  the 
power  of  temptation  against  the  type  of  thing  he  is 
repenting  of.  This  was  St,  Augustine's  experience  again 
and  again  before  he  actually  was  converted.  He  repented 
enough — as  he  tells  the  story  in  his  Confessions — but 
could  not  by  his  own  power  keep  from  sin — until  he 
really  threw  all  on  God. 

"Repentance  is  a  personal  sorrow  for  personal  sin  as 
against  a  Holy  God,"  wrote  Olin  A.  Curtis  (in  The 
Christian  Faith,  p.  353 ) .  "We  should  place  great  emphasis 
upon  the  fact  that  repentance  is  personal.  .  .  .  repentance 
is  not  merely  something  done  by  a  person,  it  is  something 
done  by  a  person  when  he  is  self-conscious.  ...  no  man 
can  repent  without  real  self-decision  and  there  can  be  no 
self  decision  without  full  self-consciousness."  The  same 
authority  goes  on  to  define  repentance  more  definitely  as 
"a  sinner's  personal  sorrow  over  his  responsible  sin,  both 
in  deed  and  in  condition  of  heart;  and  involves  a  con- 
fession of  the  guilt  of  a  sin,  a  purpose  to  get  free  from 
his  sin,  and  an  intense  hatred  of  his  sin  against  the  Holy 
God." 

For  a  time  there  was  a  debate  between  certain  Calvinis- 


REPOSITORY   OF   RELIGION 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


tic  theologians  who  held  that  regeneration  precedes  faith 
and  repentance;  as,  according  to  that  view,  only  the 
regenerated  could  perform  such  religious  acts.  With  them 
the  process  was  first  regeneration;  second,  faith;  and  third, 
repentance.  Methodists  have  always  believed  that  in  the 
salvation  of  the  sinner,  the  Holy  Spirit  first  enlightens  his 
understanding  and  causes  him  to  feel  his  need  of  a 
Saviour;  that  under  this  spiritual  influence  and  enlighten- 
ing comes  a  sincere  repentance  and  an  intent  to  turn  from 
sin;  then  comes  belief  and  hope  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  a  casting  of  the  soul  upon  His  mercy  and  leadership; 
and  then  as  has  been  the  case  with  many,  there  follows 
a  sense  of  justification  and  of  acceptance  by  God. 

While  repentance  is,  strictly  speaking,  the  act  of  man, 
it  is  nevertheless  also  in  another  sense  the  gift  of  God. 
Without  the  Grace  of  God  first  given,  no  man  will  repent 
or  turn  to  God.  Here  is  where  what  theologians  call 
"prevenient  grace"  comes  into  play — an  act  of  God  open- 
ing the  mind  and  heart  to  the  accusing  and  pleading 
influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  As  the  old  hymn,  written  by 
William  Bengo  Collyer,  has  it:  "Those  warm  desires  that 
in  thee  burn  were  kindled  by  reclaiming  grace." 

This  grace  "supplies  light  to  the  understanding,  quick- 
ens the  emotions,  and  so  seals  Divine  Truth  upon  the 
consciousness  that  the  sinner  not  only  sees,  but  feels  his 
spiritual  danger.  The  motives  to  repentance  have  been 
furnished  in  the  Word  of  God;  opportunity  to  repent  is 
afforded  through  the  mercy  and  forbearance  of  God;  and 
hope  is  found  in  the  promises  given  to  the  pentitent  and 
the  contrite  heart."  ( Simpson's  Cyclopaedia,  in  loc. ) 

Repentance  and  conviction  are  almost  concomitant 
moves  in  the  same  category,  though  conviction  is  more 
an  attitude  of  the  mind  bringing  repentance,  as  repentance 
is  more  a  move  of  the  soul.  (For  an  outline  by  Wesley  on 
Methodist  teaching  see  Sermon  IX,  The  Spirit  of  Bondage 
and  of  Adoption.) 

Methodists  have  always  preached  repentance,  not  as  an 
intellectual  or  moral  state,  but  as  a  necessary  precondition 
of  acceptance  with  God.  As  part  of  the  conference  course 
OF  sTtTDY  in  American  Methodist  Ghurches  for  some 
years,  young  ministers  had  to  prepare  a  sermon  on  re- 
pentance as  part  of  their  examination  for  acceptance  in 
the  Conference.  It  should  be  stressed,  however,  that 
preaching  repentance  is  not  done  to  explain  repentance  as 
an  intellectual  concept,  but  to  get  people  actually  to 
repent. 

It  is  "A  hopeful  determination  to  get  right  at  any 
cost."  .  .  .  Dr.  Olin  Curtis  puts  it:  "The  whole  feeling  is 
this;  'God  himself  wants  me  to  be  right,  then  I  can  be 
right,  then  I  will  be  right.'  " 

Olin    Alfred    Curtis,    The   Christian    Faith.    N.    Y.:    Eaton    & 

Mains,  1905. 

Schaff-Herzog.     Encyclopedia    of     Religious     Knowledge,    in 

loc. 

M.    Simpson,   Cyclopaedia.    1878.  N.  B.  H. 

REPOSITORY  OF  RELIGION.  A  publication  of  the  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  (See  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  Publications. ) 

REPROBATION.  This  doctrine,  which  has  been  held  of 
the  more  extreme  among  Calvinists,  declares  that  the 
finally  impenitent  who  go  to  eternal  damnation,  do  so 
on  account  of  the  express  and  eternal  predestinating 
decree  of  God.  Tliis  admittedly  fearsome  doctrine  is  in 
general  chiefly  a  matter  of  historical  interest,  for  it  is  not 


often  voiced  among  responsible  modem  Calvinists.  How- 
ever, in  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  a  matter  of  bitter 
controversy  between  the  Wesleys  and  their  detractors, 
and  the  controversy  left  marks  upon  later  Methodism.  It 
is  in  the  interests  of  modern  ecumenical  understanding, 
therefore,  to  attempt  a  dispassionate  judgment  regarding 
this  ancient  stumbling-block. 

Background  to  the  Doctrine.  Many  modern  Methodists 
may  find  it  hard  to  understand  why  some  perfectly  sincere 
followers  of  our  Lord  should  have  affiimed  this  doctrine, 
which  on  the  face  of  it  seems  so  contrary  to  the  concept 
of  the  universal  love  of  God  the  Father.  That  self-righteous 
condemnation  and  controversy  may  be  avoided,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  look  behind  this  teaching,  and  to  understand  that 
there  are  reasons  for  it  which,  though  firmly  rejected  by 
Methodists,  are  quite  intelligible.  In  the  first  place,  it  is 
a  dark  mystery  of  life  why  some  people  who  hear  the 
Gospel  accept  it,  and  others  do  not.  It  is  also  a  mystery 
of  God's  providential  government  of  the  world  that  some 
people  should  apparently  have  little  or  even  no  chance. 
The  doctrine  of  Reprobation  places  this  matter  squarely 
upon  the  unfettered  and  unaccountable  choice  of  the 
Sovereign  Lord  of  all.  This  answer  does  not  satisfy  us, 
but  as  we  reject  it,  we  are  aware  that  alternative  answers 
are  not  free  from  difficulty. 

For  the  general  background  to  this  matter  in  religious 
experience.  Scripture  exposition,  and  theological  specula- 
tion, the  reader  is  referred  to  the  article  Election, 
especially  to  the  note  on  the  doctrine  of  Particular  Elec- 
tion. Tlie  Augustinian  would  affirm  that  this  stern  pre- 
destinarian  doctrine  is  in  keeping  with  the  justice  and 
goodness  of  God,  because  the  whole  human  race  col- 
lectively, and  every  man  in  it,  has  sinned,  and  merits 
damnation.  Therefore  those  whom  God  does  not  elect  to 
save  are  justly  lost,  while  His  goodness  is  displayed  in  His 
will  to  save  some  who  do  not  deserve  to  be  saved.  Many 
Calvinists  have,  wisely  we  feel,  carried  their  speculation 
no  further.  They  have  affirmed  the  positive  side  of  God's 
gracious  action  towards  the  Elect,  and  remained  prudently 
silent  regarding  the  dark  mystery  of  the  lost.  However, 
the  instinct  to  complete  a  speculative  system  is  very  strong 
in  some  minds.  Therefore  some  have  made  themselves 
responsible  for  the  doctrine  of  a  double  divine  Predestina- 
tion. Those  who  are  finally  damned  will  be  lost  because 
God  has  positively  decreed  that  they  shall  be  lost.  This  is 
the  doctrine  of  Reprobation. 

Scripture  waiTant  has  been  sought  for  the  doctrine  of 
Reprobation,  the  leading  passage  being  Romans  9:17-23. 
It  is  not  possible  here  to  expound  the  whole  of  this  dif- 
ficult passage,  but  the  chief  point  is  the  reference  to 
Exodus  9:12-16,  with  the  phrase  "and  the  Lord  hardened 
the  heart  of  Pharaoh."  Scientific  exegesis  would  observe 
that  the  ancient  Hebrews  were  deficient  in  the  means  of 
expressing  the  idea  of  "indirect  causation."  It  is  natural  for 
us  to  think  of  a  "law  of  nature,"  for  which  the  Creator 
is  indeed  ultimately  responsible,  which  yet  is  self-acting 
within  the  sphere  of  nature.  Thus  it  is  possible,  in  an 
order  perverted  by  sin,  for  God  to  allow  things  to  happen 
according  to  natural  law  which  are  not  His  direct  will. 
For  ultimately  good  moral  reasons  God  for  a  time  permits 
human  rebellion.  The  Hebrews  did  not  find  it  easy  either 
to  grasp  or  to  express  this  notion  of  indirect  divine  opera- 
tion. They  spoke  as  though  everytliing  which  happened 
in  God's  world  came  straight  from  God.  Thus  the  intention 
of  the  phrase  "God  hardened  Pharaoh's  heart"  would  be 
expressed    in    our    speech    by    "Pharaoh's    heart    became 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RESURRECTION 


hardened"  (according  to  the  working  of  a  moral  hiw,  but 
not  excluding  Pharaoh's  own  choice  of  evil).  Thus  under- 
stood, the  force  of  such  a  passage  as  Romans  9:17-23  is 
greatly  reduced.  It  does  not  mean  that  God  arbitrarily 
damned  Pharaoh,  but  that  his  obstinacy,  for  which  he 
was  truly  responsible,  was  over-ruled  by  God  for  a  good 
purpose  which  ultimately  extends  to  all  men  (cf.  Romans 
11:11-12). 

Wesleyan  Controversy  Regarding  Reprobation.  John 
Wesley  was  hotly  attacked  by  some  Calvinist  opponents 
as  disloyal  to  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  salvation  by 
grace,  because  he  strongly  affinned  the  position  more 
characteristic  of  cathohc  Christianity.  This  is  that  saving 
Grace  is  in  principle  available  to  all  men,  because  the 
effectual  means  of  grace  are  open  to  all  who  will  use 
them,  and  the  universally  loving  God  will  by  His  prevc- 
nient  grace  enable  all  men  who  desire  Christian  salvation 
to  use  these  means  of  grace.  However,  we  may  claim  that 
Wesley's  attitude  as  a  practical  and  common-sense  teacher 
is  in  accord  with  the  intention  of  the  Anglican  Article  X 
(Wll  in  the  Methodist  Articles),  and  XVII  (see  Articles 
OF  Religion  for  text  of  these  particular  Articles).  He 
can  most  strongly  affirm  the  positive  spiritual  values 
implicit  in  the  strong  doctrine  of  grace  taught  by  the 
Calvinists  (see  Minutes  of  Several  Conversations  for 
1745,  August  2,  Q.  22  and  23,  Works  VIII,  284-5).  In 
this  sense  he  is  "within  a  hairbreadth  of  Calvinism."  Yet 
he  was  splendidly  free  from  their  often  arid  and  entangling 
speculations  regarding  God's  government  of  the  race.  In 
particular,  he  totally  repudiated  the  extreme,  dreadful, 
and  erroneous  doctrine  of  Reprobation. 

John  Lawson 


Conference  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  during 
the  Mexican  War.  The  church's  origin  can  be  traced  to 
an  informal  meeting  of  ministers  and  members  of  the 
White  River  Conference  at  Dovvell  Meeting  House,  Frank- 
lin Circuit,  Ind.,  on  March  12,  1848.  At  the  meeting,  a 
resolution  was  passed  protesting  conference  action  con- 
cerning P.  C.  Parker.  Parker  had  been  expelled  from  the 
ministry  for  "immorality"  because  of  his  participation  in 
the  war.  This  resolution  was  refused  publication;  there- 
fore, an  appeal  was  made  to  General  Conference.  The 
1853  General  Conference,  however,  sustained  Parker's  ex- 
pulsion and  also  passed  a  strong  anti-war  resolution  as 
well  as  a  resolution  on  total  depravity.  These  three  actions 
became  the  fonmal  basis  for  withdrawal.  At  a  meeting  at 
Union  Chapel,  Decatur  County,  Ind.,  Sept.  8-12,  1853, 
the  new  church  was  organized. 

The  Republican  United  Brethren  substantially  followed 
the  United  Brethren  in  polity  but  objected  to  certain 
powers  of  the  bishops,  the  presiding  elders,  and  the  sta- 
tioning committee.  They  also  dissented  on  the  issues  of 
war  and  peace  and  total  hereditary  depravity. 

The  church  was  small  (the  first  conference  listed  only 
two  charges)  and  existed  for  only  a  short  time.  In  the 
1860's  they  became  part  of  the  Christian  Union. 

Origin,   Confession   of  Faith  Constitution   and  General  Rules 

of  the  Republican  United  Brethren  Church,  Nashville,  Tenn., 

1858. 

A.  C.  Wilmore,  History  of  the  White  River  Conference. 

J.  Gordon  Melton 

RESTRICTIVE  RULES.  (See  General  Conference  of  The 
Methodist  Church.) 


REPUBLICAN  METHODIST  CHURCH  was  formed  in  1792 
by  the  followers  of  Jame.s  O'Kelly,  who  had  strongly 
contested  the  appointive  power  of  Bishop  Asbuhy  at  the 
1792  General  Conference.  O'Kelly  had  earlier  partici- 
pated in  the  schismatic  Fluvanna  Conference  (1779)  and 
as  a  presiding  elder  in  the  southern  district,  had  been  a 
strong  advocate  of  democratizing  the  conferences.  The 
church  he  founded  showed  an  immediate  success  in 
Virginia  and  gained  several  thousand  members  in  the 
first  few  years.  Its  major  characteristics  were  its  democratic 
ideals.  It  gave  laymen  more  rights  and  put  all  ministers 
on  an  equal  basis.  As  a  corollary,  it  was  strongly  anti- 
slavery. 

In  1801,  following  a  decline  in  the  original  growth, 
O'Kelly  reorganized  the  church;  he  abolished  all  regula- 
tions and  discipline,  except  the  scripture,  and  renamed  the 
body  the  Christian  Church.  After  several  years  of  co- 
operative activity,  a  union  was  effected  with  two  other 
"Christian  Churches"  to  form  the  American  Christian  Con- 
vention. This  body  in  turn  united  with  the  Congregational 
Church  to  foim  the  Congregational  Christian  Church.  This 
later  body  is  currently  a  part  of  the  United  Church  of 
Christ. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism,  1964. 

Frank  A.  Kostyn,  "A  History  of  the  United  Church"  in  United 

Church — History  and  Program. 

Vincent   L.    Milner,    Religious   Denominations   of   the   World. 

1872.  J.   Gordon   Melton 

REPUBLICAN  UNITED  BRETHREN  CHURCH  was  a  pro-war 
schismatic  group  formed  by  members  of  the  White  River 


RESURRECTION:  General.  There  is  no  distinctive  Method- 
ist doctrine  of  the  General  Resurrection.  In  common  with 
the  general  body  of  the  Church  catholic  the  Methodist 
Church  teaches  that  one  of  the  events  connected  with  the 
final  stages  of  the  history  of  this  world  will  be  the  Resur- 
rection of  all  men,  as  a  prelude  to  the  Last  Judgment 
(John  5:28-29;  Revelation  20:13).  This  belief  is  affirmed 
in  the  creeds  commonly  used  among  Methodists,  the 
ecumenical  Nicene  Creed  reading,  "And  I  look  for  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the  life  of  the  world  to 
come,"  and  the  Apostles'  Creed  reading,  "I  believe  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  and  the  life  everlasting."  The 
universal  Church  has  never  found  it  necessary  to  make  her 
dogmatic  definition  more  precise  than  this.  Thus  there 
is  allowable  a  substantial  liberty  of  interpretation  as  to 
what  is  intended  by  this  part  of  the  Christian  hope, 
dependent  upon  the  interpretation  which  is  given  to  those 
parts  of  Scripture  which  speak  of  it. 

This  doctrine  is  plainly  presupposed  in  the  authoritative 
Standard  Scr/noi^s  and  Notes  on  the  Netv  Testament  of 
John  Wesley,  as  in  his  other  writings,  and  in  the  Wesley 
hymns.  Significantly,  however,  the  Wesleys  presuppose 
rather  than  argue  the  point,  because  this  doctrine  was  not 
a  matter  of  controversy  in  their  time.  They  are  content 
to  rejoice  in  the  greatness  of  Christian  hope,  and  to  warn 
men  of  the  reality  of  judgment  to  come.  In  his  exposition 
of  Scripture  John  Wesley  states  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  Resurrection  of  the  Body,  though  real,  is  not  the 
resurrection  of  the  present  material  body  of  flesh  and 
blood,  but  of  a  glorious  body  suited  to  the  conditions  of 
the  Heavenly  Kingdom,  and  cites  the  ancient  Greek 
Father  Macarius  in  support  of  this  exposition   (Notes  on 


RESURRECTION 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


I  Corinthians  15:51-2;  II  Corinthians  5:2,4;  Philippians 
3:21).  It  may  perhaps  be  stated  that  since  his  day  the 
general  body  of  more  rehable  Methodist  opinion  has 
followed  this  line. 

Origin  of  the  Doctrine.  This  Christian  doctrine  is  the 
heritage  of  the  Hebrew  roots  of  the  Church.  In  earlier 
periods  the  Hebrews  held  a  view  of  human  destiny  beyond 
the  grave  similar  to  that  of  many  other  ancient  religions, 
and  not  unlike  that  revived  by  "Spiritualist"  teaching  in 
the  modem  world.  The  shades  of  the  departed  were  sup- 
posed to  continue  in  existence,  though  with  a  reduced 
and  denatured  vitality  and  identity  (Isaiah  14:9-10). 
Their  abode  was  Sheol,  a  kind  of  "grave  of  the  race" 
under  the  ground.  (This  word  is  rendered  "hell"  in 
K.  J.  v.,  and  "Hades"  in  the  Greek  Bible;  the  temi  is  not 
to  be  confused  with  "Gehenna,"  the  place  of  punishment 
of  the  wicked,  also  rendered  "hell.")  God  had  withdrawn 
His  "spirit"  or  principle  of  animation  from  these  shades 
(Job  34:14-15),  and  therefore  they  were  excluded  from 
communion  with  God  (Psalm  6:5,  115:17),  though  this 
idea  was  to  some  extent  later  modified  by  the  conviction 
that  the  sovereignty  of  God  extended  even  to  the  abode 
of  the  departed  (Psalm  139:8).  This  frame  of  thought 
was  challenged  by  the  experience  of  religious  persecution, 
particularly  under  the  Greek  tyrant  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
when  many  Jews  suffered  martyrdom  rather  than  desert 
their  faith.  It  then  seemed  an  inconceivable  denial  of 
divine  justice  that  those  who  most  merited  to  see  the 
vindication  of  God  in  the  Day  of  the  Lord  should  be 
denied  their  share  in  this  triumph  of  the  very  martyrs' 
deaths  which  were  the  ground  of  their  merit.  Thus  faith  in 
God's  justice  clothed  itself  in  the  expectation  that  the 
righteous  departed  would  be  raised  from  the  grave,  so  that 
they  might  have  their  part  in  the  promised  divine  King- 
dom (Daniel  12:1-3).  This  belief  developed  in  the  period 
between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  so  that  by  the 
time  of  our  Lord  it  was  a  widely-accepted  doctrine  that 
in  the  day  of  the  Messianic  Kingdom  there  would  be  a 
General  Resurrection  of  all  men,  the  good  and  the  bad, 
to  divine  judgment.  The  more  consewative  Sadducees, 
however,  rejected  this  and  other  late  developments  of 
Jewish  Messianic  belief  (Matthew  22:23,  Acts  23:8) . 

For  St.  Paul  God  both  set  His  seal  upon  this  doctrine  of 
Resurrection  as  the  mark  of  triumph  over  death,  and 
modified  in  a  spiritual  direction  the  conception  of  Resur- 
rection by  the  wonder  of  Christ's  rising  from  the  dead 
(Romans  6:9).  The  Resurrection  narratives  in  the  four 
gospels  indicate  both  that  Christ  rose  from  the  grave,  and 
that  this  Resurrection  was  no  mere  re-vivification  of  the 
physical  body  which  had  died  on  the  Cross.  There  was  a 
mysterious  "glory"  about  the  Risen  Christ  which  corre- 
sponded to  a  complete  triumph  over  death.  The  doctrine 
of  a  Genera]  Resurrection  to  judgment  of  all  men  there- 
fore naturally  passed  over  into  the  Church,  and  very 
significantly  when  St.  Paul  seeks  to  expound  this  Resur- 
rection hope  he  does  so  by  applying  to  the  Resurrection 
of  the  believer  that  which  the  Church  had  learned  from 
the  experience  of  Christ's  own  Resurrection.  He  thus 
argues  that  when  Christians  are  raised  from  the  dead  it 
will  not  be  with  a  mere  body  of  flesh  and  blood  like  the 
present,  but  with  a  "glorious"  or  "spiritual"  body  adapted 
to  the  Kingdom  of  Christ's  triumph  (1  Corinthians  15:35- 
54). 

Significance  of  the  Doctrine.  This  important  Scriptural 
doctrine  svTiibolizes  for  the  Christian  the  confident  hope 
that  the  believer  who,   in   Christ,   triumphs   over   death, 


has  before  him  a  destiny  much  more  blessed  than  the 
bare  survival  of  a  disembodied  ghost,  or  the  denatured 
shade  of  his  fonner  self.  The  whole  man  will  be  alive  in 
Christ's  heavenly  Kingdom,  with  every  faculty  proper  to 
the  human  personality  quickened  to  an  abundance  of 
life.  The  "Resurrection  of  the  Body"  answers  to  the  idea 
of  the  fulness  of  triumph  over  death.  It  also  provides  a 
particular  example  of  the  general  principle  of  the  religion 
of  the  Incarnation,  namely,  that  God  has  created  that 
which  is  material  as  the  expression  of  a  high  spiritual 
purpose.  This  material  world,  and  man's  physical  frame 
which  is  a  part  of  it,  is  the  precious  handiwork  of  God, 
which  He  has  created  as  the  means  of  making  Himself 
known  to  man,  and  the  means  through  which  He  will 
redeem  man  by  His  incarnate  Son.  Thus  the  destiny  of 
God's  handiwork  is  not  to  be  "cast  as  rubbish  to  the 
void,"  as  though  it  were  spiritually  unprofitable.  The 
material  creation  is  to  be  redeemed,  that  God's  glory  may 
be  seen  in  it  (Romans  8:21-23).  Thus  to  the  Christian 
it  is  not  the  case  that  man's  non-material  soul  is  the  only 
element  of  permanent  spiritual  value  about  him.  The  body 
is  likewise  "the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost"  (I  Corinthians 
6:19-20),  and  is  to  be  redeemed  in  Christ.  In  this  respect 
the  Christian  Faith  largely  accords  with  the  findings  of 
modern  physiological  and  psychological  investigation, 
which  teaches  that  the  development  of  the  non-material 
mental  and  spiritual  activities  of  man  is  closely  linked 
with  the  activity  of  the  physical  nervous  system.  "Body" 
and  "soul"  are  interdependent,  and  together  form  the 
complete  man.  The  "Resurrection  of  the  Body"  is  the 
traditional  way  of  saying  that  die  whole  nature  of  this 
unitary  "man"  is  to  be  saved  to  the  uttermost,  though 
that  body  which  is  the  due  partner  of  the  soul  will  not 
always  be  this  present  lowly  material  body. 

It  is  only  candid  to  observe  that  in  the  modern  period 
many  of  the  more  radical  among  New  Testament  critics 
have  affiimed  that  the  New  Testament,  if  rightly  under- 
stood, does  not  require  acceptance  of  the  traditional 
doctrine  that  Christ's  Resurrection  included  the  raising  of 
His  body  from  the  tomb,  and  the  mysterious  divine  trans- 
formation of  the  physical  body  which  had  died  on  the 
Cross  into  a  glorious  Resurrection-body.  It  would  be 
taught  that  the  Apostles  received  an  immediate  mental 
impression  that  their  Lord  was  indeed  spiritually  present 
with  them,  triumphant  over  death,  and  that  the  believing 
mind  of  the  early  Church  constructed  the  Gospel  Resur- 
rection narratives  as  a  means  of  symbolizing  this  faith. 
Thus  the  critic  would  claim  that  he  believes  in  a  "resur- 
rection," in  the  sense  that  Christ  triumphed  fully  over  the 
power  of  death,  but  that  the  resurrection  narratives  are 
not  to  be  taken  literally.  This  is  not  the  place  to  argue  the 
pros  and  cons  of  this  transformation  of  the  traditional 
Christian  system,  but  only  to  observe  that  if  accepted  it 
involves  a  veiy  drastic  reduction  of  the  traditional  in- 
carnational  principle.  This  cannot  fail  in  tuni  to  affect  the 
traditional  doctrine  of  the  General  Resurrection,  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  argued  in  the  early  Church  from 
what  was  believed  regarding  Christ's  own  Resurrection. 
If  it  be  accepted  that  Christ's  Resurrection  was  not  a 
divine  act  performed  within  the  sphere  of  this  physical 
world,  but  only  the  continuance  of  a  "spiritual"  presence, 
then  it  would  seem  that  the  hope  which  is  set  before  the 
believer  in  Christ  is  not  that  of  the  Resurrection  of  the 
Body,  but  only  the  continuance  of  a  "spiritual"  soul. 

Other  modern  critics  have,  in  somewhat  striking  contrast 
to  this,  made  much  of  the  distinction  behveen  the  Biblical 


WORLD   METHODISM 


REVELS,    HIRAM   RHOADES 


doctrine  of  Resurrection  and  the  commonly-accepted  be- 
lief in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul.  It  has  been  rightly 
observed  that  "resurrection"  is  an  Hebraic  idea,  while 
"immortality"  goes  back  to  categories  of  Greek  thought. 
The  Immortality  of  the  Soul  as  a  symbol  of  the  believer's 
triumph  over  death  answers  to  the  notion  that  the  per- 
manently valuable  "real  man"  is  the  non-material  "soul," 
while  the  destiny  of  the  spiritually  non-profitable  body 
is  to  be  cast  aside  in  the  grave.  This,  it  is  argued,  is  a 
system  of  thought  very  different  from  the  Biblical  and 
incarnational  doctrine  that  God  works  the  spiritual 
through  the  material.  Though  there  is  much  of  substance 
in  this  contrast,  the  antitliesis  between  Hebraic  "resur- 
rection" and  Hellenic  "immortality"  is  nevertheless  not 
absolute.  The  two  ideas  have  to  some  extent  been  rec- 
onciled in  traditional  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant 
thought,  with  the  sanction  that  the  concept  of  "im- 
mortality" is  found  in  the  New  Testament,  as  well  as  that 
of  "resurrection"  (I  Corinthians  15:53-54).  The  doctrine 
of  Immortality  accords  with  the  Christian  faith  that  the 
departed  in  Christ,  awaiting  the  General  Resurrection,  are 
certainly  not  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation,  or  of  a 
dim  Sheol-like  existence.  The  saints  who  have  gone  before 
are  even  now  in  a  state  of  spiritual  blessedness,  and  rejoice 
in  the  immediate  presence  of  Christ  (Luke  23:43; 
Philippians  1:23),  Nevertheless,  this  happy  destiny  does 
not,  in  the  Christian  view,  preclude  the  idea  of  develop- 
ment in  the  unseen  world,  or  of  growth  in  blessedness  as 
the  saints  are  changed  "from  glory  to  glory."  The  Resur- 
rection of  the  righteous  at  the  culmination  of  God's 
redeeming  purpose  for  the  world  may  be  viewed  as  a 
stage  in  this.  Thus  present  Immortality  and  future  Resur- 
rection are  not  inconsistent,  but  complementary. 

The  First  and  Second  Resurrection.  A  word  may  per- 
haps be  added  regarding  this  theoretical  disjunction 
which  has  at  times  been  in  the  Church  a  matter  of  obscure 
and  not  always  very  edifying  controversy.  Those  who  in- 
sist that  the  symbolism  of  Revelation  20:4-13  is  to  be 
taken  literally  have  taught  that  the  Resurrection  of  all  the 
dead  is  in  two  stages.  The  saints  will  first  rise  from  the 
grave,  and  will  reign  in  glory  with  Christ  upon  the  earth 
for  "a  thousand  years"  in  the  Millennial  Kingdom.  After 
this  the  remainder  of  mankind  will  rise,  good  and  bad, 
for  the  Last  Judgment,  and  the  final  vindication  of  God's 
sovereignty.  Those  who  hold  this  view  are  called  "pre- 
millenarians,"  teaching  that  Christ's  Second  Advent  will 
take  place  before  the  Millennium.  Another  view,  common- 
ly held  in  more  characteristically  ecclesiastical  circles,  is 
that  the  historic  Church  already  in  some  sense  represents 
Christ's  earthly  reign,  so  that  no  distinct  period  of  "Millen- 
nial Kingdom"  is  to  be  looked  for.  In  this  case,  the  Chris- 
tian expectation  is  that  at  the  end  of  the  Age  Christ  will 
come  in  glory.  There  will  then  take  place  immediately  the 
one  General  Resurrection  of  all  men,  and  the  Last  Judg- 
ment. Those  who  hold  this  doctrine  are  "post-millena- 
rians."  We  would  commend  the  view  that  the  ultimate  and 
perhaps  very  distant  stages  of  God's  government  of  the 
world  are  inevitably  shrouded  in  mystery.  Not  being  mat- 
ters of  empirical  human  experience  they  can  only  be 
spoken  of  in  symbolical  language,  expressing  general  spir- 
itual principles.  We  cannot  be  certain  exactly  how  far  if 
at  all  the  admittedly  symbolical  language  of  Scripture  is  to 
be  taken  literally,  though  it  is  authoritative  to  establish 
general  principles.  Therefore,  while  the  believer  may 
rightly  cling  to  a  confident  Christian  hope,  it  is  unfitting 
to  seek  to  know  the  unknowable   (Matthew  24:44;  Acts 


1:7),  and  to  divide  the  Church  by  over-confident  contro- 
versy in  these  matters. 

K.   Barth,   The   Resurrection  of  the  Dead.   English  trans,   by 

H.  J.  Stenning,  New  York,  1933. 

O.  Cullmann,  The  Immortality  of  the  Soul  and  the  Resurrection 

of  the  Body.  New  York,  1958. 

M.   E.    Dalil,    The  Resurrection  of  the   Body:   A  Study  of  I 

Corinthians  IS.   London,   1962. 

V.  McLeman,  Resurrection  Then  and  Now.  London,  1965. 

C.  V.  Pilcher,  Tlie  Hereafter  in  Jewish  and  Christian  Thought. 

London  and  New  York,  1940. 

W.  P.   Pope,  A  Compendium  of  Christian  Theology.  London, 

1880. 

G.  E.  Rupp,  Last  Thitigs  First.  London,  1964. 

C.   R.   Smith,   The   Bible   Doctrine  of   the  Hereafter.   London, 

1958. 

K.   Stendahl,  ed..  Immortality  and  Resurrection:  Four  Essays. 

New  York,  1965. 

R.  Watson,  Theological  Institutes.  London,  1832. 

J.  Wesley,  Sermons.  1831  John  Lavvson 

REVELS,  HIRAM  RHOADES  (1822-1901),  American 
A.M.E.  and  M.E.  minister,  and  also  U.  S.  Senator,  was 
born  to  free  parents  in  Fayetteville,  N.  C,  Sept.  1,  1822. 
He  was  of  mixed  African  and  Croatan  Indian  descent. 
Forbidden  by  law  to  attend  southern  schools,  he  was 
educated  at  Quaker  institutions  in  Indiana  and  Ohio  and 
at  Knox  College,  Galesburg,  111.  In  1845  he  entered  the 
ministry  of  the  A.M.E.  Church.  During  the  next  eight 
years  he  taught  school,  lectured  and  preached  in  several 
midwestern  states.  Following  a  local  church  dispute  in 
St.  Louis,  he  became  a  Presbyterian  preacher  for  several 
years. 

During  the  Civil  War,  Revels  helped  to  recruit  Negro 
regiments  for  the  Union  Army  in  Maryland  and  Mis- 
souri. In  1864  he  became  chaplain  of  a  black  Mississippi 
regiment  and  served  a  short  time  as  provost  marshal  of 
ViCKSBURG.  Returning  to  the  A.M.E.  Church,  he  orga- 
nized several  congregations  for  that  denomination  in  Jack- 
son. In  1866  he  settled  at  Natchez,  and  in  1868  he  joined 
the  M.E.  Church.  In  the  latter  year  he  was  elected  alder- 
man, though  he  entered  politics  reluctantly,  fearing  race 
friction  and  the  possibility  of  conflict  with  his  work  as 
a  minister.  In  politics  he  won  the  hking  and  respect  of 
the  white  people  of  the  state.  Elected  to  the  state  senate 
from  Adams  County,  he  was  elevated  by  the  legislature  in 
January  1870,  to  the  U.  S.  Senate,  filling  the  seat  that 
had  been  occupied  by  Jefferson  Davis  prior  to  the  Civil 
War.  Revels  was  a  Repubfican  but  not  a  Radical.  He 
served  in  the  Senate  until  March  4,  1871. 

Upon  his  retirement  from  the  Senate,  Revels  was 
elected  president  of  Alcorn  University,  a  newly  established 
school  for  Negroes.  He  filled  the  position  with  credit.  Fol- 
lowing the  sudden  death  of  James  Lynch,  another  Negro 
Methodist  preacher-politician.  Revels  served  a  few  months 
as  secretary  of  state  ad  interim  of  Mississippi.  When  he 
dissented  from  the  political  activities  of  Mississippi  Repub- 
licans, Revels  lost  his  position  at  Alcorn.  However,  in 
1875,  he  aligned  himself  with  white  Democrats  to  over- 
throw the  Caipetbag  government  in  the  state,  and  as  a 
result  was  again  appointed  president  of  Alcorn,  serving 
until  1883. 

In  1875  Revels  was  received  "by  transfer"  into  the 
Mississippi  Conference  (ME)  and  was  appointed  to 
Holly  Springs.  The  next  year  he  was  placed  on  the  Holly 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Springs  District.  As  a  reserve  delegate  to  the  1876  Gen- 
eral Conference,  he  was  elected  editor  of  the  Soutli- 
westcrn  Christian  Advocate  but  declined  to  sei-ve.  Ap- 
parently he  ser\'ed  the  church  and  the  district  at  Holly 
Springs  without  giving  up  the  presidency  of  Alcorn.  In 
1877  he  was  appointed  to  the  Jackson  District  which  he 
served  for  three  years  while  also  president  of  the  college. 
From  1880  to  1883  he  gave  full  time  to  Alcorn.  Beginning 
in  1884  and  continuing  until  his  death,  he  was  a  presiding 
elder  in  what  became,  in  1890,  the  Upper  Mississippi 
Co.vKERENCE  (ME).  He  served  the  Aberdeen  and  Green- 
wood Districts  six  and  two  years,  respectively,  and  was  on 
the  Holly  Springs  District  three  different  times  for  a  total 
of  nine  years.  He  died  while  attending  the  session  of  his 
annual  conference  at  Aberdeen,  Miss.,  Jan.  16,  1901. 

General  Minutes,  MEC. 
Dictionary  of  American  Biography,  Vol.  15. 

Minutes   of   the    Upper    Mississippi   Conference    (ME),   1901. 

Albea  Godbold 

REVEREND,  British  Methodist.  John  Wesley's  helpers 
and  assistants  can  be  divided  into  those  who  had  Anglican 
orders,  who  would  be  addressed  by  the  traditional  En- 
glish title  "the  Reverend,"  and  the  unordained  itinerants 
who  would  be  addressed  as  plain  "Mister."  When  Wesley 
began  his  own  ordinations,  first  for  America  and  then  for 
ScoTL.^ND,  curious  anomalies  crept  in.  Thus  when  John 
Pawson,  Thomas  Hanby,  and  Joseph  Taylor  were  or- 
dained for  Scotland  in  1785,  they  were  forbidden  to  wear 
clerical  dress  south  of  the  border  and  were  addressed  as 
"Mister"  when  in  England,  and  as  "the  Reverend"  when 
in  Scotland.  Ronald  Kno.x's  comment  is  apt;  "In  short  he 
had  evolved  a  system  of  Gretna  Green  ordinations,  which 
unlike  Gretna  Green  marriages  were  not  meant  to  have 
anv  effect  south  of  the  border."  {Enthusiasm,  London, 
1950,  pp.  506-7,  511.) 

When  writing  to  Joseph  Cownley  in  Scotland,  Wesley 
addressed  him  as  "Rev.  Mr.  Cownley,  Minister  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  Leith-Wind,  Edinburgh."  After  John 
Wesley's  death  in  1791  a  few  ordinations  of  preachers  took 
place;  and  some  Methodist  advocates  of  separation  from 
the  Church  of  England,  like  Samuel  Bradburn,  used  the 
title  "the  Reverend."  Thus  when  Portland  Chapel  was 
opened  in  Bristol  on  Aug.  26,  1792,  Bradburn  and  Sam- 
uel Roberts  read  the  liturgy  in  full  clerical  attire,  to  the 
annoyance  of  the  local  Anglican  incumbent.  Bradburn's 
comment  was:  "In  everything  that  relates  to  the  office  of 
minister  of  Jesus  Christ  I  consider  myself  as  standing  on 
equal  ground  with  you.  Why  shouldn't  I  wear  a  gown 
and  put  on  the  bands  and  call  myself  'The  Rev.'?" 

The  party  which  hankered  after  full  unity  with  the 
Establishment  prevailed,  however.  The  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference laid  down  in  1793  that  "no  gowns,  cassocks,  bands 
or  surplices  shall  be  wom"  by  any  of  the  preachers,  and 
that  "the  tide  of  Reverend  shall  not  be  used  by  us  toward 
each  other  in  future."  This  greatly  displeased  men  like 
Bradburn,  who  wrote  to  Alexander  Kilham  on  Dec.  12, 
1793:  "I  really  believe  that  the  little  interruption  we  met 
with  will  do  us  good.  Do  not  destroy  your  gowm  and 
bands,  nor  suppose  they  are  for  ever  done  with.  You  viall 
know  better  soon,  if  the  Lord  will,  we  must  have  a  Meth- 
odist constitution  or  plan  of  discipline  explained,  and  we 
shall  in  due  course."  The  moderate  party  came  to  accept 
the  conference  rules,  and  many  understood  reception  into 


Full  Connexion  as  being  tantamount  to  ordination.  Thus 
William  Thompson  wrote  to  Joseph  Benson  in  1795: 

It  is  proposed  that  tlie  Methodist  preachers  shall  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  ordination  of  any  kind  because  tlieir  being 
four  years  on  trial  and  the  fruit  of  their  labour  in  that  time 
appearing  in  the  conversion  of  sinners,  and  their  being  re- 
ceived at  Conference  by  their  senior  bretliren  giving  them 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  is  a  full  proof  that  they  are 
called  of  God  and  man  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  which 
we  belie\e  to  he  scriptural  ordination.  We  will  have  nothing 
to  do  with  gowns,  bands,  surplices,  reverends  or  any  honour- 
able title,  because  we  wish  to  continue  tlie  same  plain  men 
which  we  were,  when  we  set  out  in  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
and  to  transmit  to  posterity  the  same  simplicity  and  plainness. 

But,  as  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry  evolved  from 
what  could  be  called  "lay  agency"  to  the  full  status  of  an 
ordained  body  in  1836,  so  honorific  titles  came  back  into 
vogue.  In  1818  the  title  "Reverend"  was  permitted  again; 
it  frequently  appears  in  the  Minutes  of  Conference  niter 
that  date;  and  in  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Magazine  under 
the  portraits  of  the  itinerants,  the  suffix  "Preacher  of  the 
Gospel"  is  replaced  by  "the  Reverend."  This  rapidly  be- 
came the  norm  in  all  the  branches  of  Methodism,  though 
the  first  meeting  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Association 
in  1836  resolved  that  "it  was  inexpedient  that  the  term 
'Reverend*  should  be  used  in  connexion  with  the  name 
of  any  preacher  of  the  Association."  This  was  rescinded 
nine  years  later.  As  late  as  1876  William  Griffith  in- 
troduced a  motion  in  the  annual  assembly  of  the  United 
Methodist  Free  Churches  to  discountenance  the  use  of 
a  term  which  he  refused  to  use  himself — but  the  motion 
was  later  withdrawn.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  title  was 
not  overly  popular  in  some  sections  of  the  Free  Churches 
in  Britain  in  the  mid-nineteenth  century,  and  that  Charles 
Haddon  Spurgeon,  the  famous  Baptist  preacher,  always 
refused  to  use  it.  In  1874  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Con- 
ference, which  had  once  forbidden  the  use  of  the  title, 
was  involved  in  a  lawsuit  through  the  refusal  of  an  in- 
cumbent and  his  bishop  (Christopher  Wordsworth  of 
Lincoln)  to  allow  the  title  "the  Reverend"  on  a  tombstone 
(see  OwsTON  Ferry  Case). 

In  American  Methodism  the  validity  of  the  title  "rever- 
end" applied  by  the  ordained  elders  to  one  another  shortly 
after  the  organization  of  the  M.E.  Church,  was  the  cause 
of  much  comment  and  some  criticism.  The  marks  of  a 
society  were  still  deeply  engrained  in  the  new  church, 
and  to  many  the  title  of  reverend  possibly  more  often 
applied  to  those  who  had  been  ordained  and  not  simply 
licensed  to  preach,  seemed  an  affectation  and  an  imita- 
tion of  English  church  formality.  The  tide  was  thought  by 
some  at  that  time  to  "savor  more  of  pride,"  as  John 
Emory  tells  us,  and  was  made  the  subject  of  a  minute 
question  in  1787,  though  not  "exposed  to  print."  After 
quite  a  discussion  it  was  advised  by  the  conference  that 
everyone  might  use  his  own  choice  in  the  matter  and  be 
reverend,  or  deacon,  or  elder,  or  bishop,  as  he  chose. 

The  issue  really  came  to  a  head  over  the  name  "bishop" 
which  had  been  applied  to  the  superintendents  at  that 
date  much  to  Wesley's  distaste.  Soon,  however,  and  by  a 
sort  of  popular  consent,  the  name  reverend  did  come  to 
be  applied  to  Methodist  minsters,  ordained  or  unordained, 
everywhere. 

On  the  Eastern  seaboard,  where  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  has  always  been  strong,  our  ministers,  as 
well  as  the  clergymen  of  that  church,  are  often  addressed 


WORLD  METHODISM 

simply  as  "Mr." — an  old  formal  English  method  of  speak- 
ing of  any  minister — as  "Mr.  Wesley,"  we  remember. 

J.  Emory,  Defence  of  Our  Fathers.  1827. 
N.  B.  Harmon,  Rites  arid  Ritual.  1926.  John  Kent 

N.  B.  H. 


REVIVALS  AND  REVIVALISM.  In  various  epochs  of 
Church  life  and  almost  every  country  there  have  been 
seasons  of  remarkable  religious  interest  accompanied  with 
a  great  manifestation  of  divine  power  and  grace  in  the 
"quickening  of  believers,  the  reclaiming  of  backsliders, 
and  the  awakening,  conviction,  and  conversion  of  the  un- 
regenerate."  (Schaff-Herzog,  p.  2038.)  During  these  great 
periods  of  Revival,  as  such  times  are  called,  the  public 
mind  as  well  as  the  Church  mind  has  often  been  somewhat 
turned  to  spiritual  subjects.  Methodism  itself  was  eminent- 
ly revivalistic  in  its  origin,  and  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as 
the  "Methodist  revival  of  the  18th  and  19th  Centuries." 
Previous  to  that  there  were  great  and  unusual  periods  of 
spiritual  awakening  in  the  long  history  of  the  Church,  the 
first  being  the  great  spreading  out  and  conquest  made  by 
the  Christian  Church  during  the  first  three  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era.  The  Protestant  RefoiTnation  itself  has 
been  called  a  revival,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
periods  of  declension  and  even  apostasy  on  the  part  of 
the  church  and  people,  are  often  followed  by  a  great 
awakening  of  religion. 

Before  the  time  of  Wesley,  the  Church  of  Scotland 
was  born  anew  in  the  great  revival  under  John  Knox  and 
his  brethren.  Before  the  Wesleyan  revival  had  truly  begun 
in  Britain,  Jonathan  Edwards,  in  New  England,  began  to 
preach  with  great  earnestness  the  doctrine  of  Justifica- 
tion by  faith  alone.  The  result  of  his  preaching  was  a 
significant  revival  of  religion.  Both  in  Britain  and  America 
the  intense  awakening  of  those  who  had  been  in  sin,  and 
their  very  real  conversions  were  sometimes  marked  by 
unusual  physical  demonstrations. 

Revival  movements  have  affected  all  denominations 
though  Methodism  in  all  its  branches  has  ever  been  in  the 
front  rank  of  those  Christian  communions  which  witness 
by  changed  lives  and  public  testimony  the  spiritual 
strength  of  the  Divine  power  in  heart  and  life. 

In  America  about  the  year  1800  a  remarkable  revival 
occurred  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  which  led  to  the 
formation  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church.  Early 
Methodist  circuit  riders  were  involved  in  this,  and  such 
was  the  strength  of  the  revival  that  there  was  a  strong 
demand  that  the  Methodist  and  Presbyterian  bodies,  espe- 
cially those  in  the  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  sections  of 
the  United  States,  become  one  body.  Differences  in  polity 
however,  and  perhaps  certain  doctrinal  viewpoints  also, 
kept  this  from  coming  about. 

In  a  narrower  sense,  the  word  revival  came  to  be  the 
term  by  which  Methodist  preachers  and  people  through- 
out the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century — and  the  first 
half  of  the  twentieth  century — denominated  those  set 
periodic  occasions  during  which  sometimes  for  two  weeks, 
sometimes  a  month,  the  gospel  of  regeneration  and  com- 
plete consecration  was  preached  in  the  same  place  with 
fervor  and  earnestness  day  after  day  and  sometimes  night 
after  night.  In  time,  revivals  as  a  sort  of  periodic  profes- 
sional technique  established  themselves  in  the  Methodist, 
and  indeed,  in  other  churches,  and  the  results  were  nearly 
always  good.  The  appearance  on  the  American  scene  of 
certain  who  became  famous  as  great  evangelists,  and  re- 


REYNOLDS,   JOHN 

vivalists,  and  who  conducted  greatly  publicized  periods 
of  revival  preaching,  caused  interest  sometimes  upon  a 
nation-wide  scale.  In  America,  Charles  Finney,  Sam  P. 
Jones,  Billy  Sunday,  and  in  the  present  generation  Billy 
Graham  became  noted  as  revivalists  and  huge  crowds 
attended  their  meetings  in  many  cities.  D.  L.  Moody 
stirred  London  in  his  day  with  revival  fires.  In  time  there 
came  about  a  class  of  men  denominated  as  "evangelists" 
though  indeed  every  preacher-in-charge  was  expected  to 
be  revivalistic. 

In  local  Methodist  churches  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  times  of  revival  were  sometimes 
called  "protracted  meetings,"  and  an  annual  revival  period 
or  protracted  meeting  was  customarily  .scheduled  in  Meth- 
odist churches  over  American  Methodism  for  many  years. 
After  a  time  many  of  the.se  became  perfunctory,  attended 
by  none  but  the  faithful  church  people.  Dr.  Clovis  Chap- 
pell,  well-known  as  an  evangelist  as  well  as  a  pastor 
and  author,  said  that  he  had  seen  many  protracted  meet- 
ings which  "did  nothing  but  protract."  But  even  so,  ex- 
perienced pastors  insist  that  it  is  a  good  plan  to  have  such 
hoped  for  revival  periods  again  and  again  as  these  stir  the 
people,  and  the  cumulative  effect  of  message  after  message 
has  a  striking  gospel  power. 

Of  late  years,  the  influence  of  the  church  year,  and  of 
the  church  calendar  as  other  Protestant  bodies  follow  these 
rather  closely  has  been  more  and  more  felt  in  Methodist 
churches.  The  Easter  season  (preceded  by  the  Lenten  pe- 
riod) has  come  to  be  taken  as  the  time  when  successive 
nights  of  preaching  are  scheduled,  though  the  teim  "re- 
vival services"  is  not  heard  as  often  as  before. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  revivals  upon  a  gigantic 
scale  as  conducted  by  nationally  known  evangelists  must 
be  prepared  for  far  in  advance,  and  as  these  require,  be- 
side the  evangelist,  a  huge  party  of  helpers  who  attend  to 
advance  publicity,  arrangements,  management  of  the  mu- 
sic, and  organizations  of  big  choirs,  all  entailing  consider- 
able expense,  this  mechanical  and  costly  type  of  intensive 
crusading  has  in  certain  cases  led  to  criticism.  However, 
the  general  Church  world  usually  concedes  that  with  all 
their  faults,  such  revivals  do  help  greatly,  for  while  many 
who  profess  conversion  or  reconsecration  during  such  peri- 
ods often  fall  away  afterward,  there  remains  in  almost  all 
cases  a  residue  of  a  few  cataclysmically  changed  and  con- 
verted persons,  who  from  then  on  are  earnest  Christians 
of  the  highest  type.  Meanwhile,  if  the  pendulum  does 
swing  too  far  toward  a  forgotten  church  and  a  forgotten 
God,  the  Church  will  pray  all  the  more  earnestly  that  the 
revival  fires  will  break  out  again  from  that  One  who  will 
not  leave  Himself  without  witness  anywhere  in  His  uni- 
verse. 

T.  Smith,  Revivalism  and  Social  Reform.  1957. 
Ralph  G.  TumbviU,  ed..  Baker's  Dictionary  of  Practical 
Theology.  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.:  Baker  Book  House,  1967. 
Bernard  A.  Weisberger,  They  Gathered  at  the  River:  The 
Story  of  the  Great  Revivalists  and  Their  Impact  upon  Religion 
in  America.  Boston:  Little  Brown,  1958.  N.  B.  H. 

REYNOLDS,  JOHN  (1786-1857),  Canadian  Methodist 
bishop,  was  bom  near  Hudson,  N.  Y.,  in  1786.  He  ac- 
quired "a  fair  education  for  the  day  and  country"  and 
soon  became  an  animated,  eloquent  preacher.  In  1808,  he 
was  taken  on  trial  as  assistant  in  the  Augusta  Circuit.  Two 
years  later,  he  was  ordained  deacon  in  the  Genesee  Con- 
ference  and   stationed   on   Smith's   Creek   Circuit.    For 


REYNOLDS,   JOHN   HUGH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


him,  as  for  others,  the  War  of  1812-14  proved  a  dis- 
rupting influence.  He  located,  probably  in  1814,  taught 
school,  traded  in  furs,  and  eventually  became  a  successful 
merchant  in  Belleville.  At  the  same  time  he  was  active 
as  a  local  preacher,  and  was  ordained  as  a  local  elder  in 
1824. 

Evidently  Reynolds  became  identified  in  the  1830's 
with  those  in  the  Canada  Conference  who  sought  to 
maintain  close  connections  with  political  radicalism.  Pre- 
sumably too  he  had  a  strong  Canadian  orientation  and, 
more  significantly,  was  intimately  associated  with  the  local 
preachers  in  his  district.  The  union  of  1833  with  the  Wes- 
leyans  appeared  to  threaten  all  these  interests,  and  espe- 
cially the  rights  of  local  preachers.  Thus,  it  was  not  sur- 
prising that  at  die  first  General  Conference  of  the  revived 
M.E.  Church,  held  in  June,  1835,  John  Reynolds  was 
elected  bishop,  and  ordained  on  June  28. 

Bishop  Reynolds  presided  at  the  conferences  and  effec- 
tively directed  the  growth  of  his  church  until  1847,  but 
because  of  age  and  infirmity  he  was  unable  to  itinerate 
35  had  his  predecessors.  In  1847,  Philander  Smith  was 
elected  as  his  associate. 

Bishop  Reynolds  died  in  1857. 

J.  Carroll,  Case  and  His  Coiemporaries.  1867-77. 

T.  Webster,  A/.  E.  Church  in  Canada.  1870.         G.  S.  French 

REYNOLDS,  JOHN  HUGH  (1869-1954),  college  president, 
born  at  Enola,  Ark.,  Jan.  3,  1869,  was  the  son  of  Jesse  M. 
and  Eliza  (Grimes)  Reynolds.  He  received  an  A.B.,  Hen- 
DRix  College,  Conway,  Ark.,  1893;  A.M.,  University  of 
Chicago,  1897;  special  study,  0.\ford  University,  England, 
1911-12;  and  was  granted  a  number  of  honorary  degrees. 
He  became  professor  of  History  and  Political  Science  at 
Hendrix  College,  1897-1902;  vice-president,  Hendrix  Col- 
lege, 1899-1902;  professor  of  History  and  Political  Sci- 
ence, University  of  Arkansas,  1902-12;  acting-president. 
University  of  Arkansas,  1912-13;  president  of  Hendrix 
College,  Conway,  Ark.,  1913-45  (Hendrix  College,  Hend- 
derson-Brown  College,  and  Galloway  Woman's  College, 
consolidated  in  1931).  In  1903  he  organized  the  Arkansas 
Historical  Association  and  was  its  first  secretary.  He  be- 
came director  of  the  General  Christian  Education  move- 
ment of  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  in  1920-21  to  raise 
$33,000,000  for  colleges. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Arkansas  Constitutional  Con- 
vention, and  of  the  commission  on  unification  of  Amer- 
ican Methodism  in  1924.  He  wrote  Makers  of  Arkansas 
History;  Civil  Government  of  Arkaixsas;  and,  with  D.  Y. 
Thomas,  History  of  University  of  Arkansas.  He  was  editor 
of  the  publications  of  the  Arkansas  Historical  Association 
(Vols.  1,  II,  HI,  and  IV). 

His  home  until  his  retirement  in  1945  was  at  Conway, 
Ark.,  and  thereafter  on  Petit  Jean  Mountain  near  Morril- 
ton.  Ark.,  until  his  death  in  1954.  He  was  buried  in  Con- 


Hendrix  College  Bulletin,  June  1954. 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1946-47. 


Kenneth  L.  Spore 


RHEE,  SYNGMAN  (1875-1965),  Korean  independence 
leader  and  first  president,  was  bom  in  Pyung-San,  Hwang- 
hae  Province,  Korea,  March  26,  1875.  He  received  a 
tutor's  education  in  Confucian  principles  and  Chinese 
classics.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  entered  a  Methodist 


Syngman  Rhee 

Mission  school  (Seoul,  Pai  Chai)  in  Seoul  to  study  En- 
glish. 

Here  he  also  imbibed  democratic  ideals  and  was  soon 
campaigning  for  elimination  of  foreign  influence  in  the 
Korean  monarchy.  He  joined  the  Independence  Club,  and 
founded  and  edited  Maiyil  Shinrnun,  Korea's  first  daily 
newspaper. 

By  1897  his  efforts  to  refomi  Korea's  weak  government 
resulted  in  his  arrest,  six  months  torture  in  jail,  and  a  sen- 
tence to  life  imprisonment.  During  the  next  seven  years 
he  embraced  Christianity,  organized  fellow  prisoners  in 
classes  in  religion  and  Engli,sh,  translated  English  books 
and  wrote  his  famous  Korean  work.  Spirit  of  Indepen- 
dence. 

Granted  amnesty,  he  went  to  Washington  to  seek 
President  Theodore  Roosevelt's  aid  in  protecting  Korea's 
neutrality.  Failing  in  this,  he  remained  to  secure  a  B.A. 
from  Washington  University  in  1905,  an  M.A.  from  Har- 
vard in  1908,  and  a  Ph.D.  at  the  hands  of  Woodrow  Wil- 
son at  Princeton  in  1910. 

Rhee  spent  seventeen  months  in  Korea  as  a  YMCA 
secretary.  Back  in  America  as  a  delegate  to  the  General 
Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  meeting  in  Minne- 
apolis, April,  1912,  he  was  warned  not  to  return  to  Korea, 
whereupon  he  chose  Hawaii  as  his  base  of  activities. 

For  twenty-seven  years  he  kept  in  close  contact  with 
the  independence  movement  in  Korea.  When  a  Provisional 
Government  of  Korea  was  secretly  formed  in  1919,  Rhee 
was  elected  president  and  continued  to  be  elected  until  he 
gave  up  that  assignment  to  establish  the  Korean  Commis- 
sion as  the  diplomatic  agency  of  the  government  in  exile 
in  Washington,  D.  C. 

While  in  Hawaii  he  organized  a  Korean  Methodist 
Church,  sen'ed  as  an  educator  in  the  Methodist  Mission 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RHODES,   BENJAMIN 


program  and  later  established  the  Korean  Christian  In- 
stitute. In  Washington  he  was  a  member  of  the  Foundry 
Methodist  Church  and  remained  a  close  friend  of  the 
pastor,  Frederick  Brown  Harris. 

At  the  close  of  World  War  II,  Rhee  was  wildly  re- 
ceived by  his  own  people,  somewhat  less  cordially  by  the 
American  military  authorities.  Elected  chairman  of  the 
first  National  Assembly  he  presided  at  the  drafting  of 
Korea's  constitution  and  was  elected  president  in  1948, 
1952,  1956,  and  1960.  Taking  advantage  of  his  advanced 
age,  party  politicians  brought  his  government  into  dis- 
favor, and  a  student  revolution  resulted  in  his  resignation 
and  flight  to  Hawaii  in  1960. 

During  his  term  of  office  no  liquor  was  ever  sei'ved  at 
any  government  function  and  he  was  a  constant  Bible 
reader.  He  died  in  Honolulu,  July  19,  1965.  His  funeral 
was  held  at  Chung  Dong  Methodist  Church,  in  Seoul, 
on  July  27.  An  estimated  one  miUion  fellow-citizens 
crowded  the  streets  as  the  funeral  procession  moved  to 
the  National  Cemetery. 

Robert  T.  Oliver,  Syngman  Rhee:  The  Man  Behind  the  Myth. 
N.d. 

Charles  A.  Sauer 

RHINEHART,  WILLIAM  (1800-1861),  American  United 
Brethren  preacher  and  editor,  was  born  in  Rockingham 
County,  Va.,  on  Nov.  28,  1800.  He  was  converted  during 
a  revival  in  a  Lutheran  Church  at  the  age  of  twenty.  Soon 
after,  however,  he  joined  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ.  He  was  licensed  as  a  minister  in 
1825  and  ordained  in  1829.  He  travelled  as  a  preacher 
and  presiding  elder  in  the  Virginia  Conference  until 
1834. 

In  that  year  Rhinehart  became  the  first  editor  of  the 
Religious  Telescope,  the  denominational  paper.  Because 
the  printing  establishment  was  located  at  Circleville,  Ohio, 
he  transferred  to  the  Miami  Conference. 

Presuming  that  the  General  Conference  of  1837 
would  consider  a  constitution,  he  as  a  delegate  prepared 
such  a  constitution  for  the  publishing  house  beforehand. 
This  was  unanimously  adopted.  His  literary  gifts  were 
further  seen  in  his  co-authoring  a  hymn-book  in  the  En- 
glish language  in  1833. 

In  1839  he  resigned  as  editor  and  returned  to  preach- 
ing mostly  in  the  Miami  Conference,  serving  First  Church 
in  Dayton  from  1852  to  1854.  He  was  a  man  of  splendid 
physique  and  great  physical  strength,  a  powerful  preach- 
er and  singer.  He  strongly  opposed  slavery  and  was  a 
fervent  advocate  of  temperance. 

He  died  near  Dayton,  Ohio  on  May  19,  1861. 

D.  Berger,  History  of  U.B.  1897. 

W.  A.  Shuey,  U.S.  Publishing  House.  1892. 

Roy  D.  Miller 


RHODE  ISLAND,  U.S.A.,  the  smallest  of  the  fifty  states  is 
bounded  by  Connecticut  on  the  west,  Mass.^chusetts  on 
the  north  and  east,  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  the  south. 
The  territory  became  kno\\7i  in  1636  as  the  refuge  for 
Roger  Williams  and  other  liberal  thinkers.  Densely  popu- 
lated (922,461,  estimated  in  1970),  the  state  is  highly  in- 
dustrialized. It  is  known  for  its  textile  and  jewelry  indus- 
tries, its  naval  installations,  and  its  tourist  resorts.  There 
are  sixteen  colleges  and  universities  in  the  state,  including 
Brown  (founded  in  1764). 


Freeborn  Garrettson  delivered  the  first  Methodist 
sermon  in  Rhode  Island  in  1787,  and  two  years  later 
Jesse  Lee  introduced  regular  services.  Bishop  Asbury 
visited  the  state  in  1791,  preaching  at  Providence  and 
Warren.  In  1794  the  Warren  and  Greenwich  Circuits 
were  joined  to  include  all  of  Rhode  Island  and  some  towns 
in  southeast  Massachusetts.  Enoch  Mudge,  the  first  native 
Methodist  preacher  in  New  England,  was  appointed  to 
the  Warren  Circuit.  In  1796  there  were  two  circuits  in 
Rhode  Island  with  220  members,  and  in  1800  three  cir- 
cuits with  227  members. 

The  first  Methodist  church  building  in  Rhode  Island 
was  erected  at  Warren  in  1794  and  was  dedicated  Sept. 
24  that  year.  The  church  at  Newport  dates  from  1806, 
and  it  claims  to  be  the  first  Methodist  church  in  the  world 
to  have  a  steeple  and  a  bell.  Furthermore,  it  is  one  of  the 
few  church  buildings  still  standing  in  which  Bishop  As- 
bury preached.  The  first  Methodist  church  edifice  in 
Providence  was  built  and  dedicated  in  1816  when  the 
congregation  consisted  of  111  members.  A  new  and  larger 
building  was  erected  at  Providence  in  1822,  and  after 
1846  the  congregation  was  known  as  Chestnut  Street 
Church.  A  second  church  was  started  at  Providence  in 
1832,  a  third  in  1840,  and  the  present  Mathewson  Street 
Church  in  1848.  The  latter  has  been  known  for  its  pul- 
pit and  radio  ministry  since  1936. 

The  growth  of  Methodism  in  Rhode  Island  was  gradual 
and  constant.  In  1870  the  denomination  was  the  third 
largest  in  the  state,  ranking  next  to  the  Episcopalians  and 
Baptists.  At  that  time  the  M.E.  Church  had  thirty-three 
congregations  in  the  state  to  seventy-five  for  the  Baptists 
and  forty-two  for  the  Episcopafians. 

From  the  beginning  down  to  1840  the  Rhode  Island 
work  was  in  the  New  England  Conference.  It  was  in 
the  Providence  Conference,  1840  to  1880,  and  in  the  New 
England  Southern  Conference  thereafter. 

In  1841  the  Providence  Conference  bought  the  Kent 
Academy  which  was  founded  at  East  Greenwich,  Rhode 
Island  in  1802,  and  made  it  the  Conference  Seminary. 
About  1880  the  school's  name  was  changed  to  East  Green- 
wich Academy  and  as  such  it  continued  functioning  until 
1940.  Eben  Tourzee,  a  professor  in  the  academy,  estab- 
hshed  the  New  England  Conservatory  of  Music.  In  its 
later  years  the  East  Greenwich  Academy  served  partly  as 
a  high  school  for  East  Greenwich. 

In  1900  the  M.E.  Church  had  about  forty  charges  and 
some  6,000  members  in  Rhode  Island.  In  19'70  The  United 
Methodist  Church  reported  about  thirty-five  charges  and 
some  11,655  members  in  the  state. 

W.    McDonald,   History  of  Methodism  in   Providence,  Rliode 

Island,  1787  to  1867.  Boston:  Phipps  and  Pride,  1868. 

Minutes   of   the   New   England,   New  England   Southern,  and 

Providence  Conference. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

General   Minutes,   MEG   and   MC.  David   Carter 

RHODES,  BENJAMIN  (1743-1816),  English  Methodist, 
was  born  at  Mexborough,  Yorkshire,  where  his  father  was 
a  schoolmaster.  He  was  converted  in  childhood  and,  on 
leaving  school  in  1759,  went  into  the  woolen  industry.  He 
became  a  class  leader  at  twenty-one  and  later  a  preach- 
er. Called  out  in  1766,  he  was  sent  to  the  Norwich  Cir- 
cuit for  two  years  and  then  traveled  in  widely  scattered 
circuits  from  Dunbar  and  Newcastle  to  Sussex  and  Kent. 
He  was  "a  man  of  great  simplicity  and  integrity  of  mind. 


RHODES,    JAMES   MANLY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


highly  approved  by  his  brethren  and  warmly  attached  to 
the  whole  economy  of  Methodism."  He  published  a  Con- 
cise English  Grammar.  His  closing  years  were  spent  at 
Margate. 

John  A.  Vickers 

RHODES,  JAMES  MANLY  (1850-1941),  American  min- 
ister and  educator,  president  and  owner  of  Litfleton 
Female  College,  a  private  Methodist-related  college 
which  was  located  at  Littleton,  N.  C.  He  was  bom  in 
Four  Oaks,  Johnston  Co.,  N.  C,  and  received  into  the 
North  Carolina  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
South,  in  December,  1875.  He  served  tlie  Fifth  Street 
Methodist  Church  in  Wilmington,  N.  C,  prior  to  becom- 
ing, in  January  1882,  the  first  principal  of  Central  Insti- 
tute, which,  after  1888,  was  known  as  Littleton  Female 
College  and  after  1912  as  Littleton  College.  Except  for  the 
years  1887-1888,  when  he  was  principal  of  the  nearby 
Henderson  Female  College,  Henderson,  N.  C,  Rhodes 
served  as  president  of  Littleton  College  until  it  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire  in  January,  1919.  In  1889  he  purchased 
the  college  property  from  its  stockholders  and  immediate- 
ly began  an  extensive  program  of  improvements. 

He  married  first,  Florence  Simmons  (1856-1888)  of 
Virginia,  and  later,  on  Nov.  27,  1889,  Lula  Hester  ( 1868- 
1937),  daughter  of  Rev.  and  Mrs.  W.  S.  Hester  of  Oxford, 
N.  C,  and  a  teacher  of  voice  at  Littleton  College. 

Described  as  "a  man  of  convictions,  who  felt  that  he 
had  a  work  to  do,"  Rhodes  dedicated  his  life  to  the  train- 
ing and  development  of  young  ladies  "of  real  refinement 
and  culture,  with  those  principles  that  enter  into  the 
formation  of  noble  character."  Though  small  physically, 
Rhodes  has  been  portrayed  as  a  man  "huge  in  determina- 
tion, perservance,  consecration."  Around  1906  he  founded 
Central  Academy,  a  military  school  with  a  farm  operated 
by  self-help  students. 

Following  the  destruction  of  Littleton  College,  Presi- 
dent and  Mrs.  Rhodes  removed  to  Florida  in  1923  where 
he  died  in  Bartow  on  July  2,  1941. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  President  Rhodes  was  the 
oldest  minister  in  the  North  Carolina  Annual  Conference. 
His  body  was  returned  to  Littleton  and  buried  in  Sunset 
Hill  Cemetery. 

North  Carolina  Historical  Review,  July  1962. 

Ralph  Hardee  Rives 


RHODESIA,  formerly  known  as  Southern  Rhodesia,  is  a 
landlocked,  approximately  circular  country  in  southern 
central  Africa.  The  designation  derives  from  the  name  of 
Cecil  John  Rhodes  (1853-1902),  the  British-bom  South 
African  millionaire,  colonialist  and  politician.  The  country 
is  rich  in  natural  mineral  resources,  including  gold,  ura- 
nium, chrome,  zinc,  tin,  asbestos,  coal  and  rare  minerals. 
Tobacco,  tea,  cotton  and  cattle  are  its  principal  agricul- 
tural products. 

Rhodesia  is  divided  from  Zambia  by  the  Zambesi  River, 
flowing  eastward  from  the  Victoria  Falls  into  Mozambique 
(Portuguese  East  Africa).  It  is  separated  from  the  Repub- 
lic of  South  Africa  by  the  Limpopo  River;  the  beautiful 
Chimanimani  and  Inyanga  Mountains  form  its  eastern 
boundary  with  Mozambique.  Its  area  is  150,333  square 
miles,  and  its  population  was  estimated  in  1969  to  be 
5,090,000  including  4,835,500  Africans  (95%)  and  254,- 
500  persons  of  European  descent.  It  is  governed  under  an 


electoral  system  which  allows  the  African  majority  httle 
voice.  The  government  declared  Rhodesia  independent  of 
Britain  in  1965,  and  a  repubhc  in  1970,  but  this  status 
has  not  won  international  recognition. 

Human  remains  of  extreme  antiquity  have  been  found 
in  various  parts  of  Rhodesia.  Records  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury a.d.  indicate  the  existence  of  a  substantial  trade  in 
gold  and  ivory,  originating  in  the  Rhodesian  hinterland. 
At  Zimbabwe,  there  are  ruins  of  stone  buildings  erected 
between  the  11th  and  the  15th  centuries. 

The  first  party  of  whites  to  settle  in  Rhodesia  arrived 
in  1859.  It  was  led  by  a  British  missionary  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  Robert  Moffat,  and  took  up  residence 
in  the  Nakolo  country  along  the  Zambesi.  Moffat's  son-in- 
law,  David  Livingstone,  reached  the  Zambesi  near  Sesheke 
in  June,  1851,  and  his  later  expeditions  opened  the  in- 
terior of  Rhodesia.  The  Portuguese  showed  interest  in  an 
east-west  belt  from  Mozambique  to  Angola,  but  the  British 
trader  Thomas  Baines  secured  from  Lobengula  the  first 
concession  to  dig  for  gold  in  1871. 

Meanwhile,  Cecil  Rhodes  was  envisaging  a  "Cape  to 
Cairo"  railroad  which  would  mn  for  its  entire  length 
through  British  territory.  In  1889,  the  British  government 
delegated  the  function  of  government  to  Rhodes's  British 
South  Africa  Company.  The  name  "Southern  Rhodesia" 
was  officially  adopted  in  1898.  The  British  South  Africa 
Company's  charter  expired  in  1923.  The  whites  then  chose 
by  referendum  to  become  a  British  colony  rather  than  an 
additional  province  of  South  Africa.  This  new  status  gave 
a  very  large  measure  of  self-government  to  the  white 
electorate. 

Methodism  entered  Rhodesia  in  1891,  when  the  British 
Wesleyan  Methodist  missionaries  Owen  Watkins  and 
Isaac  Shimmin  reached  Salisbury.  Rhodes  pledged  £100 
annually  to  the  expenses  of  a  British  Wesleyan  missionary 
in  Rhodesia.  Land  grants  were  made  by  the  Company  at 
Epworth  near  Salisbury,  and  at  Sinoia  in  the  Lomagiindi 
district.  In  1892  stations  were  opened  at  Nengubo  and 
Kwenda,  then  at  Bulawayo  after  a  rebellion  among  the 
Matabele.  John  White,  a  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  min- 
ister who  served  in  Rhodesia  from  1894  until  1931,  was 
outstanding  in  his  defense  of  African  interests  against  the 
abuses  of  colonial  administration.  He  was  responsible  for 
several  publications  in  the  Shona  language,  and  for  the 
training,  through  the  Waddilove  Institute,  of  ministers, 
evangelists  and  teachers.  The  first  three  Africans  were  re- 
ceived into  the  Wesleyan  ministry  in  1904.  In  1964  the 
district  became  a  member  of  the  newly-formed  Christian 
Council  of  Rhodesia,  which  in  the  following  year  declared 
its  opposition  to  the  govemment's  unilateral  declaration 
of  independence.  A  united  college  of  education  was 
opened  in  1968  by  seven  denominations,  including  Meth- 
odists and  also  Roman  Catholics.  In  the  same  year,  state- 
ment on  unity  was  issued  by  leaders  of  the  Anglican, 
Congregational,  Methodist  and  Presbyterian  communi- 
ties. At  that  time,  the  British-related  Methodist  District 
was  responsible  for  over  700  places  of  worship,  285  pri- 
mary schools  with  more  than  60,000  pupils,  four  secondary 
schools,  two  teacher  training  colleges  and  an  agricultural 
college.  It  had  more  than  30,000  full  members  and  a  total 
community  of  well  over  60,000  under  the  pastoral  care 
of  thirty  Rhodesian  and  twenty-six  expatriate  ministers. 

The  membership  of  the  British-related  District  includes 
both  Africans  and  Europeans,  and  although  there  are  thus 
two  distinct  cultural  traditions  within  the  church,  Africans 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RICE,    JOHN   ANDREW 


and  Europeans  are  welcome  to  each  other's  services  and 
meetings.  There  is  close  cooperation  with  other  denomina- 
tions, for  example  in  a  united  mission  to  the  African  town- 
ships of  Bulawayo,  and  in  the  chaplaincy  to  university 
students  in  Salisbury. 

In  1897-1898,  the  M.E.  Church  established  work  in  the 
Umtali  area  of  Rhodesia.  In  December  1897,  Bishop 
Joseph  C.  Hartzell  conferred  with  Cecil  Rhodes  and 
Company  officials  and  secured  a  grant  to  the  proposed  mis- 
sion of  13,000  acres  near  Old  Umtali,  as  well  as  the  aban- 
doned buildings  there.  The  town  had  been  moved  from 
the  old  to  a  new  site  across  the  mountain,  so  that  it  could 
be  situated  on  the  line  of  the  railroad  being  built  at  the 
time,  from  the  Indian  Ocean  Port  of  Beira. 

The  first  missionaries  arrived  in  1898,  the  Rev.  &  Mrs. 
Morris  W.  Ehnes,  opening  a  school  at  Umtali  in  Novem- 
ber. One  of  the  Old  Umtali  buildings  was  assigned  to  the 
Women's  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  Mrs.  Helen  Ras- 
mussen  (see  Springer,  Helen)  arriving  in  1901.  She 
had  served  in  the  Congo  until  1895.  In  1905  she  became 
the  wife  of  John  M.  (later  Bishop)  Springer.  They  pio- 
neered new  stations  at  Mrewa,  Nyadiri  and  Mtoko,  as- 
sisted by  Samuel  Gurney.  The  southernmost  station  was 
opened  at  Mutambara  in  1908.  In  1954,  a  new  station 
was  opened  at  Nyamuzuwe.  Parts  of  the  original  land 
grant  at  Old  Umtali  were  exchanged  for  land  grants  at 
these  new  sites. 

Rural  education  assumed  early  importance  with  empha- 
sis on  agricultural  training,  several  large  fanns  providing 
experience  and  demonstration.  Virtually  all  of  the  primary 
education  of  the  rural  African  people  has  been  through 
mission-established  schools.  Evangelistic  work  was  pro- 
moted, with  gain  in  self-support  of  the  village  churches. 
A  Church  of  30,000  members  and  a  school  enrollment  of 
48,560  developed.  In  1967,  there  were  fifty-eight  ordained 
African  ministers,  1,620  African  teachers,  and  eighty  mis- 
sionaries related  to  the  work  of  the  Rhodesia  Annual  Con- 
ference, with  nearly  all  major  administrative  posts  staffed 
by  able  African  leaders. 

By  comity  agreement,  the  Rhodesia  District  of  the  Brit- 
ish Methodist  Church  works  generally  west  and  south 
of  Salisbury,  and  the  Americans  in  the  east  and  south. 
Both  branches  of  Methodism  have  churches  in  the  major 
cities.  The  Epworth  Theological  College  at  Salisbury  now 
trains  the  ordained  ministry  for  both  churches,  as  well  as 
for  other  participating  denominations.  The  Anglican,  Con- 
gregational, Methodist  and  Presbyterian  churches  are  seek- 
ing organic  union. 

The  Free  Methodist  Church  established  work  in  1938 
in  the  extreme  southeastern  comer  of  the  country.  Rev. 
and  Mrs.  Ralph  Jacobs,  already  experienced  in  Mozam- 
bique, were  the  leaders.  This  mission  is  in  a  region  of 
10,000  square  miles.  Activity  radiates  from  Lundi  in  the 
north  of  the  area,  near  the  Mutibi  Reserve,  Chikombedzi 
on  the  Nuentsi  River  at  the  center,  and  Dumisa  at  the 
southern  angle  near  Mozambique.  Each  station  received 
100  acres  from  the  government.  The  hospital  at  Chikom- 
bedzi is  influential,  and  mobile  clinics  go  into  the  villages. 
The  Lundi  Central  School  turns  away  many  students  for 
lack  of  space.  African  personnel  is  supported  by  the 
churches.  The  1962  report  showed  1,700  members  with 
twenty-one  outstation  elementary  schools  enrolling  2,500. 

The  mission  of  the  A. M.E.  Church  (US)  also  has  a 
small  work  in  Rhodesia.  The  Zambesi  Conference  includes 
stations,   and  village  evangelistic  and   educational  work, 


in  both  Zambia  and  Rhodesia,  and  there  are  scattered  con- 
gregations in  Malawi  ( Nyasaland ) . 

Findlay  and  Holdsworth,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Soc.  1922. 

S.   D.  Gray,  Frontiers  of  the  Kingdom  in  Rhodesia.  London: 

Cargate,  192.3. 

C.  F.  Andrews,  John  White  of  Mashonaland.  London:  Hodder 

&  Stoughton,  19.35. 

H.  I.  James,  Rhodesia.  193.5. 

B.  S.  Lanison,  Free  Methodist  Missions.  1951. 

M.    W.    Murphree,   Christianity    Among    the    Sliona.    London: 
Athlone  Press,  1969. 

E.    W.   Smith,    The   Way   of  the   White   Fields   in    Rhodesia. 
N.p.,  n.d. 

C.  Thorpe,  Limpopo  to  Zambezi.  London:  Epworth  Press,  n.d. 
World  Methodist  Council,  Handbook  of  Information,  1966-71. 

Arthur  Bruce  Moss 
T.  C.  Baird 


RICE,  JOHN  ANDREW  (1862-19.30),  American  preacher 
and  educator,  was  born  in  Colleton  County,  S.  C,  Sept. 
25,  1862,  the  son  of  Richard  Blake  and  Rachel  Jane  (Lis- 
ton)  Rice.  He  won  the  A.B.  (1885)  and  A.M.  degrees  at 
the  University  of  South  Carolina,  and  that  school  awarded 
him  the  honorary  D.D.  and  LL.D.  degrees  in  1894  and 
1905,  respectively.  The  University  of  Alabama  gave  him 
the  LL.D.  in  1906.  Rice  did  postgraduate  study  at,  but 
did  not  win  degrees  from,  Columbia  Theological  (Presby- 
terian) Seminary  and  the  University  of  Chicago.  He  was 
married  twice,  first  to  Anna  B.  Smith  on  April  13,  1887, 
and  after  her  death,  to  Laura  Darnell,  Aug.  7,  1902.  He 
had  three  sons  by  the  first  marriage  and  a  son  and  daugh- 
ter by  the  second. 

Rice  was  admitted  to  the  South  Carolina  Conference 
(MES)  in  1886.  After  two  years  on  circuits,  he  served  at 
Darlington  four  years,  and  in  1892  was  appointed  to  the 
prestigious  Washington  Street  Church,  Columbia.  Begin- 
ning in  1894  he  served  six  years  as  president  of  Columbia 
(S.C.)  College  for  Women.  He  reorganized  and  rebuilt 
the  college,  raised  its  academic  standards,  and  held  the 
students  to  Victorian  standards  of  conduct.  Later  he  served 
as  a  trustee  of  the  school. 

In  1900,  convinced  that  his  understanding  of  the  Bible 
was  inadequate.  Rice  resigned  as  president  of  the  col- 
lege, took  a  nominal  appointment  as  "conference  secretary 
of  missions,"  and  did  two  years  of  study  under  William 
Rainey  Harper,  J.  M.  Powis  Smith,  and  other  Old  Testa- 
ment scholars  at  the  University  of  Chicago. 

In  the  fall  of  1902,  Rice  transferred  to  the  Alabama 
Conference  and  was  appointed  to  Court  Street  Church, 
Montgomery.  It  was  the  beginning  of  successive  four- 
year  pastorates  in  four  of  the  leading  churches  of  his 
denomination.  The  other  three,  in  order,  were  Rayne 
Memorial,  New  Orleans;  First  Church,  Fort  Worth, 
and  St.  John's  Church,  St.  Louis.  While  at  Fort  Worth, 
1910-14,  Rice  served  as  a  member  of  the  inter-conference 
commission  which  selected  Dallas  as  the  site  for  South- 
ern Methodist  University'  which  opened  in  1915.  At 
the  end  of  his  four  years  in  St.  Louis  (1918),  the  four- 
year  limit  on  pastorates  had  been  lifted  and  Rice  desired 
to  stay  longer,  but  the  St.  John's  congregation  was  not 
agreeable.  He  then  returned  to  South  Carolina  and 
was  appointed  to  Trinity  Church,  Sumter,  where  he  re- 
mained two  years. 

An  able  and  eloquent  preacher,  a  liberal  in  theology 
and  in  his  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  Rice  had  over  the 
years  become  somewhat  of  a  controversial  figure  in  his 


RICE,    MERTON   STACKER 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


denomination.  Liberals  had  led  in  organizing  the  School 
of  Tlieology  at  Southern  Methodist  University,  and  in 
1920  Rice  was  invited  to  the  chair  of  Old  Testament  therei. 
He  accepted  and  at  the  same  time  moved  his  ministerial 
membership  to  the  Louisiana  Conference  which  was 
known  to  be  fairly  liberal,  as  compared  with  some  otliers. 

Shortly  before  Rice  went  to  Dallas,  John  W.  Shack- 
ford,  superintendent  of  teacher  training  in  the  Board  of 
Education  at  Nashville,  a  liberal  who  was  being  criti- 
cized by  conservatives  in  the  church,  asked  Rice  to  write 
a  book  on  the  Old  Testament  for  use  in  local  church 
teacher  training  schools.  When  Rice  submitted  his  manu- 
script, Shackford  suggested  eliding  several  statements 
which  were  likely  to  arouse  the  ire  of  the  fundamentalists. 
Independent  and  unwilling  to  compromise.  Rice  refused, 
and  the  Board  did  not  publish  the  book.  Rice  found  an- 
other publisher  and  brought  out  the  book  after  he  arrived 
at  Southern  Methodist  University.  Soon  there  were  de- 
mands from  the  "grass  roots"  of  the  church  that  Rice 
resign.  Bishop  Edwin  D.  Mouzon,  a  liberal,  defended 
Rice,  saying  his  views  were  in  line  with  all  modern  biblical 
scholarship,  but  it  was  to  no  avail.  In  the  fall  of  1921, 
Rice  felt  constrained  to  resign,  and  Bishop  Mouzon  ap- 
pointed him  to  the  church  at  Okmulgee,  Okla.  In  1922 
Rice  went  to  the  Boston  Avenue  Church  at  Tulsa,  and 
in  a  successful  five-year  pastorate  built  the  magnificent 
edifice  for  which  that  church  is  distinguished  today.  In 
1927  he  was  appointed  editor  of  the  Oklahoma  Methodist, 
and  when  it  folded  a  year  later.  Rice,  with  the  biowledge 
and  consent  of  the  bi.shop  in  charge,  began  supplying  the 
First  Congregational  Church  in  Tulsa. 

While  Rice  shocked  conservatives  by  what  they  con- 
sidered his  irreverent  views  of  the  Bible,  there  could  be 
no  doubt  about  his  honesty  and  integrity  and  his  devotion 
to  the  truth  and  the  church.  He  was  an  effective  preacher, 
lecturer,  and  writer,  and  he  exercised  a  liberalizing  in- 
fluence on  the  educational  and  religious  thinking  of  his 
time.  In  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  rigidly  conservative 
views  of  theology  and  the  Bible  began  to  wane  soon  after 
Rice  resigned  his  professorship.  He  died  in  Tulsa,  May 
29,  1930. 

Rice  published  four  books;  The  Old  Testament  in  the 
Life  of  Today;  The  Primacy  of  Religion  in  Education; 
Why  I  Believe  in  the  Bible;  and  Is  Christ  on  Trial  in 
Tennessee?  A  volume  entitled  Emotions  Jesus  Stirred, 
which  included  six  of  Rice's  sermons  and  a  sketch  of  his 
life,  was  published  in  1950. 

General  Minutes,  MECS. 

John  A.  Rice,  Emotions  Jesus  Stirred.  1950. 

Who  Was  Who  in  America,  1897-1942.  Albea  Godbold 

RICE,  MERTON  STACKER  (1872-1943),  American 
preacher  and  nationally  known  Detroit  pastor,  was  bom 
in  a  Kansas  frontier  parsonage  on  Sept.  5,  1872.  His  first 
pastoral  appointment  was  to  a  five  point  circuit  in  Kansas, 
and  his  last  appointment  was  to  Metropohtan  Methodist 
in  Detroit  where  he  served  his  closing  thirty  years.  His 
formal  education  was  received  at  Baker  University.  He 
earned  his  B.S.  and  his  M.S.  and  was  honored  with  the 
LL.D. 

He  served  the  First  Church  in  Duluth,  Minn,  from 
1904  to  1913  and  after  that  went  to  the  parish  church  that 
later  came  to  be  known  as  Metropolitan  Methodist  in 
Detroit.  While  he  was  there  it  grew  from  about  1,000 
members  to  7,000  members. 


Rice  insisted  that  his  parish  reach  out  in  benevolent 
giving.  He  claimed  that  a  people  who  could  build  a 
"cathedral"  costing  so  much  could  give  to  others  in  like 
manner.  Rice  was  a  masterful  preacher  of  Christ;  a  cham- 
pion for  righteous  causes;  and  one  who  lives  on  in  his 
fourteen  published  volumes. 

He  died  in  Detroit,  March  7,  1943. 

Scott  D.  MacDonald 

RICE,  SAMUEL  DWIGHT  (1815-1884),  Canadian  minis- 
ter and  general  superintendent,  was  bom  in  Maine  in 
1815.  At  an  early  age  his  family  moved  to  Woodstock, 
New  Brunswick,  where  he  grew  up  in  a  strongly  British 
environment.  He  received  his  undergraduate  training  at 
Bowdoin  College,  Maine,  and  tlien  briefly  went  into  busi- 
ness in  1837;  however,  he  became  a  candidate  for  the 
Wesleyan  ministry  in  the  New  Brunswick  District. 

After  a  very  successful  career  as  an  itinerant  in  New 
Brunswick,  Samuel  Rice  accompanied  Enoch  Wood  to 
Canada  West  in  1847.  He  soon  became  involved  in  the 
Indian  mission  and  was  appointed  head  of  the  Mount 
Elgin  Industrial  School,  a  model  training  school  for  Indian 
youth.  In  1850,  however,  he  was  transferred  to  Kingston, 
where  his  administrative  skill  resulted  in  the  erection  of 
an  important  church,  and  a  substantial  addition  to  the 
Victoria  College  endowment.  This  in  turn  ensured  his 
appointment  for  three  years  (1854-57)  as  Moral  and 
Domestic  Governor  of  Victoria,  an  arrangement  not  calcu- 
lated to  strengthen  the  president's  position. 

From  that  time  forward  Rice  took  an  extremely  active 
interest  in  Methodist  educational  institutions.  He  believed 
that  the  church  had  an  imperative  duty  to  uphold  the 
connection  between  knowledge  and  vital  piety,  not  only 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RICE,   WILLIAM   NORTH 


S.  D.  Rice 

for  its  own  children,  but  for  society  generally.  To  this 
end  he  worked  manfully  to  build  up  the  Methodist  educa- 
tional fund,  and  he  gave  much  of  his  time  and  effort  to 
the  development  of  the  Wesleyan  Ladies'  College  in 
Hamilton. 

Rice's  administrative  and  ministerial  abilities  were  reg- 
ularly recognized  by  his  communion.  He  was  frequently  a 
district  chairman,  and  in  1873  and  1874  was  president  of 
the  Wesleyan  Conference  in  its  final  sessions.  In  1882  he 
was  elected  president  of  the  General  Conference,  and  in 
1883  the  United  General  Conference  elected  him  as  one 
of  the  two  general  superintendents  of  the  new  Methodist 
Church. 

Regrettably,  iU  health,  the  fruit  of  his  past  exertions, 
began  to  sap  his  energies  at  this  crucial  period  for  him 
and  for  Methodism  and  on  Dec.  15,  1884,  a  few  weeks 
after  his  election,  he  died. 

To  the  editor  of  the  Canadian  Methodist  Magazine 
( 1885 )  Rice  appeared  to  have  inherited  the  "very  best 
qualities"  of  the  New  England  Puritans.  "There  was  nei- 
ther gall  nor  acid  in  his  nature.  Conscience,  however,  was 
with  him  an  imperial  power  which  reigned  by  Divine 
right,  and  from  whose  decisions  there  was  absolutely  no 
appeal  .  .  .  He  was  eminently  a  man  of  faith.  He  looked 
upon  nothing  as  being  too  great  or  too  difficult  to  be  done 
or  dared  if  it  lay  in  the  line  of  duty.  .  .  .  He  had  his  frail- 
ities,  perhaps  his  faults,  but  the  prevailing  impression 
which  we  get  from  the  review  of  his  whole  life  is,  that  he 
was  a  great  and  good  man."  (Vol.  22  (1885),  181). 

G.  H.  Cornish,  Cyclopaedia  of  Methodism  in  Canada.  1903. 
T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1890.  G.  S.  French 

RICE,  WILLIAM  NORTH  (1845-1928),  was  bom  in  Mar- 
blehead,  Mass.,  on  Nov.  21,  1845,  the  son  of  William 
(a  M.E.  pastor)  and  Caroline  Laura  (North)  Rice. 

He  received  the  A.B.  (valedictorian)  from  Wesleyan 
University  in  1865  and  the  A.M.  in  1868;  the  Ph.D.  from 
Yale  University  in  1867;  and  the  LL.D.  from  Sy-racuse 


University  in  1886  and  Wesleyan  University  in  1915. 
He  studied  at  the  University  of  Berlin  from  1867-68, 
1892-93.  His  Ph.D.  from  Yale  in  1867  was  the  first  doc- 
torate of  philosophy  in  geology  granted  by  Yale.  His  thesis 
subject  was,  "The  Darwinian  Theory  of  the  Origin  of 
Species." 

He  married  Elizabeth  Wing  Crowell  on  April  12,  1870, 
and  their  children  were  Edward  Loranus  and  Charles 
William. 

Rice  sei^ved  at  Wesleyan  University  (Comiecticut)  as 
professor  of  geology  and  natural  history,  1867-84;  pro- 
fessor of  geology,  1884-1918;  professor  emeritus,  1918; 
acting  president,  1907,  1908-09,  1918. 

He  was  a  member  of  many  learned  organizations, 
among  them  being:  the  Geological  Society  of  America 
(v.p.,  1911);  and  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences;  a  founding  member,  American  Society  of  Nat- 
uralists (pres.,  1891);  member.  Association  of  American 
Geographers. 

William  North  Rice  became  a  member  of  the  New  York 
East  Conference,  M.E.  Church,  in  1869,  and  was  chair- 
man of  the  Board  of  Examiners  from  1896-1925.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  General  Conference  in  1884.  He 
preached  in  Grace  Church,  Boston,  for  a  time  after  grad- 
uation from  Wesleyan.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Council 
of  Connecticut  Federation  of  Churches  (pres.,  1910-11; 
secretary,  1913-19;  pres.,  1919-20;  hon.  pres.,  1920). 

He  was  the  author  of  many  works,  such  as:  Christian 
Faith  in  an  Age  of  Science,  1903;  (with  H.  E.  Gregory) 
Return  to  Faith,  and  other  Addresses,  1916;  Through 
Darkness  to  Dawn,  1917;  Poet  of  Science,  and  other  Ad- 
dresses, 1919;  Science  and  Religion — Five  Supposed  Con- 
fiicts,  1925;  and  was  editor  of  the  5th  edition  of  Dana's 
Textbook  of  Geology,  1897. 

Rice,  along  with  Caleb  T.  Winchester  and  their  former 
professor  at  Wesleyan  University,  John  M.  VanVleck, 
became  potent  influences  at  Wesleyan  University,  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  progressive  leadership  of  President  Eliot 
of  Harvard.  They  liberalized  the  curriculum  at  Wesleyan 
in  1873,  and  were  largely  responsible  for  the  combined 
emphasis  on  teaching  and  research  there. 

In  his  book,  Christian  Faith  in  an  Age  of  Science,  he 
wrote:  "The  scientific  questions  of  our  age  and  of  all  ages 
touch  not  the  central  truth  of  Christianity,  'that  God  was 
in  Christ,  reconcihng  the  world  unto  himself'." 

Within  the  field  of  geology  he  was  most  interested  in 
the  paleontological  evidence  for  evolution.  On  Dec.  28, 
1923,  the  Geological  Society  of  America  at  its  annual 
meeting  at  Washington,  presented  him  with  an  engrossed 
testimonial,  recognizing  his  services  in  the  reconciliation 
of  science  and  religion. 

His  grandson  William  A.  Rice  wrote:  "I  would  guess 
that  Wilham  North  Rice  contributed  much  more  clarity 
and  integrity,  and  19th  century  liberal  freedom  of  inde- 
pendent inquiry  than  he  did  fervor  and  emotional  rich- 
ness. There  was  a  profound  gentleness  there  .  .  .  and  a 
complete  integrity  which  was  inspirational." 

For  years  Rice  led  religious  classes  of  students;  held 
Bible  classes;  conducted  seminars;  had  personal  conversa- 
tions with  groups  of  young  ministers;  and  had  confidential 
discussions  with  individuals  who  "in  confusion  of  mind  or 
depression  of  heart  sought  his  counsel."  He  displayed  per- 
sonal fidelity  to  the  practice  as  well  as  the  theory  of  the 
Christian  faith.  He  was  a  college  professor  for  sixty  years 
and  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  for  sixty-two  years. 

He  died  Nov.  13,  1928  in  Delaware,  Ohio,  at  the  home 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


of  his  son,  Edward  L.  Rice,  then  professor  of  zoology  at 
Ohio  Weslevan  University. 

Alumni  Record  of  Wesleyan   University,   Middletovvn,  Conn., 

1921. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

Journal  of  tlie  New  York  East  Conference,  1929. 

Who  Was  Who  in  America,  Vol.  I. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism.  1916. 

Stephen  G.  Cobb 


RICH,  ISAAC  (1801-1872),  American  layman,  business- 
man, philanthropist,  was  bom  at  Wellfleet  on  Cape  Cod, 
Mass.,  U.S.A.,  on  Oct.  24,  1801.  His  father  was  in  the  fish 
business  and  Isaac  assisted  therein.  On  his  nineteenth 
birthday  his  father  died,  and  Isaac  became  the  chief  sup- 
port of  his  mother  and  ten   children  younger   than   he. 

Isaac  Rich  started  in  the  fish  business  in  Boston,  and 
by  honesty  and  industry  his  progress  was  rapid  and  sure. 
In  time,  he  became  an  extensive  wharf  and  ship  owner, 
with  numerous  places  of  business.  By  middle  life,  he  was 
appointed  United  States  representative  on  an  international 
Fisheries  Commission. 

The  Richs  were  Methodists.  One  evening  in  a  revival 
meeting  at  his  home  church,  tlie  only  acceptance  of  the 
pastor's  altar  call  was  Isaac.  The  pastor  laid  his  hand  on 
the  lad's  head,  and  offered  a  prayer  that  alluded  to  the 
boy  who  came  to  Jesus  with  loaves  and  fishes.  Isaac  Rich 
never  forgot  that  hour  of  decision.  He  was  a  consecrated 
Christian  and  a  loyal  member  of  the  Methodist  Church  for 
the  rest  of  his  life. 

As  his  business  and  wealth  increased  he  manifested  a 
growing  sensitiveness  to  his  stewardship  and  helped  every 
good  cause;  but  his  greatest  work  was  the  part  he  took  in 
establishing  Boston  University.  His  greatest  philanthropy 
was  his  bequest  to  that  institution,  which  was  the  largest 
sum  ever  given  to  an  educational  institution  up  to  that 
time. 

He  died  at  Boston  on  Jan.  13,  1872. 


Dictionary  of  American  Biography 
M.   Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.    1878. 


Daniel  L.   Marsh 


RICHARDS,  HERBERT  EAST  (1919-  ),  American  edu- 

cator and  minister,  received  his  A.B.  degree  from  Dickin- 
son College;  B.D.  degree  from  Drew  University  and 
Theological  Seminary;  M.A.  degree  from  Columbia 
University  and  D.D.  from  College  of  Idaho.  He  taught 
Homiletics  and  the  Christian  Critisicm  of  Life  at  Drew 
University  and  Theological  Seminary.  He  has  also  taught 
at  Columbia  University  and  is  a  member  of  the  American 
Association  of  University  Professors.  Since  1951  he  has 
been  minister  of  the  First  Methodist  Cathedral,  Boise, 
Idaho. 

In  1965  he  received  the  Distinguished  Citizen  Awaid 
of  the  Idaho  Daily  Statesman  newspaper.  He  is  a  charter 
member  of  the  Board  of  Governors,  the  American  Founda- 
tion of  Religion  and  Psychiatry;  chairman  of  the  Board 
of  Ministerial  Training  of  Idaho  and  Television,  Radio 
and  Film  Commission  of  the  Idaho  Methodist  Conference. 
In  1965  he  received  the  "Clergy  Churchman  of  the  Year" 
award  given  by  Religious  Heritage  Foundation  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  He  was  cited  by  the  Academy  of  Achieve- 
ment receiving  the  Golden  Plate  award  in  1966.  For  the 
past  twelve  years,  his  weekly  radio  and  television  broad- 
casts have  had  wide  listening  audiences. 


Richards  has  been  an  exchange  minister  under  the 
National  Council  of  Churches  in  England  and  has 
been  a  delegate  to  General  and  Jurisdictional  Con- 
ferences of  the  Methodist  Church  in  1956  and  1960. 
He  has  served  as  Chaplain  of  the  Senate  of  State  of  Idaho 
for  eight  years.  He  has  served  also  Presbyterian,  Congre- 
gational and  Baptist  denominations  as  minister.  His  wife 
was  Lois  Marcey  whom  he  married  Jan.  1,  1941,  and  they 
have  five  sons. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966. 

Wendell  L.  Coe 

RICHARDS,  THOMAS  (1717-1798),  British  Methodist,  was 
one  of  the  earliest  itinerants,  being  hsted  by  John  Wesley 
(Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Conferences,  London,  1862, 
p.  60),  along  with  Tiiom.\s  Maxfleld  and  Thomas 
Westell  as  his  "sons  in  the  Gospel"  in  1760.  For  a 
time  Richards  was  a  master  at  Kingswood  School.  He 
attended  the  Conference  in  1745.  Selina  Lady  Hunting- 
don secured  episcopal  ordination  for  him  and  for  thirty 
years  he  served  as   curate   of   St.    Sepulchre's,   Holborn. 

A.  Skevington  Wood 


Ernest  G.  Richardson 

RICHARDSON,  ERNEST  GLADSTONE  (1874-1947), 
American  bishop,  was  bom  at  St.  Vincent,  British  West 
Indies,  Feb.  24,  1874,  the  son  of  Jonathan  C.  and  Dorothea 
Ann  (Davison)  Richardson.  Jonathan  was  a  Wesleyan 
Methodist  preacher  and  missionary.  Coming  to  the  United 
States  for  higher  education,  Emest  won  the  A.B.  degree 
at  Dickinson  College  in  1896.  He  joined  the  New  York 
East  Conference  that  year,  and  while  stationed  at 
Wallingford,  Conn.,  two  years  and  at  Seventh  Street, 
New  York  City,  one  year,  he  pursued  studies  and  won 
the  A.M.  degree  at  Yale  in  1899.  Wesleyan  University 
awarded  him  the  D.D.  degree  in  1913,  and  Dickinson 
conferred  on  him  the  LL.D.  in  1920.  He  married  Anna 
Isenberg,  April  21,  1897,  and  they  had  one  son  and  two 
daughters.  Richardson's  other  appointments  were:  Olin 
Church,  Brooklyn,  1900-01;  Fleet  Street,  Brooklyn, 
1902-09;  Bristol,  Conn.,  1910-12;  Simpson,  Brooklyn, 
1913-16;  and  Brooklyn  North  District,  1917-20.  He  was 
a    member    of    four    General    Conferences,    1908-20. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RICHARDSON,   JAMES 


Elevated  to  the  episcopacy  in  1920,  he  was  resident 
bishop  in  Atlanta,  1920-28,  and  Philadelphia,  1928- 
44.  He  was  in  charge  of  the  Puerto  Rico  Conference, 
1933-44.  He  served  as  president  of  the  Council  of  Bish- 
ops, 1941-42.  After  the  accidental  death  of  Bishop  Schuy- 
ler E.  Garth  in  January  1947,  Richardson  was  called 
out  of  retirement  to  administer  the  Wisconsin  Area. 

Richardson  served  on  the  Board  of  Home  Missions 
and  Church  Extension,  1910-44,  and  was  president  of  it 
much  of  that  time.  For  several  years  he  was  president  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  America.  The  1928,  *32,  and 
'36  General  Conferences  named  him  to  the  Commission 
on  Interdenominational  Relations,  the  group  which  of- 
ficially dealt  with  plans  and  moves  for  the  union  of 
American  Methodism,  but  he  resigned  before  unification 
was  effected  in  1939  because  his  work  in  Puerto  Rico, 
in  which  he  was  greatly  interested,  interfered  with  at- 
tendance at  commission  meetings  on  the  mainland. 

Richardson  was  a  strong,  legal-minded  administrator. 
Always  sure  of  himself,  he  was  a  splendid  presiding  of- 
ficer. He  established  himself  in  the  minds  of  ecclesiastical 
leaders  as  an  interpreter  of  church  law.  It  was  almost 
universally  agreed  among  those  who  knew  him  that  he 
was  the  best  parliamentarian  in  the  church.  He  died  at 
Philadelphia,  Sept.  5,  1947. 

Christian  Advocate,  Sept.  25,  1947. 
General  Minutes,  MEG. 
General  Conference  Journals,  1920ff. 
C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 
Who  Was  Who  in  America,  Vol.  2,  1943-50.       Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

RICHARDSON,  GLENN  A.  (1918-  ),  American  Free 
Methodist  businessman  and  church  leader  was  born  at 
McPherson,  Kan.  He  received  the  following  degrees:  A.B., 
Greenville  College,  1940;  M.B.A.,  University  of  Miami, 
Fla.,  1958;  LL.D.,  GreenviUe  College,  111.,  1962.  He 
married  Mary  E.  Lowell  in  1938.  He  was  executive  vice- 
president  of  Greenville  College,  1958-62  and  became 
president  of  that  institution  in  1962. 

He  is  the  author  of  Oil  Investment  and  Progressive 
Taxation  (1958).  He  has  been  a  frequent  delegate  to  the 
Central  Illinois  Annual  Conference  of  his  church  and 
served  as  treasurer  of  the  Conference.  He  has  also  been 
a  delegate  to  General  Conference,  and  president  of  the 
Association  of  Free  Methodist  Colleges  and  Secondary 
Schools. 

Bybon  S.  Lamson 


RICHARDSON,  HARRY  VAN  BUREN  ( 1901-  ) ,  Ameri- 

can church  leader  and  president  of  the  Interdenomina- 
tional Theological  Center,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  was  born  in 
JacksonviUe,  Fla.,  June  27,  1901,  son  of  Martin  V.  and 
Bertha  I.  (Witsell)  Richardson. 

He  received  the  A.B.  degree  from  Western  Reserve 
University,  1925;  S.T.B.,  Harvard  University,  1932;  Ph.D., 
Drew  Universfty,  1945;  D.D.,  Wilberforce  Univer- 
sity, 1941. 

He  served  as  chaplain  of  Tuskegee  Institute,  Alabama, 
1932-48;  president.  Gammon  Theological  Seminary, 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  1948-59,  and  president.  Interdenominational 
Theological  Center,  Atlanta,  1959-     . 

In  1949  he  was  a  member  of  the  Southeastern  Advisory 
Committee  of  the  National  Council  of  The  Chubches 


of  Christ  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  and  has  been  a  member  of 
the  General  Board  of  the  Council  since  1950.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Southern  Regional 
Council,  Inc.,  and  of  the  Atlanta  Urban  League.  He  is 
a  member  of  the  Council  on  Evangelism  of  The  Methodist 
Church,  of  the  citizens  advisory  committee  on  Urban 
Renewal;  was  chairman  of  the  Negro  division  Community 
Services,  1958,  co-chairman,  1959;  he  was  treasurer  of 
the  Methodist  Rural  Life  Fellowship  from  1959  to  1962; 
he  was  field  director  of  the  program  to  train  Negro  rural 
ministers,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Home  Missions  Coun- 
cil of  North  America  and  the  Phelps-Stokes  Fund,  1945- 
50.  He  was  president  of  the  Georgia  Council  of  Churches 
for  two  terms;  he  is  a  member  of  the  Georgia  committee 
of  the  Office  of  Economic  Opportunity;  he  is  a  member  of 
the  Georgia  Temperance  League,  of  the  Mental  Retarda- 
tion Planning  Scientific  and  Advisory  Committee;  member 
of  the  executive  board  of  the  National  Council  of  Chris- 
tians and  Jews;  member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the 
Atlanta  Tuberculosis  Association,  of  the  admissions  com- 
mittee of  the  Community  Chest;  he  is  a  member  of  the 
Association  of  Methodist  Theological  Schools  (member  of 
the  executive  committee).  He  is  the  author  of  Dark  Glory, 
1947;  contributor  to  the  Christian  Way  in  Race  Relations, 
1948;  also  of  numerous  articles  in  the  field  of  race  rela- 
tions. 

On  June  22,  1927  he  was  married  to  Selma  T.  White. 
He  resides  in  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Who's  Who  in  the  Methodist  Church,  1966.     J.  Marvin  Rast 

RICHARDSON,  JAMES  (1791-1875),  Canadian  bishop, 
was  born  in  Kingston,  Upper  Canada,  Jan.  29,  1791.  His 
father  was  a  former  naval  officer,  who  had  become  an 
officer  in  the  Provincial  Marine,  and  a  merchant  as  well. 
James  Richardson  was  given  a  sound  primary  education, 
on  which  he  built  substantially  in  later  fife.  As  a  boy  he 
naturally  became  a  sailor,  and  in  1812  received  a  com- 
mission in  the  Provincial  Marine.  He  distinguished  him- 
self in  combat,  but  suffered  the  grievous  loss  of  one  arm. 

After  the  war  Richardson  left  the  navy  and  became  a 
customs  ofiicer  at  Presque  Isle,  near  Kingston.  There  he 
was  converted  and  joined  the  Methodist  Church.  Here  too, 
he  was  to  meet  his  future  colleague  in  the  episcopate, 
P*hilander  SMriH.  His  own  talents  were  quickly  recog- 
nized and  he  was  pressed  into  service  as  a  local  preacher. 
In  1824  after  a  severe  struggle  with  himself,  he  decided 
to  give  up  his  comfortable  secular  position  and  to  enter 
the  itinerancy.  Three  years  later  he  was  taken  into  full 
connection  and  became  a  deacon. 

From  that  time  forward  James  Richardson  rose  rapidly 
in  the  estimation  of  his  brethren.  When  Egerton  Ryerson 
gave  up  the  Christian  Guardian  editorship  in  1832,  Rich- 
ardson succeeded  him.  In  his  year  as  editor  he  continued 
the  strong  liberal  orientation  of  the  Methodist  journal. 
Clearly,  however,  he  was  doubtful  about  the  wisdom  of 
the  union  of  1833,  and  he  was  regarded  with  suspicion  by 
the  Wesleyans.  Thus,  although  he  was  appointed  a  district 
chairman  in  1833,  he  became  increasingly  estranged  from 
many  of  his  former  colleagues,  especially  the  Ryerson 
brothers. 

Rather  than  join  the  emerging  M.E.  Church,  in  1836, 
Richardson  took  an  appointment  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  but 
returned  the  following  year.  He  was  then  admitted  to 
the  Episcopal  Conference  and  stationed  in  Toronto.  Once 


RICHARDSON,    JOHN 


ENCYCLOPEDrA   OF 


again,  in  1839,  he  was  elected  secretary  of  the  Conference, 
but  in  1840  he  became  agent  of  the  British  and  Foreign- 
Bible  Society. 

Fortunately  for  the  Episcopal  Methodists,  Richardson 
became  a  presiding  elder  again  in  1852.  By  1858  Bishop 
Smith's  health  had  deteriorated  and  James  Richardson 
was  elected  as  his  colleague.  He  continued  as  bishop  until 
his  death  in  1875. 

As  minister  and  bishop  Richardson  was  held  in  grea,t 
esteem  and  affection  by  his  brethren,  by  the  other  Method- 
ist bodies,  and  by  the  people  of  his  province.  He  earned 
the  place  which  he  was  accorded,  by  the  simplicity  of 
his  faith,  the  skill  with  which  he  carried  out  his  episcopal 
duties,  and  the  balanced  way  in  which  he  sought  to  link 
the  Church  and  society. 

J.  Carroll,  Case  and  His  Cotemporaries.  1867-77. 

T.  Webster,  James  Richardson.   1876.  G.  S.  French 

RICHARDSON,  JOHN  (1734-1792),  British  minister,  was 
the  son  of  an  alehouse  keeper  at  Kirkleatham,  Yorkshire. 
As  curate  of  Ewhurst,  Surrey,  he  was  influenced  by  John 
Holman,  a  Methodist  farmer.  Richardson  was  converted 
under  the  ministry  of  Thomas  Rankin  in  1762.  On  being 
removed  from  his  curacy  because  of  his  evangelical 
preaching,  Richardson  joined  John  Wesley.  He  first  held 
an  appointment  at  the  Foundery  and  then  became  one  of 
the  readers  at  City  Road  Chapel  (see  London,  Wesley's 
Chapel).  He  conducted  Wesley's  funeral  service. 

A.  Skevington  Wood 

RICHARDSON,  SIMON  PETER  (1818-1899),  American 
itinerant  who  had  a  remarkable  ministry  covering  nearly 
sixty  years  of  Methodist  history.  He  was  considered  one 
of  the  distinctive  men  of  his  generation  and  powerfully 
and  effectively  influenced  the  career  of  the  noted  evange- 
list and  lecturer,  Sam  P.  Jones. 

He  was  born  in  the  Dutch  Fork,  Newberry  District, 
S.  C,  May  13,  1818.  He  was  baptized  in  the  Lutheran 
faith.  In  December  1840  he  was  received  on  trial  into  the 
Georgia  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church.  When  the 
Florida  Conference  was  organized  in  1845  he  trans- 
ferred to  that  Conference,  remaining  in  it  until  1865  when 
he  became  general  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society 
for  Alabama  and  west  Florida  for  eight  years. 

His  ministry  was  for  the  most  part  divided  between 
that  of  presiding  elder  and  pastor  in  Georgia,  Florida,  and 
Alabama — in  his  latter  years  as  a  member  of  the  North 
Georgia  Conference,  M.E.  Church,  South.  He  was  noted 
as  church  builder  and  as  fiery  camp  meeting  preacher 
and  evangehst.  His  unique  style  and  manner  gave  peculiar 
emphasis  and  vitality  to  his  message.  Many  stories  are  told 
of  his  unusual  manner  and  ways. 

He  and  his  wife  had  ten  children. 

At  the  session  of  the  North  Georgia  Conference  which 
convened  in  Athens,  Ga.,  Nov.  24,  1897,  he  was  requested 
by  the  Conference  to  write  his  autobiography.  This  he 
did,  entitling  it  The  Lights  and  Shadows  of  Itinerant 
Life.  He  died  June  15,  1899. 

H.  M.  DuBose,  History.  1916. 

Simon  Peter  Richardson,  The  Lights  and  Shadows  of  the 
Itinerant  Life,  An  Autobiographtj  of  Rev.  Simon  Peter  Richard- 
son, D.D.  of  the  North  Georgia  Conference.  Nashville:  M.  E. 
South  Publishing  House,   1900.  J.  Marvin  Past 

2016 


RICHARDSON,  TEXAS,  U.S.A.  First  Church  dominates 
the  skyline  of  the  city  and  can  be  seen  from  every  ap- 
proach. The  church  was  formally  organized  in  June  of 
1886  by  a  group  of  fifteen  local  Methodists.  In  1898 
a  one-acre  site  was  purchased  and  the  first  building  was 
constructed  at  a  total  cost  of  $1,200. 

The  membership  grew  with  the  town,  expanding  rapidly 
in  the  period  1921  to  1924,  and  in  1924  the  church 
completed  a  new  brick  building  on  the  comer  of  Green- 
ville and  Polk  Streets.  An  educational  unit  was  added  in 
1951,  and  old  anny  barracks  from  Southern  Methodist 
University  were  used  for  additional  church  school  rooms. 

By  1953  First  Church  had  a  membership  of  388.  Rich- 
ardson began  to  expand  rapidly  and  the  church  pur- 
chased a  new  site  in  1954.  Groundbreaking  services  for 
a  new  fellowship  hall,  which  was  to  serve  as  a  sanctuary, 
were  held  on  Sept.  22,  1957;  and  on  April  13,  1958,  open 
house  was  held  in  the  new  buildings.  In  over  two  years 
the  membership  grew  to  approximately  1,600  persons. 
A  second  educational  unit  became  necessary. 

Plans  for  a  new  sanctuary  were  inaugurated  in  1962. 
Sept.  13,  1964,  formal  opening  services  were  held  in  the 
new  sanctuary.  The  sanctuary  has  a  seating  capacity  of 
1,050,  is  in  the  shape  of  a  Greek  cross,  and  has  a  unique 
round  chancel. 

Two  church  school  sessions  and  two  morning  worship 
services  are  held  each  Sunday,  and  the  average  attendance 
in  1970  was  1,823  in  church  school  and  1,366  in  worship 
services.  The  membership  is  4,005,  and  the  church  con- 
tinues to  grow  in  numbers  and  in  spiritual  influence  in  the 
community. 

John  W.  Mohphis 


Matthew  Rickey 

RICHEY,  MATTHEW  (1803-1883),  Canadian  minister  and 
educator  was  bom  1803  in  the  County  of  Donegal,  Ire- 
land, into  a  Calvinistic  home.  He  was  given  a  sound 
basic  education  with  the  view  of  entering  the  Presbyterian 
ministry.  In  his  midteens  he  was  invited  to  attend  a 
Methodist  prayer  meeting.  He  was  so  impressed  with 
the  simple  prayers  of  the  little  company  that  he  was  led 
to  an  awakening  and  conversion.  Much  against  his  parents' 
will,  he  joined  the  Methodist  society  and  engaged  in  local 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RICHMOND,   JOHN   P. 


preaching,  in  which  he  displayed  unusual  eloquence  and 
passion.  The  strained  relation  at  home  and  the  call  to 
adventure  abroad  combined  with  Providence  to  bring  him 
to  Saint  John,  New  Brunswick,  in  1820  at  the  age  of 
seventeen.  At  first  he  found  employment  in  a  law  office 
but  soon  became  assistant  master  at  Saint  John  Grammar 
School. 

James  Priestley  realized  at  once  that  Richey  had  had 
some  experience  in  preaching.  At  a  district  meeting  held 
in  Liverpool,  Nova  Scotia,  he  preached  with  such  ac- 
ceptability that  he  was  invited  to  become  an  itinerant.  He 
was  received  on  trial  in  1821  and  into  full  connexion  and 
ordained  in  1825.  For  the  first  decade  of  his  ministry  he 
ser\'ed  circuits  in  the  Atlantic  provinces,  growing  quickly 
in  stature,  eloquence,  and  popularity.  He  had  strong  but 
narrow  religious  and  political  views  with  a  deep  reverence 
for  the  monarchy  and  the  empire.  He  was  more  concerned 
for  dignity  and  enlightenment  than  for  the  traditional 
enthusiasm  of  his  fellow  Methodists. 

Matthew  Richey  came  into  prominence  when,  in  1835, 
he  accompanied  William  Lord  to  Montreal.  Although  it 
was  his  first  appearance  in  either  of  the  Canadas,  he  won 
immediate  recognition.  John  Carroll  describes  him  in 
glowing  ternis: 

For  the  power  and  pleasantness  of  his  voice;  ease  and 
gracefulness  of  elocution;  ready  command  of  the  most  exuber- 
ant and  elevated  language,  amounting  almost  to  inflation  of 
style;  together  with  rich  variety  of  tlieological  lore,  he  scarcely 
ever  had  a  superior,  if  an  equal,  in  British  North  America.  He 
was  gentleman-like  in  his  manners,  Christian  in  his  spirit 
and  demeanor,  and  soundly  Wesleyan  in  his  teachings.  ( Carroll, 
Case,  iv,  108) 

With  these  characteristics  he  quickly  won  a  foremost  place 
in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  platform  in  Canada's  largest  city. 

Undoubtedly  his  remarkable  ministry  in  Montreal  in- 
fluenced Conference  to  appoint  him  as  first  principal  of 
Upper  Canada  Academy.  The  fact  that  he  had  a  classical 
education,  used  splendid  diction,  and  expounded  the  truth 
with  clarity  and  conviction,  made  him  an  excellent  choice 
for  this  academic  position.  After  he  had  been  introduced 
at  the  opening  ceremony,  June  18,  1836,  he  delivered 
"an  elegant  address."  The  Royal  Charter  was  granted 
Oct.  12,  1836;  at  the  close  of  the  first  academic  year 
there  were  120  students  enrolled.  In  the  same  year  the 
Wesleyan  University  in  Connecticut  conferred  upon 
Richey  the  M.A.  degree.  In  1847  the  same  institution 
granted  him  the  D.D  degree. 

Not  long  after  his  dramatic  installation  as  principal, 
administrative  troubles  arose  both  within  the  academy  and 
without,  in  relation  to  the  Conference.  Richey,  a  member 
of  the  British  Wesleyan  group,  was  suspected  by  many 
in  the  Conference.  Complaints  were  voiced  against  the 
principal.  While  the  members  of  the  Conference  believed 
him  to  be  sincere,  well-intentioned,  and  noted  for  his 
facile  speech,  they  agreed  that  he  lacked  tact  and  pro- 
moted inflated  ideas  which  the  Conference  could  not  ac- 
cept. John  Ryebson,  then  prominent  in  the  Conference, 
harshly  criticized  the  principal: 

Reichy  ( sic )  flounces  at  some  of  our  Rules  for  the  Academy, 
especially  that  he  is  not  to  have  the  handling  of  the  money 
and  that  there  is  no  servant  allowed  him  extra.  I  very  much 
wish  Reichey  was  out  of  the  institution;  if  he  is  not,  I  am  quite 
satisfied  tliat  he  will  ruin  the  institution  or  else  ruin  us. 
( Sissons,  Rtjerson,  i,  38.3-384. ) 


It  is  evident  that  Principal  Richey  disliked  the  Canadian 
faction  represented  in  the  academy  board  and  in  the  Con- 
ference. He  apparently  tried,  however,  to  accommodate 
himself  to  their  wishes.  Anson  Green  was  able  to  report 
a  noticeable  change  in  the  attitude  of  the  principal  in 
1838.  He  was  doing  well,  and  "had  he  done  so  from  the 
commencement  he  would  have  saved  us  at  least  $1000." 
In  1839  the  board  named  Jesse  Hurlburt  as  acting  princi- 
pal, and  in  1840  Egerton  Ry-erson  became  principal. 
In  spite  of  Matthew  Richey's  difficulties  with  his  board,  he 
helped  to  establish  higher  education  for  Methodists  in 
Upper  Canada. 

At  the  Conference  in  Hamilton  June  12,  1839,  Richey 
was  stationed  at  Toronto.  He  played  a  major  role  in  the 
controversy  over  the  policy  of  The  Christian  Guardian, 
which  at  the  time  was  under  attack  for  taking  sides  in 
party  politics.  Outwardly  the  question  was:  Is  The  Guar- 
dian a  religious  journal,  or  has  it  a  responsibility  to  become 
involved  in  political  issues  affecting  the  Methodist  Church 
— such  as  the  clergy  reserves?  Fundamentally  the  British 
and  Canadian  Methodists  differed  in  their  attitude  to  the 
relationship  between  Church  and  State.  Alder,  the  British 
representative  to  the  Canada  Conference,  was  present  to 
bring  the  "colonial  church "  into  conformity  with  the 
mother  church  which  recognized  the  established  church 
in  England. 

Richey  helped  to  precipitate  the  dissolution  in  1840 
of  the  union  between  the  two  conferences,  and  to  fan  the 
conflict  of  the  years  from  1840  to  1847.  After  the  union 
was  restored  in  1847,  he  emerged  again  as  a  respected 
figure.  He  was  co-delegate  to  the  Conference  in  1848  and 
president  in  1849  and  1850. 

On  Oct.  13,  1849  he  suffered  a  severe  accident  when 
his  horse  ran  away.  Because  of  this  and  doubtless  because 
of  his  continuing  antipathy  to  the  Ryersons,  he  returned 
in  1850  to  the  eastern  districts  and  was  stationed  at 
Halifax.  He  served  a  number  of  congregations  in  the  three 
Atlantic  provinces  until  he  became  superannuated  in  1870. 
During  those  twenty  years  he  is  reported  to  have  over-^ 
come  his  former  prejudices  and  to  have  worked  faithfully 
and  harmoniously  with  the  Canadian  preachers.  From 
1856  to  1860  and  again  in  1867  he  was  President  of  the 
Eastern  British  America  Conference. 

Matthew  Richey  died  in  Halifax  at  the  home  of  his 
son,  then  lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  Oct.  31, 
1883.  He  had  spent  si.xty-three  of  his  eighty  years  in  the 
ministry. 

To  his  contemporaries  Matthew  Richey  was  an  elegant, 
proud,  gifted,  but  tactless  man.  Until  his  later  years  he 
was  an  uncompromising  supporter  of  the  traditions  of 
British  Methodism  in  America.  An  eloquent  and  dignified 
orator,  he  added  a  new  note  to  Canadian  Methodism. 

J.  Carroll,  Case  and  His  Cotemporaries.  1867-77. 
D.  W.  Johnson,  Eastern  British  America.  1924. 
J.  E.  Sanderson,  First  Century  in  Canada.  1908,  1910. 
T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1877-90. 

Arthur  E.  Kewley 


RICHMOND,  JOHN  P.  (1811-1895),  American  preacher 
and  publicist,  was  born  in  Middletown,  Frederick  Co., 
Md.,  Aug.  7,  1811.  He  graduated  in  medicine,  in  1833. 
While  practicing  his  profession  in  his  home  town,  he 
was  licensed  to  exhort.  In  1835  he  moved  to  Mississippi, 
where  he  was  imited  in  marriage  (Oct.  14,  1831)  to  Mrs. 


RICHMOND,    SOUTH   AFRICA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


America  Talley,  widow  of  Alexander  Talley,  of  Mississippi 
Conference.  That  year  he  was  Hcensed  to  preach. 

Richmond  moved  to  Rushville,  111.,  April  1836,  supplied 
the  Rushville  Circuit  until  fall  when  received  into  the 
Illinois  Conference  and  appointed  to  Pulaski  Circuit. 
In  1837  he  served  Macomb  station  and  in  1838,  Jack- 
sonville. On  invitation  of  Jason  Lee,  in  1839,  he  went  to 
Oregon,  became  superintendent  of  tlie  Indian  Mission, 
Nisqually,  on  Puget  Sound,  the  first  Methodist  work  in  the 
present  state  of  Washington. 

On  Aug.  10,  1840  Richmond  officiated  at  the  marriage 
of  his  carpenter,  William  Holden  Willson,  and  mission 
teacher.  Miss  Chloe  Aurelia  Clark,  the  first  American  mar- 
riage in  what  is  now  the  state  of  Washington.  On  Feb.  28, 
1842,  his  son,  Francis,  became  the  first  American  child 
born  on  Puget  Sound.  An  elder  son,  Oregon,  was  born  on 
shipboard  before  sailing  for  Oregon. 

Richmond  and  his  family  left  Oregon  Sept.  4,  1842,  for 
Illinois.  There  he  served  churches  at  Petersburg,  Spring- 
field, Rushville,  Quincy,  and  Mount  Sterling.  He  located 
in  1848,  having  been  elected  to  the  State  Senate.  In  1852 
he  returned  to  Mississippi  and  served  the  Madison  Cir- 
cuit. His  wife,  America,  died  it  is  thought  at  Madison, 
Miss.,  in  1853.  Richmond,  on  Oct.  18,  1859,  married  Kitty 
Grisby  at  Mount  Sterhng,  111.  Two  years  later  he  was  back 
in  Illinois  where  successively  he  served  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  as  Presidential  Elector,  in  the  State  Sen- 
ate, in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  and  superintendent 
of  schools  in  Brown  County.  He  went  to  Dakota  in  1874, 
where  he  was  in  charge  of  the  Bon  Homme  Mission  for 
one  year.  He  became  postmaster  at  Tvndall,  S.  D.,  in 
1884.  He  died  at  Oakdale,  Neb.,  Aug.  28,  1895  (accord- 
ing to  the  Pacific  Christian  Advocate  of  Oct.  30,  1895). 

A.  Atwood,  Glimpses  on  Puget  Sound.  1903. 
C.  J.  Brosnan,  Jason  Lee.  1932. 
H.  K.  Hines,  Pacific  Northwest.  1899. 

Ezra   Meeker,   Pioneer  Reminiscences  of  Puget  Sound.   1905. 

Erle  Howell 

RICHMOND,   Natal,    South   Africa,   Indaleni    Institution, 

was  originally  founded  by  James  Allison  who  removed 
thither  from  Swaziland  in  1847.  He  immediately  started 
a  small  Industrial  School  for  young  men  and  women,  but 
this  venture  did  not  long  survive  his  resignation  from  the 
ministry  in  1852.  The  present  Institution  was  established 
by  C.  E.  Dent  (1899-1903),  who  erected  a  girls'  dormi- 
tory and  opened  a  girls'  school.  Under  the  governorship  of 
A.  W.  Cragg  (1913-1933)  the  Institution  expanded  con- 
siderably: a  Spinning  and  Weaving  School  was  equipped 
in  1920,  a  three-year  course  of  industrial  training  in  nee- 
dlework, laundry,  cookery,  etc.,  was  introduced,  and  die 
academic  standard  was  gradually  advanced  from  Standard 
IV  to  Standard  VIII.  Matriculation  was  offered  and  male 
students  admitted  during  the  term  of  S.  le  Grove  Smith 
(1934-1941). 

During  1946  the  Nuttall  Training  College,  which  had 
been  established  at  Allison's  Edendale  Mission,  was  amal- 
gamated with  the  Indaleni  Institution.  A  programme  of 
expansion  was  carried  out  under  the  direction  of  J.  Wesley 
Hunt  (1942-1960)  and  included  the  erection  of  a  Teacher 
Training  College  and  a  Men's  Hostel. 

The  schools,  which  include  the  only  Government  Art 
School  for  Africans  in  South  Africa,  passed  under  the 
control  of  the  government  in  1956.  The  Methodist  Church 


still  controls  the  hostels  which  had  an  enrollment  of  410 
in  1966. 

D.  G.  L.  Cragg 

RICHMOND,  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.,  (metropolitan  popula- 
tion, 450,000)  is  the  capital  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Virginia  and  one  of  the  historic  cities  of  America.  It  was 
founded  in  1742,  but  not  until  1780  did  it  become  the  seat 
of  the  state  government.  Richmond  is  first  mentioned  in 
the  annals  of  the  M.E.  Church  for  1788  when  Matthew 
Harris  was  preacher  in  charge  and  Richard  Ivey  was  pre- 
siding elder. 

Central  Church,  the  first  Metliodist  church  in  the  Rich- 
mond area,  formerly  Manchester,  was  organized  as  a 
Methodist  Society  in  1786  at  a  private  home  located  on 
Seventh  Street  between  Perry  and  Porter  Streets.  The 
ninth  session  of  the  Virginia  Annual  Conference  was 
held  by  Bishop  Francis  Ashury  in  Central  Church  in 
1792.  In  the  early  days  of  the  church  (1797),  the  mem- 
bers constructed  a  frame  chapel  with  the  outside  boards 
fastened  up  and  down  and  this  suggested  the  name  "Old 
Plank  Church."  Later  it  was  known  as  the  Manchester 
Church,  and  finally  as  Central  Church.  It  is  now  located 
at  the  comer  of  Porter  and  Thirteenth  Streets  (since 
1900).  Its  Sunday  school  has  been  continuous  since  1847. 
The  1970  membership  was  697. 

Trinity  Church.  This  church  had  its  beginnings  in  1790 
when  a  group  of  men  and  women  formed  a  Sunday  school. 
From  1790  to  1799  this  group  met  in  various  places. 
Around  1799,  a  family  named  Parrott  opened  their  home, 
located  on  Main  Street,  to  the  Sunday  school  workers. 
Their  home  was  on  Main  Street  near  the  old  Market  in  the 
seventeen  hundred  block.  East.  In  the  rear  of  this  home 
was  a  stable  or  warehouse  which  Mr.  Parrott  developed 
into  a  church.  This  building  became  known  as  the  "Stable 
Church."  When  the  congregation  outgi"ew  this,  they  were 
granted  permission  to  meet  in  the  Henrico  County  Court 
House.  A  church  was  built  at  the  comer  of  Nineteenth 
and  Franklin  Streets  in  the  year  1800  and  this  became 
kTiown  as  the  "First  Church."  Thomas  Lyell  was  then 
appointed  its  pastor.  Bishop  Asbury  preached  the  last 
sermon  of  his  hfe  in  Trinity  Church  in  1816.  In  1828  the 
congregation  moved  to  Franklin  Street  between  Four- 
teenth and  Fifteenth  Streets  and  the  name  was  changed 
from  "First  Church"  to  "Trinity  Church." 

The  congregation  split  in  1859  and  built  two  churches 
on  Broad  Street — one  at  Tenth  and  Broad,  which  became 
known  as  "Broad  Street  Methodist  Church,"  and  one  at 
Twentieth  and  Broad,  which  kept  the  name.  Trinity. 
Trinity's  congregation  began  to  think  about  moving  in 
the  1930's  because  of  the  shift  in  population,  and  finally 
moved  to  903  Forest  Avenue,  Richmond,  in  the  Fall  of 
1944.  It  had  1,928  members  in  1970  and  is  one  of  the 
largest  congregations  of  the  Methodist  churches  of  Rich- 
mond at  the  present  time. 

Centenary  Church.  This' church  was  fomied  in  1810  in 
what  was  then  the  western  section  of  Richmond — on 
Shockoe  Hill.  The  congregation  named  their  church 
"Shockoe  Hill  Methodist  Church."  It  was  located  on 
Marshall  Street  between  Fourth  and  Fifth  Streets  until 
1841.  The  congregation  then  moved  to  Grace  Street  be- 
tween Fourth  and  Fifth  Streets  and  began  a  building, 
now  standing  as  the  oldest  Methodist  church  structure  in 
Richmond  (1966).  The  suitable  land  for  the  church  struc- 
ture was  difficult  to  purchase,  since  the  property  owners 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RIDDELL,   JOHN   HENRY 


in  the  area  said  they  did  not  want  "shouting  Methodists" 
in  their  neighborhood.  Finally,  through  the  offices  of  an 
intermediary,  the  congregation  was  able  to  purchase  the 
present  site  for  $3,926.50.  The  Cokesbury  Book  Store  is 
located  ne.xt  to  this  church.  At  least  two  bishops  have 
been  elected  from  the  pastors  who  served  this  church: 
Bishop  John  C.  Granbery  and  Bishop  Walter  C.  Gum. 
Present  membership  stands  at  1,250. 

River  Road  Church.  Known  from  1859  to  1960  as 
Broad  Street  Methodist  Church,  the  congregation  here 
was  formed  from  Trinity  Methodist  Church  in  1859.  The 
cornerstone  of  the  first  church  was  laid  at  Tenth  and 
Broad  Streets  on  June  30,  1859.  The  church  has  been  very 
prominent  in  the  life  of  the  city  and  state,  and  was  located 
at  Tenth  and  Broad  only  one  block  from  the  state  capitol. 
When  the  "Merrimac"  destroyed  the  "Congress"  in  the 
Civil  War,  David  Seth  Dogcett,  who  was  the  minister, 
opened  in  the  church  a  meeting  of  the  Ladies  Defense 
Association  for  the  purpose  of  raising  funds  to  build 
"Ironclads."  In  1888,  the  Woman's  Missionary  Union, 
Auxiliary  to  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  was  orga- 
nized in  this  church  by  delegates  from  ten  states.  In 
1961,  the  congregation  moved  into  the  new  church  on 
River  Road  and  changed  the  name  from  Broad  Street  to 
River  Road  Methodist  Church.  Its  membership  in  1970 
was  632. 


odist  Church  in  Richmond,   opened   on   Oct.   31,    1954. 
One   of  the  former  pastors   of   this   church   was    Bishop 

COSTEN  J.  HaRRELL. 


General  Minutes. 


A.  PuRNELL  Bailey 


Reveille  Chijbch,  Richmond,  Virginia 

Reveille  Church.  This  great  church,  the  largest  in  mem- 
bership in  Richmond  (1970 — 2,008),  is  a  merger  of  the 
former  Monument  Church  and  Union  Station  Church.  On 
Nov.  26,  1950,  Monument  Church  burned  at  1800  Park^ 
Avenue,  and  Union  Station  had  the  need  to  move  nearer 
to  its  membership.  Selected  leaders  of  the  two  churches 
met  on  March  28,  1951  at  Union  Station  Church  to  con- 
sider the  possibility  of  a  union.  A  uniting  service  was  held 
on  June  21,  1951  at  Thomas  Jefferson  High  School,  and 
the  congregation  continued  to  meet  there  until  the  present 
church  was  built  at  4200  West  Gary  Street.  The  new 
church,  with  the  most  adequate  facilities  of  any  Meth- 


RICHMOND  COLLEGE,  Richmond,  Surrey,  England,  one 
of  the  Theological  Colleges  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth-' 
odist  Church,  was  opened  in  September  1843.  In  1868 
the  college  passed  into  the  care  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Missionary  Society,  and  was  used  only  for  the 
training  of  prospective  missionaries.  This  segregated  sys- 
tem was  given  up  in  1885,  since  which  time  students 
for  both  home  and  overseas  work  have  been  trained  in 
each  of  the  colleges.  Nevertheless,  among  Richmond's 
proudest  possessions  are  the  Rolls  of  Honor,  which  record 
the  high  number  of  its  sons  who  ended  their  lives  in  the 
foreign  field.  The  library  houses  the  major  known  part  of 
the  libraries  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley  and  John 
Fletcher.  Richmond  College  is  a  divinity  school  within 
the  University  of  London,  and  the  tutors  serve  as  members 
of  the  theological  faculty:  the  students  take  either  the 
university  internal  degree  in  divinity  or  the  diploma  in 
theology. 

Frank  H.  Cumbers,  Richmond  College,  1843-1943.  London,  The 
Epworth  Press,  1943.  Norman  P.  Goldhawk 

RICKETTS,  ROBERT  SCOTT  (1843-1918),  American  edu- 
cator, was  born  March  5,  1843,  at  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  where 
his  father,  R.  B.  Ricketts,  honored  minister,  was  living. 
He  graduated  from  Centenary  College  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Civil  War.  The  year  before  his  death  he  received 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Letters  from  Millsaps  College, 
the  first  honorary  degree  ever  conferred  by  that  institu- 
tion. After  service  in  the  Confederate  Army  he  began 
teaching  school,  the  work  to  which  he  devoted  his  long 
and  useful  life.  After  a  teaching  association  with  the  Col- 
legiate Institute  of  Baton  Rouge,  La.,  he  taught  at  Port 
Gibson  Female  College,  Port  Gibson,  Miss.  In  1875,  he 
went  to  Brookhaven,  Miss.,  as  a  member  of  the  faculty  of 
Whitworth  College.  Appreciation  of  the  charm  of  his 
personal  character  and  admiration  for  his  talents  as  a 
teacher  led  to  his  election  as  Head  Master  of  the  Prepara- 
tory Department  of  Millsaps  College  in  1894.  In  that  posi- 
tion he  served  God  and  his  fellow  man  with  renowned 
success  until  two  months  before  he  died. 

In  1877  he  married  Bertha  Burnley.  To  them  were  bom 
four  sons  and  a  daughter.  The  daughter,  Cid  Ricketts 
Sumner,  became  a  novelist  of  distinction. 

For  fifty-two  years  Professor  Ricketts  taught  with  a 
gentle  spirit  and  with  peculiar  success,  with  a  great  love 
of  learning  and  a  fine  fiterary  taste,  exerting  an  indelible 
Christian  influence  upon  the  thousands  of  young  men  and 
women  who  loved  and  respected  him.  From  his  youth  he 
occupied  many  official  positions  in  the  church  and  was 
a  constant  and  regular  attendant  at  its  services. 

He  died  on  Feb.  25,  1918,  in  Jackson,  Miss.,  and  was 
buried  in  Cedar  Lawn  Cemetery  there. 

Journal  of  tlie  Mississippi  Conference,  1918. 

New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate,  1918.  J.  A.  Lindsey 

RIDDELL,  JOHN  HENRY  (1863-1952),  Canadian  and 
United  Church  of  Canada  minister  and  educator,  was 
bom  near  Bolton,  Ontario,  on  Nov.  1,  1863,  son  of  James 


RIDGWAr,    JOHN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


and  Anne  Jane  Riddell.  He  was  educated  at  Victoria 
College  (B.A.,  1890;  B.D.,  1892),  and  in  1898  was 
ordained  in  the  Methodist  Church.  He  married  Florence 
Armstrong  on  June  12,  1894,  There  were  two  sons — 
Harold,  killed  in  action  in  1916,  and  Robert  Gerald,  a  dis- 
tinguished Canadian  diplomat. 

Riddell  was  posted  to  Manitoba  in  1890,  and  in  1896 
became  professor  of  classics  at  Wesley  College,  Winni- 
peg. Seven  years  later  he  moved  to  Edmonton  where  he 
founded  Alberta  College  (North)  and  became  its  first 
principal.  In  1911  he  founded  Alberta  College  (South), 
later  to  become  St.  Stephen's  College. 

In  1917  Riddell  returned  to  Winnipeg  as  principal  of 
Wesley  College.  During  these  critical  years  his  adminis- 
trative skills  and  sound  scholarship  were  of  great  value. 
He  encouraged  collaboration  with  Manitoba  College  and 
thus  prepared  for  tlie  ultimate  union  of  the  two  institu- 
tions. Through  his  efforts,  the  college  was  placed  on  a 
much  sounder  financial  footing. 

Riddell  was  keenly  interested  in  welfare  legislation  and 
in  the  history  of  religion  in  the  West.  In  his  latter  years 
he  wrote  Methodism  in  the  Middle  West,  a  pioneering 
study.  For  his  great  services  to  church  and  society  he 
was  awarded  honorary  degrees  by  Victoria,  Alberta,  and 
Manitoba  universities.  He  died  at  Carlton  Place,  Ontario, 
Nov.  9,  1952. 

A.  S.  Cummings,  "A  History  of  Wesley  College."  Ms.  1938. 
W.  Kirkconnell,  The  Golden  Jubilee  of  Wesley  College,  1888- 
1938.  Winnipeg:  Columbia  Press,  1938 

F.  W.  Armstrong 

RIDGWAY,  JOHN  (1786-1860),  British  Methodist,  was 
born  in  Hanley,  Staffordshire,  the  son  of  Job  Ridgway,  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  Methodist  New  Connexion,  and 
followed  the  family  trade  as  a  potter.  He  was  by  appoint- 
ment "Potter  to  Her  Majesty,"  the  first  mayor  of  Hanley, 
a  county  magistrate  and  deputy  lieutenant;  he  refused  a 
knighthood.  He  published  an  Apology  for  the  New  Con- 
nexion's principles,  and  helped  to  secure  the  legal  settle- 
ment of  the  New  Connexion.  He  died  on  Dec.  3,   1860. 

Oliver  A.  Beckerlegce 

RIDPATH,  JOHN  CLARK  (1840-1900),  American  educator 
and  writer  of  popular  historical  works,  the  son  of  Abra- 
ham and  Sally  (Matthews)  Ridpath,  was  born  April  26, 
1840,  in  Putnam  County,  Indiana.  He  graduated  from 
Indiana  Asbury  University  in  1863.  He  became  a  teacher; 
then  principal  of  Thorntown  Academy,  a  Methodist 
school,  and  in  1869  returned  to  Indiana  Asbury  as  profes- 
sor. In  1879  he  became  vice-president.  He  persuaded 
Washington  C.  DePauw,  then  one  of  the  wealthiest  citi- 
zens of  Indiana,  to  become  a  patron  of  Indiana  Asbury. 
In  1884  he  secured  the  change  of  name  from  Indiana 
Asbury  to  DePauw  University.  He  retired  from  teaching 
and  was  one  of  the  most  popular  writers  of  historical  works 
of  his  time. 

Ridpath's  Cyclopedia  of  Universal  History  was  pub- 
lished in  three  large  volumes  at  the  time  he  was  a  pro- 
fessor in  DePauw.  It  proved  immensely  popular  and  while 
historians  mark  it  down  for  its  inaccuracies  and  its  sweep- 
ing treatment  of  men  and  events,  its  style  was  compelling 
and  the  writer  knew  how  to  emphasize  the  important  and 
play  down  the  less  so.  The  writer  was  a  genius  at  apt 
phraseology  and  description. 


He  married  Hannah  B.  Smythe  of  Greencastle,  Dec.  1, 
1862.  Five  children  blessed  their  home.  For  his  publishing 
he  moved  to  New  York  City.  There  he  died  July  31, 
1900. 


Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 
Whc's    Who    in    Artierica. 


W.    D.    Archibald 


RIEMENSCHNEIDER,  CARL  (1844-1925),  born  May  14, 
1844,  was  the  son  of  Engelhardt  Riemenschneider  and 
served  for  fifty  years  as  professor  and  president  of  German 
Wallace  College  (now  Baldwin -Wallace  College)  in 
Berea,  Ohio.  When  his  father  was  sent  as  missionary  for 
Methodist  work  in  Germany  in  1850,  young  Carl  re- 
ceived his  education  in  German  and  Swiss  institutions, 
notably  Tiibingen  University,  where  he  studied  under 
conservative  Tobias  Beck.  His  university  career  was 
broken  in  the  middle  by  two  years  service  as  instructor 
at  the  Martin  Mission  Institute,  a  Methodist  ministerial 
training  school  in  Bremen. 

In  1868  he  came  to  Berea  to  teach  classical  languages, 
in  which  he  excelled.  Later  he  was  professor  of  philosophy 
and  theology.  Elected  vice-president  in  1880  and  presi- 
dent in  1893,  he  continued  to  teach  regularly,  even  after 
his  resignation  of  the  presidency  in  1908,  until  his  retire- 
ment in  1917. 

In  1870  he  married  Emily  Smith,  who  bore  him  ten 
children,  one  of  whom,  Albert  Riemenschneider,  became 
director  of  the  Baldwin-Wallace  Conservatory  of  Music. 
He  was  long  remembered  for  his  leadership  of  student 
class  meetings  held  Saturday  nights.  His  deep  speaking 
voice  brought  fame  as  public  speaker  and  orator.  Al- 
though he  was  not  interested  in  church  politics,  he  sei-ved 
as  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conference  of  1900.  He 
died  in  Berea,  Nov.  8,  1925. 

Der  Christliche  Apologete,  Nov.  25,  1925. 
Minutes  of  Central  German  Conference,  1926. 

Frederick  A.  Norwood 

RIEMENSCHNEIDER,  ENGELHARDT  (1815-1899),  bom 
April  9,  1815  in  Eubach,  Kurhessen,  Germany,  was  one 
of  the  leading  figures  in  the  development  of  GeiTnan 
Methodism  in  the  Ohio  valley  of  the  United  States  and  in 
his  native  country.  He  arrived  in  tlie  United  States  in 
1835  and  proceeded  to  Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  and  Pitts- 
burgh, Pa.,  where  he  was  converted  under  the  preaching 
of  Wilhelm  Nast.  He  was  received  in  full  membership 
in  the  Ohio  Conference  in  1842. 

In  1841  he  was  appointed  to  found  the  North  Ohio 
Mission,  a  circuit  of  400-500  miles  in  which  he  preached 
ten  to  twelve  times  per  week.  After  two  years  in  Louis- 
ville and  a  year  in  Pittsburgh  he  was  appointed  presiding 
elder  of  the  North  Ohio  District  in  1847.  He  married 
Katherine  Nuhfer  in  1843. 

A  new  phase  of  his  life  began  in  1850,  when  he  was 
appointed  to  missionary  work  in  Germany,  where  he 
spent  the  next  twenty  years,  fostering  missions  already 
established  and  founding  new  ones.  His  work  centered  in 
Frankfurt  am  Main,  Bremen,  Bremerhaven,  Zurich, 
Ludwigsburg,  and  Basel.  His  wife  died  in  Ludwigsburg. 
Frequently  he  encountered  opposition  from  the  authorities 
of  the  state  churches. 

After  his  return  to  the  United  States  in  1870  he  spent 
a  yeiU"  in  Berea,  Ohio,  and  another  two  in  Allegheny,  Pa., 
then  four  as  presiding  elder  of  the  North  Ohio  District. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RIGGIN,   FRANCIS   ASBURY 


He  retired  in  1877,  lived  in  Berea  and  Cleveland,   and 
died  Sept.  22,  1899,  leaving  two  sons  and  foui'  daughters. 

Der  Christliche  Apologete. 

Verlmnglungen    und   Berichte   of   the   Central   Deutsche   Kon- 

ferenz,   1900.  Frederick  A.   Norwood 


J  A -\ IKS     H.     RiGG 

RIGG,  JAMES  HARRISON  (1821-1909),  British  minister, 
was  born  at  Newcastle  upon  Tyne  on  Jan.  16,  1821.  The 
son  of  a  Wesleyan  minister,  he  entered  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  ministry  in  1845.  As  a  circuit  minister  he  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  ecclesiastical  questions  of  tlie 
day:  he  published  Modern  Anglican  Theology  ( 1857 ) 
and  Essays  of  the  Times  (1866).  In  1868  he  became  prin- 
cipal of  the  Wesleyan  Westminster  Teachers'  Training 
College,  remaining  there  until  retirement  in  1903.  In 
1878  he  was  chosen  president  of  the  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence; his  name  was  associated  with  the  admission  of  lay- 
men into  the  Conference  in  that  year,  and  with  the 
Thanksgiving  Fund,  which  raised  £300,000  for  Methodist 
work.  He  was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  London 
School  Board,  and  in  1886-88  was  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Elementary  Education.  He  founded  the 
London  Quarterly  Review  in  1853  and  was  closely  as- 
sociated with  it  until  1898,  when  it  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  connection.  Rigg  was  a  life-long  exponent  of  the 
side  of  the  Wesleyan  tradition  which  looked  for  inspira- 
tion to  the  Established  Church,  rather  than  to  Noncon- 
formity. Among  his  later  writings  were:  National  Educa- 
tion (1873);  The  Churchmanship  of  John  Wesley  (1878); 
The  Character  and  Life  Work  of  Dr.  Pusey  (1883);  A 
Comparative  View  of  Church  Orgainsation  (1887);  Ox- 
ford High  Anglicanism  (1895);  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Reminiscences  (1904);  and  a  valuable  short  life  of  Jabez 
Bunting  (1905).  He  lacked  just  the  touch  of  creative 
abihty  which  would  have  made  him  a  great  man. 

John  Kent 

RIGGIN,  FRANCIS  ASBURY  (1848-1924),  American  min- 
ister, was  born  Sept.  7,  1848,  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  the  son 
of  Israel  and  Emily  Lee  Riggin.  He  finished  with  honors 
at  Dickinson  College,  Carlisle,  Pa.,  with  the  A.B.  and 
A.M.  degrees.  He  joined  the  Methodist  Church  at  age 
fifteen,  was  licensed  to  preach  in  his  sophomore  year  in 


F.  A.  Riggin 

college,  entered  the  Pidldelphia  Conference  in  1870, 
transferred  to  Minnesota  Conference  in  1871  and  to 
Rocky  Mountain  Conference  in  1872,  being  stationed 
at  Evanston,  Wyo.  In  1873  he  was  appointed  to  Beaver- 
head and  Jefferson  Circuit  in  Montana,  with  William 
Wesley  Van  Orsdel  as  junior  preacher.  Their  charge  ex- 
tended from  the  Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri  to  Pocatello, 
Ida.  Their  headquarters  were  at  Sheridan  (Montana) 
where  Hugh  Duncan  had  built  a  church.  At  district  con- 
ference in  Helena,  January  1874,  they  reported  that  each 
had  traveled  4,000  miles  on  horseback  and  had  together 
received  nearly  100  new  members.  The  next  year  they 
headquartered  at  Virginia  City  where  they  buOt  a  stone 
church  and  held  revival  services,  assisted  by  T.  C.  Iliff 
of  Bozeman.  Other  appointments  were:  Beaverhead  and 
Fish  Creek  1875,  presiding  elder  of  Helena  District  1876, 
presiding  elder  of  Butte  District  1877-80,  superintendent 
of  Montana  Mission  1880-87,  pastor  at  Fort  Benton  and 
Great  Falls  with  Brother  Van  1887-89,  at  Whitehall  and 
Hope  Circuit  1889-91.  In  November  1891,  Riggin  became 
superintendent  of  the  Navajo  Indian  Mission;  in  1893,  pre- 
siding elder  of  Bozeman  District;  1894,  pastor  at  Great 
Falls;  1895,  presiding  elder  of  Great  Falls  District;  1896, 
pastor  at  Kalispell;  1897-99,  superintendent  of  North  Mon- 
tana Mission;  1899-1912  superintendent  of  Epworth  Pie- 
gan  Indian  Mission.  He  retired  in  1912  and  made  his  home 
on  his  son's  farm  at  Barr,  Mont.,  where  he  sei"ved  sur- 
rounding rural  appointments  until  his  death  April  16, 
1924.  Burial  was  at  Glasgow,  Mont.,  beside  his  wife,  Ida 
Isabelle  Jordan  Riggin,  who  died  June  21,  1919. 

Mrs.  Riggin  was  born  Nov.  19,  1860,  and  was  the  sister 
of  Walter  Jordan,  minister  in  the  Christian  Chuich.  She 
was  converted  in  a  Riggin- Van  Orsdel  revival  at  Fish 
Creek  in  1873,  and  married  F.  A.  Riggin  in  1876.  They 
had  three  sons,  Harrison  Van  Orsdel,  Guy  Asbury,  and 
Kent  Orville. 

Francis  Riggin's  appeals  in  the  New  York  Christian 
Advocate  for  ministers  for  Montana  in  the  1880's  brought 
able  men  to  the  state,  among  them  Jacob  Mills.  In  1892 
Riggin  was  delegate  to  General  Conference  and 
brought  about  the  formation  of  North  Montana  Mission. 
He  was  an  able  administrator.  Riggin  and  Van  Orsdel 
were  sometimes  likened  to  Moody  and  Sanky,  Van  Ors- 


RIGGIN,    JOHN    H. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


del  the  more  famous  for  his  singing,  Riggin  for  his  preach- 
ing. Both  men  largely  shaped  Montana  Methodism. 

E.  L.  Mills,  Plains,  Peaks  and  Pioneers.  1947. 

Montana  Christian  Advocate.  Roberta  Baub  West 

RIGGIN,  JOHN  H.  (1834-1913),  an  American  minister, 
scholar,  soldier  and  administrator,  was  born  at  Pittsville, 
Md.,  Oct.  7,  1834.  Admitted  to  what  is  now  the  Lfttle 
Rock  Conference  in  1865,  for  forty  years  rendered  al- 
most every  type  of  service  including  twenty-one  years  as 
presiding  elder,  member  of  three  General  Conferences 
and  one  of  the  founders  of  Hendrix  College,  of  which 
he  was  a  trustee  for  hventy  years  and  from  which  he 
received  the  D.D.  degree. 

Considered  remarkable  in  mental  power,  he  had  read 
the  New  Testament  through  before  he  was  five  years  of 
age.  He  was  self-educated,  mastering  higher  mathematics 
and  gaining  a  working  knowledge  of  Latin,  Greek  and 
Hebrew.  Eventually  he  became  known  as  one  of  the  schol- 
arly and  profound  students  of  his  day. 

Licensed  to  preach  at  Glasgow,  Mo.,  in  June  1860,  he 
intended  to  enter  the  itineracy  the  next  year,  but  with 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  he  joined  the  Confederate 
Army,  serving  two  years  as  a  private  and  the  remainder 
of  the  war  as  chaplain  of  an  Arkansas  regiment.  This 
surrendered  at  Marshall,  Texas  at  war's  end,  and  a  rem- 
nant of  the  soldiers  accompanied  their  beloved  chaplain 
back  to  Arkansas. 

Abundant  in  many  services,  he  was  best  known  and 
remembered  as  a  preacher.  With  his  unusually  retentive 
memory,  his  logical  mind,  his  skilled  use  of  the  Scriptures, 
his  chaste  and  expressive  vocabulary,  he  was  one  of  the 
most  widely  known  preachers  in  that  area  of  Methodism. 
He  retired  in  1909,  making  his  home  at  Arkadelphia,  Ark., 
until  his  death  May  30,  1913.  He  had  been  given  to  Ar- 
kansas by  the  fortunes  of  war,  and  was  one  of  the  heroic 
men  who  gathered  and  reorganized  and  revitalized  broken 
Methodism  in  this  Conference  (Little  Rock)  after  the  war. 

Roy  E.  Fawcett 

RIGGLEMAN,  LEONARD   (1894-  ),  American  college 

president,  was  born  at  Blue  Spring,  W.  Va.,  April  16, 
1894,  the  son  of  Samuel  C.  and  Harriet  (Hamrick)  Rig- 
gleman.  He  won  the  A.B.  degree  at  Mobbis  Harvey 
College  in  1922,  and  the  A.M.  at  Southern  Methodist 
University  in  1924.  He  did  graduate  study  at  Michigan 
.tnd  Northwestern  Universities.  The  honorary  degrees 
of  D.D.  and  LL.D.  were  awarded  in  1933  and  1944  by 
Kentucky  Wesleyan  College  and  Davis  and  Elkins  Col- 
lege, respectively.  He  married  Alice  Pauline  Steele,  Aug. 
16,  1922,  and  they  have  one  daughter.  Admitted  on  trial 
in  1918  in  the  Western  Virginia  Conference  (MECS), 
Riggleman's  appointments  were:  Omar,  1921-22;  Milton, 
1924-28;  Rural  Speciahst  at  West  Virginia  University, 
1928-30;  professor  of  religion  at  Morris  Harvey  College, 
1930-31;  and  president  of  the  college,  1931-64.  He  was 
a  delegate  to  the  1934,  '38,  '44,  and  '56  General  Con- 
ferences, and  was  a  member  of  the  General  Board  of 
Education  (MECS),  1934-38.  Retiring  in  1964,  he  made 
his  home  at  Huntington,  W.  Va. 

Clark  and  Stafford,  Who's  Who  in  Methodism.  1952. 
C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  1945. 
Minutes  of  the  Western   Virginia  and  West  Virginia   Confer- 
ences. Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

2022 


RIGOR,  G.  W.  MILES  (1831-1906),  American  United 
Brethren  preacher,  educator,  writer  and  editor,  crusader, 
and  conference  leader,  was  born  Sept.  22,  1831,  on  a 
farm  near  Mount  Pleasant  in  Westmoreland  County,  Pa. 
He  joined  the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in 
Christ  after  a  moving  religious  experience  in  1850.  Two 
years  later  he  was  licensed  by  the  Mount  Pleasant  con- 
gregation and  he  entered  Mount  Pleasant  College,  Mount 
Pleasant,  Pa.  (no  longer  in  existence)  with  the  intention 
of  entering  the  ministry.  Before  completing  his  education, 
he  left  college;  but  he  continued  his  path  to  the  ministry, 
being  licensed  by  Allegheny  Conference  in  1854,  ordained 
in  1860,  and  serving  churches  in  the  Allegheny  Confer- 
ence until  1862,  when  he  transferred  to  the  East  Penn- 
sylvania Conference. 

He  immediately  threw  himself  into  the  work  of  his 
new  conference  relationships  with  great  abandon.  In  1863 
he  was  elected  English  Secretary,  a  position  he  held  for 
six  years.  In  1871  when  there  were  no  longer  English 
and  German  secretaries,  he  was  elected  conference  secre- 
tary and  served  through  1889.  During  nine  of  these  years 
he  also  served  as  one  of  the  presiding  elders  of  the  con- 
ference. 

Regretting  the  fact  that  he  had  never  completed  his 
education  at  Mount  Pleasant  College,  Rigor  began  to 
speak  for  establishing  an  educational  institution  under  the 
auspices  of  the  denomination  in  eastern  Pennsylvania. 
The  opening  of  Lebanon  Valley  College  in  1866  was 
in  large  measure  due  to  Rigor's  labors.  He  and  Thomas 
Rees  Vickroy,  a  neighbor  and  a  local  preacher  in  the  M.E. 
Church,  held  the  lease  for  the  operation  of  the  college 
in  the  name  of  the  conference  from  1866  to  1871. 

While  serving  as  business  manager  and  field  represen- 
tative for  the  college.  Rigor  involved  himself  in  another 
project  that  engaged  his  interest — the  founding  of  En- 
glish-speaking congregations.  He  was  the  first  pastor  of 
the  Trinity  Church,  Lebanon,  Pa.,  when  it  was  organized 
in  1866.  Simultaneously,  he  was  a  participant  in  the  prep- 
aration of  articles  of  incorporation  for  the  annual  con- 
ference. 

Rigor's  interest  in  Christian  education  extended  to  the 
local  church  as  he  urged  congregations  to  establish  Sun- 
day schools  and  expended  his  energies  toward  the  estab- 
lishing of  a  conference-wide  Sunday  school  movement. 

As  a  delegate  to  General  Conference  in  1873  and 
1877,  he  was  an  outspoken  critic  on  such  issues  as  unequal 
representation  and  the  secrecy  law,  both  of  which  liberals 
in  the  church  opposed.  For  the  next  twelve  years,  begin- 
ning in  1873,  he  expressed  these  liberal  views.  He  became 
editor  of  two  papers  which  arose  in  Pennsylvania  to  coun- 
ter the  conservative  position  of  the  Religious  Telescope 
which  was  under  the  editorship  of  Milton  Wright.  These 
publications  were  the  United  Brethren  Tribune  and  The 
Monthly  Itinerant.  During  his  editorship  of  the  latter  pub- 
lication (1877-1885),  Rigor  continued  to  promote  other 
causes  with  which  he  had  become  associated:  Lebanon 
Valley  College,  the  Sunday  school  movement,  higher 
salaries  for  pastors,  stronger  denominational  attachment, 
and  campmeetings. 

In  the  July  1876  issue  of  The  Monthly  Itinerant,  Rigor 
described  in  glowing  tenns  the  observance  of  the  Cen- 
tennial of  Independence  at  Philadelphia.  In  his  diaries, 
he  tells  of  his  trip  to  Harrisburg  to  view  the  body  of  the 
slain  President  Lincoln.  In  his  conference,  he  became  a 
gadfly  in  the  interest  of  the  preservation  of  local  church 
and  pastoral  records;  and  in  1866  and  1867,  respectively, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RIO   DE   JANEIRO,   BRAZIL 


he  presented  for  publication  in  the  conference  journal 
charts  dealing  with  the  bishops  of  the  denomination  and 
the  time,  place  of  meeting,  and  leadership  of  the  annual 
sessions  of  the  conference.  In  1878  he  challenged  the 
Lancaster,  Pa.,  New  Era  on  its  statement  that  Martin 
BoEHM  had  gone  "over  to  the  Methodists"  after  his  United 
Brethren  friends  had  "disowned  him." 

G.  W.  Miles  Rigor  died  July  9,  1906  and  is  buried  at 
the  Stoverdale  Church  Cemetery,  near  Hummelstown,  Pa., 
with  his  wife  who  followed  him  in  death  by  a  few  days. 

Bruce  C.  Souders 

RIO  GRANDE  CONFERENCE,  a  conference  for  Spanish- 
speaking  Americans,  goes  back  to  the  work  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South  among  Mexican-Americans  in  the  last  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  Rio  Grande  Mission  Con- 
ference (West  Texas  Conference  after  1866),  an  En- 
glish-speaking conference,  was  created  by  the  1858  Gen- 
eral Conference.  Its  territory  included  west  and 
southwest  Texas.  At  its  first  session  in  1859  the  conference 
appointed  Robert  P.  Thompson  as  a  missionary  to  the 
Mexicans  in  the  Rio  Grande  Valley.  In  time  the  work  grew 
to  two  Mexican  districts  and  there  was  a  demand  for  a 
separate  conference  for  the  Mexican  work. 

In  1885  the  Mexican  work  of  the  West  Texas  Confer- 
ence, along  with  some  churches  in  Mexico,  was  organized 
as  the  Mexican  Border  Mission  Conference.  In  1891  the 
Northwest  Mexican  Mission  Conference  was  formed  to  in- 
clude Mexican  work  in  west  Texas  and  northwest  Mexico. 
In  1914  some  changes  were  made,  and  the  Texas  Mexican 
Mission  was  formed  to  include  the  Spanish-speaking  work 
in  Texas  east  of  the  Pecos  River,  while  the  Mexican  Bor- 
der Conference  took  in  the  work  west  of  the  Pecos,  along 
with  some  churches  in  Mexico.  In  1918  the  Mexican  Bor- 
der Conference  was  merged  with  the  Pacific  Mexican 
Mission  to  form  the  Western  Mexican  Mission.  In  1930  the 
Texas  Mexican  £md  the  Western  Mexican  Missions  became 
conferences  and  so  continued  until  unification  when  they 
were  merged  to  form  the  Southwest  Mexican  Conference 
of  The  Methodist  Church.  In  1948  the  name  of  the  latter 
body  was  changed  to  the  Rio  Grande  Conference  be- 
cause though  it  was  still  a  Spanish  language  conference 
and  printed  its  minutes  in  Spanish,  as  time  passed  few 
of  the  ministers  or  church  members  had  any  direct  ties 
with  Mexico. 

The  Southwest  Mexican  Conference  was  organized  at 
Dallas  on  Nov.  2,  1939  with  Bishop  A.  Frank  Smith 
presiding.  It  began  with  three  districts — El  Paso,  North- 
em,  and  Southern — fifty-five  pastoral  charges,  eighty-one 
societies,  6,364  members,  forty-one  women's  societies  with 
814  members,  property  valued  at  $302,165,  and  $29,724 
raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

The  Rio  Grande  Conference  was  organized  at  Corpus 
Christi  on  July  1,  1948  with  Bishop  Smith  in  the  chair. 
It  began  with  three  districts — Northern,  Southern,  and 
Western — sixty-five  pastoral  charges,  fifty-two  ministers, 
8,884  members  including  inactive  ones,  and  property  val- 
ued at  $899,398. 

Courage,  evangelistic  fervor,  and  devotion  have  char- 
acterized the  Mexican-American  work  from  the  beginning. 
Alejo  Hernandez,  scion  of  a  wealthy  Mexican  family  who 
had  been  educated  for  the  priesthood  but  who  had  be- 
come disillusioned  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of 
that  day,  came  to  Corpus  Christi,  was  converted,  and  in 
1871  was  admitted  on  trial  in  the  West  Texas  Conference. 


Hernandez  had  a  brief  but  spectacular  career  as  an  evan- 
gehst  among  his  people  in  both  Mexico  and  Texas.  He 
died  in  1875  after  accompanying  Bishop  John  C.  Keener 
on  a  trip  to  Mexico  City  to  promote  Methodism  there. 
A.  H.  Sutherland  and  Frank  S.  Onderdonk  stand  high 
among  the  Anglo  ministers  who  made  a  lasting  contribu- 
tion to  the  work.  Sutherland  was  presiding  elder  of  one 
of  the  Mexican  districts  in  the  West  Texas  Conference 
before  the  organization  of  the  Mexican  Border  Mission 
Conference,  and  with  his  wife  he  established  Holding 
Institute  at  Laredo.  Onderdonk  was  superintendent  of 
the  Texas  Mexican  Mission  from  1914  to  1929  and  died 
in  1936  during  his  sixth  year  as  a  presiding  elder  in  the 
Texas  Mexican  Conference.  From  1938  to  his  retirement 
in  1960,  Bishop  A.  Frank  Smith  was  the  guiding  spirit 
of  the  Spanish-speaking  work  of  The  Methodist  Church 
in  the  southwest.  Clarence  W.  Lokey  was  effective  as  di- 
rector of  the  Spanish  language  work  of  the  Division  of 
National  Missions  from  1948  to  1965. 

Today  there  are  active  congregations  of  the  Rio  Grande 
Conference  in  all  of  the  major  cities  and  many  of  the 
smaller  ones  in  Texas  and  New  Mexico.  El  Paso  and  San 
Antonio  have  seven  churches  each,  and  there  are  four  in 
Dallas.  The  conference  has  three  schools:  Harwood  Girls' 
School  at  Albuquerque,  Holding  Institute  at  Laredo,  and 
Lydia  Patterson  Institute  at  El  Paso.  Lydia  Patterson 
Institute  has  furnished  a  large  proportion  of  the  ministers 
for  the  conference,  and  for  Spanish  language  work  in 
other  parts  of  the  United  States.  Many  of  the  ministers 
now  in  places  of  leadership  in  the  conference  are  grad- 
uates of  Perkins  School  of  Theology. 

The  record  of  the  Rio  Grande  Conference  is  appreciated 
in  The  United  Methodist  Church.  Church  membership 
has  nearly  trebled  since  1939.  In  1946  the  conference 
led  American  Methodism  in  proportionate  giving  to  the 
Crusade  for  Christ.  On  a  quota  of  $15,075  the  confer- 
ence paid  $16,026.  Between  1953  and  1956  the  confer- 
ence had  a  twenty-nine  percent  gain  in  membership,  the 
largest  increase  for  any  conference  in  the  church  in  the 
same  period. 

In  1968  the  Rio  Grande  Conference  reported  four  dis- 
tricts, 101  pastoral  charges,  seventy  ministers,  17,488 
members,  and  property  valued  at  $5,532,120.  The  total 
amount  raised  for  all  purposes  that  year  was  $568,968. 

General  Minutes,  MECS  and  MC. 

Minutes  of  tlie  Rio  Grande  Conference. 

O.  W.  Nail,  Soutluvest  Texas  Conference.  1958. 

William  C.  Martin 

RIO  DE  JANEIRO,  Brazil.  The  first  steps  to  establish 
Methodism  in  Brazil  were  taken  in  1835,  when  Bishop 
James  O.  Andrew  sent  Fountain  E.  Pitts  of  the  Ten- 
nessee Conference  to  survey  the  possibiUties  of  work 
in  South  America.  Pitts  sailed  in  July  1835,  and  shortly 
after  arrival  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  on  August  19,  organized 
a  small  Society  of  English-speaking  Methodists  in  that 
city,  promising  to  send  them  a  missionary. 

In  1836,  upon  his  return  to  the  United  States,  Pitts 
recommended  entering  the  field  and  Justin  R.  Spaulding 
of  the  New  England  Conference  was  sent  to  Brazil  in 
March  of  that  same  year.  In  June  he  organized  a  Sunday 
school  with  thirty  pupils,  several  of  whom  were  Brazihans 
and  were  taught  in  Portuguese.  He  also  organized  a  con- 
gregation of  forty  among  the  English-speaking  persons. 

In  November  1837,  other  missionaries  arrived — Daniel 


RIPLEY,    DOROTHY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Pabrish  Kidder  and  his  wife,  Cynthia  Harriet;  a  teacher, 
R.  M.  McMurdy,  and  a  Miss  Marcella  Russell  whom  he 
soon  married.  Various  severe  illnesses,  including  yellow 
fever,  soon  struck  at  the  little  band.  Cynthia  Kidder  died 
and  was  buried  in  the  British  (Protestant)  Cemetery  of 
Gamboa,  Rio,  where  a  tombstone  marks  her  grave.  Left 
with  two  infant  children,  Kidder  returned  to  the  United 
States  at  the  end  of  1840.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McMurdy  had 
first  opened  a  little  school,  but  discouraged  and  ill  re- 
tm'ned  to  the  United  States.  Spaulding  stayed  on  until 
the  end  of  1841,  when  he  too  left  Brazil  and  the  mission 
was  closed  by  the  home  Board.  Yet  despite  all,  this  early 
work  in  Rio  had  been  effective  enough  to  arouse  the 
Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  to  rebuttal  and  strong  op- 
position. Meanwhile,  the  home  church  was  becoming  bit- 
terly involved  in  the  dispute  over  slavery.  No  other  mis- 
sionaries were  sent  out,  and  thus  Methodism's  first  efforts 
in  Brazil  closed  without  the  establishment  of  any  perma- 
nent work. 

About  twenty-five  years  later,  in  1867,  after  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War,  Junius  E.  Newman  of  Alabama  went 
to  Brazil  as  a  Confederate  emigrant,  not  as  a  missionary 
but  properly  accredited  by  Bishop  W.  M.  Wightman  to 
open  Methodist  work  in  the  Empire.  Deeply  impressed 
with  Brazil's  need  for  the  Gospel,  Newman  pled  insistent- 
ly with  the  Southern  Methodist  Church  for  missionaries. 

The  first  to  go  was  J.  J.  Ransom  of  Tennessee,  who 
arrived  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  on  Feb.  2,  1876.  After  some 
time  studying  the  language  and  surveying  the  field,  he 
held  the  first  Methodist  service  in  that  city  in  a  rented 
house  on  Jan.  13,  1878.  With  a  congregation  of  around 
forty,  none  Brazilians,  Ransom  initiated  permanent  Meth- 
odist work  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  then  capital  of  the  Empire. 

It  was  in  March  1879  that  the  first  Brazilians  were  re- 
ceived into  the  church — an  ex-priest,  Antonio  Teixeira  de 
Albuquerque,  and  a  young  lady,  Francisca  de  Albuquer- 
que. Four  months  later  four  other  Brazilians  joined  the 
church. 

Little  notice  was  taken  of  the  so-called  "new  religion" 
until  the  Catholic  clergy  began  opposing  it  through  its 
oflScial  organ,  O  Apostolo.  Ransom  invited  them  to  attend 
his  services  but  they  did  not  accept.  After  a  voyage  to 
the  United  States,  Ransom  returned  in  May  1881  with 
two  new  missionaries — James  L.  Kennedy  and  J.  W. 
KoGER — and  Martha  Watts,  a  missionary  teacher  for  a 
school  in  Piracicaba.  Koger  was  sent  to  the  latter  place, 
and  Kennedy  stayed  in  Rio  to  assist  Ransom. 

Tliat  year  a  lot  was  bought  for  a  church,  and  in  1881 
they  began  building  a  pretty  little  chapel  on  what  was 
then  called  Largo  do  Cattete,  but  is  now  the  Praca  Jose 
d'Alencar.  This  chapel  still  stands  and  adjoins  the  church 
which  was  built  in  1886.  Two  other  preaching  points  were 
established  in  the  city,  and  by  1881  the  Methodist  Church 
in  Rio  had  sixty  foreign  and  six  Brazilian  members.  One 
year  later  there  were  over  thirty  Brazilian  members. 

The  construction  of  the  temple  itself  had  an  interesting 
history.  LInder  the  Empire  Catholicism  was  official  and 
no  other  religion  was  allowed  a  structure  that  had  the 
outward  appearance  of  a  church.  Ransom  and  Kennedy 
began  construction,  but  in  March  1882  Ransom  left  for 
the  United  States  on  urgent  matters,  leaving  the  younger, 
inexperienced  man  with  a  tremendous  responsibility.  Cath- 
olic clergy  and  city  councilmen  under  their  pressure  did 
everything  to  block  the  work.  At  one  time  Januzzi,  the 
constructor,  worked  men  all  night  in  order  to  finish  the 
task  before  fanatical  clergy  could   induce  the  authorities 


to  rescind  approval  of  a  blueprint  which  they  had  ap- 
proved and  which  included  a  more  churchly  facade  and 
spirelets  topping  the  side  walls.  Cattete  Church  was  com- 
pleted, however,  and  was  ready  for  inauguration  on  Sept. 
8,  1886,  when  Bishop  J.  C.  Granbery  arrived  in  Brazil 
for  the  first  time.  Here  on  Sept.  16,  1886,  Bishop  Gran- 
bery organized  the  smallest  conference  ever  organized  in 
Methodism.  Its  members  were  James  L.  Kennedy,  J.  W. 
Tarboux,  and  Hugh  C.  Tucker,  who  had  just  arrived 
with  the  Bishop.  These  men  have  been  called  the  "Golden 
Trio  of  Brazilian  Methodism." 

The  proclamation  of  the  Republic  supplanting  the 
Empire  in  November  1889,  brought  official  church-state 
separation,  and  from  then  on  the  work  in  the  Federal  Dis- 
trict and  surrounding  area  expanded  constantly  and  solid- 
ly, not  only  along  evangelical  but  along  educational  and 
social  lines.  Since  the  recent  removal  of  the  nation's  cap- 
ita! to  Brasilia,  the  city  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  what  was 
known  as  the  Federal  District  is  now  called  Guanabara 
State.  There  is  also  a  state  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  together 
they  make  up  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Region  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church  of  Brazil.  In  1966  it  included  thirty-five 
churches,  fifteen  parsonages,  6,173  members,  two  parochi- 
al schools,  and  three  other  outstanding  institutions — 
CoLEGio  Bennett,  Instituto  Ann.\  Gonzaga  (Home  for 
Children),  and  the  Instituto  Central  do  Povo  (Peo- 
ple's Central  Institute  for  Social  Service).  A  home  for  the 
aged,  O  Lar  dos  Anciaos,  has  been  started  on  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Anna  Gonzaga  Home. 

J.  L.  Kennedy,  Metodismo  no  Brasil.  1928. 

Expositor  Cristao,  July  21,  1894. 

World  Outlook,  May   1943.  Eula  K.  Long 

RIPLEY,  DOROTHY  (1769-1831),  daughter  of  William 
Ripley  of  Whitby,  was  born  in  Yorkshire.  Deeply  im- 
pressed in  early  years  by  Methodist  preachers,  she  also 
came  under  Quaker  influence,  and  in  1801  felt  the  call  to 
cross  the  Atlantic  to  labor  among  Negro  slaves.  She 
went  "without  money  in  her  purse  putting  her  trust  in 
the  bank  of  faith."  Securing  an  interview  with  President 
Thomas  Jefierson,  she  received  his  approbation  for  her 
work,  and  for  two  years  passed  from  city  to  city  pleading 
the  cause  of  the  Negroes.  Returning  to  England  in  1805, 
she  afterward  returned  to  America  and  preached  to  the 
Indians.  Emulating  John  Howard,  the  prison  reformer,  she 
visited  American  prisons.  In  1806  by  permission  of  the 
president  she  preached  from  the  speaker's  chair  in  Con- 
gress, with  Jefferson  and  the  senators  present.  From  her 
center  at  Charleston,  the  stronghold  of  slavery,  she 
preached  the  gospel  of  pity  to  slave  owners  and  of  pa- 
tience to  slaves.  In  an  evangelistic  tour  in  England  she 
accompanied  Lorenzo  Dow  and  in  September,  1818,  in 
Nottinghamshire  met  Hugh  Bourne.  For  thirty  years  she 
traveled  on  such  errands  of  mercy,  crossing  the  Atlantic 
eight  or  nine  times.  She  would  not  permit  any  collection 
on  her  behalf.  She  published  several  tracts:  An  Account 
of  the  Extraordinary  Conversion  and  Religious  Experience 
of  Dorothy  Ripley  (1817)  and  The  Bank  of  Faith  (1822). 
She  died  in  Virginia,  Dec.  23,  1831. 

John  T.  Wilkinson 

RITCHIE,  ELIZABETH,  later  Mrs.  Mortimer,  (1754-  ?  ), 
British  Methodist,  born  on  Feb.  2,  1754,  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  John  Ritchie,  a  naval  surgeon.  John  Wesley  was  a 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RITUAL,   THE 


frequent  visitor  to  her  home  in  Otley;  and,  contrary  to  his 
rule  of  writing  only  in  reply  to  letters  he  received,  he 
sent  her  many  letters  of  spiritual  advice.  She  was  a  close 
friend  of  Sarah  Crosby.  In  1790  Elizabeth  went  to  live 
with  the  Rogers  at  City  Road  Chapel  and  left  a  detailed 
account  of  Wesley's  last  days. 

John  A.  Vickers 

RITSON,  JOHN  HOLLAND  (1868-1953),  English  Method- 
ist, was  born  at  Bolton  in  1868  and  educated  at  Man- 
chester Grammar  School  and  Balliol  College,  0.\ford, 
where  he  graduated  with  First  Class  Honors  in  Natural 
Science.  He  trained  for  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry 
at  Wesley  College,  Headingley,  and  served  as  Assistant 
Tutor  at  Didsbury  College  1891-94.  After  travelling  in  the 
Eccles  and  Blackheath  circuits,  he  was  appointed  in  1900 
one  of  the  two  general  secretaries  of  the  British  anv 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  where  he  remained  until  retire- 
ment. He  travelled  extensively  and  was  "principally  re- 
sponsible for  the  reorganization  of  the  work  of  the  Society 
in  Canada  and  Australia."  At  the  first  International 
Missionary  Council  held  in  Edinburgh  (1910),  he  was 
elected  joint  Recording  Secretary  and  Chairman  of  the 
Literature  Committee  of  the  Continuation  Committee. 
Mission  and  unity  were  central  to  his  thinking,  and  he 
pleaded  at  the  Fifth  Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference of  1921  for  the  twin  priorities  of  "the  growth  of 
holiness  in  individual  life"  and  for  Christian  cooperation 
and  unity.  His  writings  include  Christian  Literature  and 
the  Mission  Field  (1915).  He  also  made  a  notable  con- 
tribution to  Ministerial  Training,  serving  on  its  Committee 
from  1906.  He  helped  raise  £250,000  for  this  work,  had  a 
large  part  in  the  foundation  of  Wesley  House,  Cambridge 
( 1925),  and  in  the  general  re-equipment  of  the  colleges 
after  the  First  World  War.  He  was  president  of  the  Wes- 
leyan Conference  in  1925,  when  O.xford  conferred  on  him 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  He  retired  in  1931,  and 
died  at  Seaford  in  1953. 

Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Conference,  1954.       John  Newton 

RITUAL,  THE,  is  a  name  given  to  the  several  forms  or 
offices  which  in  The  United  Methodist  Church  in  America 
guide  the  minister  and  direct  him  in  the  conduct  of  the 
formal  rites  of  the  Church.  These  offices  came  to  American 
Methodism  in  the  Sunday  Service  or  abridged  Prayer 
Book  which  John  Wesley  sent  over  to  America,  and 
which  was  adopted  by  the  M.E.  Church  at  its  organization 
in  1784.  However,  when  the  Sunday  Service  fell  into 
desuetude  in  a  very  few  years,  and  early  Methodism 
tuiTied  away  from  an  ordered  Prayer  Book  as  such,  certain 
particular  forms,  namely,  the  Lord's  Supper  or  Holy  Com- 
munion; Infant  Baptism;  Adult  Baptism;  Matrimony; 
Burial  of  the  Dead;  and  three  forms  for  Ordination  (for 
deacons,  elders  and  bishops)  which  were  in  the  Sunday 
Service  were  retained  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Discipline 
of  1792,  and  these  became  known  in  American  Methodism 
as  the  Ritual. 

Every  edition  of  the  Discipline  until  1968  has  car- 
ried these  eight  foims,  and  while  from  time  to  time  they 
have  been  amended  and  revised  by  respective  General 
Conferences,  there  have  been  no  very  great  nor  apprecia- 
ble changes  in  these  offices  from  their  original  adoption 
in  1784  until  the  present.  The  Baptismal  offices  perhaps 
provide   the  exception   here,   as  the   forms   directing   the 


Rites  of  Baptism  have,  indeed,  been  greatly  changed  over 
what  John  Wesley  originally  sent.  Also,  many  additional 
lessons  or  readings  have  been  put  into  the  Burial  service, 
expecially  witliin  recent  years.  However,  the  Sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  office  for  its  celebration 
have  been  very  little  changed,  and  the  foims  for  Ordi- 
nation scarcely  at  all.  Neither  has  the  office  for  the  Sol- 
emnization of  Matrimony  been  altered  appreciably  since 
some  rather  sweeping  deletions  were  made  in  this  Service 
when  it  first  went  out  of  the  Sunday  Service  into  the  1792 
Discipline.  Ritualistic  revision  in  the  Methodist  Churches 
in  America  has  been  greatly  influenced  by  the  revision  of 
the  like  forms  in  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  America,  though  not  to  an  overwhelm- 
ing extent. 

The  eight  fonns  which  were  cited  above  as  the  original 
Ritual — Communion,  the  two  Baptisms,  Matrimony,  Burial 
of  the  Dead,  and  the  three  forms  of  Ordination,  remained 
with  scarcely  any  revision  and  with  no  additions  in  Ameri- 
can Methodism  until  1864  in  the  M.E.  Church,  and  in 
1870  in  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  At  approximately  that 
same  time,  both  Churches  added  a  service  for  the  Recep- 
tion of  Members,  largely  following  the  office  for  Confirma- 
tion in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  John  Wesley  did 
not  send  to  American  Methodism  any  office  for  Confirma- 
tion, and  hence  there  was  no  foiTnal  rite  whereby  members 
were  received  into  the  M.E.  Churches  until  the  dates 
above  mentioned,  although  thousands  were  meanwhile  be- 
ing received  into  Methodist  churches  everywhere  due  to 
the  great  growth  of  Methodism  during  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

The  1864-1870  revisions  of  the  two  M.E.  Churches  also 
added  a  form  for  cornerstone  laying,  and  one  for  the 
Dedication  of  Churches.  In  time  quite  a  few  other  offices 
were  added  as  the  twentieth  century  progressed — for  the 
dedication  of  a  church,  or  of  a  memorial,  or  for  commis- 
sioning church  officers  and  the  like.  Other  forms  were 
added  even  after  the  unification  of  American  Methodism. 
The  Commission  on  Worship  of  The  Methodist  Church, 
however,  in  revising  the  Book  of  Worship,  and  also  the 
Ritual  as  directed  by  the  1960  General  Conference,  de- 
cided to  keep  in  the  Book  of  Discipline,  itself,  only  the 
eight  ancient  forms  sent  over  by  Wesley,  as  they  had  been 
revised;  together  with  two  present  and  official  fomial  or- 
ders of  worship.  The  other  offices  of  the  Ritual  may  be 
found  in  the  Book  of  Worship,  but  not  in  the  present 
Discipline  of  the  Church.  However,  in  1968  the  Discipline 
appeared  with  no  part  of  the  Ritual,  all  of  it  being  pub- 
lished in  the  Book  of  Worship. 

The  Methodist  Publishing  House,  which  is  empow- 
ered to  publish  all  books  and  literature  of  an  official  nature 
for  The  Methodist  Church,  holds  the  copyright  on  the 
offices  of  the  Ritual,  and  from  time  to  time  brings  out 
various  editions  of  it  in  different  sizes,  types  and  bindings. 
Ministers  quite  often  provide  themselves  with  a  copy  of 
the  Ritual  entirely  apart  from  the  Book  of  Discipline  or 
Book  of  Worship. 

General  Conferences  have  always  felt  competent  to  re- 
vise the  Ritual  and  do  revise  it  from  time  to  time,  usually 
through  a  commission  or  a  committee,  especially  when 
there  is  a  broader  revision  in  view  than  the  mere  altera- 
tion of  a  word  here  and  there.  All  such  revisions  must  be 
formally  adopted  by  the  General  Conference  before  they 
are  in  effect  in  the  church. 

A  disciplinary  regulation  which  for  many  years  re- 
mained in  the  Discipline  ordered,  "Let  our  Ritual  be  in- 


RIVERSIDE,    CALIFORNIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


variably  used."  However,  ministers  have  always  and  do 
now  feel  free  to  vary  in  certain  slight  degrees  the  offices 
of  the  Ritual  when  such  variations  seem  to  be  called  for 
by  the  needs  of  an  immediate  situation.  In  the  service  of 
Holy  Communion,  a  rubric  indicates  what  parts  of  the 
service  may  be  used  if  the  ministers  be  "straightened  for 
time"  or  if  it  is  to  be  used  for  the  sick  or  in  a  home. 
Should  a  change  in  the  Ritual  be  proposed  which  patently 
would  seriously  affect  one  of  the  doctrinal  positions  of 
Methodism,  it  could  be  challenged  as  a  violation  of  the 
first  Restrictive  Rule  binding  on  the  General  Confer- 
ence. Such  a  challenge  has  never  been  given  during  any 
proposed  ritualistic  revision  and  possibly  may  never  be. 

R.  J.  Cooke,  History  of  the  Ritual.  1900. 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Rites  and  Ritual.  1926. 

T.  O.  Summers,  Commentary  on  the  Ritual.  1873.       N.  B.  H. 

RIVERSIDE,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.  First  Church  was  fomed 
by  seven  charter  members  Oct.  13,  1872.  In  November 
1873  Marion  M.  Bov.abd  was  appointed  as  the  first  pas- 
tor. He  later  became  president  of  the  University  of 
Southern  California.  In  June  1876  a  brick  chapel  was 
completed.  A  new  frame  church  costing  $6,000  was  com- 
pleted in  June  1882.  In  1893,  thirteen  members  left  to 
start  the  Arlington  Church  in  Riverside.  On  Feb.  5,  1899 
a  $6,000  addition  to  the  main  building  was  dedicated.  On 
Dec.  20,  1903  the  Hicks  Memorial  Chapel  costing  $11,100 
was  dedicated.  In  1907,  189  members  withdrew  in  order 
to  start  the  Grace  Church  in  Riverside.  In  February  1945, 
the  first  $50,000  was  realized  toward  building  a  new 
church.  In  November  1945  a  tliirteen-acre  site  on  Brock- 
ton Avenue,  the  present  location,  was  purchased.  On  Feb. 
5,  1947  First  Church  was  destroyed  by  fire.  On  Dec.  19, 
1948  the  first  Sunday  service  was  held  in  the  new  Fellow- 
ship Hall.  In  May  1949  the  two-story  educational  build- 
ing was  completed  and  with  Fellowship  Hall  was  dedi- 
cated free  of  debt.  On  Sept.  11,  1955  the  first  Sunday  ser- 
vice was  held  in  the  new  sanctuary.  In  October  1957,  a 
new  organ  was  installed  in  the  sanctuary  and  seventy- 
eight  members  left  to  start  the  Wesley  Church  in  River- 
side. First  Church  acted  as  sponsor  by  mortgaging  its 
property  for  Wesley  Church  to  obtain  a  loan  to  build. 
In  May  1961,  the  memorial  church  tower  was  completed 
and  the  carillon  installed.  In  October  1963  seventeen 
members  withdrew  to  start  the  Rubidoux  Church  near 
Riverside.  Again  First  Church  sponsored  the  move  by 
mortgaging  its  property  for  Rubidoux  Church  to  obtain 
a  loan  to  build. 

Four  of  the  church's  former  pastors  became  district 
superintendents  and  another  a  vice-president  of  the  South- 
em  California  School  of  Theology.  Three  members  have 
served  as  missionaries  to  India  and  another  in  National 
Missions.  The  church  has  two  full  time  ministers,  with 
an  assisting  ministerial  staff  of  six  others.  Church  property 
was  valued  at  approximately  $1,250,000  and  church  mem- 
bership was  2,312  in  1970. 

General   Minutes.  Vihcil    L.    Bates 


RIVINGTON,  CHARLES  (1688-1742),  British  publisher, 
was  bom  at  Chesterfield  in  1688.  Apprenticed  to  a  Lon- 
don bookseller,  he  soon  set  up  on  his  own  and  became  the 
best-known  publisher  of  religious  works  in  the  early  eigh- 
teenth century.  He  published  George  Whitefield's  The 


Nature  and  Necessity  of  a  New  Birth  in  Christ  (1737), 
and  John  Wesley's  version  of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  in  1735. 
Rivington  also  shared  in  the  publication  of  Samuel  Rich- 
ardson's Pamela  (1741-42).  He  died  in  London,  Feb.  22, 
1742. 

John  Kent 

RIZZI,  DINA   (1910-  ),  Brazilian  Methodist  educator 

and  leader  in  women's  work,  was  bom  in  Sertaozinho, 
State  of  Sao  Paulo,  of  Roman  Catholic  parents.  At  the 
age  of  ten  she  was  sent  to  the  Methodist  school  in  Ribeirao 
Preto,  where  for  the  first  time  she  heard  about  the  Bible. 
Through  the  influence  of  three  missionaries — Lucy  Wade, 
Rosalie  Brown,  and  Mary  McSwain,  Dina  was  converted, 
joined  the  church,  and  became  the  only  Protestant  mem- 
ber of  her  family. 

For  three  years  she  studied  at  the  Methodist  Colegio 
PiRACicABANo  (now  Instituto  Educacional),  receiving 
her  degiee  as  teacher  in  1929.  Later,  she  studied  elemen- 
tary education  and  social  work  at  Scarritt  College  for 
Christian  Workers  and  at  Peabody  College,  both  in  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.  From  1930-41,  Dina  Rizzi  served  the  Meth- 
odist School  in  Ribeirao  Preto  in  several  capacities.  In 
January  1950  the  religious  education  department  of  this 
school  was  moved  to  Sao  Paulo  to  become  a  training 
school  for  women  Christian  workers,  the  Instituto 
Metodista.  In  1960  she  was  appointed  principal  (Reitora) 
of  the  institute. 

She  has  been  a  member  of  the  Legislative  Committee 
of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Brazil,  a  delegate  to  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Brazil 
in  1960,  and  in  1962  Brazilian  delegate  to  the  celebration 
in  South  Rhodesia,  of  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the 
World  Day  of  Prayer.  This  same  year  she  was  named  to 
the  Evangelical  Latin  American  Consultation,  which  met 
in  Buenos  Aires,  and  in  1963,  was  a  delegate  to  the  Asian 
Consultation  Committee  which  met  in  Port  Dickson, 
Malaya.  On  her  return  from  this,  she  visited  several 
countries  in  Europe  to  study  the  Deaconess  schools  in 
Germany,  Switzerland,  and  England. 

Besides  being  Reitora  of  the  Methodist  Institute  in  Sao 
Paulo,  Dina  Rizzi  was  also  for  ten  years  editor  of  the 
Voz  Missionaria,  official  magazine  of  the  Methodist  women 
in  Brazil.  She  is  presently  one  of  the  vice  presidents  of 
the  World  Federation  of  Methodist  Women,  as  president 
of  the  Latin  American  Evangelical  Women's  Federation. 

Eula  K.  Long 

ROADMAN,  EARL  ALAN  (1885-1967),  American  minis- 
ter, educator,  and  president  of  two  mid-western  Method- 
ist colleges,  was  born  at  Dike,  la.,  Nov.  14,  1885.  He  at- 
tended country  school  and  in  1899  entered  Iowa  State 
Normal  College  at  Cedar  Falls.  He  taught  school  for  sev- 
eral years  and  in  1907  entered  Upper  Iowa  University  at 
Fayette,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1909. 

After  completing  his  ministerial  training  at  Boston 
School  of  Theology,  he  spent  a  year  at  Halle-Witten- 
berg University  in  Germany.  Meanwhile  he  had  married 
Irma  Keen  of  Chicago,  Sept.  5,  1910.  To  them  were  born 
six  children. 

Roadman  served  several  pastorates  in  Iowa,  then  taught 
Bible  and  Rural  Sociology  at  Upper  Iowa  University  from 
1919  to  1925.  Returning  to  the  pastorate  at  Grace  Church, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROANOKE,   VIRGINIA 


Waterloo,  la.,  he  was  called  to  the  presidency  of  Dakota 
Wesleyan  University,  Mitchell,  S.  D.,  in  1927. 

President  Roadman  guided  the  destinies  of  the  college 
during  nine  of  the  most  difficult  years  of  her  existence. 
The  hardships  which  followed  the  financial  panic  of  1929 
were  greatly  increased  in  this  agricultural  area  by  dust 
storms  and  crop  failures.  The  question  of  college  survival 
was  a  very  real  one.  Roadman  devised  plans  to  aid  stu- 
dents to  pay  tuition  and  continue  in  college.  In  lieu  of 
cash,  livestock  and  produce  were  accepted  at  premium 
prices.  Faculty  salaries  were  paid  in  credit  vouchers  ac- 
cepted by  local  merchants,  and  the  college  was  kept  open 
and  solvent. 

In  1936  Roadman  accepted  the  presidency  of  Mobn- 
iNGsiDE  College,  Sioax  City,  la.,  where  he  directed  the 
destinies  of  that  growing  institution  for  the  ne.xt  twenty 
years.  An  indebtedness  of  $4.50,000  was  liquidated  by 
1944  under  his  administration.  Extensive  campus  improve- 
ments were  made  including  a  dormitory  for  women,  Jones 
Hall  of  Science,  and  Allen  Gymnasium.  An  old  gymnasium 
was  transformed  into  a  well  equipped  library.  By  1951 
the  endowment  had  been  increased  to  over  .$1,000,000, 
over  1,500  students  were  on  the  campus,  and  the  faculty 
had  been  enlarged  accordingly. 

Perhaps  Roadman's  greatest  contribution  was  his  monu- 
mental faith  in  the  Christian  colleges  and  his  unique  abil- 
ity in  administration.  Upon  retirement  in  1956,  he  re- 
turned to  his  boyhood  home  at  Dike  to  spend  the  last 
years  of  his  life  there.  He  died  July  20,  1967. 

C.  T.  Howell,  Prominent  Personalities.  194.5. 

Matthew  D.  Smith 

ROANOKE,  VIRGINIA,  U.S.A.,  a  city  of  90,955,  is  in  the 
foothills  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains  in  the  Roanoke 
River  Valley.  Until  1882,  the  settlement  was  known  as 
"Big  Lick"  because  of  the  salt  deposits.  It  became  an  in- 
corporated town  in  1874.  Prior  to  the  coming  of  the  early 
settlers,  this  section  was  a  favorite  spot  for  both  the 
Indians  and  the  fur  bearing  animals.  As  early  as  1742, 
according  to  records,  there  was  a  settlement  of  sufficient 
size  to  have  a  local  militia.  The  coming  of  the  railroad — 
with  the  opening  of  the  coal  and  iron  fields  in  southwest 
Virginia — transformed  the  tranquil  town  to  one  of 
bustling  activity,  growth  and  prosperity.  In  1884  Roanoke 
became  a  city. 

Among  the  early  settlers  in  The  Lick  were  the  Meth- 
odist circuit  riders.  The  first  two  Methodist  Societies  in 
the  vicinity  of  Big  Lick  were  in  nearby  Salem  and  what 
is  now  Vinton.  Records  show  that  the  Salem  Society  dates 
back  to  1803,  and  the  date  of  the  Vinton  Society  at  about 
that  time.  In  1815  the  Thrasher  Chapel  at  Vinton  was 
built. 

Until  1866  it  is  assumed  that  the  churches  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  present  day  Roanoke  were  a  part  of  the  Salem  Cir- 
cuit. In  that  year  the  Old  Lick  Charge  was  formed,  con- 
sisting of  Thrasher's  Chapel  (now  Vinton),  Cave  Spring, 
Bethany,  Mount  Pleasant  and  Old  Lick  (northeast  Roa- 
noke). This  latter  group  had  been  gathered  together  in 
1859  under  the  ministry  of  James  E.  Armstrong.  That 
same  year,  1866,  under  the  leadership  of  Isaac  Canter,  the 
Old  Lick  Society  found  a  new  meeting  place — a  school 
house  which  stood  directly  across  the  street  from  the 
present  Greene  Memorial  Church,  and  was  organized  into 
the  first  official  Methodist  Church  in  Big  Lick  (Roanoke). 
In  this  same  year  the  circuit  name   was  changed   from 


Old  Lick  to  Big  Lick  Circuit,  which  was  composed  of 
Big  Lick,  Hollins,  Salem,  Vinton,  Cave  Spring  and  Mount 
Pleasant. 

In  1873  the  name  of  the  Big  Lick  Circuit  was  changed 
to  Roanoke  Circuit  and  ten  years  later,  1883,  Roanoke 
became  a  station  appointment.  By  the  year  1891  there 
were  two  stations  organized  in  Roanoke  City — Greene 
Memorial  and  Trinity.  In  the  district  conference  records 
of  1892  and  1893  respectively,  St.  James  and  Grace 
appear  as  organized  churches.  In  1896  Belmont  was  orga- 
nized and  bracketed  with  Roanoke  Circuit. 

From  five  churches  in   1896,  Methodism  grew  as  did 

the  city,  so  that  by  1917  there  were  seven  churches;   in 

1934  ten  churches.  The  new  churches  were  built  in  sub- 

'  urban    areas.    At    the    present    time    there    are    eighteen 

churches  within  the  city  and  its  adjoining  suburbs. 

Through  the  years  Greene  Memorial  has  been  the  lead- 
ing church,  growing  in  membership  (now  1,712)  and 
responsibility  to  The  Methodist  Church.  Raleigh  Court, 
with  1,611  members,  is  second  in  membership.  Hunting- 
ton Court  with  1,497  members  is  the  third  largest  church. 
Trinity,  Belmont,  West  End  and  Melrose  have  been,  and 
still  are.  citadels  of  Methodism  in  Roanoke.  The  neuer 
churches  are  also  taking  their  place  in  the  city.  St.  Paul, 
the  only  church  of  the  former  Central  Jurisdiction  in  the 
city,  is  a  leader  among  the  Negro  churches. 

Today  with  a  total  membership  of  13,163,  the  nineteen 
churches  of  the  Roanoke  Community  find  a  challenge  to 
better  churchmanship  in  ministering  to  the  people  in  the 
downtown,  residential  and  the  suburban  areas.  The 
churches  are  working  together  for  the  best  solutions  to 
the  problems  peculiar  to  each  and  are  looking  forward 
to  making  a  better  witness  in  the  city. 

Greene  Memorial  Church  was  able  to  celebrate  in  1959 
100  years  of  sei"vice  at  its  downtown  location.  The  con- 
gregation's move  to  that  site  is  narrated  in  the  Roanoke 
account  just  above.  Isaac  W.  Canter  who  in  1866  found 
a  meeting  place  for  the  congregation  within  Roanoke  prop- 
er is  credited  with  founding  the  church.  I.  W.  Canter  was 
the  father  of  three  distinguished  sons:  Dr.  Hall  Canter, 
dean  of  Randolph-Macon  College;  Noland  Canter,  M.D., 
distinguished  lay  leader;  and  Dr.  Harry  M.  Canter,  lead- 
ing minister  and  long  time  secretary  of  the  Old  Balti- 
more Conference. 

James  E.  Armstrong  (later  to  be  the  historian  of  the 
Baltimore  Conference)  was  the  first  assigned  pastor  in 
1859.  Until  he  came  the  Methodist  Society  had  met  in 
a  Presbyterian  church. 

The  church  has  had  nice  locations  and  three  names  in 
the  conference  listing;  Old  Lick,  Roanoke,  and  Greene 
Memorial.  The  present  name  memorializes  Leonidas 
Rosser  Greene  who  was  pastor  for  twenty  months  and 
who  by  devoted  leadership  gave  the  church  a  period  of 
tremendous  expansion  1885-86.  His  ministry  was  termi- 
nated by  death  of  tvphoid  in  the  thirtv-third  vear  of  his 
life. 

Bishop  Collins  Denny  (1891)  and  Bishop  Nolan  B. 
Harmon  (1933-1940)  served  as  pastors  of  Greene  Me- 
morial; Dr.  J.  Manning  Potts,  e.xecutive  director  of  the 
"Crusade  for  Christ"  and  editor  of  the  Upper  Room,  was 
pastor  1940-1944.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frank  Long  and  their 
daughter  and  son-in-law,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Schisler,  repre- 
sented this  church  in  South  America.  Mrs.  Eula  Ken- 
nedy Long  is  the  editor  for  Brazil  for  this  Encyclopedia, 
and  Mr.   Schisler  is  author  and  editor  of  church  school 


ROANOKE,   VIRGINIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


literature  and  magazines  for  the  South  American  Church. 
Going  into  the  ministry  from  this  church  have  been  a 
number  of  prominent  preachers. 

The  Fishbum  family  has  meant  much  to  the  church. 
T.  T.  Fishbum  was  a  merchant,  banker,  industrialist,  civic 
leader,  lay  preacher,  ;uid  evangehst.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  city,  public  school  system,  hospital,  and 
Sunday  school.  R.  H.  Fishburn  gave  the  tower  chimes  to 


the  church.  Junius  B.  and  Blair  J.  Fishbum  contributed 
parks  to  the  city:  Mill  Mountain,  Norwich,  South  Roa- 
noke, Lakewood,  and  Fishbum  Park;  and  J.  B.  gave  to  the 
State,  Fairystone  Park.  The  small  prayer  chapel,  open  at 
all  times  and  visited  by  dozens  of  persons  each  day,  is  a 
Fishbum  Memorial. 

Greene  Memorial  has  aided  in  the  formation  of  Trin- 
ity,   St.    James,    Grace,    Belmont    and    other    Methodist 


C^HEENE    MeMOHIAL    ChUIU  II,     HOANOKE,     \  IRGINIA 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROBERTS,   BENJAMIN   TITUS 


churches.  The  tall  clock  tower  of  Greene  Memorial  "is 
as  much  a  part  of  Roanoke  as  is  Mill  Mountain  itself," 
The  Roanoke  Times  once  said. 

Mildred  R.  Chapman,  Through  Years  of  Grace.  Charlotte,  N.C. ; 
Observer  Printing  House,  1953. 

J.  W.  Leggett,  What  Hath  God  Wrought.  Progress  Press, 
1964.  George   S.    Lightner 

ROANOKE  UNION  SOCIETY,  THE  (1824-1828),  orga- 
nized in  eastern  North  Carolina,  U.S.A.,  shared  with  the 
Baltimore  Union  Society,  organized  on  May  21,  1824,  a 
discussion  as  to  need  for  reforni  in  Methodist  church  gov- 
ernment. The  two  societies  were  established  following 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.E. 
Church  in  Baltimore  in  1828  when  requests  for  the  in- 
corporation of  democratic  principles  into  the  church  gov- 
ernment were  refused.  The  Roanoke  Union  Society  was 
organized  at  Sampson's  Meeting  House,  Halifax  County, 
N.  C,  on  Nov.  6,  1824  with  eleven  members,  seven  local 
preachers  and  four  laymen.  Eli  Benton  Whitaker  was 
chosen  president  of  the  society.  Subsequent  meetings  of 
the  society  met  at  Bradford's  Meeting  House  (see  Brad- 
ford, Henry)  and  at  Whitaker's  Chapel. 

The  Baltimore  Union  Society  and  the  Roanoke  Union 
Society  became  the  models  after  which  nearly  all  the  re- 
form societies  in  the  United  States  were  organized  until 
the  Conventional  Articles  of  1828  offered  a  set  form.  The 
members  of  the  Roanoke  Union  Society  did  not  originally 
intend  to  organize  a  new  church;  they  merely  sought  re- 
form within  the  established  church  government.  In  1828 
delegates  from  the  various  union  societies  assembled  in 
Baltimore  and  adopted  temporary  "Articles  of  Associa- 
tion." At  a  call  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  union  so- 
cieties in  North  Carolina,  delegates  gathered  at  Whitaker's 
Chapel  on  Dec.  19-20,  1828,  and  organized  there  the  first 
annual  conference  of  the  M.P.  Church.  Due  to  the  short 
notice  given,  only  the  ministers,  preachers  and  laymen 
from  the  Roanoke  Union  Society  were  present. 

The  twenty-six  official  members  of  this  historic  con- 
ference were:  Ministers:  James  Hunter,  William  Bell- 
amy, Miles  Nash,  William  W.  Hill,  William  Price,  Eli 
Benton  Whitaker,  Albritton  Jones,  Henry  B.  Bradford, 
Thomas  Moore;  Local  Preachers:  Asa  Steely,  Aquilla  Nor- 
man, Ira  Norman,  Thomas  Steely,  Israel  Hutchins;  Lay- 
men: Arthur  Pittman,  Exum  Lewis,  Absalom  B.  Whitaker, 
William  E.  Bellamy,  L.  H.  B.  Whitaker,  John  F.  Bellamy, 
David  Barrow,  Eli  B.  Whitaker,  Jr.,  James  C.  Whitaker, 
Richard  Jones,  Wilson  C.  Whitaker,  Richard  H.  Whitaker. 
Four  circuits  were  established  by  the  conference:  Roa- 
noke, Liberty  (in  and  around  Williamston),  Warrenton 
and  Oxford.  In  1829  the  Hillsboro  and  Guilford  Circuits 
were  added.  William  W.  Hill  was  chosen  as  the  first  presi- 
dent of  the  Conference. 

J.   E.   Carroll,   History   of   the   North    CaroUna   Conference   of 

the  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  Greensboro,  1939. 

J.    Paris,    History    (MP).    1849.  Ralph    Hardee    Rives 

ROBB,  WILLIAM  NORMAN  HADDEN  (1894-  ),  Irish 
layman,  linen  merchant,  born  in  Belfast,  and  holder  of 
numerous  lay  offices  in  the  Methodist  Church  in  Ireland. 
In  particular  he  was  the  first,  and  so  far  the  only  person 
to  hold  both  key  offices  of  Conne.xional  Lay  Treasurer  of 
Overseas  Missions  (1934-1946)  and  of  Home  Missions 
(1946-1964).  He  was  also  secretary  of  the  Wesley  His- 


W.  N.  H.  RoBB 

torical  Society  (Irish  Branch)  from  1942  to  1963, 
then  vice-president,  and,  from  1965,  president.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  World  Methodist  Conference,  Oxford, 
1951,  and  at  Lake  Junaluska,  1956. 

F.  Jeffery 


^Xf!^^  iP 


ROBERTS,  BENJAMIN  TITUS  (1823-1893).  founder  and 
first  general  superintendent  of  the  Free  Methodist 
Church,  was  bom  at  Cattaraugus,  N.  Y.,  in  July,  1823. 
He  had  a  remarkable  conversion  at  the  age  of  twenty-one 
and  was  a  student  at  Wesleyan  University-,  1845-48, 
where  he  received  B.A.  and  M.A.  degrees.  He  was  greatly 
influenced  by  Stephen  Olin,  then  president,  and  a  class- 
mate, Daniel  Steel,  who  later  became  a  holiness  theo- 
logian. A  campus  revival  movement,  led  by  John  Wesley 
Redfield,  helped  shape  Roberts'  view  of  the  mission  of 
the  church. 


ROBERTS,   COLIN   AUGUSTUS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


He  joined  the  slavery-divided  Genesee  Conference 
of  the  M.E.  Church  in  1848.  He  married  Ellen  L.  Stowe, 
niece  of  George  Lane,  Book  Agent  of  the  M.E.  Church, 
May  3,  1849  and  thereafter  served  churches  until  his  ex- 
pulsion from  the  conference  in  Perry,  N.  Y.,  in  1858. 

The  charges  against  him  were  "insubordination  and  con- 
tumacy," based  on  articles  published  and  statements  made 
in  his  crusade  to  call  Methodism  back  to  John  Wesley's 
teaching  on  holiness  of  heart  and  life.  Fifty  years  later  the 
Genesee  Conference  restored  Roberts'  parchments  with 
this  statement  by  Ray  Allen,  conference  historian:  "This 
heroic  treatment  might  have  seemed  necessary  at  the 
time,  but  looked  at  half  a  century  later  it  seems  unjust  and 
therefore  exceedingly  unwise."  Free  Methodists  no  longer 
dwell  on  these  injustices;  they  do  take  comfort  in  this 
action. 

Roberts  edited  his  own  paper,  The  Earnest  Christian, 
and  for  a  time  he  was  also  editor  of  The  Free  Methodist. 
He  served  as  president  of  the  Missionary  Board,  founded 
the  first  school  at  North  Chili,  N.  Y.,  organized  confer- 
ences, labored  as  an  evangelist  and  pioneer  church  build- 
er. His  financial  and  organizational  ability  were  remark- 
able. He  sponsored  the  ordination  of  women,  gave  an 
address  at  the  World  Missions  Conference  in  London, 
1888,  and  was  author  of  Fishers  of  Men,  Holiness 
Teachings,  First  Lessons  on  Money,  Why  Another  Sect, 
Ordaining  Women.  He  died  at  Cattaraugus,  N.  Y.,  where 
he  was  to  hold  a  quarterly  meeting,  Feb.  27,  1893.  The 
membership  of  the  church  he  had  reluctantly  founded 
almost  tripled  in  number  during  the  last  sixteen  years  of 
his  life. 

Roberts  was  a  missionary  at  heart,  an  apostle  of  the 
underprivileged  and  weak.  His  administrative  ability  was 
unusual,  his  business  sense  uncanny.  His  writings  are 
models  of  direct  speech.  He  avoided  the  superfluous.  His 
sermons,  for  his  day,  were  brief — twenty  to  twenty-five 
minutes — but  said  more  than  many  hour-long  discourses. 
There  was  a  strong  social  note  in  his  preaching  and  writ- 
ing. Like  Wesley,  he  stressed  the  expression  of  Christian 
faith  in  practical  sei-vice.  For  him,  holiness  was  "love  in 
action." 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

ROBERTS,  COLIN  AUGUSTUS  (1886-  ),  British  Meth 
odist,  was  born  at  Dawley,  Shropshire,  in  1886.  He  en- 
tered the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry  in  1909,  having 
trained  at  Didsbury  College,  Manchester.  He  sei^ved  as 
assistant  to  F.  L.  Wiseman  at  the  Birmingham  Mission; 
as  an  army  chaplain  through  the  First  World  War;  and 
as  chairman  of  the  London  North  and  of  the  East  Anglia 
Districts.  In  1939  he  was  appointed  to  the  Home  Mission 
Department  of  the  Methodist  Church,  becoming  general 
secretary  in  1948.  In  1952  he  was  elected  president  of 
the  Methodist  Conference.  After  the  Second  World  War 
he  was  the  organizer  and  leader  of  the  Christian  Com- 
mando Campaigns,  a  renewed  Methodist  effort  at  urban 
evangelism.  He  edited  These  Commando  Campaigns  and 
The  Way  We  Have  Been  Led.  He  married  Dorothy, 
daughter  of  Irving  Armstrong,  and  has  one  son  and  one 
daughter. 

John  Kent 

ROBERTS,  GEORGE  (1765-1827),  American  minister  and 
physician,  was  born  of  English  parents,  probably  in  Talbot 

2030 


County,  Md.  He  early  had  studious  and  spiritual  leanings 
and  embraced  religion  in  1783.  After  four  years  service 
in  the  local  relation,  he  was  assigned  to  Annamessex  Cir- 
cuit, 1789.  Sent  to  New  England  to  assist  Jesse  Lee  the 
next  year,  he  was  presiding  elder  over  Connecticut  cir- 
cuits, 1793-95.  He  replied  in  print  to  Tolland  Congrega- 
tionist  pastor  Nathan  Williams'  defense  of  the  standing 
order  in  1793. 

AsBURY  stationed  him  at  New  York  City  for  an  un- 
usual three-year  term,  1796-98,  during  which  time  he  built 
Duane  Street  Church.  Asbury  often  sought  his  counsel, 
but  while  stationed  at  Philadelphia  he  studied  medi- 
cine, and,  despite  Asbury's  pleadings,  located  and  estab- 
lished himself  at  Baltimore  in  1806  to  practice  "physic." 
Children  by  his  second  wife,  who  was  Susannah  LePage 
of  New  York,  included  George  C.  M.  Roberts  and  a 
daughter  who  married  He.nry  Slicer. 

George  C.  M.  Roberts,  Centenary  Pictorial  Album.  Baltimore: 
J.  W.  Woods,  1866. 

Strictures  on  a  Sermon  delivered  by  Mr.  Nathan  Williams,  A.M. 
in  Tolland  on  the  Public  Fast  Day,  April  17,  179.3.  N.p.,  Tuck- 
niss,    1794.  Edwin    Schell 

ROBERTS,  GEORGE  C.  M.  (1806-1870),  American  physi- 
cian and  local  preacher,  was  born  to  George  and  Susan- 
nah (LePage)  Roberts  about  the  time  his  father  left  the 
ministry  to  study  medicine.  George  C.  M.  Roberts  was 
granted  an  M.D.  in  1826  by  the  University  of  Maryland 
and  then  after  serving  1826-29  in  the  traveling  ministry, 
practiced  and  taught  obstetrics,  all  the  while  maintaining 
unabated  usefulness  in  the  local  ministry.  He  was  co- 
editor  of  a  pinoeering  medical  journal  1839-40,  taught  at 
Washington  Medical  University,  was  a  founding  member 
of  the  American  Medical  Association  and  headed  the  Med- 
ical and  Chirurgical  Faculty  (of  Maryland)  1859-70. 

Besides  Roberts'  life-long  leadership  in  Light  Street 
Church,  Baltimore  (where  his  father's  second  pastorate 
had  been  concluded  in  his  natal  year),  he  was  the  prin- 
cipal founder  of  the  American  Methodist  Historical  Society 
in  1855.  He  also  saw  to  erection  of  the  Bishops'  and 
Strawbridge  monuments  in  Mount  Olivet  Cemetery,  Bal- 
timore, was  a  founder  (1858)  and  president  (1863)  of  the 
National  Association  of  Local  Preachers,  besides  giving 
impetus  to  the  founding  of  the  Home  for  the  Aged  of 
the  M.E.  Church,  1868.  His  attentions  to  bodies  and  souls 
did  not  go  unnoticed.  When  he  died  after  a  long  illness, 
2,000  persons  in  deep  respect  passed  the  bier,  while  2,000 
more  were  denied  admission. 


Centennial  Pictorial  Album,   1866. 


Edwin   Schell 


ROBERTS,  HAROLD  (1896-  ).  British  Methodist  schol- 

ar and  statesman,  was  born  at  Ashley  in  Cheshire  in  1896. 
He  was  educated  at  Hulme  Grammar  School,  Manchester, 
and  at  University  College,  Bangor.  He  entered  the  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  ministry  in  1919,  and  his  theological  col- 
lege was  Wesley  House,  Cambridge,  to  which  he  returned  . 
as  assistant  tutor  in  1924-26.  He  then  served  on  the  Liver-          j 
pool  (Waterloo)  circuit  from  1926  to  1929,  and  from  1929          j 
to  1934  was  the  chaplain  to  Methodist  students  at  Oxford          j 
University,  where  he  remained  until  1940.  In  that  year  he 
was  transferred  to  Richmond  Theological  College  in  Lon-          i 
don,  but  the  Second  World  War  compelled  the  closure  of         | 
the  Methodist  theological  colleges,  and  so  from  1941  to         ,' 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROBERTS,   JOSEPH   JENKINS 


1946  he  served  as  the  superintendent  of  the  Ipswich 
(Museum  Street)  Circuit,  in  East  Angha. 

He  went  back  to  teach  theology  at  Richmond  College 
in  1946,  and  in  1955  became  the  principal  of  the  college, 
a  post  which  he  held  until  his  retirement  in  1968.  He  was 
elected  president  of  the  Nottingham  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Church  in  1957.  In  the  course  of  his  career  he 
obtained  an  M.A.  from  the  University  of  Wales,  an  honor- 
ary D.D.  from  Dublin,  and  a  Ph.D.  from  the  University 
of  Cambridge.  He  took  a  large  part  in  the  ecumenical 
movement,  in  the  fostering  of  closer  relations  between 
the  British  Methodist  Church  and  the  Church  of  England, 
and  in  the  Methodist  ecumenical  movement.  His  publica- 
tions include:  Belief  in  God  (1936),  The  Holy  Spirit  and 
the  Trinity  (1937),  The  Sanctions  of  Christian  Healing 
(1950).  He  gave  the  Fernley-Hartley  Lecture  of  1954, 
and  this  was  published  in  1955  under  the  title  Jesus  and 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  A  portrait  of  Roberts  is  in  the  World 
Methodist  Building  at  Lake  Jun.\luska,  N.  C,  as  he  was 
an  outstanding  leader  of  the  World  Methodist  Council 
for  many  years. 

John  Kent 

ROBERTS,  JOHN  CALVIN  (1833-1909),  prominent  M.P. 
layman  and  benefactor  of  Kernersville,  N.  C.  He  was  al- 
most solely  responsible  for  the  impetus  given  to  the  efforts 
of  J.  F.  McCuLLOCH  in  the  early  twentieth  century  to 
establish  a  M.P.  college  in  North  Carolina.  At  the 
North  Carolina  Annual  Conference  of  1901,  Roberts 
offered  $10,000  to  be  used  for  the  establishment  of  a 
denominational  college  in  the  state  and  a  special  Ways 
and  Means  Committee  of  nine  persons  (including  Mc- 
Culloch,  A.  M.  Rankin,  J.  Norman  Wills,  J.  Allen  Holt), 
was  appointed.  Due  to  the  economic  conditions  surround- 
ing the  panic  of  1907,  efforts  to  establish  the  school  were 
temporarily  postponed.  WTien  Roberts  died  on  Aug.  12, 
1909,  he  left  the  $10,000  bequest  in  his  will,  stipulating 
that  it  be  used  by  the  Conference  Board  of  Education 
in  the  building  or  support  of  a  college  provided  it  should 
be  opened  by  1920,  meanwhile  loaning  the  interest  to 
men  who  needed  aid  in  preparation  for  the  ministry.  The 
will  stipulated  that  if  the  college  were  not  built  by  1920 
the  entire  bequest  would  become  a  permanent  fund  for 
the  aid  of  ministerial  students.  A  total  of  forty-eight  young 
men  had  received  assistance  from  this  "Roberts  Fund"  by 
1938.  The  cornerstone  of  the  administration  building  at 
High  Point  College  was  laid  on  June  29,  1922,  and  the 
building  was  named  "Roberts  Hall"  in  memory  of  the  man 
whose  generosity  began  the  movement  which  culminated 
in  the  establishment  of  the  college. 

Journal     of     the     North     Carolina     Conference,     MP,     1901, 

1908,  1909. 

Our  Church  Record,  June  23,  1898.    Ralph  Hardee  Rives 

ROBERTS,  JOHN  WRIGHT  (1812-1875),  second  mission- 
ary bishop  in  Liberia,  was  born  of  free  parents  in  Peters- 
burg Va.,  Sept.  8,  1812.  His  father  died  while  he  was  a 
boy.  It  was  claimed  that  his  mother,  a  woman  of  great 
force  of  character,  had  escaped  from  slavery.  A  chapter  of 
the  American  Colonization  Society  which  encouraged  free 
Negroes  to  emigrate  to  Liberia,  was  established  at  Peters- 
burg in  1825.  "Aunty  Roberts,"  as  John's  mother  was 
called,  resolved  to  go  with  her  three  sons — the  other  two 
were  Joseph  J.  and  Henry  J. — to  Liberia,  and  they  sailed 


in  1829.  All  three  of  the  boys  were  converted  and  joined 
the  M.E.  Church  before  leaving  the  United  States,  and 
both  Joseph  and  Henry  served  as  local  preachers  in 
Liberia.  Henry  became  a  medical  doctor.  After  entering 
business,  Joseph  became  interested  in  politics,  served  as 
governor  of  Liberia,  and  in  1848  when  the  country  be- 
came a  republic,  he  was  its  first  president  and  was  re- 
elected to  that  office  three  times. 

John  Roberts  joined  the  Liberia  Mission  Conference 
(ME)  in  1838  and  was  elected  to  elder's  orders  in  1841. 
In  1851  he  became  presiding  elder  of  the  Monrovia  Dis- 
trict. The  1856  General  Conference  authorized  the 
Liberia  Mission  Conference  to  elect  a  bishop  to  serve 
there,  with  the  proviso  that  after  his  election  he  should 
present  himself  in  the  United  States  for  consecration.  Ac- 
cordingly, Francis  Burns,  a  fellow  presiding  elder  with 
Roberts,  was  elected  bishop  in  1858,  was  duly  conse- 
crated, and  served  five  years.  Following  Bums'  death  in 
1863,  Roberts  became  president  of  the  conference.  Then 
in  1864  the  General  Conference  authorized  the  election 
of  a  successor  to  Burns,  and  in  1866  Roberts  was  elevated 
to  the  episcopacy.  He  came  to  New  York  and  was  con- 
secrated bv  Bishops  Levi  Scott  and  Edmund  Janes  in 
St.  Paul's  M.E.  Church,  June  20,  1866. 

Roberts  was  intelligent  and  somewhat  reserved.  As  an 
administrator  he  was  prudent  and  conciliatory,  dignified 
and  firm,  treating  his  brethren  with  a  degree  of  impartial- 
ity and  kindness  which  won  their  respect  and  esteem. 
During  his  tenn  as  bishop,  the  mission  in  Liberia  had 
unity  and  hannony  and  a  fair  degree  of  prosperity.  By 
the  time  he  was  sixty  years  of  age  fever  had  weakened 
his  body.  He  died  at  Monrovia,  Liberia,  Jan.  30,  1875. 

Flood  and  Hamilton,  Lives  of  Methodist  Bishops.  1882. 
Willis  J.   King,  History  of  The  Methodist  Church  Mission  in 
Liberia.  (Typescript).  N.d. 
F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 
National  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography. 
The  National  Magazine,  March,  1854. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

ROBERTS,  JOSEPH  JENKINS  (1809-1876),  the  first  pres- 
ident of  LiBERL\  and  loyal  Methodist,  as  well  as  a  leader 
of  his  people,  was  born  of  free  parents  in  Peters- 
burg, Va.,  U.S.A.,  on  March  15,  1809.  He  migrated 
to  Liberia  in  1829  with  his  widowed  mother  and  soon 
began  to  obtain  leadership  in  that  land.  Having  achieved 
importance  in  Liberia,  after  a  time  he  came  on  a  visit 
to  the  United  States  authorized  to  deal  with  matters  of 
import  duties  and  the  like  between  his  country  and  the 
United  States.  He  was  elected  the  first  president  of  Li- 
beria in  1849  and  again  in  1851  and  1853.  Previous  to 
his  election  white  men  had  always  served  as  presidents  of 
the  Liberian  colony,  but  when  the  choice  devolved  upon 
the  people,  J.  J.  Roberts  was  elected  for  the  terms  as 
above  stated. 

Bishop  Simpson  states;  "In  1844  a  gentleman  of  Can- 
andaigua  sent  a  silver  cup  to  the  church  in  which  Gover- 
nor Roberts  worshiped,  and  inquired  if  he  was  a  member 
of  any  Christian  denomination.  The  governor  replied,  'I 
am  happy  to  be  able  to  inform  you  that  I  have  long  been 
a  member  of  the  M.E.  Church — upwards  of  sixteen  years 
— and  have  not  failed  to  find  support  and  consolation  in 
the  religion  of  Christ  and  the  promises  of  the  gospel.' " 

His  second  wife  was  Jane  Warren  Roberts,  whom  he 
married  in  1836,  who  was  an  educated  woman  and  spoke 


ROBERTS,    LELIA 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


excellent  French.  In  Europe,  which  Roberts  visited  a  num- 
ber of  times,  he  always  received  unusual  attention.  He 
signed  a  treaty  with  Great  Britain  in  1849  which  recog- 
nized Liberia  as  an  independent  nation — a  very  important 
event  for  that  colony  in  the  time  when  the  European  na- 
tions were  taking  over  large  portions  of  Africa  regardless 
of  their  claims  to  independence.  Roberts  visited  Europe 
again  in  1854  and  1862  and  on  his  return  from  the  latter 
visit  became  the  Belgian  consul  in  Liberia.  In  1869  he 
again  visited  the  United  States.  Then  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
three,  broken  in  health  by  his  long  sei-vice,  he  was  again 
elected  to  the  presidency  of  his  country  and  was  re-elected 
again,  serving  until  January  1876,  when  he  died  in  Mon- 
rovia in  February. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biograpluj, 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

ROBERTS,  LELIA  (1862-1950),  American  pioneer  mission- 
ary to  Me.xico,  was  born  on  Oct.  2,  1862,  in  Bell  Mina, 
Okla.  She  came  to  Bonham,  Texas,  in  early  childhood  and 
was  educated  at  Carlton  College  and  Sam  Houston  Nor- 
mal. After  teaching  school  in  Palo  Pinto,  Texas,  she  vol- 
unteered to  go  as  a  missionary  to  Mexico.  She  was  ap- 
pointed in  1887  to  the  city  of  Saltillo  at  $25  a  month.  She 
served  for  forty-three  years,  and  built  a  school  of  such 
quality  and  prestige  that  the  president  of  Mexico  and  the 
governor  of  Coahuila  gave  her  support.  Many  Mexican 
church  leaders  across  the  years  have  received  their  train- 
ing under  her  guidance.  She  retired  in  1930  and  then 
gave  twenty  years  of  service  to  her  local  church,  district, 
and  conference  before  her  death  in  1950  at  Bonham, 
Texas. 

Mns.  Claude  M.  Simpson 


ROUERT    R.    RoBEnTS 

ROBERTS,  ROBERT  RICHFORD  (1778-1843),  frontier 
American  bishop,  was  bom  in  Frederick  County,  Md.,  on 
Aug,  2,  1778.  His  father,  Robert  Morgan  Roberts,  was 
an  Episcopalian  and  a  Revolutionary  soldier  of  Welsh 
descent. 

In  1785  the  family  moved  to  Ligonier  Valley  in  West- 
moreland County,  Pa.  Pioneer  conditions  prevailed  there 
and  young  Roberts'  schooling  practically  ended  at  the 
age  of  seven  years. 


In  1796  he  made  an  exploratory  trip  to  the  Shenango 
area  in  what  is  now  Mercer  County,  Pa.,  where  he  home- 
steaded  some  land  and  built  a  rude  log  cabin.  Here  he 
lived  for  five  years  as  a  frontiersman,  clearing  his  land, 
planting  crops,  hunting,  fishing,  and  selling  furs.  Here  he 
married  Miss  Elizabeth  Oldham  of  York  County. 

In  1802  he  became  a  class  leader,  was  licensed  to 
preach,  and  admitted  on  trial  into  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference. He  was  ordained  in  1804  and  1806  by  Bishops 
AsBURY  and  Coke.  His  first  years  in  the  ministry  were 
spent  on  the  hard  Montgomery,  Frederick,  Erie,  Pitts- 
burgh and  West  Wheeling  Circuits  in  Maryland,  Penn- 
sylvania and  Virginia. 

He  built  a  mill  on  his  land  in  Shenango  and  operated 
it  to  supplement  his  meager  income,  as  a  result  of  which 
he  was  rebuked  by  his  conference  in  1808  for  neglecting 
his  preaching  appointments.  He  went  to  the  general  con- 
ference at  Baltimore  that  year  with  only  one  dollar  in 
his  pocket  and  some  bread,  cheese  and  oats  in  his  saddle 
bags. 

At  the  request  of  some  persons  who  heard  him  preach 
he  was  stationed  in  Baltimore  in  1809,  although  he  pro- 
tested that  he  knew  nothing  about  city  ways.  The  next 
year  he  was  sent  to  Fell's  Point,  in  1811  he  was  at  Alex- 
andria, and  in  1813  he  was  appointed  to  Philadelphia. 
In  1815  he  was  presiding  elder  of  the  Schuykill  District, 
which  included  Philadelphia.  When  he  was  in  George- 
town, Md.,  President  James  Madison  asked  Roberts  to 
pray  for  him  as  president. 

At  the  General  Conference  of  1816  at  Baltimore,  ow- 
ing to  the  death  of  Asbury  and  the  illness  of  Bishop  Mc- 
Kendree,  he  was  elected  president  of  the  conference.  This 
was  followed  by  his  election  as  bishop.  He  had  wide  sup- 
port because  the  East  knew  him  from  his  service  there 
and  the  West  regarded  him  as  a  frontiersman. 

His  first  episcopal  residence  was  his  log  cabin  at  She- 
nango, but  in  1819  he  moved  to  a  fann  in  Lawrence 
County,  Ind.,  where  he  lived  in  another  rude  cabin  built 
largely  by  himself.  His  episcopal  labors  took  him  from 
Maine  to  Mississippi  and  to  the  Indian  missions  west  of 
Arkansas.  He  died  in  Indiana  on  March  26,  1843  and 
was  buried  in  a  cornfield  on  his  farm,  but  his  body  was 
later  moved  to  the  campus  of  Indiana  Asbury  University 
( now  DePauw  ) ,  at  Creencastle. 

Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

C.  Elliott,  Robert  R.  Roberts.  1844. 

Flood     and    Hamilton,     Lives    of    Methodist    Bishops.     1882. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878. 

W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  tfw  Pulpit.  1861. 

W.  M.  Tippy,  Robert  Richford  Roberts.  1958. 

Elmer  T.  Clark 

ROBERTS,  WALTER  N.  (1898-1966),  American  E.U.B. 
minister,  son  of  Alvadore  and  Hannah  Roberts,  Lewis- 
burg,  Ohio,  was  born  Aug.  17,  1898.  He  graduated  in 
1921  from  Otterbein  College  (B.A.)  and  in  1924 
from  United  (then  Bonebrake)  Theological  Semi- 
nary (B.D.).  Special  studies  were  taken  at  Yale  Divinity 
School  and  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  New  York  City 
and  he  received  a  Ph.D.  degree  from  the  Hartford  Semi- 
nary Foundation  School  of  Missions.  Honorary  degrees 
were  received  from  Moravian  Theological  Seminary, 
Lebanon  Valley  College,  and  Otterbein  College. 

He  was  married  to  a  college  classmate,  Marjorie  Miller, 
Aug.  22,  1922.  Licensed  by  Miami  Conference,  Church 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROBERTS   CHAPEL 


OF  THE  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  in  1922,  he  was 
ordained  by  the  same  conference  in  1924.  He  and  his 
wife  served  a  five-year  term  in  the  Philippine  Islands, 
1925-30,  two  years  of  which  he  also  taught  in  Union 
Theological  Seminahy,  Manila.  Upon  their  return  to 
America,  Roberts  completed  his  graduate  studies.  Subse- 
quently his  dissertation  was  published  under  the  title. 
The  Filipino  Chttrch,  a  history  of  the  Protestant  Church 
in  the  Philippines. 

Returning  to  his  annual  conference,  he  served  a  pastor- 
ate in  Dayton  (Fort  McKinley  Church),  where  he  also 
spent  six  years  as  an  instructor  in  practical  theology  in  the 
denomination's  seminary.  In  1938  he  became  president  of 
that  institution,  now  known  as  United  Theological  Semi- 
nary, and  continued  in  that  post  until  his  retirement  in 
1965.  He  represented  his  denomination  at  the  organizing 
session  of  the  World  Council  of  Churches  (Amster- 
dam, 1948)  and  the  four  subsequent  sessions.  In  theologi- 
cal services  he  was  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  American  Association  of  Theological  Schools  for 
sixteen  years  and  its  accrediting  commission  for  fourteen, 
visiting  122  theological  schools  in  this  capacity.  He  served 
a  term  as  Executive  Secretary  of  the  Association,  followed 
by  a  teiTn  as  its  president. 

Death  came  suddenly  to  Walter  Roberts,  Feb.  20,  1966, 
a  few  hours  following  his  return  to  Dayton  from  a  four 
and  a  half  month  tour  of  Africa  studying  theological 
schools  for  the  church's  mission  board  in  cooperation  with 
British  missionary  societies.  His  wife  took  up  residence  at 
Otterbein  Home  in  1970  and  died  in  October  1971. 

Daily  News,  Dayton,  Ohio,  Feb.  21,  1966. 

Minutes  of  the  Ohio  Miami  Conference,  EUB,  1966. 

United  News,  quarterly  bulletin.  United  Theological  Seminary, 

March   1966,  Vol.   65,'  No.  2.  John   H.   Ness,   Jr. 


William   Roberts 

ROBERTS,  WILLIAM  (1812-1888),  pioneer  American  cler- 
gyman in  California  and  Oregon,  was  born  at  Burling- 
ton, N.  J.,  March  28,  1812.  After  admission  to  the  Phil- 
adelphia Conference  in  1834,  he  filled  various  appoint- 
ments before  being  selected  in  1846  by  the  Board  of 
Bishops  of  the  M.  E.  Church  to  be  superintendent  of 
the  Oregon  Mission  which  had  been  founded  by  Jason 
Lee  in  1834.  William  Roberts  and  J.  H.  Wilbur,  and  fam- 
ihes,  left  New  York  on  the  bark  Whiton,  celebrated  in 
western  Methodism  because  its  skipper  was  Captain  Gels- 


ton,  a  devout  Methodist  who  gave  generous  aid  to  mis- 
sionaries. The  Whiton  took  148  days  to  reach  the  Golden 
Gate — a  datum  to  be  compared  with  the  eighty-nine  days 
and  eight  hours  record  of  the  clipper  Flying  Cloud,  or  the 
130  days  or  more  usually  required  by  prairie  schooners  for 
their  trip  from  Independence,  Mo. 

Roberts  preached  at  Brown's  Hotel,  April  25,  1847,  the 
day  after  he  arrived  in  San  Francisco,  the  first  Protestant 
services  there  since  Sir  Francis  Drake's  services  at  an  un- 
known place  nearby.  "The  bar  was  closed  and  the  billiard 
room  locked  up  until  the  service  was  over,"  Roberts  re- 
ported, adding  that  he  found  his  "very  attentive  congrega- 
tion" to  be  composed  mostly  of  homesick  Americans.  "The 
tearful  eye  and  cheerful  smile  .  .  .  made  us  feel  like  stay- 
ing among  them  until  others  should  be  sent  to  furnish 
them  with  the  gospel  of  peace. "  Aided  by  Wilbur,  he  orga- 
nized a  class  meeting  and  a  Sunday  school  in  San  Fran- 
cisco and  inspected  Methodist  prospects  at  San  Jose,  Mon- 
terey, and  other  settlements.  But  Oregon  beckoned.  Arriv- 
ing there  in  June  1847,  Roberts  paid  out  $1,500  for  lumber 
to  send  back  and  build  San  Francisco's  first  Methodist 
church,  but  was  appalled  to  learn  shipping  would  cost 
$1,100  more.  Captain  Gelston  came  to  his  rescue,  not  only 
carrying  it  to  the  Bay  without  cost,  but  contributing 
$1,000  to  the  project. 

Roberts  replaced  George  Gary  as  superintendent  of 
the  Oregon  Mission.  In  1849  he  was  directed  by  Bishop 
Waugh  to  organize  the  Oregon  and  California  Mission 
Conference  which  was  under  his  superintendency  until 
1853  when  the  Oregon  Conference  was  set  up  by 
Bishop  Ames.  In  1856  William  Roberts  was  a  delegate  to 
the  General  Conference  at  Indianapolis,  and  had  three 
years  of  service  as  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society 
for  Oregon  and  Washington.  He  was  then  stationed  at 
Portland  and  served  as  presiding  elder  of  the  Portland 
District.  He  died  at  Dayton,  Ore.,  on  Aug.  22.  1888. 

Bishop  William  Taylor,  with  whom  he  was  associated 
in  Cahfornia,  called  him  "a  capable,  noble  brother,  and  a 
faithful  minister  of  the  gospel,  one  of  God's  noblemen." 

L.  L.  Loofbourow,  In  Search  of  God's  Gold.  1950. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.   1881.  Leland  D.  Case 

ROBERTS  CHAPEL,  Fayette  County,  western  Pennsylvania, 
is  said  by  some  to  have  been  the  first  Methodist  meeting 
house  to  be  built  west  of  the  mountains.  This  was  in  1784 
or  1785.  It  was  located  four  and  one-half  miles  south  of 
Brownsville  on  the  east  side  of  the  Monongahela  River 
in  Luzerne  Township.  Roger  Roberts  had  settled  there  on 
a  farm  about  1770.  Robert  Ayres  preached  his  first  ser- 
mon on  the  Redstone  Circuit,  which  then  embraced 
Roberts  Chapel,  in  Roberts  Chapel  on  Sunday,  June  18, 
1786,  and  preached  there  regularly  each  round  of  the 
circuit.  Bishop  Asbury  made  a  round  of  the  Redstone  Cir- 
cuit in  1786  and  said  that  he  spoke  to  300  or  400  persons 
at  Roberts  Chapel  (on  Luke  4:18)  on  Thursday,  June 
29.  James  Roberts,  a  son  of  Roger  Roberts,  became  a 
Methodist  preacher.  It  may  be  said  that  Roger  Roberts' 
daughter,  Cassandra,  married  William  Hawkins  who  built 
Hawkins  Chapel,  another  church  on  Redstone  Circuit;  and 
another  daughter  married  a  son  of  Edward  Death  who 
lived  on  an  adjoining  farm  to  the  north,  and  at  whose 
home  Robert  Ayres  usually  stopped  when  he  made  his 
rounds. 

W.  G,  Smeltzer,  Headwaters  of  the  Ohio.  1951.  N.  B.  H. 

2033 


ROBERTS   WESLEYAN    COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


ROBERTS  WESLEYAN  COLLEGE,  North  Chile,  N.  Y.,  a 
Free  Methodist  institution,  was  founded  by  Bishop  Ben- 
jamin T.  Roberts  in  1866.  It  was  first  operated  as  a  high 
school  under  the  names  of  Chili  and  Chesbrough  Semi- 
nary; then  Roberts  Junior  College  in  1921,  and  a  senior 
college  renamed  Roberts  Wesleyan  College  in  1949.  Rob- 
erts is  regionally  accredited. 

The  college  serves  600  students  from  twenty-two  states 
and  five  foreign  countries.  Eighteen  conferences  of  the 
church  are  represented  in  the  student  body.  Primarily  a 
liberal  arts  college,  Roberts  also  offers  programs  in  music, 
degree  nursing,  teaching  education,  religion  and  pre-pro- 
fessions.  The  forty-five  full-time  faculty  are  dedicated  to 
teaching  students  and  to  giving  individual  counsel.  An 
enrollment  of  1,000  is  presently  looked  for. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

ROBERTSON,  EDWARD  PETER  (1860-1941),  American 
minister  and  educator,  was  born  on  Feb.  24,  1860,  in  a 
farm  home  near  Cooksville,  Wis.,  where  his  parents  who 
had  been  married  in  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  had  for  a 
time  settled.  They  moved  when  young  Edward  was  four 
years  old  to  Minnesota,  where  his  father  died.  His 
mother  was  left  a  widow  with  five  children. 

Edward  Robertson  attended  country  school  until  he  was 
fifteen  years  of  age,  then  worked  for  a  time  and  in  1885 
graduated  from  Hamline  University.  That  fall  he  was 
admitted  into  the  Minnesta  Conference,  ordained  dea- 
con and  began  his  active  pastorate.  Shortly  thereafter 
he  was  married  to  Florence  E.  Jackson,  a  fellow  student  at 
Hamline. 

In  1899,  while  serving  as  a  presiding  elder  in  Minne- 
sota, he  was  elected  as  president  of  the  Red  River  Valley 
University,  a  Methodist  liberal  arts  college  in  Wahpeton, 
N.  D. 

Under  President  Robertson's  leadership,  the  Red  River 
Valley  University  was  moved  from  Wahpeton  to  Grand 
Forks,  N.  D.  in  1906  and  operated  as  Wesley  College, 
offering  courses  in  religion,  music  and  speech  in  affiliation 
with  the  University  of  North  Dakota.  Dormitories  for  men 
and  women  were  built  as  well  as  a  music  conservatory, 
and  in  1929  an  administrative  building  was  completed, 
being  named  Robertson  Hall  in  honor  of  the  president. 
Robertson  (having  received  tlie  honorary  LL.D.  degree 
in  1925  from  the  University  of  North  Dakota)  retired  from 
his  post  in  1931. 

During  his  long  career  Robertson  became  a  leader  in 
Methodist  educational  circles.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the 
General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  five  times.  He 
died  on  Sept.  2,  1941  and  was  buried  in  Memorial  Park 
Cemetery,  Grand  Forks. 

Wesley  Sheffield 

ROBERTSON,  LUCY  HENDERSON  OWEN  (1850-1930), 
president  of  Greensboro  College,  1902-1913,  was  born 
at  Warrenton,  N.  C,  Sept.  15,  1850.  She  was  married  to 
D.  A.  Robertson  on  Nov.  1,  1869  and  widowed  by  his 
death  in  January  1883.  She  taught  in  Greensboro  Female 
College  (now  Greensboro  College),  1878-1893.  From 
1893-1900  she  taught  history  in  the  North  Carolina  State 
Normal  and  Industrial  Institute  (now  University  of  North 
Carolina  at  Greensboro).  Returning  as  teacher  of  Bible 
to  Greensboro  College  in  1900,  she  was  made  president 
in  1902,  a  post  she  held  until  1913. 


Her  influence  spread  far  beyond  the  college.  She  was 
vitally  interested  in  the  causes  of  Temperance  and  Mis- 
sions. She  served  as  president  of  the  Woman's  Missionary 
Society  of  the  Western  North  Carolina  Conference 
for  more  than  thirty  years. 

Five  years  before  her  death  the  alumnae  of  the  college 
began  soliciting  funds  for  the  establishment  of  the  Lucy 
H.  Robertson  Chair  of  Religious  Education  in  her  honor. 
Mrs.  Robertson  died  at  Greensboro,  May  28,  1930  and 
was  buried  in  Green  Hill  Cemetery  there.  Few  citizens  of 
the  state  have  had  so  profound  an  influence  for  good 
upon  so  many.  Her  successor.  President  S.  B.  Turren- 
tine  said  of  her  that  she  held  "before  the  vision  of  young 
womanhood  ideals  that  promote  not  only  the  power  to 
know,  but  the  power  to  do." 

Bulletin,  Greensboro  College,  July  1930. 

Raymond  Alexander  Smith 

ROBINSON,  ELLEN  DOWNS  (1824-1910),  American  lay 
woman,  was  bom  in  1824  in  Hemingford,  Canada.  She 
moved  with  her  family  to  Champlain,  N.  Y.  as  a  child. 
She  taught  school  for  eight  years  and  then  was  invited  in 
1856  to  teach  Indian  girls  in  Bloomfield  Academy  in 
Indian  Territory.  She  taught  there  until  the  fall  of  1866 
when  the  war  impoverished  the  school,  and  she  moved 
to  Paris,  Texas.  There  she  taught  school  again  until  1872 
when  she  married  the  Rev.  J.  C.  Robinson.  In  1882  she 
became  president  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  of  the  North  Texas  Conference,  in  which  office 
she  served  seven  years. 

Mrs.  CLAxn)E  M.  Simpson 


ROBINSON,  FLORA  LOIS  (1884-1926),  was  the  fourth 
principal  of  Isabella  Thoburn  College.  She  was  bom 
in  India  in  a  missionary  home,  daughter  of  John  Edward 
and  Rhetta  Terry  Robinson.  For  higher  education  she 
went  to  Goucher  College  where  she  established  a  rep- 
utation for  brilliance,  Christian  leadership  and  winsome- 
ness.  Her  roommate  at  Goucher,  Jessie  Wilson,  daughter  of 
Woodrow  Wilson,  in  a  memorial  tribute,  wrote  of  her 
blue-eyed,  golden-haired  loveliness,  her  humor,  under- 
standing smile  and  keen  intelligence.  This  roommate  who 
became  Mrs.  Francis  B.  Sayres  paid  her  salary  through 
the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  throughout 
her  missionary  service. 

Later  in  1909  she  arrived  at  Lucknow  to  teach  in  the 
high  school  from  which  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College  had 
developed.  Her  sister,  Ruth  Robinson,  was  then  princi- 
pal of  the  college  and  her  father  a  missionary  bishop  since 
1904.  Flora  Robinson  soon  felt  completely  at  home  in 
India  and  quickly  acquired  recognition  as  an  educator  of 
great  promise. 

When  her  sister,  Ruth,  resigned  on  account  of  health 
difficulties,  the  board  of  governors  asked  the  younger 
sister  to  accept  the  responsibilities  of  the  principalship. 
The  government  of  the  United  Provinces  undertook  to 
reorganize  university  education  and  to  develop  in  Luck- 
now  a  teaching  university,  in  contrast  to  the  examining 
university  which  until  then  had  dominated  higher  educa- 
tion in  the  province.  After  considerable  discussion  and 
plans  that  proved  unpopular  the  govemment  invited 
Isabella  Thobum  College  to  become  a  special  women's 
section  of  the  university  and  a  very  choice  site  of  thirty- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROBINSON,  JOHN  WESLEY 


two  acres  was  obtained  adjoining  another  department  of 
the  university. 

Flora  Robinson  had  acquired  great  influence  with 
government  ofHcials  and  with  the  interested  pubHc.  But 
after  only  eighteen  months  in  office  she  resigned  to  marry 
Thomas  J.  Howells,  an  American  businessman.  In  Pitts- 
burgh, where  she  and  her  husband  hved  after  their 
marriage,  she  spoke  often  in  behalf  of  India.  But  after  a 
very  few  years  she  died  of  pernicious  anemia. 

M.  A.  EMmmitt,  Isabella  Thohum  College.  1963. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

ROBINSON,  HUBERT  N.   (1912-  ),  American  bishop 

of  the  A.M.E.  Chxibch,  was  born  in  Urbana,  Ohio  on 
April  28,  1912.  He  was  educated  at  Ohio  State  University 
where  he  received  his  A.B.  degree.  He  attended  also 
the  Hamma  Divinity  School  in  Ohio.  He  also  holds  the 
honorary  D.D.  degree.  Following  ordination  as  deacon 
and  elder,  he  was  pastor  of  churches  in  Ohio  and 
Pennsylvania.  He  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy  in  1964 
from  the  pastorate  of  the  Ebenezer  Church  in  Detroit, 
Mich.  He  resides  in  Detroit  and  supervises  the  work  of 
the  Eighteenth  Episcopal  Area  District  comprising  four 
annual  conferences  in  South  Central  Africa. 

Grant  S.  Shockley 


John  E.  Robinson 

ROBINSON,  JOHN  EDWARD  (1849-1922),  missionary 
bishop  for  Southern  Asia,  elected  by  the  M.E.  General 
Conference  in  1904,  was  born  at  Gort,  County  Galway, 
Ireland,  Feb.  12,  1849,  of  English  parents.  Left  fatherless 
at  six,  he  migrated  to  America  in  1865  and  was  converted 
in  New  York.  He  married  Rhetta  Terry,  joined  the  Cen- 
tral Illinois  Conference  in  1874,  and  was  assigned  to 
Indla  "in  the  self-supporting  work  of  William  Tayxor." 
He  was  appointed  to  Rangoon  as  pastor,  and  thereby 
became  the  founder  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  Burma,  then 
administered  as  a  province  of  British  India.  His  appoint- 
ments included  several  pastorates,  the  presiding  eldership 
of  several  districts,  and  the  editorship  of  The  Indian 
Witness.  His  episcopal  assignments  were  Calcutta,  1904; 
Bombay,  1908-1912;  Bangalore,  1912-20. 


Bishop  Robinson  was  a  handsome  man,  neat  and  poised, 
fluent  and  eloquent,  but  precise  in  speech.  His  only  son 
became  a  distinguished  surgeon.  His  five  daughters  all 
became  missionaries  in  India.  Two,  Ruth  and  Flora, 
served  as  principals  of  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College. 
Helen  Robinson  drowned  when  the  ship  on  which  she 
was  returning  to  India  was  sunk  by  a  submarine  attack  off 
the  East  Coast  of  Africa. 

Bishop  Robinson  retired  in  1920  and  died  in  Bangalore, 
Feb.  15,  1922.  He  is  buried  there.  It  should  be  noted 
that  there  were  two  Robinson  missionary  bishops  in  India, 
John  Edward  and  John  Wesley,  who  for  eight  years 
served  together  as  bishops  in  Southern  Asia. 

F.  D.  Leete,  Methodist  Bishops.  1948. 

Mrs.  J.  E.  Robinson  and  daughter,  In  Memoriam.  1923. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

ROBINSON,  JOHN  WESLEY  (1866-1947),  elected  by  the 
M.E.  General  Conference  of  1912  as  missionary  bishop 
for  Southern  Asia,  with  residence  in  Bombay,  supervising 
Bombay,  Gujerat  and  Central  Province  Conferences.  In 
1916  after  the  accidental  death  of  Bishop  W.  P.  Eveland, 
Malaya,  Sarawak,  Dutch  East  Indies  and  the  Philip- 
pines were  added  to  the  Bombay  Area.  In  1920  the 
General  Conference  elected  Bishop  Robinson  a  general 
superintendent  and  continued  his  assignment  to  Bombay. 
In  1924  he  was  shifted  to  the  newly  established  Delhi 
Area. 

He  was  bom  at  Moulton,  la.,  Jan.  6,  1866.  His  mother 
and  one  of  his  daughters  had  the  same  birthday  an- 
niversary. He  worked  as  a  printer  before  deciding  to  enter 
the  ministry.  He  studied  at  Garrett  Biblical  Institute 
and  was  graduated  in  1892.  He  had  married  Elizabeth 
Fisher  of  Harlan,  la.  in  1891. 

J.  W.  Robinson  was  ordained  de.\con  and  elder  in  the 
Des  Molnes  Conference  and,  after  hvo  years,  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  North  India  Conference  and  appointed 
pastor  of  the  Lai  Bagh  Methodist  Church  in  Lucknow. 
His  subsequent  appointments  were:  superintendent.  Luck- 
now  District;  agent,  Lucknow  Publishing  House;  editor 
Kaukab-i-Hind  (official  Roman  Urdu  Weekly);  secretary- 
treasurer.  Famine  Relief  Fund;  secretary,  Bishop  Thoburn 
Special  Gift  Fund;  secretary,  the  E.xecutive  Board;  secre- 
tary. Jubilee  Movement;  and  superintendent,  Allahabad 
District.  Usually  he  held  three  or  more  such  appointments 
simultaneously.  Of  him  a  colleague  said,  "He  does  every- 
thing better  than  any  one  else  does.  The  secret  is  that 
he  works  in  high  gear  sixteen  hours  a  day  and  with 
absolute  dedication." 

From  1912  when  the  National  Missionary  Council  was 
organized  in  India,  until  1936  when  he  retired,  he  partici- 
pated prominently  in  inter-church  activities. 

Bishop  Robinson  translated  many  popular  h>Tnns  into 
Urdu.  He  was  chairman  of  the  governing  boards  of  many 
educational  and  medical  institutions.  When  there  were  no 
architects  or  construction  engineers  among  missionaries 
he  drew  plans  for  buildings  and  personally  supervised 
their  construction.  His  skill  in  administration  won  the 
praise  of  churchmen,  government  officials  and  professional 
men.  Christian  and  non-Christian  alike. 

After  retiring  he  made  his  home  in  California  briefly, 
then  returned  to  India  and  became  the  editor  of  The 
Indian  Witness.  On  the  death  of  Bishop  Jasitsvant  R. 
Chitambar  in  1940,  Bishop  Robinson  was  asked  by  the 
Council  of  Bishops  of  The  Methodist  Church  to  return 


ROBINSON,   MARK 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


to  active  service  and  administer  the  Lucknow  and  Hydera- 
bad conferences.  When  two  new  bishops  were  elected  in 
1941  and  Bishop  Robinson  retired  the  second  time,  he 
returned  to  American  but  within  a  year  departed  again 
for  India,  where  he  served  as  superintendent  of  the  Delhi 
District.  Retiring  a  third  time  he  made  his  home  with  his 
daughter  and  son-in-law  in  the  episcopal  residence  in 
Delhi,  which  had  been  built  under  his  direction  twenty- 
five  years  earlier.  Until  the  morning  of  the  day  of  his 
death.  May  30,  1947,  in  Naini  Tal,  India,  he  had  never 
been  a  patient  in  a  hospital  or  consulted  a  doctor  except 
for  a  physical  examination.  His  grave  is  in  the  Kaladungi 
Cemetery  near  Naini  Tal,  near  the  graves  of  his  dear 
friend  and  predecessor.  Bishop  Edwin  W.  P.\rker  and 
those  of  other  early  leaders  of  Indian  Methodism. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

ROBINSON,  MARK  (?-c.  1840),  British  layman,  who  led 
a  party  of  "Clmrch  Methodists"  in  Beverley,  Hull,  York- 
shire. He  was  a  class  leader  and  local  preacher  who  was 
led  in  1823  to  examine  the  power  of  Conference  when 
an  action  of  Conference  affected  the  Hull  Circuit.  He 
wanted  to  limit  the  powers  of  the  preachers  and  to  make 
the  connexion  into  a  sort  of  minor  order  in  the  Church 
of  England,  recognized  by  the  episcopate,  and  subject  to 
the  local  clergy.  He  persuaded  an  Irish  Primitive  Wesleyan 
minister  to  speak  in  Beverley  in  favor  of  his  .scheme  and 
opened  a  chapel  in  a  neighboring  village,  but  the  move- 
ment quickly  dissipated.  Several  pamphlets  by  Robinson 
exist,  including  Ohscrvatiffns  on  the  System  of  Wesleyan 
Methodism  (London  1825),  and  The  General  Principles 
of  the  Church  Methodist  Constitution  (London  1826). 
He  died  between  1831  and  1840. 

Oliver  A.  Beckeblecge 

ROBINSON,  REUBEN  D.  (1815-1887),  American  physician 
and  minister,  was  born  Aug.  10,  1815,  in  Clark  County, 
Ohio  but  moved  with  his  parents  to  near  LaFayette,  Ind. 
at  an  early  age.  He  graduated  from  Indiana  Asbury 
University  in  1843.  After  a  brief  medical  practice  he 
joined  the  North  Indiana  Conference  in  1845.  He 
married  Mary  K.  Mahurin  on  Sept.  1,  1847.  For  a  time  he 
served  as  president  of  Fort  Wayne  College  and  was 
elected  to  lead  his  delegation  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1864.  He  died  Aug.  18,  1887,  in  Indianapolis. 

H.\ROLD  Thrasher 

ROBINSON,  ROSWELL  RAYMOND  (1835-1923),  Ameri- 
can layman,  businessman,  philanthropist,  was  born  in 
Taunton,  Mass.,  on  March  8,  1835.  His  formal  education 
was  in  Taunton  public  schools  and  Bristol  Academy.  At 
the  age  of  seventeen  he  started  to  work  in  a  large  store, 
first  as  clerk,  then  as  cashier  and  bookkeeper,  and  then  as 
one  of  the  buyers.  For  two  years  he  was  treasurer  of  the 
Bay  Screw  Company  of  Taunton.  At  twenty-six  he  and 
his  brother  became  interested  in  the  manufacture  of  toilet 
soap.  They  established  a  plant  and  offices  in  Maiden, 
Mass.  The  business  prospered,  first  under  the  name 
"Robinson  Brothers,"  and  later  as  the  "Potter  Drug  and 
Chemical  Co."  Roswell  became  connected  with  other  very 
important  financial  and  commerical  enterprises. 

His  primary  interest  was  in   religion.   He  was  a  con- 
secrated Christian,  a  loyal  member  of  Center  M.E.  Church, 

2036 


Maiden;  treasurer,  Royal  Arcanum;  treasurer,  Boston  City 
Missionary  and  Church  Extension  Society;  director, 
Y.M.C.A. 

Robinson's  chief  philanthropy  was  Boston  University, 
of  which  he  was  a  trustee  for  the  last  twenty-one  years 
of  his  life.  He  was  a  tither,  and  his  church  and  Boston 
University — especially  its  School  of  Theology — got  the 
larger  share  of  it.  His  gifts  to  Boston  University  were  so 
great  that  the  Trustees  constituted  him  an  Associate 
Founder  eleven  years  before  his  death. 

Daniel  L.  Marsh 

ROBINSON,  RUTH  EVELYN  (1878-1954),  was  the  third 
principal  of  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College  (1908-18) 
and  a  Methodist  missionary  in  India  from  1900  to  her 
retirement  in  1950.  She  was  born  in  Bangalore,  South 
India,  June  15,  1878,  the  eldest  child  of  John  Edward 
and  Rhetta  Terry  Robinson.  Her  parents  were  Methodist 
missionaries  and  during  her  childhood  they  held  appoint- 
ments in  Rangoon,  Burma,  Simla  (then  India's  summer 
capital),  and  Poona.  Her  father  was  elected  missionary 
bishop  for  Southern  Asia  in  1904. 

She  graduated  from  Goucher  College  in  1899  and 
a  year  later  was  appointed  to  India.  She  worked  as  an 
evangelist  in  Bombay  for  a  year  and  was  then  appointed 
to  Lucknow  to  assist  Isabella  Thoburn  in  her  struggling 
woman's  college.  Except  for  a  year  of  furlough  in  America, 
Miss  Robinson  remained  there  as  a  teacher  until  she 
was  appointed  principal  in  1908.  She  was  renowned  for 
sympathy  with  and  understanding  of  her  girls  and  of  the 
national  longing  for  independence.  The  students  regarded 
her  as  totally  unselfish. 

In  1918  following  a  break  in  her  health,  she  resigned 
the  college  principalship  and  was  appointed  to  Pauri, 
Garhwal,  as  principal  of  a  junior  high  school  for  girls. 
In  1920  with  health  troubles  continuing,  she  went  to 
America.  Two  years  later  she  returned  to  India  and  began 
a  second  career  as  an  editor  and  author.  She  founded  a 
monthly  magazine.  The  Treasure  Chest,  in  English  for 
young  Indians.  She  remained  a  Methodist  missionary,  but 
the  magazine  was  sponsored  and  financed  in  part  by  an 
interdenominational  woman's  committee  in  America.  The 
paper  quickly  won  popular  acclaim,  and  a  demand  for 
Indian  language  editions  arose  and  several  such  editions 
were  started.  Eventually  all  editions  were  placed  under 
Indian  editors. 

In  1938  she  joined  forces  with  E.  Stanley  Jones  in 
his  Ashram  at  Lucknow  and  shortly  thereafter  established 
a  rural  center  at  Nigohan,  Lucknow  District,  organizing 
and  operating  adult  literacy  classes  with  volunteer  help. 

At  retirement  age  in  1943  she  went  to  Bangalore,  but 
almost  immediately  in  an  emergency  she  was  asked  to 
resume  active  work  and  return  to  the  editorship  of  The 
Treasure  Chest.  She  continued  full  time  work  until  1950. 

Miss  Robinson  also  edited  The  Indian  Temperance 
News  for  two  years,  and  was  the  author  of  five  series  of 
readers,  extensively  used  in  the  teaching  of  English  in 
India.  She  also  wrote  An  Introduction  to  English  Prose 
and  Verse.  She  was  the  first  woman  member  appointed  to 
serve  on  the  Bangalore  Municipal  Council,  and  was  for 
six  years  president  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union  of  Madras.  She  died  in  Bangalore  in  1954. 

M.  A.  Dimmitt,  Isabella  Thoburn  College.  1963. 

J.  N.  HoUister,  Southern  Asia.  1956.        J.  Waskom  Pickett 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROCHESTER,   MINNESOTA 


ROBSON,  EBENEZER  (1835-1911),  Canadian  missionary, 
was  born  in  Perth,  Ontario,  on  Jan.  17,  1835  and  died 
in  Vancouver,  B.C.,  on  May  4,  1911. 

He  was  educated  at  Victoria  College,  Cobourg,  and  was 
ordained  in  1858.  At  this  point  the  discovery  of  gold  in 
the  Fraser  River  brought  to  British  Columbia  a  rush  of 
adventurers  from  the  United  States  and  eastern  Canada. 
Among  the  newcomers  were  many  Methodists.  This  situa- 
tion led  Enoch  Wood,  superintendent  of  Wesleyan  Mis- 
sions in  Canada,  to  issue  a  call  for  volunteers  for  this 
new  mission  field.  Four  were  selected,  of  whom  one  was 
Robson.  The  party  left  Toronto  on  Dec.  31,  1858,  and, 
traveling  via  New  York,  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  by 
boat  up  the  Pacific  Coast,  reached  Victoria  on  Feb.  10, 
1859.  Soon  four  missionary  charges  were  organized,  one  of 
which  was  Hope  and  Yale — some  100  miles  up  the 
Fraser — and  to  this  new  field  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robson  were 
sent. 

While  ministering  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  thousands 
of  settlers,  prospectors  and  miners,  Robson  observed  (to 
quote  his  own  words ) ,  "with  grief  and  distress  the  igno- 
rance and  degradation  of  the  Indians  in  the  area."  As  a 
beginning,  in  1859,  he  opened  a  school  for  Indian  children 
in  his  own  house;  this  was  the  start  of  Canadian  Meth- 
odist missions  among  the  Indians  of  British  Columbia. 

From  Hope  the  Robsons  went  to  Nanaimo  on  Van- 
couver Island  in  1860  to  work  among  the  coal  miners 
from  England.  Here  Robson  found  many  Flathead  Indians 
living  amid  conditions  similar  to  those  at  Hope.  He  began 
a  school  and  preached  to  the  Indians  each  Sunday.  Within 
a  year  a  chapel  was  built  close  to  the  Indian  quarters, 
the  first  Indian  church  in  British  Columbia  Methodism. 

Mrs.  Robson's  failing  health  led  them  to  return  to 
Ontario  in  1865,  but  fifteen  years  later  they  returned  to 
British  Columbia  and  were  stationed  at  New  Westminster. 
When  the  conference  was  organized  in  1887  Robson  was 
chosen  as  its  first  president.  At  that  time  he  was  pastor 
of  Homer  Street  Church  in  Vancouver.  Robson  served 
a  number  of  other  fields  in  the  province  until,  in  1900, 
after  forty-two  years  in  the  ministry,  he  was  super- 
annuated. Even  in  retirement  he  continued  to  serve  until 
1910.  He  was  known  and  loved  in  all  parts  of  British 
Columbia. 

Diary  of  Rev.  Ebenezer  Robson,  Union  College. 
Mrs.  F.  C.  Stephenson,  Canadian  Methodist  Missions.  1925. 

W.  P.  Bunt 

ROCHA,   ISNARD    (1908-  ),  Brazilian  preacher,  was 

bom  in  Jahu,  state  of  Sao  Paulo,  on  Dec.  18,  1908.  When 
he  was  three  his  parents  moved  to  Santo  Amaro,  near 
Sao  Paulo.  His  parents  were  second-generation  Presby- 
terians, but  there  was  no  evangelical  church  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. 

When  Isnard  was  five,  a  neighbor  "stole"  him  from  his 
parents  to  get  him  baptized  in  the  Roman  Catholic  church, 
for  they  were  scandalized  that  he  had  never  received 
baptism.  She  first  bought  him  a  little  sailor  suit,  white 
shoes  and  a  hat;  then,  on  a  Sunday  morning,  invited  him 
to  visit  her,  saying  that  his  mother  had  consented.  She 
took  him  to  her  house,  changed  him  into  the  new  clothes 
and  then — in  a  carriage  pulled  by  Uvo  horses — took  him 
to  church.  How  his  mother  discovered  what  had  happened 
is  not  told;  but  she  followed  them  to  the  church,  and, 
just  as  they  were  entering  the  sacristy,  she  struggled  to  get 
the  boy  back.  The  neighbor  and  her  son,  holding  Isnard 


tightly  by  his  hands,  would  not  give  him  up.  The  priest, 
angry  at  such  a  scene,  excommunicated  Isnard's  mother 
then  and  there,  and  baptized  the  boy. 

Isnard  Rocha's  own  father  became  manager  of  a  factory 
employing  about  100  persons;  and  when  the  lad  finished 
third  grade,  he  began  working  there,  but  also  attending 
school.  In  the  meantime  a  Methodist  church  had  been 
started  in  Santo  Amaro.  Isnard  attended,  and  at  sixteen 
made  his  profession  of  faith.  At  his  side,  among  others, 
stood  the  godfather  who  had  sponsored  his  baptism  in  the 
Catholic  church. 

Isnard  continued  studying,  passed  the  preparatory  ex- 
aminations, and  in  1928  entered  Gbanbery  Instituto. 
There  he  spent  eight  years,  completing  both  the  course  in 
the  humanities  and  the  theological  course.  He  was  plan- 
ning to  study  for  a  doctorate  in  theology  when  the  bishop 
urged  him  to  postpone  his  studies  and  enter  the  ministry 
on  trial.  One  year  before  graduation  on  Jan.  25,  1937, 
he  married  Esmeralda  Barros,  also  a  student  at  Granbery. 
Isnard  was  ordained  deacon  in  1938,  and  elder  in  1939, 
by  Bishop  Dacobso.  Throughout  the  years  since  then  he 
has  served  in  many  charges,  both  small  and  large,  in  the 
states  of  Sao  Paulo  and  Minas  Gerais,  including  six  years 
as  pastor  of  Central  Church,  Sao  Paulo,  the  largest  in 
Brazilian  Methodism.  He  has  been  a  district  superinten- 
dent; director  of  youth  work  in  Silo  Paulo;  regional  secre- 
tary of  Christian  education  for  tsvelve  years;  editor  of 
Cruz  dc  Malta,  the  youth  magazine,  and  of  the  Expositor 
Cristdo,  the  official  weekly.  In  Febnuiry  1963,  he  was 
elected  Reitor  (dean)  of  the  theological  seminary  in 
Rudge  Ramos  and  served  two  years.  Then  he  became 
pastor  of  Vila  Mariana  parish,  which  comprises  three 
churches,  in  the  suburb  by  that  name  in  Sao  Paulo. 

During  the  past  three  years,  the  Methodist  Press  has 
published  two  historical  books  written  by  him  in  connec- 
tion with  the  centennial  of  Brazilian  Methodism.  His  wife, 
Esmeralda,  has  always  been  a  leader  in  church  work,  and 
organist,  choir  director  and  president  of  the  Methodist 
Women's  Societies  in  that  conference.  She  is  presently 
secretary  to  an  evangelical  congressman  in  the  state 
legislature  of  Sao  Paulo. 

They  have  three  children,  two  sons,  and  a  daughter, 
Isis,  married  to  a  young  Methodist  preacher,  Jose  Alaby, 
studying  at  Emory  School  of  Theology.  ( 1969) 

EuLA  K.  Long 

ROCHESTER,  MINNESOTA,  U.S.A.,  Christ  Church  (for- 
merly First  Church)  is  the  modern  church  home  of  3,402 
Methodists.  An  outstanding  feature  of  the  church  building 
is  the  great  multicolored  slab  glass  window  portraying 
Christ,  the  Good  Shepherd. 

The  birthplace  of  .Methodism  in  Rochester  was  a  log 
schoolhouse  where  in  1857,  just  two  years  after  the  first 
settlers  arrived,  seven  persons  met  to  organize  a  Methodist 
church.  Later  that  year  the  first  Quarterly  Conference 
was  held.  Various  buildings  housed  the  church  ser\ices 
until  1864,  when  the  Methodists  erected  the  first  church 
in  Rochester.  The  plot  of  land  chosen  was  just  one  block 
from  the  world-renowned  Mayo  Clinic  vvhich  was  built 
some  years  later. 

Subsequently  two  other  frame  buildings  were  erected 
on  the  original  site,  and  in  1915  a  fine  brick  structure  was 
dedicated.  In  1950  it  became  evident  that  due  to  the  ever- 
increasing  size  of  the  congregation  and  the  crowded  con- 
ditions in  the  church  school,  a  building  program  was  again 


ROCHESTER,    NEW   YORK 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


indicated.  After  much  study  a  site  six  blocks  south  of  the 
original  plot  was  chosen,  as  it  was  still  near  enough  to  the 
Medical  Center  to  allow  the  church  to  continue  its  min- 
istry there. 

Although  a  small  city,  Rochester,  due  to  the  Medical 
Center  and  a  large  manufacturing  plant,  probably  has  as 
many  diverse  elements  in  its  populace  as  any  city  in  the 
country.  At  Christ  Church  a  large  membership  with  a 
wide  diversity  of  talented  interests,  education  and  train- 
ing, has  been  merged  so  effectively  that  a  vigorous  and 
active  congregation  has  emerged. 

Due  to  several  generous  donors  the  church  has  an  ex- 
ceptionally fine  organ,  and  the  Minister  of  Music  trains 
several  Bell  Choirs,  as  well  as  singing  choirs.  About  300 
children,  teenagers  and  adults  actively  participate  in  the 
music  program. 

Methodism  in  Rochester  has  had  serving  regular  hos- 
pital chaplains  and  a  parish  visitor.  The  chaplain  serving 
longest  was  John  Mettam  who  took  over  the  post  in  1937. 
In  1937  Mrs.  W.  I.  Kern  became  parish  visitor  and  has 
continued  in  that  capacity  until  the  present  time.  She 
makes  hundreds  of  family  visits  each  year. 

Among  the  ministers  who  have  labored  to  make  Christ 
Church  a  strong  Christian  force  in  the  Rochester  com- 
munity have  been:  Frank  Doran  (1896),  I.  B.  Wood 
(1914),  H.  G.  Leonard  (1920),  R.  J.  Rice  (1927),  and 
Olin  Jackson  (1949). 

Rochester  Methodist  Hospital  is  a  500-bed  general  hos- 
pital. The  hospital  is  affiliated  with  the  Mayo  Clinic  whose 
members  compose  its  medical  staff.  This  hospital  as  a 
Methodist  related  institution  was  started  Jan.  1,  1954, 
when  it  was  purchased  from  a  private  corporation.  Karl 
P.  Meister,  former  executive  secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Hospitals  and  Homes  of  The  Methodist  Church;  Ralph 
L.  Jester  of  Des  Moines,  la.,  then  a  member  of  the  Board; 
Judge  H.  A.  Blackmun  (now  a  Justice  of  the  U.  S.  Su- 
preme Court);  and  Bishop  D.  Stanley-  Coors  of  the 
Minnesota  Conference  were  the  persons  primarily  re- 
sponsible for  the  establishing  of  this  organization  as  a  non- 
profit eleemosynary  institution.  The  Kresge  Foundation 
of  Detroit  made  funds  available  to  meet  certain  early 
financial  obligations.  The  hospital  is  fully  accredited  by 
the  Joint  Commission  on  Accreditation  of  Hospitals.  In 
any  given  year  patients  are  admitted  to  this  hospital  from 
almost  every  one  of  the  United  States  and  from  many 
foreign  countries. 

In  association  with  this  hospital  the  Board  of  Directors 
also  operates  a  fully  accredited  three-year  diploma  school 
of  nursing,  with  a  present  enrollment  of  215  students  and 
graduating  about  seventy-five  each  year. 

In  October  1966  a  new  571-bed  hospital  was  opened. 
The  hospital  is  so  constructed  that  four  future  floors 
(about  450  beds)  can  be  added  vertically.  Horizontal  ex- 
pansion of  the  lower  four  floors  is  also  possible. 

A  new  research  department  has  been  established  and 
will  be  responsible  for  the  investigation  under  controlled 
conditions  of  the  design,  arrangement,  location,  system 
and  order  of  various  hospital  facilities,  departments  and 
methods  which  will  improve  care  to  the  patient  and  help 
to  more  efficiently  utilize  personnel  at  all  levels. 

General  Minutes. 

A.  H.  Sanford,  The  Rochester  Methodist.  Published  by  the 
church,  1959,  Ethel  Gix-ens 

Harold  C.  Mickey 


ROCHESTER,  NEW  YORK,  U.S.A.  (population  293,695  in 
1970),  was  incorporated  as  a  village  in  1817  and  as  a  city 
in  1834.  The  first  Methodist  class  there  was  formed  in 
1817  and  First  Methodist  Church  was  organized  in  1820 
with  Orren  Miller  as  pastor.  A  brick  building,  occupied 
in  1825,  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1835.  A  new  church 
erected  at  once  housed  the  congregation  until  1855  when 
it  was  sold.  Another  edifice  built  at  that  time  served  until 
1901  when  the  congregation  once  again  constructed  a  new 
sanctuary. 

New  congregations  organized  prior  to  1860  drew  some 
members  from  First  Church.  Asbury  was  established  on 
the  east  side  of  the  Genesee  River  in  1836.  At  mid- 
century  a  layman  offered  $10,000  to  any  denomination 
that  would  build  ten  new  churches  in  the  growing  parts  of 
Rochester.  The  Methodists  persuaded  him  to  reduce  the 
number  to  four  and  soon  started  Corn  Hill,  Frank  Street, 
North  Street,  and  Alexander  Street  churches.  A  Gennan- 
language  church  was  established  in  1848.  The  denomina- 
tion had  six  churches  in  the  city  in  1876  with  a  total  of 
1,725  members.  In  1912  the  Italian  Methodists  occupied 
the  North  Street  Church.  Lakeview  Church  was  built  in 
1913,  Trinity  in  1916,  and  Seneca  in  1930.  Asbury  and 
First  Churches  merged  in   1934  to  form  Asbury-First. 

The  Free  Methodists  had  one  church  in  Rochester  in 
1876  and  two  in  1971.  Their  Roberts  Wesleyan  Col- 
lege, located  in  the  suburbs  of  Rochester,  had  665  stu- 
dents in  1970. 

The  Rochester  United  Methodist  Home  for  the  aging 
opened  in  1956  with  four  residents.  In  1971  it  had  about 
110  persons  in  residence  and  a  nursing  home  for  forty 
patients. 

In  1970,  The  United  Methodist  Church  reported  four- 
teen churches  in  greater  Rochester  with  a  total  of  8,000 
members,  property  valued  at  $7,450,232,  and  $716,851 
raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year. 

Asbury  First  Church  was  formed  in  1934  by  the  merger 
of  First  Church  and  Asbury  Church.  Both  were  old 
congregations,  the  one  having  been  established  in  1820 
and  the  other  in  1836.  The  First  Church  building  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  1933,  and  the  situation  prompted  the 


Asbury  Church,  Rochester,  New  York 


2038 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROCKEY,    NOBLE   LEE 


members  to  accept  Asbury's  invitation  to  unite.  At  the 
time  First  Church  had  approximately  800  members  to 
1,275  for  Asbury.  Some  ninety-five  percent  of  the  First 
Church  members  went  into  the  merger.  In  1934  the 
united  congregation  had  1,782  members. 

Weldon  F.  Crossland,  pastor  1932-58,  led  the  congrega- 
tion in  a  large  building  program,  beginning  in  1944.  In 
June,  1955,  the  new  sanctuary  with  a  seating  capacity  of 
1,000  was  dedicated.  An  education  building  was  added 
in  1961,  and  in  November,  1964,  the  entire  church  plant, 
then  valued  at  more  than  $2,000,000,  became  free  of  debt. 

A  memorial  plaque  from  the  former  Asbury  Church 
which  now  stands  in  the  education  wing  of  the  new  church 
shows  that  Clara  Barton  addressed  a  meeting  in  Asbury 
Church,  Oct.  1,  1881,  and  that  it  led  to  the  organization- 
of  the  Rochester-Monroe  County  Chapter  of  the  American 
National  Red  Cross,  the  second  such  chapter  to  be  formed 
in  America. 

In  1970,  Asbury  First  Church  reported  2,316  members, 
property  valued  at  $2,754,797,  and  $209,910  raised  for 
all  purposes  during  the  year. 

General  Minutes,  MEC,  MC,  and  UMC. 

E.  W.  Eanes,  Methodism  in  Rochester.  Rochester:  Univer- 
sity of  Rochester,  19.35. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  Edward  W.  Eanes 

Richard  J.   Davey 
Albea  Godbold 

ROCK  RIVER  CONFERENCE,  the  historic  name  of  what  is 
today  the  Northern  Illinois  Conference. 

ROCKEY,  CLEMENT  DANIEL  (1889-  ),  bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Church  of  the  Central  Conference  of  Southern 
Asia,  was  born  in  Cawnpore,  India,  Sept.  4,  1889,  the 
son  of  Rev.  and  Mrs.  Noble  Lee  Rockey.  On  Dec.  27, 
1922  he  married  Helen  Mary  Cady,  born  in  Chentu, 
China,  daughter  of  Rev.  and  Mrs.  H.  Olin  Cady,  mis- 
sionaries in  China.  His  degrees  are:  A.B.,  Ohio  Wesleyan 
University,  1909,  and  honorary  D.D.,  1948;  B.D.,  Drew 
Theological  Seminary,  1912;  M.A.,  Northwestern 
University,  1921;  Ph.D.,  Divinity  School  of  University  of 
Chicago,  1929. 

He  joined  the  North  India  Conference  in  January 
1914.  His  appointments  included:  Bareilly  Theological 
Seminary,  professor  of  Bible,  eight  years,  principal  and 
professor,  six  years;  district  superintendent,  Bareilly, 
two  years;  Moradabad,  four  years;  Kumaon,  one  year; 
Budaon,  one  year  while  principal  of  the  Seminary;  one 
year  as  pastor  in  Bareilly  and  Naini  Tal  for  English  ser- 
vices; services  for  non-conformists  of  the  British  troops 
stationed  in  Bareilly,  over  a  ten-year  period. 

While  living  in  Bareilly,  Moradabad  and  Almora 
(Kumaon),  he  was  manager  of  the  local  Methodist  Boys' 
Middle  or  High  School.  During  his  first  ten  years  of  ser- 
vice he  prepared  Sunday  school  lesson  notes  in  English, 
and  in  Urdu.  He  was  one  of  the  five-member  committee 
for  the  Revision  of  the  Urdu  Old  Testament,  printed  in 
1930  in  England,  and  now  the  translation  in  use.  He 
was  North  India  Conference  delegate  to  General  Con- 
ferences of  1920,  1928,  1932,  1940. 

He  was  elected  bishop  Jan.  1,  1941  by  the  Central 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Southern  Asia, 
meeting  in  Delhi.  He  served  the  Lucknow  Area,  1941- 
56;  Burma  Conference  for  1941,  after  World  War  Two  for 
1940-50;  and  Indus  River  Conference,  Pakistan,  1953-56. 


He  was  retired  by  the  Central  Conference  in  session  at 
Lucknow  in  November  1956,  having  come  to  the  age  of 
retirement.  On  the  request  of  the  Conference  in  West  Pak- 
istan he  was  appointed  by  the  Council  of  Bishops  to 
serve  as  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  West  Pakistan, 
December  1956  through  September  1964.  He  moved  from 
Lucknow,  to  Lahore,  West  Pakistan,  in  January  1957,  and 
left  for  retirement  in  the  United  States  on  Oct.  1,  1964. 
When  The  Upper  Room  could  not  get  to  India  for 
three  years,  1944-46,  Bishop  Rockey  prepared  devotional 
readings  in  English  and  in  Urdu  for  use  in  India.  In 
1950  he  prepared  a  translation  of  about  twenty  hymns  in 
the  Git  ki  Kitab  (Song  Book)  in  Urdu.  During  the  eight 
years  spent  in  Pakistan  he  helped  in  perfecting  the  trans- 
lation into  Urdu  of  some  books  prepared  by  the  India 
Sunday  School  Union.  These  were  published  in  English 
for  use  in  India  and  permission  was  given  to  Pakistan  to 
translate  and  make  available  in  Urdu.  He  always  preferred 
to  preach  in  Urdu.  He  and  his  wife  arrived  in  the  United 
States  in  January  1965,  and  have  retired  in  Eugene,  Ore. 

Who's  Who  in  The  Methodist  Church,  1966.  N.  B.  H. 

ROCKEY,  NOBLE  LEE  (1857-1924),  was  born  in  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  June  7,  1857.  Inflammatory  rheumatism  kept 
him  crippled  from  his  tenth  to  his  twentieth  year,  but  he 
finished  the  local  school,  and  then  taught  a  country  school 
for  three  years.  He  worked  his  way  through  Ohio  Wes- 
leyan University  and  graduated  in  1884.  He  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Colorado  Conference  and  at  once  trans- 
ferred to  the  North  India  Conference.  He  arrived  in 
Bombay  in  December  1884,  with  his  bride  of  three 
months,  Mary  Hadsell. 

He  was  stationed  first  at  Bijnor  and  then  at  Kanpur 
Memorial  School.  After  that  came  appointments  as  dis- 
trict superintendent  in  Shahjahanpur,  Dwarahat,  Bareil- 
ly, and  Gonda.  He  went  to  Gonda  in  1907  and  gave  that 
district  eight  years  of  consecutive  administration.  He  had 
had  much  experience  in  evangelistic  work.  He  was  a  versa- 
tile man  and  a  tireless  worker,  exacting  more  from  himself 
than  he  did  from  anyone  else.  He  looked  well  to  the  prop- 
erty interests,  and  made  himself  acquainted  with  every 
person  with  whom  he  worked.  His  teaching  spirit  found 
scope  in  his  summer  schools  and  district  conferences.  His 
special  interest  in  gardening  made  the  mission  compound 
yield  new  fruits,  especially  papayas. 

For  twenty-eight  years  he  edited  the  widely  read  Chil- 
dren's Friend  in  both  Urdu  and  Hindi.  In  conferring  upon 
him  the  D.D.  degiee.  Bishop  Herbert  Welch  made 
special  mention  of  the  quality  and  quantity  of  Rockey's 
literary  output,  as  well  as  his  scholarly  attainments.  He 
sent  out  a  constant  stream  of  tracts  in  Hindustani  and 
English.  With  his  love  of  music  he  was  a  popular  leader 
of  congregational  singing,  and  as  a  preacher  he  grew 
throughout  his  ministry.  He  was  a  much  loved  friend, 
especially  by  children. 

He  died  in  Bareilly  on  June  19,  1924.  It  was  a  joy  to 
the  parents  that  their  son,  Clement,  and  daughter,  Lois, 
returned  to  India  as  missionaries  and  served  for  many 
years. 

B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 

Minutes  of  the  North  India  Conference,  1924. 

John  N.  Hollister 


2039 


ROCKFORD,    ILLINOIS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


ROCKFORD,  ILLINOIS,  U.S.A.  In  1834  the  first  settlers 
came  into  northern  Illinois  from  Galena,  to  find  a  site  for 
farm  land  and  a  town  which  would  lie  approximately  half 
way  between  Galena  and  Chic.\go.  A  spot  on  the  Rock 
River  was  chosen  which  was  later  to  become  Rockford. 
In  1835  a  few  settlers  came  to  establish  this  community. 

Tlie  Methodist  Church  was  the  first  to  begin  work  in 
the  territory.  In  July  of  1836  William  Royal  preached  in  a 
home  of  one  of  the  settlers.  Royal  made  several  visits  to 
the  community  that  summer,  and  on  Sept.  2,  1836, 
preached  at  Samuel  Gregory's  log  house.  At  the  close  of 
the  service  he  organized  the  first  Methodist  class  with 
five  members. 

Methodism  grew  as  the  settlement  flouri,shed.  In  1838 
the  first  quarterly  meeting  was  held  in  Rockford.  The 
Rock  River  Conference  was  organized  on  Aug.  26, 
1840,  at  Mount  Morris,  111.,  with  the  meetings  being  held 
in  tents  in  a  grove.  In  1841  the  Methodist.s  had  their  first 
church  home  in  Rockford.  At  the  conference  in  Dubucjue, 
la.,  in  1843,  Rockford  was  made  a  station. 

In  1848  the  church  site  was  moved  and  a  new  First 
M.E.  Church  was  built  at  a  cost  of  $7,000.  By  1850  the 
congregation  had  outgrowni  the  building  and  the  pastor 
suggested  foimation  of  a  second  church  on  the  west  side 
of  the  river,  Rock  River,  from  which  Rockford  and  the 
Rock  River  Conference  get  their  names,  runs  right  through 
the  middle  of  the  city  of  Rockford.  In  1851  the  Methodists 
on  the  west  side  of  the  river  began  holding  their  services 
in  the  home  of  one  of  their  members.  On  Jan.  1,  1852, 
the  group  which  was  known  at  first  as  the  Second  M.E. 
Church,  held  an  organizational  meeting  in  the  First  M.E. 
Church,  and  the  following  year  began  work  on  a  new 
building  on  Court  Street.  They  subsequently  became 
known  as  the  Court  Street  M.E.  Church.  In  September  of 
1853  the  Conference  redistricted  the  work  and  then 
formed  the  Rockford  District. 

For  a  long  time  there  had  been  much  dissatisfaction 
in  the  First  M.E.  Church  over  the  matter  of  Pew  Rentals. 
The  best  solution  seemed  to  be  to  divide  the  congregation. 
Eighty  of  the  members  moved  out  and  organized  the 
Third  Street  Church  on  Jan.  9,  1858.  This  division,  how- 
ever, was  not  a  happy  one.  So,  eighteen  years  later  on 
May  18,  1876,  the  two  congregations  reunited.  At  re- 
union it  seemed  appropriate  and  desirable  for  the  reunited 
church  to  take  a  new  name.  The  name  "Centennial,"  in 
honor  of  the  national  centennial  year  of  the  nation  which 
was  then  being  celebrated,  was  selected.  Centennial 
Church  therefore  is  the  mother  church  of  Methodism  not 
only  in  Rockford  but  for  all  northern  Illinois. 

There  are  presently  fourteen  Methodist  churches  in 
Rockford  with  a  membership  of  9,282.  Rockford  is  an 
industrial  city  surrounded  by  rich  farm  land  with  a  present 
population  of  144,707. 

Court  Street  Church  is  the  historic  downtown  church 
of  Rockford,  and  is  the  second  oldest  Methodist  church 
in  the  city.  It  was  organized  in  January  1852,  and  was 
then  called  the  Second  M.E.  Church.  The  first  structure 
in  which  the  new  church  was  housed  was  located  on  tlie 
west  side  of  Court  Street,  a  half  block  south  of  the  present 
location,  and  was  dedicated  in  November  1854. 

The  present  site  on  the  corner  of  Mulberry  and  Court 
Streets  was  purchased  on  Sept.  5,  1883.  On  Aug.  11, 
1884,  a  new  building  was  started  and  was  finally  com- 
pleted in  the  Spring  of  1887.  In  1911  two  lots  adjoining 
the  church  property  to  the  north  were  purchased,  and  a 
new    unit   known    as    the    Institutional    and    Educational 


Huilding  was  begun.  The  new  unit  was  dedicated  on 
April  22,  1917.  In  1927-29  the  entire  chancel  was  remod- 
eled, and  the  church  was  dedicated  by  Bishop  Edwin 
Holt  Hughes. 

In  1960  plans  were  made  for  a  new  chapel  to  seat  300 
and  a  three-story  educational  building.  This  new  structure 
was  in  time  consecrated  by  Bishop  Charles  Wesley 
Brashares. 

The  Court  Street  Church  has  2,891  members.  It  sup- 
ports two  missionaries  in  foreign  fields,  one  in  Africa  and 
one  in  India.  It  has  sent  many  young  men  into  the  min- 
istry, two  of  whom  now  serve  in  the  Northern  Illinois 
Conference.  One  of  the  distinctive  phases  of  the  program 
of  the  Court  Street  Church  has  always  been  its  musical 
program.  Over  300  voices  comprise  the  si,\  choirs  which 
normally  sing  for  its  various  services. 

On  March  18,  1969  the  church  sanctuary  was  burned 
almost  completely,  a  confessed  arsonist  being  arrested 
later  and  sentenced  for  this  criminal  act.  The  congregation 
meeting  in  the  burned  out  shell  of  their  church  on  Easter 
Sunday  about  three  weeks  after  the  fire  made  plans  to  re- 
build, and  the  new  sanctuary  was  occupied  late  in  1970. 
All  the  carved  ornamentation  in  the  former  building  was 
duplicated  and  the  new  building  is  as  close  a  reproduc- 
tion of  the  old  (including  the  stained  glass  windows)  as 
is  possible.  The  total  cost  of  rebuilding  was  a  million 
and  a  half  dollars. 


General  Minutes. 


Harold   McElvany 


ROCKVILLE,  MARYLAND,  U.S.A.,  the  county  seat  of 
Montgomery  County  in  that  state,  nine  miles  north  of  the 
District  of  Columbia  line  and  today  practically  a  part  of 
Washington  city,  is  a  growing  area  where  Methodism  has 
been  entrenched  for  a  long  time.  The  Montgomery  Circuit 
came  into  being  back  around  1788  and  was  one  of  the 
circuits  in  the  original  Baltimore  Conference.  Wash- 
ington, the  nation's  capital,  was  then  but  a  small  village 
itself,  and  Baltimore  up  imtil  well  into  the  twentieth 
century  was  always  the  dominant  metropolitan  influence 
over  most  of  M.'^ryland  and  certainly  in  Montgomery 
County.  Hungerford  Tavern  seems  to  have  been  the  orig- 
inal stopping  place  at  what  is  now  Rockville. 

In  1844  the  Rockville  Circuit  was  taken  from  the  Mont- 
gomery Circuit  and  made  an  entity  of  its  own,  and  at  the 
epochal  division  of  the  M.E.  Church  which  came  that 
very  year,  the  Rockville  circuit  adhered  strongly  to  the 
South.  Visitors  today  marvel  at  finding  the  statue  of  a 
Confederate  soldier  across  from  the  court  house  nine 
miles  north  of  Washington  city  itself. 

Losing  the  church  building  in  a  lawsuit  by  which  the 
.M.E.  Church  was  given  title  to  the  property,  four  southern 
men  of  prominence  in  Rockville,  two  of  them  being  E.  E. 
Stonestreet  and  Elijah  Barrett  Prettyman,  built  the  church 
now  there,  its  adherence  being  of  course  to  the  M.E. 
Church,  South. 

The  church  has  grown  through  the  years  with  recent 
modern  enlargements  and  improvements,  and  in  1969 
celebrated  its  125  years  of  Christian  sei-vice  with  Bishop 
Nolan  B.  Harmon,  a  former  pastor,  back  for  the  anni- 
versary seimon.  The  church  is  in  the  Washington  West 
District  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  (UMC)  and  with 
1,723  members  continues  to  grow.  Other  churches  in 
Rockville  are  Faith,  St.  Marks,  and  the  Millian  Memorial. 

Millian  Memorial,  begun  in  March  1952,  has  experi- 
enced a  phenomenal  growth  from  forty-three  charter  mem- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROCKY   MOUNTAIN    CONFERENCE 


bers  to  2,435  by  1970.  Located  in  a  rapidly  developing 
suburb  of  Washington,  D.C.,  with  a  rather  transient  popu- 
lation, more  than  3,300  members  were  recorded  in  its  first 
sixteen  years,  about  1,000  transferring  memberships  upon 
moving  from  the  area. 

Early  in  1952,  John  Curry  MiHian,  an  alert,  capable 
religious  leader  and  then  district  superintendent  in  the 
Washington  area,  motored  along  Viers  Mill  Road  between 
Wheaton  and  RockvOle,  Md.  At  the  halfway  point  he 
passed  Viers  Mill  Village,  a  new  community  with  a  small 
shopping  center  and  movie  theater.  The  only  other  occu- 
pied homes  he  could  see  for  two  miles  on  either  side  were 
those  in  the  first  section  of  neighboring  Wheaton  Woods. 
As  he  was,  among  other  duties,  responsible  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  mission  churches  in  new  communities,  he  con- 
sidered the  details  of  forming  a  new  church  in  this  locality. 
He  began  one  in  a  short  time  by  scheduling  services  in  the 
Viers  Mill  Theater.  Harold  Bell  Wright,  with  over  ten 
years  experience  as  a  parish  minister  and  Army  chaplain, 
had  just  returned  from  Kore.\  and  was  available  for  ap- 
pointment, and  he  was  made  its  pastor.  The  Methodist 
Union  of  Washington  and  the  Baltimore  Conference  Board 
of  Missions  and  Church  Extension  both  pledged  support. 

On  March  2,  1952,  twenty  persons  responded  to  the 
handbill  announcement  and  attended  the  first  worship 
service  held  in  the  Viers  Mill  Theater.  By  May  18,  1952, 
forty-three  persons  were  recorded  as  charter  members. 
Through  cooperation  of  neighboring  Methodist  churches, 
much  necessary  furniture  and  equipment  was  donated  or 
loaned.  As  more  and  more  families  came,  classes  were 
dispersed  throughout  the  theater  building.  Class  areas 
became  known  as  Alphabet  Room  (where  marquee  letters 
were  kept),  the  Pit  (way  down  front),  the  Terrazzo  Room 
(outer  lobby),  the  Alley  (hall  back  of  projection  booth), 
and  the  Teen  Club  (manager's  office).  Nearby  records 
were  efficiently  kept  by  the  secretary  in  his  "office"  at  the 
popcorn  stand. 

In  June  1954  Merrill  W.  Drennan  was  appointed  pastor. 
Under  his  leadership  the  growth  of  MilUan  Church  kept 
pace  with  the  rapid  development  of  tlie  suburban  com- 
munity. The  church  school  moved  to  the  new  Wheaton 
Woods  Elementary  School  in  September  1954.  On  land 
donated  by  the  developer  of  Wheaton  Woods,  the  first  unit 
of  Millian  Church,  which  was  a  chapel  seating  250  and 
a  social  hall,  was  built  in  1955  and  consecrated  on  Novem- 
ber 27  of  that  year  by  Bishop  G.  Bromley  Oxnam.  An 
educational  building  was  completed  in  February  1959, 
to  accommodate  the  church  school  with  two  complete 
sessions  each  Sunday  morning. 

Three  crowded  worship  services  in  the  chapel  each 
Sunday  made  it  apparent  that  a  larger  sanctuary  was  es- 
sential. This  was  completed  in  1964  and  consecrated  on 
Dec.  9,  1964,  by  Bishop  John  Wesley  Lord. 

In  June  1965,  Carroll  A.  Doggett,  Jr.  succeeded  Dren- 
nan as  pastor,  and  soon  an  educational  assistant  was  added 
to  the  professional  staff  to  give  better  coordination  to  a 
more  comprehensive  educational  program.  With  building 
completed  for  the  foreseeable  future  the  congregation  has 
been  able  to  shift  increased  emphasis  to  its  ministry  with 
persons.  This  entire  section  of  Maryland  just  north  of  the 
Capital  city  continues  to  grow  as  does  Millian  Memorial 
itself. 


General  Minutes. 


N.B.H. 
Carroll  A.  Doggett,  Jr. 


ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  COLLEGE,  Billings,  Montana,  is  an 

interdenominational  college  under  the  sponsorship  of  the 
Methodist  and  Presbyterian  churches  and  the  United 
Church  of  Christ.  The  College  of  Montana  (1878)  and 
Montana  Wesleyan  (1889)  merged  in  1923  to  form  Inter- 
mountain  Union  College.  After  the  partial  destruction  of 
its  buildings  in  the  earthquakes  of  1935-36,  this  institu- 
tion moved  from  Helena  to  the  campus  of  Billings  Poly- 
technic Institute,  Billings,  Montana,  founded  in  1903  with 
some  connections  to  the  Congregational  Church.  In  1947 
these  two  institutions  merged  to  form  Rocky  Mountain 
College. 

Through  its  heritage  it  is  the  oldest  institution  of  higher 
learning  in  the  State  of  Montana,  going  back  to  the  ear- 
liest movements  for  higher  education  in  the  Territory  of 
Montana.  It  is  the  only  Protestant  senior  college  in  the 
state.  It  offers  the  B.A.  and  B.S.  degrees.  The  governing 
board  of  twenty-four  members  has  six  elected  by  the  three 
supporting  denominations  (Methodist,  Presbyterian, 
United  Church  of  Christ),  the  balance  at  large  by  the 
board. 

John  O.  Gross 

ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  CONFERENCE  was  first  organized  on 
July  10,  1863  when  eleven  preachers,  representing  eight 
charges  and  241  church  members,  gathered  in  Denver 
City,  Colorado  Territory,  under  the  leadership  of  Bishop 
Edward  R.  Ames.  At  the  time  the  conference  boundaries 
included  only  Colorado. 

After  one  year  the  name  of  the  body  was  changed  to 
the  Colorado  Conference,  and  it  so  continued  until  1957 
when  it  reverted  to  the  original  appellation.  In  the  mean- 
while, from  1872  to  1876,  there  was  another  Rocky  Moun- 
tain Conference  which  had  no  relationship  whatever  to 
Colorado.  It  included  the  Territories  of  Utah,  Idaho, 
Montana,  and  the  western  portion  of  Wyoming  Terri- 
tory. After  its  brief  four-year  existence,  that  Rocky  Moun- 
tain Conference  was  divided  to  form  the  Montana  and 
Utah  Conferences. 

On  two  occasions  the  territory  of  the  Colorado  Con- 
ference was  enlarged.  In  1948  the  Utah  Mission  was  dis- 
solved and  the  Utah  churches  and  those  in  White  Pine 
County,  Nevada,  became  the  Salt  Lake  District,  later 
the  Utah- Western  Colorado  District,  of  the  Colorado  Con- 
ference. The  General  Conference  of  1956  authorized 
the  Wyoming  State  Conference  to  merge  with  an  adjacent 
conference.  As  a  result  the  Wyoming  work  became  the 
Wyoming  District  in  the  Colorado  Conference.  The  new 
and  enlarged  body  has  since  been  called  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain Conference. 

On  t\vo  occasions  the  new  Rocky  Mountain  Conference 
has  taken  in  a  few  churches  without  enlarging  its  geo- 
graphical boundaries.  In  1963  the  pastors  and  members 
of  three  Central  West  Conference  churches.  Central 
Jurisdiction,  in  Colorado  were  welcomed  into  the  white 
conference.  In  1964  the  Simpson  Methodist  Church  in 
Denver,  a  Japanese  language  congregation,  with  its  two 
ministers,  was  incorporated  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  Con- 
ference, because  in  that  year  the  Japanese  Provisional 
Conference  was  absorbed  by  the  English-speaking  Con- 
ferences of  the  Western  Jurisdiction. 

When  first  organized  in  1863,  the  Rocky  Mountain  Con- 
ference though  small  proposed  at  once  to  start  two  insti- 
tutions of  higher  learning,  but  only  one,  the  Colorado 
Seminary  which  was   the  forerumier  of  the   University 


ROCKY   MOUNTAIN   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


OF  Denver,  actually  developed.  Today  Denver  is  one  of 
the  eight  universities  of  The  United  Methodist  Church. 

In  1892,  the  Iliff  School  of  Theology  was  estab- 
lished at  Denver  to  serve  Methodism  in  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain region.  It  was  made  possible  by  a  gift  by  William 
Seward  Iliff,  a  layman  who  was  a  leader  in  the  political 
and  economic  development  of  the  west. 

In  1970,  the  Rocky  Mountain  Conference  reported  405 
ministers,  227  pastoral  charges,  109,651  members,  and 
churches,  parsonages  and  other  property  valued  at  $50,- 
469,463. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 
Journals  of  the  Colorado  and  Rocky  Mountain  Conferences. 
K.  E.  Metcalf,  Beginnings  of  Methodism  in  Colorado.  1948. 
An  unpublished  Th.D.  dissertation  in  lUff  School  of  Theology 
Library.  Walter    J.    Boicecrain 

ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  CONFERENCE  (1872-1876).  (See 
Utah.) 

ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  CONFERENCE  (EUB)  was  founded 
in  1951  and  included  one  congregation  in  Wyoming  in 
addition  to  churches  in  Colorado  and  New  Mexico.  The 
conference  goes  back  to  Oct.  19,  1869,  when  St.  Clair 
Ross  and  his  wife  arrived  in  Denver,  Colo.,  looking  for- 
ward to  the  establishing  of  a  preaching  appointment  for 
the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ.  From 
Denver,  they  journeyed  north  or  "down  the  Platte"  to  a 
village  then  known  as  Island  Station,  later  known  as  Hen- 
derson, Colo.  Here,  in  1871,  the  first  United  Brethren 
Church  building  was  erected  and  was  dedicated  on 
Jan.  21.  1872. 

Under  the  authorization  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of 
the  United  Brethren  Church,  the  work  in  Colorado  was 
organized  into  a  mission  conference,  April  15,  1872,  by 
Bishop  John  Dickson.  Three  men  who  had  brought  their 
credentials  with  them  made  up  the  membership  of  this 
first  Conference;  they  were  St.  Clair  Ross,  A.  Hartzell, 
and  W.  H.  McCormick.  Shortly  thereafter,  the  names  of 
E.  J.  Lamb  and  L.  S.  Cornell  were  added  to  the  hst. 

During  this  same  period,  the  Evangelical  Association 
was  developing  work  in  the  states  of  Kansas  and  Nebras- 
ka and  establishing  work  in  Colorado.  In  1885,  a  local 
preacher  of  the  Kansas  Conference  attempted  to  organize 
a  mission  among  the  English-speaking  people  of  the  area 
of  South  Pueblo,  Colo.;  but  this  ministry  failed  for  lack 
of  interest  in  English  services.  In  the  year  1902,  the 
Kansas  Conference  again  tried  to  take  up  work  in  Colo- 
rado which  resulted  in  the  establishing  of  two  missions, 
one  in  Ordway  and  the  other  in  Colorado  Springs. 

About  the  same  time,  the  Nebraska  Conference  of  the 
Evangelical  Association  looked  toward  Colorado  as  a  mis- 
sion field  and  in  1887  established  a  mission  in  the  vicinity 
of  Yuma  and  Northeastern  Colorado.  Later,  congregations 
were  organized  in  Sterling,  Denver,  and  Loveland. 

Encouraged  by  the  opening  of  new  lands  for  home- 
steaders, the  United  Brethren  Church  organized  a  North 
Texas  Mission  Conference  on  Nov.  5,  1908,  with  small 
groups  in  north  Texas,  the  "Strip"  in  Oklahoma,  and 
New  Mexico.  This  Conference  finally  became  the  New 
Mexico  Mission  Conference  on  Sept.  5,  1914;  but  the 
churches  in  the  "Strip"  in  Oklahoma  were  transferred  to 
the  Oklahoma  Conference  and  the  churches  in  Texas  went 
out  of  existence.  In  the  development  of  this  Conference 


a  special  interest  was  being  given  to  the  Spanish-speaking 
population. 

On  June  2,  1920,  the  congregations  organized  by  the 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  Conferences  of  the  Evangelical  As- 
sociation in  Colorado  were  constituted  as  the  churches  of 
the  newly  organized  Colorado  Conference  of  the  Evangel- 
ical Association  (The  Evangelical  Church,  following 
the  merger  of  the  Evangelical  Association  with  the  United 
Evangelical  Church  in  1922). 

On  Aug.  22,  1929,  the  Colorado  Mission  Conference 
and  the  New  Mexico  Mission  Conference  of  the  United 
Brethren  Church  were  formally  organized  as  the  Colorado- 
New  Mexico  Conference  of  that  church. 

Following  the  merger  of  The  Evangelical  Church  and 
the  Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  in  Johns- 
town, Pa.,  on  Nov.  16,  1946,  the  Colorado  Conference 
(Ev)  and  the  Colorado-New  Mexico  Conference  (UB), 
were  merged  in  May  1951  as  the  Rocky  Mountain  Con- 
ference of  The  Evangelical  United  Brethren  Church. 
This  conference  united  in  1969  with  the  conference  of 
the  same  name  in  the  former  Methodist  Church  to  form 
the  Rocky  Mountain  Conference.  At  the  same  time  the 
New  Mexico  congregations  joined  the  New  Mexico  Con- 
ference in  the  South  Central  Jurisdiction  of  The 
United  Methodist  Church. 

Harold  H.  Maxwell 

RODDA,  MARTIN  (dates  unknown),  British  Methodist, 
eldest  brother  of  Richard  Rodda,  was  accepted  as  an 
itinerant  preacher  by  John  Wesley  in  1763,  but  resigned 
in  1766  because  of  difficulties  with  a  Welsh  Methodist. 
He  returned  to  the  itinerancy  in  1768,  and  in  1773  was 
stationed  in  East  Cornwall  under  James  Dempster,  whom 
he  accompanied  to  America  in  1774.  Rodda's  strong 
loyalty  to  the  British  Crown  caused  trouble  both  for  him- 
self and  for  American  Methodists  in  general,  and  he 
escaped  with  difficulty  to  England.  After  serving  in  three 
more  Enghsh  circuits  (the  last  once  more  in  his  native 
Cornwall),  in  1781  he  retired  permanently  from  the 
itinerancy. 

E.  S.  Bucke,  History  of  American  Methodism.  1964. 

T.    Jackson,     Lives    of    Early    Methodist    Preachers.     187L 

Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Conferences,  1862.      Frank  Baker 

RODDA,  RICHARD  (1743-1815),  British  Methodist,  was 
bom  at  Sancreed,  Cornwall,  and  converted  at  the  age  of 
thirteen.  While  working  in  the  tin  mines,  he  had  several 
providential  escapes.  In  1769  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Glamorganshire  Circuit  and  later  was  stationed  several 
times  in  Wales  and  Cornwall.  He  was  a  pioneer  of  Sunday 
school  work  in  Chester  and  one  of  the  signatories  of  the 
Halifax  Circular  in  1791.  In  1802  he  settled  in  London. 

John  A.  Vickers 

RODRIGUEZ  BORGES,  ARMANDO  ANDRES  (1929- 
) ,  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Cuba,  was  bom 
in  Yaguaramas,  Las  Villas,  Cuba,  Nov.  30,  1929.  His  par- 
ents were  Manuel  Rodriguez  and  Ehsa  Borges.  His  early 
education  was  in  his  home  tov^Ti,  but  he  later  studied  law 
and  graduated  from  the  University  of  Habana  in  1954.  He 
entered  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  Matanzas 
graduating  in   1957.   In   1956  he  married   Alida  Barrios, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROGERS,   HESTER   ANN   ROE 


Ind.  He  died  Dec.  18,  1955,  and  his  body  rests  in  Oak- 
wood  Cemetery,  Warsaw,  Ind. 


Who  Was  Who  in  America,  Vol.  3. 


J.  Marvin  Rast 


Armando  Rodriquez 

and  to  them  were  born  five  children,  Alida,  Elisa,  Dorcas, 
Armando,  and  Otoniel.  His  ministry  in  the  pastorate 
covered  five  different  pastoral  charges.  Twice  he  was 
district  superintendent  serving  the  Oriente  and  Habana 
Districts.  After  the  death  of  Angel  Fuster  he  became  the 
administrative  assistant  of  Bishop  James  W.  Henley. 
When  Cuba  was  granted  the  status  of  an  indigenous 
church,  he  was  elected  the  first  active  bishop  (Angel 
Fuster  having  been  elected  posthumously).  He  was  con- 
secrated to  the  office  by  Bishop  Alejandro  Ruiz  of 
Mexico,  Feb.  11,  1968. 

Garfield  Evans 

RODEHEAVER,  HOMER  ALVAN  (1880-1955),  noted 
American  gospel  singer,  was  born  in  Union  Furnace,  Ohio, 
Oct.  4,  1880.  He  was  the  son  of  Thurman  Hall  and  Fanny 
(Armstrong)  Rodeheaver. 

He  was  for  awhile  a  student  in  Ohio  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity. Bob  Jones  College,  in  Tennessee,  awarded  him 
the  honoraiy  degree  of  Doctor  of  Sacred  Music  in  1942. 

He  became  widely  known  as  musical  director  with 
WiHiam  A.  ("Billy")  Sunday  in  his  evangelistic  campaigns, 
1901-31,  directing  choruses  in  most  of  the  leading  cities 
of  the  United  States,  and  he  made  a  tour  of  the  world 
with  Evangelist  W.  E.  Beiderwolf,  1923-24.  In  1936  he 
made  a  tour  of  mission  posts  in  the  Belgian  Congo. 

Rodeheaver  was  president  of  the  Rodeheaver  Hall-Mack 
Co.,  gospel  music  publishers,  Winona  Lake,  Ind.  He  was 
founder  of  Rodeheaver's  Boys  Ranch,  Inc.,  was  trombone 
player  with  the  Fourth  Tennessee  Regimental  Band  for 
four  months  in  Cuba  during  the  Spanish-American  War 
in  1898,  and  was  with  the  Y.M.C.A  in  France,  August- 
December,  1918. 

He  was  founder  and  promoter  of  the  Summer  School 
of  Sacred  Music,  Winona  Lake,  Ind.;  platform  manager 
for  large  assemblies;  conducted  community  song  programs 
on  National  Broadcasting  Company  and  Columbia  Broad- 
casting System  networks,  and  produced  religious  tran- 
scriptions. 

He  was  the  author  of:  Song  Stories  of  the  Sawdust 
Trail,  1917;  Twenty  Years  with  Billy  Sunday;  Singing 
Black;  also  various  gospel  songs  and  compilations. 

Homer  Rodeheaver  never  married.  He  was  a  lifelong 
Methodist.  His  residence  and  office  were  at  Winona  Lake, 


ROGERS,  HENRY  WADE  (1853-1926),  American  jurist, 
educator,  constitutional  lawyer,  and  chairman  of  the 
powerful  Committee  on  Judiciary  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  M.E.  Church  for  four  quadrennia.  He  was 
born  in  Holland  Patent,  N.  Y.,  on  Oct.  10,  1853.  At  an 
early  age  he  was  adopted  by  an  uncle  for  whom  he  was 
named.  He  received  an  A.B.  degree  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Michigan  in  1874,  its  A.M.  in  1877.  He  took  law 
at  Northwestern  University,  1876-77.  He  was  granted 
the  LL.D.  by  Wesleyan  University  in  Connecticut 
in  1890  and  by  Northwestern  University  in  1915.  He 
married  Emma  Ferdon  Winner  of  Pennington,  N.  J.,  on 
June  22,  1876.  Admitted  to  the  bar  in  1877,  he  came 
to  be  in  great  demand  for  his  lectures  upon  law  and 
jurisprudence,  and  was  appointed  U.S.  Circuit  Judge 
of  the  Second  Judicial  Circuit  in  September  1913. 

Judge  Rogers  had  served  before  that  time  as  the  chair- 
man of  the  World  Congress  on  Jurisprudence  and  Law 
Reform  at  the  Chicago  exposition  in  1893. 

The  Dictionary  of  American  Biography  states  that 
Rogers'  greatest  work  was  dean  of  the  Yale  School  of 
Law  at  Yale  University.  The  same  account  states  that 
"besides  the  law,  his  chief  interests  were  the  Democratic 
Party  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church." 

A  strong  Methodist,  he  was  a  lay  representative  from 
the  M.E.  Church  to  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  in  1894. 
Elected  to  his  own  General  Conference  and  serving 
on  the  Committee  of  Judiciary  in  1908,  1912,  1916,  and 
1920,  he  became  chairman  of  that  body,  and  the  decisions 
of  his  committee  were  always  adopted  by  the  Conference 
in  matters  of  ruling  law.  Judge  Rogers  also  served  on  the 
committee  to  treat  with  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  regard- 
ing church  union  in  the  quadrennium  between  1916  and 
1920.  He  was  chairman  of  the  American  Bar  Association's 
Committee  on  Legal  Education  and  Admission  to  the 
Bar  from  1906  to  1917.  He  wrote  Illinois  Citations,  1881; 
Expert  Testimony,  1883;  and  Introduction  to  Constitu- 
tional History  as  seen  in  American  Law,  1889.  For  the 
Church  he  wrote  the  introduction  to  the  reports  of  the 
Committee  on  Judiciary  of  the  General  Conference  of  the 
M.E.  Church  with  rulings  by  the  Board  of  Bishops,  which 
publication  was  compiled  under  the  authority  of  the  Gen- 
eral Conference.  His  introduction  to  these  reports  has 
been  invaluable  to  students  of  Methodist  Constitutional 
Law.  (See  Reports  of  the  Committee  on  Judiciary  of  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
by  Arthur  Benton  Sanford.  Introduction  by  Henry  Wade 
Rogers,  the  Methodist  Book  Concern,  New  York-Cincin- 
nati, 1924.) 

He  died  at  his  summer  house  at  Pennington,  N.  J.,  on 
Aug.  16,  1926. 

National    Cyclopedia    of    American    Biography.    New    York: 

James  T.  White  Co.,  1896. 

New  York  Times,  August  17,  1926. 

C.  F.  Price,  Who's  Who  in  American  Methodism,  1916. 

Who's  Who  in  America.  Vol.  14,  1926-27.  N.  B.  H. 

ROGERS,  HESTER  ANN  ROE  (1756-1794),  British  Meth- 
odist, only  daughter  of  the  Rev.  James  Roe  of  Maccles- 
field, was  born  on  Jan.  31,  1756.  Her  prejudices  against 


ROGERS,    JAMES 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Hester  Ann  Rogers 

Methodism  were  removed  through  the  influence  of  David 
Simpson,  the  Macclesfield  curate  after  her  father's  death. 
She  joined  the  society  in  spite  of  family  opposition  in 
1774.  The  strain  of  nursing  her  mother  in  1775  impaired 
her  health,  but  her  first  meeting  with  Wesley  in  1776 
encouraged  her  to  become  a  devoted  class  leader.  Hav- 
ing nursed  through  final  illness  the  first  wife  of  James 
Rogers,  one  of  Wesley's  preachers,  she  married  him  on 
Aug.  19,  1784.  She  was  with  him  during  the  Dublin 
revival  and  later  at  City  Road,  London,  where  they  wit- 
nessed Wesley's  death.  After  prolonged  suffering  endured 
with  cheerful  piety,  she  died  in  Birmingham  on  Oct. 
10,  1794,  following  the  birth  of  her  seventh  child. 

Besides  keeping  a  diary  from  the  time  of  her  becoming 
a  Methodist,  Mrs.  Rogers  engaged  in  extensive  correspon- 
dence about  religious  matters,  contributed  to  the  Arminian 
Magazine,  and  wrote  some  verse.  Her  Experience  (1793), 
an  autobiography  including  some  selections  from  her 
diary,  and  her  Spiritual  Letters  (1796)  were  combined 
with  her  Funeral  Sermon  by  Thomas  Coke  (1795)  and 
an  appendix  by  her  husband,  both  quoting  at  length  from 
her  diary,  to  form  a  small  volume  which  under  several 
titles  went  through  many  reprintings  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  until  early  in  the  twentieth  century.  A  further 
selection  from  her  diary,  under  the  title  The  Life  of 
Faith  Exemplified  (1818),  also  gained  considerable  cir- 
culation. 

The  Experience  and  Spiritual  Letters  of  Mrs.  Hester  Ann 
Rogers.  London,  1833. 

T.  Jackson,  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers.   1837-38. 

John  A.  Vickebs 

ROGERS,  JAMES  (1749-1807),  British  Methodist  itiner- 
ant, was  born  at  Marsk,  in  Yorkshire,  in  1749.  He  was 
justified  in  Whitby,  Yorkshire,  in  February  1769,  under 


the  influence  of  William  Ripley.  He  soon  began  to  preach, 
and  is  reckoned  as  commencing  his  itinerancy  in  1774. 
John  Wesley  had  a  high  opinion  of  him,  and  in  writing 
to  Arthur  Keene,  July  23,  1784,  described  him  as  "an 
Israelite  indeed"  (Letters,  vii,  p.  226).  He  married  Martha 
Knowlden  in  1778.  She  died,  however,  in  Macclesfield 
in  1782,  and  in  1784  he  married  Hester  Anne  Roe  (see 
Rogers,  Hester).  They  went  to  Dublin,  where  within  a 
year  Rogers  saw  130  conversions  and  an  increase  of  about 
200  in  the  society.  He  was  stationed  at  City  Road  Chapel 
after  John  Wesley's  death.  He  retired  from  the  itinerancy 
in  1806,  and  went  to  live  in  Guisborough,  in  North  York- 
shire, not  far  from  his  native  village,  and  there  he  died 
on  Jan.  28,  1807. 

T.  Jackson.  Lives  of  Early  Methodist  Preachers.  1846. 
J.  Wesley.  Letters,  references  in  vols,  vi,  vii,  and  viii. 

W.  L.  Doughty 

ROGERS,  ROBERT  WILLIAM  (1864-1930),  American  min- 
ister and  scholar,  was  bom  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  on 
Feb.  14,  1864,  and  was  ordained  by  the  Philadelphl\ 
Conference  in  1890.  He  received  A.B.  degrees  from  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  in  1886  and  Johns  Hopkins 
University  in  1887.  From  1887  to  1889,  while  working 
toward  his  doctorate  from  Haverford  College,  Rogers 
was  an  instructor  in  Greek  and  Hebrew.  After  receiving 
his  doctorate  in  1890,  Rogers  became  professor  of  English 
Bible  and  Semitic  History  at  Dickinson  College.  There 
he  married  Ida  Virginia  Ziegler  on  June  3,  1891. 

In  1893,  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  Rogers  was  elected 
to  the  chair  of  Hebrew  and  Old  Testament  Exegesis  at 
Drew  Theological  Seminary.  Rogers  remained  at  Drew 
for  thirty-six  years,  specializing  in  the  study  of  Semitic 
languages,  the  Old  Testament,  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  the 
history  of  Babylon  and  Assyria.  Rogers  traveled  to  Ger- 
many and  earned  his  doctorate  at  Leipzig  in  1895.  He 
also  received  the  Doctor  of  Literature  from  the  University 
of  Dublin  in  1914  and  from  Oxford  in  1923.  Rogers  also 
lectured  at  Harvard,  Columbia,  and  Princeton.  He  be- 
longed to  numerous  learned  societies,  American  and  for- 
eign, and  was  a  life  member  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford 
University.  In  1929,  he  was  forced  to  retire  from  his  posi- 
tion at  Drew  because  of  illness,  and  died  a  year  later  at 
Chadds  Ford,  Pa.,  near  Philadelphia  in  1930. 

Rogers  was  affectionately  called  the  "Rabbi"  while  at 
Drew.  His  books.  The  History  of  Babylon  and  Assyria 
(1900)  and  the  Religion  of  Babylon  and  Assyria  (1909), 
attracted  attention  in  America  and  abroad.  Although  he 
was  an  ordained  minister,  he  never  had  a  pastorate.  It 
was  said  of  Rogers  that  he  made  "the  name  of  Drew 
known  wherever  pure  learning  was  honored." 

Christian  Advocate  (New  York),  Dec.  25,  1930. 
Christian  Century,  Dec.  31,  1930. 
J.  R.  Joy,  Teachers  of  Drew.  1942. 

W.  P.  ToUey,  ed..  Alumni  Record  of  Drew  Theological  Semi- 
nary, 1867-1925.  Madison,  N.  J.:  Published  by  the  Seminary, 
1926.  William    H.    Gray 

ROGERSON,  J.  J.  (1820-1907),  was  bom  at  Harbour 
Grace,  Newfoundland.  He  was  appointed  to  the  Legisla- 
tive Council  of  the  colony  in  1850,  and  to  the  Executive 
Council  in  1858.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Assembly  in  1860,  and  was  receiver-general  from  1874 
to  1882.  An  enthusiastic  worker  in  the  cause  of  temperance 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROMAN   CATHOLICISM   AND   JOHN   WESLEY 


and  moral  reform,  he  was  largely  responsible  for  the 
establishment  of  the  Fishermen  and  Seamen's  Home  in 
St.  John's,  and  for  the  formation  of  the  Protestant  Indus- 
trial Society  and  the  Native  Society  in  that  city.  He  was 
one  of  the  founding  trustees  of  George  Street  Methodist 
Church,  St.  John's,  where  with  others  he  founded  the 
Ragged  Sunday  School  for  poor  children.  For  many  years 
he  was  regarded  as  the  leading  Methodist  layman  in 
Newfoundland,  and  he  gave  generously  to  its  support  in 
many  parts  of  the  Island. 

The  Daily  News,  St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  Oct.  18,  1907. 
The  Evening  Telegram,  St.  John's,  Newfoundland.  Oct.  17. 
1907.  N.  WiNSOR 

ROMAINE,  WILLIAM  (1714-1795),  Anglican  Evangelical, 
was  bom  at  Hartlepool,  England,  Sept.  25,  1714.  He  was 
ordained  an  Anglican  priest  in  1738;  and  in  1748  he 
edited  the  Hebrew  concordance  of  Marius  de  Calasso.  At 
first  attracted  by  John  Wesley,  Romaine  went  over  to 
Whitefield  in  1755,  and  became  the  leading  Anglican 
exponent  of  a  rigid  Calvinist  theology.  For  the  last  thirty 
years  of  his  life  he  was  rector  of  St.  Anne's,  Blackfriars, 
London.  His  best  known  book  was  his  Treatise  upon  the 
Life  of  Faith  (1763).  He  died  in  London,  July  26,  1795. 

John  Kent 

ROMAN  CATHOLICISM  AND  JOHN  WESLEY.  The  year 
1745  brought  the  uprising  under  the  Young  Pretender, 
Bonnie  Prince  Charlie  Stuart.  The  Pretender  to  the  British 
throne  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  the  fear  engendered 
in  Britain  was  part  political,  part  religious.  Catholicism 
was  still  associated  with  an  atmosphere  of  intrigue  such 
as  it  had  possessed  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. It  is  against  this  background  that  John  Wesley's 
reaction  to  Roman  Catholicism  must  be  understood.  He, 
like  other  Methodists  of  his  day,  shared  the  fear  of  Roman 
Cathohcism.  In  fact  he  was  linked  with  it  in  the  minds 
of  many  of  his  contemporaries.  In  1739  he  could  write: 
"The  report  now  current  in  Bristol  was  that  I  was  a  Papist, 
if  not  a  Jesuit.  Some  added  that  I  was  bom  and  bred  in 
Rome,  which  many  cordially  believe!"  {Journal,  ii,  262.) 
In  February  1744,  a  government  order  was  issued  "com- 
manding all  Papists  and  reputed  Papists  to  depart  from  the 
cities  of  London  and  Westminster  ...  by  March  2." 
Wesley  had  intended  to  leave  London  on  Monday,  Febru- 
ary 27,  but  "determined  to  stay  another  week,  that  I 
might  cut  off  all  occasion  of  reproach"  (Journal,  iii,  122). 
In  1751  Wesley  found  it  necessary  to  write  a  lengthy 
reply  to  Bishop  George  Lavington  of  Exeter,  who  had 
charged  the  Methodists  with  popery  {Letters,  iii,  259); 
and  misunderstanding  of  the  Methodist  position  was  not 
confined  to  educated  circles.  Wesley  himself  was  pre- 
pared to  allow  Roman  Catholics  freedom  in  religious  mat- 
ters but  not  in  political.  In  this  he  saw  the  Catholics  as 
possible  disturbers  of  the  status  quo.  Wesley  writes  in 
January  1780:  "Receiving  more  and  more  accounts  of 
the  increase  of  Popery,  I  beheved  it  my  duty  to  write  a 
letter  concerning  it,  which  was  afterwards  inserted  in  the 
public  papers.  Many  were  grievously  offended;  but  I  can- 
not help  it;  I  must  follow  my  own  conscience."  He  could 
insist  that  "with  persecution  I  have  nothing  to  do,"  but 
felt  it  necessary  to  go  on:  "No  government  .  .  .  ought  to 
tolerate  men  of  the  Roman  Catholic  persuasion  .  .  .  who 
cannot   give   any   security   to   that   government   for   their 


allegiance  and  peaceable  behaviour"  {Journal,  vi,  267). 
It  was  incumbent  on  Wesley's  conscience  to  denounce 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  infidelity  of  Rome  to  the 
Christian  gospel.  "The  most  destructive"  of  all  Roman 
errors  he  took  to  be  justification  by  works  "compared  to 
which  Transubstantiation  and  a  hundred  more  are  'trifles 
light  as  air'"  {Journal  ii,  262).  He  lists  ten  things  which 
the  Romans  "do  add  to  those  things  which  are  written  in 
the  Book  of  Life":  (1)  Seven  Sacraments.  (2)  Tran- 
substantiation. (3)  Communion  in  one  kind  only.  (4) 
Purgatory,  and  praying  for  the  dead  therein.  (5)  Praying 
to  saints.  (6)  Veneration  of  relics.  (7)  Worship  of  images. 
(8)  Indulgences.  (9)  The  priority  and  universality  of  the 
Roman  Church.  (10)  The  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  {Journal,  ii.  264.) 

He  had,  further,  a  suspicion  of  Roman  mystics,  who 
"perpetually  are  talking  of  self-emptiness,  self-inanition, 
self-annihilation"  {Letters,  v,  313).  John  Wesley  also  dis- 
liked what  he  called  the  inconsistency  of  the  Roman 
Catholics.  He  accused  them  of  misquotation  of  the 
Fathers:  "I  am  no  stranger  to  their  skill  in  mending  those 
authors  who  did  not  at  first  speak  home  to  their  purpose, 
and  also  purging  them  from  those  passages  which  con- 
tradicted their  emendations."  {Journal,  ii,  262)  He  be- 
heved it  to  be  their  ma.\im  that  "no  faith  is  to  be  kept 
with  heretics"  {Letters,  vi,  271).  He  was  also  aware  of 
Catholic  intolerance  {Journal,  ii,  9).  There  is  a  certain 
note  of  cynicism  in  his  remarking  in  1765:  "What  wonder 
is  it,  that  we  have  so  many  converts  to  Popery  and  so 
few  to  Protestantism,  when  the  fonner  are  sure  to  want 
nothing,  and  the  latter  almost  sure  to  starve?"  {Journal, 
V,  151),  and  a  corresponding  delight  in  being  able  to 
note  instances  of  converts  from  Rome  {Journal,  i,  357; 
iii,  427,  464;  V,  151). 

But  Wesley's  hostile  criticism  of  Catholicism  did  not 
spring  from  or  lead  to  an  attitude  of  bigotry.  He  could 
allow  himself  to  accept  hospitality  from  a  Roman  Catholic 
{Journal,  vii,  492);  and  in  his  sermon,  "A  Caution  against 
Bigotry"  (based  on  Mark  9:38-39,  the  incident  of  the 
man  casting  out  devils),  Wesley  proceeds,  after  a  criticism 
of  the  Catholic  position,  to  acknowledge  that  still  God 
may  be  using  Papists  in  his  work:  "In  every  instance  of 
this  kind,  acknowledge  the  finger  of  God.  And  not  only 
acknowledge,  but  rejoice  in  His  work"  (Sermon,  xxxiii). 
He  could  not  "rail  at  or  despise  any  man,  much  less 
those  who  profess  to  believe  in  the  same  Maker"  (Journal, 
ii,  263). 

In  1780  there  took  place  the  Lord  Gordon  Riots  in 
London.  In  the  previous  year  an  Act  of  Parliament  had 
been  passed  which  gave  some  legal  relief  to  British 
Roman  Catholics.  Lord  George  Gordon  presented  to 
Parliament  on  behalf  of  his  Protestant  association  a  peti- 
tion signed  by  some  fifty  thousand  people  demanding  the 
repeal  of  this  act.  Vigorous  rioting  followed,  and  Charles 
Wesley  was  concerned  for  the  "trembling,  persecuted 
Catholics"  (Letters,  vii,  20-21).  Gordon  requested  John 
Wesley  two  or  three  times  to  visit  him  in  the  Tower  of 
London  where  he  had  been  imprisoned,  and  after  receiv- 
ing pemiission  form  the  Secretary  of  State,  Wesley  ac- 
ceded to  this  request  on  Dec.  19,  1780.  A  fortnight  later 
he  wrote  of  this  visit: 

I  had  no  great  desire  to  see  Lord  George  Gordon,  fearing  he 
wanted  to  talk  to  me  about  political  matters.  ...  In  our  whole 
conversation  I  did  not  observe  tliat  he  had  the  least  anger  or 
resentment  to  any  one  .  .  .  Our  conversation  turned  first  upon 


ROME,    ITALY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Popery,  and  then  upon  experimental  religion  .  .  .  The  theory 
of  religion  he  certaiiJy  has.  May  God  give  him  the  living 
experience  of  it.  ( Letters,  vii,  46 ) 

Wesley's  attitude  is  summed  up  in  this  experience:  he 
could  have  no  part  in  persecution  of  Catholics,  and  he 
believed  that  anyone  with  a  vital  knowledge  of  God 
would  have  to  adopt  the  same  attitude.  Thus  Wesley's 
complaint  was  not  against  Catholics  as  such,  but  against 
the  lack  of  experimental  religion  which  he  deemed  to  be 
the  state  that  so  many  of  them  were  in. 

His  Letter  to  a  Roman  Catholic  was  written  in  1749. 
It  acknowledges  the  bitterness  that  has  characterized  both 
sides  of  the  argument  and  seeks  to  set  out  plainly  the 
Protestant  faith  in  the  Trinity  and  the  Church.  As  practical 
measures  Wesley  suggests  that  both  Cathohc  and  Protes- 
tant should  resolve  "not  to  hurt  one  another  ...  to 
speak  nothing  harsh  or  unkind  of  each  other  ...  to 
harbour  no  unkind  thought,  no  unfriendly  temper,  towards 
each  other  .  .  .  (and)  to  help  each  other  on  in  whatever 
we  are  agreed  leads  to  the  Kingdom."  {Letters,  iii,  7-14) 
It  therefore  grieved  him  to  have  to  write  that  Roman 
missionaries  ("very  few  excepted")  neither  knew  nor 
taught  "true,  genuine  religion"  (Letters,  v,  121);  and 
when  his  nephew  Samuel  became  a  Catholic  in  1784, 
that  his  main  concern  was  Sammy's  lack  of  the  knowledge 
of  "Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory:  ...  I  care  not  a  rush 
for  your  being  called  'Papist  or  Protestant.'  But  I  am 
grieved  at  your  being  a  heathen."  (J.  Wesley,  Letters, 
Vol.  viii,  p.  218,  April  29,  1790;  Vol.  vii,  p.  230-1,  Aug. 
19,  1784.)  It  has  often  been  claimed  that  Methodism 
comes  close  to  Catholic  spirituality  in  its  traditional  insis- 
tence on  Chhistian  Perfection;  but,  however  that  may 
be,  the  nineteenth  century  Methodist  saw  Rome  as  the 
true  enemy  of  Christianity.  There  has  grown  gradually  on 
both  sides  that  attitude  which  leads  to  the  present  in- 
creasing acceptance  of  each  other  in  sharing  a  common 
Lord  and  a  largely  common  faith.  This  rapprochement 
more  nearly  reflects  Wesley's  own  attitude  than  did  nine- 
teenth century  Methodism's.  One  interesting  if  somewhat 
bizarre  feature  in  this  new  relationship  (at  any  rate  in 
Methodist  eyes)  is  the  claim  of  John  Todd,  whose  book 
John  Wesley  and  the  Catholic  Church  (London,  1958), 
has  received  the  imprimatur.  John  Todd,  finds  great  in- 
spiration in  the  Ufe  and  teaching  of  Jolin  Wesley,  and 
states  that  he  has  prayed  to  God — privately,  though  not 
publicly — through  him. 

Brian  Galliebs 

ROME,  ITALY.    (See  Italy.) 

ROMLEY,  JOHN  (1711-1751),  English  curate  who  would 
not  let  Wesley  preach  in  the  Epworth  Church,  was  bom 
at  Bmton,  Lincolnshire,  in  1711,  the  son  of  William 
Romley.  During  the  latter  years  of  Samuel  Wesley,  he 
taught  at  the  Charity  School  at  Wroot,  and  sei-ved  as 
amanuensis  to  the  rector  in  compiling  his  commentary  on 
Job.  He  matriculated  at  Magdalen  Hall,  Oxford,  in  1735, 
and  became  curate  of  Epworth.  A  bitter  anti-Methodist,  he 
would  not  allow  John  Wesley  to  preach  in  the  parish 
church  (June  1742),  and  six  months  later  refused  him 
the  sacrament.  His  action  resulted  in  Wesley's  practice  of 
preaching  either  in  Epworth  churchyard  (from  his  father's 
tomb),  or  at  the  market  cross  in  the  center  of  the  village. 
On  June    17,    1744,    Wesley  heard   Romley   preach   two 


"exquisitely  bitter  and  totally  false"  sermons,  and  on  April 
21,  1745,  commented:  "Poor  Mr.  Romley's  sermon  .  .  . 
was  another  'railing  accusation.'  "  In  October  1745,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  heard  Romley  preach  "an  earnest  af- 
fectionate sermon."  Wesley's  Journal  for  July  3,  1748  re- 
corded: "I  was  quite  surprised  when  I  heard  Mr.  Romley 
preach.  That  soft,  smooth,  tuneful  voice  which  he  so  often 
employed  to  blaspheme  the  work  of  God  was  lost,  without 
hope  of  recovery."  He  did  recover  it  in  fact,  shortly  before 
his  death  in  May  1751. 

John  Newton 

ROSARIO,  Argentina,  is  the  second  largest  city  in  Argen- 
tina, with  761,300  people,  and  is  in  northern  Argentina. 
It  is  connected  with  the  capital  by  an  excellent  rail  line 
and  also  air  service. 

First  Church  is  the  oldest  Methodist  church  in  Argen- 
tina outside  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  church  was  founded 
in  1865,  when  Rosario  was  a  city  of  30,000,  a  promising 
river  port  just  linked  with  the  capital  by  rail. 

A  community  of  foreign  business  families — British, 
American,  Swiss,  and  German — bought  a  cemetery  and 
invited  William  Goodfellow,  Methodist  mission  super- 
intendent, to  come  from  Buenos  Aires  and  dedicate  it. 
From  this  contact  it  was  decided  to  start  a  church  for  En- 
glish-speaking Protestants.  Thomas  Carter  was  assigned 
and  held  his  first  service  in  a  hotel  in  November  of  1864. 
Within  a  year  a  building  had  been  erected  by  subscription, 
without  help  from  the  Missionary  Society  in  the  United 
States.  It  was  dedicated  by  Goodfellow  in  November  of 
1865.  Carter  founded  the  first  Methodist  paper  in  Latin 
America,  the  South  American  Monthly,  published  in  En- 
glish for  two  years. 

Thomas  B.  Wood,  noted  missionary,  was  appointed  to 
Rosario  in  1870,  and  the  following  year  began  preaching 
in  Spanish.  A  Spanish  Sunday  school  was  organized,  its 
first  pupils  including  four  Indians  and  si.\  crioUos.  The 
versatile  Wood  taught  physics  and  astronomy  in  the  Na- 
tional College,  founded  a  Society  for  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Animals,  which  outlawed  bullfighting,  and  started  a 
temperance  movement.  He  also  served  as  U.  S.  consul  in 
Rosario.  A  school  begun  in  connection  with  the  church 
became  the  Colegio  Americano. 

While  the  central  congregation  remained  English-speak- 
ing, it  was  the  mother  church  for  Methodism  in  the  entire 
region.  The  church  building  was  used  for  many  years  by 
a  German  congregation  as  well  as  by  the  Spanish  Sunday 
school  and  for  evangelistic  work  in  Spanish,  up  to  the 
present.  Second  Church  (now  called  Resurrection 
Church),  was  established  as  a  Spanish-speaking  congrega- 
tion. The  entire  area  now  numbers  sixteen  Methodist 
churches. 

By  the  1960's  First  Church  included  many  bihngual 
families,  second  and  third  generation  descendents  of  the 
original  English  families.  Also  in  Rosario  was  a  new  com- 
munity of  North  American  business  and  technical  people, 
attracted  by  growing  industrialization  of  what  was  now 
Argentina's  second  city.  In  1965  the  first  pastor  who  was 
not  a  missionary  was  appointed:  Marcelo  Perez  Rivas,  an 
Argentine.  He  held  services  in  Enghsh  on  Sunday  morn- 
ings and  in  Spanish  on  Sunday  evenings. 

Bishop  Sante  Uberto  Barbieri  preached  to  large 
crowds  at  English  and  Spanish  services  upon  the  occasion 
of  First  Church's  centenary  on  Nov.  7,  1965. 


WORLD  METHODISM 


"The  First  Methodist  Church  of  Rosario,"  unpublished  ms., 
at  First  Methodist  Church,  Salta  2219,  Rosario,  Santa  Fe 
Province,  Argentina.  Edwin  H.  Maynabd 

ROSEMONT,  PENNSYLVANIA,  U.S.A.  Radnor  Church  is 

the  oldest  Methodist  congregation  meeting  on  the  same 
site  in  Delaware  County,  Pa.  The  first  Methodist  preach- 
ing services  were  held  at  the  home  of  Isaac  Anderson  and 
his  wife,  Lary  Lane  Anderson,  and  in  1778  meetings 
were  held  at  the  Mansion  House  owned  by  the  James 
family.  The  Mansion  House  is  still  standing,  although  it 
has  been  greatly  changed  by  alterations.  Leader  of  these 
meetings  was  Adam  Cloud.  In  1780  a  class  was  formed 
with  George  Gyger  as  the  leader,  a  man  who  "hated  rum, 
tobacco  and  the  Devil."  In  the  same  year  the  first  pastor 
was  appointed:  John  Cooper  with  George  Main  as  junior 
preacher.  A  meeting  house  was  begun  in  1783,  being 
ready  for  occupancy  in  1784.  It  was  a  log  building  twenty- 
five  by  thirty  feet  and  was  built  on  ground  deeded  to  the 
congregation  by  Evan  James.  The  ground  had  originally 
been  part  of  the  King's  grant  to  William  Penn.  The  first 
patent  to  the  tract  had  been  to  David  Meredith,  a  weaver 
of  Radnorshire,  England,  from  whom  it  had  passed  to 
the  James  family.  When  the  Methodists  were  erecting 
their  building,  they  were  told  the  Methodists  would  soon 
be  as  "cold  as  cucumbers."  Instead  they  became  as  "live 
coals  from  off  the  altar  of  God,"  and  eventually  became 
the  mother  church  of  the  Bethesda  Church,  Merion  Square 
and  St.  Luke's  Church,  Bryn  Mawr.  Francis  Asbury 
visited  the  church  July  2,  1787,  when  he  "spoke  to  a  few 
simple  hearted  souls, "  and  again  on  July  7,  1792  when 
he  stopped  to  dine  on  his  way  to  Philadelphia.  On  June 
2,  1804  his  mare,  Jane,  was  lamed  by  a  cow  in  Radnor, 
and  on  Wednesday,  Aug.  7,  1805,  he  passed  through  the 
community,  dining  with  Brother  Gyger.  On  Tuesday, 
April  14,  1812,  he  preached  again  in  the  church.  In  1833 
the  original  church  building  was  torn  down,  and  a  larger 
stone  building  was  erected.  A  Sunday  school  was  orga- 
nized in  1843,  and  an  educational  building  was  added  to 
the  church  in  1952. 

F.  Asbury,  Journal  and  Letters.  1958. 

G.  M.  Burhngame  and  W.  A.  MacLachlan,  Old  Radnor  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  1931.  Frederick  E.  Maser 

ROSENBERGER,  SILAS  W.  (1873-1950),  American 
preacher,  was  bom  in  Tiffin,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Jacob  and 
Sophia  Rosenberger.  After  graduating  from  Heidelberg 
College,  Tiffin,  Ohio,  he  entered  Westminster  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  Westminster,  Md.  In  1902  he  was 
ordained  and  became  a  member  of  the  Ohio  Confer- 
ence of  the  M.P.  Church,  and  that  same  year  he  married 
Miss  Eva  M.  Ball.  His  first  pastorates  were  in  Ohio,  and 
after  a  short  period  of  service  in  the  Maryland  Con- 
ference he  returned  to  Ohio  for  the  remainder  of  his 
ministry. 

During  this  period  he  was  elected  president  of  the  Ohio 
Conference  three  times;  elected  to  the  General  Con- 
ference six  times;  and  was  a  member  of  the  Uniting 
Conference  of  The  Methodist  Church  in  1939.  His  most 
conspicuous  service  to  the  Church  came  in  1927  when 
he  was  elected  executive  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions,  and  later  when  he  became  secretary  of  the  com- 
bined four  missionary  Boards  of  Missions.  In  the  admin- 
istration of  his  office  he  was  greatly  assisted  by  his  wife 
who  had  been  prominent  in  the  Women's  Boards  of  Mis- 


sions and  who  now  was  also  a  member  of  the  General 
Board.  Rosenberger  returned  to  the  pastorate  in  1928, 
remaining  in  that  capacity  until  his  retirement  in  1948. 
He  died  in  Columbus,  Ohio. 

James  H.  Straughn 

ROSS,  ISAAC  NELSON  (1856-1927),  American  bishop 
of  the  A.M.E.  Church,  was  born  in  Hawkins  County, 
Tenn.,  on  Jan.  22,  1856.  His  education  was  self  acquired. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Ohio  Annual  Conference  in  1880, 
ordained  deacon  in  1882  and  elder  in  1883.  He  held  pas- 
torates in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Georgia,  Washington, 
D.C.,  and  Maryland.  He  was  elected  bishop  in  1916 
from  the  pastorate  of  historic  Ebenezer  Church,  Balti- 
more, Md.,  and  served  in  West  Africa  and  the  south- 
western United  States.  He  died  in  1927. 

Bishop  Ross  in  his  pastorates  was  noted  for  construc- 
tion and  promotional  ability.  In  Columbus,  Ohio,  at  St. 
Paul's  Church,  and  at  Big  Bethel  in  Atlanta,  he  did 
eminently  constructive  work.  "He  was  one  of  the  most 
popular  pastors  of  the  A.M.E.  Church,"  Bishop  Wright 
said  of  him. 

R.  R.  Wright,  The  Bishops.  1963.  Grant  S.  Shockley 

ROSS,  JOHN  (1790-1866),  principal  chief  of  the  Chero- 
kee Indians  from  1827  until  his  death  and  a  staunch  Meth- 
odist during  the  same  period,  was  bom  Oct.  3,  1790.  He 
was  the  son  of  David  Ross,  a  Scotsman,  and  Mary  Mc- 
Donald Ross,  one-fourth  Cherokee;  he  was  thus  one- 
eighth  Indian.  He  was  called  by  one  writer  "a  Scotchman 
with  a  dash  of  Cherokee  blood,"  but  nevertheless  was 
completely  identified  with  and  accepted  by  the  Cherokees. 
In  1809  he  visited  the  Cherokees  who  had  moved  to  the 
Arkansas  territory,  and  he  served  in  1812  in  a  Cherokee 
regiment  in  the  army  of  Andrew  Jackson.  He  helped  draft 
the  Cherokee  constitution  in  1827.  He  was  converted  in 
1828  under  the  preaching  of  John  B.  McFerrin  and 
joined  the  M.E.  Church.  It  was  probably  partly  due  to 
his  influence  over  1,000  fellow  tribesmen  enrolled  in  the 
Methodist  societies  among  the  Cherokees.  His  wife,  Quatie 
(Elizabeth),  was  a  very  intelligent  and  devout  Christian. 
His  niece  married  Nicholas  D.  Scales,  one  of  the  Meth- 
odist missionaries  to  the  Cherokees  in  east  Tennessee. 

The  Ross  home  became  a  center  of  Methodist  preaching 
and  worship.  Ross  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  removal  of 
the  Cherokees  to  the  West  and  consistently  refused  to  sign 
any  treaty  of  removal.  Other  unauthorized  Cherokees  did 
sign  such  a  treaty,  however,  and  eventually  (in  1838-39) 
Ross  and  his  family  had  little  choice  but  to  move  to  what 
is  now  Oklahoma.  On  the  way  his  wife,  Quatie,  died  from 
exposure  and  was  buried  in  Little  Rock  (the  grave  is 
now  in  Mount  Holly  Cemetery).  In  the  Indian  Territory 
he  continued  his  loyal  support  of  the  church,  being  a  close 
friend  of  John  Harrell,  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  Indian 
Mission  Conference.  He  married  Mary  Bryan  Stapler, 
a  Quaker,  in  Wilmington,  Del.  in  1845.  Ross  went  to 
Washington,  D.C.  frequently  to  confer  on  Indian  affairs, 
and  was  there  when  he  died. 

Walter  N.  Vernon 

ROSS,  PETER  (1821-1889),  a  superintendent  of  the 
A.M.E.  ZiON  Church,  was  bom  in  November  1821,  in 
Nova  Scotia.  He  began  his  ministry  in  that  part  of  the 


ROSS,   WILLIAM    R. 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


continent,  joined  the  conference  in  June  1834,  and  was 
ordained  a  deacon  in  December  1840,  and  an  elder 
May  21,  1840.  He  was  consecrated  a  Superintendent  on 
May  24,  1856,  and  died  April  10,  1889. 

David  H.  Bradley 

ROSS,  WILLIAM  R.  (1802-1885),  pioneer  physician  and 
first  Iowa  class  leader,  was  born  Dec.  3,  1802,  in  Lexing- 
ton, Ky.,  and  began  medical  practice  in  Indianapolis, 
Ind.,  in  September  1827.  He  migrated  to  Palmyra,  Mo., 
in  the  spring  of  1829  and  from  thence  to  Quincy,  111. 
(1830),  where  his  wife,  Phebe,  and  two  children  died 
of  cholera. 

In  August  1833  Ross  removed  to  Flint  Hills  (now  Bur- 
lington), Iowa,  became  the  settlement's  first  doctor,  drug- 
gist, storekeeper,  postmaster,  surveyor,  and  county  clerk. 
He  married  Matilda  Morgan  on  Dec.  3,  1833,  recrossing 
the  Mississippi  River  for  the  ceremony. 

In  1833  Ross  wrote  Peter  Cartwright,  presiding 
elder  at  Quincy,  asking  for  a  preacher  for  Flint  Hills. 
Barton  H.  Cartwright  was  appointed  and,  in  the  Ross 
cabin,  organized  si.\  people,  with  Ross  as  leader,  into 
Iowa's  first  Methodist  class  on  Sunday,  April  27,  1834. 
Largely  through  his  zeal  as  class  leader,  steward,  and 
Sabbath  school  superintendent,  Burlington  became  a 
station  in  1837.  After  donating  the  two  lots  on  which  Old 
Zion  was  built  (1838),  Ross  eventually  sold  his  home  to 
save  the  mortgaged  church. 

In  later  life,  Ross  lived  at  Eddyville,  Albia,  Hamilton, 
and  Lovilia,  where  he  was  class  leader  (1865-67).  As 
class  leader  of  Eddyville  Mission  (winter  of  1844-45), 
he  participated  in  Marion  County's  first  Quarterly  Con- 
ference, held  near  Attica,  la.  He  died  at  Loviha,  la.,  on 
Oct.  12,  1885,  and  a  boulder  marks  his  Lovilia  Cemetery 
grave. 

A.  W.  Haines,  Makers  of  Iowa  Methodism.  1900. 

Iowa  Journal  of  History,  April  1951. 

E.  H.  Waring,  Iowa  Conference.  1910. 

Yearbook  of  the  Iowa  Conference,  1866.     Martin  L.  Greer 

ROSSER,  LEONIDAS  (1815-1892),  American  presiding 
elder,  evangelist,  and  author,  was  born  July  31,  1815,  in 
Petersburg,  Va.  Educated  at  Wilbraham  Academy  and 
Wesleyan  University  (M.A.,  1838),  he  was  admitted 
on  trial  in  the  New  York  Conference  in  1839.  He  trans- 
ferred to  the  Virginia  Conference  in  1840,  and  was 
ordained  deacon  in  1841  and  elder  in  1843. 

After  three  years  at  churches  in  Richmond,  two  years 
at  Warrenton,  and  one  in  Bedford,  Rosser,  an  intensely 
Southern  partisan,  was  appointed  to  Alexandria  (at  that 
time  it  was  still  in  the  undivided  Baltimore  Confer- 
ence, M.E.  Church)  where  he  helped  to  organize  a 
Church  South  congregation.  Two  years  later  his  confer- 
ence appointed  him  to  Washington,  D.C.  Beginning  in 
1852,  he  served  the  Fredericksburg  District  one  year,  the 
Norfolk  District  three  years,  and  the  Lynchburg  District 
two  years.  Then  he  had  two  years  as  editor  of  the  Rich- 
mond Christian  Advocate,  followed  by  one  year  as  pastor 
of  Union  Church  in  the  same  city.  Throughout  the  four 
years  of  the  Civil  War  he  served  as  chaplain  or  missionary 
to  the  Confederate  forces  in  Virginia. 

After  four  years  on  the  Richmond  District,  1865-69, 
Rosser  had  one  year  as  conference  missionary,  three  as 
Sunday  school  agent,  one  on  the  Randolph-Macon  Dis- 


trict, and  then  three  more  years  as  Sunday  school  agent. 
Beginning  in  1877,  he  was  appointed  three  years  to  the 
Randolph-Macon  District  and  two  to  the  Farmville  Dis- 
trict. The  conference  minutes  say  he  was  transferred  to 
the  Denver  Conference  in  1882  and  appointed  to  Den- 
ver, but  apparently  he  did  not  go  west.  In  1883  he  be- 
gan a  two-year  pastorate  at  Central  Church,  Portsmouth, 
followed  by  one  year  on  the  Pungoteague  Circuit.  After- 
ward he  was  supernumerary  for  three  years  and  was 
superannuated  in  1889. 

Rosser  was  a  trustee  of  Randolph-Macon  College 
for  thirty-six  years,  and  since  he  was  called  "Doctor," 
presumably  that  school  awarded  him  the  D.D.  degree. 
He  was  a  delegate  to  four  General  Conferences,  1850- 
66.  In  1866  he  strongly  opposed  lay  representation  in 
the  General  and  annual  conferences,  and  his  vehement 
objection  to  permitting  laymen  to  vote  on  ministerial 
qualifications  resulted  in  the  provision  against  such  which 
remains  in  the  Discipline  to  this  day. 

Throughout  his  ministry  Rosser  was  known  as  an  evan- 
gelistic preacher,  and  it  is  claimed  that  he  won  20,000 
converts.  The  last  five  years  of  his  life  were  crowded  with 
evangelistic  work  in  his  own  and  other  states.  He  preached 
some  400  times  in  Texas  the  year  before  he  died.  Ros- 
ser's  son,  John  C,  followed  him  as  a  member  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Conference. 

In  addition  to  serving  as  editor  of  the  conference  paper, 
Rosser  wrote  reviews,  pamphlets,  and  articles  for  the  reli- 
gious press.  He  wrote  a  book  on  Baptism  which  was  in 
the  conference  course  of  study  for  a  time.  Other  volumes 
from  his  pen  were:  Experimental  Religion,  Recognition  in 
Heaven,  Class  Meetings,  Open  Communion,  and  Initial 
Life.  He  died  in  Ashland,  Virginia,  Jan.  24,  1892,  and  was 
buried  there. 

General  Minutes,  MEC  and  MEGS. 
Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  Jan.  28,  1892. 
Minutes  of  the  Virginia  Conference,  1892.       Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

ROSWELL,  NEW  MEXICO,  U.S.A.  First  Church,  the  first 
Protestant  church  in  the  Pecos  Valley,  had  its  beginnings 
in  1885  through  the  instigation  of  Mrs.  Helen  Johnson. 
She  and  her  husband,  Wiley,  lived  across  the  Pecos  River 
some  distance  from  Roswell.  When  one  of  the  Johnson 
children  died,  Mrs.  Johnson  conducted  the  funeral  services 
herself  because  there  was  no  preacher  in  the  vicinity.  Feel- 
ing a  great  need  for  religious  training  for  her  remaining 
children  and  her  friends,  in  1885  Mrs.  Johnson  started  a 
Sunday  school  on  her  land  in  a  tent. 

The  Sunday  school  was  moved  to  the  schoolhouse  lo- 
cated in  the  southeastern  part  of  Roswell.  Mother  John- 
son went  from  house  to  house  in  her  light  spring  wagon 
carrying  all  her  own  children  in  it  and  inviting  everyone 
to  attend.  As  a  "shouting  Methodist,"  Mother  Johnson 
could  not  rest  until  she  could  associate  her  group  with  the 
Methodist  Church.  The  minutes  of  the  Quarterly  Con- 
ference, signed  by  secretary  J.  W.  Sims,  show  that  in 
1887  the  Roswell  Mission  was  accepted  as  a  Methodist 
church  in  the  San  Angelo  District,  West  Texas  Confer- 
ence, Sims  himself  being  appointed  pastor  in  charge. 
There  were  eight  charter  members. 

Permission  was  given  the  congregation  to  build  a  church 
by  the  Quarterly  Conference  of  1888  held  at  Seven  Rivers, 
N.  M.  The  adobe  structure  built  at  311  North  Pennsyl- 
vania Street  was  known  as  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  It 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROSZELS,   THE 


was  recently  razed  to  make  space  for  a  parking  lot.  Mem- 
bers of  other  denominations  cooperated  in  many  ways: 
a  friend,  George  Davis,  gave  the  lot;  the  Board  of  Trustees 
included  Capt.  J.  C.  Lea,  a  Christian  and  leading  Ros- 
wellite;  also  Steve  Mendenhall,  an  Episcopalian;  and  Wil- 
liam S.  Prager,  of  the  Jewish  faith. 

Before  the  building  was  completed,  the  mission  ac- 
quired a  new  pastor  in  charge,  William  Gibbons.  In  Feb- 
ruary 1889,  he  reported  that  there  were  four  teachers  and 
thirty  "scholars"  in  the  Sunday  school.  Mrs.  Mary  Cobean 
was  president  of  the  LADrEs'  Aid  and  also  the  first  organist, 
using  her  own  portable  organ.  By  September  1889  the 
records  show  that  membership  had  increased  to  twenty- 
six,  Sunday  school  to  fifty,  and  the  pastor's  salary  to  $150 
per  quarter  (from  original  .$27.50).  The  twenty-four  by 
forty  building,  with  walls  nearly  two  feet  thick,  cost 
$408.85  (without  roof). 

When  J.  D.  Bush  became  pastor  in  1891,  he  was  con- 
cerned with  needed  repairs  for  the  church.  Phelps  White, 
Dave  Howell,  Bud  Wilkerson  and  a  friend  were  so 
touched  when  they  saw  women  sitting  on  boards  laid 
across  beer  kegs,  and  little  children  asleep  on  blankets  on 
straw,  they  gave  lumber  for  new  benches.  Bush  con- 
structed new  seats  and  a  pulpit. 

The  cowboys  who  came  into  town  every  Saturday  night 
(sometimes  from  forty  or  fifty  miles  away)  came  largely 
for  entertainment,  but  many  of  them  found  their  way  to 
church  before  they  returned  to  their  ranches.  On  one 
such  occasion  in  1895,  a  revival  was  being  held  in  that 
adobe  church.  The  church  was  crowded  because  a  noted 
evangelist,  Abe  Mulkey,  was  the  speaker.  So  impressed 
were  the  cowboys  that  they  decided  to  make  a  contribu- 
tion to  the  church.  The  bell  they  gave,  now  known  as  the 
"Cowboy  Bell,"  was  the  first  church  bell  to  ring  nearer 
than  Las  Cruces  or  El  Paso.  The  bell  is  now  anchored 
on  the  comer  of  Pennsylvania  and  Second  Streets. 

The  congregation  rapidly  outgrew  the  little  church. 
John  Stone  gave  two  lots  for  a  new  building  and  a  rock 
church  was  built  where  the  present  church  now  stands. 
It  was  dedicated  on  May  2,  1897  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Edding- 
ton  and  Bishop  Joseph  S.  Key.  During  the  period  when 
the  rock  building  was  in  use,  the  church  was  removed 
from  the  mission  class  and  became  self-supporting.  The 
church  also  had  the  only  lending  library  in  town  with 
about  1,000  books.  At  one  period  tubercular  patients 
were  cared  for  in  the  basement  of  the  church. 

After  about  twenty  years  the  rock  church  became  weak- 
ened and  was  torn  down.  The  foundation  of  the  present 
church  was  made  of  the  rock  from  the  old  building,  and 
its  stained  glass  windows  were  carefully  removed  from 
the  old  to  the  new  building.  On  May  17,  19.36,  Bishop 
H.  A.  BoAZ  dedicated  the  church.  It  served  as  the  annual 
meeting  place  on  Homecoming  Day  for  all  veterans  of  the 
community  regardless  of  church  affiliation. 

In  the  winter  of  1956-57,  the  congregation  again  wor- 
shipped in  the  schoolhouse  while  the  church  was  being 
repaired  as  the  ceiling  under  the  balcony  had  collapsed 
during  a  morning  church  service.  Several  buildings,  in- 
cluding the  old  parsonage,  were  removed  to  make  way  for 
a  new  educational  building  and  chapel.  M.  Buren  Stewart 
and  Austin  H.  Dillon  dedicated  it  on  Nov.  25,  1962.  That 
same  day,  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the  First  Meth- 
odist Church  of  Roswell  was  observed. 

First  Church  is  not  only  the  first  church  organized 
in  Roswell,  but  literally  the  Mother  Church  of  practically 
every  church  there.  Out  of  her  ranks  have  gone  Chris- 


tian, Episcopalian,  Baptist,  Northern  Presbyterian  and 
Southern  Presbyterian  men  and  women.  Its  membership 
in  1970  was  2,712. 


General    Minutes. 


Mildred    Fitzgerald 


Stephen  G.  Roszel 

ROSZELS,  THE.  Three  American  ministers,  a  father  and 
two  sons,  each  quite  prominent,  made  their  mark  as  lead- 
ers in  the  Baltimore  Conference  in  the  earlier  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Stephen  George  Roszel  ( 1770- 
1841),  the  father,  was  born  in  Loudoun  County,  Va.,  on 
April  8,  1770,  and  was  converted  at  the  age  of  sixteen. 
Starting  out  from  Loudoun  County  in  1789  under  the 
immediate  direction  of  Bishop  Asbury,  he  proved  to  be 
e.xcellently  endowed  for  the  Methodist  itinerancy,  both 
physically  and  mentally.  For  the  first  five  years  he  traveled 
"from  the  lowest  point  on  the  Chesapeake  to  the  summit 
of  the  AUeghenies."  (Armstrong,  p.  450)  Being  the  oldest 
son  and  the  main  dependence  of  a  large  family,  he  then 
felt  impelled  by  duty  to  retire  from  the  effective  ranks  for 
twelve  years,  but  continued  preaching  in  and  near  his 
native  county.  He  turned  out  to  be  an  ardent  controver- 
sialist, and  defender  of  Methodist  doctrines  and  usages. 
He  went  back  into  the  travefing  connection  again  in  1807, 
and  was  stationed  at  various  times  in  Baltimore,  George- 
Tow,\,  Frederick,  Alexandria  and  Philadelphia,  and 
was  presiding  elder  over  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  dis- 
tricts. One  year  he  served  as  an  agent  for  Dickinson 
College.  He  was  a  strong  preacher  and  ready  debater, 
and  had  great  influence  on  the  floor  of  the  General 
Conference.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  delegated 
General  Conference  and  every  succeeding  one  until  his 
death.  He  died  in  Leesburc,  Va.,  May  14,  1841. 

Stephen  Asbury  Roszel  (1811-1852),  the  son  of  S.  G. 
Roszel,  was  bom  in  Georgetown,  D.C.,  Feb.  18,  1811.  He 
was  converted  when  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age  in  Mid- 
dleburg,  Va.,  and  for  a  time  tried  law,  but  soon  closed 
his  law  office.  Then  while  teaching  in  Dickinson  College, 
he  felt  a  strong  call  to  preach.  He  entered  the  regular 
work  of  the  ministry  in  1838,  and  for  fourteen  years  "gave 
full  proof  of  his  calling."  He  was  elected  reporter  for  the 
General  Conference  of  1840,  and  his  published  synopsis 
of  the  debates  there  showed  his  fitness  for  that  type  of 
work.  He  was  himself  elected  a  delegate  to  the  1848  Gen- 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


eral  Conference  which  met  at  Pittsburgh.  It  is  said  that 
he  was  greatly  gifted  in  the  pulpit,  "Reason,  imagination 
and  eloquence  pouring  forth  with  a  force  of  a  rapid  tor- 
rent." He  died  at  an  untimely  age,  having  preached  to  a 
densely  crowded  audience  at  Fairfax  Courthouse  in  north- 
ern Virginia  on  Feb.  8,  1852,  and  then  drove  or  tried  to 
drive  sixteen  miles  for  an  evening  appointment.  The  day 
was  cold  and  he  was  in  an  open  buggy  and  his  biographer 
tersely  observes:  "Pneumonia  did  its  work." 

S.  Samuel  Roszel  (1812-1882),  another  son  of  S,  G. 
Roszel,  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  on  Oct.  20,  1812.  He 
graduated  at  Augusta  College,  then  Methodism's  strong 
college  in  what  was  considered  the  West.  When  Dickinson 
College  was  placed  under  the  joint  supervision  of  the 
Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  Conferences,  Samuel  Ros- 
zel was  elected  as  one  of  the  instructors,  but  shortly 
yielded  to  the  call  of  the  ministry.  Admitted  to  the  Balti- 
more Conference  in  1838,  he  was  thereafter  appointed  to 
important  and  responsible  fields  on  circuits  and  stations. 
He  was  presiding  elder  of  the  East  Baltimore  District  for 
a  time.  He  is  said  to  have  resembled  his  distinguished 
father,  not  only  in  the  vigor  of  his  intellect  and  powerful 
preaching,  but  in  a  commanding  figui-e.  "His  tall,  well- 
knit  frame,  his  majestic  head  and  handsome  features,  his 
well-modulated  voice,  engaging  manner  and  felicity  of 
expression,  attracted  multitudes  in  city  churches  and  on 
camp-grounds."  (Armstrong,  p.  448.) 

At  the  crucial  session  of  the  Conference  at  Staunton, 
Va.,  in  1861,  when  war  had  broken  out  and  Virginia  was 
invaded,  the  up-until-then-undivided  Baltimore  Confer- 
ence faced  its  most  critical  moment.  Roszel  stood  by  the 
action  of  the  Southern  majority  in  the  division  that  then 
came.  After  the  Civil  War  was  over,  when  the  "Old  Balti- 
more," as  the  Southern  members  proudly  called  them- 
selves, petitioned  to  join  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  Roszel 
was  one  of  the  men  who  went  to  New  Orleans  in  1866 
and  with  Eldridge  R.  Veitch,  Leonid.\s  Rosser,  Samuel 
Regester,  John  S.  Martin,  Norval  Wilson,  William  G. 
Eggleston  and  John  Poisal  proudly  took  their  Conference 
into  the  M.E.  Church,  South. 

Randolph-Macon  College  and  other  institutions  con- 
ferred upon  S.  Samuel  Roszel  the  D.D.  degree,  and  he 
was  five  times  elected  to  his  General  Conference.  He  died 
in  Fauquier  County,  Va.,  on  April  27,  1882. 

J.  E.  Armstrong,  Old  Baltimore  Conference.  1907. 

M.  Simpson,  Cyclopaedia.  1878.  N.  B.  H. 

ROUND.  John  Wesley  divided  the  country  into  exten- 
sive areas  called  "rounds,"  into  each  of  which  he  sent  his 
preachers  to  preach  and  to  supervise  Methodist  activities 
generally.  Their  work  entailed  long  journeys,  sometimes 
extending  to  hundreds  of  miles  and  also  long  absences 
from  home.  As  Methodism  flourished,  more  preachers 
were  needed,  and  the  rounds  were  reduced  in  extent. 
Gradually  the  word  "circuit"  came  to  be  substituted  for 
"round." 

W.  L.  Doughty 

ROUND  CHURCH.  (See  Albert's  Chapel.) 

ROUQUET,  JAMES  (1730-1776),  British  Anglican,  con- 
verted as  a  schoolboy  under  Whitefield,  came  up  to 
Oxford  in  1748  and  was  introduced  to  Charles  Wes- 
ley. Bouquet  was  headmaster  of  Kingswood  School  for 
a  period,  probably  from  1751  to  1754.  As  curate  of  St. 


Werburgh's,  Bristol,  he  was  instrumental,  along  with  his 
rector  Richard  Symes,  in  establishing  Evangelicalism  in 
that  city.  It  was  he  who  introduced  Captain  Thomas 
Webb  to  the  Methodists.  In  his  will  of  1768  (later  super- 
seded) John  Wesley  appointed  Rouquet  as  a  trustee  for 
his  manuscripts. 

A.  Skevington  Wood 

ROWE,  GEORGE  EDWARDS  (1858-1926),  Australian 
church  leader  and  executive,  was  born  in  England,  re- 
ceived his  theological  training  at  Richmond  College  there, 
and  then  left  for  South  Australia,  where  he  served  in 
four  circuits. 

In  1893  he  was  appointed  to  Wesley  Church,  Perth, 
Western  Australia  District,  where  he  assumed  the  respon- 
sibilities of  a  district  which  covered  the  whole  of  the  vast 
state.  It  was  a  crucial  time  for  the  church.  Substantial 
gold  discoveries  had  been  made  in  distant  desert  areas 
and  miners  were  pouring  into  the  country  from  the  other 
states  of  Australia  and  from  overseas.  The  church  was  iU- 
prepared  to  meet  this  crisis,  but  in  Rowe  it  had  a  man  who 
could  match  the  hour.  He  managed  to  secure  ministers, 
missionaries  and  agents  and  stationed  them  in  strategic 
positions  throughout  the  goldfields.  When  epidemics  swept 
through  the  railway  camps  and  mining  fields,  he  organized 
the  Order  of  "the  Sisters  of  the  People"  and  sent  out 
trained  nurses  to  share  the  hardships  of  the  miners  and  to 
minister  to  them  in  temporary  hospitals  of  hessian  and 
canvas. 

In  1896  he  established  a  mission  to  the  Chinese  in  Perth 
and  brought  the  Rev.  Paul  Soon  Quong  to  Australia  to 
take  charge  of  it.  He  directed  the  pioneering  work  of  the 
church  for  three  years  as  superintendent  of  Home  Mis- 
sions, and  served  for  one  year  as  superintendent  minister 
of  the  great  mining  town  of  Kalgoorlie. 

Rowe  administered  the  church  so  successfully  during 
this  period  of  growth  that  it  emerged  strong  enough  to 
govern  its  own  affairs  and  it  was  fitting  that  in  1900  he 
should  be  elected  as  president  of  the  first  Western  Aus- 
tralia Conference.  He  visited  England  and  America  in 
1902,  and  returned  to  Perth  until  1906,  when  he  was 
tran.sferred  to  the  Queensland  Conference  as  minister 
of  the  famous  Albert  Street  Church,  Brisbane.  While 
minister  of  Wesley  Church,  Perth,  he  built  for  the  Wesley 
Church  Trust  "Queen's  Building, "  an  impressive  suite  of 
buildings  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  He  died  suddenly  in 
Brisbane  in  1926,  some  years  after  the  honorary  D.D.  de- 
gree had  been  conferred  upon  him. 

Austrauan  Editorial  Committee 


ROWE,  GILBERT  THEODORE  (1875-1960),  American 
minister,  editor,  and  seminary  professor,  was  boiTi  in 
Rowan  County,  N.  C,  Sept.  10,  1875.  He  was  educated 
at  Trinity  College  (Duke  University),  A.B.,  1895;  and 
Temple  University,  S.T.D.,  1905.  Honorary  degrees  were 
conferred  upon  him  by  Duke — D.D.  in  1914,  Litt.D.  in 
1925.  Rowe  joined  the  Western  North  Carolina  Con- 
ference in  1896,  and  continued  as  a  member  of  that 
conference  all  his  life.  For  twenty  years  he  was  a  dis- 
tinguished pastor,  holding  the  largest  churches  in  his 
conference — Central,  Asheville;  Tryon  Street  (First), 
Charlotte;  Wesley  Memorial,  High  Point;  and  Cen- 
tenary, Winston-Salem.  His  brethren  elected  him  a  dele- 
gate to  the  1914  General  Conference,  and  aside  from 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ROWLAND,   THOMAS 


Gilbert  T.  Rowe 

1918,  sent  him  to  every  General  Conference  thereafter 
for  the  next  thirty  years,  including  the  1939  Uniting  Con- 
ference. Usually  he  led  his  delegation,  including  1944,  the 
last  time  he  was  elected.  In  the  1930  General  Conference 
at  Dallas,  Rowe  received  ninety  votes  for  bishop. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Ecumenical  Methodist 
Conference  in  1921  and  1931.  He  served  as  fraternal 
delegate  from  his  denomination  to  the  1928  General  Con- 
ference of  the  M.P.  Church.  He  was  a  prominent  editor, 
having  charge  of  the  North  Carolina  Christian  Advocate 
for  two  years,  and  serving  as  Book  Editor  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South  and  editor  of  the  Methodist  Quarterly 
Review  in  Nashville  for  seven  years. 

He  was  a  revered  teacher,  first  as  professor  of  Greek  for 
one  year  at  Hendrix  College  in  Arkansas  when  a  young 
man,  next  as  an  exchange  professor  at  Drew  University' 
for  a  year  in  his  sixties,  and  finally  he  filled  with  distinc- 
tion the  chair  of  Christian  Doctrine  in  Duke  Dn'iNixY 
School  from  1928  until  his  retirement  in  1946. 

Rowe  was  the  author  of  two  books.  The  Meaning  of 
Methodism  and  Reality  in  Religion.  Always  interested  in 
education,  he  was  a  member  of  his  annual  conference 
board  of  education  for  forty  years,  and  served  for  a  long 
period  on  the  General  Board  of  Education  of  the  M.E. 
Church,  South,  and  on  the  board  of  trustees  of  Greens- 
boro College.  A  diligent  student,  a  clear  thinker,  a  theo- 
logical liberal  when  many  contemporaries  were  consei^va- 
tives,  a  popular  preacher,  a  beloved  teacher,  a  forceful 
personality  combined  with  a  tolerant  and  friendly  spirit, 
Rowe  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  respected  leaders  of 
his  time  in  North  Carolina  and  Southern  Methodism. 
He  died  Feb.  10,  1960  and  was  buried  at  Durham,  N.  C. 

Albea  Godbold 

ROWE,  PHOEBE  (c.  1855-1898),  an  Anglo-Indian  lady 
of  great  influence  in  Indian  Methodism,  was  born  at  Alla- 
habad, United  Province,  Indla,  of  an  Indian  mother  and 
a  Scots  father.  Her  mother  died  before  Phoebe  was  two 
years   old.    She   and   her  father   were   dedicated   church 


members.  A  Baptist  minister  visiting  the  home  led  her  to 
"a  conscious  experience  of  sins  forgiven."  Three  years 
later  her  father  died.  Dennis  Osborne  recommended  her 
to  Isabella  Thoburn,  who  employed  her  and  guided 
her  further  education. 

Bishop  Thoburn  paid  her  high  tribute,  caUing  her 
"the  founder  of  our  village  evangehsm,  .  .  .  the  most 
peerless  saint  I  have  ever  known,  .  .  .  destined  to  live  in 
our  history."  In  1882  she  was  recognized  as  a  missionary 
of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society.  When  in 
1887  it  became  necessary  for  one  of  the  American  mis- 
sionaries. Miss  Nickerson,  to  return  to  America,  Miss  Rowe 
was  asked  to  accompany  her.  Miss  Nickerson  died  en 
route. 

Miss  Rowe  completed  the  voyage,  addressed  the  an- 
nual meeting  of  the  Cincinnati  Branch  in  a  memorial 
service,  and  asked  for  someone  to  dedicate  herself  to 
take  Miss  Nickerson's  place.  Her  appeal  was  answered 
by  Lucy  W.  Sullivan,  who  became  one  of  the  great 
missionaries  of  her  generation  in  India. 

Miss  Rowe  was  the  first  Indian  woman  elected  to  the 
Executive  Board  and  was  a  charter  member  of  the  North 
West  India  Woman's  Conference.  She  died  of  diphtheria 
in  Naini  Tal,  on  April  19,  1898. 

B.  T.  Badley,  Southern  Asia.  1931. 

J.  N.  HoUister,  Southern  A.na.  1956. 

J.  E.  Scott,  Southern  Asia.  1906.  J.  Waskom  Pickett 

ROWELL  MINUTES.  Jacob  Rowell  was  one  of  John  Wes- 
ley's preachers  from  1749-84.  In  1751,  Wesley  appointed 
him  to  Ireland,  where  he  remained  for  two  years.  Rowell 
was  present  at  the  first  Irish  Conference,  held  in  Limerick 
on  August  14  and  15,  1752,  and  took  minutes  of  the  pro- 
ceedings. He  did  the  same  at  the  first  Conference  held  in 
Leeds  in  May,  1753.  These  are  known  as  the  Rowell 
Minutes  and  are  printed  in  the  Appendix  to  Volume  I 
of  the  Minutes  of  Conference  published  in  1862. 

W.  L.  DouGirrY 

ROWLAND,  JOSEPH  MEDLEY  (1880-1938),  American 
pastor  and  ninth  editor  of  what  is  now  the  Virginia  Meth- 
odist Advocate,  was  a  most  versatile  man.  His  talents 
brought  him  wide  recognition  as  a  strong  preacher,  a 
humorous  lecturer,  an  author,  a  world-traveler,  and  an 
authority  on  the  ways  of  life  of  mountain  people.  All  this 
was  in  addition  to  his  appreciated  contributions  during 
the  seventeen  years  he  edited  the  Advocate.  So  effective 
was  he  in  so  many  directions,  that  it  would  be  difficult 
to  say  in  what  specific  area  he  made  his  greatest  contribu- 
tion. Unfortunately,  his  effective  ministry  came  to  a  pre- 
mature end  on  Aug.  17,  1938,  when  he  was  killed  in  an 
automobile  accident  while  returning  home  from  Lake 
Junaluska. 

Rowland  wrote  three  books,  all  widely  read:  Travels 
in  the  Old  World  provided  helpful  information  about  the 
Holy  Land;  and  the  other  two  volumes  dealt  with  moun- 
tain people:  Blue  Ridge  Breezes  and  The  Hill  Billies. 

Journal  of  the  Virginia  Conference,  1939. 
Richmond  Christian  Advocate,  May  26,  1932. 

George  S.  Reamey 

ROWLAND,  THOMAS  (c.  1790-1858),  British  Methodist, 
one  of  the  leading  Wesleyan  Reformers,  became  a  Wes- 


ROWLANDS,   DANIEL 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


leyan  itinerant  in  1813.  He  was  the  only  member  of 
Conference  to  vote  against  the  expulsion  of  Samuel 
Warren  in  1835,  and  himself  ceased  to  be  recognized  as 
a  Wesleyan  minister  in  1852.  He  later  joined  the  ministry 
of  the  Unfted  Methodist  Free  Churches. 

G.  Ernest  Long 

ROWLANDS,  DANIEL  (1713-1790),  Welsh  Methodist, 
second  son  of  the  rector  of  Llangeitho,  Cardiganshire, 
Wales,  where  he  became  curate  to  his  brother  John,  who 
had  succeeded  to  the  living  on  their  father's  death  in  1731. 
Rowlands  was  ordained  deacon  in  1733,  priest  in  1735. 
About  1735  a  sermon  by  Griffith  Jon-es  of  Llanddowror 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  him,  and  he  became  an 
eloquent  evangelical  preacher.  In  1737  Howell  Harris, 
who  had  himself  begun  preaching  (as  a  layman)  in  1735, 
heard  him  and  sought  his  acquaintance.  The  clergyman 
Rowlands  then  followed  the  example  of  the  layman  Harris 
in  founding  religious  societies,  the  beginning  of  the  Welsh 
Calvinistic  Methodists.  At  the  first  general  assembly 
or  "association"  of  these  societies  in  1743,  Rowlands  was 
appointed  deputy-moderator  to  act  in  the  absence  of 
George  Whitefield.  This  in  effect  meant  that  he  be- 
came the  leader  of  the  movement.  Tension  with  Harris 
followed,  and  an  incompletely  healed  rupture  in  1751. 
Because  of  his  Methodist  activities  Rowlands  was  sus- 
pended by  his  bishop  in  1763  from  the  exercise  of  his 
functions  as  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England.  He 
continued  to  minister  in  a  new  building  erected  for 
him  at  Llangeitho,  where  he  died  Oct.  16,  1790. 

Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

Journal  of  the  Calvinistic  Methodist  Historical  Society,  Vol. 

XII,  pp.  41-64,  June  1927. 

W.  Williams,  Welsh  Calvinistic  Methodism.  1884. 

Frank  Baker 

ROWSE,  WILLIAM  (1835-1899),  New  Zealand  minister, 
was  bom  in  Cornwall,  England.  When  twenty-three,  he 
was  accepted  as  a  minister  on  probation,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  same  year  came  to  New  Zealand. 

After  serving  as  a  probationer  in  Canterbury  and  Auck- 
land he  was  appointed  in  1863  to  the  Maori  Mission.  For 
fifteen  years  he  served  at  Waima  in  North  Auckland.  By 
boat  and  by  horseback  he  covered  a  wide  circuit.  During 
that  time  village  schools  were  opened;  teachers  trained; 
churches  built;  young  men  sent  out  as  local  preachers; 
and  a  people  sunk  in  the  depths  of  degradation  through 
liquor  were  won  from  its  cruel  bondage. 

For  the  sake  of  his  family,  Rowse  returned  to  circuit 
work  in  1878  and  died  in  Greytown  on  July  15,  1899. 
His  was  a  devoted  life,  free  from  all  self-advertisement, 
and  many  were  the  people  he  won  to  faith  in  goodness  and 
in  God. 


W.   Morley,   New  Zealand.    1900. 


William   T.   Blight 


ROYAL  OAK,  MICHIGAN,  U.S.A.  First  Church,  begun  as 
a  "preaching  place  in  a  six-point  circuit,"  is  the  parent  of 
seven  adjacent  Methodist  churches  in  the  expanding  sub- 
urbs of  metropolitan  Detroit. 

This  church  was  organized  in  1838,  the  town's  first 
permanent  church  organization,  although  itinerant  Meth- 
odist ministers  had  preached  under  the  trees  or  in  a 
vacant  store  room  before  that  date.  J.  M.  Arnold  was 
one  of  the  early  ministers. 


The  first  church  building,  of  white  frame  with  an 
attractive  cupola,  was  completed  in  1843  on  the  present 
site  at  a  cost  of  $1,500.  A  parsonage  was  erected  forty 
years  later  at  a  cost  of  $1,250,  when  Eugene  Yager  was  the 
pastor. 

In  1890  the  first  church  was  replaced  by  a  brick  struc- 
ture at  a  cost  of  $5,000,  plus  much  donated  labor.  The 
brick  was  donated  by  Edwin  Starr,  one  of  the  members, 
from  his  own  kiln.  This  served  until  the  first  unit  of  the 
present  structure  was  built  in  1918  at  a  cost  of  $90,000, 
under  the  pastorate  of  Oscar  Thomas  Olson. 

In  1928  the  present  church  building  was  completed 
under  the  pastorate  of  Eugene  Miles  Moore,  at  a  cost  of 
$155,000.  Since  then,  reconstruction  and  renovation  have 
produced  a  plant  valued  at  $1,346,090,  with  a  sanctuary 
seating  875  and  a  four-level  educational  complex.  The 
church  presently  underwrites  a  benevolence  budget  of 
$42,000. 

The  seven  churches  which  First  Church  has  sponsored 
are:  St.  John's  and  Campbell  Memorial  in  Royal  Oak; 
Berkley  Church;  Hazel  Park  Church;  Femdale  Church; 
Faith  Church  in  Oak  Park;  and  Madison  in  Madison 
Heights. 

The  membership  includes  many  prominent  citizens, 
among  whom  are  several  professors  at  Wayne  State  Uni- 
versity, a  member  of  Congress,  three  judges,  numerous 
industrialists  and  public  school  personnel.  In  1970  the 
church  reported  a  membership  of  2,811. 


General  Minutes. 


Marshall  A.  Wheatley 


RUBLE,  JOHN  H.  (181i-1836),  pioneer  American  circuit 
rider,  was  born  in  Washington  County,  Tenn.  Converted 
under  camp  meeting  influences,  he  became  a  class 
leader  of  the  M.E.  Church.  Migrating  to  Illinois,  he 
received  a  preaching  license  Nov.  25,  1832,  from  Jackson- 
ville Circuit,  Sangamon  District.  Removing  again  to  Mis- 
souri, Ruble  was  employed  by  William  Ketron,  Cape 
Girardeau  District  presiding  elder,  to  travel  Bellevue  Cir- 
cuit with  Nathaniel  Talbott.  After  three  months  he  was 
sent  to  White  River  Circuit  in  Arkansas.  He  joined  the 
Missouri  Conference  on  trial,  Sept.  4,  1833,  and  was 
sent  back  to  the  White  River  country.  His  next  work  was 
at  Lexington,  Mo.  In  1835  he  was  admitted  into  full 
connection,  ordained  a  deacon,  and  appointed  to  Burhng- 
ton  Circuit,  St.  Louis  District. 

Ruble,  the  first  Methodist  preacher  to  be  married  in 
Iowa,  took  as  his  wife  Diana  Bowen  in  Burlington,  in 
February  1836,  and  they  began  living  in  Mt.  Pleasant,  a 
hamlet  of  three  houses,  where  he  preached  the  first  ser- 
mon. He  was  authorized  to  perform  marriage  rites  by 
William  R.  Ross,  Des  Moines  County  Clerk,  Michigan 
Territory,  on  Oct.  31,  1835. 

Taken  with  a  fever  at  Sullivan  Ross's  home  in  Burling- 
ton, la..  Ruble  died  there  April  14,  1836,  the  first  Meth- 
odist itinerant  to  die  in  Iowa.  The  place  of  his  burial  at 
Mt.  Pleasant  is  marked  by  a  stone  monument,  erected 
about  I860  and  restored  in  1934. 

Annals  of  Iowa,  April  1936. 

A.  W.  Haines,  Makers  of  Iowa  Methodism.  1900. 

Martin  L.  Greer 

RUDDLE,  THOMAS  (1839-1909),  British  educator,  was 
bom  at  Trowbridge,  Wiltshire,  Nov.  15,  1839.  The  son  of 
a  factory  worker,  he  trained  as  a  teacher,  and  in   1864 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RUIZ   MUNOZ,    ALEJANDRO 


was  appointed  headmaster  of  the  Bible  Christian  School, 
Shebbear  College,  then  very  small.  He  had  greatly 
raised  the  academic  standing  of  the  school  by  the  time  of 
his  retirement  in  1909.  He  died  on  Oct.  17,  1909. 

John  Kent 

RUDISILL,  ABRAHAM  WEHRLEY  (1846-1889),  was  bom 
in  Hanover,  Pa.  He  joined  the  Baltimore  Conference 
in  1870  and  held  various  appointments  in  Maryland, 
including  presiding  elder  of  the  West  Baltimore  District. 
In  1884  he  arrived  in  India  as  a  missionary  of  the  M.E. 
Church. 

As  a  layman,  Rudisill  had  been  a  practical  printer.  As 
presiding  elder  of  the  Madras  District,  he  felt  the  need  of 
reading  material  for  church  members  and  for  the  un- 
converted. He  obtained  a  boy's  press  which  would  print 
a  leaflet  four  by  six  inches,  and  a  small  font  of  Tamil 
type.  With  this  meager  equipment,  he  began  printing  in 
a  small  room  near  the  parsonage. 

Mrs.  Rudisill  started  a  Tamil  edition  of  The  Woman's 
Friend,  and  her  husband  pubhshed  it.  In  a  few  years 
Rudisill  was  superintendent  of  a  publishing  house  which 
he  then  named  for  his  wife,  the  Mary  M.  Rudisill  Pub- 
lishing House.  Soon  known  as  the  Methodist  Publishing 
House,  it  produced  literature  for  the  blind  in  Kanarese, 
Tamil,  Telugu,  and  English.  When  publishing  houses  mul- 
tiplied and  competition  became  severe,  the  property  was 
sold;  and  after  accumulated  debts  had  been  paid,  the 
remaining  resources  and  responsibilities  were  transferred 
to  the  Methodist  Pubhshing  House  of  Lucknow. 

Mrs.  RudisiU  died  in  1889  and  Rudisill  went  back  to 
America  in  poor  health.  He  died  there  a  few  months  later. 

J.  Waskom  Pickett 

RUGG,  EARLE  MELVIN  (1888-1952),  American  mission- 
ary to  India,  was  bom  at  Farmington,  N.  Y.,  on  April 
15,  1888.  He  was  educated  at  Rochester  University  (A.B., 
1913);  Boston  University  School  of  Theology  (S.T.B., 
1916);  Syracuse  University  (M.Sc,  in  Education, 
1940);  and  received  an  honorary  D.D.  from  Southwest- 
ern University  in  1948.  He  married  Ellen  Martha  Foote 
on  Sept.  7,  1915.  She  was  bom  in  Naini  Tal,  India,  of  mis- 
sionary parents,  and  had  graduated  from  Rochester  Uni- 
versity in  1913  with  a  B.A.  in  mathematics.  Their  children 
were  Melvin,  Jean,  Grace  (died,  1959,  following  an  auto- 
mobile accident),  and  Harold. 

In  1916  Earle  and  EUen  Rugg  arrived  in  India  under 
appointment  to  Ajmere,  Rajputana,  for  general  mission 
work.  Later  he  became  principal  of  Boys  High  School, 
Ajmere.  In  1926  he  was  principal  of  the  Boys'  School, 
Raiwind,  Punjab.  He  faced  difficulties  of  the  depression 
with  a  restricted  budget  and  necessary  retrenchments. 
He  also  gave  notable  service  as  the  director  of  Raiwind 
Christian  Institute  where  he  combined  skill  as  a  church- 
man and  evangelist;  also  as  educator  with  results  recog- 
nized as  valuable  by  the  government  officials,  by  church 
officers,  and  by  humble  neglected  victims  of  an  impov- 
erished economy. 

Rugg's  methods  of  teaching  trades  and  improving  farm 
procedures  were  adopted  as  a  model  by  many  private  and 
governmental  schools.  He  assisted  the  Technical  Services 
Association  in  devising  better  spinning  wheels  and  pumps, 
and  helped  organize  more  remunerative  employment  for 
women.  Both  Earle  and  Ellen  Rugg  served  as  teachers. 


High  standards  of  scholarship  and  efficiency  were  de- 
veloped. 

His  other  services  were  as  editor  of  the  magazine 
Christian  Education  for  several  years;  Methodist  repre- 
sentative of  the  Round  Table  Conference  Committee  for 
Church  Union;  valued  member  of  the  Punjab  Christian 
Council,  which  became  the  West  Pakistan  Christian  Coun- 
cil after  1947  when  Pakistan  was  formed.  As  chairman 
of  the  Committee  on  High  Schools,  he  helped  the  schools 
through  the  difficulties  of  the  first  years  of  Pakistan  in- 
dependence. Rugg  was  a  delegate  to  the  M.E.  General 
Conference  of  1932;  and  to  the  Central  Conference 
in  1928  and  1936. 

He  was  elected  president  of  the  Christian  Council  in 
1952,  a  short  time  before  his  tragic  death  in  Lahore  Hos- 
pital following  a  refrigerator  explosion  accident  in  Rai- 
wind. The  Ruggs  served  continuously  in  Raiwind  except 
for  their  several  furloughs  from  1926  to  1952. 

Clement  D.  Rockey 


Alejandro  Ruiz 

RUIZ  MUNOZ,  ALEJANDRO  (1921-  ),  bishop  of  The 
Methodist  Church  of  Mexico,  was  born  in  San  Luis  Potosi, 
June  31,  1921.  His  early  preparation  was  in  the  field  of 
commerce.  He  graduated  from  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  Mexico  City  and  did  postgraduate  work  for 
one  year  at  Southern  Methodist  University  School  of 
Theology  in  Dallas,  Tex.  He  married  Ruth  Guerra,  the 
daughter  of  Bishop  Eleazar  Guerra,  and  they  are  the 
parents  of  five  children. 

As  a  member  of  the  intermediate  department  of  the 
Gante  Street  Church  in  Mexico  City,  Alejandro  Ruiz  was 
sent  by  his  pastor,  Epigmenio  Velasco,  to  help  lead  a  small 
mission  in  a  rural  congregation.  There  he  felt  the  call  to 
the  ministry,  an  experience  which  was  strengthened  later 
as  he  witnessed  the  faith  and  joy  of  his  dying  pastor  in 
the  hospital. 

He  entered  the  conference  in  1943,  was  ordained  dea- 
con in  1945,  and  elder  in  1948  by  Bishop  Guerra.  He 
held  charges  at  Balderas,  1943-44,  Peralvillo,  1945-46, 
Xalostoc,  1948-49,  Aztecas,  1949-50,  and  Balderas,  1951- 
54.  He  was  elected  executive  secretary  of  Christian  Educa- 
tion, 1955-62. 

He  was  first  elected  bishop  (Iglesia  Metodista  de  Mexi- 
co) for  the  period  1963-66;  and  subsequently  at  the  Gen- 


RULE,   WILLIAM   HARRIS 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


eral  Conference  held  in  Monterrey,  September  1966,  he 
was  re-elected  and  again  at  the  Mexico  City  General  Con- 
ference, July  19-26,  1970  re-elected  for  the  quadrennium 
beginning  then. 

Bishop  Ruiz  is  a  young,  energetic  and  understanding 
leader.  He  is  an  excellent  speaker,  a  good  organizer,  and 
a  most  efficient  worker  with  young  people.  His  aim  is  to 
help  the  church  become  self-supporting  and  to  find  the 
place  in  which  each  member  of  the  conference  can  render 
the  best  service  to  the  cause. 

Gustavo  A.  Velasco  G. 

RULE,  WILLIAM  HARRIS  (1802-1890),  British  Methodist, 
born  at  Penrhyn,  Cornwall,  Nov.  15,  1802.  After  early 
experiments  as  a  portrait  painter  and  a  school  teacher,  in 
1826  he  entered  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry,  and  be- 
came an  ardent  student.  He  served  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Missionary  Society  in  Malta  (1827),  St.  Vincent 
(1827-31),  and  Gibraltar  (1832-1841),  which  latter 
place  he  used  as  a  stepping-stone  for  enthusiastic  and 
partially  successful  attempts  at  missionary  work  among 
Roman  Catholics  in  Spain.  The  following  twenty-six  years 
of  a  vigorous  active  ministry  in  England  included  five 
years  as  Connexional  Editor  (1851-57)  and  eight  years 
in  pioneer  chaplaincy  work  among  Wesleyan  soldiers  at 
Aldershot  (1857-65).  Rule  is  said  to  have  mastered  ten 
languages,  and  was  a  prolific  writer,  his  chief  work  being 
a  monumental  History  of  the  Inquisition  (1868).  His  writ- 
ings on  Methodism  included  A  Memoir  of  a  Mission  to 
Gibraltar  and  Spain  (1844),  An  Account  of  the  Estab- 
lishment of  Wesleyan  Methodism  in  the  British  Army 
(1883),  and  Recollections  of  my  life  and  work  at  home 
and  abroad  in  connection  with  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Conference  (1886).  In  1854  he  was  awarded  the  D.D. 
by  Dickinson  College.  He  died  Sept.  25,  1890. 

Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

Findlay  and  Holdsworth,  Wesleyan  Meth.  Miss.  Soc,  iv,  1922. 

Frank  Baker 

RULES  OF  THE  METHODISTS,  in  eighteenth-century  En- 
gland. On  the  founding  of  the  early  Methodist  societies, 
John  Wesley  drew  up  his  Nature,  Design  and  General 
Rules  of  the  United  Societies  in  London,  Bristol,  Kings- 
wood  and  Newcastle  upon  Tyne  (first  edition,  John  Good- 
ing on  the  Side,  Newcasde  upon  Tyne,  1743).  He 
subsequently  issued  rules  which  are  to  be  found  as  follows 
in  Wesley's  Works  (T.  Jackson's  third  edition):  bands 
(viii,  272);  class  leaders  (viii,  301);  helpers  (viii, 
309);  stewards  (viii,  262);  preachers  and  Preachers' 
Fund  (viii,  326,  317);  congregational  singing  (viii,  318; 
xiv,  346).  For  Rules  of  the  Fetter  Lane  society  (May  1, 
1738),  see  Wesley's  Journal  (i,  458).  (See  also  General 
Rules.  ) 

John  Bowmeb 

RUNOLE,  ROBERT  TERRILL  (1811-1896),  English  mission- 
ary to  the  Indians  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Territory,  was  bom 
in  Nylor,  Cornwall,  England,  June  18,  1811,  the  third  son 
of  Robert  and  Grace  Rundle,  and  grandson  of  the  promi- 
nent Methodist  lay  evangehst,  William  Carvosso. 

In  1839,  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  reached  an  agree- 
ment with  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  in  England 


to  send  the  first  party  of  missionaries  into  the  area  west 
of  the  Red  River  settlement  of  British  North  America. 
James  Evans,  an  experienced  missionar>'  in  Upper 
Canada,  was  chosen  as  the  superintendent;  and  three 
young  men,  Rundle,  Mason  and  Bamley,  were  recruited 
in  England  to  serve  with  him. 

After  sailing  to  New  York  in  April  1840,  they  jour- 
neyed to  Montreal  and  were  carried  by  the  company 
canoes  to  their  destinations,  Bamley  to  Moose  Factory, 
Mason  to  Lac  la  Pluie,  and  Rundle  to  Fort  Edmonton. 
Since  Evans  failed  to  meet  the  brigade  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
Rundle  remained  at  Norway  House,  at  the  north  end  of 
Lake  Winnipeg,  until  Evans'  arrival.  His  first  and  highly 
successful  missionary  activity  was  among  the  Cree  Indians 
of  the  Norway  House  region.  It  required  from  September 
7  to  October  17  for  the  company  canoes  to  fight  their 
way  up  the  current  of  the  North  Saskatchewan  to  Fort 
Edmonton,  the  scene  of  eight  years'  arduous  and  often  un- 
rewarding labor. 

While  Rundle 's  room  at  the  fort  was  constantly  avail- 
able, he  travelled  regularly  to  the  forts  at  Rocky  Mountain 
House  in  the  south.  Lesser  Slave  Lake  to  the  north.  Fort 
Pitt  to  the  east,  and  to  countless  encampments  of  Indians 
— thousands  of  miles  by  horseback,  cariole,  canoe,  and  on 
foot.  Perhaps  the  most  impressive  single  experience  began 
at  Rocky  Mountain  House  Fort  in  1841.  Having  long 
dreaded  an  encounter  with  the  famed  Blackfoot  tribe,  he 
met  them  unexpectedly  and  was  received  with  great 
warmth  and  affection.  He  went  alone  with  them  to  their 
camps  and  was  escorted  back  to  Fort  Edmonton  by  a 
Blackfoot  warrior. 

He  introduced  the  Cree  Syllabic  recently  invented  by 
James  Evans,  taught  singing,  and  conducted  classes 
wherever  he  went.  While  evangelism  was  his  primary  pur- 
pose, he  soon  became  oppressed  by  the  recurrent  starva- 
tion of  the  Indian  peoples  and  their  entire  lack  of  agri- 
culture. After  repeated  experiments  with  small  gardens,  he 
obtained  the  assistance  of  Benjamin  Sinclair,  a  native 
Swamp  Cree  from  Norway  House,  to  assist  in  the  forma- 
tion of  an  agricultural  settlement  on  the  shore  of  Pigeon 
Lake  in  1847,  the  first  such  attempt  in  the  western  re- 
gion. Unfortunately  his  wrist  was  broken  in  a  fall  before 
Sinclair  arrived,  and  in  the  summer  of  1848  he  was  forced 
to  return  to  England  for  medical  care. 

Rundle  did  not  return,  nor  was  he  replaced  from  En- 
gland. He  married,  served  a  succession  of  circuits  until 
his  superannuation  in  1887;  and  died  in  1896. 

The  importance  of  Bundle's  work  was  obscured  for 
many  by  the  arrival  of  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  in 
1842  with  consequent  rivalry  and  confusion,  by  the  dis- 
turbance surrounding  the  work  of  James  Evans  and 
Evans'  death  in  1846,  by  Bundle's  misfortune  and  return 
to  England  in  1848,  and  by  the  transfer  from  English  to 
Canadian  control  in  1854. 

Recognition  and  honor  were  accorded  to  him  as  his 
work  came  to  be  seen  in  longer  perspective.  In  the  same 
year  that  David  Livingstone  was  making  his  first  African 
journey,  Rundle  was  making  the  first  missionary  approach 
to  the  western  tribes.  He  was  accepted  warmly  by  the 
Blackfoot  and  Stoney,  Assiniboine  and  Cree,  and  they 
remembered  him.  Early  travelers  such  as  artist  Paul  Kane 
and  the  Earl  of  Southesk,  saw  the  effects  of  his  work  and 
eulogized  him  in  their  writings.  J.  Hector  of  the  Palliser 
Expedition  was  successful  in  having  a  mountain  named  in 
his  honor.  All  succeeding  missionaries  found  a  door 
opened  and  a  path  prepared  toward  Christian  understand- 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RUSH,   CHRISTOPHER 


ing  and  a  successful  agriculture  because  Robert  Terrill 
Rundle  had  been  there  before  them. 

Records  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionary  Society. 
United    Church    of    Canada,    Rundle    in    Alberta    (Toronto: 
U.C.P.H.,   1940).  G.  M   Hutchinson 

RUPERT,  HOOVER.  (See  Jitoicial  Council.) 


E.  Gordon  Rupp 

RUPP,  E.  GORDON  (1910-  ),  British  church  historian, 

was  bom  in  London  Jan.  7,  1910;  he  entered  the  minis- 
try of  the  Methodist  Church  in  1934  and  studied  at  Wes- 
ley House,  Cambridge.  After  a  period  of  circuit  work  at 
Chislehurst  in  Kent  (1938-46),  he  returned  to  Wesley 
House  as  assistant  to  R.  Newton  Flew,  who  was  presi- 
dent in  1946-47.  Rupp  was  appointed  church  history  tutor 
at  Richmond  Theological  College  in  1947,  and  stayed 
there  until  1952,  when  he  went  to  Cambridge  to  lecture 
on  Reformation  history.  In  1956  he  was  appointed  the 
first  professor  in  church  history  at  Manchester  University, 
where  he  remained  until  1967,  when  he  returned  once 
more  to  Wesley  House,  Cambridge,  this  time  as  principal. 
He  was  president  of  the  Methodist  Conference  in  1968. 

Rupp  holds  a  Doctorate  of  Divinity  from  Cambridge 
University,  and  an  honorary  D.D.  from  Aberdeen  Univer- 
sity. He  is  a  Reformation  scholar,  having  specialized  in 
the  life  and  writings  of  Martin  Luther.  He  has  taken  a 
prominent  part  in  the  ecumenical  movement,  and  has 
been  one  of  the  principal  Methodist  advocates  of  union 
between  the  Methodist  Church  in  Britain  and  the  Church 
of  England. 

Rupp's  publications  include  Martin  Luther,  Hitler's 
Cause  or  Cure?  (1945),  a  book  written  in  reply  to  the 
assertion  that  Luther  was  Hitler's  spiritual  ancestor; 
Studies  in  the  Making  of  the  English  Protestant  Tradi- 
tion: Mainly  in  the  Reign  of  Henry  VHI  (1947);  Luther's 
Progress  to  the  Diet  of  Worms  (1951);  Principalities  and 
Powers  (1952);  The  Righteousness  of  God  (1953), 
originally  the  Birkbeck  lectures;   Thomas  Jackson,  Meth- 


odist Patriarch,  the  annual  lecture  of  the  Wesleyan 
Historical  Society  for  1954;  Consideration  Reconsidered 
(1964),  a  contribution  to  the  Anglican-Methodist  debate. 
He  has  been  the  editor  (with  Rupert  E.  Davis)  of  A 
History  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Great  Britain,  the 
first  volume  of  which  was  pubUshed  in  1965,  and  for 
which  he  wrote  a  valuable  introductory  essay.  An  earlier 
work  on  the  same  subject,  "Methodism  in  Relation  to  the 
Protestant  Tradition,"  was  dehvered  at  the  Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference  of  1951. 

Peter  Stephens 

RUSBY,  HELEN  B.,  missionary  to  Bolivl\,  worked  in  the 
country  from  1919  to  1956,  returning  for  six  months  a  few 
years  later.  She  taught  at  the  American  Institute  (now 
CoLEGio  EvANGELico  Metodista)  in  La  Paz  and  was 
housemother  to  the  smaller  boys.  Among  them  were  a 
future  president  and  vice-president  of  Bolivia  and  other 
prominent  citizens.  Among  her  dormitory  boys  were  an 
ambassador  to  London,  several  prominent  businessmen,  a 
professor  of  Spanish,  and  some  boys  whom  she  indirectly 
influenced  to  go  into  the  ministry.  When  Miss  Rusby  re- 
tired in  1956  the  Bolivian  government  gave  her  the 
"Condor"  award  for  her  influence  upon  Bolivian  boys. 
She  is  one  of  six  or  seven  Methodist  missionaries  to  re- 
ceive this  prize. 

The  Methodist  Church  in  Bolivia,  published  in  English  and 
Spanish  by  the  Historical  Committee  of  The  Methodist  Church 
in   Bolivia,    1961.  Natalie  Barber 

RUSH,  CHRISTOPHER  (1777-1873),  the  second  superin- 
tendent of  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church,  was  bom  in  Craven 
County,  N.  C,  Feb.  4,  1777.  He  was  converted  at  the  age 
of  sixteen.  While  it  is  not  known  whether  he  was 
"manumitted  or  purchased"  through  his  own  industry  or 
the  benevolence  of  friends,  he  himself  states  that  he  came 
to  New  York  in  1798,  joining  the  A.M.E.  Zion  Church  in 
1803.  In  1815  he  was  hcensed  to  preach.  He  was  ordained 
DEACON  and  elder  on  the  same  day  in  1822.  In  1828 
he  was  elected  superintendent  and  is  supposed  to  have 
served  four  years  "with  Varick  in  this  position."  It  appears 
that  he  served  the  church  twenty  years  following  the 
death  of  Superintendent  James  Varick.  There  is  a 
discrepancy  here  in  that  Varick  is  hsted  as  the  first  super- 
intendent from  1822-27.  Bishop  Singleton  T.  Jones  gives 
the  information  hsted  above  in  which  Rush  is  said  to  have 
served  four  years  with  Varick.  This,  too,  is  a  little  amiss 
for  Rush  is  said  to  have  lost  his  sight  in  1852,  which  would 
mean  that  he  served  twenty-six  years  or  twenty-eight  in 
all.  Bishop  J.  W.  Hood  states  that  he  served  twenty-four 
years.  Whether  Varick  failed  of  re-election  in  1828  or  died 
prior  to  the  General  Conference  of  that  date  is  a  moot 
question.  Hood  states  that  he  died  shortly  before  that 
Conference  while  Flood  carried  the  account  that  Varick 
and  Rush  shared  the  superintendent's  honors  for  four 
years. 

Again  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  on  the  death  of 
Superintendent  Rush.  Flood  states  that  he  died  July  6, 
1873  in  his  ninety-sixth  year  while  the  Ofiicial  Directory 
issued  by  J.  Harvey  Anderson  puts  his  death  a  year  earlier. 
Supposing  that  he  lost  his  eyesight  in  1852,  according  to 
Flood  the  grand  old  man  lived  twenty-one  years  in  dark- 
ness, part  of  the  time  confined  to  his  room.  He  maintained 


RUSLING,    JOSEPH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


a  keen  mind  to  the  last.  He  is  buried  in  Cypress  Hill 
Cemetery  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

One  aspect  of  Father  Rush's  life  which  is  mainly  over- 
looked is  his  effort  to  further  education.  It  was  he  who 
secured  the  property  for  the  planned  school  in  Esse.x 
County,  N.  Y.  While  this  effort  failed  it  early  showed  the 
interest  of  the  church  leaders  in  higher  education. 

D.  H.  Bradley,  A.M.E.  Zion  Church.  1956. 

J.  W.  Hood,  One  Hundred  Years.  1895. 

J.  J.  Moore,  History  (AMEZ).  1884. 

C.  Rush,  Short  Account.  1843.  David  H.  Bradley 

RUSLING,  JOSEPH  (1788-1839),  American  minister  noted 
for  his  pulpit  oratory  and  executive  ability,  was  bom  near 
Epworth,  England,  May  12,  1788.  He  came  to  the  United 
States  with  his  parents  in  1791,  and  joined  the  M.E. 
Church  in  1808.  In  1814  he  joined  the  Philadelphia 
Conference  on  trial,  and  leaping  into  almost  immediate 
prominence,  filled  important  appointments  in  Trenton, 
Philadelphia  and  Wilmington.  He  suffered  from  a 
pulmonary  disorder,  however,  and  leaving  the  pastorate, 
founded  the  first  Methodist  Book  Store  in  Philadelphia 
in  1829,  employing  as  a  clerk  Abel  Stevens  who  later 
became  the  outstanding  Methodist  historian  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Rusling  wrote  several  small  volumes  of 
poetry,  hymns  and  sermons.  He  died  July  6,  1839. 

Minutes  of  the  Annual  Conferences,  Vol.  III. 

M.    Simpson,    Cyclopaedia.    1878.        Frederick    E.    Maser 

RUSSEL,  JOHN  (1799-1870),  American  United  Brethren 
circuit  rider,  pastor,  administrator  and  bishop,  was  born 
March  18,  1799  in  the  Pipe  Creek  region  of  western 
Maryland.  His  parents  were  Jacob  and  Amelia  (Smith) 
Russel.  His  paternal  grandfather  arrived  in  America  from 
Germany  on  the  ship  Patience,  Sept.  17,  1738. 

Philip  W.  Otterbein  made  occasional  visits  to  the  Pipe 
Creek  settlement  and  rendered  limited  pastoral  service. 
Through  him  the  Russels  became  identified  with  the  re- 
vival movement  of  the  late  1700's  and  early  1800's.  In 
1818  John  Russel  was  licensed  as  an  exhorter  in  the 
Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ  and  traveled 
a  Virginia  circuit;  in  1819  he  was  fonnally  licensed  and 
was  sent  to  Ohio  where  he  traveled  a  circuit  spread  over 
six  counties.  To  prevent  being  lost  in  the  forests  he  carried 
a  hatchet  in  his  saddlebags  for  the  purpose  of  blazing 
trails.  He  was  ordained  in  1822  and  in  1833,  with  Jona- 
than and  George  Dresbach,  established  the  first  printing 
plant  of  the  United  Brethren,  and  launched  the  Religious 
Telescope,  the  official  organ  of  the  denomination.  When 
financial  troubles  beset  the  institution  he  loaned  large 
sums  of  money  at  little  or  no  interest  to  keep  it  from 
bankruptcy. 

In  1838  John  Russel  was  called  to  the  pastorate  of  the 
Otterbein  Church  in  Baltimore,  serving  1838-41,  and 
again  1851-54.  In  the  interim  between  pastorates  and 
afterward  he  served  as  presiding  elder,  publishing  agent, 
and  bishop.  He  was  elected  to  serve  in  eight  sessions  of 
the  General  Conference.  The  General  Conference  of 
1845  elected  him  bishop  for  four  years.  Not  being  re- 
elected in  1849,  he  returned  to  his  conference.  Then  in 
1857  he  was  re-elected  for  an  additional  four  years. 

Largely  self-educated,  Russel  became  an  editor  of  Ger- 
man literature  and  the  compiler  of  a  German  hymnal.  As 
a  pulpit  orator  and  in  public  debate  he  had  few  equals. 


In  the  days  when  his  denomination  had  no  theological 
seminary,  after  his  retirement  to  his  farm  near  Keedysville, 
Md.,  he  conducted  seminars  for  ministerial  students.  The 
student  body,  at  one  time  numbering  fourteen,  worked 
on  the  farm  in  the  mornings  for  room  and  board,  and  were 
taught  by  Russel  in  the  afternoons.  His  spacious  home 
was  used  as  a  hospital  during  the  Civil  War  following 
the  battle  of  Antietam. 

Mrs.  Russel,  who  was  a  Miss  Harmon,  entered  fuDy 
into  the  life  and  labors  of  her  minister  husband.  In  addi- 
tion to  her  family  and  church  duties,  she  made  the  bishop's 
clothing.  Russel  himself  made  his  own  shoes.  At  his  death 
Dec.  21,  1870,  near  Keedysville,  it  was  found  that  he  had 
willed  large  sums  of  money  for  the  education  of  young 
ministers. 

Paul   E.   Holdcraft,   History  of   the  Pennsylvania   Conference. 

FayetteviUe,  Pa.:  Craft  Press,  1938. 

Koontz  and  Roush,  The  Bishops.  1950.  Paul  E.  Holdcraft 

RUSSELL,  CHARLES  LEE  (1886-1948),  twenty-first  bishop 
of  the  C.M.E.  Church,  was  born  on  Sept.  22,  1886,  in 
Campbell,  Clark  County,  Ala.  He  received  an  A.B.  degree 
from  Frelinghusen  College,  the  Bachelor  of  Hebrew  and 
S.T.B.  degrees  from  Veshiva  College,  and  an  M.A.  degree 
from  Dropsie  University  for  Hebrew  and  Cognate  Learn- 
ings in  Philadelphia.  He  served  as  parish  minister  and 
presiding  elder  in  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  Ken- 
tucky, and  Washington,  D.C.  He  was  the  author  of 
several  periodicals,  books,  and  pamphlets,  especially  Light 
From  the  Talmud.  At  the  General  Conference  in  1938, 
he  was  elected  to  the  office  of  bishop.  As  a  bishop  he 
made  a  significant  contribution  in  beginning  a  rehabilita- 
tion and  expansion  campaign  in  his  episcopal  area.  He 
died  on  Feb.  8,  1948,  and  was  buried  in  Washington, 
D.C. 

Harris  and  Patterson,  C.M.E.  Church.  1965.  Ralph  G.  Gay 

RUSSELL,  ELIZABETH  HENRY  (1749-1825),  or  'Madam 
Russell,"  pioneer  American  Methodist  in  the  Holston  area 
of  Tennessee  and  Virginia,  was  born  in  Hanover  County, 
Va.,  July  10,  1749.  In  1776  she  married  Colonel  William 
Campbell,  a  hero  of  the  battle  of  King's  Mountain,  who 
died  in  1781.  In  1783  she  married  General  William 
Russell  of  Aspenvale,  Va.,  and  soon  thereafter  they  setded 
at  Saltville,  or  "the  Salt  Lick,"  where  he  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  salt. 

In  1788  Asbury  held  the  first  conference  west  of  the 
Alleghenies  at  the  home  of  Stephen  Keywood  near  Salt- 
ville. During  that  conference  both  General  and  Mrs.  Rus- 
sell were  converted,  and  she  became  "probably  more 
eminent  in  the  Methodist  pioneer  history  of  America  than 
any  other  woman."  The  General  died  in  1793  and  Madam 
Russell  moved  to  a  spacious  log  house  near  Abingdon, 
Va.  There  she  had  a  "prophet's  chamber"  where  preachers 
were  entertained,  and  she  kept  in  the  house  a  movable 
pulpit  for  preaching  services. 

When  James  Madison  was  a  candidate  for  president  of 
the  United  States  he  visited  General  Francis  Preston,  son- 
in-law  of  Mrs.  Russell,  at  Saltville.  Madison  called  on 
Madam  Russell  and  she  prayed  for  him  as  the  prospective 
head  of  the  nation.  He  is  reported  to  have  said,  "I  have 
heard  all  the  first  orators  of  America,  but  I  never  heard 
any  eloquence  as  great  as  that  prayer  of  Mrs.  Russell." 

Madam  Russell  was  a  friend  of  Asbury  and  entertained 


WORLD   METHODISM 


him  in  her  home  on  several  occasions.  She  died  March  18, 
1825,  and  was  buried  at  Aspenvale  at  her  own  request. 
The  church  at  Saltville  is  called  the  Madam  Russell  Memo- 
rial Church. 

Clyde   E.    Lundy,    Holston   Horizons.    Bristol,   Term.:    Holston 

Conference  Inter-Board  Council,  1947. 

I.  P.  Martin,  Hohton.  194.5. 

R.  N.  Price,  Hohton.  1903-13.  Elmer  T.  Clark 

RUSSELLVILLE,  KENTUCKY,  U.S.A.  The  Methodist  Temple 

is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  revered  churches  of  Ken- 
tucky, the  sanctuar\'  being  widely  kno\\'n  for  its  beautiful 
stained  glass  windows.  Redford  lists  only  nine  cities  in 
Kentucky  in  1811  in  which  Methodist  churches  had  then 
been  organized  and  Russellville  was  one  of  them.  The 
first  society  was  organized  diere  in  1808  with  ten  charter 
members.  They  met  in  a  frame  house  on  the  corner  of 
Spring  and  Fourth  Streets  for  about  ten  years,  and  the 
Methodists  were  the  first  organized  church  in  this  city. 
In  1818  they  erected  a  church  building  on  the  corner  of 
Eighth  and  Summer  Streets. 

The  congregation  grew  slowly,  but  under  the  spiritual 
leadership  of  John  Johnson,  one  of  the  more  forceful  early 
preachers,  it  grew  to  twenty-one  members.  His  successor 
was  Edward  Stevenson,  later  president  of  Logan  College. 
Under  his  ministry  Russellville  was  detached  from  a  cir- 
cuit and  became  a  station. 

In  1854  the  present  building  was  erected  under  the 
pastorate  of  Thomas  Bottomly.  Of  red  brick,  this  building 
was  remodeled  in  1917.  In  1962  the  Inez  Carr  Crawford 
Educational  Building  was  erected  under  the  pastorate  of 
Robert  G.  Shaver. 

One  of  the  noted  windows  of  the  church  is  "The  Good 
Shepherd,"  given  by  the  General  Board  of  Church  Exten- 
sion of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  in  loving  memory  of 
David  Morton,  a  native  of  Russellville  and  the  founder 
and  first  secretary  of  the  Church  E.vtension  Program  of 
that  denomination.  Two  of  the  Temples'  former  pastors, 
H.  H.  Kavanaugh  and  Henry  C.  Morrison  were  elected 
to  the  episcopacy. 

On  Aug.  3,  1958,  the  Temple  observed  its  Sesquicenten- 
nial  with  Bishop  W.  T.  Watkins  as  the  speaker.  On  Oct. 
31,  1965,  another  special  celebration  took  place  com- 
memorating the  life  of  John  Littlejohx,  pioneer  preacher 
in  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  who  lies  buried  in  a  little 
cemetery  on  Second  Street  in  Russellville.  Bishop  Roy 
H.  Short  unveiled  a  marker  to  Littlejohn  in  the  town 
square. 

The  1970  church  membership  was  577  and  the  total 
value  of  the  church  property  was  approximately  $400,000. 

General  Minutes,  UMC,  1970. 

A.  H.  Redford,  Kentucky.  1868-70.  Robert  G.  Sh.wer 

RUSSIA.  When  men  from  Finx.^nd  let  their  Macedonian 
cry  be  heard  in  the  Swedish  Conference  in  session  in 
Stockholm  in  1874,  the  presiding  bishop,  William  L. 
Harris,  said  that  he  "saw  the  finger  of  God  point  towards 
Finland  and  Russia."  Ten  years  later  B.  A.  Carlson  was 
appointed  to  Helsinki,  the  capital  of  Finland.  As  soon 
as  possible  he  also  visited  St.  Petersburg,  then  the  capital 
of  the  Russian  Empire,  of  which  Finland  was  a  part. 
After  the  annual  conference  in  1889  Bishop  C.  H.  Fowler 
and  Carlson  visited  the  Russian  capital  and  rented  a  house 
at  Vasili  Ostrofi^.  In  November  of  that  vear  the  first  Meth- 


odist congregation  in  St.  Petersburg  was  organized  with 
seven  members.  The  work  was  carried  on  by  preachers  and 
laymen  from  Finland — one  of  them,  Hjalmar  Salmi,  mas- 
tered three  languages:  Finnish,  Russian,  and  Swedish.  He 
became  the  best  helper  George  A.  Simons  could  get. 
Simons  was  sent  from  the  United  States  by  Bishop  Wil- 
liam Burt  and  appointed  superintendent  for  Finland 
and  Russia,  with  special  direction  to  carry  on  and  develop 
the  work  among  the  Russians  and  throughout  the  whole  of 
that  vast  empire,  which  at  that  time  numbered  116,000,- 
000  inhabitants.  These  were  "widening  horizons '  indeed. 

During  the  following  ten  years,  however,  the  Methodist 
work  in  Russia  was  concentrated  in  St.  Petersburg,  the 
district  of  Ingria  (Ingemianland)  west  of  that  city,  where 
the  people  were  Finnish-speaking,  and  the  Baltic 
States — besides  two  congregations  in  far-off  Siberia. 
When  the  work  in  Finland  was  organized  as  an  annual 
conference  in  1911,  Russia  became  a  "mission,"  and  so 
was  the  work  in  the  Baltic  States  until  the  Baltic  and 
Slavic  Missions  Conference  was  organized  in  1924. 

In  1911  there  were  nineteen  places  mentioned  in  the 
appointments,  eight  however  "to  be  supplied."  In  1920 
there  were  only  six  pastors  in  the  Russia  Mission.  The 
First  World  War  had  claimed  its  victims,  and  so  did  the 
Russian  Revolution,  which  began  in  1917. 

In  the  beginning  the  Russian  Revolution  was  hailed 
as  the  dawn  of  liberty,  but  soon  it  changed  its  face.  In 
October  1918,  Simons  was  compelled  to  leave  Russia. 
Anna  Eklund,  "Sister  Anna  of  Petrograd,"  a  Finnish 
deaconess,  stayed  as  long  as  possible.  She  watched  over 
the  church  property  and  the  pastors'  home.  She  was  all 
to  the  little  fighting  congregation  until  she  herself  had 
to  leave  and  take  her  refuge  in  Estonia  and  then  in  Fin- 
land. She  had  come  to  St.  Petersburg  in  1907  and  orga- 
nized a  deaconess  institution,  instructed  a  group  of  young 
women  to  be  nurses,  and  was  the  leader  of  a  very  great 
and  important  help  work  during  the  First  World  War  and 
the  hard  years  following. 

In  1922  and  1923  Bishop  John  L.  Nuelsen  paid  short 
visits  to  Russia.  His  presence  caused  some  sensation  and 
great  expectations,  reflected  in  the  volume  of  World  Ser- 
vice of  the  M.E.  Church,  published  in  1923.  As  a  conse- 
quence some  of  the  bishops  and  leading  men  were  invited 
to  Moscow  b\'  a  reform  movement  within  the  Russian 
Orthodox  Church,  asking  them  to  help  in  organizing  a 
democratic  living  church.  Out  of  it  however  came  noth- 
ing. 

After  many  difficulties  Raymond  J.  W' ade,  in  1928  had 
been  assigned  as  Bishop  of  Northern  Europe,  got  a  visa 
to  Russia,  and  there  held  what  appeared  to  be  the  last 
annual  conference  of  the  Russian  Mission.  This  was  in 
1939  Bishop  Wade  writes.  "It  lasted  all  night.  I  baptized 
four  children  and  married  two  couples.  No  one  dared  act 
as  Secretary,"  states  the  bishop  in  a  letter.  The  situation 
was  such  that  the  bishop  advised  the  few  remaining 
Methodists  to  join  the  Baptists  or  other  evangelical  group, 
"which  they  did.  So  Methodism  as  such  went  out  of 
existence  in  Russia." 

R.  E.  Diffendorfer,  World  Service.  1923. 

B.  A.  Carlson,  "The  Rising  and  E.xtension  of  the  M.E.  Church 

in  Finland."  Ms.,  Stockholm,  1909. 

K.  J.  Hurtig,  Metodismen  i  Finland.  1925. 

Journal  of  tlie  European  Central  Conference,  ME,  1922. 

L.  A.  Marshall,  American  Pioneer  in  Russia.  1928. 

Minutes  of  the  Central  Conference  of  Europe,  ME,  1911. 

2057 


RUST   COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Minutes  of  Finland  Conference,  1908-23. 

Minutes  of  the  Finland  and  St.  Petersburg  Mission  Conference, 

1908.  Mansfieu)    Hubtic 

RUST  COLLEGE,  Holly  Springs,  Mississippi,  was  founded 
in  1866  by  the  Freedman's  Aid  Society  of  the  M.  E. 
Church.  From  its  founding  until  the  late  1930's,  work 
was  offered  in  elementary,  secondary,  and  higher  educa- 
tion. Then  elementary  and  secondary  education  was  dis- 
continued in  order  to  obtain  provisional  approval  by  the 
regional  accrediting  association.  Chartered  in  1870  as 
Shaw  University,  the  college  changed  its  name  in  1890 
to  honor  Richard  S.  Rust,  secretary  of  the  Freedman's  Aid 
Society. 

The  education  of  Negro  teachers  for  the  public  schools 
of  Mississippi  has  received  continuing  special  attention 
at  Rust  College.  Its  alumni  include  some  of  the  church's 
ablest  leaders.  The  institution  is  accredited  by  the  Missis- 
sippi State  Department  of  Education.  Degrees  offered  are 
the  B.A.  and  B.S.  The  governing  board  has  twenty-one 
members  elected  by  the  board,  and  three  ex  officio.  The 
ownership  of  the  college  is  vested  with  the  Board  of 
Education  of  The  United  Methodist  Church. 

John  O.  Cross 

RUSTIN,  JOHN  WALLACE  ( 1899-  ) ,  American  preach- 

er and  city  pastor,  was  born  at  Glenville,  Ga.,  on  Sept.  3, 
1899.  His  father  was  James  Miller  Rustin  and  his  mother 
Tallulah  Augusta  (Sasser)  Rustin.  He  was  educated  at 
Emory  University,  receiving  his  A.M.  at  Columbia  in 
1932,  an  honorary  D.D.  degree  from  Emory  in  1940  and 
LL.D.  from  Norfolk  College  in  1936.  His  wife  was  Jessie 
Colt  Watts  and  they  have  a  son  and  two  daughters. 

He  was  ordained  in  the  Methodist  ministry  at  the 
Virginia  Conference  of  1922,  and  after  serving  in  Dan- 
ville, 1922-27;  Trinity  Church,  Salisbury,  1928-31;  and 
Ghent  Church,  Norfolk,  1931-36,  he  was  stationed  at 
Mount  Vernon  Place,  Washington,  D.C,  where  he  served 
from  1936-50.  He  transferred  to  the  Tennessee  Confer- 
ence and  was  stationed  at  Belmont  Church,  Nashville, 
1950-59,  and  then  at  Broad  Street,  Kingsport,  1959-64. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Chinese 
Community  Church  in  Washington,  the  Department  of 
Social  Relations,  president  of  the  Washington  Federation 
of  Churches,  vice-president  of  the  Committee  of  the  Reli- 
gious Life  of  the  Nation's  Capital,  and  served  on  the  Na- 
tional Christian  Mission,  on  the  Department  of  Church 
and  Economic  Life  of  the  Federal  Council  of 
Churches,  and  is  a  trustee  of  Scarbitt  College,  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.  He  retired  in  1964  and  is  a  visiting  professor 
at  the  Candler  School  of  Theology,  Emory  University, 
Atlanta,  Ga. 

Clark  and  Stafford,  Who's  Who  in  Methodism.  1952.  N.  B.  H. 


RUTER,  CALVIN  (1794-1859),  American  preacher,  was 
born  in  Bradford,  Orange  Co.,  Vt.,  on  March  15,  1794. 
He  emigrated  with  his  parents  to  Ohio.  In  1817  he  was 
received  into  the  Ohio  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church. 
In  1820  he  transferred  to  the  Missouri  Conference, 
which  then  embraced  nearly  all  of  Indiana  and  the  states 
of  Illinois  and  Missouri.  In  1832  the  Indiana  Con- 
ference was  organized  and  Calvin  Ruter  was  elected 
secretary.  He  was  re-elected  to  this  office  for  six  consecu- 
tive  years.    At   this   conference   he   was    appointed    with 


Allen  Wiley  and  James  Armstrong  to  a  committee  to 
consider  the  building  of  a  conference  seminary.  He  was 
a  founder  of  Indiana  Asbury  (later  to  be  DePauw  Uni- 
versity) and  served  as  a  trustee  for  many  years.  He  was 
elected  five  times  as  a  delegate  to  General  Confer- 
ence. He  died  at  Patriot,  Ind.,  on  June  11,  1859. 


F.   C.   Holliday,   Indiana.    1873. 


Robert  S.   Chafee 


Martin  Ruter 

RUTER,  MARTIN  (1785-1838),  versatile  and  active  Amer- 
cian  educator  and  pioneer  missionary  to  Texas,  was  born 
at  Charlton,  Mass.,  on  April  3,  1785.  From  boyhood  he 
manifested  an  unusual  thirst  for  knowledge  and  this 
marked  him  all  his  life.  He  was  converted  and  united 
vidth  the  M.  E.  Church  in  1799,  and  in  1801  was  admitted 
into  the  New  York  Conference,  having  traveled  a  por- 
tion of  the  previous  year  in  New  England  under  John 
Brodhead.  In  1804  he  was  stationed  in  Montreal,  Can- 
ada, as  this  was  before  the  War  of  1812,  which  effectually, 
— but  by  amicable  mutual  agreement — later  divided 
American  Methodism  on  the  Canadian-United  States  bor- 
der. 

The  following  year  Ruter  returned  to  New  England  and 
in  1809  was  appointed  to  the  New  Hampshire  district 
where  he  filled  a  number  of  prominent  appointments.  In 
1818,  his  educational  ability  being  recognized,  he  was 
put  in  charge  of  the  New  Market  Wesleyan  Academy, 
and  this  subsequently  was  removed  to  Wilbraham,  Mass. 
In  1820  the  General  Conference  elected  him  Book 
Agent  to  found  and  conduct  the  book  business  at  Cincin- 
nati, just  at  that  time  becoming  the  western  center  of  the 
Book  Concern.  He  was  reelected  Book  Agent  again  in 
1824,  but  before  his  term  of  service  expired,  he  was  ap- 
pointed president  of  Augusta  College,  in  Kentucky, 
which  position  he  accepted  in  1828,  and  remained  in 
charge  of  that  college  until  August  1832.  Wishing  to  get 
back  into  the  itinerant  ranks,  he  was  transferred  and  sta- 
tioned as  pastor  in  the  city  of  Pittsburgh.  However,  when 
Allegheny  College  at  Meadville,  Pa.,  was  accepted  by 
the  Conference  in  1833,  Ruter  was  unanimously  selected 
as  its  president. 

At  the  General  Conference  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  Cin- 
cinnati in  May  1836,  the  news  of  the  decisive  battle  of 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RYAN,   HENRY 


San  Jacinto,  where  Texas  won  its  independence,  came 
while  the  Conference  was  in  session.  The  appeal  which 
had  been  growing  in  insistency  from  the  Methodists  in 
Texas  that  ministers  be  sent  them  was  felt  by  Ruter,  who 
offered  himself  on  the  spot  as  a  missionary  to  Texas.  A 
good  deal  of  discussion  ensued  among  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  about  the  advisability  of  sending  someone  there, 
but  when  they  became  convinced  that  the  freedom  of 
Te.xas,  then  a  republic  under  its  Lone  Star  flag,  was 
"measurably  secure"  and  that  they  were  not  invading  a 
forbidden  land,  Ruter  obtained  his  commission  to  go — not, 
however,  until  the  next  year  when  Bishop  Hedding  ap- 
pointed him  "superintendent  of  the  Texas  Mission." 
Robert  Alexander  of  the  Mississippi  Conference  and 
Littleton  Fowler  of  the  Tennessee  Conference  were 
selected  to  go  with  Ruter  to  "the  foreign  field,"  as  Texas 
was  then  called.  The  vast  Texas  Methodism  of  today  cher- 
ishes the  names  of  Ruter,  Alexander  and  Fowler  as  their 
founding  fathers. 

Ruter  left  his  family,  whom  he  was  destined  never  to 
see  again,  at  New  Albany,  Ind.,  and  fearful  of  yellow 
fever  then  raging  in  New  Orleans,  felt  compelled  to  wait 
until  late  in  the  year  to  begin  his  journey.  Then  he  came 
down  the  Mississippi  by  steamboat,  landing  at  Rodney, 
La.,  and  rode  on  horseback  across  Louisiana  to  Texas. 

Arrived  there,  it  is  said  that  Ruter  "rode  more  than  two 
thousand  miles  on  horseback,  swam  or  forded  rivers; 
preached  almost  daily,  and  not  unfrequently  three  times 
a  day;  shrank  from  no  fatigue;  avoided  no  hardships  and 
no  danger.  .  .  .  lived  upon  the  rough  fare,  and  slept  in 
the  still  rougher  lodgings  of  that  wild  and  sparsely-popu- 
lated region."  (Simpson,  p.  770.)  He  did  such  work  during 
the  one  year  he  was  destined  to  serve  there  that  he  ever 
after  left  a  deep  impress  on  Texas  and  its  Methodism.  He 
formed  societies,  secured  the  building  of  churches,  made 
arrangements  for  the  founding  of  a  college,  and  laid  out 
the  greater  part  of  the  state  into  circuits.  The  following 
Spring  he  started  homeward  to  get  his  family  and  make 
his  report  to  the  mission  authorities,  but  after  riding  about 
fifty  miles  was  taken  seriously  ill,  and  died  in  Washington, 
Texas,  May  16,  1838. 

The  versatility  as  well  as  energy  of  Martin  Ruter  can 
be  seen  in  the  fact  that  among  his  other  accomplishments 
he  published  a  Hebrew  Grammar,  a  History  of  Martyrs, 
and  an  Ecclesiastical  History,  as  well  as  numerous  sermons 
and  letters  on  various  subjects.  Martin  Ruter  kept  a  per- 
sonal Journal  which  reflects  the  enormous  work  he  did 
while  he  was  traveling  about  in  Texas.  The  Journal  is 
especially  moving  when  he  neared  his  end  and  realized 
his  condition  and  noted  that  no  physicians  were  immedi- 
ately available.  Friends  and  physicians  were  with  him, 
however,  in  his  last  moments  in  Washington,  Texas,  May 
16,  1838. 

John  O.  Gross,  Martin  Ruter,  Pioneer  in  Methodist  Education. 

Nashville:  Board  of  Education,  1956. 

M.  Phelan,  Texas.  1924. 

E.    A.   Smith,   Martin   Ruter.    1915.  N.  B.  H. 

RUTLEDGE,  WOOLLS  WILLIAM  (1849-1921),  Australian 
minister,  was  the  son  of  James  Rutledge  who  had  accepted 
the  position  of  a  teacher  at  Castlereagh,  New  South 
Wales  in  1840  and  subsequently  joined  the  staff  of  a  boys' 
school  at  Parramatta,  founded  by  William  Woolls. 

Woolls  Rutlege  attended  the  University  of  Sydney  and 
was   a  journalist  on   the   S'vtjney   newspapers   Harbinger 


and  The  Empire  until  he  became  editor  of  the  Newcastle 
Chronicle.  In  1875  he  entered  the  ministry  and  was  ap- 
pointed to  Orange,  and  from  1877  to  1880  served  in 
Syndey  at  Waverley  and  Newtown.  The  following  twelve 
years  were  spent  in  country  appointments  and  in  1893  he 
ministered  again  in  Sydney  at  Ashfield.  In  1896  he  fol- 
lowed W.  G.  Taylor  as  superintendent  of  the  Central  City 
Mission,  Sydney. 

The  effect  of  the  economic  depression  in  1893  was  still 
se\erely  felt  and  the  Mission  had  to  find  $50,000.  Rut- 
ledge,  recognized  as  an  eloquent  preacher  and  a  renowned 
singer,  with  extraordinary  administrative  gifts,  succeeded 
in  not  only  overcoming  the  financial  difficulties,  but  also 
in  extending  the  work  by  establishing  a  rehabilitation  cen- 
ter for  alcoholics. 

He  also  commenced  the  "Pleasant  Sunday  Afternoon" 
programme  which  has  continued  through  the  years.  In 
order  to  promote  the  spirit  of  Church  Union  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  Newcastle  in  1901. 

His  outstanding  contribution  to  Church  Union  was  rec- 
ognized when  he  was  elected  as  the  first  president  of  the 
Conference  of  United  Methodism. 

In  1910-15  he  organized  the  Centenary  Thanksgiving 
Fund  of  which  today  Wesley  College  within  the  Uni- 
versity of  Sydney  and  Leigh  Theological  College, 
Enfield,  New  South  Wales,  are  the  fruits  of  his  labors. 

Australian  Editorial  Committee 

RWANDA,  Africa,  lies  north  of  Burundi,  and  borders  the 
eastern  shore  of  Lake  Kivu.  This  "Pearl  of  Africa"  high 
altitude  country  has  an  area  of  10,166  square  miles  and 
the  same  physical  characteristics  as  Burundi.  It  was  for- 
merly a  German  colony,  and  was  mandated  to  Belgium  by 
the  League  of  Nations  after  World  War  I.  Later  it  became 
a  trustee  of  the  United  Nations  (1942).  There  is  a  presi- 
dent and  forty-four  member  elected  assembly.  The  popu- 
lation in  1969'was  3,500,000. 

Until  1962  Rwanda  and  Burundi  formed  one  mission 
field  of  the  Free  Methodist  Church.  When  two  inde- 
pendent nations  were  established  in  1962,  separate  con- 
ferences were  organized.  There  is  a  new  hospital  at  Kibo- 
gora,  and  a  Bible  School  was  opened  in  1965. 

As  in  Burundi,  education  has  traditionally  received 
generous  government  aid.  Missionaries  have  been  encour- 
aged to  organize  and  administer  the  educational  program. 
Bible  study  is  a  regular  part  of  the  curriculum.  The  mis- 
sion-administered schools  reach  the  populated  areas  of 
the  country.  School  buildings  serve  as  churches  on  Sun- 
day. Great  congregations  assemble  for  the  district  and 
conference  meetings.  There  has  been  a  genuine  revival  in 
this  fast-growing  field.  In  1969  there  were  7,000  Free 
Methodist  members  and  8,000  students. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

RYAN,  HENRY  (1775-1833),  Canadian  preacher,  Wiis 
horn  April  22,  1775.  He  was  converted  at  the  age  of  six- 
teen; and  after  being  turned  out  by  his  father,  he  acted 
as  a  local  preacher  in  Dutchess  County.  Received  on  trial 
in  1800,  for  the  next  three  years  he  served  circuits  in 
Vermont.  In  1802  he  was  ordained  deacon  and  in  1804 
elder.  While  attending  Conference  at  Ashgro\'E,  N.Y., 
in  1805,  he  responded  to  a  call  for  volunteers  to  go  to 
Upper  Canada,  and  was  appointed  superintendent  of  the 
Bay  of  Quinte  circuit;  William  Case  was  appointed  as 


RYAN,   HENRY 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


his  assistant.  For  the  next  twenty-five  years  he  led  the 
Methodists  of  Upper  Canada  successfully  through  three 
great  struggles,  only  to  fail  dismally  in  the  fourth,  causing 
the  first  tragic  schism  in  Canadian  Methodism. 

F.  Reid  described  Henry  Ryan  in  an  article  which  ap- 
peared in  The  Northern  Christian  Journal. 

He  was  well  nigh  six  feet  in  height,  of  large,  symmetrical 
proportions,  with  prodigious  muscular  developments,  and  with- 
out doubt  one  of  the  strongest  men  in  his  age  .  .  .  His  voice 
excelled,  for  power  and  compass,  all  that  I  ever  heard  from 
human  organs.  When  occasion  required,  and  it  gave  its  full 
power,  it  was  "as  when  a  lion  roareth." 

The  first  contribution  to  Canadian  Methodism  by  Henry 
Ryan  was  the  initiation  of  the  camp  meeting  movement, 
so  significant  in  the  life  of  the  people  of  Upper  Canada. 
Nathan  Bangs,  who  attended  the  initial  meeting  at  Hay 
Bay,  Sept.  27-30,  1805,  paid  tribute  to  Ryan,  who,  though 
helped  by  William  Case,  planned,  promoted,  and  carried 
through  this  evangelistic  effort  and  thereby  established 
the  utility  of  this  technique.  The  converts  and  the  awak- 
ened souls  were  nurtured  in  the  class  meetings,  the 
prayer  meetings,  and  the  preaching  services. 

During  these  first  five  years  in  Upper  Canada,  Ryan 
served  with  energy  and  spirit  in  several  circuits.  He 
proved  to  be  a  man  of  great  activity — bold  to  a  fault,  pious 
and  practical,  adventurous  and  aggressive.  As  an  itinerant, 
he  was  a  powerful  preacher  and  a  mighty  man  of  prayer. 
His  courage,  his  fighting  spirit,  his  enthusiasm  and  his 
ready  wit,  combined  to  make  him  one  of  the  most  vivid 
and  striking  personalities  among  the  preachers  of  Upper 
Canada  before  1830. 

In  1810,  Ryan  was  appointed  presiding  elder  for  the 
Upper  Canada  District.  When  the  War  of  1812  began, 
Ryan,  in  spite  of  his  American  connections  remained  loyal 
to  Canada  and  Britain.  Although  many  of  the  American 
preachers  left,  he  stood  at  his  post  holding  the  work  to- 
gether in  those  days  of  bitter  conflict.  Especially  he 
brought  hope,  encouragement,  and  a  sense  of  purpose  to 
a  perplexed  people.  Nothing  can  dim  Ryan's  achievement 
during  the  War  of  1812-14. 

The  next  phase  of  his  career  was  marked  by  a  struggle 
of  another  kind  in  which  his  character  and  devotion  were 
illuminated.  The  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference,  which 
had  to  date  shown  little  interest  in  the  Canadas,  now  sent 
missionaries  first  to  Lower  Canada  and  later  to  Upper 
Canada.  As  early  as  1815  Ryan,  then  presiding  elder  of 
Lower  Canada,  came  into  collision  with  the  Wesleyan 
missionary  and  his  supporters,  in  Montreal.  Ryan  re- 
fused to  tolerate  the  presence  of  the  latter,  believing  that 
in  so  doing  he  was  carrying  out  his  responsibility. 

Immediately  there  was  a  sharp  division.  Ryan  reported 
the  situation  to  Francis  Asbury,  who  laid  the  matter  be- 
fore the  missionary  society.  At  its  1816  session  the  Meth- 
odist General  Conference,  with  Ryan  present  to  plead 
his  cause,  affirmed  that  it  could  not  relinquish  its  work 
in  Lower  Canada. 

During  the  next  four  years  the  problem  became  increas- 
ingly acute.  British  immigrants  poured  into  the  colonies 
and  anti-American  sentiment  grew.  The  removal  of  Ryan 
to  Upper  Canada  did  not  help,  for  the  British  Wesleyans 
were  there  too,  in  smaller  numbers.  In  1820  agreement 
was  finally  reached.  The  British  Wesleyans  were  to  con- 
centrate on  Lower  Canada,  and  the  M.E.  Church  was  to 


minister  to  Upper  Canada,  a  solution  that  Ryan  reluctantly 
accepted. 

The  final  issue,  which  resulted  in  Ryan's  disgrace,  de- 
veloped in  1823  when  he  failed  to  secure  election  as  a 
delegate  to  the  General  Conference.  As  a  presiding  elder 
he  claimed  this  position  as  a  right  and  was  humiliated 
when  his  subordinate  was  chosen  over  him.  Accompanied 
by  a  local  preacher,  he  attended  the  Conference  (May 
1824)  unofficially  and  secured  the  right  to  address  the 
court,  pleading  for  the  independence  of  the  Canada 
Conference.  WTiile  permitted  to  speak,  he  could  not 
mistake  the  coolness  shown  to  him. 

So  much  dissension  resulted  from  Ryan's  subsequent 
agitation  that  the  new  Canada  Conference  meeting  at 
Hallowell,  Aug.  25,  1824,  had  to  declare  itself.  Separation 
from  the  M.E.  Church  (which  Ryan  demanded  at  once) 
was  said  to  be  inevitable  but  had  to  be  worked  out  legally 
and  in  a  brotherly  fashion.  Ryan's  attitudes  and  actions 
rendered  him  undesirable  as  a  presiding  elder;  hence  he 
was  stationed  at  Chippewa,  a  mission  where  he  had  a 
farm.  He  accepted  these  decisions  but  was  never  able 
to  rise  above  the  defeat  and  discipline  meted  out  to  him. 

In  1825  he  became  superannuated  and  gave  full  time 
to  agitation  for  the  independence  of  the  Canada  Con- 
ference. Since  he  knew  that  the  next  General  Conference 
would  probably  grant  his  wish,  his  trouble-making  was 
probably  mahcious.  He  could  not  grasp  the  fact  that  in- 
dependence would  come  in  spite  of  his  actions.  By  this 
time  he  was  accusing  his  fellow  preachers  of  corruption 
and  was  distributing  literature  containing  allegations 
against  the  Conference. 

Hence  at  the  Conference  of  1827,  presided  over  by 
Bishop  Hedding,  Ryan  was  charged  with  circulating  scur- 
rilous printed  material,  and  with  disturbing  the  peace 
and  unity  of  the  church.  After  a  careful  investigation,  he 
was  judged  guilty.  Though  the  bishop  reproved  him  in 
the  kindest  spirit,  Ryan  was  deeply  angered  and  was 
located.  Subsequently  he  traveled  through  the  church 
making  inflammatory  speeches  and  disquieting  the  people. 

Eventually  Ryan  organized  the  Canadian  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church.  But,  at  the  Conference  of  1828  the 
independence  for  which  Ryan  had  fought  was  accepted. 
This  limited  his  followers  to  personal  friends  and  dis- 
gruntled society  members.  With  his  death  the  impetus 
went  out  of  the  spUnter  group — which  continued  until 
1841  when  the  1,951  members  voted  to  unite  with  the 
New  Connexion. 

Henry  Ryan's  last  years  were  bitter  and  unhappy.  The 
cause  for  which  he  had  sacrificed  triumphed  in  spite  of 
him  and  without  him.  His  unfortunate  schism  proved 
neither  popular  nor  dangerous.  The  unrest  and  strife 
which  he  generated  militated  as  much  against  his  new 
denomination  as  it  did  against  the  regular  church.  His- 
tory has  punished  him  by  largely  ignoring  his  useful  life. 
Ryan  is  a  pathetic  example  of  a  mighty  man  who  fell, 
carrying  down  with  him  the  glory  of  his  earlier  achieve- 
ments. 

He  died  on  Aug.  14,  1833  at  Gainsborough,  Upper 
Canada,  and  is  buried  in  Grimsby  Township. 

J.  Carroll,  Case  and  His  Cotemporaries.  1867-77. 

Centennial  of  Canadian  Methodism,  1891. 

G.  F.  Playter,  Canada.  1862. 

E.  Ryerson,  My  Life.  1883. 

A.  Stevens,  Natlwn  Bangs.  1863.  Arthur  E.  Kewley 


WORLD   METHODISM 


RYERSON,   ADOLPHUS   EGERTON 


RYAN,  SARAH  (1724-1768),  British  Methodist,  one  of 
Wesley's  most  intimate  correspondents,  was  bom  of  poor 
parents  on  Oct.  20,  1724.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  she 
was  stirred  by  Whitefield's  preaching.  Later  she  heard 
Wesley  at  the  Foundry  and  joined  the  society  there. 
She  was  three  times  married,  but  with  Wesley's  encour- 
agement refused  to  join  her  second  husband  when  he  set- 
tled in  America.  She  lived  for  a  time  with  Mary  Clark  and 
Sakah  Crosby  in  Moorfields.  In  1757  Wesley  made  her 
housekeeper  at  Bristol,  where  she  incurred  the  jealous 
wrath  of  his  wife.  From  1762,  she  was  a  close  companion 
of  Mary  Bosanquet  (Fletcher)  at  Leytonstone  and  later 
in  Yorkshire,  where  she  died  on  Aug.  17,  1768. 

John  A.  Vickers 


RYANG,  JU  SAM  (1879-1950?),  first  Korean  bishop  of 
the  autonomous  Korean  Methodist  Church,  was  born  in 
Kong-Moon-Ri,  South  Pyeng-Ahn  Province,  Korea,  Jan. 
25,  1879.  He  studied  Chinese  classics  in  Korea,  and 
later  completed  the  work  in  a  Southern  Methodist  high 
school  in  Shanghai,  where  he  was  baptized.  In  1906  he 
established  a  Korean  church  in  S.'^n  Francisco,  and  this 
he  served  for  three  years. 

After  graduating  from  Vanderbilt  University  and  the 
Divinity  School  of  Yale  University,  he  returned  to  Korea 
to  be  one  of  the  first  Korean  elders  ordained  by  his  de- 
nomination. His  first  appointments  were  characteristic  of 
his  career — teaching  in  the  Methodist  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  Seoul;  editing  a  church  magazine.  The 
Theological  World,  and  serving  a  pastorate. 

In  1918  he  became  Centenary  Secretary  and  Literature 
Secretary  for  his  annual  conference,  and  in  a  four-year 
campaign  in  which  his  team  visited  every  circuit,  he 
opened  150  new  churches  and  enrolled  16,000  new  ad- 
herents. At  the  close  of  the  campaign  he  became  Con- 
ference Missionary  Secretary,  which  position  he  held  until 
1940.  In  1921  he  took  charge  of  the  Siberia-Manchuria 
Mission  and  continued  a  life-long  contact  with  this  work. 


He  was  the  first  Korean  district  superintendent  of  the 
M.E.  Church,  South's  mission  work  and  in  that  capacity 
served  four  years.  When  not  acting  as  district  superin- 
tendent he  taught  in  the  seminary. 

In  1928-30  he  led  the  campaign  for  union  of  the  two 
branches  of  Methodism  in  Korea,  and  became  the  first 
general  superintendent  when  the  Korean  Methodist 
Church  was  organized  in  1930.  He  was  re-elected  in 
1934,  as  the  Korean  Church  provides  for  term  episcopacy. 
Being  restricted  by  the  constitution  of  his  church  to  two 
terms  only,  he  gave  full  time  again  to  editorial  work  and 
the  supei-vision  of  the  Manchurian  Mission. 

During  World  War  II,  Ryang  acted  as  trustee  for  all 
Methodist  Mission  Board  property  in  Korea.  For  his  man- 
agement during  this  difficult  time  he  has  been  highly 
commended.  In  1945  he  was  elected  President  of  the 
Korean  Red  Cross.  It  was  this  "crime"  for  which  he  was 
abducted  by  the  communists  when  they  occupied  Seoul 
in  the  summer  of  1950.  His  whereabouts  since  then  have 
remained  unknown  and  he  is  presumed  dead. 

Bishop  Ryang  held  honorary  degrees  from  two  Amer- 
ican universities.  Chief  among  his  many  publications  was 
a  bilingual  work.  Southern  Methodism  in  Korea,  pub- 
lished in  1929. 

Charles  A.  Sauer 

RYCKMAN,  HAROLD  H.  (1902-  ),  American  mission 

executive  of  the  Free  Methodist  Church  and  an  or- 
dained elder  in  the  Pacific  Coast  Latin  America  Con- 
ference, was  bom  at  Dale,  N.  D.  He  was  educated  at 
Greenville  College,  A.B.,  1927;  graduate  studies,  Whit- 
tier  College,  California;  honorary  D.D.  degree,  Los  Ange- 
les Pacific  College,  1963.  He  married  Evelyn  A.  Bartholo- 
mew in  1927  (deceased  1964);  married  Lucile  Damon 
in  1966.  His  pastoral  service  has  been  in  Southern  Cali- 
fornia Conference,  1929-45;  Missionary  Superintendent, 
Paraguay,  1946-52;  Brazil,  1952-62;  architect  and  builder 
for  Brazil  seminary  complex;  Area  Secretary  for  Latin 
America  since  1962.  He  was  Executive  Secretary  for 
Free  Methodist  World  Fellowship,  1964-65. 

Byron  S.  Lamson 

RYERSON,  ADOLPHUS  EGERTON  (1803-1882),  Canadi- 
an minister  and  educator,  was  bom  near  Vittoria,  Nor- 
folk County,  Upper  Canada,  on  March  24,  1803,  to  Joseph 
and  Mehetabel  Ryerson.  Colonel  Joseph  Ryerson  served 
as  a  Loyalist  officer  in  the  American  Revolution,  and  sub- 
sequently migrated  first  to  New  Brunswick  and  thence 
to  Upper  Canada,  where  he  farmed  for  the  remainder  of 
his  long  life. 

As  a  member  of  a  prominent  family,  Egerton  Ryerson 
attended  the  local  grammar  school  where  he  laid  the 
foundations  of  a  sound  classical  education.  In  these  same 
years  too  he  witnessed  the  War  of  1812-14,  in  which  his 
father  and  three  elder  brothers  participated.  After  the 
war,  perhaps  owing  to  their  mother  who  had  been  one  of 
William  Black's  attentive  auditors  in  New  Brunswick, 
Egerton,  along  with  his  brothers,  George,  WiUiam,  and 
John,  was  converted  in  the  Methodist  fold.  Although  he 
joined  the  church,  he  was  not  attracted  immediately  to 
the  ministry;  rather  in  1824  he  entered  the  Gore  Dis- 
trict Grammar  School  in  Hamilton,  as  a  prelude  to  legal 
training. 

Intent  though  he  was  upon  academic  pursuits,  Ryerson 


RYERSON,   JOHN 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


was  still  deeply  concerned  about  his  spiritual  condition. 
Possibly  this  acounted  in  part  for  a  critical  illness  in 
1824-25,  during  which  he  had  another  profound  religious 
experience.  He  gave  his  first  sermon  on  Easter  Sunday, 


Egerton   Ryerson 

1825;  at  the  conference  held  in  September  1825,  he 
was  taken  on  trial  and  posted  to  the  York  and  Yonge 
Street  circuit.  James  Richardson,  the  future  Methodist 
Episcopal  bishop,  was  his  superintendent. 

Although  he  was  ordained  at  the  appropriate  times 
(1827-29)  and  was  a  vigorous  preacher  throughout  his 
career,  Egerton  Ryerson's  life  was  not  played  out  in  the 
itineracy.  Within  a  year  he  challenged  the  existing  political 
and  religious  establishment  in  a  massive  letter  published 
on  May  11,  1826.  Abruptly  the  unknown  junior  minister 
became  a  celebrity  in  Upper  Canada.  From  that  time 
forward  he  grew  in  stature  both  to  his  friends  and  to  his 
enemies,  a  development  which  was  facihtated  by  his 
appointment  as  first  editor  of  The  Christian  Guardian 
in  1829.  He  held  this  post  until  1832,  from  1833  to  1835, 
and  from  1838  to  1840. 

As  an  editor  and  controversiahst  Egerton  Ryerson  had 
few  outstanding  rivals  in  his  generation.  A  subtle,  if  prolix 
stylist,  writing  in  an  age  addicted  to  partisanship  and 
misrepresentation,  he  was  often  misunderstood. 

Fundamentally,  Ryerson's  views  epitomized  those  of 
Canadian  Methodism  at  its  best.  Politically  he  was  a 
liberal-conservative,  one  who  sought  to  maintain  British 
North  America's  monarchical  institutions  and  relationships. 
He  was  unsympathetic  toward  radical  political  changes;  he 
was  more  concerned  with  the  spirit  in  which  the  political 
system  functioned  than  with  its  outward  forms.  The  spirit 
he  hoped  and  strove  for  was  to  be  characterized  by  every 
action.  Second,  he  was  convinced  that  the  state  must 
treat  all  social  and  religious  groups  equitably.  Undoubt- 
edly he  preferred  that  church  and  state  should  be  kept 
separate  and  that  all  religious  denominations  should  pro- 
vide for  their  own  needs  in  their  own  ways.  If  state  sup- 
port was  afforded  for  rehgious  ends,  it  should  be  dis- 
tributed impartially.  Third,  Ryerson  approached  secular 
issues  as  a  Canadian.  What  was  best  for  any  group  in 
Canada  could  never  be  determined  in  the  light  of  extra- 


neous or  foreign  conditions.  On  the  contrary  all  had  to 
put  aside  their  inherited  or  transmitted  prejudices  and  to 
consider  all  issues  in  the  hght  of  Canadian  circumstances 
and  needs.  Holding  to  these  views,  Ryerson  contributed 
greatly  to  the  hjjeralization  of  Canadian  politics  and  to 
the  satisfactory  readjustment  of  the  church-state  relation- 
ship. 

Before  he  gave  up  The  Guardian,  Ryerson  was  deeply 
involved  in  the  tliird  of  his  great  interests — education. 
In  his  first  years  as  editor,  he  commented  frequently  on 
this  subject  and  especially  on  the  necessity  of  breaking 
the  Anglican  monopoly  on  university  education.  His  un- 
ceasing efforts  secured  a  charter  for  Upper  Canada  Acad- 
emy. After  it  became  Victoria  College,  Ryerson  became 
its  first  principal  in  1841,  a  post  which  he  held  until 
1847.  During  his  remaining  years,  Ryerson  was  contin- 
uously active  in  the  resolution  of  the  university  question 
and  in  the  maintenance  of  Victoria  University  as  an  institu- 
tion in  which  higher  education  was  provided  in  a  Chris- 
tian context. 

In  1844  Egerton  Ryerson  accepted  office  as  superinten- 
dent of  education  in  Canada  West  (Ontario),  a  position 
which  he  retained  until  1876.  During  these  years,  filled 
with  incessant  administrative  and  poUtical  labors  and  often 
with  acrimonious  battles,  he  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
Ontario  educational  system.  His  purpose,  throughout,  was 
to  build  a  system  in  which  a  useful  and  relevant  body  of 
knowledge  would  be  imparted  to  all  children,  and  to 
maintain  an  intimate  connection  between  the  moral  ideals 
shared  by  all  Christians  and  the  subjects  taught  in  the 
schools.  To  this  end  he  resisted  the  introduction  of  de- 
nominational elementary  schools,  but,  when  obliged  to 
accept  them,  tried  to  regulate  them  fairly  and  generously. 
When  he  retired,  Ontario  had  a  primary  school  system 
which  could  bear  favorable  comparison  with  those  of 
other  western  countries. 

Despite  his  preoccupation  with  educational  and  political 
issues,  Ryerson's  concern  for  his  own  spiritual  condition 
and  for  the  Methodism  to  which  he  was  so  devoted  never 
diminished.  In  many  ways  not  easily  traced  he  contributed 
to  the  Canadianization  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  and  to  the 
liberalization  of  the  outlook  of  his  brethren.  His  election 
in  1874  as  the  first  president  of  the  General  Conference 
of  The  Methodist  Church  of  Canada  was  a  fitting  and 
symbolic  climax  to  his  career  as   a   Methodist   itinerant. 

In  his  latter  years  Ryerson  worked  happily  and  vigor- 
ously on  three  books  that  were  dear  to  his  heart:  The 
Loyalists  of  America  and  Their  Times  (1880),  Canadian 
Methodism,  Its  Epochs  and  Characteristics  (1882),  and 
The  Story  of  My  Life  (1883).  He  died  full  of  honors,  at 
peace  with  his  church,  his  neighbors,  and  his  opponents, 
in  Toronto,  Feb.  19,  1882. 

The  enormous  throng  who  crowded  the  great  Metro- 
politan Church  in  Toronto  for  his  funeral  testified  to  the 
esteem  and  affection  in  which  Ryerson  was  held. 

E.  Ryerson,  My  Life.  1883. 

,  Canadian  Methodism.  1882. 

C.  B.  Sissons,  Egerton  Ryerson.   1937,   1947.  G.  S.  French 

RYERSON,  JOHN  (1799-1878),  Canadian  minister,  wise 
administrator,  one  whose  aim  was  to  preserve  the  institu- 
tion and  dignity  of  the  Methodist  Church,  was  bom  at 
Long  Point,  Upper  Canada,  the  third  son  of  Colonel 
Joseph  Ryerson,  a  staunch  Anglican  Loyalist.  To  his  dis- 
may,  five  of  his   six   sons  became   Methodist   preachers, 


WORLD   METHODISM 


John  being  the  first  to  itinerate.  With  his  two  older 
brothers,  George  and  WiHiam,  John  had  a  deep  religious 
experience  in  1815,  probably  at  a  Methodist  camp  meet- 
ing. In  spite  of  his  father's  opposition,  he  began  to  travel 
as  a  preacher  on  the  Long  Point  circuit  in  1820.  The  next 
year  he  was  received  on  trial,  "aged  twenty-one,  single, 
and  not  in  debt."  In  1823  he  was  ordained  a  deacon 
and  in  1825,  an  elder. 

In  spite  of  his  studious  ways  and  his  ability  to  preach 
great  sermons,  he  was  destined  to  be  an  ecclesiastical 
statesman  rather  than  a  preacher  or  a  pastor.  His  long 
list  of  high  offices,  heavy  responsibilities,  and  honors  be- 
gins in  1827  with  his  appointment  as  presiding  elder  of 
the  Niagara  district.  In  1832  he  was  presiding  elder  of 
the  Bay  of  Quinte  district,  and  subsequently  he  was  many 
times  chairman  of  district.  In  1843  he  was  elected  presi- 
dent of  Conference.  He  was  chosen  co-delegate  from 
1850  to  1858,  the  representative  to  the  British  Wesleyan 
Conference  in  1846  and  1849:  and  representative  to  the 
General  Conference  of  the  M.E.  Church  in  the  United 
States  twice. 

He  was  elected  to  the  important  post  of  book  steward 
in  1837  and  held  this  office  until  1841.  With  his  brother's 
support,  Egerton  Rvebson  was  re-elected  in  1838  editor 
of  The  Cuardian.  The  two  brothers  were  key  figures  in 
determining  the  Methodist  response  to  the  Rebellion  of 
1837,  in  the  removal  of  Principal  Matthew  Richey  from 
Upper  Canada  Academy,  and  in  the  clash  between  the 
British  and  Canadian  Wesleyans,  leading  to  the  disrup- 
tion of  1840.  The  resolution  and  determination  of  John 
Ryerson,  coupled  with  the  debating  and  joumalistic  skills 
of  his  brother  Egerton,  were  closely  related  to  the  Canadi- 
an Methodists'  successful  defence  of  their  cause. 

While  attending  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference  in 
1846,  John  Ryerson  entered  into  negotiations  with  Robert 
Alder — negotiations  that  brought  the  reunion  of  the  two 
Conferences  in  1847.  The  new  basis  of  union  was  so  well- 
constructed  that  the  two  Conferences  were  able  to  col- 
laborate effectively  until  other  events  suggested  a  new 
basis  of  separation.  It  was  appropriate  that  John  Ryerson 
became  for  several  years  the  Canadian  vice-president  of 
Conference. 

As  a  senior  statesman,  he  was  asked  in  1854  to  visit 
the  territories  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  to  investi- 
gate and  reorganize  the  missionary  work  begun  earlier 
by  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society.  Upon  completion 
of  his  long  and  arduous  inspection  tour  he  made  his  re- 
port, which  was  printed  in  1855  under  the  title,  Hudson's 
Bay:  or  a  Missiananj  Tour  in  the  Territorij  of  the  Honor- 
able Hudson's  Bay  Company.  He  stressed  that  only  eigh- 
teen Protestant  missionaries  sewed  the  vast  area — thirteen 
Anglicans,  four  Methodists,  and  one  Presbyterian.  His 
journal  provided  invaluable  information  about  the  social 
and  religious  life  of  the  Northwest  at  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Faced  by  declining  health,  John  Ryerson  became  a 
superannuated  preacher  in  1860.  He  continued,  however, 
to  take  an  active  interest  in  his  church.  Much  of  the  ma- 
terial in  Egerton  Ryerson's  Canadian  Methodism:  Its 
Epochs  and  Characteristics,  a  work  which  threw  much 
light  on  the  history  of  Canadian  Methodism,  was  supplied 
by  him.  It  reflected  his  awareness  of  the  changing  char- 
acter of  Methodism  and  of  its  changing  role  in  Canadian 
society. 

To  his  contemporaries  he  must  have  appeared  austere, 
and  deficient  in  the  emotional  fervor  which   Methodists 


were  expected  to  display.  He  was  in  fact  an  ecclesiastical 
statesman,  who  labored  mightily  and  effectively  for  the 
welfare  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Canada.  Aged,  lonely, 
and  almost  forgotten,  he  died  near  Simcoe,  Ontario,  Oct. 
8,  1878,  and  was  buried  in  the  Ryerson  Cemetery. 

Nathanael  Burwash,  Egerton  Ryerson.  Toronto:  Oxford  Uni- 
versity Press,  1926. 

J.  Carroll,  Case  and  His  Cotemporaries.  1867-77. 
A.  Green,  Life  and  Times.  1877. 
C.  B.  Sissons,  Egerton  Ryerson.  1937,  1947.        A.  E.  Kewlev 

RYERSON,  JOSEPH  WILLIAM  (1797-1872),  Canadian 
minister,  was  born  in  New  Brunswick,  into  an  Anglican 
and  Loyalist  family.  As  a  boy  he  took  part  in  the  War 
of  1812-14  and  subsequently  became  a  farmer  and  local 
preacher  in  Oxford  County  (Upper  Canada).  Received 
on  trial  in  1823,  at  the  last  session  of  the  Genesee 
Conference,  in  which  Canadian  Methodists  participated, 
he  was  ordained  in  1825. 

Although  he  had  little  formal  education,  William  Ryer- 
son rapidly  attained  an  outstanding  reputation  as  an  elo- 
quent and  fearless  orator,  one  who  could  move  masses 
of  people  "like  forest  trees  swayed  to  and  fro  by  the  wind." 
His  energy  and  ability  brought  prompt  recognition  among 
his  brethren.  He  became  a  presiding  elder  in  1828  and  a 
district  chaiiman  after  the  union  of  1833.  In  1840  he 
accompanied  his  brother,  Egerton  Ryerson,  to  the  fate- 
ful session  of  the  British  Conference  which  resulted  in 
the  severance  of  the  1833  union.  As  an  outspoken  de- 
fender of  Canadian  interests,  he  was  elected  president  of 
the  Canada  Conference  in  1841  and  again  in  1847. 

Superannuated  in  1858,  Ryerson  returned  to  a  farm 
near  Brantford  (Canada  West).  As  he  had  long  been 
interested  in  politics  and  closely  identified  with  the  liberal- 
ly minded  among  his  brethren,  it  was  natural  for  him  to 
seek  election  to  the  provincial  legislature  in  1861.  He  was 
returned,  and  kept  his  seat  through  two  sessions.  Increas- 
ingly infiiTn  in  his  later  years,  he  died  at  his  farm  in  1872, 
and  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  the  Sour  Springs 
Church. 

J.  Carroll,  Case  and  His  Cotemporaries.  1867-77. 

Christian  Guardian.  June  11,  1873. 

C.  B.  Sissons,  Egerton  Ryerson.  1937,  1947.     G.  S.  French 

RYFF,  JULES  (1874-1961),  American  Free  Methodist 
pioneer  missionary  to  Africa,  was  born  in  Switzerland 
Dec.  21,  1874.  He  came  to  the  United  States  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  and  worked  in  lumber  mills  and  on  farms. 
Converted  in  young  manhood,  he  entered  Seattle  Pa- 
cific College  (then  a  Seminary)  to  prepare  for  full- 
time  Christian  service.  He  taught  school  for  several  years, 
served  as  pastor  in  the  Washington  Conference,  then  felt 
called  to  Africa.  He  married  Elisabeth  Ellen  Eva,  Oct. 
8,  1902.  In  1903  he  and  his  wife  went  to  South  Africa, 
served  two  years  at  Fairview,  Natal,  and  then  transferred 
to  Genniston.  He  superintended  mission  work  at  the  com- 
pounds of  the  mines. 

In  his  early  years  of  missionary  service,  his  wife  died. 
A  few  years  later,  he  married  Ethel  Davey.  His  children 
were:  Lois,  Ruth,  Helen,  and  Frederic,  the  latter  a  Free 
Methodist  missionary  in  the  Transvaal. 

Jules  Ryff  was  a  superior  linguist,  a  master  of  German, 
English,  French,  Latin,  Greek,  as  well  as  Sheetswa,  Zula 
and   other  African    dialects.   He  was   adept    in   handling 


RYLAND,   WILLIAM 

affairs  with  the  nationals,  government  officials,  and  mine 
superintendents.  He  was  truly  a  missionary  statesman. 
He  gave  in  all  fifty  years  of  missionary  service,  and  died  in 
Gei-miston,  Dec.  15,  1961. 

The  Free  MetJiodist,  January  1962. 

B.  S.  Lamson,  Free  Methodist  Missions.  19.51. 

Byhon  S.  Lamson 

RYLAND,  WILLIAM  (c.  1770-1846),  American  minister 
who  became  chaplain  of  both  Houses  of  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  was  bom  in  Ireland  and  migrated 
to  Maryland  in  1788.  J.  E.  Armstrong  said  that  this  was 
when  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age  and  that  he  first  set- 
tled in  Harford  County,  Md.,  where  he  was  converted. 


He  came  to  Baltimore  and  entered  the  Baltimore 
Conference  in  1802  and  for  twenty-seven  years  was  in 
the  itinerant  ranks.  He  was  a  delegate  to  four  General 
Conferences  of  his  Church.  He  served  as  chaplain 
both  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  the  U.S.  Senate 
and  during  that  time  acted  as  pastor  to  President  Andrew 
Jackson  and  his  family.  After  his  superannuation,  he  acted 
as  chaplain  in  the  U.S.  Navy,  being  stationed  at  the 
Marine  Barracks  in  Washington  where  he  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.  He  died  Jan.  19,  1846.  His  papers 
are  preserved  in  the  Methodist  Historical  Society,  Balti- 
more. 


J.  E.  AnnstTong,  Old  Baltimore  Conference.  1907. 

Edwin  Schell 


Julio  Sabanes 

SABANES,  JULIO  MANUEL  (1897-1963),  bishop,  was 
horn  in  Montevideo,  Uruguay,  July  2,  1897,  the  son  of 
Methodist  parents.  After  attending  primary  school,  he 
secured  gainful  employment  and  in  time  became  a  bank 
clerk.  Joining  the  church,  he  rose  to  leadership  in  the 
Methodist  Youth  Movement,  and  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  La  Idea,  the  organization's  periodical  in  Uruguay.  Also, 
he  engaged  in  open  air  evangelistic  preaching.  He  married 
Juana  Puch,  the  daughter  of  a  Methodist  minister,  March 
10,  1923,  and  they  had  three  children,  Julio  Ruben  who 
is  a  pastor  and  district  superintendent  in  Argentina,  and 
Charlos,  and  Miriam. 

Sabanes  joined  the  River  Plate  Annual  Conference  on 
trial  in  1923  and  was  ordained  elder  in  1927.  He  was 
appointed  traveling  evangelist  for  Uruguay.  In  1926  he 
served  two  small  churches  near  Montevideo,  and  later 
became  assistant  pastor  of  Central  Church  in  the  city. 
In  1929  he  was  appointed  to  Central  Church,  Rosario, 
Argentina's  second  largest  city  where  he  served  eighteen 
years.  During  part  of  that  time  he  was  also  district  superin- 
tendent in  Rosario  and  editor  of  El  Estandarte  Evangelico, 
the  conference  magazine.  He  was  a  delegate  to  five 
Central  Conference  sessions  and  to  the  1940  Gen- 
eral Conference,  Atlantic  City,  New  Jersey. 

In  1947,  .Sabanes  was  appointed  to  Central  Church, 
Buenos  Aires,  and  district  superintendent  in  that  city. 
During  the  next  five  years  he  engaged  in  many  civic 
and  community  activities  along  with  his  church  work.  In 
September  1952,  the  dictatorial  regime  of  President  Juan 
Peron  banned  him  from  his  pulpit  and  forbade  him  to 
engage  in  pastoral  work. 

In  November  1952,  the  Latin  American  Central  Con- 
ference  elected    Sabanes    bishop,    and    in    1956   he    was 


reelected  for  four  more  years.  He  was  assigned  to  the 
Santiago  Area  (later  Pacific  Area)  which  included 
Chile,  Peru,  Panama,  and  Costa  Rica,  With  his  epis- 
copal headquarters  in  Santiago,  Chile,  Sabanes  traveled 
and  superintended  his  area  for  the  next  seven  years.  Also, 
he  attended  several  meetings  of  the  Council  of  Bishops 
and  the  1956  General  Conference  in  Minneapolis.  Be- 
cause of  poor  health,  Sabanes  retired  at  the  session  of  the 
Latin  America  Central  Conference  at  Lima,  Peru,  in  1960. 
Known  as  a  "gentle  person"  who  was  "greatly  beloved," 
he  spent  his  remaining  days  at  his  home  in  Buenos  Aires, 
where  he  died  after  a  long  illness,  Aug.  29,  1963. 


World  Outlook,  October,  1963. 


Jesse  A.  Eabl 
Albea  Godbold 


SACKETT,  ALFRED  BARRETT   (1895-  ),  British  Meth- 

odist, born  at  Strood,  Kent,  England,  the  only  son  of 
A.  B.  Sackett,  Wesleyan  minister.  He  was  educated  at 
KiNGSwoOD  School  and  Merton  College,  Oxford.  Dur- 
ing the  Great  War  of  1914-18  he  sened  with  the 
Northumberland  Fusiliers,  winning  the  Military  Cross. 
After  six  years  as  housemaster  at  Christ's  Hospital  (trans- 
ferred from  London  to  Horsham,  Sussex,  in  1902),  in  1928 
he  began  an  eminently  successful  headmastership,  lasting 
thirty-one  years,  at  his  old  school,  John  Wesley's  foun- 
dation, Kingswood  School.  He  has  served  on  many  Meth- 
odist committees,  including  the  World  Methodist 
Council. 

Frank  Baker 


SACO,  MAINE,  USA.  School  Street  Church.  Jesse  Lee, 
sometimes  called  the  apostle  to  New  England,  preached 
the  first  Methodist  seimon  ever  heard  in  Saco  village, 
Maine,  on  Sept.  10,  1793,  His  text  was  "Behold  ye 
despisers  and  wonder  and  perish"  (Acts  13:41).  After 
passing  the  night  at  the  home  of  Dr.  Josiah  Fair- 
field, he  left  on  his  further  travels  in  the  province  of 
Maine. 

The  first  Methodist  church  in  Saco  was  dedicated  in 
1828,  and  was  known  as  Wesleyan  Hall  and  "the  Corn 
Crib."  Four  years  later  a  larger  building  was  needed.  The 
church  continued  to  grow  and  many  members  were  added 
to  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  In  1847,  the  Methodist  society 
had  grown  enough  to  warrant  being  host  to  the  Maine 
Annual  Conference.  In  1943  on  the  one  hundred  and 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  Jesse  Lee's  visit.  Bishop  G.  Bromley 
OxNAM  gave  the  anniversary  address  on  "The  Crusade  for 
a  New  World  Order."  Through  the  years  the  loyalty, 
faithfulness,  and  charity  of  the  School  Street  members 
and  pastors  has  been  marked. 

John  H.  Jordan 

SACRAMENT  OF  HOLY  COMMUNION.  (See  Commu- 
nion, The  Holy.  ) 


SACRAMENTAL   FELLOWSHIP,    METHODIST 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


SACRAMENTAL  FELLOWSHIP,  METHODIST  (British),  is  a 
devotional  society  of  some  400  ministers  and  laymen 
pledged  to  pray  daily  for  corporate  Christian  unity,  seek- 
ing to  foster  the  churchmanship  and  catholic  inheritance 
of  British  Methodism.  Originating  in  the  1920's  among  a 
group  of  Wesleyan  ministers  led  by  T.  S.  Gregory,  it  was 
inaugurated  as  a  society  in  1935  on  a  three-fold  basis  of 
doctrine,  sacramental  worship,  and  reunion.  Its  presidents 
have  been  Alfred  E.  Whitham  (1935);  J.  E.  R.attenbury 
(1938),  and  Doxald  Soper  (1950).  Annual  conferences 
have  maintained  a  high  level  of  ecumenical  understanding, 
and  the  society  continues  to  exercise  an  influence  largely 
disproportionate  to  its  numerical  strength.  In  association 
with  certain  other  groups  it  publi.shes  a  bulletin,  and  it 
maintains  contact  with  parallel  movements  in  other 
communions. 

A.  S.  Gregory 

SACRAMENTO,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.,  seat  of  Sutter's 
Fort,  mecca  of  overland  immigrants  to  California.  Dr. 
William  Grove  Deal,  physician  and  local  preacher,  began 
a  Methodist  ministry  in  the  open  air  and  aboard  a  ship. 
William  Roberts  organized  a  Methodist  church  in  July 
1849,  on  the  foundation  laid  by  Deal,  and  left  the  work 
in  Deal's  care. 

John  Sutter  donated  to  the  M.E.  Church  a  lot  on  the 
southeast  corner  at  Seventh  and  L  Streets,  and  on  this 
was  erected  a  chapel  shipped  from  Baltimore,  the  first 
church  building  in  Sacramento.  Isaac  Owen  arrived  to 
sei-ve  as  pastor  on  Oct.  23,  1849.  On  October  28  he 
received  seventy-two  persons  into  the  church,  and  one 
week  later  held  the  first  services  in  the  new  church  edifice. 
Owen,  who  was  thereafter  to  sei-ve  as  presiding  elder, 
was  followed  as  pastor  in  1850  by  M.  C.  Briggs  for  the 
first  of  three  pastorates  in  that  city.  Influential  in  opposing 
intemperance  and  slavery,  he  also  led  the  California  dele- 
gation to  the  convention  which  nominated  Lincoln  for 
the  presidency  in  1864. 

One  Methodist  layman,  J.  H.  Ralston,  a  brother  of  the 
prominent  Methodist  theologian,  T.  N.  Ralston,  wrote  to 
his  sister,  Mrs.  James  B.  Dodd  of  Kentucky,  from  Sacra- 
mento in  1850  as  follows:  ".  .  .  There  is  much  Drinking, 
gambling,  etc  in  all  this  country.  Say  to  Neely  [T.  N. 
Ralston],  a  vast  field  is  open  for  Preachers.  Why  does  not 
the  church  send  them  out  here.  .  .  .  Preaching  is  Kneeded 
here  as  much  as  any  where.  .  .  ." 

In  1852  a  larger  chuich  was  built,  but  soon  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire.  Rebuilt  on  the  same  site  the  new  building 
was  a  few  years  later  sold  to  the  Jewish  congregation  to 
be  the  first  synagogue  on  the  Pacific  coast.  The  fourth 
building  was  erected  on  Sixth  Street  in  1859-60  and 
completed  in  1870.  A  historical  marker  indicates  the  site 
of  the  pioneer  Methodist  church. 

The  work  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South  was  begun  in 
Sacramento  in  April  1850,  and  a  chapel  was  erected  in 
August  of  that  year  on  Seventh  Street  between  J  and  K 
Streets.  D.  W.  Pollock  was  the  pioneer  leader,  but  his 
health  soon  failed  and  he  was  succeeded  by  local  preacher 
Penmann.  In  1851  W.  R.  Gober  assumed  the  work  and 
also  organized  a  school,  Asbury  Institute.  Gober  was  ca- 
pable and  influential,  and  served  two  pastorates  in  Sacra- 
mento. 

Perhaps  the  outstanding  lay  Methodist  in  Sacramento 
was  Mrs.  Lizzie  Glide,  who  worked  ardently  in  city 
mission  work  and  gave  generously,  providing  for  the  build- 


ing of  residence  halls  for  girls  in  two  cities  and  at  Asbury 
College  in  Kentucky.  The  Glide  Foundation  which  she 
established  has  had  a  deep  and  valued  influence  in  Cali- 
fornia. C.  M.  and  Mary  Glide  Goethe  provided  financial 
backing  for  city  and  state  councils  of  churches  and  many 
other  good  works.  Goethe  has  been  widely  honored  for 
leadership  in  appreciation  of  nature  and  in  guidance  of 
youth. 

Most  noted  among  Sacramento  Methodist  preachers  in 
this  century  was  A.  Raymond  Grant,  elected  bishop 
while  pastor  at  First  Church.  In  1970  there  were  seven- 
teen United  Methodist  churches  in  Sacramento  in  addition 
to  a  ministry  to  students  at  Sacramento  State  College. 
There  are  eighteen  ministers,  and  7,431  members. 

The  Sacramento  Methodist  Union  sei"ves  as  a  church 
extension  society,  and  has  been  instrumental  in  securing 
sites  on  which  a  number  of  churches  have  been  built. 

First  Church,  organized  in  1849,  was  a  contemporary 
and  not  a  child  of  the  "gold-rush."  There  was  no  "god- 
rush "  in  the  "gold-rush."  But  even  before  prospectors  came 
seeking  gold  for  men,  pioneer  preachers  came  seeking  men 
for  God. 

William  Taylor  and  Isaac  Owen  were  sent  by 
authority  of  the  M.E.  Church  to  California.  Bishop  Taylor 
came  by  way  of  "the  Horn"  at  the  tip  of  South  America. 
Isaac  Owen  came  by  ox-team  across  the  plains  and  moun- 
tains. When  he  arrived,  he  found  Taylor  already  working 
in  San  Francisco,  so  he  came  on  to  Sacramento.  Before 
leaving  the  east  Taylor's  friends  in  Baltimore  framed 
and  furnished  a  chapel  24  by  36  feet  intended  for  San 
Francisco.  It  was  shipped  around  Cape  Horn  and  be- 
cause Sacramento  had  a  stronger  society  in  need  of  a 
building,  it  was  shipped  on  to  Sacramento. 

Since  1849,  the  original  "Baltimore-California"  Chapel 
and  other  church  buildings  have  been  replaced  and  con- 
gregations have  risen  and  combined  until  in  1924  First 
Church  became  the  latest  successor,  growing  to  be  the 
second  largest  church  in  the  California-Nevada  Con- 
ference. Now  a  modem,  multiple-staff  institution  of  2,060 
members,  it  carries  in  stone  over  its  main  entrance,  the 
figure  of  the  Circuit  Rider  and  the  words:  "To  the 
pioneers  of  the  Cross  through  whose  heroism  and  self 
sacrifice  we  owe  our  present  Methodism  in  this  the 
Capital  City  of  California." 

Like  them.  First  Church  is  still  pioneering  its  program 
geared  to  serving  from  within  the  heart  of  a  great  and 
growing  Capital  City. 

C.  V.  Anthony,  Fifty  Years.  1901. 
California  Christian  Advocate. 
L.  L.  Loofbourow,  In  Search  of  God's  Gold.  1950. 
J.    C.    Simmons,    Pacific   Coast.    1886.  Don   M.   Chase 

Robert  A.  Panzer 

SACRAMENT,  THE.  "Sacraments,"  states  Article  of 
Religion  XVI  (number  XXV  of  the  XXXIX  of  the  Church 
of  England),  "ordained  of  Christ  are  not  only  badges  or 
tokens  of  Christian  men's  profession,  but  rather  they  are 
certain  signs  of  grace,  and  God's  good  will  toward  us,  by 
which  he  doth  work  invisibly  in  us,  and  doth  not  only 
quicken,  but  also  strengthen  and  confiim,  our  faith  in  Him. 
There  are  two  Sacraments  ordained  of  Christ  our  Lord 
in  the  Gospel;  that  is  to  say.  Baptism  and  the  Supper  of 
the  Lord." 

This  affirmation  explains  itself  and  denominates  the 
two   Sacraments   which   Methodism   with   the   Protestant 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ST.   GEORGE'S   CHURCH 


world  accepts  as  such.  Sacrament  is  from  the  Latin 
sacramentum.  "The  Romans  used  the  word  for  their  mili- 
tary oath  and  in  that  sense  it  has  great  significence,  as  in 
this  ordinance,  as  well  as  in  Baptism,  we  swear  alle- 
giance to  the  captain  of  our  salvation,"  so  stated  Thomas 
O.  Summers,  an  authority  in  this  field.  For  a  further 
explanation  of  these  two  sacraments,  see  B.aptism  and 
Communion,  The  Holy. 

Aiticle  of  Religion  XVI,  the  first  part  of  which  is  quoted 
above,  goes  on  to  mention  five  other  rites  "commonly 
called  sacraments,  that  is  to  say,  confirmation,  penance, 
orders,  matrimony,  and  extreme  unction."  The  Article 
holds  that  these  are  "not  to  be  counted  for  Sacraments  of 
the  Gospel;  being  such  as  have  growai  out  of  the  corrupt 
following  of  the  apostles,  and  partly  are  states  of  life 
allowed  in  the  Scriptures,  but  yet  have  not  the  like  nature 
of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  because  they  have  not 
any  visible  sign  or  ceremony  ordained  of  Cod."  (See 
also  Doctrinal  Standards  of  Methodism.) 

J.  C.  Bowmer,  Lord's  Supper,  1961. 

,  Sacrament.  1951. 

Robert  W.  Goodloe,  The  Sacraments  in  Methodism.  Nashville: 

Methodist  Publishing  House,  1943. 

N.  B.  Harmon,  Rites  and  Ritual.  1926.  N.  B.  H. 

SAHAI,  GEORGE  SYLVESTER  (1908-1966),  Indian 
minister  and  educator,  was  a  third-generation  Christian. 
His  father  was  an  ordained  Methodist  minister.  Lucknow 
University  conferred  upon  him  the  B.A.,  B.Ed.Sc,  M.A., 
and  Ph.D.  degrees.  He  studied  for  a  time  in  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York.  He  married  Lois  Tika 
in  1934. 

After  seventeen  years  on  the  faculty  of  the  Lucknow 
Christian  College  teaching  history,  he  was  appointed 
pastor  of  one  of  Indian  Methodism's  greatest  churches. 
Central  Church  in  Lucknow.  In  1957  he  became  the  first 
Indian  principal  of  Leonard  Theological  College.  Sahai's 
Ph.D.  dissertation  was  on  the  subject,  "Christian  Missions 
and  Indian  Education."  He  set  forth  impressively  the 
contribution  of  Christian  missions  to  the  development  of 
modem  education  in  India. 

Sahai  represented  the  Lucknow  Annual  Conference 
in  the  1960  General  Conference,  and  was  a  delegate  to 
the  tenth  World  Methodist  Conference  in  Oslo,  where 
he  read  a  paper  on  Methodist  beliefs.  He  represented  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Southern  Asia  in  the  World  Coun- 
cil OF  Chtirches  Assembly  in  New  Delhi.  He  lectured  in 
the  United  States  on  the  theology  of  missions,  conducted 
Bible  study  classes  for  the  interdenominational  missionary- 
conference  at  Lake  George,  N.  Y.,  and  twice  taught 
classes  on  missions  at  Garrett  Seminary  summer 
sessions. 

He  died  in  1966  at  Jabalpur  from  a  heart  attack,  and 
is  buried  there. 


The  Indian  Witness,  1966. 


J.  Waskom  Pickett 


SAINT,  CHARLES  (1764-1840),  was  born  in  England  and 
came  to  Bonavista,  Newfoundland,  where  he  was  con- 
verted under  the  ministry  of  George  Smith,  first  Methodist 
missionary  to  Bonavista.  After  Smith's  departure  in  1796, 
Bonavista  had  no  missionary  for  fourteen  years,  and  during 
this  period  Charles  Saint  served  as  class  leader  and  local 
preacher,  and  kept  alive  Methodism.  He  gave  faithful  and 
devoted  service  and  strong  leadership  throughout  his  life. 


Bonavista  became — and  still  is — one  of  the  largest  pas- 
toral charges  in  the  Newfoundland  Conference. 

T.  W.  Smith,  Eastern  British  America.  1877.       N.  Winsor 


ST.  GEORGE'S  CHURCH  edifice,  located  at  235  North 
Fourth  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  is  the  oldest  Methodist 
meeting  house  in  continuous  use  in  America  and  one  of 
the  shrines  of  The  United  Methodist  Church.  Its  claim  to 
be  the  world's  oldest  Methodist  Church  edifice  in  con- 
tinuous service  has  been  challenged  by  the  British  Meth- 
odists. 

The  edifice  was  purchased  by  the  Methodists  in  1769 
under  the  leadership  of  Joseph  Pilmore  from  William 
Branson  Hockley,  whose  mentally  deficient  son  had  pur- 
chased it  at  auction  from  a  splinter  group  of  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  currently  located  at  Fourth  and  Race 
Streets.  The  building  as  purchased  consisted  of  four  brick 
walls,  a  roof  and  a  dirt  floor.  It  was  sold  when  the  splinter 
group,  who  had  over-extended  themselves  in  borrowing 
money  for  the  building,  were  unable  to  borrow  further 
funds  although  they  appealed  both  to  the  Anglican  and 
the  Dutch  Refoimed  churches.  The  Trustees  of  the  origi- 
nal project  were  arrested  for  the  indebtedness  on  the 
building,  and  the  auction  was  contrived  to  secure  funds 
to  pay  the  indebtedness  and  secure  the  release  of  the 
trustees  from  jail. 

The  St.  George's  Society,  itself,  was  organized  two 
years  previously,  in  1767,  by  Captain  Thomas  Weru 
who,  on  coming  to  Philadelphia  from  New  York,  had 
found  a  small  group  of  the  converts  of  George  White- 
field  meeting  irregularly  in  a  sail  loft  on  Dock  Creek 
(now  Dock  Street)  at  Front  Street.  Their  leaders  were 
Edward  Evans,  a  cordwainer,  maker  of  fine  shoes  for 
ladies,  and  James  Emerson,  an  Irishman,  a  seller  of 
Orange  Lemon  Shrub.  These  men,  converted  under 
Whitefield  in  1741,  had  formed  a  group  of  "Methides,"  as 
they  were  then  called,  and  held  it  together  for  twenty-six 
years  until  the  coining  of  Webb  who  organized  the  group 
into  "The  Religious  Society  of  Protestants  called  Method- 
ists." Under  Webb's  inspired  preaching  and  leadership 
the  Society  grew  and  in  1768  sought  larger  quarters  in  a 
house  located  at  8  Loxley  Court.  Prayer  meetings  were 
held  on  the  first  floor  of  the  house  and  public  preaching 
services  were  conducted  in  the  courtyard  in  front  of  the 
building,  with  thfe  preacher  proclaiming  his  message 
through  the  window  on  the  second  floor,  to  the  group 
gathered  below  in  the  yard.  When  Joseph  Pilmore  and 
Richard  Boardman,  Wesley's  first  Missionaries  to  Ameri- 
ca, arrived  in  Philadelphia  in  1769  the  Society  had  grown 
to  about  100  members.  Under  Pilmore's  prodding  the 
Society  again  sought  larger  quarters  and  subsequently 
purchased  the  present  structure.  The  building  had  been 
named  St.  George's  Church  by  the  Dutch  Refoimed 
splinter  group  when  they  were  seeking  financial  aid  from 
the  Anglicans,  and  the  Methodists  continued  the  name. 
AsBURY  is  purported  to  have  referred  to  the  building  as 
the  "Cathedral  of  Methodism." 

Although  St.  George's  is  not  the  oldest  Society  in  Amer- 
ica, its  building  is  the  oldest  in  continuous  use  and  its 
history  is  marked  by  a  distinguished  list  of  "firsts"  and 
other  important  events. 

All  Wesley's  itinerants  visited  St.  George's  first  on  com- 
ing to  America,  Philadelphia  being  at  that  time  the  port  of 
entry  to  the  new  world.  On  Oct.  7,  1769,  the  first  hymns 
pubhshed  by  an  American  Society  were  printed   for  St. 


ST.   GEORGE'S   CHURCH 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


Si.  C^Eom^KS  Church,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania 


George's.  On  Dec.  3,  1769,  Joseph  Pilmore  here  made  the 
first  pubhc  statement  in  America  of  the  faith  and  the 
body  of  Principles  of  Methodism.  On  Dec.  8,  1769  he 
held  at  St.  George's  the  first  Prayer  Meeting  in  America, 
called  "Intercession."  The  first  Wesleyan  itinerant  licensed 
to  preach  by  an  American  Society,  John  King,  was 
licensed  by  Pilmore  at  Old  St.  George's  Aug.  31,  1770. 
The  first  Watch  Night  held  in  America  was  held  in  St. 
George's  Nov.  1,  1770,  and  on  October  28  of  the  following 
year  Francis  Asbui-y  preached  his  first  sermon  in  America. 
The  first  three  Conferences  of  American  Methodism  were 
held  at  Old  St.  George's  in  1773,  1774,  and  1775,  and  on 
Nov.  7,  1784,  Thomas  Coke  first  publicly  proclaimed 
and  explained  Wesley's  new  plan  of  church  government 
for  the  American  Methodists. 

In  1784  Richard  Allen,  the  first  Negro  licensed  to 
preach  by  the  Methodists  in  America,  was  licensed  by 
St.  George's  and  in  the  same  year  the  church  licensed 
Absalom  Jones,  the  second  Negro  licensed  to  preach  by 
the  Methodists  in  America.  In  1789  the  Methodist  Book 
Concern,  now  the  Methodist  Publishing  House,  was 
organized  here  by  John  Dickins,  the  pastor  of  St. 
George's.  He  lies  buried  in  the  churchyard  behind  the 
church,  and  Ezekfel  Cooper,  his  successor  as  "Book 
agent,"  lies  buried  at  the  front  entrance.  This  is  only  a 
partial  list  of  the  distinctions  of  the  Church. 

It  is  informative  also  to  note  that  John  Adams  of 
Massachusetts,  representative  to  the  first  Continental 
Congress  and  later  second  President  of  the  United  States, 
worshipped  here  at  times,  and  that  Thomas  Rankin  re- 
cords in  his  Journal  that  some  of  the  Continental  Congress 
worshipped  at  Old  St.  George's.  According  to  a  former 


pastor  of  the  church,  Francis  Tees,  St.  George's  through 
its  history  has  financially  aided  in  organizing  or  in  pre- 
serving over  100  churches  along  the  eastern  seaboard. 
Tees  also  stated  that  numerous  revivals  have  marked  the 
history  of  the  church,  the  most  noted  being  1836  when 
1,281  persons  were  converted  and  fifty-three  young  men 
entered  the  ministry. 

In  1920  when  the  Delaware  River  (now  the  Benjamin 
Franklin)  Bridge  was  built,  the  church  was  threatened 
with  destruction  since  the  plans  for  the  bridge  placed  one 
abutment  where  the  church  still  stands.  Through  the 
influence  and  leadership  of  Bishop  Thomas  Neely  the 
plans  of  the  bridge  were  changed,  the  church  was  saved, 
and  the  roadbed  of  the  bridge  moved  further  south. 

During  the  pastorate  of  Albert  W.  Cliffe  guides  for 
tourists  visiting  the  building  were  added  to  the  staff. 
During  the  pastorate  of  Frederick  E.  Maser  ( 1958- 
1967)  group  visitations  were  encouraged,  with  groups 
coming  from  as  far  away  as  China  and  Australia,  and 
the  pastor  made  several  preaching  tours  in  the  United 
States,  Europe,  and  the  South  Pacific  in  the  interest  of 
the  church.  During  this  pastorate  also  the  trustees  insti- 
tuted the  St.  George's  Gold  Medal  Award  presented  an- 
nually to  at  least  one  layman  and  one  minister  for  "distin- 
guished service  to  The  Methodist  Church."  The  medal  is 
patterned  after  the  seal  of  Old  St.  George's,  a  dove  carry- 
ing an  olive  branch  in  its  bill  surrounded  by  the  words, 
"Let  brotherly  love  continue."  Among  the  first  recipients 
were  Charles  C.  Parlin,  Bishop  Fred  Pierce  Corson, 
James  T.  Buckley  and  George  Ruck.  Subsequent  recip- 
ients have  constituted  a  Who's  Who  in  American  Meth- 
odism. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ST.    LOUIS,   MISSOURI 


In  1967  under  the  leadership  of  the  present  pastor. 
Dr.  John  H.  Barnes,  an  additional  award  was  instituted, 
"The  John  Wesley  Ecumenical  Award."  It  commemorates 
both  John  Wesley's  sermon.  "The  Catholic  Spirit,"  and 
the  Second  Vatican  Council.  Among  the  first  recipients 
was  John  Cardinal  Krol  of  Philadelphia. 

In  its  Historical  Center  adjoining  the  sanctuary,  the 
Church  houses  the  possessions  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  the  Eastern  Pennsylvani.^  Conference,  including 
nearly  10,000  volumes  of  Methodistica  and  memorabilia 
of  early  Methodism.  Among  these  are  Asbury's  Bible, 
spectacles  and  razor,  Pilmore's  Journal,  the  desk  over 
which  Thomas  Rankin  presided  at  the  first  conference  of 
Methodist  preachers  in  America,  early  love  feast  cups, 
and  letters  of  Asbury,  Wesley,  Whitefield  and  other  early 
Methodists. 

With  the  rehabilitation  of  the  neighborhood  near  old 
St.  George's  and  the  establishment  near  the  church  of  a 
residential  area  known  as  "Society  Hill,"  it  is  hoped  that 
a  larger  membership  will  result  and  that  the  past  glories 
of  Old  St.  George's  will  become  present  and  future  possi- 
bilities. 

A.  W.  ClifFe,  Our  Methodist  Heritage.  1957. 
F.    H.    Tees,    Ancient    Landmark   of   American    Methodism   or 
Historic   Old   St.   George's.   Philadeipliia:    Message    Publishing 
Co.,  19.51. 

,  Beginnings  of  Methodism.  1940. 

Fredehick  E.  Maseii 

ST.  JOHN'S  RIVER  CONFERENCE  was  organized  Jan 
25,  1886,  in  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  with  Bishop  E.  G.  An- 
drews presiding.  Composed  of  white  ministers  and 
churches,  it  was  foimed  by  dividing  the  denomination's 
Florida  Conference  on  racial  lines.  After  1886,  the 
latter  conference  continued  as  a  Negro  conference. 

The  boundaries  of  the  St.  John's  River  Conference  in- 
cluded Florida  east  of  the  Appalachicola  River  and  a 
small  fraction  of  south  Georgia.  At  the  outset  it  had 
fifteen  preachers,  one  probationer,  five  available  supplies, 
and  657  members.  By  1900  it  had  grown  to  twenty-eight 
appointments  and  1,160  members. 

For  a  few  years,  beginning  in  1887,  the  conference  pub- 
lished a  paper  called  the  Florida  Methodist.  The  St.  John's 
River  Conference  College  was  launched  at  Orange  City  in 
1887,  but  for  lack  of  financial  resources  it  failed  in  five 
years.  Thereafter  some  support  was  given  to  Cookman 
Institute  at  Jacksonville,  a  school  for  Negroes  founded  in 
1874  by  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society.  Cookman  merged 
with  a  school  for  Negro  girls  in  1922  to  become  Be- 
thune-Cookman  College  at  Daytona  Beach.  In  1928, 
the  conference  began  patronizing  Tennessee  Wesleyan 
College,  Athens,  Tenn.,  and  was  given  representation  on 
that  school's  board  of  trustees. 

The  St.  John's  River  Conference  grew  rapidly  in  the 
1920's  when  large  numbers  of  people  from  the  North, 
many  of  them  members  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  moved  to 
Florida. 

There  was  little  fellowship  or  cooperation  between  the 
conferences  of  the  two  Episcopal  Methodisms  in  Florida 
until  the  1920's.  In  1936,  the  St.  John's  River  Conference 
joined  the  Florida  Conference  (MES)  in  supporting 
the  Methodist  Children's  Home  at  Enterprise.  Voting 
unanimously  for  Methodist  union,  the  St.  John's  River 
Conference  came  to  the  merger  in  1939  with  fifty-two 
pastoral  charges  and  14,085  members.  Schuyler  E. 
Garth,  who  served  as  superintendent  of  the  Miami  Dis- 


trict in  the  1920's  and  was  elected  bishop  in  1944  from 
the  North  Central  Jurisdiction,  was  one  of  several  able 
leaders  developed  in  this  relatively  small  conference. 

General  Minutes. 

C.  T.  Tiirift,  Jr.,  The  Trail  of  the  Florida  Circuit  Rider.  1944. 

Jesse  A.  Earl 

ST.  LOUIS,  MISSOURI,  U.S.A.  (population  607,718  in 
1970),  was  founded  in  1764  as  a  fur  trading  post  in  the 
wilderness.  Prior  to  1804  only  the  Roman  Catholic  religion 
was  permitrted  in  the  city.  However,  beginning  in  1798, 
John  Clark,  a  Methodist  preacher  in  Illinois,  secretly 
crossed  over  to  Missouri  and  preached  several  times  in 
the  environs  of  St.  Louis. 

For  a  decade  after  St.  Louis  became  a  part  of  the  United 
States,  the  Protestant  preachers  left  it  "to  the  Catholics 
and  the  infidels"  and  went  to  the  rural  areas  which  were 
then   regarded    as   the   more   promising   missionary   fields. 

Presbyterian,  Baptist  and  Episcopalian  missionaries  be- 
gan preaching  in  St.  Louis  in  1816,  1817,  and  1819, 
respectively.  Officially  the  Methodists  began  work  in 
Missiouri  in  1806  when  the  Western  Conference  ap- 
pointed John  Travis  to  the  Missouri  Circuit  which  ex- 
tended some  300  miles  up  and  down  the  Mississippi  River 
and  some  fifty  miles  west.  In  the  next  decade  several 
strong  circuits  were  established  in  the  rural  areas.  In  1817 
John  Scripps,  who  had  been  appointed  to  the  Cold 
Water  Circuit  north  and  west  of  St.  Louis,  decided  to 
make  St.  Louis  a  preaching  point  on  his  work.  Learning 
that  Joseph  Charles,  editor  of  the  Missouri  Gazette,  had 
a  Methodist  background,  Scripps  asked  his  help.  As  a 
result,  the  paper  announced  Scripps'  first  preaching  ap- 
pointment in  St.  Louis  for  Sunday,  April  23,  1817.  The 
service  was  held  in  a  log  house  which  served  the  town  as 
a  theater.  Later  the  Presbyterians  allowed  Scripps  to  use 
their  little  frame  house,  and  he  regularly  preached  there 
once  every  three  weeks  until  the  end  of  the  conference 
year.  Scripps  saw  "no  visible  results"  but  he  believed 
good  could  be  done  in  St.  Louis.  The  preachers  who  fol- 
lowed Scripps  in  the  next  three  years  made  no  effort  to 
establish  work  in  St.  Louis.  One  said  he  had  no  building 
in  which  to  hold  services,  and  another,  according  to 
Scripps,  found  work  on  the  circuit  more  congenial. 

Jesse  Walker,  the  "Daniel  Boone  of  Methodism,"  a 
man  of  practical  ability  and  marked  deteimination,  es- 
tabli.shed  Methodism  in  St.  Louis.  From  1807  to  1819 
Walker  rode  circuits  and  served  as  presiding  elder  in 
Illinois  and  Missouri.  For  reasons  which  are  not  clear, 
the  Missouri  Conference  appointed  him  "missionaiy"  in 
1819  and  1820.  This  of  course  allowed  him  to  work  where 
he  pleased  in  the  conference.  Walker  and  Scripps  were 
friends,  and  since  both  had  St.  Louis  on  their  hearts, 
Scripps  encouraged  Walker  to  try  to  establish  a  Meth- 
odist church  in  the  city.  Knowing  the  undertaking  would 
be  difficult.  Walker  laid  his  plans  carefully.  Leaving  his 
family  on  his  farm  in  Illinois,  he  rented  an  old  two-room 
log  structure  in  St.  Louis,  and  lived  in  one  room  and 
fitted  up  the  other  as  a  chapel  and  a  school  room.  He 
brought  provisions  from  his  farm.  In  the  late  fall  of  1820, 
he  announced  his  first  preaching  appointment  in  St.  Louis. 
About  a  dozen  came.  Walker  then  visited  throughout  the 
town,  making  acquaintances  and  inviting  people  to  church. 
As  time  passed,  he  won  more  adherents  by  his  simple 
goodness  than  by  his  sermons,  for  he  was  not  an  impres- 
sive preacher. 


ST.   lOUIS,   MISSOURI 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


In  January  1821,  Walker  organized  a  class  of  six.  His 
congregation  soon  outgrew  the  log  house  and  even  the 
courthouse  nearby.  Though  he  had  no  money.  Walker 
determined  to  build  a  church.  A  man  in  Illinois  gave  him 
timber.  He  then  begged  money  and  had  the  logs  cut  and 
brought  across  the  river.  With  the  help  of  three  men,  he 
cut  the  lumber  with  a  whipsaw,  and  in  1822  built  a  frame 
church  thirty-five  by  forty-five  feet  at  Fourth  and  Myrtle 
Streets,  now  Fourth  and  Claik.  Thus  was  erected  the 
first  Protestant  church  building  in  St.  Louis. 

The  Missouri  Conference  met  in  the  St.  Louis  church, 
Oct.  24,  1822,  and  William  Beauchamp,  an  eloquent 
preacher,  was  appointed  there.  Walker  moved  on  and 
later  established  Methodism  in  Chicago.  In  1830  the  St. 
Louis  congregation  moved  into  a  new  brick  church  at 
Fourth  and  Washington. 

Methodism  grew  slowly  in  St.  Louis.  In  1822  there 
were  eighty-seven  members;  in  1839  there  was  still  only 
one  congregation  with  365  white  and  148  colored  mem- 
bers. However,  in  that  year,  stirred  by  the  celebration  of 
the  centennial  of  world  Methodism,  St.  Louis  Methodists 
raised  $3,000  and  started  two  new  churches — Centenary 
and  Mounds  (now  St.  Paul's).  Both  have  sui-\'ived  and 
still  serve  near  their  original  locations. 

The  division  of  1844  was  keenly  felt  in  St.  Louis  Meth- 
odism. In  1845  all  of  the  congregations  adhered  South, 
but  some  members,  insisting  on  adhering  North,  formed 
Ebenezer  M.E.  Church  in  that  year.  Three  years  later  it 
reported  130  members.  Though  the  M.E.  Church  or- 
ganized a  Missouri  Conference  in  1848  and  started  a 
second  and  third  congregation  in  St.  Louis  in  1852  and 
1857,  through  the  years  it  was  not  as  strong  in  the  city 
as  the  Church  South.  However,  the  Church  North  was 
dominant  in  St.  Louis  during  the  Civil  War.  Editor  D.  R. 
McAnally  of  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate  (MES)  was 
imprisoned,  and  Enoch  M.  Marvin  (later  bishop),  pastor 
of  Centenary  Church,  went  South  to  avoid  arrest.  Union 
Church  (ME),  organized  in  1862,  flourished  under  the 
pastor,  Henry  Cox,  who  required  persons  joining  the 
church  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  United  States  with  the 
stars  and  stripes  floating  over  their  heads. 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Church  had  no  con- 
stituency in  St.  Louis.  The  Free  Methodist  Church 
had  three  congregations  and  129  members  in  tlie  city  in 
1968. 

In  1858  some  seventy-five  Negroes  in  M.E.  Church 
congregations  withdrew  and  organized  Wesley  Chapel. 
As  late  as  1883  it  was  the  only  Negro  M.E.  Church  in  the 
city.  In  1938  the  Central  West  Conference  (ME)  liad 
seven  congregations  and  some  3,500  members  in  St. 
Louis. 

The  A. M.E.  Church  organized  St.  Paul's  Church  in 
St.  Louis  in  1841  and  established  the  Missouri  Conference 
in  1855.  In  1967  the  denomination  reported  sixteen 
churches  and  7,471  members  in  greater  St.  Louis.  The 
A. M.E.  ZioN  Church  began  work  in  St.  Louis  in  1864. 
In  1967  it  reported  four  congregations  and  2,234  mem- 
bers. Shortly  after  its  organization  in  1870,  the  C.M.E. 
Church  began  work  in  St.  Louis,  but  in  1899  it  still 
had  only  one  congregation.  In  1967  the  denomination  re- 
ported eleven  churches  and  6,340  members  in  greater 
St.  Louis. 

Considering  the  age  and  size  of  the  City  of  St.  Louis, 
Methodism  has  not  established  many  institutions  in  or  near 
it.  The  M.E.  Church,  South  published  the  St.  Louis  Chris- 
tian  Advocate   there,    1852-1931,   and   in    1865   that   de- 


nomination founded  an  orphanage  in  the  city  now 
known  as  the  Methodist  Children's  Home.  The  St.  Louis 
Mission  and  Church  Extension  Society  and  Kingdom 
House,  inaugurated  in  1885  and  1903  by  the  Church 
South,  are  still  functioning.  Barnes  Hospital,  established 
in  1914,  was  closely  related  to  but  not  owned  by  the 
Church  South,  and  today  the  bishop  of  the  St.  Louis 
Area  has  the  responsibility  of  appointing  its  trustees. 
The  Missouri  East  Conference  appoints  the  chaplain  at 
Barnes  Hospital.  In  1853  representatives  of  the  M.E. 
Church  started  the  Central  Christian  Advocate  which  later 
moved  to  Kansas  City.  In  1970  the  two  Missouri  Con- 
ferences allocated  apportionments  to  the  chuiclies  with 
the  promise  that  when  enough  funds  are  in  hand  a  Meth- 
odist home  for  the  aged  will  be  built  in  the  vicinity  of 
St.  Louis. 

In  1970,  The  United  Methodist  Church  reported  twenty- 
five  churches  in  the  City  of  St.  Louis  with  11,329  mem- 
bers, property  valued  at  $11,180,857,  and  $1,320,149 
raised  for  all  purposes  during  the  year.  The  two  St.  Louis 
Districts  which  include  the  city  and  the  suburbs  to  a  dis- 
tance of  forty  miles  north,  south,  and  west,  reported  113 
congregations  and  50,062  members  in  1970. 

General  Minutes,  MEC,  MECS,  MC,  and  UMC. 
Minutes  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference  (MECS). 
Minutes  of  the  Missouri  East  Conference. 

Aimer  Pennewell,  A  Voice  in  the  Wilderness.  Nashville: 
Parthenon  Press,  [n.  d.,  circa  1962]. 

St.   Louis  Christian   Advocate  files,  St.   Louis   Public   Library. 

Albea  Godbold 

Barnes  Hospital  was  established  in  1914,  as  a  trustee- 
ship under  the  terms  of  the  will  of  Robert  A.  Banies,  a 
St.  Louis  merchant  who  died  in  1892.  Barnes  left  $940,000 
and  directed  the  trustees  to  use  $100,000  of  it  for  a 
building.  Convinced  that  an  adequate  plant  could  not  be 
constructed  for  that  amount,  the  trustees  delayed  building 
and  invested  the  coipus.  Twenty  years  later  when  it  had 
grown  to  $2,000,000,  they  spent  about  half  of  it  for  a 
building  and  used  the  rest  as  endowment. 

At  the  time  Barnes  Hospital  was  established  Washing- 
ton University  Medical  School  was  being  reorganized.  The 
two  institutions  affiliated,  and  through  the  years  Barnes 
has  been  the  teaching  hospital  of  the  Medical  School. 

Because  of  the  friendship  of  Robert  Barnes  with  Adam 
Hendrix,  a  banker  in  Fayette,  Mo.,  who  was  a  Methodist 
layman,  Barnes  Hospital  from  the  beginning  was  related 
to  the  M.E.  Church,  South.  Hendrix's  son.  Bishop  Eu- 
gene R.  Hendrix  (MES),  delivered  the  address  at  the 
laying  of  the  cornerstone  of  the  hospital,  Oct.  11,  1912. 
In  his  speech  the  bishop  said  that  Barnes  "deemed  the 
Methodists  were  best  calculated  to  carry  out  his  large 
plans"  for  a  hospital  for  sick  and  injured  persons  without 
distinction  of  creed  or  color.  Therefore  Bames  provided 
in  his  will  that  the  hospital  trustees  should  be  appointed 
by  the  Methodist  bishop  in  charge  in  St.  Louis,  a  practice 
that  has  continued  to  this  day.  Also,  the  Methodist  Annual 
Conference  which  includes  St.  Louis  appoints  the  hospital 
chaplain. 

Barnes  Hospital  opened  with  twenty-six  patients,  Dec. 
7,  1914.  Today  the  hospital  complex  includes  nine  sepa- 
rate physical  institutions  which  are  owned  or  operated  by 
the'  trustees.  Among  them  are  Children's,  McMillan,  Ma- 
ternity, Wohl,  Barnard  Free  Skin  and  Cancer,  and  Renard 
Psychiatric  Hospitals.  In  1970  these  hospital  units  with 
over  1,200  beds  reported  some  350,000  in-patient  days 
and   135,000  out-patients.  With  able  medical  men  on  its 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ST.    LOUIS,   MISSOURI 


Staff,  Bames  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  outstanding 
private  hospitals  in  America  and  indeed  in  the  world. 
It  keeps  abreast  of  and  contributes  to  the  medical  ad- 
vances of  our  time.  The  late  Evarts  A.  Graham  organized 
the  hospital's  department  of  chest  surgery,  and  he  him- 
self was  the  first  surgeon  in  the  world  to  remove  an 
entire  lung  of  a  patient  suffering  from  lung  cancer. 

Barnes  Hospital  is  approved  by  the  Joint  Commission 
on  Accreditation  of  Hospitals,  and  holds  membership  in 
the  American  Hospital  Association,  the  Missouri  Hospital 
Association,  the  NIetropolitan  Hospital  Association  of  St. 
Louis,  and  the  Association  of  American  Medical  Colleges. 

The  1971   Agency  Directory  and  Certification  Manual  of  the 
Board  of  Health  and  Welfare  Ministries,  Tlie  United  Method- 
ist Church. 
F.   C.   Tucker,   Missouri.   1966.  Nancy   Chaic 

Centenary  Church.  The  trustees  of  Fourth  Street  (later 
First)  Church  resolved  on  March  2,  1838  that  it  was 
"expedient  to  build  a  new  Methodist  church  in  St.  Louis." 
It  was  organized  in  1839,  and  the  pastor  at  Fourth  Street 
sei-ved  both  congregations  for  three  years.  The  corner- 
stone of  Centenary  Church  was  laid  at  Fifth  and  Pine 
Streets,  May  10,  1842,  and  in  October  John  H.  Linn 
came  from  the  Kentucky  Confere.nce  to  be  the  pastor. 
In  1843  the  church  reported  200  members,  and  in  1850 
the  Second  General  Conference  (MES)  was  held  at 
Centenary-. 

In  1867  Centenar\'  Church  decided  to  move  farther 
west  and  bought  a  lot  at  the  southeast  comer  of  Sixteenth 
and  Pine  Streets  for  $36,000.  The  cornerstone  of  the  new 
building  was  laid  May  10,  1869,  while  the  bishops  of  the 
denomination  were  in  session  in  St.  Louis,  and  Bishops 
J.  O.  Andrew.  H.  N.  McTyeire,  and  W.  M.  VVichtman 
participated  in  the  ceremon\'.  In  a  crypt  back  of  the  chan- 
cel were  placed  the  ashes  of  Thomas  Drummond  (1806- 
1835),  the  first  Methodist  preacher  to  die  in  St.  Louis. 
Born  in  England,  Drummond  had  come  from  the  Pitts- 
burgh Conference  as  a  missionary  to  the  frontier. 

From  the  time  of  its  founding  to  the  unification  of 
Methodism  in  1939,  Centenary  was  a  strong  and  promi- 
nent church  in  Southern  Methodism.  Under  the  long  min- 
istry of  Charles  \V.  Tadlock,  1913-17  and  1919-37,  its 
membership  rose  to  3,600.  Three  of  Centenary's  pastors 
were  elevated  to  the  episcopacv — Enoch  M.  Marxtn 
(1854-56  and  1859-61),  William  F.  McMurry  (1902- 
05),  and  Sam  R.  Hay  (1906).  The  1890  General  Confer- 
ence convened  at  Centenary. 

Some  thought  that  the  rapid  changes  in  downtown 
St.  Louis  before  and  after  World  War  II  would  compel 
Centenary  to  relocate  or  die.  But  Centenary  has  stayed 
put,  the  only  non-liturgical  Protestant  church  to  survive 
in  the  St.  Louis  downtown  area.  Not  only  has  it  remained 
downtown,  it  has  also  continued  as  a  fairly  strong 
church,  and  in  recent  years  has  experienced  modest 
growth  in  membership.  The  entire  church  plant  was  ren- 
ovated about  1960  at  a  cost  of  $250,000.  Urban  re- 
newal with  high  rise  and  split-level  apartments  has 
brought  residents  back  to  the  neighborhood  and  many 
have  joined  Centenary.  The  church  continues  to  draw 
members  from  over  the  city,  the  suburbs,  and  even  from 
across  the  Mississippi  River  in  Illinois.  Since  all  new  ex- 
pressways in  the  region  enter  downtown  St.  Louis  within 
a  few  blocks  of  Centenary,  the  church  is  easily  accessible 
from  all  sections  of  the  metropolitan  area. 

The  resident  bishop,  the  two  St.  Louis  district  superin- 


tendents, and  the  St.  Louis  Mission  and  Church  Extension 
Society  maintain  offices  in  Centenary's  education  build- 
ing. 

In  1970  Centenary  Church  reported  790  members, 
property  valued  at  $1,351,762,  and  $98,733  raised  for 
all  purposes  during  the  year. 

General  Minutes,  MEG,  MECS,  MC,  and  UMC. 

Minutes  of  the  Missouri  East  Conference. 

Francis  E.  Williams,  Centenary  Methodist  Church  of  St.  Louis. 

St.  Louis:  Mound  City  Press,  1939.  J.  Lester  McGee 

Grace  Church  began  in  1892  as  Lindell  Avenue 
Church  (ME)  at  Lindell  and  Newstead.  The  charter 
members  came  from  Union  Church  which  was  then  lo- 
cated near  Grand  and  Washington.  The  new  church  re- 
ported 110  members  in  1893.  Within  a  few  years  the 
congregation  had  built  and  paid  for  a  stately  English 
Gothic  church  valued  at  $165,000. 

In  1913  when  Lindell  Avenue  had  372  members  the 
Roman  Catholics  completed  a  tremendous  new  cathedral 
just  across  the  street  on  Lindell.  The  Methodist  con- 
gregation then  moved  approximately  three  miles  west  to 
Skinker  and  Waterman  just  off  the  northwest  corner  of 
Forest  Park  and  two  blocks  from  the  northeast  corner  of 
the  Washington  University  campus.  Lindell  Church  not 
only  relocated,  it  literally  moved  its  impressive  Gothic 
church  building  stone  by  stone  to  its  new  site,  an 
unusual  engineering  feat  for  that  day  which  was  written 
up  in  several  journals.  Thereafter  it  was  called  Grace 
Church. 

In  the  new  location  the  church  membership  doubled 
by  1931  and  Grace  became  the  premier  church  of  the 
denomination  in  St.  Louis.  At  unification  in  1939  the 
church  had  1,235  members.  Through  the  years  Grace  has 
had  strong  lay  leadership,  and  several  of  its  members 
have  served  on  the  general  boards  of  the  denomination. 
In  1961  Grace  reached  a  peak  membership  of  1,691  and 
thereafter  with  the  movement  of  people  to  St.  Louis 
County  it  declined  slowly. 

About  1955  the  entire  church  plant  was  modernized 
and  a  chapel  was  added.  Under  the  leadership  of  Wesley 
H.  Hager,  pastor,  1949-70,  Grace  Church  led  St.  Louis 
Methodism  in  contributions  to  world  service  and  some 
other  benevolent  causes,  participated  in  the  ecumenical 
movement,  and  began  working  with  neighboiing  Protes- 
tant and  Roman  Catholic  churches  in  developing  a  minis- 
try adequate  for  the  changing  metropolitan  scene. 

In  1970  Grace  Church  reported  1,197  members,  prop- 
erty valued  at  $1,946,344  and  $156,396  raised  for  all 
puiposes  during  the  year. 

General  Minutes,  MEG,  MC,  and  UMC.    Wesley  H.  Hager 

Al.BEA  GODBOI.U 

Methodist  Children's  Home  of  Missouri  began  in  1865 
as  the  Methodist  Orphan  Home  (MES).  In  1937  the 
name  was  changed  to  Methodist  Children's  Home,  and  at 
unification  in  1939  when  it  began  receiving  modest  finan- 
cial support  from  all  of  Missouri  Methodism,  the  words 
"of  Missouri"  were  added. 

In  1939  Central  Wesleyan  Orphan  Asylum,  Warrenton, 
Mo.,  was  merged  with  the  home  in  St.  Louis.  The  fornier 
was  founded  in  1864  by  German-speaking  Methodists,  and 
after  their  conference  (St.  Louis  German)  was  merged 
in  1925,  the  M.E.  Church  continued  to  maintain  the 
orphanage.  The  St.  Louis  home  received  thirty-two  chil- 
dren from  Warrenton  in  1939. 


ST.    LOUIS,    MISSOURI 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


The  Methodist  Orphan  Home  was  located  on  Maryland 
Avenue  in  St.  Louis,  not  far  from  St.  John's  Cluirch,  and 
through  the  years  that  congregation  took  a  special  interest 
in  it,  giving  both  leadership  and  financial  support.  The 
children  from  the  home  regularly  attended  Sunday 
school  and  church  at  St.  John's.  From  1922  to  1939  the 
names  of  the  trustees  of  the  home  were  printed  in  the  St. 
Louis  Conference  A/;m/(t'.s-,  and  prior  to  1936  all  of  the 
trustees  were  members  of  St.  John's  Church. 

In  1920  the  St.  Louis  Conference  voted  to  ask  the 
churches  to  take  a  free  will  offering  for  the  home  on  the 
Sunday  before  Thanksgiving.  In  1923  the  statistical  tables 
in  the  conference  minutes  began  to  include  a  column 
showing  the  amount  contributed  by  each  charge  for  the 
orphanage.  The  first  >ear  St.  John's  Chinch  gave  $15,000, 
four  other  churches  gave  a  total  of  $110,  while  the  rest 
contributed  nothing.  The  ne.xt  year  tlie  St.  John's  members 
members  reverted  to  giving  directly  to  the  orphanage,  and 
the  gifts  of  the  other  churches  in  the  conference  gradually 
increased  until  they  reached  a  total  of  $1,230  in  1938. 
In  1941  all  the  churches  in  Missouri  gave  $6,0.51.  In  1955 
the  amount  was  $35,895,   and   in    1970  it   was  $40,432. 

In  1928  the  home  in  St.  Louis  employed  a  professionally 
trained  social  worker  as  administrator,  one  of  the  first  in 
the  area  to  do  so.  Also,  it  became  the  first  church-related 
children's  home  in  Missouri  to  cjualify  for  membership  in 
the  Child  Welfare  League  of  America. 

In  the  years  following  the  founding  of  the  Orphan 
Home,  interested  persons  bequeathed  money  to  it  and  an 
endowment  was  built  up.  The  home's  financial  report  to 
the  conferences  in  1941  showed  that  about  $20,000  of  its 
total  income  of  some  $39,000  for  the  year  was  interest 
from  its  endowment. 

In  1951  the  home  was  relocated  in  two  new  buildings 
on  a  five-acre  campus  at  3715  Jamieson  Avenue,  St.  Louis. 
The  residence  with  four  apartments  for  nine  children  each 
attracted  wide  attention,  because  it  meant  that  with  house 
parents  in  each  apartment  the  children  would  be  living 
in  a  family.  In  addition,  the  home  maintained  a  staff  of 
social  workers. 

Most  of  the  children  in  the  home  come  from  homes 
broken  by  neglect,  desertion,  disease,  and  divorce,  and 
they  are  referred  to  the  institution  by  ministers,  circuit 
courts,  clinics,  health  departments,  and  welfare  offices. 
Most  of  them  need  to  stay  in  the  home  less  than  two 
years.  Including  the  children  who  are  served  in  its  foster 
home  program,  the  Children's  Home  ministers  to  150  to 
200  chikhen  each  year. 

Minutes  of  the  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  Soutliwest  Missouri,  Mis- 
.souri  East,  and  Missouri  West  Conferences. 

Donald  L.  Couwkns 
Albea  Godbold 

St.  John's  Church  was  established  in  1868  partly  as  the 
result  of  dislocations  caused  by  the  Civil  War.  Asbury 
and  Christy  Chapels  (MES)  sold  their  properties  and 
joined  in  launching  St.  John's  Church  in  the  Stoddard 
Addition,  a  fast  growing  suburb  two  and  one-half  miles 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  With  liberal  financial  assis- 
tance from  First  and  Centenary  Churches,  a  rather  impres- 
sive building,  which  still  stands,  was  erected  at  29th  and 
Locust  Streets.  The  new  congregation  was  organized,  Oc- 
tober 18,  with  eighty  charter  members.  Francis  A.  Morris 
was  the  first  pastor.  St.  John's  quickly  became  one  of  the 
strong  churches  of  the  connection. 

In  1901  the  congregation  erected  at  a  cost  of  $220,000 


St.  John's  Church,  St.  Louis,  Missouri 


a  magnificent  Italian  Renaissance  edifice  at  Kingshighway 
and  Washington  five  miles  west  of  the  river.  The  church 
then  had  888  members.  James  W.  Lee,  who  served  three 
four-year  terms  as  pastor  between  1893  and  1914,  led  in 
relocating  the  church  and  almost  singlehandedly  raised 
the  money  for  the  new  building. 

About  1925  the  congregation  considered  relocating 
again  still  farther  west,  but  convinced  that  their  archi- 
tectural monument  at  the  intersection  of  the  two  thorough- 
fares which  traversed  the  city  east  and  west  and  north 
and  south  would  always  draw  people  for  worship,  they 
decided  to  stay.  In  1928  an  education  building  and  a 
chapel  costing  $300,000  were  added  to  the  church,  and 
in  1949  the  chancel  was  rebuilt  and  other  improvements 
made  at  a  cost  of  more  than  $100,000. 

Believing  that  an  endowment  fund  would  be  an  asset 
if  not  a  necessity  for  the  long  pull,  the  church  officials  in- 
augurated one  in  1925.  It  grew  slowly  at  first,  totaling 
$75,000  in  twenty  years,  but  after  another  score  of  years 
it  was  eight  times  that  ;imount.  For  many  years  income 
from  the  endowment  was  added  to  the  corpus,  but  more 
recently  it  has  been  used  to  keep  the  large  plant  in  first 
class  condition  and  to  buy  parking  space  adjoining  the 
church. 

Prior  to  unification  in  1939  St.  John's  was  financially 
one  of  the  strongest  churches  in  the  connection.  In  its 
first  fifty  years  it  raised  for  all  purposes  about  $2,000,000 
or  an  average  of  $40,000  per  year,  an  impressive  figure 
for  a  Southern  Methodist  congregation  in  that  period. 
Probably  one-half  the  money  raised  by  the  church  in  its 
first  half  century  was  given  for  causes  outside  its  own 
walls.  Some  $150,000  went  to  help  establish  or  build 
eight  other  churches  of  the  denomination  in  St.  Louis 
between  1879  and  1910.  Between  1909  and  1938  sub- 
stantial sums  were  donated  to  build  "St.  John's"  Churches 
in  Soochow,  China;  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil;  and  Okaya- 
ma,  Japan,  The  Soochow  church  was  said  to  be  the 
largest  and  strongest  of  Southern  Methodism  in  the  Orient. 

During  its  first  seventy  years  St.  John's  was  closely  re- 
lated to  three  service  institutions  in  St.  Louis — the  Meth- 
odist Children's  Home,  Kingdom  House,  and  Barnes  Hos- 
pital— which  were  established  in  1865,  1903,  and  1914. 
Through  the  years  the  church  raised  large  sums  for  the 
Children's  Home  and  Kingdom  House,  while  at  the  same 
time  undergirding  their  annual  budgets.  In  addition,  many 
members  of  St.  John's  sei-ved  on  their  boards  of  managers 
and  trustees.  For  many  years  all  of  the  trustees  of  the 
Children's  Home  and  Bames  Hospital  were  members  of 
St.  John's. 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ST.   LOUIS   CHRISTIAN   ADVOCATE,   THE 


Two  St.  John's  pastors  were  elevated  to  the  episcopacy, 
John  M.  Moore  (1909)  and  Ivan  Lee  Holt  (1918-37). 

Since  World  War  II  many  churches  of  various  denomi- 
nations in  the  environs  of  Kingshighway  and  Washington 
have  relocated  farther  west  or  have  passed  out  of  exis- 
tence. For  thirty-five  years  after  deciding  against  moving 
farther  west  St.  John's  was  able  to  hold  its  own  and  even 
grow  a  little  in  membership;  it  had  1,42.5  members  in 
1925  and  1,554  in  1960.  But  since  the  latter  date  its 
membership  has  declined — 1,120  in  1965  and  569  in 
1970. 

It  remains  to   be  seen   whether  St.   John's   and  many 
other  churches  similarly  situated,  that  is,  with  loyal  mem- 
bers,  an   impressive   and   well-equipped   plant,   an   ample 
endowment,    and   a   strategic   location,    can   sui-vive   and  - 
continue  to  serve  in  our  cities. 

In  1971  St.  John's  Church  reported  550  members,  prop- 
erty valued  at  $1,848,000  and  $86,102  raised  for  all 
purposes  during  the  year. 

Thomas   M.    Finney,   Life  and   Labors   of  Enoch   M.    Marviti. 
St.  Louis:  James  H.  Chambers,  1880. 
General  Minutes,  MFCS. 

Albea   Godbold,    A    Unique   Church,    Centennial    Address,    St. 
John's  Church,  St.  Louis.  Typescript,  10  pp.  1968. 
Minutes  of  the  St.  Louis  and  Missouri  East  Conferences. 
Sf.   Louis  Christian   Advocate   files.   St.   Louis   Public   Library. 

Albea  Godbold 

St.  Paul  A.M.E.  Church,  the  oldest  church  of  the  de- 
nomination west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  was  established 
in  1841  by  William  Paul  Quinn  who  had  been  com- 
missioned by  the  General  Conference  to  extend  the  boun- 
daries of  the  denomination  westward.  Forbidden  to  preach 
in  St.  Louis  because  it  was  slave  territoiy,  Quinn,  it  is 
claimed,  stood  on  the  Illinois  side  of  the  river  and 
preached  across  to  people  on  the  Missouri  side.  The  result 
was  the  formation  in  May,  1841,  of  Little  Bethel  Church, 
later  named  St.  Paul,  in  the  home  of  Priscilla  Baltimore 
in  East  St.  Louis,  111.  John  Anderson  was  the  first  pastor. 

Coming  across  the  river  to  St.  Louis,  the  small  congre- 
gation met  in  homes  and  blacksmith  shops  for  at  least 
two  years.  In  time  a  church  that  cost  $5,000  was  built 
at  Eleventh  and  Lucas  Streets.  In  1872  a  new  brick 
church  was  dedicated  on  an  adjoining  lot.  Four  years 
later  the  church  reported  572  members. 

In  1891  St.  Paul  relocated  at  LeflRngwell  and  Lawton, 
dedicating  there  a  church  that  cost  $90,000.  Because  of  an 
extensive  urban  renewal  program,  the  congregation  was 
compelled  to  move  again  in  1962,  locating  at  Hamilton 
and  Julian  Avenues  where  it  was  able  to  build  a  church,  an 
education  building,  a  community  center,  and  a  parsonage. 

As  the  mother  church  of  the  denomination  in  St.  Louis, 
St.  Paul  established  a  mission  at  Enright  and  Pendleton 
Streets  in  1925  which  grew  into  St.  John  Church,  a  strong 
congregation. 

Three  St.  Paul  pastors  have  become  bishops,  Noah  W. 
Williams  (1924-32),  Frank  Madison  Reid  (1936- 
40),  and  G.  Wayman  Blakely  (1953-64).  Through  the 
years  St.  Paul  Church  has  entertained  the  A.M.E. 
General  Conference  several  times.  In  1969  the  member- 
ship of  the  church  was  approximately  2,000. 

Minnie  Ross  Sims,  History  of  St.  Paid  A.M.E.  Church.  Pam- 
phlet. 1965. 
M.  Simpson,   Cyclopaedia.   1878.  Grant  S.   Shockley 

Union  Memorial  Church  is  the  oldest  continuing  Negro 
congregation    in    St.    Louis,    and    was    recognized    and 


honored  in  1966  during  the  celebration  of  American 
Methodism's  bicentennial.  The  church  was  organized  in 
1840  and  in  1846  was  served  b>'  a  local  preacher,  James 
Fanar.  The  congregation  worshipped  at  Broadway  be- 
tween Morgan  Street  (now  Delmar)  and  Franklin  Avenue. 
Adolphus  Foshee  succeeded  Farrar,  and  the  church  was 
guided  by  various  dedicated  white  preachers  until  1865, 
when  E.  W.  S.  Peck  of  Baltimore,  Md.  became  the  first 
Negro  pastor  of  the  church.  In  1873  under  the  pastorate 
of  F.  H.  Small,  the  congregation  bought  the  building  on 
Wash  Street  (now  Cole)  for  $10,000,  and  moved  to  the 
new  location  on  Aug.  21,  1873.  On  Oct.  26,  1884  the 
edifice  was  dedicated,  then  called  Wesley  Chapel,  with 
Bishop  Bowman  and  E.  W.  S.  Peck  officiating. 

In  1899  Wesley  Chapel  and  Elliot  Avenue  congrega- 
tions consolidated  and  sold  Wesley  Chapel  for  $10,000. 
The  merged  church  was  named  Centennial.  In  April  1900, 
Bishop  Fitzgerald,  presiding  over  the  annual  session  of 
the  Central  Missouri  Conference  at  Marshall,  Mo.,  ap- 
pointed R.  E.  Gillum  to  Centennial,  and  soon  thereafter 
the  name  was  changed  to  Union  Memorial  M.E.  Church. 

By  1904  Union  Memorial's  membership  had  outgrown 
the  building's  capacity,  and  a  committee  contracted  for 
the  purchase  of  Temple  Israel  on  the  corner  of  Leffing- 
well  Avenue  and  Pine  Street.  On  July  28,  1907  the  con- 
gregation moved  to  the  new  location,  having  purchased 
the  building  for  $41,500. 

The  following  churches  were  started  by  Union  Memo- 
rial: First  M.  E.  Church  in  Kinloch  Park,  1907;  Wesley 
Chapel,  East  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1908;  Webster  Groves,  1908; 
Cosby  Chapel,  1914;  Asbury,  1915;  Samaritan,  1917; 
LaSalle  Street,  1920,  the  last  three  located  in  St.  Louis. 

E.  W.  Kelley  served  as  pastor  from  1939  to  1944, 
when  he  was  elected  to  the  episcopacy.  He  left  a  new 
parsonage  as  one  of  his  contributions.  Although  each 
minister  shared  greatly  in  the  growth  of  the  church,  J.  J. 
Hicks  brought  outstanding  recognition  to  Union  Memorial. 
Under  his  leadership  the  property  at  Belt  and  Bartmer 
was  purchased  for  $51,000  and  an  ultramodern  building 
constructed.  During  the  pastorate  of  John  N.  Doggett, 
Jr.,  a  new  parsonage  has  been  purchased  and  a  plan  is 
proceeding  to  liquidate  the  outstanding  debt.  In  1970  the 
church  reported  1,067  members. 

Grace  Bumbry,  internationally  famed  Metropolitan 
Opera  star,  is  a  product  of  Union  Memorial.  She  donated 
her  talent  in  1965  to  aid  her  church  in  assisting  promising 
young  students. 

John  N.  DoccErr,  Jr. 

ST.  LOUIS  CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE,  THE,  was  published 
weekly,  barring  a  few  interruptions,  for  or  by  the 
Missouri  Conferences  (MES)  from  1850  to  1931.  The 
organ  was  suppressed  for  a  time  during  the  Civil  War 
because  of  the  alleged  seditious  utterances  of  the  editor 
David  R.  McAnally  and  he  himself  was  imprisoned  for 
some  weeks. 

McAnally  served  a  total  of  thirty  years  between  1851 
and  his  death  in  1892.  Controversy  involving  both  minis- 
ters and  lavTnen  continually  swirled  around  him,  but  even 
so  he  was  a  capable  editor.  He  established  policies  which 
endured  throughout  the  life  of  the  paper — serious  articles, 
seiTnons,  and  addresses  dealing  with  contemporary  reli- 
gious, social  and  economic  issues,  together  with  extensive 
coverage  of  local,  district,  annual  conference,  and  church- 
wide  events.  His  high  hterary  standards  won  subscribers 


ST.    LOUIS   CONFERENCE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


outside  church  circles.  Displaced  by  Thomas  M.  Finnev 
as  editor  in  1869,  McAnally  was  recalled  three  years  later, 
an  indication  that  even  his  detractors  recognized  his 
superior  journalistic  ability. 

Prior  to  1891  responsibility  for  the  paper  was  handled 
in  various  ways,  At  first  a  committee  published  it  for  the 
conferences.  Then  in  1870  a  joint  stock  company  called 
the  Southwestern  Book  and  Publishing  Company  bought 
and  operated  it.  Two  years  later  Logan  Dameron,  presi- 
dent of  the  company,  bought  up  the  stock  and  publi,shed 
the  paper  for  the  benefit  of  the  conferences.  In  1881  he 
tried  to  give  the  paper  to  the  conferences  but  the  St. 
Louis  Conference,  influenced  by  a  quarrel  then  in  prog- 
ress between  McAnally  and  some  ministers  and  laymen, 
would  not  agree.  In  1886  Dameron  deeded  the  paper  to 
the  conferences,  retaining  a  life  interest.  Four  years  later 
he  sold  his  interest,  and  in  1891  William  B.  Palmore 
bought  the  paper  and  gave  it  to  the  conferences.  There- 
after it  was  wholly  owned  by  them  and  was  controlled 
through  a  joint  conference  publication  committee. 

McAnally  died  in  1892  and  Palmore  then  became  edi- 
tor, serving  until  his  own  death  in  1914.  During  Palmore's 
time  the  paid  circulation  rose  to  more  than  20,000.  He 
wrote  good  editorials  and  extensively  covered  local 
church  news.  Numerous  anti-liquor  and  anti-tobacco 
articles  marked  him  as  a  refoiTn  leader  in  Missouri.  Travel- 
ogues covering  his  visits  to  mission  stations  and  places 
of  interest  throughout  the  world  gave  readers  fresh 
impressions  of  missions  and  world  affairs. 

Several  editors  followed  Palmore  in  quick  succession: 
Charles  C.  Woods,  Alfred  Franklin  Smith  (later  editor 
of  the  Nashville  Christian  Advocate) ,  George  B.  Winton, 
and  Charles  O.  Ransford.  The  latter  took  office  in  1923 
and  though  widely  known  in  Missouri,  he  was  unable  to 
arrest  the  steady  decline  in  circulation.  With  the  onset  of 
the  economic  depression,  the  conferences  were  unwilling 
to  subsidize  the  paper  and  it  ceased  publication  in  Octo- 
ber, 19.31. 

St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate  files,  St.  Louis  Public  Library. 
F.  C.  Tucker,  Missouri.  1966.  Frank  C.  Tucker 

ST.  LOUIS  CONFERENCE  (ME).  See  Missouri  Confer- 
ence (ME). 

ST.  LOUIS  CONFERENCE  (MES)  was  organized  at  Boon- 
ville.  Mo.,  in  October  1846  with  Bishop  Robert  Paine 
presiding.  Formed  by  dividing  the  Missouri  Conference, 
its  territory  included  the  part  of  the  state  below  the 
Missouri  River.  At  the  beginning  the  Conference  had  six 
districts,  St.  Louis,  BoonviUe,  Cape  Girardeau,  Lexington, 
Springfield,  and  Steelville.  It  had  12,567  white  and  1,304 
colored  members. 

In  1850  the  St.  Louis  Christian  Advocate  was  estab- 
lished as  an  official  organ  of  the  M.E.  Church,  South. 
With  David  R.  McAnally,  an  able  writer  and  adminis- 
trator, as  editor,  the  paper  achieved  a  wide  circulation 
beyond  Missouri,  and  it  strengthened  Southern  Method- 
ism in  the  state.  The  organ  continued  publication  until 
1931. 

In  1855  the  St.  Louis  Conference  joined  the  Missouri 
Conference  in  launching  Central  College  at  Fayette, 
the  one  Methodist  college  in  the  state  which  has  survived 
to  the  present  time.  In  1869  the  conference,  interested  in 
projecting  a  college  in  southeast  Missouri,  became  affili- 


ated with  Bellevue  Collegiate  Institute  at  Caledonia 
which  the  citizens  there  had  launched  in  1867.  Becoming 
convinced  in  time  that  there  was  no  future  for  a  school 
in  Caledonia  which  was  twelve  miles  from  a  railroad, 
the  conference  severed  its  connections  with  Bellevue  in 
1893  and  three  years  later  accepted  Marvin  College  at 
Fredericktown  which  continued  operation  until  1924. 

In  1877  the  St.  Louis  District  of  the  conference  adopted 
as  a  church  institution  the  Methodist  Orphans  Home 
which  was  begun  two  years  before  by  a  conference  mem- 
ber, W.  W.  Prottsman,  and  a  layman  named  W.  H. 
Markham.  In  1941  this  institution,  which  had  rendered 
outstanding  service,  received  the  children  from  the  Cen- 
tral Wesleyan  Orphanage  at  Warrenton,  Mo.,  which  was 
founded  and  maintained  for  many  years  by  the  St.  Louis 
German  Conference  (MEC).  The  name  was  then 
changed  to  the  Methodist  Children's  Home  of  Missouri. 
Housed  in  new  buildings  in  St.  Louis,  the  home  con- 
tinues to  render  notable  service  to  children. 

Kingdom  House  in  St.  Louis  grew  out  of  a  mission 
Sunday  school  which  was  started  by  St.  John's  Church  in 
1904.  The  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the 
denomination  soon  took  responsibility  for  "social  work 
activities"  at  Kingdom  House.  Today  the  institution  has 
an  adequate  building,  and  it  receives  financial  support 
both  from  the  conference  and  from  the  united  fund  of  the 
city. 

The  conference  established  a  summer  assembly  known 
as  Epworth  Among  the  HiUs  at  Arcadia  in  1908.  In  the 
1950's  a  large  camp  called  Blue  Mountain  was  developed 
nearby  as  an  added  feature. 

In  1892  Robert  A.  Barnes  gave  $1,000,000  for  a  hospi- 
tal in  St.  Louis  and  stipulated  that  its  trustees  should  be 
appointed  by  the  presiding  bishop  of  the  Methodist 
Church.  Barnes  Hospital  opened  in  1914  and  today  it  is 
the  nucleus  of  one  of  the  great  medical  centers  of  the 
world.  While  the  hospital  is  neither  owned  nor  operated 
by  the  church,  the  conference  has  maintained  the  chap- 
laincy from  the  beginning,  and  its  Golden  Cross  offering 
is  directed  annually  to  the  hospital. 

In  1870  the  St.  Louis  Conference  was  divided  to  form 
the  Southwest  Missouri  Conference.  (The  new  body  was 
called  the  West  St.  Louis  Conference  until  1874.)  Before 
the  division  the  St.  Louis  Conference  had  nine  districts, 
ninety-seven  charges,  and  20,304  white  and  243  colored 
members.  The  next  year  the  statistics  were  four  districts, 
forty-six  charges  and  9,942  white  and  twelve  colored 
members.  In  1900  there  were  five  districts  and  26,791 
members.  At  unification  in  1939  the  St.  Louis  Conference 
brought  268  ministers,  124  charges,  259  churches,  and 
46,379  members  into  The  Methodist  Church.  In  1941 
there  were  62,949  members. 

Three  members  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference  were 
elected  bishops  in  the  M.E.  Church,  South,  Enoch  M. 
Marvin  (1866),  William  F.  McMurry  (1918),  and 
Ivan  Lee  Holt  (1938). 

The  Board  of  Finance  (Pensions)  of  the  Southern 
Church  was  domiciled  in  St.  Louis  from  the  time  of  its 
organization  in  1922.  Luther  E.  Todd,  a  member  of  the 
St.  Louis  Conference,  was  the  first  general  secretary. 

By  authority  of  the  1960  South  Central  Jitrisdiction- 
AL  Conference,  the  three  Missouri  conferences  were 
consolidated  into  two  in  1961.  All  of  the  St.  Louis  Con- 
ference became  a  part  of  the  new  Missouri  East  Confer- 
ence. At  its  last  session  in  1961,  the  St.  Louis  Conference 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ST.    PAUL.   MINNESOTA 


reported  six  districts,  Cape  Girardeau,  Farmington,  Jeffer- 
son City,  Poplar  Bluff,  RoUa  and  St.  Louis.  There  were 
243  ministers,  358  chuiches,  233  charges,  and  89,199 
members.  The  property  was  valued  at  $29,891,712. 

General  Minutes,  MECS  and  MC. 
Minutes  of  the  St.  Louis  Conference. 

Frank   C.   Tucker,   The   Methodist   Church   in   Missouri.    1966. 

F.  E.  Maseh 

ST.  LOUIS  GERMAN  CONFERENCE  (ME)  was  organized 
in  St.  Louis,  Sept.  3,  1879  with  Bishop  Thomas  Bowman 
presiding.  It  was  foiined  by  dividing  the  Southwest 
German  Conference.  The  latter  (called  Southwestern 
German  Conference  until  1868)  was  one  of  the  original 
German  language  conferences  created  by  the  General 
Conference  of  1864.  The  territory  of  the  St.  Louis  Ger- 
man Conference  included  east  Missouri,  southern  Illi- 
nois, and  southeast  Iowa.  At  the  beginning  the  conference 
had  four  districts,  St.  Louis,  Belleville,  Quincy,  and  Bur- 
lington. There  were  eighty-four  charges  and  7,564  mem- 
bers. 

Methodist  work  among  the  Gennans  in  Missouri  began 
in  1844.  (See  Missouri.)  A  German  mission  district  with 
eleven  charges  was  formed  in  the  Missouri  Conference 
in  1844.  But  in  1845  the  German  preachers  and  churches 
opposed  to  slavery  and  unwilling  to  adhere  South  with 
the  Missouri  Conference,  were  attached  to  the  Illinois 
Conference,  an  arrangement  which  continued  until  the 
formation  of  the  Southwestern  German  Conference  in 
1864. 

The  German  Methodists  established  a  college  and  an 
orphanage  in  Missouri  which  did  notable  work  so  long 
as  the  German  language  conferences  continued.  The  Ger- 
mans started  what  was  called  the  Gennan  and  English 
College  in  Quincy,  III.,  in  1854,  but  it  failed  during  the 
Civil  War.  Determined  to  establish  a  self-supporting 
school  and  to  care  for  childien  orphaned  by  the  war,  the 
Geiman  Methodists  then  bought  932  acres  of  land  at 
Warrenton,  Mo.  (1864).  In  1869  they  secuied  a  charter 
for  Central  Wesleyan  College  and  Oiphan  Asylum.  Three 
years  later  a  separate  charter  was  issued  for  the  college. 
Adequate  buildings  were  erected,  an  endowment  of 
$170,000  was  built  up,  accreditation  was  achieved,  and 
enrollment  exceeded  350.  The  German  Methodist  College, 
Mt.  Pleasant,  Iowa,  was  merged  with  Central  Wesleyan 
in  1908,  bringing  a  theological  department  with  it.  The 
future  seemed  promising.  But  the  first  world  war  created 
difficulties  for  the  school.  Then  in  the  1920's  the  German 
language  conferences  disappeared,  a  turn  of  events  which 
drastically  curtailed  financial  support  and  the  number  of 
prospective  students.  The  college  closed  in  1941. 

Central  Wesleyan  Orphanage  operated  a  300-acre  farm 
and  cared  for  up  to  100  children.  It  was  one  of  the  first 
orphanages  in  the  nation  to  place  children  in  cottages 
with  house  parents,  thus  simulating  nonnal  family 
Iffe.  At  urufication  in  1939  the  orphanage  was  merged 
with  the  Methodist  Children's  Home  in  St.  Louis. 

Partly  due  to  German  immigration  into  the  region,  the 
St.  Louis  Gennan  Conference  grew  and  reached  its  peak 
strength  about  1900.  In  that  year  it  reported  ninety-three 
charges  and  11,134  members.  In  the  years  following  the 
membership  continued  at  about  10,000.  As  time  passed 
some  ministers  and  churches  transferred  to  the  English- 
speaking  conferences.  In  1925  when  the  St.  Louis  Gennan 
Conference  was   absorbed  by  the  overlying  conferences 


of  the  M.E.  Church,  it  reported  two  districts,  Peoria  and 
St.  Louis,  sixty-two  charges,  9,982  members,  and  property 
valued  at  $1,106,600. 

General  Minutes,  MEG. 

Frank  C.  Tucker,   The   Methodist   Church   in   Missouri.    1966. 

F.  E.  Maseh 

ST.  PAUL,  MINNESOTA,  U.S.A.,  the  capital  city  of 
Minnesota,  is  regarded  as  a  strategic  railroad  center.  St. 
Paul  and  Minneapolis  are  referred  to  as  The  Twin  Cities. 
Only  the  Mississippi  River  divides  them. 

Methodism  in  St.  Paul  had  its  beginning  in  a  series  of 
small  missions  that  were  built  along  the  Mississippi  River. 
South  St.  Paul  was  the  first  mission,  beginning  in  1837. 
This  was  an  Indian  settlement  and  was  called  Kaposia. 
Two  years  later.  Red  Rock,  now  Newport,  another  Indian 
settlement,  established  another  mission.  The  first  Meth- 
odist church  in  St.  Paul  was  organized  in  1848,  and  in 
1849  the  Market  Street  Church  was  built,  the  first  Protes- 
tant and  Methodist  church  building  in  Minnesota.  Out 
of  this  first  church  came  the  Jackson  Street  Church  in 
1856;  and  out  of  this  church  came  the  present  Central 
Park  Church.  Out  of  the  old  Market  Street  Church  of  St. 
Paul  came  the  First  Church,  which  recently  has  been 
united  with  the  Trinity  Church  and  is  called  First-Trinity. 
First-Trinity  has  a  membership  of  592  members.  Central 
Park  Church  has  a  membership  of  629. 

Hamline  Church  is  the  most  beautiful  cathedral-like 
church  building  in  St.  Paul.  It  has  a  membership  of  992 
as  of  1970.  In  foimer  years,  this  church  had  a  much 
larger  one.  This  is  likewise  true  of  First  and  Trinity 
Churches.  Hamline  Church  is  the  host  to  the  Minnesota 
Annual  Conference  each  year,  along  with  Hamline 
University,  named  for  Bishop  Leonidas  Hamline.  This 
Methodist  related  university  had  its  beginning  in  Redwing 
in  1854,  even  before  Minnesota  became  a  state.  In  1880 
it  was  moved  to  St.  Paul  where  it  has  grown  on  its 
original  site  to  one  of  the  finest  schools  of  higher  learning 
in  Minnesota.  There  are  more  than  1,200  students  en- 
rolled in  Hamline  University  each  year.  Hamline  was  the 
first  institution  of  higher  learning  in  Minnesota,  one  of 
the  first  twelve  Methodist  colleges  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  fourth  Methodist  college  to  open  as  a  coeduca- 
tional college. 

St.  Anthony  Park  Church  has  another  beautiful  site 
and  an  up-to-date  building  containing  a  beautiful  worship 
sanctuaiy,  an  adequately  equipped  educational  unit  and 
social  hall,  fine  office  facilities  and  a  beautiful  chapel.  It 
has  a  membership  of  578  members.  It  is  located  near  the 
agricultural  college  of  the  State  University  and  serves  the 
student  body  in  a  very  fine  way  as  well  as  their  resident 
membership.  Centennial  is  a  new  suburban  Methodist 
chmch  located  a  block  off  from  North  Snelling  Avenue. 
In  fifteen  years  of  its  existence,  this  congregation  that 
began  with  a  chartered  membership  of  sixty-seven  has 
grown  to  a  membership  of  1,066.  In  this  short  period  of 
time,  they  have  built  three  units  and  have  adequately 
furnished  them.  Faiimount  Avenue  Church  began  in  1852 
and  is  located  directly  across  the  campus  from  MacCales- 
ter  College  on  South  Snelling  Avenue.  It  has  a  remodeled 
church  edifice  that  Methodism  in  St.  Paul  is  likewise 
proud  of.  It  has  a  sanctuary  "in  the  round,"  an  adequate 
educational  unit,  offices,  social  hall  and  a  beautiful  church 
parlor.  Its  membership  (1970)  was  553.  Arlington  Hills 
Church  has  a  membership  of  548,  and  is  located  in  the 


SAINT  PAUL  SCHOOL  OF  THEOLOGY   (METHODIST) 


ENCYCLOPEDIA   OF 


northeast  part  of  St.  Paul.  St.  Paul's  Church  is  another 
beautifully  located   church,   with  a  membership  of   556. 

In  the  twenty-fi\e  St.  Paul  United  Methodist  churches, 
there  is  a  membership  of  11,062  (1970).  It  should  be 
added  that  St.  Paul  has  been  and  is  a  stiong  Catholic 
city,  claiming  about  forty  percent  of  its  total  population. 
The  Lutheran  church  is  another  strong  group  in  St.  Paul, 
as  it  is  throughout  Minnesota. 

Hamline  Church  is  the  college  church  of  Minnesota 
Methodism.  It  is  located  across  Englewood  Avenue  from 
Hamline  University,  Methodism's  only  college  in  Minne- 
sota, and  has  been  closely  associated  with  the  University 
throughout  the  eighty-five  years  of  its  history.  The  church 
was  literally  bom  on  the  campus  of  the  University.  On 
Sept.  12,  1880,  Hamline  Church  held  its  first  service  of 
worship  in  the  auditorium  of  "Old  Main,"  conducted  by 
Charles  F.  Bradley  of  the  University  faculty.  Services 
continued  in  "Old  Main"  for  three  years,  until  the  first 
church  building  was  erected  on  the  site  of  the  present 
building;  and  Hamline  professors  continued  to  serve  the 
church  as  ministers  until  1886  when  the  first  full-time 
minister  was  appointed.  The  church  continues  its  ministry 
to  the  campus.  Many  of  the  Hamline  faculty  are  active 
members.  Approximately  half  of  the  student  body  attend 
its  sei-vices.  The  University  frequently  uses  its  facilities 
for  chapel  services,  choir  concerts  and  other  special  pro- 
grams. FoiTner  presidents  and  faculty  members  are  me- 
morialized in  its  magnificent  stained-windows. 

After  a  destructive  fire  on  Dec.  26,  1925,  the  present 
beautiful  structure  was  erected.  The  exterior  is  of  Bedford 
limestone  in  accurate  Cothic  detail,  and  the  walls  are  laid 
in  random  ashlar. 

Hamline  Church  has  not  only  served  Methodism's  uni- 
versity, but  it  has  also  served  the  Minnesota  Conference. 
Since  the  merger  of  the  Minnesota  Conference  with  the 
Northern  Minnesota  Conference  in  1948,  all  confer- 
ence sessions  have  been  held  on  the  Hamline  campus, 
with  both  the  church  and  the  university  acting  as  hosts. 
Most  of  the  ministers  ordained  in  the  past  eighteen  years 
have  been  ordained  in  Hamline  Church. 

E.  F.  Baumhofer,  Trails  in  Minnesota.  1966. 
Journals  of  the  Minnesota  Conference.  Orval  Ci.ay  UnTES 

Paul  C).  Metzcer 

SAINT    PAUL   SCHOOL   OF   THEOLOGY    (METHODIST), 

Kansas  City,  Missouri,  was  one  of  the  two  schools  autho- 
rized by  the  General  Conference  of  1956.  The  bishops 
of  the  Kansas,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  and  St.  Louis  areas 
appointed  provisional  trustees,  and  the  school  was 
chartered  as  the  National  Methodist  Theological  Semi- 
nary, March  3,  1958.  The  present  name  was  assumed  in 
1961.  Conversations  concerning  the  school's  use  of  the 
campus  and  facilities  of  National  College  cuhninated 
in  the  deeding  of  this  property,  valued  at  $2,500,000, 
to  the  seminary  in  1964.  The  seminary  opened  on  the 
foiTTier  campus  of  National  College  in  September,  1965, 
with  an  enlarged  and  expanded  program  in  church  voca- 
tions, including  special  emphasis  on  preparation  for  the 
pastoral  ministry  and  the  training  of  women  for  Christian 
vocations.  It  gives  the  B.D.  and  M.R.E.  (Religious  Educa- 
tion) degrees.  The  governing  board  is  seventy-five 
trustees,  nine  of  whom  are  chosen  from  the  sLx  jurisdic- 
tions plus  three  extra  from  the  South  Central  Jurisdiction, 
twenty-six  from  the  annual  conferences,  fifteen  from  the 


Woman's  Division  of  Christian  Service,  two  from  the 
Board  of  Education,  four  from  alumni,  nine  at  large,  six 
bishops  and  the  president  ex  officio. 

John  O.  Gross 

ST.  PETERSBURG,  FLORIDA,  U.S.A.,  a  resort  city  in  Pinel- 
las County  with  a  population  of  213,189  in  1970,  was 
founded  in  1888  and  incorporated  in  1903.  Methodism 
was  brought  to  the  county  by  settlers  from  Georgia  and 
north  Florida;  in  1869  they  built  a  church  at  Curlew, 
the  oldest  community  in  the  county.  What  is  now  First 
Church,  St.  Petersburg,  was  established  in  1889  by 
Southern  Methodists  when  the  town  had  a  population  of 
thirty.  The  chuich  began  with  seven  members.  In  1891 
the  M.E.  Church  started  what  is  now  Christ  Church.  For 
many  years  afterward  the  two  congregations  were  known 
as  "Southern"  and  "Northern"  churches. 

At  unification  in  1939,  the  M.E.  Church  had  five 
churches  in  St.  Petersburg  with  2,160  members  to  four 
for  the  M.E.  Church,  South  with  1,833  members. 

In  1970  The  United  Methodist  Church  had  twenty 
churches  in  St.  Petersburg  with  22,332  members.  The 
property  of  those  congregations  was  valued  at  $8,454,367, 
and  they  raised  for  all  puiposes  during  the  year  $976,877. 

First  Church  was  founded  in  1889  with  seven  mem- 
bers when  the  population  of  the  village  was  30.  At  the 
time  the  Congregationalists  in  the  community  were  wor- 
shiping in  a  railroad  car,  and  there  was  a  small  Episcopal 
church  two  miles  away.  The  village  was  officially  named 
St.  Petersburg  in  1890. 

In  1895,  citrus  growers  came  to  the  St.  Petersburg  area 
seeking  frost-free  land.  By  1900  the  town  had  1,575  peo- 
ple and  First  Church  reported  134  members.  In  that  year 
the  congregation's  frame  building  was  moved  to  the  pres- 
ent church  site.  In  1910  it  gave  way  to  a  brick  structure 
which  in  turn  was  replaced  in  1924  by  what  is  still  one 
of  the  largest  church  edifices  in  Florida  Methodism. 

First  Church  had  1,137  members  in  1924,  and  the 
number  rose  to  1,850  by  1927.  The  collapse  of  the  Florida 
boom  in  1928  and  the  national  economic  depression  which 
began  in  1929  caused  a  drop  in  membership  to  966  by 
1934.  Beginning  in  1924,  First  Church  carried  a  debt 
which  at  times  approached  $300,000.  Loss  of  the  building 
valued  at  $600,000  was  a  constant  threat.  However,  a 
strong  sermon  by  O.  E.  Rice  moved  a  winter  visitor  to 
offer  a  loan  to  the  church.  Three  members  added  to  the 
amount,  and  the  financial  crisis  was  eased.  The  building 
was  finally  dedicated  debt  free  in  April,  1936.  In  suc- 
ceeding years  improvements  and  innovations,  including 
an  eight-story  carillon  bell  tower,  were  made.  After  1934, 
the  membership  rose  steadily;  it  reached  1,503  in  1939, 
2,566  by  1950,  and  during  the  1960's  it  was  close  to 
3,000. 

In  1970,  First  Church  reported  2,899  members,  prop- 
erty valued  at  $1,530,638,  and  $149,747  raised  for  all 
puiposes  during  the  year. 

Christ  Church  was  organized  as  a  Methodist  Episcopal 
congregation,  St.  John's  River  Conference,  in  1891.  Called 
"St.  Petersburg"  in  the  conference  journal  from  the  begin- 
ning, the  name  was  changed  to  First  Avenue  in  1925  and 
to  Christ  Church  in  1953. 

At  first  the  church  grew  slowly;  five  years  after  its 
founding  it  had  only  twenty  members,  and  only  208  after 
25  years.  However,  with  the  influx  of  people  from  the 
north  after  the  first  world  war,  the  membership  steadily 


WORLD   METHODISM 


ST.    SIMON'S    ISLAND 


increased,  growing  to  870  in  1925,  1,422  in  1939,  2,396 
in  1950,  and  3,726  in  1960. 

During  the  pastorate  of  Schuyler  E.  Garth,  1929-33, 
later  bishop,  First  Avenue  began  holding  two  morning 
services  to  seat  the  crowds,  one  of  the  first  if  not  the 
very  first  church  in  the  nation  to  do  that.  The  church's 
seating  capacity  was  then  1,039,  but  it  drew  large  crowds 
because  of  its  popularity  with  winter  tourists  and  peiina- 
nent  residents  alike. 

A  radio  station  in  the  church  tower,  the  first  in  the  city, 
was  awarded  a  broadcasting  license  in  the  mid-1920's. 
Though  the  city  now  owns  the  WSUN  radio  station,  the 
church  sends  its  worship  services,  including  Holy  Com- 
munion, to  some  250  shut-in  members  and  others  by 
means  of  radio.  The  church  loses  about  120  members 
by  death  each  year,  due  to  the  fact  that  so  many  are 
retirees. 

Medical  Forums,  now  conducted  in  over  50  cities, 
originated  m  St.  Petersburg  and  aie  held  in  Christ 
Church.  Also,  the  church  sponsors  a  Saturday  night  con- 
cert series  by  American  college  and  school  choirs. 

Paul  R.  Hortin  was  appointed  associate  pastor  of  the 
church  in  1931,  became  senior  minister  in  1933,  and  in 
1970  was  still  serving  in  that  capacity.  In  1952  a  new 
sanctuary  with  a  seating  capacity  of  1,844  was  erected 
and  was  soon  debt  free.  In  recent  years  15  men  from 
the  congregation  have  gone  into  the  ministry. 

In  1970,  Christ  Church  reported  4,332  members,  1,763 
enrolled  in  the  Church  school,  property  valued  at  $1,405,- 
571,  and  $147,319  raised  for  all  purposes  during  the 
year. 


Pasadena  Church,  St.  Petersbubg,  Florida 

Pasadena  Community  Church  was  started  in  1924 
and  organized  in  1925  in  the  sparsely  settled  section  of 
Pasadena  seven  miles  from  St.  Petersburg.  Sponsored  by 
the  M.E.  Church,  South,  it  was  projected  as  a  church 
for  the  whole  community,  and  from  the  beginning  it  has 
drawn  members  from  many  different  denominations.  Its 
first  building,  erected  in  1925,  was  of  Spanish  architecture. 

Prior  to  1929,  the  congregation  was  served  for  brief 
periods  by  three  different  ministers.  In  December,  1928, 
three  laymen  from  the  church  attending  a  district  con- 
ference, heard  a  sermon  by  a  young  minister  named  J. 
Wallace  Hamilton.  They  asked  for  Hamilton  as  their 
pastor,  and  in  May,  1929,  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Pasadena  Church.  He  served  it  continuously  thereafter 
for  39  years  until  his  death   in    1968.   During  his  long 


ministry  there  Hamilton  became  widely  known  as  one  of 
the  ablest  preachers  in  the  United  States. 

For  many  years  the  membership  of  the  church  grew 
slowly.  It  did  not  permanently  pass  the  100  mark  until 
1935.  Beginning  in  1941  when  the  membership  was  360, 
Hamilton  was  given  an  associate  pastor,  but  not  until 
10  years  later  did  the  number  of  members  exceed  1,000. 
Thereafter  the  chuich  grew  rapidly,  increasing  from 
1,283  members  in  1952  to  1,668  in  1953.  In  1956  there 
were  2,100  and  in  1964  more  than  3,000. 

As  a  young  minister  apparently  Hamilton  worked  harder 
at  preparing  sermons  which  would  draw  people  to  the 
services  than  at  enlisting  them  as  church  members.  With- 
in a  few  years  after  he  assumed  the  pastorate  there  were 
overflowing  congregations  and  amplifiers  were  installed  so 
people  seated  on  benches  outside  the  chuich  could  hear 
the  sen'ices.  Later  additional  ground  was  purchased  so 
that  people  could  sit  in  their  cars  while  participating  in 
worship.  It  is  claimed  that  on  Easter  Sunday  in  1951, 
there  were  3,450  automobiles  with  10,000  people  listening 
to  the  service  in  what  the  church  calls  its  Garden 
Sanctuary. 

Between  1937  and  1957  Pasadena  Church  conducted 
four  campaigns  for  funds  and  built  two  wings,  two  educa- 
tion buildings,  and  a  chapel.  Also,  it  acquired  18  acres 
for  the  Garden  Sanctuary.  In  1960,  a  new  church  edifice 
with  a  seating  capacity  of  2,000  was  completed  at  a  cost 
of  $850,000,  and  a  50-rank  organ  valued  at  $150,000 
was  installed.  Through  the  years  the  church  has  kept 
itself  practically  free  of  debt. 

In  1970,  Pasadena  Church  reported  3,510  members, 
1,055  enrolled  in  church  school,  property  valued  at 
$2,402,152,  and  $132,825  raised  for  all  purposes  during 
the  year. 

W.  E.  Brooks,  Florida  Methodism.  1965. 

A  Brief  Portrayal  of  Pasadena  Community  Church.  Pamplilet, 
n.d. 

General  Minutes,  UMC,  1970. 
Minutes  of  the  Florida  Conference, 
F.  S.  Mead,  Seven  Miles  Out.  Pamphlet,  n.d. 
James  M.  Smith,  "History  of  the  St.  Petersburg  District."  Ms., 
1966.  Jesse  A.  Earl 

Albea  Godbold 

N.  B.  H. 

Frank  M. Sleeper 

ST.  SIMON'S  ISLAND  is  some  sixty  miles  south  of  Savan- 
nah, Ga.  While  in  America,  John  and  Charles  Wesley 
were  associated  with  the  island  as  well  as  with  Savannah, 
General  Oglethorpe  built  a  fort  and  a  garrison  town, 
both  called  Frederica,  on  St.  Simon's  Island  and  stationed 
a  British  regiment  with  a  number  of  its  families  there.  As 
chaplain  to  the  colony,  John  Wesley  ministered  to  the 
people  on  the  island.  Ruins  of  the  fort  and  foundations 
of  the  houses  may  be  seen  today  at  the  Fort  Frederica 
National  Monument  at  the  northwest  corner  of  St.  Simon's 
Island.  In  the  1920's  a  causeway  was  built  connecting 
the  island  with  the  city  of  Brunswick,  Ga.,  and  in  suc- 
ceeding years  the  island  has  been  developed  as  a  resort 
and  residence  area. 

In  1947  the  South  Georgia  Conference  established 
a  church  on  St.  Simon's  Island,  and  about  the  same  time 
it  purchased  the  Hamilton  Plantation  on  the  west  side 
some  miles  south  of  Frederica.  There  under  the  guidance 
of  Bishop  Arthur  J.  Moore,  the  South  Georgia  Con- 
ference Center,  Epworth-by-the-Sea,  was  developed.  The 


ST.   STEPHEN'S   COLLEGE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF 


Lovely  Lane  Chapel,  St.  Simons  Island 

old  Hamilton  family  chapel  was  renamed  Lovely  Lane 
Chapel,  honoring  the  memory  of  the  Baltimore  edifice 
in  which  the  Christmas  Conference  was  held  in  1784. 

In  the  1950's  South  Georgia  Methodism  built  at 
Epworth-by-the-Sea  a  dining  room,  auditorium,  youth 
building,  and  lodges  which  throughout  the  year  accom- 
modate numerous  gatherings  of  young  people  and  adults, 
some  groups  coming  from  outside  the  conference.  Several 
annual  sessions  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference  have 
been  held  at  Epworth-by-the-Sea.  The  Winter  Camp 
Meeting  held  in  February  has  been  a  high  point  at  the 
Center  in  recent  years.  The  Arthur  J.  Moore  Memorial 
Building  at  the  Center  was  completed  in  June  1960,  when 
Bishop  Moore  was  presiding  over  the  South  Georgia  Con- 
ference for  the  last  time  before  his  retirement. 

Epworth  Acres,  just  north  of  Epworth-by-the-Sea,  is  a 
section  of  privately  owned  homes  on  lots  made  available 
by  the  Conference  Center.  A  number  of  the  South  Georgia 
Conference  superannuate  homes  are  there.  By  the  mid- 
1960's  the  conference  had  erected  an  office  building  at 
the  Center  to  house  its  Boards  of  Education  and  Missions. 
Thus,  within  a  quarter  of  a  century  South  Georgia  Meth- 
odism transformed  an  old  cotton  plantation  into  a  produc- 
tive center  of  Christian  influence,  and  gave  it  a  name 
widely  known  in  Methodism,  Epworth-by-the-Sea. 

Minute*  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference,  1945-67. 

Walter  S.  McCleskey 

ST.  STEPHEN'S  COLLEGE,  formerly  Alberta  College 
(South),  former  Methodist  theological  College  in  Edmon- 
ton, Alberta. 

Originating  as  the  theological  department  of  Alberta 
College  in  1909,  Alberta  College  (South)  took  advantage, 
in  1910,  of  the  oS^er  of  the  University  of  Alberta  of  a  free 
site  on  the  campus  of  the  new  university.  The  building 


then  erected  was  known  until  the  formation  of  The  United 
Church  of  Canada  in  1925  as  Alberta  College  South,  the 
theological  college  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Alberta. 

J.  H.  RiDDELL  was  the  first  principal,  and  continued 
in  office  until  1917,  when  D.  E.  Thomas  became  acting 
principal.  In  1919  A.  S.  Tuttle  was  elected  principal 
and  professor  of  philosophy  of  religion.  Until  1925  the 
college  provided  high  school  matriculation  subjects  as  well 
as  theological  courses,  and  also  a  men's  residence  for 
students.  Since  1925  the  college  has  provided  theological 
courses  exclusively.  From  1911  until  1925  Alberta  College 
South  graduated  ninety-four  candidates  for  the  ministry. 

With  church  union  in  1925,  Alberta  College  (South) 
merged  with  Robertson  College,  the  Presbyterian  semi- 
nary in  Edmonton,  the  premises  used  being  those  of  the 
former  Methodist  institution.  At  first  called  United 
Theological  College,  in  the  spring  of  1927  the  two  college 
boards  became  one  under  the  new  name  of  St.  Stephen's 
College,  incorporated  by  the  provincial  legislature.  Until 
the  death  of  J.  M.  Millar,  former  principal  of  Robertson 
College,  Tuttle  and  Millar  were  joint  principals,  Tuttle 
becoming  principal  in  January,  1930. 

With  the  retirement  of  Tuttle,  A.  D.  Miller,  professor 
of  Old  Testament  language  and  hterature,  was  elected 
principal  in  October  1943,  retiring  from  this  oflice  in 
1946  after  thirty-five  years'  service.  E.  J.  Thompson  be- 
came principal  in  October,  1946.  Under  Thompson's  lead- 
ership, funds  were  raised  for  the  erection  of  a  new  unit 
for  classrooms,  offices,  and  library,  which  was  opened 
February  25,  1953.  On  Thompson's  retirement  in  June, 
1966,  G.  M.  Tuttle  was  appointed  to  succeed  him  as 
principal. 

J.  Macdonald,  The  History  of  the  University  of  Alberta. 
Edmonton:  University  of  Alberta,  1958. 

J.  H.  Riddell,  Methodism  in  the  Middle  West.  Toronto: 
Ryerson,  1946.  J.  E.  Nix 

ST.  STITHIANS  COLLEGE,  Johannesburg,  South  Africa, 
is  the  newest  connexional  school  for  boys.  It  is  set  in  250 
acres  some  ten  miles  north  of  Johannesburg  and  has  an 
enrollment  of  625  boys  from  the  ages  of  five  to  seventeen. 
The  school  follows  an  academic  course  and  seeks  to  pre- 
pare for  University  entrance.  The  first  headmaster  was 
Walter  Mears,  who  was  succeeded  in  1962  by  M.  T.  S. 
Krige.  The  foundation  of  St.  Stithians  in  1953  was  the 
result  of  generous  donations  from  two  Cornishmen,  Albert 
Charles  Collins  and  William  Mountstephens,  in  order  to 
provide  a  liberal  education  with  Christian  teaching. 

H.   F.  KiBKBV 

SALAKO,    NATHANAEL   ODUYEBO    (1903  ),   pres 

ident  of  the  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Nigeria,  was  bom  at  Ikenne  in  the  Ijebu  Remo  Division 
of  the  Western  State  on  Dec.  12,  1903.  He  was  educated 
at  the  Methodist  schools  of  Ikenne  and  Iperu  from  1912 
to  1922  and  then  went  to  Wesley  College,  Ibadan,  from 
1923  to  December  1927.  He  star